A payment system for facilitating a payment transaction between a payer and a payee is disclosed. The payment system includes a payer access device, a payee access device, and a services hub. The services hub is configured to communicate with the payer device and the payee device; maintain information relating to a payer account and access device information associated with the payer account, the payer account being linked to the access device; generate a tracer ticket in response to a request issued by the payer using either the payer device or the payee device, the tracer ticket containing information relating to the payment transaction; validate the access devices; and authorize the payment transaction against the payer account through conventional payment processing systems. Upon receiving the request from the payee device for the tracer ticket, the services hub generates the tracer ticket and forwards a copy thereof to the payer via the payee device. Upon receiving the copy of the tracer ticket, the payer uses the payer device to communicate with the services hub and forward the received copy of the tracer ticket to the services hub. The services hub then validates the payer device based on the access device information. Upon validation of the payer device, the services hub checks the copy of the tracer ticket forwarded by the access device against the previously generated tracer ticket. If the copy of the tracer ticket forwarded by the access device corresponds to the previously generated tracer ticket, the services hub authorizes the payment transaction against the payer account.

The present invention relates generally to the field of financial transaction processing and, more specifically, to a method and system for facilitating payment transactions using portable electronic devices.
A typical consumer generally maintains a number of financial accounts. For example, a consumer may have a number of credit and/or charge accounts issued by various financial institutions or merchants as well as the more traditional banking accounts, such as, savings and checking accounts. When making payments, most consumers usually choose either a charge account or a checking account. In the case of a credit purchase, a charge is made against a credit account, and in the case of a debit purchase, a transaction amount is debited against a checking account.
Various financial accounts are typically offered and maintained by different financial or business institutions. In most cases these accounts are supported by different payment systems and underlying financial networks. For example, a credit account may be issued via a bank or a retail merchant and the payments are processed via credit card payment networks; a debit account may be maintained by an institutional bank; and the transactions are handled by debit card networks.
The physical presentation instruments of a financial account can be a magnetic stripe card, a chip card or a check book. Financial transactions are typically conducted using these presentation instruments and compatible point-of-sale devices at designated card acceptance locations. The cardholder can also provide account information over the Internet in an on-line payment environment.
With a plethora of financial offerings, it is typical for today's consumer to have a number of credit cards, various merchant charge cards, debit cards (DDA-demand deposit accounts), etc. Since different institutions respectively maintain different financial accounts and disparate systems, these institutions generally do not communicate with one another, and there is a lack of uniformity in accessing customer accounts. If access to all accounts is desired when making payments, a consumer must carry all corresponding presentation instruments and understand the locations and terms by which these instruments are accepted. This may prove to be an inconvenience if a large number of presentation instruments are involved.
In addition, physically carrying presentation instruments also poses a significant security risk. For example, the presentation instrument could get stolen or misplaced, or account information which is typically printed on the presentation instrument may be accessed relatively easily by unauthorized third parties to conduct illegitimate transactions. While it is true that most presentation instruments have a single security level, such as, a signature, a password or logon identification or the like, for authenticating user access to the associated accounts, this single security level does not always provide sufficiently high security assurance that may be deemed desirable for financial transactions. In many commercial transactions, only a single signature, which may be forged with relative ease, is required to consummate a transaction. And in some cases, such as, online transactions conducted on the Internet, no signature is even needed.
Hence, it would be desirable to have a method and system that is capable of providing a uniform secure access via consumer chosen electronic devices to various financial accounts without requiring a consumer to carry the corresponding presentation instruments. It is also desirable to control all such accounts for various financial institutions in tandem from a single interface.
Furthermore, technological advancements have contributed to the increasingly popular use of wireless communication devices. Examples of such wireless communication devices are cell phones, portable digital assistants (PDAs) and the like. One reason for this increasing popularity is the improved portability of smaller wireless communication devices and ubiquitous network access.
Another reason for the increasing popularity is the enhanced functionality of these wireless communication devices. Many wireless communication devices are now able to perform a number of different tasks. More functionality and applications are being developed and added to accommodate the needs of consumers. For example, some cell phones not only provide traditional telephonic functions but they also offer more advanced functions, such as, the capability to allow a user to access and navigate the Internet or otherwise conduct transactions.
Therefore, it would also be desirable to have a method and system that is capable of using the enhanced functionality of portable communication devices to allow a consumer to use a uniform method to access multiple financial accounts for everyday financial activities.

Method and system for facilitating payment transactions using access devices


A feeding system for use with both liquids and semi-solids, having a bottle and a spout mountable on the bottle, the spout having an enlarged opening that is suitably sized to accommodate the easy flow of semi-solid foods.

Bottles provide a simple and convenient method for feeding both adults and babies. However, bottles are not well suited for semi-solid foods. Accordingly, there is a need for a feeding system that provides a simple and convenient way for eating semi-solid foods.
The present disclosure relates to a bottle-feeding system having an enlarged opening that is well suited for semi-solid foods. The system generally includes a rigid container or housing having an upper opening defined by an upper rim that provides access to an interior of the container. A volume compensator is inserted into the interior to assist in storing liquids or semisolids poured into the container. For example, in certain embodiments, the volume compensator may be a food grade bottle liner. The liner has a container portion configured for insertion in to the interior and a lip portion configured to engage the upper rim.
The spout has an enlarged outlet that is sized for semi-solid food. The spout includes a one-way valve having a lower ring portion that surrounds a plurality of flaps that form an opening and are configured to move between an open position and a closed position. The spout also includes a first lid portion removably engaging a top surface of the lower ring portion and having a first orifice in concentric alignment with the valve opening. The flaps extend through the first orifice. Additionally, a retainer ring having an inwardly extending retainer portion is configured to directly contact the lid portion. A first connection member and a second clamping member disposed on the container are configured to mate together to clamp the container, bottle liner and spout together.
In an alternative embodiment, the volume compensator includes a piston having a deformable body that is configured for insertion into the container. The piston contacts and forms a leak resistant seal with an inside surface of the container such that liquids and semi solids may be poured directly onto the piston. A frictional force between the body and the inside surface may be fitted to hold the piston in place. At other times, the piston may be configured to slide upwards and downwards within the container. For example, the piston may slide upwards within the container when suction is applied and then slide downwards when suction is removed. However, preferably a one way valve prevents the piston from sliding downwards once suction is removed. Applying a suction force to a top surface of the piston reduces the frictional force such that the piston is permitted to move within the container.
In addition to infants and small children, this bottle system could be used by adults with special needs. For example, adults having diminished fine motor skills or who are otherwise prevented from feeding themselves normally could use this bottle system.


A fishing reel includes a housing, a handle mounted on the housing by an axle, a spool rotatably mounted on the housing, a transmission gear having multiple ratchets mounted at one end of the spool, a power transmitting device for transmitting power from the axle to the transmission gear, two pawls pivotally mounted on the housing and a connecting rod. The connecting rod having a clamping portion for clamping the axle, and two insertion portions being inserted into the elongated slot of the pawls. The fishing reel of the present invention is silent when the spool rotates and is operated smoothly with tiny friction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a fishing tool and more particularly to a fishing reel that is silent during operation. The fishing reel is operated smoothly with tiny friction.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional fishing reel 1, as shown in FIG. 1, comprises a housing 2, a handle 3 mounted on a side of the housing 2 by an axle 4, and a spool 5 mounted on the housing 2 and being driven to rotate by the handle 3. The structure of the fishing reel 1 is shown in FIGS. 2 and 3. A gear 6 is sleeved onto the axle 4. The gear 6 engages with a toothed portion 8 of an axial rod 7. The axial rod 7 is inserted into an insertion hole 91 of a transmission gear 9. When a user rotates the handle 3 clockwise (in the direction as shown in FIG. 1), the spool 5 is driven to rotate counterclockwise by the axle 4, the axial rod 7 and the transmission gear 9 to roll up the fishing line.
To prevent the fishing line wound around the spool 5 from being pulled out unintentionally (that is, the spool 5 is driven to rotate clockwise), a clamping ring 93 is clamped onto the transmission gear 9 and two pawls 95 are pivotally mounted in the inner wall of the housing 2. The clamping ring 93 has two pins 94. Each of the two pawls 95 has a slot 96 for receiving the pin 94 of the clamping ring 93. When the transmission gear 9 is rotated in the direction as indicated by the arrow of FIG. 4, the clamping ring 93 is rotated with the transmission gear 9 due to friction. At this time, the pins 94 of the clamping ring 93 are driving the two pawls 95 to disengage with the ratchet 97 of the transmission gear 9. The spool 5 is driven by the transmission gear 9 to rotate counterclockwise. On the contrary, when the transmission gear 9 is rotated in the direction as indicated by the arrow of FIG. 5, the pins 94 of the clamping ring 93 are driving the two pawls 95 to engage with the ratchet 97 of the transmission gear 9. The spool 5 cannot rotate further in this situation. The two pawls 95 are prevent from hitting the transmission gear 9 during the situation as indicated in FIG. 4. Therefore the fishing reel 1 almost keeps silent during normal operation.
When the clamping ring 93 is rotated with the transmission gear 9 to the state shown in FIG. 4 or 5, the clamping ring 93 is not rotated with the transmission gear 9 any more. The friction between the clamping ring 93 and the transmission gear 9 becomes resistance during operation of the fishing reel 1. Sometimes the friction significantly affects smooth operation of the fishing reel 1. The industry is eager to solve above problem nowadays.


A contents recording system and a contents recording method reducing a time taken for recording and editing of video content and other video contents. An optical disk device for recording video content and a computer are connected via a network. The computer is supplied with low resolution proxy AV data from the optical disk device, streaming reproduces it as live video and, at the same time, introduces essence marks as meta-data to any positions of the proxy AV data, and describes them in a meta-data file. Then, after finishing shooting one clip, the computer merges a meta-data file generated on the optical disk device side in accordance with camera adjustment and a meta-data file generated on the computer side in accordance with the user operation.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a contents recording system and a contents recording method for recording video content for broadcast use and other video contents, more particularly relates to a technique for linking a desired position of video contents of a recorded object and index information for editing.
2. Description of the Art
In recent years, the increase in recording capacities and the improvement of data transfer speeds have made it possible to use optical disks as recording media of video cameras for industrial broadcast use. For example, the recording capacity of a optical disk on which video and audio data is recorded by a blue violet light emitting diode is as high as about 23 GB by the single side, single layer recording method. Further, the transfer speed (recording bit rate) of the data, although differing according to the compression ratio, is as high as 50 Mbps or more.
When using such an optical disk and industrial broadcast use video camera to capture desired video content, as disclosed in for example U.S. Published patent application No. 2005/0008327, the practice is to generate from the captured video not only video data compressed by a relatively low compression ratio so as not to cause deterioration etc. of the image quality, (main video data), but also proxy video data compressed with a higher compression ratio than that video data (low resolution video data) and record it on the optical disk.
Note that the captured audio is also stored by generating not only main audio data having a low compression ratio, but also high compression ratio proxy audio data according to need.
The proxy video data and the proxy audio data (hereinafter referred to as the "proxy AV data") are data for the recently generally practiced "nonlinear editing". It is fetched into a personal computer, then used as the contents for editing. This is because when using a personal computer etc. for nonlinear editing, its processing capability is insufficient, therefore the high bit rate main video data as explained above cannot be directly used as editing contents.
The editing carried out based on proxy video data in this way is sometimes called "proxy editing" (rough editing). This rough editing is carried out as simple editing on the shoot location etc. In rough editing work, there is for example work for recording the key positions of the recorded video and for entering comments at desired positions of the recorded video. For example, when a baseball game is the video content, in the rough editing, there is the work of recording the position where a home run was hit in the game (time code etc.) and entering comments with respect to that home run.
The U.S. Published Patent Application No. 2005/0008327 discloses "meta-data" as additional information for video data for later confirmation of key positions of the video.
The rough editing is mainly work on the location where the video content is captured. The results thereof are for example transmitted via a network to a system of the studio preparing the final broadcast data separate from main video and/or audio data (hereinafter simply referred to as the "AV data") delivered in the form recorded on an optical disk. Then, that studio edits the main video data based on the results of the proxy editing to prepare the final video data for broadcast use.
However, in the past, the rough editing work was carried out after finishing recording the video content by transferring the proxy AV data recorded on the optical disk to a personal computer and playing it back there. This is because the cameraman recording the video content is busy shooting, therefore cannot record key positions of the video while shooting. Accordingly, the shooting work and the rough editing work were sequentially carried out, so a very long time was taken.

Contents recording system and contents recording method


Described here are compositions, methods and apparatus for biological and physical geoengineering. Disclosed are inorganic particles, prill, pucks, or floats for dispersal on a body of water, the compositions having several properties: 1) positive buoyancy, 2) a sustained-release matrix for delivery of iron, calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, molybdenum, manganese, cobalt, boron, selenium, vanadium, chromium, nickel, sulfur, nitrogen, phosphorus, silicon, preferably as a combination thereof, at biologically efficacious levels, and synergically, 3) a light-reflective surface for increasing planetary albedo when dispersed over large surfaces. These compositions are found to A) increase yields for pelagic aquaculture, B) increase carbon sequestration, and C) provide immediate relief from global warming by directly increasing surface albedo and indirectly by increasing cloud nucleation activity. A preferred composition comprises a mixture of inorganic salts and binders (such as a glass or ceramic) effective for increasing the growth of primary aquatic producers such as coccolithophorids, diatoms, silicoflagellates, dinoflagellates, and microalgae (and higher trophic levels) in a sustained-release composition having a T1/2 of 0.5-3 years. To validate resultant carbon fixation and sequestration, a vertical spar buoy is provided. The buoy is designed to resist wave motion while supporting a stable long-term platform and submerged spaceframe with laser particle counters suspended below the 100 year horizon. Validation of exsolation energy credits, issuance of an associated financial instrument, and trading markets for those instruments are also described.

Direct climate intervention strategies on Earth (geoengineering, or more colloquially "terraforming") have not generally been viewed as a benefit, but more as a hazard. In light of current trends in climatology, it may be necessary to rethink these reservations. For starters, unintended geoengineering is well underway on a massive scale; there is convincing evidence of anthropogenic causality for climate change. Current anthropogenic release of carbon dioxide from fossil fuels and cement production is about 7 GtC/yr (7 metric gigatons as carbon) annually and may reach 12 GtC/yr by 2050, with probable net doubling of atmospheric CO2 before the end of this century associated with inevitable greenhouse forcing the scale of which remains subject to debate (FIG. 1). Among the complications: overpopulation, violence, economic collapse, poverty, deforestation and desertification.
The scale of the problem is difficult to grasp. While well known to those skilled in the art, the direct implications of the past hundred years of "collateral" or "irrational" geoengineering will be reviewed here as a general background to the problem addressed by the invention.
Future atmospheric CO2 concentrations in the year 2100 are projected by the IPCC to be in the range of 540 to 970 ppm, compared to only 370 ppm in the year 2000 and less than 280 ppm before the Industrial Revolution. Perhaps more impressive than concentration are the pool sizes themselves. Current atmospheric total CO2 is about 750 GtCO2, a doubling of the 360 GtCO2 in the atmosphere less than 200 years ago.
Also of interest are the current flux rates. Fossil fuel export to the atmosphere is more than 6 GtC per year at present and is increasing sharply. Of this, about net 2 GtC is being absorbed in the oceans annually, about 30% of the carbon dioxide emissions from fossil fuel combustion. Since 1800, the ocean absorbed about 135 GtC carbon dioxide; as a result, the pH of the ocean is expected to be reduced by almost half a pH unit at the surface in the near term. Interestingly, higher rates of increase in atmospheric CO2 tend to occur in El Niño years, as would be consistent with a Henry's Constant effect on the atmospheric/marine solubilized carbonate species equilibrium. Atmospheric CO2 will continue to rise even if fossil fuel combustion is stopped tomorrow.
In addition, there is a high risk of positive feedback, the so-called "runaway" greenhouse effect. Total CO2 pools incipiently releasable into the atmosphere (from long term sequestered stores in permafrost and methane hydrate deposits) as carbon are measurable in Teratons (i.e. exceeding 1012 tons as carbon). Since these pools are orders of magnitude larger than the existing total atmospheric pool, it should be clear that activities that could cause their release into the atmosphere are likely to result in mass extinctions. The trigger for melting permafrost and release of methane hydrate pools held in place by the ice caps may have already been pulled, but in light of the magnitude of the potential CO2 release, it seems eminently sensible to act quickly to attempt to quickly put a cork back on the bottle.
We are responsible for these transformations. Total human energy use is measurable in exaJoules (and is about 1000 EJ or 1021 J annually). Of that, about 40% or 400 EJ is currently derived from fossil fuel consumption. A burning candle can be approximated as equivalent to 0.8 J/s, so the rate of human energy consumption is equivalent to perhaps 50 trillion candles burning simultaneously, or 6,000 candles per person burning around the clock. More conventionally, the number is about 10-20 MWhr/capita in developed countries, or potentially 1-2×1010 MWhr for the global population, assuming a peak population of 9 or 10 billion and a "western standard of living". Notwithstanding the population overshoot, clearly the practice of burning anything to meet this kind of energy load is unsustainable, and perhaps the standard of living itself is unsustainable given the population base. Geoengineering is not a small thing to have done by accident, and it will not be a small thing to undo.
Therefore, there is an urgent need to re-engineer the planetary economy, both by restructuring industry, feedstocks, carbon footprints, and the like, but also by ameliorating ongoing damage to our shared "commons", the atmosphere and the oceans. This constitutes remedial terraforming, but is here termed "rational geoengineering" to better differentiate the science from the science fiction.
Rational approaches to geoengineering can be divided into two categories: biological and physical. Among the biological approaches are: carbon sequestration by marine fertilization and terrestrial or marine silviculture. Among the physical approaches are: injection of microparticulate reflectors into the stratosphere (as per the "Pinatubo Effect"); extraterrestrial solar parasols; carbon dioxide storage in geological formations (generally as carbonates); carbon dioxide storage in deep sea lakes (as liquified CO2), and the like. The scale of any such project can be judged by comparison with more conventional alternatives: for example, an immediate roll-out of 6,700 new nuclear power plants (assuming 6.8 GWhr per plant, sufficient enriched uranium, and no waste in electrical distribution) would be required to zero out power consumption derived from fossil fuel alone (fossil fuel consumption is currently about 400 EJ or 4.6×107 GWHr annually and rising). At current cost of US$ 10 B/plant, construction of an adequate number of nuclear power plants would amount to US$ 65 Trillion in present dollars and would take decades. Currently, less than 500 nuclear power plants are installed worldwide.
There are alternatives. Solar power is dependent on solar insolation, an essentially free energy source which averages out to about 160 W/m2 (160 J/s/m2) over the surface of the planet. Again taking 400 EJ as the target, replacing today's fossil fuel combustion with photovoltaic cells operating at 10% efficiency would require a solar panel array (or combined equivalent) the size of Venezuela, more than 400,000 km2 if placed equatorially. Also a factor is the heat required for manufacture, such as by the Czochralski process, and periodic replacement of solar panels, capacity for which is practically nonexistent considering the scale. Current solar cell designs radiate heat as black bodies, emitting a great deal of waste heat, so that on the scale envisaged, heat emission from the required surface area of solar cells is likely to reach 2000 EJ annually (assuming 50% conversion to "new" heat), five times the current heat generated from fossil fuel combustion! Like water, conventional solar cells have the albedo of black asphalt. Taking solar insolation at the terrestrial surface as about 45 PW, the incidental heat pollution of the solar panels would be 4% of the overall global surface heat budget. Net flux of heat IN will exceed net heat OUT until a new global surface temperature at equilibrium is reached. The effect would be analogous to removing the high-albedo icesheet from Greenland and replacing it with a low-albedo asphalt surface, but positioned equatorially.
Measurements in support of a dramatic climate forcing by terrestrial albedo are readily found. In a widely cited paper by Palle (2004, Science 304:1299-1301), an observed decrease in global albedo of 0.02 was associated with an increased global heat budget of 6.8 W/m2, a highly significant increase climatologically. Much of the decrease in global albedo is the result of anthropogenic changes in land use, vegetation, burning of forests, and deposition of soot upon snow. Installation of solar panels can be added to that list.
Currently, installed wind power on line is about 157 million MWHr or 0.34% of global demand. The Picken's plan in Texas would add 4,000 MWHr to this total, a rather small amount expected to cost $10 billion. Within a few decades, because of the constancy of wind in Patagonia, more than 1.3 Trillion MWHr per year could be installed, or about 3.2% of global demand. But these areas of sustained strong wind are unusual and the estimates do not factor power losses through an electrical distribution grid or losses in a conversion process to liquid fuel for export.
Arable land required for biomass energy capture and conversion is estimated at anywhere from 13,700 to 32,000 km2/EJ. To capture the equivalent of 400 EJ, perhaps 8×106 km2 must be converted to cropland, an area the size of Australia, or about 5% of the earth's land mass. This does not factor in the overhead energy costs of farming, which should perhaps double the area needed. Currently, about 1.3×106 km2 is under cultivation in the US for food crops. So again, the undertaking is beyond enormous—energy crops cannot simply replace food crops worldwide without major sociopolitical consequences. The irreplaceable and unsustainable bounty of readily available fossil fuels simply cannot be overstated.
Population extinction by economic pressure has also been considered, but the social dislocations of such a program pose considerable risks to those who would contemplate it, no matter what walls are constructed. In a recent article titled, "Guns beat Green", writer Naomi Kline, writing in the December 2007 The Nation, shows that market investments favoring a fortress mentality, private security for the wealthy and weapons at the borders, surpassed new investments in sustainable energy technologies. Weapons and security technologies received 6 Billion $US in venture capital in 2007 whereas green technologies received only 4.3 Billion $US, and the gap has been widening. Peak oil is on the near horizon, despite recent drastic downturns in global demand, but the consensus in the stock market seems to be that those with the guns will consume the last gallon of gas! Clearly the betting money is on economic Darwinism to solve the problem of climate change. Can we truly sustain a Maginot Line or Demilitarized Zone in the face of new and greater waves of hungry illegal immigrants at our borders? Can we fortify our communities and not be impacted by a global collapse of democratic values, commodities, currencies, and access to markets?
Clearly, no single program is feasible at the scale required. Conservation efforts, for example business metrics based on "carbon footprint", are laudable but not yet up to the Draconian task required to eliminate 400 EJ from the annual global energy budget. Although comforting, and in the short term profitable to some, recent innovations in carbon trading are far from meaningful net reductions, and are in fact a sort of shell game that in all likelihood most frequently attempts to obfuscate the scope of the problem.
Alternatives to the handling of fossil fuels have also been proposed. What is euphemistically termed "clean coal" technology, for example, proposes to inject by-product CO2 from coal gasification or power production into sub-terrestrial strata such as depleted oil fields. While this sounds attractive, the energy fluxes of use of coal, even just those associated with processes for putative entombment of waste CO2 are likely as not to result in a net planetary heat gain and are unsustainable.
Finally, business as usual is clearly not an option, such a course posing unacceptable hazards and burdens for future generations. Part of the problem relates to the reluctance of human societies to put a value on the commons, for example a tax or "debit" for use of the atmosphere as a "sink" for CO2 generated by an industrial process. Heat can also be considered a waste, and while it may be convenient for the polluter to dump it into the atmosphere or an ocean, there may be a social cost or lost benefit resulting from that disposal which is not currently taken into account in our economic balance sheets. Exacting payment for heat disposal would be difficult however, excepting payment to a Maxwell's Demon, unless there was a way to actively transport net heat from the planet and "credits" for that ameliorative process could be issued and traded. As discussed here, such a system is not impossible, but requires engineering deliberate increases in terrestrial albedo.
Can/will the greenhouse effect be slowed down? FIG. 1 suggests the current trend in global mean temperature, which is tied closely to CO2 release into the atmosphere. Note that 2100 does not bring a plateau in the relentless rise in global mean temperature that started in the late 20th century, and we are again forced to ask whether our lifestyle presages mass extinctions.
In addition to combustion of fossil fuels, other sources of greenhouse gases must be considered. Pre-industrially, deforestation accounted for about 75% of the total annual increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide, but is now only about 20%, having been swamped by rising fossil fuel combustion. Globally, the four activities responsible for most CO2 emissions are: 1) fossil fuel combustion, 2) deforestation, 3) agriculture and 4) manufacture of Portland cement.
Conversion of native ecosystems to cropland or pasture continues to be associated with both soil deterioration and release from soil humus of up to perhaps 1.5 Tt of sequestered carbon, an ongoing process. Remaining fossil fuel reserves, importantly including coal, are estimated at over 5 Tt C (18 Tt CO2), and most of this is being developed or evaluated for "exploitation", perhaps understandably given the market premium placed on the value of gasoline, which is only likely to rise. Not surprisingly then, use of fossil fuel reserves seems to be accelerating. Psychology is a critical factor confounding the hard science of global warming, and there will be a need for temporary relief, a cooling off period, so that the reality of the situation can be fully assimilated and a sober commitment to a sustainable future can be engendered.
There had been an expectation for some time that a negative feedback mechanism in global climate would emerge, a sort of "Gaia-effect", perhaps in the form of increased oceanic albedo through cloud condensation nucleii as proposed by Robert Charlson of the University of Washington in 1987 (Nature 326:655-61). However, we can also expect the opposite—positive feedback effects. One such example is found in the expected effects of a meltdown of the West Antarctic ice sheet. Accounting for the rebound of the Earth's crust following relief from the weight of the ice sheet, and resulting shift in polar axis of rotation, the predicted 5 m sea level rise is expected to be even higher, perhaps 6.3 m, in the northern hemisphere, where the bulk of the continents are located (Mitrovica, J X et al. 2009. The sea level fingerprint of West Antarctic collapse. Science 323:753). Increased ocean surface area resulting from continental flooding can be expected to dramatically reduce global albedo over large areas, in aggregate reducing reflected heat and increasing the temperature "set point" of the planet. A similar positive-feedback potential of sequestered carbon in permafrost and methane hydrates (>1 TtC) has already been mentioned. No deux-ex-machina to cool the planet can be relied on; it appears we are on our own.
Divine intervention aside, an exponential reverse J-curve in economic activity and population is the more likely negative feedback we can expect in the short term. Decreases in human activity have been associated with periods of relief. For example, changes in agriculture and silviculture practice across northern Asia following the dissolution of the Soviet Union resulted in measurable decreases in radiative forcing due to greenhouse gas heating (i.e., decreases in livestock husbandry resulting in decreased production of methane) and increases in forest carbon dioxide sinks (by decreases in timber harvesting). Ruddiman has proposed a related argument associating cooling trends observed following first contact of Europeans and Native Americans. Similarly, any slowing of global economic activity due to the present day banking crisis will likely reduce carbon dioxide output. If this can be managed while avoiding social instability or complete economic collapse, then the benefit will be permanent. At the very least, a decrease in carbon dioxide output and global warming superimposed on a downturn in human economic activity will relieve any lingering doubts in the minds of planners that greenhouse warming is anthropogenic at its roots.
Thus by the process of elimination of alternatives recited here, geoengineering must be seriously considered as part of any comprehensive effort to solve the problem-absent any compelling argument to the contrary. Two arguments against rational geoengineering are commonly made. First that the ecological risks are unacceptable. Second that any ameliorative action taken would ease the pressure to make the hard decisions needed to develop a sustainable energy economy. Both these arguments will likely weaken when and if global warming enters a "runaway" phase. Arguments about ecological risk must seem hypocritical even now given the reckless behaviors that have produced the crisis. In short, it seems inevitable that resistance to rational terraforming will wilt when temperatures or sea level spikes sharply. Therefore the "roll-out" of any terraforming device must have a short lead time and quickly become effective. It is reasonable to want to prepare for this while organized economic activity on a global scale is still possible. Preliminary studies undertaken at this time, undertaken to ensure that an effective response will be available when the political urgency becomes compelling, seem entirely defensible and in fact of the highest priority.
A worst case acute meltdown would likely be marked by a sharp peak in oil combustion emissions and population, followed by a likely reduction in technology to pre-digital levels, or even to pre-industrial levels, over perhaps a generation of declining standard of living. More optimistically, the crisis could spike and then correct itself through adoption of new technologies over several decades, peaking sometime between 2020 and 2050—maybe. Optimally, a geoengineering device and method for amelioration of the global heat budget and greenhouse effect might be required for a few years or a decade to blunt peak emissions, following which we ultimately make more sustainable choices to fuel the economy. The geoengineering device and method would thus simply be a means for gaining the time needed for committed change, and conveniently, would then dissipate and vanish without further intervention. Thus rational geoengineering is seen not as an artifice to evade, but rather as a potential borrowing of time to survive an incipient crisis. The needed research can be funded "for profit" or by the foresight of governments as part of a "New Deal"-style spending package, but the latter is more likely given the lack of international law in this area.
One geoengineering proposal has emerged as feasible, economical, and likely to be effective, albeit with uncertain collateral consequences. In the Pinatubo eruption, approximately 10 Mt sulfur as a SO2-rich aerosol was transported to stratospheric levels above 30 km. The plume, covering a band of some 125,000 km2, reduced global insolation, when measured 6 months later, by about 4.5 W/m2 (or global mean average of about 3%). Mean global temperature dropped by about 0.5 degrees Celsius (0.9° F.) for over a year following the eruption. A similar impact was seen after the El Chichon eruption of 1982 and after Tambora, another stratovolcano, in 1816, which was followed by a "year without a summer" and crop failures in Europe. Nobel Prize winner Paul Crutzen has published a thumbnail feasibility study for NASA-assisted injection of nanoparticles into the stratosphere, offering to mimic the beneficial cooling effect that follows stratovolcanos. (see www.deas.harvard.edu/climate/pdf/2006/Crutzen2006.pdf). In short, a significant increase in planetary albedo can be achieved by any party possessing the capacity to lift 100 Mt of volcanic ash into the stratosphere, purportedly a relatively cheap proposition. The "Pinatubo Effect" as it is now called, was equivalent to 0.75 W/m2 in reduced insolation. However, sulfur dioxide attacks ozone and precipitates as acid rain. A better choice of aerosol might be microparticulate olivine, mica, or diatomaceous earth, which are available in abundance. But doubts as to the feasibility and safety persist.
Some work toward marine geoengineering was initiated on a small scale as early as 1993, and the results have been confirmed in numerous subsequent studies. As set forth in detail at www.palomar.edu/oceanography/iron.htm (accessed 30 Jan. 2007), the IronEx I research vessel Columbus Iselin set out to sea in 1993 fitted with a portable laboratory and loaded with 21 barrels of blue-green iron granules (about 0.5 t of ferric sulfate). The mineral was dissolved in seawater at the test site and dispersed in a location SW of the Galopagos Islands. Application resulted in increase of iron from about 20-50 pM to about 1-2 nM and a three-fold increase in phytoplankton (measured as chlorophyll) in the treated area. The biological enrichment resulted in transient sequestration of about 300 t carbon dioxide over a two week period. This experiment generated a tremendous debate and was repeated in 1995, with yet better results, stimulating a 30× increase in surface chlorophyll, principally in the form of diatoms, but also higher trophic levels, as had been predicted. An estimated 9,100 t of carbon dioxide was drawn down. Encouragingly, follow up work has not demonstrated significant collateral production of NOX or methane.
The effort was originated in 1986 by John Martin of Moss Landing Marine Laboratories, and was first disclosed in response to a presentation by Bruce Frost of the University of Washington, who had noted that some ocean areas were unexpectedly phytoplankton poor (the "high-nitrate/low chlorophyll" oceans), for example the Pacific equatorial belt extending east from Irian Jaya to Peru and the roaring 40's, the belt of water surrounding Antarctica. Martin had suggested that biological productivity was limited by iron availability, and that iron fertilization would result in a phytoplankton bloom and could be used as a means to reduce the greenhouse effect (which was already well understood in scientific circles by the 1980's) by sequestering carbon dioxide. See for example, Martin et al. 1990. Glacial-interglacial CO2 change: The iron hypothesis. Paleoceanography 5:1-13 and discussions [www.palomar.edu/oceanography/iron.htm] of the period. Use of marine fertilization with iron to stimulate marine productivity and sequester CO2 is thus not a novel concept and a first full, clear and definite conception was articulated in the mid-1980s.
In the second Iron-Ex expedition, in 1996, headed by Kenneth Coale, it was noted that the redox state of the inorganic iron was important, ferric iron precipitating rapidly as the hydroxide and exiting the photic zone. Nonetheless, a dense and somewhat anoxic phytoplankton bloom was observed and documented.
Other experiments of this same kind have since been published (see Tsuda A et al. 2003. A mesoscale iron enrichment in the western subarctic Pacific induces a large centric diatom bloom. Science 3009:58-61; Markels and Barber. 2001. Sequestration of CO2 by ocean fertilization. Poster Presentation for NETL Conference on Carbon Sequestration; Boyd P W et al. 2000. A mesoscale phytoplankton bloom in the polar Southern Ocean stimulated by iron fertilization. Nature. 407:695-702; Coale K H et al. 2004. Southern Ocean iron enrichment experiment: carbon cycling in high- and low-Si waters. Science 304:408-14; Boyd P W et al. 2004. The decline and fate of an iron-induced subarctic phytoplankton bloom. Nature 428:549-53). A total of 12 experiments were recently reviewed by Boyd (Boyd P W et al. 2007. Mesoscale iron enrichment experiments 1993-2005: synthesis and future directions. Science 315:612-7). A newsworthy update was recently published in Science (318:1368-70, 2008).
Patent literature has also accumulated, beginning with a 28 Apr. 1994 filing by Markels (U.S. Pat. No. 5,433,173), which claimed a method for first measuring nutrients in seawater, of then adding any missing nutrients to the ocean, and finally harvesting the increased production as seafood. Use of a "float material" such as rice hulls, wheat chaff, ground corn cobs [and] peanut hulls was proposed as a form of fertilizer that would dissolve in the surface over a period of days, or perhaps as long as a week. The detailed description involved shipboard pumping of a liquid fertilizer composed primarily of iron with some phosphates and nitrates, and disclosed "that almost certainly algae will grow". It can be said that John Martin unequivocably articulated that same assertion almost a decade earlier. Markels' patent was awarded with narrow claims.
This was followed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,535,701, which cited one of the Martin papers (Martin et al. 1994. Testing the iron hypothesis in ecosystems of the equatorial Pacific Ocean. Nature 371:123-129). In the second filing, the method was supplemented by further providing a nitrogen-fixing organism with the fertilizer. As examples of compositions for such use of fertilizers, starch mixtures with iron were suggested. Compositions were again not claimed.
In U.S. Pat. No. 5,967,087, Markels claimed a method for increasing seafood production, where the fertilizer contains iron in a chelated form so that the iron does not precipitate from the photic zone as hydroxides. Compositions for the method were disclosed. The compositions included binders such as plastic, wax, or starch to provide timed release over two weeks of the fertilizer, and a plastic pellet matrix compounded to float by attaching the fertilizing matrix to a float material such as glass bubbles, plastic foam, or by introducing gas bubbles into the fertilizer pellets during manufacture. The matrix selected for attaching the fertilizing elements to the float element or for introducing gas bubbles into the fertilizer pellets was taught to be a plastic matrix, or optionally a wax (Col 4 lines 48-65). Again the timed release matrix disclosed was selected to dissolve in two weeks or less, and in subsequent disclosures, pulse fertilization at intervals greater than 30 days was reported as preferable.
In 2000 and 2002, two US patents issued to Markels claiming methods for sequestering carbon dioxide by ocean fertilization. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,056,919 the steps of the claimed method involve testing to identify a missing nutrient, applying a fertilizer to supply the nutrient, limiting the bloom by applying the fertilizer in pulses, and measuring the amount of carbon dioxide sequestered. Pulse application at intervals of greater than 30 days (see independent claim 1 and 15) was taught to limit anoxia in the phytoplankton blooms. It is known that micrograzing and eutrophication result in lessened carbon sequestration.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,440,367, methods of applying iron chelates to the ocean were claimed for sequestration of carbon dioxide. Disclosed was an iron:lignin chelate. In this case, and all such related cases, the teachings teach away from the use of the less expensive insoluble mineral forms, which would be expected to precipitate if mixed into the ocean—an unsolved problem.
US Patent Appl. 2002/0023593 relates again to methods of increasing seafood production. Claims 1, 10 and 14 summarize the relevant teachings as to compositions: [a method wherein] first, iron is to be supplied as a chelate, and secondly, "said second fertilizer is in the form of pellets, and said pellets comprise a float material selected from gas bubbles and/or low density materials, and said pellets further comprise a binder selected from plastic, wax, high molecular weight starch, or a combination thereof". Any such composition consists of an organic binder, a float material, and an iron chelate, but note that the claims relate strictly to methods, and that in all the claims in this series, the steps are always to measure the nutrient concentrations in seawater, to determine the limiting nutrient, and then to supply that nutrient, the substance of what John Martin had proposed for iron-poor oceans. A method in which the limiting nutrient is not measured is not claimed, although most scientists would be reluctant not to collect baseline data before undertaking iron enrichment as a matter of ordinary skill in the art.
As for compositions, the methods of the prior art teach solubilized minerals, chelates, and a narrow genus of pellet matrices selected from the list of organic chemicals consisting of plastic, wax, and starch. All such pellets contain an organic binder.
However, selection of an organic matrix is problematic in that the named materials are responsible for very high levels of biological oxygen demand, starch for example, thus promoting the growth of heterotrophs, particularly bacteria not native to the pelagic ocean, which will certainly exacerbate oxygen depletion in the underlying water and reduce carbon sequestration by resolubilizing any carbon dioxide fixed by primary producers. Plastic materials are also a major pollutant in the world's oceans and typically contain carcinogenic plasticizers. Wax is not expected to form monodisperse sustained-release pellets absent a surfactant and is difficult to handle. Other objections to the selections taught by Markels could be elaborated here. Organic binders will likely have a highly negative effect on ocean surface chemistry by disintegrating into short chain oils and organic polymers, and thus displacing native surfactants, chelators, siderophores, and the like from the neuston, which is a critical environment in pelagic ocean biology.
Similar problems are found with organic materials as a genus, such as the rice crispies and peanut hulls proposed as float materials. While the use of "glass bubbles" as a float material is attractive, current supplies of hollow glass microspheres, as the term "bubble" would be understood by one skilled in the arts, are expensive and the Markels disclosures teach an organic binder or matrix selected from plastic, wax and starch wherein the glass bubbles are added to the matrix solely for buoyancy. The work to date has also been criticized by others because supplementation with the limiting nutrient in one area will necessarily deplete the water body of other nutrients, which then become limiting as the water body moves out of the test area. In other words, while some hope to profit by fertilizing within a fence, the profit is robbed from areas outside the fence, a classical retelling of the tragedy of the commons. As an example, see U.S. Pat. No. 6,729,063, where the problem is made transparent. The method of first measuring nutrient concentrations in a body of water and then supplementing said body of water with an excess of the most needed nutrient or nutrients is thus fundamentally flawed, and increases productivity in the test site by robbing the productivity of adjoining areas. To the extent that this is also the Martin Iron Hypothesis, the hypothesis has been highly instructive and successful, but is flawed as a method for rational geoengineering.
In short, the prior art has taught inter alia that high bioavailability of the nutrient supplement is preferable, that formation of insoluble hydroxides of metals is prevented by chelation, and that pulse administration is necessary to prevent blooms. But what if there was a better way?
There remains a need for a composition of a marine fertilizer formulated to overcome the above disadvantages and to provide for sustained release of a balanced palette of micronutrients over a growing season or more. Such a composition may be of benefit in increasing harvestable species while also sequestering atmospheric carbon dioxide. Valuable characteristics of such a composition include provision of increased surface area for habitat, providing spatial richness of niches as well as a nutritive leachate (noting that surface chemistry and biochemistry is sufficient, i.e. not requiring exogenous chelators, to ensure that bioactive mineral forms are released at equilibrium rates for uptake). Changes in redox species of a mineral are achieved simply by supplying a surface on which they may be bound, eliminating the need for what is meant in the chemical art by "chelators". Because surfaces alone also result in "passive" shifts in the equilibrium concentrations of the redox species toward slow sustained release of soluble species and further supply habitat niches for microbiota that further modify the release of those mineral species as native organic complexes, accumulation of biomass is highly favored. This biomass can result in macro-sedimentation or can be harvested, or a combination of both, and is net new production. These compositions are buoyant to ensure a T0.5 of greater than 3-6 months in the photic zone and are optionally reflective on a skyward surface so as to provide immediate SST cooling. Light is not limiting except seasonally at polar latitudes!
An area of particular interest involves the design of nutrient formulations to promote the growth of particular food chains and the associated primary producers. For CO2 sequestration, for example, it may be preferable to select a formulation that promotes the growth of coccolithophorids in preference to diatoms. Phaeocystis antarctica takes up twice as much CO2 per mole of PO4 removed than do diatoms, it has been reported. Foraminifera deposit calcium carbonate shells, a preferred sequestration and deposition mineral. For cloud formation, it may be useful to increase dimethylsulfide production by selection of an enrichment medium that increases expression of the prymnesiophyte-microzooplankton envirotype (see Boyd P W et al. 2000. A mesoscale phytoplankton bloom in the polar southern ocean stimulated by iron fertilization. Nature 407:695-702). At some surface fill factors, gas exchange is reduced, but this can be adjusted or even overcome by physical design of the formulation. Referring again to the CLAW hypothesis formulated by Charlson, Lovelok, Andreae and Warren (Nature 326:655-661, 1987): dimethylsulfide (DMS) is thought to play a role in regulating the temperature of the planet by regulation of kumogenesis and associated cloud albedo. Dimethylsulfoniopropionate (DMSP) is biologically converted to DMS (a volatile compound), the main source of organic sulfur in the atmosphere above the oceans. Phytoplankton produce DMS that escapes into the atmosphere where it is oxidized to sulfuric acid, which acts as a nucleus for the condensation of water, and ultimately contributes to the albedo of the planet. According to the hypothesis, when cloud albedo increases, less solar radiation reaches the microbial plankton populations resulting in less photosynthesis and less DMS production, thereby creating a feedback loop that modulates the Earth's temperature [not allowing for the limiting effects of nutrients other than sulfur, which must complicate the model]. Experiments have shown that if the mixed layer depth is very shallow, then almost 100% of DMSP is converted into DMS, and as the mixed layer depth increases this value goes down. Using the mixed layer depth, chlorophyll concentrations and the DMS relationship, predicted DMS concentrations were nicely correlated with the real DMS concentrations in work by Rafel Simó and colleagues reported in Nature in 1999.
Provision of habitat in the form of bioactive surface area also has the effect of increasing trophic levels in rough proportion to the area and niche size of the habitat, a scalar porosity factor with a fractal dimension.
In contrast, current solution fertilization methods result in increases in dissolved organic carbon, picoplankton and, if sustained, transient populations of micro-grazers such as copepods. The fecal sediment fall is thus a "micro-sediment", with poor sedimentation characteristics, that is rapidly re-solubilized as CO2 and organic acids by the action of heterotrophs. It is well established that pelagic "microzooplankton" are the principal grazers on marine phytoplankton (Billett, D et al. 1983. Seasonal sedimentation of phytoplankton to the deep-sea benthos. Nature 302:520-522; Ryther, J H. 1969. Photosynthesis and fish production in the sea. Science 166:72-76; Falkowski, P G et al. 2000. The global carbon cycle: a test of our knowledge of the Earth as a system. Science 290:291-294; Turner, J T et al. 2000. Accumulation of red tide toxins in larger size fractions of zooplankton assemblages from Massachusetts Bay, USA. Mar Ecol Prog Ser, 203:95-107; Smayda, T J. 1970. The suspension and sinking of phytoplankton in the sea. Oceanogr Mar Biol Ann Rev 8:353-414; Irwin A J et al. 2006. Scaling-up from nutrient physiology to the size-structure of phytoplankton communities. J Plankton Res 28:459-471; Richardson, T. and Jackson, G. 2007. Small phytoplankton and carbon export from the surface ocean. Science, 315:838; Zarauz L et al. 2009. Changes in plankton size structure and composition, during the generation of a phytoplankton bloom, in the central Cantabrian Sea. J Plankton Res 31:193-207). Micro-sediment sinks more slowly and is more likely to be resolubilized. The result is that relatively little micro-sediment crosses the "100-Year Horizon" at depth as required for permanent sequestration. As disclosed here, this can be seen principally as an effect of habitat size, and the primary geoengineering intervention that can increase the size and quantity of sediment is not nutrient level but instead habitat size, which effectively correlates with size of organism and number of trophic levels. With provision for habitat and nutrient levels capable of supporting higher trophic levels as taught here, "macro-sediment" is obtained, and there are associated significant increases in CO2-derived organic matter descending below the 100-Year Horizon. Not only is net productivity increased, but the quality of the deep ocean fixed carbon efflux (or "biological pump") is improved.
Many oceans are "deserts", having relatively low biological net productivity. Ocean productivity in the form of net biological carbon assimilation is variously estimated at 36-48 GtC/yr, globally in aggregate, an impressive number. This marine productivity is about half of all global productivity, but is spread over an area of about 361×106 km2 (almost three times the area of terrestrial ecosystems). Corridors of higher productivity tend to be localized, and a method for increasing productivity in less productive areas of the ocean has been long sought. As discussed above, nutrient limitation is the primary throttle on marine productivity over much of this ocean area. Ocean warming has also been correlated with decreases in ocean primary productivity. Therefore, a capacity to cool oceanic hot spots is also of interest in a research program into marine productivity.
The compositions and methods of the present invention bring welcome synergy to these convergent interests: global warming, marine productivity, and carbon sequestration. A combination of modalities—modification of global albedo and enhancements in marine productivity with associated increases in sedimentary lithification of atmospheric CO2—addresses the global climate crisis in multiple ways. There is a need for a solution that overcomes the dangers and difficulties discussed in the introductory remarks here, at a scale likely to have a significant impact on the global energy balance, while further providing some added economic benefit so as to have a measurable incentive for implementation. Needed is a solution with a near-instantaneous effect that is readily measurable in direct physical terms, is rapidly deployable, and yet will dissipate or vanish of a timescale of one or more years following implementation, without further intervention. In short, as will be shown here, reflective forced cooling of the planet is a plausible answer to the problem of global warming and can be fitted into a business model with appropriate incentives. Devices, methods and means for achieving these ends are aspects of the invention as laid open herein.

Biophysical geoengineering compositions and methods


Vehicle monitoring devices, vehicle monitoring management devices, and vehicle monitoring systems are described. According to one aspect, a vehicle monitoring device includes first circuitry configured to communicate with a vehicle being monitored and to receive information regarding the vehicle at a plurality of moments in time, second circuitry coupled with the first circuitry and configured to generate a plurality of messages, wherein individual ones of the messages include the information regarding the vehicle which was received at one of the plurality of moments in time and timing data which is indicative of timing of the vehicle data according to an independent timing protocol which is utilized by the vehicle monitoring device and another device which is remote from the vehicle monitoring device, and wherein the first circuity is configured to communicate the plurality of messages externally of the vehicle monitoring device.

Many vehicle dealerships, such as automobile dealerships, utilize bank financing to purchase vehicles for their lots. A bank issued loan for an automobile is typically paid off once the automobile is sold by the dealership. Accordingly, many banks may perform audits of automobile dealers' lots to assure that the vehicles which were purchased using funds of the banks are still on the automobile dealers' lots. Current best practice is to have a person, who is trusted by the bank, walk the vehicle lot of the dealerships and physically touch the vehicles and verify the vehicles.
At least some of the embodiments described below increase the efficiency of the vehicle verification process compared with manual verification of the vehicles. Additional embodiments of the disclosure may be used to provide other information regarding the vehicles as described further below.


A glove box door latch assembly includes a glove box door pivotally mounted on a vehicle for movement between an open position and a closed position. A striker is mounted on the vehicle. The striker includes a mounting portion for attachment to the vehicle and includes a laterally reduced neck portion extending outwardly from the mounting portion. The neck portion has a striker opening therethrough. A latch claw assembly is mounted on the glove box door and includes a latch claw for engaging the striker opening of the striker when the glove box door is in the closed portion. First and second opposing living hinges are disposed on the glove box and positioned on opposing sides of the latch claw. The living hinges guide the neck portion of the striker into the latch claw assembly such that the latch claw engages the striker opening when the glove box door is in the closed position.

It is well known in the prior art to provide a glove box door which closes an opening in the instrument panel. The glove box door is hingedly mounted to the instrument panel for pivotal movement between a closed position and an open position. A latch assembly is provided for holding the glove box door in the closed position.
Typically, the latch assembly includes a striker mounted to the instrument panel structure and a latch claw assembly mounted to the glove box door for trapping the striker when the glove box door is in the closed position and for releasing the striker to permit the glove box door to be moved to the open position. The typical striker is a bent metal wire which presents an U-shaped hook portion onto which a latch claw of the latch claw assembly may grab. The U-shaped hook portion of the striker extends laterally and presents a large U-shaped opening being about 15 mm wide and about 20 mm long. Thus, the latch claw may grip the striker at any lateral location along the U-shaped hook portion to account for differences in lateral cross-car variations between the latch claw assembly and the striker. However, this arrangement allows considerable variance in the lateral and longitudinal location of the glove box door in the closed position. Accordingly, the glove box door may not always fit flushly within the instrument panel opening when assembled. If a misalignment occurs during assembly, the misaligned glove box door must then be realigned by moving the striker, by twisting the glove box door or by removing and repositioning the glove box door. Considerable assembly time may be spent in realignment of the glove box door depending on the degree of misalignment.


A polygonal mirror unit is adapted to prevent contamination using a photocatalyst, a light scanning unit, and an image forming apparatus employing the polygonal mirror. The polygonal mirror unit is designed to prevent contamination of organic materials on a reflective surface. The polygonal mirror unit includes a driving device and a polygonal mirror having a reflective surface that is rotated by the driving device and deflects and scans an incident beam. The polygonal mirror has a main body with a plurality of reflective surfaces and photocatalytic layers formed on the plurality of reflective surfaces. The photocatalytic layers are activated by an incident beam of a predetermined wavelength to decompose organic materials on the reflective surfaces.

This application claims the benefit of Korean Patent Application No. 10-2004-0075484, filed on Sep. 21, 2004, in the Korean Intellectual Property Office, the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polygonal mirror unit for scanning a beam emitted from a light source onto a surface to be scanned, a light scanning unit, and an image forming apparatus employing the same. More particularly, the invention is directed to a polygonal mirror unit constructed to prevent contamination using photocatalyst, a light scanning unit, and an image forming apparatus employing the polygonal mirror and the light scanning unit.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a light scanning unit is used in a laser printer, a digital copier, a barcode reader, a facsimile, or the like to produce a latent image on an exposed object through main scanning by a beam deflector and subscanning by rotation of the exposed object.
Referring to FIG. 1, a typical light scanning unit includes a light source 1 that produces and emits a beam, a beam deflector 5 that deflects the beam emitted by the light source 1 to be scanned onto an exposed object 9, and an f-θ lens 7 that corrects an error contained in the beam deflected by the beam deflector 5. In addition, a collimating lens 2 that collects the divergent beam from the light source 1 and a cylindrical lens 3 that shapes the beam are disposed in an optical path between the light source 1 and the beam deflector 5.
The beam deflector 5 includes a driving source 5a and a rotating polygonal mirror 5b rotated by the driving source 5a. Accordingly, a scanning direction is determined depending on the reflection direction of a beam that changes as the polygonal mirror 5b rotates. Thus, when the polygonal mirror 5b rotates clockwise, the beam incident on the polygonal mirror 5b is scanned onto the exposed object 9 in main scanning direction as indicated by an arrow A.
Meanwhile, there is a need to prevent contamination of the polygonal mirror 5b with foreign materials in the light scanning unit configured as described above because the contamination significantly degrades scanning performance.
As a solution to prevent this contamination, Japanese Patent Publication No. hei 5-72495 for A Laser Beam Printer published on Mar. 26, 1993 discloses a cover for preventing contamination on a polygonal mirror. The cover is separately located within an optical box containing a light scanning unit and encloses the polygonal mirror. Through a holder, a glass is fitted into a groove formed in one side of the cover and through which a beam enters and exits. The cover protects the surface of the polygonal mirror from contamination during operation.
However, due to the use of a separate cover for prevention of contamination the manufacturing costs are high, and an assembly manufacturing process is very complicated. While the cover prevents inflow of external air, the possible presence of contaminants in air flowing into the work area during assembling reduces the effect of the cover, and there is a high risk of contamination due to oil that is finely sprayed from a polygonal mirror driving motor. Furthermore, the use of a cover may only retard contamination but cannot completely eliminate the risk of contamination.

Polygonal mirror unit, light scanning unit, and image forming apparatus employing the same


Systems and methods providing compatibility between legacy electronic medical record (EMR) systems are disclosed. A first appliance is in two-way electronic communication with a first legacy EMR system and is configured to covert medical records data between a first format utilized by the first legacy EMR system and a common format. A second appliance is in two-way electronic communication with a second legacy EMR system and is configured to convert medical records data between a second format utilized by the second legacy EMR system and the common format. A common appliance is in two-way electronic communication with the first appliance, the second appliance and a third legacy EMR system. The common appliance is configured to convert medical records data between a third format utilized by the third legacy EMR system and the common format.

An electronic medical record is a collection of health information in electronic form. The health information may relate to an individual's medical history, medications consumed, allergies, immunization status, laboratory test results, radiology images, billing information and the like. An electronic medical record (EMR) is sometimes referred to as an electronic health record (EHR), electronic patient record (EPR) or computerized patient record.
EMRs are used to facilitate the automation and streamlining of the workflow in health care settings. In addition, it is a goal to use EMRs to improve healthcare through evidence-based decision support, quality management and outcome reporting. While this is a laudable goal, it remains elusive in view of the capital costs, training costs and maintenance costs of new systems.
Legacy systems are typically incompatible with one another. For example, a physician's office may have a first legacy system that is incompatible with a second legacy system at a hospital. Consequently, a doctor that works at both the physician's office and the hospital may not be able to exchange records between these two venues. In other words, the doctor may be able to use the first legacy system at the physician's office and the second legacy system at the hospital, but the two systems operate in separate silos and are otherwise not integrated.
A central data server may be used to store the different records, but this represents an entirely new system with significant capital costs. In addition, there are challenges associated with normalizing disparate records and then loading them into a single repository. This solution also raises confidentiality concerns.
It is desirable to allow health care professionals to continue to use their legacy systems. However, it is also desirable to integrate such legacy systems with other legacy systems that have incompatible formats. For an integration to be practical, it must be relatively inexpensive. In addition, it must overcome challenges related to disparate doctor identifiers and patient identifiers used in the different systems. Further, it must support message exchanges between legacy systems that require different message formats. In addition, such a solution should provide a comprehensive audit trail of messages that traverse between legacy systems.


The system of the present invention allows the fundus of an undilated eye to be viewed extremely easily and without the need for the viewer to align a hand held unit with a head mounted unit. The system for viewing the fundus of an undilated eye in accordance with the present invention includes a number of point sources of light that are individually actuable and arranged in a linear array. A lens converts each point of light to a line of light. The point sources of light are sequentially actuated, i.e. turned on and off in sequence, so as to scan the fundus of the undilated eye with lines of light that are directed from the lens to the eye by an optical system. The optical system directs light reflected from the fundus to an image generating apparatus that is responsive to the reflected light to provide an image of the fundus that can be viewed.

Binocular indirect microscopes (BIOM) are known that allow a doctor to observe the interior of the patient's eye and in particular the fundus of the patient's eye. A BIOM typically includes a binocular prism set with an integral illumination system forming a unit that is worn on the doctor's head, the illumination system including a light bulb and a mirror to direct the light. The BIOM also includes a hand held condensing lens or indirect lens of the type manufactured by Volk, Inc. In use, the doctor positions the binocular prism/illumination system on his head so that he can look through the prisms. The doctor holds the condensing lens in close proximity to the patient's eye to be examined. The doctor then adjusts both the position of the condensing lens and his position so that he can look into the patient's eye through the hand held lens and through the head mounted binocular prisms with the interior of the eye being illuminated by the head mounted illumination system. The BIOM generates a real image of the patient's fundus that is observed by the doctor via the prisms and condensing lens.
Although the BIOM was invented in 1911 by Gullstrand, it is still used today with little change, the improvements over the earlier systems resulting from better optical manufacturing techniques and the use of anti-reflection coatings. Both the early and modern BIOMs share the same problems. In particular, for a BIOM examination, the patient's pupil must be dilated with mydriatic drugs in order for the doctor to view the patient's fundus. As a result, the patient's pupils are unable to respond to varying light levels for several hours; the patient is dazzled by bright lights; under dark conditions the patient has difficulty seeing; and the patient's ability to read is dramatically hampered. BIOMs are also difficult to use because the image produced by the condensing lens is indirect and therefore upside down with left and right reversed. Further, there is an increased possibility of misdiagnosis with a BIOM since the clinician must interpret the upside down/left-right reversed image relative to the patient's real orientation. Also, since the patient's eye, hand held condensing lens, head mounted prisms and the doctors eyes must be aligned coaxially to perform an examination, the physician must typically undergo various positioning maneuvers before the necessary alignment is obtained to conduct the examination.

Portable fundus viewing system for an undilated eye


A polypropylene resin composition having excellent rigidity, impact resistance and formability (moldability) and thus useful for the interior parts of automobile, includes (A) a crystalline E/P block copolymer containing a fraction Ac soluble in p-xylene at room temperature and having an ethylene content of 18 to 22%; (B) a crystalline E/P block copolymer containing a fraction Bc soluble in p-xylene at room temperature and having an ethylene content of 27 to 40% and (C) talc particles having an average size of 3 to 5 .mu.m and largest size less than 20 .mu.m, in which composition, (a) the p-xylene-soluble fractions Ac and Bc are in contents As and Bs based on the total weight of the copolymers (A) and (B) and satisfying As+Bs=7 to 17% by weight and As/(A +Bs)=0.1 to 0.6; (b) an isotactic pentad fraction of propylene in each of copolymers (A) and (B) is 96% or more, and the mixture of the copolymers (A) and (B) has a MFR of 20 to 35 g/10 min at 230.degree. C. under 2160 g load; and (c) the copolymers (A) and (B) are in a total weight content of 50 to 95% and talc (C) is in a weight content of 5 to 50%.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a polypropylene resin composition. More particularly, the present invention relates to a polypropylene resin composition capable of forming shaped articles that are light, have excellent rigidity, are resistant to thermal deformation, have impact resistance and moldability and have an enhanced resistance to whitening due to stress applied thereto during a forming procedure. The polypropylene resin composition of the present invention is advantageously usable for interior parts of automobiles and, typically, the trim.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known that polypropylene resin compositions comprising, as a principal component, a polypropylene resin, for example, a crystalline ethylene-propylene block copolymer, combined with an elastomer such as an ethylene-propylene copolymer rubber, ethylene-butene copolymer rubber or hydrogenation product of a styrene-butadiene block copolymer, and an inorganic filler such as talc, have excellent rigidity and impact strength and superior moldability, and thus have been widely employed for the production of parts of automobiles.
Also, studies have been conducted to enhance the rigidity, impact resistance and moldability of the polypropylene resin compositions by variously changing the polypropylene resin, the elastomer and the inorganic filler.
As an above-mentioned type of polypropylene resin composition, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 58-168649 discloses a combination of a crystalline ethylene-propylene block copolymer with a specific ethylene-.alpha.-olefin copolymer rubber and talc.
Also, a combination of a crystalline ethylene-propylene block copolymer with a specific hydrogenated styrene-butadiene block copolymer, ethylene-propylene copolymer rubber and talc has been discussed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 3-172,339.
Further, a combination of a crystalline ethylene-propylene-block copolymer with a specific hydrogenated styrene-butadiene block copolymer, ethylene-butene copolymer rubber and talc has been discussed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 4-57,848.
Although the above-mentioned conventional polypropylene resin compositions exhibit a high levels of rigidity and impact resistance, they are not yet satisfactory in lightness and exhibit an unsatisfactory resistance to whitening of the resultant shaped article.


In the control method in a management system of semiconductor manufacturing equipment to enhance a product yield through a control of etching process, information of a corresponding lot for the etching process is recognized. It is checked whether the information of corresponding lot is for an etching process after a predetermined RF time of etching apparatus. RF time of the etching apparatus is compared with the predetermined RF time, and it is decided whether the etching process of corresponding lot can be performed in the etching apparatus if the etching process for the corresponding lot should be performed after a lapse of the predetermined RF time.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relate to a method to control a management system to control semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
A claim of priority is made to Korean Patent Application 2003-88480, filed on Dec. 8, 2003, the contents of which are incorporated by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
The semiconductor technology field has remarkably grown in recent years by the rapid development in the information technology area and the popularization of information media such as the computer. Semiconductor devices require faster speed operations and larger storage capabilities. Continue research and development in the manufacturing of semiconductor devices having higher integration, reliability, response speed, and better automation, is required.
Semiconductor device manufacturing techniques generally include a deposition process to form a process layer on a semiconductor substrate, and a photolithography process to form and pattern a photoresist layer on the process layer.
Typically the photolithography process is divided into a photo process, an etching process, and a cleaning process. In the photo process, a photoresist layer is formed on a semiconductor substrate, and then a photoresist layer is patterned. In the etching process, the process layer exposed by the patterned photoresist layer is selectively removed. In the cleaning process, the photoresist layer and by-products generated from the etching process are removed by a cleaning solution, so as to leave only the non-etched portion of the process layer. The etching process may be performed by a wet etch or dry etch. Recent etching processes for the use in micro patterns, requiring submicron design rules, are mainly performed by the dry etch process.
In the dry etching apparatus, a high voltage Radio Frequency (RF) signal is applied to an etch reaction gas and inactive gas within a process chamber to create a plasma state. The plasma reaction gas removes the process layer exposed by the photoresist layer. Herewith, polymer components, which are etching by-products and which contaminate the process chamber, must be removed from the process chamber. Preventive maintenance procedure on the process chamber such as cleaning process should be periodically performed. For example, if the RF time is assumed to be roughly the total use time of the chamber after it has been cleaned, then maintenance procedure should be performed on the process chamber, for example, after every about 100 RF use hours. The etching rates of the etching apparatus may be affected by the RF time.
When etching an insulation layer to form a contact hole between a plurality of stack gates, a cassette having 25 wafers is loaded in a port, and then the wafers are sequentially etched. Afterwards, the cassette is unloaded and cleaned, and then the wafers are transferred to the next position for further process.
The management system is composed of a plurality of semiconductor manufacturing equipment, an equipment server connected on-line to each semiconductor manufacturing equipment to directly control the semiconductor manufacturing equipments, a host computer that is connected on-line to the equipment server stores a database of data necessary for controlling the semiconductor manufacturing equipment, and an operator interface that is connected on-line to the host computer to allow an operator to check the progress of the manufacturing process and related operational data. When a lot i.e., (batch) of wafers is loaded into a semiconductor manufacturing equipment, the operator inputs through the operator interface, process data, e.g., equipment lot identification and equipment identification numbers.
When the data is inputted to the host computer, the host computer downloads the process condition recipe to the semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
After a predetermined time, certain components of the semiconductor manufacturing equipment are exchanged and cleaned to conduct preventive maintenance. In addition, some of the variables in the host computer's process recipe data are updated or replaced. The update or replacement of the data may also take place when different semiconductor device products are manufactured.
Thus, the control system of the prior art only calculates and displays use accumulation time and the RF time after the preventive maintenance. Therefore, the prior art has the following problems.
A host computer cannot control the etching apparatus according to the RF time of etching apparatus.
Furthermore, productivity may decrease because recipe (production data) based on the RF time may vary depending on the operator (operator specific).

Method to control a management system to control semiconductor manufacturing equipment


System for application priority based on device operating mode. A method is provided for allocating a top visible resource on a device. The method includes receiving a request requesting allocation of the top visible resource to a requesting application, and determining that the top visible resource is allocated to an owning application. The method also includes associating owner information with requester information to form an arbitration request. The method also includes arbitrating the arbitration request to produce an arbitration decision that indicates that the top visible resource is to be allocated to the requesting application if the owner information indicates that the owning application is privileged and an identifier that identifies the requesting application is contained in a relinquish list associated with the owner information.

1. Field
The present invention relates generally to the operation of device, and more particularly, to a system for application priority based on device operating mode.
2. Description of the Related Art
Advances in technology have resulted in the development and deployment of extensive data networks. These networks include both public data networks, such as the Internet, and specialized networks, such as wireless telecommunication networks. Users of these networks have the ability to access a wide variety of information and services that are available. For example, wireless device owners may now download a wide variety of applications for execution on their devices.
Resource allocation has become increasingly important as a result of the increase in downloadable applications. Device resources include displays, keypads, sound processors, modems, storage devices, communication channels, and other types of resources. Because each device has a limited number of resources, the way those resources are allocated to competing applications determines how the device operates. For example, a wireless telephone may be in a voice call, a data call, running an application, or handling an SMS message, and the device needs to know how to allocate its resources to various applications given a particular operating condition.
A very important resource for most devices is referred to as the "top visible" resource (TVR) (also sometimes referred to as "having scope"). The top visible resource generally comprises the device's display and the device's input device (i.e., keypad), which allow applications to represent to the user that they are the current focus of the device. For example, an application that is allocated the top visible resource is able to interact with the device user via the display and keypad.
There is a need to effectively arbitrate between competing applications executing on a device to determine which application should get access to the top visible resource. For example, the operation of the device, which determines the "user experience", is determined by how applications are allocated the top visible resource.
In current systems, the top visible resource is allocated to an application according to static rules. For example, in a telephone handset device, applications are not allowed to start when a phone call is in progress. Typically, an application's access to the top visible resource is controlled by hard-coded allocation rules that do not take into account the dynamic environment in which the current device operates.
Therefore, what is needed is a dynamic application priority system that operates to determine which application in a device is allocated the top visible resource based on the operating environment of the device. The system should also provide a mechanism to allow third parties, such as network carriers, to have an input as to how the top visible resource on the device is allocated, so that the user experience provided by the device can be dynamically controlled.


This invention provides prosthesis delivery systems with tips constructed to permit both easier advance into the body and easier removal from the body after expanding the prosthesis. The tip includes a distal taper that can gently widen a lumen during advance in instances where the lumen is narrower than the tip and a proximal taper that can gently widen the lumen on retraction in instances where the prosthesis does not immediately expand the lumen to provide clearance for the larger diameter tip.

Prostheses, such as stents, grafts, and the like, are placed within the body to improve the function of a body lumen. For example, stents with substantial elasticity can be used to exert a radial force on a constricted portion of a lumen wall to open the lumen to near normal size.
These stents can be delivered into the lumen using a system which includes a catheter, with the stent supported near its distal end, and a sheath, positioned coaxially about the catheter and over the stent, to prevent abrasion between the stent and body wall as the catheter is directed through torturous body pathways. The catheter may have an enlarged tip adjacent the distal end of the stent that also helps to atraumatically advance the system and protects the stent.
Once the stent is located at the constricted portion of the lumen, the sheath is removed to expose the stent, which is expanded so it contacts the lumen wall. The catheter is subsequently removed from the body by pulling it in the proximal direction, through the larger lumen diameter created by the expanded prosthesis, which is left in the body.

Prosthesis delivery system with dilating tip


A window shade assembly for motor vehicles which has a pivotable cover provided on the slot through which the window shade is extendable and retractable. The cover is prestressed into an open position by an opening spring for enabling extraction of the window shade. The cover is closed by excess travel of a window shade actuating element that serves for moving a tension rod of the window shade to the extracted position.

It is known to provide a motor vehicle window shade with a winding shaft rotatably supported underneath a rear window shelf of the vehicle, as disclosed in DE 102 37 231. The rear window shelf has a slot through which a strip-shaped window shade can be extracted. A tension rod of the window shade moves in guide rails that are arranged laterally along the motor vehicle window. The window shade is has a spring motor that biases the winding shaft in the wind-up direction for the window shade. Two elongated actuating thrust elements are guided in guide rails in a buckle-proof fashion.
A positive connection is provided between the thrust elements and the tension rod by means of two hooks. One hook is mounted on the tension rod, and the other hook is mounted on the thrust element. This makes it possible to transmit a thrust force, as well as a tensile force, onto the tension rod by means of the actuating thrust elements. After the strip-shaped window shade is completely retracted, the positive connection between the tension rod and the thrust element is separated under the guidance and control of a cam. It is mentioned in the aforementioned reference that an excess travel can be achieved in this fashion in order to actuate a cover for the slot of the window shade by means of the opposite end of the thrust elements.
A window shade for a rear window of a motor vehicle is described in DE 102 23 028, wherein the winding shaft is adjustably supported underneath the rear window shelf. The winding shaft is arranged within a housing that can be raised slightly above the level of the rear window shelf in order to extract the window shade. In this case, an extraction slot, through which the window shade is extracted, becomes visible.
A tension rod, the ends of which are guided in guide rails, also is fixed on the strip-shaped window shade in this case. The actuation of the tension rod is effected by means of two thrust elements similar to that described above, except that the thrust elements are inseparably connected to the tension rod. When the tension rod is completely retracted into the cassette, the cassette is lowered into the rear window shelf with the aid of the driving force generated by the thrust elements that act as tension means during the retraction.


A method is provided for localizing mobile tags using a system including a plurality of anchors located at known locations, the method including: transmitting a plurality of ultra-wideband (UWB) localization packets using respective anchors of the plurality of anchors, in which each of the plurality of localization packets is transmitted by a respective anchor of the plurality of anchors at a different respective delay time; and transmitting an update UWB packet with either an anchor of the plurality of anchors that does not transmit one of the localization packets, or with a mobile tag, in which the localization packets include no payloads, the update packet includes a payload, and in which successive ones of the plurality of localization packets and the update packet overlap with each other in time. A system for localizing mobile tags is also provided.

Indoor wireless localization systems are systems for determining or estimating the location of one or more targets, such as people, objects, or electronic devices in indoor locations, where outdoor localization systems such as the satellite based global position system (GPS), may be imprecise or unusable. Such systems are utilized in smart homes, geo-fencing, warehouses, health care situations, or other industrial situations.
Arrangements of the embodiments will be understood and appreciated fully from the following detailed description, made by way of example only and taken in conjunction with the drawings in which:

Localization and communication systems and methods


In an access control system, a method and system for system management. The RF access control system includes a wireless panel interface module that transmits system component settings to a system management interface and receives configuration information from the interface. The system also includes a system management interface for retrieving component settings from the wireless panel interface module and generating configuration information to adjust the settings. The wireless panel interface module transmits the configuration information to system components. The system further includes a wireless access point module that receives configuration information from the wireless panel interface module via an RF communication link. An access processor adjusts settings of the wireless access point module based on the configuration information. A control processor adjusts settings of the wireless panel interface module based on the configuration information. The system also includes an access point controlled by the wireless access point module.

The preferred embodiments of the present invention relate to an RF access control system for controlling access to an access point. More specifically, the preferred embodiments of the present invention relate to a system and method for system management in an RF access control system.
A wireless access control system may provide several advantages over a traditional, wire-based access control system. In a traditional, wired access control system, each access point, such as a door, for example, is equipped with a locking module to secure the access point. Each locking module is in turn directly wired to a remote access control module. The access control module is typically a database that compares a signal received from the locking module to a stored signal in the database in order to determine an access decision for that locking module. Once the access decision has been determined by the access control module, the decision is relayed to the locking module through the wired connection.
The use of wired connections between the access control module and the locking module necessitates a large investment of time and expense in purchasing and installing the wires. For example, for larger installations, literally miles of wires must be purchased and installed. An access control system that minimizes the time and expense of the installation would be highly desirable.
Additionally, wire-based systems are prone to reliability and security failures. For example, a wire may short out or be cut and the locking module connected to the access control module by the wire may no longer be under the control of the access control module. If a wire connection is cut or goes, the only alternative is to repair the faulty location (which may not be feasible) or run new wire all the way from the access control module to the locking module, thus incurring additional time and expense. Conversely, an access control system that provides several available communication channels between the locking module and the access control module so that if one communication channel is not usable, communication may proceed on one of the other communication channels, would also be highly desirable, especially if such an access control system did not add additional costs to install the additional communication channels.
A wireless access system providing a wireless communication channel between the locking module and the access control module may provide many benefits over the standard, wire-based access control system. Such a wireless access system is typically less expensive to install and maintain due to the minimization of wire and the necessary installation time. Additionally, such a system is typically more secure because communication between the locking module and the access control module is more robust that a single wire.
However, one difficulty often encountered in installing and maintaining such a wireless access system is system management. For example, system components may perform differently when used in different applications or circumstances. Wireless system components may be unable to adapt to changing needs or situations.
Consequently, system components may be inefficiently designed to account for a variety of uses. Manual adjustment may be needed to re-configure a wireless access system. A system that provides management of system components would be highly desirable. Additionally, a system with components that may be configurable by the system would be highly desirable. Also, a system with components including parameters that may be configured differently depending upon a particular use would also be highly desirable.

System management interface for radio frequency access control