A gland packing provided in a fluid apparatus such as a pump and compressed in an axial direction so as to prevent penetration leakage of a fluid is provided.

For example, as sealing devices for use in pumps and valves, gland packings are known. As shown in FIG. 8, gland packings 93 are provided in annular space A between a housing 91 and a shaft 92 of a pump, and are sandwiched in an axial direction between a step 95 on an inner peripheral side of the housing 91 and a tubular tightening member 94 on an atmospheric side of the housing 91.
When the tightening member 94 is tightened to a fluid 99 side (inwardly in the axial direction) by a bolt 96, the gland packings 93 are compressed in the axial direction. While being further compressed, the gland packings 93 are closely contacted onto an inner peripheral surface 91a of the housing 91 and an outer peripheral surface 92a of the shaft 92. This can prevent the fluid 99 in the housing 91 from being leaked to the atmospheric side.
As such a gland packing, a packing having a band-like packing base material which is helically wound plural times is known (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 6-201050 (see FIG. 1), for example). Further, the gland packing is formed with folded portions at axial ends of the packing base material layers overlapped in a diametrical direction. Penetration leakage in which a fluid enters into and passes through between the layers from axial end faces can thus be prevented.

Abstract: The gland packing has a packing base material 11 of a predetermined length including a band-like flat braid 12 braided by moving a plurality of yarns 13 along one track K. The band-like packing base material 11 is shaped into a ring by abutting longitudinal ends 12a and 12b of the packing base material 11 so that a width direction thereof is parallel with a packing axial direction, and is then compressed in the axial direction, whereby the packing base material 11 is overlappedly folded in a packing axial direction, with a longitudinal direction of the packing base material 11 as a direction of folding lines 14.


A system has a monitor attached to and monitoring sound and vision around the user and using cellular telephone communications to convey monitored information. The monitor calls a primary server which alerts a secondary server of call receipt. The secondary server calls the monitor which drops the call to the primary server after a predetermined time, and remains in contact with the secondary server only if the monitor has successfully received the call from the secondary server, thereby preventing introduction of a false monitor. The monitor has options alterable only when on a battery charging cradle. The monitor has amber and red alert modes involving further servers, providing means to monitor and record the sounds and vision. The monitor has satellite position reporting. The system employs cell phone inter base station signal strength interpolation to find the monitor's position. A vibration motor silently alerts the user to calls.

Many workers may find themselves in situations made hazardous by encounters with persons and the places where those encounters occur. One example of an at-risk worker is medical staff who might be required to make house calls on psychiatric patients. Another example is social work staff who might be required to visit clients where there is perceived to be a risk of violence or threat. Yet another example is a bus driver who is at possible risk from his passengers or other drivers he may encounter. There are many other examples. The present invention seeks to provide means whereby the location of the worker and events that happen to the worker can be known and shared.
Even if the events that happen to the worker may be known, it is of little use if the worker cannot be rescued. The present invention seeks to provide monitoring means whereby early intervention is made possible.
An audit trail, verifying what happened, when, and who was involved, is highly desirable but difficult to achieve with personal monitors. The present invention seeks to provide that an audit trail can readily be established.
There is always a risk that an erroneous call might be mistaken for a call from a personal monitor, or that a worker can be deliberately subjected to violence and threat and protected from being monitored by a false monitoring device being introduced in place of the monitoring device which the worker actually uses to make a false call. The present invention seeks to make it impossible to introduce a false monitoring device or to allow accidental monitoring of an erroneous call.
Cellular telephone networks can be very expensive to place traffic over. Long periods of monitoring a personal monitor can be very costly. The present invention seeks to provide that the cost of monitoring the individual can kept to a minimum.
According to one aspect, the present invention provides a monitor and first and second voice servers, the monitor placing a call for a predetermined time to the first server, said first server alerting said second server, and said second server calling said monitor within said predetermined time, said monitor abandoning said call to said first server after said predetermined period, and only being in communication with second server if said second call has been successfully received by said monitor.
The invention also provides that the lone worker monitor is communicable with one or more voice servers, said monitor being operable to place a voice call thereto, and said one or more voice servers being operative automatically to record a call.
The invention also provides that the lone worker monitor is capable of being located by interpolation of mobile telephone signal strengths by measurement of the radiation from the monitor at one or more telephone base stations.
The invention also provides a monitor which, in order to prevent false changing of settings, can only have it settings altered when in a charging cradle or connected directly to a mains charger.
The invention also provides that the settings can be changed by short message service messages.
The invention further provides that the lone worker monitor can be coupled to receive satellite positioning signals, such as, but not limited to, GPS signals, and can be operative to calculate and report the position of the lone worker monitor.
The invention further provides that the lone worker monitor can comprise a camera, that the lens of the camera can be hidden, that the camera can be operative to take one, the other or both of video images and still images, that the lone worker monitor can relay the images from the camera by short range radio link, by GSM technology, by GPRS technology, WAP technology, or by any radio, wireless, cellular ground, satellite, fibre optic or cable communications protocol available now or in the future, or any combination thereof.
The invention further provides that the lone worker monitor can be coupled to communicate with external equipment by means of a short range wireless connection, that the external equipment can be operative to pass information and signals to and from the lone worker monitor, and that the external equipment can be operative to provide some or all of the communications with the cellular telephone network.
The invention further provides that the short range wireless connection can provide passage into and/or out of the lone worker monitor of sound representative signals, and that the short range wireless connection can provide passage out of the lone worker monitor of image representative signals.
The invention further provides that the camera can be provided alone in the lone worker monitor, or that the camera can be provided in conjunction with the microphone.
The invention further provides that the camera can be operated alone in the lone worker monitor, or that the camera can be operated in conjunction with operation of the microphone, or that the microphone can be operated alone in the lone worker monitor.
The invention also provides that the lone worker monitor is communicable with one or more image servers, the lone worker monitor being operable to place an image call thereto, and said one or more image servers being operative automatically to record images from a call.
The invention further provides that image servers can be the same servers as the voice servers.
The invention further provides that the short range wireless connection can be Bluetooth™, and/or that the short range wireless connection can comprise any known or to be developed short range wireless connection means compatible with the requirements of the invention.


A game of chance comprising a cup called a cube and five flat round pieces called xe2x80x9cdudsxe2x80x9d, which are marked Plus (+) on one side and Minus (xe2x88x92) on the other side. The cube should be preferably made with thick transparent material, to resemble a disposable plastic cup, and the duds with a material consistent in weight to that of a twenty-five cent coin (quarter) that will induce the piece to fall flat when tossed on a surface. The material, weight, size, may vary, as long as the changes do not affect the original idea for the operation of the game. This wagering system can be used as a game for two or more persons. It can be utilized for other games, board-games, and casino table games. It may be used for electronic games also. To play the game, a player inserts the five duds into the cube, covers the opening with one hand, shakes the cube, and then tosses the duds randomly on the playing surface. The symbols appearing face up on the five duds are summed up, and the result, either Plus or Minus, recorded, to be compared to the result of the opponent player or players. The highest score wins.

not applicable
not applicable
This invention pertains to the extensive field of games and gambling. It can be used for children""s games, for adult board games, and for many casino activities. Cube ""n Duds, as a game, by itself, can be played by two or more persons, and, due to its innovative wagering method, can be an instrument for many other games.
Dice and cards, as wagering systems, must be considered Prior Art. they are the prevalent systems used in all actual table games.
A search of the PTO files show 447 US patents using the betting systems of dice or cards.
Prior Art has failed to show a substitute system of wagering for children""s board games.
A search of the PTO files shows 52 US patents for casino games using dice or cards as a wagering system.
Prior Art has failed to show a new constructive, educational betting system for children""s games, for board games, and for casino games.
Cube ""n Duds is a system using Plus and Minus. It is easy to understand and the game induces the one who plays to think fast when adding or subtracting.
This invention is different from other wagering systems because the result of each play may be positive or negative. Other betting games produce add-on cumulative results, in which the numbers (cast, if by dice) (or dealt, if by cards) are to advance to win. With Cube ""n Duds, using Pluses and Minuses, you can advance to win or retrocede to lose.
The odds of this game are very different. When the player tosses the duds, the results can be:
1, 3, or 5 Plus
1, 3, or 5 Minus
which figures can be the basis for innumerable other games, if to move on a board, or to bet at a casino table.
Cube ""n Duds is an innovative wagering system comprising a cube and five pieces (duds) each. It is a competitive game that can be played by two or more. This patent application is for the invention of Cube ""n Duds only, the many different games that can be devised or evolved from this invention must be the subject of other applications.
The odds of this game are complicated and exciting. If a player tosses Five Pluses, it is the maximum winning deal. If the player tosses Five Minuses, he loses all. Since all duds are marked Plus on one side and Minus on the other, the number Four can never result. The failure to obtain a Minus 4 or a Plus 4, is the feature that affects the odds greatly.
Cube ""n Duds is a wagering game for two or more persons, using a cube, preferably made with transparent plastic material, and five round flat pieces (duds). These duds are all exactly alike, they may be the size of a US five-cent coin, and all are marked on one side with a Plus (+) sign, and on the other side with a Minus (xe2x88x92) sign.

Game of chance comprising a cup and five flat round pieces, all marked on one side with the plus(+) symbol and with the minus (xe2x88x92) symbol on the other side


A method and a system for generating fresh query suggestions includes receiving an indication of at least a portion of a given search query, selecting, based on the indication, a set of query suggestions, each of the query suggestion being associated with a frequency of use of a first scale, acquiring a set of fresh query suggestions, each of the fresh query suggestions being associated with a frequency of use of a second scale, scaling each frequency of use of the second scale to obtain a frequency of use of the first scale, merging the set of query suggestions and the set of fresh query suggestions to generate an amalgamated suggestions set, and generating a subset of ranked query suggestions for displaying on a device based on the amalgamated suggestions set, a given query suggestion of the subset being one of a fresh query suggestion and a query suggestion.

Various global or local communication networks (the Internet, the World Wide Web, local area networks and the like) offer a user a vast amount of information. The information includes a multitude of contextual topics, such as but not limited to, news and current affairs, maps, company information, financial information and resources, traffic information, games and entertainment related information. Users use a variety of client devices (desktop, laptop, notebook, smartphone, tablets and the like) to have access to rich content (like images, audio, video, animation, and other multimedia content from such networks).
Generally speaking, a given user can access a resource on the communication network by two principle means. The given user can access a particular resource directly, either by typing an address of the resource (typically an URL or Universal Resource Locator, such as ≤www.webpage.com≥) or by clicking a link in an electronic message or in another web resource. Alternatively, the given user may conduct a search using a search engine to locate a resource of interest. The latter is particularly suitable in those circumstances, where the given user knows a topic of interest, but does not know the exact address of the resource she is interested in.
When the given user runs a web search using the search engine, he or she generally has two priorities. He or she wants the search engine to locate the most relevant results and he or she wants the results relatively quickly. To at least partially address these concerns, it is known to present the user using a search engine with query suggestions, also known as "suggests". For example, in response to a user typing a search query "Molly" into the Google™ search engine, the user gets a list of suggests in a drop down menu, namely "Molly Ringwald", "Molly Maid", etc. The general idea behind the suggests is to enable a more user-friendly search experience and to assist the user in exploring a subject of interest. For example, the user may not know exactly what query will provide the information he or she wants; search suggestions can help the user to find desired or related information. The user then can browse the search results and select a link that he or she is desirous of perusing.
Thus, in order to assist the person conducting the search, a search engine can suggest additional queries to the searcher. There are a variety of technologies the search engine can use to identify the additional queries, and each of these technologies will typically result in a large set of queries that the engine can potentially suggest. However, search engines may not necessarily suggest queries about subjects or events that became popular in a short period of time, and that may be of interest to users of the search engine.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0317317 A1 published on Nov. 5, 2015 to Yahoo! Inc. and titled "Method and system for providing query suggestions including entities" teaches methods, systems and programming for providing query suggestions including entities. In one example, a prefix of a search query is first received. A plurality of query suggestions are then identified based on the prefix of the query. The plurality of query suggestions include at least one entity. Scores of each of the plurality of query suggestions are computed using a first model. The first model includes an adjustable parameter used for computing the score of the at least one entity. The plurality of question suggestions are ranked based, at least in part, on the scores.
United States Patent Application Publication No. 2015/0154197 A1 published on Jun. 4, 2015 to Qbase LLC and titled "Method for obtaining search suggestions from fuzzy score matching and population frequencies" teaches a method for obtaining and providing search suggestions using entity co-occurrence. The method may be employed in any search system that may include at least one search engine, one or more databases including entity co-occurrence knowledge and trends co-occurrence knowledge. The method may extract and disambiguate entities from search queries by using an entity and trends co-occurrence knowledge in one or more database. Subsequently, a list of search suggestion may be provided by each database, then by comparing the score of each search suggestion, a new list of suggestion may be built based on the individual and/or overall score of each search suggestion. Based on the user's selection of the suggestions, the trends co-occurrence knowledgebase can be updated, providing a means of on-the-fly learning, which improves the search relevancy and accuracy.

Method of and system for recommending fresh search query suggestions on search engine


A semiconductor process and apparatus provides an encapsulated shallow trench isolation region by forming a silicon nitride layer (96) to cover a shallow trench isolation region (95), depositing a protective dielectric layer (97, 98) over the silicon nitride layer (96), and polishing and densifying the protective dielectric layer (97, 98) to thereby form a densified silicon nitride encapsulation layer (99) over the shallow trench isolation region (95).

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed in general to the field of semiconductor devices. In one aspect, the present invention relates to shallow trench isolation regions which electrically isolate semiconductor active regions.
2. Description of the Related Art
As device performance becomes more and more demanding, semiconductor devices are formed with shallow trench isolation ("STI") regions which form improved field isolation structures as compared to conventional local oxidation of silicon ("LOCOS") techniques. However, the dielectric material used to form isolation trench regions can be substantially eroded during post-trench processing of the active area (e.g., gate oxide and gate poly formation), resulting in divots and recesses in the STI regions that create adverse parasitic sidewall devices (e.g., an unwanted sidewall parasitic MOSFET) adjacent to the active areas of an integrated circuit (IC). In addition, divots and recesses formed in the STI regions can cause gate wrap around and gate oxide leakage. Another drawback with conventional STI regions is that oxygen diffusion from the STI regions can increase the threshold voltage of narrow width high-k gates which use Hf02 gate dielectric layers.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved shallow trench isolation region and associated semiconductor manufacturing process that address various problems in the art that have been discovered by the above-named inventors where various limitations and disadvantages of conventional solutions and technologies will become apparent to one of skill in the art after reviewing the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings and detailed description which follow, though it should be understood that this description of the related art section is not intended to serve as an admission that the described subject matter is prior art.
It will be appreciated that for simplicity and clarity of illustration, elements illustrated in the drawings have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements are exaggerated relative to other elements for purposes of promoting and improving clarity and understanding. Further, where considered appropriate, reference numerals have been repeated among the drawings to represent corresponding or analogous elements.

Silicon nitride hardstop encapsulation layer for STI region


Computer-implemented methods, systems, displays, and computer program products are provided for displaying data within a pattern based user interface. To allow flexibility when displaying data, the data may be displayed within a non-pattern based user interface together with the pattern based user interface within one display.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to computer-implemented methods and systems for providing user interfaces. More particularly, the invention relates to methods and systems for providing an application for displaying data and/or interrogating user input within a pattern based user interface. The invention further relates to user interfaces on a computer for displaying data and/or interrogating user input within a pattern based user interface.
II. Background Information
In some software applications, such as Master Data Management (MDM) and other SAP software applications, data may be accessed using graphical user interfaces (UI). One possible user interface is a People Centric User Interface (PCUI), which may be a pattern based user interface (PBUI). Within pattern based user interfaces, different patterns may be defined. These patterns may define the arrangement of pattern components, such as search group containers, field group containers, toolbar group containers, tabstrip containers, or any other container. The containers may comprise fields to display data or buttons or menus in a defined manner. Further, pattern based user interfaces may define allowed combinations of user interface components on different hierarchy levels within an application. By that, it may be possible to define the positioning and sizing details for user interface components. The design and positioning object identification components and object editing components may be defined for objects in general.
Different patterns may be combined to build a floor plan. The floor plan may define the positioning of different patterns within a user interface. Using a floor plan, different applications may present their underlying data within a user interface, which may have the same look-and-feel according to the patterns. Different applications and functions with different types of data may use one floor plan. The floor plan may define where data is displayed and how data may be manipulated, even if the type of data may be different. The different data may, for example, be account management data, acquisition data, sales data, product data, analytics data, or any other business or non-business related data.
A pattern based user interface may provide a general structure of positioning and sizing of components within a display.
A pattern based user interface may be intuitive and easy to learn, as it may utilize the same patterns for navigation and layout on any screen within an application, as well as within different applications. Development of new screens of sub-applications within an application may become easier, as the pre-defined elements and patterns of the floor plan of the pattern based user interface may be used by the developers for new screens.
A pattern based user interface may be divided into different frames or windows. Each frame or window may represent one particular piece of information. Within each frame, one particular pattern may be used. The arrangement of the frames or windows may obey the floor plan of the PBUI. The look-and-feel of the frames and windows, however, may be always the same, as the same pattern may be used, independently of the application or sub-application.
The use of a pattern based user interface may have several advantages, including increased usability, simplicity, and uniformity across multiple applications, as well as within one single application. A user might not need to learn the navigation of a new user interface with each application.
However, a pattern based user interface may as well be rigid and inflexible, with respect to positioning of objects, thus limiting not only the user's choice and the programmers' ability to develop new functionality within the context of available patterns of a pattern based user interface. In general, a pattern based user interface does not permit freestyle programming, such that it may be impossible to design a frame or window according to actual needs. It is not possible to use programming languages, such as hypertext markup language (HTML) or any other programming language, allowing positioning of objects freely within a frame. The use of patterns limits the user's choices. This may reduce the frequency and types of user-introduced data errors made when the user selects by mistake the wrong option or functionality or enters the wrong data without a noticing the mistake.

Non-pattern based user interface in pattern based environment


A hot melt ink composition for use in continuous ink jet printing comprising an electrolyte, an electrolyte-solvating and dissociating compound and an image-forming agent, said ink being solid at about 25.degree. C., said ink liquefying at a temperature between 75.degree. C. and 175.degree. C., and said ink in the liquid stage having a conductivity of greater than about 100 microsiemens/cm.

In continuous ink-jet printing, ink is emitted in a continuous stream under pressure through at least one nozzle. The stream is perturbed, causing it to break up into droplets at a fixed distance from the nozzle. At the break-up point, the droplets are charged in accordance with digital data signals and passed through an electrostatic field which adjusts the trajectory of each droplet in order to direct it to a gutter for recirculation or a specific location on a recording medium. Therefore, for an ink to be useful in continuous ink-jet printing, it must be able to sustain an electric charge, and must have a viscosity sufficiently low to allow ink flow through the nozzle.
Typically, the inks used for continuous ink-jet printing are liquid at room temperature. Liquid inks present various difficulties: for example, they respond differently depending upon the type of printing media used. The use of liquid ink on office papers will produce a feathered appearance because the ink penetrates and spreads into the paper following fiber lines. Liquid inks that are designed for minimum feathering still require time to set, which may limit the rate that printed pages are stacked.
The print quality usually depends on the type of paper used, which also has an effect on the drying time and on waterfastness. Although water-borne inks have been widely used, they exhibit poor waterfastness. Also, in order to prevent the ink from drying in the jet, high concentrations of humectant such as diethylene glycol have been used. This also leads to a long drying (set) time for the print on the medium and poor print quality.
Liquid inks without curable additives typically are not useful on nonporous surfaces, such and metal, glass, or plastic, because they are too prone to smearing. Further, liquid inks are very sensitive to temperature changes which influence the ink viscosity and interfacial tension, which, in turn, influence the ink interaction with the medium.
It is clear from the foregoing that major problems with liquid ink-jet inks are (1) media dependent quality, (2) poor reliability, (3) poor waterfastness, and (4) a long drying (set) time for the printed ink.
One method of solving several of the abovementioned problems is to use what is termed a hot melt ink. This ink is normally solid at room temperature. When the ink is heated, it melts to form a low viscosity fluid which can be ejected as droplets.
Hot melt ink was originally used by Berry et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 3,653,932) in electrostatically controlled continuous ink-jet printing. The ink was comprised of a waxy component which is solid at room temperature. The term "hot melt ink" defines an ink that is in a solid phase at room temperature and in a fluid phase at the operating temperature.
Hot melt inks normally comprise vehicles, such as natural waxes, resins and/or long chain fatty acids, esters, or alcohols which melt when the ink is heated to jetting temperatures. Upon jetting, heated droplets impact the print medium and immediately freeze on the medium surface. This phenomenon is advantageous in several respects in that dark, sharply defined print may be produced. This print may be slightly raised, suggesting that the print is engraved. Since the ink is solid at room temperature, during storage and shipment the colorant systems have less tendency to separate out of the ink. This has facilitated the use of various colorant systems, such as certain pigment-based systems, which would not have normally been used in liquid inks.
Despite the aforementioned advantages of hot melt inks, they have been used only sparingly to date in continuous ink-jet printing. The low molecular weight waxes and polymers typically present in hot melt inks have low polarity and show very poor solvating ability towards ionic polar material used as electrolytes in continuous ink-jet printing. To sustain the electric charge required for continuous ink-jet printing, the electrolyte ions must dissociate in the ink composition, thereby allowing ionic separation upon application of an external electric field.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,956 relates to the use of hot melt inks for use in drop-on-demand printing operations, although the patent contains a statement that the inks can also be used in continuous ink-jet printing. However, the ink compositions disclosed therein do not have sufficient conductivity to be usable in continuous ink-jet printing.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,653,932, which was mentioned above, discloses a hot melt ink composition comprising one or two di-esters of sebacic acid which have been esterified with alcohols of paraffins having 12 or less carbon atoms in their chains. However the resistivity of these compositions is too high for electrical charging in continuous ink jet printing.
Japanese Patent Sho 55(1980)-54368 discloses the use of resistivity control agents, such as inorganic salts, water-soluble amines, metal soaps, and metal thiocyanates. However, these ink compositions have unacceptably high volatilities at printing temperatures.
Inks containing aromatic sulfonamides have also been suggested in the art. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,878,946. These inks also have unacceptably high volatilities at printing temperatures. Moreover, the acidic nature of aromatic sulfonamides accelerates corrosion of printhead components.
Therefore, to date there has been no hot melt ink for continuous ink-jet printing which has good conductivity, low volatility, low resistance, and acceptable viscosity.

Hot melt inks for continuous jet printing


In a plain bearing for a steering spindle of a steering column for a motor vehicle having an inner ring for receiving and slidingly mounting the steering spindle, the inner ring is surrounded by an outer ring, and elastic intermediate pieces are arranged between the inner ring and the outer ring . A respective elastic intermediate piece holds the inner ring at the location of the intermediate piece at a spacing from the outer ring in relation to the radial direction in the unloaded state of the plain bearing and can be compressed in the case of a force which acts on the inner ring and is directed outwards in the radial direction, the inner ring bearing against the outer ring if a limiting value of the radial force is exceeded.

Adjustable-length steering columns are known, in which the casing unit which rotatably mounts a shaft of the steering spindle, which shaft supports the steering wheel, can be adjusted in the longitudinal direction of the steering spindle. Here, in one advantageous embodiment, the steering spindle has two shafts which can be telescoped with respect to one another, the rear shaft (in relation to the driving direction) which adjoins the steering wheel being mounted rotatably with respect to the casing unit via first and second anti-friction bearings and being held non-displaceably in the axial direction. The front shaft which can be telescoped with respect to the rear shaft is mounted rotatably by means of a third bearing which is formed by a plain bearing with respect to a housing part of the steering column, which housing part is non-displaceable in the axial direction of the steering shaft. Here, said plain bearing supports the lower shaft against axial displacement with respect to the housing part which mounts it.
In a steering column of this type, in which the rear shaft is mounted in the casing unit by way of two bearings, the arrangement of a third bearing leads to redundancy which leads to a technically satisfactory result only by way of narrow tolerance requirements. Here, in order for it to be possible to compensate for knocking of the shaft, which knocking is caused by tolerances of the shaft and its mounting via the first and second bearing, the third bearing is conventionally configured as a swinging bearing. The swinging bearing is arranged in a bearing housing which surrounds it, forms the interface between the swinging bearing and that part of the steering column which holds the third bearing, and serves to compensate for tolerances. In order to provide overload protection for the third bearing, a steel disc is arranged on the shaft axially next to the third bearing. High forces which act on the third bearing in the radial direction are produced, for example, during the slipping coupling test for the latching star which is usually positioned directly next to the third bearing. Said latching star serves, together with a latching pin which engages into it, to form a steering wheel lock. If the steering wheel is rotated with a high force in the closed state of the steering wheel lock, the latching star has to be capable of slipping on the shaft.
One disadvantage of the described conventional configuration of the plain bearing is its multiple-piece construction (swinging bearing, bearing housing, steel disc) with the associated costs and the resulting weight of the arrangement.
EP 0 836 980 B1 has disclosed a plain bearing for rotatably mounting a shaft of a steering spindle, which plain bearing comprises a sleeve and a holder. The sleeve has a cylindrical section and, protruding axially from the latter, a plurality of projections which are separated by way of slots and the axial end sections of which form the bearing face on their inner sides. On their outer sides which lie opposite, the projections have latching lugs. The holder is snapped via the latching lugs onto the projections and has a planar section which lies at a right angle with respect to the longitudinal axis and oblique holding tongues which project radially to the outside beyond the planar section of the holder. Said holding tongues block a movement of the bearing with respect to the housing part which receives the bearing in the axial direction.


An amplifier arrangement for amplifying an input signal to an output signal for delivering to a load is disclosed. The amplifier arrangement comprises a power splitter configured to receive the input signal and produce split input signals. The amplifier arrangement further comprises a first amplifier branch comprising multiple main amplifier circuits. Output signals of the multiple main amplifier circuits are combined to generate a first output signal. The amplifier arrangement further comprises a second amplifier branch comprising at least one auxiliary amplifier circuit. The at least one auxiliary amplifier circuit is configured to receive a split input signal from the power splitter and produce a second output signal. The amplifier arrangement further comprises a power combiner configured to receive the first and second output signals and produce the output signal for delivering to the load.

In a wireless communication system, a transmitter employs power amplifiers (PA) to boost radio frequency (RF) signal power for transmission. A PA is expected to amplify input signals linearly and generate output signals with larger power but with identical characteristics to the input signals. However, in reality, PAs can never be made perfectly linear due to intrinsic nonlinearity of active devices e.g. transistors in PAs. Consequently, in reality, a PA, when amplifying signals, also generates distortion signals. Distortion signals within the signal bandwidth can cause communication data errors, whereas distortion signals outside the signal bandwidth causes interference to other radio users. Therefore, distortion signals generated from PAs has to be reduced, both for the sake of communication quality and for the compliance with specifications and regulations.
Various techniques exist to construct PAs with inherent linearity, such as Class-A bias, power back-off, harmonic manipulation or injection, and derivative superposition (DS). Particularly, a PA based on DS principle is made from multiple transistor cells in parallel but of different size and biased differently. As a result, although each transistor cell outputs non-linear current, their summation can be made more linear. The DS principle is described in V. Aparin and L. E. Larson, "Modified derivative superposition method for linearizing FET low-noise amplifiers," IEEE Transactions on Microwave Theory and Techniques, vol. 53, no. 2, pp. 571-581, February 2005.
Despite these possibilities to make inherently linear PAs, none of these techniques are widely used because of their low efficiency at back-off power levels, usually referred as back-off efficiency or average-power efficiency. Modern communication signals have a large peak-to-average power ratio (PAR). To enhance the average-power efficiency without compromising peak power capability, dedicated PA architectures are required, such as envelope tracking (ET), envelope elimination and restoration (EER), Chireix, also known as outphasing or Linear amplification using Nonlinear Components (LINC) and Doherty. Among these architectures, the one that is most widely used and almost universally applied in wireless infrastructures is the Doherty Power Amplifiers (DPA).
A DPA comprises of at least 2 PA branches, namely the main and the auxiliary branch. In operation, the auxiliary PA modulates the effective load impedance of the main PA in a specific pattern, hereafter referred to as Doherty load modulation, such that total efficiency is improved also at the average or back-off power level.
Doherty load modulation can be extended to more than one auxiliary PA branches, yielding either multi-way or multi-stage DPAs. The multiple auxiliary branches may have different biases. These biases can be optimally chosen to trade off efficiency for improved inherent linearity, according to the DS principle. One example of such practice is described in Yong-Sub Lee, etc., "Linearity-optimized power tracking GaN HEMT Doherty amplifier using derivative superposition technique for repeater systems", Microwave Symposium Digest, 2008 IEEE MTT-S International, Atlanta, Ga., 2008, pp. 427-430.
Since in practice, few DPAs have sufficient inherent linearity to comply with modern wireless communication regulations, various linearization techniques have to be applied to linearize DPAs, such as feedforward, feedback, cross-cancellation and pre-distortion. Among these techniques, the ones that are most widely adopted in radio base stations (RBS) are feedforward and digital pre-distortion (DPD).
In the current research for the 5th generation mobile communication networks (5G), one of the most important technologies is the use of antenna arrays, or multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) antennas, with digital beamforming in RBS. For the same output-power capacity, this technology divides a conventional high-power PA into hundreds of low-power ones. This massively parallel architecture brings unprecedented challenge to RF PAs with respect to efficiency and linearity.
Computation complexity of DPD does not scale down with PA power. In other words, the same power consumption of DPD may be negligible for a high power PA but may be prohibitively large for a low power PA. Consequently, the most widely used solution, i.e. the combination of complicated DPD and conventional DPA, may not be suitable to 5G digital MIMO system due to prohibitive thermal and both manufacturing and operating cost reasons. Alternative linearization techniques have their own drawbacks. For example, the critical disadvantage of feedback is the trade-off between bandwidth and stability. Cross-cancelation can only achieve a limited linearity improvement at the cost of both gain and efficiency. Feedforward also suffers from efficiency degradation due to its deeply backed-off "error amplifier" and the waste of output power in its cancellation coupler.
If a stand-alone PA is used without aforementioned linearization techniques, it faces an unavoidable compromise between average-power efficiency and linearity. On one hand, a DPA can be very efficient for high PAR signals, but not sufficient in its inherent linearity. On the other hand, inherently linear PAs, such as a Class-A PA in deep power back-off, are very inefficient for modern high PAR signals. In a compromised territory between the two extremes, optimal biasing of either multi-way or multi-stage DPA using the DS technique, e.g. above mentioned solution described by Yong-Sub Lee etc., is an intentional trade-off between inherent linearity and back-off efficiency. Either inherent linearity or back-off efficiency may be optimized, but they cannot both be optimized simultaneously.


An adjustable wreath hanger, preferably made of molded plastic, is disclosed herein that preferably comprises a hanger strip attachable to the top of a door or other object and a hook strip that slidably engages the hanger strip to permit selective variation of the distance between a rearwardly facing door hook and a forwardly facing wreath hook. The hanger strip preferably comprises a plurality of forwardly facing detent members into which a tooth projecting rearwardly from an engagement tab on the hook strip can be selectively engaged or disengaged to vary the relative positions of the two strips, thereby effectively elongating the length of the wreath hanger.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a molded plastic article that is useful for supporting an object such as a decorative wreath or garland against the front surface of a door, over a cemetery headstone, or the like. More particularly, the invention relates to a molded plastic wreath hanger having a rearwardly facing "over-the-door" hook and also having a forwardly facing wreath-support hook, with the distance between the two hooks being selectively adjustable by the user.
2. Description of Related Art
Molded plastic wreath hangers are previously known, having been disclosed, for example, in U.S. Des. 365,015. Because the preferred distance from the top of the door to the forwardly facing support hook on the face of a door can vary according to factors such as the height of the door, size of the wreath, etc., molded plastic wreath hangers made so as to permit selective adjustment of that distance by the user are desirable. In the past, some manufacturers addressed this need by producing molded hangers of different lengths. More recently, U.S. Pat. No. 5,553,823 and U.S. Des. 374,168 disclosed wreath hangers having extension members of predetermined lengths that can be inserted by the user between the "over-the-door" hook and the forwardly facing hook to vary the overall length of the hanger. Unfortunately, such hangers limit the degree of adjustability according to the predetermined lengths of the extension members. U.S. Pat. No. 5,413,297 discloses a wreath hanger having a bracket having a locking nub that is used in combination with a separate hook arm, but that structure is not seen to be adjustable to vary the vertical separation between the top of the door and the hook.
A wreath hanger is therefore needed that is easily and selectively adjustable by the user to position the forwardly facing hook member of a wreath hanger a desired distance below the top of a door from which it hangs.


A method of manufacturing an integrated circuit (IC) utilizes a shallow trench isolation (STI) technique. The shallow trench isolation technique is used in strained silicon (SMOS) process. The liner for the trench is formed from a semiconductor or metal layer which is formed in a selective epitaxial growth (SEG) process. The SEG process can be a CVD or MBE process. Capping layers can be used above the strained silicon layer.

Integrated circuits (ICs) include a multitude of transistors formed on a semiconductor substrate. Various methods of forming transistors on a semiconductor substrate are known in the art. Generally, transistors are isolated from each other by insulating or isolation structures.
One method of forming insulating structures and defining source and drain regions is by utilizing a shallow trench isolation (STI) process. A conventional STI process typically includes the following simplified steps. First, a silicon nitride layer is thermally grown or deposited onto the silicon substrate. Next, using a lithography and etch process, the silicon nitride layer is selectively removed to produce a pattern where transistor source/drain areas are to be located. After patterning the source/drain areas, the substrate is etched to form trenches. After the trenches are formed, a liner oxide is thermally grown on the exposed surfaces of the trench. The liner oxide is typically formed at a very high temperature in a hydrochloric acid (HCI) ambient. An insulative material such as silicon dioxide (SiO2) is blanket deposited over the nitride layer and the liner oxide within the trench. The insulative material is polished to create a planar surface. The nitride layer is subsequently removed to leave the oxide structures within the trenches.
Shallow trench isolation (STI) structures are utilized in strained silicon (SMOS) processes. SMOS processes are utilized to increase transistor (MOSFET) performance by increasing the carrier mobility of silicon, thereby reducing resistance and power consumption and increasing drive current, frequency response, and operating speed. Strained silicon is typically formed by growing a layer of silicon on a silicon germanium substrate or layer.
Theoretical calculations indicate that strained silicon layers in biaxial tension should exhibit higher electron and hole mobilities than do bulk silicon layers. It has been theoretically and experimentally demonstrated that mobilities are enhanced when the silicon layer is grown pseudomorphically on relaxed silicon germanium, which has a larger in-plane lattice constant than bulk silicon. Enhanced performance is demonstrated in SMOS transistors with channel regions formed by strained silicon on relaxed silicon germanium as discussed in "Strained Dependence of the Performance Enhancement in Strained-Si n-MOSFETS", J. Welser, et al., IEDM'94, p. 373, 1994 and "Enhanced Hole Mobilities in Surface-Channel Strained-Si p-MOSFETS", K. Rim, et al., IEDM'95, p. 517, 1995.
The silicon germanium lattice associated with the silicon germanium substrate is generally more widely spaced than a pure silicon lattice, with spacing becoming wider with a higher percentage of germanium. Because the silicon lattice aligns with the larger silicon germanium lattice, a tensile strain is created in the silicon layer. The silicon atoms are essentially pulled apart from one another.
Relaxed silicon has a conductive band that contains six equal valence bands. The application of tensile strain to the silicon causes four of the valence bands to increase in energy and two of the valence bands to decrease in energy. As a result of quantum effects, electrons effectively weigh 30 percent less when passing through the lower energy bands. Thus, the lower energy bands offer less resistance to electron flow. In addition, electrons meet with less vibrational energy from the nucleus of the silicon atom, which causes them to scatter at a rate of 500 to 1000 times less than in relaxed silicon. As a result, carrier mobility is dramatically increased in strained silicon compared to relaxed silicon, providing an increase in mobility of 80% or more for electrons and 20% or more for holes. The increase in mobility has been found to persist for current fields up to 1.5 megavolts/centimeter. These factors are believed to enable a device speed increase of 35% without further reduction of device size, or a 25% reduction in power consumption without a reduction in performance.
STI structures are the state-of-the-art isolation structures that have been widely applied to very large scale integrated (VLSI) and ultra large scale (ULSI) integrated circuits. One problem associated with STI structures involves the formation of sharp corners at the top of the trenches, which can result in transistor leakage currents and degraded gate oxide integrity. To avoid these problems, semiconductor fabrication techniques have been used to round the corners of such trenches to increase the radius of curvature and thereby decrease the electric field at the corners of the trenches.
Conventional processes have rounded the corners of the trenches by oxidizing the entire inner surface of the newly formed trench (e.g., by forming an oxide liner before filling the trench). Generally, the exposed corners of the silicon layer associated with the trenches oxidize faster than a flat surface in the silicon layer, thus forming a rounded upper corner at the top of the trench. This oxidation process is referred to as a liner oxidation process.
Using liner oxidation to achieve corner rounding in strained silicon devices can result in additional problems due to the presence of the silicon germanium layer under the active (strained) silicon layer. In silicon/silicon germanium devices, the shallow trench is etched through the silicon layer (approximately 200 Å) into the silicon germanium layer to achieve a total trench depth of between approximately 2,000–4,000 Å. When the exposed portion of the silicon germanium on the sidewalls of the newly formed trench is oxidized during the process of rounding the corners, the presence of germanium dramatically increases the oxidation rate relative to bulk silicon, thereby resulting in a non-uniform oxide thickness between the silicon layer and the silicon germanium layer.
Another problem related to liner oxidation in SMOS devices is germanium build-up. The build-up of germanium essentially forms a high concentration germanium layer along the side walls and bottom of the trenches between the liner oxide and the silicon germanium layer. The high concentration germanium layer can change the electrical characteristics of the STI structure. One change in electrical characteristics can be a higher junction leakage.
The use of germanium in SMOS processes can also cause germanium contamination problems for IC structures, layers, and equipment. In particular, germanium outgassing or outdiffusion can contaminate various components associated with the fabrication equipment and integrated circuit structures associating with the processed wafer. Further, germanium outgassing can negatively impact the formation of thin films.
Germanium outgassing can be particularly problematic at the very high temperatures and HCI ambient environments associated with the liner of a shallow trench isolation (STI) structure. For example, conventional STI liner oxide processes can utilize temperatures of approximately 1000° C., which act to enhance germanium outgassing.
Thus, there is a need for an STI structure with a liner that does not have a non-uniform thickness between the silicon and the silicon germanium layers. Further still, there is a need for a process of forming high quality oxides with good compatibility and that are not susceptible to germanium outgassing. Further still, there is a need for an efficient SMOS trench liner formation process. Yet further, there is a need for a liner formation process that is not as susceptible to a high concentration of germanium between the silicon dioxide liner and the silicon germanium layer. Further still, there is a need for an STI process that does not utilize high temperature to thermally grow liners.

Silicon buffered shallow trench isolation


A system for supplying molten thermoplastic material to a dispenser comprises a hopper for storing the thermoplastic material. A heating grid is associated with the hopper for heating and melting the thermoplastic material. A reservoir block receives melted material from the grid. The reservoir block includes a reservoir into which the melted material flows from the grid. A manifold and pump assembly is connected to the reservoir block for receiving material from the manifold block and pumping the material to a dispenser. A valve and filter assembly is mounted in the reservoir block. The valve and filter assembly includes a valve member capable of moving between an open position and a closed position for blocking the flow the material through the reservoir block, and includes a filter member for filtering material, the filter being removable to clean the filter.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to apparatus for melting and supplying thermoplastic materials to a dispensing system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Thermoplastic materials or so-called "hot melt" materials have been used for many years for various purposes, including as adhesives in the manufacturing of products such as disposable diapers and in the manufacturing of packaging. Historically, the thermoplastic material was converted from a solid to a molten state in a tank having heated walls. The melted material was maintained in the molten state in the tank in sufficient volume to supply one or more applicators or dispensers. If the job or application required a substantial volume of hot melt material, a substantially large volume of material was required to be maintained in the molten or melted state, necessitating a long warm up or start up time for the apparatus, as well as prolonged exposure of at least some of the molten material to heat and/or to oxygen.
To avoid these problems, so-called grid-type hot melt supply systems were developed in which the solid thermoplastic material was stored in a hopper and melted upon the top of a heated grid located at the bottom of the hopper. The melted material then passed through holes in the grid into a relatively small holding reservoir from which the molten material was supplied by a pump beneath the reservoir to a dispenser. Grid-type supply systems have been capable of melting and supplying thermoplastic material at a very high rate, and the molten material is not maintained in a molten state for prolonged periods of time to char, oxidize, or otherwise degrade. A typical grid type hot melt supply system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,946,645.
These grid-type hot melt supply systems have typically comprised a reservoir with a heated grid mounted on top of the reservoir. A hopper for receiving the solid thermoplastic material was mounted atop the heated grid. Mounted beneath the reservoir was at least one pump for pumping the molten thermoplastic material through one or more supply hoses which were connected to the pump. A flow passage was provided from the reservoir outlet to the pump inlet.
One problem with these hot melt supply systems has been that, in use, various extraneous objects or impurities could enter the hopper. Larger objects and impurities were prevented from passing through the openings in the grid, but smaller objects could pass through the grid and eventually reach the pump, resulting in periodic failure or clogging of the pump. If the pump failed or became clogged, it had to be removed and repaired or replaced.
To avoid draining the system of the thermoplastic material if the pump needed to be removed, a manually operated gate-type valve was sometimes located in the molten thermoplastic flow path between the reservoir outlet and the pump. An example of such a valve is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,066. This valve made it possible stop the flow of molten thermoplastic material to the pump whenever the pump needed to be removed, and the pump could then be removed without the necessity of first draining the entire reservoir of molten thermoplastic material. Another example of a flow shutoff valve that could be used to shut off the flow of material to the pump is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,667,850. Removal of the pump has still been difficult because the motor for driving the pump had to be disconnected from the pump in the course of removing the pump from the system, and to facilitate quick disconnection of the driving motor from the pump, U.S. Pat. No. 4,666,066 also discloses the provision of a motor mount to enable the pump to be more quickly removed from the system.
Although the presence of the gate-type valve and the quick disconnection of the pump motor make it easier to remove the pump to change or to repair the pump, servicing the pump should be performed as infrequently as possible, since it requires that the system be shutdown, and system shutdown should be avoided, since it allows the material in the hopper and the reservoir to solidify. After the material solidifies, it must thereafter be remelted, resulting in loss of system efficiency and capability. The removal and replacement of the pump still results in long downtimes of the supply system, and substantial quantities of wasted thermoplastic material.
Pump servicing can be reduced by providing a filter in the material flow path between the reservoir and the pump, but such a filter must be periodically removed for cleaning, and the flow path should be closed when the filter is removed to prevent the inadvertent leakage of molten thermoplastic material from the flow path.

Shutoff valve and filter in thermoplastic material supply system


In certain aspects, the present disclosure provides methods and materials for the treatment of cancer. In accordance with some forms, the disclosure provides methods for the treatment of cancer which include inhibition of ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase.

About 22,440 new cases of ovarian cancer are diagnosed each year in the United States. It is estimated that about 69% of ovarian cancer patients will succumb to the disease. High-grade serous ovarian cancer (HGSOC) is the most lethal and prevalent histotype of ovarian cancer accounting for 70-80% of ovarian cancer deaths. Extensive metastasis and subsequent development of chemo-resistant tumors greatly contributes to the high-mortality rate of HGSOC patients and yet our understanding of the process remains limited.
About 96% of HGSOC patients carry a gain of function mutation in the p53 gene, also known as p53 or the tumor protein. p53 codes for a protein that regulates the cell cycle and hence aides in tumor suppression. p53 proteins have three major functions: growth arrest, DNA repair, and apoptosis. Gain of function p53 mutations are known to orchestrate a distinct pro-tumorigenic signaling network which contributes to extensive metastasis and subsequent development of chemo-resistant tumors. Knowledge of common mechanisms or mediators of oncogenic signaling among different p53 mutants (pan-mutant p53 effect) are critical for better understanding of recurrent disease and identifying novel therapeutic targets. So far there is no drug to limit gain of function mutant p53 oncogenic activity, which contributes to HGSOC metastasis and chemo-resistance.
Ubiquitin carboxyl-terminal hydrolase 1 (UCHL1) is a deubiquitinating enzyme (DUB) from ubiquitin proteasome system (UPS), the major cellular machinery that regulates protein homeostasis. The UPS is responsible for intracellular protein degradation and regulation of many key biological processes, such as transcription regulation, cell cycle control, DNA repair, regulation of cellular signaling, and cell differentiation. UCHL1 is primarily a neuronal and brain protein, which is not widely expressed in normal human tissues. However, UCHL1 is a differentially expressed gene in various cancers, and has been proposed to have oncogenic and/or tumor suppressive properties in various forms of cancer. For example: in breast cancer it is reported as both tumor suppressor and oncogene. This suggests that is role in cancer is not dependent on cellular context. Prior to the present disclosure the role of UCHL1 in high-grade serous ovarian cancer was unknown. Further, high grade serous ovarian cancer lacks novel inhibitors or adjuvants therapies. Thus, there is an urgent and critical need to develop greater understanding of HGSOC mechanisms and novel mediators, which can eventually be translated into novel therapies.

Inhibition of UCHL1 in high-grade serous ovarian cancer


A switching assembly for performing impulse measurement testing on each of a plurality of transformer terminals includes a first plurality of single pole, double throw switches and a switch controller for each switch. Each switch has a first position that connects a respective transformer terminal to one of a ground and a shunt and a second position that connects the terminal to an impulse generator. Preferably, the switch controllers are co-located to enable a user to change the position of any one of the switches from a central position.

The invention relates to an apparatus and method for transformer testing and more particularly to an apparatus and method for impulse measurement testing of transformer terminals.
Impulse measurement is a common testing practice in the manufacture of electrical transformers. Impulse measurement simulates lightning strikes and other events that cause transients to appear in electrical circuitry. Impulse measurement testing is performed on transformers to monitor the effects of transients and to insure the insulation capabilities of the dielectric material in the transformer. Impulse measurement testing requires that each individual terminal of a transformer be xe2x80x98hitxe2x80x99 with impulses of varying degree to determine whether that particular terminal is in proper working order and ready for shipment to the consumer.
Impulse measurement testing is done by connecting one of the transformer terminals to an impulse generator and the remaining terminals to either a shunt to ground or directly to ground. Then, an impulse is sent through the terminal and proper measurements are taken to determine if the terminal met the test criteria. The impulse generator is then moved to another terminal and the previously tested terminal is connected to either a grounded shunt or ground with the remaining terminals. An impulse is then sent to the second terminal and measurements are again taken for that terminal. This process is repeated until all terminals are tested.
The terminals that are not being tested can be connected either directly to ground or through a resistive shunt to ground (grounded shunt). The nature of the tested terminal determines which terminals are connected to the grounded shunt or directly to ground. If the tested terminal is a high voltage terminal, then the remaining high voltage terminals are connected to ground through the resistive shunt and all of the low voltage terminals are grounded directly. If the tested terminal is a low voltage terminal, then the remaining low voltage terminals are connected to through the resistive shunt to ground and all the high voltage terminals are grounded directly.
Impulse measurement testing takes about 6-8 hours to complete. There are several reasons why impulse measurement testing is so time consuming. One reason is that testers are required to manually connect and reconnect equipment between terminals. On large transformers, due to the size, testers must walk up and down a flight of stairs or a ladder to connect and reconnect the terminals. The connecting and reconnecting process consumes about 80% of the testing time. Therefore, a decrease in the connecting/reconnecting time would significantly reduce the overall testing time.
Another reason is the device used to test the medium or large transformers is also large and can not be easily handled by one person, thus requiring multiple manhours at a time to complete.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for a device and/or process that reduces testing time by overcoming the aforementioned disadvantages. The present invention satisfies all these needs.
The present invention is directed to a switching assembly and related process that satisfies the need of reducing switching time during impulse measurement testing to decrease the overall cycle time of a transformer. Reduced switching time is achieved because the assembly can be assembled and disassembled by one person, it can be broken down into various units that are easily carried by one person, and all switching can be done from a central point.
According to the present invention, a switch assembly for performing impulse testing on each of a plurality of terminals of a transformer comprises a plurality of single pole, double throw switches and a switch controller for each switch. Each switch has a first position that connects a respective transformer terminal to one of a ground and a shunt and a second position that connects the terminal to an impulse generator. Preferably, the switch controllers are co-located to enable a user to change the position of any one of the switches from a central position.

High voltage switch and switching process for impulse measurement


A method and system for detecting T-wave alternans for use in an implanted medical device uses wave transformation of QT intervals to obtain a reliable measure of TWA. In one embodiment, an array provides alternating sign multiplication factors which are applied respectively to n consecutive QT values. Each successive QT value is high pass filtered and moved sequentially through a queue so that each cycle each of the n QT values is multiplied by one of the factors; the products are summed and made absolute to provide an alternans match value. The alternans match is compared with a noise threshold signal, and alternans is declared when the match exceeds the threshold by a predetermined amount. The array is programmable and can be varied, providing a high degree of flexibility to optimize the test for the patient.

It has become well known that T-wave alternans has predictive value for arrhythmic events such as tachyarrhythmias. T-wave alternans has been determined to be an indicator of various forms of disordered ventricular repolarization, including disorders found in patients with cardiomyopathy, mild to moderate heart failure, and congestive heart failure. The following literature references deal with the subject of T-wave alternans as a predictor: Klingenheben T, Siedow A, Credner S C, Gronefeld, et al., T-Wave Alternans in microwave frequency as a new indicator of disordered ventricular repolarization: pathophysiology, methodology, clinical results, Z Kardiol, 1999, December, 88 (12), 974-81; Klingenheben T, Zabel M, D'Agostino R B, Cohen R J et al., Predictive value of T-Wave Alternans for arrhythmic events in patients with congestive heart failure, Lancet, 2000, Aug 19; 356(9230): 651-2; and Hennersdorf M G, Perings C, Niebch V, Vester E G, et. al., T-Wave Alternans as a risk predictor in patients with cardiomyopathy and mild-to-moderate heart failure, Pacing Clin Electrophysiol 2000 September; 23(9); 1386-91.
T-wave alternans (TWA) may be caused by changes in ion exchange during repolarization. If there is a change in the repolarization mechanism on one beat, the heart attempts to readjust on the following beat. This is manifested as an alternating change in the action potential. In the surface ECG this is seen primarily as an amplitude change. For an implanted medical device such as a cardiac pacemaker, the intracardiac electrogram (iecg) also shows a change in timing. Thus, the term T-wave as used herein may refer to a portion of the ventricular QRS-T-wave complex that includes the T-wave and the QRS-T segment. The alternating feature of TWA can be detected by examination, for example, of the QT interval, T-wave width, T-wave morphology, etc. Whatever the designated portion of the iecg, T-wave alternans refers to an alternating pattern of the wave that can be designated "A-B-A-B-A . . . " where A represents every other cycle and B represents every other alternate cycle. As discussed in the literature, when such an alternating pattern appears, the different rates or forms of repolarization of the ventricular cells are statistically associated with a variety abnormal cardiac conditions. Further, the alternating repolarization pattern can lead to increased instability and consequent cardiac arrhythmias. Thus, T-wave alternans is recognized as an indicator of risk for ventricular arrhythmia and even sudden cardiac death.
The prior art discloses several different methods and techniques for detecting T-wave alternans. TWA can be measured non-invasively by exercise-inducing an elevated heart rate in the patient and then measuring the surface ECG with special electrodes and computer analysis. Moreover, it has been disclosed that measurement of the TWA through the IECG obtained by an implanted medical device provides the capability of obtaining improved waveform data and analysis for detection of TWA. See U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/558,871, filed Apr. 28, 2000, "Implantable Medical Device and Method Using Integrated T-Wave Alternans Analyzer", Morris et al. This patent is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.


The present invention provides improved methods of sealing a string of pipe in a well bore. The methods basically include the steps of preparing a hardenable epoxy sealing composition which hardens into a solid mass having flexibility and resiliency comprising an epoxide containing liquid and a hardening agent, placing the epoxy composition in the annulus between the string of pipe and the walls of the well bore and allowing the epoxy resin to harden.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to improved methods of sealing pipe strings in well bores, and more particularly, to methods of sealing pipe strings in well bores with corrosion resistant highly resilient epoxy compositions.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Hydraulic cement compositions are commonly utilized as sealants in subterranean well construction and repair procedures. For example, hydraulic cement compositions are used in primary sealing operations whereby strings of pipe such as casing and liners are sealed in well bores. In performing primary cementing, a hydraulic cement composition is pumped into the annular space between the walls of the well bore and the exterior surfaces of pipe disposed therein. The cement composition is permitted to set in the annular space thereby forming an annular sheath of hardened substantially impermeable cement therein. The cement sheath supports and positions the pipe in the well bore and bonds the exterior surfaces of the pipe to the walls of the well bore whereby the undesirable migration of fluids between zones or formations penetrated by the well bore is prevented.
When conventional cement compositions are utilized for sealing pipe strings in well bores, they set into brittle solid masses. Consequently, the solid cement often does not have sufficient flexibility and resiliency to resist loss of pipe and/or formation bond, cracking or shattering as the result of pipe movements caused by expansion, contraction, impacts or shocks. The bond loss, cracking or shattering of the set cement allows leakage of formation fluids through at least portions of the well bore by way of the annulus therein which can be highly detrimental.
Hardenable epoxy resin compositions have heretofore been used for sealing pipe strings in well bores which penetrate subterranean zones containing corrosive fluids. For example, waste fluids such as salt water, acidic materials, caustic materials, organic materials, chemical by-product materials and the like are often disposed of by injecting them into disposal wells. Such disposal wells penetrate subterranean formations which accept large volumes of waste and are naturally separated from other subterranean formations. When a disposal well or other well where hydrocarbons are produced along with corrosive fluids is completed in the conventional manner whereby a string of steel pipe is cemented in the well bore utilizing a hydraulic cement slurry, both the cement and steel pipe are often subjected to severe corrosion. A result of such corrosion in disposal wells can be that the liquid waste materials leak into and contaminate formations containing useful fluids such as hydrocarbons or potable water. In other wells where hydrocarbons are produced with corrosive fluids, the corrosion can result in leakage of fluids between formations and/or to the surface.
In order to prevent the corrosion of metal pipe strings, it has heretofore been the practice to seal the pipe strings in well bores with a hardenable epoxy resin composition. Epoxy resin compositions are highly resistant to degradation by acids and other corrosive fluids and their use ensures that the corrosive fluids do not find their way to the surface or into subterranean locations containing useful recoverable fluids. However, like set cement compositions, hardened epoxy resin compositions have often lacked sufficient flexibility and resiliency to resist failure as a result of pipe movements.
Thus, there are needs for improved methods of sealing pipe strings in well bores whereby the sealant can withstand the effects of contact with corrosive fluids and/or pipe movements.

Methods of sealing pipe strings in well bores


Disclosed is an air turn for supporting and optionally drying a web, the air turn comprising a plurality of air bars having a wing type foil with an adjustable web-to-foil gap and multiple relief holes. The apparatus of the invention allows for the ability to control the air vortex off the lower air turn in an air turn array and to control the pressure between the web and foil, thereby eliminating web flutter.

In web printing and drying operations, it is often desirable that the web be contactlessly supported, in order to avoid damage to the web itself or to the coating (such as ink) previously applied to one or more surfaces of the web. One conventional arrangement for contactlessly supporting a web includes horizontal upper and lower sets of air bars between which the web travels. Hot air issuing from the air bars both dries and supports the web. Occasionally it becomes necessary to change the direction of web travel while maintaining the contactless environment. This can be accomplished using air turns, which are devices that support a flexible web on a cushion of air pressure as the web travels around a curved path. Air turns such as the Tecturn.RTM., commercially available from W. R. Grace & Co.-Conn., accomplishes web guidance without regard to any web drying function.
GB 2 126 974B (the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference) discloses a device for contactlessly supporting a moving web by guiding the same around a turn, whereby a substantial amount of web drying is also accomplished. To that end, the device disclosed includes a plurality of elongate air bars, each having opposite side walls, and a front wall that is located between the side walls and has opposite longitudinally extending edge portions which are spaced from the side walls to cooperate with them in defining a pair of air outlet slots, each extending along the length of the air bar, the edge portions of the front wall being curved widthwise towards the middle of the air bar so that each of the outlet slots comprises a Coanda type nozzle for directing pressurized air forwardly from the interior of the air bar and laterally across the from wall toward the other outlet slot. A plenum chamber communicates with a source of pressurized air, and is also in communication with the inside of each air bar. The air bars are arranged such that they lie substantially in a convex arc. Thus, such devices or combine the features of an air turn and a flotation dryer. The air bars making up the air turn support the web without contact on a cushion of air while the web follows a circular path and is simultaneously heated and dried. Air turns of this type are often combined with straight path flotation systems, or a plurality of such air turns can be used to create an "S" shaped web path. As shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,218,833 (the disclosure of which is hereby incorporated by reference), such air turns can be arranged with adjacent arrays inverted in relation to each other so as to support the traveling web in a circuitous path around such arrays.
An important aspect of any flotation system is the stability of the web as it passes over an air bar. Airflow instabilities near the web can induce web flutter and subsequent web contact with mechanical parts of the drying, resulting in coating disturbance or web damage. Web flutter can be manifested in a multitude of forms, ranging from a violent flapping of the web to a high frequency drumming.
Excessive web flutter has been encountered in air turn applications. Where a plurality of air turns are used together so that the web follows a sinusoidal path, web flutter has been encountered as the web leaves the lower air turn and before it reaches the upper air turn. It is believed that such web flutter may be due to distance between turns; the spent air from the lower turn influences the web to follow the turn diameter, while the upper turn pushes the web out to maintain web flotation. In particular, it is believed that the cause of the fluttering is related to the angle of the lower turn being greater than 90.degree.. The exhausted air from the turn face apparently exits upward with the web sheet and is peeling off away from the bottom of the web sheet face, causing vortices.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to minimize or eliminate web flutter in air turn applications.


A tool assembly includes an elongated metal tool body for forcibly inserting the end of an insulated wire into a telephone connector of the insulation displacing type, and having a separate and replaceable cutting blade removably attached to the tool body for cutting off the then protruding end of the insulated wire after electrically conductive engagememnt of the wire with the blades of the connector has been achieved.

In terminating telephone or high-speed data wires in a terminal block, an insulated end of each wire is forced into a insulation displacing type of connector that is mounted in and a part of a circuit board. A presently conventional tool system employs a hand piece to generate an impact force on a tool body, and the tool body in turn applies the same impact force to the end of the wire to force it into the connector. Forcing the wire into the connector also cuts the insulating cover of the wire, so that there is then an electrically conductive engagememnt of the wire with the connector blades. When the wire end is properly seated in the connector it is then also necessary to cut off a protruding end portion of the insulated wire.

Wire end insert tool with replaceable cutting blade


A diverter valve is provided for use in directing a flow of bulk material from a source to at least one receiver. Included in the present diverter valve is an inlet housing having an inlet port and partially defining a valve chamber, an outlet housing connected to the inlet housing, having at least one outlet port and defining an end of the valve chamber. A rotating disc is rotatably disposed in the chamber and constructed and arranged for selectively creating fluid communication between the inlet port and diverting the flow to a selected one of the at least one outlet port.

The present invention relates generally to devices for handling bulk materials, and more specifically to an improved diverter valve for use in directing flow from a source of such material to a selected receiving reservoir.
In bulk material handling installations, material is conveyed, through pressure differential, from a source such as a rail car, material hopper, storage bin or the like to a designated receiving reservoir or receptacle. One such bulk material is dry silica sand, however other materials are contemplated, including but not limited to grain, granular fertilizer, dry ingredients for cement and the like. Receiving reservoirs are well known in the art, and include but are not limited to storage bins, silos, rail cars, pipelines or other structures. Diverter valves are commonly employed for regulating and directing the flow to a selected type of receiving reservoirs. In most cases, diverter valves are operated under operator control, whether manually powered, or powered by electric, hydraulic or pneumatic motors.
In one type of conventional diverter valve, the valve housing includes an internal rotating component having a curved pipe that rotates as the desired reservoir is selected. A drawback of this type of valve is that inability to transfer between selected receiving reservoirs with material still present in the valve. Depending on the bulk product being handled, the material flow is also abrasive. Often, such valves cannot be actuated without purging the housing of bulk material to reduce the loading from the stored/entrapped bulk material. Another drawback of such valves is that inflatable seals are often used to control the escape of unwanted dust and debris. When the housing needs to be evacuated and the inflatable seals temporarily deflated, a common side effect is an escape of dust from the system.
Another conventional diverter valve employs a sliding disc diverter, which is a hardened, layover metal disc to periodically cover or block at least one non-selected port in the housing. An armature used for positioning the disc is positioned inside the valve housing, and is exposed to the abrasive flow of material, as well as to the loading generated by flowing material, requiring additional energy for rotating the disc. Still another drawback of such valves is that seals used to prevent unwanted escape of dust are directly exposed to the abrasive material flow, which causes them to deteriorate relatively rapidly, shortening their operational life.
Thus, there is a need for an improved diverter valve for use with bulk materials that addresses and overcomes the above-identified drawbacks of conventional devices.

Rotary disc type diverter valve for bulk material handling


A vehicle seat occupant detection device with an adjustable threshold is provided. The device includes a sensor, a spring, and an adjuster. The sensor is configured to indicate a first state when a seat is not occupied and a second state when the seat is occupied. The spring is configured to urge the sensor toward the first state. The adjuster is coupled to the spring. The adjuster is operable to vary a force threshold that the device transitions from the first state to the second state.

Vehicle seat occupant detectors such as those used in seat belt reminder systems may include one or more springs as part of a weight or force detection device. Such a device is often installed under a cushion of a seat assembly. Unfortunately, the variety of seat designs used in various vehicles may lead to undesirable part number proliferation. That is, many different final assemblies of the device may be necessary to meet various customer requirements, but the only difference from one assembly to the next is the spring rate of springs used in the device which determines the amount of weight or force necessary for the device to determine that a seat is occupied.
It has also been observed that the weight or force threshold at which an occupant detection device indicates that a seat is occupied may change over time due to, for example, breakdown/wear of the cushion and/or seat-cover. As such, it would be advantageous if a vehicle seat occupant detection device could be adjusted as part of a vehicle service process.

Vehicle seat occupant detection device with an adjustable threshold


To enhance the speed at which dynamic random access memories are refreshed, each sensing amplifier is provided with a clamping transistor. The clamping transistor is connected to a preselected voltage source. The clamping transistor prevents the voltage on the low-going bit line from falling to circuit ground by clamping the voltage on the low-going bit line to the preselected voltage.

1. Technical Field
This invention generally relates to dynamic memory devices, and, more particularly, this invention relates to a sense amplifier circuit for a dynamic random access memory formed as a single integrated circuit device.
2. Description of Related Art
Numerous dynamic random access memories (DRAMs) are known in the related art. Typically, DRAMs are manufactured using arrays of single-transistor memory cells. To achieve the best results, the single-transistor cells are fabricated as metal-oxide semiconductor field effect transistors (MOSFETs) on a single silicon substrate. Each MOSFET is connected to a small capacitance that stores an electric charge. Usually, a logical "1" is represented by the presence of a charge on the storage capacitance, and a logical "0" is represented by the lack of a charge on the storage capacitance.
Since the charge stored on the storage capacitance gradually leaks, information must be periodically rewritten before the charge leaks out completely. This operation is commonly referred to as "refreshing" the memory cells. The frequency at which the cells need to be refreshed depends on the rate of leakage of the MOSFET.
DRAMs include a plurality of bit lines that are used to sense or read information stored in the cells and to write information into the cells. The bit lines interconnect with respective word lines that are shared by all of the memory cells in each row. The MOSFETs are connected between the word lines and the storage capacitances to selectively provide access to the information stored by the capacitances. Thus, these MOSFETs are commonly referred to as access transistors. When a selected word line is enabled, the data from each memory cell in the selected row is coupled to the respective bit lines through the access transistors.
The bit lines are connected in pairs to a differential sense amplifier. Prior to the selection of a cell, the bit lines are brought to equal potentials, i.e., equilibrated, by n-channel MOSFET transistors. The gate of the equilibrate transistor is turned off, and, then, one of the pair of bit lines is coupled to a selected cell. The sense amplifier compares the charge on the cell's storage capacitance to the charge on the other bit line. The sense amplifier receives the differential voltage between the pair of bit lines, and amplifies the differential voltage to produce a signal representative of the logical state of the memory cell connected to the selected bit line. At the same time, the sense amplifier also refreshes the storage capacitance.
Conventionally, in DRAMs each sense amplifier pulls its respective bit line to circuit ground through one or two transistors. If two transistors are used, the first transistor to be turned on is small so that the sense amplifier begins to amplify slowly. Then, a second, larger transistor is turned on so that the sense amplifier amplifies quickly to discharge the bit line to ground. In addition, the gates of the unselected access transistors in the memory cells are normally at ground potential when turned off. Therefore, the resistance of the access transistors must be sufficiently high to ensure no leakage through the transistors to their associated bit lines which have been drawn to ground. The problem is that the threshold voltage that must be applied to the gates of the access transistors is quite high. Therefore, the time necessary for the gate voltage on the word lines to ramp from ground to the threshold voltage reduces the speed of the memory. Also, as memory cells decrease in size to increase the density of the memory, it becomes more difficult to keep the access transistors turned off due to the device physics of n-channel MOSFETS.

Improved device for sensing information store in a dynamic memory


A method for sequencing products on a retail shelf, or other objects, recognized in an image of the retail shelf includes detecting products in the received image and calculating a final sequence position for each detected product. The final sequence position is calculated by generating a region of interest for each detected product in the received image, generating a plurality of unique raster numbers for each region of interest using a raster number equation by varying parameters of the raster number equation based on pixel coordinates of each region of interest, determining a plurality of sequence positions for each region of interest using the plurality of unique raster numbers, and determining the final sequence position for each region of interest using the plurality of sequence positions for each region of interest. The disclosure also includes systems for implementing the method.

1. Field of the Art
The present specification generally relates to the field of object detection in image processing. More specifically, the present specification relates to a system and method for generating a sequence position for products recognized in an image of a retail shelf.
2. Description of the Related Art
In many instances it is valuable to use image recognition technology to recognize multiple objects captured over multiple images. For example, in a retail environment it is useful to know what the state of products is on the shelves or displays. For example, knowing whether products are stocked in the correct location or whether a product is out of stock. However, because of consumer activity products can be out of stock or moved to incorrect locations on the shelves or displays. While a human can move products to their correct locations, it is time consuming to record the position of all products. Therefore it is useful to automatically or semi-automatically obtain information about the state of products on the shelves or displays. One method for obtaining information about the state of products on shelves or displays is to use image recognition technology.
Existing public and/or proprietary image recognition algorithms do not arrange detection results in a logical order. The random order makes interpreting data or debugging a false image recognition results a difficult task, especially when the number of products identified in each image is in the order of hundreds.

Sequencing products recognized in a shelf image


Disclosed is a structure for mounting a component to a lighting device, including at least one lighting-device base, at least one metal film, and a lighting array chip. The lighting-device base has a surface to which a first layer of metal bonding agent is applied. The metal film has a surface attached to the first metal bonding agent layer on the surface of the lighting-device base. The lighting array chip has a bottom surface to which a second layer of metal bonding agent is applied. The second metal bonding agent layer is further attached to an opposite surface of the metal film so as to securely mount the lighting array chip to the surface of the lighting-device base. A mounting method is also provided, including the steps of applying a metal bonding agent to a surface of a lighting-device base; connecting the lighting-device base to a positive electrode of a power source; connecting a metal film to a negative electrode of the power source; applying a metal bonding agent to a lighting array chip; bonding the lighting array chip to the metal film; and hot-pressing to bond the lighting array chip to the lighting-device base, so that the lighting array chip is securely mounted to the surface of the lighting-device base by means of thermal fusion caused between the negative and positive polarities of the power source applied to the metal film and the lighting-device base.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a structure and a method for mounting a component of a lighting device, and in particular to a structure and a method that are applicable to a light-emitting diode (LED) lighting device and that mount a lighting array chip to a lighting-device base through electrical thermal fusion carried out on a metal film through connection with positive and negative electrodes of an external power source.
2. The Related Arts
Conventional light-emitting diode (LED) based lighting devices have been widely used in outdoor public lighting and indoor decoration for providing lighting with energy saving and environmental conversation. However, the conventional LED lighting device comprises an LED array chip that is first attached to internal parts of the lighting device through thermally conductive adhesive agent and then further fastened to thereby securely fix the LED array chip. Using thermally conductive adhesive agent to bond the LED array chip often leads to poor performance of heat transfer for the LED array chip, causing potential risk of damaging the LED array chip and optic loss. Thus, the reliability of the light source when the LED array chip is applied to a lighting device deteriorated.

Mounting structure of component of lighting device and method thereof


An image processing device includes a neutral edge detection and enhancement component which, for pixels of an input image, computes an edge strength for the pixel as a function of differences between the input luminance value of the pixel and input luminance values of neighboring pixels, computes a neutral adjustment factor for the pixel as a function of the input luminance value of the pixel, and computes a chroma adjustment factor for the pixel as a function of the input chrominance values of the pixel. An adjusted luminance value for the pixel is computed as a function of the input luminance value, the edge strength, and the neutral adjustment factor. Adjusted chrominance values for the pixel may be computed as a function of the input chrominance value, the edge strength, and the chroma adjustment factor. The system allows detection and enhancement of neutral edges in monochrome and color images.

The exemplary embodiment relates to image adjustment and finds particular application in connection with a system and method for adjustment of edges of achromatic characters and line drawings in scanned digital documents.
Digital image capture devices, such as scanners and cameras, capture images as an array of pixels, with each pixel being assigned a set of color values in a multi-dimensional color space, referred to herein as an input color space, such as an RGB (red, green, blue) color space. Processing images captured by such digital devices is generally performed in a multi-dimensional color space with a larger gamut, referred to herein as a processing color space, such as the CIE L*a*b* color space. The processed image may then be converted to a multi-dimensional output color space, suitable for rendering the processed image, such as CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Black), in the case of printing.
During image processing, various adjustments to the image may be made. These adjustments are often performed sequentially, and may include image resolution adjustments, color corrections, removal of undesirable artifacts, cropping, and background suppression. The final print quality of a color copy depends, in part, on the ability to reproduce and/or enhance text and line-art (such as vector graphics and hand-drawn illustrations).
Methods have been developed to detect and enhance edges of text characters so that these appear sharper. These include detecting sharp changes between substantially black pixels and neutral (substantially white) pixels and shifting the substantially black pixels to maximum black, e.g., by setting C, M, and Y components to zero and applying maximum K. This processing is performed in the device-dependent color space domain by modifying the 8 bpp CMYK image prior to being decimated to 1 bpp via error diffusion.
However existing threshold-based segmentation classification algorithms used to detect neutral color (achromatic) regions, whose color is substantially along the L* dimension, can cause artifacts in colored text and line-art. This can result in sub-par image quality, particularly in the case of documents containing mixed content (e.g., a combination of photos, halftones, gray text and line-art). Although image quality is a rather subjective measure, particularly in the case of edge effects, it can be assessed by processing a test pattern and evaluating how well the gray and black text in the test pattern is reproduced. In some cases, several different image processing techniques may be evaluated to select an optimum technique for reproducing a given image or set of images, which can be time consuming.
While more complex techniques, such as object-based detection and classification algorithms, can yield improvements in image quality, they are generally unsuited to processes requiring high-speed image throughput rates, such as high-speed printers. Further, the move to higher bit-depths for image rendering (e.g., 4, 8 or more bits per pixel (bpp)), makes edge correction more challenging, since slight pixel segmentation misclassification errors may reveal or accentuate undesirable rendering artifacts. Such artifacts may have otherwise been concealed when using 1 bpp bit-depths since print image quality deficiencies are generally suppressed or masked by decimating the CMYK output to a 1 bpp bit-depth via error diffusion or some other halftone rendering method.
There remains a need for a system and method for rapid processing of black and gray edges of text and line-art images to improve image quality, while minimizing abrupt switching artifacts that can occur through pixel misclassifications.

System and method for processing and enhancing achromatic characters of scanned digital documents