A lock apparatus of a seat for a vehicle includes a striker, a base including a first groove portion, a hook including a second groove portion and pivoting between a lock position and an unlock position, a pawl restraining a pivotal movement of the hook towards the unlock position while allowing the pivotal movement of the hook towards the lock position, a cam member including a cam profile for allowing the pivotal movement of the hook towards the lock position and for restraining the pivotal movement of the hook towards the unlock position, and a first biasing member. When the hook is pivoted to the lock position, the striker is positioned between the rotational shaft of the hook and the rotational shaft of the pawl, and the pawl and the hook are engaged at an opposite position of the rotational shaft of the hook relative to the striker.

There has been proposed a seat for a vehicle, of which a seatback portion of a backseat is tilted (retractable type), and/or which is detachable from a vehicle floor (detachable type), so as to reduce level difference on the vehicle floor inside the vehicle for effectively using a space inside the vehicle. Regarding such retractable type seat and detachable type seat, for example, the seat is secured on the vehicle floor, or at a side surface of the vehicle compartment, so as not to generate backlash when the seat is in a locked state. Therefore, when the seat is in the locked state, ride quality is not negatively affected. Further, the seat is rigidly structured so that the locked state may not be released by a large shock.
A lock apparatus of a seat, which includes a base secured at a lower portion of a seat (movable member) and a striker secured to a vehicle floor (fixed member), is disclosed in US7044552B1 (hereinafter, referred to as reference 1). A first groove portion is formed at the base so that the striker is engaged into the first groove portion. The striker is surrounded by an inner end of the first groove portion of the base and a side surface (rear side surface) of a second groove portion formed at a hook which is pivotably supported to the base, thereby shifting the seat apparatus to a locked state and securing the seat to the vehicle floor. In order to surround the striker by the first groove portion of the base and the second groove portion of the hook without backlash at the locked state of the lock apparatus, a load is applied on a cam member, which is pivotably supported to the base, by means of a spring applying biasing force in a direction for pressing the hook. Further, in addition to the cam member, a pawl is further employed for preventing a pivotal movement of the hook in a case where external force is applied to the striker in a direction to be away from the first groove portion of the base (second groove portion of the hook) when the lock apparatus is in the locked state.
As described above, according to the reference 1, the backlash is restrained by the cam member, and the resistance to the external force is reinforced by the pawl. Thus, the backlash of the lock apparatus in the locked state is restrained. In addition, the locked state of the lock apparatus is restrained from being released due to large shock (large impact), for example.
According to the lock apparatus disclosed in the reference 1, a rotational shaft of the cam member and a rotational shaft of the pawl are arranged to be coaxial. Further, the rotational shafts of the pawl and the cam member and a rotational shaft of the hook are arranged at one side relative to the striker to which the external force is applied. Therefore, in a case where the external force is applied to the striker in a direction towards an opening of the first portion (i.e., in a direction where the striker exits the first groove portion of the base and the second groove portion of the hook), the lock apparatus may not be strong enough to resist such external force because the cam member, the pawl and the hook are supported only at one side relative to the striker to resist such external force.
Further, the larger a length between the rotational shaft of the cam member and a surface (portion) thereof for contacting the hook is, the greater the efficiency for restraining the backlash becomes. Still further, the shorter a length between the rotational shaft of the pawl and a surface (portion) thereof for contacting the hook is, the greater the strength of the lock apparatus becomes. However, according to the lock apparatus disclosed in the reference 1, the rotational shafts of the pawl and the cam member are coaxially arranged, as described above. Therefore, in a case where the length from the cam member (pawl) to the hook is arranged to be larger so as to increase a performance for restraining the backlash, a performance for resisting the external force may be reduced. On the other hand, in a case where the length between from the pawl (cam member) to the hook is arranged to be smaller so as to increase the performance for resisting the external force, the backlash may not be restrained sufficiently.
Still further, because the cam member and the pawl are arranged coaxial, the cam member and the pawl are arranged to overlap with each other in a thickness direction of such components. In other words, centers of the hook and the cam member in the thickness direction thereof deviate, and further centers of the hook and the pawl in the thickness direction thereof deviate. Therefore, load for restraining the backlash and the external force applied to the striker are received at a position dislocated from the centers of the hook in the thickness direction. Accordingly, torsion moment is generated to the rotational shaft of the hook, and the performance of the cam member and the pawl may not be exerted for restraining the backlash and for resisting the external force.
A need thus exists for a lock apparatus of a seat for a vehicle, which is not susceptible to the drawback mentioned above.


A Snubber is used to damp the swing of the door on an excavator bucket to prevent the door form being damaged by repeatedly slamming shut. The snubber has housing which mounts to an excavator bucket and a shaft pivotally mounted in the housing and connected to an excavator door. The shaft turns when the excavator door opens. The housing has a cylindrical cavity around the shaft. The cavity is divided into two volumes by a dam and a wiper arm on the shaft. The wiper arm forces hydraulic fluid to flow through an orifice between the volumes as the shaft turns. The wiper arm has end seals which seal against end walls of the cavity. The end seals are forced outwardly by hydraulic pressure when the door is closing. A one-way valve allows hydraulic fluid to bypass the orifice while the door is opening. The snubber requires less maintenance than previous friction snubbers.

Some excavators, for example the model P&H 2800 excavators manufactured by HARSNISCHFEGER CORP. of Milwaukee, Wis., U.S.A. have a bucket mounted at the end of a boom. The bucket has an open front side and a large door on its rear side. The lower edge of the front side has teeth for digging into earth. Excavators of this type are typically very large and are used in open pit mining and the like where vast quantities of earth must be moved. The buckets of such excavators are typically on the order of 3 meters high by 3 meters wide by 3 meters deep and typically have a capacity of 15 to 50 cubic meters of earth.
In a typical mining operation an excavator fills up large dump trucks with coal or ore-containing earth. The trucks haul the earth away for further processing. The excavator operator first scoops up earth with the door on the bucket closed and then moves the boom so that the full bucket is above a truck to be filled, with the door on the rear side of the bucket facing downward. The operator then opens a latch which holds the door shut. The door falls open under its own weight and the weight of the earth in the bucket. The earth in the bucket then falls into the truck. The door closes and latches as the operator moves the bucket into position to scoop up another load of earth.
A problem excavators of this type is that the bucket doors take extreme punishment. The doors slam shut very hard. In some cases the doors slam shut so hard that they bounce open before the latch can engage properly. Over time, even though they are typically fabricated from steel plate which is between 2.5 and 5 centimeters thick and are reinforced by steel ribs, these doors develop cracks. When a door gets too severely cracked it must be taken out of service and repaired.
Most excavators are equipped with a snubber to reduce damage to the door by reducing the impact with which the door closes. Snubbers are subjected to extreme forces. Excavator bucket doors are rapidly forced open by the weight of several tonnes of earth and then swing closed again. The snubbers operate in dirty conditions. In many mine sites excavators operate virtually continuously all day and all night for weeks on end.
One type of snubber, which is described in Australian patent application No. 8780908 uses friction to damp the motion of a bucket door. A typical friction snubber comprises a stack of friction discs. Friction disk type snubbers may be obtained, for example, from ESCO of Portland Oreg., U.S.A. or HARSNISCHFEGER CORP. of Milwaukee, Wis. A first set of the discs is mounted to the excavator bucket. A second set of the discs is interleaved between the discs in the first set. the second set of discs is mounted to a linkage connected to the bucket door. When the door opens or closes the second set of discs turns with respect to the first set of discs. The friction discs are all clamped tightly together with a bolt and a spring washer. Friction between the discs damps the opening and closing of the door.
One problem with friction type snubbers are that the friction discs wear as the door opens and closes. This wear is made worse by dirt and moisture which can get between the disks. To keep friction snubbers working effectively the bolt which holds the friction discs together must be periodically tightened. In many cases, these bolts are not tightened properly or often enough and door damage results. Another problem with friction type snubbers is that they damp opening of the door as well as closing of the door.
A second type of snubber comprises a thick strip of elastomer which is connected to the door by a linkage. When the door closes the elastomer strip stretches. A problem with elastomer strip snubbers is that the elastomer eventually wears out and ceases to damp the closing of the door. The elastomer bands also tend to break frequently when the weather is cold.


The present invention relates to the production of lower extremity supportive products, including boot, shoes, sandals, leg braces, etc. One embodiment of the present invention relates to a method for providing a three-dimensionally customized lower extremity product. The method includes measuring and recording data related to a three-dimensional representation of a customer's lower extremities in an activity-specific optimal stance. The three-dimensional representation includes specific anatomical position information including extensions, flexions, rotations, inversions, eversions, etc. The three-dimensional representation also includes surface information including foot shape, ankle shape, sole shape, etc. The measurement and recordation is performed at a convenient location such as in close proximity to the customer's residence or at an airport terminal. The customized lower extremity product is then manufactured at an independent location. The manufactured customized lower extremity product is customized according to the data so as to support the customer's lower extremity in the activity-specific optimal stance. In addition, the customized lower extremity product may be delivered to a location that facilitates customer pickup.

Participants in many activities utilize lower extremity supportive products to assist or improve their performance. In some activities, the products are also necessary for coupling the user in some manner to a required sports apparatus. For example, it is necessary for skiers to use some form of boots to couple their lower extremities to skis. A skier's boot both provides support and encourages the skier to position their lower extremity in a particular position that is designed to maximize performance. Boots are generally optimized according to a single foot mold. Additional sized boots are generally created by enlarging or reducing the size of the original boot by a standardized amount. However, participants have a wide range of foot shapes, sizes, flexibilities, and performance abilities. Therefore, it is unlikely that a boot that has been sized up or down a specific amount from a standardized mold will match the unique characteristics of a particular participant's foot. This guaranteed mismatch results in a decrease in performance and the possibility of discomfort or pain.
Conventional lower extremity customization systems attempt to conform a lower extremity product that has been sized up or down a specific amount from a standardized mold. These systems include adding pads, applying force to pressure points, removing materials, etc. These after-market customization or "boot fitting" techniques are unreliable and may result in damaging the integrity of the boot. In addition, these techniques are generally done on site. Therefore, a boot fitter in one location may make radically different adjustments than a boot fitter at an independent location.
A second type of customization process involves the utilization of a liner or injection of a foam material that is conformed to a user's unique lower extremity characteristics. The process of conforming the liner or liner substance may include heating or injection while a user positions their lower extremity in the product. These systems may help accommodate a standardized lower extremity product to a specific participant's lower extremity dimensions, but they are limited. For example, a heat-treated liner is unlikely to relieve foot pressure for a person with severe foot eversion. In addition, these systems are ureliable and inconvenient. A heat-treated foam liner will deform to provide less support in the desired position over time. Likewise, an injected foam system must be reapplied after each time that a user removes the boots. In addition to the other limitations, these after-market systems still fail to provide the same level of performance to a participant that would be afforded if the participant's lower extremity matched the original mold used to create the product.
Other customization processes are designed to manufacture lower extremity products that specifically match the characteristics of the sole or bottom surface of an individual's foot. These processes involve either two-dimensionally tracing or three-dimensionally mapping the sole of the foot. However, the remainder of the lower extremity product is still made according to a standardized mold or according to a standardized format. Essentially these processes involve manufacturing customized footbeds or orthodics which are incorporated into a standardized lower extremity product such as a boot. The performance and comfort characteristics of a lower extremity product are not limited to the region in which the sole of a user's foot contacts the product. Therefore, these customization processes also fails to provide a level of customization necessary to maximize performance and accommodate the individual lower-extremity characteristics that affect comfort.
All of the existing customization systems fail to produce a truly customized product in a cost-efficient manner. Therefore, there is a need in the industry for a method of providing a customized lower extremity product that is truly customized to the unique three-dimensional characteristics of a customer's lower extremities for use in a particular activity.

Systems and methods for providing a customized lower extremity product


A protective boot for a helicopter blade pitch link assembly as described herein includes a split joint that allows for easy removal and replacement of the protective boot. The protective boot is less expensive to replace, requires less manpower, and eliminates the need for post-maintenance test flights, which might otherwise be necessary to confirm proper alignment and installation of the pitch link assemblies.

The pitch links of most helicopters include length adjusters that are centrally located between the ends of the pitch links. These length adjusters can be manipulated to ensure that all of the pitch links on the helicopter are of a similar length, which results in proper in-flight operation, reduce vibration, and enhance rotor performance. Some helicopters include shields, guards, covers, or other equipment that protect the upper control mechanism from rain, snow, and other weather elements.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an existing portion of a helicopter 100, including two blades 102, an upper control mechanism 104, and two pitch link assemblies 106. In operation, upper control mechanism 104 (which rotates along with blades 102) actuates pitch link assemblies 106 to adjust the pitch of blades 102. In this regard, upper control mechanism 104 generally raises or lowers pitch link assemblies 106 to cause blades 102 to rotate about their respective longitudinal axes. The arrows 108 in FIG. 1 indicate the rotation of blades 102 about their longitudinal axes.
FIG. 2 is a partial cross sectional view of an existing helicopter blade pitch link assembly and protective boot. FIG. 2 includes a schematic partial cross sectional view of a helicopter 200 having an upper control mechanism 202, a pitch link assembly 204, a canopy 206, and a protective boot 208. The protective boot 208 is formed from a flexible material that enables the upper control mechanism 202 to raise and lower the pitch link assembly 204 without breaking the weather "seal." In FIG. 2, the protective boot 208 has a lower section 210 that resembles an accordion and an upper section 212 that resembles a sleeve. Lower section 210 is secured to the center of the pitch link assembly 204 using string or laces 214, while upper section 212 is secured near the upper end of pitch link assembly 204 using string or laces 216. These laces 216 are concentrated about the upper end of the tube-shaped portion of protective boot 208. As depicted in FIG. 2, upper section 212 of protective boot 208 covers most of the portion of pitch link assembly 204 located above canopy 206. Pitch link assembly 204 includes an adjustment mechanism 218 that is located under canopy 206 and, consequently, under protective boot 208. To adjust the length of pitch link assembly 204, protective boot 208 must be untied, removed, or disassembled to provide access to the adjustment mechanism 218 of pitch link 204.
FIG. 3 is a top view of a portion of an existing helicopter 300 with the blade 302 slightly misaligned with its pitch axis. For simplicity, only one blade 302 is shown attached to the rotor. As shown in FIG. 3, helicopter 300 accommodates three blades and three respective pitch link assemblies 304 protruding through a canopy 306. Canopy 306 is a rigid cover that extends over the upper control mechanism for the helicopter 300, thus protecting the upper control mechanism from the elements. Canopy 306 includes holes 310 formed therein; the pitch link assemblies 304 protrude through these holes 310. Protective boots 308 encircle the pitch link assemblies 304, and span the spaces between the pitch link assemblies 304 and canopy 306. In other words, protective boots 308 fill the gaps created by the holes 310 that receive the pitch link assemblies 304.
As evidenced by FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, it can be difficult to replace a worn protective boot in the field because the respective pitch link assembly must be fully or partially removed from the upper control or otherwise disassembled to enable a technician to slide the new protective boot over the pitch link assembly.
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of an existing helicopter blade pitch link assembly protective boot 400. This protective boot 400 includes a zipper 402 that partially extends along a sleeve section 404. The upper end 406 and the lower end 408 of protective boot 400 are continuous, i.e., they are not designed to be separable. Accordingly, to replace the protective boot 400, a technician must disconnect the pitch link from the control arm, remove the pitch link assembly entirely out of the protective boot 400, install a new protective boot, and replace the pitch link assembly onto the control arm. Whenever the pitch link assembly is removed in this fashion it requires a post-maintenance test flight to insure that nothing has changed on the helicopter. Such maintenance and testing can be very time consuming, labor intensive, and expensive.
It is desirable to design a new pitch link assembly protective boot that can be easily installed in the field without the need to remove or unlink the pitch link assembly, which also eliminates the need for a post-maintenance test flight. Furthermore, other desirable features and characteristics of the present invention will become apparent from the subsequent detailed description and the appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings and the foregoing technical field and background.

Protective boot for a helicopter pitch link


A mobile care engine system is provided for delivering customer care to mobile devices, comprising. The mobile care engine system compares profile data from a mobile device with reference data and highlights any inconsistencies between the data, so that the device can be optimized. The inconsistencies are preferably determined using rule-based processing, and are automatically highlighted on the device display itself, or on a display of a customer service representative interface. Optionally, the system allows for corrective patches or settings to be sent to the device.

For the first time in the history of telecommunications networks, significant computing power has become available to the end user's device. This welcome change has the ability to reshape the architecture of all mobile telecommunications networks. Traditionally the Operational Support Systems/Business Support Systems (OSS/BSS) were large-scale, extremely complex, centralized systems within the network. With the proliferation of next generation smartphones and wireless PDAs, significant intelligence can be pushed out to the subscriber terminal, and thus the ability to greatly simplify OSS/BSS has emerged.
The telecommunications industry is on the verge of a revolution in support system technologies. A rare intersection of technological change has become apparent in the mobile industry. Mobile data networks have been deployed around the world. These networks provide fast reliable packet data to subscriber's mobile devices. At the same time, intelligent mobile devices (smartphones) have emerged as capable computing platforms with considerable processing power, onboard storage and memory.
Smartphones are devices running feature rich operating systems such as Symbian, PalmOS, Microsoft WinCE, BREW (Binary Runtime Environment for Wireless) and Java MIDP compliant devices. Due to the complex nature and multitude of new features, these smartphones are difficult to configure; compounded with limited keyboards, entering information such as personal details and configuration settings is not only difficult but also highly prone to human errors. A combination of complex features and associated configuration requirements, provides the opportunity to exponentially improve upon the customer support solutions for wireless network operators. Intelligent client-based OSS systems have now become possible.
With the wide availability of downloadable services and applications available for smartphone users, and the increasing costs of customer care, ensuring efficient and less-cumbersome support when problems arise is an increasing necessity. In contrast to traditional customer service applications that are available in contact centers (or customer care centers) today, CSRs (Customer Service Representatives) must undertake the extensive and time-consuming task of asking customers complex questions pertaining to their wireless devices for problem diagnosis. This requires CSRs to be experts on smartphones and their applications, and also requires customers to spend increased time on the telephone to receive support for their applications. The result is increased support costs, increased call handling times, complex diagnostic processes and overall frustration.
The current method of gathering and obtaining smartphone information required for diagnostics is manual and therefore complex, time consuming and prone to human errors. This problematic approach is an ineffective method of just-in-time customer support and does not guarantee effective problem resolution. These current customer support methods leave both the subscribers and customer support staff frustrated. In addition, obtaining diagnostic information requires a specialized support staff and contact centers must therefore hire and train specialized staff for specific tasks. For the service provider this means increased hiring and operational costs.
The customer support process is increasing in complexity. Once device-specific profiles have been obtained from subscriber devices, then must begin the arduous task of identifying inconsistencies in the subscriber's configuration data in order to diagnose and resolve problems. The level of expertise required by the CSR to understand numerous smartphones and to search for up-to-date configuration data leads to increased costs in training, call-durations, and the overall operational costs.
With the emergence of smartphones and wireless PDAs and their ability to download and install applications, the wireless industry is poised to see explosive growth in application usage by subscribers. Mobile operator customer care centers are focused on solutions for closed, voice-centric mobile phones. This infrastructure is not suited to efficiently solve the intelligent mobile data device and application problems described above. The proliferation of next generation smartphones and the complexity of issues and problem solving needed, requires a customer care application specifically tailored to meet these emerging business needs.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A chemiluminescence device includes a cylindrical, transparent, and flexible container having a hollow and a groove capable of clamping articles in the form of a stick, a pipe, a wire, a line or the like. An ampule is provided in the hollow of the container and has a hollow breakable at a time of breaking the seal thereof. Two liquid substances for chemiluminescence are contained in the hollows of the container and the ampule, respectively, and are capable of performing chemiluminescence when mixed with each other in the container. The groove has an opening whose width is smaller than a bore of the groove, so that the groove is capable of clamping the article to be attached by elastic force from the container. A holder can be used for preventing the chemiluminescence device from dropping from the article.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a chemiluminescence device widely applicable to fishing gears, alarm apparatuses, signs, personal ornaments, toys and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
Almost all of chemiluminescence devices, or apparatuses for illuminations, attractions and personal ornaments, are formed in a stick type luminous body, or a cylindrical shaped transparent tube, including two types chemiluminescence liquid substances. The chemiluminescence liquid substances assume chemiluminescence when mixed. The tube contains one of the chemiluminescence liquid substances as it is in a liquid phase and an ampule filled with the other of the chemiluminescence liquid substances. To let the device luminesce, sealing of the ampule is broken by bending the tube, so that the two chemiluminescence liquid substances are mixed to begin chemiluminescence phenomena.
The two chemiluminescence liquid substances are generally fluorescent liquid and oxidizing liquid. The fluorescent liquid is composed of dibutyl phthalate, fluorescent substance, and reaction substance. The oxidizing liquid is composed of dimethyl phthalate, hydrogen dioxide, sodium salicylate and the like. The chemiluminescence liquid substances are not restricted to those components.
Since such a conventional chemiluminescence device is in a form of stick type body, when attached to an article, the device requires a special attachment. This leads an inconvenience in use of the device. For example, in the case when the conventional chemiluminescence device is attached to a rope, a wire, or the like, such a rope is threaded through a hollow of a pair of elastic tubes in advance, and then, both ends of the stick shaped chemiluminescence device are held by the tubes, otherwise the device is wrapped together with a rope by a tape.


A method and system for assigning channels to a plurality of access points (APs) of a wireless communication network is disclosed. The method includes obtaining first information regarding first interference experienced by a first client due to multiple APs being positioned in proximity of that client, and obtaining second information regarding second interference experienced by either the first client or a first of the APs with respect to which the first client is associated, where the second interference is due either to others of the APs that are in proximity to the first AP, or to others of the clients that are in proximity to either the first client or the first AP. Additionally, the method further includes determining channel assignments for the plurality of APs based upon each of the first and second information.

Wireless local area networks (WLANs) have seen explosive growth in recent years as a last-hop connectivity solution. Such networks, which typically operate in accordance with IEEE 802.11-type protocols, often operate in the 2.4 and 5 GHz bands where unlicensed spectrum is very limited. Due to the growth in usage of WLANs, network administrators are faced with an emerging challenge of efficiently managing bandwidth resources to provide better service to clients.
WLANs typically are implemented through the use of one or more access point (APs) that serve as gateways for one or more clients, which can include, for example, wirelessly-equipped laptop or notebook computers. Whenever a given client is in communication with a given AP, the communication takes place by way of a given communication frequency channel. All communication between an AP and its associated clients (which form a Basic Service Set (BSS)) occur in the channel assigned to the AP.
Given that APs are communicating via respective communication channels, clients establish communication with the APs of their choice by selecting the appropriate channels associated with those APs. Often a client simply selects a channel by scanning the wireless medium for a strong signal (or the strongest signal) from an AP, and then selects that channel of the AP for its communications.
Channel assignment in conventional WLANs is determined by the APs based upon various measured information available to those APs, and/or as specified by an administrator. The manner of channel assignment used for WLANs differs from that employed in other domains, since those other manners of channel assignment typically are not applicable for WLANs. For example, channel assignment for cellular networks is traditionally modeled as a vertex coloring problem. However, the irregular coverage topologies present in WLANs due to the vagaries of the indoor radio frequency (RF) environment make such channel assignment algorithms inefficient when applied to WLANs.
Instead, as a basic design rule in assigning channels for WLANs, APs within range of one other are set to different "non-overlapping" channels. Further, multiple techniques are often employed to assign channels to APs to reduce interference between them. For example, network administrators often perform detailed Radio Frequency (RF) site surveys, often using spectrum analyzers, prior to setting up APs within a building and use this information to assign specific channels to the APs. Also, subsequent to the initial channel assignments, each AP continuously monitors its assigned channel for data transmissions by other APs and their clients. If the volume of traffic in that channel (from other APs or clients of other APs) is greater than a threshold, the first AP moves to a less congested channel, a technique that can be referred to as "Least Congested Channel Search" (LCCS).
Although conventional channel assignment techniques such as the LCCS technique do achieve workable channel assignments, such conventional channel assignment techniques often do not result in channel assignments that produce optimal bandwidth usage. The LCCS technique in particular is unable account for circumstances in which, while there is not significant interference between neighboring APs, there is nevertheless interference occurring (or potentially occurring) between APs and clients of neighboring APs, or between the clients of neighboring APs. This inability to account for the "hidden interference" occurring due to the presence of clients limits the degree to which available bandwidth can be efficiently used. Indeed, clients that are in conflict can suffer from drastic reduction in throughput. In particular, the reduction factor experienced by a given client can be non-linear in the total number of stations (clients or APs) in conflict with the given client.
In addition to being unable to account for such hidden interference, conventional channel assignment techniques such as the LCCS technique do not at all address issues of load balancing among different APs. That is, channel assignment is accomplished without any consideration of how many clients may or will be in communication with each given AP. Although in at least some circumstances, load balancing issues are considered independently of channel assignments, the lack of joint consideration of load balancing issues in conjunction with channel assignment issues also limits the degree to which available bandwidth can be efficiently used.
For at least the above reasons, therefore, it would be advantageous if an improved method and/or system for assigning channels to APs in WLANs could be developed. More particularly, it would be advantageous if, in at least some embodiments, such an improved method and/or system enabled the assignment of channels to APs so that enhanced bandwidth usage (and enhancements in overall throughput) could be achieved by the WLANs. Further, in at least some embodiments, it would be advantageous if such an improved method and/or system was able to account for interference (e.g., "hidden interference") that cannot be taken into account by conventional channel assignment techniques, and/or was able to address load balancing issues in conjunction with the process of assigning channels to APs.

Method and system for client-driven channel management in wireless communication networks


Methods for forming a field effect transistor are disclosed. An illustrated method comprises: forming a gate electrode on a substrate; and forming a nitride layer on at least a part of the gate electrode and the substrate.

A field effect transistor (FET) (which is essential to the operation of some semiconductor devices such as a complementary metal oxide semiconductor (CMOS) transistor), includes a gate electrode, a source and a drain.
FIG. 1 is a flow chart illustrating a conventional method for forming a CMOS transistor. First, a device isolation layer is formed in predetermined regions of a semiconductor substrate to define an active region and a field region (block S1). The device isolation layer, (usually referred to as a field oxide layer), is typically formed by performing a local oxidation of silicon (LOCOS) method or a shallow trench isolation (STI) method.
Next, well regions are formed in the semiconductor substrate where the CMOS transistors will be formed (block S2). Specifically, an N well region is formed in a PMOS transistor region of the semiconductor substrate and a P well region is formed in an NMOS transistor region of the semiconductor substrate.
Subsequently, gate electrodes are formed on the well regions by forming a gate oxide layer and a polysilicon layer, and then etching them while using a gate mask pattern (block S3).
Next, a screen oxide layer is formed on an upper surface of the gate electrode, on the semiconductor substrate and on the sidewalls of the gate electrode by performing a re-oxidization process (block S4). The screen oxide layer cures or compensates for degradation of the gate oxide layer of the gate electrodes, which results from the etching process for forming the gate electrodes represented by block S3. Moreover, the screen oxide layer serves to protect the semiconductor substrate when an ion implantation process for forming a lightly doped drain (LDD) region is subsequently performed.
Next, LDD region is formed by performing the ion implantation process to avoid hot carrier creation due to the peak electric field in a drain edge of, for example, the NMOS transistor (block S5). The LDD region is formed so that its edges are aligned with the edges of the gate electrode.
Next, spacers are formed on the sidewalls of the gate electrodes (block S6). The spacers have a conventional structure consisting of a spacer nitride layer, a buffer oxide layer and a sealing nitride layer (N/O/N structure).
Subsequently, source/drain regions are formed in alignment with the edges of the spacers and expanded from the LDD regions by an ion implantation process (block S7).
Next, a silicide layer is formed on the source/drain regions in order to reduce the contact resistance thereof (block S8). This completes the fabrication of the CMOS transistor.
However, because the re-oxidation process for forming the screen oxide layer is performed at a high temperature for a long time, the well region and a channel region below the gate electrodes, (which have been formed before the re-oxidization process), are affected by the re-oxidation process, thereby degrading characteristics of the transistor such as the threshold voltage.
Like parts appearing in FIGS. 3A to 3F are represented by like reference characters.


Handheld flashlight type vibratory therapeutic treatment invention, devices, and methods that can house a small piezoelectric crystal adjacent to a bulb in the emitting chamber portion of a flashlight housing, where the crystal is located next to or between light source, or off-axis to the light emitting beam of the flashlight. The crystal can generate a fixed output of approximately 7 to approximately 8 Hertz while the flashlight body is positioned up to approximately 18 inches over the body part being treated with a light beam from the bulb being aimed at the area to be treated. Treatment effectiveness can occur within approximately 2 minutes of being treated. The flashlight invention can be used for treating a variety of ailments such as inflammations, nerve problems, joint pain, muscle pain, as well as gall bladder type problems.

Ultrasound and vibratory type emitting devices have been used for medical therapeutic applications over the years. Various types of therapeutic devices have been proposed that apply ultrasonic oscillations and vibrations directly to an affected body part so as to relax muscles, quicken blood flow circulation, enhance healing of the skin, etc. See For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,708,127 to Abdelghami; U.S. Pat. No. 5,230,334 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,113,559 to Klopotek; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,989,202 to Noda et al.
However, these devices and systems have practical type limitations. For example, most of these devices are limited to direct contact of a portion of the device itself against the skin of the patient. As a result, the field of application is generally restricted to the areas directly beneath the skin contact point. The body contacting requirement does not allow these devices to easy slide over and across one's skin to different areas to be treated. Thus, moving these devices to other body areas usually requires that the device be physically raised, moved and lowered again to the area to be treated.
Furthermore, these devices are generally limited to using acoustical type vibratory signal emissions from a single generator type unit such as an electromagnetic generator, and does not use other energy sources, nor applies other energy emissions for treatments. Still furthermore, the single generators are generally limited to generating only fixed frequency outputs.
The subject inventor has previously sold a basic handheld tool entitled: Tens Cam having a single fixed frequency generating crystal that solely relied on an electromagnetic induction coil to drive a single crystal. The Tens Cam unit consisted only of a Coil wrapped around a longitudinal Crystal, powered by LISS BODY STIMULATOR power pack, where LEDs (light emitting diodes) are used to indicate power being turned on.
The operation of the Tens Cam used a fixed frequency of approximately 8 Hertz that was generated by an electromagnetic source in a narrow beam having a diameter of approximately 1 to approximately 2 millimeters. The delay time for therapeutic effects of the Tens Cam unit was between approximately two to approximately four (4) minutes.
The Tens Cam unit had problems due to it's' weight of approximately one pound and its' rough appearance and oblong shape. Taking up to four minutes to generate therapeutic effects on the patient was difficult to do over continuous treatments, since it required the operator to physically hold the one pound unit in a raised position above the patient being treated. Thus, operator fatigue was an inherent result of using this unit.
By physically holding the vibrating unit above a patient throughout a several minute treatment process the operator received direct vibratory effects from the unit. The combination of constantly holding the weight of the unit and the direct vibratory effects, along with the operator being constantly within the generation field of the unit created side effects such as but not limited to fatigue and malaise for the operator. Operators repeatedly using the Tens Cam have complained of side effects of medium nerve paraethias, which is a numbness and tingling effect to their hands and fingers.
Additional problems with the Tens Cam unit as with other electromagnetic and with vibratory units is that all these units can be known to give off heat which has caused tissue damage. Furthermore, theses prior art type units have limitations as to the tissue penetration being achieved, since the tissue penetration depth is limited by the mechanical nature of the vibrations.
All of the prior art units are limited to generating energy directly from electric power supplies and fail to take in additional energy to aid in the therapy treatment. Ambient energy is not used by the prior art devices.
Prior art units have been known to cause injuries directly to the patients. Using a strictly handheld supported vibrating and/or heat generating and/or electrically driven device can potentially injure the patients themselves, if the operator directly contacts the patients with the devices. Electric shocks, burns and other damage can be caused by the patients coming into direct contact with many prior art therapy devices.
Thus, the need exists for solutions to the problems with the prior art devices.


In an integrated process for the production of synthesis gas, a partial oxidation unit and a steam methane reformer are used to convert natural gas or another fuel to first and second mixtures of at least carbon monoxide and hydrogen, only the first process consuming oxygen. Carbon dioxide derived from the second mixture is sent to the inlet of the first process to reduce the oxygen consumption. The first and optionally second mixtures may be used as synthesis gas for a process such as a Fischer Tropsch process.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated process and installation for the production of synthesis gas. In particular it relates to a process using two reactors producing synthesis gases containing at least hydrogen and carbon monoxide with a global hydrogen/carbon monoxide ratio between 1.8:1 and 3:1.
2. Description of the Related Art
Due to the economic benefits associated with using natural gas on certain gasfields or oilfields and recent advances in catalytic processes, a certain number of projects for converting natural gas to synthetic hydrocarbons are presently being studied. The processes used can, for example, produce synthetic fuel by the gas-to-liquid process (GTL), olefins by the gas-to-olefins process (GTO), methanol or dimethyl ether (DME). GTL processes are described in 'Shell Middle Distillates Synthesis' by P. Tijm et al., Alternate Energy '94 Apr. 26-29 1994.
These processes generally include three steps:                1) production of synthesis gas (mixture of hydrogen and carbon monoxide)        2) synthesis of hydrocarbon chains        3) distillation and/ or finishing and/or hydrocracking
Most of these processes use large amounts of oxygen or oxygen enriched air to produce the synthesis gases in partial oxidation reactors using a non-catalytic or catalytic process. A suitable air separation unit for producing oxygen is described in EP-A-0982554.
The following explanation and description relates to GTL plants but applies also to other synthetic hydrocarbon plants, such as GTO, DME or methanol plants. For GTL processes, the Fischer-Tropsch reactionnCO+2nH2→(—CH2)n+nH2Orequires a stoechiometric synthesis gas make-up to be produced with a molar ratio of 2:1.Additional amounts of hydrogen are needed for the finishing and to compensate for losses in by-products and/or purge gases leading to an increased global H2/CO ratio of between 2.1:1 and 2.7:1.
Typically a non-catalytic partial oxidation POX unit, when fed with natural gas, produces a synthesis gas with an H2/CO ratio of about 1.8:1 depending on the composition of the natural gas. This ratio can vary too when other oxidants, such as steam or carbon dioxide, are sent to the unit.
The global H2/CO ratio can be reached                either by partial shift conversion of the CO produced in the POX unit as described in EP-A-0484136CO+H2O→CO2+H2        or by coproducing a second synthesis gas from a steam methane reformer unit (SMR), fed also by natural gas, the second synthesis gas having a H2/CO ratio typically between 2.7/1 and 6/1.
Thus, the synthesis gas from the POX unit can be combined with synthesis gas from an SMR unit to produce the required global ratio.
When the POX unit is fed with heavier feed stock, such as coal, residues or intermediate by-products, the H2/CO ratio is typically lower and the above techniques must be used to balance the overall H2 requirements.
Catalytic partial oxidation processes, when fed with natural gas or other light hydrocarbon mixtures, produce synthesis gas with a higher H2/CO ratio between 2/1 and 3/1 and can be used, as stand alone processes or not, to satisfy the global ratio.
For a given size of GTL plant, using an oxygen fed reactor such as a POX unit and a process which does not use oxygen such as an SMR unit, it is an object of the present invention to optimise the size and number of the POX modules and/or SMR modules and/or ASU modules, constituting the POX unit, SMR unit and the air separation unit, using the latest technical developments for the various modules.
Particularly, in recent years, the output of air separation units has considerably increased. Modular units presently produce 3500 tonnes of oxygen per day and the module should be able to produce 6000 tonnes of oxygen per day in the near future.

Integrated process and installation for the production of synthesis gas

L'Air Liquide, Société Anonyme à Directoire et Conseil de Surveillance pour l'Etude et l'Exploitation des Procédés Georges Claude


A bushingless workhead comprises a flexible drill collet inside a flexible chucking collet. The chucking collet has external frusto-conical surfaces on the ends thereof that mate with corresponding frusto-conical surfaces on a pair of pistons. The pistons are slidable within a housing away from each other to apply opposed forces to the chucking collet. The forces cause the chucking collet to collapse and to also collapse the drill collet to grip a tool inside the drill collet. One piston applies a greater force on the chucking collet than the other piston. The chucking collet is thus forced to move longitudinally in one direction, and it abuts a fixed reference surface that repeatably locates the chucking collet during each tool gripping operation prior to the chucking collet collapsing to grip the tool.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to clamping mechanisms, and more particularly to apparatus for releasably gripping cylindrical workpieces.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Various equipment has been developed to manufacture and resharpen cutting tools such as twist drills and end mills. Those types of tools are invariably chucked in the workhead of a tool grinding machine having multiple drive mechanisms that impart compound motions to the workhead to move the tool cutting edge along appropriate contact with a grinding wheel. An exemplary machine for grinding cutting points on twist drills is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,125,186.
The workhead chuck plays a very important part in the tool grinding process. The chuck must firmly and accurately grip the tool for grinding and release it after the grinding operation is completed. Many prior chucks include a chucking collet that is a permanent part of the workhead and a series of drill collets that interchangeably fit inside the chucking collet. The chucking collet and drill collet define a common longitudinal axis that is concentric with the axis of rotation of the workhead. The tool fits inside the drill collet. A drill collet can accommodate a small range of tool diameters.
Both the chucking collet and the drill collet are normally designed as a series of longitudinally extending ribs that are joined together on alternate ends. Some chucking collets, called single angle collets, have a single ring of material around the exterior of the ribs. The ring is formed with a frusto-conical surface. A piston that is part of the chuck has an internal frusto-conical surface that mates with the frusto conical surface of the chucking collet. By moving the piston longitudinally along the workhead axis, the chucking collet is caused to collapse onto the drill collet, which in turn also collapses to grip the tool inside the drill collet. A fixed surface is usually provided in the workhead to locate the chucking collet during the tool chucking actions such that the chucking collet does not move the tool longitudinally during chucking.
Single angle collets have the disadvantage of being able to effectively collapse only under the ring with the frusto conical surface. To provide stability to the tool about a transverse axis, a drill bushing is installed into and accurately located within the workhead concentric with the chucking and drill collets. One portion of the tool is accurately located within the drill bushing while another portion of the tool is clamped by the drill collet. An example, of a single angle collet drill bushing combination may be seen in FIG. 13 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,365,444.
Another drawback of the single angle collet drill bushing design is that a different drill bushing is required for each diameter tool. Up to 250 drill bushings are required for standard inch and popular metric sized drills within the diameter range of 2.3 to 25.4 millimeters. Manufacturing multiple drill bushings and replacing worn drill bushings is expensive. Further, changing drill bushings with each change in diameter of the tool to be ground is a time consuming process. The combination single angle collet and drill bushing chucks also occupy an undesirably large volume of space.
To enable tools to be rigidly chucked without requiring a different drill bushing for each diameter tool, it is known to employ double angle collets. Such collets are generally similar to single angle collets, but they are usually longer and have two frusto conical surfaces on their exteriors. The apexes of the two frusto-conical surfaces point away from each other. A pair of pistons within the workhead have frusto-conical surfaces that mate with the respective frusto-conical surfaces of the collet. Actuating the pistons longitudinally toward each other against the two collet frusto conical surfaces collapses the double angle collet. A drill collet inside the double angle collet is also collapsed to grip a tool inside the drill collet. Because the two frusto conical surfaces can be spread relatively far apart and thus grip a tool at relatively widely spaced locations, the double angle collet provides rotational rigidity to the tool without the use of drill bushings. An offsetting drawback, however, of prior double angle collets is that they cannot be longitudinally located against a reference surface. The double angle collet, together with the drill collet and the tool being gripped, move longitudinally during the chucking process a distance proportional to the amount of collapse required to grip the tool. After every chucking, therefore, the workhead and tool must undergo a preliminary search routine to reference the location of the tool point in space before grinding can begin. The tool referencing routine represents unproductive time.
Thus, a need exists for improvements in tool chucks.


The present invention is directed to a polyisocyanate mixture which. i) has an NCO content of 5 to 47% by weight, PA0 ii) is prepared from an isocyanate component substantially containing one or more cyclic organic diisocyanates having (cyclo)aliphatically-bound isocyanate groups and PA0 iii) contains isocyanurate and allophanate groups in a molar ratio of monolsocyanurates to monoallophanates of 10:1 to 1:10, wherein the allophanate groups are formed from urethane groups which are based on the reaction product of an organic diisocyanate having (cyclo)aliphatically bound isocyanate groups and a monoalcohol containing at least 1 carbon atom and having a molecular weight of up to 2500.. The present invention is also directed to a process for the production of these polyisocyan mixtures and to their use, optionally in blocked form, as an isocyanate component in two-component coating compositions.

The present invention is directed to polyisocyanates which contain allophanate groups and isocyanurate groups and are prepared from cyclic diisocyanates containing (cyclo)aliphatically bound isocyanate groups. The present invention is also directed to a process for the production of these polyisocyanates and to their use in two-component coating compositions.
Polyisocyanates containing isocyanurate groups are known and disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,487,080, 3,996,223, 4,324,879 and 4,412,073. While these polyisocyanates possess many outstanding properties, they do require improvement. First, the viscosity of commercially available polyisocyanates containing isocyanurate groups needs to be reduced in order to reduce the amount of solvent which is necessary to obtain a suitable processing viscosity. Presently, there are an increasing number of government regulations which limit the amount of volatile solvents which may be present in coating systems. Therefore, isocyanurate group-containing polyisocyanates may be precluded from certain applications because it is not possible to reduce the viscosity of these polyisocyanates to a suitable processing viscosity without using high amounts of solvent. Second, in reducing the viscosity of the coating compositions, it is important that the other properties of the coatings, such as hardness and solvent resistance, remain at high levels.
It has been proposed in U.S. Pat. 4,801,663 to reduce the viscosity of isocyanurate group-containing polyisocyanates prepared from 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI). By terminating the reaction at a very low degree of trimerization higher contents of the monoisocyanurate of HDI are obtained and the quantity of polyisocyanates containing more than one isocyanurate ring is reduced. Because these latter polyisocyanates have a much higher viscosity than the monoisocyanurate, the resulting polyisocyanates have a reduced viscosity. However, a significant disadvantage of this system is that because the reaction is terminated at a very low degree of trimerization, the overall yield is very low and the amount of HDI which must be separated from the product is substantially increased. In other words the small reduction in viscosity is offset by a significant increase in the production cost of the product. Further, the resulting product does not possess optimum compatibility with highly branched polyester resins.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide polyisocyanates which have a reduced solution viscosity and and yet retain the performance properties of the corresponding higher viscosity polyisocyanates which do not contain allophanate groups. It is an additional object of the present invention to provide polyisocyanates which may be produced at reasonable production costs and which are obtained in high yields. Surprisingly, these objectives may be achieved in accordance with the present invention as described hereinafter by the incorporation of specific monoalcohols before or during the trimerization of cyclic diisocyanates containing (cyclo)aliphatically bound isocyanate groups to produce a polyisocyanate containing isocyanurate and allophanate groups.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,582,888, 4,604,418, 4,647,623, 4,789,705 are directed the incorporation of various diols in order to improve the compatibility of the resulting polyisocyanates with certain solvents and co-reactants. While the use of diols may improve the compatibility of the polyisocyanates, the diols do not reduce the viscosity of the polyisocyanurates for a given yield.
Many of these references as well as those previously set forth disclose the use of monoalcohols or glycols as co-catalysts for the trimerization reaction. However, none of these references suggest the incorporation of allophanate groups to reduce the viscosity of polyisocyanates containing isocyanurate groups. Further, these references teach that the use of these co-catalysts should be kept to a minimum since the resulting urethane groups adversely affect the drying time of coatings prepared from the polyisocyanates. In particular, U.S. Pat. No. 4,582,888 cautions against the use of any amount of monoalcohol which is in excess of that needed to dissolve the catalyst.
Japanese Publication 61-151179 discloses the use of monoalcohols containing 6 to 9 carbon atoms as co-catalysts for trimerization catalysts which do not trimerize HDI in the absence of a co-catalyst.
It has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,124,427 and in copending applications, U.S. Ser. Nos. 07/890,979 and 07/891,535, to conduct the trimerization of organic diisocyanates in the presence of monoalcohols having molecular weights of up to 2500 to incorporate allophanate groups into the final products and reduce their viscosity. It has also been disclosed in copending application, U.S. Ser. No. 07/897,732, to use mixtures of 1,6-hexamethylene diisocyanate and diisocyanates having (cyclo)aliphatically-bound isocyanate groups as starting materials to prepare polyisocyanates which may be formulated to provide coatings with improved dry times and good environmental etch resistance.
Even though these applications disclose the use of diisocyanates having (cyclo)aliphatically-bound isocyanate groups as starting materials, they do not recognize the unexpected advantages described hereinafter which may be obtained by using cyclic organic diisocyanates having (cyclo)aliphatically-bound isocyanate groups as starting materials.

Polyisocyanates containing allophanate and isocyanurate groups, a process for their production from cyclic diisocyanates and their use in two-component coating compositions


The present invention relates to a protective ionizing device, or protective static eliminator, and methods, systems, apparatus and kits using the device. The device has a surface having a series of (e.g., one or more) grooves or gaps, each groove defines a space; and a multiplicity of ionizing points suspended in the space, just below the upper surface of the device. The ionizing points can be suspended on braided microfibers, on an extruded surface in the groove, on an elastic cord, or on a wire core.

Prior to the present invention, a limitation of certain static eliminators is that they are only effective when the field of the charged object is undisturbed and in space (i.e., not in contact with other objects). When a charged object is in contact with or in close proximity to another object or surface, the field is disturbed and induced toward the other object or surface. For example, when a flat material such as a sheet of plastic is charged and placed in contact with another flat surface, the charge on the plastic sheet induces toward the other surface, causing the plastic sheet to cling to the flat surface. Concurrently, the voltage field on the opposite (non-contacting) side of the plastic sheet is generally not available for induction to a nearby static eliminator or for charge neutralization.
Static charge build-up can cause problems in a variety of settings, especially in the printing industry. In the case in which a sheet is moving across a flat surface or in contact with a roller, the voltage from the sheet is attracted toward the surface. The voltage is induced toward the surface. As such, there is no voltage on the upper side of the sheet, but only on the bottom side of the sheet induced toward the surface. A static field meter on the upper side often reads near zero levels.
In this case, static eliminators that are placed or swiped above the upper side of the sheet often do not eliminate the suppressed voltage (e.g., the voltage induced toward the surface) because little or no excess voltage exists above the sheet. Additionally, attempts to place a static eliminator below the sheet have posed a challenge in many instances. For example, placing a static eliminating cord or rod would interfere with the sheet's ability to move across the surface. Using static eliminating tape under the sheet results in tape that eventually gets abraded, damaged, or otherwise becomes ineffective after a certain amount of use.
Hence, a need exists for a static eliminator that can eliminate static on the induced surface side of a sheet. In particular, this need exists to efficiently eliminate static without interfering with the flow of the sheet or the machine on which it is used. A further need exists to do so without wearing down or abrading the ionizing points of the static eliminator.

Protective ionizing surface for eliminating static

Abstract: The device is useful for the efficient elimination of static charge build-up on a surface of insulative material while maintaining and protecting the ionizing points.


In one embodiment there is provided a self contained dice tumbler device. The device includes an interior lateral panel positioned within the interior of the device and which separates the interior into a tumbler compartment and a holding compartment. The holding compartment can be used to store playing cards. The device also includes at least one ramp in the tumbler compartment that leads to an exit opening. Dice dropped into the tumbler compartment can get scrambled and will slide out of the exit opening. The cover the top and exit opening on the device, a hinged panel door is included. The hinged panel door has a rear panel to cover the exit opening and a top panel to cover the top of the device.

Many games utilize dice or other three-dimensional objects bearing indicia on adjacent surfaces. Both board games and non-board games require players to roll dice to play the games. Customarily, the dice are rolled by the player taking his turn by simply throwing them on to the board or a suitable horizontal surface. In most instances the games require a player to shake the dice in a player's hand and then throw the dice, while in some instances the games include a cup for scrambling and throwing the dice. In an effort to provide a uniform manner in shaking or agitating the dice, dice shakers have been developed, such as illustrated in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,082,288, 5,100,141, 3,468,543, and D341,385.
However, these tend to have complex constructions and are limited in the ability to provide a more compact manner in storing not only dice but other game playing items, such as playing cards and chips. As a result, there is a continual need to improve upon the prior art.


A method and system is provided for controlling data transfer using a short data burst mechanism between a mobile station (MS) and a base station (BS). After identifying that a short data burst mechanism is desired to be used for transmitting data between the MS and the BS, the data is transmitted over a common channel used for communication between the MS and the BS without having to establish a communication link between the MS and the BS over a traffic channel.

The present invention relates generally to data communications in a telecommunications network, and more particularly, to a method and system for using a common channel for transporting data information.
In a typical CDMA telecommunication system, once a mobile station (MS) is initialized, it has to acquire a traffic channel before it can exchange data with a base station. Alternatively, the MS can stay in a dormant state while maintaining minimum contact with the base station through a common channel. The cost of using a traffic channel is significant. For example, functionality such as power control, handoff, and channel resource management have to be implemented for supporting the MS to work under the coverage of the telecommunication system because various intelligent features of the traffic channel are very important to the quality of services provided between the base station and the MS.
Although continuous data communication sessions such a telephone conversation may require a good traffic channel, many wireless applications only require short data bursts. For example, stock quotes are sent to the MS only upon request, or an alarm message is sent once every two hours. In each case, the message sent is relatively short and of a known duration (short data bursts). Such short data burst communications may not need to use many features of the traffic channel because the data involved is not continuous, and usually is sent only once in a predetermined period of time.
What is needed is a method and system to enable short data burst communications using the common channel without having to establish a communication link between the MS and the base station over a traffic channel.

Method and system for using common channel for data communications


The present invention provides a road holding ability mechanism applied to a motorcycle with two wheels in front. The mechanism may be configured on a three-wheeled motorcycle which has two front wheels and a single rear wheel or on a four-wheeled motorcycle with two front wheels as well as two rear wheels. Under any operating condition, the mechanism enables the two front wheels to offer great road holding ability, that is, to remain stable when moving so as to ensure the motorcycle against rollovers. The present invention includes a simple and innovative structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a road holding ability mechanism for a motorcycle with two wheels in front, in particular, to a mechanism which may control the two front wheels to turn/travel toward the desired course, to tilt and to move up and down in an upright manner. The present invention includes a simple and innovative structure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A three-wheeled motorcycle is commonly provided with a single rear wheel and two front wheels consisting of a right front wheel as well as a left front wheel. A four-wheeled scooter includes two front wheels arranged with a right front wheel as well as a left front wheel and two rear wheels consisting of a right rear wheel as well as a left rear wheel. A three-wheeled or four-wheeled motorcycle offers more stability and safety than a two-wheeled motorcycle with a single front wheel and a single rear wheel. When cornering and encountering inclined or uneven and bumpy road surfaces, especially the road surface with height-differences, the surfaces of the two front wheels need to keep in contact with the ground surface to allow the two front wheels to remain stable so as to enable the motorcycle to be able to steer safely to avoid rollovers. As disclosed in the prior art, Taiwan invention patent number I 331973, the three-wheeled scooter with a road holding ability mechanism for the front wheels is provided with a steering and suspension mechanism to prevent the wheels from being off the ground so as to avoid rollovers when the vehicle/scooter/motorcycle corners and tilts. The structure of said prior art is built of linkages, that is, said prior art includes plenty of structure assemblies, so its product cost is high. However, the present invention includes a simple and innovative structure that may save product cost.

Road holding ability mechanism for the two front wheels of a motorcycle


Provided are impression trays having one or more breakaway segments that allow for convenient removal of a portion of the tray, while maintaining the overall dimensions of the tray. Also provided are methods making impressions that include removing at least one breakaway segment of the provided trays. Also provided are impression trays having novel handles and trays having novel slots for the extrusion of excess impression material and retention. Further provided are kits and systems that include such impression trays.

When a practitioner makes an impression of a patient's teeth and/or gums, he or she places a temporarily semi-fluid composition called an "impression material" into an impression tray and inserts the tray into the patient's mouth. The practitioner maneuvers the tray within the patient's mouth relative to the patient's teeth until the desired position of the tray with respect to the teeth is achieved. The tray is maintained in this position until the impression material hardens. After the impression material has hardened enough to retain its shape, the tray is then removed from the patient's mouth. The impression may be used for example in making models of teeth for reconstruction or replacement, or the impression may be used in any other situation where a dental impression is desired.
Prior impression trays would commonly need to be drilled to obtain a hole in the tray in various procedures. Drilling holes in a tray has several disadvantages, including the creation of small particles of material that may accidentally project into the practitioner's eyes, or may be inhaled by the patient or practitioner. Additionally, the particles may contaminate a sterile environment for example, during oral surgery. Drilling holes in a tray may deform the plastic due to heat generated during the drilling and causing the bur to stall. Further, drilling holes in a tray takes a good deal of time.
One prior tray may have sections removed. But if sections are removed from that tray, the overall size may be reduced and the tray is no longer suitable for taking an impression of an entire jaw. Further, such a tray is weak and not sufficiently strong or stable for taking a suitable impression or for maintaining the dimensional accuracy of the impression as the tray is being removed from a patient after the impression material hardens.


The invention relates to the galvanically isolated transmission of electrical power between three voltage systems. For this purpose, a transformer is provided which comprises a total of five windings. The transmission between the individual voltage systems can be controlled by targeted manner activation of the individual windings.

The present invention relates to a transformer, a three-port voltage converter having such a transformer and a method for transferring electrical energy using such a transformer.
DE 10 2014 220 434 A1 discloses a DC-DC converter with a plurality of resonant converters connected in parallel. Here, the number of resonant converters, which transfer power from a primary side to a secondary side, depends on the power consumption of a secondary-side load.
As a rule, electric and hybrid vehicles have two different vehicle electrical systems. All low-voltage consumers such as, e.g., an onboard computer, lighting units and entertainment electronics are supplied in a low-voltage system, which is buffered by an accumulator. Moreover, a high-voltage system, fed by a high-voltage accumulator, supplies electrical energy for the drive. In particular, the electrical energy for the low-voltage system can be provided by the high-voltage side. To this end, use can be made of DC converters which, for safety-related reasons, must have galvanic isolation between the high-voltage system and the low-voltage system.
Moreover, the accumulators of an electric or hybrid vehicle can be charged by way of an external voltage supply. Here too, galvanic isolation should be provided for safety-related reasons, and so, overall, there are three voltage systems, galvanically isolated from one another in each case.

Transformer for a three-port voltage converter, three-port voltage converter and method for transmitting electrical power


A system for analysing a brain image compares the image with a brain atlas, labels the image accordingly, and annotating the regions of interest and/or other structures. This atlas-enhanced data is written to a file (or more than one file) in the Dicom format or any web-enabled format such as SGML or XML format. The image used may be produced by any medical imaging modality. A fast algorithm is proposed for a landmark-based piecewise linear mapping of one volumetric image into another volumetric image. Furthermore, a new set of brain landmarks are proposed, and algorithms for the automatic identification of these landmarks are formulated for three orientations, axial, coronal, and sagittal.

Modern medical imaging technologies offer unprecedented views into human body. Our ability to generate images is much greater than the ability to understand and interpret them. Deformable body models along with warping techniques provide means for analysis of medical images and deformable brain atlases, in particular, are useful for analysis of brain scans. The purpose of the present invention is to facilitate the interpretation of brain scans by neuroradiologists and to provide means to transfer this knowledge to other medical professionals such as neurologists and neurosurgeons.
The present inventor has developed an electronic brain atlas database [3]. There is a strong commercial interest in this database for functional neurosurgery and the atlas has been integrated with several commercial systems.
Apart from this electronic brain atlas, there are numerous brain atlases available in printed form such as [4], and a number of electronic atlases have also been constructed. The major use of the brain atlases is for neuroeducation [2]. Some other applications include functional neurosurgery and brain mapping. However, to our best knowledge, there is no commercial application of brain atlas in neuroradiology yet.
A key operation in atlas-assisted analysis is registration of the atlas with the patient data. The atlas can be warped against the data or, alternatively, the data is warped against the atlas. One of registration approaches is the Talairach proportional grid system transformation that is a piecewise linear operation applied to the volumetric image subdivided by the Talairach landmarks into 12 volumetric sub-images [4]. One known technique performs the Talairach transformation in realtime based on texture mapping, but it requires a hardware accelerator for texture mapping to be performed efficiently.
In addition, the placement of the landmarks is manual and needs domain knowledge. Several non-linear warping approaches have also been proposed [1], but they are time consuming, highly dependent on starting points and at present far from clinical applications yet.

Methods and apparatus for processing medical images


A thermal protection system for use upon an air or space vehicle includes a plurality of thermal protection panels formed of a suitable ceramic matrix composition or other thermally protective material each panel having a continuous outer surface free of penetrations or apertures. A plurality of cooperating fasteners are secured between the outer surface of a host vehicle and the undersurface of the thermal protection panels. The fasteners utilize a latching mechanism to secure the panels to the surface of the host air or space vehicle without requiring penetrations or irregularities in the panel surfaces.

Air and space vehicles are often required to operate within earth's atmosphere at extreme speeds with the result that air friction upon the surfaces of such high speed vehicles produces sufficient heat to raise certain portions of the air and space vehicles to temperatures which exceed the operating limits of most, if not all, metal vehicle structures. Exposure to such elevated temperatures subjects the vehicle to potential structural failure often with disastrous results.
To protect critical surfaces and edges of air and space vehicles during such extreme temperature operation, practitioners in the art provide thermally protective cover structures upon such surfaces and edges which comprise heat resistant thermally insulative protective tiles or panels. In most instances, protective tiles are attached to the host air or space vehicle using adhesive attachment or mechanical fasteners and standoff.
Adhesive attachment systems have been used extensively for vehicles such as the NASA space shuttle vehicles and other early developed systems. Adhesive attachment has been plagued by recurring problems of reliability and excessive cost which has prompted practitioners in the art to focus primarily upon mechanical fastener and standoff supporting mechanisms within thermal protection systems.
In the most typical of the newly developing thermally protection systems, metal fastener standoffs are mechanically secured to the thermal protective tiles or panels and to the underlying or space vehicle structure. The objective is to provide a plurality of thermally protective tiles or panels which form a covering layer over the vulnerable air or space vehicle surfaces. In an attempt to maintain a smooth substantially continuous thermal protective outer "skin" for the host craft, the attachment of the fastener to the thermally protective tile or panel is usually recessed relative to the outer surface of the thermally protective tile or panel. The recess is then covered with an adhesively secured covering plug typically formed of the same thermally protective material as the tiles or panels.
While mechanical fasteners and standoffs appear to offer the promise of more cost effective alternative to adhesive attachment of thermally protective tiles and panels, the integrity resulting thermal protection system is to some extent dependent upon the adhesively attached covering plugs. In the event any covering plug becomes dislodged or displaced, the underlying metal fastener is exposed to extreme heat during high temperature operation. Under these conditions, an exposed metal fastener becomes a "thermal short" conducting heat directly to the vulnerable overlying surface of the air or space vehicle to which the fastener or standoff is secured. The extreme heat conducted by the fastener to the supporting structure of the air or space vehicle compromises the structural integrity of the vehicle and exposes the entire vehicle to dangerous structural failure.
The use of adhesively secured covering plugs within the developing fastener and standoff type thermal protection systems is both costly and undesirable in that it continues to raise concerns as to the overall system reliability and safety of such thermal protective systems.
Faced with the critical need to provide safer, more reliable thermal protection systems for air and space vehicles and the concurrent need for simultaneously reducing costs of fabrication and maintenance of such thermal protection systems, practitioners in the art have provided a variety of thermal protection apparatus. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,377,469 issued to Cherian provides for absorbing the differences between the dimensions of tiles and the dimensions of a spacecraft's body, while still holding the tile, during temperature changes during the operation of the spacecraft. The tile are attached to the body using Tie Rods (TRs) or Flex Joints or fasteners. The tie rods flex in the expected direction(s) of the deformation. The tie rod can be shaped to flex in one or more of the directions of the expected deformation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,293,496 issued to Moe sets forth strain compatible attachment arrangements for securing a plurality of metallic thermal protection (TPS) panels to the substructure of a space vehicle, such as a reusable launch vehicle. The metallic TPS panels are attached in an edge abutting relationship to provide a coterminous outer TPS panel surface that is spaced from the substructure portion of the vehicle and which provides the outside mold line surface of the space vehicle. The attachment arrangement provides a separate stand-off means that is attached at one end to the vehicle substructure and at the other end to one corner of a TPS panel. Each TPS panel when viewed in a plan view will have three or four corners and may assume a number of shapes such as triangular, square, trapezoidal, etc. and may be curved. Each corner of each TPS panel is provided with an apertured insert provided with a plurality of circumferentially arranged locking projections.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,575,439 issued to Heinze et al. sets forth a positive-locking fastening for a thermal protection structure consisting of a plurality of highly heat-resistant, stable panels and a fastener system for fastening a thermal protection structure on an airframe of a spaceplane, particularly a spacecraft intended to reenter the atmosphere. The thermal protection structure is composed of a plurality of highly heat-resistant mechanically stable panels, having a hot gas-exposed panel surface and an airframe surface. The panels may be provided with an additional gap seal, if desired. A plurality of fastening points are provided per panel. These fastening points are arranged at spaced locations from one another and establish a position-locking connection between the thermal protection structure and the airframe. The fastening includes a first fastening point (fixed bearing) which permits no movement or permits only a limited rotary movement of the panel around an axis that is at right angles or nearly at right angles to the airframe surface or to a local tangential plane of the airframe surface. A second fastening point is provided which permits a limited linear (diametric) displacement of the panel, in a direction parallel or substantially in parallel to the airframe surface. At least another fastening point is provided which permits a limited displacement of the panel in all directions which are parallel to or substantially parallel to the airframe surface.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,489,074 issued to Arnold et al. sets forth a thermal protection device, in particular for an aircraft or a space vehicle, comprising a plurality of juxtaposed unit modules each comprising a fairing element provided with fixing tabs, thermal insulation integrated in the fairing elements, and rigid connection means for releasably connecting the fixing tabs to a primary structure that is to be protected. The gap between neighboring fairing elements is limited to a value substantially equal to the minimum value necessary for accommodating thermal expansion of the fairing elements, and the rigid connection means for connecting a fixing tab of a module to the primary structure comprise a ball fixed to the fixing tab in adjustable manner and capable of being locked inside a corresponding socket of a retaining part fixed to the primary structure, the ball being locked in its socket by means of a bolt capable of being released by action exerted against a resilient return force, e.g. from a spring. It then suffices to act on the spring to release the bolt and allow the ball to be inserted into its socket or to be extracted therefrom.
German Patent No. DE 34 11 924 sets forth insulation which is vibration-resistant and mechanically resistant even under unfavorable conditions, which may be for heating gas ducts, such as exhaust gas ducts or turbine support casings, tile elements fastened to the inside of the supporting wall. Each tile element has a box-like covering which is closed on all sides and is made of sufficiently heat-resistant sheet metal with a small thickness, and each tile element consists of a covering wall on the hot side, a storage wall on the cold side and end walls in between.
German Patent No. DE 36 26 514 sets forth a fastener for connecting structural parts in the form of panels, consisting of a pin which is provided with an internal thread and passes through the structural parts, a pot-shaped receptacle which can be clamped to the pin via a threaded bolt which is fitted centrally in the interior of said receptacle, and which receptacle is provided with spring means acting against the entry direction of the pin. Also included are first securing means, which are located in the receptacle and prevent the pin being inadvertently released from the clamped position.
European Patent EP 0 440 544 sets forth a high-temperature thermal protection system consisting of a set of juxtaposed tiles made of a refractory material. The tiles are fixed onto a structure and insulators. This system is designed to be easily dismantlable by virtue of fixing devices, such as screws, which are accessible to tools passing through and deforming a flexible joint placed between two adjacent tiles. The invention applies to the protection of spacecraft or high-speed aircraft, and to the protection of high-temperature vessels or furnaces.
Japanese Patent No. JP 03258699 sets forth receiving fitting for installation on a craft body outer plate through a bottom plate which is constituted with plural tightening fit parts in a crimp shape installed at the circumferential part of a circular plate bottom part, an apertured part formed in the central part.
Japanese Patent No. JP 05203095 sets forth a heat protecting system applied to a body barrel unit and wing upper/lower surfaces of a space vehicle heated to a high temperature within the atmosphere, a high temperature heat insulating material and a high performance heat insulating material are arranged in the outside of a vehicle structural body to cover the outside of these materials with a heat resisting shield. These heat insulating materials and heat resisting shield are fixed to the vehicle structural body by connection fixing tools.
Japanese Patent No. JP 05203096 sets forth a heat protecting system having heat insulating materials arranged on the outside of a vehicle structural body. A heat resisting shield is mounted on the vehicle structural body by a connecting fixture. The connecting fixture is fabricated of a structural body side bolt connected to the vehicle structural body, shield side bolt connected to the heat resisting shield and a bellows for connecting the bolts to each other.
Japanese Patent No. JP 05221398 sets forth a heat protecting material for a space shuttle is fabricated by connecting a surface panel to a main structural panel through a post formed in a shell structure. The supporting post may be formed into a shell structure of hollow cylindrical shape or the like.
Japanese Patent No. JP 07010094 sets forth a heatproof panel mounting member consisting of a metal rod having a male screw part at the outer end part, a ceramic pipe to cover the side portion of the metal rod except for the male screw part, and a pair of metal nuts which are provided with truncated conical portions on their outer circumferential surfaces. The heatproof panel together with a heatproof washer are held between the truncated conical portions of a pair of metal nuts.
Japanese Patent No. JP 09072379 sets forth a vibration insulation fastening mechanism having an insert body fastened to an apparatus; an insert base mounted on a honeycomb sandwich plate through a filler and a spherical body. A viscoelastic material is located between the insert body and the insert base. By converting the deformation due to a vibration mode characteristic of the honeycomb sandwich plate into heat energy accumulated as strain energy in the viscoelastic material, the vibration transmitted from the honeycomb sandwich plate to a host apparatus is reduced.
Japanese Patent No. JP 09126274 sets forth an intermediate support member having a combining plate and a pressing and fixing plate. The fixing plate is pivotably supported on the plate a pivot pin. The combining plate of the intermediate support member is mounted on a support member by an intermediate support member fastening screw.
Japanese Patent No. JP 09263300 sets forth a shaft formed out of a short fiber reinforced ceramic complex material having a conical head portion, a shaft portion and a top protrusion. The entire surface of the shaft is coated with silicon carbide or aluminum oxide to prevent it from binding at elevated temperatures. A high temperature body is inserted into a tapered aperture and an aperture are brought into contact with the head portion. Carbon fiber reinforced complex material bodies and a C collar of niobium alloy coated with aluminum diffusion is bedded between the high temperature structure body and the first protrusion.
Japanese Patent No. JP 10226400 sets forth a strut of light weight space shuttle heat protection material having high heat insulation and a balance of strength, rigidity and deformability. A strut of heat protection material is formed of a flat plate-shaped strut having a substantially narrow strut formed of both structural materials. A space between the surface panel of heat resistant material on the outer side surface and a main structural panel divide both the structural materials into a plurality of components. By connection of various plate-shaped elements and high heat insulating materials, a light weight strut constitution can be obtained, which has high heat insulation suited for a required characteristic of the heat protection material while balancing strength, rigidity and deformability.
Japanese Patent No. JP 2000335500 sets forth a heat insulating structure, capable of withstanding the severe vibrational environment in launching of a spacecraft. A heat insulating structure is formed of a base body, a radiator panel arranged outside the base body and having a long hole therethrough. A spacer is arranged between the base body and the radiator panel and a rod-shaped fastening means is erected on the base body near the spacer.
Japanese Patent No. JP 2004114708 sets forth a heat-resistant structure capable of being easily attached from a front side of a structure. The heat-resistant structure comprises an inclination functioning material body and a pin type fastener integrally molded with an inclination functioning material body. The inclination functioning material body comprises a metal portion integrally formed with a pin type fastener by casting or molding. A composition transition portion is superposed on the metal part and includes a ceramic component superposed on the composition transition.
While the foregoing described prior art devices have endeavored to improve the thermal protective apparatus and art and have in some instances found some use in the art, there remains nonetheless a continuing need in the art for ever more improved thermal protection systems which provide reliability, safety and avoid dependence upon adhesive attachment while simultaneously providing improved efficiency and economy during initial installation and fabrication. Additionally, there remains a continuing need in the art for improved thermal protection systems which also facilitate the repair and replacement of thermally protective tiles and panels during maintenance activities.

Thermal protection systems for air and space vehicles having hidden fastener attachments