A first conductive plate (31A) constituting the radiation surface of a slot antenna (30A) inclines with respect to a first dielectric member (13) opposed to the radiation surface of the slot antenna (30A). Consequently, a plasma generated by the electric field of an electromagnetic field entering directly from the slot antenna (30A) can be set dominant over a plasma generated by the electric field of a standing wave formed in a processing vessel (11). Since the former can be controlled more easily than the latter, the plasma distribution can be improved.

The present invention relates to a plasma processing apparatus which performs a predetermined process by generating a plasma with an RF electromagnetic field.
In the manufacture of a semiconductor device, plasma processing apparatuses are used often to perform processes such as formation of an oxide film, crystal growth of a semiconductor layer, etching, and ashing. Among the plasma processing apparatuses, an RF plasma processing apparatus is available which can stably generate a plasma even under a comparatively low pressure. The RF plasma processing apparatus generates a high-density plasma by introducing an RF electromagnetic field into a processing vessel through a planar antenna.
A case wherein the RF plasma processing apparatus is applied to an etching apparatus will be described. FIG. 20 is a view showing the arrangement of an etching apparatus using a conventional RF plasma processing apparatus. FIG. 20 shows the sectional structure of part of the arrangement.
A dielectric plate 113 is horizontally arranged in the upper opening of a cylindrical processing vessel 111. A seal member 112 is disposed at the bonding portion between the processing vessel 111 and dielectric plate 113 so that the hermeticity in the processing vessel 111 is ensured. Vacuum exhausting exhaust ports 114 are formed in the bottom of the processing vessel 111. A gas supply nozzle 116 is formed in the side wall of the processing vessel 111. The processing vessel 111 accommodates a susceptor 122 on which a substrate 121 as an etching target is to be placed. An RF voltage is applied to the susceptor 122 from an RF power supply 126.
A radial antenna 130 is disposed on the dielectric plate 113 to supply a microwave MW into the processing vessel 111 as an RF electromagnetic field. The dielectric plate 113 and radial antenna 130 are covered by a seal material 117.
The radial antenna 130 is formed of two parallel conductive plates 131 and 132 which form a radial waveguide, and a ring member 133 which closes the edges of the conductive plates 131 and 132. The conductive plate 131 constituting the radiation surface of the microwave MW has a large number of slots 134. The radial antenna 130 is connected to a microwave generator 145 through a waveguide 141.
In the etching apparatus with this arrangement, the interior of the processing vessel 111 is set to a predetermined vacuum degree, and after that a gas mixture of, e.g., CF4 and Ar, is supplied from the nozzle 116 under flow rate control. In this state, the microwave generator 145 supplies the microwave MW to the radial antenna 130 through the waveguide 141.
The microwave MW supplied to the radial antenna 130 is radiated from the large number of slots 134 formed in the conductive plate 131 while propagating in the radial waveguide. As the conductive plate 131 is a horizontally arranged flat plate, the microwave MW is radiated in the vertical direction. The microwave MW is transmitted through the dielectric plate 113 and introduced into the processing vessel 111.
The microwave MW introduced into the processing vessel 111 ionizes the gas in the processing vessel 111 to generate a plasma in a space S1 above the substrate 121 as the processing target. At this time, the microwave MW introduced into the processing vessel 111 is not entirely absorbed directly by plasma generation. That microwave MW which is not absorbed but is left repeats reflection in the processing vessel 111 to form a standing wave in a space S2 between the radial antenna 130 and plasma generating space S1. The microwave MW which forms the standing wave is also known to contribute to plasma generation.
The ions of the plasma generated in this manner are extracted by the negative potential of the susceptor 122 and utilized for the etching process.
With the conventional etching apparatus shown in FIG. 20, however, the plasma is not generated uniformly. The plasma generated in the processing vessel 111 with this etching apparatus was observed. Portions 151A and 151B where the plasma is generated at a high density were observed near the center of a plasma generating region 150, as shown in FIG. 5(a) to be mentioned later. Hence, conventionally, on the substrate 121 as the processing target, the etching process progressed faster at a region below a higher-density plasma. This problem of variations in process amount occurred not only in the etching apparatus shown in FIG. 20 but was common among the conventional plasma processing apparatuses.
The present invention has been made to solve the above problems, and has as its object to improve the distribution of the plasma generated by an RF electromagnetic field.


A dynamic webpage processing method, including identifying a static component within a dynamic webpage, the static component comprising computer code defining at least a portion of a target webpage and configurable via first configuration data, rendering the static component as a static markup language equivalent, and returning the target webpage upon request through rendering a dynamic component within the dynamic webpage based on second configuration data is disclosed. Thus, static component(s) can be pre-rendered, leaving only the dynamic component(s) of the dynamic webpage for on-the-fly rendering when a target webpage request is made. This can greatly reduce dynamic webpage processing requirements, particularly in situations where the webpage configuration changes or evolves slowly.

The "Web" is now well developed and literally millions of Web sites have been deployed and hosted on various servers around the world. Web sites comprise one or more related "pages," in some cases extending to scores or even hundreds of pages. The subject matter of web sites spans the full breadth of human interests and endeavors, and many web pages now include dynamic content as well as multi-media content, such as audio and video clips, slideshows and the like.
More recently, the use of "dynamic" webpages has become commonplace in website design, in part to ease design and publication burdens faced when attempting to build and manage large and feature-rich websites. Dynamic webpages are a type of webpage that produces potentially differing web content and/or interfacing on-the-fly based on one or more variable parameters passed to the webpage by a client browser or otherwise. Examples of dynamic webpages include java server pages or JSPs developed in accordance with the Java Server Pages Specification Version 1.2 (November 2001) and above available from Sun Microsystems of Mountain View, Calif. Another type of dynamic webpage includes active server pages or ASP developed in accordance with the Internet Information Services v 3.0 and above Software Development Kit available from the Microsoft Corporation of Redmond, Wash. Other dynamic webpages could include, by means of example only, Perl pages, PHP pages from the PHP Group, ColdFusion pages from Macromedia, Inc. of San Francisco, Calif., and servlets defined in Sun's Java Servlet Specification 2.1 and above.
Dynamic webpages are so powerful because of the active logic, conditional rules and/or heuristic instructions physically or virtually forming at least a part of each (collectively "code"). In the Java Server Pages example, such code is called a tag. This code is dependent on a variety of parameters passed to it, such as configuration data which is used to assist in defining the interface, fields, and typically, "static" information when the dynamic webpage is requested, rendered, and displayed to an end-user through a web browser or other paging review mechanism. In the automotive website context, a good example of configuration data would include parameters needed to assist or direct the code in rendering a specific auto dealer graphic, as well as parameters needed to cause the executing web server to issue and collect information related to a certain used car search parameter, and the like. This code also causes the web server executing the dynamic webpage to interact with other applications and objects, such as pulling dynamic or runtime data from, e.g., a separately maintained database. Again, in the automotive context, such runtime data can include used car inventory database results based on a query captured by a server executing the dynamic page on behalf of a potential automotive customer in communication with the server via a client-oriented browser.
The web designer community is looking to dynamic webpages as a way to contain the problem of ever growing and increasingly complex websites, while providing richer features and more detailed and varied content. Without dynamic webpages, web designers would have to craft, track and maintain each distinct webpage individually, and interaction with a browser supporting an end-user would be limited at best. Manually managing such an architecture would quickly prove hopelessly complex. A dynamic webpage, on the other hand, through an appropriate code structure, can define numerous distinct rendered pages to the browser depending on e.g. input provided by the end-user which is passed to the dynamic webpage in the form of configuration and/or runtime data. In fact, a small number of thoughtfully constructed dynamic webpages can actually define a complete website, if not multiple websites. As such, a dynamic webpage can therefore be thought of as a template for producing individually rendered webpages known as target webpages, which, from the end-user browser perspective, may appear and function quite distinctly but are in fact the product of the interaction between a common dynamic webpage template with a particular set of configuration and/or runtime data.
However, a new problem emerges when dynamic webpage templating is extensively leveraged. As fewer and fewer dynamic webpage templates are employed to define more and more target webpage alternatives, the resulting template code structure necessarily becomes more and more complex to account for planned site variation, and accordingly, more and more parameters must be passed and interpreted in connection with the template code before a desired target webpage can be rendered. Thus, rendering or executing the complex dynamic webpage template on-the-fly with the particular configuration/runtime data parameters increasingly taxes web server processing resources, and can perceptibly degrade "loading" performance and site responsiveness from an end-user perspective. In fact, independent of bandwidth considerations, it can take a number of seconds for a stressed, multi-site web server to acquire the appropriate configuration and dynamic data, assemble, interpret and render the dynamic webpage, and return the desired target webpage to the requesting end-user. This is so even though certain areas and features of the target webpages, such as the header and footer sections, do not appear to change every time the end-user requests those pages or as the end-user traverses the website. Therefore, it would be advantageous to provide a web management technique that leverages the power of dynamic webpages while increasing web server responsiveness and ultimately speedier delivery of the target webpage to the end-user.

Method and apparatus for processing a dynamic webpage


A pair of thermoset composite structures (19,19') are bonded together by a pair of adhesive strips (10,10'). An adhesive strip (10) is comprised of a layer of semi-crystalline thermoplastic material (12), a layer of amorphous thermoplastic material (14), a layer of dry fiber reinforcement (16) partially embedded in the layer of amorphous thermoplastic material (14), and a layer of thermosetting resin (18) covering the exposed fibers of the dry fiber reinforcement. An adhesive strip is bonded to the bonding surface (20) of the structure (19) during the curing process for the thermoset composite structure. A resistance heating element is placed between the bonding surfaces (20,20'), the bonding surfaces (20,20') are pressed together, and electrical energy is passed through the heating element (24) to heat the joint and fuse the thermoplastic adhesive layers together. The dry fiber reinforcement (16) forms a mechanical lock between the cumulative layer of thermoplastic adhesive (32) and the thermosetting structures (19,19') to provide the bond strength.

Thermoset composites have received widespread use in the aircraft industry as a structural material. This type of composite can provide a light weight structure of relatively high strength. To obtain a high strength structural bond with thermoset composites currently requires costly methods of bonding combined with mechanical fasteners.
One method of bonding thermoset composite structures together is to place thermoset resin film adhesive material between the surfaces to be bonded, followed by applying heat and pressure to the joint zone. This process is not very practical as it involves the application of relatively high heat (250.degree.-350.degree. F.) and pressure (25 psi. minimum) for extended periods of time (2 hours minimum at temperature). Thermal expansion can become a problem when large areas of structure are heated as required for this process. This is due to differing rates of thermal expansion of localized structure which causes thermal strain when the structure is cooled and can cause deformations. Another drawback is that thermoset adhesives can only be processed once and the bond is not reversible for repair or replacement of subsequently damaged sub-structure.
A second method currently used involves attaching together thermoset composite structure using mechanical fasteners combined with room temperature curing thermoset paste adhesive applied to joint surfaces. This method requires that the components being joined be pre-fitted and drilled for pilot holes, disassembled, cleaned and bond prepared. Adhesive is then applied to joint surfaces, the components are then reassembled, and the adhesive cured (usually 24 hours at room temperature). The next step is to drill and ream holes for each fastener and finally the fasteners are installed. This method is costly due to the use of mechanical fasteners and the labor intensive nature of the method.
An alternative to these processes is to use a film of thermoplastic adhesive between the thermoset composite structures being joined together. Since thermoplastic may be repeatedly melted and refused, the bonding process can be reversed as needed. Unfortunately, current thermoset resins will not chemically adhere with sufficient strength to suitable thermoplastic adhesive materials to meet aircraft requirements for joining structural components. Therefore this method is not practical in situations requiring high strength bonds.

Bonding of thermoset composite structures


Devices executing routing protocols can mark routing protocol messages as urgent so that peer devices are signaled to consume the messages on an expedited basis. Performance of routing protocols improves as a result; for example, Border Gateway Protocol convergence time is reduced. An example router comprises a network interface, a processor, a transport layer protocol module that implements a transport layer network protocol, a routing protocol module that implements a network packet routing protocol and sends peering session messages over transport layer connections, and instructions to perform providing a first routing protocol message to the transport layer protocol module that comprises urgent data at least in part; requesting the transport layer protocol module to mark, as urgent, one or more data segments that carry the first routing protocol message; marking, as urgent, one or more segments that carry the first routing protocol message; and sending the segments to peer devices over the connections.

The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A computer network is a geographically distributed collection of interconnected communication links used to transport data between nodes, such as computers. Many types of computer networks are available, with the types ranging from local area networks to wide area networks. The nodes typically communicate by exchanging discrete packets or messages of data according to pre-defined protocols. In this context, a protocol consists of a set of rules defining how the nodes interact with each other.
Computer networks may be further interconnected by an intermediate node, such as a switch or router, to extend the effective "size" of each network. Since management of a large system of interconnected computer networks can prove burdensome, smaller groups of computer networks may be maintained as routing domains or autonomous systems. The networks within an autonomous system (AS) are typically coupled together by conventional "intradomain" routers. Yet it still may be desirable to increase the number of nodes capable of exchanging data; in this case, interdomain routers executing interdomain routing protocols are used to interconnect nodes of the various autonomous systems.
An example of an interdomain routing protocol is the Border Gateway Protocol version 4 (BGP4), which performs routing between autonomous systems by exchanging routing information, e.g., network layer reachability information (NLRI), among neighboring interdomain routers of the systems. An adjacency is a relationship formed between selected neighboring (peer) routers for the purpose of exchanging routing information messages and abstracting the network topology. Before transmitting such messages, however, the peers cooperate to establish a logical "peer" connection (session) between the routers. A BGP4 peer establishes sessions with another peer using a connection under a reliable and sequenced transport protocol, such as the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) as defined in IETF RFC 793 (1981).
The NLRI information exchanged by BGP peers typically includes destination address prefixes, i.e., the portions of destination addresses used by the routing protocol to render routing ("next hop") decisions. An example of such a destination address is the Internet Protocol (IP) version 4 (IPv4) address. A prefix implies a combination of an IP address and a mask that cooperate to describe an area of the network that a peer can reach. Each prefix may have a number of associated paths; each path is announced to a peer router by one or more of its peers. Note that the combination of a set of path attributes and a prefix is referred to as a "route"; the terms "route" and "path" may be used interchangeably herein. The BGP4 routing protocol standard is well known and described is in RFC 1771, by Y. Rekhter and T. Li (1995), Internet Draft <draft-ietf-idr-bgp4-23.txt> titled, A Border Gateway Protocol 4 (BGP-4) by Y. Rekhter and T. Li (April 2003).
The interdomain routers configured to execute an implementation of the BGP protocol, referred to herein as BGP routers, perform various routing functions, including transmitting and receiving routing messages and rendering routing decisions based on routing metrics. The BGP protocol executing on each BGP router may be organized as a plurality of address family application modules, each of which is configured to provide an AFI/SAFI service such as IPv4/unicast, IPv4/multicast, IPv6/unicast or IPv6/multicast. Each AFI/SAFI service is enabled on a per peer basis by exchanging capabilities over the reliable BGP session between the router and its peer in accordance with Capabilities Advertisement with BGP4 described in RFC 3392 by R. Chandra et al (November 2002), which is hereby incorporated by reference. Two or more services may be enabled for two or more AFI/SAFI modules over the same BGP session and reliable transport.
Each BGP router also maintains a routing table that lists all feasible paths from that router to a particular network. The routing table is a database that contains routing information used to construct a forwarding table of a forwarding information base (FIB) that is used by the router when performing forwarding decisions on packets. Periodic refreshing of the routing table is generally not performed; however, BGP peer routers residing in the ASs exchange routing information under certain circumstances. For example, when a BGP router initially connects to the network, the peer routers exchange the entire contents of their routing tables. Thereafter when changes occur to those contents, the routers exchange only those portions of their routing tables that change in order to update their BGP peers' tables. These Update messages are thus incremental update messages sent in response to changes to the contents of the routing tables and announce only a best path to a particular network.
Broadly stated, a BGP router generates Update messages for an adjacency, also known as a peer router, by "walking-through" the routing table and applying appropriate routing policies. A routing policy is information that enables a BGP router to rank routes according to filtering and preference (i.e., the "best path"). Routing updates provided by the Update messages allows BGP routers of the ASs to construct a consistent view of the network topology. When multiple BGP routers perform constructing a consistent view in a RIB or FIB relatively concurrently, the routers are said to "converge." Performing convergence, however, may consume considerable time, and during convergence some routers may be unable to forward data on certain paths. Therefore, researchers in the field desire to reduce convergence time whenever possible.
The Update messages are typically sent using a reliable transport, such as TCP, to ensure reliable delivery. TCP is a transport protocol implemented by a transport layer of the IP architecture; the term TCP/IP is commonly used to denote this architecture. The TCP/IP architecture is well known and described in Computer Networks, 3rd Edition, by Andrew S. Tanenbaum, published by Prentice-Hall (1996).
TCP defines an URG (Urgent) control bit and an Urgent data location pointer in the TCP header. As specified in RFC 793, the Urgent pointer is 16 bits and communicates the current value of the urgent pointer as a positive offset from the sequence number in the present segment. The urgent pointer points to the sequence number of the octet following the urgent data. This field is only interpreted in segments with the URG control bit set. While the TCP urgent pointer, urgent marking and processing is known in the context of telnet and rlogin applications, routing protocols such as BGP have never used it for beneficial purposes such as accelerated convergence.

Faster routing protocol convergence using efficient message markup


A method includes receiving audio data corresponding to an utterance spoken by a user that includes a command for a digital assistant to perform a long-standing operation, activating a set of one or more warm words associated with a respective action for controlling the long-standing operation, and associating the activated set of one or more warm words with only the user. While the digital assistant is performing the long-standing operation, the method includes receiving additional audio data corresponding to an additional utterance, identifying one of the warm words from the activated set of warm words, and performing speaker verification on the additional audio data. The method further includes performing the respective action associated with the identified one of the warm words for controlling the long-standing operation when the additional utterance was spoken by the same user that is associated with the activated set of one or more warm words.

A speech-enabled environment permits a user to only speak a query or command out loud and a digital assistant will field and answer the query and/or cause the command to be performed. A speech-enabled environment (e.g., home, workplace, school, etc.) can be implemented using a network of connected microphone devices distributed throughout various rooms and/or areas of the environment. Through such a network of microphones, a user has the power to orally query the digital assistant from essentially anywhere in the environment without the need to have a computer or other device in front of him/her or even nearby. For example, while cooking in the kitchen, a user might ask the digital assistant "please set a timer for 20-minutes" and, in response, the digital assistant will confirm that the timer has been set (e.g., in a form of a synthesized voice output) and then alert (e.g., in the form of an alarm or other audible alert from an acoustic speaker) the user once the timer lapses after 20-minutes. Often, there are many users in a given environment that query/command the digital assistant to perform various actions. These users can register a voice profile with the digital assistant so that the users can be identified to provide a more personalized experience for each user. For instance, one of multiple different users of the digital assistant might speak the command "please play my music playlist", and in response, the digital assistant can identify the particular user by matching voice characteristics with the voice profile for that user and then stream the music playlist for that particular user through an acoustic speaker.

Speaker dependent follow up actions and warm words


An article accumulator utilized between a product infeed line and a discharge conveyer feeds articles from the infeed to the discharge conveyer in a single, continuous line. The accumulator includes a wide horizontal moving conveyer belt that accumulates articles in the event of a backup at the discharge end. A slow moving flexible guide belt located just above the conveyer belt and angled toward the discharge conveyer engages the sides of the articles and helps to move them toward the discharge conveyer. In the event that a substantial number of articles accumulate on the accumulator conveyer belt, these articles push sideways on the guide belt forcing it rearwardly behind a guide rail that runs along the length of the guide belt. The articles then engage the guide rail and are less influenced by the movement of the guide belt. This arrangement helps to ensure that the articles that are first placed on the conveyer belt tend to be the first articles to be discharged.

The present invention is directed toward a product accumulator and, more particularly, toward a flow-thru type wherein products are placed on a conveyer at one end and are discharged at the other end thereof but which allows the products to accumulate in the event of a backup at the discharge end.
Product accumulators of the general class to which the present invention pertains are not new, per se. They generally include a horizontally disposed conveyer belt having an infeed end onto which products such as glass vials, cans or bottles or the like are placed. Along the side of the main conveyer belt and running parallel therewith is a discharge conveyer belt. As the products are moved along the main conveyer belt, they eventually engage a guide rail or guide belt which is arranged at an angle across the main conveyer belt so as to guide the articles onto the discharge belt. Additional guide rails or the like in the vicinity of the end of the main conveyer adjacent the discharge conveyer ensure that the articles exit the discharge conveyer in a single row. In the event of a blockage at the discharge conveyer, the articles merely back up on the main conveyer belt as the belt slides under them.
Numerous examples of the foregoing can be seen in the prior art. General arrangements of these types can be seen in U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,990,549; 2,560,995; 2,763,359 and 3,162,291. Published Japanese application No. 55-161,715 also shows a similar arrangement.
Although the prior art accumulators function reasonably well, they all suffer from a similar problem. That is, there is no assurance that the first articles placed on the main conveyer will be part of the first group of articles to be discharged. In experimenting with accumulating conveyers of the general type described above, it has been found that once the articles begin to accumulate, articles which were first placed on the conveyer can be forced onto the side of the pack or recycled around the main conveyer without ever being discharged therefrom. Of course, the articles will eventually all be discharged once the infeed is stopped but this may occur only at the end of the day. Thus, articles placed on the conveyer in the morning may still be there at the end of the day which may be detrimental if the product within the vial or other container should have been processed within a certain amount of time. To Applicant's knowledge no accumulator conveyer of this type has addressed the problem of attempting to ensure that articles are discharged from the accumulator in an order which reasonably resembles the order in which the articles are fed thereto.


A power unit, provided in a saddle-ride type vehicle, makes a vertical dimension of an engine body compact and achieves reduction in loss horsepower. A cylinder body is formed so that a virtual plane including a cylinder axis and being in parallel to a crank axis passes through a position displaced downward from the crank axis, At least a part of an ECVT motor (electric motor for driving) and a reciprocation gear (drive member) is arranged on a side of a virtual plane, which includes a crankcase side end of the cylinder body and is perpendicular to the cylinder axis, toward the cylinder body and above a lower surface of the cylinder body.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a unit swing type power unit, in which a transmission casing accommodating therein a continuously variable transmission mechanism and an engine body are joined integrally, and a saddle-ride type vehicle provided with the power unit.
2. Description of Related Art
Scooter type motorcycles generally have mounted thereon a unit swing type power unit, in which an engine body and a transmission casing accommodating therein a continuously variable transmission mechanism are joined integrally.
In some cases, this kind of power unit comprises a winding diameter controlling mechanism, in which an electric motor is used to variably control a belt wound diameter of a primary sheave on the basis of engine speed, vehicle speed, etc. so as to obtain an optimum transmission gear ratio corresponding to an operating state of an engine (see, for example, Patent Application No. 02-340927)
The conventional power unit described above involves a problem that a vertical dimension of an engine body becomes large depending upon an arrangement and a construction of a drive member, which varies a wound diameter of a primary sheave, and an electric motor, which drives the drive member.
Also, this conventional kind of power unit needs improvement in fuel consumption through reduction in loss horsepower.

Power unit and saddle-ride type vehicle provided with the power unit


There is provided a method for identifying the color intensities of red lines on a white test strip. The method comprises the following steps:                (A) attaching the white test strip to a card that is larger and darker than the white test strip,        (B) scanning the card with the attached white test strip,        (C) creating a digital image of the card, in which each pixel in the digital image has a Red value, a Green value, and a Blue value,        (D) using the digital image to calculate a color intensity for each red line on the white test strip.

It is often desired to quantitatively assess the intensities of the color of red lines on a white test strip. For example, US Patent Publication 2004/0131238 describes a method of assessing the color intensity of colored lines on white test strips by analyzing one or more individual scan lines taken in the direction of the long dimension of the test strip, so, if it is desired to use the data from multiple scan lines, either the long dimension of the sample must have been oriented perfectly in parallel to the direction of the scan, or else the data analysis needs to be extremely complicated. It is desired to provide a method of analyzing the intensities of the colors of red lines on a white test strip that involves relatively simple calculations and that is not affected by variations in the angle between the long axis of the test strip and the direction of the scan.


Physical subsector error marking allows for selectively marking subsectors of a physical sector of a storage medium as unreadable. The error marking may include a bad sector mask to indicate that the subsector is unreadable combined with an error signature to confirm that the bad sector mask was set intentionally. The remaining readable subsectors of the physical sector may be returned to the host.

Storage media (e.g., a hard magnetic disc) may be divided into a number of physical sectors for storing data (e.g., 512 byte sectors). One or more of the physical sectors may be rendered unreadable either due to physical defects on a storage medium or a desire to avoid reading and/or writing data from that physical sector on the storage medium.
Advanced format storage media may utilize larger physical sectors for storing data (e.g., 4096-byte, or 4K-byte sectors). As a result, a corresponding storage drive may map multiple host blocks to a single physical sector on the storage medium within the drive (e.g., eight 512-byte host blocks are mapped to a 4K-byte sector). One or more sub-sectors associated with the host blocks mapped to the single physical sector may be rendered unreadable. However, conventionally marking the entire physical sector of the storage medium may waste valuable storage space within the physical sector that is otherwise readable.


Systems and methods for processing network transactions by breaking down the transactions into several stages and performing the processing corresponding to each stage using a different plug-in module. One embodiment of the invention comprises an application programming interface (API) that enables the use of individual plug-in modules to perform different stages of the processing of a transaction. The API defines a series of interfaces to corresponding plug-in processing modules, where each interface corresponds to a stage of processing of a transaction and the API conveys transaction information from one plug-in module to the next, until all of the processing stages have been completed. The API may be embodied in a network transaction processing application that is adaptable to different functionalities and different protocols by plugging different modules into the interface provided by the API.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to computer and software architectures, and more particularly to systems and methods for constructing network transaction processing platforms that comprise plug-in modules which control the manner in which transactions between a client and a server are processed.
2. Related Art
A vast majority of the computer systems that are currently in use are not configured strictly as stand-alone devices. In other words, they are coupled to other computers, and possibly other types of devices, through one or more networks. For example, it is typical for a personal computer set up for use at a person's home or business to be connected to other computers (e.g., web servers) via the Internet. Communications between networked computers can be handled in many different ways. For example, a single computer can run multiple network programs at the same time, and each program can use any communication protocol (or protocols) that chooses. The only restriction on these programs is that only one program can bind to a specific TCP or UDP port at a time. Thus, only one program can listen for requests on any given port (e.g., port 80, which is the standard port for HTTP), but a second program (e.g., an FTP server or even another Web server) running at the same time can only listen for requests on a different port.
Just as a particular program can use different protocols, a particular program can perform one or many tasks. For example, a program can perform the tasks of a content server, a content proxy, a caching proxy, a transformation proxy, an advertisement insertion proxy, a content optimization server or proxy, and so on.
Even though it is possible for programs to perform multiple tasks, prior art programs for handling network communications have typically been designed to perform a single task per program. Prior art programs that perform multiple tasks are actually quite rare. In some instances, prior art programs act as dispatchers to other programs that perform different tasks. For example, a Web server can be configured to dispatch received requests to different programs (e.g., CGI's), depending upon the actual URL that is requested.
Prior art programs therefore present a number of difficulties in designing a system that performs multiple tasks. For example, because prior art programs are typically designed to perform a single task, chaining these single tasks with others often involves rewriting most or all of the corresponding programs. Further, because different programs are typically used to perform different tasks (e.g., as in the foregoing example of the Web server that dispatches requests to other programs), there is little or no sharing of functionality between these programs. Thus, each program may have to independently provide such functionality as caching, logging, configuration, authorization, monitoring, communications, and so on.

Plug-in API for modular network transaction processing


A television screen control apparatus includes a broadcasting contents data processing unit receiving broadcasting content for a new channel in response to an channel changing input signal. When broadcasting content is not displayed during a channel transition period, advertising information on a background plane is visible to a viewer.

A digital television receives broadcasting contents in a moving picture experts group (MPEG) format to display an image. The MPEG format includes an intra frame (i-frame), a predict frame (p-frame), and a bidirectional frame (b-frame) since a large amount of information is compressed and provided. Among them, the i-frame to which a method of compressing a still image is applied becomes a reference frame of a continuous screen.
Therefore, since the i-frame is a key-frame of specific image data, when a viewer viewing the television changes a channel, information of the changed channel that is new channel is not displayed on the television until an i-frame for the new channel is transmitted. A time between a point in time in which the viewer inputs channel changing instructions to a point in time in which a display screen displays the contents of the new channel is called a channel changing time or a channel zapping time. Research has been attempted in order to decrease the channel changing time. However, currently, it has been known that a channel zapping time of about several seconds is required.

Television screen control apparatus and system including the same


A surgical instrument includes a transducer assembly with a housing having a conduit section and a base portion. A fluid passageway is defined through the conduit and base portion, an ultrasonic transducer including a plurality of piezoelectric elements and a plurality of electrodes are arranged in a stack configuration, where an electrode is located between each pair of piezoelectric elements. A first borehole is defined through the ultrasonic transducer and an end mass having a second borehole defined therethrough. A surface of the end mass is positioned adjacent a first end of the ultrasonic transducer, the end mass is configured to engage with the housing, and the conduit section of the housing is configured to pass through the second borehole of the end mass. The end mass is configured to compress the ultrasonic transducer against a surface of the housing when the end mass is engaged with the housing.

Ultrasonic surgical instruments are finding increasingly widespread applications in surgical procedures by virtue of the unique performance characteristics of such instruments. Depending upon specific instrument configurations and operational parameters, ultrasonic surgical instruments can provide substantially simultaneous cutting of tissue and hemostasis by coagulation, desirably minimizing patient trauma. The cutting action is typically realized by an-end effector, or blade tip, at the distal end of the instrument, which transmits ultrasonic energy to tissue brought into contact with the end effector. Ultrasonic instruments of this nature can be configured for open surgical use, laparoscopic, or endoscopic surgical procedures including robotic-assisted procedures.
Some surgical instruments utilize ultrasonic energy for both precise cutting and controlled coagulation. Ultrasonic energy cuts and coagulates by vibrating a blade in contact with tissue. Vibrating at high frequencies (e.g., 55,500 times per second), the ultrasonic blade denatures protein in the tissue to form a sticky coagulum. Pressure exerted on tissue with the blade surface collapses blood vessels and allows the coagulum to form a hemostatic seal. The precision of cutting and coagulation is controlled by the surgeon's technique and adjusting the power level, blade edge, tissue traction, and blade pressure.
Some areas of improvement for ultrasonic surgical instruments exist. The cost of such instruments remains a barrier for wider applicability. For example, the cost of the transducer has to be lowered substantially to allow for the integration of a transducer into a single patient use device. One of the cost drivers for transducers is the complexity of the piezoelectric element(s) or combination of elements being used. It would be desirable to provide a surgical instrument that overcomes some of the deficiencies of current instruments. The surgical system described herein overcomes those deficiencies.

Ultrasonic surgical instrument with piezoelectric central lumen transducer


A rotary internal combustion engine has a cylindrical rotor which rotates in a cylindrical rotor chamber of a stator. A cylindrical peripheral surface of the rotor rotates equidistantly from the housing wall of the rotor housing. A plurality of vanes project radially from the peripheral surface of the rotor and they sealing against the inner wall surface of the rotor housing. Several turning or reciprocating valves are equi-angularly distributed about a periphery of the housing chamber. The valves seal against the rotor periphery and they open up for the vanes to pass by.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to internal combustion engines and, in particular, to rotary internal combustion engines driven by the sequential combustion of combustible fuel in a plurality of internal combustion chambers.
2. Description of the Related Art
A considerable amount of research in rotary cycles was done in the 1920's and 1930's. Many types of rotary cycles were considered. The development lead to the most famous of rotary engines, namely the Wankel engine. Many mechanical problems were solved during that time. However, even though the rotary cycle is superior to the Otto cycle in all theoretical thermodynamic calculations, only one large series automobile, i.e., the Mazda RX-7, utilizes the Wankel cycle.
The instantly proposed system deviates considerably from the Wankel system, most notably in the differences regarding compression. A certain amount of teaching may nevertheless be transferred, for instance seal and spark plug placement information.
Most prior art rotary engines utilize the rotor to compress the fuel/air mixture directly in the combustion chamber. The rotor is thereby radially asymmetric, it is mounted eccentrically relative to the rotor chamber, or the chamber is not circular. Examples of such engines are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,075,981 to Durst, 3,301,233 to Dotto et al., and 3,782,110 to Kobayashi, respectively. An alternative design was recently proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,084 to Cherry et al. where the rotor and the chamber are radially symmetrical and the combustion chambers are instead formed laterally on either sides of the rotor and several vanes move axially to close off the combustion chambers. The compression "stroke" is effected by the narrowing of the combustion chamber during the angular displacement of rotor relative to the rotor housing (the stator) and the reduction in chamber volume effected by the respective vane.
As noted above, the rotary cycle is superior to the Otto cycle on paper. In reality, however, Otto cycle engines are quite principally better in terms of thermodynamic efficiency. Whether or not this has anything to do with the fact that much more research has been invested in the Otto cycle as compared to the rotary cycle cannot be easily answered. It should be possible, however, to improve a rotary engine further so that its actual efficiency approaches the theoretical limits more closely.

Radial vane rotary internal combustion engine


A pouch type secondary battery has a safety vent which prevents explosion and fire by removing a sealing mechanism of a pouch casing when the internal temperature increases due to overcharging, overdischarging or over-heating, and which exhausts internal gas before explosion and fire of the battery when the internal gas pressure excessively increases due to overcharging, overdischarging or internal short-circuit. The pouch type secondary battery includes an electrode assembly having positive and negative electrode plates with a separator interposed therebetween, and positive and negative electrode terminals extending from the positive and negative electrode plates, respectively, a pouch casing having a space in which the electrode assembly is housed to be sealed, a seal portion provided at the periphery of the space, and at least one of the positive and negative electrode terminals exposed to the seal portion, and at least one opening member disposed at the seal portion and made of a resin material having a lower melting point than a melting point of the seal portion of the pouch casing.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a secondary battery, and more particularly, a pouch type secondary battery with a safety vent, which can prevent explosion and fire.
2. Description of the Related Art
Secondary batteries are generally rechargeable and can be made into a smaller size with high capacity. Typical examples of secondary batteries include nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries and lithium (Li) secondary batteries.
Secondary batteries are classified into cylindrical batteries using a cylindrical aluminum can, rectangular batteries using a rectangular aluminum can, and pouch type batteries accommodated in a thin-film pouch type casing, according to the outer appearance of a casing.
Specifically, a pouch type battery is fabricated by encasing an electrode assembly which generates current in a pouch casing made of a flexible film material, and sealing the same. When the internal pressure of such a pouch type battery increases due to overcharge, gas is released, which may cause swelling and explosion of a battery pack. In particular, when a lithium ion battery is overcharged, decomposition of a liquid electrolyte leads to a release of gas, such as carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, increasing the internal pressure of the battery. Also, if over-current flows through a battery due to overdischarging or short-circuit, the internal pressure and temperature of the battery increase, leading to a risk of fire, which is a serious problem from the safety point of view.
In order to ensure safety, such secondary batteries must meet temperature requirements for charge and use. Under severe use conditions, that is, when the temperature during charging/discharging or the operation temperature of a device using batteries is excessively high, the internal temperature of a battery rises, resulting in explosion and fire.
Thus, in view of safety, manufactured secondary batteries are subjected to various safety tests, including tests of safety against overcharge or forced discharge, and thermal safety tests such as high temperature storage testing, thermal shock testing or thermal exposure testing, before commercial distribution. The thermal safety tests are carried out by allowing batteries to stand under various temperature conditions for a plurality of minutes to a plurality of hours. Even under such conditions, explosion and fire do not occur in batteries meeting safety requirements. However, in extreme cases, a battery seal is removed, thus preventing explosion and fire.
Various attempts have been made to overcome such a safety problem in secondary batteries. In particular, techniques have been vigorously sought to remove internal gases of a battery by installing a safety vent on a battery pack. By way of example, Korean Patent Publication No. 98-44210 discloses a secondary battery configured to provide a separate gas outlet or check valve made of a material having a low burst resistance at a front upper end of the battery. The gas outlet is designed to be ruptured or to exhaust internal gas through the check valve when the battery is swollen due to overcharging or overdischarging. However, the necessity of providing a separate device at the upper end of the battery requires an additional process in the manufacture of batteries, deteriorating manufacturability.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,725 discloses that a thermally fusible portion of an electrode tap provided at the upper end of a battery ruptures, when the internal pressure rises to a predetermined level of pressure, to allow internal gas to be exhausted outside the battery. However, according to this technique, installing a separate safety vent requires modification of a battery pack, and it is necessary to manufacture a separate casing that is different from a conventional casing. Even though the conventional casing is used, since the safety vent has a unsealed portion, and a clip is placed on the unsealed portion, the burst strength of the clip must be taken into consideration for adhesion, increasing the number of processing steps and deteriorating breaking reliability.
Japanese Patent Laid-open Publication No. 2000-100399 discloses an outer film container of a polymer lithium secondary battery, wherein the outer container casing comprises thermally fusible layers adhered to each other to hermetically seal a space in which an electrode assembly is housed, and wherein a portion of the outer container casing is a breaking portion that fuses at a lower temperature than a temperature at which a non-breaking portion fuses, that is, the fusibility of the breaking portion is lowered. Accordingly, when the internal pressure of the battery is elevated to a predetermined value, the breaking portion is ruptured.
However, it is quite difficult to reduce only the fusing temperature of the breaking portion. Also, adjusting a fusible bonding force at the breaking portion is quite difficult to achieve, which is disadvantageous in view of the manufacturability and the reliability of a safety vent.

Pouch type secondary battery with safety vent


A measuring element which has been lengthening in the flow direction to provide a detachment zone which is shifted downstream from the region of the measuring resistor, so that end flow disturbances no longer affect the region of the measuring resistor, and adulteration of the measurement values is prevented. The measuring element is especially suitable for determining the throughput or flow rate of the aspirated air of mixture-compressing internal combustion engines.

The invention is based on a measuring element for a device for determining the mass or flow rate of a flowing medium, in particular the aspirated air of internal combustion engines.
In such devices, also known as hot-film air flow rate meters, the resistor tracks of a temperature sensor and a compensation resistor, on the one hand, and the resistor track of the measuring resistor on the other, together with two calibration resistors, form a Wheatstone bridge, whose bridge diagonal voltage is applied to a control amplifier. The output voltage of the control amplifier serves as the heating voltage for a heating resistor of the measuring element.
In a known measuring element for the above device, of the type referred to at the outset (German Patent Disclosure Document 36 38 138 A1), the distribution of the resistor tracks on the substrate is such that the resistor tracks are aligned parallel to one another and in succession in the flow direction. The resistor track for the compensation resistor is disposed between the resistor track for the temperature and the resistor track for the measuring resistor, on the same side of the substrate, and the resistor track for the heating resistor is disposed on the other side of the substrate, immediately opposite the resistor track for the measuring resistor. The various resistor tracks are separated from one another by means of slits in the substrate that extend crosswise to the flow direction; this provides temperature decoupling among the various resistor tracks. As a result of these separating slits, the substrate has three prongs of equal length, of which the first two prongs in the flow direction each have one resistor track, and the last prong in the flow direction has the resistor track for the measuring resistor and the heating resistor.
It has now been found that the characteristic of a measuring element of this kind has an unfavorable course in some regions, with a curvature that does not vary uniformly with an increasing flow rate of the medium. Regions of constant inclination alternate with those of variable inclination.
This characteristic is due to the trailing face located downstream, directly after the measuring resistor, at which face the flow is disturbed. A detachment region in which unsteady flow conditions prevail forms downstream of the trailing face, and this region is characterized by a stable vortex street, known as the Karman vortex street. A flow created by the negative pressure prevailing in the vortices and oscillating transversely to the main flow, leads to the aforementioned adulteration of the characteristic.

Measuring element for determining a flow rate of a flowing medium


A system, apparatus, and method for providing a soft-start for a toy vehicle configured to be operated by a person. The method includes receiving a throttle signal operable to induce motion via a motor operating as a drive mechanism of the toy vehicle. A transition signal may be generated based on the throttle signal. The transition signal may be applied to effect operation of the motor. The transition signal may be a pulse width modulated signal having a duty cycle between 20 and 100 percent to provide for an acceleration that avoids the problems of conventional control systems. The transition signal may be ramped in a linear or non-linear fashion. The system may couple the soft-start control circuit between a ground terminal of a battery of the toy vehicle and motor(s), thereby allowing the soft-start control circuit to operate on a low voltage (i.e., not the high voltage of the battery).

1. Technical Field of the Invention
The principals of the present invention generally relate to toy vehicles that may be ridden by people, and more specifically, but not by way of limitation, to a system, apparatus, and method for softening the initiation of motion of the toy vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
As shown in FIG. 1, toy vehicles 100 for riding on or in have become popular for operators 110, such as children. The toy vehicles 100 may generally include ride-on and ride-in vehicles, including, but not limited to, automobiles, trucks, boats, airplanes, scooters, etc. Conventional control systems for the toy vehicles 100 have typically been limited to applying a direct current (DC) from a DC battery to a motor upon pressing or otherwise operating a "gas" pedal or other throttle mechanism. This type of control, however, basically operates as an on/off switch. In other words, when the pedal is pressed, the motor is applied a voltage for full power (i.e. maximum angular velocity). One reason for such a simplistic design is cost reasons.
FIG. 2 is an exemplary block diagram of a conventional control system 200 for the toy vehicle 100. The conventional control system 200 includes a battery 205, foot pedal switch 210, forward/reverse switch 215 for direction control, hi/lo switch 220 for fast and slow speeds, and motors 225a and 225b. The toy vehicles 100 are typically limited to a battery 205 for a power source rather than using other fuel sources, such as gasoline. The battery 205 is coupled to a foot pedal switch 210, which operates to provide power from the battery 205 to other electrical components of the control system 200 via line 212. The battery 205 supplies battery voltage VBATT. Additionally, the foot pedal switch 210 operates as a failsafe device that prevents power from incidentally or accidentally being applied to the motors 225 for safety purposes. To operate as a failsafe device, the foot pedal switch 210 is a "make or break" switch with a spring return to OFF as understood in the art. The foot pedal switch 210 is further coupled to the forward/reverse switch 215 via line 217 and generates a throttle signal 218.
The forward/reverse switch 215 receives battery power via line 217, is operable to switch the direction of the motors 225 from forward to reverse so as to operate the toy vehicle 100 forward or reverse, respectively. The forward/reverse switch produces two signals, FWD and REV, which are applied to the hi/lo switch 220 via lines 222a and 222b (collectively 222). The hi/low switch 220 is further coupled to the motors 225 and operable to drive the motors 225 in parallel or series to provide for high and low speed of the toy vehicle 100. Further, the hi/lo switch 220 is coupled to the negative terminal 227 of the battery 205, which is electrically coupled to the low side. As understood in the art, each of the components of the control system 200 receive power from the battery, but that power is relatively high for solid state electronics, thereby making alternative control systems difficult and too expensive for the toy industry to consider a viable option.
There exists several problems when utilizing the control system 200, or any other basic direct drive system for controlling toy vehicles 100. These problems may include (i) excessive acceleration, (ii) jerk, (iii) safety (e.g., controlling and flipping the vehicle at startup), and (iv) wearing of the mechanical components of the drive train for the toy vehicle 100. While each of these problems have existed in the toy vehicles 100 for a long period of time, the toy industry and makers of toy vehicles 100 are very cost sensitive due to consumer pricing demands and production costs. Solutions to these problems have been unavailable due in large part to pricing and technical concerns of toy manufacturers for the toy vehicles 100.
With regard to excessive acceleration (dV/dt) and jerk (dA/dt), the acceleration and jerk result in a whiplash effect on the operator 110 and passenger(s). In terms of wearing of the mechanical components, when the toy vehicle 100 changes direction from forward to reverse and vice versa, a complete stop is not required. As all gear drives have a certain amount of backlash (i.e., small amounts of gap between gear teeth), the gears allow the motor to turn in the opposite direction without applying force to the output (e.g., wheels) of the drive train until the entire backlash is reduced to zero, thereby subjecting the motors 225 and drive train to the full load at full speed at each change in direction. In other words, since the motor 225 has no significant initial resistance to movement in the opposite direction due to backlash, the motor 225 accelerates rapidly until the backlash is eliminated. The motor 225 is therefore moving at near full speed in the reverse direction while the vehicle is still moving in a high speed in the opposite direction. Once the backlash is eliminated, the input and output to the drive train are rotating in the opposite direction and the gears exert substantial forces on one another as the drive train suddenly reverses direction. These substantial forces tend to wear out the motors, gears, and other mechanical components in the drive train.
In terms of safety, toy vehicles 100, such as automobiles and scooters, have the ability to flip or turnover due to the excessive acceleration of the toy vehicle 100. Additionally, because of the high acceleration, the wheels are often unable to gain traction on the surface, especially a wet surface. The traction problem, too, may result in the toy vehicle 100 becoming uncontrollable for the operator 110 and passengers, especially children. Additionally, toy manufacturers have been developing toy vehicles 100 with more speed and power thereby resulting in the exacerbation of the problems identified above.

System, apparatus, and method for providing control of a toy vehicle


A magnetic fluid seal device that increases a permissible value of eccentricity for two members to improve sealability and decreases a variation of quality by injecting a magnetic fluid before assembling of parts, that saves structural members to achieve thinning, and that is easy to produce. An annular magnet 3 is buoyantly supported by the magnetic fluid 4 and 5 retained, and the space between a housing 1 and a shaft 2 is sealed by the annular magnet 3 and magnetic fluid 4 and 5.

A conventional relatively moving magnetic fluid seal device seals a gap between two members by bringing a magnetic fluid that is retained at one of the two members into contact with a surface of the other member.
An example configuration of a conventional magnetic fluid seal device is illustrated in FIG. 24. This is a configuration in which a magnet 103, which is commonly magnetized in an axial direction, is sandwiched between and adhered to two pole pieces 104, disposed in a nonmagnetic housing 101, and a magnetic fluid 105 is filled into gaps between the pole pieces 104 and a magnetic material shaft 102.
However, the following problems arise in the case of the above-described conventional technology.
Because the magnetic fluid seal device of the conventional technology is fixed to the housing, the tolerance of eccentricity between the housing and the shaft becomes equal to or less than the gaps between the pole pieces and the shaft, and high precision in the coaxiality between the housing and the shaft has been necessary.
In this configuration, there has also been the complication that the filling of the magnetic fluid must be conducted after assembly of the device, and there has been the drawback that it is difficult to manage the magnetic fluid filling amount.
Moreover, because a regular thickness is necessary for the magnet and the pole pieces, there has been a limit to thinning. There has also been the drawback that the magnet and the pole pieces must be adhered.
The present invention was devised in order to solved the problems in the above-described conventional technology, and it is an object thereof to provide an easily manufacturable magnetic fluid seal device that improves sealability by enlarging the tolerance of eccentricity of the two members, that can reduce variations in quality by making it possible to inject the magnetic fluid before device assembly, and that improves thinning by reducing structural members.


A method for an online service provision platform includes establishing a service product database containing a plurality of digitized service products, obtaining a search term from a user, and searching the service product database based on the search term to obtain a plurality of candidate service products. Each digital service product corresponds to a service item identifier, and the service item identifier uniquely identifies a service item and contains a plurality of fields including a category field, one or more sub-category fields, and a service item field. The method also includes displaying the candidate service products to the user to obtain a selected service product chosen from the candidate service products by the user, and performing a service provision process of the selected service product.

A tangible goods can be easily described, quantified, and sold on an e-commerce platform. In this sense, the e-commerce platform hosts the digitized merchandises, and all the merchandises can exist in a digital format to be viewed, searched, and purchased by an online customer, and the actual merchandises can be delivered to the customer in the real world. In other words, for computers, it is relatively easy to manage data objects representing the merchandises, and to achieve inputting, storing, searching, and/or retrieving tangible merchandises.
However, services, especially legal services, are not like tangible goods. Services are often personalized/customized to a certain degree, and it is often difficult to define services in a standard way. That is, it is relatively difficult to create and manage data objects representing the services to achieve inputting, storing, searching, and/or providing services online. The disclosed method and system are directed to solve one or more problems set forth above and other problems.

Intelligent online platform for digitizing, searching, and providing services


Surface reconstruction contour completion embodiments are described which provide dense reconstruction of a scene from images captured from one or more viewpoints. Both a room layout and the full extent of partially occluded objects in a room can be inferred using a Contour Completion Random Field model to augment a reconstruction volume. The augmented reconstruction volume can then be used by any surface reconstruction pipeline to show previously occluded objects and surfaces.

The availability of commodity depth cameras and sensors such as Microsoft Corporation's Kinect® have enabled the development of methods which can densely reconstruct arbitrary scenes from captured depth images. The task of generating dense 3D reconstructions of scenes from depth images has seen great progress in the last few years. While part of this progress is due to algorithmic improvements, large strides have been made with the adoption of inexpensive depth cameras and the fusion of color and depth signals.
The combined use of depth and color images has been successfully demonstrated for the production of large-scale models of indoor scenes via both offline and online algorithms. Most red, green, blue and depth (RGB+D) reconstruction methods require data that show the scene from a multitude of viewpoints to provide a substantially accurate and complete surface reconstruction.
Accurate and complete surface reconstruction is of special importance in Augmented Reality (AR) applications which are increasingly being used for both entertainment and commercial purposes. For example, a recently introduced gaming platform asks users to scan an interior scene from multiple angles to construct a model of the scene. Using the densely reconstructed model, the platform overlays graphically generated characters and gaming elements. In another example, furniture retailers can enable customers to visualize how their furniture will look when installed without having to leave their homes. These AR applications often require a high fidelity dense reconstruction so that simulated physical phenomenon, such as lighting, shadow and object interactions can be produced in a plausible fashion.

Contour completion for augmenting surface reconstructions


A material classifier for classifying a liquid-solid mixture containing solid material to be separated. The material classifier includes a tank and an angularly mounted scoop wheel for scooping solid material which has settled on the bottom of the tank.

The present invention relates to material classifiers, and more particularly to material classifiers having a scoop wheel.
Material classifiers are used for many different purposes, including the separation or classification of solids according to size and/or particle density. The solids to be separated are mixed in a suitable liquid such as water, to create a liquid-solid mixture or pulp which is then passed to the tank of the classifier. Larger particles settle to the bottom of the classifier tank while fine particles remain in suspension in the liquid medium (called the overflow) which is drawn or overflows from the classifier. Material classifiers also provide cleaning of the solid particles.
Many different types of material classifiers are known, including mechanical and non-mechanical types. One type of mechanical classifier uses a driven wheel having flights, lifts, drags, blades, scoops, scrappers or other means to lift solid material which has settled on the bottom of the tank and discharge it upon a discharge chute, conveyor belt or other means for collecting and transporting the settled material.
A known material classifier, an example of which can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 1,107,472, issued Aug. 18, 1914, uses V-shaped troughs ("buckets") or scrapers spaced around the circumference of a cylindrical classifier tank or vessel. The vessel is partially filled with water and slowly rotates. Materials lighter than water will float on the Water's surface and be discharged from the vessel via an overflow trough. Heavier materials sink to the bottom of the vessel and are scooped-up by the buckets as they rotate. When the buckets reach a specified height within the vessel, the contents of the buckets are dumped onto a spout which discharges the material from the vessel.
Another known material classifier, an example of which can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 2,226,750, issued Dec. 31, 1940, uses a circular wheel with radially spaced blades. Heavier solids scooped-up by the blades are pushed to a discharge lip. Lighter solids are kept in suspension and exit the classifier at an overflow point such as a weir. The classifier blades have a cam mechanism which allows the blades to retract as they move upwards beyond the discharge lip. On the downward rotation the blades are lowered into the water edgewise to minimize the liquid surge caused by the blades entering the water.
Most known sand classifiers and cleaning systems use a screw mechanism for moving the sand along the classifier. These designs are commonly referred to as rotary-drum or screw-conveyor type classifiers, an example of which can be seen in U.S. Pat. No. 4,151,074, issued Apr. 24, 1979. Screw classifiers can be complex, prone to wear, and can be expensive and costly to maintain and set up.
A common drawback of existing classifier designs is that good classifying ability is typically achieved at the expense of capacity and vice versa. Typically, a material classifier has either: (1) good classifying ability but low capacity and a complicated reclaiming system; or (2) high capacity and relatively simple reclaiming system but poor classifying ability. Also, material classifiers with good classifying ability typically offer a much greater classifying ability than is typically required as most finer grade materials have fewer uses.
A further drawback of most material classifiers is that they are large and not easily portable between job sites. Typically, material classifiers must be loaded onto a truck, for example using a forklift, lift truck or crane, transported to the designed location, and then unloaded. Loading and unloading of the classifier results in significant downtime and requires equipment at both the initial and final destinations to perform the loading/unloading operation.
Thus, there is a need for a material classifier that is more cost effective and reliable, less prone to wear and requiring lower maintenance, has a higher capacity and/or that is more compact and can be more easily transported.

Material classifier having a scoop wheel


A drawer assembly for a consumer appliance is provided. The drawer assembly includes an anti-racking system for minimizing misalignment of an appliance drawer. More particularly, the present subject matter provides a drawer slide assembly for a drawer having some horizontal flexibility. The drawer slide assembly may have a pinion gear and connecting rod assembly that minimizes racking of the appliance drawer as it is moved into and out an appliance chamber. The appliance drawer may be attached to the appliance chamber by a ball and joint pinion gear configuration that adds another degree of freedom to the anti-racking system in order to reduce stress on the pinion gear. By adding an additional degree of freedom to the pinion gear and reducing the imposed stresses applied to the pinion gear, the performance and lifetime of the drawer assembly may be improved.

Various types of consumer appliances are designed with pull-out compartment drawers. For example, a number of popular refrigerator styles have freezer compartments with one or more pull-out drawers that span the width of the appliance and include storage baskets or bins. The conventional pull-out drawers typically include side brackets that are mounted to slides of a slide mechanism that, in turn, has a base member mounted to the compartment liner.
Due to their substantial width, depth, and weight, the pull-out drawers are susceptible to misalignment between the sides when moving the drawer into and out of the appliance compartment, particularly if the door is grasped off-center and the pulling/closing force is applied non-parallel to the slide structure. This misalignment may lead to binding or "racking" of the drawer, which may make further movement of the drawer difficult and may also lead to an improper seal of the drawer in the closed position.
A known approach to minimize racking of the drawers is to synchronize the sliding movement of the opposite drawer slide assemblies with a pinion gear and connecting rod assembly. A pinion gear is provided at each side of the drawer that engages with a stationary gear rail as the drawer moves in and out of the freezer compartment. The pinion gears are connected with a connecting rod that spans the width of the drawer. The connecting rod synchronizes movement of the respective pinion gears along the gear rail, which is imparted to the drawer slide assemblies. Thus, any off-center pulling/pushing force on the drawer handle is compensated for through the connecting rod and pinion gears.
Although the pinion gear and connecting rod assembly discussed above is beneficial in minimizing the occurrence of racking, the pinion gears may be subjected to substantial forces and stresses during operation. For example, axial, transverse, and torsional forces are imparted on the pinion gears during operation, which may lead to pinion gear failure. Particularly when the drawer has any horizontal flexibility, torsional forces may place excessive stress on the pinion gears and cause premature failure.
Accordingly, a refrigerator appliance including an improved drawer assembly would be useful. More particularly, a drawer slide assembly having an anti-racking system with a pinion gear designed to withstand stresses commonly experienced during operation would be especially beneficial.

Ball joint pinion for a drawer slide assembly


An energy harvester apparatus that includes a piezoelectric beam having opposing first and second ends, with the first end being fixedly supported to a support structure. A negative spring force subsystem has a first end fixedly secured against movement, and a second end secured to the second end of said piezoelectric beam. The negative spring force subsystem includes a linkage system and a biasing element operably associated with the linkage system for applying an adjustable, negative spring force to the piezoelectric beam to soften the piezoelectric beam. The negative spring force subsystem is adjusted to flex the beam sufficiently to overcome the inherent stiffness of the beam such that two stable positions for the beam are created. The beam is therefore able to oscillate between the two stable positions in an over center fashion in response to a low magnitude vibration signal. In various embodiments the system is implemented to provide an input drive signal to control various types of external devices.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Piezoceramic based motors, actuators and energy harvesters are rapidly gaining popularity for diverse applications where either energy harvesting is performed, or where the use of a piezoceramic element is being used to control movement of another element, for example an actuator.
The following United States patents, all owned by the Boeing Company, are directed to piezoelectric technology and/or piezoelectric controlled devices, and all are hereby incorporated by reference into the present disclosure: U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,894,460; 6,858,970; 6,563,250; 6,307,301; 6,265,810; and 6,320,707.
One limitation with bimorph piezoceramic beams employed in energy harvesting and various control applications is the inherent stiffness of the piezoceramic material. This stiffness must be overcome before a piezoceramic beam is able to vibrate. This limitation tends to make a piezoceramic beam less sensitive to small amplitudes of vibration energy, and also tends to limit the displacement of a free end of the beam in response to vibration energy, or in response to an electrical signal applied to the piezoceramic beam.

Energy shuttle based high energy piezoelectric apparatus and method


Disclosed herein is a polycarbonate copolymer comprising A) a structure derived from a dihydroxy alkylene oxide compound selected from the group consisting of formula (1a) and formula (1b):H-(E-X)l—OH  (1a)H-(E-X-E)l-OH  (1b)wherein E and X are different and each and independently are selected from the group consisting of formula (2a) and formula (2b):—(OCH2CH2)m—  (2a)—(OCHRCH2)n—  (2b)wherein R is a C1-8 alkyl group; l, m, and n are integers greater than or equal to 1; and wherein the weight average molecular weight of the total amount of the structures corresponding to formula (2b) in the copolymer is between 100 and 2,000 g/mol; and B) a structure derived from a dihydroxy aromatic compound, wherein the weight percentages are based on the total weight of the structures of A) and B).

This disclosure relates to polycarbonates, and in particular to polycarbonate-poly(alkylene oxide) copolymers, blends with polycarbonates, and uses thereof.
Polycarbonates are useful in the manufacture of articles and components for a wide range of applications including medical devices. Polycarbonates having excellent attributes including an inherently (i.e., permanently) hydrophilic surface are particularly desirable for such devices. A permanently hydrophilic polycarbonate surface is important for applications where the ability of water to wet a surface is critical. Such applications include filters and membranes where a hydrophilic surface is needed to prevent air bubbles and to improve flow through a membrane.
It is known in the art that copolycarbonates can be made with poly(ethylene oxide) (also referred to herein as "poly(ethylene glycol)") blocks to improve surface wettability. At least in part because of their good hemocompatibility properties, such polycarbonates are useful in medical packaging applications. However, polycarbonates with PEG blocks can have low glass transition temperatures and are therefore less able to withstand high temperature and high pressure sterilization (autoclave) conditions without deformation compared to polycarbonates having none or a lower amount of units derived from ethylene oxide. Conversely, increased levels of carbonate units based on bisphenols such as bisphenol A that would provide the requisite thermal deformation resistance generally have higher surface contact angle and can result in reduced hemocompatibility. However, increased levels of the ethylene oxide units can also lead to increased haze in the compositions.
There accordingly remains a need in the art for polycarbonates that have improved surface wettability, together with other advantageous properties, such as thermal stability, hemocompatibility, anti-fogging, and improved transparency.

Polycarbonate-poly(alkylene oxide) copolymer compositions and articles formed therefrom


The improved molar and/or pre-molar dental implant embedded in the bone of a person's (a dental patient's) jaw prevents a possibility of the implant's pivotability into the extracted tooth socket after insertion. An improved dental implant includes an upper portion, a basis and a lower portion of the implant's body. The upper portion comprises a main neck, a rim and a conic rhomboid form head, including an aperture comprising an inner thread. The lower portion includes a rod comprising the plurality of extensions, and a transverse space crossing the rod along its lateral axis.

Some kind of a simple implantation of teeth in the mouth is known from the Pharaoh's ancient times. Modern dental surgical tooth implantation are extremely efficient. Various embodiments of oral implants are known, these commonly including a tubular body consisting of a smooth head and a cylindrical or cylindro-conical rod intended to be screwed or inserted by compaction into an osseous volume drilled beforehand using a tap. The firsts ancient osseointegration techniques was poor and the attachments for the implants in the jaw bone were purely mechanical and were not as successful as the present techniques that rely on osseointegration. However, it is known that before osseointegration, it was not necessary to wait for prolonged time periods until integration was completed. Some known prior art provides the means for attachment of an implant to the jaw bone structure by means of pins that are forced laterally out from the implant after the implant is inserted in the bone. These pins have pointed ends that, with application of high force, penetrate the bony structure, i.e., the softer spongiosa of the jaw bone, in an effort to make a tooth implant permanent. However, the spongiosa is a relatively soft, living bony material, and subject to changes. Accordingly, reliability and permanence of an implant were not assured. Another known procedure of the missing tooth replacement is to open the gum and to embed an implant in the bone structure beneath the gum. The implant is held in the bone in a socket hole by friction or the implant may be threaded into the bone. The gum is then closed over the implant and heals. When a proper material is used for the implant, e.g., titanium, the bone grows into the implant by osseointegration so that after several months the implant becomes a part of the bone structure in the mouth. The procedures, which are followed after osseointegration has advanced, depends upon the dental practitioner's selection of a manufacturer's product. The mentioned above complete systems of dental implants and prostheses for subsequent attachment to the implants are well known and described, for example, a system that is widely used by dental practitioners is available from Nobelpharma USA Inc., Westmont, Ill. In one system, the implant in a typical construction has an axially threaded hole at its top, i.e., the proximal end near the gum. After the bone has joined to the implant, the gum over the implant is reopened to expose the tapped hole. Then, an abutment is threaded into the tapped hole of the implant and extends to a level above the gum. The protruding end of the abutment is constructed with a non-round shape for attachment of a prosthesis. Also, the protruding end includes a central threaded hole extending inward toward the jaw bone. A false tooth or crown is provided with a hole, known as a chimney, therethrough, and a non-round recess in its base that corresponds in shape to the protruding non-round cross-section of the abutment. Thereby, the crown can be joined to the abutment with a self-aligning connection that prevents relative rotation between them. A screw, passed into the chimney opening, engages the tapped hole in the abutment so as to hold the crown axially to the abutment. Thus, the crown cannot rotate about the abutment because it is fixed into the special contours on the exposed abutment end, and the crown cannot pull away from the abutment when the screw has been tightened in place. Finally, the chimney above the screw is filled with a composite filler material that hardens and is shaped as part of the crown, to look like a natural tooth.
However, the problem, and a source of patient dissatisfaction, resides in the several months of marked inconvenience for the patient while the process of osseointegration takes place and the implant becomes fixedly attached to the jaw bone. This difficulty, to be overcome, requires an avoidance of eating and chewing foods that will cause undesirable stresses and force transmissions in the tooth region. From present understanding, it appears that osseointegration takes place between the bone and the titanium implant under strict conditions of immobilization and without force or stress applied on the bone/implant interface. An uninterrupted growth of bone on the titanium surface is the time-consuming factor. It is not completely clear at this time whether osseointegration taken place under the condition of extreme immobilization and, if not, how much movement of the implant is tolerable. It is also not clear whether controlled application of force is harmful, or may actually help if applied in a specific manner. From many years of metal implantation in bones, it has been learned that stress sharing constructions made of bone and implant encourage bone healing and bone growth, while stress shielding implants prevent healing, mainly by eliminating the stimuli from the body's osteoblasts. After a tooth extraction, it is necessary that the site should heal prior to initiating implant procedures. This further extends the time period until the patient is ready to resume normal chewing at the site.
What is needed is an implant system that provides effective attachment to the bone in a shorter period of time than present implants require, and with less inconvenience for the patient during the period when osseointegration takes place.
For example, the U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,847 describes the dental prosthesis implants placed into a socket formed in the jaw bone, is held in position by screws that pass through the jaw bone from the buccal cortical surface to the lingual cortical surface, and through the implant that is located between the cortical surfaces. Threads on the screw shank form and engage threads in the cortex on opposite sides of the jaw bone. The implant, when inserted in the socket and anchored by the screws, is strongly held to the jaw's bony structure. Stresses applied to a prosthetic device, e.g., a tooth crown that is attached to the implant, are substantially borne by the cortex by way of the screws.
Despite of strong connection, such implant installation requires additional alien subjects (e.g. the screws passing through the jaw bone from the buccal cortical surface to the lingual cortical surface) in the human (patient's) jaw, that is highly discomfortable and also requires longer time for the patient's recovery.
Another implants and the connecting device are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,746,293. The patent describes an implant with the individual crowns, preventing possible torsional forces from running up and disengaging the spacer screw with a milled groove in which a droplet of acrylate is applied for reversible locking. Generally, the implant and connecting device comprise an anchorage unit (a fixture) implanted in jawbone tissue. The spacer is provided with a central, cylindrical spacer screw designed specifically for this purpose with an extended, exteriorly threaded pin. The spacer is provided with a collar consisting of two surfaces: an outer horizontal surface and an obliquely inclined surface located inside the surface.
The anchorage unit and the outer prosthesis portion, a connecting device in the form of an outer, sleeve-shaped patrix is connected to the spacer. The outer circumferential surface of the patrix connects to the outer prosthesis portion and the patrix surrounds the central spacer screws. The base of the patrix is connected to the collarshaped portions of the spacer by the intermediary of a resilient member in the form of a rubber O-ring.
The obliquely inclined surface of the collar-shaped portion of the spacer forms, together with an upper horizontal surface 8 on a cuff of the spacer, two of the walls of an annular tunnel for the resilient member, namely the lower horizontal wall and the oblique lateral wall. The remaining walls of the annular tunnel viz. the medial, vertical wall and the upper horizontal wall are formed by the circumferential surface of the spacer screw, which in this case is of circular profile, and the planar, lower base surface of the patrix, respectively.
The annular tunnel of rhomboid cross-section which is formed by the above-mentioned surface is adapted to the resilient member in the form of an O-ring of rubber. The O-ring is dimensioned to permit a deflection of the order of magnitude of about 100-200 nu.m. In eccentric or oblique loading, this corresponds to a maximum angular displacement of 1°-2°.
The patrix surface is so disposed as to depress the O-ring and provide the contemplated elastic transmission of forces between the outer prosthesis portion and the spacer (the fixture). The play provided between the patrix surface and the spacer collar surface should exceed 200 nu.m in order to permit the planned elastic deflection of 100-200 nu.m.
The elastic connection is anchored (locked) by an interiorly threaded special nut manufactured of, for example, gold. The nut is screwed onto the exteriorly threaded pin of the spacer screw such that its lower peripheral end surface meets a horizontal heel on the patrix. The nut is screwed on so far that light compression of the O-ring is attained. This light compression or pre-tensioning may be exactly determined in that the screw which is disposed in the top of the nut is turned so as to register with a groove in the upper patrix edge. By provision of further two such groove markings in the patrix edge to which the screw slot can be turned, both moderate and hard pre-tensioning of the connecting device may be mode, depending upon the deflection amplitude which is deemed to be most purposeful in each individual situation.
The upper surface of the special nut may be covered with, for example, a gold washer once it has been locked by a droplet of acrylate. Acrylate is then applied over the gold washer in order to fill the aperture through which the nut was applied.
The implant with such connection is not sufficiently reliable considering the presence of the rubber O-ring.
Thus, there is a great need in the art for the improved not complex, not expensive and reliable molar and/or pre-molar dental implant embedded in the bone of a person's (a dental patient's) jaw.


A purchase order processing system allows purchase orders issued from a number of consignees each requiring different processing operations to be processed simply and in an error free manner. The system prompts a user for only that information required by a selected consignee to process a purchase order issued thereby. In processing a purchase order, the system verifies packing information against stored purchase order data. The system automatically generates shipping labels and advance shipping notices in compliance with the diverse requirements of the various consignees. In order to process purchase orders from different consignees, the system of the present invention utilizes nonconsignee specific software that operates in accordance with consignee specific data files that define the purchase order processing requirements of a consignee.

Consignees such as retailers are requiring that vendors, form whom they purchase products, ship the products in containers marked with a shipping label that includes specific information in a specific format. Many consignees are also requiring that the vendors send an advance shipping notice that includes specific information in a specific format. If the shipping label and/or advance shipping notice do not comply with the consignee's requirements, the consignee may impose penalties on the vendor. The information as well as the format thereof required for the shipping label and advance shipping notice varies from consignee to consignee, however. When a vendor is shipping products to more than one consignee, the processing of purchase orders in compliance with the diverse requirements of the various consignees becomes very difficult increasing the likelihood of errors in the shipping label and/or advance shipping notice.

Label generating and data tracking system for processing purchase orders