An electrical harnessing structure for connecting to vehicle electrical components to an instrument panel, which is constituted by an instrument panel core to which the vehicle electrical components are mounted, and an instrument panel mount member for mounting the instrument panel core to a vehicle body component portion. The harnessing structure includes an electrical harnessing member divided at least into a first electrical harnessing member portion and a second electrical harnessing member portion, and consisting of a bundle of a plurality of electric wires, a first mounting member for mounting the first electrical harnessing member portion to the instrument panel mount member, a second mounting member for mounting the second electrical harnessing member portion to the instrument panel core, and a connect member for connecting the first and second electrical harnessing member portions to each other.

The present invention relates to an electrical harnessing structure for a vehicle, which structure is arranged on a predetermined vehicle body component of a vehicle and, for example, to an electrical harnessing structure of electrical components for a vehicle, arranged in an instrument panel of the vehicle.
In recent years, vehicle components of an automobile tend to be assembled to a vehicle main body by automatic machines. In this automatic assembling system, an instrument panel located at a front portion in a passenger room, sub assemblies (e.g., a meter node and a switch node) constituting the instrument panel, and the like must be suitable for the automatic assembling operations.
As described in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 1-190551, the instrument panel is divided into two panel units, i.e., a skeleton instrument panel mount member directly mounted on the vehicle body cowl panel, and an instrument panel core mounted on the instrument panel mount member. Various sub assemblies such as a meter node, a switch node, and the like are assembled to the instrument panel core, thus facilitating the assembling operations.
However, even when the above-mentioned instrument panel structure is adopted, an electrical harnessing structure of electrical components to be arranged in the instrument panel poses problems.
More specifically, in recent years, since the number of electrical components is increased, a wire harness for electrically connecting these components tends to have a large diameter and a large capacity. Therefore, it is not easy to arrange the wire harness, and complicated distributions and connections of electric wires require very difficult operations. In this manner, the arrangement structure in a conventional harness state cannot possibly cope with the above-mentioned automatic assembling operations.
In order to solve this problem, the following attempt is made, as disclosed in, e.g., Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 63-219446. That is, a wire harness itself is hardened to have a fixed pattern using a synthetic resin member so as to form a three-dimensional electrical harnessing member corresponding to a distribution pattern of electric wires. The three-dimensional electrical harnessing member having a fixed pattern is connected in correspondence with an arrangement metal board, which is three-dimensionally arranged according to the shape of an inner surface portion of an instrument panel, connector positions, and the like, so as to attain the automatic assembling operations.
This structure can cope with the automatic assembling operations. However, this structure requires complicated processes for the wire harness. In addition, connector fitting positions do not have a sufficient degree of freedom. Therefore, connector fitting portions are apt to cause decentering unless a molding process is controlled so that all the connector positions have considerably high precision.

Electrical harnessing structure for vehicle


A system and method for allowing access to data or processing on a remote computer. An authorizing computer provides client computers with a data specification and remote computer address along with an authorization code that is digitally signed or encrypted and that may only be used for a limited number of times. A client computer then accesses the remote computer by providing the digitally signed authorization code. The remote computer responds with the data or processing if the digital signature is successfully verified and the authorization code has been used fewer than the limited number of times.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention generally relates to the field of monitoring and controlling electronic access to data and processing on remote computers, and more particularly relates to providing one time access to processing on remote computers.
2. Description of Related Art
Many applications which operate on computers connected to electronic communications networks receive data from remote computers. The data received from remote computers may be provided by a data base server on the remote computer or by a process executing on the remote computer which produces the data. The remote computer may be used to distribute processing among different processors or the remote computer may be operated by a different business entity and provides the data under a contract or Service Level Agreement (SLA).
Requesting information from remote computers is often performed when assembling information to provide in a report. An example of automated report generation that often access data from remote computers is assembling information to transmit to a person using an Internet World Wide Web (WWW) browser. A person using a WWW Browser may request a set of information from a server computer and that server computer may request and receive data from a remote computer in order to assemble the complete set of information requested.
An example of an application that requires data to be retrieved from a remote computer is an Internet retailer that out sources warehouse management to another company. A customer requesting information over the Internet about a product might also be provided with the quantity of that product that is available in the retailer's warehouse. In order to determine the quantity of that product that is available in the warehouse, the retailer's computer, which receives the request from the customer, queries the computer maintained by the warehouse management company to determine the inventory on hand. The quantity information is then received by the retailer's computer and integrated into the information sent to the customer.
The data stored on the remote computers is often private or not available to the general public. In order to control access to that data, a user authentication system must be implemented. Various user authentication systems exist in the prior art which are based on the identity of a user's account or computer requesting the information. This limits the processing architecture of systems that provide information to a large base of users. Accordingly, a need exists for a method and system to provide selective access to private computer resources over a communications network.

Public key based authentication method for transaction delegation in service-based computing environments

International Business Machines Corporation


In a vehicle air conditioner, each of cool air outlets is provided at an upper side of each seat at second and third seat lines from a most front seat so that cool air from an air conditioning unit is blown from the cool air outlets toward upper sides of the seats, respectively, and each of warm air outlets is provided at a lower side of each seat at the second and third seat lines so that warm air from the air conditioning unit is blown from the warm air outlets toward lower sides of the seats, respectively. In addition, each of suction ports is provided for each corresponding seat at the second and third seat lines so that air inside a passenger compartment is sucked from the suction ports to be returned to the air conditioning unit.

This application is related to Japanese Patent Applications No. 2000-96307 filed on Mar. 31, 2000, and No. 2000-317080 filed on Oct. 17, 2000.
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle air conditioner having inside air suction ports each of which is provided for each seat in a passenger compartment. More particularly, a forced suction blower is disposed at a downstream side of the inside air suction ports to forcibly suck inside air of the passenger compartment from the inside air suction ports in the vehicle air conditioner.
2. Description of Related Art
In a conventional vehicle air conditioner described in JP-A-10-6744, a rear air conditioning unit for heating or cooling a rear seat side within a passenger compartment is provided. Further, a suction port, from which air inside the passenger compartment is sucked, is provided in one of right and left rear side panels, and an air outlet, from which conditioned air of the rear air conditioning unit is blown toward the rear seat side of the passenger compartment, is provided in the other one of the right and left rear side panels. In this case, because air flows in the rear space of the passenger compartment between the right and left sides, a uniform air temperature distribution can be obtained in right and left sides on the rear seat of the passenger compartment. However, when a heat load (e.g., air amount, air temperature) at the rear right side is different from that at the rear left side, it is difficult to perform an independent air-conditioning control.
Further, in a vehicle air conditioner, only a single suction port for sucking inside air inside the passenger compartment into a rear air conditioning unit is provided, while plural cool air outlets and plural warm air outlets are provided. Therefore, when the single suction port is provided in the side panel adjacent to the third seat from a most front seat, for example, air blown toward the second seat readily flows into the third seat side. Accordingly, air cannot be sufficiently distributed to the second seat side, and an independent air-conditioning control for each seat is deteriorated.
Further, in a vehicle having a large seat movable range, when a passenger on the rear seat is placed at a position apart from a rear air outlet, it is necessary to increase an air amount blown from the air outlet. Accordingly, consumed power for performing air-conditioning operation is increased, and air-blowing noise is increased.
In view of the foregoing problems, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle air conditioner which effectively perform an air conditioning operation desired by a passenger on each seat.
It is an another object of the present invention to provide a vehicle air conditioner which improves an independent air-conditioning control performance in each seat without increasing an air-blowing amount from air outlets.
According to the present invention, in a vehicle air conditioner, each of plural suction ports is provided for each of plural seats so that air inside the passenger compartment is sucked from the suction ports to be introduced into an air passage of an air conditioning duct of an air conditioning unit, and each of outlets is provided for each air-conditioning space of the seats in the passenger compartment so that air from the air passage of the air conditioning duct is blown toward each air-conditioning space of the seats. Accordingly, a flow of conditioned air blown toward a passenger on each seat can be effectively distributed in each seat, air-conditioning operation desired by a passenger on each seat can be effectively performed. Thus, when the air conditioning unit is constructed to independently control an air state such as a suction air amount, an air-blowing amount, an air temperature and an air-flowing direction, the independent control of the air conditioning state can be effectively performed for each air conditioning space of the seats.
Preferably, a forced suction member, for forcibly sucking air inside the passenger compartment from the suction ports into the air passage of the air conditioning duct, is disposed separately from a blower of the air conditioning unit. Therefore, plural air conditioning spaces can be effectively independently provided in the seats, respectively, and independent air-conditioning control performance can be improved in each seat without increasing the air amount blown from the air outlets.
Preferably, a seat air duct, through which air from the air conditioning unit and air from the passenger compartment can be selectively introduced into each of the seats, can be provided, the seat air duct is disposed to be integrated with each of the seats, and the forced suction member is a seat blower which is disposed in the seat air duct so that air introduced into the seat air duct is blown from a seat surface. Accordingly, air sucked from the suction ports can be blown from the seat surface of each seat, while the independent air-conditioning control performance of each air conditioning space of the seats is improved.
More preferably, a blower control unit controls operation of a forced suction blower in accordance with one of each passenger""s operation and a blower control characteristic, and the blower control unit controls an air amount sucked from each of the suction ports due to the operation of the forced suction blower in accordance with at least one of an air temperature and an air amount blown from an air outlet which is selected from a passenger""s seated position. Therefore, an air amount sucked from each of the suction ports can be suitably set.
On the other hand, the blower control unit controls the air amount sucked from the suction ports to become larger than a predetermined amount in an air outlet mode where air is mainly blown toward an upper side of each seat, and the blower control unit controls the air amount sucked from the suction ports to become smaller than the predetermined amount in an air outlet mode where air is mainly blown toward a lower side of each seat. Therefore, air conditioning feeling for a passenger in each seat can be improved.

Vehicle air conditioner having air suction port for each seat


One or more specific embodiments disclosed herein includes a method for manually measuring the distance between a first and second point, comprising: providing a measuring device, placing the measuring device between the first and second points, moving the first or second elongated members, or both, from the first position to the second position, and determining the distance between the first and second points. The measuring device comprises: a first and second elongated member, wherein the first and second elongated members are disposed in substantially parallel relation to each other and are movable in relation to one another between a first and second position and a first scale that provides a first distance measurement and a second scale that provides a second distance measurement, wherein the distance between the first and second points is based at least in part on the combination of the first and second distance measurements.

1. Field of Inventions
The field of this application and any resulting patent is distance measurements.
2. Description of Related Art
Various methods and devices have been proposed and utilized to measure distance, including the methods and devices disclosed in the patents appearing on the face of this patent. However, these methods and devices lack all the steps or features of the methods and devices covered by the patent claims below. As will be apparent to a person of ordinary skill in the art, the methods and structures covered by the claims of this issued patent solve many of the problems that prior art methods and structures fail to solve. Also, it will be apparent that the methods and structures covered by claims of this patent have unpredictable benefits, and overcome many of the shortcomings inherent in some of those prior art methods and structures.


An apparatus for indicating the proper pendulum putting stroke to a golfer with An elongated display device that is positioned on a floor parallel to the stroke path of the practicing golfer, A display device containing multiple microcontroller module sections, each containing visual indicators spaced uniformly along the length of the sections, Each section being responsive to commands from a peripheral computing device to turn on a specific visual indicator, a peripheral computing device such as a personal computer running a computer program which calculates the putting stroke based on desired distance, green speed, and the golfer's personal rhythm rate in beats per minute, A peripheral computing device that after calculating the putting stroke time-position data, commands the display device to turn on and off consecutive visual indicators at a predefined time in such a way as to display a putting stroke path, and show the golfer the proper time-space dynamics to strike a golf ball a desired distance.

This invention relates generally to the field of golf training aids and more specifically to an apparatus for indicating the proper pendulum putting stroke to a golfer. It has been known for quite some time since the advent of modern era golf greens, that the pendulum stroke is the preferred putting stroke. Before greens were fast and smooth, a wristy, hands dominated putting stroke was used by most professional golfers. With the development of smooth golf greens through agricultural grass research that has produced grass strains with fine blades that allow shorter mower cuts, a putting stroke which locks the wrists and uses the large muscles in the arms and shoulders has been adopted by the vast majority of golf professionals. This arms oriented stroke has been named the pendulum putting stroke. Almost every expert in golf instruction recommends the pendulum stroke yet, no one can actually show a golfer exactly what it is. Metronomes are usually suggested as a means of teaching a golfer how to keep a consistent back and forth rhythm. A pendulum putting stroke takes the same time to travel from the top of the backswing though impact to the top of the followthrough regardless of the putting stroke length, so golfers practice short strokes, medium strokes, and long strokes while listening to a metronome's tick tock sound. The top of the backswing is reached at the tick and the downswing is completed at the tock. Looking to the pendulum as an analog to the putting stroke, leading golf instructors see the pendulum's smooth acceleration and constant timing as an ideal device to emulate in putting.
Prior tempo training aides consist of devices that provide audio, visual, or vibration signals that indicate various points in the golf swing. Most indicate the beginning, backswing, and downswing phases of a full golf swing or putting stroke. Metronome devices indicate the timing between the two endpoints of the golf stroke, the top of the backswing to the end of the downswing. For a putting stroke, the metronome tick sound corresponds to the top of the backswing while the tock sound corresponds to the end of the downswing. Five U.S. patents disclose audible sound producing metronomes either worn by the golfer, placed near the golfer or placed inside the golf club handle including U.S. Pat. No. 5,743,807 to Bendo, U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,281 to Berghofer, U.S. Pat. No. 5,040,790 to Anthes, U.S. Pat. No. 3,808,707 to Fink, and U.S. Pat. No. 6,517,352 to Smith. One approach, U.S. Pat. No. 5,558,519 to Sabowitz, provides an audio or visual indication for the start of the backswing, the half swing point, the top of the backswing, and the impact point on the downswing. U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,538 describes a putting trainer that has a microswitch onto which the toe of a putter contacts in order to detect the start of the backswing when the putter is moved and the microswitch opens. Adjustment knobs set the time duration of the backswing and the downswing. Control circuitry produces a sensible signal, which is described by the inventor as a visual or audible signal detected by the golfer, at the top of the backswing and at the end of the downswing. Still another approach, U.S. Pat. Application Publication No. US 2004/0214651 A1 to Park provides a tone or vibration to indicate the start and duration of the backswing, followed by a tone or vibration to indicate the start and duration of the downswing. A series of Leds arranged in a circular fashion on the front of the display indicate for the purposes of adjustment setup, the timing of the backswing and downswing that will be executed when placed in the audio or vibration mode.
Prior putting tempo training aids suffer several disadvantages. Most of the training aids relate to the full golf swing and not specifically to the putting stroke. If applied to the putting stroke, the simpler training aids that output an audible or visual indicator at the top of the backswing and the end of the downswing provide only two data points in the overall putting stroke dynamic. These aids fail to indicate to the golfer where the putter should be between the two points. U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2004/0214651 A1 provides an audio beep or buzzer for the backswing start, top of the swing pause, and start of the downswing. A series of LEDs, in LED mode, placed in a small circle on the outside of the housing depicts 17 positions in a full swing pattern that flash on in sequence to indicate the backswing and downswing timing selected by the golfer prior to actual use. However, the LEDs are only viewed for device setup and are not watched while making a full swing. The Led sequence's purpose is not to show the golfer a detailed time position guide to strike a ball a desired distance. Furthermore, a full swing depiction does not provide a golfer with a relevant putting stroke guide. Although these aids provide tempo signals that aid a golfer in building a repeatable stroke, they do not show the golfer how to execute a putting stroke that will roll a golf ball a desired distance. It is the goal of the present invention to indicate to the golfer through a series of visual indicators, the proper pendulum stroke dynamics to produce a desired distance putt on a green of known green speed and with a personal putting tempo in beats per minute. Using the present invention, a golfer enters the green speed, beats per minute, and the desired distance and by following the resulting LED sequence pattern with his/her putter, will learn the backswing and downswing dynamics to stroke a golf ball a desired distance.


Aspects of the disclosure provided a method to improve performance of a cleaning device to extend a usage life of the cleaning device. The method can include obtaining a performance characteristic of an electrostatic brush that degrades operations of the electrostatic brush, determining at least one parameter that compensates for the degradation, and controlling the electrostatic brush by the at least one parameter to maintain the electrostatic brush operating within a failure boundary.

Cleaning devices, such as an electrostatic brush, elastomeric blade, and the like, can be used in a printing system to remove particles, such as residue toner particles, on a photoreceptor surface. Performance of a cleaning device may degrade with usage and over time, which may leave a substantial amount of particles on the photoreceptor surface. Further, the substantial amount of particles on the photoreceptor surface may degrade printing quality. Therefore, a replacement cleaning device may be required to replace an old cleaning device after a certain usage of the old cleaning device to ensure quality printing. Frequent replacement of the cleaning devices may introduce additional maintenance cost and disturbance to a printing process.


A method and an apparatus are disclosed for measuring contact erosion in an electrical switching device by a dynamic resistance measurement (DRM). To determine an overlap time and a contact erosion in an exemplary switching device, a change in current across the switching device can be measured indirectly by a measurement current being passed across the switching device and a parallel conductor, the change in current in the parallel conductor being measured. Exemplary embodiments relate, to the following: detection of a differential current measurement signal in the parallel conductor with the aid of a Rogowski coil; and selection of a parallel conductor resistance on an order of the switch resistance.

Dynamic resistance measurement (DRM) is used for determining the overlap time of a circuit breaker. The overlap time is the time difference between the separation of the contacts in the rated current contact system and the separation of the contacts in the consumable or arcing contact system and indicates how severely the arcing contacts have already been eroded. It is therefore possible to assess the remaining life time of a quenching chamber. In the case of DRM, during CO operation (close, then open switch) a constant direct current of the order of magnitude of 1 kA is transmitted via the switch and the voltage drop across the switch is recorded. Recording of the voltage makes it possible to determine the line resistance of the switch at any point in time. Thus, the two times at which the contact systems open, and therefore also the overlap time, can be determined. The fact that the transmitted direct current needs to be so great is because the resistances of the two contact systems are very low in value and differ from one another only slightly. Only when a very high current is transmitted the voltage difference between the consumable contact system and the rated current contact system is within the measurable range.
One aspect of this method is the size of the required apparatus which in each case needs to be transported to the corresponding installation. In addition to the transportation costs for the service personnel, transportation costs also arise for the test apparatus. In order to make savings on these costs, there is interest in a smaller measuring device which measures the overlap time with, for example, the same degree of reliability as the previous one, but can be transported as hand luggage by service personnel.

Monitoring system for high-voltage switches


The invention provides a method of alleviating a granuloma annulare or a sarcoid disease by administering to a patient having the disease, a therapeutically effective amount of an LFA-1 antagonist.

Granuloma annulare encompasses an uncommon benign group of granulomatous diseases that include localized, disseminated (generalized), subcutaneous, and perforating types. Approximately 10% to 15% of patients have disseminated granuloma annulare (DGA, also referred to as GGA), which occurs primarily in adults and is characterized by multiple discrete or confluent papules with either an annular or nonannular configuration.1-3 DGA occurs predominantly on the trunk and proximal extremities, and patients with DGA may present with hundreds of lesions. In approximately one third of cases, patients report symptoms of pruritus or burning sensations.2 Histologically, DGA typically is characterized by areas of collagen alteration and elastic fiber degeneration in the middle and upper dermis surrounded by palisading inflammatory cells; the epidermis appears normal.3-6 The inflammatory infiltrates in DGA are primarily composed of a mixture of histiocytes (macrophages) and lymphocytes.4
Although numerous theories have been proposed to explain the cause of granuloma annulare, the pathogenesis of this cutaneous disease remains unclear. Hypotheses include vasculitis, trauma-induced primary necrobiosis, monocytic release of lysosomal enzymes causing necrobiotic degeneration, and lymphocyte-mediated delayed hypersensitivity reaction (reviewed in Smith et al, 1997).7 Several lines of evidence suggest a role for T-cell-mediated processes in the pathogenesis of granuloma annulare. Activated T lymphocytes, predominantly of the helper T (Th) cell phenotype, have been identified as the dominant lymphocyte in granuloma annulare infiltrates.8-11 Activated Th cells secrete various proinflammatory cytokines, including interleukins, interferon-γ (IFN-γ), and tumor necrosis factor-α (TNF-α),12 all of which have been detected in granuloma annulare lesions.11,13 It has been suggested that initial infiltration of a minor, antigen-specific T-cell population (driven by the presence of unknown skin-specific antigens) is followed by recruitment of a large number of nonspecific T cells by means of nonspecific inflammatory cytokine and chemokine production.14
Granuloma annulare lesions typically persist for 3 to 4 years, and following spontaneous resolution of lesions, relapse may occur.3 There is no standard treatment regimen or approach employed in the management of patients with granuloma annulare. Furthermore, the response to long-term conventional treatment is generally poor, and in many cases, the risk of serious toxicity does not outweigh the benefits of treatment.2 However, as DGA can be cosmetically disfiguring and as the lesions can persist indefinitely15, many different therapies have been tried with varied success, including cyclosporine,16,17 isotretinoin,18-20 etretinate,21 topical and systemic corticosteroids,22,23 fumaric acid esters,24 psoralens plus ultraviolet A (PUVA),25,26 potassium iodide,27,28 pentoxifylline,29 topical vitamin E,30 hydroxychloroquine,31 dapsone,19,32,33 niacinamide,34 low-dose chlorambucil,35,36 clofazimine,37 and a 5-lipoxygenase inhibitor plus vitamin E.38 Many of these treatments are associated with potentially harmful side effects and require clinical and laboratory monitoring; due to their cumulative toxicity, many of these treatments cannot be administered chronically.
Thus, there is a need for a better method of treating granuloma annulare. The present invention satisfies this need and provides other benefits that will be apparent from the disclosure below.

Method of treating granuloma annulare or sarcoid


A pump varies output flow. For all cross-sections, which are vertical to the axis of rotation between axial outer positions for the cross-sectional areas of flow at the periphery of the impeller, the inner wall of the pump housing forms approximately circular profiles. The approximately circular profiles are mainly concentric and have a continuously increasing radius from one toward the other one of the axial outer positions. A tongue, which truncates the outlet or diffuser of the pump from an annulus of the pump housing, does not contact the circular profiles between the axial outer positions.

This invention concerns a rotodynamic pump for varying output flow, for example suitable for recirculation of drilling fluid and transport of drill cutting from an underwater drilling operation to a separator on a surface drilling rig or similar. Among other things, the following is characteristic of such pumping operations:                The output flow varies quickly and frequently, also including regular full stops for making-up a drill string.        Frequently a disproportionately large lifting height relative to the output flow, as viewed from an ideal position for rotodynamic pumps.        Transport of drill cuttings with a varying size and hardness, and at the risk of random inclusions of rocks sized up to ˜Ø 50-75 mm.        Return of the drilling fluid is equally important to the return of cuttings, the mixing ratio of solids-liquid is typically 1-5% as defined by the application, and cannot be adapted to the pump.        The lifting height must be maintained approximately at full height during full stop in the output flow. Possible backflow of cuttings over time when at full stop in the output flow must not cause clogging or in any other way complicate a fast re-establishment of a full output flow.        The temperature must not quickly become critically high at a low output flow and a large lifting height.        The drill cutting must not become finely distributed by the pump so as to render it difficult to separate.        The pump must be able to operate continuously without interruptions for maintenance over periods of a few days to several months.        The drilling fluid will exhibit large variations in density and viscosity.        The weight of the system, which includes the motor, regulator, power supply, hoses, pipes and cables, is critical.        Non-scheduled maintenance is to be carried out effectively offshore.
Thus far, disc pumps have essentially been used for the purpose, for example as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,385. In principle, this concerns centrifugal pumps wherein the impeller consists of discs without blades, but with certain ribs or recesses contributing to accelerate the liquid in the best possible manner by means of shear forces. Among other things, the absence of blades offers the advantage of solid particles obtaining a considerably lower tangential velocity than the liquid, whereby erosion is reduced in both the disc and the pump housing. However, the efficiency and lifting height is reduced considerably relative to typical centrifugal pumps with blades. This is of particular relevance when pumping a liquid having low viscosity. Pumps of this type are suitable for high-viscosity liquids.
It may appear obvious to look onto the mining industry to find a pump design suitable for the above-mentioned application. Here, however, the lifting height requirement is normally lower, and the output flow requirement is even higher. The medium of pumping is usually water at volumes freely adaptable to the requirement of the pump. Common solutions involve large and heavy centrifugal pumps with moderate rotational speeds, but nevertheless with a higher specific velocity than what is possible to accommodate specific lifting height requirements. Typically, these pumps have heavy-duty, hard-wearing blades with a low pitch angle. With respect to the largest solid particle which is allowed to pass, the size of the pumps oftentimes makes the consideration less restricting concerning the optimization of the number and width of blades. The concentration of solid particles is high in these pumps, and a slurry having 20-30% of solid particles is typical. The high concentration of solid particles causes a lesser extent of heavier particles being hurled out at a high radial velocity toward the walls of the pump housing, which is due to the individual particle's freedom of movement, relative to the main flow, becoming more restricted. These "material pumps" are indeed heavily exposed to erosion and abrasion, but they may possibly be less exposed to situations where singular, heavy, hard and sharp particles hit the walls of the pump housing hard enough to cause e.g. a surface coating, such as tungsten carbide or similar, to become crushed or disintegrate into flakes.
It is commonly recognized that in order to achieve a high efficiency in a centrifugal pump, among other things, it is of advantage to shape the pump housing as a volute casing having, across the circumference, a gradually increasing cross-sectional area of flow toward the outlet, whereby the flow of liquid discharging from the periphery of the impeller may be distributed evenly across the circumference, and at a tangential velocity adapted to the rotational speed of the impeller and the profile of the blades. Usually—but not always—the entire length of the central axis in the cross-sectional area of flow of the volute casing lies in the same plane as a circle envisaged along the periphery of the impeller, and in the middle of the cross-sectional area of flow thereof.
When a volute casing is to be designed, however, the starting point must be a given output flow, a given impeller design, and a given rotational speed. A particular lifting height for the pump is also associated with these conditions. These design criteria correspond to what is termed as the pump's BEP—"best efficiency point".
For a pump having constantly varying operating conditions—for example at regular periods at a sustained lifting height and no output flow—any choice of a volute casing design will be less than optimum during larger or smaller parts of the operating time. The flow of liquid leaving the impeller and flowing through the volute casing toward the outlet will, in cases of very low flow output, suddenly experience a virtual "wall" having a relatively large cross-section at the outlet. This results in strong turbulences, efficiency losses, erosion on the tongue at the outlet from the pump housing, local backflow into the impeller with subsequent erosion on the blades, and high pressure differences and vibrations across the circumference, which in turn inflicts large loads on the radial bearings of the impeller. There will also be a danger of critical heating in the pump.
In a disc pump in accordance with the above-mentioned U.S. Pat. No. 4,940,385, the disadvantages of operation outside BEP are reduced by virtue of the pump housing being of a cylindrical shape and having the same axis as the impeller, however arranged in a manner allowing the liquid to discharge from the pump housing through a rectilinear outlet at the periphery of the pump, and in a plane perpendicular to the axis of rotation and centred in the pump housing. Under no operating conditions will a pump having such a design achieve as high efficiency as what a corresponding centrifugal pump having a volute casing will achieve at around BEP, but the efficiency as well as the radial forces stabilize, in many cases, at an acceptable level within a window of operation. A cylindrical pump housing like this, however, will inflict new disadvantages if combined with a typical impeller having blades that divide the internal volume of liquid in the impeller into clearly separated masses, and where substantial throughput only is possible between the two blades passing at any time closest to the tongue at the pump outlet. By virtue of such a design, the throughput in the impeller will have to occur in bursts and constantly move between different blades.
The object is achieved by virtue of features disclosed herein.
Accordingly, the present invention may set forth to combine the best virtues of a disc pump having a cylindrical pump housing on one side, and a centrifugal pump having impeller blades and a volute casing on the other side, and combine considerations with respect to the partly contradictory requirements mentioned above in a better way than what has, thus far, been possible with known technology.
The object is achieved by virtue of features disclosed in the following description and in the subsequent claims.
A rotodynamic pump for varying output flow is provided, which is characterized in that in all cross-sections, which are vertical to the axis of rotation between axial outer positions for cross-sectional areas of flow at the periphery of the impeller, the inner wall of the pump housing forms approximately circular profiles being mainly concentric and having a continuously increasing radius from one toward the other one of said axial outer positions, and wherein a tongue, which truncates the outlet or diffuser of the pump from the annulus of the pump housing, does not contact said circular profiles between said axial outer positions.
The rotodynamic pump may comprise that the medium is conducted out of the cavity of the pump housing through a pump outlet with a cavity that cuts through the inner wall of the pump housing at the periphery on the side of the axial extent of the impeller where the radius of the inner wall of the pump housing is the largest.
The rotodynamic pump may comprise that the pump outlet cuts through the inner wall of the pump housing in an annulus, which is partly shielded from those parts of the cavity of the pump housing located closest to the impeller, and through a circular wall which, between the annulus and the impeller, extends radially outwards along the periphery of the impeller and along the inner radius of the annulus, however without cutting off the liquid communication between the impeller and the annulus.
The rotodynamic pump may comprise that the pump housing has a demountable front plate with a radius being marginally larger than the impeller, wherein the front plate is arranged in both axial and radial directions within the annulus, wherein seals are arranged between the front plate and other parts of the pump housing, and wherein the front plate is locked in an axial position by means of radial displacement of locking dogs extending outwards and into adapted recesses in the inner external wall of the annulus.
The rotodynamic pump may comprise that interchangeable front plates are individually integrated with various pipe bends forming the suction nozzle of the pump, and wherein the front plate with a pipe bend is capable, during mounting, of being rotated about the axis of rotation of the pump, and in any direction relative to the outlet, at least before it is locked down with the locking devices.
The rotodynamic pump may comprise that at least one selectable front plate has a pipe bend terminated with a flange adapted to corresponding flanges on the outlets of corresponding pumps, whereby two or more corresponding pumps are capable of being connected directly together, in series, in one or more compact ways without use of further transition pipes, bends or hoses.
The rotodynamic pump may comprise that the medium is conducted out of the pump housing through a channel shaped as a volute casing and positioned, in its entirety, outside the axial border positions for the cross-sectional area of flow at the periphery of the impeller, and wherein the centre line in said channel forms a helical line having an increasing distance from the axis of rotation, as viewed in a co-current direction, and an increasing axial distance from a motor toward the suction side of the pump.
The rotodynamic pump may comprise that it is equipped with an impeller of the disc-type, wherein two or more discs are held together only by small spacers, and wherein the internal side surfaces of the discs may be equipped with grooves in order to increase entrainment of liquid, however such that solid particles mainly are accelerated tangentially only due to flow resistance in the liquid and hence obtain a lower tangential velocity than the liquid.
The rotodynamic pump may comprise that it is equipped with an impeller having blades arranged in pairs, wherein the first blade in each pair starts at the smallest radius practically possible for free passage of the largest solid particle to be pumped, wherein said first blade has a low pitch angle, and wherein the second blade in each pair starts at a considerably larger radius than the first blade and is positioned, as viewed in the direction of rotation, in front of the first blade at such a distance that the largest and heavier particle to be pumped is allowed to pass underneath, and wherein the pitch angle of the second blade in each pair is considerably larger than that of the first blade in each pair.


A technology of detecting MIHP information before an OSI layer 3 process is performed. A method of performing Media Independent Handover (MIH) includes analyzing a field for indicating Internet Protocol (IP) version information, if a value of the field for indicating IP version information corresponds to an MIH layer, performing a process of the MIH layer and performing a process of an IP layer, and if a value of the field for indicating IP version information does not correspond to the MIH layer, directly performing the process of the IP layer. Accordingly, an IP layer that is the third layer of the OSI 7 layers can determine without performing a separate operation whether an MIH process is performed. Thus, a delay of a processing speed of a device can be prevented, resulting in an increase of QoS of a network.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to wireless communication, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for performing Media Independent Handover (MIH).
2. Related Art
The IEEE 802.21 standard defines a Media Independent Handover Protocol (MIHP). In order to use the MIHP, a newly defined MIHP header must be inserted between an OSI layer 2 header and an OSI layer 3 header of a packet. FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional format of an MIHP header.
However, currently used packets include only information about an OSI layer 2 header and an OSI layer 3 header, and do not indicate whether an MIHP header is included in each packet. Thus, according to the conventional standard, there is no method used by network devices to determine whether the MIHP is used. Thus, if only information provided by the OSI layer 2 is used, Media Independent Handover (MIH) cannot be performed. In order for a network device to perform the MIHP defined in IEEE 802.21, a separate operation is needed. This separate operation results in a delay of a processing speed of the network device and a corresponding degradation of Quality of Service (QoS) of the network.

Method and apparatus for performing media independent handover


A wearable device is disclosed that, while being worn by a user, may allow a user to authenticate to a second device such as a smartphone without having to enter an unlock code such as a personal identification number. The wearable device may detect when the user removes it. Removal of the wearable device may cause it to be disabled and prevent it from being used to authenticate a subsequent user to the second device until it is re-enabled.

Many people authenticate themselves to devices they use during their day-to-day lives using passwords, PINs, and/or swipe patterns. For example, a user may secure a smartphone by requiring a swipe pattern or PIN to be entered to access the device. These methods of authentication may be tedious and less secure than using a wearable device such as a ring. The ring may use a short distance communication protocol such as NFC and authenticate the user to the device with a simple gesture such as tapping the back of the smartphone or mere proximity of the ring to the smartphone may be sufficient to trigger the authentication protocol. The ring may not come with its own power source; rather, it may be powered through induction from the device to which it authenticates. This system may not be ideal if the ring is lost or a user is forced to perform a gesture to authenticate to the device. In such instances, mere possession of the ring or similar token may be sufficient to authenticate any user to another device such as a smartphone.

Detecting removal of wearable authentication device


A fastening module for connecting a filter system to an arched connecting surface with openings for a fluid has a connecting housing connectable in fluid communication to the filter system. Rigid individual channel pieces are arranged in the connecting housing and channels extend in the channel pieces. The channels correspond with the openings in the arched connecting surface. The channel pieces have connecting flanges to be connected to the openings in the arched connecting surface. The channel pieces are connected by flexible connecting regions with each other; with the connecting housing; or with each other and with the connecting housing. The fastening module is connected in fluid communication to the inlet region or outlet region of the filter system. A filter module for the filter system has substantially free intake across its cross section and enables an intake manifold-type distribution of a volume flow passing through the filter element.

The invention concerns a fastening module for connecting a filter system to an arched connecting surface with openings for passage of a fluid, in particular of a cabin air filter system of a motor vehicle, as well as a filter system with a fastening module.
EP 0 608 034 B1 discloses a filter arrangement, in particular for a motor vehicle, with a base part with means for fastening to the vehicle and for delimiting at least one receiving chamber. The filter arrangement comprises at least an exchangeable filter part that is arranged in the receiving chamber. The filter part is shape-stable and the receiving chamber is accessible from the inflow side of the base part.


A multi purpose hinge pin remover can also be used as a pry bar. The preferred embodiment has a hand guard, a hammer head and two additional working surfaces for use in repairing shingles.

The closest known prior art is U.S. Pat. No. 5,054,180 (1991) to Combs. Combs addresses the problem of removing a headed hinge pin from a car door. His tool gets the job done while offering some protection to the worker who is hitting the tool with a hammer. The present invention offers further protection for the worker's hand by providing a hand guard. Additionally the same tool can be used as a hammer, a nail puller, a pry bar and a roofer's shingle remover.
Related art is noted below.


The invention relates to a method and device for simultaneously measuring mass concentrations of particulates with different sizes. The method detects particulates within different size ranges in air based on laser scattering and can eliminate cross interference between the particulates within different size ranges. The device is simple in structure, can realize on-line simultaneous measurement of PM1.0, PM2.5 and PM10 with high measurement precision and low cost.

In recent years, the frequent occurrence of "haze" has raised close attention to particulates at home and abroad. Regarding particulate detection, Ambient Air duality Standards (GB 3095-2012) has been issued in China. Particulate monitoring methods internationally used mainly include weighing methods, β-ray absorption methods, tapered element oscillating microbalance and light scattering methods. The price of one set of particulate monitoring system is about 500,000 yuan, thousands of such monitoring systems have been established across the country, and the particulate pollution level in different regions of China is issued in real time on the website of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment of the People's Republic of China.
Under the circumstance that haze cannot be overcome in a short term, indoor air purifiers have become in high demand, and automotive air-conditioner purification systems are gradually becoming standard configurations of some automobiles. In addition, to form big data of particulate emission, meshed IoT monitoring has become an important means for controlling particulate emission and tracing particulates. Of all these means, the expensive monitoring systems adopted by the environmental departments cannot be popularized to a large scale. Thus, it is urgently needed to develop a high-precision and low-cost particulate sensor that can adapt to both indoor and outdoor application scenarios and can realize simultaneous multi-channel output.
China has become the biggest market of air purifiers around the world, and home-made high-precision and low-cost particulate sensors have been developed successively. Most of these sensors are designed based on laser scattering (adopting LEDs or laser infrared light sources), and the detection precision of low-cost indoor air quality (IA( ) sensors based on laser scattering has reached a high level. For example, Document U.S. Pat. No. 8,009,290B2 and Document CN105021501B can realize single-channel detection based on laser scattering. One sensor can only output the mass concentration of particulates with one size every time; and due to the cross interference between particulates with different sizes, multi-channel simultaneous measurement of different particulates cannot be realized (simultaneous output of PM1.0, PM2.5 and PM10), and only one of PM1.0, PM2.5 and PM10 can be output. At present, all international automobile manufacturers are required to measure PM1.0, PM2.5 and PM10 simultaneously, and as required by the Air Quality Association in Korea, indoor purifiers should simultaneously display PM1.0, PM2.5 and PM10. For example, Document CN103257095B adopts a two-stage cutter to simultaneously sample and measure PM2.5 and PM10; however, the cutter is complicated in structure, large in size and expensive, cannot realize on-line measurement, and is not beneficial to miniaturization or civil application and popularization. For another example, Document CN206223607U utilizes at least two photosensitive sensors to realize simultaneous measurement of PM2.5 and PM10; however, the cost is high, the size is large, the maintenance workload is large, and using is inconvenient.
During detection based on laser scattering, due to the non-uniform distribution of the light intensity near the laser focus of an air quality detection device, the light intensities scattered by particulates with the same size at different positions of the focus will be different, which may lead to a misjudgment of a photoelectric detector in the air quality detection device on the size of the particulates; and the cross interference between particulates with different sizes may result in inaccurate particulate concentration detection results. The distribution of particulates in air is very complicated, and the particulate size (referred to as size for short) of particulates in air generally ranges from 0.3 μm to 10 μm. Generally, particulates within a size range 0.3 μm<d1≤1 μm are referred to as PM1.0, particulates within a size range 0.3 μm<d2≤2.5 μm are referred to as PM2.5, and particulates within a size range 0.3 m<d3≤10 μm are referred to as PM10. When the mass concentration of the particulates in air is detected, it is necessary to eliminate the cross interference between particulates with different sizes, and this is also a technical difficulty urgently to be overcome in the art.

Method and device for simultaneously measuring mass concentrations of particulates with different sizes


In various embodiments, an apparatus for detecting electric fields is disclosed that includes an array of non-linear elements configured into an oscillator with each coupled to one or more electric-field sensing plates. In various embodiments, an output of the array produces a frequency that varies as a function of an electric field sensed by the one or more electric-field sensing plates.

I. Field
This disclosure relates to systems and methods for detecting electric fields.
II. Background
Electric-field sensors ("E-sensors") are devices that are used for a variety of purposes, such as the detection and ranging of ships and other vehicles, oceanographic studies and geophysical measurements and prospecting.
Current E-sensors generally rely on the measurement of a voltage drop across two electrodes implanted in a conducting medium. However, for all the known electrically active materials that can be used in an E-sensor, the relative coercive field (this determines the energy barrier height separating the states of stable electrical polarization) can be prohibitively large. Accordingly, new technology related to E-sensors may be desirable.

Coupled electric field sensors for DC target electric field detection

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


In a work vehicle that has several hydraulic actuators a system and method for controlling and scaling flow between the actuators includes an electronic controller that is connected to several hand controls that provide a proportional signal indicating how far the operator has moved the hand controls. The controller reads the hand controls and proportionally scales the total available flow to make sure the operator does not demand too much fluid from the hydraulic pump.

This invention relates to a method for distributing hydraulic flow between a plurality of hydraulic actuators wherein at least one of the flow rates of the actuators is determined not by a manual control but by a valve controller.
Many construction and work vehicles typically for earth moving purposes, have many, if not all of their systems, driven by hydraulic fluid. In the case of a backhoe, for example, the engine in the vehicle not only drives the backhoe over the ground, but drives boom swing cylinders that move the backhoe arm laterally side-to-side, as well as a boom cylinder to lift and lower the boom, a dipper cylinder to lift and lower the dipper and a bucket cylinder for opening and closing the bucket. In the case of a front loader, the engine not only drives the vehicle across the ground, but also drives a hydraulic pump that is connected to one or more arm cylinders to lift and lower the two arms on which the bucket is attached and one or more tilt cylinders to tilt the front loader bucket in or out with respect to the vehicle. In the case of road graders, for example, several different hydraulic actuators are used to angle the blade with respect to the road, tilt it, and raise it and lower it. In the case of forklifts, several hydraulic actuators are used to raise and lower the forks, tilt the forks backwards and forwards so the load will be located over the vehicle or away from the vehicle, and to extend the forks (in some types of lifts) to place a packet on a high shelf without moving the vehicle itself back and forth.
In addition to these examples, one should recognize that many work vehicles also provide for auxiliary hydraulic devices to be attached and detached for use in special situations. For example, hydraulic post hole diggers which include a hydraulic motor and a rotating bit approximately eight inches (8xe2x80x3) in diameter are often attached to a front loader or a backhoe in place of the bucket. As another example, pneumatic or hydraulic pavement breakers are often mounted on the front of skid-steer loaders in place of a bucket to break up pavement. These attachments are typically separately controllable through an auxiliary hydraulic control manifold to which they are attached with quick-connects.
One of the continuing problems of work vehicles is that the market is highly competitive and they must be made to sell at a reasonable price. This always involves design and engineering trade-offs in which the designers and engineers attempt to identify the most common uses and ensure that the vehicle is able to perform those functions. The inevitable compromises typically include providing a hydraulic pump that does not have capacity sufficient to simultaneously drive every single hydraulic actuator and motor without being overloaded. By xe2x80x9coverloadedxe2x80x9d I mean that the motor cannot provide pressurized hydraulic fluid at a sufficient flow rate to drive all the devices simultaneously. Inevitably, in almost every work vehicle, there is some point within the performance envelope in which the pump, providing as much fluid as it can, is unable to drive the actuators and motors as fast as the operator commands them.
The operator commands these various actuators or motors by either operating on/off switches, by moving a proportional control lever, rotating a potentiometer, or manipulating a one or two axis joy stick. Most commonly, two or more of these controls are provided for the operator to manipulate. Most of the controls are configured to generate a flow rate roughly proportional to the degree of deflection of the control lever. By manipulating two proportional control levers, the operator can vary the speed of two separate hydraulic actuators in order to coordinate the movement of one or more actuators at the same time. For example, an operator may extend the boom of a backhoe while simultaneously lifting the dipper and opening the bucket by manipulating two joysticks, one in each hand. This permits the operator to substantially increase the productivity he would have if he could only operate one actuator at a time. In many earth working operations or excavating operations, the operator must control at least two actuators at once in order to dig or shape a hole in the ground, for example. If an operator of a backhoe is attempting to scrape the bottom of an excavation flat, he will typically have to operate the boom, the dipper, and the bucket cylinders simultaneously. No single control can be operated to follow the contours of the ground as accurately as all three together.
It is in these situations where the limitations of the pump are most apparent. An operator who is trying to simultaneously swing a boom while raising the boom, extending the dipper and opening the bucket may find that there is insufficient hydraulic fluid and one or more of the hydraulic cylinders may suddenly cease moving. If the operator has been manipulating in his various hand controls and levers in order to achieve a smooth coordinated movement, the sudden erratic motion of one hydraulic actuator may gouge the ground improperly, making an error in excavation that he must later go back and repair.
One result of this failure of the pump to provide sufficient pressurized hydraulic fluid flow is that operators instinctively slow down whenever they operate several different actuators simultaneously. From experience, they know that something may xe2x80x9cgrind to a haltxe2x80x9d as they are trying to perform the coordinated operation. As a result, they slow the entire operation down until it is performed at a coordinated speed that they are reasonably assured will be within the flow capacity of the hydraulic pump on the vehicle. This, however, requires years of experience, and even with the experience, may cause the operator to operate well within the permissible total flow capacity of the pump, thus reducing his productivity. In other words, he may slow down unnecessarily.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,376 issued to Hadank and assigned to Caterpillar Corporation at issue, one way of compensating for this problem was described. In the compensation method described in Hadank, the operator would simultaneously operate two controls moving them to positions that were roughly proportionate to the flow rate to the actuators and therefore to the speed of movement of the actuators. Rather than convert the control signals directly to a flow rate (or rather valve position) and drive the proportional control hydraulic valve to that opening, an electronic valve controller would read the signals from the two manual proportional controls (joysticks) would sum the two flow rates that were equivalent to those two positions and would determine what proportion of the total available flow from the pump those commanded flow rates (or valve openings) represented. For example, if the operator moved one control lever indicating that the hydraulic valve for that levers actuator should be open 100% and the operator moved another control lever for another actuator to a position that indicated it should also be open 100%, the control system would add these two requested flow rates or demand signals together. If the two 100% flow rates added up to 150% of the total hydraulic flow capacity of the hydraulic pump, the electronic valve controller would scale both of the signals back proportionately. In other words, since the operator was requesting for each flow controller 50% more flow than could be handled together, the electronic valve controller would send a proportionately reduced signal of 66% (instead of the 100%) to the first hydraulic valve and 66% (of the second hand control) to the second hydraulic valve. In this manner, the total flow permitted through the two proportional control valves would always be within the total flow capacity of the pump. No valve or actuator or motor would be starved of hydraulic fluid. What the operator would notice when manipulating the two hand controls was that the relative motion of each hydraulic actuator stayed the same, while the overall speed of both actuators was proportionately scaled back.
In recent years, however, electronically controlled work vehicles have become more and more commonplace. Part of this vehicle development has included the creation of several features and capabilities that were not heretofore possible. For example, many backhoes have an auxiliary hydraulic valve controller that responds to buttons and proportional control devices, such as thumb wheels on the operating levers, to permit the operator to set a predetermined auxiliary hydraulic flow rate. A typical case where this would occur would be where an operator of a backhoe wishes to spin the post hole digger at its most effective speed without having to constantly hold his hand on a proportional control lever to maintain that speed. The operator would like to vary the speed of the posthole digger at the end of the backhoe arm until it is at the optimum speed, then save that speed (e.g. valve opening/flow rate) and have the electronic controller maintain the posthole digger at that speed all the time as the operator manually moves the backhoe arm to which it is attached. As an additional complicating factor, work vehicles often coordinate the movement of several hydraulic actuators in response to the motion of a single operator device. Where the vehicle""s controller coordinates the motion of several actuators by generating a time-varying signal or signals that it applies to one or more other actuators, the system shown in Hadank will not ensure that the total flow rate is within the capacity of the hydraulic pump.
In accordance with a first embodiment of the invention, a valve control system is disclosed for a work vehicle having a plurality of actuators coupled to a plurality of mechanical devices to move the devices, the vehicle having an internal combustion engine coupled to at least one hydraulic pump such that there is a total or maximum flow rate available from the at least one pump to be provided to the actuators to move the mechanical devices, such as a motor for an implement, a hydraulic cylinder that moves the bucket, dipper, or boom in a backhoe, a cylinder that raises or lowers a fork in a fork lift, or tilts a fork in a fork lift, or extends the forks at the top of a fork lift, or cylinders for raising the arms of a front loader or tilting the front loader bucket. The system includes a couple hand controls that produce signals equivalent to the distance they are moved by the operator, a controller to which they are attached, proportional control valves that are driven by the controller in response to the hind control signals and a signal developed or derived by the controller itself, and the actuators that are moved by the valves. The controller receives the hand control signals, processes them and generates the valve signals to open the valves accordingly. If the operator and the controller have requested too much flowxe2x80x94more flow that the pump on the vehicle can providexe2x80x94the controller scales the flow to each actuator down, preferably proportionately, to insure that the flow demands as scaled are within the capacity of the pump to provide fluid. There may be some hydraulic devices, however, that need a set amount of flow and therefore should not be scaled. For these types of devices, the controller automatically provides them with their appropriate flow rate, subtracting this amount of flow off the top of the available flow, then proceeds to scale down and divide up the remaining flow among the remaining controllers.

Flow control for electro-hydraulic systems


An optical semiconductor device comprises a lead frame having, on a main surface thereof, a light-emitting element mount portion, and a light-receiving element mount portion formed to be convex. The optical semiconductor device comprises a light-emitting element mounted on the light-emitting element mount portion, and a light-receiving element mounted on the light-receiving element mount portion such that a light-receiving area faces the light-emitting element.

In optical semiconductor devices including photocouplers and photorelays, a structure has been used in which a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element are respectively mounted on lead frames and in which the light-emitting element and the light-receiving element are sealed in the state where the light-emitting element and the light-receiving element are placed to face each other (e.g., refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. Hei 6(1994)-224245).
FIG. 8 shows a known optical semiconductor device by taking as an example a photocoupler having a double sealed structure. As shown in FIG. 8, a light-emitting element 23 and a light-receiving element 24 are respectively mounted on lead frames 21a and 21b, and light-emitting element 23 and light-receiving element 24 are placed to face each other. These elements are primarily sealed with optically transparent resin 25, and secondarily sealed with light-blocking resin 26.
Such a photocoupler is formed as follows. As shown in FIG. 9, light-emitting element 23 and light-receiving element 24 are mounted on lead frames 21a and 21b, respectively. Then, as shown in FIG. 10, light-emitting element 23 and light-receiving element 24 are placed in the state where they face each other.
As shown in FIG. 11, these are primarily sealed with optically transparent resin 25, thus forming a light channel. Then, as shown in FIG. 12, the elements are secondarily sealed with light-blocking resin 26 in order to block light and protect the elements. Lead frames 21a and 21b are formed, thus forming the photocoupler shown in FIG. 8.
In recent years, with the trend toward higher performance of semiconductor devices and the improvement of packaging density, it has been strongly demanded that optical semiconductor devices be miniaturized. However, as described above, in a known optical semiconductor device, secondary sealing is performed in such a manner that the respective lead frames on the light-emitting and light-receiving sides, which face each other, are covered.
It is necessary to ensure certain degrees of thicknesses of secondary sealing resin on these lead frames. It is difficult to reduce the lead frames themselves, which occupy certain volumes. Accordingly, there has been a limit to miniaturization.

Optical coupling device including lead frame having a convexity and method of manufacturing the device


The present invention mainly has two double-contact connectors and a plurality of connecting lines. Each double-contact connector has an insulating member, an upper pin set and a lower pin set. A top surface of the insulating member forward extends to form an upper tongue portion, a bottom surface of the insulating member forward extends to form a lower tongue portion, the upper pin set disposes in the upper tongue portion, the lower pin set disposes in the lower tongue portion, the upper pin set and the upper tongue portion compose an upper connecting interface, the lower pin set and the lower tongue portion compose a lower connecting interface. Further, the two double-contact connectors electrically connect with the two ends of the plurality of connecting lines respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to a transmission line, more particularly to a transmission line that adopts double-contact connectors to be as main transmission interfaces.
2. Description of the Related Art
With advances in technology, computer has become popular in our lives, and that to cope with the rapid development of computer peripheral electronic devices, the market also developed a variety of different types of connectors so as to connect with peripheral electronic devices with different transmission interfaces.
In general, the connector has a male connector and a female connector corresponding to the male connector, and a male connector cannot plug into a female connector that is not the same connecting interface with the male connector, and a certain direction shall be followed while a male connector and a female connector plug into each other. If the direction is wrong, the plug may not work.
For Universal Serial Bus (USB) connector, each of the male USB connector and the female USB connector both has a tongue portion therein. If plugged in a wrong direction, the tongue portion in the male USB connector and the tongue portion in the female USB connector may be against to each other. For general users, such design is a foolproof design, but for other users, the application is really not flexible and inconvenient.
Accordingly, the market proposes a double-plug female connector. The design of the double-plug female connector is to dispose the tongue portion thereof in the middle of the connector, so as to divide the connector into an upper accommodating area and a lower accommodating area and dispose connecting pins in an upper layer and a lower layer respectively. So, when the front surface of the male connector plugs into the female connector, the tongue portion of the male connector may insert into the upper accommodating area and electrically connect with the conducting pins of the upper accommodating area. In addition, when the rear surface of the male connector plugs into the female connector, the tongue portion of the male connector may insert into the lower accommodating area and electrically connect with the conducting pins of the lower accommodating area. Therefore, regardless of the male connector plugging into the female connector via the front surface or the rear surface, the plug can be made and the electrical connection can be made as well.
There are two sets of conducting pins in aforementioned female connector, so that the cost is much higher than the cost of a prior female connector. However, to use a general male connector to connect with the female connector, only one set of conducting pins in the female connector are electrically connected, and therefore the female connector can only achieve a transmission rate that is the same as the prior female connector, so that it does not fit an economic effect.

Transmission line with double-contact connectors


An improved method and system for layering RPC communications on top of an HTTP transport. An RPC data stream of individual request/reply packets is mapped to HTTP primitives, and RPC requests are mapped to one large, HTTP, POST-like request (IN channel). Corresponding replies are mapped to another large, HTTP, GET-like request (OUT channel). The client establishes the IN channel and OUT channel as simultaneously open connections with a large content-length for each. Before the content-length is exhausted, the client and server open a new IN or OUT channel while the corresponding channel is still alive, so that there is always at least one opened IN or OUT channel available. If traffic is too infrequent, the client keeps the connection alive so that it will not be closed for being idle. This provides a bi-directional virtual connection that remains open for an unlimited time for tunneling unlimited amounts of RPC traffic.

Many network computer users want access to their corporate network or the like through the Internet. In order to access such a network, the concept of tunneling is used. In general, tunneling encapsulates one protocol within another protocol that is supported over the Internet, e.g., HTTP, such that the encapsulating protocol appears as ordinary data, whereby the encapsulated protocol (that by itself is unsupported) is allowed to pass through proxies, firewalls and so forth.
One protocol that is desirable to encapsulate within HTTP is Remote Procedure Call (RPC). RPC generally refers to a protocol that allows a program running on one networked computer to have a procedure executed therefor on another networked computer, e.g., a remote procedure call is initiated by a client caller and received at a remote server, which then executes a procedure based on data in the call and returns a result to the client caller. As can be appreciated, RPC provides a number of benefits in networked computing.
In order to encapsulate RPC within HTTP, e.g., so that applications and the like can use RPC whether a client computer is directly (actually through a proxy) connected to the corporate network or is connected through the Internet, contemporary operating systems map RPC data streams on top of HTTP primitives. This mapping suffers from a number of severe limitations.
By way of background, conventional mapping maps the RPC data stream on top of a pseudo-SSL (Secure Sockets Layer)-encrypted HTTP data stream, where the data stream is declared to be SSL encrypted, but actually is not. This is done so that HTTP proxies do not look into the data, since they assume that it is encrypted. Note that the RPC Proxy uses the same HTTP request to send all of its requests/replies, which is in direct violation of the HTTP standards. Also, the HTTP data stream is directed to port 80, the defined standard port for conventional HTTP communication, even though the standard port defined for SSL is port 443. This is because SSL is verified on port 443, i.e., true SSL is required or the proxy does not allow the data stream.
This method of mapping suffers from several major limitations and/or problems. One limitation is that the method requires SSL tunnelling to be enabled on port 80 of the HTTP Proxy, for reasons described above. However, the vast majority of proxies that are available do not enable this by default, and most network administrators are very reluctant to enable it, especially the Internet Service Provides (ISPs) to which many users subscribe. However, unless enabled, the conventional RPC to HTTP mapping method is not deployable, which is the situation in most environments.
Another problem is that the conventional method of mapping assumes that the Web Server will allow an infinite amount of bi-directional traffic (requests and replies) to be mapped to the same HTTP request. This is no longer the case with contemporary Internet severs, (e.g., Microsoft Corporation's IIS6.0 product), and consequently the conventional mapping method simply does not work with such servers.
Yet another significant problem with the conventional mapping method is that most elements of the HTTP infrastructure do not allow idle connections to stay open for a long time. However, RPC allows any amount of time between making RPC Requests on the same binding handle. As a result, RPC usage patterns in which there is a significant delay between requests are rejected by the underlying HTTP infrastructure, resulting in application errors.
In sum, HTTP has a number of limitations including its finite, unidirectional and time-limited qualities, which do not match up with the requirements of RPC and/or other protocols having data streams that need bidirectional communication over essentially unlimited sizes and with essentially unlimited connection times. At the same time, transporting RPC and other data streams over HTTP would be highly desirable to meet the needs of many computer users.

Method and system for layering an infinite request/reply data stream on finite, unidirectional, time-limited transports


A method of completing a subterranean well and associated apparatus therefor provide reduced trips into the well, efficient operation, reduced costs, and increased functionality in completions where production of fluids from a lateral wellbore and a parent wellbore is desired. In one disclosed embodiment, the invention permits simultaneous conveying into the well of multiple tubing strings, the tubing strings being automatically directed to their respective wellbores. A selective deflection member is capable of selecting an appropriate tubing string and deflecting it into a lateral wellbore, while permitting another tubing string to pass axially therethrough to a lower parent wellbore.

The present invention relates generally to operations wherein a subterranean well is drilled and completed and, in a preferred embodiment thereof, more particularly provides a method and associated apparatus for drilling and completing a subterranean well.
It is well known in the art to drill an initial "parent" wellbore, and then to drill at least one "lateral" wellbore, that is, a wellbore intersecting and extending outwardly from the parent wellbore. Many methods and apparatus for drilling the lateral wellbore and for completing the parent and lateral wellbores have been conceived. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,704 to Hsu et al., discloses an apparatus and method wherein a whipstock is positioned in a cemented and cased parent wellbore to guide milling and drilling bits for forming the lateral wellbore, and the whipstock is then replaced with a guide member attached via a sealed conduit to a dual string packer. The guide member is utilized to guide a tubing string into the lateral wellbore after the guide member has been properly positioned in the parent wellbore and the packer has been set. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,704 is hereby incorporated herein by this reference.
Unfortunately, the method and apparatus described above, as well as others utilized for the purpose of drilling and completing lateral wellbores, have several problems associated therewith. In general, such methods and apparatus require is many trips into the parent wellbore to position, set, and/or retrieve various items of equipment therein or therefrom, are limited in their ability to perform operations in the lateral wellbore, are limited in their ability to utilize relatively large diameter lateral wellbores and relatively large diameter equipment within those lateral wellbores, and are characteristically inefficient in their operation.
For example, the method disclosed in the above-referenced patent requires a trip into the well to orient and set a packer, a trip to position a whipstock, a trip to retrieve the whipstock, a trip to convey and position a guide member, conduit, and dual string packer, and another trip to install a tubing string and a tubing guide and connector member. Additionally, it must be noted that the tubing string is capable of being guided into the lateral wellbore with only small diameter equipment attached thereto, since the tubing string must pass through a bore of the dual string packer.
As another example of the limitations of known methods, the method disclosed in the above-referenced patent requires any equipment attached to the tubing string to not only pass through a bore of the dual string packer, but also to displace within the parent wellbore side-by-side with the conduit. These space limitations severely restrict the diameter of any equipment which must be positioned in the lateral wellbore attached to the tubing string.
From the foregoing, it can be seen that it would be quite desirable to provide a method and associated apparatus for completing a subterranean well which does not place inordinate size restrictions on equipment to be positioned within a lateral wellbore, and which does not require a large number of trips into the well to accomplish the desired completion, but which is generally economical and efficient in operation, and which provides increased functionality. It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide such a method and associated apparatus. Other objects, features, and benefits of the present invention will become apparent upon careful consideration of the description hereinbelow.

Methods of completing a subterranean well and associated apparatus


The method of synchronizing the analogue display (41) of a timepiece (40), including an electronic time base (64), is achieved using proximity sensors (60, 62) respectively associated with wheels (46, 48) each having an aperture (54, 56) for defining the angular position of the latter. Determination of the angular position of a wheel requires an angular distance of around 60° to 90° to be travelled with this type of proximity sensor. Dependency of the measurement results upon the temperature generates a problem of precision in determining the angular position of the wheels, in particular a wheel secured to the hour indicator, given that an angle of 60° to 90° corresponds to a time interval of 2 to 3 hours. In order to ensure a measurement in a relatively short time interval where the ambient temperature is substantially constant and thus has no influence on the measurement, the invention provides that, in a analogue display synchronization mode at least one indicator is driven in an accelerated advance mode so that the aperture provided in the corresponding wheel quickly passes opposite the proximity sensor associated with that wheel.

The present invention concerns a method of synchronising the analogue display of a timepiece whose movement is fitted with an electronic time base. This time base is fitted with a quartz oscillator well known to those skilled in the art. The analogue display includes an analogue indicator coupled in rotation to a first watch movement wheel. Within the scope of the present invention, this first wheel is associated with a proximity sensor and has at least one aperture in its plate that is preferably made of an electrically conductive material. The proximity sensor is arranged for detecting the aperture of the first wheel and more specifically for determining the position of a reference geometrical semi-axis defined by said aperture.
In particular, the analogue indicator is a time indicator.
The principle of detection of the semi-axis defined by an aperture provided in the wheel coupled to an analogue indicator is disclosed in particular in EP Patent No. 0 952 426 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,207). The arrangement of the proximity sensor relative to the wheel that is associated therewith and the operation thereof will be briefly described hereinafter with reference to FIGS. 1 to 3.
Watch movement 2 comprises a toothed wheel 4 with a toothing 6 defined on the outer edge of plate 8 of said wheel. Wheel 4 further comprises an arbour 10 defining a geometrical axis of rotation 12. Watch movement 2 is associated with an analogue display comprising a rotating indicator 14, in particular a hand, fixedly mounted on arbour 10. Indicator 14 can be used to indicate the hour, minute or any other useful information required. Within the scope of the present invention, indicator 14 belongs to an analogue display of the current time, the object being to synchronise this indicator with an electronic time base of the watch movement. Indicator is secured to plate 8 in rotation.
Plate 8 has a circular aperture 16. It will be noted that the contour of this aperture can be different, particularly rectangular. An inductive sensor 20, formed of an integrated circuit 22 and a flat spiral coil 24 arranged on one face of the integrated circuit, is arranged relative to plate 8 such that flat coil 24 is at least partially below aperture 16 in at least one given angular position of wheel 4. It will be noted that the coil can be connected to the electronic circuit without being arranged thereon.
Preferably, as shown in FIG. 1, central magnetic axis 26 of the spiral forming flat coil 24 passes substantially through the geometrical centre 28 of aperture 16 in a given angular position of wheel 4. Aperture 16 defines a reference geometrical semi-axis REF of wheel 4. This semi-axis starts from geometrical axis 12 and passes through the centre 28 of circular aperture 16. Inductive sensor 20, which forms a proximity sensor, is arranged for determining the position of reference semi-axis REF.
Sensor 20 includes for example an electronic circuit of the type described in EP Patent No. 0 746 100 (corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,528) with a differential relaxation oscillator. This type of sensor provides an alternating signal whose frequency varies as a function of the proximity of electrically conductive materials relative to the detection coil. Aperture 16 generates a variation in material in proximity to coil 24 when wheel 4 rotates. In certain cases, a sensor having a different electronic architecture based on a harmonic oscillator can be provided.
As shown schematically in FIG. 3, sensor 20 provides a measurement signal whose points of measurement 32 obtained as a function of the angular position α of reference semi-axis REF define a graph 30 that is substantially symmetrical in relation to a geometrical axis 34. The angular position of this axis 34 corresponds to an angle αREF of wheel 4 when its reference semi-axis REF intersects central magnetic axis 26 of flat coil 24. Enough measurements will be taken to obtain a density of points of measurement 32 allowing the negative slope and the positive slope of graph 30 to be differentiated, so that the position of the axis of symmetry 34 of graph 30 can be determined.
After having carried out the measurements necessary to determine the evolution of the sensor measurement signal when the aperture passes above the sensor coil, electronic means for processing the measurement results determine angle αREF and thus the corresponding position of hand 14.
It will be noted that the dimensions of coil 24 are preferably of the order of 1 mm2. When the diameter of the wheel with the aperture for detecting its position is relatively small, the aperture then preferably has a surface area defining an annular sector whose radial dimension is less than the tangential dimension, the radial dimension being then less than the corresponding dimension of the detection coil. In this latter case, the measurements for setting up graph 30 and determining the position of axis of symmetry 34 require wheel 4 to travel an angular distance of approximately 90°. In the most favourable case shown in FIGS. 1 and 3, the angular distance necessary is already of the order of 60°. These values are minimum values corresponding to the case in which the position of indicator 14 substantially corresponds to the theoretical position given by the electronic time base of the watch movement. If the position of the indicator associated with the detection wheel is located, particularly due to shocks received by the timepiece, in a relatively far position from the aforementioned theoretical position, the angular distance necessary for detection of reference semi-axis REF of the wheel will be greater than the values given hereinbefore.

Method for synchronising an analog display of a timepiece with its electronic time base