A shearing machine is provided. The machine comprises a lower stationary jaw detachably mounted on one end of an arm of a working machine for rotatable and tiltable movement, the lower stationary jaw having attached thereto a plurality of shearing blades, an upper movable jaw having a plurality of shearing blades adapted to be opened and closed in a scissors-like manner relative to the shearing blades of the lower stationary jaw so as to shear an article to be sheared, and a hydraulic cylinder for pivotally moving the upper movable jaw. The forward-end shearing blade of the lower stationary jaw and the forward-end shearing blade of the upper movable jaw are arranged in a staggered or angled manner relative to their respective adjacent shearing blades of the lower and upper jaws, respectively, so that the forward-end shearing blades of the lower and upper jaws, respectively, may be first engaged with each other, when moved in a vertical direction.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a shearing machine mounted on a tip of an arm of a working machine, such as a power shovel, for shearing various kinds of steel material. 2. Statement of the Prior Art
When dismantling or destroying reinforcing bars, buildings of a reinforced concrete construction, scraps of steel, articles or chemical machinery of steel alloy, a steel material shearing machine is usually used, the machine being attached to one end of an arm of a working machine, such as a power shovel. An example of such shearing machines is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,519,135 and shown in FIG. 8. The shearing machine disclosed in the Patent includes a lower stationary jaw 2 integrally attached to one end of an arm 1 of a power shovel. An upper movable jaw 3 is connected to the lower stationary jaw via a support shaft 4 so that it may be opened and closed vertically in a scissors-like manner. The upper movable jaw 3 may be opened and closed by means of a plurality of hydraulic cylinders 5 mounted on the arm 1. In this manner, the movable jaw 3 is moved relative to the lower stationary jaw so as to shear or cut a steel material clamped therebetween. The lower stationary jaw 2 and upper movable jaw cooperate, in their engaged position, to define a central concave area, so as to prevent a steel material clamped therebetween from slipping off in a forward direction.
The opposite surface of the lower stationary jaw 2 and upper movable jaw 3 cooperate to form a recess 8 defined by side plates 6, 6 and a forward-end connection plate 7. Pressure plates 9 and 10 are disposed at a forward end of a recess 8 in the lower stationary jaw 2 and at a forward end of the upper movable jaw 3, respectively. In this manner, the pressure plate 10 on the upper movable jaw 3, when actuated, is inserted into the recess 8 in the lower stationary jaw 2 and abuts with the pressure plate 9, so as to prevent the upper movable jaw 3 from moving sideways away from the lower stationary jaw. The lower stationary jaw 2 and upper movable jaw 3 include attached thereto a plurality of lower shearing blades 11 and upper shearing blades 12 adapted to be inter-engaged relative to one another.
Another example of such a shearing machine is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication [KOKOKU] No. 56-49273. Although not shown in the drawings, a shearing machine disclosed in this Publication includes a cylinder case detachably mounted on one end of an arm of a power shovel by means of a rotatable device, and a pair of cutters. Each cutter includes a shearing blade pivotably mounted on a support shaft extending transversely in the cylinder case.
The shearing machine disclosed in the above United States Patent is constructed so that the upper movable jaw 3 may be inserted into the recess 8 formed in the lower stationary jaw 2. Further, each of the upper and lower jaws includes attached thereto a pressure plate 10, 9. This causes such a shearing machine to be relatively large in size, complicated in construction, and significantly heavy in weight, thus making manufacturing cost thereof relatively high. In addition, such a shearing machine requires a relatively large-sized power shovel.
On the other hand, the shearing machine disclosed in the above Japanese Publication is relatively small in size and lightweight. It should be noted, however, that, in such a shearing machine, the cutter body tends to move sideways away from a steel material upon shearing thereof in a direction perpendicular to open close direction of the cutter. Thus, such a shearing machine becomes incapable of securely shearing or cutting a steel material over time of use.


A vehicular cargo retention system includes a first cargo retention rail pivotally coupled with a load floor. A second cargo retention rail is pivotally coupled with the load floor. The first cargo retention rail is configured to rotate to a position above the second cargo retention rail. First and second shelves are operably coupled to a vehicle seatback. The first and second shelves are operable between a stowed position, wherein each of the first and second shelves is generally coplanar with the seatback, and a deployed position, wherein the first and second shelves extend generally horizontally.

Various vehicles include storage areas that are undivided open spaces into which many different articles can be positioned. Certain storage areas include hooks, individual compartments, and other features that can be used to organize cargo that is placed within a cargo area of a vehicle, but have limited cargo storage options. Many of these features have a single use and limited functionality, wherein the cargo storage features are not adaptable to position cargo of varying orientations, sizes, or materials.


A panel spacer and a dishwasher using the panel spacer are provided. The dishwasher has a door and a control panel located a predetermined distance from the door. The panel spacer includes a spacer cover installed between the door and the control panel, and at least one spacer body coupled to the spacer cover. The spacer body fills a gap between the door and the control panel together with the spacer cover.

A dishwasher is a home appliance that sprays high-pressure wash liquid through spray nozzles to wash and remove food residue left on surfaces of dishes. Specifically, a dishwasher includes a tub forming a wash compartment, and a sump installed at the bottom of the tub for storing wash liquid. Installed inside the sump is a wash pump that pumps wash liquid to the spray nozzles. The wash liquid pumped to the spray nozzles is discharged under high pressure through spray holes at the ends of the nozzles. The high-pressure wash liquid spray collides with the surfaces of dishes, so that food residue and other impurities on the dishes fall to the floor of the tub.
A door at the front of the dishwasher has a front panel installed at its front portion for aesthetic purposes. A control panel is installed above the door. The control panel includes various buttons, a display portion, etc.
However, in dishwashers according to the related art, front panels are sized according to the type of product they are intended for. Thus, when a front panel is installed on a door, and the dimensions of the former are smaller than those of the latter, a gap is created between the top of the front panel and the control panel, creating an unsightly appearance.

Panel spacer of dish washer, and dish washer using the same


In hybrid fiber coaxial cable networks such as used in cable television where two-way digital communications are desired, a distributed termination system is provided. In such a system the home terminals are digital terminals, such as digital set-top boxes or cable modems using bi-directional transmission standards. The functionality of the head end controller in a conventional system is in this system distributed between the head end and the fiber nodes which link the coaxial cable and optical fiber portions of the system. Thereby the upstream detection takes place in the fiber nodes rather than in the head end by placing upstream burst receivers in the fiber nodes. Further there is a distributed method to enable this by providing synchronization and calibration control between the head end and the fiber nodes. Also, the return path is a digital return path supported by having the burst receivers located in the fiber nodes.

This invention pertains to RF and fiber-optic architecture of HFC (Hybrid Fiber Coaxial cable) cable television or cable-like network systems and two-way digital communications to cable modem and digital settop units.
HFC Networks
FIGS. 1a, 1b show a generic HFC network. FIG. 1a shows the head-end whereas FIG. 1b shows the entire network.
The Head-end (HE) 8 contains the equipment respectively 10, 12 and 14 that receives the analog and digital television signals and the digital data signals from multiple local and remote sources (satellites, off-air sources, terrestrial microwave, local tape systems, local video servers, computer servers, IP routers) and conditions these signals for transmission to the home terminals (HT). The home terminals 18-1, 18-2, etc., are analog and digital video xe2x80x9csettopsxe2x80x9d (cable TV set top boxes) and digital cable modems. The head end 8 also receives the reverse (upstream) transmissions from the home terminals and processes them, in coordination with the downstream transmissions and the input/output signals from/to outside digital networks. The equipment to perform this transceiving function at the HE with respect to the home devices and the core data networks connected to the HE is called in this disclosure Interactive Termination System (ITS).
Consider first the downstream transmission of analog video, then the transmission of digital video and data. Analog video is transmitted downstream by FDM (Frequency Division Multiplexing), whereby a composite spectrum consisting of multiple analog channels is generated by RF (radio frequency) combining the output of analog modulators 20-1, 20-2, etc., each of which is driven by a baseband or IF analog video channel. The composite FDM signal is then applied to one or more linear analog laser transmitters 24-1, 24-2, 24-3, etc., and transmitted over a xe2x80x9ctreexe2x80x9d structure 28 of optical fiber to the fiber nodes 30-1, 30-2, etc., where conversion from optical to RF format occurs at optical receiver 29.
From the fiber nodes the signals are distributed to the home terminals via a tree and branch structure 40 consisting of coaxial cables with amplifiers 42-1, 42-2, etc., periodically placed to make up for the signal loss, taps and coaxial drops to the subscriber units HT. Each coaxial cable drop terminates in an RF set-top converter HT which bandpass selects a particular analog television channel out of the composite spectrum.
The band from 550 MHz to 750 MHz is used for downstream digital transmission from digital TV sources 12. Digital QAM (quadrature amplitude modulation) modulators 50-1, 50-2, 50-3, etc., are used to map multiple streams, each of several tens of Mbps into 6 MHz channels. The modulators 50-1, etc., are positioned at the transmit side of a digital link, which runs over an analog linear medium, such as the HFC medium. The digital input to each QAM modulator at the HE is typically an MPEG-2 multiplexed digital signal carrying multiple digital video MPEG-2 programs and/or data channels from multiplexes 52-1, 52-2, 52-3, etc.
The digital video inputs to the multiplexers 52-1, 52-2, etc., are generated by digital video encoders in sources 12 each of which digitizes and compresses an analog video input signal. Alternatively the digital video input signals originate from digital video servers or are received from remote sources via satellite. On the transmit side, an RF summing/splitting matrix 53 combines the RF signals carrying analog TV, digital TV, and data signals; the data signals are provided from the ITS via modulators 55-1, 55-2, etc.
The coaxial cable path is used for return (upstream) as well as for forward (downstream) transmission. The 5 to 42 MHz band (used in the US) and the corresponding range in international cable systems, called here the lowband, is dedicated to the upstream transmission. Home terminals HT such as cable modems and interactive digital video settops, in addition to receiving downstream digital transmissions by means of their QAM demodulators, also have the ability to map their digital return transmissions onto RF waveforms using upstream burst transmitter modulators. Modulation formats such as QPSK or 16-QAM are typically used, however in the return path the transmission is not of a continuous bitstream as in downstream but rather occurs in bursts of short packets of data randomly occurring in time. The data bursts at the home terminals HT are encoded into short sequences of symbols by the QPSK or 16-QAM burst transmitter modulator (called here a burst transmitter). After upstream propagation all the way up to the head-end 8, these bursts are converted by QPSK or 16-QAM burst receiver demodulator (called here a burst receiver) into the original data packets. This process which is called detection occurs in the front end of the ITS 56-1, 56-2. Several burst receivers may be used with the corresponding number of upstream channels, each receiving packets over a single upstream channel frequency. Each upstream channel frequency may be shared by many home terminals, by TDMA (Time-Division Multiple Access) as arbitrated by the ITS at the head-end.
In the return path, RF return signals from the home terminals HT propagate back towards the head-end 8, going back up the drop, the tap in tree 40, and back through the amplifiers 42-1, etc., which have bidirectional capabilities to support the return path. When the return signal reaches the fiber node 30-4 it is diplexed by diplexer 59 (i.e., directed on a separate upstream path based on the orthogonality of the upstream and downstream frequency bands) amplified and applied to a return optical transmitter 58 and transmitted back up to the head-end, typically on a separate optical fiber than the one used for downstream transmission.
At the head-end 8 the return signal is photodetected in a return-path-receiver 60-1, 60-2, i.e. converted back to electrical (RF) form, and is then split at RF summing/splitting matrix 68 and fed to analog or digital receivers for the various return service applications, in particular, it is input into the return path demodulators 64-1, 64-2.
High performance broadband HFC networks are essentially broadcast networks. To increase the capacity, a combination of a digital switching network and a multiplicity of smaller scale broadcasting subsystems can be employed, whereby the subscriber population is partitioned into multiple sets, with each set of subscribers being allocated one switched bi-directional digital data stream, such that different streams belonging to different subscriber sets are generally independent. This narrowcasting architecture essentially consists of a master switched system or network, with the switch ports driving smaller scale HFC broadcast, each addressing a serving area of a few tens or hundreds of subscribers called the narrowcasting domain. Domain-specific digital content, namely , two-way interactive data and interactive digital video, namely VOD (Video-On-Demand) is routed or switched to/from each domain via the HE or multiple hubs. One can differentiate between downstream and upstream narrowcast domains.
As subscriber penetration increases it is necessary to develop methods to efficiently concentrate the return path signals from large number of subscribers all the way to the head-end, while maintaining small upstream narrowcast domains. This is done by segmenting the HFC system into a larger number of return path domains, associating a smaller number of subscribers with each return path transmitter at the node. This is beneficial with respect to the ingress noise accumulation but also increases the upstream bandwidth per subscriber.
The relationship between downstream and upstream narrowcast domains is as follows. The relevant factors in determining the optimal ratio of the upstream and downstream domain sizes are digital transport capacity in the downstream and upstream (a function of the spectra available and the spectral efficiency), and the asymmetry profiles in the upstream vs downstream average transmission rates required per subscriber. For example, it is given that only 37 MHz of bandwidth are available in the downstream and the modulation scheme there (QPSK or 16-QAM) is less spectrally efficient than in the upstream (QAM-64 to QAM-256). Since more bandwidth is available downstream than upstream (though this depends on the utilization of the downstream bandwidth between analog and digital broadcast vs narrowcast), and since the traffic is asymmetric with more bandwidth required downstream, it follows that the downstream narrowcast domains should be larger than the upstream narrowcast domains. It is desired to have the size of the downstream and upstream narrowcast domains decoupled. One way of manipulating the size of narrowcast domains is to design the system in the first place with small and equal downstream/upstream domains and to RF combine the upstream and downstream transmissions.
Once the digital capacity of the fixed return path portion of the spectrum (e.g. 5 to 42 MHz in the US, with each 3.2 MHz carrying 5 Mbps in QPSK and 10 Mbps in QAM16 modulation) is divided among fewer subscribers, not only does the bandwidth per subscriber increase, but also the lower noise may allow using more spectrally efficient modulation schemes such as QAM16 rather than QPSK. The challenge is to reconcile this with the trend of eliminating switching equipment (ITS and video on demand VOD) from the hubs and bringing all the returns from tens of thousands of subscribers back to a master head-end. One must then collect return signals from a minimal number of RF branches, while devising methods to transmit those returns in some efficient multiplexed way back to the head-end.
Known alternatives for a high performance broadband return path include space-division multiplexing using multiple fiber return paths; frequency stacking using an FDM return path; dense wavelength division mutiplexing at an optical fiber node in the return path; time division multiplexing in the return path; and PCM (pulse code modulation) for a digital return path.
Dail U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,325, discloses shifting the point of detection of the analog waveforms which encode the upstream digital communication, away from the head-end and into a fiber node (where optical RF conversion takes place).
In an example of partitioning the 2000 homes node into four return paths each covering 500 homes, four groups of return demodulators may be used in the fiber node, each group listening to the FDM channels allocated on each of the four RF coaxial cable legs. The digital outputs from these return demodulators are Time Division Multiplexed at the node into a single digital stream. A digital baseband link running over fiber optics should then be provided from the fiber node to the head-end.
This is very efficient. If QPSK is used then the spectral efficiency is approximately 1.5 bits/sec per Hz, i.e. less than 1.5 B bits are required to carry the upstream QPSK transmissions partially filling a return bandwidth of B Hz.
Multiple Access Arbitration in Digital HFC Networks
HFC media are broadcast, such that transmissions from the head-end are received by every HT, and conversely return transmissions from the HTs may superimpose upon one another when they reach the head-end.
The most natural design for the multiple access in cable systems uses centralized management from the head-end, which becomes the xe2x80x9cmasterxe2x80x9d, with the home terminals HT becoming xe2x80x9cslavesxe2x80x9d, in the sense that the master decides when a slave is allowed to send data. The head-end is then a single point of coordination.
The critical layer for interactive communications with HTs such as cable modems and settops is the head-end MAC (Medium Access Control) layer, used to arbitrate access of multiple users. This layer is located between the physical layer and the higher application-oriented layers. There are multiple choices for the implementation of the MAC layer. Given that the propagation delays from the head-end to the home terminals are typically much larger than the durations of packets, it follows that distributed contention based MAC schemes such as ALOHA or CSMA/CD (Ethernet) would be very inefficient. Instead a class of protocols which are called here reservation based limited contention protocols are used.
These protocols combine the best properties of collision-free and contention-free protocols, i.e. using contention at low loads to provide low delay, while using a collision-free polling technique at high load to provide high throughput.
In particular, the preferred choices for the MAC implementation for HFC systems are Reservation Based Limited Contention Hybrid FDMA/Slotted-TDMA HFC schemes, referred to here as RBLC-HFC schemes.
Relevant established standards (or standards in the making) are DOCSIS, DVB-RC, DAVIC, IEEE 802.14, and OpenCable. The most widespread and mature standards are the first two. The DOCSIS standard was originally called MCNS and the DVB-RC standard was adopted from a prior standard called DAVIC (Digital AudioVisual Council).
The IEEE 802.14 standard seems to be failing to become widely adopted. Finally, a new North American standard for set-tops called OpenCable is in the making, and is likely to include the DAVIC and DOCSIS standards as a subset.
Therefore this disclosure focuses on the DOCSIS and DVB standards as the most widespread, and best exemplifying the generic features of all standards for broadband communication over HFC networks, that are based on the RBLC-HFC protocol, whereby the home terminals use a combination of reservation and contention techniques to establish broadband bi-directional communications with the head-end. These standards support different access modes for upstream data transmission.
While details of these the two main DOCSIS and DVB standards differ, for the purposes of this disclosure, the systems are described using a generalized nomenclature pertaining to both.
The Head-End ITS (Interactive Termination System) refers here to both CMTS (Cable Modem Termination System) and INA (Interactive Network Adapters) Head-End (HE) controllers which implement the MAC layer as well as the higher level application layers and the physical layer at the head-end.
DOCSIS Standard
The MAC frame formats for the DOCSIS standard are set forth in that standard, incorporated herein by reference. The following is a brief description of principles of operation of the standard.
The upstream channel is modeled as a stream of mini-slots along the time axis, the time reference for which is generated by the CMTS and communicated to all CMs. The CMTS arbitrates access to these slots by each of the cable modems. For example it may grant some number of contiguous slots to a CM for it to transmit some data or it may assign a number of slots for contention among stations that wish to transmit some data without having made prior reservations or it may allocate mini-slots to stations that communicated to the CMTS their wish to be allocated reserved bandwidth.
The DOCSIS MAC protocol governs the requesting, granting and using upstream bandwidth. An initial ranging and calibration procedure is first run such that new CMs be able to join the link and time their transmissions so that the CMTS receives these transmissions in the time reference intended by it.
DAVIC-RC Standard
There are two variants of the DVB-RC standard, the IB (in band) and OOB (out of band) methods. In both methods a QPSK return path is provided from the NIU (Network Interface Unit) which is the relevant subsystem in the home terminals, namely digital video settops and cable modems abiding by the DVB standard. The two variants differ in the provision of the interactive return path. Under the IB method the downstream control channel is transmitted over a QAM channel which can also multiplex digital video traffic. Under the OOB method a dedicated QPSK downstream channel is used for control and synchronization of the home terminals.
Interactive Termination System
FIG. 2 illustrates operation of a conventional ITS 56 system in the HE (head-end). The description of the internal structure of the ITS is generic, covering the common aspects of the DOCSIS and DVB-RC standards. FIG. 3 presents the internal structure of the INA in particular.
The timebase counter 80 is driven by an HE local clock (not shown) and synchronizes all the home terminals. In both standards timebase counter 80 actually generates two clock outputs, related to each other by a fixed integer ratio. The two related counter outputs are the sync count signal 82 and the scheduler count signal 84, such that a fixed number of counts of the scheduler count corresponds to a single count of the sync count.
In the DOCSIS standard the sync count is a 32 bit count driven by a 10.24 MHz clock, whereas the schedule count represents 6.25 xcexcsec/64 divisions.
In the DVB-RC standard the sync count represents the count of ESFs (extended superframes) whereas the scheduler count is a finer count describing a finer subdivision of the duration of the extended superframe into regular time ticks. In the DVB standard a T1 type of framing, namely the extended superframe, is used for embedding payload and downstream overhead messages.
The sync count 82 is periodically embedded within downstream data stream. The downstream frame including the overheads and the sync message or sync bits is constructed by means of the Frame Mapper module 88, which in turns drives the physical layer modulator 90. In the DOCSIS standard the timestamps are embedded in separate SYNC messages, whereas in the DVB-RC standard the Sync count bits are embedded within the M1-M10 overhead bits of the extended superframes transmitted downstream which contain the actual payload as well as other encapsulated overheads called MAC flags.
The scheduler count 84 optionally is modified by a fixed calibration offset loaded in an offset accumulator 92 (supplied from CPU microprocessor 96) via adder 98 and then the resulting running time reading is compared by comparator 100 with the contents of a next arrival register 102 which indicates the expected time for the next arrival of a burst from one of the home terminals.
The values of the next arrival register are successively loaded from a queue 104 in the FIFO memory of the ITS processor 96. This queue 104 is generically called here schedule.
The schedule 104 is a data structure generated at the HE to be transmitted to all the HTs over a schedule_message. It indicates how to assign the time axis to the various HTs, by partitioning it into time intervals, each starting at the planned arrival time of packets or bursts from each of the HTs.
The schedule 104 consists of an ordered array of times when an arrival is due at the HE burst receiver (for each upstream channel and its associated burst receiver(s) one such schedule is maintained). It is communicated downstream by a related schedule_message, from which each HT may reconstruct a subset of the schedule containing an array of planned arrival times of bursts from that particular receiver. In the DOCSIS standard the schedule_message is called allocation_Map while in the DVB standard, the schedule_message consists of bits interspersed in the overhead of the extended superframe, namely the b0 ranging slot indicator and b1-b6 slot boundary definition MAC flags, as well as transmit opportunity assignments communicated in certain MAC messages such as the Connect_Message and the MAC_Reservation_Grant_Message.
When the scheduler running time count becomes equal to the contents of the next arrival register 102, a trigger pulse is generated by comparator 100 to indicate to a control input of the burst receiver 106 the expected time of arrival of the next burst.
In the reservation modes of operation the schedule 104 communicated to the HTs allows effective generation of a polling behavior, whereby each of the HTs in turn, in the order and at the timing determined by the structure of the schedule, transmit their packets in sequence. It is the responsibility of each HT to start transmitting at the proper allocated time (called transmit opportunity) as defined in the schedule. It is the responsibility of the HE to transmit a consistent schedule ahead of the intended transmission times for all the HTs. If all the HTs follow this procedure then it is ensured that only one HT transmits at a time and collisions are avoided while the available time for transmission is optimally utilized, without leaving idle intervals.
In order for this procedure to work, the arrivals of packets from the HTs to the HE must be first synchronized. To this end, upon initialization, a ranging protocol is executed insuring that the various delays from the HE to the home terminals are calibrated out by applying appropriate offsets to the local clocks of each HT. Once the ranging process is completed, time events indicated in the schedule may be interpreted in a literal way as both transmission times (according to each HT""s local clock) as well as arrival times at the HE of the respective HT transmissions. It is then guaranteed that once the schedule indicates that a particular HT should transmit a packet at a certain (local) time To then that packet indeed arrives at the HE at the same nominal time value To (but referred to the HE clock). Therefore the schedule indicates the intended times of arrival of each packet at the head end, which, if literally interpreted by the home terminals as burst transmission times, will then coincide with the intended arrival times.
In the reservation mode the ITS assigns different home terminals to disjoint time intervals so that there are no collisions between the various transmissions. In the contention mode of operation, collisions are allowed, as certain time intervals are allocated to the simultaneous transmission of multiple home terminals. Contention is resolved by a back-off procedure whereby HTs randomly delay their to subsequent contention intervals to later times within the same contention interval.
The ranging procedure during initialization is itself executed in a contention mode, since more than one modem may attempt to join in by sending a message called RNG_REQ (Ranging Request) in the DOCSIS standard and Sign-on_Response in the DVB-RC standard. This message is generically called upstream_probe to cover both standards. The duration of the ranging interval is taken sufficiently long to allow for the differences in propagation time from the HTs to the HE. At this point, due to unknown propagation delays, the actual arrivals of the probe_message bursts from the HTs to the HE do not generally correspond to the head-end burst receiver trigger times which in turn correspond to the expected times of arrival as defined the schedule. However, the offset between actual and expected arrival times may be determined by the burst receiver which must have the capability to measure the time difference between the expected arrival as signaled by the burst receiver trigger and the actual arrival of the burst, and communicate this time offset to the ITS processor (CPU) 96.
This timing difference called timing_offset is equal to the total round trip propagation and processing delay, and stems from the delayed acquisition of the sync counter clock by the HTs as well as the delay between transmission of bursts at the HTs and their reception at the HE due to propagation and processing delays.
To complete the ranging process, once the timing_offset is measured by the HE burst receiver, it is communicated back to the HT by an overhead message which is called in the DOCSIS standard RNG_RSP (Ranging Response), while in the DVB-RC standard it is called Ranging_and_Calibration_Request message. Generically call this message downstream_calibration message here.
Each HT undergoing the ranging process is now able to correct its transmission clock accordingly by an amount equal to the timing_offset. This insures that future bursts transmitted by each HT now arrive at the ITS burst receiver precisely at the corresponding times of the receive triggers as derived from the schedule for each of the HT entries.
In addition to the timing trigger, the burst receiver 106 is also fed with estimates of the expected RF power for the next burst as well as the expected frequency of the next burst and it optionally (only in DOCSIS) measures the frequency response characteristics of the upstream channels for subsequent correction of equalization of the burst transmitter filter coefficients in the HT.
This necessitates the burst receiver to be equipped with the additional capabilities of a sophisticated measurement device for the ratio (difference on a decibel scale) of received RF power and expected RF power of the burst as well as for small frequency offsets between the intended and actual frequency of reception and the frequency response of the channel. These measurements, which together with the timing offsets are collectively called here offset_attributes, should also be communicated by the RNG_RSP to the HT in addition to the timing offset. Upon receipt of these offset_attributes the HT should correct the corresponding absolute parameters (time, power, frequency, equalization coefficients) by the received offset amounts, such that after the correction, a repetition of the measurement of these parameters by the burst receiver at the HE would eventually yield zero offsets. This procedure is performed at least once upon initialization or reset of the ITS and HT until the offset_attributes converge to zero, but it should also be repeated every once in a while to counteract the offset_attributes slowly drifting away from their null values due environmental effects.
Burst buffer 108 receives the output signal from burst receiver 106 and couples it back to CPU 96, which in turn outputs the payload and MAC messages to the frame mapper 88.
FIG. 3 shows the INA for the DVB-RC standard, and is in many respects the same as FIG. 2. In FIG. 3, the timing circuitry is somewhat different, including a local clock 116 driving divider 118 and timebase counter 120. ESF counter 124 (ESF is DVB-RC nomenclature) couples to ESF frame mapper 128, as does buffer 132.
Home Terminals
A generic home terminal (HT) 18 is shown in FIG. 4 which applies to both standards. FIG. 5 shows a DVB-RC version of the FIG. 4 apparatus.
The frame recovery and parsing module 132 separates the incoming stream from demodulator 134 into substreams of payload bits and MAC overhead messages 136 as well as the sync timestamps 138 which are fed into a timestamp register 142 as they arrive (the timestamp register is called Upstream Position Register 143 in the DVB case).
The timebase recovery module 144 is a digital phase locked loop driving a local counter which tracks the samples of the timestamp register, smoothing any random rapid variable delays that may have been superimposed on the timestamp register readings along the way. The recovered count is called here local timebase. It lags the sync count timebase at the HE 82 by an amount of time equal to the propagation delay plus any processing delay in the frame and timebase recovery modules.
The local timebase is next additionally offset at adder 148 by a value stored in the offset accumulator 150 (from CPU 152), then it is compared with the reading of the next departure register 154, which is in turn loaded with the transmit opportunities times for the particular HT, as extracted from the schedule queue stored in memory 156. The schedule is extracted in advance out of appropriate overhead messages transmitted over the downstream broadcast channel by the HE to all associated HTs.
When the local timebase count becomes equal to the value stored in the next departure register, a pulse is generated in the comparator 160 and applied to the burst transmitter 162 to trigger the transmission of the next burst which was stored in buffer 166.
Subsequently, the next departure register 154 is updated by retrieving the next value out of the schedule queue 156, corresponding to transmission (and arrival) times of bursts from the particular HT. After the next time of transmission is loaded into the next departure register, the process is repeated.
The transmit and receive triggers at the HT and HE respectively, both occur when the running counts of the timebases at the respective locations become equal to the nominal value To as specified in the schedule queue for the particular burst of the particular HT, but after ranging calibration the actual times when these two triggers tagged by the same nominal time To occur, are in fact different such that the burst triggered at the HT by the trigger at local time To, is assured to arrive to the burst receiver at the HE concurrent with its burst receiver trigger, also at nominal time To but measured with respect to the HE.
To grasp the timing relationships, notice that prior to execution of the ranging procedure the burst transmit trigger lags the burst receiver trigger by the total one-way delay. This means that the probe burst sent by the HT during ranging arrives at the HE burst receiver when it lags by the total round trip delay (with respect to the burst receiver pulse).
Advancing the burst transmit pulse by the round trip delay (twice the one-way delay) causes now the arrival at the pulse concurrent with the burst receive trigger at the HE.
This means that after ranging the burst transmit trigger at the HT now precisely advances the burst receiver trigger by an amount equal to the propagation delay from the HT to the HE plus any burst transmitter processing delay (total one-way delay).
FIG. 9 shows a DVB-RC version of the FIG. 8 home terminal, with similar elements similarly labeled. Here the demodulator 170 is a QPSK demodulator driving the ESF frame recovery module 172.
This invention pertains to broadband HFC distribution systems to digital home terminals such as digital settops or cable modems, using bi-directional transmission standards such as DOCSIS and DVB, or more generally using any multiple access scheme characterized herein as of the Reservation Based Limited Contention Hybrid FDMA/Slotted-TDMA HFC (RBLC-HFC) type as described above. This allows application of the invention to future RBLC-HFC standards in addition to the existing DOCSIS, DVB-RC and IEEE 802.14 standards.
In conventional HFC systems all digital transmissions between the home terminals and the ITS (CMTS or INA) head-end controller are encoded over the physical RF and fiber analog linear media by transmitting in both directions, over the HFC media, modulated analog passband fixed shape waveforms, called symbols, also as explained above. The fiber nodes are merely transparent linear points of conversion between the analog RF formats on the home side and the analog optical power formats on the head-end side. The digital detection (conversion of symbol waveforms into digital bits) of the upstream transmission occurs in the burst receivers at the head-end or hubs. Furthermore, the upstream digital communications multiple access (point to/from multipoint) is conducted between the ITS located at the HE or hubs and the HTs. Multiple upstream frequencies (FDMA) are used in the upstream, and on each upstream frequency a slotted- TDMA reservations based limited contention protocol allows multiple home terminals to transmit data bursts in coordination.
In accordance with the invention, the functionality of the ITS head-end controller is distributed between the head-end and the fiber nodes, moving the upstream detection from the head-end to the fiber nodes, i.e. placing the upstream burst receivers in the fiber nodes, transmitting the detected digital information in digital form from the fiber nodes to the head-end, and further introducing a novel distributed method to enable this by providing synchronization and calibration control between the two parts of the distributed ITS, which are now remote with respect to each other, namely the head-end MAC layer and the burst receivers in the fiber node.
One aspect in accordance with the invention transforms the analog return path from the fiber node to the head-end into a digital return path, by moving the digital burst receivers from their conventional location in the ITS head-end controller to the fiber node. With the digital burst receivers in the optical nodes, and the digital detection there, a digital link running over fiber optics is provided between the output of the burst receivers in the node and the ITS head-end controllers. This differs from conventional HFC systems which transmit analog passband waveforms encoding QPSK or 16-QAM symbols over the RF and fiber media, all the way from the home terminals to the head-end, and in which analog symbols are detected to digital form only at the head-end or hub.
First, in accordance with this invention the digital signals can be transmitted over part or the entire return path over the fiber media in passband modulation format such as ASK rather than baseband form as disclosed by Dail (referred to above). This is done in order to provide the additional advantage of compatibility with xe2x80x9clegacyxe2x80x9d systems which already use the upstream transmission band with proprietary modulation formats.
The reason to use passband ASK or equivalent passband modulation in the upstream is to meet a key objective of the proposed invention, namely the provision of a solution for backward compatibility with xe2x80x9clegacyxe2x80x9d networks (not of the DOCSIS or DVB type) wherein the lowband (e.g. 5 to 42 MHZ in the US) is already occupied in part by upstream transmissions from home terminals which do not confirm to the main standards DOCSIS or DVB that apply to the invention.
In contrast, Dail discloses baseband upstream transmission after the digital detection of the return path transmissions from the home terminals, which would preclude the linear transmission of the legacy spectrum back to the head-end and provide no solution for back compatibility.
In accordance with the invention, the ITS is synchronized with the remoted burst receivers into the node and with the home terminals, in a way which is compatible with the centralized RBLC-HFC based standards.
In these standards it is the role of the ITS at the head-end to provide a common time-base to all home terminals such that the system insures arrival of packets from each home terminal at the head-end, aligned on a time axis grid of regular time-slots. Distributing the functionality of the ITS between the head-end and the fiber node could conceptually be viewed as xe2x80x9celongating the wirexe2x80x9d from the burst receiver to the MAC layer of the CMTS/INA over as long a span as tens of Km (while possibly passing through layers of TDM multiplexing and demultiplexing on the way).
There is a technical problem, though, with this elongation of the link between the burst receivers and the MAC: the resulting spans are now indeterminate in length and could be possibly slowing varying due to temperature changes, or due to queuing delays in the TDM process. Unknown or varying propagation delays will violate a key requirement of the DOCSIS and DVB-RC standards to have fixed and known delays, and the ranging and synchronization protocols defined in the standards will fail, as these protocols are based on using synchronous reservations, whereby the transmissions from each home terminal are so timed as to fall within precise time-slots.
In accordance with this invention, further there is a distributed calibration and synchronization method and apparatus, without which a system as proposed by Dail would not function at all in HFC networks using multiple access standards or standards such as DOCSIS or DVB.
This failure is due to violation of the precise timing relationships between the times of transmission and reception, in the wake of the indeterminate delays.
The present system allows location of the RF to digital detection function in the nodes while maintaining full compatibility with existing (DOCSIS, DVB-RC) and possibly new RBLC-HFC standards. This is done by providing synchronization and calibration in the fiber node and applying minimum changes to the structure of existing head-end ITS systems, which changes may be still interpreted as conforming with the standards.
The result is that this system can function with standard DOCSIS cable modems or standard DVB set-top boxes or to be introduced home terminals of future RBLC-HFC standards, such as OpenCable.
The present system works with standard home terminals and keeps the multiple access protocols functional by providing distributed calibration and synchronization. Lack of such a solution in the prior art incapacitates the ability to have a functional system at all with DOCSIS and DVB home terminals.
The present distributed calibration and synchronization involves the remoted digital burst receivers and the head-end MAC. This is implemented by incorporating in the optical node, along with the burst receivers, an additional stripped-down home terminal, making use of its downstream cable demodulator plus MAC layer as further indicated below.
In one embodiment this is done by introducing into the node either a cable modem assembly, in the case of a network home cable modems, or a set-top assembly, in the case of a network with home set-tops, and modifying the software run by the cable modem or set-top introduced at the node.

Distributed termination system for two-way hybrid networks


An air filter and carburetor arrangement includes a round filter and a round filter carrier having a filter plate. The round filter has a central filter axis, which lies at an angle to the filter plate. The carburetor has a carburetor body, in which an intake duct is configured with a duct longitudinal axis, and at one end of the intake duct on the carburetor body a filter connection side for the round filter carrier is configured, wherein the round filter carrier is fixed with at least one surface portion of the filter plate on the connection surface of the carburetor. The design is provided such that the duct longitudinal axis of the intake duct lies in the plane of the filter plate at a lateral distance (r) to the filter axis of the round filter fixed to the round filter carrier.

The application relates to an air filter and carburetor arrangement involving a round filter and a round filter carrier having a filter plate and the carburetor has a carburetor body having an intake duct which is connected to the round filter carrier and forms a duct longitudinal axis.
The use of round filters for filtering the combustion air fed to an intake duct of a carburetor is known. Where handheld work tools are used, difficulties arise with respect to the arrangement in the housing of the work tool, because sufficient clearance must be provided for the installation and removal of the round filter.
One of the objects of the application is to configure an air filter arrangement having a round filter on a carburetor such that the air filter arrangement remains usable in cramped spatial conditions and ensures simple removal and fitting of the round filter.

Air filter arrangement having a carburetor


A first service's exhibition of a first symptom while executing a set of transactions is detected. A graph is constructed representing data flow between a set of services including the first service. By traversing the graph, a set of candidate services is constructed, a candidate service in the set of candidate services comprising a service exhibiting the first symptom, the set of candidate services including the first service. A probability of a first cause is evaluated, for the candidate service. At a problem service in the set of candidate services, a problem cause is ameliorated, the problem service identified using the set of candidate services and the probability of the first cause, the problem cause causing the first symptom.

The present invention relates generally to a method, system, and computer program product for service troubleshooting. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method, system, and computer program product for service issue source identification in an interconnected environment.
A service is a software application that processes transactions by communicating data, status, and execution commands over a network with other services or software applications. Dividing a large application into smaller services provides ease of scaling as demands on a portion of the application or available systems for service execution change.
An issue is a problem affecting one or more transactions a service provides to clients. For example, a system with a failing storage component might exhibit a higher-than-normal error rate when writing data to the storage component, necessitating a higher-than-normal retry rate for the affected data writes that slows the system's overall transaction processing. As another example, if a system is connected by two links, one faster than the other, to a network, but the faster link becomes unavailable due to a hardware failure, routing all the system's communications via the remaining, slower link might raise the system's response time for transactions involving data from other systems to an unacceptable level.

Service issue source identification in an interconnected environment

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


The present invention is a neutral cylinder refractor, which is a refractor that uses spherical power in combination with cylinder lenses to render them spherically neutral. Every cylinder lens in the refractor, excluding the Jackson Cross Cylinder, has corresponding spherical power added to it to neutralize the spherical equivalent of the cylindrical lenses. The invention can be used to measure the refractive error of a patient's eye, and specifically the cylinder aspect can be measured more easily due to a lack of interference from spherical equivalent.

A manual refractor is used to determine how a lens should be shaped to correct a patient's vision. The refractor is used by an expert in a "Subjective Refraction" eye exam, where the patient responds to the expert's questions based on the patient's subjective perception of differences between lenses. In this process, the refractor has spherical lenses to correct myopia or hyperopia (nearsightedness or farsightedness) and cylindrical lenses to correct for astigmatism. Generally, spherical lenses have rotational symmetry and focus light into a point, while cylindrical lenses focus light into a line. However, a refractor's cylindrical lens also has some spherical equivalent that will alter nearsightedness or farsightedness correction (spherical power) by changes made to correct for astigmatism.
To correct for the cylindrical lens' effect on spherical power, the combined effects of the cylindrical and spherical lenses must be taken into account.
Currently there are a number of solutions for determining the refractive error of a patient's eyes. Some of these solutions attempt to determine the level of astigmatism correction needed by patients, but these solutions fail to meet the needs of the industry because the cylinder lenses used have a significant amount of spherical equivalent, causing nearsightedness or farsightedness correction (spherical power) to become offset by changes in astigmatism correction. In order to combat this problem, it is necessary to check the spherical and cylindrical powers several times to ensure that the correct balance between sphere and cylinder has been achieved. But, this solution is deficient, because it takes much longer for the refraction expert to complete the correction and this delay can make it exceedingly more difficult for the patient to respond accurately to the expert's requests for distinctions between different lenses, especially if a patient is already struggling with the test. In addition, cylindrical lenses that have not been compensated for spherical equivalent can cause patients to indicate they require more or less cylinder power when it is actually the resulting change in spherical power inherent in the cylindrical lens that is improving their myopia or hyperopia, but not the astigmatism. This results in a lower quality outcome.
What is needed is a refractor that uses cylinder lenses in combination with spherical power to neutralize the spherical equivalent, thereby eliminating the corresponding increase or decrease in sphere power that typically goes along with the increase or decrease of cylinder power when switching between cylinder lenses for the patient. Furthermore, it is desirable to remove the risk of giving the patient too much or too little spherical power due to a needed change of the cylinder power, or of having the patient prefer an increase or decrease in cylinder power when they actually require the spherical power that is induced by the change in cylinder. Still further, needed is a refractor that does not require repeated checking of sphere and cylinder power in an effort to avoid the aforementioned problems.


A process and a system uses a direct chlorination reactor for producing ethylene dichloride by direct chlorination, without the need for an oxychlorination unit. This ethylene dichloride may be used to make vinyl chloride monomer. In the process for making ethylene dichloride, ethylene and chlorine are both supplied to a direct chlorination reactor. The ethylene reacts with the chlorine to form ethylene dichloride. Chlorine is supplied to the direct chlorination reactor from an electrochemical cell which converts anhydrous hydrogen chloride to dry chlorine gas. This chlorine gas is purified and liquefied to form liquid dry chlorine, and the liquid dry chlorine is recycled to the direct chlorination reactor. The ethylene dichloride may be pyrolyzed to produce vinyl chloride monomer and anhydrous hydrogen chloride.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process and a system for producing ethylene dichloride by direct chlorination, and for producing vinyl chloride monomer from this ethylene dichloride using chlorine recycle.
2. Description of the Related Art
Ethylene dichloride (EDC) has value as a chemical intermediate. See Riegel's Handbook of Industrial Chemistry, Seventh Edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, pp. 783-785. Most of the EDC produced goes into the manufacture of vinyl chloride monomer (VCM). Vinyl chloride monomer, CH.sub.2 .dbd.CHCl, by virtue of the wide range of applications for its polymers in both flexible and rigid forms, is one of the largest commodity chemicals in the United States and is an important item of international commerce. See Kirk Othmer, Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, Third edition, Volume 23, pp. 865-866 (1983). For instance, vinyl chloride monomer is used to make poly(vinyl chloride).
Hydrogen chloride (HCl), in either anhydrous form or aqueous form (also referred to as hydrochloric acid), is a reaction by-product of many manufacturing processes which use chlorine. For example, chlorine is used to manufacture polyvinyl chloride, isocyanates, and chlorinated hydrocarbons/fluorinated hydrocarbons, with hydrogen chloride as a by-product of these processes. Because supply so exceeds demand, hydrogen chloride, or hydrochloric acid, often cannot be sold or used, even after careful purification. Shipment over long distances is not economically feasible. Discharge of the chloride ions or the acid into waste water streams is environmentally unsound. Recovery and feedback of the chlorine to the manufacturing process is the most desirable route for handling the HCl by-product.
Direct chlorination is a known process for making VCM. However, this process does not recover and feed the chlorine back to the VCM manufacturing process, and therefore, it is not used commercially. Because of the environmental considerations which make recovering and feeding chlorine back to a manufacturing process which uses chlorine particularly desirable, a balanced process using an oxychlorination process has been developed to make vinyl chloride from ethylene dichloride. In a typical plant producing vinyl chloride from ethylene dichloride, HCl is produced through pyrolysis of ethylene dichloride, and all the HCl produced in this pyrolysis is normally used as the feed for oxychlorination. In this process, EDC production is about evenly split between direct chlorination and oxychlorination, and there is no net production or consumption of HCl.
A plant, or system, employing a currently used balanced oxychlorination process for ethylene-based vinyl chloride production is illustrated in the block flow diagram of FIG. 1. The plant is shown generally at 10. Plant 10 includes a direct chlorination reactor as shown at 12 in FIG. 1. A first inlet feed line 14 as shown in FIG. 1 feeds ethylene (C.sub.2 H.sub.4) to the direct chlorination reactor. A second inlet feed line 16 feeds chlorine (Cl.sub.2) to the direct chlorination reactor. The ethylene and the chlorine are reacted in the reactor to produce ethylene dichloride (EDC). The EDC is sent through a line 17 to an ethylene dichloride (EDC) purification unit 18.
The EDC purification unit purifies the ethylene dichloride, and light and heavy ends, which are a by-product of this purification, are released through a line 20 as shown in FIG. 1. Plant 10 also includes an ethylene dichloride (EDC) pyrolysis unit 22 as shown in FIG. 1. The purified EDC is delivered to the pyrolysis unit through a line 21. The pyrolysis unit pyrolyzes the ethylene dichloride to produce vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) and essentially anhydrous hydrogen chloride, which are both sent to a vinyl chloride monomer (VCM) purification unit 24 through a line 23 as shown in FIG. 1. The VCM purification unit separates the VCM and the essentially anhydrous hydrogen chloride. The VCM is sent through a line 26 for further purification. A portion of the EDC is unreacted in the pyrolysis unit, and may be recycled back to the EDC purification unit from the VCM purification unit through a line 28. The essentially anhydrous hydrogen chloride is sent through a line 30 as shown in FIG. 1 to an oxychlorination reactor 32. Oxygen is added to the oxychlorination reactor through a line 34 as shown in FIG. 1. In addition, ethylene (C.sub.2 H.sub.4) from first inlet feed line 14 is added to the oxychlorination unit through a line 36. Crude EDC, which has many impurities, and water are formed in the oxychlorination reactor, which are sent through a line 38 to an ethylene dichloride (EDC) dryer 40 as shown in FIG. 1. The EDC is dried in the EDC dryer, and the water resulting from this drying is released from the EDC dryer through a line 42. The crude EDC from the EDC dryer is sent through a line 44 back to the EDC purification unit.
Ethylene dichloride made from the oxychlorination process is generally less pure (.about.93 wt. % yield) than EDC produced by direct chlorination and, thus, is usually washed with water and then with caustic solution to remove water-extractable impurities. In contrast, direct chlorination generally produces EDC with a purity greater than 99.5 wt. % and, except for removal of the catalyst used in the formation of ethylene dichloride, such as ferric chloride, little further purification is necessary. Moreover, compared with direct chlorination, the oxychlorination process is characterized by higher capital investment and higher operating costs and less pure EDC product. However, the use of the oxychlorination process is dictated by the need to consume the HCl generated in EDC pyrolysis.
Therefore, there exists a need to develop a system and a process for producing EDC by direct chlorination. Such a system and process could be used to make a wide variety of products from the EDC, including, in particular VCM. The VCM manufacturing process produces anhydrous hydrogen chloride (AHCl), which is difficult to dispose of, as noted above. Therefore, the need also exists to develop a system and a process for producing VCM which is able to use the AHCl from this process and recycle the chlorine from this AHCl back to the VCM manufacturing process.

Production of ethylene dichloride by direct chlorination and production of vinyl chloride monomer using chlorine recycle and apparatus


A plurality of chips are mounted on a substrate, coupling portions between the chips and the substrate are sealed, the chips have rear surfaces thereof collectively polished, and the substrate with the chips thereon are separated into independent semiconductor devices.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device which has a thin semiconductor element mounted thereon.
2. Discussion of Background
When, in particular, a thin semiconductor element (having a thickness not greater than 0.1 mm for instance) is mounted on a conventional semiconductor device, a wafer is preliminarily ground to a thin one, the wafer is separated into independent chips by dicing, and the independent chips are mounted on substrates or lead frames in a usual method.
The usual method has created a problem in that a chip is likely to be fractured in handling, or that when a chip is mounted on a substrate, a stress is generated by bonding electrode portions to damage a coupling portion or the semiconductor element.

Method of fabricating semiconductor device having a chip, reinforcing plate, and sealing material sharing a common rear surface


An electronic control unit for producing a sufficiently boosted voltage even when a supply voltage becomes high includes an inverter that drives switching elements and converts a DC voltage into an AC voltage, and booster means which boosts a DC voltage that is input into a voltage to lie within a voltage range in which a voltage necessary for driving the switching elements is a lower-limit value and a maximum boosted voltage is an upper-limit value, and outputs the boosted voltage to the inverter.

An electronic control unit (hereinafter often referred to as ECU) requires various power source voltages depending upon the applications. Particularly, when a motor is to be driven by a known H-bridge or a three-phase bridge constituted by switching elements, there is usually used a method of boosting a power source voltage supplied to the ECU through a booster circuit as a gate drive source for the MOSFETs (metal oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors) which are the switching elements.
The booster circuit boosts the supplied voltage to be roughly twice as great or more. There, however, exists an upper limit in the voltage (i.e., breakdown voltage) applied to the parts and elements constituting the booster circuit and the electric circuit such as the H-bridge or the three-phase bridge, and voltages in excess of the upper limit shall not be applied thereto. When a high voltage is supplied to the booster circuit, the voltage is further boosted and often exceeds the breakdown voltage causing the circuit to be broken down. So far, therefore, a monitoring function has been provided to monitor the supplied voltage, and the operation of the booster circuit is discontinued in case the supplied voltage exceeds a predetermined value.
There have further been devised a semiconductor memory device which measures the time until the supplied voltage is boosted to a predetermined voltage and operates the booster circuit for the measured period of time only, and a circuit for forming the boosted voltage for the semiconductor memory device (see JP-A-2003-123495).
In many cases, however, it has been demanded to obtain a predetermined boosted voltage despite an increase in the supplied voltage as a result of fluctuation. In an electric power-assisted steering device of a vehicle, for example, an alternator generates an overvoltage at the time of load dumping (in case a battery terminal is disconnected). Therefore, the power source voltage (voltage supplied from the battery) rises abruptly. In case the supplied voltage exceeds a predetermined value in the prior art, the operation of the booster circuit is discontinued to protect the circuit. Therefore, no voltage for driving is supplied to the switching elements of the inverter. When the supplied voltage becomes lower than the predetermined value, the booster circuit is driven again. While the booster circuit is not in operation, therefore, the motor is not driven by the inverter which is for assisting the steering force; i.e., a problem arouses in that the steer-assisting force abruptly decreases and the feeling of steering is deteriorated.
The boosted voltage necessarily decreases when the booster circuit is no longer operated. However, the supplied voltage is an overvoltage generated by the alternator and does not decrease despite the booster circuit no longer being operated. Therefore, the ECU cannot monitor the supplied voltage to control the operation of the booster circuit so as not to interrupt the operation of the electric motor. This holds not only at the time of load dumping but also in the case of the ECU to which a high voltage is supplied at all times from the battery (e.g., when the battery voltage is 42 V).

Electronic control unit, electric power-assisted steering device and transmission ratio-variable steering unit


A gate valve adapted for stem back seating has a stem and bonnet assembly with a rotatable bearing ring to which the stem is releasably fixed during normal gate opening and closing operations. During back seating, the stem is released from the bearing ring and the bearing ring is fixed to the bonnet cap, enabling low torque back seating by rotation of the stem relative to the bearing ring and bonnet cap.

The present invention relates generally to gate valves and, more particularly, to gate valves adapted for stem back seating. Gate valves are commonly used to control fluid flow during drilling, completion and production phases of well operations. Typically, gate valves are operated by turning a hand wheel or other handle to actuate the gate to and from an open and closed position.
Gate valve back seating surfaces on the stem and the bonnet body serve to form a pressure seal between the stem packing chamber and the valve body chamber when replacement of the stem packing is needed. The back seating shoulder on the stem is back seated against a surface on the bonnet body. In normal gate opening and closing operations, the stem is axially fixed and raises and lowers the gate by rotation since the stem and lift nut are matingly threaded. Therefore, in order to effect back seating, the bonnet cap must usually be unscrewed to allow the stem to be moved axially upward until the backseat shoulder on the stem contacts the bonnet body. A large amount of torque is often required to loosen the bonnet cap. In many instances torque-assisting tools such as chain tongs are needed to loosen the bonnet cap. Employing such torque-assisting devices presents potential hazards and adds to costs and operational time.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide effective and practical means for low torque back seating of gate valves. The present invention achieves this objective by implementing a stem and bonnet assembly having a rotatable bearing ring to which the stem is fixed during normal gate opening and closing operations, and the bearing is then fixed to the bonnet cap and the stem is released therefrom during back seating.

Low torque back seating stem for gate valve


A method of replacing an existing wood window in the framework of a building in order to retain the original wood window appearance is disclosed. A non-wooden double hung window is inserted into a wood frame, including horizontal and vertical members, and a center member, such that the vertical and horizontal members of the non-wooden double hung window along with the non-wooden elements of the upper and lower sash are substantially hidden when viewed from the exterior of the building, thus preserving the original, wood window appearance. The non-wooden double hung window and wood frame combination is fastened to the wood frame and then attached to existing window casings of the building.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to window construction and especially to a window assembly wherein the window has a non-wooden frame assembly. In particular, this invention is directed to non-wooden double hung windows which open and close by vertical movement of the sash.
2. Description of Prior Art
Homeowners or building owners of old or historic properties are faced each summer with the tedious and time-consuming challenge of removing numerous old wood-framed storm windows and replacing each with wood-framed screens to allow airflow. This task is made even worse by the possibility of dropping and breaking the windows. At the end of summer, they must replace the screens with the wood-framed storm windows.
A common issue with renovating windows in older homes or buildings is the desire to preserve the historic, wood appearance of the windows as viewed from the exterior of the house. Namely, the wood-framed storm or screen is flush mounted with the window casing and painted the same color. Many city councils or agencies even require that owners of historic homes or buildings preserve the original appearance of these houses. Owners are therefore confronted with a dilemma: their desire to improve the functionality of the wood-framed window with a modern, energy efficient, low maintenance design, but a need to retain the overall appearance of an all-wood storm window or screen. Modern non-wooden double hung combination storm windows typically consist of an aluminum or vinyl frame. While offering many advantages over all-wood windows in terms of maintenance and insertable screens, modern metal or vinyl windows do not offer the pleasing aesthetics of the historic all-wood windows. Furthermore, it is impractical and costly to paint the metal or vinyl windows to match exterior casings or trim.
Additionally, a common problem exists for the wood frame and non-wood window combination: moisture collecting in the bottom of the window frame.
The U.S. General Services Administration Historic Preservation Technical Procedure, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,558,536, 4,837,977, and 5,081,793 are of general interest, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
Despite the teachings of the known prior art, there exists a need for preserving the historic appearance of older home and building, while introducing the conveniences of modern window design. What is needed is a combination replacement storm window, which retains the wood appearance of the original wood frame, but combines with it a modern, low maintenance non-wooden double hung window containing moveable sashes and screens from the interior, for easy cleaning, for example.

Wood surround aluminum combination storm windows


A self-centering tube for providing an air passageway through an opening in a tracheal wall of a patient includes a shaft having a proximal end and a distal end, and a curve along a length of the shaft. At least the distal end and the curve are sized for passage through the opening into an interior space of the trachea of the patient. The proximal end of the shaft has a greater rigidity than the distal end. The tube includes an inflatable cuff at the distal end. Upon inflation, the cuff forms a seal between the shaft and an interior wall of the trachea, thereby permitting at least the low rigidity distal end of the shaft to self-center within the trachea.

1. Technical Field
The present application relates generally to airway management devices, and more particularly, to a tracheostomy tube having means for maintaining the tube in the center portion of the trachea.
2. Background Information
The restoration of an adequate air passageway is the first critical step in maintaining the ability of a seriously ill or injured patient to breathe, or in performing resuscitation on a patient unable to breathe. Endotracheal intubation (the placement of a tube through the nostrils or mouth and into the trachea itself) is a preferred method for establishing an air passageway when the trachea, nostrils and/or mouth are free of obstruction. When such obstruction is present, however, endotracheal intubation is generally not possible. In such cases, some other passageway must be established to provide adequate airflow to the patient.
The most direct way to provide an air passageway under these circumstances is to form an opening in the tracheal wall, and once formed, to maintain the opening by inserting a tracheostomy tube therethrough. A ventilating fluid, such as air or oxygen, is then passed through the tube to the interior of the trachea. Conventional tracheostomy tubes generally are formed of a relatively stiff polymeric composition, such as polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The tube typically includes a permanent bend along its length, and is configured such that an open distal end of the tube points downwardly into the trachea. A circumferential inflatable cuff provides a seal between the interior tracheal wall and the tracheostomy tube at a location proximal to the distal opening of the tube. The distal opening provides a passageway for air into the lungs of the patient. The seal prevents the intrusion of blood, tissue or foreign matter into the lower trachea, bronchi and lungs, while permitting control and monitoring of the airflow established through the tracheostomy tube.
Although procedures for placement of a conventional tracheostomy tube are well known, those skilled in the art will appreciate that the tracheostomy tube is inserted into sensitive and crucial areas of the body's respiratory system. Once placed within the trachea, a tracheostomy tube often remains in place for many months. If the tube is not properly centered in the trachea, or if it becomes off-centered during the passage of time, damage to the anterior and/or posterior wall of the trachea may result. In addition, an off-centered tracheostomy tube is often poorly functional.
It is desired to provide a tracheostomy tube that avoids the problems of the prior art, and that includes a means for self-centering the tube within the trachea.


A method for preventing fouling of an aquatic apparatus by an aquatic organism which comprises affixing a biologically active chemical to a surface intended for use in contact with an aquatic environment containing the organism, wherein the chemical is an enzyme, repellant, chelating agent, enzyme inhibitor, or non-metallic toxicant capable of hindering the attachment of the organism to the surface while affixed to the surface, is disclosed along with improved apparatuses which are produced using the method.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to methods and compositions for the treatment of submerged surfaces, such as marine or other aquatic structures of ship hulls, in order to prevent fouling of the surfaces by aquatic organisms.
2. Description of the Background
It is well-known that the growth of organisms (micro- or macro-fouling matters) on the submerged parts of a structure may have detrimental effects on their operation and their corrosion rate. For example, in the techniques of oil production at sea, the fouling may accelerate the corrosion of submerged structures such as supports of drilling platforms. The weight increase resulting from the deposit of the fouling matter also results in difficulties when raising up certain submerged structures, as it is the case for the pipe-lines used to collect oil at sea; it also requires frequent operations for the maintenance of the floats of signal or meterologic buoys. On the other hand, the formation of even a very thin layer of microfouling is sufficient to reduce the transmission of light and sound and consequently to disturb the operation of certain devices such as sonar sea-marks. The fouling matter may also be a medium favorable to the proliferation of certain microorganisms responsible for the biodegradation of organic materials and of concrete. It is also known that the cooling systems for plants and power stations, either of the nuclear or of the conventional type, that are operated with sea water are also subject to severe fouling which may plug ducts and condensors. Finally, fouling by large organisms such as the balani, the serpulae and the algae, increases the roughness of the hull of ships and their drag in water, thereby resulting in an increase of fuel consumption and/or a reduction of the ship speed. These various problems and their consequences emphasize the importance of anti-fouling substances.
Besides the periodic cleaning of the surfaces or the use of paints enabling a controlled exfoliation, which are very expensive remedies, the principle of most anti-fouling action is to create a toxic zone on the surfaces to be protected. For example, chlorine is used successfully in a continuous manner in sea water ducts, but this technique is obviously unsatisfactory as far as the preservation of the natural environment is concerned.
An efficient way of combating fouling must (by prior art) comprise the maintenance of the toxic product at an efficient and homogeneous concentration and in a continuous manner on the whole surface. This is the reason why the so-called "anti-fouling" paints have taken an important place among the anti-fouling means. Thus, in order to fight against the growth of sea organisms on submerged surfaces and hulls of boats, an anti-fouling paint is generally applied as an upper layer. According to the known techniques, this anti-fouling paint contains a toxic substance which slowly reacts with sea-water to give a salt soluble in water and which is lixiviated from the paint pellicle. Among the toxic substances which are the most commonly used, there can be mentioned cuprous oxide, tin tri-n-butyl oxide, tin tri-n-butyl fluoride and tin tri-n-butyl sulfide, these compounds being biocidic agents with activity against a wide range of a sea organisms. However, the lixiviation process cannot, even in these cases, be controlled uniformly. Generally, it is much too fast immediately after a submerged structure has been put into service with, as a consequence, the initial presence, near the material to be protected, of very high concentrations of toxic matters, higher than those actually required. This results in a loss of toxic agent and in pollution of the environment and, thereafter, the presence of a lower concentration of toxic material than that necessary to obtain efficient protection, which results accordingly in the accumulation of fouling-organisms.
In order to obviate these disadvantages, a recently proposed solution of the prior art consisted of applying a surface coating containing a polymer wherein the toxic groups are chemically combined, thereby decreasing, as a general rule, the lixiviation rate of the biocidic compound in the aqueous phase and extending the effective life of the paint. These biocidic coatings generally contain organo tin compounds chemically bonded to the polymer substrate through a hydrolyzable ionic bond. They consist essentially of polyesters or polyepoxide resins containing organo-tin derivatives or metal salts, as proposed for example, in French Patent Specification Nos. 2,266,733 and 2,307,957 and U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,167,473; 3,684,752 and 3,979,354. These organometallic resins are generally obtained either by polymerization or copolymerization of organometallic unsaturated monomers, or by reaction of a suitable organometallic compound with a resin comprising carboxyl groups. These methods have been described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3,016,369 and in Journal of Polymer Science vol. 32 No. 125 (1958), pages 523 to 525. However there has been no solution proposed to the problem of fouling of submerged surfaces that does not involve the release of toxic compounds, such as are now in wide use. Moreover, no solution has been proposed for replacing them with substances which cause less harm to the environment.

Anti-fouling methods using enzyme coatings


A slotted upper track (10) has double-thick sidewalls (34, 36 and 40, 42) through which the slots (54, 50 and 52, 56) extend. The sidewalls (34, 36 and 40, 42) and an interconnecting web (38) form a central channel in which upper end portions of the studs (12) are received. The upper track or header (10) includes secondary channels outwardly of the central channel that are formed by the flanges of the central channel (34, 36 and 40, 42) and auxiliary flanges (30, 46) and auxiliary webs (32, 44). The header or upper track (10) is of a one-piece construction, making it relatively economically to construct. Upper end portions of wallboard panels (WP) are positioned outwardly of the sidewalls (34, 36 and 40, 42) of the central channel. Trim panels (TP) of wallboard are connected to the auxiliary flanges (30, 46) and are positioned laterally outwardly of the upper end portions of the main wallboard panels (WP). The trim panels (TP) will move with the header or upper track (10) and the main wallboard panels (WP) will move with the studs (12).

It is known to provide a framing wall construction which permits relative movement between the lower track and stud assembly and the upper track so that vertical movement of the upper track relative to the studs and the lower track can occur during earthquakes, settlement, and other conditions which want to cause vertical movement between components of the framing wall.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,760, granted Jul. 7, 1992, to Todd A. Brady, shows a framing wall that includes vertically slotted tracks that are connected to the upper ends of studs by screws which extend through the slots and screw into upper end portions of the studs. A vertical space is provided between the upper ends of the studs and the web of the upper track. The upper track is free to move vertically relative to the studs while remaining connected to the studs by the screws.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,471,805, granted Dec. 5, 1995, to Dwayne W. Becker, shows a construction which allows vertical movement of the upper track relative to the studs without there being any screw connection of the studs to the upper track. Upper end portions of the studs extend into the upper track and merely slide up and down within a space defined by the track sidewalls.
Neither the construction disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,760 nor the construction disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,471,805 will permit the wall to withstand substantial side loads, such as gusting wind loads. There is a need for a framing wall construction that utilizes some of the features disclosed by U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,127,760 and 5,471,805 while at the same time providing the wall with the ability to withstand substantial side loads. It is the principal object of the present invention to fill this need.


A diaphragm device with which individual wavelengths or ranges of wavelengths in the path of a beam of spectrally dispersed light can be suppressed. Such a diaphragm device comprises at least one array of diaphragms, wherein the individual diaphragms of the array are arranged in a definite relation to each other and may be coupled in the path of the beam and each diaphragm of the array in the coupled state is arranged in a given relation to an individual wavelength or a range of wavelengths.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a diaphragm device, with which individual wavelengths or ranges of wavelengths in the path of a beam of spectrally dispersed light are suppressed, and is related to the problem of the wavelength selectivity, in particular when using different light sources, or such sources which emit light with a wide range of wavelengths.
2. Description of Related Art
Various diaphragm devices for selective detection or suppression of individual wavelengths in spectrally dispersed light are known in the prior art. The spectrum of the light coming from the sample is at first dispersed, for instance, by means of a prism or a grating, and then falls on the diaphragm device. Of this, individual wavelengths or wavelength ranges are not transmitted; the remaining light passes through the diaphragm and falls in general on a spectrum resolving detector. Alternatively, the spectrum of the transmitted light can also be unified again and deflected to an individual detector, which registers only the intensity. Such spectrally selective diaphragms are used, for example, in fluorescence microscopy or fluorescence spectroscopy. In this method, the sample is marked with dyes. The dyes are excited to fluoresce by means of irradiation with laser light with specific wavelengths. However, a not insignificant part of the excitation light is also reflected or scattered by the sample and reaches into the path of the detection beam. With the help of a wavelength selective diaphragm, one can filter out the excitation light before the detection, so that the measurement is not falsified as a result of it.
The laser systems according to the prior art used in fluorescence microscopy emit only a few fixed wavelengths. For these wavelengths, individual diaphragms can be arranged in fixed positions before the detector. Recently, however, use of broadband emitting and variable broadband laser light sources are gaining importance, because with these sources, a larger spectrum of methods for examination with one and the same microscope is available, without necessitating replacement of the modules. Use of such systems also requires some flexibility in the selection of the excitation wavelengths, whereby these wavelengths must be suppressed before the detection. A diaphragm device with which this type of flexible filtering can be achieved is described, for example, in US 2005/045812 A1. In FIG. 6 of that publication, masks, which suppress a certain spectral range, and which are displaceable parallel to the surface of the detector arrays, are disclosed. Thereby, these masks can be moved in three translational and three rotational degrees of freedom. Such a high number of degrees of freedom requires a complicated mechanical and motor system, which is not described in further detail in the mentioned publication.


The present invention provides placental stem cells and placental stem cell populations, and methods of culturing, proliferating and expanding the same. The invention also provides methods of differentiating the placental stem cells. The invention further provides methods of using the placental stem cells in assays and for transplanting.

Human stem cells are totipotential or pluripotential precursor cells capable of generating a variety of mature human cell lineages. Evidence exists that demonstrates that stem cells can be employed to repopulate many, if not all, tissues and restore physiologic and anatomic functionality.
Many different types of mammalian stem cells have been characterized. See, e.g., Caplan et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,486,359 (human mesenchymal stem cells); Boyse et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,681 (fetal and neonatal hematopoietic stem and progenitor cells); Boyse et al., U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,553 (same); Beltrami et al., Cell 114(6):763-766 (2003) (cardiac stem cells); Forbes et al., J. Pathol. 197(4):510-518 (2002) (hepatic stem cells). Umbilical cord blood, and total nucleated cells derived from cord blood, have been used in transplants to restore, partially or fully, hematopoietic function in patients who have undergone ablative therapy.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A bicycle frame includes a head tube, a top tube, a down tube, a pair of chainstays, a pair of seatstays, and a rear wheel fender providing structural support to the bicycle frame. A seat tube is provided that does not extend to a bottom bracket of the bicycle. For example, the seat tube can be attached only to the top tube. The bottom bracket can be an integral component of the down tube. Bicycles are also described that include the present bicycle frames.

Many bicycles can be characterized as having a head tube that accommodates a portion of a front wheel fork assembly, a top tube attached to the head tube and extending rearwardly therefrom, a down tube attached to the head tube below the top tube and extending downwardly and rearwardly to a bottom bracket, and a seat tube attached to the rearward end of the top tube and to the bottom bracket. The seat tube has a bore that accommodates a seat post of a bicycle seat. The seat tube provides structural support to the bicycle frame by being attached to the top tube and down tube of the frame. A chain stay rearwardly extends from the bottom bracket and is attached to a rearward end of a seat stay that is attached to the seat tube near the location that the top tube attaches to the seat tube. The junction region of the chain stay and seat stay includes a receptacle for receiving a rear wheel axle. The various tube structures of existing bicycles are typically welded together to form an integral or rigid bicycle frame.
Some bicycle frames have been designed that do not include a seat tube that extends from the bottom bracket to the top tube of the bicycle frame. These bicycles are typically high performance mountain bikes or road bikes. These seat tubeless high performance bike frames are structured to provide support to a bike rider using different configurations since they do not include a seat tube that connects the top tube and down tube or bottom bracket. For example, certain bike frames include top tubes and down tubes with larger or increased sizes compared to conventional bikes that have seat tubes connecting the top tube and bottom bracket, as described above. Other bike frames include oddly configured seat stays and tube configurations to help provide the desired support. Importantly, these high performance bike frames and bikes are meant to be as light as possible, and therefore, attempts are made to reduce the number of components provided on such bike frames and bicycles.
In view of the above, it can be appreciated that a need remains for new bicycle frames and bicycles that are appealing to consumers and that still provide sufficient structural support to a bike rider.

Bicycle frames and bicycles with permanent rear wheel fenders


Methods, systems, and devices for wireless communication are described. In one example, an indication in a first control message in a control region of a first transmission time interval (TTI) identifies a data region of the first TTI. A data region of the second TTI may be identified based on a grant of resources received in a second control message of a second TTI, where the data region of the first TTI and the control region of the second TTI are frequency division multiplexed with the data region of the second TTI. Other examples include a downlink grant at the beginning of a control region and uplink grants at the end of the control region. In other examples, a downlink grant for a user equipment (UE) may include an indication of resources allocated to the UE in that resource block and a second resource block.

The following relates generally to wireless communication, and more specifically to a downlink control channel structure for low latency applications.
Wireless communications systems are widely deployed to provide various types of communication content such as voice, video, packet data, messaging, broadcast, and so on. These systems may be capable of supporting communication with multiple users by sharing the available system resources (e.g., time, frequency, and power). Examples of such multiple-access systems include code division multiple access (CDMA) systems, time division multiple access (TDMA) systems, frequency division multiple access (FDMA) systems, and orthogonal frequency division multiple access (OFDMA) systems, (e.g., a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system). A wireless multiple-access communications system may include a number of base stations, each simultaneously supporting communication for multiple communication devices, which may be known as user equipments (UEs).
Wireless multiple-access technologies have been adopted in various telecommunication standards to provide a common protocol that enables different wireless devices to communicate on a municipal, national, regional, and even global level. LTE is an example of a telecommunication standard. LTE is designed to improve spectral efficiency, lower costs, improve services, make use of new spectrum, and better integrate with other open standards. LTE may use OFDMA on the downlink (DL), single-carrier frequency division multiple access (SC-FDMA) on the uplink (UL), and multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) antenna technology.
A base station may transmit to one or more UEs using a transmission time interval (TTI) that is reduced in length. Such a TTI may be referred to as a shortened TTI (sTTI) and a user receiving a sTTI may be a low latency user. A sTTI may be divided into a number of resource blocks across a system bandwidth, and each of the resource blocks may be allocated to a UE by a base station. The base station may transmit control information or a control message in a first portion of the resource block to provide the resource allocations. A low latency user may attempt to decode the control information in the resource block. As sTTIs become shorter, it is ever more important to reduce the control overhead. Thus, it is desirable to efficiently communicate control information, and minimize the amount of processing time required for a UE to receive and decode the control information.

Downlink control channel structure for low latency applications