A hair spray shield has two flexible sides permanently joined together by a hinge at one point and releasably joined at another point by a releasable fastening device.

Hair spray is a well known hair styling composition commonly used. It has the ability to provide hold for hair to keep the hair in a desired position for an extended period of time. This quietly simplifies hair styling and permits the person to have more time to concentrate on other matters, while knowing that at least one aspect of appearance is well contained.
However, hair spray can be an irritant to the skin. Not only can hair spray be irritating to the skin, it may also be an irritant to the eyes and other sensitive parts of the body during the application thereof to the hair.
In an attempt to overcome this problem, many devices are known in the prior art. One type of device that exists is a facial mask. These facial masks usually have a complex configuration. These masks are also rigid, which reduces the flexibility in using the mask. The masks, in addition, are larger and heavier than necessary. With a larger and heavier shield, the device is less convenient to use.
Another problem with such a shield, is that it becomes coated with hair spray during the course of use. This creates a problem. It is sometimes necessary to clean the shield during the course of the hair spray application, after such problems, indicated that the shield causes more problems than it solves. It is desired to avoid these problems.
Such masks are too large to selective cover parts of the face. It is either cover the entire face, or use the device inefficiently. Such inefficient use is ineffective for the desired protection.
Additionally, such facial masks tend to be left to the beautician. The beautician uses the mask. Such a mask is cumbersome and awkward to use at home. Thus, it is desired to find a shield that could be more easily used.


The present invention relates to compositions and methods for treating sialic acid deficiencies comprising extended release formulations.

Sialic acid (SA) is a sugar with a net negative charge. It is often present on terminating branches of N-glycans, O-glycans, and glycosphingolipids (gangliosides), and occasionally capping side chains of GPI anchors. Sialic acid modification of cell surface molecules plays a role in many biological phenomena such as protein structure stability, regulation of cell adhesion, and signal transduction. Sialic acid deficiency disorders such as Hereditary Inclusion Body Myopathy (HIBM or HIBM type 2), Nonaka myopathy, and Distal Myopathy with Rimmed Vacuoles (DMRV) are clinical diseases resulting from a reduction in sialic acid production.
HIBM is a rare autosomal recessive neuromuscular disorder caused by a biosynthetic defect in the sialic acid synthesis pathway. Eisenberg et al., Nat. Genet. 29:83-87 (2001). The disease usually manifests between the ages of 20 to 40 such as foot drop and slowly progressive muscle weakness and atrophy. Patients may suffer difficulties walking with foot drop, gripping, use of hands, and swallowing. The disease is progressive; most afflicted individuals become incapacitated and wheelchair-confined within two to three decades. No treatments are available.
Studies of an Iranian-Jewish genetic isolate mapped the mutation associated with HIBM to chromosome 9p12-13. Argov et al., Neurology 60:1519-1523 (2003). The causative mutations were identified for HIBM in the gene GNE, which encodes the bifunctional enzyme UDP-N-acetylglucosamine-2-epimerase/N-acetylmannosamine kinase (GNE/MNK). Eisenberg et al., Nat. Genet. 29:83-87 (2001). DMRV is a Japanese variant, allelic to HIBM. Nishino et al., Neurology 59:1689-1693 (2002).
The biosynthesis steps and feedback regulation of GNE/MNK is depicted in FIG. 1. The production of sialic acid on glycoconjugates requires the conversion of N-acetylglucosamine (conjugated to its carrier nucleotide sugar UDP) to sialic acid. The sialic acid subsequently enters the nucleus where it is conjugated with its nucleotide sugar carrier CMP to make CMP-sialic acid, which is used as a donor sugar for glycosylation reactions in the cell. CMP-sialic acid is a known regulator of GNE/MNK activity. Jay et al., Gene Reg. & Sys. Biol. 3:181-190 (2009). Patients with HIBM have a deficiency in the production of sialic acid by the GNE/MNK enzyme, which is involved in the first two steps of this sequence. Nearly twenty GNE mutations have been reported in HIBM patients from different ethnic backgrounds with founder effects among the Iranian Jews and Japanese. Broccolini et al., Hum. Mutat. 23:632 (2004).
Because the production of sialic acid is the key reason the mutation causes the disease, replacing a metabolite after the genetic block in the pathway could, in theory, alleviate symptoms of a sialic acid deficiency. Jay et al., Gene Reg. and Sys. Biology 3:181-190 (2009). In practice, however, administering one or more compounds in the sialic acid biosynthetic pathway in vivo is a significant challenge. These compounds have extraordinarily rapid clearance rates and are excreted in the urine before they can be metabolized.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods and formulations for treating sialic acid deficiencies


The present application is directed to a mechanical combination lock which includes a base having a cavity, a central shaft provided inside the cavity, and a plurality of combination control units provided on the central shaft, wherein each combination control unit includes a combination disc having at least three combination regions that correspond respectively to different combination conditions. The present application provides the mechanical combination lock whereby one button can set a combination with 2 or more bits. That means repeating characters can appear in a combination sequence. This can greatly increase the complexity of the combination sequence and can prevent cracking of the combination sequence without increasing the number of buttons on the mechanical combination lock.

In existing mechanical push button combination locks, each button can only set a 1-bit combination. That means repeating characters would not appear in a combination sequence. For example, for a combination lock having 9 buttons that correspond to numbers 1-9 respectively, the button that corresponds to the number "1" can only set a 1-bit combination "1". That means only one "1" can appear in a combination sequence of the combination lock. When there is a need to set a complicated combination, such as the appearance of "11" in a combination sequence, more buttons will have to be provided to achieve it. This increases the size of the combination lock and results in an increase of the cost of the combination lock.


There are provided a power factor correction apparatus capable of driving a main switch and an auxiliary switch using a single driving signal, and a power supplying apparatus and a motor driving apparatus having the same, the power factor correction apparatus including: a power factor correction unit having a main switch switching input power to correct a power factor of the input power and an auxiliary switch turned on before the main switch is turned on to form a transfer path for surplus power; and a control unit controlling operations of the main switch and the auxiliary switch based on a single input signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a power factor correction apparatus capable of reducing switching loss, and a power supplying apparatus and a motor driving apparatus having the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, the governments of several countries have encouraged the efficient use of energy according to energy efficiency policies, and in particular, the efficient use of energy in electronic products and home appliances has been widely encouraged.
In efficiently using energy according to this government encouragement, improved circuits for efficiently using energy are mainly used in power supplying apparatuses supplying power to electronic products, home appliances, or the like.
As an example of an improved circuit as described above, there is provided a power factor correction circuit, wherein the power factor correction circuit is a circuit allowing power to be efficiently transferred to a rear end thereof by switching input power to adjust a phase difference (power factor) between current and voltage of the input power. However, the power factor correction circuit may also switch the input power to generate a switching loss.
Meanwhile, a motor is frequently used in order to perform a preset operation in electronic products, home appliances, and the like. In order to drive the motor therein, suitable power should be supplied thereto. Similarly, the power factor correction circuit for improving energy efficiency may be used in the power supplying apparatus to thereby adjust the phase difference between the current and the voltage of the input power by switching the input power, but there is a problem in that the switching loss may be generated at the time of switching the input power.
In order to solve this problem, a technology of providing a plurality of switches to reduce the switching loss in the power factor correction circuit has been disclosed in the related art document, but a circuit for driving the switches may become complicated, such that a circuit area and manufacturing costs may increase.

Power factor correction apparatus, power supplying apparatus and motor driving apparatus having the same


The present invention provides a vinyl chloride resin composition having an improved resistance to warm-water bleaching. The vinyl chloride resin composition according to the present invention is characterized by comprising, with respect to 100 parts by mass of a vinyl chloride-based resin, 0.01 to 10 parts by mass of (a) a zinc-modified hydrotalcite and 0.01 to 10 parts by mass of (b) an acrylic processing aid having a weight-average molecular weight of 200,000 to 7,000,000. The above-described (a) zinc-modified hydrotalcite is preferably a compound represented by the following Formula (I):Mgx1Znx2Al2(OH)2(x1+x2)+4.CO3.mH2O  (I)                (wherein, x1 and x2 each represent a number satisfying the conditions of the following equations; and m represents a real number: 0.1≦x2/x1<10, 2≦x1+x2<20).

Chlorine-containing resins such as vinyl chloride resins have excellent flame retardancy and chemical resistance; therefore, they are used in a variety of applications. However, chlorine-containing resins have a drawback in that they are thermally degraded to cause dehydrochlorination which leads to a reduction in the mechanical strength and occurrence of coloration as well as deterioration of the marketability.
In order to solve the above-described drawback, a variety of stabilizers have been developed and, in particular, for example, a mixture of a lead or cadmium compound and a barium compound is known to have superior stabilizing effect. However, in recent years, from the safety standpoint, the trend is toward restricting the use of lead compounds and cadmium compounds, so that stabilization by a lead or cadmium compound is now being replaced by stabilization provided by combinatory use of a highly safe zinc compound and an organic acid salt of alkaline earth metal or an inorganic compound such as hydrotalcite or zeolite. For example, in Patent Document 1, it is disclosed that magnesium hydroxide and a zinc hydrotalcite compound are combined to provide a rigid to semi-rigid chlorine-containing polymer in which foaming during processings is suppressed.
Yet, since such low toxic stabilizers alone cannot provide sufficient stabilizing effect, in order to improve the resistance to light, heat, oxidation and the like, a variety of additives such as organic phosphite compounds, epoxy compounds, phenolic antioxidants, benzophenone-based or benzotriazole-based ultraviolet absorbers and hindered amine-based light stabilizers are also used in combination.


An address space expansion method implemented by the electronic device which includes a storage unit, wherein the storage unit includes a first storage unit and a second storage unit, comprising: responding to the user operation to generate a target address; determining whether a address range of the target address is less than or equal to a predetermined address range, and generating a corresponding control signal; enabling the first storage unit or the second storage unit according to the generated corresponding control signal; acquiring a physical address corresponding to the target address and providing the physical address to the enabled storage unit according to the corresponding control signal and a predetermined converting rule; accessing and performing a reading/writing operation for data corresponding to the physical address of the enabled storage unit.

1. Technical Field
The disclosure relates to an electronic device and an address space expansion method for the device.
2. Description of Related Art
In general, a plurality of types of programs may have been stored in a storage unit of an electronic device, users can access programs from the storage unit via an access space whose capability is limited by a pin count of a (central processing unit) CPU. So, when numbers of the programs are quite large, and the capability of the access space is limited, some programs may not be accessed by the user via the access space.
Therefore, what is needed is an electronic device and an address space expansion method for accessing all programs.

Electronic device and address space expansion method


Interconnection elements and/or tip structures for interconnection elements may first be fabricated upon sacrificial substrates for subsequent mounting to electronic components. In this manner, the electronic components are not `at risk` during the fabrication process. The sacrificial substrate establishes a predetermined spatial relationship between the interconnection elements which may be composite interconnection elements having a relatively soft elongate element as a core and a relatively hard (springy material) overcoat. Tip structures fabricated on sacrificial substrates may be provided with a surface texture optimized for mounting to any interconnection elements for making pressure connections to terminals of electronic components. Interconnection elements may be fabricated upon such tip structures, or may first be mounted to the electronic component and the tip structures joined to the free-ends of the interconnection elements. Tip structures formed as cantilever beams are described.

Generally, interconnections between electronic components can be classified into the two broad categories of "relatively permanent" and "readily demountable".
An example of a "relatively permanent" connection is a solder joint. Once two electronic components are soldered to one another, a process of unsoldering must be used to separate the components. A wire bond, such as between a semiconductor die and inner leads of a semiconductor package (or inner ends of leadframe fingers) is another example of a "relatively permanent" connection.
An example of a "readily demountable" connection is rigid pins of one electronic component being received by resilient socket elements of another electronic component. The socket elements exert a contact force (pressure) on the pins in an amount sufficient to ensure a reliable electrical connection therebetween. Interconnection elements intended to make pressure contact with an electronic component are referred to herein as "springs" or "spring elements" or "spring contacts".
Prior art techniques for making spring elements generally involve stamping (punching) or etching a "monolithic" spring material, such as phosphor bronze or beryllium copper or steel or a nickel-iron-cobalt (e.g., kovar) alloy, to form individual spring elements, shaping the spring elements to have a spring shape (e.g., arcuate, etc.), optionally plating the spring elements with a good contact material (e.g., a noble metal such as gold, which will exhibit low contact resistance when contacting a like material), and molding a plurality of such shaped, plated spring elements into a linear, a peripheral or an array pattern. When plating gold onto the aforementioned materials, sometimes a thin (for example, 30-50 microinches) barrier layer of nickel is appropriate.
Generally, a certain minimum contact force is desired to effect reliable pressure contact to electronic components (e.g., to terminals on electronic components). For example, a contact (load) force of approximately 15 grams (including as little as 2 grams or less and as much as 150 grams or more, per contact) may be desired to ensure that a reliable electrical connection is made to a terminal of an electronic component which may be contaminated with films on its surface, or which has corrosion or oxidation products on its surface. The minimum contact force required of each spring element typically demands either that the yield strength of the spring material or that the size of the spring element are increased. However, generally, the higher the yield strength of a material, the more difficult it will be to work with (e.g., punch, bend, etc.). And the desire to make springs smaller essentially rules out making them larger in cross-section to achieve greater contact forces.
The PARENT CASE (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/452,255) describes the fabrication of resilient contact structures (spring elements) as composite interconnection elements by mounting a free-standing wire stem (elongate element) on a terminal of an electronic component, shaping the wire stem, and overcoating the free-standing wire stem to impart the desired resiliency to the resulting free-standing spring element. In the case of electronic components which are delicate and/or expensive, faulty fabrication of a composite interconnection element directly on the surface of the electronic component can require, at best, reworking the faulty interconnection element(s) or, at worst, discarding the electronic component. As mentioned in the PARENT CASE, composite interconnection elements can be fabricated (e.g., bond, shape, overcoat) on sacrificial substrates, then either singulated therefrom or gang-transferred (mounted en masse) to an electronic component.

Fabricating interconnects and tips using sacrificial substrates


In producing an aluminum alloy bearing which comprises bonding an aluminum alloy layer to a backing metal layer composed of steel and then coating an intermediate layer and an overlay in this order on the surface of the aluminum alloy layer of the resulting semi-finished product, the surface of the aluminum alloy layer of the semi-finished product is subjected to etching treatment and the smut attached to the said surface is removed by subjecting the etched semi-finished product to de-smutting treatment using, as a de-smutting solution, an aqueous solution comprising 20 to 60% by weight of sulfuric acid and 2 to 10% by weight of a peroxoborate, whereby the tolerance of the bearing height is made small, the working environment is rendered good and the draining treatment is made easy.

This invention relates to a process for producing an aluminum alloy bearing which comprises bonding an aluminum alloy layer to a backing metal layer composed of steel and further coating the surface of the aluminum alloy layer with a dam layer and an overlay In particular, it relates to a de-smutting treatment to be carried out in the middle of the course of the above production process, by which treatment, the smut is removed which remains on the surface of the aluminum alloy layer after the surface of the aluminum alloy layer has been etched for enhancing the adhesive force of the intermediate layer of a half-finished product in which the aluminum alloy layer is bonded to the backing metal layer.
As an aluminum alloy bearing 1, there has been broadly known one obtained by bonding an aluminum alloy layer 12 to a backing metal layer 11 and further applying an intermediate layer 13 and an overlay 14 to the internal surface of the aluminum alloy layer 12 by plating as shown in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings.
These aluminum alloy bearings 1 are explained below referring to a semi-cylindrical half bearing 1a as shown in FIG. 2 of the accompanying drawings. Two half bearings 1a are assembled as one set in the cylindrical internal surface of a housing 20 and support a rotating shaft 21 so that the shaft can be freely rotated. In this case, such difficulties are caused that when the peripheral length of the bearing is longer than the length of the internal periphery of the housing 20, the bearing is greatly deformed to the inside, and when it is contrarily shorter, the position of the bearing is shifted during the sliding, whereby it becomes impossible that the bearing smoothly supports the rotating shaft 21. Therefore, the dimensional tolerance of the external diameter of the half bearing 1a to the internal diameter of the housing 20 is required very critically.
For example, as to a bearing having an internal diameter of 40 to 80 mm, JIS D3102 defines the tolerance of the height H of the bearing as within 0.04 mm. The height H of this bearing, as shown in FIG. 3, becomes the external surface radius of the half bearing 1a when this half bearing is contained in the concave of the semi-circular arc shape of a cylindrical measuring jig 31 having the given diameter and pressed at the given pressure P by means of a press plate from one side.
In the process for producing such an aluminum alloy bearing, the aluminum alloy layer 12 is bonded to the backing metal layer 11 and the resulting laminate is cut to a ribbon shape, and this ribbon-shaped plate is subjected to bend forming to a half cylinder shape, thereby obtaining a semi-finished product 10 as shown in FIG. 4 of the accompanying drawings. Thereafter, the internal surface of the semi-finished product 10 is coated with an intermediate layer 13 and an overlay 14 in this order as shown in FIG. 1 by a plating method.
In the above production process, for the purpose of enhancing the adhesive force between the aluminum alloy layer 12 and the intermediate layer 13, an etching treatment is conducted for dissolving and removing oxides and the like formed on the surface of the aluminum alloy layer 12 as a preliminary step before forming the intermediate layer 13 on the aluminum alloy layer 10 by plating. The etching treatment is effected by immersing the semi-finished product in an alkali solution. However, insolubles (smut) such as copper, silicon and the like which are the added elements in the aluminum alloy layer 12 are attached to and remain on the surface of the aluminum alloy layer, and a de-smutting treatment is subsequently conducted for removing the insolubles remaining on the surface.
The de-smutting treatment is conducted by contacting the semi-finished product with a de-smutting solution. As the de-smutting solution, an aqueous solution comprising a combination of an acid and an oxidizing agent has heretofore been used, and a de-smutting solution composed of a combination of sulfuric acid and bichromic acid, a combination of nitric acid and hydrofluoric acid, or the like has been generally used.
Since in the de-smutting treatment, not only the aluminum alloy layer but also the backing metal has been contacted with the de-smutting solution, when a de-smutting solution composed of a combination of sulfuric acid and bichromic acid, a combination of nitric acid and hydrofluoric acid or the like has been used, even the backing metal has been corroded simultaneously with the removal of the smut. When the backing metal 11 has been corroded to be made thin, the bearing height H has been decreased and the variation of dimension has become large.
Moreover, JP-A 7(1995)-233,490 discloses the use of a mixed aqueous solution of phosphoric acid and nitric acid as the de-smutting solution and states that the corrosion of the backing metal by the de-smutting treatment can be inhibited. Furthermore, it states that by adding a nitrogen-containing organic compound such as urea or the like, the generation of nitrous acid gas is inhibited, whereby the deterioration of the working environment can be prevented.
Recently, even in the production of a bearing, various measures have been taken from the viewpoint of preventing the deterioration of working environment and the generation of environmental pollution.
The conventional de-smutting solution composed of a combination of sulfuric acid and bichromic acid, a combination of nitric acid and hydrofluoric acid or the like has caused a large corrosion of the backing metal, and, in addition, when bichromic acid is used as an oxidizing agent, it has been necessary to remove chromium (VI) compounds and thereafter drain water. Furthermore, when nitric acid is used, it is necessary to prevent the deterioration of the working environment due to the generation of nitrous acid gas.
It is also stated that the de-smutting solution composed of the mixed solution of phosphoric acid and nitric acid disclosed in JP-A 7(1995)-233,490, when used in combination with a nitrogen-containing organic compound, can prevent the generation of nitrous acid gas. However, since nitrogen and phosphorus are contained, it has such a problem that waste management is required to be sufficiently effected. Moreover, phosphoric acid is generally expensive, and hence, in the above technique in which a large amount of phosphoric acid is used, there is such a fear that the product may become high in cost

Process for producing aluminum alloy bearing


The present invention provides an improved exercise roller apparatus having a cylindrical body with at least one unobstructed inner compartment and wrapped in a foam sleeve. The hollow compartment(s) may hold variable amounts of weights in a fixed position such that the weights do not shift while the roller is in use and the roller rolls steadily on a smooth surface. The foam sleeve provides the cushion necessary to comfortably roll the body over the roller during therapeutic roller use or roller-aided exercises. Handgrips are provided on the body to transform the roller into a versatile weight-lifting apparatus.

The present invention generally relates to a physical exercise apparatus and, more specifically, to an apparatus that improves upon exercise rollers by adding more versatility and enhanced utility in physical fitness training activities such as muscle building exercises, stretching, and massage therapy.
Conventional exercise rollers are used in exercises in physiotherapy, Pilates, yoga, and rehabilitation. They are typically solid foam structures with a smooth surface and are available in variety of hardnesses, depending on the desired result and/or the particular preference of a user. Conventional exercise rollers are ideal for stretching exercises and can help improve stability and flexibility of the user and are useful for assisting with core strength and balance training.
Foam exercise rollers have recently become popular outside of the personal training and physical therapy realms and are now being used to assist people in training and exercising on their own. As such, there is a need for exercise rollers that provide users with a broader range of exercise options as well as easy portability. The present invention aims to provide exercise rollers that are portable whole body exercise tools for multiple purpose use as a core fitness development apparatus, an accessory to general fitness, and a therapeutic and/or rehabilitative aid. Such an apparatus can aid with general stretching, body rolling, and balance training, while also including features that enable users to perform muscle-building exercises, such as deadlifts or weight-assisted core-strengthening exercises, or specific sports-related exercises, such as golf exercises, tennis exercises, volleyball exercises, or sailing exercises.
The concept of designing exercise rollers for personal use is not new. However, none of the prior art provides a whole body exercise tool as described above. For example, the following consumer products and patents/patent applications are examples of various exercise roller apparatuses currently known in the art:                The ProUnit Performance Trainer, as described at http://www.exercisewithafoamroller.com/, is a currently-marketed exercise roller that is used for a broad range of exercises. This device has handles on either end of the roller, but cannot be used to effectively perform weightlifting activities, such as deadlifts.        OPTP is a manufacturer of foam exercise rollers, such as the OPTP Mobil-izer™ Roll, which has an outer foam layer and a solid PVC core.        WO2013001314 discloses a physical exercise apparatus comprising a hollow cylindrical device having first and second end caps, at least one of which is removable from its respective end region, which enclose a hollow space in which other exercise tools may be stored. The roller itself is of a fixed weight.        Poirier, U.S. Pat. No. 8,556,837 B1, discloses a therapeutic roller apparatus that includes soft foam material sleeve that is mounted about a rigid plastic roller that contains a vibration assembly. The vibration assembly includes a weight and motor together, which provide a vibratory effect when operated that is transferred through to the outer soft foam material sleeve.        Godfrey et al., U.S. Pat. No. 8,500,663 B2, discloses a vibrating massage roller similar to Poirier, but emphasizes the design of the vibrational assembly (i.e., an assembly utilizing a plurality of supports and eccentric weights).        Castiglione, U.S. Pat. App. No. 2011/0300995, discloses a foam roller comprised of at least two sub exercise roller units connected together to form a single exercise roller and separable to be usable as separate exercise rollers.
The exercise rollers described above are generally useful but do not disclose the improved features of the present invention. Therefore, the present invention now satisfied a need in the art for compact, portable exercise rollers that provide (1) easy weight adjustments between exercises, (2) a storage compartment for securing additional weights, (3) a configuration that aids in the performance of many common weightlifting exercises, and (4) easy portability for exercising at home, with a trainer, or on-the-go.


The present invention is directed to soldering techniques and compositions for use therein. In one aspect, a flux composition is provided. The flux composition comprises a fluxing agent comprising organic acid, an organic tacking agent and an organic wetting agent. In another aspect, a soldering method for joining objects is provided comprising the following steps. A flux composition and a solder compound are applied to at least a portion of one or more of the objects. The flux composition comprises a fluxing agent comprising organic acid, an organic tacking agent and an organic wetting agent. The objects are then joined.

Fluxes play an important role in solder-joining electronic components, such as semiconductor devices, onto printed circuit cards and/or printed circuit boards (PCBs). The use of commonly available fluxes typically results in residues remaining on the soldered components. These residues, which can be difficult to remove, are undesirable as they often lead to short circuits and adhesional failure, for example, at the interface between the semiconductor device and, e.g., an underfill material. Thus, any residues that form should be easily and effectively removable, for example, using water or common cleaning solutions.
Further, many commonly available fluxes, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,615,827 issued to Arldt et al., cannot be employed in high throughput manufacturing. Namely, the nature of these flux compositions permits components to shift relative to each other when subject to the jostling and vibrations typically encountered during high throughput manufacturing. As a result, misalignment of components can occur.
Certain fluxes have been developed which have a "tackiness" property associated therewith, aimed at preventing such misalignments. However, these fluxes require the use of solvents, such as glycerol-ethoxylate, which undesirably remain liquid after reflow. This remaining liquid flux can further react with the solder, generating additional residues and corroding the solder. Further, the additional residues left by these fluxes cannot be removed with typical washing processes and therefore typically remain, causing short circuiting and delamination at the chip-underfill interface.
Therefore, flux compositions and techniques for the use thereof are needed for high throughput manufacturing, wherein a minimal amount of residue is produced and is easily removable using conventional washing techniques.

Flux composition and techniques for use thereof

International Business Machines Corporation


A closed-loop circuitry includes, in part, a loop filter and a current source/sink coupled to the loop filter to adjust the phase/frequency of the signal generated by the closed-loop circuitry. Because the voltage generated by the loop filter has a relatively low frequency, the current source/sink is operable at a relatively low frequency. Each current source and current sink may be a current digital-to-analog (DAC). The amount of current sourced into or sunk out of the loop filter by the current DAC is varied by setting the associated bits of a multi-bit signal. If the closed-loop circuitry is differential, a current source is coupled to the loop filter adapted to receive the differentially high signal, and a current source is coupled to the loop filter adapted to receive the differentially low signal.

The present invention relates to electronic circuits, and more particularly to adjustment of phase in high-speed clock and data recovery systems.
The increasing speed with which multiple types of data, such as text, audio and video, are transported over existing communication networks has brought to the fore the reliability with which such data transportation is carried out. In accordance with one conventional method, to ensure reliable data transfer, the data is first encoded with a reference clock signal at the transmitting end of the network to generate a composite signal. Thereafter, the composite signal is transmitted over the network to the receiving end. At the receiving end, the data and clock signals are recovered from the composite signal to ensure that the data and clock signals remain synchronous with respect to each other.
The clock and data recovery is typically carried out, for example, by a delay locked loop or a phase locked loop. In operation, a phase locked loop maintains a fixed relationship between the phase of the signal it receives and the phase of the signal it generates. FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a conventional phase locked loop 10 adapted to extract the data and clock signals from composite signal Comp. Phase locked loop (PLL) 10 includes, among other components, phase detector 12, charge pump 14, loop filter 16, voltage controlled oscillator (VCO) 18 and flip-flop 20. The extracted clock signal Clk is supplied at the output terminal of VCO 18. Signals Clk and Comp are respectively applied to CK and D input terminal of flip-flop 20. Signal Data generated at the output terminal of flip-flop 20 is the data extracted form signal Comp. Once in a locked state, the phase of signal Clk generated by PLL 10 is locked to that of signal Comp received by PLL 10. The operation of PLL 10 is described further below.
Phase detector 12 receives signals Comp and Clk, and in response, generates signal A that corresponds to the difference between the phases of these two signals. Charge pump 14 receives signal A and in response generates current signal B whose magnitude varies depending on the magnitude of signal A. Loop filter 16 filters out the high frequency components of signal B and delivers the filtered-out signal to VCO 18.
If signal Comp leads signal Clk in phase—indicating that the VCO is running relatively slowly—signal A causes charge pump 14 to increase its output current I until VCO 18 achieves an oscillation frequency at which signal Clk is phase-locked with signal Comp. If, on the other hand, signal Comp lags signal Clk in phase—indicating that the VCO is running relatively fast—signal A causes charge pump 14 to reduce its output current B until VCO 18 achieves an oscillation frequency at which signal Clk is phase-locked with signal Comp.
FIG. 2 shows the current I generated by charge pump 14 versus the phase difference θe between signals Comp and Clk of FIG. 1. Ideally, when signal Clk is phase-locked with signal Comp, i.e., when θe is zero, current I generated by charge pump 14 is desired to be zero. Furthermore, ideally the magnitude of current I is desired to reach its highest value when θe is ±180°. The I-θe line for such an ideal PLL is designated with reference numeral 30. However, most PLLs exhibit non-ideal characteristics. Accordingly, for example, in PLL 10 current I is non-zero when θe is zero or vice versa, as shown by the I-θe line 35. This non-ideal shift in I-θe may reduce the noise immunity of PLL 10. Consequently, if PLL 10 is deployed in long-haul applications, in which case signal Comp delivered to PLL 10 is often noisy and distorted, the reduce noise immunity of PLL 10 may introduce instabilities in the phase relationship between signals Comp and Clk that, in turn, may violate the set-up time and hold time of flip-flop 20.
FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of a prior art PLL 40 that is adapted to partly overcome the above mentioned problems associated with PLL 10. PLL 40 includes, in part, an adjustable delay element 52 that receives the external signal Phase_adjust to adjust the phase of signal Clk before it is applied to flip-flop 50. The amount of delay of signal Clk through adjustable delay element 52 is varied by varying the value of signal Phase_adjust during a jitter tolerance test. During this test, a user deliberately introduces jitter and noise into signal Comp while at the same time continuously varying signal Phase_adjust until the tolerable limit of jitter is reached. In other words, signal Phase_adjust is varied until the maximum allowed error rate in the extracted data is reached. Signal Phase_adjust may be an analog signal or a digital signal, depending on the implementation of adjustable delay element 52.
Referring to FIG. 3, in some applications, the extracted clock signal Clk is required to operate at relatively very high frequencies, such as 10 GHz. Operating the clock signal Clk at such high frequencies causes a number of problems. First, adjusting the delay of a signal running at 10 GHz poses a challenging task. Second, the higher the operating frequency of a circuit, the greater is its power consumption. To accommodate the relatively higher power consumption, larger transistor sizes are required and thus greater semiconductor surface area is consumed which, in turn, increases the cost. Third, the higher the frequency, the greater is the current flow across parasitic capacitances. For example, the high frequency creates coupling between source/drain and the substrate regions of, e.g., MOS transistors used in adjustable delay circuit 52. This coupling may increase the noise coupling (i.e., cross-talk) between adjacent circuit blocks.
It is desired to have a Phase_adjustment technique which does not suffer from the high frequency related problems described above.

Method and apparatus for high speed signal recovery


Disclosed herein are system, method, and computer program product embodiments for configuring a dynamic reassignment of an application flow across different computation layers based on various conditions. An embodiment operates by assigning a first rule of an application flow to a first computation layer of a plurality of computation layers. The embodiment assigns a second rule of the application flow to a second computation layer of the plurality of computation layers. The embodiment assigns a transition rule of the application flow to the first computation layer. The transition rule includes an action that causes the first rule of the application flow to be executed in the second computation layer of the plurality of computation layers based on a condition. The embodiment then transmits the application flow to the plurality of computation layers thereby causing the application flow to be configured for execution.

Application flows (e.g., software application processes) are increasingly being executed across various computation layers. For example, a first portion of an application flow may be executed on an edge device, a second portion may be executed on a first cloud computing platform, and a third portion may be executed on a second cloud computing platform. But as edge devices gain increased compute power, there is an incentive to execute more portions of the application flow on these edge devices. This is because this reduces computation on the other shared computation layers. This allows these computation layers to support the execution of more application flows from other users. Moreover, this reduces application flow downtime due to faults at the other computation layers and or network connectivity issues.
But traditionally, portions of an application flow are statically assigned to edge devices and computation layers. This prevents the reassignment of the portions of the application flow to different edge devices and computation layers. Moreover, traditional approaches do not provide a way to reassign the portions of the application flow to different edge devices and computation layers based on user specified conditions (e.g., business conditions) and or system level conditions (e.g., central processing unit (CPU) usage) at the edge devices and computation layers. These technological problems can cause a poor experience for users of the application flow (e.g., application flow downtime and or delayed results from the application flow).
Moreover, traditional approaches do not provide a way for users to easily perform assignment (and configure reassignment conditions) of the portions of the application flow to different edge devices and computation layers. Thus, traditional approaches are often tedious, error prone, and result in an incorrect or inappropriate assignment of the portions of the application flow to different edge devices and computation layers.
Lastly, traditional approaches do not provide a way for users to get relevant reporting data about how the edge devices and computation layers are handling the execution of the application flow. As a result, users are often unable to quickly mitigate issues causing downtime of the application flow.
Thus, what is needed is a way for users to quickly create an assignment of the portions of the application flow to different computation layers that is dynamically adjusted based on user specified conditions and or system level conditions at the computation layers.
In the drawings, like reference numbers generally indicate identical or similar elements. Additionally, generally, the left-most digit(s) of a reference number identifies the drawing in which the reference number first appears.

Cross platform application flow orchestration by transmitting the application flow including a transition rule to a plurality of computation layers


A converter module is provided with a first power delivery circuit, a second power delivery circuit, and a controller. The first power delivery circuit supplies current from a first direct current (DC) source to a resonant stage in a first direction. The first power delivery circuit comprises at least two first switches. The second power delivery circuit supplies the current from the first DC source to the resonant stage in a second direction, opposite the first direction. The controller includes memory, and a processor that is programmed to: enable the first power delivery circuit and the second power delivery circuit alternately to provide power as a periodic waveform to the resonant stage; and disable the at least two first switches individually in a sequence to generate a phase shift in the periodic waveform and to disable the first power delivery circuit.

Electrified vehicles, including pure electric vehicles and hybrid electric vehicles, include a high-voltage battery pack that is used for propulsion or "traction" of the vehicle, and may be referred to as a traction battery. Such electrified vehicles include converter modules for converting power supplied to and from the traction battery. A direct current to direct current (DC/DC) converter module converts an input DC voltage to an output DC voltage. The converter includes a circuit that receives an input DC voltage, and a controller that controls switches of the circuit to open/close at intervals over successive switching periods to generate a waveform that is filtered, scaled, and rectified to provide an output DC voltage, that may be different from the input voltage. Such switches generate electromagnetic energy that may affect other systems and components. Electromagnetic compatibility (EMC) refers to the ability of electrical equipment and systems to function acceptably in their electromagnetic environment, by limiting the unintentional generation, propagation and reception of electromagnetic energy which may cause unwanted effects such as electromagnetic interference (EMI) in operational equipment.


A transdermal drug delivery patch has an excipient matrix containing an agonist for administration across the skin of a user, with the matrix further containing a plurality of spaced apart hollow cilia filled with an antagonist, whereby if an abuser attempts to physically remove the agonist the cilia will break releasing the antagonist, or if the abuser attempts to use a solvent to remove the agonist the cilia will dissolve releasing the antagonist, thereby blocking the effect the abuser is attempting to attain by concentrating the agonist for oral ingestion or by hypodermic needle injection.

Transdermal drug dosage forms or devices are known in the art, and typically are provided via a patch that is adhesively attached to the skin by a user to cause an active therapeutic agent or agonist, often a narcotic opiate agonist or other analgesic, to diffuse from the patch through the skin for absorption into the bloodstream. The agonist then travels in the bloodstream to various areas of the body of the patient or user for alleviating pain or other adverse symptoms. In the case of opiate agonists, the main site of action is the central nervous system to relieve pain. An ever present problem with such transdermal drug delivery systems is that addicts and/or recreational drug users have developed methods for extracting the narcotic opiate from the transdermal drug delivery patch or device in order to orally or through injection deliver all of the narcotic opiate agonist into the body at the same time for obtaining a narcotic "high." Many attempts have been made to design transdermal drug delivery systems, such as transdermal patches, to counter or avoid such abuse. Extensive research is being pursued to accomplish this result.

Abuse resistant transdermal drug delivery patch


The invention relates to a method and an arrangement for encoding of signals in teleconferencing. The method involves receiving (502) signals from a plurality of nodes participating in a teleconference and analyzing (504) said signals. The method further involves appointing (506) one of the received signals as being a dominant signal and adapting (508) an encoder based on information related to the dominant signal. At least two of the received signals are mixed and then encoded (512), using the adapted encoder. The encoded mixed signal is then provided (514) to at least one of the nodes participating in the teleconference.

Teleconferencing is widely used, e.g., as an alternative to meeting in person. The possibility of teleconferencing reduces the need to travel to a certain location to attend a meeting, which saves both time and money, and furthermore is environmental friendly. However, a high perceived sound quality is important in order for teleconferencing to be a satisfactory alternative to a meeting in person
Below, an example of a teleconferencing system according to the prior art is described with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. FIG. 1 shows a schematic view of a multi party teleconferencing system with N users 102:1-N, here represented by UEs (User Equipments), N channels 106:1-N, and a conferencing bridge, in the form of a Multipoint Control Unit (MCU) 104. Each UE has a microphone, a loudspeaker, and signal processing capabilities for, e.g., signal capture, coding and transmission, signal reception, decoding and playback. The UEs 102:1-N send speech or audio signals recorded and encoded at their respective ends to the MCU 104, which decodes these signals from all channels into a PCM (Pulse Code Modulation) representation. After that the PCM signals are digitally mixed, re-encoded and finally transmitted to the connected UEs.
This principle is further illustrated in FIG. 2, which shows the specific signal processing flow for an exemplary UE "K", 202:K. The UE 202:K comprises an encoder 206:K, for encoding a signal, received by a microphone 216:K and typically subject to some signal processing, to be sent to an MCU 204. In the MCU 204, the encoded signal from UE 202:K is decoded using a decoder 208:K. The MCU 204 comprises a set of decoders, 208:1-N, for decoding the respective signals arriving from the different parties taking part in a teleconference. The decoded signals, which are in PCM-representation, are then mixed, e.g. added together, in a Mixer 210. Then, the mixed signal, which is to be provided to the participant UE K, is encoded in an encoder 212:K, and is, when received by UE 202:K, decoded using a decoder 214:K.
For certain reasons, e.g. to reduce the background noise level of the transmitted signal, some implementations of multi party bridges only mix the incoming signals from a fixed subset of the parties, e.g. 3 or 4. The subset of parties is typically selected on the basis of signal level and speaker activity of the different parties, where the signals of the most recent active speakers are retained in the subset if no speaker activity is present from any other party. Another possible modification to the basic operation illustrated in FIG. 2 is that the signal coming from party K may be excluded from the sum of signals transmitted back to party K. The reason for this is that since there is a significant transmission delay present in the system, the microphone signal, transmitted forth and back to and from the MCU would be perceived as an undesirable echo when emitted from the loudspeaker 218:K. Instead, typically, the microphone signal from party K is presented in the loudspeaker 218:K of UE K, as the so-called side-tone that is generated locally in the UE.
There are certain types of speech codecs that allow mixing of the signals received from the different channels in the coded speech domain or the speech codec parameter domain. For this class of codecs the decoders 208 and encoders 212 can be omitted or at least reduced to mappings between coded speech and speech codec parameter domains.
Scalable Codecs
Scalable, or embedded, coding is a coding paradigm in which the coding of signals is done in layers. A block diagram illustrating the basic principle of scalable codecs is shown in FIG. 3. In a base, or core, layer 306, the signal is encoded at a low bit rate, while additional layers 308, each on top of the previous layer, provide some enhancement relative to the coding which is achieved in all layers from the core up to the respective previous layer. Each layer adds some additional bit rate. The generated bit stream is embedded, meaning that the bit stream of lower-layer encoding is embedded into the bit streams of higher layers. This property makes it possible, anywhere in the transmission or in a receiver, to drop the bits belonging to one or more higher layers. Such a "stripped" bit stream can still be decoded up to the layer of which the bits are retained. Therefore, scalable coding is suitable for use in bandwidth limited services involving multiple parties with different requirements, such as e.g. teleconferencing, and especially over wireless links of limited and/or potentially varying bandwidth.
One example of using scalable speech codecs in multi-party conferencing systems is described in [7]. According to said publication, it is foreseen to use the scalable wideband extended codec according to ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Standardization Sector) recommendation G.711.1 [8] for a low complexity partial narrowband (NB) mixing and a selective switching of the wideband extension signal from the dominant channel. This principle is illustrated in FIG. 4. Here, the coded signal from each channel, or location, comprises the NB core layer, denoted "primary" in the figure, and the wideband (WB) enhancement layer, denoted "secondary" in the figure. The MCU carries out conventional mixing, i.e. addition, of only the G.711 NB core layer signals, while the enhancement layer of only the most active location is retained. The advantage of this concept lies in the low complexity required to mix G.711 core layer encoded signals, since they are in PCM format, and to switch through the wideband enhancement layer of the active channel, to avoid decoding and re-encoding of that layer. However, this solution is only beneficial in implementations where the mixing of the core layer is performed in the coded speech domain or speech codec parameter domain, or when using G.711, where the coding is PCM.
Problems with Existing Solutions
Typically, teleconference systems involving mixing of a plurality of channels require decoding of the signals of the various incoming channels to make them available in the PCM domain, in which they can be mixed. The mixed PCM signal is then re-encoded such that it is suitable for transmission to a receiving terminal K. This means that there are at least two speech codecs in tandem configuration: The first codec is operated with encoding at the sending parties, A through K, and with decoding in the MCU; the second codec is operated with encoding of the mixed PCM signal in the MCU and decoding of that signal at the receiving terminal K.
One problem associated with this kind of processing is a quality degradation that arises from the tandem configuration of codecs. Each stage of de-coding and re-encoding increases the coding distortions in the finally decoded output signal.
A further quality problem arises from the fact that speech codecs are typically designed to work well with a single speech signal, since the speech codecs are built upon a speech production model that mimics the human vocal tract. When a mixed signal to be encoded comprises speech from a plurality of speakers talking simultaneously or the active speaker signal together with a significant amount of background noise signals from the other channels, which both are typical situations in teleconferencing, this speech production model does no longer apply. Consequently, the quality of the decoded mixed signal at terminal K may be poor due to significant coding distortions.
Other Techniques Avoiding Degradations Due to Codec Tandeming
There are examples of speech/audio codecs that allow the mixing operation to be performed in the coded domain. Hence, referring to FIG. 2, essentially the decoder and encoder blocks in the MCU are not required for such a case. Examples of codecs allowing mixing in the coded domain are frequency domain codecs such as e.g. MPEG-4 AAC (Moving Picture Expert Group Advanced Audio Coding) [5] and also the MPEG SAOC (Spatial Audio Object Coding) [6], presently being under standardization. However, these codecs, as they are not based on a speech production model, are less suitable for use for teleconferencing in many communication systems and especially mobile communication systems that require very bit rate efficient operation in order to save limited transmission capacity.
Further, a compressed domain conference bridge is described in [9], where the incoming signals of one or two of the most active channels are re-encoded through a compressed domain transcoder. The choice of whether either one or two simultaneous channels are to be encoded in the bridge depends on the capability of the codec supported by the receiving terminal. This kind of bridge avoids tandem coding artifact to some extent by performing the transcoding in the speech codec parameter domain rather than in the decoded speech (PCM) domain, and through the use of a special speech codec that is especially designed to be able to cope with two simultaneous speaker signals. However, as with the codecs described in [5] and [6] the constraint of having a codec for teleconferencing use that allows transcoding or mixing of the signals from the conference participant in the codec parameter domain is a severe limitation and is generally prohibitive for achieving high coding efficiency. It is hence undesirable to use specially designed codecs for multi-party conference use, since the cost in terms of bit rate need for such codecs typically is much higher than for high efficient state-of-the-art codecs which often follow the analysis-by-synthesis principle with an assumed speech production model.

Encoder adaption in teleconferencing system


A system which provides real-time code coverage data on a memory monitored by the system, the code coverage data providing information regarding accesses to the monitored memory, the monitored memory being connected to address lines and data lines, the system comprising: a code coverage memory, the code coverage memory having address inputs and data inputs, wherein signals on the address lines connected to the monitored memory are received at the address inputs of said code coverage memory; and a code coverage control circuit for providing predetermined code coverage data to the data inputs of the code coverage memory. In a preferred embodiment, the code coverage memory is comprised of multiple locations, each of the locations having a predetermined width, and where the code coverage control circuit is adapted to provide predetermined code coverage data in real-time concurrently with the accesses to the monitored memory. The code coverage data is comprised of predetermined bit patterns providing information on the accesses to the monitored memory, where the predetermined bit patterns may be varied for different tests run through the monitored memory. Additionally, in a preferred embodiment, the system is further comprised of: a trace memory, where the trace memory has address inputs and data inputs, and wherein signals on the address lines connected to the monitored memory are received at the data inputs of the code coverage memory for storage in the trace memory; and a trace control circuit in electrical communication with the address inputs of the trace memory, wherein the trace control circuit is adapted to output signals to the address inputs of the trace memory to change the location in the trace memory to which the signals on the address lines connected to the monitored memory are stored.

In today's digital world, where virtually any application may be implemented via digital electronic circuits, it is imperative to be able to efficiently design, test and diagnose software code prior to commercial implementation. It is also important to be able to efficiently diagnose and debug existing systems which are malfunctioning. Accordingly, it is known to monitor program code loaded in memory as it is being accessed and executed. This is preferably done by monitoring the signals present on the address lines (i.e., bus) or data lines connected to the memory being monitored. The data collected from monitoring the memory accesses can be grouped into two main categories:
1.) trace data; and
2.) code coverage data.
Trace data relates to information regarding the actual data present on the address lines and/or control lines, and/or data lines at any given point of program code access and execution. Trace data allows a "snap shot" of the signals present on the buses of the monitored system at any given point in time. By examining the trace data, the developer or tester may determine whether the system is providing the right signals on the buses at any given time.
Code coverage data relates to information summarizing the accesses to the monitored memory during program execution. Code coverage data allows developers and testers to determine which sections and locations of the memory (e.g., Read Only Memory, "ROM") are being accessed during program execution.
Known systems for obtaining trace data or code coverage data do not allow for the real-time collection of test data that provides information on test program execution paths. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,321,828 which describes an in-circuit emulator designed to detect function calls to create a histogram and code coverage profile from that data. See U.S. Pat. No. 4,674,089 which describes a silicon based debugging system. Additionally, many of the code coverage methods are software based, often requiring special software "branch analysis" coding. For example, see U.S. Pat. No. 4,914,659 where the test code itself is specially coded with branch analysis code for the purpose of obtaining test data. These systems do not allow for the real-time collection of code coverage and trace data that allows use of user-defined, multi-bit, code coverage data.
Known diagnostic systems have, for example, been implemented with emulation circuits for testing program code loaded in an emulated ROM memory. Such ROM emulators have particular applicability in embedded controller systems (e.g., a microwave controller) where program code is loaded in ROM memory. When these embedded systems malfunction, they may be diagnosed by placing an emulated ROM chip into the ROM socket of the embedded "target" system and running tests through the emulated ROM. The emulated ROM, usually random access memory (RAM), may be loaded with program (test) data from a host computer system. Trace data and code coverage may be obtained from the running of the test program to determine problems in the target system. The efficiency of these emulation/diagnosis systems greatly reduce the cost of producing program code, hardware systems, and diagnosing malfunctioning existing systems. Although code coverage, per se, is not a new innovation, real-time code coverage, where memory access data is collected in a memory chip in real-time and where the code coverage data provides rich execution path information, would be an advancement in the art. The present invention allows the tracing of code execution paths by storing a user-defined, multi-bit pattern into a "code coverage" memory. The code coverage data is collected in real-time and stored for further analysis and processing. By using multiple bit code coverage data, the user may vary the bit patterns of the code coverage data for different test runs to "paint" different execution paths in the code coverage memory.
The present invention also provides for real-time trace of a monitored memory (e.g., an emulated memory) for analyzing bus activity. In the preferred embodiment of the present invention, the address lines of the emulation circuit are used as inputs to both the code coverage memory and trace memory.
Another feature of the present invention is that the code coverage memory (i.e., memory used to store code coverage data) may alternatively be used for fine trace control. In other words, in the "fine trace mode", fine trace data stored in the code coverage memory is read (as opposed to being written as in the "code coverage mode") upon which a fine trace control circuit processes the retrieved fine trace data to control tracing functions. Accordingly, the present invention provides a versatile diagnostic system that, unlike known systems:
1.) allows for real-time code coverage (i.e., information regarding memory accesses);
2.) allows for the use of a separate code coverage memory where code coverage data is stored in real-time;
3.) allows for the tracing of execution paths of tested programs by storing user defined, multiple-bit patterns into the code coverage memory;
4.) allows for real-time trace;
5.) allows for fine trace control using the code coverage memory;
6.) performs all of the above functions in conjunction with an emulated circuit, where an emulated ROM is monitored according to the present invention;
7.) allows for code coverage read and trace data dump for further processing by a host computer; and
8.) allows for the collection of informative code coverage and trace data in real-time for efficient design, testing, and diagnosis of digital systems and program code.

System for providing real-time code coverage


A compressor with a cylinder head (33, 29) comprises a lower cylinder head section (33) and an upper cylinder head section (29) connected to each other. A seal (12) is provided between the faces of the lower cylinder head section (33) and the upper cylinder head section (29) facing each other. A suction space (31, 25) and a pressure space (10, 17) as well as a suction valve (32, 4) and a pressure valve (5, 7) are installed in the cylinder head (33, 29). A compression space (3) of the compressor is connected by the suction valve (32, 4) to the suction space (31, 25), and by the pressure valve (5, 7) to the pressure space (10, 17). The suction space (31, 25) is also connected by a suction connection (71) to the atmosphere, and the pressure space (10, 17) is connected to a consumer by a pressure connection (18) to a source of pressure. In order to achieve efficient transfer of heat in the cylinder head (33, 29), a wall-like part (76), made of a material with good heat transferring properties, is provided at least in the pressure space (10, 17) to subdivide the pressure space (10, 17) of the cylinder head (33, 29) into a first pressure chamber (10) and a second pressure chamber (17). The first pressure chamber (10) and the second pressure chamber (17) are connected to each other by a passage opening (77) located in the wall-like part (76). Desirably, the suction space (31,15) is subdivided into first and second suction chambers (31,15) by a U-shaped part (79,80) having a second passage opening (78).

A compressor of this type is known from DE-OS 28 26 744. This known compressor has ridges located in the cylinder head. The ridges extend into a pressure space and form chambers or channels extending from a pressure valve opening through which the major portion of the compressed air is forced and conveyed, by single or multiple deflections, into a pressure connection of the compressor. By taking the compressed air past the ridges, the compressed air is cooled, thereby reducing the temperature at the cylinder head.
It is the object of the invention to provide an improved compressor with even better cooling of the air conveyed by the compressor.

Compressor cylinder head having a partition


A process for producing a palatable dextromethorphan medicated hard candy lozenges on a continuous system comprising suspending dextromethorphan HBr adsorbate in a liquid suspension and adding this suspension to other candy materials in a novel continuous process.

Dextromethorphan particularly in its hydrobromide salt is a demonstrated safe and effective non-narcotic cough suppressant for the temporary relief of coughing. Dextromethorphan hydrobromide is available in a wide variety of cough and cough/cold medications. Dextromethorphan hydrobromide is available as a sole ingredient in cough medication by itself or with other active ingredients. Dextromethorphan hydrobromide is also available in a cough control lozenge form from various manufacturers which have a dosage of 5.0 milligram of dextromethorphan hydrobromide per lozenge. Such lozenqes are in candy form and comprise corn syrup solids and sugar as major ingredients. However, incorporating dextromethorphan hydrobromide into lozenges is highly troublesome because dextromethorphan has a bitter taste an anesthetic mouth-feel and an unpleasant after-taste. In fact it is very difficult to effectively mask the taste of dextromethorphan at concentrations of greater than 2.0 milligrams per lozenge with sweeteners or flavors.
To incorporate more than 2.0 milligrams of dextromethorphan hydrobromide in lozenges the dextromethorphan hydrobromide is generally provided as a 10% adsorbate onto magnesium trisilicate. The adsorbate form provides efficient taste masking to produce an acceptably palatable lozenge form. This adsorbate, which releases the dextromethorphan hydrobromide at the lower pH of the stomach fluids renders the active ingredient almost tasteless in the mouth. Unfortunately, ten times the weight of dextromethorphan hydrobromide adsorbate must be added to achieve an equivalent dosage of dextromethorphan hydrobromide.
Additionally, as reported by David Peters in volume 1 of Pharmaceutical Dosage Forms: Tablets, (3 volume 2nd ed. Herbert A. Lieberman, Leon Lachman and Joseph B. Schwartz. New York: Marcel Dekker, 1989) dextromethorphan hydrobromide adsorbate is insoluble and has a melting point above that of the lozenge's candy base. Therefore, the adsorbate can not be readily incorporated into a candy base. The adsorbate when incorporated into a candy base normally produces a grainy, rough lozenge texture with an unpleasant mouth feel.
To over come this problem the standard solution is to prepare the adsorbate as a granulation of the dextromethorphan hydrobromide adsorbate with either glycerin or propylene glycol. A ratio of one part solvent to three parts dextromethorphan hydrobromide produces a free flowing granulation. Although lozenges made by the above described process can be easily flavored and have a smooth feel, the addition of the adsorbate in this manner limits the amount of dextromethorphan hydrobromide in each lozenge to a dose of 10 milligrams or less. The effective amount of dextromethorphan typically provided in a lozenge is in the range of 5.0 to 7.5 milligram per lozenge unless a large lozenge (4.0 grams) is produced.
Thus, it appears that dextromethorphan hydrobromide cannot readily be incorporated into medicated candy lozenges without special steps being taken. Its successful incorporation into candy bases usually requires a granulation with either glycerin or propylene glycol and an large quantity of inactive material which provides a lozenge with a maximum dosage of 5.0 to 7.5 milligrams per lozenge for an approximately 4.0 gram lozenge product.
The present invention solves these problems by adding the dextromethorphan hydrobromide adsorbate in a liquid suspension into the candy feed prior to the formation of a candy base. The addition of the dextromethorphan adsorbate into the candy feed also dispenses with the need to form a granulation of dextromethorphan adsorbate with glycerin or propylene glycol. These and several other objects and advantages of the present invention will be described in the following sections of this specification.

Dextromethorphan continuous lozenge manufacturing process


A thermal management unit for controlling the temperature in an electric vehicle, a thermal management system including the unit and an electric vehicle including the thermal management system. The unit includes a heater, a cooling unit, a heat exchanger, six input ports and six output ports for connecting external pipes, three three-way valves, a two-way valve and piping for thermal fluid. The components of the thermal management unit are connected via piping such that excess heat from a vehicle component can be directed to heat the cabin and/or energy storage system of the electric vehicle. Also, one heater and one cooling unit are used to heat or cool both the cabin and the energy storage system.

Electric vehicles are becoming more and more popular. On the one hand side they are preferable for environmental reasons, by avoiding fossil fuels, and on the other hand side they are, most of the cases, preferred in regard to reduced total cost of ownership.
Cars are not the only type of vehicle that can be an electric vehicle. For example, boats, trucks, locomotives, airplanes and heavy-duty vehicles are also available as electrical vehicles.
Electric vehicles are usually powered by an energy storage system. The energy storage system here being defined as any kind of battery, battery pack or series of batteries for powering the electric vehicle.
For the usability of electric vehicles, it is important that the energy storage system has a long lifetime, i.e. a large number of charge/discharge cycles possible before the cells fail to operate satisfactorily. Keeping the energy storage system in an optimal temperature range is essential to maximize the lifetime.
Besides improving the energy storage system lifetime, keeping the energy storage system within the optimal temperature range during operation ensures that the energy storage system deliver as much power as possible.
As well as keeping the energy storage system at an optimal temperature, the temperature in the cabin, where the operator and passengers of the vehicle are housed, should also be regulated.
There are many systems for managing temperatures in the energy storage system and the cabin. For example in U.S. Pat. No. 7,789,176B2, a thermal management system is presented which has a cooling loop for cooling the drive motor, a refrigeration subsystem which provides cooling to a heat exchanger, an energy storage cooling subsystem with a coolant cooled via heat transfer in the heat exchanger, and a HVAC subsystem that provides temperature control for the vehicle's passenger cabin. The HVAC subsystem is also coupled to the heat exchanger for its coolant to be cooled by the refrigeration subsystem and to the cooling loop for cooling the drive motor for its coolant to be heated by the cooling loop. In this solution, heat in the cooling loop for the drive motor can be used for heating the cabin and cold from the refrigeration subsystem can be used to cool both the energy storage system and the cabin. The energy storage cooling subsystem also has a heater if the energy storage system needs heating.
In an electric vehicle, the power for heating and cooling comes from the energy storage system. Therefore, it is essential that the thermal management is as energy efficient as possible so that more of the power of the energy storage system can be used for operating the electric vehicle.
Another important aspect of thermal management in an electric vehicle is that it takes up space in the vehicle as well as increases the weight. A space efficient and weight optimized thermal management system is therefore preferable.

Thermal management unit, thermal management system, and an electrical vehicle including the thermal management system


A hybrid vehicle and method of control are provided. An engine raw power command is quantized. The quantized power command is set to one of a plurality of quantized power steps. A step size between the quantized power steps varies based on the raw power command. The engine of the hybrid vehicle is operated based on the set quantized power command.

FIG. 1 illustrates a block diagram of a conventional 'load-following' engine power determination architecture 10 for a hybrid-electric vehicle. In conventional architecture 10, an engine power command 12 is determined as the sum of a driver power command 14 and a battery power command 16. As such, in conventional architecture 10, the engine directly responds to any change of driver power command 14.
Accordingly, in real-world driving, any chaotic and aggressive driver power command 14 can easily generate perturbation of engine power command 12. The perturbation can be reflected as power fast-fluctuations and dithering. Such transients adversely affect the engine combustion efficiency and cost extra transient fuel. Further, many engine control parameters are 'predicatively' scheduled based on the rate of change of engine power command 12. Therefore, engine power disturbance may cause other non-optimum engine settings and deteriorate air/fuel errors. Even if the air/fuel (A/F) ratio can be kept within a moderate to narrow range, the integration effect of the fuel enrichments caused by more frequently occurring transients can be magnified and accumulated up to a considerable level of fuel losses.

Method of adaptive control for engine transient mitigation in a hybrid vehicle


A pretreatment method for a C.sub.8 aromatic isomerization process wherein the isomerization catalyst is initially contacted with a C.sub.8 aromatic feedstock under high severity isomerization conditions for a period of time sufficient to deposit a substantial amount to carbonaceous material on the catalyst. After pretreatment, the carbon-laden catalyst continues to be contacted by the C.sub.8 aromatic feedstock under less severe conditions than that of the pretreatment mode of operation.

Para-xylene and ortho-xylene are important petrochemical intermediates that are used to produce end products such as polyester fibers and film, plasticizers, polyester, and alkyd resins.
Currently, para-xylene is produced mainly by the isomerization of the isomeric C.sub.8 -aromatic hydrocarbons, namely ortho-xylene, meta-xylene, and ethylbenzene, or nonequilibrium mixtures of these isomers (including para-xylene) thereof, into the para-xylene isomer. The isomerization is typically effected by contacting the C.sub.8 hydrocarbons, in admixture with hydrogen, with a dual function catalyst possessing both hydrogenation and cracking activities, thereby effecting the desired isomerization reaction. Common operating conditions are temperatures from about 0.degree.-700.degree. C., pressures of about atmospheric to 100 atmospheres, and a hydrogen to hydrocarbon mole ratio of about 0.5-25.
An example of a C.sub.8 aromatic isomerization process is U.S. Pat. No. 3,078,318 (issued to Berger). The Berger patent discloses a process for the selective production of a particular isomer which comprises subjecting a C.sub.8 aromatic hydrocarbon fraction to isomerization in the presence of a catalyst comprising platinum on alumina, and thereafter separating out a particular xylene from the resulting hydrocarbon mixture. Further, the Berger patent teaches that after removal of a particular isomer from a mixture of C.sub.8 aromatic hydrocarbons, the remaining isomeric components in the mixture may be subjected to isomerization in the presence of hydrogen and a catalyst comprising a Group VIII metal on alumina to regenerate the mixture of C.sub.8 aromatic hydrocarbon isomers and approach the equilibrium proportions of ortho-, meta-, and para-xylenes and ethylbenzene.
In Meyers, Robert A., Handbook of Petroleum Processes, pages 5-68 to 5-70, McGraw-Hill, Inc. (1986), an integrated xylene isomerization process is described. In this process, a deheptanized C.sub.8 aromatic feedstock containing a mixture of C.sub.8 xylene isomers and ethylbenzene is passed to a xylene splitter fractionation unit to remove heavy aromatics and recover the desired amount of ortho-xylene product. The overhead from this column goes to the para-xylene recovery section. Effluent, depleted in para-xylene, exits from the xylene recovery unit and is directed to the isomerization unit where xylene isomers are isomerized to equilibrium and ethylbenzene is converted to benzene and ethane. The effluent from the isomerization reactor is separated into a hydrogen-rich vapor and a liquid phase which is passed to a deheptanizer to remove C.sub.7 minus products.
In the isomerization reactor, ethylbenzene reacts to produce benzene and ethane and the nonequilibrium xylene isomer mixture moves towards equilibrium. During the course of these reactions, there is some loss of xylenes by transalkylation and dealkylation to other aromatics, for example, toluene and C.sub.9 aromatics. Further, there are additional xylene losses due to cracking and saturation of C.sub.8 aromatics. It is important to reduce the xylene losses in the isomerization reactor because this reduces feedstock requirements for the xylene isomerization process and increases the proportion of higher-valued products that can be recovered.
In the past, the problem of xylene losses due to side reactions occurring in the isomerization reactor was addressed by manipulating catalyst formulations to increase selectivity (xylene retention) of the C.sub.8 aromatic isomerization process. Numerous catalysts for isomerizing C.sub.8 aromatics have been disclosed, and many of them involve the use of crystalline-aluminosilicate compounds known as zeolites. Zeolites particularly suited for isomerization include mordenite and the ZSM variety. In addition to the zeolite component, certain metal promoters and inorganic oxide matrices have been included in isomerization catalyst formulation. Examples of inorganic oxides include silica, alumina, and mixtures thereof. Metal promoters, such as Group VIII or Group III metals, have been used to provide a hydrogenation functionality.
Another method disclosed for reducing the xylene loss in a C.sub.8 aromatic isomerization process is isomerizing at less severe operating conditions. The problem with this approach is that a reduction in ethylbenzene conversion per pass usually results when these less severe operating conditions are employed.
There is a need for a method for reducing the xylene losses that accompanies C.sub.8 aromatic isomerization while maintaining high ethylbenzene conversion.

Pretreatment method for C.sub.8 aromatic isomerization process


A catalyst of the invention includes an imide compound having a N-substituted cyclic imide skeleton represented by following Formula (I):

An oxidation reaction is one of the most basic reactions in the field of organic chemical industry, and various oxidation processes have been developed. From the viewpoints of resources and environmental issues, a catalytic oxidation process, in which molecular oxygen or air is directly used as an oxidizing agent, is preferred. However, the catalytic oxidation process generally requires high temperatures and/or high pressures for activation of oxygen or, alternatively, must be performed in the co-existence of a reducing agent such as an aldehyde to proceed the reaction under mild conditions. Accordingly, such a conventional catalytic oxidation process cannot easily and efficiently produce an alcohol or a carboxylic acid under mild conditions.
Lower hydrocarbons such as methane and ethane are nitrated using nitric acid or nitrogen dioxide at high temperatures of from 250° C. to 300° C. However, when a hydrocarbon having a large number of carbon atoms is nitrated under the above condition, the substrate is decomposed, and a target nitro compound cannot be obtained in a high yield. To nitrate hydrocarbons, a method using mixed acid (a mixture of nitric acid and sulfuric acid) is widely employed. However, this method requires large amounts of a strong acid in a high concentration.
Additionally, few processes are known for efficiently and directly introducing carboxyl groups into hydrocarbons under mild conditions.
A variety of processes are known for producing organic sulfur acids or salts thereof. For example, processes for producing a sulfonic acid include a process of oxidizing a thiol or disulfide with an oxidizing agent, a process of allowing an aromatic hydrocarbon to react with anhydrous SO3-pyridine or chlorosulfuric acid by using a Friedel-Crafts reaction, and a process of synthetically obtaining a sulfonic acid by subjecting an unsaturated compound to free-radical addition. These processes, however, require extreme reaction conditions or inevitably produce large amounts of by-products. Additionally, no processes for directly and efficiently sulfonating non-aromatic hydrocarbons have been known.
Processes are known in which a variety of compounds are added to unsaturated compounds each having a carbon-carbon double bond or heteroatom-containing compounds and thereby yield useful organic compounds. For example, when an active methylene compound such as a malonic diester is allowed to react with an olefin having an electron attractive group, such as acrylonitrile, in the presence of a base, a carbon-carbon bond is formed as a result of a nucleophilic addition reaction and thereby yields an addition product (Michael addition reaction). When two types of carbonyl compounds are treated in the presence of an acid or a base, one carbonyl compound is nucleophilically added to the other to form a carbon-carbon bond and thereby yields an aldol condensate.
These processes, however, are generally performed in the presence of an acid or base and cannot be applied to compounds each having a substituent that is susceptible to the acid or base. In addition, these processes cannot allow, for example, a hydroxymethyl group, an alkoxymethyl group, an acyl group or a tertiary carbon atom to directly combine with a carbon atom constituting an unsaturated boned of an unsaturated compound or with a methine carbon atom of a bridged cyclic compound.
Addition reactions to a carbon-carbon double bond in accordance with a radical mechanism or coupling reactions to form a carbon-carbon bond are also known. However, there are few processes that can efficiently yield addition or substitution reaction products or derivatives thereof by action of, for example, molecular oxygen under mild conditions.
Some processes are known as production processes of hydroxy-γ-butyrolactone derivatives. For example, European Patent Publication EP-A-2103686 discloses a process for synthetically obtaining pantolactone by allowing glyoxylic acid to react with isobutylene. Likewise, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 61-282373 discloses a process for synthetically obtaining pantolactone by allowing hydrated glyoxylic acid to react with t-butyl alcohol. Tetrahedron, 933 (1979) discloses a process for synthetically obtaining pantolactone. This process includes the steps of hydrolyzing 4-hydroxy-2-methyl-5,5,5-trichloro-1-pentene to yield 2-hydroxy-4-methyl-4-pentenoic acid and cyclizing this compound in the presence of hydrochloric acid. In addition, The Chemical Society of Japan, Spring Conference Proceedings II, pp. 1015 (1998) reports that light irradiation to a mixture solution containing an α-acetoxy-α,β-unsaturated carboxylic ester and 2-propanol yields a corresponding α-acetoxy-γ,γ-dimethyl-γ-butyrolactone derivative. However, each of these processes employs a material that is not easily available or requires special conditions for the reaction.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publications No. 8-38909 and No. 9-327626 each propose an oxidation catalyst comprising an imide compound having a specific structure or the imide compound in combination with, for example, a transition metal compound as a catalyst for oxidizing an organic substrate with molecular oxygen. Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 11-239730 discloses a process, in which a substrate is allowed to react with at least one reactant selected from (i) nitrogen oxides and (ii) mixtures of carbon monoxide and oxygen in the presence of the imide compound and thereby at least one functional group selected from nitro group and carboxyl group is introduced into the substrate. PCT International Publication No. WO00/35835 discloses a process, in which two compounds are allowed to react with each other in the presence of a specific imide compound and a radical generator with respect to the imide compound and thereby yield an addition or substitution reaction product or an oxidized product thereof in accordance with a radical mechanism. These processes using the imide compounds can introduce an oxygen-atom-containing group such as hydroxyl group, nitro group or carboxyl group into a substrate or can form a carbon-carbon bond. However, they are still insufficient in yields of the target compounds, stability of the catalysts or amounts of the catalysts.

Catalyst comprising n-substituted cyclic imides and processes for preparing organic compounds with the catalyst

Abstract: wherein R is a hydroxyl-protecting group. Preferred R is a hydrolyzable protecting group. R may be a group obtained from an acid by eliminating an OH group therefrom. Such acids include, for example, carboxylic acids, sulfonic acids, carbonic acid, carbamic acid, sulfuric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acids and boric acids. The catalyst may include the imide compound and a metallic compound in combination. In the presence of the catalyst, (A) a compound capable of forming a radical is allowed to react with (B) a radical scavenging compound and thereby yields an addition or substitution reaction product of the compound (A) and the compound (B) or a derivative thereof. This catalyst can produce an organic compound with a high selectivity in a high yield as a result of, for example, an addition or substitution reaction under mild conditions.


Disclosed is a content reproducing device and a content reproducing method capable of quickly starting reproduction by making a pause state before starting the reproduction. The present invention provides a content reproducing device which requests content data of a desired content from a server storing content data and reproduces the content while receiving the content data requested, which includes a communication section which requests desired content data from the server and receives the content data, a receive buffer which buffers the content data received by the communication section, a reproducing section which reads the content data buffered in the receive buffer and reproduces the content, and a control section which controls reproduction of the content, wherein when a stop state in which reproduction of a content is stopped is switched to a pause state in which the reproduction of the content is paused, the control section lets the communication section request the content data from the server to receive the content data, lets the receive buffer a constant volume of the content data, and also lets the reproducing section stop reading the content data from the receive buffer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a content reproducing device and a content reproducing method which have a communication function based on, for example, TCP/IP (Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol) and reproduce contents such as music and the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
In related art, there has been a conventional reproducing system in which a client device (hereinafter referred to simply as a client) requests a content stored in a server device (hereinafter referred to simply as a server) via a network. Data of the content requested by the client is received from the server, and the client reproduces the content.
In this kind of reproducing system, in streaming playback by which the client reproduces a content while receiving the data thereof, pausing playback of the content is realized in such a manner that the server stops transmission immediately before an image packet to pause. Release of the pause is realized by restarting transmission from the paused image packet (for example, see Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 8-138354).

Content reproducing device and content reproducing method


An assembly (10) is provided for mounting a hydrofoil, trolling plate or trolling motor (or other accessory) on the anti-ventilation plate (14) of a sterndrive or outboard motor (16) without the need to modify the plate or motor. The assembly (10) has lower and upper elements (20, 22) which are secured about the plate (14) by bolts (34). The upper element (22) has a bolt pattern (40) to mount the hydrofoil or other device. Grip devices (50) can be mounted on the lower element (20) that are adjusted to grip the edges of the plate (14). A catch (60) mounted on the lower element (20) can be engaged in the trim tab or anode recess.

Many boaters find it desirable to mount a hydrofoil on the outboard motor or sterndrive of a pleasure boat. The hydrofoil is believed to provide enhanced efficiency and speed in boat operation. Examples of such hydrofoils are illustrated in U.S. Design patent D352,023 issued Nov. 1, 1994 and D363,914 issued Nov. 7, 1995, the disclosures of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Unfortunately, the mounting of such a hydrofoil often requires a permanent modification of the outboard motor or sterndrive, such as drilling holes to receive bolts, for example. Boat owners are often reluctant to make such permanent modifications or to expend the time and effort necessary to make the modifications. A need exists to provide a more simple and effective mounting of a hydrofoil without permanent modification of the outboard motor or sterndrive.

Assembly and method to attach a device such as a hydrofoil to an anti-ventilation plate


The present invention relates to a process for bonding a molded article of a thermoplastic saturated norbornene resin in which when the molded article is bonded to an adherend widely different from the molded article in coefficient of linear expansion, the adhesion surface of the molded article and that of the adherend are stuck together with an adhesive composed mainly of an epoxy resin which has an elasticity (Shore hardness D: about 40 or less) imparted by modification with a polymer having reactive silyl groups, and then the adhesive is cured. Thus, there is provided such an excellent bonding process that the adhesive strength is hardly deteriorated by a temperature change.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for bonding a molded article of a thermoplastic saturated norbornene resin. More particularly, the present invention relates to a process for bonding a molded article of a thermoplastic saturated norbornene resin which comprises sticking together the adhesion surface of the molded article of a thermoplastic saturated norbornene resin and the adhesion surface of an adherend with an elastic epoxy-silicon based adhesive, and then curing the elastic epoxy-silicon based adhesive.

Process for bonding a molded article of a thermoplastic saturated norbornene resin