A drilling flange and an independent screwed wellhead provides a metal-to-metal seal that supplements the traditional elastomeric O-rings for providing a fluid seal between the drilling flange and the wellhead. The metal-to-metal seal may be achieved using a metal ring gasket or two contacting metal surfaces that are machined to required tolerances and are configured to be forced together when the drilling flange is mounted to the wellhead. The metal-to-metal seal ensures a fluid seal between the flange body and the wellhead in the event that the O-rings malfunction or are destroyed by fire.

Independent screwed wellheads are well known in the art. The American Petroleum Institute (API) classifies a wellhead as an "independent screwed wellhead" if it possesses the features set out in API Specification 6A as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,605,194 (Smith) entitled Independent Screwed Wellhead with High Pressure Capability and Method.
The independent screwed wellhead has independently secured heads for each tubular string supported in the well bore. The pressure within the casing is controlled by a blowout preventer (BOP) typically secured atop the wellhead. The head is said to be "independently" secured to a respective tubular string because it is not directly flanged or similarly affixed to the casing head. Independent screwed wellheads are widely used for production from low-pressure productions zones because they are economical to construct and maintain.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,199,914 (Duhn) entitled Drilling Quick Connectors discloses quick-connector fittings for rapid connection and disconnection of a drilling flange for an independent screwed wellhead. This patent is illustrative of the state of the art in drilling flanges for such wellheads.
Prior art drilling flanges for independent screwed wellheads suffer from one significant drawback. Because they are designed to contain well pressure using only elastomeric O-ring seals, they are vulnerable to fire and other environmental hazards that can cause the O-ring to malfunction. During drilling operations, sparks from the drill have been known to ignite hydrocarbons in the well, causing fires that can damage the elastomeric O-rings that provide the fluid seal between the drilling flange and the wellhead. If those O-ring seals are substantially damaged, the fluid seal is lost and oil or gas may leak from the interface between the wellhead and the drilling flange. Such leaks are undesirable and potentially dangerous.
There therefore exists a need for a drilling flange for use in an independent screwed wellhead that provides a metal-to-metal seal to ensure that a fluid seal is maintained between the wellhead and the drilling flange, even in the event of a fire on the wellhead.

Drilling flange and independent screwed wellhead with metal-to-metal seal and method of use


A spectroscope includes a first substrate and a second substrate opposite to each other; a light introducing assembly on a side of the first substrate facing away from the second substrate; a temperature adjusting assembly between the first substrate and the second substrate; a liquid crystal dimming assembly between the first substrate and the second substrate, wherein the temperature adjusting assembly is configured to adjust a temperature of the liquid crystal dimming assembly, so as to adjust spectrum of light passing through the liquid crystal dimming assembly; a spectroscopic grating on the first substrate; a reflector on the second substrate and configured to reflect incident light introduced by the light introducing assembly to the spectroscopic grating; and a plurality of sensors configured to receive the incident light after being subjected a light splitting by the spectroscopic grating. A wavelength of the incident light received by each sensor is different.

A spectroscope is a scientific instrument that decomposes complex light into spectral lines. It includes a prism or a diffraction grating. The spectroscope can measure the light reflected from the surface of an object. The optical information is captured by a spectroscope, and is developed with photographic film, or displayed and analyzed by a computerized automatic display numerical instrument, so as to determine what kind of element is contained in the article. In related technologies, portable spectroscopes generally use the traditional optical lens mode. Due to the limitation of the focal length of the optical lens, the lens needs to be placed at a certain height, which results in the spectroscope being bulky and heavy, making it difficult to achieve thinness and high integration.


A basket for an embolic protection filtering device to be deployed within a body lumen for capturing embolic debris is disclosed. In one embodiment, a strut pattern forming the basket includes V-shaped struts having an internal radius at the apex with a kerf on each strut arm beginning at the radius and extending toward an opposite end of the strut. The apex may have a bulbous shape. In another embodiment, the strut arms of the basket include undulations. Also, the apices may be situated so that one apex is longitudinally staggered from an adjacent apex. The combination of features enables the basket to be crimped to a small profile while distributing stress away from the apices of the V's in the strut pattern.

The present invention relates generally to a device that can be used during an interventional procedure in a stenosed or occluded region of a blood vessel to capture embolic material that might be created and released into the bloodstream as a result of the procedure. The present invention is particularly useful when performing balloon angioplasty, stenting, laser angioplasty, or atherectomy procedures in critical vessels of a patient's body, such as the carotid arteries, where the release of embolic debris into the bloodstream can occlude the flow of oxygenated blood to the brain. The consequences to the patient of such an event are devastating.
A variety of non-surgical interventional procedures have been developed over the years for opening stenosed or occluded blood vessels in a patient caused by the build up of plaque or other substances on the walls of the blood vessel. Such procedures usually involve the percutaneous introduction of the interventional device into the lumen of the artery, usually through a catheter. One widely known and medically accepted procedure is balloon angioplasty in which an inflatable balloon is introduced within the stenosed region of the blood vessel to dilate the occluded vessel. The balloon catheter is initially inserted into the patient's arterial system and is advanced and manipulated into the area of stenosis in the artery. The balloon is inflated to compress the plaque and press the vessel wall radially outward to increase the diameter of the blood vessel.
Another procedure is laser angioplasty which uses a laser to ablate the stenosis by super heating and vaporizing the deposited plaque. Atherectomy is yet another method of treating a stenosed blood vessel in which a rotating cutting blade shaves the deposited plaque from the arterial wall. A vacuum catheter may be used to capture the shaved plaque or thrombus from the blood stream during this procedure.
In another widely practiced procedure, the stenosis can be treated by placing a device known as a stent into the stenosed region to hold open and sometimes expand the diseased segment of blood vessel or other arterial lumen. Stents are particularly useful in the treatment or repair of blood vessels after a stenosis has been compressed by percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA), percutaneous transluminal angioplasty (PTA), or removal by atherectomy or other means. A stent is usually delivered in a compressed condition to the target site where it is deployed in an expanded condition to support the vessel and to help maintain patency of the lumen.
Prior art stents typically fall into two general categories of construction. The first type of stent is expandable upon application of a controlled force, often through the inflation of the balloon portion of a dilatation catheter that expands the compressed stent to a larger diameter to be left in place within the artery at the target site. The second type of stent is a self-expanding stent formed from, for example, shape memory metals or superelastic nickel-titanum (NiTi) alloys, that self-expands from a compressed state when the stent is advanced out of the distal end of the delivery catheter into the body lumen. The self-expansion of a NiTi stent is triggered either through thermally induced shape memory effect or by the stent's own superelastic properties.
The above non-surgical interventional procedures, when successful, avoid the necessity of major surgical operations. However, there is one common problem associated with all of these non-surgical procedures, namely, the potential release of embolic debris into the bloodstream which can occlude distal vasculature and cause significant health problems to the patient. For example, during deployment of a stent, it is possible that the metal struts of the stent can cut into the stenosis and shear off pieces of plaque, which become embolic debris that travel downstream and lodge somewhere in the patient's vascular system. While not a frequent occurrence, pieces of plaque can sometimes dislodge from the stenosis during a balloon angioplasty procedure and become released into the bloodstream. Additionally, while complete vaporization of plaque is the intended goal during a laser angioplasty procedure, quite often the particles are not fully vaporized and enter the bloodstream. Likewise, emboli created during an atherectomy procedure may enter the bloodstream.
When any of the above-described procedures are performed in the carotid arteries, the release of emboli into the circulatory system can be extremely dangerous and sometimes fatal to the patient. Debris that is carried by the bloodstream to distal vessels of the brain can cause these cerebral vessels to occlude, resulting in a stroke, and in some cases, death. Therefore, although carotid percutaneous transluminal angioplasty has been performed in the past, the number of procedures performed has been limited due to the justifiable fear of causing an embolic stroke should embolic debris enter the bloodstream and block vital downstream blood passages.
Medical devices have been developed to attempt to deal with the problem created when debris or fragments enter the circulatory system following treatment using any one of the above-identified procedures. One approach that has been attempted is cutting the debris into minute sizes which pose little chance of becoming occluded in major vessels within the patient's vasculature. Yet it is often difficult to control the size of the fragments that are formed, and the risk of vessel occlusion still exists.
Other techniques that have been developed to address the problem of removing embolic debris include the use of catheters with a vacuum source that provides temporary suction to remove embolic debris from the bloodstream. On the other hand, complications exist with such systems because the vacuum catheter may not remove all of the embolic material from the bloodstream, and a more powerful suction could cause problems to the patient's vasculature.
Still other techniques that have had success include the placement of a filter assembly downstream from the treatment site to capture embolic debris before it reaches the smaller blood vessels downstream. The filter assembly is typically attached to the distal end of an elongated shaft or guide wire and is delivered to the deployment site via a delivery catheter. Such filters have proven successful in capturing embolic debris released into the bloodstream during treatment. Nevertheless, some filter assembly designs are difficult and/or time consuming to manufacture.
Some existing embolic protection filters include a filter membrane and a basket or cage that supports the filter membrane. The basket can be fabricated from a longitudinal, small diameter hypotube by cutting a particular pattern into the hypotube thus forming the struts, ribs, or framework of the basket. The hypotube can be set to a particular expanded size using successive heat treatments. The heat treatments also relieve stress that can build up in the strut pattern particularly at locations where two or more struts or ribs are joined. Without the heat treatments, the basket can fracture because of the buildup of stress at that joint or at other key areas. Unfortunately, the successive heat treatments add to the cost of manufacturing the baskets. Moreover, the existing baskets may still have low fatigue resistance during use even after being subjected to multiple heat treatments.
What has been needed is a basket for an embolic protection device that is not prone to fracturing during manufacture or use, thereby reducing the need for heat treatment and improving fatigue resistance over conventional filter baskets. The present invention disclosed herein satisfies these and other needs.


A centralized management system for managing maintenance parts of machines at multiple plants includes: a warehouse facility for providing a concentrated storage of the maintenance parts for multiple types of the machines at multiple plants; a necessary parts management device for managing whether the maintenance parts are required for the machine; and a parts shipment management device for determining the maintenance parts to be shipped from the warehouse facility based on management information in the necessary parts management device. The present invention provides a system for managing maintenance parts that allows management costs to be restricted while allowing changes in the status of machines at plants to be handled in a flexible manner.

Conventionally, a system for managing maintenance parts for multiple types of machines located in a plant has involved storing needed maintenance parts in the plant. When a maintenance part needs to be replaced due to a maintenance inspection of a machine or the like, the stored maintenance part is used for the machine, and an order is issued to replace the stored maintenance part that was used.
Thus, for an enterprise that operates multiple plants, maintenance parts are stored and managed independently within each plant, and maintenance parts are generally stocked so that there are no shortages in any of the plants.
Thus, the conventional organizational method may lead to shortages in maintenance parts and may lead to work delays in cases such as when there is a sudden increase in the number of maintenance parts needed as a consequence of a sudden rise in production volume. On the other hand, stocking large quantities of maintenance parts to be able to handle these types of changes in the environment increases maintenance costs. Furthermore, if more than one type of maintenance part is used in the plant, the maintenance costs are even greater.

Centralized management system for maintenance parts


An interconnect device for optical fibers includes an enclosure. A first termination panel is mounted in the enclosure. The first termination panel has a plurality of optical fiber connection members, ones of which are associated with respective subscriber locations. A second termination panel is mounted in the enclosure that has a plurality of optical fiber connection members, ones of which are associated with respective input optical fibers associated with a service provider. A cross-connect module mounted in the enclosure has a loop of an optical fiber retained therein with a first and opposite second connectorized end of the optical fiber extending from the cross-connect module. The first and second connectorized ends of the optical fiber extend to a length sufficient to allow cross-connection of a selected pair of the connection members of the termination panels by connection of the connectorized ends thereto.

The present invention relates to optical fiber products and, more particularly, to optical fiber cross-connect modules and methods for using the same.
Optical fiber networks are increasingly being installed to support high-speed voice and data communications. Increasingly, the optical fiber coupling is being expanded out from the central office of the communication service provider companies, such as Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) to the subscriber locations, such as homes or businesses, where conventional copper wiring was traditionally used. Such alternate methods of providing bandwidth to subscriber locations are often referred to in the telecoms industry as Fiber to the Home (FTTH), Fiber to the Business (FTTB) and the like (FTTx).
When providing services using an optical fiber network, it is generally necessary to add and drop subscribers over time. As a result, a variety of methods are provided for interconnecting subscriber locations with a central office connecting facility operated by an optical network provider. To improve the utilization of communication circuits within such a central office facility, interconnection enclosures, such as a centralized splitter cabinet (CSC) and/or centralized splitter cross-connect (CSX), may be provided as part of the outside plant (OSP) infrastructure of the optical fiber network. Doing so may allow some of the burden of establishing and changing connections on the network to be shifted away from the central office and facilitate incremental growth of an installed network as new subscribers are added.
A centralized splitter cabinet (CSC) is typically a passive optical enclosure that provides random termination of optical splitters suitable for use in an OSP environment. A CSC may be pedestal or pole mounted in the field. A CSC may provide a flexibility point for termination of distribution cable as well as enclosing a splitter array. This flexibility in interconnections of the downstream fiber network may facilitate optimization of the use of electronic equipment in the central office by, for example, avoiding the need to dedicate circuits in the central office to each subscriber location when many such locations may not be active.
A field service technician may be sent to the CSC to modify the selection of a subscriber location coupled through a splitter to a particular fiber from the central office by connecting and disconnecting various cables found in the CSC. For example, it is known to provide connectorized pigtail cables associated with each subscriber location serviced by a CSC in the CSC. A technician can then select the splitter pigtail for a designated subscriber location, for example, based on a label attached to the pigtail, and insert the selected cable in a connection point of a splitter.
A field service technician may also need to make cross-connections in the CSC. Cross-connecting can be performed with individual varied length patchcords, which route directly from feeder fiber connector ports to distribution fiber connector ports within the cabinet. Typically, these varied length patchcords are routed in an unorganized fashion and may conflict with the recommended splitter module pigtail routing paths in the cabinet. Other methods of cross-connecting within a centralized splitter cabinet generally require the use of a fixed position routing "drum" in-place of, but not along side of, splitter modules.

Interconnect enclosures for optical fibers including cross-connect modules and methods for using the same


A connector member for use in connecting electrical wiring is received by another connector part and has a housing body for receiving metal wiring terminals. In a recess of the housing having opposed side walls, there is a resilient locking arm having a head portion. The locking arm locks with another connector part and there are gaps formed between the head portion and the side walls. A terminal retainer is mounted on the housing for locking the metal terminals in place. To prevent a wire or other foreign body being trapped in the gaps between the arm and the side walls, the terminal retainer has a pair of gap blocking portions which, in its locked position, lie on opposite sides of the head portion of the locking arm so as to partially block these gaps.

1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to connectors for connecting electrical wiring, and in particular, to a connector member which is adapted to house metal terminals which are to be connected to terminals in another connector member. The connector member has at least one terminal retainer to lock the terminals in position, and a locking arm which locks the connector member to another connector part.
2. Description of Related Art
A connector member of this type equipped with terminal retainers is shown in JP-A-8-287992. The connector is composed of a connector housing body and two terminal retainers. On one face of the housing body, there is a resilient locking arm for locking the connector member in position in a complementary connector part which is in the form of a housing for receiving the connector member. This locking arm is partly located in a recess which is formed at the central part of the upper face of the housing body, and is designed not to protrude from the housing body more than required.
Gaps are present between the locking arm and the side faces of the recess. These gaps permit a smooth fit with the receiving connector part. However, these gaps allow the possibility of the invasion of foreign articles, particularly the trapping of a wire during assembly of the connector. There is also a risk of having the locking arm lifted if a wire is trapped beneath it, which would prevent its proper locking function, and result in an incorrect assembly of the connector.


An elongated web of bag-making material (S) is bent into a tubular form by a former (2), transported along a path (A), is filled with articles (W) and sealed by a transverse sealer (10) transversely to its direction of motion. A pair of seal jaws (20) supported by rotary arms (12) are rotated in mutually opposite directions by a power-communicating mechanism (P) which includes a trajectory-forming mechanism (H) such that the seal jaws (20) will each travel on a generally D-shaped trajectory with a linear section along the path (A) of the bag-making material (S). Cramming devices (50) are adjustably attached to the rotary arms (12) and stroke the tubularly shaped bag-making material (S) from both sides in forward-backward direction (X) without substantially closing the bag being formed such that the articles (W) can be more efficiently crammed with empty spaces among them effectively reduced. Stripping rods (42) are attached to the seal jaws (20) for stripping down the articles being dropped into the bag immediately before the transverse sealing and after the cramming by the cramming devices (50) so as to prevent them from becoming caught between the seal jaws (20).

This invention relates to a bag maker-packaging machine of the type adapted to concurrently make bags and fill them with articles such as food items for packaging. In particular, this invention relates to a transverse sealer intended to be used in such a packaging machine for effecting thermal sealing of the bag-making material in the transverse direction.
So-called pillow-type packaging machines are a kind of bag maker-packaging machine capable of concurrently forming bags and filling these bags with articles to be packaged such as food items. An elongated web of bag-making material (herein referred to as "the film") is formed into a tubular shape by means of a device known as the former, and the film's mutually overlapping longitudinal side edges are sealed together first. While the tubularly formed film is pulled downward, it is thermally sealed in the transverse direction at the bottom by means of a transverse sealer comprising, for example, a pair of transverse seal jaws which may be disposed below a so-called filling cylinder used for filling the tubularly formed film with articles to be packaged. Because the formation of bags and the filling of the bags with articles to be packaged can be carried out concurrently and continuously, such bag maker-packaging machines are considered superior machines with high production efficiency.
Japanese Patent Publication Tokkai 63-30725, for example, disclosed a bag maker-packaging machine of a so-called rotary driven type characterized as moving its pair of transverse seal jaws linearly along the direction of motion of the film while their heat-applying surfaces are contacted to the film such that the transverse sealing can be effected over a sufficiently extended period of time.
A transverse sealer of this type does not give rise to any problem, as the seal jaws B are moved towards each other as shown by arrows in FIG. 8A to effect transverse thermal sealing, if the internal volume of the bag S is sufficiently large compared to the bulk of the articles w inside. Depending on the kind or condition of the articles W to be packaged, however, their volume sometimes becomes too large compared to the bag. This can happen, for example, when the water content of potatoes to be packaged is unusually high. In such a situation, as depicted in FIG. 8B, portions of the articles W to be packaged may be caught between the seal jaws B as they are closed, yielding defective products as a result. In order to prevent occurrences of this nature, it has been known to use the seal jaws as stripping means, as shown in FIG. 8C, holding the seal jaws B in a nearly-completely-closed condition (indicated by letter C) and to move them downward while the bag S remains closed so as to clear the area over which the bag S is to be transversely sealed. This operation is commonly known as "stripping."
Such stripping means C are not necessarily effective for the purpose of reducing empty spaces inside the bag because they are intended merely to strip the articles W downward where the transverse sealing is to take place.

Transverse sealer for a packaging machine


A deposit detection device according to an embodiment includes an adhesion detection module, a moving adhesion detection module, and a determination module. The adhesion detection module detects a deposit region corresponding to a deposit adhering to an imaging device, based on brightness information of an image captured by the imaging device. The moving adhesion detection module detects the deposit region detected during moving of the vehicle as a moving deposit region, from among the deposit regions detected by the adhesion detection module. When the area of the moving deposit region detected by the moving adhesion detection module is equal to or larger than a first threshold value, the determination module determines that there is a deposit.

Conventionally, a deposit detection device is known which detects that there is a deposit when a region corresponding to a deposit adhering to a lens of an imaging device is equal to or larger than a predetermined area, based on brightness information of a captured image (for example, refer to Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2019-29940).
Unfortunately, the conventional technique has room for improvement in detecting a deposit with high accuracy. For example, conventionally, a deposit region with an area of a certain size needs to be detected in order to detect that there is a deposit, in terms of maintaining the reliability of the detection result. It therefore has been necessary to detect a deposit region of higher possibility in order to detect a small amount of adhesion.

Deposit detection device and deposit detection method


Bar code data read from a bar code card (4) by a bar code reader (1) is inputted to a data processor (3). In this data processor (3), noise included in the bar code data is extracted or detected. The noise is detected by dividing the noise into noise which exists outside of a start guard bar and an end guard bar in a bar code and noise which exists between the start guard bar and the end guard bar. After the noise is detected, the data processor (3) decodes the bar code by ignoring the noise or decodes the bar code after removing the noise to correct the width of each of bars. A game set (5) also performs the same processing as that of the data processor (3) with respect to bar code data inputted from a bar code reader (10). In addition, the game set (5) uses the inputted bar code data for processing for a game.

For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,729,564 (hereinafter referred to as a first prior art document), Japanese Patent Laid Open Gazette No. 11183/1990 (hereinafter referred to as a second prior art document), and Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 23592/1990 (hereinafter referred to as a third prior art document) disclose a game set playing various games on the basis of bar code data read from a bar code card. However, the first to third prior art documents utilize the bar code data read from the bar code card by a bar code reader without any modification and fail to disclose a technique for removing various types of noise included in the bar code data. Therefore, erroneous data is liable to be inputted to the game set by the bar code data including the noise. Particularly in the field of the game set, lower cost is required. Accordingly, it is impossible to use, as the bar code reader, a high-cost and high-precision one. Consequently, it is highly possible that noise is included in the bar code data read by such a bar code reader.
On the other hand, such a game set that a battle game can be played using a bar code card has been commercially available and an application for the game set has been filed in recent years (for example, a trade name "Bar Code Battler" made by Epoque Co., Ltd.; Japanese Patent Laid-Open Gazette No. 193, 074/1981). This conventional bar code game set (hereinafter referred to as a fourth prior art document) is so constructed that a battle game can be played using a bar code card produced by a player himself or herself of the game. Specifically, the player uses a bar code card attached or uses an original bar code card to which a bar code attached to a commercially available commodity is affixed and causes the game set to read the bar code card to play the battle game. In the bar code card produced by the player himself or herself, however, the bar code is generally inferior in state in many cases. Accordingly, it is very highly possible that noise is included in the bar code data read by the bar code reader. For example, when a bar code cut from a package of a commodity is bonded to a card and used, dust is liable to adhere to the bar code by adhesives squeezed from the adhesive surface. In this case, the dust adhering to the bar code is liable to be erroneously recognized as a part of a black or white bar included in the bar code. In addition, when the bar code attached to the commodity is damaged from the beginning, a read error occurs in a damaged portion. Furthermore, when the bar code attached to the commodity is copied by a copying machine and used, the shape of each of the bars in the bar code is deformed by distortion of an optical system in the copying machine. Particularly when copying of the bar code is repeated many times, the degree of deformation of each of the bars is increased. In this case, the width of each of the bars is not normally read, thereby causing a read error. However, the above described game set in the forth prior art document utilizes the bar code data read from the bar code card without any modification and fails to disclose a technique related to signal processing for removing noise included in the bar code data, similarly to the above described first to third prior art documents. Therefore, the above described game set in the fourth prior art document has the disadvantage in that a read error frequently occurs, whereby the interest in the game is lost.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an improved bar code reader capable of reliably detecting various types of noise included in bar code data and improving the reading precision of a bar code even if a relatively simple and low-cost optical reader is used.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an improved bar code reader capable of reliably detecting noise in bar code data and nullifying the same.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improved bar code reader capable of correcting distortion of the width of each of bars included in a bar code.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved bar code reader capable of correcting a read error in a bar code due to the change in the speed of movement of a bar code record medium.
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an improved game set capable of reliably detecting and nullifying various types of noise included in bar code data inputted and using the inputted bar code data for processing for a game.

Bar code reader and game set using the same


A process for making a paper sheet is disclosed. After a web is transferred from a forming wire to a papermaking belt preferably having deflection conduits, the web is overlaid with a flexible sheet of material such that the web is disposed intermediate the sheet of material and the papermaking belt. The sheet of material has an air permeability less than the papermaking belt, and is preferably air-impermeable. An application of a fluid pressure differential to the sheet of material causes deflection of at least a portion of the sheet of material towards the papermaking belt and, preferably, deflection of at least a portion of the web into the conduits of the papermaking belt and water removal from the web through the conduits of the papermaking belt.

Paper products are used for a variety of purposes. Paper towels, facial tissues, toilet tissues, and the like are in constant use in modern industrialized societies. The large demand for such paper products has created a demand for improved versions of the products. If the paper products such as paper towels, facial tissues, toilet tissues, and the like are to perform their intended tasks and to find wide acceptance, they must possess certain physical characteristics. Among the more important of these characteristics are strength, softness, and absorbency.
Strength is the ability of a paper web to retain its physical integrity during use.
Softness is the pleasing tactile sensation consumers perceive when they use the paper for its intended purposes.
Absorbency is the characteristic of the paper that allows the paper to take up and retain fluids, particularly water and aqueous solutions and suspensions. Important not only is the absolute quantity of fluid a given amount of paper will hold, but also the rate at which the paper will absorb the fluid.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,537,954 issued to Justus discloses a web formed between an upper fabric and a lower forming wire. A pattern is imparted to the web at a nip where the web is sandwiched between the fabric and a relatively soft and resilient papermaking felt. U.S. Pat. No. 4,309,246 issued to Hulit et al. discloses delivering an uncompacted wet web to an open mesh imprinting fabric formed of woven elements, and pressing the web between a papermaker's felt and the imprinting fabric in a first press nip. The web is then carried by the imprinting fabric from the first press nip to a second press nip at a drying drum. U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,124 issued to Turunen et al. discloses a paper machine having a twin-wire former having a pair of endless fabrics, which can be felts. One of the endless fabrics carries a paper web to a press section. The press section can include the endless fabric which carries the paper web to the press section, an additional endless fabric which can be a felt, and a wire for patterning the web.
PCT Publication WO95/17548 having a U.S. priority date of Dec. 20, 1993 and published Jun. 29, 1995 in the name of Ampulski et al.; and PCT Publication WO96/00813 having a U.S. priority date of Jun. 29, 1994 and published Jan. 11, 1996 in the name of Trokhan et al. disclose papermaking methods employing dewatering felt layers.
While suitable methods of making paper webs are disclosed in the art, paper scientists continue to search for even better methods of making patterned paper structures economically and with increased strength, without sacrificing softness and absorbency.
Through-air dried paper webs are made as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,514,345 issued to Johnson et al on Apr. 30, 1985; U.S. Pat. No. 4,528,239 issued to Trokhan on Jul. 9, 1985; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,289 issued to Trokhan et al on Aug. 2, 1994, all three patents are assigned to The Procter and Gamble Company and incorporated herein by reference. Paper produced by through air drying is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,480 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,637,859, both issued in the name of Trokhan, which patents are incorporated herein by reference. The paper of these patents is characterized by having two physically distinct regions: a continuous network region having a relatively high density and a region comprised of a plurality of domes dispersed throughout the whole of the network region. The domes are of relatively low density and relatively low intrinsic strength compared to the network region.
Generally, through-air drying papermaking processes include several steps. An aqueous dispersion of the papermaking fibers is formed into an embryonic web on a foraminous member, such as a Fourdrinier wire. This embryonic web is associated with a deflection member having a macroscopically monoplanar, continuous, patterned non-random network surface which defines within the deflection member a plurality of discrete, isolated deflection conduits. The papermaking fibers in the embryonic web are deflected into the deflection conduits and water is removed through the deflection conduits to form an intermediate web. The intermediate web may optionally be dried and foreshortened by creping. Creping is a process of the removal of the dried intermediate web from the surface (usually, also drying surface, such as the surface of a Yankee dryer) with a doctor blade to form a finished paper web.
Deflection of the fibers into the deflection conduits can be induced by, for example, the application of differential fluid pressure to the embryonic paper web. One preferred method of applying differential pressure is by exposing the embryonic web to a vacuum through the deflection conduits. As a result of a sudden application of the vacuum pressure, a deflection of the fibers into the deflection conduits occurs, which can lead to separation of the deflected fibers from each other and from the embryonic web. In addition, as a result of a sudden application of a vacuum pressure, a certain number of partially dewatered fibers separated from the embryonic web could completely pass through the papermaking belt. These phenomena cause formation of pin-sized holes, or pinholes, in the domes of the finished paper web and clogging the vacuum dewatering machinery.
The undesirable creation of pinholes in the domes of the paper web, or pinholing, was mitigated by commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,334,289, issued on Aug. 2, 1994 to Trokhan et al. and incorporated by reference herein. This patent provided surface texture irregularities in the backside network. The backside irregularities mitigate the effect of a sudden application of a vacuum pressure. Still, the search for improved products has continued.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a papermaking process which substantially reduces the pinholing in the finished paper web and the buildup of paper fibers on the vacuum dewatering machinery.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a papermaking process which allows to produce a paper sheet that has a more uniform basis weight distribution and a more uniform density distribution, relative to the papers produced by the through-air drying processes of the prior art.
It is further object of the present invention to provide a novel method for dewatering and molding a paper web.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a method of enhancing water removal from a web during pressing of the web.

Method of making paper web using flexible sheet of material


The present invention discloses a table for supplying a liquid for drinking which can accurately measure the amount of discharged liquid for drinking. The invention provides a table for supplying liquid for drinking provided with a table, a liquid discharging server installed in the table, and a liquid storage tank for supplying liquid for drinking to the liquid discharging server, in which a measuring mechanism for measuring the discharging liquid amount is provided, and the measuring mechanism has a function of measuring only in a state in which a forward liquid passage reaching the liquid discharging server is filled with the liquid for drinking. In accordance with the invented table, since the customer can discharge the liquid for drinking to the container on the spot by himself or herself, no waiting time is generated and the required amount of liquid can be injected so as to obtain an economical effect.

A conventional dispenser for supplying a liquid for drinking is placed together with a carbon dioxide bottle or a barrel filled with the liquid for drinking, in a place other than customer's seats, for example, a kitchen or the like.
In the case that a shop tender receives an order from the customer in the seat, the shop tender walks to the place where the dispenser is placed, inputs an ordered number of a liquid for drinking to containers (steins or the like) via the dispenser, and carries the containers to the customer's seat.
When receiving an additional order from the customer, the shop tender temporarily returns to the place of the dispenser while holding the empty container, injects the liquid for drinking into a new stein after being washed at the place, and carries it to the customer's seat again.
In particular, when the orders of the customers are concentrated at the same time, a plurality of shop tenders have the dispenser in common, so that it is necessary that the shop tenders wait for the dispenser and it is hard to rapidly respond to the order.
On the other hand, the customer drinks the liquid for drinking which is delivered at a fixed time after the customer calls and places an order and cannot drink immediately when the customer wants to drink due to a waiting time.
Further, there is a case that the customer wants to order about half of the amount of the liquid for drinking in the container, however, normally, since the customer can only order a prescribed amount of injected liquid for drinking, the customer leaves part of the liquid for drinking, which is wasteful and uneconomical for the customer.
On the other hand, the customer holds back an order, and the shop cannot get turnover.
On the other hand, for the shop, it is necessary to provide a lot of shop tenders in order to rapidly respond to the orders of the customers so the labor cost is large for the shop.
Further, when settling the drinking money, there is a case that money trouble is generated between the customer and the shop side with regard to the cost demand because the customer has a small recognition about the drinking amount.
In order to solve the problem mentioned above, there has been developed a table in which a draft tower is placed as disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 4-115199.
In accordance with this invention, the draft tower for discharging beer is placed in a customer's seat table and the discharge amount from the draft tower is measured so as to be displayed in integrating meters provided in positions near the customer's seat and a cash register of the shop.
Accordingly, it is not necessary to order the shop tender at a time of placing an order for the liquid for drinking, and the customer can immediately discharge a necessary amount of liquid for drinking at a time when the customer wants to drink.
Further, the customer cannot only enjoy the operation of discharging the liquid for drinking, but also can have the liquid for drinking while confirming the discharge amount (drinking cost) by himself or herself. Accordingly, the customer has a sense of security. Further, since the customer can confirm the drinking amount by himself or herself, it is possible to prevent trouble with respect to money.
Further, for the shop side, it is not necessary to prepare new washed containers, it is unnecessary to provide the shop tenders, and the cost is extremely efficient.
However, for a flow meter in the conventional draft tower, a so-called axial flow type meter in which an axis of impeller is set in parallel to a flow is employed because its principle and structure are simple and the cost is advantageous.
In other words, the flow meter utilizes the principle that the impeller rotates at a speed in proportion to the flow speed of the fluid obtained by arranging the axis of the impeller in parallel to the fluid flowing within a flow passage, and determines the flow rate by detecting a rotational speed.
However, in the conventional flow meter mentioned above, since the flow meter utilizes a physical rotation caused by the impeller, there is a problem when the flow meter measures the liquid for drinking containing the carbon dioxide gas such as beer or the like, the impeller is rotated in the same manner even at a time when the liquid-cut state is formed and the flow passage is in a bubble or gas state, and the flow meter erroneously counts.
In the draft tower placed in the table of the customer's seat, since the charge is left up to the customer, it is necessary to extremely accurately measure the injection amount of the liquid for drinking.
In the case that the liquid amount is counted and the liquid for drinking is not actually injected although the customer injects, confidence in the shop deteriorates.
On the basis of the matter mentioned above, there has been desired a draft tower which can accurately measure a liquid amount of the liquid for drinking.


In one embodiment a fault current limiter comprises a current splitting reactor having interleaved windings to reduce an insertion impedance of the fault current limiter during non-fault conditions. The current splitting reactor having interleaved windings may include a first winding, the first winding including a plurality of sub-windings and a second winding, the second winding including a plurality of sub-windings, the sub-windings of the first winding and the sub-windings of the second winding wounds about the core and interleaved.

Fault current limiters (FCLs) are used to provide protection against current surges, for example in a power transmission network. Various types of FCLs have been developed over the last several decades, including superconducting fault current limiters (SCFCLs), solid-state fault current limiters, inductive fault current limiters, as well as other varieties that are well known in the art. A power system in which an FCL is implemented may include generation, transmission, and distribution networks that generate and deliver power to various industrial, commercial, and/or residential electrical loads.
A fault current is an abnormal current in an electrical system that may result from a fault in the system, such as a short circuit. A fault current may arise in a system due to any number of events or failures, such as power lines or other system components being damaged by severe weather (e.g. lightning strikes). When such a fault occurs, the fault current limiter acts to protect the system from the fault current. During normal operation, however, it is desired that the fault current limiter will have as little affect on the system being protected as possible.
Thus there is a need for a fault current limiter that has low insertion impedance and causes negligible voltages drop and power loss in the circuit being protected during normal operation but which is still able to protect against fault currents.

Fault current limiter with interleaved windings

Varian Semiconductor Equipment Associates, Inc.


An improved electrode for electrosurgery comprises at least one orifice in the active surface of the electrode connected to a lumen in the probe of larger cross-sectional area than the area of the orifice(s), the lumen being connected to a vacuum, such that a venturi is formed extending from the one or more orifices in the active surface of the electrode to the lumen, whereby flow of fluid, ablated tissue, and other debris in the vicinity of the surgical site is accelerated through the orifice(s), reducing clogging, whereby any particle passing through the orifice(s) is unlikely to become clogged downstream, and whereby the edges of the orifice(s) are ablative, tending to reduce any particles caught at the orifice(s) to a size small enough to pass therethrough.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electrosurgical devices for ablating tissue in a surgical procedure. More specifically, the present invention relates to electrosurgical devices having an improved electrode design.
2. Relevant Technology
An arthroscope is an instrument used to look directly into a surgical site. Typically, the arthroscope utilizes a magnifying lens and coated glass fibers that beam an intense, cool light into the surgical site. A camera attached to the arthroscope allows the surgeon to view the surgical site on a monitor in the operating room. With the arthroscope, the surgeon can look directly into a surgical site, such as a knee or shoulder, to diagnose injury and decide on the best treatment. While viewing the surgical site with the arthroscope, the surgeon can repair an injury using a separate surgical instrument.
The ability to view the surgical site in this manner allows for a minimally invasive procedure. In recent years, arthroscopic surgeries have been developed for surgical procedures that traditionally were once very complicated and time consuming. Many of these surgeries are now performed as outpatient procedures using arthroscopic techniques.
At the beginning of the arthroscopic procedure, the patient receives an anesthetic. After the patient has been sufficiently anesthetized, the surgeon makes a plurality of incisions, known as portals, from the exterior of the body of the patient to the surgical site. Three portals are usually made: a first for the arthroscope, a second for the surgical instrument, and a third to permit fluids to escape from the surgical site. Sterile fluid, e.g., saline solution, is generally introduced by way of the arthroscope through the first portal. The sterile fluid serves among other purposes to expand the area of the surgical site. The introduction of sterile fluid makes it easier to see and work inside the body of the patient at the surgical site.
"Electrosurgical" instruments are commonly used in arthroscopy to ablate and/or coagulate tissue. In electrosurgery, a high-frequency current is applied to an electrode near or touching body tissue. As discussed in further detail below, at lower power levels the high-frequency current can be used to heat tissue through direct conduction, and at higher power levels can be used to form a plasma providing sufficient heat to ablate tissue. The present invention relates to improvements in such electrodes.
The electrosurgical electrode serves as one pole whereby a circuit is completed such that the high-frequency electrical current flows. In "monopolar" electrosurgery the return electrode is a patch placed elsewhere on the patient, so that the circuit is completed by energy being dissipated into the tissue and passing through the patch. In a "bipolar" electrosurgical device, the return electrode is placed in a separate location on the electrosurgical device. Energy leaving the electrode passes through fluids and/or tissue and returns to the return electrode on the electrosurgical device. The improved electrode of the present invention can be used in either monopolar or bipolar electrosurgery.
In both monopolar and bipolar electrosurgery, an electrode transfers energy to the surrounding fluid. The energy can be controlled to simply heat the adjacent tissue or to cut or ablate the tissue. Heating of the tissue is often done to facilitate coagulation, that is, to stop bleeding.
To ablate tissue, larger amounts of energy are applied to the electrode. The electrode generates enough heat to create gas bubbles around the electrode. The gas bubbles have a much higher resistance than tissue or saline solution, which causes the electrode voltage to increase. Given sufficient power the electrode discharges (i.e., an arc is formed). The high voltage current travels through the gas bubbles and creates a plasma discharge over the surface of the electrode. If the electrode is moved sufficiently close to tissue the plasma discharge is effective to ablate the tissue.
The contours and surface area of an electrode are important for controlling where arcing occurs on the electrode and how much power is required to cause a discharge. More specifically, arcing occures preferentially where current density is greatest in the electrode; in general, current density is maximized at sharp edges. Arcing, and thus the ability of the electrode to form an effective ablative tool, can be thus be encouraged by forming electrodes or electrode edges with small surface areas. Typically, sharp edges, that is, members of small surface areas where current density is concentrated, are created on the distal face of an electrode by forming grooves therein or assembling small-diameter wires to the body of the electrode so that the wires form edges of small surface area. See commonly-assigned U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,244,256 and 7,150,746 to the present inventors.
An important aspect of the design of an electrode for electrosurgery is that non-active surfaces must be electrically isolated from electrically conductive materials such as the saline solution on the exterior of the electrode, so that electrical conduction via these materials does not ground the circuit and prevent the electrode from delivering its current to the active surface. For example, wires or conducting materials that deliver current through the probe to the active surface need to be electrically isolated from the exterior of the probe, which can come into contact with body tissues during a procedure.
Much of the length of an electrosurgical probe is coated with an insulator or has lead wires that run inside insulated tubing. Near the active surface, however, insulating the electrodes becomes more difficult because of the extreme heat generated at the active surface. Many existing electrosurgical devices use an insulator such as a ceramic member to separate the active portion of the electrode from the remainder of the probe, both electrically and thermally. U.S. Pat. No. 7,244,256, to the present inventors and commonly assigned herewith, shows a preferred method of assembling an electrode to an electrosurgical probe using a ceramic insulating member; this technique can also be employed in manufacture of the improved electrode of the present invention.
It is also typical practice to construct the electrosurgical probe as a tubular member, so that a vacuum can be applied to the lumen of the probe to draw gasses, supplied fluid, ablated tissue, and other debris away from the surgical site. Typically the lumen communicates with the surgical site through an orifice in the electrode's active surface. In order that the ablated tissue and debris, which are typically entrained in a stream of saline solution provided for the purpose, are prevented from clogging the lumen of the probe, it is known to form the electrode's active surface such that the members providing the sharp edges that are preferred, as above, to ensure high current density are arranged to comprise a grate or filter. Larger particles of ablated tissue and debris are then caught on the active electrode surfaces of the filter and ablated into smaller particles, which can then be drawn past the active surfaces into the lumen.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,150,746, also to the present inventors and commonly assigned herewith, shows the formation of the active surface of the electrode as a series of parallel rails, with the lumen of the probe in communication with the area under the active surface. This patent also teaches the provision of a further active edge at the lower end of the electrode for further ablating tissue particles that have passed through the filter provided by the outer electrode edges, to further reduce clogging of the opening of the lumen.
Despite these refinements, clogging of the lumen still occurs from time to time. The present invention is directed to further improvements in design of the electrode of electrosurgical probes, so as to further reduce clogging of the lumen of the probe by ablated tissue and other debris.


A magenta toner for developing an electrostatic image composed of a binder and a colorant is disclosed. The toner contains a tone controlling agent having a peak of fluorescent spectrum from 380 to 500 nm. An image excellent in light fastness and durability can be obtained and high color reproducibility with sufficient transparency and chromaticness can be realized by the magenta toner.

Recently, color image printing is spread in the field of copying machines and printer and demand for high image quality is raised on the market.
Color toners to be used in the copying machines and printers are required to have not only high color reproducibility but also high reliability, concretely stable electrostatic chargeability for stably for forming image density without dependency on humidity; cf. JA-A H05-019536.
All colors can be principally reproduced by color mixing of the subtractive primaries of yellow, magenta and cyan. However, in the case of practically forming a color image by color toners each containing an organic pigment, the reproducible gamut of color capable of being reproduced is limited sometimes according to the spectrographic properties of the organic pigment dispersed in a binder resin and the color mixing ability when the different color toners are overlapped. Therefore, the color of the original image tends to be difficultly reproduced in the practical use; cf. JP-A H09-166889.
Additive color synthesis using three color primaries of red, green and blue is principally advantageous for extending the reproducible color range, and the reproducible color range by the electrophotographic printer is left within the range of printing standard of Japan Color as against the color range standard s-BGR for displays for personal computers relating to internet. Therefore, a problem is caused that the color range of the display cannot reproduced by the printer; cf. JP-A 2005-196018.
Moreover, JP-A 2005-221891 discloses a toner containing a near-infrared radiation absorbent and a fluorescent whitening agent. However, the object of this toner is to form an invisible image not affecting a visible image and not to improve the color reproducibility in the visible image.

Magenta toner for developing electrostatic image

Konica Minolta Business Technologies, Inc.


A simplified method is provided for recording identification information, such as a serial number or the like, in a hologram-recorded film simultaneously with hologram duplication. The method includes the steps of coupling a hologram recording film with a master hologram plate having a master hologram, the master hologram plate having a reflective area adjacent the master hologram; and directing laser beams towards the master hologram plate to induce interference between incident laser light and diffraction laser light from the master hologram in the recording film, at least some of the laser beams radiating the reflective area through a transmission type controllable display device to record a pattern in the hologram recording film corresponding to a pattern displayed at the transmission type controllable display device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hologram film and method for manufacturing the same, and more particularly, to a hologram film having identification information or the like thereon and a method for manufacturing the same.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Conventionally, in forming multiple duplicates of a master hologram on a recording tape (which is to be wound up on a roller, for example), each duplication has been performed by the steps of contacting the recording film with a master hologram plate and exposing it to laser radiation to induce interference between the incident laser light and diffraction light diffracted from the master plate in the corresponding region of the recording film. As a result, a plurality of duplicated holograms are formed in the recording tape at a fixed interval or at variable intervals. Such a hologram tape is utilized as is, or is cut out to produce separate hologram films each having one or more of duplicated holograms.
To identify or distinguish the duplicated hologram pattern, it is necessary to print identification information or the like, such as a serial number, identification pattern, etc., adjacent each hologram. To print such information on the hologram tape (or each of the separated hologram films), an additional printing process has been required in the conventional method.
Although Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 7-43077 describes a technique for recording additional holographic detection marks for the purpose of using in post-processing, if information specific to the individual hologram pattern, such as a serial number, identification pattern, etc., is to be printed adjacent the corresponding hologram pattern, it was unavoidable to have a separate printing or like process in addition to the hologram duplication process. Further, when such information is optically printed, a separate light source is necessary, as described in Japanese Patent Application No. 3-5555. Thus, the conventional method has drawbacks of a poor throughput and a higher cost due to complexities introduced by the additional step and equipment. Accordingly, it has been long desired to develop a simple and easily controllable method for printing such identification information on a hologram tape (or individual hologram film).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Hologram film having identification information recorded thereon and method for manufacturing the same


An apparatus for manipulating an audio signal comprising a transient event has a transient signal replacer configured to replace a transient signal portion, comprising the transient event of the audio signal, with a replacement signal portion adapted to signal energy characteristics of one or more transient signal portions of the audio signal, or to signal energy characteristics of the transient signal portion, to obtain a transient-reduced audio signal. The apparatus also has a signal processor configured to process the transient-reduced audio signal to obtain a processed version of the transient-reduced audio signal. The apparatus also has a transient-signal-re-inserter configured to combine the processed version of the transient-reduced audio signal with a transient signal representing, in an original or processed form, a transient content of the transient signal portion.

Embodiments according to the invention relate to an apparatus, a method and a computer program for manipulating an audio signal comprising a transient event.
In the following, typical application scenarios will be described, in which embodiments according to the invention may be applied.
In current audio signal processing systems, audio signals are often processed using digital techniques. Specific signal portions such as transients, for example, place special requirements upon digital signal processing.
Transient events (or "transients") are events in a signal during which the energy of the signal in the whole band or in a certain frequency range is rapidly changing, i.e., its energy is rapidly increasing or rapidly decreasing. Characteristic features of specific transients (transient events) can be found in the distribution of signal energy in the spectrum. Typically, the energy of the audio signal during a transient event is distributed over the whole frequency range, while in non-transient signal portions the energy is normally concentrated in a low frequency portion of the audio signal or in one or more specific bands. This means that a non-transient signal portion, which is also called a stationary or "tonal" signal portion, has a spectrum, which is non-flat. Also, the spectrum of the transient signal portion is typically chaotic and "non-predictable" (for example when knowing a spectrum of a signal portion preceding the transient signal portion). In other words, the energy of the signal is included in a comparatively small number of spectral lines or spectral bands, which are strongly emphasized over a noise floor of an audio signal. In a transient portion however, the energy of the audio signal will be distributed over many different frequency bands and, specifically, will be distributed in a high frequency portion so that a spectrum for the transient portion of the audio signal will be comparatively flat and will typically be flatter than a spectrum of a tonal portion of the audio signal. Nevertheless, it should be noted that there are other types of signals having a flat spectrum, like, for example, noise-like signals, which signals do not represent a transient. However, while spectral bins of noise-like signals have uncorrelated or weakly correlated phase values, there is often a very significant phase correlation of spectral bins in the presence of a transient.
Typically, a transient event is a strong change in a time domain representation of the audio signal, which means that the signal will include many higher frequency components when a Fourier decomposition is performed. An important feature of these many higher harmonics is that the phases of these higher harmonics are in a very specific mutual relationship, so that the superposition of all the harmonics will result in a rapid change of signal energy (when considered in the time domain). In other words, there exists a strong correlation across the spectrum in the proximity of a transient event. The specific phase situation among all harmonics can also be termed as a "vertical coherence". This "vertical coherence" is related to a time/frequency spectrogram representation of the signal where a horizontal direction corresponds to an evolution of the signal over time and where a vertical dimension describes the dependency over the frequency of the spectral components in a short-time spectrum over frequency.
If, for example, changes are performed over large time domains, e.g. by quantization, said changes will influence the entire block. Since transients are characterized by a short-term increase in energy, this energy will probably be smeared, when the block is changed, across the entire region represented by the block.
The problem becomes particularly evident also when the reproduction speed of a signal is changed while the pitch is maintained or when the signal is transposed while the original duration of the reproduction is maintained. Both may be accomplished using a phase vocoder or a method such as (P)SOLA (refer to references [A1] to [A4] regarding this issue). The latter is achieved by reproducing the stretched signal, accelerated by the factor of the time stretching. With time-discrete signal representation, this corresponds to downsampling the signal by the stretch factor while maintaining the sampling frequency. Methods of time stretching such as the phase vocoder are actually suited only for stationary or quasi-stationary signals, since transients are "smeared" in time by dispersion. The phase vocoder impairs the so-called vertical coherence properties (related to a time/frequency spectrogram representation) of the signal.
Time stretching of audio signals plays an important role in both, entertainment and arts. Common algorithms are based on overlap and add (OLA) techniques, such as the Phase Vocoder (PV), Synchronous Overlap Add (SOLA), Pitch Synchronous Overlap Add (PSOLA), and Waveform Similarity Overlap Add (WSOLA). While these algorithms are capable of changing the replay speed of audio signals while preserving their original pitch, transients are not well preserved. Time stretching of an audio signal without altering its pitch using OLA needs the separate processing of the transients and the sustained signal portions in order to avoid transient dispersion [B1] and time domain aliasing which often occurs with WSOLA and SOLA. A challenge is issued by the task to stretch a combination of a very tonal signal such as a pitch pipe and a percussive signal such as castanets.
In the following, reference will be made to some conventional approaches in order to provide the background of the present invention.
Some current methods stretch the time around the transients more intensely so as to have to perform no or only little time stretching over the duration of the transient (see, for example, references [5] to [8]).
The following articles and patents describe methods of time and/or pitch manipulation: [A1], [A2], [A3], [A4], [A5], [A6], [A7], [A8].
In [B2] a method is proposed that approximately preserves the envelope of a signal in the time stretched version as well as its spectral characteristics. This approach expects a time dilated percussive event to decay slower than the original.
Several widely known methods allow for a distinguished processing of transients and stationary signal components, for instance, the modelling of a signal as summation of sines, transients, and noise (S+T+N) [B4, B5]. In order to preserve transients after time scale modification, all three parts are stretched separately. This technique is capable of perfectly preserving transient components of audio signals. The resulting sound is, however, often perceived as unnatural.
Further approaches vary the amount of time stretching and set it to one during the transient time or lock the phase on the transient event [B3, B6, B7].
The paper [B8] demonstrates how transients can be preserved in time and frequency stretching with the PV. In that approach, transients were cut out from the signal before it was stretched. The removal of the transient parts resulted in gaps within the signal which were stretched by the PV process. After the stretching, the transients were re-added to the signal with a surrounding that fitted the stretched gaps.
In view of the above, there is a need for a concept of manipulating an audio signal comprising a transient event which provides for an output signal of improved perceived quality.

Apparatus, method and computer program for manipulating an audio signal comprising a transient event

Fraunhofer-Gesellschaft zur Foerderung der angewandten Forschung e.V.


Systems and methods are disclosed for reliably detecting gunfire in enclosed spaces having significant acoustic reverberation. Implementations are configured to quickly and reliably report the room or portion of a room where gunfire is located. Innovations herein may ensure low false alarm rate by thresholding, pattern recognition and/or detecting the muzzle optical flash. In some embodiments, a review center with trained personnel may evaluate the incident before reporting to local authorities. The indoor system can be incorporated into an outdoor gunshot location system to better protect a local area such as a campus or a transportation hub. Systems and methods herein may involve features and functionality associated with additional resources, such as intercoms, cellphones, and access control, to provide mitigation of harm in case of a shooting.

1. Field
Aspects of the present innovations pertain to the detection of indoor gunfire, including features relating to indoor and/or combined indoor and outdoor gunshot detection/location systems, and implementations herein may also involve features associated with the rapid dissemination of this information to at-risk persons, law enforcement, and/or alert facilities.
2. Description of Related Information
Existing systems for the detection of outdoor gunfire (e.g., ShotSpotter Gunshot Location Systems) have been utilized to the great benefit of law enforcement and the citizens they protect. The ShotSpotter systems enable police to respond quickly to the exact shooting location with foreknowledge of the number of shots and their sounds. This capability is a great improvement over merely using 911 calls, which typically report under 25% of the actual gunfire in a community, and then often the location is given only within a couple of blocks.

Systems and methods associated with detection of indoor gunfire


A cleaning system and method utilizing sonic whistle agitation to enhance the soil removal and mass transport capacity of the liquid carbon dioxide at low process temperatures. Sonic whistles are within a cleaning chamber, and liquid carbon dioxide is forced out of the sonic whistle jets to ultrasonically emulsify and disperse non-miscible liquids or insoluble solids, such as remove low solubility oils and greases, in the liquid carbon dioxide contained in the cleaning chamber. Cleaning is accomplished at temperatures between -68.degree. F. and 88.degree. F., and the temperature of the liquid carbon dioxide is typically below 32.degree. F.

The present invention relates generally to liquid carbon dioxide cleaning systems and methods, and more particularly, to the use of jet edge sonic generators to ultrasonically emulsify and disperse non-miscible liquids in liquid carbon dioxide solvent.
All cleaning and degreasing solvents currently used present health risks and are environmentally detrimental. For example, perchloroethylene is a suspected carcinogen, petroleum based solvents are flammable and smog producing, 1, 1, 1-trichloro-ethylene is known to deplete the earth's ozone layer and is scheduled for phase-out.
Liquid carbon dioxide is an inexpensive and unlimited natural resource, that is non-toxic, non-flammable, non-smog-producing or ozone-depleting. Liquid carbon dioxide does not damage fabrics, or dissolve common dyes, and exhibits solvating properties typical of hydrocarbon solvents. Its properties make it a good dry cleaning medium for fabrics and garments and industrial rags, as well as a good degreasing solvent for the removal of common oils and greases used in industrial processes.
One disadvantage of the liquid carbon dioxide as a degreasing solvent is its reduced solvating capability compared to the common degreasing solvents. This deficiency has usually been addressed by the use of chemical additives or co-solvents. These additives increase the cost of operation and must be separated out for disposal, as part of solvent reclamation processing, further increasing operating costs.
Accordingly, it is an objective of the present invention to provide for a liquid carbon dioxide cleaning system and method that uses jet edge sonic generators to ultrasonically emulsify and disperse non-miscible liquids in liquid carbon dioxide solvent.

Liquid carbon dioxide cleaning using jet edge sonic whistles at low temperature


A roof/wall structure includes a substantially rigid substrate and a waterproof membrane adhesively joined to an outer surface of the substrate. The membrane includes a layer of thermoplastic or elastomeric waterproof material, a layer of cushion material bound to an inner surface of the layer of waterproof material, and a pressure sensitive adhesive bound to a side of the layer of cushion material remote from the layer of waterproof material and bound to the substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is directed to a self-adhering membrane which may be applied to roof and/or wall structures, particularly "green" roof and plaza deck constructions, including planters, balconies, terraces, foundation walls, tunnel structures, and the like.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has become increasingly popular to provide new building and other constructions with green roofs, that is, roofs supporting earth, grass, and plantings, often with walk-ways and/or terraces. The roof decks frequently are made of structural concrete or metal decking covered with a rigid hardboard, sometimes metal-covered, and covered with a water-proof thermoplastic membrane applied to the outside surface of the concrete, rigid hardboard, or other substrate. Inasmuch as the membrane is typically of the type customarily used on conventional non-green rooftops, and having a thickness of about 60 or more mils, the membrane must be applied to a very smooth and clean concrete, rigid hardboard, or other rigid surface. Irregularities in the smoothness of the outside surface of the substrate can produce perforations and punctures in the membrane which breach the water-tight integrity of the membrane. The same problem applies to foundation walls, tunnel structures, and the like, of structural concrete or masonry.
In an effort to better absorb and conform to irregularities in the substrate surface, a layer of felt-like material has been used to form a cushion layer of sorts between the substrate surface and the waterproof membrane. However, it has been discovered that while perforations and punctures in the membrane are reduced, any that remain or occur allow water passing therethrough to flow into the felt-like material which acts like a wick and spreads the water out in directions not easy to determine. Because of lateral migration of the water, a leak in the membrane in a first area may make itself known in remote second areas. Determining the location of the leak into the underlying structure can be extremely difficult, expensive and time-consuming to accomplish, inasmuch as removal of the overburden is required to gain access to a breach in the membrane.
To overcome the above-noted problems, resort has been made to adhered liquid materials, such as hot rubberized asphalt (HRA), a system which, as the name implies, involves the laying down of HRA in the form of a hot liquid, usually of about 150-215 mils thickness. In such procedures, precautions must be taken with respect to workers inhaling fumes, handling hot kettles, and the hot asphalt. The odor and smell of asphalt tends to travel and irritate nearby site workers, building occupants and general public. Further, usually no portion of the area can be used during installation of HRA nor after installation until the HRA cools and solidifies.
Cold-applied liquid products are also used in such applications, best installed in thinner coatings of around 60 mils thickness. Such materials have fewer application issues inasmuch as they are applied at ambient temperatures, but often contain solvents which have odors and repugnant smells, or, when spray-applied, produce air-borne particulates that create a potential hazard for installers, site workers, and building occupants.
Thus, there is a need for an effective, efficient, less expensive, odor and solvent-free, and less hazardous material and method for laying a waterproofing membrane down over a structure that is subject to a wet or moist external environment.
Accordingly, an object of the invention is to provide a waterproofing membrane for application to a surface of a structure to provide waterproofing and moisture protection to the structure, and which does not provide a medium for lateral migration of water therethrough.
A further object of the invention is to provide a method for making a waterproof membrane for application to a surface of a structure.
A further object of the invention is to provide a roof/wall, foundation or tunnel structure providing watertight integrity.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a method for waterproofing a roof and/or a wall, foundation or tunnel structure.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a method for increasing puncture resistance of a thermoplastic or elastomeric membrane for use in water proofing subterranean structures and surfaces.


Inserter with a stuffing assembly for each time inserting a document into an envelope in the stuffing position. In the operating position, a document feeder or the exit for outputting finished mail items is situated at the front side of the housing, and the envelope holder is accessible exclusively from a rear side of the housing. The housing has at least one foot or feet for supporting the housing via the foot or feet with respect to a supporting surface on which the apparatus stands. The foot is or, respectively, feet are arranged for allowing the rotation of the housing between the operating position and a loading position while the housing rests on the supporting surface via the foot or feet, and for keeping the housing supported in said positions.

This invention relates to an inserter. Such apparatuses are known from practice and are typically used in mailrooms where large numbers of documents or sets of documents are each to be inserted in an envelope in order to send these documents to addressees.
However, also in small organizations that send relatively small numbers of documents, and where the documents to be sent are for a considerable part processed by hand also when being prepared prior to insertion, mechanized insertion could lead to considerable saving of labor. To be considered here are, for instance, medical practices, workshops and club administrations, as well as service companies taking care of sending smaller mailings for third parties. Accordingly, there is a need for inserters that are compact enough and simple enough to be attractive in cost price and complexity of operation for applications on a smaller scale than existing inserters.
Because of the contemplated compact structure of such inserters, there is relatively little space for the envelope hopper. In addition, a stack of envelopes, in particular in comparison with a stack of an equal number of unfolded documents, has a relatively large size. Hence, the number of envelopes that can be loaded into the envelope holder of a compact inserter is rather limited. As a consequence, the inserter will have to be loaded relatively often. Further, in the use of such compact inserters, a relatively large proportion of the documents to be processed consists of "daily mail", i.e. sets of documents that are manually assembled and per set are manually placed in the inserter. For this reason it is desirable that the inserter can be easily operated by a user seated at a workplace, for instance in that documents can be inputted from the front side and mail items come out of the machine at the front side. On the other hand, it is advantageous for a compact structure of the apparatus if the envelopes are loaded from the rear side, because the provisions for the supply of documents and the exit of mail items already occupy space at the front. Precisely with a view to compact inserters, however, loading envelopes from the rear side is disadvantageous since this needs to be done relatively often because of the relatively small capacity of the envelope holder.


A method of operating a particle beam microscope includes: directing a particle beam onto a sample and detecting particles emanating from the sample during a first period for generating an image of the sample; generating electrons having a first distribution of kinetic energies and directing these electrons onto the sample during a second period for reducing a charge of the sample being generated while the directing the particle beam onto the sample; and generating electrons having a second distribution of their kinetic energies and directing these electrons onto the sample during a third period for further reducing the charge of the sample being generated while the directing of the particle beam onto the sample. An average value of the kinetic energy of the first distribution of the kinetic energy is greater than an average value of the kinetic energy of the second distribution of kinetic energies.

While recording an image of a sample to be analyzed using a particle beam microscope, a primary particle beam generated by the particle beam microscope is directed onto predetermined locations of the sample to be analyzed and secondary particles, such as secondary electrons, dislodged from the sample due to interaction of the primary particle beam with the sample are detected in order to obtain information about the location of the sample onto which the particle beam is directed. The intensities of secondary particles detected at a plurality of locations on the sample onto which the particle beam is directed represent an image of the sample to be analyzed. For this, the primary particle beam hitting the sample and the secondary particles dislodged from the sample alter the state of charge of the sample, in particular on its surface, so that a positive or negative charge of the sample may be generated. This charge of the sample alters, on the one hand, the impinging energy of the primary particle beam and the rate at which the secondary particles may reach a detector for their detection. Therefore, the intensity of detected secondary particles does not merely change in dependence of the location onto which the primary particle beam is directed onto the sample but also in dependence of the time during which the analysis is performed.
For this reason, particle beam microscopes conventionally include apparatuses in order to reduce a charge of the sample generated during the analysis. Such an apparatus is, for example, an electron beam source which directs an electron beam different from the primary particle beam onto the sample wherein the electron beam has an adjustable kinetic energy. In dependence of this kinetic energy positive or negative electric charge can be deposited onto the sample as the electrons hitting the sample there generate secondary electrons emanating from the sample; and the rate of generation of the secondary electrons is energy-dependent.
It has been found that the conventional method of reducing a charge of the sample using electron beams often does not provide a satisfactory reduction of the charge of the sample.

Method of operating a particle beam microscope and a particle beam microscope