The present invention relates to apparatus, systems and methods for loading moonclips. Specifically, the present invention provides apparatus, systems and methods that provide for the automatic loading of moonclips with rounds, to be used with handguns having revolver cylinders. More specifically, the present invention provides apparatus, systems and methods that allow for quick, easy and efficient loading of moonclips by holding a moonclip and pressing a round into a round receiving receptacle of the moonclip.

It is, of course, generally known to utilize revolvers as handguns for shooting, whether for sport, hunting, protection, military purposes, or the like. Indeed, the revolver cylinder handgun has been in use since about 1818, when the first revolver cylinder handgun was invented by Elisha Collier, and has been improved upon ever since. The first cartridge revolvers were made in 1856 by Smith & Wesson as a "revolving gun," which has been shortened to, simply, "revolver."
The revolver, in operation, works, generally, as follows: as the user cocks a hammer, a cylinder revolves to align a chamber and round with the hammer and the barrel of the gun. The hammer-cocking occurs either directly (via the shooter pulling it back) or indirectly (via the first portion of the trigger pull in double-action revolvers). In modern revolvers, the revolving cylinder typically chambers five or six rounds, but some models may hold 10 rounds or more. Although most revolvers are handguns, other firearms may also have revolving cylinders, such as rifles.
The moonclip is a device that allows for relatively easy loading of rounds into and unloading of spent casings out from the revolving cylinders of revolvers. Indeed, to typically load a revolving cylinder with rounds, the cylinder is typically rotated out of alignment from the firing pin and the barrel exposing the chambers within which the rounds are placed. Each round may be placed individually into each of the exposed chambers. Upon filling, the cylinder is rotated back in alignment with the firing pin and the barrel. The revolver is then typically ready for discharge. The moonclip was developed to hold all of the rounds that may be added to a cylinder of a revolver as one complete unit. Moonclips may either hold an entire cylinder's worth of cartridges together (full moon clip), half a cylinder (half-moon clip), or just two neighboring cartridges.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art round or cartridge 10 that may be fired from a revolver or other firearm. The round or cartridge 10 may include a casing 12 filling with propellant (not shown), and a bullet 14. At the base of the round may be a primer (not shown) that may be struck by a hammer of a gun to ignite the propellant, thereby forcefully expelling the bullet from the casing. The casing may further have a groove 16 running the circumference of the casing that may aid the casing in loading the round or cartridge 10 into a chamber of a revolver.
FIG. 2 illustrates a prior art moonclip 20. The moonclip 20 may be a roughly circular metal frame 22 having a plurality of round receiving receptacles 24 for holding the rounds on the moonclip 20. The round receiving receptacles 24 hold the rounds by engaging with the groove 16 (as illustrated in FIG. 1). FIG. 3 shows the moonclip 20 partially filled with a plurality of rounds. Two of the round receiving receptacles are unfilled. Thus, the moonclip 20, when fully filled with rounds, may be inserted into the cylinder of the revolver, as illustrated in FIG. 4. The cylinder may then be closed, with the moonclip holding the rounds within the chambers of the cylinder. The revolver may then be ready for discharging the bullets therefrom. In general, moonclips may have open berths for a plurality of rounds or cartridges, and the number of spaces for holding rounds or cartridges is dependent on the number of chambers of the firearm for holding the rounds. For example, moonclips may be utilized for 5-shot firearms, 6-short firearms, or any other number apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art. Moreover, while moonclips are typically know for engaging the groove at the base of a round or cartridges, moonclips may also be used with so-called "rimfire cartridges"—those lacking a groove for engaging a moonclip, such as, for example, the 0.22 long rifle.
Moonclips aid in helping users of the revolver load the cylinder with rounds. The military first required moonclips to hold rimless 45 ACP cartridges, or rounds, in the Model 1917 revolver. Over time, the moonclips fell out of favor until Smith & Wesson, in the 1970s and 1980s, introduced the Model 625 45 ACP revolver. This revolver became very popular and in a few years several new shooting sports were born based on the revolver, specifically combat shooting, action shooting and bowling pin shooting. Each of these sports requires that the competitor make reloads during the course of fire. Thus, moonclips became necessary to easily, quickly and efficiently reload the revolvers.
In practice, the moonclips operate by allowing the entirety of rounds that may fill a cylinder to be added to the cylinder at the same time as one unit, saving significant time. Moreover, all of the spent casings may be removed when the cylinder is fully discharged, again saving significant time in emptying the cylinder of the casings.
While the speed and ease of loading and emptying of rounds and casings into and out from the cylinder may be significantly increased, the moonclips themselves must be loaded. However, it is often difficult and time-consuming to load the moonclips and thereby ready the moonclips for use in the revolver.
Moonclip tools are known to aid in the loading of rounds onto moonclips for their use in revolvers. Various types of moonclip tools are known. Examples of moonclip tools include the "Moonsetter™", a tool generally in the shape of pliers having an arbor on one jaw and a holder for a round on the other. The Moonsetter™ is difficult to operate: a user must balance a round on the one jaw, and manually position the moonclip on the other to receive the round.
Another moonclip tool, marketed as "The Original Moonclip Tool" utilizes a base having a movable arbor and a spring-loaded lever with notches therein. The moonclip may be placed on the arbor and a round may be placed in position between the lever and the moonclip. The moonclip is typically disposed so that a small space is provided between the round receiving receptacles of the moonclip and the base. Therefore, when a round is disposed into a round receiving receptacle, as disclosed below, the round receiving receptacle of the moonclip tool may be in the proper position to receive the groove of the casing of the round.
A round receiving receptacle of the moonclip is then manually rotated to align with the round, and the spring-loaded lever is moved to push the round into the round receiving receptacle of the moonclip. As noted above, the moonclip may be disposed at the proper position for the round receiving receptacle to engage the groove of the round, firmly holding the round in place within the round receiving receptacle.
Another moonclip tool is known as the "Remooner™", which provides a platform for holding a moonclip on an arbor, and a trigger for pushing rounds onto a moonclip. However, the Remooner™ does not provide the leverage necessary for generating the sufficient force required to clip rounds onto certain moonclips, such as 45 ACP or other like rounds, since pushing a round onto a moonclip is merely limited to an user's hand strength as the user squeezes the Remooner™. Moreover, the Remooner™ is awkward to handle and utilize, since the moonclips and rounds must be placed in a rear position on the apparatus. Finally, the Remooner™ is not ergonomic in that an individual must hold the apparatus at an awkward angle, creating tension in the hands and wrist and decreasing the force from the hands as a user utilizes the apparatus.
It can be difficult to utilize existing moonclip tools to load rounds into a moonclip. Specifically, to properly hold most existing moonclip tools, one must typically tilt the moonclip tool on its side and manually place a round for receipt in alignment with the round receiving receptacle of the moonclip. By tilting the moonclip tool, the round itself may be difficult to align, and if not held properly, the round may fall off the moonclip tool before being received by the moonclip.
A need, therefore, exists for apparatus, systems and methods for loading rounds to moonclips. Specifically, a need exists for apparatus, systems and methods for quickly, easily and efficiently clipping rounds onto a moonclip so that the same may be used for loading into a revolver.
Moreover, a need exists for apparatus, systems and methods for loading rounds to moonclips that provides stability for the moonclips and the rounds added thereto. Moreover, a need exists for apparatus, systems and methods for loading rounds to moonclips that allows rounds to be easily aligned and pushed onto the moonclips.
Further, a need exists for apparatus, systems and methods for loading rounds to moonclips that offers significant automation so that a user may easily accomplish the loading of the moonclips. Still further, a need exists for apparatus, systems and methods for loading rounds to moonclips that allows automatic advancement and alignment of the rounds as each round is loaded onto a moonclip.

Apparatus, systems and methods for loading moonclips


A clock has a solid state memory or other storage medium containing many messages, each of which preferably is appropriate to a particular date, time of day, week, season, etc. The clock is self-contained, without connection to any network for message content. In setting the clock the user can choose that a message be selected by the internal microprocessor at the appointed time. A specific embodiment is a clock radio which can be set for alarm, radio programming and/or day-specific message. The stored messages are presented in verbal form for the user, via digital storage or voice synthesizer. In specific forms the clock or clock radio contains messages relating to similar dates in history, horoscopes based on the user's birth date, anonymous-type programs, or other messages that have appropriate content for a particular time or date.

This invention concerns clocks that present messages, and in specific forms of the invention, clocks, especially clock radios, that present verbal messages to wake up a person with a daily horoscope specific to the person and date, or with a message regarding an important event in history that occurred on the same date.
A previous patent of the inventor herein, U.S. Pat. No. 6,222,796, described an astrological wristwatch that stored horoscopes for up to one year and which would receive inputs of the user's birth date and time. A computer chip in the watch would select an appropriate horoscope that correlates to the current date and the user's time and date of birth, causing it to be shown on a liquid crystal display. This written display was called up when desired by the user's pressing a button on the watch.
The computer chip of the above described device, contained in the watch but replaceable, was specific to only one sign of the zodiac. On the display case of the watch was a zodiac month sign appropriate to the user.
In addition, the following patents have some relevance to the subject matter of the invention: U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,750,505, 4,583,864, 4,659,231, 4,711,583, 4,712,923, 4,759,002, 4,766,579, 5,023,849, 5,208,790, 6,580,663, 6,791,904, and published Application No. 2005/001,3198.
The Herron '904 patent listed above describes a network, which includes the Internet and a number of servers, connecting ultimately through switching devices to a series of clock radio devices which have two-way communication with audio content servers. The user is enabled to select information to be presented via the clock radio, and the patent states this information could be entertainment, jokes, horoscope, etc.
The present invention avoids the elaborate interactive network described in the Herron patent and provides a self-contained apparatus capable of presenting messages verbally and in a cost-efficient manner.


Disclosed herein, among other things, are methods and apparatuses for integration of hearing aids with an MSD to improve intelligibility in noisy environments. One aspect of the present subject matter relates to a method of providing voice audio to a hearing aid or text in a hearing aid user's field of view, where the voice audio or text corresponds to a speaker of interest within a noisy environment, and where the speaker of interest is identified using smart glasses. An MSD graphical user interface is provided for a hearing aid user to identify a speaker of interest. The lip movement patterns of the speaker of interest are recorded by the smart glasses, and voice activity detection is performed on the lip movement patterns. Noise reduction is performed using the results of the voice activity detection. The noise-reduced voice audio may be transmitted to the hearing aid, or the speech recognition text may be transmitted to and displayed on the MSD.

Modern "smart glasses" or augmented reality multisensory display devices (MSDs), such as Google Glass, may provide visual and auditory information to the wearer of the device beyond what they normally would see or hear without the device. MSDs may refer to any device that provides a heads-up display (e.g., a display in the current field of view) of visual information from an MSD or other computing device. MSDs may also provide the capability to recognize input speech. The speech recognition capability may be built-in, or may be enabled by sending and receiving recorded audio or speech recognition results to or from a network (e.g., the internet, the "cloud") or another computing device. In various MSDs, the sensory information provided to the wearer of the device includes an augmentation of the environment around the wearer (visually or aurally displaying identification of objects around the wearer after object identification, such as a user's name when the face is identified). In various examples, the sensory information may be unrelated to the environment, such as providing an incoming text message visually or aurally. In various applications, combinations of sensory information augmenting the wearer's environment and sensory information unrelated to the environment are provided to the wearer.
Modern hearing assistance devices, such as hearing aids, typically include digital electronics to enhance the wearer's listening experience. Hearing aids are electronic instruments worn in or around the ear that compensate for hearing losses by specially amplifying sound. Hearing aids use transducer and electro-mechanical components that are connected via wires to the hearing aid circuitry.
Hearing aid users often find it difficult to understand speech in noisy conditions. Speech understanding in noisy conditions may be improved by providing the ability to replay audio from the last few seconds of speech. However, in such a case, the repeated speech might overlap with ongoing live speech. This problem with overlapping speech can be avoided by running a live speech recognizer on all speech around the hearing aid user (either all the time, or on-demand) and displaying the text on a screen such as that of a smartphone. However, this would require the user to look continuously at the phone's screen to read the recognition result.
What is needed in the art is an improved system for isolating the desired speaker's sound and displaying speech recognition output corresponding to the desired speaker's speech in noisy environments.

Integration of hearing aids with smart glasses to improve intelligibility in noise


A data re-transmission management scheme capable of improving the communication efficiency. In a data re-transmission from a server to a plurality of terminals through a communication network, any abnormal terminal including a busy terminal and/or a poor performance terminal among the plurality of terminals is detected, and each abnormal terminal is managed separately from other normal terminals, at the server. A management of data transmission and re-transmission from the server to the normal terminals is carried out first, and then a management of a re-transmission of only unreceived data of each abnormal terminal from the server to each abnormal terminal is carried out, after a completion of the data transmission and re-transmission with respect to the normal terminals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data re-transmission management scheme in which a server carries out a data transmission with respect to a plurality of terminals such as a multicast communication, and a data re-transmission with respect to terminals in a case of a loss or error of the received data at terminals.
2. Description of the Background Art
In general, in a multicast communication in which a server transmits data with respect to a plurality of terminals, the server of the transmitting side divides a series of data into data of appropriate sizes (called packets) and transmits the packets to the terminals. Each terminal then returns a positive acknowledge (ACK) for a normal receiving or a negative acknowledge (NACK) indicating information on unreceived data to the server, and the server carries out the data re-transmission with respect to a plurality of terminals again according to the returned acknowledges.
FIG. 1 shows a procedure of the data re-transmission to a plurality of terminals according to a conventional management scheme. In this conventional procedure of FIG. 1, the server transmits all the transmission data with respect to a plurality of terminals first. Then, each terminal returns an acknowledge (ACK/NACK) to the server, and the server generates the re-transmission data according to the returned acknowledges and carries out the data re-transmission. This operation is repeated subsequently.
FIG. 1 shows an exemplary case of the data transmission from the server 1100 to three terminals 13001, 1300-2 and 1300-3. In response, the acknowledge for a normal receiving (ACK) or for a abnormal receiving (NACK) is returned from each terminal. In this example, only the terminal 1300-1 returned ACK as a result of this data transmission, so that the server 1100 generates the re-transmission data and carries out the data re-transmission with respect to the terminals 1300-2 and 1300-3 next. In this example, only the terminal 1300-2 returned ACK as a result of this data re-transmission, so that the server 1100 generates the re-transmission data and carries out the data re-transmission with respect to the terminal 1300-3 again.
On the other hand, in a case of the one-to-one communication, there is a conventional data transmission management scheme in which a terminal transmits a busy notification to the server when this terminal becomes temporarily busy, so as to request the interruption of the data transmission to this busy terminal, and this terminal transmits a busy cancelled notification to the server when this terminal becomes free.
FIG. 2 shows a procedure of this conventional data transmission management scheme using a busy notification in the one-to-one communication. In this conventional procedure of FIG. 2, when a busy notification from a terminal which became temporarily busy is received by the server during the data transmission, the server interrupts the data transmission to this terminal, and the server resumes the data transmission after a busy cancelled notification is received from this terminal.
FIG. 2 shows an exemplary case in which the server 1100 transmits data to the terminal 1300 while the terminal 1300 is temporarily busy. In this case, when the server 1100 transmits data, the busy notification is issued from the terminal 1300, so that the server 1100 interrupts the data transmission upon receiving this busy notification. Then, when the terminal 1300 becomes free, the terminal 1300 transmits the busy cancelled notification to the server 1100. Upon receiving this busy cancelled notification, it becomes possible for the server 1100 to resume the data transmission to the terminal 1300.
However, when these two conventional management schemes described above are used in combination, there arises a problem in that, when the server receives the busy notification from one terminal, if the server is carrying out a unified state management for this one terminal and for the other normal terminals, the data transmission or re-transmission with respect to the other normal terminals which are not busy would also be interrupted when the data transmission or re-transmission with respect to that one terminal is interrupted in response to the busy notification, so that the efficiency of the entire data communication would be lowered considerably. On the other hand, under the same circumstance, if the communication with respect to that one terminal is taken out from the state management, there would be a need to carry out the re-transmission with respect to that one terminal from the beginning, including even those data which were already received, so that the communication efficiency with respect to that one terminal would be lowered considerably.
In addition, in the former one of the two conventional management schemes described above, if a certain terminal with a poor data receiving state is treated equally as all the other normal terminals, there is a problem in that, because of the poor receiving performance of this certain terminal, the data communication efficiency with respect to all the terminals would be lowered by the need of the acknowledge processing or the acknowledge waiting for this certain terminal. On the other hand, under the same circumstance, if the communication with respect to that certain terminal is taken out from the state management, there would be a need to carry out the re-transmission with respect to that certain terminal from the beginning, including even those data which were already received, so that the communication efficiency with respect to that certain terminal would be lowered considerably.
Note that the problems described above are prominent in a case of the data transmission using the multicast communication in which the server transmits data with respect to a plurality of terminals by a single transmission processing.

Data re-transmission management scheme with improved communication efficiency


A combustion state detector apparatus for an internal combustion engine has a current detection device for detecting a current flowing between the ignition plug and a ground, and an ignition driving device for driving the ignition plug on the basis of an ignition instruction signal from an electronic control device of the internal combustion engine. An independent unit including a current detection device and an ignition driving device, is provided for each cylinder of the internal combustion engine. With respect to each cylinder, the apparatus determines whether a misfire has occurred on the basis of the current flowing between the ignition plug and the ground at the time of combustion. The apparatus is also capable of detecting abnormalities and/or wire breakages in a signal system provided for signal transmission between each independent unit and the electronic control device of the internal combustion engine.

Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 4-148074 and 4-148076 describes an ignition coil, an ion current detector unit and a switching element integrated into a single unit for all the cylinders of an internal combustion engine so as to achieve a compact construction and reduce the number of component parts required, thereby improving reliability. Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4-148076 describes a detecting device and a switching device integrated into a single unit for each cylinder of an internal combustion engine so as to achieve a compact construction and reduce the number of component parts required, thereby improving reliability.
In the detection of a misfire in an internal combustion engine, a typical diagnostic system outputs a misfire diagnostic signal and turns on a misfire diagnostic lamp. However, since the misfire diagnostic lamp can be turned on due to various factors, it is difficult to identify the cause of a misfire diagnosis even when the diagnostic lamp is tuned on. For example, when the misfire diagnostic lamp is turned on due to a connector contact failure, the cause is difficult to identify if the connector contact failure is one that has a low reproducibility. In the technology described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 4-148074, since various components are integrated into a single misfire detection unit for all the cylinders, it is difficult to determine which cylinder is experiencing the misfire. Therefore, the entire misfire detection unit for all the cylinders needs to be replaced. Moreover, this technology is unable to detect a wire breakage or a connector contact failure. The technology described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 4-148076 is able to check component parts separately for each cylinder when a misfire is detected, but is not able to detect a wire breakage or a connector contact failure.

Combustion state detector apparatus for an internal combustion engine


The application relates to methods for producing a polycarbonate resin having a narrowed molecular weight distribution, specifically, the application relates to the use of a redistribution catalyst and a feedback loop control mechanism to prepare narrow molecular weight distribution resin.

Polycarbonates are a particularly useful class of polymers because they have exceptionally high impact resistance and ductility. Also, polycarbonates can be made with high optical clarity. Some common uses of polycarbonates include transparent window glazing and optical media applications (e.g., the CD, DVD, CD-RW and other formats).
The present invention relates to particular polycarbonates, efficient processes for manufacturing and distributing polycarbonates, articles made from polycarbonates, and methods for making polycarbonate articles.
Polycarbonates are desirable materials for a wide variety of end use applications including window glazing, optical media, automotive parts, building materials, packaging, and many others. Each of these end use applications has slightly different requirements, and it is desirable to customize the properties of polycarbonates to match the differing demands of particular end use applications. For example, it is desirable to use polycarbonate having a relatively low melt flow index (i.e., high viscosity) to make polycarbonate sheet for glazing applications because polycarbonate sheet is most economically produced by extrusion operations which are not compatible with low viscosity materials. In contrast, it is better to use high melt flow index (i.e., low viscosity) polycarbonate to make complicated parts by injection molding because it is easier to ensure that a lower viscosity material will completely fill a mold cavity having a complicated shape with small openings.
To meet requirements of diverse applications, manufacturers have typically run alternating manufacturing xe2x80x9ccampaignsxe2x80x9d of polycarbonate resins. Specifically, manufacturers typically produce a large selection of polycarbonates having differing melt flow indices by varying polymerization conditions (e.g., time, temperature, etc.) to produce materials having differing average molecular weights. This process is expensive because it requires delay when switching between melt flow index (hereinafter xe2x80x9cMFIxe2x80x9d) set points, and in continuous processes produces large quantities of off-specification material during the switch. There has long been a desire to eliminate this costly switching step while maintaining the flexibility to deliver a variety of customized polycarbonate grades.
It is known that certain xe2x80x9credistribution catalystsxe2x80x9d may be used to promote chemical reactions which cut apart polycarbonate molecules. Examples of suitable redistribution catalysts are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,567,802, 5,886,073, 5,459,226, and 5,141,057. These catalysts offer the ability to reduce the average molecular weight of polycarbonate, thereby raising the average MFI of the polycarbonate. However, certain of these catalysts may be too active to allow fine control of MFI. Also, the mere addition of a fixed amount of a redistribution catalyst to a source stream of polycarbonate would not necessarily make the MFI more homogenous throughout a large campaign because prior to addition of the catalyst, the stream of polycarbonate may have substantial MFI variation.
Further difficulties in manufacturing commercially useful polycarbonate products are encountered when attempting to produce large quantities of polycarbonate having both a consistent average MFI and a narrow distribution of MFI. In conventional manufacturing operations, large quantities of polycarbonate may be blended to obtain a homogeneous batch where the average MFI does not vary greatly. However, this technique is cumbersome, expensive and may still result in a product having a wide distribution of MFI. This wide MFI distribution is undesirable because it produces variability which causes problems with long term consistency when processing the resin into finished articles. For example, resins with wide MFI distributions are more likely to cause errors when injection molding because the plasticizing time of the resin is less predictable. Also, the peak injection pressure variability in injection molding operations may be higher than expected for such resins. Alternatively, the manufacturer may simply ship polycarbonate having a wider specification. This solution is also undesirable because drift of the mean MFI within a wide specification may require constant readjustment of injection molding and other fabrication operations. The assignee of the present application has endeavored to make higher quality polycarbonate by reducing MFI variability in its commercial polycarbonate products, allowing more precise tuning and less adjustment of molding parameters.
The present invention provides a method for producing a redistributed resin having a narrowed molecular weight distribution. According to this method, a source polycarbonate resin is fed into an extruder together with a redistribution catalyst for said resin, and a feedback loop control mechanism is used to adjust a result effective parameter (i.e., a parameter that will effect the MFI of the redistributed resin). Typical result effective parameters include the feeding rate of a redistribution catalyst, the temperature of the extruder, the operation speed of the extruder, the feeding rate of a co-reactant, the feeding rate of a quenching agent, the feeding ratio of the redistribution catalyst and combinations thereof.
The present invention also provides a method for producing a redistributed thermoplastic resin which comprises feeding a resin and a redistribution catalyst for said resin into an extruder, measuring the current melt temperature, comparing the melt temperature with a set point melt temperature to determine a temperature differential, and adjusting a result effective parameter in response to the temperature differential. It is further possible to instead measure the viscosity, compare the viscosity with a set point viscosity to determine a viscosity differential, and adjust the result effective parameter in response to said viscosity differential. It is also possible to measure both the temperature and viscosity, and to set the set point temperature or the set point viscosity based on the viscosity differential or the temperature differential, respectively.
In another aspect, the invention relates to a redistributed polycarbonate resin produced by the process described herein.
In yet another aspect, the invention relates to an improved method for injection molding which comprises injection molding a redistributed polycarbonate resin produced by the process described herein.
The present invention further relates to optical media, such as CD""s, DVD""s, CD-RW""s and future commercial formats which comprise a redistributed polycarbonate resin produced by the process described herein.
The invention further relates to a method for producing a redistributed resin having a narrowed MFI distribution, which method comprises extruding a polycarbonate source resin together with a redistribution catalyst for said resin while using a feedback loop control mechanism to adjust addition of said redistribution catalyst.
In another aspect, the invention relates to a method for minimizing the amount of off-specification polycarbonate produced by a polycarbonate plant. According to this method, a master grade of polycarbonate is produced at a manufacturing facility. The master grade is then transported to a redistribution facility which may or may not be in a different geographic location. At the redistribution facility, the master grade is extruded together with a redistribution catalyst.


In an approach to improve asynchronous replication in database clusters embodiments retain committed transactions during database cluster replication. Embodiments build and run asynchronous replication logic using database nodes running as one or more standalone nodes, wherein the asynchronous replication logic is responsible for data replication from a primary database node to one or more secondary database nodes. Embodiments register a replication reader to a sender node to replicate journal logs and replay the journal logs on the one or more secondary database nodes. Further, embodiments monitor replication lag metrics from the sender node and notify a replication source and a replication target of a generated replication plan, wherein the cluster controller instructs the replication source and the replication target to be ready to initiate the replication plan. Additionally, embodiments adjust a replication plan to allow the asynchronous replication logic to catch up and complete uncommitted transactions.

The present invention relates generally to the field of database cluster replication, and more particularly to preventing the loss of committed transactions in asynchronous replication in database clusters.
Database replication can be used on many database management systems (DBMS), usually with a primary-secondary relationship between the original and the copies. In multi-primary replication, updates can be submitted to any database node, and then ripple through to other servers. Most synchronous replication solutions perform conflict prevention, while asynchronous solutions perform conflict resolution. For instance, if the same record is changed on two nodes simultaneously, a synchronous replication system would detect the conflict before confirming the commit and abort one of the transactions. An asynchronous replication system would allow both transactions to commit and run a conflict resolution during re-synchronization. The resolution of such a conflict may be based on a timestamp of the transaction, on the hierarchy of the origin nodes or on much more complex logic, which decides consistently across all nodes.
Database replication becomes more complex when it scales up horizontally and vertically. Horizontal scale-up has more data replicas, while vertical scale-up has data replicas located at greater physical distances. Problems raised by horizontal scale-up can be alleviated by a multi-layer, multi-view access protocol. The early problems of vertical scale-up have largely been addressed by improving Internet reliability and performance. When data is replicated between database servers, so that the information remains consistent throughout the database system and users are unaware which server in the DBMS they are using, the system is said to exhibit replication transparency. In asynchronous replication, the write operation is considered complete as soon as local storage acknowledges it. Remote storage is updated with a small lag. Performance is greatly increased, but in case of a local storage failure, the remote storage is not guaranteed to have the current copy of data (the most recent data may be lost).

Retaining committed transactions during database cluster replication

International Business Machines Corporation


An image area of a main scanning line is segmented into a plurality of regions, with a first image being formed that has a first number of pixels in each of the plurality of regions, and a second image being formed that has a second number of pixels in each of the plurality of regions that differs from the first number of pixels. A scaling factor of an image in each of the plurality of regions is derived thereafter, in accordance with a difference in size between the first image and the second image in each region, and a differential between the first number of pixels and the second number of pixels. A determination is made with respect to a number of pixels to be either added to, or subtracted from, each of the plurality of regions, in accordance with a total number of correction pixels in order to adjust the size of the image of the main scanning line, and the scaling factor. The image data of each of the plurality of regions is corrected in accordance with the determined number of pixels in each region.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus and a control method thereof, which, as an instance, generate an image data that is printed with an electrophotographic printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent times, a rapid adoption of color printing on the part of inkjet printers has been followed by a similar shift from black-and-white to color on the part of electrophotographic printer apparatuses, that is, copying machines or printers.
In general, electrophotographic printer apparatuses can be divided into two major types: a single drum type and a tandem type. A printer of the single drum type comprises a plurality of color developers in a periphery of an image carrier, that is, a photosensitive drum, wherein each respective developer supplies a toner of each respective color to form a color composite toner image upon the image carrier, and a color image is formed upon a sheet by transferring the color composite toner image. A printer of the tandem type, conversely, forms a toner image of a single color upon each of a plurality of image carriers, that is, photosensitive drums, that are installed in a side-by-side arrangement, and forms the color composite toner image upon the sheet that is conveyed by transferring each respective single color toner image upon the sheet in a sequence.
A comparison of the single drum type and the tandem type of printers reveals that the single drum type of printer has an advantage over the tandem type of printer, in that an image forming unit of the single type of printer can be made smaller, and is less expensive, than the tandem type of printer, owing to the fact that the single drum type of printer includes a single image carrier. On the other hand, the single drum type of printer is not suited to increasing performance speed, owing, again, to the fact that it employs the single image carrier to form the color image by repeating the image formation over a plurality of iterations. Conversely, while the tandem type of printer is inferior to the single drum type of printer with regard to the miniaturization and cost aspects, it is suited to increasing performance speed, owing to the fact that it is capable of performing the image forming independently for each respective color, and thus, it is possible to form the image in a single pass. Accordingly, in recent times, the tandem type of printer has attracted considerable attention with respect to the color printer, because it is possible to obtain an image forming speed thereby that is on a par with an image forming speed of a black-and-white printer.
With respect to the tandem type of printer, the color image is formed with the plurality of image carriers and a plurality of lasers, and it is accordingly desirable for a distance from each laser light source to each image carrier to be an equal distance in each instance. In actuality, however, a discrepancy in the scale between respective images that are formed thereby may arise as a result of such as a discrepancy in the distance from each respective laser light source to each respective corresponding image carrier, which may not be constant in every instance because of such as a mounting tolerance of each respective unit, or a discrepancy in the wavelength of each respective laser.
Conventionally, in order to compensate for the scaling discrepancy thereof, a method has been proposed that corrects a location of a lens of a laser optic system, or that varies a drive frequency of the laser. Furthermore, in recent times, a method has been proposed that corrects the discrepancy in the scale between each respective image by expanding or reducing the image by either introducing a pixel (hereinafter "supplemental pixel") to the image, or deleting a pixel from the image, such as is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 3,539,283.
With respect to a conventional tandem type of printer, the discrepancy in the distance from each respective laser light source to each respective corresponding image carrier is large, and as a consequence, the method is employed therein of corrects the location of the lens of the laser optic system, or that varies the drive frequency of the laser.
Such correction, however, employs an optical element such as an f-θ lens that is located between each respective laser light source and each respective corresponding image carrier, which, in addition, must be controlled with a high degree of precision. As a consequence, complex configuration and control are required, resulting in a comparatively more costly configuration.
Such as a dedicated LSI chip is also required when modulating the frequency, in which instance the cost would also increase.
In addition, Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2000-238342 proposes another method for scale correction, wherein the scale correction is performed by introducing a blank pixel within one line of image data, in order to lengthen an image. Furthermore, in recent time, a printer is conceived of wherein the scale correction of an image is performed by segmenting a pixel of image data, and either inserting a segmented pixel (supplemental pixel) into the pixel, or else deleting a segmented pixel from the pixel.
When performing the scale correction by way of either such technique, however, the correction thereof extends only to the correction of the single line as a whole, in the main scanning direction, and does not take into account a lengthening or a contraction of the image in each respective region within the single line thereof, which may result from such as an optical characteristic thereof. As a consequence, a problem occurs wherein a degradation of the image may arise, owing to the lengthening or the contraction of the image in each respective region within the single line thereof.

Image processing apparatus and control method thereof


A sportsboard having an ergonomic upper surface. The upper surface of the sportsboard includes at least one upwardly angled portion with respect to a center of the sportsboard adapted to contact the extremities of a rider, e.g., the feet, boots and/or bindings. Preferably, the angle is between about 1xc2x0 and 20xc2x0, more preferably between about 4xc2x0 and 14xc2x0, and most preferably between 5xc2x0 and 12xc2x0. The angle preferably accounts for an amount of flex in the sportsboard when ridden, and thus may be, e.g., more preferably in a range of between about 4xc2x0 and 7xc2x0 in a flexible sportsboard. The extremity contacting sections may be laterally arcuate, may be laterally rotated, and/or may be tilted about a lengthwise axis of the sportsboard. In another aspect, to reduce stiffness in the sportsboard, a plurality of grooves are formed widthwise across the sportsboard, particularly across thicker portions of the sportsboard, to reduce the compression forces necessary to bend the sportsboard in a lengthwise direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of sporting equipment. More particularly, it relates to a sportsboard used in an upright standing or kneeling position which has an ergonomic upper surface that reduces strain and wear on human joints.
2. Background of Related Art
Various types of sports requiring a sportsboard have become popular. These sports are performed by riding different types of sportsboards on various types of ridden medium, e.g., water, pavement or snow.
For instance, surfboards and wakeboards have become popular sportsboards for use on water. Surfboards are ridden on water by planting a rider""s bare feet at two points on the upper surface of the surfboard, with the feet typically placed non-parallel to the length of the surfboard. Wakeboards are towed behind a boat, with a rider kneeling or standing on an upper surface of the wakeboard. Skateboards have become popular sportsboards for use on pavement. Skateboards are ridden by planting a rider""s feet (typically wearing sneakers or other street footwear) at two points on the upper surface of the skateboard, the feet being typically placed non-parallel to the length of the skateboard.
Moreover, on snow, snowboards have become particularly popular, by some estimates soon to be more popular than skis. Snowboarding is performed on snow covered slopes which were typically originally designed to accommodate skiers. As is well known, each foot of a skier is mounted with a binding to a respective ski, the feet being mounted parallel to the length of the skis.
Although both skiing and snowboarding are performed on snow, snowboarding differs significantly from skiing in that rather than having separate sportsboards (i.e., skis) for each foot, only a single sportsboard is used. In a typical snowboard mounting configuration, both feet of the snowboarder are fixedly mounted with a binding to the single sportsboard, one in front of the other, and transversely or at an angle to the length of the snowboard. Also, unlike skiing, no poles are used in snowboarding.
There are two prevalent types of snowboard mounting techniques in use today: strap bindings and step-in bindings. Strap bindings allow a user of the snowboard to wear relatively soft boots, which are mounted at a non-parallel angle to the length of the snowboard. The tops of the soft boots and often the upper portions are strapped or clamped onto the snowboard. Step-in bindings are attached to the snowboard at or near the soles of a stiffer boots. Step-in bindings provide added convenience to the user over strap bindings, but come at the cost of less comfortable boots and differing contact pressures between the snowboard and the user""s feet.
Use of safety release bindings is usually unnecessary with snowboards, unlike with skis. When a skier falls, each foot has a separate elongated lever attached to it (i.e., a ski) which is capable of applying tremendous torsional force to the skier""s ankles or knees. Thus, safety release bindings are a requirement for skis to protect against serious injury to the skier""s ankles and knees. On the other hand, since a snowboarder has both feet attached to a single lever or sportsboard (i.e., a snowboard), the twisting force resulting from a fall is exerted on the torso, not necessarily the ankles or knees. The torso of the human body is much more capable of withstanding the forces resulting from a fall without serious injury.
FIG. 20 shows a conventional upright standing position of a user on a sportsboard, e.g., a snowboard.
In particular, in FIG. 20, the left foot 1102 and right foot 1104 of a user are mounted transversely or otherwise at a non-parallel angle to the length of the sportsboard 1100. The user may typically place or mount their left and right feet 1102, 1104 at any position along the upper surface 1110 of the sportsboard. However, if the left and right feet 1102, 1104 are rested or mounted directly below the hips 1112, 1114, poor control of the sportsboard 1100 would result. Conversely, if the left and right feet 1102, 1104 are rested or mounted at too wide a distance apart on the upper surface of the sportsboard 1100, although greater control of the sportsboard 1100 may result, a greater amount of strain may be placed on the human body. For instance, the ankles and knees may be over-strained in maintaining an upright position of the human body, and too large a torque may be required to turn the lager radius formed by the wide distance between the left and right feet 1102, 1104. Thus, a balance is usually made for lateral stability between the amount of control provided by separated placement of the left and right feet 1102, 1104 on the sportsboard, and the strain on the human body, particularly the ankles, knees and torso, based on the feel of the particular rider. Accordingly, a snowboarder is typically forced to assume a wider stance, creating a severe shear effect in the ankle joints of the rider, a loss of aligned momentum to the bindings, asymmetric muscle stress, and generally excessive wear on the joints of the extremity.
Human feet do not generally have strong muscle structure to provide a large amount of lateral strength. To compensate for this, most riders over-use or over-stress the side of the leg muscles, e.g., the tibialis anterior, extensor digitorium longus, peroneus longus, and/or the peroneus previs. For instance, in the now well known talus fracture particularly frequent among snowboarders, some of these muscles as well as the attached ligaments are often damaged.
Although snowboards were largely inspired by water surfboards, the riding characteristics differ greatly, mostly because snowboarders must wear boots while water surfboarders often go barefoot. Thus, the rider of a surfboard has unlimited ankle movement to maintain his or her balance on the surfboard while riding waves, while the ankles of the rider of a snowboard are restricted somewhat by the boots which must be worn, and thus movements of the sportsboard are performed by movement of other elements of the human body. Furthermore, the acceleration and deceleration forces encountered by a snowboarder are typically greater than those encountered by a water surfboarder. Nevertheless, the present invention provides improvements to any type of sportsboard ridden in an upright position, including snowboards and surfboards.
While the popularity of snowboarding and other upright sportsboard type sports has increased sharply over the last few years, various so-called wear-type of injuries have developed. Indeed, the type of stance used by upright users such as snowboarders combined with the types of forces that are exerted during practice of the relevant sport tend to cause accelerated wear on joints such as the hip joints, the knee joints and the ankles of the snowboarder.
As shown in FIG. 20, conventional sportsboard construction includes a relatively flat upper surface 1110 on which the feet 1102, 1104 of the user are rested or mounted during a normal riding stance. It has been discovered by the present inventor that this relatively flat riding surface proves to be a disadvantage in conventional sportsboards.
For instance, when in an upright position on a sportsboard, ground reaction forces are directed upwards against the planter aspect of both feet and maintain the plane equilibrium and stability of the lower extremities and pelvis. With a single sportsboard, equal ground reaction forces are exerted on the lateral and medial planter surfaces of both feet. However, when the trunk is rotated relative to the feet (as is often the case in snowboarding), the reactional forces and the equilibrium are both modified.
For instance, when the trunk is rotated to the right, the right foot supinates and the left foot pronates. The right forefoot inverts from the ground and vertical ground reaction forces are greater against the lateral side of the forefoot and less against the medial side of the forefoot. The left forefoot remains flat on the ground and vertical ground reaction forces are distributed evenly against the forefoot. Conversely, when the trunk is rotated to the left, ground reaction exerts unusual forces against the left forefoot and even forces against the right forefoot.
These type of normal ergonomic reactions of the human body are satisfactory for situations wherein a given individual rests on a static structure. However, when a given individual is subjected to acceleration and deceleration forces, it is recognized by the present inventor that the combination of the reaction forces can lead to accelerated wear on various joints of the human body by using a sportsboard with a relatively flat upper surface. Furthermore, not only is excess wear placed on various joints of the human body, but the control forces generated by the various body parts of the rider to control the sportsboard may not be optimized for the type of movements required, e.g., during riding of a snowboard.
Attempts have been made in the past in the design of, e.g., snowboards, to reduce the wear on various body parts. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,172,924 issued to Robert S. Barci on Dec. 22, 1992 (hereinafter xe2x80x9cthe ""924 patentxe2x80x9d) discloses a snowboard binding system using wedge-shaped base members inserted between the upper surface of the snowboard and the lower surface of the rider""s boots. The upper surface of each wedge-shaped base member supports the sole of a boot.
Although the wedge-shaped base member provides a more ergonomic connection between the rider""s feet and the sportsboard, the binding system disclosed in the ""924 patent has several disadvantages. For example, the wedge-shaped base members separates the rider""s feet from the upper surface of the sportsboard and thus adds increased height to the center of gravity of the intended user. The separation of the feet from the upper surface of the sportsboard and the increased center of gravity both degrade control of the sportsboard. Moreover, the physical separation between the soles of the boots and the upper surface of the sportsboard reduces the transmission of some sensorial information from the sportsboard to the feet of the rider when riding on a medium such as snow or water. Furthermore, the wedge-shaped base member creates concentrated areas of stress on the sportsboard that may eventually lead to damage and/or breakage of the sportsboard at or near the point of contact between the wedge-shaped base members and the upper surface of the sportsboard.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an improved sportsboard which reduces wear on a rider, provides accurate control between the rider and the upper surface of the sportsboard, and which provides the necessary sensorial information from the sportsboard to the rider.
In accordance with the principles of the present invention, an ergonomic sportsboard comprises a lower surface for contacting a medium to be ridden. An upper surface of the ergonomic sportsboard has a first extremity contacting section and a second extremity contacting section. The first extremity contacting section is adapted to receive a first extremity of a rider in a riding position, and the second extremity contacting section is adapted to receive a second extremity of the rider in the riding position. At least one of the first extremity contacting section and the second extremity contacting section form an upward angle of between 1xc2x0 and 2xc2x0.
In another aspect of the present invention particularly relating to a sportsboard for riding on snow, a snowboard comprises a lower surface adapted for contact with snow when the snowboard is ridden. The snowboard also includes an ergonomic upper surface. The ergonomic upper surface includes at least one upwardly angled extremity contacting section corresponding to a generally unstrained extremity of a rider in a riding position.
A method of providing an ergonomic sportsboard in accordance with the principles of the present invention comprises providing a sportsboard with a lower surface adapted for contact with a medium to be ridden. An upper surface is provided on the sportsboard. The upper surface includes at least one upwardly angled extremity contacting section adapted to receive a corresponding extremity of a rider in a riding position. The extremity contacting section forms an angle of between about 1xc2x0 and 2xc2x0.


To determine origin-destination (OD) data for a transportation system, a processor may receiving passenger statistics collected from a set of data collection devices deployed throughout the transportation system. The processor developing a model representing passenger usage of a portion of the transportation system. The model comprises nodes that each represent a geographical area of the transportation network, and links that represent transportation routes that connect two nodes. The system determines link utilization rates for each of the links by applying the passenger statistics to the model, and it generates an observation report comprising an origin-destination matrix for at least the portion of the transportation system so that the origin-destination matrix comprises the determined link utilization rates.

The present disclosure relates to analyzing and providing a graphical representation of data for a transportation system, such as a public bus, train or plane system. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to analyzing and providing a graphical representation of origin-destination data for a transportation system indicative of user flow throughout the transportation system.
For a typical public transportation company, the process of determining what combination of resources should be allocated to a particular route can be very challenging. Transportation service operators want to ensure that vehicles and personnel are deployed in an efficient manner that maximizes their use while avoiding overcapacity situations. Design challenges arise from the inherent variability in a transportation system, such as demand for transit, operator performance, traffic, weather, road construction, crashes, and other unavoidable or unforeseen events. Transportation companies desire a complete understanding of operational parameters of the transportation system, such as passenger flow rates, and balancing those parameters with adequate service levels, e.g., having enough vehicles on the correct routes at the correct times to handle anticipated passenger flow.

Origin-destination estimation system for a transportation system


A train rail track structure system includes a c-face down steel channel cross tie defining a plurality of holes in a top wider web surface thereof and a protrusion with perpendicular faces extending from an underside of the top surface, the holes configured to pass a fixative and solidifying mixture into a ballast bed there beneath. The protrusion anchors the steel channel cross tie in the fixative and solidifying mixture and the ballast bed. The disclosed system also includes a c-face down steel channel connecting link defining a receptacle for at least one intermediate rail support member in a top wider web surface thereof. The link also defines tabs and notches proximal to both longitudinal ends of the steel channel connecting link configured to interleave with at least one steel channel cross tie and interlock the steel channel connecting link to the steel channel cross tie.

Conventional train rail track structures are typically comprised of approximately 6 or more major components: (1) the steel rail, (2) the tie plate or "chair" that the rail sits on, (3) the railroad cross tie or "sleeper" to which two tie plates are affixed, (4) the fasteners that secure the rail to the tie plate and tie plate to the cross tie, (5) a means for adjoining consecutive lengths of rail sections and (6) the foundation or bed of ballast rock in which the cross ties are located and the track system is held in place.
In North America wood is the predominant cross tie material used in track structures. It is first treated with a preservative such as creosote, then field assembled with the rail via a metal tie plate and screw or spike fasteners through the tie plate into the wood. The list of problems with wood cross ties include splitting or cracking along the grain lines, spikes coming loose or working out from the tie plates, insect degradation, weather degradation, leaching of toxic chemicals into the ground water, air pollution when incinerated, loose tie plates that can result in rail gauge changes, shifting in the ballast bed under side loads, not being strong or stiff enough for high speed use and floating or being washed away when submerged by flooding waters.
Even with these operational problems, the wooden railroad cross tie still holds a dominant market share of about 90 percent in America. The remaining market share is comprised of precast concrete ties with a steel tie plate or chair cast into the upper surface of the cross tie, extruded or molded plastic ties with the metal tie plates being spiked or screwed into the plastic during field installation and the least common being stamped or forged steel ties with means for attaching the rail directly to the metal cross tie without the use of additional tie plates being screwed onto the steel cross tie.
Concrete is the second most common cross tie material in North America. Concrete cross ties are more prevalent in Europe and in high-speed passenger applications throughout the world. Concrete tie systems typically use over-center tension clips, such as made by the firm Pandrol, for affixing the rail to the molded-in metal tie plate on the upper surface of the concrete tie. Also, there are limited examples of the rail track structure being a monolithic concrete bed that uses no sleepers or ties whatsoever. These sleeperless or slab style installations are used for very high speed and tunnel applications where maintenance is difficult to perform or where thermal stresses from significant temperature variations are less prevalent. Concrete sleeper and slab style track systems are significantly more expensive to install than wooden tie systems but carry the expectations of increased safety and lower lifecycle costs relative to wooden tie systems. Concrete track structure and concrete cross ties have demonstrated less than expected life cycle duration with problems such as rail seat deterioration, cracking from cyclical or impact loads, surface water retention and freeze-thaw spalling.
Plastic or composite is the third most common cross tie material in North America. They are typically more expensive than wood and about the same or slightly higher in price than concrete. Plastic cross ties are difficult to manufacture in high volumes, have problems with surface cracking, have less resistance to side shifting than wood or concrete, are more flexible than wood, not as strong as wood or concrete and not desirable for high speed passenger service.
The predominant means for affixing consecutive sections of steel rail is butt-welding them together for a connected length being as much as a kilometer or longer. The single piece of welded rail is then installed onto the tie plates and independent cross ties. Continuous Welded Rail (aka CWR) or ribbon rail can be stronger than sectioned rail and can be less maintenance intensive. CWR is different than the historic method, which had a mechanical joint at every rail section. It is the steel wheels of the train cars rolling over the gaps in the section joints that result in the signature "clickity-clack" sound familiar to train transportation in the past.
There is an intrinsic and serious problem with CWR that does not occur with sectioned rail that uses conventional expansion joints. Steel rail expands in length when it is heated and contracts in length when cooled. This thermal expansion or contraction can be significant enough to cause rail track failure in hot conditions by twisting out of shape (aka sun kinks) and even snap in cold conditions (aka pull-a-parts). The thermal coefficient of expansion for steel is 0.00000645 inches of expansion/contraction per inch of length per degree of temperature change in Fahrenheit. For a one mile section of track and a 100-degree temperature variation the change in length for an unrestrained section of track is approximately 40.6 inches. It is possible for many rail track sections in the American Midwest to experience a 200-degree temperature variation over a 12-month period, due to the deep sub-zero F ambient winter temperatures and the elevated ambient summer temperatures plus radiant heat absorption from direct sunlight.
To avoid temperature related shifting of the track bed, physical distortion of the rail and interrupted service or derailment, it is preferred for CWR to be laid on concrete sleepers. The extraordinary weight of the concrete sleeper can be useful in holding the rail in place against the thermally induced stresses. CWR is frequently installed on wooden tie track systems, which creates persistent maintenance activity in anticipation of rail movement. During the hot summer months, train rail is routinely cut to relieve the built up stress and then re-welded. During the winter period the track has to be heated in order for pull-a-parts to be mended by re-welding. When new track is laid or whole sections replaced, it is usually heated to an estimated neutral temperature for that locale. This pre-heating technique attempts to minimize the expected repair work. The unsolved problem of thermal stresses in CWR systems requires persistent, ongoing repair. It is common practice for inspectors to walk or ride the track systems and physically examine the rail when the weather conditions warrant.
The rock ballast in the track bed has a tendency to settle and subside due to use over time, weathering effects, thermally induced loads and lateral forces on the as trains go through curve sections. All three primary railroad ties (concrete, wood and plastic) typically have a nominally rectangular, solid cross section. Maintenance of the ballast rock bed and keeping up the edges or shoulders of the ballast bed on the outside of the ends of the ties is vital. When the forces horizontal and perpendicular to the steel rail occur, it is the friction force due to the weight of tie and track plus any resistance by ballast rocks outside the tie ends that resists shifting. Since current sleeper designs are nominally rectangular and solid in cross-section, correcting subsidence of the ballast rock bed at the rail bed shoulder and keeping the ballast rock bed intact is an important maintenance function.
Concrete ties are considerably more expensive than wood, do not co-mingled with other tie types and more commonly found in new construction. Concrete ties, due to their weight, require different equipment for handling and installation than regular wood or plastic molded ties. Concrete ties are susceptible to stress cracking from the wheel loads moving across the tie and often have cushioning pads between the metal rail seat and the bottom of the steel rail. Concrete ties are steel reinforced to absorb the tension or bending loads that can occur on the ties. Concrete ties do not absorb vibrations as well as other ties. Concrete ties can have accelerated failure due to incorrect cement recipes, insufficient curing time or environmental degradation. Concrete ties do not attenuate the wheel to rail noise as well as wood or plastic.
Plastic cross ties are more expensive than wood and not readily available in large quantities. Plastic ties are more likely than concrete or wood to shift from side loads due to a lower weight and low relative coefficient of friction with the rock ballast.
Wood cross ties are the least expensive but have the shortest expected life cycle before needing replacement. Wood ties are more subject to weather related degradation. In certain locations like Africa wood ties cannot be used due to rapid destruction from insects like termites. Wood ties are more likely to release the spike or screws that hold the rail to the tie plate and thus subject to vandalism. The toxic preservatives used to extend the life of wood ties leach out over time and contaminate the environment.
The thermally induced stress in steel rail is a universal problem and well understood. Expensive and elaborate expansion joints with special clips like the Pandrol Zero Longitudinal Restraint can be currently found in the more vulnerable and valuable track sections of high-speed passenger lines, such as bridges, tunnels and curves. Full resolution of the thermal stress problem can be accomplished by the frequent use of expansion joints along the full track length. Utilizing current design expansion joints would greatly increase the installed costs of the already expensive concrete tie track systems. Increased cost is the primary barrier to solving this thermal expansion problem.


A nozzle assembly with a nozzle body cooperating with a flexible portion, the nozzle assembly also contains a throttle plate, and this combination is used to mitigate pressure variations transmitted to the nozzle assembly. The combination results in a more uniform liquid deposition during continuous liquid printing.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a printing apparatus for depositing a liquid composition on a surface. In particular, depositing of a liquid composition containing an organic semiconductor material on an backplane. More particularly, a nozzle assembly having a throttling plate and variable accumulation volume to mitigate pressure variations arriving at the inlet to the nozzle assembly. The mitigation of pressure variations results in improved print quality and performance of the organic semiconductor material in an electronic device.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electronic device can include a liquid crystal display ("LCD"), an organic light-emitting diode (OLED) display, or the like. The manufacture of electronic devices may be performed using solution deposition techniques. One process of making electronic devices is to deposit organic layers over a substrate by printing (e.g., ink-jet printing, continuous printing, etc.). In a printing process, the liquid composition being printed includes an organic material in a solution, dispersion, emulsion, or suspension with an organic solvent, with an aqueous solvent, or with a combination of solvents. After printing, the solvent(s) is(are) evaporated and the organic material remains to form an organic layer for the electronic device.
OLED devices utilizing one or more layers of organic semiconductor materials laminated between other supporting layers and sandwiched by two electrodes are used in many different kinds of electronic equipment.
Each organic semiconductor material is carried in a liquid composition. During manufacture of a device each liquid composition is dispensed from a dedicated nozzle assembly. The nozzle assemblies are grouped in nozzle sets, with one nozzle in each set dispensing a particular color of ink. Each nozzle assembly dispenses liquid and deposits that liquid along a longitudinal lane that extends across a backplane of the device. The nozzle assemblies in each set continuously dispense a liquid composition into a respective lane. The nozzle assemblies can be located within a printhead, and the printhead travels in a linear path in a first or forward direction, in addition to a second or reverse direction, while printing the liquid composition on the backplane.
The individual nozzle assemblies for each particular color in each nozzle assembly set are supplied as a group from a common manifold itself supplied from a suitable liquid composition supply source, or supply reservoir. The supply reservoir for each particular color is usually implemented as a communal reservoir. The supply reservoir may either directly hold a supply of liquid for the nozzle assemblies, or may hold a secondary container, such as a sealed pouch containing the particular colored liquid composition.
Liquid printing can be conducted in either non-continuous or continuous operation as disclosed in the prior art. Any pressure pulses in a non-continuous system are isolated from the dispensing of the liquid composition. One example of non-continuous liquid printing would be ink-jet printing where discreet droplets of liquid are ejected from a nozzle. Localized impulse to produce the liquid droplet is distinct and segregated from the liquid supply source, manifold, and feed tube. The arrangement in a continuous printing method does not enjoy the isolation of pressure pulses of the ink-jet printer.
Within the continuous printers, one option to eliminate or mitigate pressure pulses acting on the liquid composition is to arrange a stationary printer and move the target substrate upon which the liquid composition is deposited. Another option is to locate the manifold in close proximity to the nozzle to minimize pressure pulses traveling along the feed tube. For a moving printhead one solution has been to supply a length of tubing, having a first diameter, to act as a capacitive element to slow the liquid composition before entering the printhead. Another solution is to supply an additional length of tubing, having a second diameter, between the supply of tubing and the printhead, where the second diameter is less than the first diameter. The first length of tubing acting in a capacitive fashion while additional length of tubing acts in a resistive fashion, hence, the fluidic equivalent of an CP (Capacitive-Resistive) electronic circuit.
However, the above solutions have not met the required level of printing uniformity required for organic electronic devices. In particular, the pressure variations continue to plague the printing operations by causing at least one type of non-uniformity referred to as stitching, where heavier and lighter print deposition on the intended deposition surface result in ultimate degradation of final organic electronic devices.
In view of the foregoing it is believed additional improvement is required to improve organic electronic devices.

Pressure wave damper apparatus for continuous liquid printing


Systems, method, and devices are disclosed that involve reconfiguring lumens or unblocking lumens relative to a blockage to maintain flow of reduced pressure to a subcutaneous tissue site. In one instance, a multi-lumen applicator includes an applicator body having a distal end and a proximal end and formed with a plurality of apertures for receiving fluid from the tissue site and for delivering reduced pressure, a first lumen fluidly coupled to the plurality of apertures, a first activation member having at least a closed position and a open position, and a second lumen fluidly coupled to the plurality of apertures but for the first activation member being in closed position. The configuration is such that when the first activation member is moved to the open position, the second lumen is fluidly coupled to the plurality of apertures. Other systems, methods, and devices are disclosed.

Clinical studies and practice have shown that providing a reduced pressure in proximity to a tissue site augments and accelerates the growth of new tissue at the tissue site. The applications of this phenomenon are numerous, but application of reduced pressure has been particularly successful in treating wounds. This treatment (frequently referred to in the medical community as "negative pressure wound therapy," "reduced pressure therapy," or "vacuum therapy")provides a number of benefits, which may include faster healing and increased formulation of granulation tissue. Typically, when applied to open wounds, reduced pressure is applied to tissue through a porous pad or other manifold device. The porous pad contains cells or pores that are capable of distributing reduced pressure to the tissue and channeling fluids that are drawn from the tissue. When applied subcutaneously, often the reduced pressure is delivered through a manifold that includes channels and openings in a reduced-pressure delivery apparatus.

Systems and methods for subcutaneous administration of reduced pressure employing reconfigurable lumens


Disclosed are an organic anti-reflective coating composition which is introduced to top portion of a photoresist and a pattern forming method using the same, in a process for forming ultra-fine patterns of photoresist for photolithography by using 193 nm ArF or 157 nm VUV light source, and more particularly to, an organic anti-reflective coating composition which can protect photoresist from atmospheric amine to minimize a post exposure delay effect, and minimize pattern distortion caused by diffused reflection, i.e., a swing phenomenon, with the improvement of a notching phenomenon and the reduction of reflection rate, and a patterning forming method using the same.

1. Technical Field
An organic anti-reflective coating composition is disclosed which is introduced to the top portion of a photoresist and a pattern forming method using the same is disclosed, in a process for forming ultra-fine patterns of photoresist for photolithography by using 193 nm ArF or 157 nm VUV light source. More particularly, an organic anti-reflective coating composition is disclosed which can protect a photoresist by atomspheric amines to minimize the post exposure delay effect, and minimize pattern distortion caused by diffused reflection, i.e., a swing phenomenon, with the improvement of a notching phenomenon and the reduction of the reflection rate, and a patterning forming method using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a fabrication process of ultrafine patterns for preparing semiconductor devices, standing waves and reflective notching inevitably occur due to the optical properties of lower film layer on the photoresist film and due to the thickness changes in the photosensitive film. In addition, there is another problem in that a CD (critical dimension) alteration is caused by diffracted and reflected light from the lower film layers. Thus, it has been suggested to introduce anti-reflective coating that prevents back reflection at a lower film layer between a lower film and a photoresist by introducing organic material with high absorbance at a wavelength range of the light employed as a light source. Especially, when exposed to UV light from the light source, a thin photoresist film is transmitted by the UV light, thus allowing the light absorbed in bottom portion of the thin film to be scattered and/or reflected. Such anti-reflective coating can absorb the scattered and/or reflected light and, thereby, directly affecting the fine processing of the photoresist.
However, as the patterns are becoming extremely ultra-fine along with the reduction of semiconductor devices to less than 90 nm, it is difficult to completely prevent pattern alteration or distortion generated due to diffused reflection only by the above anti-reflective coating, that is, a bottom anti-reflective coating (hereinafter referred to as BARC) introduced between the bottom film layer and the photoresist. Therefore, it requires an improved anti-reflective coating material to be applied on top portion of the photoresist or a method for forming the pattern due to the above problem, which can greatly reduce and/or minimize the pattern distortion caused by the diffused reflection.
In processes for forming ultrafine patterns by using a light source with a wavelength of 157 nm, mostly used is a compound containing fluorine as a photosensitive agent. Such fluorine based photosensitive compound has a problem that it is contaminated by amine compounds among the atmosphere, since carbon-fluorine bond in the photosensitive compound may form a strong hydrogen bond with the nitrogen-hydrogen bond in the amine compound.
In particular, during the patterning process, a time delay effect for further process after exposure, a so-called post exposure delay effect, occurs and enlarges the contamination problem concerning the fluorine based photosensitive compound by atmospheric amine compounds such as ammonia. Therefore, a strong demand recently exists for novel anti-reflective coating material to be introduced onto the top portion of the photoresist or patterning process to minimize the contamination of photoresist film due to the post exposure delay.
Accordingly, due to such problems in the conventional art, there is a continuous demand for a novel additional anti-reflective coating material which can minimize contamination of the photoresist film caused by atmospheric amine compounds even when it generates a post exposure delay while having no adverse effect on the formation of patterns by exposure and development processes, in addition to, which can further reduce alteration or distortion of the pattern caused by the diffused reflection as the anti-reflective coating material is applied together with the conventional anti-reflective coating typically introduced on bottom portion of the photoresist, and a method for forming a pattern by employing such an anti-reflective coating material.

Organic anti-reflective coating composition and pattern forming method using the same


Methods and apparatus are disclosed to broadcast advanced television system committee (ATSC) video in switched digital video (SDV) systems. An example SDV broadcast method includes configuring a de-multiplexer to de-multiplex at least one of the plurality of MPTSs into a plurality of program streams, the at least one of the plurality of program streams comprising a first program stream and a second program stream, wherein the first program stream is selected and the second program stream is excluded based on a rating region table (RRT), independent of any user provided program stream request, and independent of any contractual commitment associated with any user. The example method includes configuring a switch to deliver the first program stream to an SDV broadcast engine.

The amplitude modulated (AM)-vestigial sidebands (VSB) 6 Megahertz (MHz) television (TV) broadcast system only supports one standard definition video channel plus a pair of stereo audio channels and two auxiliary audio channels. In 1995, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) adopted the Advanced Television System Committee (ATSC) broadcast standards for digital TV (DTV) (e.g., A/53B, A/65B, A/90, etc.). With support of motion picture experts group (MPEG) multiple program transport streams (MPTSs), the ATSC DTV standards include dynamic support for and transport of one or more program streams (e.g., each containing video plus audio) within a single 6 MHz broadcast channel. For example, a broadcaster may simultaneously provide a football game, a local news program, and weather information within a single MPTS. The ATSC DTV standards support an effective payload of approximately 19.3 Megabits per second (Mbps) for a terrestrial 6 MHz broadcast channel or approximately 38 Mbps for a 6 MHz cable broadcast channel.
FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of an example prior art transmitter 100 for the prior art ATSC DTV broadcast system. A plurality of application encoders 105 principally perform data compression and encoding for a plurality of sources 110 (e.g. video, audio, data, etc.) to reduce the number of bits required to represent the sources 110. For example, the ATSC DTV system uses MPEG-2 compression for video sources and the ATSC compression standard (AC-3) for audio sources. A plurality of outputs 115 (i.e., program streams) of the application encoders 105 are provided to a transport packetizer and multiplexer (TPM) 120 that divides each of the program streams 115 into packets of information (including the addition of uniquely identifying information) and multiplexes the plurality of packetized program streams 115 into a single MPTS 125. The TPM 120 also receives, packetizes, and multiplexes program and system information protocol (PSIP) information 127 into the MPTS 125. Finally, a modulator 130 uses the MPTS 125 to modulate a carrier to create a radio frequency (RF) transmission 135. The modulator 130 uses either 8-VSB or 16-VSB. Example implementations of the application encoders 105, the TPM 120, and the modulator 130 are well known to persons of ordinary skill in the art, and, thus, will not be discussed further.
The PSIP information 127 (as defined in ATSC standard A/65A) is a small collection of hierarchically arranged tables designed to operate within every MPTS to describe the programs carried within the MPTS. There are two main categories of PSIP information 127: system information and program data. System information allows navigation and access of the channels (i.e., program streams) within the MPTS, and program data provides necessary information for efficient selection of programs. Some tables announce future programs, and some are used to logically locate current program streams that make up the MPTS.
FIG. 2 is an example set of PSIP information tables 200 illustrating the relationships between the various tables. The master guide table (MGT) 205 provides indexing information for the other tables. It also defines table sizes necessary for memory allocation during decoding, defines version numbers to identify those tables that are new or need updating, and generates the packet identifiers (PID) that label the tables. For example, MGT 205 entry 207 points to the zeroth (i.e., original) version of a ratings region table (RRT) 210. The RRT 210 is designed to transmit the ratings system in use for each country. For example, in the United States the RRT 210 represents the television parental guidelines (TVPG), more commonly referred to as the "V-chip" system. A system time table (STT) 215 is a small data structure that serves as a reference for time of day functions, e.g., to manage scheduled events, display time-of-day, etc.
A virtual channel table (VCT) 220 contains a list of all the channels that are or will be active, plus their attributes, e.g., channel name and number. Event information tables 225a-b describe the program(s) for a time interval of three hours. There may be up to 128 EITs, EIT-0 through EIT-127, allowing for up to 16 days of programming to be advertised in advance.
Example implementations of generating PSIP information, PSIP tables, PSIP packets, and decoding PSIP information and tables are well known to persons of ordinary skill in the art and, in the interest of brevity, will not be discussed further.
FIG. 3 further illustrates information contained in the VCT 220. In the example table, Short Name is typically displayed in the upper corner of a TV screen to identify a channel and Type indicates the type of channel. Major Channel indicates a 6 MHz RF broadcast channel, with Minor Channel indicating sub channels. Source ID provides a PID within a MPTS, and Extended Names are typically displayed in an electronic program guide (EPG). The VCT 220 facilitates selection and location of programs by a receiver or a user of a set-top box or television. The VCT 220 can be updated in real-time so that situations like over-time (OT) in sporting events can be supported in addition to the regularly scheduled programs, reducing the number of times that programs are "joined in progress."
FIG. 4 illustrates an example portion of a programming line-up transported in a MPTS showing how bandwidth of the MPTS could be utilized to support multiple simultaneous programs. The example of FIG. 4 conveys several points:
1. Bandwidth requirements are dynamic. In the case of nondeterministic programs, like sports, an allocation may change on a moment by moment basis.
2. The number of programming streams will change as programming options change.
3. The UT vs. A&M OT situation underscores the dynamic nature of the MPTS.
4. Services such as Weather Graphics, Text and other low bit rate services may also be supported.
5. Names of channels may change as the programming line up changes.
The PSIP tables provide the necessary information so that an EPG can be created and/or updated, but also so that a receiver can locate, select and display programs. There are several subtle differences that exist between the PSIP protocols for terrestrial broadcast and the cable multiple service operator's PSIP. These slight differences are standardized, well understood by those of ordinary skill in the art, and, will not be discussed further. However, a device supporting both terrestrial and cable broadcasts, must support both forms of PSIP information.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods and apparatus to broadcast advanced television system committee video in switched digital video systems