A multilayer, metallizable, white opaque film suitable for use in forming metallized plastic labels for bottles and other containers includes at least a internal core layer and opposed outer skin layers. One of the outer skin layers is a non-voided layer having a surface treated to receive a metal layer thereon and the opposed outer skin layer includes an amount of a void creating additive to provide sufficient porosity for the absorption of an aqueous cold glue adhesive of the type employed to adhere a label to a container. Preferably the core layer is free of void creating additives and the opposed outer skin layer for receiving the cold glue adhesive is oxidatively treated, e.g., corona treated, to improve receptivity for the cold glue adhesive.

Metallizable white opaque films are well known in the art, and are made for a variety of applications. For many applications, including but not limited to decorative packaging and certain label applications, it is highly desirable to achieve a brilliant, high gloss appearance from the metal layer. In prior art, opaque, metallized films employing an opacifying, void creating additive in the core in a sufficient quantity to achieve the desired opacity in the film, the metal layer tends to be somewhat dull; not having the high brilliance and gloss characteristics desired for many applications.
One way of achieving a greater brilliance or gloss in the metal layer is to avoid the use of void-creating additives, such as calcium carbonate, to achieve the desired opacity. Thus, for applications requiring a greater brilliance or gloss in the metal layer, opacity and whiteness can be achieved by incorporating TiO2 particles into the core of the film, which are too small to initiate voiding.
In addition, a non-voided metallizable skin composed of polypropylene, copolymers of polypropylene, or blends thereof, can be coextruded on one side of the core layer. Such a skin layer conceivably also could contain TiO2 to further improve the opacity and the whiteness of the film. While the use of non-voiding additives to establish whiteness and opacity in metallized films may provide satisfactory brilliance and gloss in the metal layer, they do not contribute to achieving other desired properties for label applications.
When the metallized film is intended to be used for label applications, and more specifically, for cut and stack label applications, it is highly desirable to employ aqueous cold glue adhesives on the label to adhere the label to the desired container. Several methods exist to permit the use of these cold glue adhesives in label applications. First, in paper labels, the cellulosic structure inherently is able to absorb excess moisture from the cold glue adhesive, thereby allowing adhesion of the paper label to the container. However, for many applications it is highly desirable to employ plastic labels, since they tend to be more durable than paper labels.
Plastic films are employed in the fabrication of labels that include an aqueous cold glue adhesive to adhere the label to a container, e.g., a glass or plastic bottle. For such applications, it is common practice to employ a secondary coating operation in which a hygroscopic coating is applied to a surface of the film, and this coating constitutes the adhesive-receiving layer. While these films are generally satisfactory for their intended purpose, they do require the use of a secondary coating operation, thereby increasing fabrication costs.
Exemplary disclosures of biaxially oriented metallized white film can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,425,996 (Wilkie et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,326,625 (Schuhmann et al.) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,883,698 (Bothe et al.).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,701,369, issued to Duncan, discloses an oriented multilayer film including a non-absorbent core that is free of voids and one or two surface layers. Each surface layer includes void creating additive to render the surface(s) absorbent to water. Duncan does not relate in any way to metallizable, or metallized films, and clearly does not relate in any way to a film designed to enhance the brilliance or gloss of a metallized film. However, Duncan does disclose a variety of void creating additives that are usable in this invention. The Duncan disclosure is hereby incorporated by reference herein.
In view of the above, there is a need for metallizable white opaque films that are capable of receiving a brilliant, high gloss metal layer thereon and that are well suited for use in label applications, and in particular cut and stack label applications wherein aqueous cold glue adhesives can be used, without the need for including any separate hygroscopic coating step. It is to such metallizable white opaque films, metallized films made therefrom, and labels made from the metallized films that the present invention relates.

Metallizable white opaque films, metallized films made therefrom and labels made from the metallized films


A variable venturi carburetor, which is part of an intake system of an internal combustion engine, includes structural features which allow an air intake path of the carburetor to be shortened, and which allow the size of air chambers of the carburetor to be reduced. A piston valve is composed of a plate-shaped valve and a tubular portion. The plate-shaped valve is guided by a pair of grooves provide in sidewalls of the intake path. The tubular portion is attached to one side of the plate-shaped valve near a center of the side of the plate-shaped valve. The tubular portion has a rectangular or square cross-section. Each side of the rectangular cross section is shorter than the internal diameter of the intake path. A flange is attached to an upper end of the piston valve. The flange is of a reduced diameter and facilitates connection of the piston valve to a diaphragm. Since the diameter of the flange is also less than the diameter of the intake path, a vacuum chamber and an atmosphere chamber of the carburetor can be reduced in size.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved variable venturi carburetor, which is part of an intake system of an internal combustion engine. More particularly, the present invention relates to structural features of the carburetor, which allow an air intake path of the carburetor to be shortened, and which allow the size of upper air chambers of the carburetor to be reduced.
2. Description of the Background Art
Variable venturi carburetors are known. For example, Japanese Utility Model Application No. SHO 64-7235 discloses a variable venturi carburetor.
In the variable venturi carburetor of the background art, a piston valve of the carburetor is formed as a hollow cylindrical body. A diameter of the piston valve is larger than an internal diameter of the venturi. Therefore, the piston valve occupies a large portion of the intake path of the carburetor. As a result, the intake path must be made relatively long. Further, a flange at the upper end of the piston valve, which is used to connect a diaphragm to the piston valve, must have a relatively large diameter. Accordingly, the diaphragm coupled the flange is large in diameter. The large diaphragm requires that large upper air chambers be formed on the carburetor.


A print media stacker assembly comprises a housing having an opening therein. A tray, disposed within the housing downstream of a feeder, has a front lip, a collecting portion, and a back wall. A stopper lever is in operative relationship with the tray a distance upstream from the back wall. The stopper lever has a first position in which the stopper lever prevents media sheets from passing beyond the stopper lever and a second position in which the stopper lever permits media sheets to pass beyond the stopper lever.

The present invention relates generally to printer output devices, and more particularly to a print media stacker apparatus which prevents a user from having access to an output sheet until the printing operation is complete.
In many applications of printing devices, it is desirable that printed documents being output from the printing device not be accessible to a user until the printing operation is complete. If an over-anxious user pulls on a document while the printing operation is on-going, it is likely that the print media or substrate upon which the printing is being disposed will shift unpredictably relative to the printing device, and the quality of the printed document will be compromised. Furthermore, if the document is being printed and subsequently cut from a continuous roll of stock, pulling of the document from the printer before the cutting process is complete is likely to cause uneven cuts and possibly jamming of the document delivery device.
It is known in the art to provide printing devices with document delivery mechanisms which prevent a user from obtaining access to the document being printed and delivered from the printing device until printing and cutting operations are complete. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,215,393 (Wincent) ("the '393 patent") discloses a device for feeding documents, such as receipts or tickets, to a user from a printing apparatus. The invention of Wincent comprises means for preventing a user from having access to the printed receipt until the printing operation is complete and the receipt has been severed from a continuous roll of receipt paper stock. The invention of Wincent relies upon the printed document bowing upwardly in a predictable manner as illustrated in FIG. 1 of the '393 patent, and thus requires that the printed document be printed on a substrate having sufficient stiffness and being sufficiently short to allow the document to bow upward in an arc as shown.
A deficiency of the prior art is the inability of the document output devices to accommodate a combination of relatively light paper stock along with elongated document dimensions. For example, use of a less stiff paper stock or printing of documents substantially elongated relative to the proportions disclosed by Wincent would result in the upwardly bulged portion P2 in FIG. 1 collapsing in a generally unpredictable configuration, resulting in a significant probability of the document becoming jammed or the printed document being wrinkled or otherwise damaged.
There is a need, therefore, for an apparatus which would provide the benefits of preventing a user from obtaining access to a printed document until the printing and cutting operations are fully completed, but which would also accommodate a wide range of media or substrate stock weights and lengths.


A vacuum including a housing and a suction device disposed within the housing is provided with hose and power cord storage features. A pivotal inlet coupling facilitates storage of the hose. A separately formed inlet body facilitates easier formation of the inlet. A cord wrap feature allows easier storage and removal of the power cord.

The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Many vacuum cleaners, especially shop vacuums, include a hose and a power cord that create storage issues with regard to providing neat methods of storing the power cord and hose on the vacuum. In addition, the vacuum can include accessories such as extensions to increase the reach of the vacuum, and a variety of nozzles and other attachments shaped to facilitate vacuuming on various surfaces and in tight spaces.
Typically, vacuums do not include satisfactory storage means for idle accessories. These vacuums fail to securely retain accessories in a space efficient manner. Accessories often must be stored separately from the vacuum, which requires the user to interrupt vacuuming to retrieve the accessories as needed.

Vacuum having inlet and storage features


An integrated optoelectrical package for optoelectrical integrated circuits (ICs) is disclosed. The package includes a package substrate having contact receiving members on an upper surface. The contact receiving members are electrically connected to contacts on the lower surface. An optoelectronic receiver package and an optoelectronic transmitter package are each electrically mounted to respective first and second subsets of the contact receiving members. Input and output waveguide arrays are formed atop the substrate package and are optically coupled to the optoelectronic receiver package and the optoelectronic transmitter package, respectively. The contacts on the lower surface of the package substrate are designed to contact and engage the contact receiving members of a standard printed circuit board (PCB).

The manufacturing of electronic and optoelectronic integrated circuits (ICs) involves complex lithographic processes to form microscopic solid-state devices and circuits in semiconductor wafers. These lithographic processes typically include forming layers of material on the wafer, patterning the layers, doping the substrate and/or the patterned layers, and heat-treating (e.g., annealing) the resulting structures. These processes are repeated to build up the IC structure. The result is a wafer containing a large number of ICs.
A "wafer sort" is then performed, wherein each IC chip on the wafer is electrically tested for functionality. The wafer is then separated ("diced") into the individual IC chips, which are then "packaged" individually or in groups for incorporation onto a printed circuit board (PCB) or a chip-on-board (COB).
An IC package is designed to provide physical and environmental protection for one or more IC chips, and electrical and/or optical interconnections with other IC chips or to a PCB. However, the typical IC chip has electrical leads with a periodic spacing (pitch) on the order of a hundred microns, whereas a PCB has an electrical contact pitch on the order of a millimeter or so. Thus, when interfacing an IC chip to a PCB, a substrate package that performs the necessary spatial transformation between the IC chip leads and the PCB contacts is often used.
As ICs have found more applications, the need for special package designs has increased. In particular, the development of optoelectronic ICs with semiconductor light sources in the form of light-emitting diodes (LEDs), semiconductor lasers and vertical-cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs), has lead to a need for standardized, low-cost "optoelectrical" IC package that can accommodate both electrical and optoelectronic IC chips.
Presently, optoelectronic and electrical chips are combined in a single "optoelectrical" substrate package using specialized designs and techniques tailored to the individual chips being packaged. This approach may be suitable for limited applications involving a small number of optoelectrical packages. However, it is not a cost-effective or practical approach when packaging optoelectronic and electrical chips in the large numbers associated with large-scale manufacturing. Further, to maintain cost-effectiveness, it is important that the package and packaging process be compatible with conventional PCBs and other parts commonly used in the electronics industry.
What is needed is a cost-effective optoelectronic package for electronic and optoelectronic IC chips that provides both optical and electrical functionality while being compatible with conventional PCBs.


A method of operating a semiconductor apparatus includes generating an electric field in peripheral areas of a first covering structure and a second covering structure; causing a photomask to move to a position between the first and second covering structures such that the photomask at least partially vertically overlaps the first and second covering structures and such that particles attached to the photomask are attracted to the first and second covering structures by the electric field; and irradiating the photomask with light through light transmission regions of the first and second covering structures.

In the manufacture of integrated circuits (IC), patterns representing different layers of the IC are fabricated using a series of reusable photomasks to transfer the design of each layer of the IC onto a semiconductor substrate during the manufacturing process in a photolithography process. These layers are built up using a sequence of processes and resulted in transistors and electrical circuits. However, as the IC sizes continue to shrink, meeting accuracy requirements as well as reliability in multiple layer fabrication has become increasingly more difficult. Photolithography uses an imaging system that directs radiation onto the photomask and then projects a shrunken image of the photomask onto a semiconductor wafer covered with photoresist. The radiation used in the photolithography may be at any suitable wavelength, with the resolution of the system increasing with decreasing wavelength. With the shrinkage in IC size, extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography becomes one of the technologies for smaller node device patterning.

Method of operating semiconductor apparatus

TAIWAN SEMICONDUCTOR MANUFACTURING CO., LTD.


A new and distinct cultivar of Hardy Hibiscus plant named ‘Peppermint Schnapps’, characterized by its upright and outwardly spreading plant habit; green-colored leaves that are palmately lobed; early flowering habit; and large single pink-colored flowers with red purple-colored centers and venation.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Hibiscus, botanically known as Hibiscus hybrid, commercially referred to as Hardy Hibiscus and hereinafter referred to by the name 'Peppermint Schnapps'.
The new Hibiscus is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Alva, Fla. The objective of the breeding program is to create new freely-branching Hardy Hibiscus cultivars with a compact plant habit and desirable flower color.
The new Hardy Hibiscus originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in Alva, Fla. during the summer of 2000, of an unnamed sport of the Hibiscus hybrid cultivar Disco Belle Pink, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unnamed selection of Hibiscus coccineus, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The cultivar Peppermint Schnapps was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Alva, Fla. on May 29, 2001.
Asexual reproduction of the new Hardy Hibiscus by vegetative terminal cuttings in a controlled environment in Alva., Fla. since June, 2001, has shown that the unique features of this new Hardy Hibiscus are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.


In the context of recruitment and sales, it is difficult to ensure that there is a consistent level of activity tracking that occurs in a Customer Relationship Management or Applicant Tracking System (CRM/ATS, tracking application, or tracking system) from one user (e.g., recruiter or sales representative) to another within a single firm. This is due in large part to the manual and time consuming mechanics of logging the activity. Example embodiments of the present invention include a mail server component that automatically logs such activity. The system determines who the email is being sent to and from, as well as whether the email contains calendar event (e.g., appointment) information. The system then searches a database to determine if the recipients of the email message are contacts in the tracking application. If a match is found, the message is automatically added to the contacts activity record as either an inbound email, outbound email, or appointment. Activity tracking is, thus, consistently maintained among all users, ensuring a higher quality of activity-based metrics.

Customer Relationship Management (CRM) refers to processes implemented by a company to handle its interactions with its contacts (e.g., customers). Generally, information can be accessed and entered by employees of the company. An Applicant Tracking System (ATS) is a software application that enables the electronic handling of corporate recruitment needs. If hosted and accessed over the Internet, these systems may be known as Software-as-a-Service (SaaS). As used herein, the terms "CRM/ATS," "tracking application," and "tracking system" refer to any of these types of systems.
The business value of a tracking application is to enable a firm to improve its client interactions. This is done by collecting customer data and analyzing and measuring the data to understand customer needs and improve satisfaction, which leads to increased sales/placement opportunities. As part of the data collection, users (e.g., recruiters or sales representatives) use the tracking system to track all of their interactions with a contact or other company. Example interactions that can be tracked include email messages, telephone calls, appointments, interviews, submissions, and placements. A tracking application provides a method to create activity records such as, for example, notes, email messages, and meetings, which can link to a contact and allow tracking of ongoing interactions with the contact. These activity records typically contain the date and time, title, short description, long description, ability to add an email or copy an email into the description, and the type of interaction typically defined by the user, such as, for example, phone contact, interview, email, or notes. When the activity is logged, a firm can then report on the logged data, measure each user's activity level, and analyze productivity at an individual, team, or firm level.

Automatic tracking of contact interactions


A vehicle includes a rocker panel and a pillar reinforcement extending in a direction transverse to the rocker panel. The vehicle further includes a door having a bracket disposed over an intersection of the rocker panel and the pillar reinforcement when the door is in a closed position. The bracket is configured to reduce intrusion propagation of the door toward a passenger compartment and redirect an impact load laterally along the rocker panel.

Passenger vehicles undergo various crash tests to ensure compliance with regulatory standards. In the U.S., crash tests are conducted in accordance with the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards as established by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards are divided into categories such as crash avoidance, crashworthiness, and post-crash survivability. A rating is given to each vehicle as a result of the testing. In the U.S., the rating is given in accordance with the New Car Assessment Program (NCAP).


Heat transfer out of a housing for a locallized source of heat such as that produced by a semiconductor chip of electronic apparatus is provided by a low thermal impedance heat transfer member such as a heat pipe, a thermal reservoir or heat transfer buffering member and a Peltier effect device interfaced with the thermal reservoir and the ambient surrounding the housing so as to provide a refrigeration function for the thermal reservoir. A high heat capacity or high latent heat of phase transition material can be used for the thermal reservoir. In a portable computer with a battery power supply, the thermal reservoir can be independent or the battery can be employed in the thermal reservoir functions.

As electronic apparatus configurations progress in performance and compactness it becomes more difficult to control heat dissipation where there are individual components that produce locallized heat. This is particularly the situation in the portable computer technology where, as there is progress with greater performance, the heat generated by certain individual small components such as a semiconductor chip can generate so much heat in such a localized place that it is becoming increasingly difficult to extract or otherwise control. Gains achieved in portability, component density and performance in electronic apparatus are usually accompanied by increasing difficulty in removing localized heat from an individual high heat producing component by simply using the traditional physical mechanisms of conduction, convection and radiation.
Thermoelectric cooling devices using the Peltier principle have been receiving increasing attention in the art. Such devices, that are usually made of a telluride compound, respond to an electrical current by producing a locallized cooler region. A number of structures and applications of the devices are described in an article by C. Wu, in Science News, Sept. 6, 1997, pages 152 and 153. Such devices however, at this stage of the art have not been employed in situations where the carrying of high wattage has been necessary. They have been used in computers in sensing type applications in where the Peltier effect locallized cool region is used to indicate the occurrence of an event. An example is U.S. Pat. No. 5,188,286.

Electronic component cooling using a heat transfer buffering capability


Techniques for configuring physical spaces are provided. Walls of a physical space are selectively engaged on tracks and sectioned. The walls include integrated devices to receive instructions and automatically reconfigure themselves into custom defined spaces by moving along the tracks in accordance with the instructions. Moreover, the walls selectively include integrated media devices that receive instructions to present custom information and to provide interactive custom services. The instructions can be customized and dynamically delivered to the walls and the media devices on demand to alter the physical space of an establishment along with altering the presented information and provided services of the establishment.

Technology advancements are pervasive in modern society. Capabilities associated with processing data, storing data, and networking devices keep improving daily. Enterprises have taken advantage of the technology advancements along with the corresponding new consumer devices to transact, track, and communicate with their customers.
Most, but not necessarily all, of the business methodologies that enterprises use for engaging customers via technology occur while the customers are away from brick-and-mortar establishments of those enterprises. Moreover, the methodologies that are used to engage a customer while the customer is at a brick-and-mortar establishment are related to conclude a transaction, such as via a kiosk or kiosk-type device (phone of the consumer).
Very little if any enterprise uses technology to customize the physical experience that a customer has while at a brick-and-mortar store. This situation is less than ideal because brick-and-mortar stores are struggling to stay profitable in the wake of hyper competition from online stores. Most brick-and-mortar stores have become showcases where customers go to look and demo products, which the customers subsequently buy online for a far cheaper price.
Still further, service oriented brick-and-mortar stores are increasingly competing for the attention and loyalty of customers as more and more service-oriented businesses spring up and specialize in niche areas of the market.
Enterprises have heretofore not utilized technology to enhance the physical space and utility of their brick-and-mortar stores. Yet, improvements in this area have the potential to increase customer traffic, increase customer loyalty, and increase revenue generated from customers for an enterprise.


An active material that can achieve sufficient discharge capacity at high discharging rate, an electrode including the active material, and a lithium ion secondary battery including the electrode, and a method for manufacturing the active material are provided. The active material includes a LiVOPO4 powder, a first carbon powder, and a second carbon powder. A relational expression of 0.05≦A1/A2≦0.5 is satisfied, where A1 represents the ratio of the G band peak height observed around 1580 cm−1 in Raman spectrum of the first carbon powder to the 2D band peak height observed around 2700 cm−1 in the Raman spectrum of the first carbon powder, and A2 represents the ratio of the G band peak height observed around 1580 cm−1 in Raman spectrum of the second carbon powder to the 2D band peak height observed around 2700 cm−1 in the Raman spectrum of the second carbon powder.

Among phosphate-based positive electrode materials, LiVOPO4 has been known as a compound that can achieve a charging/discharging voltage as high as 4 V. However, a lithium ion secondary battery with LiVOPO4 has not yet achieved sufficient reversible capacity or rate characteristic. The above positive electrode material is disclosed in, for example, Patent Documents 1 and 2 and Non-Patent Documents 1 to 4 below. It is known that lithium ions can reversibly intercalate into and deintercalated from the crystal represented by the structural formula LiVOPO4.

Active material, electrode, lithium ion secondary battery, and method for manufacturing active material


A bleeding control device for mitigating bleeding includes an outer storage container housing, a compressed gas canister, wound blocking contents and a control element. The bleeding control device may be used to deliver variable contents to a wound at the site of injury to control the bleeding of a victim as temporary solution for mitigating the bleeding until more advanced medical care can be provided. A bleeding control device includes a canister housing, a compressed gas canister arranged within the canister housing, a tube connected to the canister housing, an inflatable balloon disposed on the tube, the inflatable balloon being fluidly connected to the compressed gas canister, and a control element configured to activate the compressed gas canister to inflate the inflatable balloon.

Current bleeding control techniques for rapid blood loss include applying a tourniquet above a bleeding injury and/or packing a wound with gauze and applying pressure to the wound to reduce bleeding. In either case, if pressure is reduced, even for a short duration, any clots that have formed to slow bleeding may become ruptured and dislodged, causing bleeding to resume at a flow level comparable to the bleeding prior to treatment being applied. Additionally, typical wound packing must be done at a given density, generally immediately following the injury, otherwise the blood flow may not be slowed to an acceptable level. Moreover, some first aid training must have been acquired for effective use of such prior art techniques, or treatment may not extend the very short duration between untreated bleeding wounds and death. Accordingly, there is a need for a device that can be deployed with minimal effort to assist in such situations and assist in controlling and mitigating bleeding, that is, moreover, portable and easy enough to use in trauma situations by a layperson.


A endoscopic-type device for omnidirectional image viewing providing electronic pan-and-tilt orientation, rotation, and magnification within a selected field-of-view for use in applications in various environments such as in internal medicine inspection, monitoring, and surgery. The imaging device (using optical or infrared images) is based on the effect that the image from a wide angle lens, which produces a circular image of an entire field-of-view, can be mathematically corrected using high speed electronic circuitry. More specifically, an incoming image from a endoscope image acquisition source, including a wide angle lens, is transmitted through an image conduit and captured by a camera that produces output signals according to that image. A transformation of these output signals is performed for the viewing region of interest and viewing direction, and a corrected image is output as a video image signal for viewing, recording, or analysis. Multiple simultaneous images can be output from a single input image.

Camera viewing systems are utilized in abundance for surveillance, inspection, security, internal medicine and remote sensing. Remote viewing is critical, for example, for robotic manipulation tasks. Close viewing is necessary for detailed manipulation tasks while wide-angle viewing aids positioning of the robotic system to avoid collisions with the work space. The majority of these systems use either a fixed-mount camera with a limited viewing field to reduce distortion, utilize mechanical pan-and-tilt platforms and mechanized zoom lenses to orient the camera and magnify its image, or attach a camera to a rigid or flexible glass bundle that conveys an image from inside the human body to the camera located exterior the body. In the applications where orientation of the camera and magnification of its image are required, the mechanical solution is large in size and can subtend a significant volume making the viewing system difficult to conceal or use internally. Several cameras are usually necessary to provide wide-angle viewing of the work space.
Camera viewing systems that use internal optics to provide wide viewing angles have also been developed in order to minimize the size and volume of the camera and the intrusion into the viewing area. These systems rely on the movement of either a mirror or prism to change the tilt-angle of orientation, and provide mechanical rotation of the entire camera to change the pan angle of orientation. Additional lenses are used to minimize distortion.
Using this means, the size of the camera orientation system can be minimized, but "blind spots" in the center of the view result. Also, these systems typically have no means of magnifying or rotating the image and or producing multiple images from a single camera.
References that may be relevant to the evaluation of the present invention are U.S. Pat. No. 4,772,942 issued to M. J. Tuck on Sep. 20, 1988; U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,725 issued to D. McCutchen on Jun. 11, 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 5,067,019 issued to R. D. Juday on Nov. 19, 1991; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,068,735 issued to K. Tuchiya, et al on Nov. 26, 1991.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus that can provide an image of any portion of the viewing space within a selected field-of-view without moving the apparatus, and then electronically correct for visual distortions of the view.
It is another object of the present invention to provide horizontal orientation (pan), vertical orientation (tilt) and rotational orientation (rotation) of the viewing direction with no moving mechanisms.
It is another object of the present invention to provide the ability to magnify or scale any portion of the image (zoom in and out) electronically.
It is another object of the present invention to provide electronic control of image enhancing operations such as the image intensity (iris level), filtering, detection, sharpening, etc.
It is another object of the present invention to be able to accomplish pan, tilt, zoom, rotation, and iris adjustments with simple inputs made by a lay person from a joystick, keyboard controller, or computer controlled means.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide accurate control of the absolute viewing direction and orientations using said input devices.
A further object of the present invention is to provide the ability to produce multiple images with different orientations and magnifications simultaneously from a single input image to one or more output monitors.
Another object of the present invention is to be able to provide these images at real-time video rates, e.g. thirty transformed images per second, and to support various display format standards such as the National Television Standards Committee RS-170 signal format and/or higher resolution formats currently under development.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a system that can be used for observation of internal organs and body portions, with optical views of these environments corrected electronically to remove distortion so as to facilitate this observation. This can be during diagnosis, treatment, surgery and the like.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide an enhanced system that can be used for inspection of industrial equipment in extremely confined spaces such as engines, turbines, pipes, valves, etc.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the drawings hereinafter in combination with a complete description thereof.

Omniview motionless camera endoscopy system


A computer telephone relay service for interfacing between a textphone and a telephone. A textphone call is made to the computer which makes a further call to a telephone or vice versa. The computer then translates the messages between the text-phone and telephone using voice recognition and text-to-speech hardware.

A profoundly deaf, hard of hearing or speech impaired person can communicate using a text phone (also referred to as a "textphone") to another text phone user over a regular telephony connection. The user of a first text phone makes a telephone call by dialling the telephone number of a second text phone to establish a telephony connection. When the second user answers the telephone call the first user sends a greeting over the connection by using his text phone to play an audio data signal over the connection. The audio data signal follows a standard audio data protocol (eg v21, v22 bis, v23) which is understandable by the second user's text phone. On receiving the greeting the second user's text phone will send a audio response to acknowledge the connection. After this handshaking the users can have a conversation using text messages entered on the keyboards which their respective text phones convert into audio signals. These audio signals are sent over the connection in a similar fashion to voice conversations.
A problem exists when a text phone user wishes to communicate with someone who does not have access to a text phone. This finds one solution in a relay service such as the National Telephony Relay Service in the UK and equivalent services in the rest of the world. Such services are funded at least in part by the national telecommunication companies and comprise a call center of operators having access to text phone or computer emulation of a text phone and conferencing or multi-line telephony facilities. A text phone user will dial into the service over a first telephony connection and make a request using a text message to the operator who has or is emulating a similar machine to the user. The request will contain the telephone number of a party the user wishes to communicate with. The operator dials this number on a regular telephone based system and opens a second telephony connection when the party answers. The operator may briefly explain that he is a Relay operator acting on behalf of the text phone user. The operator then acts as an intermediary as he receives text messages from the user over the first connection and reads them to the party on the second connection. Conversely the party replies verbally to the operator over the second connection and the operator types text messages and sends them to the user over the first connection.
This solution does have several disadvantages. Chiefly it relies on a limited number of operators to handle the calls and supply is fixed in the short term so that it may be under-utilised in one period and saturated in another such that expensive resources are not used efficiently. Furthermore since this service is a human translation service the costs are relatively high and when, as is usual the service is subsidised, the total number of operators is constrained to below the actual demand. Also such a solution lacks absolute privacy and users may be discouraged in its use for sensitive or business matters.

Method and apparatus for translating text and speech transferred over a telephony or similar network

International Business Machines Corporation


A fuel delivery system for providing a desired fuel flow to an engine includes a pump means for providing fuel to a metering valve which in turn regulates the flow of fuel to provide a desired fuel flow to the engine by varying the area of the metering window. The pressure differential across the metering valve is maintained at a desired set point in order to precisely control desired fuel flow by varying the area of the metering window. The pressure differential is sensed by a pressure regulating motive flow control valve (PRMFV). The PRMFV is positioned in response to the pressure differential to bypass fuel away from the metering valve to control the differential pressure to the desired set point. The PRMFV first bypasses fuel to an ejector pump and as the amount of excess flow to the metering valve increases the PRMFV bypasses fuel back to the inlet of the pump means.

It is well known in the art of fuel delivery systems for aircraft gas turbine engines to use a positive displacement pump, such as a vane or gear pump, to pressurize fuel prior to its metering and subsequent delivery to the engine. Positive displacement pumps provide a flow whose volume is a function of the speed at which the pump is rotating. This characteristic makes it impossible to provide metered flow to the engine solely by controlling the area of a metering valve when the pump is driven by the engine. Therefore a pressure regulating valve (PRV) and a flow bypass system are used to facilitate the delivery of an accurately measured fuel flow to the engine.
The positive displacement pump is sized to ensure an excess flow capacity at all possible operating conditions. The pressurized fuel is then typically input to the PRV which operates to provide a fixed pressure drop across a metering valve controlled by an electronic engine control (EEC). Operation of the PRV and metering valve together is based upon incompressible flow theory which states that flow through a valve is a function of the area of the valve opening multiplied by the square root of the product of the pressure drop across the valve multiplied by the specific gravity of the fluid. Thus, with the PRV providing a fixed pressure drop across the metering valve, the EEC can control the area of the metering valve to provide the required fuel flow to the engine.
To maintain the fixed pressure drop across the metering valve the PRV uses a fuel bypass system from the outlet of the pump back to the inlet of the pump.
In addition, positive displacement pumps typically require a fluid to be supplied to the inlet of the pump at sufficient pressure to prevent cavitation or starvation of the pump. It is known in the art to use an electric pump at startup or lightoff to provide an initial flow of fuel from the fuel tank, at sufficient pressure to the positive displacement pump.
In order to improve aircraft fuel efficiency, typical fuel delivery systems also use an ejector pump to provide this pressurization of fuel in flight. The ejector pump operates on an excess flow of fuel bypassed by a second valve know as a motive flow valve. Typically the motive flow valve is controlled by the EEC and allows fuel to be bypassed to the ejector pump when the engine has reached a predetermined speed.
However, problems arise in that the motive flow valve is turned on independent of the PRV which is controlling the pressure drop across the metering valve. If the motive flow valve is opened when there is insufficient flow to bypass to the inlet of the positive displacement pump through the PRV the positive displacement pump could be starved causing an interruption in the supply of fuel to the engine. An interruption of 50 ms can be sufficient to cause a flameout.
A separate motive flow valve also complicates the design of the fuel delivery system in that the PRV must be designed to handle transients in the flow of fuel to the metering valve introduced when the motive flow valve is opened.

Combined pressure regulating and fuel flow system


An event-based system and process for recording and playback of collaborative electronic presentations is presented. The present system and process includes a technique for recording collaborative electronic presentations by capturing and storing the interactions between each participant and presentation data where each interaction event is timestamped and linked to a data file comprising the presentation data. The present system and process also includes a technique for playing back the recorded collaborative electronic presentation, which involves displaying the presentation data in an order it was originally presented and reproducing the recorded interactions between each participant and the displayed presentation data at the same point in the presentation that they were originally performed, based on the aforementioned timestamps.

1. Technical Field
The invention is related to interactive virtual team worksites, and more particularly to a system and process for providing an interactive computer network-based virtual team worksite that combines data storage, team members' presence information, interaction tools and a past history log into one virtual complex. In addition, an event-based system and process for recording and playback of collaborative electronic presentations is provided, which can be employed in conjunction with the virtual team worksite.
2. Background Art
A lot of large companies are global, and even smaller companies have people working on the same project but at different locations and/or times. Interaction between these distributed team members is much lower than co-located teams because of communication barriers, which in turn may affect the productivity of the whole team. Specifically, three problems with today's computer-based networks prevent information workers' distributed collaboration from being more effective. First, "unintended interactions" (i.e., ad hoc interactions rising from people's serendipitous meetings) are reduced because of lack of real-time presence information and convenient light-weight interaction tools. Second, the transition between the three modes of working—"working alone", "ad hoc meeting" and "scheduled meeting"— is not smooth and convenient because of the transition overhead and communication barriers between teammates. Third, the key elements essential to a project's life cycle—data, people and interactions tools—are separated.
In regard to the aforementioned presence information (i.e., what other members are doing and how they are doing it), this is crucial in collaboration, especially because it is the foundation for unintended interactions. However, most existing distributed collaboration systems provide presence information that is too vague and not very useful. For example, one popular tool for on-line collaboration used by distributed team members is instant messenger (IM). Unfortunately, current IM systems only indicate whether a team member is away or online, which still needs to be set manually instead of detected automatically. However, a person who is online, but not working on the team project at the moment, may not want to be bothered (e.g., invited to a team discussion). Thus, there is a need for project/team-specific presence information to be made available.
In regard to the aforementioned transition between the three modes of working, presence information has been found to cause a "dual tradeoff" problem: the more presence information a user reveals to others, the more awareness others have about him, and the less privacy he has; also, the more presence information a user retrieves about others, the more awareness he has about others, and the more disturbance he gets from such information. Thus, presence information should be made available only when the user can dedicate time to the team project.
In addition to the foregoing problems with distributed collaborations, it is also noted that existing presentation and conferencing systems rely on video-based recording: namely what a user sees on his/her monitor in an interaction session is recorded as a video file. There are several problems with this approach. First, it consumes very large amounts of storage space if a team wants to record all the sessions for the life-cycle of a project. Second, because today's video analysis techniques are still not mature, it becomes very hard to search through the documentary videos for specific information, or summarize a long session into short highlights of key points. Third, the recorded video can only be watched. Its content cannot be easily edited or modified by a user later on.

Event-based system and process for recording and playback of collaborative electronic presentations


A plurality of analyzer units for serum, a plurality of analyzer units for blood plasma, and a plurality of analyzer units for urine are arranged along a main transfer line for transferring a sample rack from a rack providing portion to a rack storage portion. A reagent bottle for inspecting liver function is contained in each reagent delivery mechanism of two analyzer units among the plurality of analyzer units for serum. When the reagent for inspecting liver function in one of the two analyzer units is to be short, analysis for the liver function analysis item in the samples can be continued by transferring a sample rack from the rack providing portion to the other analyzer unit.

The present invention relates to an analyzer system, and particularly to an analyzer system suitable for transferring a sample rack to a plurality of analyzer units though a transfer line, and analyzing and processing designated analysis items for a plurality of samples.
A multiple-sample analyzer system is known, in which a sample rack containing body fluid samples such as blood and urine is transferred to a plurality of analyzer units through a transfer line in order to inspect and analyze the body fluid samples.
As for the prior art, an automated analyzer system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 62-271164. In the automated analyzer system, two or three kinds of analyzer units are arranged along a circulating transfer line composed of a belt conveyer. A transferred sample rack is identified with a bar code reader, and stopped in front of a designated analyzer unit to pipette a sample fluid into the analyzer unit. After that, the sample rack is transferred to the next analyzer unit to pipette the sample into the next analyzer unit, and finally the sample rack is returned to a stock yard.
Another analyzer system is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-25755. The analyzer system comprises a plurality of reaction units having different analysis functions arranged along a main transfer line, and a by-pass line for accepting a sample rack from the transfer line to a sampling position of the individual reaction unit to pipette the sample from the by-pass line to the reaction unit. In this analyzer system, a sample container containing a sample has a bar code label indicating the ID (identification) information, and a sample rack containing a plurality of sample containers also has a bar code label. The ID information of the sample on the sample rack transferred on the main transfer line is read out and a reaction unit corresponding to the sample is determined. In case that the designated reaction unit is occupied for sampling another sample, the sample rack is transferred back again to the upper stream of the main transfer line through the return transfer line. This cyclic operation is repeated until the designated reaction unit becomes empty.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 63-271164, the biochemical analysis of the sample by an analyzer unit is implicated, but there is no definite description on how to deal with the analysis item and the reagent to be used. In the analyzer system disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2-25755, as the system is configured so that the individual analysis units may have their own distinctive functions, the individual analysis item is processed by its own specific analysis unit. Therefore, a sample having an analysis item requested by a large number of samples has to wait for completion of analyzing the preceding samples for a longer time than the samples with another analysis item requested by a small number of samples, and consequently, it takes a long time for those samples to obtain the analysis data.

Analyzer system having sample rack transfer line


An amplifier includes first and second pairs of differentially coupled input transistors. The first current mirror generates a reference current which is mirrored by a second current mirror to produce a mirrored reference current. Current steering circuitry steers the mirrored reference current as a first tail current through the first pair when a common mode voltage associated with a differential input voltage exceeds a first reference voltage. A first portion of the mirrored reference current flows from the first current steering circuitry when the common mode voltage is greater than the first reference voltage to produce a second tail current for the second pair. A second portion of the mirrored reference current is fed back to an output of the first current mirror and summed with the reference current so as to reduce the second portion when the common mode voltage is greater than the first reference voltage.

The present invention relates generally to rail-to-rail operational amplifiers, and more particularly to improved circuitry for avoiding excess bias current in circuitry which generates tail currents for opposite-conductivity pairs of differentially coupled input transistors when the common mode input voltage is at a high level.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,311,145, issued May 10, 1984 entitled "Combination Driver-Summing Circuit for Rail-to-Rail Differential Amplifier" by Huijsing et al. is believed to be generally indicative of the closest prior art. A "rail-to-rail" operational amplifier is one which has the capability of operating with its common mode input voltage having a value anywhere between the upper and lower power supply voltage rails. In order to achieve a rail-to-rail common-mode input voltage range of an operational amplifier without the use of a charge pump, two pairs of opposite-conductivity inserted after noise input transistors are needed, namely a pair of a N-channel input transistors for operation with the common mode input voltage near the upper power supply voltage and a pair of P-channel input transistors for operation with the common mode input voltage near the lower power supply voltage. The circuit shown in "Prior Art" FIG. 1, which is similar to circuitry in the above-mentioned Huijsing et al. patent, is typically used in order to control the separate tail currents for the N-channel pair of input transistors and the P-channel pair of input transistors so as to maintain their composite transconductance gm at a relatively constant value. This is desirable in order to achieve a relatively constant bandwidth, phase margin, and noise level of the operational amplifier over its common mode input range.
Referring to "Prior Art" FIG. 1, rail-to-rail operational amplifier 1 includes an input stage 2 which includes two pairs of differentially coupled opposite-conductivity input transistors and circuitry for generating their tail currents. The outputs of input stage 2 are coupled to inputs of a conventional folded cascode stage 3. The output of folded cascode stage 3 can be coupled to the input of a conventional class AB output stage 4. More specifically, input stage 2 includes a first differentially coupled pair of P-channel input transistors Q1 and Q2 having their sources connected by conductor 8 to receive a first tail current I1 and also includes a second differentially coupled pair of N-channel input transistors Q3 and Q4 having their sources connected by conductor 5 to receive a second tail current I2. A differential input voltage Vin+-Vin− is coupled between the gate electrodes of P-channel input transistors Q1 and Q2 and also is coupled between the gate electrodes of N-channel input transistors Q2 and Q4. The drains of input transistors Q1-Q4 are coupled to corresponding input terminals of folded cascode stage 3. The rest of the circuitry shown in input stage 2 produces the two tail currents I1 and I2.
A reference current IR is generated in transistor Q8 and flows through cascode transistor Q7, conductor 15, and current mirror control transistor Q9. This causes a corresponding current to flow through current mirror output transistor Q12 and cascode transistor Q13 into the sources of P-channel input transistors Q1 and Q2 as their tail current I1 if they are turned on as a result of the common mode input voltage VCM being less than Vref2. If VCM is greater than Vref2, then current steering transistor Q14 "steers" the current IP from cascode transistor Q13 into cascode transistor Q15 and current mirror output transistor Q16. The current IP therefore is mirrored by means of current mirror output transistor Q11 and flows through cascode transistor Q10 to produce the tail current I2 in conductor 5 for N-channel input transistors Q3 and Q4.
The bias circuitry of input stage 2 in FIG. 1 operates to control tail currents I1 and I2 of the differential input stage including transistors Q1-4 so as to maintain the transconductance gm relatively constant over the entire common mode input voltage range from ground to VDD. When the common mode input voltage VCM is less than Vref2, the current through transistor Q13 is equal to the P-channel tail current I1, and the current IP is zero. When the common-mode input voltage VCM is high enough to exceed Vref2, the P-channel input transistors Q1 and Q2 are turned off and the resulting current IP through transistor Q13 becomes the current which is mirrored to provide an equal value of the N-channel tail current I2, because current mirror transistors Q16 and Q11 typically are matched transistors. Thus, the current IP flowing to ground through transistors Q14, Q15 and Q16 plus the resulting-channel tail current I2 flowing to ground when VCM is less than Vref2 results in roughly twice as much power being dissipated as when VCM is greater than Vref2.
Thus, the bias circuitry in Prior Art FIG. 1 which provides the tail currents I1 and I2 consumes about twice the amount of current (and power) when N-channel input transistors Q3 and Q4 are active than when P-channel input transistors Q1 and Q2 are active. Although the technique for generating tail current in FIG. 1 is very common, it is wasteful of current (and power). This is because if the circuitry of FIG. 1 is designed to optimize the speed-to-current ratio, the tail currents I1 and I2 are minimal compared to the rest of the current in the operational amplifier circuit. However, if the circuit of FIG. 1 is designed to optimize the noise-to-current ratio (or noise-to-power ratio), then there typically will be relatively large input tail currents, which would result in very fast amplifier operation, making it necessary to use frequency compensation techniques to reduce the speed to a normal level, since the only way to reduce the total quiescent current of the operational amplifier is to reduce the speed. That is, if the circuit of FIG. 1 is being designed to minimize the noise for a given total quiescent current, the tail current typically will be a much more significant portion of the total quiescent current for the operational amplifier, and the large value of IP that is required to generate the large value of N-channel tail current I2 becomes problematic.
Thus, there is an unmet need for rail-to-rail differential input amplifier circuitry which avoids wasting bias current when a particular pair of differentially coupled input transistors is turned off.
There also is an unmet need for rail-to-rail operational amplifier circuitry which avoids wasting bias current when a particular pair of differentially coupled input transistors is turned off in the case wherein the operational amplifier circuitry is being designed for a low noise-to-current ratio.

Tail-current steering circuit and method for rail-to-rail operational amplifier input stage


A spindle device driven by driving fluid, having accurate rotation and superior quietness. The device includes a stator having at least one inlet for introducing the driving fluid, a rotor having at least one flange arranged outside of the stator and provided with nozzles for jetting the driving fluid, and a static-pressure fluid bearing for rotatably supporting the rotor with respect to the stator. The stator has a first inner path for conducting the driving fluid introduced from the inlet to the rotor and the rotor has a second inner path communicating with the first inner path of the stator for conducting the driving fluid to the nozzles. The driving fluid introduced from the inlet of the stator is jetted from the nozzles of the rotor through the first and second inner paths to rotate the rotor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spindle device rotatively driven by fluid such as air, and more particularly to a spindle device driven by jetting the fluid from a rotor.
2. Description of Related Art
In ultra-precision machine tools for boring and cutting, static-pressure air bearing air turbine spindles are used for the spindles of such ultra-precision machine tools because of the high degree of accuracy required and in order to reduce heat generation. An air turbine spindle rotates by jetting pressurized fluid from nozzles provided on a non-rotating side of the spindle against multiple blades provided on a rotor that is a rotating body.
In general, compared to a spindle device that uses an electric motor as a drive source, such an air turbine spindle can rotate the spindle at higher velocity with greater accuracy and less vibration, and since little heat is generated can also reduce stretching of the spindle (that is, thermal expansion in the axial direction).
In the case of lathing, in which a workpiece is fixed on the rotor of the air turbine spindle and a machining load is exerted on the workpiece, the pattern of the blades provided on the rotor that is the drive source sometimes appears on the surface of the workpiece. For example, in flat surface or spherical surface lathing, a pattern formed in the shape of rays of approximately several tens of nanometers that correspond to the number of blades sometimes appears on the surface of the workpiece.
The phenomenon of the appearance of the pattern of the blades on the workpiece is caused by the periodical impact of the fluid on the blades and on the nozzles of the air turbine spindle. In order to eliminate this periodical impact of the fluid, in JP2003-191142A a technique is disclosed of jetting fluid into space from inside the rotor disposed inside the stator to rotatably drive the rotor.
In the related art described in the background art, the rotor jets fluid used for rotational drive inside the spindle and expels the fluid to the outside of the spindle through outlets provided in the spindle. As a result, when the nozzles traverse the outlets, the flow of the fluid jetted from the rotor changes, and the impact of that change on the flow of the fluid affects the rotor.
In addition, because the fluid supplied to the fluid bearing is supplied through the same path as the fluid for obtaining a driving force, when the rpm of the spindle fluctuates the bearing pressure changes. For these reasons, it is difficult for the spindle described in the background art to achieve accurate rotation.

Spindle device with rotor jetting driving fluid


A method of zero-knowledge document comparison between two parties. Each party performs: exchanging a set of random data and a shared hash function, applying the hash function to concatenations of the document and the sets of random data, and comparing the hashes.

A zero-knowledge protocol, as in other types of interactive proofs, is a protocol between two parties in which one party (the prover), tries to prove a fact to the other party (the verifier). The fact is typically secret information such as a password or, in cryptographic applications, the private key of a public key encryption algorithm. In zero-knowledge protocols, the prover can convince the verifier that he is in possession of the secret without revealing the secret itself. In particular, zero-knowledge protocols are cryptographic protocols in which: 1) the verifier cannot learn anything from the protocol—no knowledge is transferred; 2) the prover cannot cheat the verifier and vice versa; and 3) the verifier cannot pretend to be the prover to any third party. Thus in a zero-knowledge protocol the fact or secret itself, or any other useful information, is not revealed to the other party during the protocol, nor to any eavesdropper. The Fiat-Shamir protocol was the first practical zero-knowledge cryptographic protocol.
Hash functions are commonly used in cryptography. A one-way hash function is a function that takes a variable-length input string and converts it into a fixed-length output string. An example of such a hash function is the SHA-1 function. It is impossible to determine the input string from the hashed string.
In some situations where A and B are two distrustful parties, it may be necessary for the parties to learn whether two documents which are possessed by the respective parties are the same or substantially the same. For example, B may claim to have a copy of A's secret document and A's course of action may hinge on whether B's claim is true. Neither party however can disclose their respective document to the other in order to verify B's claim without destroying their secrecy. While the use of zero-knowledge protocols is known for exchanging secret keys it has not been used for comparing documents.
There is a need therefore a strong zero-knowledge document comparison method between mutually distrustful parties.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Comparison of documents possessed by two parties

International Business Machines Corporation


A feed and drink bottle is made of plastics material preferably by an aseptic process. In its basic form the bottle (2) has a mouth (4) intended to be sealed with a closure (10) put in place after the feed has been put in the bottle through its mouth. The bottle is rendered unfit for re-use as a baby's bottle, thus making it disposable either by preventing the closure from being able to be removed from the body of the bottle once it has reached its fully engaged position, or by preventing it from being replaced in a fluid tight position once it has been removed. The closure (10) has a teat (24) secured to it in an irremovable manner, as by the teat being clamped between the closure and a retainer member (18) held in place in the closure, or by the teat's being bonded to the closure. When the closure and teat are formed as a single unit, the unit may be used more than once on a body (2) of aseptic plastics material, thus putting back on the user the responsibility of ensuring that the body is sterile or aseptic before such re-use.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to feed and drink bottles for babies and in particular to such bottles as are made from plastics material by an aseptic injection-moulding process.
Feed bottles for babies generally comprise a container for the milk or other nutrient liquid (feed); a (natural or synthetic) rubber teat for the mouth of the container, an a screw-threaded cap to fit on the mouth to retain the teat in position. To ensure that a baby's feed is not contaminated, it is usual to sterilise the bottle before use, as by cleaning the bottle in a sterilizing liquid or using a steam steriliser. The same needs to be done with the teat and the cap of the bottle, to ensure their sterility. However, sterilisation, or even thorough cleaning of a baby's bottle, may be over looked, or carried out inadequately, causing the feed to become contaminated.
2. Description of Related Art
DE 2358128B discloses a bottle closure device and a complementarily formed bottle top for the sterile dispensing of flowable and/or pasty or viscous, sterile bottle contents, particularly of baby food, whereby the bottle top or its opening provided for the discharge of the contents, respectively, is covered under sterile conditions by a cover or closure wall, and said device being adapted to be attached to said bottle top and including on its inner face cutting means for the opening of said bottle, threads for threading onto the bottle top provided with complementary threads and for the simultaneous actuation of said cutting means, as well as means for the sterile dispensing or removal of the bottle contents after the opening of said bottle.


Tetrachloroethylene containing a stabilizer is contacted with a zeolite having an average pore size of 3.4 to 11 Å and/or a carbonaceous adsorbent having an average pore size of 3.4 to 11 Å in a liquid phase to obtain a high purity tetrachloroethylene. A halogenated alkene and/or a halogenated alkane are reacted with hydrogen fluoride in the presence of a fluorination catalyst to produce a first hydrofluorocarbon, a halogenated alkene and/or a halogenated alkane are reacted with hydrogen fluoride in the presence of a fluorination catalyst to produce a second hydrofluorocarbon, and the products are joined and then distilled to obtain the first and second hydrofluorocarbons.

As for the production of tetrachloroethylene (CCl2═CCl2) (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "PCE"), for example, (1) a method of thermally decomposing carbon tetrachloride, (2) a method of simultaneously conducting chlorination and dehydrochlorination of a chloroolefin, and (3) a method of using chlorine and a hydrocarbon such as natural gas or LPG as starting materials are known. In the methods, a stabilizer is added so as to ensure the stability of tetrachloroethylene and, in general, the stabilizer is added in an amount of hundreds to thousands of ppm. As for uses, tetrachloroethylene is used, for example, as a dry cleaning solvent, a starting material for the production of a fluorocarbon gas, or a solvent.
On the other hand, as for the production of pentafluoroethane (CF3CHF2), for example, (1) a method of fluorinating tetrachloroethylene or a fluorinated product thereof with hydrogen fluoride (see, Japanese International Application Domestic Publication No. 9-511515, etc.), (2) a method of hydrogenolyzing chloropentafluoroethane (CClF2CF3) (see, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 5-97728 (JP-A-5-97728), etc.) and (3) a method of reacting a fluorine gas with halogen-containing ethylene (see, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 1-38034 (JP-A-1-38034)) are known.
For example, in the method of producing pentafluoroethane by reacting tetrachloroethylene with hydrogen fluoride in a gas phase in the presence of a fluorination catalyst, the reaction is conducted through two steps different in reaction conditions. More specifically, this method comprises a first reaction where tetrachloroethylene and hydrogen fluoride (HF) are reacted in a gas phase in the presence of a fluorination catalyst to mainly produce 1,1-dichloro-2,2,2-trifluoroethane (CHCl2CF3) and 1-chloro-1,2,2,2-tetrafluoroethane (CHClFCF3), and a second reaction where the product mainly composed of CHCl2CF3 and CHClFCF3 produced in the first reaction is reacted with HF in a gas phase in the presence of a fluorination catalyst to mainly produce pentafluoroethane.
In this method, tetrachloroethylene as one of starting materials for the first reaction contains a stabilizer usually on the order of tens to hundreds of mass ppm so as to prevent, for example, the generation of an acid content due to decomposition. For example, a hydroxyl group-containing aromatic compound, such as phenol or cresol, is contained and if such a stabilizer is not contained in tetrachloroethylene, the tetrachloroethylene lacks in stability and a side reaction such as generation of an acid content proceeds.
However, the stabilizer contained in tetrachloroethylene gives rise to deterioration of the activity of a catalyst used for the production of pentafluoroethane. Therefore, a stabilizer is preferably not contained. This may be attained, for example, by removing the stabilizer before the first reaction. However, conventional removing methods by fractional distillation or the like have a problem in that the operation is cumbersome and the equipment therefor is expensive.
Further, hydrofluorocarbons (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "HFC") have an ozone depletion potential of 0. Among hydrofluorocarbons, pentafluoroethane (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "HFC-125") and 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "HFC-134a") are useful compounds, for example, as refrigerants.
As for the production of pentafluoroethane, for example, a method of reacting hydrogen fluoride with tetrachloroethylene, 2,2-dichloro-1,1,1-trifluoroethane (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "HCFC-123") or 2-chloro-1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "HCFC-124") in the presence of a fluorination catalyst is known.
Also, a method of obtaining pentafluoroethane through two steps of reacting hydrogen fluoride with tetrachloroethylene in the presence of a fluorination catalyst to produce an intermediate product gas mainly comprising HCFC-123 and/or HCFC-124 which are intermediates of pentafluoroethane, and reacting hydrogen fluoride with the gas containing these intermediates in the presence of a fluorination catalyst to obtain pentafluoroethane, may be used. More specifically, a process of reacting hydrogen fluoride with tetrachloroethylene, shown by the following formula 1 and/or formula 2 is conducted in a first reactor to produce an intermediate product rich in intermediates HCFC-123 and/or HCFC-124, and respective intermediates are reacted with hydrogen fluoride in a second reactor as shown by the following formula 3 and/or formula 4, whereby a product containing the objective pentafluoroethane is obtained.CCl2=CCl2+3HF→CF3CHCl2+2HCl  (Formula 1)CCl2=CCl2+4HF→CF3CHClF+3HCl  (Formula 2)CF3CHCl2+2HF→CF3CHF2+2HCl  (Formula 3)CF3CHClF+HF→CF3CHF2+HCl  (Formula 4)
As for the production of 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane, for example, a method of reacting hydrogen fluoride with trichloroethylene or 2-chloro-1,1,1-trifluoroethane (hereinafter sometimes referred to as "HCFC-133a") in the presence of a fluorination catalyst is known. Also, similarly to the above-described pentafluoroethane, a two-step method may be used. That is, a reaction of reacting trichloroethylene with hydrogen fluoride, shown by the following formula 5 is performed in a first reactor to produce an intermediate product rich in an intermediate HCFC-133a and subsequently, HCFC-133a is reacted with hydrogen fluoride in a second reactor as shown by formula 6, whereby a product containing objective 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane is obtained.CCl2=CHCl+3HF→CF3CH2Cl+2HCl  (Formula 5)CF3CH2Cl+HF→CF3CH2F+HCl  (Formula 6)
Furthermore, a method of producing two or more hydrofluorocarbons at the same time has been proposed. For example, WO95/15937 describes a method of reacting HCFC-133a with hydrogen fluoride to produce 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane and reacting hydrogen fluoride with methylene chloride and trichloroethylene in the presence of the produced 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane.
Japanese International Application Domestic Publication No. 7-507787 describes a method of reacting hydrogen fluoride, for example, with trichloroethylene to produce HCFC-133a, then reacting this HCFC-133a with hydrogen fluoride to produce 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane, and during these steps, adding, for example, HCFC-123 and/or HCFC-124, thereby producing pentafluoroethane together with 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane.
Also, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 8-27046 (JP-A-8-27046) describes a method of reacting hydrogen fluoride, for example, with HCFC-133a and HCFC-123 in a first rector, mixing the reaction product with tetrachloroethylene, feeding the mixture to a second reactor, and conducting a reaction under reaction conditions different from those in the first reactor, thereby obtaining a product containing 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane and pentafluoroethane.
However, these methods have a problem particularly in simultaneously producing high-purity pentafluoroethane and 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane in an economically advantageous manner using tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene which are general-purpose raw materials.
The reason therefor is that the reaction conditions in respective reactions shown by formulae 1 to 6 greatly differ from each other. To speak specifically on preferred reaction conditions in the production of pentafluoroethane, the steps shown by formulae 1 and 2 can be conducted under the conditions of, for example, a reaction pressure of 0.35 MPa, a reaction temperature of 310° C. and a hydrogen fluoride/tetrachloroethylene molar ratio of 10. Furthermore, the steps shown by formulae 3 and 4 can be conducted under the conditions of, for example, a reaction pressure of 0.4 MPa, a reaction temperature of 340° C. and a hydrogen fluoride/HCFC-123+HCFC-124 molar ratio of 8.
To speak specifically on preferred reaction conditions in the production of 1,1,1,2-tetrafluoroethane, the step shown by formula 5 can be conducted under the conditions of, for example, a reaction pressure of 0.35 MPa, a reaction temperature of 270° C. and a hydrogen fluoride/trichloroethylene molar ratio of 15. The step shown by formula 6 can be conducted under the conditions of, for example, a reaction pressure of 0.4 MPa, a reaction temperature of 340° C. and a hydrogen fluoride/HCFC-133a molar ratio of 6.
In particular, the optimal reaction temperature greatly differs between the steps of reacting hydrogen fluoride with respective starting materials of tetrachloroethylene and trichloroethylene and therefore, if a conventional method is used, this great difference in the reaction temperature brings out adverse effect of unreacted starting materials on the catalyst or causes increase of undesired impurities in some cases.

Method for purifying tetrachloroethylene and process for producing hydrofluorocarbons


A method and system for handling an imaging job in a heterogeneous imaging environment, and in particular for enabling and implementing dynamic conversion and/or configuration of imaging control data, such as print control data, so as to match imaging job requirements with the specific capabilities of a selected imaging device. Utilizing an appropriate data definitions database, which is always modifiable to suit current imaging environmental conditions, the invention deals effectively with various conversion and configuration needs, including those associated with (a) existing, (b) virtual, and (c) pseudo imaging drivers.

This invention pertains to methodology and a system for handling an imaging job, such as a printing job, with respect to the imaging of that job in a heterogeneous imaging environment, such as a cluster-printing environment, that includes a plurality of imaging devices, such as printers, which may have different, specific imaging (printing) characteristics and capabilities. In particular, the system and method of the present invention address the issue of determining and dynamically associating appropriate data structure for an imaging job, such as within the header in that imaging job, with a compatible, available imaging device in the environment. Data structure determination and association are performed so as to assure that the imaging characteristics and capabilities of a selected cluster imager substantially match the underlying imaging-capabilities requirements of the specific job which is being handled.
The terminology "print-option conversion" is employed herein as a specific-illustration identifier of the broader concept of providing dynamic configuring, including option conversion, of (a) existing, (b) virtual, and (c) pseudo imager drivers, such as a printer driver. The term "imaging" and variations thereof employed herein, is/are intended to encompass any one of (a) printing, (b) faxing, (c) scanning, (d) copying, (e) document archiving/retrieving, (f) document converting/manipulating, (g) document transferring, and (h) device managing.
According to a preferred practice of the invention with regard to a specific, existing imager driver, after an imaging job is created, the imaging command and control data structure associated with the job, typically created by that specific imager driver, is assessed, in a kind of reverse-engineering manner, to determine the underlying imaging requirements of the job. This information is then compared with information that is provided in a look-up-table-type, drivers-definitions data structure, wherein a relationship is drawn between basic imaging capabilities and the specific imaging characteristics and capabilities of essentially all of the potentially available imaging devices included in the imaging environment. Under circumstances where it is necessary to change the data structure associated with an imaging job so as to make that data structure compatible with a then-available imaging device, the appropriate data structure that relates to that available imaging device is revisedly re-written into the imaging job data structure, whereafter the imaging job is appropriately sent to that selected, compatible imaging device. It is also possible that the invention may similarly be used with respect to sending a job to two or more imaging devices.
In relation to working in the settings of virtual (configurable generic) and pseudo (direct-drive imaging) drivers, a job is initiated, imaging preferences are selected, an imaging device, or devices, is/are selected, and the appropriate driver is configured/created dynamically from data in the same kind of drivers-definitions data structure mentioned above.
All configuration practices implemented by the invention are dynamic, and all are based upon job configurations that are derived from the mentioned drivers-definitions data structure, also referred to herein as a library file.
The various important features and advantages that are offered by the present invention will become more fully apparent as the description which now follows is read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

User-definable print-option conversion for heterogeneous cluster printing


A battery pack providing power to a portable electronic device is disclosed which inhibits electromagnetic waves generated by the battery pack from interfering with the portable electronic device. The portable electronic device may include a radiofrequency (RF) circuit including a transceiver. The battery pack may include a battery cell and a protection circuit module (PCM) which operates to prevent the battery cell from overcharge/overdischarge and overheating. The PCM may include a substrate and a protection device mounted to the substrate. Electromagnetic waves generated when the protection device operates are shielded from the portable electronic device by a shielding layer formed on the substrate of the PCM. The substrate may include a plurality of circuit layers, each including a circuit layer, with the circuit layers in electrical communication with one another. A shielding pattern is formed on at least one of the circuit layers.

1. Field
One or more embodiments of the present disclosure relate to a battery pack.
2. Description of the Related Art
Unlike primary batteries that cannot be charged, secondary batteries can be charged and discharged and are widely used not only in small high-tech electronic devices including mobile phones, personal digital assistants (PDAs), notebook computers, or the like, but also in energy storage systems.
As described above, in a case where a secondary battery is used as a power source of an electronic device, it is required to design the electronic device and the secondary battery so as to allow them to stably exhibit functions of their configuring elements without physical and electrical interferences between the configuring elements forming the electronic device and the configuring elements forming the secondary battery.


A variable curvature stent limb is disclosed herein. A stent derived from a plurality of these variable curvature stent limbs may be highly compressible, such that it is compatible with a low-profile delivery device. This stent may be useful over a wider range of body vessel diameters and may possess a greater fatigue life, since this stent may provide a more controlled constant radial force.

A stent is an expandable prosthesis that can be delivered into a body vessel or passageways such as blood vessels, respiratory ducts, gastrointestinal ducts, urinary vessels, and the like. Stents have been employed to treat a host of diseases and disorders, including abdominal aortic aneurysms, coronary artery disease, and blockage of the bile duct. These devices are typically deployed in a compressed state using a catheter, of which there are many different types. In the case of arterial disease, a catheter can be guided through a patient's arterial system, until the catheter's distal end reaches a desired location within the patient, typically a constriction or lesion in an artery. Once the catheter is correctly positioned inside the artery, the stent can be released. During the deployment process the stent is converted from a compressed state to an expanded state that serves to provide support to and/or keep open the artery.
Stents can generally be divided into two types with regard to the manner in which they are converted from the compressed state to the expanded state. These groups are self-expanding stents and balloon expandable stents. Self-expanding stents, as the name suggests, will automatically expand from the compressed state to the expanded state when they are released from the catheter. Balloon expandable stents, on the other hand, are mounted on the exterior of a balloon that is located toward the distal end of the catheter. Conversion from the compressed state to the expanded state is achieved by inflating the balloon, which concomitantly expands the balloon expandable stent.
One drawback commonly associated with self-expanding stents is that they must be compressed from the expanded state to a compressed state so that they can be loaded into the catheter. Compressing these stents typically strains the stent and also creates radial force. The amounts of strain and radial force created will depend on the specific design of the stent, the materials from which the stent is constructed, and the extent to which the stent is compressed. In many cases, the amount of strain and the amount of radial force increase as the stent is compressed to smaller diameters. Eventually, the strain may become so severe that the stent will undergo permanent deformation or failure. As a result, this strain may limit the degree to which the stent can be compressed. Since the amount of radial force increases as the stent is compressed to smaller diameters, it becomes progressively more difficult to compress these stents to smaller diameters. Thus, it may be difficult to compress these stents to the desired diameter, especially when a smaller diameter is desired. Furthermore, the increased radial force makes it much more difficult to release the compressed stent from the catheter, since the amount of radial force present is directly proportional to the amount of friction that will occur between the compressed stent and the inside of the catheter.
Another problem with many of the current designs is that they have a short fatigue life. In terms of a stent, the fatigue life is the number of cycles of compression/expansion that the stent can undergo before it fails or permanently deforms. For example, arterial stents undergo cycling due to normal blood flow through a patient's blood vessels. With every heart beat, the heart creates a surge of blood that pulses through the blood vessels, causing them to expand. Once this surge of blood passes, the blood vessel contracts. Thus, the stent is continuously compressed and expanded. In many current stent designs, the stresses created by this cycling are focused at specific regions within the stent and consequently these regions are the first to permanently deform.
Ideally, a stent would be capable of more evenly distributing the strain associated with cycling over a greater area of the stent. This in turn should lower the peak magnitude of strain, resulting in a stent with a greater fatigue life. In addition, a stent capable of more evenly distributing the strain associated with cycling over a greater area of the stent should be capable of being compressed to fit within a low-profile catheter. Furthermore, an ideal stent would have a wide range of use, in that it would be capable of being used for a range of diameters.


A described computer network includes a first computer system and a second computer system. The first computer system transmits screen image information and corresponding speech information to the second computer system. The screen image information includes information corresponding to a screen image intended for display within the first computer system. The speech information conveys a verbal description of the screen image. When the screen image includes one or more objects (e.g., menus, dialog boxes, icons, and the like) having corresponding semantic information, the speech information includes the corresponding semantic information. The second computer system responds to the speech information by producing an output (e.g., human speech via an audio output device, a tactile output via a Braille output device, and the like). The semantic information conveyed by the output allows a visually-impaired user of the second computer system to know intended purposes of the objects. The second computer system may also receive user input, generate an input signal corresponding to the user input, and transmit the input signal to the first computer system. The first computer system may respond to the input signal by updating the screen image. The semantic information conveyed by the output enables the visually-impaired user to properly interact with the first computer system.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer networks, and, more particularly, to computer networks including multiple computer systems, wherein one of the computer systems sends screen image information to another one of the computer systems.
2. Description of the Related Art
The United States government has enacted legislation that requires all information technology purchased by the government to be accessible to the disabled. The legislation establishes certain standards for accessible Web content, accessible user agents (i.e., Web browsers), and accessible applications running on client desktop computers. Web content, Web browsers, and client applications developed according to these standards are enabled to work with assistive technologies, such as screen reading programs (i.e., screen readers) used by visually impaired users.
There is one class of applications, however, for which there is currently no accessible solution for visually impaired users. This class includes applications that allow computer system users (i.e., users of client computer systems, or "clients") to share a remote desktop running on another user's computer (e.g., on a server computer system, or "server"). At least some of these applications allow a user of a client to control an input device (e.g., a keyboard or mouse) of the server, and display the updated desktop on the client. Examples of these types of application include Lotus® Sametime®, Microsoft® NetMeeting®, Microsoft® Terminal Service, and Symantec® PCAnywhere® on Windows® platforms, and the Distributed Console Access Facility (DCAF) on OS/2® platforms. In these applications, bitmap images (i.e., bitmaps) of the server display screen are sent to the client for rerendering. Keyboard and mouse inputs (i.e., events) are sent from the client to the server to simulate the client user interacting with the server desktop.
An accessibility problem arises in the above described class of applications in that the application resides on the server machine, and only an image of the server display screen is displayed on the client. As a result, there is no semantic information at the client about the objects within the screen image being displayed. For example, if an application window being shared has a menu bar, a sighted user of the client will see the menu, and understand that he or she can select items in the menu. On the other hand, a visually impaired user of the client typically depends on a screen reader to interpret the screen, verbally describe that there is a menu bar (i.e., menu) displayed, and then verbally describe (i.e., read) the choices on the menu.
With no semantic information available at the client, a screen reader running on the client will only know that there is an image displayed. The screen reader will not know that there is a menu inside the image and, therefore, will not be able to convey that significance or meaning to the visually-impaired user of the client.
Current attempts to solve this problem have included use of optical character recognition (OCR) technology to extract text from the image, and create an off-screen model for processing by a screen reader. These methods are inadequate because they do not provide semantic information, are prone to error, and are difficult to translate.

Computer network including a computer system transmitting screen image information and corresponding speech information to another computer system


There is Provided a decorative member having a coat of a hard carbon layer on a surface of a ceramic base, wherein the hard carbon layer has peaks in the ranges of wave numbers 1160.+-.40 cm.sup.-1, 1340.+-.40 cm.sup.-1 and 1500.+-.60 cm.sup.-1 of Raman spectra, and maximum intensity H.sub.1 of the peak residing in the range of 1160.+-.40 cm.sup.-1, maximum intensity H.sub.2 residing of 1340.+-.40 cm.sup.-1 cm.sup.-1 and maximum intensity H.sub.3 residing 1500.+-.60 cm.sup.-1 satisfy the following relations: 0.02.ltoreq.H.sub.1 /H.sub.2 .ltoreq.1.0 and H.sub.2 <H.sub.3, said member showing an excellent corrosion resistance, having no oozing out of a solution of a metal causing allergy on a human body and having a required mechanical properties.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a decorative member covered with a hard carbon layer.
2. Prior Art
Conventionally, decorative members, containing watch components such as watch cases and watch bands; ornaments such as cuff buttons, metal parts for bags, lighters; finger rings, necklaces, piercing earrings and brooches; frames for eyeglasses; and line guides such as fishing line guides and fiber guides, have required not only ornament or decorative value but high resistance to abrasion or wear. There are a decorative member formed from a metal having a tonality similar to the real color of gold, which has a gold-plated surface on a base metal made of brass or the like (see Japanese Patent Publication JP-A 8-120481). Decorative members are also known to be made of ceramics as a base, whose surface were covered with titanium nitride and shows a golden color, more excellent in wear resistance than gold is (see Japanese Patent Publication JP-A 1-265841).
However, the decorative members mentioned above which are made of the metal have problems in regard to weatherability, corrosion and abrasion resistance and their very short lifetime in use. In addition, in the case where Ni is included in the metal of a decorative member, there is a risk that some people is affected by metal allergy if the decorative member is put on.
Although a gold-plated decorative member has golden brilliancy in its early stage of use, it is poor in corrosion in an environment in which acid or alkaline chemicals are used, and subjected to a surface injury since gold is a soft metal, so that there has arisen another problem that its peculiar brilliancy is lost over its repeated uses.
While a decorative member covered with titanium nitride is excellent in abrasion resistance as compared with the decorative members as shown above, a longer stability of the resistance has additionally been demanded.
There has been proposed, for the purpose of a superficial protection of the surface, formation of a layer made of hard carbon such as diamond on a surface of gold and its alloy in Japanese Patent publications JP-A 62-180071 and JP-A 1-244705).
However, hard carbon layers, described in the Japanese Patent publications JP-A 62-180071 and JP-A 1-244705 above, made of a high purity diamond formed by means of Plasma CVD process or the like. Such high purity diamond layers are conspicuous in diamond crystal growth, therefore there was the problem that the crystal grains are too large to form a thin layer and the formation of a sounder layer formation requires some degree of thickness.
Furthermore, there are minute asperities on the surface made of the diamond layer of the member to cause irregular reflection of light on the surface. The problem of irregularly reflecting light on the surface can be solved by polishing the layer surface, but it takes a very long time for the mirror-polishing of the hardened surface of the diamond layer, whereby productivity is much decreased. Still besides, there was a problem that crystal grain boundaries are in this diamond layer and a number of voids are present in the bulk of the layer, causing local corrosion to occur by the chemicals easily.


A filter includes first and second axially spaced end caps having filter media extending axially between the end caps and extending in a closed-loop around a perimeter defining a hollow interior communicating with an axial flow opening through one of the end caps. One or more columns extend axially in the hollow interior between the end caps and are laterally spaced from the axial flow opening and have hollow sub-interiors for receiving one or more posts extending axially thereinto from a base for mounting the filter to the base in axial compression and with a wiper seal.

The invention relates to filters, including air filters, and more particularly to a simplified cost-advantaged construction including axial force-bearing structure.
Filters including air filters are known in the prior art and typically have first and second axially spaced end caps, and filter media extending axially between the end caps and extending in a closed-loop around a perimeter defining a hollow interior communicating with an axial flow opening through one of the end caps. For mounting and/or sealing purposes, various applications use axial compression force between the end caps and/or between the filter element assembly and a mounting base.
The present invention provides simple and effective structure in the noted axial mounting configuration, including the application of axial compression force between the end caps.