A condensate recovery system is adapted for use with an existing drain. A condensate collection vessel, which may be funnel-shaped, is inserted into the existing drain includes an upper opening to receive condensate and an outer wall. At least a portion of the outer wall is spaced apart from the inner wall of the drain such that if the collection vessel overflows, the excess liquid flows into the drain. A float switch is operative to detect when the vessel has been filled with condensate, and a pump is operative to drain the vessel in response to the float switch detecting that the vessel has been filled with condensate. A time delay relay (TDR) may be activated for a predetermined period of time before shutting off the pump. The output of the pump may be used to replenish an evaporative cooling tower or other purposes.

In some HVAC systems, such as those found in large buildings associated with arenas and hospitals, cooling towers use evaporation to cool condenser water as part of the process of making chilled water. This water has chemicals added to prevent scaling in the chiller's condenser, and as the water evaporates it must be diluted to prevent over concentration of the chemicals. Thus, potable water is used in large quantities to supply the needs of the cooling tower. Given the increasing value of potable water, any system or method to reduce consumption of potable water would be welcomed by users of such HVAC systems.


An image forming apparatus includes a plurality of image forming stations, each including a developing device, a toner container containing a colored or special toner, and a replaceable supply-toner conduit extending from the toner container to the developing device; and a toner type identifier to identify a type of toner used in the supply-toner conduit of each of the plurality of image forming stations.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus employing electrophotography.
2. Related Art
In current image forming apparatuses employing the electrophotographic method, some can use a special toner other than so-called CMYK process color toners processing colors of cyan (C), magenta (M), yellow (Y), and black (K). Such an image forming apparatus is configured such that either an image forming station for the special toner is included in addition to the four CMYK image forming stations or the image forming station for one of the process color toners is used for the special toner.
One of the examples of the special toner includes clear toner, as also called transparent toner, colorless toner, achromatic color, pigment-less toner, and the like. The clear toner is overlaid on part or all of the colored printed matter and the gloss adjusted thereby, thereby creating high value-added printed matter.
Other examples of special toner include red (R) toner, green (G) toner, and blue (B) toner. Use of those colors enables high quality reproduction of colors that cannot be reproduced using only the CMYK process color toners. There are many types of special colors other than the above.
In using the above special toner, there are cases in which a user replaces the toner of the image forming station of the image forming apparatus. One case is that the user replaces the process color toner with the special toner, and the other case is that the user replaces the special toner with the process color toner, or otherwise, from one type of special toner to another type of special toner, and from one process color toner to another process color toner. In the replacement of different types of toner, undue contamination occurs due to the mixing of colors caused by the replacement of different types of toner. Further, there is a possibility that an abnormal image is produced or the image forming unit is damaged.
To cope with such a problem, some image forming apparatuses can produce an image by overlaying color toner images including the special color in a desired order to form a color image, by replacing CMYK toner cartridges with a cartridge of the special color. Such image forming apparatuses are configured such that the image formation is enabled by overlaying the color toner images including an image of the special toner in the desired order by simply replacing the CMYK toner cartridges with the special color toner cartridge; however, color mixing of the different types of toner due to human error that replaces the toner cannot be prevented.


Hitch for securing a racing sulky to a harness or saddle of a horse. The hitch has an elongated, generally cylindrical body which includes a frustoconical tapered front portion, a generally cylindrical mid-portion and a cylindrical rear portion of slightly smaller diameter than that of the mid-portion so as to form a shoulder. The rear portion is adapted to be inserted into the open end of a tubular shaft, such as a shaft of a racing sulky. When so inserted, the hitch may be permanently secured to the shaft. The mid-portion of the hitch includes cylindrical front and rear end members which adjoin the front portion and the rear portion respectively of the hitch. The mid-portion of the hitch has one or more cutouts which define a longitudinally extending rigid strut and (when there is more than one such cutout) one or more transverse spacer discs, which are spaced from the end members and from each other. A rigid rod extends through the rear portion and the mid-portion of the hitch. The strut and the rigid rod (and the spacer discs when present) together define one or more slotted openings for receiving a strap or the like which is associated with a harness or saddle. Preferably the entire hitch except for the rigid rod is formed from a single piece of material; the rigid rod may be formed from a second piece of material and joined to the remaining structure. Either metal (such as steel or aluminum) or rigid plastic can be used for forming the hitch.

Various hitches and other means for securing the shafts of a racing sulky to a saddle or harness of a horse are known. Presently known hitches and other securing means suffer from at least two disadvantages. First, they do not permit rapid attachment or detachment of the shafts to or from a harness or saddle. Second they have wind resistance because they are not aerodynamically designed.


A rechargeable battery, and more particularly, a rechargeable battery having a function of detecting water contact. The area for detecting water contact is formed on the rechargeable battery or its component parts by applying water-soluble ink on a surface thereof. It is straightforward to form such a rechargeable battery and to easily determine whether the rechargeable battery or its component parts have been in contact with water.

1. Field of the Invention
Aspects of the present invention relate to a rechargeable battery, and more particularly, to a rechargeable battery having the function of detecting water contact.
2. Description of the Related Art
Portable electrical/electronic devices that are compact and light, such as cellular phones, notebook computers, camcorders and the like, have been developed and are currently produced. Battery packs are embedded in such portable electrical/electronic devices, so that the portable electrical/electronic devices can operate in places where a separate power source is not provided. For economy, battery packs generally use rechargeable batteries. Representative examples of rechargeable batteries are nickel-cadmium (Ni—Cd) batteries, nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries, lithium (Li) batteries, lithium-ion (Li-ion) rechargeable batteries and the like. In particular, lithium-ion (Li-ion) rechargeable batteries have an operating voltage three times higher than nickel-cadmium (Ni—Cd) batteries or nickel-metal hydride (Ni-MH) batteries, which are widely used as a power source of portable electronic devices. Lithium-ion (Li-ion) rechargeable batteries are also widely used since their energy density per unit weight is higher than those for the other batteries.
Lithium-ion (Li-ion) rechargeable batteries generally use lithium-based oxides as positive electrode active materials and carbon materials as negative electrode active materials. Batteries are generally classified into liquid electrolyte batteries and polymer electrolyte batteries according to the type of electrolyte. Lithium-ion (Li-ion) rechargeable batteries use a liquid electrolyte, and lithium polymer batteries use a polymer electrolyte. Lithium-ion (Li-ion) rechargeable batteries are manufactured into various types of shapes. Representative examples thereof are cylinder type lithium-ion (Li-ion) rechargeable batteries, prismatic type lithium-ion (Li-ion) rechargeable batteries, and pouch type lithium-ion (Li-ion) rechargeable batteries.
Rechargeable batteries having the above shapes in a bare cell state are incorporated into a battery pack that also includes protective circuit modules, exterior finishing materials and the like. Protective circuit modules control charging/discharging when rechargeable batteries are charged/discharged, and block current flow from charging/discharging when the rechargeable batteries are over-heated or over-charged.
Devices such as labels for detecting water contact are separately attached to battery packs and detect whether the battery packs contact water. However, labels for detecting water contact need to be separately, often manually attached to the battery packs, which reduces the efficiency of producing finished battery packs.


Raw data in distributed servers is divided into groups of data called buckets containing raw data that have timestamps that fall within a specific time range. When a bucket becomes inactive a server can archive the bucket to an external storage system. The external storage system containing archived data may be specified in a search query. Archived data from the external storage system is obtained, processed, and a search performed on the processed archived data using the search query.

The approaches described in this section are approaches that could be pursued, but not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated, it should not be assumed that any of the approaches described in this section qualify as prior art merely by virtue of their inclusion in this section.
Big data intake and search systems typically store a large amount of data received from customers' systems. The data is made available to each customer for searching and analysis. The size of the customer's stored data increases the longer the customer stays with a data intake and search system provider. Data that is stale or not immediately needed consumes space in the provider's storage devices. This can escalate the cost to the customer because the customer pays the provider for the amount of storage required to store the customer's data. A typical solution is to periodically delete the older data. Unfortunately, the deletion of older data prevents the customer from searching and analyzing historical data.


An image printer includes a negative-film projection exposure unit capable of projecting and exposing image information of a negative film on to a photosensitive material adapted for negative films and a positive-film exposure unit capable of exposing image information of a positive film on to the photosensitive material adapted for negative films.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image printer.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an image printer for exposing a photosensitive material with an image recorded on a film, there has been generally used an image printer operable to project and expose the film image on to the photosensitive material.
The film usually used for such image printer comprises a negative film. Yet, there sometimes arises an occasion when an image recorded on a positive film must be exposed on to the photosensitive material.
In order to cope with such situation, it has been necessary to prepare not only, an image printer charged with a photosensitive material and processing liquids for the negative film but also a further image printer charged with a photosensitive material and processing liquids for the positive film. This has been very uneconomical and improvement has been desired in this respect.
The present invention attends to the above-described state of the art, and a primary object of this invention is to provide an improved image printer capable of exposure processing of both a negative film and a positive film, thereby to reduce the system cost of the image printer.


A rigid connecting device for connecting the upper and lower surfaces inside an oil tank includes a connecting rod. The upper and lower sides of the connecting rod are each provided with a connecting end surface. The connecting end surface is provided with material-passing hole. The outer surface of the rigid connecting device is covered with high-density polyethylene. The upper and lower surfaces of the oil tank are connected by a connecting rod, and such arrangement is locally applied to areas where the rigidity of the oil tank is poor, so there are more effective space. The part of the rigid connecting rod contacting with the oil fuel is made of high-density polyethylene, so the requirements of strength and anti-corrosion can be satisfied.

Compared with metallic oil fuel tanks, automotive plastic oil fuel tanks have outstanding advantages, especially for having light weight, higher degree of freedom in product appearance design, and in aspect of performances such as anti-corrosion and anti-impact properties etc. However, the structure of HDPE (i.e. sheet-like material of high density polyethylene) which is commonly used in plastic oil tanks has drawbacks in aspect of pressure withstanding and deformation resisting properties of oil fuel tanks compared with metal materials, so it has disadvantages for being applied in fields such as high pressure resistance etc. For example, the deformation resistance of plastic oil fuel tank in the conventional resistance against the action of oil fuel gravity deformation and infiltrating-aging. Moreover, the ability to withstand high pressure deformation is required in some special engineering fields where the interior of oil fuel tank should maintain a high pressure, such as the oil fuel tank of the plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. Generally, plug-in hybrid electric vehicles and extended-range electric vehicles are merely driven by electric motors, and the engine does not operate for a long time. As temperatures change between day and night and the heat exchange inside the oil fuel tank, oil fuel in the oil fuel tank, such as gasoline and diesel will produce a relatively high oil fuel vapor pressure due to a relatively large change of temperature difference. In some cases, a relatively high air pressure will be established inside the oil tank, which may go up to a high pressure of 40 kPa and down to a negative pressure of −20 KPa. Thus, the current solution is to use an oil tank that may withstand a pressure of 40 KPa to prevent the continuous discharge of oil vapor to the carbon canister which causes saturation of the carbon canister and prevent liquid fuel from leaking to the outside environment which causes hydrocarbon (HC) emission pollution and even the risk of fire. Since there are high requirements for the sealing and safety of the oil tank in the entire industry, and the above mentioned problems have not been well resolved, metal oil tanks are usually used in the prior art to meet the requirement of withstanding high pressure. However, since metal tank has the characteristics of poor corrosion resistance, heavy weight, and low degree of freedom in design, it cannot be well applied in the field of fuel tanks which should be able to withstand high pressure. Alternatively, in the prior art, partial regions of the upper and lower surfaces of a plastic parison are extruded for a connection by using mold in the blow molding process, which is commonly known as the KISS-OFF structure. Such structure has a low connection strength and a large amount of rated capacity of the oil tank is sacrificed, such that it has low economic efficiency. Therefore, there is an urgent need for a new technical solution to solve this technical problem and to achieve the relevant technical requirements for withstanding high pressure, providing sealing performance, and safety performance of the oil tank.

Rigid connecting device for connecting the upper and lower surfaces inside an oil tank and production method of the oil tank


The present invention therefore provides a new process for the preparation of low-viscosity fluorinated rubbers, in which at least one fluorine monomer is polymerized by free radicals in the presence of one or more compounds of the formula (I) or (II) ##STR1## wherein R.sup.1 represents a fluorine atom or a perfluoroalkyl radical having 1 to 4 carbon atoms and R.sup.2 represents a perfluoroalkyl radical having 1 to 4 carbon atoms and n=4 or 5, and, optionally, a molecular weight regulator.

In the rubber industry, there is a general demand for better processability of the rubbers employed. This concerns the flow properties in particular. The lower the viscosity of the crude rubber, the simpler the processing technology, the greater the productivity and the lower the waste. The aspects mentioned are of great relevance to fluorinated rubbers in particular, since these are expensive rubbers which cannot be processed without reservation on the injection moulding machines of the rubber industry.
The process of emulsion polymerization which has hitherto been customary on an industrial scale is unsuitable for the preparation of low-viscosity fluorinated rubbers, such has have been described e.g. in DE-A 196 40 972.1, since on the one hand the need to use ionic inorganic initiators leads to ionic end groups in the polymer, which increase the viscosity of the polymer, and on the other hand large amounts of molecular weight regulators are necessary, and these as a rule lead to a drastic reduction in the reactor productivity because of side reactions with the initiator in the aqueous phase and termination reactions.
Of the non-aqueous processes, polymerizations in the pure liquefied fluorine monomer have proved to be unfavourable, since the polymers formed are usually not soluble therein and they possess poor swelling properties. A reproducible polymerization procedure with good transfer of heat and material and therefore acceptable reactor productivity is possible to just as little an extent by this route.
In contrast, fluorine monomers can be readily polymerized in the presence of certain fluorine-containing solvents, see e.g. U.S. Pat. No. 4,243,770, DE-A 196 40 972.1. U.S. Pat. No. 5,182,342 describes the use of fluorinated hydrocarbons as the polymerization medium, which meet certain criteria in respect of the F/H ratio and the position of the hydrogens. With all compounds of this type which contain hydrogen and optionally also additionally chlorine, there is always the problem that these can undergo transfer and/or termination reactions. In the case where defined end groups are to be introduced by the molecular weight regulator, however, no additional transfer reactions should start from the solvent under the reaction conditions chosen. This applies in particular to the preparation of low-viscosity rubbers which contain covalently bonded iodine on the terminal carbon atoms due to the use of diiodo-organic chain transfer agents. In DE-A 196 40 972.1, this is achieved by the use of 1,1,2-trichlorotrifluoroethane as the polymerization medium. Compounds of this type (fluorochlorocarbons), however, have a considerable ozone-depleting potential. For this reason, their use in industry is already banned in many industrial countries.
The object of the present invention was therefore to discover a practicable process for the preparation of low-viscosity fluorinated rubbers which proceeds without the use of ozone-depleting compounds.

Process for the preparation of low-viscosity fluorinated rubbers


Methods and systems for device notarization and verification are provided. In one implementation, various integrity values are concatenated to generate a concatenated value that is used to generate a transaction data signature (TDS). In one implementation, the concatenated value is a concatenation of a device value, an application value, an application encryption (AE) module value, and an authentication generation (AG) module value. The TDS or notarization code is generated by applying the concatenated value to the AG module. In one implementation, subsequent use of the application on the device involves generation of a new TDS, which is compared against the notarization code to determine whether use of the application on the device is authorized. In one implementation, the AE module and the AG module are seeded with a seed value which includes a device value, an application value, a user specific value, and a pseudo random number.

Information security is of critical importance for many entities. This is particularly true for entities that deal with sensitive information, e.g., healthcare information. Information security for an entity may involve determining device integrity, application integrity and user authentication for accessing systems (e.g., network systems) of the entity. This helps increase the likelihood (1) that the device and application used for accessing the network system have not been tampered with in an unacceptable manner (e.g., in a manner that might threaten the network system) and (2) that the person accessing the network system is an authorized user. Ensuring information security becomes more challenging as users are provided with the flexibility of accessing network systems using a variety of different devices.


In a coded speech decoding system, an n-channel time domain speech signal is converted to a frequency domain speech signal. A predetermined weighting adding process is executed on the frequency domain speech signal for each of a plurality of different transfer functions. The frequency domain speech signal obtained through the weighting adding process is converted to an m-channel (m less than n) time domain speech signal. A predetermined windowing processing is executed on the time domain speech signal.

The present invention relates to coded speech decoding systems and, more particularly, to a method of decoding coded speech with less computational effort than in the prior art in case when the number of channels of speech signal that a coded speech decoder outputs is less than the number of channels that are encoded in a coded speech signal.
Heretofore, multi channel speech signals have been coded and decoded by, for instance, a system called xe2x80x9cDolby AC-3xe2x80x9d. xe2x80x9cDolby AC-3xe2x80x9d techniques are detailed in xe2x80x9cATSC Doc. A/52xe2x80x9d, Advanced Television Systems Committee, November 1994 (hereinafter referred to as Literature Ref. 1, and incorporated herein in its entirety).
The prior art coded speech decoding system will first be briefly described. In the prior art coded speech decoding system, input speech signal is first converted through an MDCT (modified discrete cosine transform), which is in the mapping transform, to MDCT coefficients as frequency domain. In this mapping transform, either one of two different MDCT functions prepared in advance is used depending on the character of speech signal to be coded. Which one of the MDCT functions is to be used is coded in auxiliary data. The MDCT coefficients thus obtained are coded separately as exponents and mantissas in the case of expressing in a binary number of floating point system. The mantissas are variable run length coded based on the importance of the subjective coding quality of the MDCT coefficients. Specifically, the coding is performed by using a larger number of bits for the mantissa of an MDCT coefficient with greater importance and a smaller number of bits for the mantissa of an MDCT coefficient with less importance. The exponents and mantissas obtained as a result of the coding and also the auxiliary data, are multiplexed to obtain the coded speech (in the form of a coded bit stream).
FIG. 3 is a block diagram showing a prior art coded speech decoding system. The illustrated prior art coded speech decoding system comprises a coded speech input terminal 1, a coded speech separating unit 2, an exponent decoding unit 3, a mantissa decoding unit 4, an assigned bits calculating unit 5, an IMDCT (inverse MDCT: mapping) unit 60 and a decoded speech output terminal 7. In the following description of operation of the prior art coded speech decoding system, a case is taken, in which coded speech, obtained as a result of coding of an n-channel speech signal, is decoded to an m-channel decoded speech signal. This process of converting a number n of coded audio channels to a smaller number m of decoded channels without loss of information is known in the art as downmixing (see Ref. 1, p. 82). It is used, for example to convert coded five-channel xe2x80x9csurroundxe2x80x9d sound (n=5) to two-channel stereo (m=2), and the following description will be presented in terms of that application.
The coded speech signal obtained through the coding of the 5 channel speech signal is inputted to the coded speech signal input terminal 1. The coded speech signal inputted to the input terminal 1 is outputted to the coded speech signal separating unit 2.
The coded speech signal separating unit 2 separates the coded speech bit stream into exponent data, mantissa data and auxiliary data, and outputs these data to the exponent decoding unit 3, the mantissa decoding unit 4 and the IMDCT unit 4, respectively.
The exponent decoding unit 3 decodes the exponent data to generate 256 MDCT exponent coefficient per channel for each of the 5 channels. The generated exponent MDCT coefficient for the 5 channels are outputted to the assigned bits calculating unit 5 and the IMDCT unit 60. Hereinunder, the MDCT exponent coefficient of CH-th (CH=1, 2, . . . , 5) channel is referred to as EXP(CH, 0), EXP(CH, 1), . . . , EXP(CH, 255), and N in MDCT exponent coefficient EXP(CH, N) is referred to as frequency exponent.
The assigned bits calculating unit 5 generates assigned bits data for MAXCH channels in a procedure described in Literature Ref. 1, taking human""s psychoacoustic characteristics into considerations, with reference to the MDCT exponent coefficient inputted from the exponent decoding unit 3, and outputs the generated assigned bits data to the mantissa decoding unit 4.
The mantissa decoding unit 4 generates the MDCT mantissa coefficients, each expressed as a floating point binary number, for the 5 channels.
The generated MDCT mantissa coefficients for the 5 channels are outputted to the IMDCT unit 60. Hereinunder, CH-th (CH=1, 2, . . . , 5) channel MDCT mantissa coefficients are referred to as MAN(CH, N), is referred to as the N""th frequency mantissa.
The IMDCT unit 60 first derives the MDCT coefficients from the MDCT mantissa coefficients and MDTC exponent coefficients. Then, the unit 60 converts the MDTC coefficients to the MAXCH-channel speech signal through IMDCT using the transform function designated by the auxiliary data and by windowing. Finally, the unit 60 converts the 5-channel speech signal to 2-channel decoded speech signal through weighting multiplification of the 5-channel speech signal by weighting coefficients each predetermined for each channel. The 2-channel decoded speech signal thus generated is outputted from the decoded speech signal output terminal 7.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram showing an example of the internal structure of the IMDCT unit 60 in the prior art coded speech signal decoding system when the number of the channels is 5.
MDCT exponent coefficient EXP(CH, N) of CH-th (CH=1, 2, . . . , 5) channel for N""th frequency exponent (N=0, 1, . . . , 255) is inputted to the input terminal 100.
MDCT mantissa coefficient MAN(CH, N) of CH-th (CH=1, 2,. . . , 5) channel for frequency exponent N (N=0, 1, . . . , 255) is inputted to the input terminal 101.
Auxiliary data including identification of transform function data of CH-th (CH=1, 2, . . . , 5) channel is inputted to the input terminal 102.
The MDCT exponent coefficient EXP(CH, N) and the MDCT mantissa coefficient MAN(CH, N) are outputted to an MDCT coefficient generator 110.
The MDCT coefficient generator 110 generates MDCT coefficient MDCT(CH, N) of CH-th (CH=1, 2, . . . , 5) channel for N""th frequency exponent (N=0, 1, . . . 255) by executing computational operation expressed as
MDCT(CH, N)=MAN(CH, N)xc3x972{circumflex over ( )}(_EXP(CH, N))
where X{circumflex over ( )}Y represents raising X to power Y.
MDCT coefficient MDCT(CH, N) of the CH-th channel (CH=1, 2, . . . , 5) channel for frequency exponent N (N=0, 1, . . . , 255), is outputted to transform function selector 12-CH of CH-th channel (i.e., transform function selectors 12-1 to 12-5 as shown in FIG. 4).
Transform function selection data of the CH-th (CH=1, 2, . . . , 5) channel inputted to the input terminal 102, is outputted to the pertinent transform function selectors 12-CH. According to the transform function data of CH-th (CH=1, 2, . . . , 5) channel ,transform function selector 12-CH selects either a 512- or a 256-point IMDCT 22-CH or 23-CH for the CH-th channel as transform function to be used, and outputs CH-channel MDCT coefficient MDCT(CH, 0), MDCT(CH, 1), . . . , MDCT(CH, 225) to the selected MDCT function.
CH-channel 512-point IMDCT 22-CH, when selected for CH-th (CH=1, 2, . . . , 5) channel by the pertinent CH-channel transform function selector 12-CH, converts MDCT coefficient MDCT (CH, N) of CH-channel to windowing signal WIN(CH, N) of CH-channel for frequency exponent N (N=0, 1, . . . , 255) through 512-point IMDCT.
The windowing signal WIN(CH, N) of CH-th channel thus obtained is outputted to windowing processor 24-CH of CH-channel. At this time, 256-point IMDCT 23-CH of CH-channel is not operated and does not output any signal. 256-point IMDCT 23-CH of CH-channel, when selected by the pertinent CH-channel transfer function selector 12-CH, converts CH-channel MDCT coefficient MDCT (CH, N) for frequency exponent N (N=0, 1, . . . , 255) to CH-channel windowing signal WIN(CH, N) through 256-point IMDCT. At this time, CH-channel 512-point IMDCT 22-CH is not operated and does not output any signal.
The 512-point IMDCT 22-CH for CH-channel executes the 512-point IMDCT in the following procedure, which is shown in Literature Ref. 1. The 512-point IMDCT is a linear transform.
(1) The 256 MDCT coefficients to be converted are referred to X(0), X(1), . . . , X(255).
Also,
xcos 1(k)=xe2x88x92cos(2xcfx80(8k+1)÷4096)
and
xsin 1(k)=xe2x88x92sin(2xcfx80(8k+1)÷4096)
are set as such.
(2) Calculations on
xe2x80x83Z(K)=(X(225xe2x88x922k)+jxc3x97X(2k))xc3x97(xcos 1(k)+jxc3x97sin 1(k))
are executed for k=0, 1, . . . , 127.
(3) Calculations on                               z                                (            n            )                          =                              ∑            0            127                                                        z                                            (                k                )                                      ·                          (                                                cos                                                        (                                          8                                                                    xe2x80x83                                                                  π                                                                    xe2x80x83                                                                                kn                        /                        N                                                              )                                                  +                                  j                  ·                                      sin                                                              (                                              8                                                                          xe2x80x83                                                                        π                                                                          xe2x80x83                                                                                kn                          /                          N                                                                    )                                                                                )                                                          (Formula  1)
are executed for n=0, 1, . . . , 127.
(4) Calculations on
y(n)=z(n)xc3x97(xcos 1(n)+jxc3x97sin 1(n))
are executed for n=0, 1, . . . , 127.
(5) Calculations on
x(2n)=xe2x88x92yi(64+n),
x(2n+1)=yr(63xe2x88x92n),
x(128+2n)=xe2x88x92yr(n),
x(128+2n+1)=yi(128xe2x88x92nxe2x88x921),
x(256+2n)=xe2x88x92yr(64+n),
x(256+2n+1)=yi(64xe2x88x92nxe2x88x921),
x(384+2n)=yi(n)
and
x(384+2n+1)=xe2x88x92yr(128xe2x88x92nxe2x88x921)
where yr(n) and yi(n) are the real number and imaginary number parts, respectively, of y(n), are executed for n=0, 1, . . . , 127.
(6) Signals x(0), x(1), . . . , x(255) are outputted as windowing signal.
The 256-point IMDCT 23-CH of CH-channel executes the 256-point IMDCT in the following procedure, which is shown in Literature Ref. 1. This 256-point IMDCT is a linear transform.
(1) The 256 MDCT coefficients to be converted are referred to X(0), X(1), . . . , X(255).
Also,
xcos 2(k)=xe2x88x92cos(2xcfx80(8k+1)÷2048)
and
xsin 2(K)=xe2x88x92sin(2xcfx80(8k+1)÷2048)
are set as such.
(2) Calculations on
X1(k)=X(2k)
and
X2(k)=X(2k+1)
are executed for k=0, 1, . . . , 127.
(3) Calculations on
Z1(k)=(X1(128xe2x88x922kxe2x88x921)+jxc3x97X1(2k))xc3x97(xcos 2(k)+jxc3x97xsin 2(k))
and
Z2(k)=(X2(128xe2x88x922kxe2x88x921)+jxc3x97X2(2k)xc3x97(xcos 2(k)+jxc3x97xsin 2(k))
are executed for k=0, 1, . . . , 63.
(4) Calculations on                               z1                                (            n            )                          =                              ∑            0            63                                                        z1                                            (                k                )                                      ·                          (                                                cos                                                        (                                          16                                                                    xe2x80x83                                                                  π                                                                    xe2x80x83                                                                                kn                        /                        512                                                              )                                                  +                                  j                  ·                                      sin                                                              (                                              16                                                                          xe2x80x83                                                                        π                                                                          xe2x80x83                                                                                kn                          /                          512                                                                    )                                                                                (Formula  2)
and                               z2                                (            n            )                          =                              ∑            0            63                                                        z2                                            (                k                )                                      ·                          (                                                cos                                                        (                                          16                                                                    xe2x80x83                                                                  π                                                                    xe2x80x83                                                                                kn                        /                        512                                                              )                                                  +                                  j                  ·                                      sin                                                              (                                              16                                                                          xe2x80x83                                                                        π                                                                          xe2x80x83                                                                                kn                          /                          512                                                                    )                                                                                (Formula  3)
are executed for n=0, 1, . . . , 63.
(5) Calculations on
y1(n)=z1(n)xc3x97(xcos 2(n)+jxc3x97xsin 2(n))
and
Y2(n)=z2(n)xc3x97(xcos 2(n)+jxc3x97xsin 2(n))
are executed for n=0, 1, . . . , 63.
(6) Calculations on
xe2x80x83x(2n)=xe2x88x92yi1(n),
x(2n+1)=yr1(64xe2x88x92nxe2x88x921),
x(128+2n)=yr1(n),
x(128+2n+1)=yi1(64xe2x88x92nxe2x88x921),
x(256+2n)=xe2x88x92yr2(n),
x(256+2n+1)=yi2(64xe2x88x92nxe2x88x921),
x(384+2n)=yi2(n)
and
x(384+2n+1)=yr2(64xe2x88x92nxe2x88x921)
where yr 1(n) and yi 1(n) are the real number and imaginary number parts, respectively, of y1(n), are executed for n=0, 1, . . . , 63.
(7) Signals x (0), x(1), . . . , x(255) are outputted as windowing signal.
Windowing processor 24-CH of CH-th (CH=0, 1, . . . , 5) channel converts windowing signal WIN (CH, N) (n=0, 1, . . . , 255) of CH-channel to speech signal PCM (CH, n) of CH-th channel by executing calculations on linear transform formulas
PCM(CH,n)=2xc3x97(WIN(CH,n)xc3x97(W(n)+DELAY(CH,n)xc3x97W(256+n))
and
DELAY(CH,n)=WIN(CH,256+n)
where W(n) is a constant representing a window function as prescribed in Literature Ref. 1. DELAY(CH, n) is a storage area prepared in the decoding system, and it should be initialized once to zero when starting the decoding. The speech signal PCM(CH, n) of CH-channel thus obtained as a result of the conversion is outputted to a weighting adding processor 250.
The weighting adding processor 250 generates decoded speech signals LPCM(n) and RPCM(n) (n=0, 1, . . . , 255) of 1-st and 2-nd channel by executing calculations on                               LPCM                                (            n            )                          =                              ∑                          i              =              1                        MAXCH                                                        LW                                            (                i                )                                      ·                          PCM                                            (                                  i                  ,                  N                                )                                                                        (Formula  4)
and                               RPCM                                (            n            )                          =                              ∑                          i              =              1                        MAXCH                                                        RW                                            (                i                )                                      ·                          PCM                                            (                                  i                  ,                  N                                )                                                                        (Formula  5)
which are liner transform formulas. In this instance, LW(1), LW(2), . . . , LW(5) and RW(1), RW(2), . . . , RW(5) are weighting constants, which are described as constants in Literature Ref. 1. Decoded speech signals LPCM(n) and RPCM(n) of the 1-st and 2-nd channel are outputted from output terminals 26-1 and 26-2, respectively.
The prior art coded speech decoding system as described above, has a problem that it requires great IMDCT computational effort, because the IMDCT and the windowing are each executed once for each channel.
An object of the present invention is to provide a coded speech decoding system, which permits IMDCT with less computational effort.
According to the present invention, there is provided a coded speech decoding system comprising: a mapping transform means for converting a time domain speech signal having a fast number of channels n to m frequency domain bitstream; a weighting addition means for executing a predetermined weighting adding process on the frequency domain speech signal obtained in the mapping transform means to output a speech signal using channels in a second channel number; an inverse mapping transform means for converting the second channel number speech signal to a time domain speech signal; and windowing means for executing a predetermined windowing process on the time domain speech signal obtained in the inverse mapping transform means.
The mapping transform is modified discrete cosine transform, and the inverse mapping is modified inverse discrete cosine transform. When the inverse mapping transform is executed by using one of a plurality of preliminarily prepared different transform functions, the process of converting the channel number is executed for each transform function. If any transform function is not used for any of the n channels, the n to m channel conversion and the inverse mapping transform are not performed with the unused transform function.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a coded speech decoding system featuring converting a time domain speech signal having n channels to a frequency domain speech signal; executing a predetermined weighting adding process on the frequency domain speech signal for each of a plurality of different transfer functions; converting a speech signal obtained after the weighting adding process to a time domain speech signal, and executing a predetermined windowing process on the time domain speech signal thus obtained.
According to other aspect of the present invention, there provided a coded speech decoding apparatus comprising: MDCT coefficients generator for generating MDCT coefficients on the basis of channel MDCT exponent coefficient, channel MDCT mantissa coefficient and auxiliary data including channel transform function data; channel transform function selector for selecting one of a plurality of weighting processors according to a channel transform function data contained in the auxiliary data; weighting adder processor for executing a weighting adding process on the MDCT coefficients as frequency domain signal from the output of the channel transform function selector; IMDCT processor for executing IMDCT on the output signal from the weighting adder processor; channel adder for generating windowing signal on the basis of the output of the IMDCT processor; and window processor for converting the window signal from the channel adder into a speech signal.
According to still other aspect of the present invention, there provided a coded speech decoding method comprising the steps of: converting an n-channel time domain speech signal a frequency domain speech signal; executing a predetermined weight adding process on the frequency domain speech signal for each of a plurality of different transfer functions; converting the speech signal obtained through the weighting adding process to a time domain speech signal; and executing a predetermined windowing processing on the time domain speech signal.
Other objects and features will be clarified from the following description with reference to attached drawings.

Coded speech decoding system with low computation


A novel passive flow restrictor attached outside the tubing in an oil well and positioned below casing perforations, causing fluid flow from an oil reservoir formation to at least partially flow through a narrow annular space between the flow restrictor and the casing before entering the tubing. The flow resistance is thereby defined in part by the length of the annular space, which is easily adjusted by lowering or raising the tubing within the casing. The flow restrictor and methods of using thereof are especially advantageous for maximizing oil production in thin oil rim gas reservoir as well as with other oil wells with high Gas-to-Oil Ratio.

Without limiting the scope of the invention, its background is described in connection with oil production. More particularly, the invention describes methods, computer models, and related devices allowing simplified adjustment of bottomhole pressure in order to obtain the highest possible oil production for an oil well with a high gas-to-oil ratio over the lifetime of the oil well. The invention has particular utility in thin oil rims of gas reservoirs.
In order for oil production to keep up with the ever-growing energy demand, it is essential to find new ways to improve the recovery of existing oil fields. The most advantageous implementation of the present invention is in wells with high Gas-to-Oil Ratio (GOR) defined as GOR greater than about 100 cubic meters of gas over cubic meters of oil, which is sometimes also referred to in other units as about 600 cubic feet of gas per barrel of oil, which is the same as above. Such oil wells may exhibit high and increasing production of gas accompanied by low and decreasing production of oil. In extreme cases, a gas flow regime may be formed with no oil exiting the oil well altogether—even despite adjustments of the surface choke, including either closing or opening thereof. At some point, the gas flow regime may exhaust the reservoir formation pressure and preclude any further oil production, whereby severely limiting a total oil recovery from a particular oil well and even from a particular reservoir formation.
Significant oil reserves are captured in relatively thin oil rims sandwiched between overlying gas and underlying condensate or water. Due to a strong tendency for gas cone formation leading to early gas or water breakthrough in these wells, efficient production from these fields has always been a real technological challenge. It continues to be difficult, despite the advancements in the hardware technology over the last decade, in particular, the ability to install and use sensors and remotely controllable valves in both wells and at the surface. Apart from the natural technical constraints of poor accessibility of large portions of the reservoir in terms of both control and monitoring, the other main factor contributing to this is the fact that the optimization of wells using the flow control devices is still not adequate for maximizing oil production. New technologies are needed to allow efficient oil recovery in thin oil rims of gas reservoirs.
This invention contains further improvements of my earlier U.S. Pat. Nos. 7,172,020; 7,753,127; and 10,435,983 incorporated herein in their respective entireties by reference.
A conventional oil well is illustrated in FIG. 1 and includes an oil/gas reservoir formation 1, which is reached by an oil well casing 6 with a plurality of perforations 2 allowing oil to enter the internal space of the casing 6. An oil well tubing 7 is lowered into the casing 6 and concentrically fixed at the bottomhole region by spacers/packers 4 or other suitable means. The oil well tubing 7 extends to the surface of the well and features an adjustable surface choke 8 used to control the flow of oil and gas from the oil well tubing 7.
Optimization of oil production and an increase in ultimate oil recovery from an oil well has been a goal of many innovative methods and devices of the prior art. Generally speaking, the bottomhole behavior of oil mixed with gas (and some other ingredients such as water, etc.) has been described in a series of mathematical equations by Musket. One specific publication by Musket is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety and describes the mathematical model of oil reservoir: Musket M. "The Production Histories of Oil Producing Gas-Drive Reservoirs", published in the Journal of Applied Physics in March of 1945, p. 147-159.
For illustration purposes, a unidimensional axisymmetric system of Musket equations with corresponding PVT characteristics of fluid and dependencies of relative permeability Kro, Krg from liquid saturation (So) can be described as follows:
                                                        1              r                                                  ∂                              ∂                r                                                                (                              r                                                                      k                                          r                                            o                                                                                μ                      0                                                                                B                      o                                                                                ∂                    p                                                        ∂                    r                                                              )                                =                                    -              1                                    5                                      8              .              0                                    6                        4                                      ϕ              k                                                  ∂                              ∂                t                                                                (                                                S                  o                                                  B                  o                                            )                                                                                1              r                                                                  ∂                                  ∂                  r                                                                          [                                                      r                                                              (                                                                                k                            rg                                                                                μ                              g                                                                                B                              g                                                                                +                                                                              Rs                                                                                5                                .                                6                                                                                15                                                                                k                              ro                                                                                μ                                o                                                                                B                                o                                                                                )                                                                                ∂                      p                                                              ∂                      r                                                                      ]                                              =                                    -              1                                    5                                      8              .              0                                    6                        4                                      ϕ              k                                                  ∂                              ∂                t                                                                (                                                                    S                    g                                                        B                    g                                                  +                                                                            S                      o                                                              B                      o                                                                                Rs                    5.615                                                              )                                                          (        1        )
where: P—pressure in formation; So—oil saturation in formation; Sg—gas saturation in formation; Rs—solution of gas in oil; Bo—oil formation volume factor; Bg—gas formation volume factor; μo—oil viscosity; μg—gas viscosity; φ μformation porosity; K—formation permeability.
For practical purposes, Vogel had simplified the Musket equations and adapted them to the calculations of oil-producing formations. These equations are known as Vogel model and have subsequently been modified by others. One example of such publication is as follows: Vogel, Inflow Performance Relationships for Solution-Gas Drive Wells, as published in Journal of Petroleum Technology, January 1968, pp. 83-92, incorporated herein in its entirety by reference. Unfortunately, Vogel model does not work well in wells with a high gas-to-oil ratio. According to Vogel, the dependency of oil rate production of bottomhole pressure is a constantly diminishing parabolic curve with a production peak at zero value of the bottomhole pressure, see for example FIG. 2 of the above-mentioned article. In other words, the lower the bottomhole pressure, the higher the oil rate production from the formation. This is a gross simplification of the bottomhole processes in the formation. In fact, if the bottomhole pressure falls below saturation pressure in case of high GOR, relative permeability coefficient by oil decreases because of gas saturation increase, which in turn is a result of gas being released from oil. Viscosity of so degassed oil also increases. This leads to a decrease in productivity index of formation. This phenomenon affects the oil production rate more than increasing depression. As a result, decreasing the bottomhole pressure below saturation pressure can lead to a decrease in oil production rate, rather than to its increase as predicted by Vogel's model, see FIG. 2. In some extreme cases, reliance on Vogel's model will cause a complete switch in production from oil to gas.
It is also known that producing oil wells with high GOR (Gas-to-Oil Ratio) often lose their stability, and this process is accompanied by a sharp increase in GOR. Any attempts to stop this process by using a surface choke or other surface manipulations usually fail, and the oil well gradually switches into a full gas production mode. The physics of this process can be explained as follows: in a case when a gas cone covers some holes of a perforated section of the well casing 6, quite often that oil well loses stability. This, in turn, leads to a continuing slow increase of the cone height followed by an increase in the gas stream and a decrease in the oil flow. This process continues until the well is completely switched to a gas mode. Even if a switch to a gas mode does not happen, the instability of the well does not allow efficient control of the bottomhole pressure by using a choke at the surface. Similar detrimental phenomena can occur because of formation of a gas skin effect near the bottom of the well. The physics of the skin effect is described in detail in my U.S. Pat. No. 7,172,020. It also shows that this phenomenon leads to a non-conventional shape of the IPR curve (Inflow Pressure Relationship, i.e. the dependence of well oil flow rate of the bottomhole pressure). A notable feature of this curve is the presence of a certain threshold value of the bottomhole pressure (called "Popt—optimal pressure"), at which the greatest possible oil flow rate from a reservoir can be achieved (FIG. 2).
The process of gas cone formation interrupting the flow of oil from the well is especially difficult to control in thin oil rims gas reservoirs where the height of the oil layer may only be several meters. The fluctuation of gas and oil flows entering the fixed geometry perforations of the casing cause disruption of oil recovery and in many cases preclude substantial amounts of oil from being extracted from the oil well altogether.
A new understanding of the processes surrounding any deviation of the oil production from the initial optimal level is described in my previous patents referenced above. Reference is made now to FIG. 3 showing an exemplary calculated IPR curve superimposed onto a GOR (Gas-to-Oil Ratio) curve in a space defined by bottomhole pressure and the oil flow rate coordinates. As the oil production rate increases with decreasing of the bottomhole pressure following an IPR curve from the top point corresponding to the reservoir formation pressure, it reaches a maximum level of oil production at the point marked with an arrow. All throughout that process, the GOR value remains at or about the initial level and not changing much as the bottomhole pressure reaches the optimal level, as the GOR curve is essentially close to a vertical line in that region of the chart. From the point of reaching the maximum oil production rate and further below thereof, however, as the bottomhole pressure and the oil rate continue to decrease, the GOR curve exhibits a sharp increase at the bottom right corner of the chart, indicating a rapidly increasing amount of gas entering the oil well.
As the bottomhole pressure decreases and the GOR raises to a higher level, the flow restrictor causes the flow regime in at least one of the first stage or a second stage to change from a bubble type two-phase flow to a slug type two-phase flow. The increase in the amount of gas traversing the flow restrictor of appropriate size is causing a rapid increase in its flow resistance, which in turn causes the increase in the bottomhole pressure and therefore urging the oil production rate to shift back up in the direction of the maximum oil production rate. This, in turn, causes the GOR to decrease again to get closer to its level corresponding to the maximum oil production rate. The gas component of the two-phase flow is therefore decreasing, and the equilibrium is maintained.
This unique behavior is, therefore, assuring the maximum oil production rate to be a stable equilibrium point on the IPR curve, thereby any deviations and changes in reservoir conditions are mitigated by the flow restrictor to maintain the oil rate at a desired maximum production point. Because of this behavior, there is no need to adjust the geometry of the flow restrictor from the surface and no need to interrupt the oil production from the oil well for maintaining the production rate at the desired maximum level.
Still, over the lifetime of the well there may be a need for adjusting the flow restrictor. This is typically accomplished by controlling the mechanism of flow restrictor adjustment from the top of the well or by replacing one flow restrictor with another. Both processes are complicated and, in many situations, involve a disruption of oil production from the well.
The need exists therefore for methods and devices for continuously producing oil at a maximum possible rate over the life of the oil well in a stable and predictable manner —including in oil wells in high GOR and even in the presence of gas cone and gas skin effects.
The need also exists for a flow restrictor which is easily controlled from the top of the well without significant disruptions in oil production.

Methods and devices for maximizing oil production for wells containing oil with high gas-to-oil ratio and oil extraction from oil rims of gas reservoirs


A device is provided which significantly deters the theft of tailgates from pickup trucks. The shaft member of a typical tailgate hinge mechanism is secured by a rotatable cup within the cup fixed to the tailgate. The open slotted sectors on both cups are aligned to allow passage of the shaft member. After passage of the shaft member, the rotatable cup is moved until the open slotted sectors are out of alignment, preventing movement of the shaft member out of the cups. A wall sector is also provided which attaches to the exterior surface of the rotatable cup after the shaft member has been positioned within. It is closely received by the open slotted sector of the used cup which prevents further rotation of the rotatable cup within the fixed cup.

For several years pickup truck owners have been plagued by tailgate theft. These thefts stem from the tailgate hinge design, which allows one end of the tailgate to pull free of the hinge when the tailgate is lowered to a particular position. When in that position, a shaft member is free to move from a fixed receiving cup in which the shaft member is normally situated. The shaft member moves from the receiving cup through an open slotted sector designed for that purpose. Tailgate thieves find it easy to lower the tailgate to the well known removal position, and pull the shaft member from the receiving cup.
Currently, the known methods for combating this problem, typically involve significant hardware additions, and usually involve keyed locks. Some involve locking the tailgate itself, which reduces the convenience and utility of the tailgate during ordinary usage.
What is needed is a simple means of combating tailgate theft, with a minimum of hardware, and without the necessity of locking the tailgate.


A method and a device for carrying out measurings and/or servicings in a wellbore or a well in the process of being drilled by means of electric connection linking the surface to an assembly fastened to the end of a drill string involve the use of an assembly comprising measuring and/or servicing means linked to a first connector integral with the assembly; a cable section comprising at the lower end thereof, a second connector and at the upper end thereof, a first intermediate connector integral with a support; and a cable linked to the surface comprising at the lower end thereof a second intermediate connector.

Patent FR-2,501,777 mentions a known method and device for carrying out measurings and/or servicings from a sonde fastened to the end of a drill string, but this document only relates to logging devices and has no intermediate connectors. The rotating of the whole of the string in the well is impossible when the sonde is connected because of the presence of the cable coaxial with respect to the drill string or annular when a side-entry sub is used.
The present invention allows to connect measuring and/or servicing means notably included in a drilling assembly and allows the rotating of the whole of the string without requiring the total coaxial cable to be taken up to the surface, by means of intermediate connectors and of an adapted support.
Document GB-1,557,863 mentions a known method and device for transmitting information coming from a sonde lowered in a drill string, said sonde being suspended to a cable section, said section being linked to the surface by means of a connector and of a cable. The sonde is lowered into the string at the end of the cable and must therefore have an outside diameter compatible with the inner passage of the tubular string, and the hanging of the section is achieved at the surface.
The present invention advantageously allows a size of measuring devices which no longer depends on the inside diameter of the drill string channel. In fact, in small drilling sizes, it is sometimes impossible to have certain equipments. The invention integrates the measuring and/or servicing means in housings which may have the outside dimension of the drill collars conventionally used in the borehole considered. The electronic elements are linked to the surface by a device comprising at least one double couple of electric connectors. Operating the pipes so as to take them down or up can be easily done by taking up a limited cable length, which only requires a very short time and allows high capacity transmissions by means of a cable transmission. No cable in the annulus, as it is commonly the case in this field when a side-entry sub is utilized, is advantageous when safety imposes an annular seal at the well-head, either continuously in case of air drilling or foam drilling, or occasionally when the bottomhole pressure is unbalanced. In these cases, the cable is bothersome and sometimes dangerous.
In certain strongly deflected wellbores, notably those with a small bending radius, this invention is economically very interesting for the phase of control of the trajectory of the wellbore in the curve and in the substantially horizontal part. In fact, the tools used in the prior art use notably a transmission by pressure waves in the fluid so as to be able to rotate the total string without the cable being in the way or having to be taken up completely. With the invention, the length of the section may correspond to the kick-off point, and since the length of the wellbore with a small bending radius is limited to several hundred meters, maneuvering the cable connected to the surface is simple and fast during the total deflection phase. With the invention, the frequency of the measurings and servicings is thus comparable to what can be obtained with transmissions without an electric cable, and moreover with a lesser cost and complexity. Moreover, rotating the total string is allowed when the cable has been taken up to the surface.
In the case of very deep and therefore very high temperature drilling, the invention will be advantageously applied because it provides a mechanical support for taking up the weight of the cable and the tensile strains generated on the cable notably through an energetic circulation of a cooling fluid. In fact, in deep drillings, the tension which a continuous cable would withstand is higher than the allowable tension. The solution therefore consists in having intermediate supports of sections with an acceptable length.

Method and device for carrying out measurings and/or servicings in a wellbore or a well in the process of being drilled


A clamping device for a machine tool that is securable to a work table of the machine tool. The machine tool typically has a work table and a saddle. The worktable is slidably mounted to the saddle. An elongated table screw is carried by the work table and extends through threaded block carried by the other saddle. A pair of jaws of the clamping device each have an acurate surface for engaging the elongated table screw. A mechanism moves the jaws relative to each other and into a closed position engaging and retaining the elongated table screw.

In a machine tool such as a milling machine, the work to be machined is mounted to a table. The table is movable relative to a machining head having the tool, such as a cutter, to position the piece to be machined, the work piece, relative to the machining tool. In order to position the work relative to the machining head, the table is movable by the table being slidably mounted to a second movable unit, commonly referred to as a saddle which in turn is movable relative to a third movable unit, commonly referred to as a knee. This last movable unit, the knee, is movable relative to the base of the machine tool. By adjusting the position of each of the movable units, the table with the workpiece can be positioned vertically, transversely, and longitudinally relative to the base and the machine head of the machine tool. Once the table has been adjusted relative to the base and the machine head, it is critical that the table be maintained in a fixed position relative to the base while the work piece is being machined on the table.
This invention relates to a clamping device for a machine tool. The machine tool typically has a work table and a saddle. The worktable is slidably mounted to the saddle. An elongated table screw is carried by the work table in a preferred embodiment. A threaded block is carried by the other unit, the saddle, and threadably receives the elongated screw.
The clamping device has a frame that is securable to the worktable. A pair of jaws each have an acurate surface for engaging the elongated screw. A mechanism moves the jaws relative to each other and into a closed position engaging and retaining the elongated screw.
In one embodiment, one of the jaws is fixed to the frame and the other jaw, a movable jaw, is movable relative to the fixed jaw and the frame. The movable jaw is movable by rotation of a threaded screw carried by the frame and having an end engaging the movable block.
In one embodiment, the clamping device has a base attachable in a fixed position relative to the work table and a pair of clamping jaws slidably mounted on the base for movement toward and away from each other. The jaws are linked to the base and to each other so that movement of a first one of the jaws toward a second one of the jaws causes the second jaw to move toward the first jaw. An actuator is connected to one of the jaws for moving the jaws toward one another for clamping the longitudinal screw to prevent the screw from rotating.
In one embodiment, one of the jaws or blocks has a projecting tooth receivable in the groove between a pair of threads in the elongated table screw. The projecting tooth is moveable in one direction, such as vertically, relative to the jaw.
In one embodiment, an adjustment screw is carried by the clamp frame to space the clamp frame from the work table. A spacer is interposed between the adjustment screw and the work table. A T-bolt is carried by the clamp frame and receivable in a slot in the work table to secure the clamping device to the work table.
In one embodiment, one of the jaws has a slot for receiving a guide pin of an actuator. The slot is at angle relative to the perpendicular direction to the motion of the jaw. An insert has a plurality of arcuate surfaces to receive the guide pin is receivable by the slot.


The present invention relates to an analog predistorter (100) having a tunable amplitude (60) and/or phase (80) expansion. The predistorter (100) includes a coupler (110) having an input port (112), an output port (114), a first (116) and a second (118) coupled port separated by 90 degrees. A first compensation circuit (120A) is connected to the first coupled port (116) and comprises a first combination (130A) of linear (132A) and nonlinear (131A) circuit elements and a first impedance adjusting unit (140A) for adjusting the impedance seen by the nonlinear circuit element (131A). A second compensation circuit (120B) is connected to the second coupled port (118) and comprises a second combination (130B) of linear (132B) and nonlinear (131B) circuit elements a second impedance adjusting unit (140B) for adjusting the impedance seen by said nonlinear circuit element (131B). By adjusting the impedances seen by the nonlinear circuit elements (13 IA, 131B) the amplitude (60) and/or phase (80) expansion of the predisorter (100) are tuned.

Amplifiers are used today in a wide range of applications for amplifying different signals. In for example radio communications systems a power amplifier typically amplifies a radio frequency (RF) signal in a transmitter prior to transmission to a receiver.
One basic problem in power amplifiers is when they are operated at or close to their saturation levels. At such high power demand levels (close to the saturation power limit of the amplifiers), amplifiers may experience drastic changes in amplitude and phase characteristics, increasing the intermodulation (IM) distortion. In addition, amplifiers in radio communications systems are often required to simultaneously amplify several different carrier signals. As a result, nonlinear intermodulation products are generated which may interfere with the processing of the transmitted signals.
FIGS. 1A and 1B schematically illustrate the amplitude (gain) and phase transfer characteristics of a typical power amplifier at different (input) power levels, respectively. As is seen in the diagrams, the transfer characteristics consist of a linear part 50; 70 followed at high drive levels (over the nonlinear power point PS) by a nonlinear portion 60; 80 or complex gain (amplitude gain or phase) compression. This nonlinear amplifier behavior can, thus, be decreased by reducing the power output of the amplifier. However, such power output reduction reduces the signal levels and transmission efficiency.
As a consequence, the signals provided to the amplifier are preferably processed to alter them to account for the nonlinear (intermodulation) effects. An example of such a signal processing is the predistortion technique. In this technique, the signal provided to the amplifier is altered by generating a compensation characteristic that is the opposite to the transfer characteristics of the amplifier, illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B, in both amplitude and phase, and this altered signal is provided to the amplifier. As a consequence, the linear operation portion 50; 70 is preferably extended into higher power levels and the intermodulation products are removed or at least reduced.
The patent document U.S. Pat. No. 6,326,843 discloses an analog reflective predistorter employed for compensating for phase and amplitude variations imposed on an input signal by one or more nonlinear transfer characteristics of a power amplifier operating at or near saturation. This predistorter includes a hybrid having signal input and output terminals and two relative phase terminals separated by 90 degrees. A respective compensation circuit is connected to each of the terminals. Such a compensation circuit includes a Schottky diode pair in parallel with a pair of resistances and a capacitance. A respective bias network is coupled to the input and output terminals of the hybrid for setting bias levels so that the compensation characteristics of the compensation circuit are started or initiated at the nonlinear behavior point (PS in FIGS. 1A and 1B) of the amplifier. In addition, the value of the capacitance in the compensation circuit and the length of the line between the diode pair and resistances determine the phase expansion of the predistorter. The amplitude predistortion of the predistorter is determined by the value of the resistances.


The electrochemical reactors disclosed herein provide novel oxidation and reduction chemistries and employ increased mass transport rates of materials to and from the surfaces of electrodes therein.

The economic scale up of electrochemical reactors and processes has been challenging due to the low economy of scale factor inherent to such devices. This challenge can be encountered by electrochemical processes including electrowinning, electrorefining, electroplating, electrocoagulation, hypochlorite and disinfectant generation, hydrogen generation, and fuel cell and battery operation. A variety of factors can play a role in the inability to economically build and operate scaled up electrochemical reactors and processes.
Generally speaking, productivity in electrochemical reactors and processes is directly proportional to the electrode area and current density at a given efficiency. Accordingly, scale up tends to require larger electrodes, an increased number of electrodes, and/or increased power demands, all of which raise the cost of operating the electrochemical reactor and process.
Productivity can also be a challenge when the electrochemical process is limited in rate due to the kinetics of the desired transformative processes and mass transport. Additional challenges are encountered when secondary processes are competing with the desired transformation. Particularly challenging are electrochemical processes involving several steps along the reaction pathway resulting in the slow transformation of reactants to products and lower productivity. Such steps can include dissolution, diffusion, electrode or catalyst surface adsorption/desorption, electron transfer, ion transfer, molecular rearrangement, breaking or making of chemical bonds, and chemical reactions of intermediates. Further complicating matters is that the desired process may occur at a similar electrode potential (voltage) as other undesired processes, such as side reactions that consume electricity, may consume the desired product or produce a poor product. The aforementioned issue of poor process selectivity can also lead to reduced productivity.
A variety of methods are employed to compensate for slow kinetics, limited mass transport and reduced selectivity of certain electrochemical processes. Some of the most common methods include the use of high surface area electrodes, process-selective electrocatalysts, pH adjustment, temperature control, chemical additives, elevated reactant concentration, mixing and turbulence, separation of electrode processes, potential control, and minimizing shunt losses or shorting (both electrical and chemical). The above list is only exemplary as there are many useful methods demonstrated in the literature. The aforementioned methods are effective for optimizing single phase electrochemical reaction processes in general, but are not as effective or practical for optimizing multiphase electrochemical processes.
Electrochemical processes that involve the interaction of multiple phases at an electrode surface, such as gas and liquid, add another level of challenge when designing highly productive electrochemical devices. Achieving uniform distribution of gas and liquid components over large-scale electrodes is challenging from a practical design and operations perspective. Often, the multiphase electrochemical process involves the transformation of gas-phase materials (such as the reduction of oxygen or carbon dioxide), which must be present at the electrode surface simultaneously with the liquid (electrolyte) phase for a transformation to occur. Examples of reactors designed to afford high surface area access to gaseous and liquid phases include those employing gas diffusion electrodes, packed beds of conductive particles, dimensionally stable porous conductive media, rotating electrodes, vortex-flow or high sheer flow electrodes. Many of the above multi-phase reactor approaches are feasible in the laboratory, but few are practical for economic scale up, production, and operation.
Particularly desirable applications of electrochemical reactors are on-site, mobile, and distributed systems for generating cleansers and disinfectants, decontamination and remediation, water treatment and recycle, waste treatment, and chemical production. The design of a cost-effective multi-phase electrochemical reactor is critical to making several potential applications commercially viable. Although electrochemical systems are not cost competitive to many bulk commodity chemical manufacturing processes at the largest scales, they do offer cost advantages for medium to small distributed applications, remote operations, and rapid deployment systems while helping to reduce transportation costs and provide safety advantages for end-users, facilities, and populations around transportation corridors.
Electrochemical reactors should ideally be compact, convenient and safe to operate in a variety of settings without extensive supporting utilities or infrastructure. Examples of application settings include, but are not limited to, laundry machines, clean-in-place equipment, desalination membrane cleaning, food service cleansing applications, medical facilities, dairy and farming operations, trailer-mounted environmental remediation and decontamination systems, remote site chemical generation and waste treatment (mining, offshore oil rigs, marine vessels), and on-site management of highly toxic and radiation-contaminated waste.
The use of multi-phase electrochemical reactors is desirable for enabling cathodic processes, with known examples including hydrogen peroxide production, cleanser generation, co-generation of products, nitrate destruction, electrolytic water treatment, dechlorination, deozonation, and carbon dioxide reduction to fuels or chemicals. Potentially valuable cathodic processes involve the reduction of reactants such as oxygen or oxides (e.g., nitrate, nitrite, nitrous oxides, carbon dioxide) to various products. Reduction of such materials is a kinetically slow process resulting in low specific current densities (less than approximately 1000 A/m2 specific electrode area) or poor current efficiency for the desired process. Likewise, concentrations of such materials are often low or diffusion limiting, thus further inhibiting reaction rates, specific current density, efficiency and overall productivity. The above issues result in capital costs that make such electrochemical processes cost prohibitive.
The use of such reactors can also be desirable for enabling anodic processes to be conducted without the generation of hydrogen gas as a process byproduct by means of an oxygen depolarized cathode. This capability is a useful for operations in confined spaces where the risk of flammable gas buildup is undesired, such as in occupied buildings, marine vessels, and underground mining operations. Examples of anodic processes include chlorine, hypochlorous acid and hypochlorite generation, ammonia oxidation, desulfurization and deodorization of gases, organic contaminant destruction, and electrocoagulation. The use of such reactors can also enable co-generation of several of the above products or combining processes depending on the combination of inputs.


A power supply voltage switch circuit for selecting a power supply voltage of an integrated circuit according to a first control signal. The power supply voltage switch circuit contains a high voltage selecting module for generating an output voltage according to the higher of a first and a second voltages; a level shifting module electrically connected to the high voltage selecting module to receive the output voltage as power supply, for performing level shifting to a first control signal according to the output voltage; and a selecting switch module electrically connected to the level shifting module for selectively outputting the first or the second voltage as the power supply voltage of the integrated circuit according to the level-shifted first control signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to a power supply voltage switching circuit, and more particularly, to a power supply voltage switching circuit having a high voltage selecting module.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In certain application of IC technology, situations might occur where a different power supply voltage is required for operating in different modes, such as non-volatile flash memory. In prior art, a power supply voltage switch circuit is often used to accomplish the switching of different power supply voltages in different operating modes.
Please refer to FIG. 1, which shows a schematic diagram of a conventional power supply voltage switching circuit 10 according to prior art. The power supply voltage switching circuit 10 comprises a level shifting module 12 for shifting the level of the input signal to a comparatively high level before outputting the signal. In FIG. 1, the level shifting module 12 comprises two level-shifters 14 and 16 for respectively shifting levels of the two input signals, wherein the voltage level of the comparatively high level signal after level shifting is determined by the power supply voltage of the level-shifters 14 and 16. The power supply voltage switching circuit 10 further comprises a selecting switch module 18, where the selecting switch module 18 in FIG. 1 is made up of a first p-type MOS transistor 20 and a second p-type MOS transistor 22. The selecting switch module 18 selects from either a first voltage VPP or a second voltage VDD to generate a power supply voltage VPS for an integrated circuit according to the comparatively high level signals generated by the level shifting module 12.
In the actual application, the level of the first voltage VPP is usually the level after charge pumping such as 7V˜0V and the second voltage VDD is usually the standard voltage used in common integrated circuits such as 3V˜0V. Therefore, generally speaking, if the integrated circuit wishes to operate at a different voltage mode, a control circuit (not shown in FIG. 1) generates a first control signal ENVPP to control the power supply voltage switching circuit 10 in generating the desired power supply voltage VPS. In FIG. 1, besides the first control signal ENVPP, the control circuit can also generate a second control signal ENVDD which is a complementary signal of the first control signal ENVPP, for controlling the power supply voltage switching circuit 10. The power supply voltage of the control circuit is the standard voltage so the level of both the first control signal ENVPP and the second control signal ENVDD is within the standard range (3V˜0V).
As previously mentioned, the level of the shifted comparatively high level signal from the level shifting module 12 corresponds to the power supply voltage of the level-shifters 14 and 16. In FIG. 1, the power supply voltage of the level-shifters 14 and 16 is the first voltage VPP, therefore the level of the first control signal ENVPPHV and the second control signal ENVDDHV after level shifting is comparatively high (7V˜0V) which is used to control the operation of the third and fourth p-type MOS transistors 20, 22 in the selecting switch module 18.
In the above-mentioned configuration, the power supply voltage switching circuit 10 can generate a power supply voltage VPS from the first voltage VPP and the second voltage VDD according to the control of the first control signal ENVPP and the second control signal ENVDD. If the first voltage VPP is chosen to be the power supply voltage VPS , the control circuit sets the first control signal ENVPP to a logic value of 0 (i.e. 0V) and the second control signal ENVDD to a logic value of 1 (i.e. 3V). After the level shift by the level shifting module 12, the first control signal ENVPP remains 0V but the second control signal ENVDD becomes 7V, and both are inputted to the selecting switch module 18. At the same time, the first voltage VPP is 7V and the second voltage VDD is 3V so the third p-type MOS transistor 20 is switched on and the fourth p-type MOS transistor 22 is switched off. As a result the power supply voltage VPS will output the value of the first voltage VPP (i.e. 7V). Oppositely if the second voltage VDD is chosen to be the power supply voltage VPS, the control circuit sets the first control signal ENVPP to a logic value of 1 (i.e. 3V) and the second control signal ENVDD to a logic value of 0 (i.e. 0V). After the level shift by the level shifting module 12, the first control signal ENVPP becomes 7V but the second control signal ENVDD remains 0V, and both are inputted to the selecting switch module 18. At the same time, the first voltage VPP is 7V and the second voltage VDD is 3V so the third p-type MOS transistor 20 is switched off and the fourth p-type MOS transistor 22 is switched on. As a result the power supply voltage VPS will output the value of the second voltage VDD (i.e. 3V).
Furthermore, the above operation takes into the assumption that the value of the first voltage VPP does not change. However in certain circuits, it is possible that the value of the first voltage VPP cannot always be maintained at a charge-pumped level, an example is the sharing of a pad between a charge-pumped voltage (such as VPP) and other signals. In this condition, the value of the first voltage VPP can be at a comparatively low level or even become 0V or floating in some situations. The level-shifters 14 and 16 of the level shifting module 12 use the first voltage VPP as the power supply voltage which renders the selecting switch module 18 unable to operate properly, or renders the third and fourth p-type MOS transistors 20 and 22 to be switched on at the same time causing the first voltage VPP and the second voltage VDD to short circuit which wastes energy.


A method of forming packages containing SiC or other semiconductor devices bonded to other components or conductive surfaces utilizing transient liquid phase (TLP) bonding to create high temperature melting point bonds using in situ formed ternary or quaternary mixtures of conductive metals and the devices created using TLP bonds of ternary or quaternary materials. The compositions meet the conflicting requirements of an interconnect or joint that can be exposed to high temperature, and is thermally and electrically conductive, void and creep resistant, corrosion resistant, and reliable upon temperature and power cycling.

Silicon carbide based power electronic systems offer significantly reduced size, weight and volume, a 65% volume reduction in a motor drive, for example, over other available systems. Because of the reliability of their device junctions, however, currently available SiC based electronic packages are generally limited to a junction operating temperature of less than about 150° C. These devices are typically assembled using conventional solder materials and techniques to form an electrically conductive path between metal contacts on package substrates. At higher temperatures and during temperature cycling, these soldered connections tend to be unstable, either from operation of the device or the surrounding environment in which the device operates. This causes voids and ultimately debonding in the interconnects, resulting in increased thermal resistance and unreliable operation of the electronics. Thermal resistance can be large due to thick (>1 mil) die attachments and inherently lower thermal conductivity (<40 W/m-K) of the attachment materials. Thermal resistance further increases dramatically during the life of the component due to voiding, which leads to increased device temperatures and accelerates failures. While brazing can form more reliable connections, the higher temperatures need to form the connection (700-1000° C.) can damage the components and devices being assembled. The requirements of high temperature operation, thermal and electrical conductivity, void and creep resistance, and corrosion resistance in devices with joints having low thermal resistance are often in conflict with each other when solder, binary compositions, or brazing materials are used.
TLP bonding can also be used to improve the performance of light-emitting devices. It lowers the device operating temperature due to lower thermal resistance of the bond, resulting in increased light output. It also results in increased mechanical robustness and maintenance of light output through the operating lifetime of the device due to minimal bond degradation during thermal and power cycling and extended operation.
An approach that has been suggested to provide connections between components that are stable at higher temperatures is a bonding process referred to as transient liquid phase (TLP) bonding, which can be accomplished at lower temperatures (less than about 300° C.). Transient liquid phase bonding starts with the use of a high melting point first metal as a contact. A film of a second metal of a much lower melting point is placed on the first metal. The two metals form a system, with the combination of the metals at specific concentrations having an elevated melting point greater than the melting points of the second metal. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,038,996 the metals are then heated to a temperature above the melting point of the mixture, causing an interdiffusion of the metals, forming a bond. The '996 patent discloses the formation of Pb—Sn or Sn—Bi TLP bonded connections between copper leads or surface pads.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,897,341 discloses methods for fabricating semiconductor devices, particularly multi-chip modules, including methods for forming interconnections between an integrated circuit chip and a substrate by solid-state diffusion bonding of dissimilar metals. In particular, a layer of cadmium, gallium, nickel, tin or zinc is formed over aluminum or aluminum coated pads by typical metal deposition techniques, such as evaporation, sputtering, CVD, electroplating or electroless plating. Bonding is then accomplished by solid-state diffusion at 100-150° C. to create a diffusion bond.
The preceding methods, as well as other methods in the prior art, lack the reliability and thermal resistance required for wide band gap (SiC and GaN) based power electronics.

High temperature, stable SiC device interconnects and packages having low thermal resistance


An orthodontic bracket having an archwire slot includes a arc-shaped leaf spring capable of exerting a lateral force onto an archwire inserted into the archwire slot. The leaf spring is secured to a structure of said bracket at positions spaced along the slot. The bracket may have a slider plate to close the slot to avoid ligatures. In another embodiment the structure comprises an undercut holding the archwire in a position defined by the pressure exerted by the leaf spring. A bent slider may be interposed between said leaf spring and the archwire.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention refers to a bracket for producing tooth movement in the treatment of dental malocclusions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Orthodontic brackets comprising a base plate for attachment to the crown of a tooth and comprising a structure attached to the base plate, elevated over the base plate, said structure having at least one slot for receiving an archwire are generally known and described e.g. in U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,444 (Heiser et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,783 (Reher), U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,854 (Broughton) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,415,330 (Daisley et al.), the contents thereof are incorporated in this specification by reference.
For the orthodontic treatment of a patient having malposed teeth, the brackets of a complete set of brackets are attached in predetermined positions at the crowns of the teeth of the patient, e.g. by the aid of a cement or adhesive, and subsequently, a common archedly extending archwire is inserted into the archwire slots in the structures of the brackets of a jaw so that the brackets are lined up on the archwire like pearls on a string, see e.g. FIG. 1 in U.S. Pat. No. 4,283,908 (Kurz). The archwire is secured in the slots of the brackets by means of ligatures or my means of closing springs, see e.g. the U.S. Pat. No. 5,562,444 (Heiser et al.).
The brackets are mounted on the crowns of the teeth in a manner that they each have a predetermined orientation with respect to the tooth, see e.g. the U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,854 (Broughton), according to which imaginary prolongation lines of the lateral edges, i.e. sight lines, of the specially formed base plate of the bracket intersect in the tip of the root of the respective tooth. According to the malposition of the teeth of the patient to be overcome, the archwire inserted into the bracket slots at the beginning of the orthodontic treatment has an irregular, more or less waved or angled extension.
Caused by the resiliency of the archwire, the archwire exerts a torque onto the brackets and consequently onto the teeth, which, due to the durability of its influence finally causes the teeth to yield and gradually move to a proper position determined by the orthodontist so that at the end of the orthodontic treatment the archwire connecting the brackets substantially extends in a straight line apart from its arched extension following the arched shape of the jaw.
If the malpositions of the teeth are too great, a relatively thin archwire is sufficient at the beginning of the treatment to cause the required torque at the teeth. An archwire that is too thick would cause an excessive torque. The more the tooth position approaches the proper position, the thicker the archwire must be to exert the torque necessary for moving the teeth. Thus, the archwires are exchanged several times during an orthodontic treatment. However, the brackets are not exchanged. The latter are dimensioned such that the thickest possible archwire can still be received in archwire slots of the brackets.
The movement tolerance or malposition tolerance, that can be comprised by means of an orthodontic treatment of this kind is approximately 15.degree. angle of rotation at the tooth. However, a thin archwire, as it is used at the beginning of the treatment, has a clearance of movement within the slot of each bracket of approximately 8.degree., so that under certain circumstances an effective angle of rotation of 7.degree. only remains about which the tooth can be rotated by means of said thin archwire. This was taken into account and compensated for by an early exchange of the thin archwire against a thicker one.
The frequent exchange of the archwires is a nuisance for the patient and requires a lot of time, and it is also very expensive because of the medical treatment.