Device for separating two non-mixable liquids with different specific gravities such as oil and water, which device contains a first separation tank (2) with an overflow (11, 12) for each of the liquids to be separated, a coalescence filter (3) whose inlet (14) is connected via a pipe (13) to the overflow (12) of the first separation tank (2) for the liquid with the highest specific gravity and a second separation tank (4) which is connected to the outlet (19) of the coalescence filter (3), characterized in that the overflow (12) onto which the coalescence filter (3) is connected is situated higher than the inlet (14) of the coalescence filter (3) with a difference in height H1 which is such that the liquid mass in the pipe between the first separation tank (2) and the coalescence filter (3) provides for the necessary pressure to bridge the pressure drop in the coalescence filter (3) and the counterpressure of the liquid in the second separation tank (4).

The present invention concerns a device for separating two non-mixable liquids with different specific gravities such as oil and water, in particular for separating oil from the condensate of a compressor installation, which device contains a first separation tank with an overflow for each of the liquids to be separated, a coalescence filter whose inlet is connected via a pipe to the overflow of the first separation tank for the liquid with the highest specific gravity and a second separation tank which is connected to the outlet of the coalescence filter.
Such devices are used in installations with oil-lubricated compressors and related appliances such as compressed air dryers, pressure vessels and filters, and they are erected after the condensate separators of these appliances.
The pre-separator or separation tank operates on the basis of the difference of the specific gravities. In this separation tank, the floating heavy oil emulsion and free oil are separated. The coalescence filter contains a filter medium through which flows the condensate and in which the fine, emulgated oil drops glue together into larger drops which are separated from the water in a second separation tank connected onto it as a result of the difference in specific gravity.
In some cases, namely when only a very restricted residual oil content is admitted, also an active carbon filter will be erected after the separation tank in which the oil remaining after the coalescence filter is adsorbed on the surface of the active carbon.
Such devices are known operating on atmospheric pressure. They are characterised by a coalescence filter which is little efficient, so that the emphasis lies mainly on the pre-separation and the active carbon filter. As the coalescence filter is little efficient, the active carbon filter is rapidly saturated and has to be replaced soon.
That is why, in order to reduce the residual oil which must be adsorbed on the active carbon, the pre-separation of the oil must be as efficient as possible. Therefore, the first separator is built relatively large, so that the condensate remains as long as possible in this separator.
Also the amount of active carbon is selected relatively large, so as to keep as much time as possible between the replacements.
By pressing the condensate under pressure through the coalescence filter, its efficiency can be considerably improved. Especially in the case of oil/water emulsions with a relatively large viscosity, a relatively high pressure is required.
Compact and efficient coalescence filters are known which make it absolutely necessary to press the condensate through under pressure. They are characterised in that they are built up of several layers of filter paper wrapped around a core.
In the direction of flow of the liquid through the filter material, the filter first contains a number of layers which collect dust particles floating in the liquid to be treated, followed by a number of layers of another filter medium which has to make sure that very fine oil drops are transformed into larger oil drops. Such a filter medium usually consists of a water-repellent material which has a good affinity for oil. The oil drops stick to the fibres of this material and collide with oil drops floating in the liquid. With each collision, the oil drop further grows until it is large enough to be carried along by the liquid flow against the adhesive force of the filter material.
It is natural to use the pressure of the compressor installation for this, and devices, are known in which the device for separating oil from the condensate is coupled directly to the condensate separators under pressure of the compressor installation.
In the case of such a known direct link, the compressor installation and the device may have a reciprocal influence on one another, which may be disadvantageous.
When for example a condensate separator lets compressed air through, this compressed air ends up in the device, so that separating oil becomes impossible.
When the separation device does not work flawlessly, for example because the coalescence filter is obstructed, the condensate separators can no longer discharge the condensate, so that the compressed air supplied by the installation will be no longer dry.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,608,160 describes a device for separating oil from water with a separation tank, followed by a coalescence filter, whereby a pump is provided between both which presses the water from the separation tank under pressure through the coalescence filter.
When such a device is used for separating oil from the condensate of a compressor installation, the device can be disconnected from the installation, and thus the condensate can be collected in a collector under atmospheric pressure and nevertheless be pumped under pressure through the coalescence filter. However, a pump must be added to such a device, which requires current and thus makes the construction relatively expensive and voluminous.
The invention aims a device for separating two non-mixable liquids with different specific gravities which does not have the above-mentioned disadvantages, which device can thus be made relatively compact and is relatively inexpensive, and with which, without a pump or other external means for supplying pressure being required, can be obtained a very efficient operation of the coalescence filter, so that the active carbon filter can be omitted or, in those cases where only an extremely low residual oil content is admitted, a possible active carbon filter will not be rapidly saturated.
In particular, the invention aims such a device which is particularly suitable for separating oil from the condensate of a compressor installation without having to be linked directly to this installation.
This aim is reached according to the invention in that the overflow onto which the coalescence filter is connected is situated higher than the inlet of the coalescence filter with a difference in height H1 which is such that the liquid mass in the pipe between the first separation tank and the coalescence filter provides for the necessary pressure to bridge the pressure drop in the coalescence filter and the counterpressure of the liquid in the second separation tank. DE 1.517.648 A discloses a device for separating oil and water. This device comprises two superposed chambers wherein filter element from synthetic foam with open cells are mounted.
The mixture of water and oil is pumped under pressure through a first filter in the upper chamber, flows then through an annular filter adjacent to the first filter. Oil is collected at the top of the upper chamber and pressed out of this chamber through a conduct.
The liquid with the remaining oil, passed through the second filter, flows over an overflow in the a space of the lower chamber situated around a third, annular filter. The space within this annular filer is closed at the top and inside this space is mounted a filter cartridge. The liquid is pressed through this cartridge from top to bottom and evacuated at the bottom of the lower chamber.
The oil separated from the water in the annular filter is collected at the top of said space and pressed out through a vertical conduct traversing also the upper chamber.
Preferably, the overflow for the liquid with the highest specific gravity of the first separation tank, even with a difference in height H2, is situated higher than the overflow for the liquid with the highest specific gravity in the second separation tank.
The above-mentioned difference in height H2, i.e. the height of the liquid column between the overflow for the liquid with the highest specific gravity, for example water, of the first separation tank and the overflow for the liquid with the highest specific gravity of the second separation tank, is then situated for example between several tens and hundreds of millimeters.
Of course, the pressure drop in the coalescence filter, which depends among others of the flow rate and the surface of the filter medium therein, is kept as low as possible.
To this end, also the first separation tank is preferably made such that it ensures a sufficiently long lingering period, so that the viscosity of the liquid flowing via the pipe to the coalescence filter is sufficiently low, so that the pressure drop is relatively small, for example less than 98 mbar.
This device can be connected to a collector in which the condensate of a compressor installation is collected and in which there is an atmospheric pressure, in which case the condensate is the liquid with the highest specific gravity and the other liquid to be separated is oil.
The device may contain an active carbon filter which is connected to the second separation tank.
For example in applications in which a very low oil content is required in the condensate of a compressor installation, the outlet for the water of the second separation tank can be connected to such an active carbon filter.
In the device according to the invention, the coalescence filter can be a very efficient one, as a result of which only a relatively small first separation tank or pre-separator is required which, when the liquid is condensate from a compressor, only aims to separate the free oil and the very heavy oil emulsion.
The device can then be separated in two separate and relatively compact components, namely the first separation tank on the one hand, and the coalescence filter with the second separation tank or post-separator coupled to it, and possibly the active carbon filter, on the other hand, which allows for an easy and compact built-in construction in for example the housing of a compressor.
The pipe between the first separation tank and the coalescence filter thus forms the connection between the two components and can be made flexibly, which makes it possible to provide the two compact components in different places, and which makes the above-mentioned integration in for example the compressor housing even easier, and which also makes it possible to easily adjust the difference in height H1 and thus automatically also H2.
In order to better explain the characteristics of the invention, the following preferred embodiment of a device for separating two non-mixable liquids with different specific gravities according to the invention is represented as an example only without being limitative in any way, with reference to the accompanying drawing which schematically represents such a device.
The device represented in the figure is a device for s separating oil from the condensate of a compressor installation which is collected in a collector 1 which is connected to the atmosphere, so that the oil/water emulsion which is collected in it is at atmospheric pressure. Thus, water is the liquid with the highest specific gravity.
The device itself mainly consists of a first separation tank 2, a coalescence filter 3 situated beneath it, a second separation tank 4 erected above this coalescence filter 3 and connected onto it, and an active carbon filter 5 connected onto the latter.
The first separation tank 2 is a typical liquid separator, based on the difference in specific gravity, and in the given example it contains a standing tank 6 containing a central, vertical overflow pipe 7 which is fixed to the bottom of the tank 6 and in which the collector 1 opens, and next to it a vertical partition 8 which is fixed to the walls of the tank 6 and thus extends from the top side of the tank 6 and thus from above the overflow pipe 7 up to under the top side of this overflow pipe 7 and up to a short distance from the bottom of the tank 6.
This partition 8 divides the inside of the tank 6 in two spaces 9 and 10, whereby the space 9 containing the overflow pipe 7 is provided with an overflow 11 for oil at the top, and the other space 10 is provided with a lower water overflow 12 onto which is connected a flexible or supple pipe 13 which connects this overflow 12 to the inlet 14 of the coalescence filter 3.
The first separation tank 2 is situated considerably higher than the coalescence filter 3, and there is a difference in height H1 between the overflow 12 and the inlet 14.
This coalescence filter 3 consists of a standing vessel 15 in which is erected a tubular filter element 16 which is closed at the bottom, for example as it is connected to the bottom of the vessel 15.
The filter element 16 contains or consists of filter material by which the emulgated oil is transformed into drops. It contains for example a number of outer layers which retain the dust particles in the water, and a number of layers made of a water-repellent material with a good affinity for oil which makes the oil drops glue together until they are sufficiently large to be carried along by the water to the second separation tank 4.
The above-mentioned inlet 14 opens in the space 17 around this filter element 16, whereas the space 18 opens inside this filter element 16 on top of the outlet 19.
Said outlet 19 opens at the bottom in an overflow pipe 20 of the second separation tank 4 which is erected directly above the coalescence filter 3 and which is built in the same manner as the above-described separation tank 2.
The overflow pipe 20 also stands on the bottom of a tank 21 and, next to this overflow pipe 20, at a small distance above said bottom, is erected a partition 22. The space 23 on one side of the partition 22 is provided with an overflow 24 for oil at the top, whereas the space 25 has a lower overflow 26 for water on the other side of the partition 22.
Between the water overflow 12 of the first separation tank 2 and the water overflow 26 of the second separation tank 4, there is a difference in height H2 which is situated for example between several tens and hundreds of millimeters.
The water overflow 26 is connected to the inlet of the active carbon filter 5, filled with active carbon, via a pipe 27.

Atlas Copco Airpower, naamloze vennootschap


Transconductor circuits with programmable tradeoff between bandwidth and flicker noise are disclosed. An example circuit includes an input port, an output port, a plurality of transistors, and a switch arrangement that includes a plurality of switches, configured to change coupling between the input port, the output port, and the transistors to place the transconductor circuit in a first or a second mode of operation. An input capacitance of the transconductor circuit operating in the first mode is larger than when the transconductor circuit is operating in the second mode. In the first mode, having a larger input capacitance results in a decreased flicker noise because the amount of flicker noise is inversely proportional to the input capacitance. In the second mode, having a smaller input capacitance leads to an increased flicker noise but that is acceptable for wide-bandwidth applications because wide-bandwidth signals may be less sensitive to flicker noise.

A transconductor (also referred to as a "transconductance amplifier") is a circuit that performs voltage-to-current conversion. A transconductor is a versatile building block employed in many analog and mixed-signal circuit applications, such as radio frequency (RF) upconverters, gain stages, variable gain-amplifiers, continuous-time filters, delta-sigma modulators, or data converters.
Since transconductors are implemented with active devices (e.g., oftentimes a metal-oxide-semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) common-source stage), the signal being processed may be corrupted by flicker noise. Flicker noise is inversely proportional to frequency of the signal being processed, and narrow-bandwidth signals are more susceptible to flicker noise than wide-bandwidth signals.
Flicker noise may be reduced by using large-area devices (e.g., by using large-area MOSFETs). With large area comes high capacitance, since MOSFET capacitance is proportional to the device area (namely, proportional to a product of a width and a length of a transistor channel). Nevertheless, such a solution is typically acceptable for semiconductor products intended for narrow-bandwidth applications.
It is often desirable to be able to use a single semiconductor product both in narrow-bandwidth and wide-bandwidth applications. For example, in the case of software-defined radio products, there may be narrow-bandwidth and wide-bandwidth applications. Unfortunately, a semiconductor product with one or more transconductors in which flicker noise has been reduced by using large-area devices may not be suitable for wide-bandwidth applications because the resulting high capacitance may make it impossible to tune to wide-bandwidth signals.


There is provided an electromotion ice-cream disher, in which sawteeth are formed at a lower portion of a rotating cap disposed inside a holder and a receiving groove for receiving ice cream is formed, such that that ice cream can be easily taken from a container and placed on a dish or plate easily by rotation and upward/downward motion of the receiving groove. In the electromotion ice-cream disher, a hemispherical rotational cap is provided inside the holder and is integrally formed with a connecting pipe passing through the holder and has sawteeth at a lower portion, such that the rotational cap is rotatable within the holder by a stop washer. A spline shaft is connected to a drive shaft of a drive motor and inserted/protruded to/from the connecting pipe and transfers a rotational force of the drive motor to the rotational cap. A solenoid has a rod connected to the drive motor. An elastic spring is installed below the drive motor and the drive motor moves upward and downward due to the rod protruded downward when an electric signal is applied to the solenoid and an elastic force of the elastic spring. A holder plate is provided at a lower portion of the spline shaft passing through the connecting pipe and moves upward/downward by the upward/downward motion of the drive motor. A switch part is connected to the drive motor and the solenoid and is supplied with power from a battery and controls rotation/stop of the drive motor and the applying and cutting-off of the electric signal to the solenoid.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ice-cream disher, and more particularly, to an electromotion ice-cream disher, in which sawteeth are formed at a lower portion of a rotating cap disposed inside a holder and a receiving groove for receiving ice cream is formed, such that that ice cream can be easily taken from a container and placed on a dish or plate easily by rotation and upward/downward motion of the receiving groove.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, ice cream is a favorite food that is created by freezing composition mixed according to one's taste so as to cool down one's body in hot summer. In a method for making ice cream, egg, saccharine and stabilizer are added to cream, milk or dairy product, and then desired milk fat, milk solid not fat, and sweetener are mixed to thereby create base mix composition. Then, the base mix composition is heated to about 60° C. and is put into a homogeniser to disperse fat. Thereafter, the composition is sterilized at 3.63° C. for 30 minutes and 75° C. for 15 minutes, and then is cooled down to 2–5° C. The cooled composition is added to a flavor and maintained in a cooled state during 4–12 hours. Then, the cooled composition is mixed to contain air and is frozen to −5° C. to −10° C.
There are several types of ice cream according to package. A bar-type ice cream is produced by inserting a stick into ice cream, and a corn-type ice cream is produced by containing ice cream in a corn-shaped snack. A cup-type ice cream is produced by containing ice cream in a paper cup. In the case of the corn-type ice cream and a cup-type ice cream, an ice-cream disher is used to take a predetermined amount of ice cream from a large ice cream container and place it in a corn or cup.
A conventional ice-cream disher will be described with reference to FIG. 1.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional ice-cream disher.
Referring to FIG. 1, one end of a handle connection rod 2 having a support plate 3 is fixed to a middle portion of a holder 1, and a connecting portion 4 of the handle connection rod 2 is caulked with epoxy resin. In an upper portion of the handle connection rod 2, an operation plate 5 where a lever 6 and a plurality of gear grooves 7 are molded integrally is fixed to a plate fixing screw 9 together with a spring 8. One side of the spring 8 is locked to an inner side of the lever 6, and the other side is locked to a support plate 3.
Also, a holder belt 10 is formed inside the holder 1. One end of a rotational shaft 11 integrally molded with a gear 12 rotatably passes through the holder 1 and is welded with the holder belt 10. The welding portion is welded of tin. The other end of the rotational shaft 11 is rotatably connected to an upper portion of the support plate 3.
The handle has an empty space in its inside. A handle connection screw is put in the inner space and is screwed to a rear end of the connection rod 2.
When the lever 6 is pulled, the spring 8 is contracted and the gear groove 7 formed at the operation plate 5 moves. At this point, since the gear 12 is engaged with the gear groove 7, the gear 12 rotates as the gear groove 7 moves, thus rotating the rotational rod 11 integrally formed with the gear 12 and the holder belt 10. Accordingly, if the lever 6 is pulled when taking ice cream and placing it in a dish or plate using the holder 1, the holder belt 10 rotates while coming in contact with an inner surface of the holder 1, such that ice cream can be easily put in the dish or plate.
However, the conventional ice-cream disher has following problems.
Since ice cream is frozen at a temperature of below zero so as to maintain solid state without melting, a predetermined strength and viscosity is maintained. Accordingly, a strong strength is required when taking ice cream from the ice-cream container. Thus, a user's hand grasping the ice-cream disher may suffer from pain.
Also, ice cream contained in the holder is adhered to the inner surface of the holder. Even when the holder belt is rotated while coming in contact with the inner surface of the holder, ice cream adhered to the inner surface of the holder is difficult to completely take off, even though the holder belt is rotated, because ice cream is again adhered to the inner surface of the holder while it rotates as the holder belt rotates. In order to completely take off ice cream from the holder, the holder belt must be rotated many times.


Technologies are described herein for improving performance and energy efficiency in a computing system while using a large memory page size. Some example technologies may configure a main memory of the computing system to include a page-to-chunk table and a data area. The page-to-chunk table may include multiple entries such as a first entry. The first entry may correspond to a page that is made up of multiple chunks. The first entry may include pointers to the multiple chunks stored in the data area.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
An operating system ("OS") may manage the address space of an application at the granularity of pages. In conventional systems, the OS may be configured to use a smaller page size (typically 4 KB) by default even when a corresponding hardware platform supports a larger page size. A smaller page size may be selected because a larger page size may increase fragmentation of the main memory. A smaller page size may be selected also because common OS routines, such as page initialization or page copying, may become too expensive with a large page size.

Performance and energy efficiency while using large pages


In the global protection of objects structured with electronic components, security devices, e.g., in a vehicle, become active by at least one component, and/or information within at least one component that is essential for operation of the vehicle is deactivated irreversibly and or erased, so that even a disassembly or bridging of the component concerned can achieve no effect, since acquisition of a functional replacement part is not available. The components can, for example, be placed in the motor electronics, the steering column lock, the door lock, and/or the key, and through miniaturization of the receiver, any electronic device can be protected including, among other things, radio telephones, (Euro-)checkcards and cash cards, credit cards, telephone cards, keys to electronic systems, mobile electronic devices, such as cassette recorder, CD players, clocks, computers, etc.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to devices and methods for protecting objects with electronic components.
2. Description of Related Art
It is known that electrical components can be controlled remotely by radio signals. A typical application is an electronic alarm system and/or drive lock of a vehicle, which the user activates or deactivates with a transmitter. In this case, it does not matter whether the transmitter radiates directly (e.g., through infrared transmission) or public radio serves or telephone networks are connected in between. However, if anti-theft protection is implemented in such a way that the object to be protected can be reactivated by disconnecting or bridging the protection device, then the protection is practically useless.
Typical characteristics and problems of such protection will be explained with the example of a vehicle. In principle, such a protection can be used for all objects with an electronic component. This can include, among other things: radio telephone ("handies"), (Euro-)Check and money cards, credit cards, telephone cards, keys for electronic lock systems, mobile electronic devices such as cassette recorders, CD players, clocks, computers, etc.
It is known that vehicles with mechanical and/or electric anti-theft protection devices can be reactivated by disassembly or bridging. This applies especially to expensive vehicles, where the entire vehicle can simply be transported by organized bands and worked on at a safe place. It is also known that vehicles with an electronic drive lock, often part of the motor control, can only be reactivated at great expense and with special knowledge. Often, reactivation is possible only with an original key and/or by involving a contract workshop.
Since with a stolen original key the vehicle can be made ready to drive immediately, a change from simple vehicle theft to theft by personal threat is being observed. Deactivation by a small hand transmitter a few hundred meters away could be conceived, but this brings the danger that the victim himself is placed in danger if the culprit becomes aware of the existence of the transmitter.
In order to make certain that the proper owner is protected, concepts have already been thought up in which the vehicle regularly receives radio signals for release of the electronics and is deactivated if these signals are absent. In a stolen vehicle, these signals can then be turned off intentionally, so that the vehicle can no longer be operated. This, however, has the disadvantage that when a radio gap appears, which is repeatedly the case with mobile telephones, further driving is no longer possible. In addition, a gapless coverage of the radio range must also be provided in other countries, since a temporary turning off of the protection during a stay abroad again makes the protection absurd. Such protection, however, means a strong restriction for legal users and therefore cannot be put on the market.
It is also known that there are devices in which a circuit in the vehicle can be activated that deactivates the ignition electronics. Such systems can be realized through a telephone connection that the user activates by dialing a particular number assigned to the vehicle receiver. Here too, global accessibility of the vehicle must be considered. These systems, however, could be circumvented by removing the receiver from the vehicle or by correspondingly shielding it from receiving signals, so that a blocking of the ignition electronics no longer occurs.
For universal protection, therefore, the system must be constructed in such a way that reactivation cannot take place through the user himself, for otherwise the information necessary for this could be obtained by force. Also, deactivation of the system must be able to take place at any time after the theft. This deactivation can also be performed by third parties, so that a threat to or even killing of the owner does not help. For a thief, therefore, stealing such an object has no value, since within a few hours it will no longer have its desired functionality.

Security device for the global protection with objects with electronic components


An electrical connector including: a housing including an outer peripheral part; and a lock arm provided with the outer peripheral part. The lock arm is swingable like a seesaw and detachably engages with a locking part provided with another housing of a mating connector. The lock arm extends along a coupling direction toward the mating connector. A pair of side wall parts are provided with the outer peripheral part such that the pair of side wall parts oppose to each other from both sides of the lock arm. An elastic support mechanism for swingably supporting the lock arm is provided between a lower face part of the lock arm and inner side faces of the pair of side wall parts.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical connector provided with a locking mechanism. The electrical connector is used as an electrically connecting means for electric wires transmitting electric signals.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a certain kind of electrical connector, a housing thereof is provided with a lock arm. The lock arm swings like a seesaw. A locking part is provided in another housing of a mating connector. The lock arm detachably engages with the locking part. The electrical connector shown in from FIG. 17 to FIG. 23 belongs to this kind.
As shown in FIG. 17 and FIG. 18, in a conventional electrical connector 500, a lock arm 502 swingable like a seesaw is provided with an outer peripheral part of a housing 501. The lock arm 502 can engage with a locking part 602 provided with another housing 601 of a mating connector 600.
As shown in FIG. 19 and FIG. 20, a pair of side wall parts 504 and 504 are erected from an outer peripheral part 501a of the housing 501. The lock arm 502 is arranged between the pair of side wall parts 504 and 504. The lock arm 502 is connected to the outer peripheral part 501a of the housing 501 with a pair of leg parts 503. That is, the lock arm 502 and the housing 501 are integrally formed. The pair of leg parts 503 and 503 correspond to fulcrums of the lock arm 502. When the leg parts 503 and 503 are elastically bent, the lock arm 502 swings about the leg parts 503 and 503 utilizing thereof as fulcrums.
As shown in FIG. 18, when the electrical connector 500 and the mating connector 600, which are separated from each other, are moved in a coupling direction X to make them couple with each other, a locking part 502b of the lock arm 502 (of the electrical connector 500) abuts on the locking part 602 of the mating connector 600, and runs over it while sliding thereon. After that, the locking part 502b of the lock arm 502 fits into the reverse side of the locking part 602. In this way, the electrical connector 500 and the mating connector 600 are locked together.
As shown in FIG. 17, an operating part 502a of the lock arm 502 is located at a reverse side of the housing 501. The locking part 502b is located at a reverse side of the operating part 502a. As shown in FIG. 21 and FIG. 22, when the operating part 502a is pressed toward the housing 501, the lock arm 502 swings like a seesaw utilizing the pair of leg parts 503 and 503 as fulcrums. As a result, the locking part 502b moves in a direction away from the outer peripheral part 501a. If the pressing to the operating part 502a is released, the lock arm 502 returns to an original state (a state shown in FIG. 17 and FIG. 20) according to elastic restoring force of the leg parts 503 and 503.
When the electrical connector 500 and the mating connector 600 shown in FIG. 18 are coupled with each other and the operating part 502a of the lock arm 502 is pressed toward the housing 501, the locking part 502b is released (as shown in FIG. 21 and FIG. 22) from the outer peripheral part 501a of the housing 501, and the electrical connector 500 and the mating connector 600 can be separated from each other.
Reference 1 (Japan Registered Patent No. 3534013) and Reference 2 (Japanese patent application Laid-open on No. 2012-129077) disclose electrical connectors of the same kind.
A "connector" in Reference 1 is provided with a lock arm _40 swingable like a seesaw about a fulcrum part _42 similar to the lock arm 502 of the connector 500 shown in FIG. 17 (See, paragraph "0012" and FIG. 1 of Reference 1.).
Another "connector" in Reference 2 is also provided with a lock arm _34 including an arm body _36 swingable like a seesaw, or the like utilizing a leg part _35 as a fulcrum (See, paragraph "0020", FIG. 3, and FIG. 4. of Reference 2).
There is demand for making the electrical connector as low as possible. In response to the demand, a method of shortening the leg parts 503 and 503 of the electrical connector 500 shown in FIG. 17 to approximate the lock arm 502 to the housing 501 may be taken in some cases.
Since the leg parts 503 and 503 work as fulcrums when the lock arm 502 swings, the bending moment concentrates on the leg parts 503 and 503. If the leg parts 503 and 503 are shortened, the leg parts 503 and 503 can be hardly bent and the load concentrates upon narrow regions of the leg parts 503 and 503 (especially, roots thereof). Therefore, stress concentration may easily cause plastic deformation of the leg parts 503 and 503.
As a result, the leg parts 503 and 503 cannot return to original positions thereof any more.
As shown in FIG. 23, the following phenomenon (so-called "settling of a lock arm") may occur. That is, the leg parts 503 and 503 do not return to their original standing postures, and the lock arm 502 keeps inclined even after external force has been released. Once the "settling of the lock arm" has occurred, when the electrical connector 500 and the mating connector 600 are tried to connect to each other, locking therebetween must become imperfect. Unfortunately, the electrical connector 500 may come out from the mating connector 600 (See, FIG. 18).
It is predicted that such a phenomenon may occur in the same way according to the "connectors" of References 1 and 2. The conventional electrical connectors cannot resolve this problem.


A valve for a refrigeration system includes a valve body, a guide seat arranged in the valve body, a piston plug that has a metering slot and is axially movable relative to the guide seat to open and close the valve, and an adjustable valve stem that is axially movable to engage the piston plug. The piston plug is movable between a closed position in which the piston plug is seated against the guide seat and engaged with the valve stem to prevent fluid flow through the valve, a metering position in which the piston plug is moved away from the guide seat and engaged with the valve stem to enable a predetermined amount of forward fluid flow through the valve, and a check valve position in which the piston plug is seated against the guide seat to prevent reverse fluid flow through the valve.

Refrigeration systems typically include different valves for controlling fluid flow in the system during the refrigeration cycle. Conventional refrigeration valves may be deficient in enabling stoppage of all flow, such as when repairs are performed on downstream equipment in the system. Conventional refrigeration valves may also be deficient in accommodating different flow demands that are required in a refrigeration system. Prior attempts to provide improved refrigeration valves are deficient in that the system may use many different valves to perform different flow control functions, or valves having many different moving parts to perform different flow control functions, such that the production and operational costs for the refrigeration system may be high.


A component carrier which includes a stack having at least one electrically conductive layer structure and/or at least one electrically insulating layer structure, a deformed layer connected to and/or forming part of the stack and being bent so as to define accommodation volumes for components, and the components, wherein each of the components is accommodated in a respective one of the accommodation volumes.

In the context of growing product functionalities of component carriers equipped with one or more electronic components and increasing miniaturization of such components as well as a rising number of components to be mounted on or embedded in the component carriers such as printed circuit boards, increasingly more powerful array-like components or packages having several components are being employed, which have a plurality of contacts or connections, with ever smaller spacing between these contacts. Such component carriers shall be mechanically robust and electrically reliable so as to be operable even under harsh conditions.
In particular, efficiently embedding a component in a component carrier is an issue.

Component carrier with deformed layer for accommodating component

AT&S Austria Technologie & Systemtechnik Aktiengesellschaft


A flexible bulk container for the handling and storage of flowable materials having structural maintenance means attached to the inside surfaces of the container for providing structural support to the walls which comprise the container. The container is comprised of a plurality of walls attached together and defining an enclosure having a bottom and a top panel attached to the encircling enclosure. Several embodiments of the structural maintenance means are enclosed, the first one comprising a loops and rope combination attached to the inner surfaces of the flexible container. Loops are attached to each side of the flexible container on the inside surface at a plurality of levels. A rope is threaded through the loops on each level and its ends are attached. The rope is drawn through and adjusted in size so that it holds the container walls in a substantially vertical orientation. A second embodiment includes the use of panels arranged in a crossing formation and attached to the inside surfaces of the container walls. The third embodiment includes the use of flaps attached to each inside surface of each wall which extend from the walls toward the center of the flexible container. Each flap has a plurality of holes formed through the edge of the flap located toward the center of the container. A continuous rope is threaded through the holes in the flaps at each level and attached at its ends. A plurality of levels of the hole and rope combination are arranged on the flaps for providing the needed support to the container sides. For each embodiment, the container is filled with flowable materials and the structural maintenance means functions to provide an opposing force against the tendency of the flowable materials to push outwardly on the container, thereby maintaining the cubicle shape of the flexible container.

This invention relates to flexible bulk containers used for the handling and storage of flowable materials. More particularly, the invention is directed toward a container having means affixed therein for maintaining the shape and structural integrity of the container while it is partially or completely filled with flowable materials.
Flexible bulk containers carrying flowable materials are generally transported by the truck load wherein stacks of the flexible containers are placed into the truck. As with any material transport, it is important from an efficiency standpoint to stack and load the flexible containers in an ordered manner. Generally, flexible containers are designed to take on a cubicle shape when completely full. However, because of the flexible material from which the walls of the container are made, the containers tend to bulge when filled with the flowable materials. Accordingly, the containers take on a shape representative of a cube but having rounded edges and protruding sides. Because of the container's tendency to take on this shape, the containers become unaccommodating to efficient loading. Accordingly, valuable transportation space can be lost.
It is, therefore, desirable to maintain the containers in a predictable and primarily cubicle shape. As such, the cubicle containers save space and allow more material and containers to be transported in a single load. The structural integrity of the flexible containers can be maintained in numerous ways, many of which are inconvenient to the handling of the containers. Supports located on the outer skin of the containers and containers made out of a material which is less flexible can be used. However, these methods are not compatible with the advantages of a purely flexible container such as the flexible container's light weight and easy storage when they are not being used. In the prior art, flexible containers using inner structural support means are disclosed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,076,710 to Derby for example discloses a flexible container having inner support members (FIG. 11) in which the members assist in maintaining the cubicle structure of the container. Similarly, the Derby patent also discloses a prior art container in FIG. 10 having inner bridge members for maintaining the structure of a more cylindrically-shaped container. The Derby patent uses bridge panels which span each corner of the container on the interior surface. The panels assist in maintaining the cubicle structure of the container. However, because the panels are located so close to each corner of the container, the container tends to have smaller areas where the flowable materials may have a tendency to become lodged. Also, because the panels are not attached in any manner to each other, the Derby invention requires substantially more work in attaching the panels to the interior surface of the flexible container.

Structurally-enhanced flexible bulk container


A field effect transistor is formed with a sub-lithographic conduction channel and a dual gate which is formed by a simple process by starting with a silicon-on-insulator wafer, allowing most etching processes to use the buried oxide as an etch stop. Low resistivity of the gate, source and drain is achieved by silicide sidewalls or liners while low gate to junction capacitance is achieved by recessing the silicide and polysilicon dual gate structure from the source and drain region edges.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to structures and manufacturing methods for integrated circuits including field effect transistors (FETs) and, more particularly, to high performance FETs suitable for integrated circuits formed at high integration density.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It has been recognized for some years that increased integration density in integrated circuits provides not only improvements in performance and functionality but manufacturing economy, as well. Reduced device sizes and increased numbers of devices on a single chip of a given size have driven designs operating at reduced voltages.
Specifically, one effect of reducing channel or gate length below 50 nanometers is the difficulty in turning off the transistor even in the high dose halo implant. Power dissipation is thus increased since the transistors, in effect, cannot be fully turned off.
It is known to place gates on opposing sides of a channel of an FET which results in substantial improvements in FET performance (confirmed by theoretical and experimental studies). This is possible using gate structures which partially or fully surround the conduction channel. However, these same studies have demonstrated a requirement for an extremely thin diffusion region since, for short gate lengths of interest, the gate length must be maintained about 2–4 times the diffusion thickness. That is, for gate lengths of 20–100 nanometers, the diffusion thickness forming the channel must be held to 5–50 nanometers. Several proposals have been advanced for developing such a thin silicon region.
Another complication with the placement of gates on opposite sides of the channel is that many known fabrication processes provide a gate structure which wraps around the conduction channel in a single body. Therefore the entire gate can only be driven to a single voltage even though it is desirable in some circumstances to place different voltages on opposite sides of the conduction channel. Conversely, true dual-gate transistor designs that have separated gate electrodes generally present severe difficulties in forming connections to the separated gate electrodes.
Recently, dual gate devices have been proposed which appear promising at gate dimensions below 70 nm. The performance of these devices is optimal if the two gates are self-aligned, satisfy the silicon thickness to gate dimension ratio outlined in the previous paragraph and specifically do not suffer from increased gate to junction capacitance. Additionally, it is important to have reduced source to drain resistance.
Further, the manufacture of transistors having conduction channels of sub-lithographic dimensions has been complicated and manufacturing processes have generally been complex, costly and having narrow process windows and correspondingly low yield. Not only are the conduction channel dimensions very critical to the performance of the transistor but the conduction channel generally must also be monocrystalline in order to have acceptable and reasonably uniform electrical characteristics.

International Business Machines Corporation


In this light distribution control device in order to provide a vehicular lighting fixture for an Adaptive Frontlighting System (AFS) in which a lot of light distribution patterns can be set without making the entire lighting fixture larger, beams which link said movable substrates to said inner frames and beams which link said inner frames to said outer frame are mutually orthogonal, and a light distribution pattern is set by deforming under torsion the beams which link said movable substrates to said inner frames and the beams which link said inner frames to said outer frame, and swinging each of said movable substrates with respect to said outer frame in the biaxial directions independently.

The present invention relates to a vehicular lighting fixture for an Adaptive Frontlighing System (AFS), which can control the light distribution.
For instance, there is Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-71409 as a well-known technology relevant to such a vehicular lighting fixture for the AFS which can control the light distribution.
In the vehicular lighting fixture for the AFS which can control the light distribution described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2004-71409, a plurality of illuminants with different light distribution is provided, and light distribution is controlled by blinking those illuminants or adjusting the quantity of light of those illuminants.


A method for producing a shaped non-woven comprises the steps of feeding fibers on a carding machine over a limited width, superposing on a receiving system the fibrous web leaving the carding machine and needling the superposed layers. The superposition is preferably obtained by winding over a cylindrical drain.. The shaped non-woven obtained has a thickness gradually decreasing towards its selvedges. The obtained strip has a cross-section of an asymmetrical shape by longitudinal cutting along the median axis and optionally two longitudinal cuttings on the selvedge side.

To Applicant's knowledge, the only method for producing a shaped non-woven, namely a non-woven having, in cross-section, a shape which is not roughly rectangular, consists in making one or more slanted cuts in the non-woven, once the non-woven is produced. Although such cuts are feasible on non-wovens of a certain thickness and on the lateral faces thereof, they are nevertheless virtually impossible on the upper face. Therefore, it is difficult to obtain a non-woven having a cross-section which is not rectangular but for example trapezoidal.
It is the object of the present invention to propose a method for producing such a non-woven.
This method for producing a shaped non-woven comprises the step of feeding fibers to a carding machine, receiving the fibrous web leaving the carding machine and needling said web. The fibers are fed over a limited width of the carding machine and, moreover, the fibrous web leaving the carding machine is superposed into at least ten layers before needling.
Applicant has indeed found that when the fibers are not fed through the whole width of the carding machine, the edges of the obtained web are thinner than the mean thickness of said web. Said thickness difference is hardly noticeable on a unitary web leaving the carding machine. It is the merit of the invention to accentuate and draw advantage from this irregularity by controlling the feeding and by superposing unitary webs in the form of at least ten successive layers. In this way, the non-woven obtained has, in cross-section, a shape which is not rectangular. Some parts of the non-woven have a different thickness from the mean thickness of the web.
Relatively to the production of fibrous webs, document FR-A-2 598 723 describes a method and device for intermingling tapes of fibers notably at the level of carding machines. The method consists, after laying flat the fibrous tape, in intermingling the fibers of the tape by means of air jets so as to improve cohesion of the tape. To this effect, the apparatus comprises, in addition to the air injecting nozzles, a funnel of tape of which the edge has a cross-section reducing in the tape-conveying direction, and a device for guiding the fibers, which device is placed at the front of the funnel.
Another device is described in document DE-A-2 437 176, and is able to produce a fibrous web from a raw material constituted of fibers. In this device, the fibers, once introduced, are conveyed through a cavity under the action of an air stream, up to two perforated rollers of parallel axes. The fibers, having thus been sucked in, are applied against said rollers which rotate respectively in opposite directions. The fibers then pass between the two rollers where they mingle together in order to constitute the fibrous web. The orientation of the side walls of the cavity where the fibers pass through is adjustable, so as to obtain a fibrous web of given width.
It is not possible, with the two aforesaid known devices, to obtain a fibrous web with edges thinner than the mean thickness of the web. Therefore, the winding of the resulting web will not give a shaped non-woven as does the present invention.
A method and apparatus are also known from document EP 0 147 297, for producing structures formed by superposed layers of fibrous material, joined one to the other. To this effect, a strip of material is brought over a rotary mandrel, so as to be wound thereon it into successive overlapping spires. However, two successive spires are not superposed, as with the method according to the present invention. Moreover, the successive parts of the strip of material have generally been pre-needled for strengthening purposes, which makes them easier to handle.
Another method and device are also known from document CH-A-350 584 for directly winding on a winding machine, a strip of cotton leaving a carding machine. Said cotton strip has been strengthened prior to winding by passing between two rollers of a heated pre-shaping calendering machine. Admittedly, the cotton strip is wound in successive superposed layers, but as these layers have already been strengthened, the strip is not needled.

Method and device for producing a shaped non-woven, non-woven obtained and use thereof

Centre Technique Industriel dit: Institut Textile de France


An ultrasonic apparatus and method for charging a coil with a refrigerant gas is described wherein a tube used to convey the gas into the cooling coil is welded shut on both sides of a cutting line so that gas in the tube cannot escape after the charging step has been completed. Die elements to enable such severing of the tube are described with each having corresponding spaced apart welding surfaces and with one of the elements having a cutting edge between its welding surfaces to cut the tube as its internal wall is sealed with an ultrasonic welder.

Techniques for severing and sealing of metal tubes are well known in the art. See for example the U.S. Pat. No. 2,568,911 wherein a tube is sealed and then severed. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,851,580 a tube is welded closed using a pair of spaced apart electrodes which apply an electric current to seal the tube ends. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,596,352, 4,619,397 and 4,736,881, see particularly the latter's FIG. 5, teach various methods and apparatuses for joining electric conductors using ultrasonic energy.
During the manufacture of a refrigerator, refrigerant must be forced into a compressor through a thin copper tube. In the prior art an ultrasonic welder was used to ultrasonically cut and seal the copper tube. In such equipment an anvil and a generally cylindrical tip are provided with the tip having a plurality of axially elongate tube welding surfaces distributed around the tip axis. The tip has cutting edges alongside the respective ultrasonic welding surfaces. The cutting edges cooperate with a shearing surface on the anvil to cut a tube after one side of the tube has been squeezed between opposing welding surfaces to seal the tube with an ultrasonic weld.
The ultrasonic welding process creates a tube temperature of about 550.degree. C., which is not a problem with a non-combustible refrigerant gas such as HFC. Hence, a copper tube would be simply welded and cut with an ultrasonic welder as described above and a seal would be made on the refrigerator's side. The severed tube leading to the supply of HFC gas would be left open and some gas permitted to escape. When other combustible refrigerant gases would be used, with ignition temperatures within the range of the temperatures developed during the ultrasonic welding step, ignition problem would arise.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an apparatus and method for cutting a tube and sealing both ends to prevent gas leakage from the cut tube. More specifically, it is an object of the invention to provide a safe apparatus and technique for cutting and welding copper tubes during filling with a combustible refrigerant.

Ultrasonic tube welding and cutting apparatus and method


CMIII, a small, basic maize seed peptide has been found to have antimicrobial properties. In a preferred embodiment, plant resistance to diseases caused by plant pathogens which are susceptible to CMIII is produced by inserting into the cells of a plant a gene whose expression causes production CMIII in antimicrobial amounts.

Numerous fungi and bacteria are serious pests of common agricultural crops. One method of controlling diseases has been to apply antimicrobial organic or semiorganic chemicals to crops. This method has numerous, art-recognized problems. A more recent method of control of microorganism pests has been the use of biological control organisms which are typically natural competitors or inhibitors of the troublesome microorganisms. However, it is difficult to apply biological control organisms to large areas, and even more difficult to cause those living organisms to remain in the treated area for an extended period. Still more recently, techniques in recombinant DNA have provided the opportunity to insert into plant cells cloned genes which express antimicrobial compounds. This technology has given rise to additional concerns about eventual microbial resistance to well-known, naturally occurring antimicrobials, particularly in the face of heavy selection pressure, which may occur in some areas. Thus, a continuing need exists to identify naturally occurring antimicrobial compounds which can be formed by plant cells directly by translation of a single structural gene.
European Patent Application 204,590, based upon U.S. patent application Ser. No. 725,368, describes a method of genetically modifying a plant cell to control expression of heterologous foreign structure genes. In the method, the plant cell is transformed to contain a pRi T-DNA promoter and a heterologous foreign structural gene, the promoter and the structural gene being in such position and orientation with respect to one another that the structural gene is expressible in a plant cell under control of the promoter.
Likewise, European Patent Application 186,425, based upon U.S. patent application Ser. No. 685,824, describes a recombinant DNA expression vector which comprises (a) a transcription unit, flanked by T-DNA border sequences, which comprises a promoter and associated amino terminal region encoding sequences and a terminator signal sequence in which the sequences are derived from one or more genes which are naturally expressed in a plant cell, and (b) an antibiotic resistance gene-encoding sequence located between the promoter and associated amino-terminal region-encoding sequence and the terminator sequence and (c) a DNA fragment containing a replicon that is functional in Agrobacterium.
PCT application 8807087, based upon U.S. patent application Ser. No. 168,109, discloses a recombinant virus expression system comprising a Heliothis polyhedrin promoter and a nucleotide sequence encoding a heterologous peptide or protein, which may have antimicrobial activity.

Antimicrobial peptides and plant disease resistance based thereon


An automotive vehicle electric door latch mechanism includes a striker, a catch, a pawl, a key actuatable lock cylinder lever, an electrically driven output gear, and a manually actuatable release lever. The catch has a striker receiving surface and a pawl engaging surface. The pawl has a pin projecting therefrom, a catch engaging surface, and a cam contacting surface, the pawl being pivotally movable from a biased, catch engaging position to a catch disengaging position. The key actuatable lock cylinder lever has a pin striking surface and is pivotally movable between a biased, neutral position and a pin striking, pawl pivoting, catch disengaging position. The electrically driven output gear has at least one cam that is electrically movable between a neutral position and a pawl contacting, pawl pivoting, catch disengaging position. The manually actuatable release lever has a pin contacting surface and is manually pivotally movable from a biased, neutral position to a pin contacting, pawl pivoting, catch disengaging position.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an automotive electric latch mechanism. More particularly, the present invention relates to an integral auxiliary mechanical release for such a mechanism.
2. Disclosure Information
Keyless remote entry systems are currently used to lock and unlock doors as well as to remotely open the rear deck lid. The rear deck lid is held in a biased closed position by an electrically actuated latch mechanism. The rear deck lid mechanisms typically employ a striker, a catch, a pawl, a key actuated lever, and an electrical actuator. Ordinarily, the catch is disengaged from the striker by rotating the pawl from a catch engaging position to a catch disengaging position by key actuated or electrical means.
It is desired to provide a keyless remote entry system that also provides for electric actuation of the vehicle doors. A problem with current electric latch mechanisms used for rear deck lids, is that they do not provide the features necessary for vehicle door latch electric actuation. More specifically, electric door latch actuation requires the aforementioned deck lid features, as well as a manual interior latch actuator, an inner door handle for example, and a manual interior release deactivator. Manual interior release deactivation is desired in the case of rear child safety scenarios, for example.
It would therefore be desirable to provide an automotive vehicle door electric latch mechanism which not only provides electric as well as key cylinder lever actuation, but also provides for interior manual actuation as well as manual deactivation.

Electric latch mechanism with an integral auxiliary mechanical release


A method for manufacturing a product includes: filling, with a dispersion medium, an internal flow path and a liquid chamber of a droplet-jetting head for jetting droplets of liquid filled in the liquid chamber through the internal flow path, the internal flow path and the liquid chamber communicating with each other; filling the internal flow path and the liquid chamber of the droplet-jetting head with a dispersion liquid containing particles in place of the dispersion medium filled in the internal flow path and the liquid chamber; and applying the dispersion liquid droplets onto an object to be coated from the droplet-jetting head filled with the dispersion liquid.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing a product by jetting droplets to an object to be coated.
2. Description of the Related Art
A droplet-jetting applicator is used not only in printing image information, but also in manufacturing steps for various flat panel displays: specifically, a liquid-crystal display, an organic EL (Electro Luminescence) display, an electron-emitter display, a plasma display, an electrophoretic display, and so forth.
The droplet-jetting applicator includes a droplet-jetting head (for example, an inkjet head) which jets droplets of a dispersion liquid such as ink, through multiple nozzles, to an object such as a substrate to be coated with the droplets. In this type of droplet-jetting applicator, the droplets from the droplet-jetting head are landed on the object to be coated therewith, and a predetermined coating pattern is formed to manufacture various products. Note that a dispersion liquid such as ink is filled through internal flow paths into multiple liquid chambers of the droplet-jetting head.
In general, a droplet-jetting-head filling device is used at an initial filling stage of filling the droplet-jetting head with a dispersion liquid (i.e., filling of empty internal flow paths and liquid chambers in the droplet-jetting head). At the initial filling stage, by utilizing a water-head difference, a pump or the like, this droplet-jetting-head filling device sends a dispersion liquid to the internal flow paths and liquid chambers thereof so slowly that the internal flow paths and liquid chambers can be filled without air bubbles remaining in the internal flow paths and liquid chambers. The flow rate at this stage is controlled so that, for example, a 10-cc dispersion liquid may be gradually filled into the internal flow paths and liquid chambers of the droplet-jetting head for approximately 30 minutes to 60 minutes.
The dispersion liquid used here includes multiple, for example, spacer particles and the like as a coating material. This dispersion liquid is formed by dispersing multiple particles in a dispersion medium. It should be noted that the spacer particles and the like are easily deposited in the medium, causing failure in jetting droplets by the droplet-jetting head. Against this problem, a printing method has been proposed to prevent the spacer particles from being deposited in the droplet-jetting head after the initial filling of a spacer dispersion liquid including the multiple spacer particles (see, for example, JP-A No. 2006-122814 (KOKAI)). In this printing method, a spacer dispersion liquid is either discharged from the droplet-jetting head, or supplied to and discharged from the droplet-jetting head, the droplet-jetting head is initially filled with the spacer dispersion liquid. Here, this event is performed depending on whether the already-filled droplet-jetting head is in a printing state or a waiting state.
Meanwhile, as described above, the dispersion liquid needs to be filled slowly so that the air bubbles can be prevented from remaining at the initial filling stage. Since the particles in the dispersion liquid are likely to be deposited during this filling stage, the multiple deposited particles may clog a nozzle of the droplet-jetting head, causing a failure in jetting droplets by the droplet-jetting head such as not jetting droplets.


Some embodiments provide systems, assemblies, and methods of analyzing patient anatomy including providing an analysis of a patient's spine. The systems, assemblies, and/or methods can include obtaining initial patient data, and acquiring spinal alignment contour information. Further, the systems, assemblies, and/or methods can assess localized anatomical features of the patient, and obtain anatomical region data. The system, assemblies, and/or method can analyze the localized anatomy and therapeutic device location and contouring. Further, the system, assemblies, and/or method can output localized anatomical analyses and therapeutic device contouring data and/or imagery on a display.

Current tools limit a surgeon's ability to quickly and accurately assess the intraoperative alignment of their patient's spine, especially after the spine has been manipulated during a correction. In addition, most of the state-of-the-art options introduce or rely on excessive radiation exposure, inadequate visualization of anatomical landmark(s) of interest, and lengthy disruptions to the surgical workflow.

Intraoperative alignment assessment system and method


An aircraft noise monitoring system uses a set of geographically distributed noise sensors to receive data corresponding to events captured by the noise sensors. Each event corresponds to noise that exceeds a threshold level. For each event, the system will receive a classification of the event as an aircraft noise event or a non-aircraft noise event. It will then use the data corresponding to the events and the received classifications to train a convolutional neural network (CNN) in a classification process. After training, when the system receives a new noise event, it will use the CNN to classify the new noise event as an aircraft noise event or a non-aircraft noise event, and it will generate an output indicating whether the new noise event is an aircraft noise event or a non-aircraft noise event.

Air travel is one of the fastest growing modes of transportation. However, the effects of aircraft noise on populations surrounding airports is the primary cause of adverse community reaction related to the operation and growth opportunities at airports. These effects are especially prevalent near airports due to high densities of aircraft flying at low altitudes in such areas. It has become commonplace for major airports to have hundreds of arrivals or departures per day, which can result in hundreds of aircraft-related noise events where the sound pressure level (SPL) exceeds 65 decibels (dB) in nearby populated areas.
For these reasons, considerable investment has been made into reducing the amount of sound that aircraft produce, and in mitigating noise near airports through strategic runway selection, noise abatement flight procedures, residential sound insulation programs and outreach strategies. In planning and evaluating the effectiveness of these noise abatement strategies, efficient monitoring of the aircraft noise affecting areas around major airports is crucial.
In an effort to study and ultimately mitigate the impact from aircraft related noise, many airports continuously monitor the aircraft sounds in their surrounding communities by using aircraft noise and operations monitoring systems (NOMS) that include sound monitoring stations spread throughout the surrounding neighborhoods of an airport. An example of is shown in FIG. 1, which will be described below.
However, sound monitoring and analysis is complicated by the fact that aircraft are not the only source of sound and noise. For example, lawnmowers, vehicles, snowplows, fireworks, wind and thunder are non-aircraft events commonly collected by sound monitoring stations. It is important to be able to reliably identify these non-aircraft sound events to ensure highest quality and accuracy of metrics and reporting. To classify non-aircraft sound events as compared to aircraft sound events captured by sound monitoring stations, a process is utilized to evaluate whether an aircraft was in the vicinity when a sound event is recorded. This process, however, does not know, understand or take into consideration the source of the sound. Some airports attempt to check the aircraft correlated sound events manually by listening to audio recordings and examining historical flight path data, when available. This is a tedious and inefficient process, which is why this process is typically applied to only a very small fraction of total sound events collected.
This document describes methods and systems that are directed to solving some or all of the issues described above.

Airport noise classification method and system


A latching device configured to secure a strap to a piece of sports equipment or other wearable equipment. The latching device includes a locking buckle and clasp assembly. The locking buckle has a main body portion and a release mechanism. The release mechanism has locking pawls with claw members. The locking pawls engage the clasp assembly to releasably retain the locking buckle on the clasp assembly.

Sports helmets, particularly football helmets, have undergone substantial changes over the last 50 years. Helmets are retained by a chinstrap laced through buckles that snap onto the helmet. The buckles integrate ordinary snaps similar to snaps on a jacket. The chinstrap fixes the helmet in position and is designed to retain the helmet on a player's head. Current chinstrap buckles become unsnapped during game play on impact or by other game circumstances, resulting in helmets coming off during play. As sports such as football have become higher velocity contests, helmets are coming off at increasing and alarming rates causing potential danger to participants.
Youth players often lack sufficient strength to properly snap current buckles. This results in incomplete engagement and uncertain stability and retention. Youth players are also often unsure when current buckles are actually properly engaged as a definitive "snap" is often unattainable.


Multi-channel Fabry-Perot laser transmitters and methods of generating multiple modulated optical signals are described. In one aspect, an optical transmitter includes a Fabry-Perot (FP) laser, an optical isolator, an optical splitter, and multiple electroabsorption modulators (EAMs). The FP laser is operable to generate multimode laser light. The optical isolator is arranged to transmit the multimode laser light. The optical splitter has more than one optical output and an optical input that is arranged to receive the multimode laser light transmitted by the optical isolator. Each of the EAMs is operable to modulate a respective laser light output from a respective optical output of the optical splitter. In another aspect, multimode laser light is generated. The multimode laser light is directionally isolated. The directionally-isolated multimode laser light is divided into more than one divided laser light output. Each of the divided laser light outputs is modulated to produce multiple modulated optical signals.

Multi-channel optical transmitters provide a separate optical output for each of multiple optical communication channels. Multi-channel optical transmitters have been developed that include arrays of lasers, where each laser produces an individually modulatable light output. The light output from each laser may be modulated by direct modulation or external modulation. In a direct modulation approach, the output power of the laser typically is modulated directly by modulating the input drive current to the laser. In an external modulation approach, an external modulator modulates the intensity of light generated by a continuous wave laser in accordance with an information signal.
In one multi-channel optical transmitter approach, the modulated light outputs from the lasers are directly modulated and the modulated light outputs are coupled into respective optical fibers of an optical fiber array. Arrays of vertical cavity surface emitting lasers (VCSELs) and arrays of edge-emitting lasers, such as distributed feedback (DFB) lasers, have been used in these types of multi-channel optical transmitters. Currently, none of these types of multi-channel optical transmitters is capable of operating reliably at a data rate of 20 Giga-bits/second (Gb/s). For example, current VCSEL designs cannot reliably generate directly modulated optical signals at 20 Gb/s due to the high current densities that are required. Similarly, direct modulation of DFB lasers at 20 Gb/s is difficult to achieve. In addition, DFB lasers are extremely sensitive to back-reflections, which broaden the spectral linewidth and increase noise. For this reason, each of the DFB lasers in a multi-channel optical transmitter requires a separate optical isolator to protect the DFB lasers against back reflections, increasing the cost of such a multi-channel optical transmitter.
In another multi-channel optical transmitter approach, the light outputs from the lasers are directly modulated and the modulated light outputs are coupled into a single optical fiber. For example, a wavelength-division multiplexing (WDM) optical transmitter includes an array of lasers, such as DFB lasers, each of which is tuned to produce output light of a different respective wavelength. In order to transmit information over multiple communication channels, each laser in a WDM optical transmitter produces output light within a narrow wavelength range. The different output light wavelengths are combined in an optical coupler and the combined output light is injected into a single optical fiber.
In some multi-channel optical transmitters the light outputs from multiple DFB lasers are externally modulated by respective external electroabsorption modulators. The low chirp characteristics of the external modulators enable these types of multi-channel optical transmitters to achieve data rates of 20 Gb/s and higher. However, integrated arrays of DFB lasers and external electroabsorption modulators are difficult to manufacture and the power requirements of such multi-channel optical transmitters are significantly higher than other designs due to the need to drive both the laser array and the modulator array. In addition, in order to prevent reflections from feeding back into the DFB lasers, the output facet of each electroabsorption modulator typically has a high quality antireflection coating and a separate optical isolator is provided for each DFB laser. A direct active temperature-regulating device also typically is required to compensate for differences between the output wavelength temperature coefficient of the DFB lasers and the absorption edge wavelength temperature coefficient of the electroabsorption modulators. For this and other reasons, such externally modulated multi-channel optical transmitter designs tend to be bulky, expensive, and high in power consumption.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Multi-channel fabry-perot laser transmitters and methods of generating multiple modulated optical signals

Avago Technologies Fiber IP (Singapore) Pte. Ltd.


A method and code for controlling the operation of a deactivatable valve lifter of an internal combustion engine includes determining an oil viscosity measure based upon an engine oil pressure achieved when the engine is operating at a warm engine idle operating condition; determining a minimum oil temperature for actuator operation based on a comparison of the oil viscosity measure with a stored value representing the oil's nominal viscosity; and enabling actuator operation when an instantaneous oil temperature is not less than the minimum oil temperature.

The prior art teaches equipping vehicles with "variable displacement," "displacement on demand," or "multiple displacement" internal combustion engines in which one or more cylinders may be selectively "deactivated" or "suppressed," for example, to improve vehicle fuel economy when operating under relatively low-load conditions. Typically, the cylinders are deactivated through use of deactivatable valve train components, such as deactivating valve lifters as disclosed in U.S. patent publication no. US 2004/0244751 A1, in which a supply of pressurized engine oil is selectively delivered from an engine oil gallery to a deactivatable valve lifter through operation of a solenoid valve under the control of an engine control module. Preferably, the engine control module operates the solenoid valve such that the lifter's locking pins are moved between their respective locked and unlocked positions as the lifter's cam lies on the base circle of its corresponding cam surface, thereby minimizing lifter wear and noise. Thus, the triggering of the oil control solenoids is preferably synchronized to either the crankshaft in a pushrod engine, or the cam shaft in an overhead cam engine.
It is also known that, at each engine speed, there is a range of potential solenoid trigger points that produce a proper sequencing of the deactivatable valve train components, with the deactivation triggering window being significantly "wider" than the reactivation window because less time is needed to increase the oil gallery pressure to the relatively-lower unlatching pressure, as opposed to dropping the oil gallery pressure from a relatively-higher sustained pressure down to the latching pressure. It is further known that the viscosity of the oil supplied to the oil gallery has a significant impact on the amount of time required for deactivation, as a more viscous oil will drain more slowly through the solenoid's and/or the actuator's drain passages, so the prior art has sought to delay the enablement of actuator operation until the engine oil is sure to be warm, for example, by enabling actuator operation only after a minimum engine run time has occurred, or a minimum engine coolant temperature has been achieved.
However, such prior art approaches necessarily prevent early utilization of the deactivatable system, for example, to improve vehicle fuel economy, if the instantaneous oil viscosity is otherwise suitable for actuator operation before the timer has run out, or before the minimum engine coolant temperature has been achieved. Further, such prior art approaches do not accommodate changes in the nominal viscosity of the engine's oil over time, as through aging/oil breakdown (shear) or, perhaps, through operator error as may occur when refilling/replacing engine oil with an oil having a different nominal viscosity rating or "grade." It is, therefore, desirable to correlate enablement of an actuator's operation with a measure representing the instantaneous nominal viscosity of the supplied engine oil.

Method and code for controlling actuator responsive to oil pressure using oil viscosity measure


The object of the present invention is to provide a glycolide production method capable of further increasing the production rate of glycolide. The glycolide production method according to the present invention includes adding metal iron to an aqueous glycolic acid solution, subjecting glycolic acid contained in the aqueous glycolic acid solution to which the metal iron is added, to dehydrating polycondensation to obtain a glycolic acid oligomer, and heating and depolymerizing the glycolic acid oligomer to obtain glycolide.

Polyglycolic acid is a resin material that excels in biodegradability, gas barrier properties, and strength, and is used in a wide range of technical fields such as in sutures, artificial skin, and other polymer materials for medical purposes, bottles, films, and other packaging materials, and resin materials for various industrial products such as injection molded products, fibers, vapor deposition films, and fishing lines.
Such polyglycolic acids are required to have a high degree of polymerization according to the application. A polyglycolic acid with a high degree of polymerization can be produced by a method of subjecting glycolide to ring-opening polymerization. Furthermore, a reduction of the production costs of polyglycolic acid is demanded, and there is also a demand for the mass production of glycolide used as a raw material, that is, there is a demand to enable the production of glycolide at a high production rate.
The glycolide that is a raw material of polyglycolic acid can be produced through 1) subjecting glycolic acid to dehydrating polycondensation to obtain a glycolic acid oligomer (dehydrating polycondensation), and 2) depolymerizing the obtained glycolic acid oligomer (depolymerization).
Methods of depolymerizing glycolic acid oligomers in the presence of a stabilizer such as iron sulfate in order to stably produce glycolide are known (for example, Patent Document 1). When depolymerization is carried out in the presence of a stabilizer such as iron sulfate in this manner, it is said that the stabilizer such as iron sulfate traps alkali metal ions mixed in the reaction system and stabilizes the depolymerization reaction.


A personal cleansing composition comprising:. (a) from about 1% to about 20% by weight of anionic sulphate or sulphonate surfactant; PA1 (b) from about 0.1% to about 10% by weight of carboxymethylated C.sub.8 -C.sub.22 alkyl or alkenyl monoethanolamide polyglycol ether; PA1 (c) from about 0.1% to about 10% by Weight of zwitterionic and/or amphoteric surfactants; and PA1 (d) from about 0.1% to about 20% by weight of a soluble or dispersible nonionic surfactant selected from ethoxylated animal and vegetable oils and fats and mixtures thereof. The cleaning products demonstrate excellent mildness, conditioning benefits, stability, lathering and rinsibility.

Mild cosmetic compositions must satisfy a number of criteria including cleansing power, foaming properties and mildness/low irritancy/good feel with respect to the skin, hair and the ocular mucosae. Skin is made up of several layers of cells which coat and protect the keratin and collagen fibrous proteins that form the skeleton of its structure. The outermost of these layers, referred to as the stratum corneum, is known to be composed of 250 .ANG. protein bundles surrounded by 80 .ANG. thick layers. Hair similarly has a protective outer coating enclosing the hair fibre which is called the cuticle. Anionic surfactants can penetrate the stratum corneum membrane and the cuticle and, by delipidization destroy membrane integrity. This interference with skin and hair protective membranes can lead to a rough skin feel and eye irritation and may eventually permit the surfactant to interact with the keratin and hair proteins creating irritation and loss of barrier and water retention functions.
Ideal cosmetic cleansers should cleanse the skin or hair gently, without defatting and/or drying the hair and skin and without irritating the ocular mucosae or leaving skin taut after frequent use. Most lathering soaps, shower and bath products, shampoos and bars fail in this respect.
Certain synthetic surfactants are known to be mild. However, a major drawback of most mild synthetic surfactant systems when formulated for shampooing or personal cleansing is poor lather performance compared to the highest shampoo and bar soap standards. Thus, surfactants that are among the mildest are marginal in lather. The use of known high sudsing anionic surfactants with lather boosters, on the other hand, can yield acceptable lather volume and quality but at the expense of clinical skin mildness. These two facts make the surfactant selection, the lather and mildness benefit formulation process a delicate balancing act.
Thus a need exists for personal cleansing products which deliver acceptable in-use skin feel characteristics but which will not dehydrate the skin or result in loss of skin suppleness, which will provide a level of skin conditioning performance in a wash and rinse-off product which previously has only been provided by a separate post-cleansing cosmetic moisturizer and which will produce a foam which is stable and of high quality, which are effective hair and skin cleansers, which have good rinsibility characteristics, and which at the same time have stable product and viscosity characteristics and remain fully stable under long term and stressed temperature storage conditions.
It has now been found that personal cleansing compositions having improved skin feel and moisturisation attributes, both in use and after use, which deliver desirable lathering characterisitcs and good product stability can be formed by the combination of carboxymethylated and suphate or sulphonate surfactants along with zwitterionic and/or amphoteric surfactants and preferably nonionic surfactants. It has also been found that the ratios of carboxymethylated to sulphate/sulphonate surfactant and carboxymethylated to zwitterionic surfactant confer particular benefits in personal cleansing compositions in terms of mildness and lather characteristics.


A transmission line includes a signal conductor and at least one varactor diode capacitively coupled to the signal conductor. The transmission line's signal path delay is a function of its shunt capacitance, and the varactor's capacitance forms a part of the transmission line's shunt capacitance. The transmission line's signal path delay is adjusted by adjusting a control voltage across the varactor diode thereby to adjust the varactor diode's capacitance.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to transmission lines for conveying high frequency signals, and in particular to a method and apparatus for adjusting the signal path delay of a transmission line.
2. Description of Related Art
Controlled impedance transmission lines are often used to convey high frequency digital signals between signal transmitters and receivers within an electronic circuit. The "characteristic impedance" Zo of a uniform transmission line is often modeled asZo=(L/C)1/2  [1]where L and C are the series inductance and shunt capacitance per unit length of the transmission line. Since abrupt changes in the characteristic impedance of a transmission line can cause undesirable signal reflections, circuit designers usually try to design transmission lines so that they have a uniformly distributed characteristic impedance from end-to-end. They also design the circuits at each end of a transmission line to terminate the transmission line with its characteristic impedance to avoid abrupt impedance changes at the transmission line ends.
When a driver sends a pulse edge of a digital signal to a receiver at a remote end of a transmission line, the pulse edge takes time to travel the length of a transmission line to the receiver because the driver needs time to change the charge on capacitance of the transmission line and to alter the magnetic fields in the transmission line inductance that oppose voltage changes on the transmission line. The velocity of signal propagation Vp of a transmission line having uniform distributed capacitance C and inductance L per unit length can be modeled by the expression:Vp=(1/LC)1/2  [2]
In many applications it is necessary to precisely control the signal path delay of a transmission line. For example an integrated circuit (IC) tester that tests an IC die on a semiconductor wafer sends test signals to the IC die under test (DUT) and samples output signals the DUTs produce in response to the test signals to determine whether the DUT is behaving as expected. The test and response signals travel over transmission lines between the tester and bond pads on the DUT surfaces that act as input/output terminals. The transmission lines include probes for accessing the DUT bond pads and various connectors and circuit board traces for linking the tester to the probes. Since the tester must carefully control the times at which test signal state changes arrive at the DUT and the times at which the tester must sample each response signal, the signal path delay of the transmission lines becomes increasingly large and problematic with increasing test and response signal frequencies. For example when the tester changes the state of two test signals at the same time, the state changes of those two test signals should arrive at separate terminals of a DUT acceptably close together in time. It helps to use transmission lines of similar design and length to convey the two signals from their sources in the tester to the DUT. However in high frequency testing environments, where signals timing must be accurate within the picosecond range, it is difficult to construct a set of transmission lines having sufficiently similar signal path delays.
One solution to the problem is to provide transmission lines having adjustable delays. As illustrated in FIG. 1 herein, U.S. Pat. No. 5,760,661 issued Jun. 2, 1998 to Marvin Cohn, describes a transmission line 10 including a trace 12 formed on a semiconductor substrate for conveying high frequency alternating current (AC) signals. As may be seen from equation [2] above, since the velocity of signal propagation Vp is inversely proportional to the square root of its capacitance, it is possible to control a transmission line's delay by adjusting its capacitance. A varactor diode acts like a capacitor having a capacitance that is a function of the voltage across it. Cohn teaches to connect varactor diodes 14 at various points along the trace 12 so that the capacitance of the varactor diodes increases the inherent capacitance of the trace. A pair of capacitors 20 at the ends of trace 12 block direct current (DC) signals but allow an AC input signal to pass over the trace. This prevents the common mode voltage of the AC signal from influencing the bias on diodes 14. A DC control voltage VBIAS delivered to trace 12 from an adjustable voltage source 15 through a resistor 28 controls the capacitance of the varactor diodes and therefore the delay of transmission line 10. Thus the delay of transmission line 10 can be adjusted by adjusting the DC control voltage VBIAS on trace 12. Although changing the capacitance of transmission line 10 also changes the transmission line's characteristic impedance, small reflections resulting from small mismatches in characteristic impedance can often be tolerated when small variations in signal path delay cannot.
Since the voltage of an AC signal having a larger peak-to-peak voltage can substantially increase or decrease the voltage across varactor diodes 14 depending on whether the AC signal is in its high or low voltage swing, the delay provided by transmission line 10 varies with the phase of the AC signal, and that kind of delay variation can distort the signal. Cohn resolves this problem by modifying transmission line 10 of FIG. 1 to form the transmission line 30 illustrated in FIG. 2. Here varactor diodes 32 of opposite polarity to that of varactor diodes 14 are also connected to trace 12. Any change in capacitance of varactor diodes 14 arising from variation in the AC signal voltage is offset by a substantially equal but opposite change in the capacitance of varactor diodes 32. Thus the total capacitance of the transmission line 30 is largely unaffected by the phase of the AC signal.
The adjustable delay transmission lines described by the cited patent are suitable for conveying high frequency sine wave signals, but they are not suitable for conveying other types of high frequency signals, such as binary digital signals. Versions of the transmission line employing isolation capacitors 20 would block or substantially distort such signals. Thus versions of the transmission line that do not employ blocking diodes add a DC offset to the voltage of the signal that may not be acceptable in many applications. Versions of the transmission line employing isolation capacitors to remove the DC offset would substantially distort high frequency signals that were not sine waves.
One drawback to the prior art transmission lines illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 is that they require relatively large numbers of discrete varactors to be distributed along the length of the transmission lines. Such transmission lines are expensive and difficult to fabricate.
What is needed is a transmission line having an adjustable signal path delay that is suitable for conveying all types of high frequency signals including but not limited to digital signals, analog signals, square waves signals, sine wave signals and combinations thereof, and which does not require the use of large numbers of expensive varactors.


Lubricants for containers and for conveyors for transporting containers are provided. The lubricants provide container and conveyor surfaces having low coefficients of friction. In one embodiment, the lubricants comprise a cured coating containing hydrophobic polymers and waxes.

In many areas of manufacturing, including drink bottling and food processing plants, conveyors are used to move containers such as bottles, jars, cans, and the like between locations. In order to maintain line efficiency, keep the containers and conveyor parts clean, and provide lubrication it is customary to use a lubricant, typically an aqueous, soap-based or synthetic lubricant. These lubricants are generally sold as concentrates designed to be heavily diluted prior to or during use. For example, a typical dilution ratio might be 1:100 or even greater.
Unfortunately, these conventional lubricants present certain disadvantages. For example, due to the heavy dilution, these lubricants tend to drip from the surfaces onto which they are coated, creating a safety hazard in plants and requiring constant clean-up efforts. In addition, the conventional lubricants typically require frequent or constant reapplication which adds to the cost and inefficiency of the lubricating process. Known lubricants are frequently incompatible with containers and/or conveyor parts. For example, many commercially available lubricants cause stress cracking in polyethylene terephthalate bottles.
Thus a need exists for a container and conveyor lubricant that is cost effective and efficient to apply and reapply, and is compatible with containers and conveyor parts.