A polarity checking apparatus for multi-fiber connectors includes a body, a diverging lens attached to the body and a screen attached to the body, wherein the apparatus is configured to determine test and/or determine polarity of the multi-fiber connector. The screen may be translucent or may be opaque in part and rotatable for checking whether a signal is being transmitted on an individual optical fiber position of the multi-fiber connector. The invention is also directed to a method for checking the polarity of an optical assembly.

Service providers are building communications networks that push optical fibers closer to subscribers, thereby increasing the bandwidth and reliability for the subscribers. This build-out of the optical network uses fiber optic distribution cables to route optical fibers toward the subscribers. Fiber optic distribution cables have access locations that are selected and accessed along the distribution cable for routing one or more optical fibers away from the distribution cable and toward the subscriber. For instance, some distribution cables are factory-terminated at, or near, the access locations with multi-fiber optic connectors. However, in many cases, distribution cables are field-terminated such as by fusion splicing of factory-terminated assemblies at the desired access location.
Unlike factory-terminated distribution cables, verifying proper polarity of the optical fibers at the field termination of the access location is burdensome and may cause damage to the end face of a ferrule used in the fiber optic connector. Specifically, checking polarity of the field terminated multi-fiber connector requires mating a compatible connector to the field-terminated multi-fiber connector. Attaching a compatible connector for testing/polarity checking risks contamination and damage to the field-terminated access location. Damage or contamination to the field-terminated access locations may result in costly rework or repairs due to labor and/or materials.
Additionally, one viable test method for checking polarity at multi-fiber connector points along an optical fiber distribution cable is by using a Visual Fault Locator (VFL), which is typically a Class II laser. The use of a VFL creates an eye safety concern for the craft. In other words, eye injury can result if the craftsman looks directly into the laser beam, repeatedly, or over a prolonged period of time.
Thus, there is a unresolved need in the industry for devices and methods that allow for checking polarity of multi-fiber connectors/assemblies that minimizes risk of damage to multi-fiber connections in a quick, safe, easy, and reliable manner.

Polarity checking apparatus for multi-fiber connectors


Liquid brewed beverage concentrates and methods of making the concentrates are provided herein. The concentrates are liquid and flowable at room temperature and can be diluted in an aqueous liquid to provide a beverage having the general appearance, flavor, and aroma of a freshly brewed beverage. The concentrates include a low water content, high non-aqueous liquid content, particularly non-volatile non-aqueous liquid content, and high flavor solids content, the amounts of which are balanced to provide concentrates with a desired flavor profile with little or no flavor degradation after storage at room temperature in a sealed container for at least about three months.

Commercially-available coffee concentrates are typically manufactured by partially dehydrating aqueous extracts of solid flavor sources. Alternatively, such products are manufactured by dissolving the dried extracts in water. These products are commonly subjected to thermal processing and/or fortification with chemical preservatives to improve microbiological stability and increase shelf life.
Liquid aqueous coffee concentrates have been commercially available for decades, but these products still suffer from widely-known shortcomings related to their composition and handling requirements. For example, initial flavor quality may be greatly inferior to freshly-brewed coffee and shelf life at room temperature may be very short, requiring refrigerated or frozen distribution and storage. It is also known that these types of products are often chemically unstable, as generally evidenced by increasing acidity and sedimentation, and decreasing flavor quality, during storage. Aqueous liquid tea concentrates are also known, and these products are similarly prone to flavor degradation and sedimentation during storage.
Attempts have been made to improve the chemical stability of aqueous coffee concentrates, but the methods generally require use of expensive or complicated processing, chemical treatments, or chemical preservatives. Freezing may reduce or prevent some instability problems but at a cost of increased energy consumption and inconvenience because frozen products must be thawed before use. Under some conditions, freezing may also increase reactions or sedimentation because solutions undergo freeze-concentration into a progressively smaller volume of liquid, thereby increasing the potential for solute interactions. Freezing and frozen storage typically require the use of temperatures well below the freezing point of pure water to effectively solidify such freeze-concentrated solutions, further increasing costs and time required for processing and thawing.


A control circuit for controlling an LED device according to an input data signal and a clock signal is disclosed. The control circuit includes at least one first control module. The first control module includes a shift register unit, a latch register unit, an LED driving circuit, and a latch signal generator. The shift register unit includes at least one shift register and is triggered by the clock signal for buffering data transmitted in the input data signal. The latch register unit includes at least one latch register and is triggered by a latch signal for latching data buffered by the shift register. The LED driving circuit is utilized for driving the LED device according to data latched by the latch register. The latch signal generator is used to generate the latch signal according to the input data signal and the clock signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is to provide a control circuit for controlling a Light Emitting Diode (LED) device according to an input data signal and a clock signal.
2. Description of the Prior Art
At present, there exist three conventional schemes for controlling an LED device, including a parallel control scheme, an address control scheme, and a series control scheme respectively. The parallel control scheme utilizes electronic lines to connect all independent lamp apparatuses and a system controller respectively. The advantage of the parallel control scheme is that control is very simple. The disadvantage, however, is that the parallel control scheme costs a lot of electronic lines and results in a problem for settling lamp apparatuses. The problem is that distances between the lamp apparatuses and the system controller are different since not all lamp apparatuses are distributed over the same area. The address control scheme gives all lamp apparatuses different addresses such that the system controller can control a specific lamp apparatus by using an address corresponding to the specific lamp apparatus; however, transmitting controlling signals and address signals for the address control scheme to control lamp apparatuses is necessary. This causes problems when producing, settling, and maintaining lamp apparatuses. The series control scheme adds a control circuit on each lamp apparatus and uses electronic lines to connect one lamp apparatus to another for controlling all lamp apparatuses. The advantage of the series control scheme is that cost of electronic lines is reduced and lamp apparatuses can be controlled with the same system. When applied to early LED devices, however, the series control scheme requires six electronic lines for control. Please refer to FIG. 1. FIG. 1 is a diagram of a prior art LED system 100. As shown in FIG. 1, the LED system 100 comprises a plurality of LED devices 102, 104, 106. It is necessary for the LED devices 102, 104, 106 to connect themselves to the power supply voltage level Vcc, ground voltage level Vss, data signal DAT, clock signal CLK, latch signal LAT, and the enable signal EN. In order to prevent signals from degrading caused by the series connection structure, extra buffer amplifiers are added in the LED system 100 to prevent the data signal DAT, clock signal CLK, latch signal LAT, and enable signal EN respectively from degrading. Recently, the Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) technology has been applied to controlling LED devices. One of the advantages of the PWM technology is to reduce a large amount of driving data. More and more system designers incline to (prefer to) utilize the PWM technology for generating the latch signal automatically instead of using the manual latch signal and the enable signal simultaneously. Please refer to FIG. 2. FIG. 2 is a diagram of another prior art LED system 200 using the PWM technology. As shown in FIG. 2, only four electronic lines, including the power supply voltage level Vcc, ground voltage level Vss, data signal DAT, and the clock signal CLK, are needed for controlling the LED devices 202, 204, 206 within the LED system 200. The purpose of the PWM technology is to reduce the above-mentioned large amount data for transmission. Generating the latch signal automatically can be achieved by utilizing a clock loss detection circuit to detect the clock signal for checking if the clock signal is not received in a detection period. If the clock signal is not received in the detection period, the latch signal will be generated to control the LED devices. The detection period cannot be changed, however, since the detection period has to be set in advance for the clock loss detection circuit to detect the clock signal. The system will waste a lot of time for waiting if the detection period is too long. Oppositely, if the detection period is too short, the minimum input frequency of the clock signal will be limited. The latch signal will be generated easily by unexpected events, and therefore the LED devices are erroneously enabled. It is hard for the system to control the LED devices precisely.

LED control circuit for automatically generating latch signal


The smart suspension is compilation of air coils (air cylinder and air piston) as well as smart hydraulic shock absorber that in respect their roles are making comfort and improving vehicles balance. Regardless of the vehicle, the height adjustment system being used in smart suspension, adjusts the height and has the ability to drive in any desirable heights without losing a bit of comfort and safety (lowest to the highest elevations). There are two manual and automatic height adjustment systems, automatic system is being activated by disembarking passengers and manual system is set using the electronic key. These changes can range from 1 mm to 20 cm which in both conditions there would be no change in safety or any uncomfortable feeling.

Hydraulic suspension systems are similar inventions, they all act as an active body control and can adjust the height, which big companies all around the world put their own name on them such as ABC or Active Body Control. There has been 6 decades since its generation, but the evolution continues until the difficulties to be solved.
Idea of using Hydraulic systems for vehicles suspension mechanism was first discussed in Citroen Car Company in 1952. Designers of this company used all hydraulic mechanisms ever invented in manufacturing the Citroen DS219.
The principles of hydraulic suspension system, sometimes known as hydro pneumatic, are based on compressibility of gases and non-compressibility of liquids. Each used kickstand being used in suspension system replacing normal springs/coils consists of one simple cylinder, one simple piston, and one storage or warehouse which is under pressure of nitrogen gas and is being installed on top of the kickstand.
Hydraulic oil can move back and forth between kickstand and storage. The auto body weight causes piston rise in cylinder resulting oil emission from kickstand and its entrance to the storage. With the addition of oil into the store, nitrogen gas-locked inside-density increases in order to reach equilibrium with the weight of the car.
Thus the locked nitrogen gas acts like a coil/spring. By placing an orifice (narrow channel) between piston and storage we can decrease the velocity in pistons and absorb the uneven impact impulses—in conventional vehicles this action is carried out by shock absorbers.
But the system has some shortcomings and weaknesses as follow:                High maintenance costs        High production costs        Vehicle confusion in consecutive loops        Malfunctioning in bumps in high speeds        Using significant portion of motor energy on system performance        Debility in adjusting the vehicle's height as it is moving or lack of driving ability at different heights (according to manufacturers, this system can adjust vehicles height but due to the loss of driving comfort and safety cannot move other than the standard heights).
In this system, each of the four Shock Absorbers and springs/coils are individually controlled by electronic control unit. In this case, the sensors mounted in each wheel give the momentary reports about the vehicle and state of the road to the control unit. Thus, comparing to vehicles using ABC, the vehicles that are equipped with this system have lower fuel consumption and more power engine. For a better understanding, in stable auto conditions (such as highways, straight paths) using signals from sensors the system sends commands which could increase the flexibility of air coils and cause superior comfort.
However if the sensors transmit information including imbalance vehicle or entering a hairpin, the control unit takes control of each four wheel, the coils/springs, and shock absorbers in order to pass the encountered crisis. Another advantage of this system is that when the driver is forced to make a severe and sudden brake the system prevents the front parts of the car to move downwards and keeps the car balanced.
Scientific basis of this system is the centrifugal force. Due to the effect of this force, cars tend to reduce height in every curve and falloff the path. If we could stop the height reduction then we can prevent misbalancing and falling-off's as well.
In this system each wheel and coil are being checked individually and are equipped with a smart barometer.
In other words, although it is a great comfort it also provides safety to the vehicle. On the other hand this system is capable of driving in any desirable height without loss of comfort and safety.

Air shock absorber with smart suspension system with height adjustment without losing comfort and safety


A slider for use with interlocking profiles in a reclosable plastic bag is disclosed. The slider includes a rotary device which allows the user to hold the reclosable plastic bag and operate the slider with a single hand. The rotary device can be a thumbwheel which is journaled for rotation about an axis in the side or top of the slider, and can also be a flexible or elastic band which passes through and is retained by slots formed in the slider.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a slider for a reclosable bag, wherein the slider includes a thumbwheel or similar rotary device in order to move the slider along the zipper at the mouth of the reclosable bag. This permits the user to open or close the slider while using a single hand.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the prior art of reclosable bags, it is well known to use a zipper with interlocking profiles at the mouth of a reclosable bag. It is further well known to use a slider mounted on the zipper profile whereby slider movement in a first direction opens the bag by releasing the profiles from each other and slider movement in a second direction closes the bag by interlocking the profiles to each other.
However, typically, such prior art sliders are operated by a user holding the bag with one hand and moving the slider with the other hand so that two hands are needed. This required use of two hands may be inconvenient, or even impossible, for some users.


A quartz glass vessel having mutually opposed first and second neck-shaped portions is heated over the first neck-shaped portion while flushing the vessel with gas, then pinched over an external current wire and collapsed over a metal foil by means of reduced pressure to form a seal. The second neck-shaped portion may also be collapsed over a metal foil by reduced pressure in the lamp vessel to form a seal. The seals are preferably shaped to form flat external surfaces.

The invention relates to a capped electric lamp comprising:
a quartz glass vessel which is closed in a vacuumtight manner and which has a first and a second neck-shaped portion with respective seals in mutual opposition, through which seals respective current supply conductors extend to an electric element arranged in the lamp vessel, the latter having a filling; PA1 a lamp cap connected to the lamp vessel, PA1 which current supply conductors each comprise a metal foil which is embedded in a respective seal in a vacuumtight manner and to which a respective internal current wire connected to the electric element is connected at a first end portion and a respective external current wire issuing from the relevant seal to the exterior is connected at a second end portion.
Such a capped electric lamp is known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,320,562. The lamp may be used as a vehicle headlamp, especially if the electric element is a pair of electrodes in an ionizable filling, but it may alternatively be used for other applications, for example optical applications. The lamp has the advantage of a comparatively long life and a high light output at a comparatively low power rating of approximately 35 W. The light is generated between electrodes which are spaced apart no more than a few millimeters, for example 4.5 mm, so that the lamp has a very high luminance and the generated light can be very well concentrated into a beam by a reflector and possibly a lens. The lamp vessel has comparatively small internal dimensions of, for example, approximately 1 to 3 mm diameter in the centre between the electrodes and approximately 4.5 to 9 mm length.
The known lamp may have an outer envelope around the lamp vessel, connected thereto with narrowed portions, for example, to the neck-shaped portions of this vessel.
The lamp has a lamp cap of insulating material which comprises electric contacts connected to respective current supply conductors, and in which a fixation member is secured. A metal sleeve grips around the outer envelope. The fixation member is welded to the sleeve after the electric element has been brought into a defined position relative to reference points of the lamp cap through shifting, rotating, and/or pivoting of the lamp vessel.
A metal sleeve around the envelope in the cited patent document forms an alternative for the construction in which the sleeve directly grips the relevant neck-shaped portion. This construction may be used in a lamp having an outer envelope, such as also known from, for example, EP-A 0 570 068 (to which U.S. Pat. No. 5,461,277 corresponds), EP-A 0 581 354 (PHN 14.128), and EP-A 0 579 326 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,412,275), as well as in a lamp without outer envelope. The latter type of lamp is also known from, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,216,319), U.S. Pat. No. 5,378,958, and EP-A 0 579 313 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,199).
In the lamp of the kind mentioned in the opening paragraph according to Patent Application EP 94 201 416.8 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,677,589), a pinch is provided in the outer envelope adjoining the narrowed portion therein, on which pinch a clamping member bears by which the lamp cap holds the lamp vessel.
The Patent Application EP 94 20 13 18.6 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,646,471) describes a lamp of the kind mentioned in the opening paragraph in which a coating is provided on the outer envelope with which the occurrence of parasitic light in a beam formed by a reflector can be counteracted. A coating having favorable properties for that purpose as regards durability and high light absorption is described in the Patent Application EP 94 20 32 76.4 (PHN 15.094) of earlier date.
The Patent Application EP 94 20 37 50.8 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,619,102) describes a lamp of the kind mentioned in the opening paragraph in which a clamping member is provided around the outer envelope, narrowing towards the relevant neck-shaped portion, while a fixation member of the lamp cap grips the clamping member at its narrow portion.
The Patent Application EP 94 20 35 54.4 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,541,471) describes a lamp of the kind mentioned in the opening paragraph where the outer envelope is formed from UV-absorbing quartz glass doped with cerium, titanium, europium, and aluminium.
A discharge lamp of the kind mentioned in the opening paragraph is also known from U.S. Pat. No. 5,109,181 and EP-A 0 576 071 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,497,049). The lamp has a mercury pressure of approximately 200 bar during operation and accordingly emits light having a continuous spectrum. Lamp power has values of up to 150 W and electrode spacing is approximately 1 to 2 mm. The lamp vessel has a small internal diameter of up to approximately 5 mm and a small internal length of up to approximately 8 mm. The lamp cap of the lamp may be made of insulating material and have a contact for each current supply conductor. Alternatively, the lamp may be permanently accommodated in a reflector such as known, for example, from EP-A 0 595 412 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,506,464) or as described in Patent Application EP 94 20 09 60.6 (U.S. Pat. No. 5,568,967) may be used, for example, for projection purposes. The lamp may in that case have a lamp cap of insulating material or of metal which supports a contact to which a current supply conductor of the lamp is connected. The other current supply conductor may be connected to a contact supported by the reflector.
Because of the comparatively small dimensions of the lamp vessel, it can scarcely be avoided that a location of the lamp vessel where an exhaust tube was tipped is in the path of the radiated light, causing deflection of that light, which may be detrimental in the application of the lamp. In addition, solid or liquid ingredients of the lamp vessel filling may condense in that location, whereby they would be removed from the discharge. It is accordingly desirable to provide the filling ingredients in the lamp vessel before the second seal is made, so that a separate exhaust tube and its fused tip are avoided.
The comparatively small dimensions of the lamp vessel also render it necessary for the lamp vessel to be freed of impurities before it is sealed. The impurities could reduce lamp life or be deposited in the light path on the lamp vessel and cause stray light then.
Quartz glass, i.e. glass having a SiO.sub.2 content of at least 98% by weight within the scope of the invention, has a very low linear coefficient of thermal expansion of approximately 10*10.sup.-7. Metals which can be used as current supply conductors under the high thermal loads to which they are exposed in electric lamps have much higher coefficients, for example W approximately 45*10.sup.-7 and Mo approximately 54*10.sup.-7. This means that a wire made from one of these metals embedded in quartz glass at the melting or softening temperature of quartz glass will contract more strongly upon cooling down than does the surrounding glass. The wire then will detach itself from the inside of the glass. The glass will not close around the wire in a vacuumtight manner.
Nevertheless, vacuumtight seals of quartz glass around such metals can be obtained provided the metal has the shape of a foil with sharp edges, also called knife edges or feather edges, because the quartz glass can adapt itself snugly to the shape of the foil, and provided the quartz glass adheres to the foil. To achieve the strength which a current supply conductor must have within and outside the lamp vessel, current supply conductors consisting of a metal foil to which a wire is connected at one end as an internal wire conductor and a wire at the other end as an external current wire, for example by welding, are practically always used in electric lamps having quartz glass lamp vessels. Mo is often used herein as the metal of the foil because this metal has a comparatively high ductility. Current supply conductors often consist of W (internal current wire), Mo (foil), and Mo (external wire).
The expansion of materials implies that no vacuumtight embracing of a current supply conductor by the quartz glass is possible where the conductor is embedded in the quartz glass of a lamp vessel in as far as the internal current wire extends from the cavity of the lamp vessel to on the relevant end portion of the foil, and in as far as the external current wire extends from outside the quartz glass to on the relevant end portion of the foil. The internal and external current conductors have a capillary space around them over these lengths.
In the manufacture of the electric lamp of the kind mentioned in the opening paragraph, the current supply conductors and the electric element are positioned in the lamp vessel under manufacture, and the lamp vessel may be flushed with an inert gas such as, for example, argon, possibly while being heated, so as to drive out impurities. Flushing with inert gas provides a much more effective and fast cleaning than evacuation of the lamp vessel after it has been sealed at one end. Repeated evacuation and flushing with inert gas also has a low effectivity.
Flushing with inert gas, for example in that the second neck-shaped portion is held in a valve from which a flow of inert gas issues, is also useful for preventing oxidation caused by the penetration of air and/or combustion gases from burners when the first neck-shaped portion is locally heated for making a seal therein.
Once the quartz glass has softened sufficiently, it must be pressed against the relevant current supply conductor by means of pinching blocks acting against the pressure of the inert gas which is still flowing, so as to make the first seal. Then the filling is introduced into the lamp vessel and held fixed therein through cooling of the lamp vessel adjacent the first seal, while the free end of the second neck-shaped portion is held by the valve and is kept sealed off from the surroundings. The lamp vessel is then sealed up by locally heating the quartz glass of the second neck-shaped portion and a seal is made over the relevant current supply conductor. Owing to the absence of a gas flow and owing to the comparatively low pressure in the lamp vessel caused by cooling of the lamp vessel, the glass of the second neck-shaped portion, sucked on by the under pressure in the lamp vessel, collapses onto the current supply conductor, thus forming the second seal. The seal may be shaped afterwards, if so desired, with pinching blocks.
It was found that the second seal formed by collapsing and possibly shaped by pinching is more resistant to the changing temperature and pressure conditions of the lamp during and after operation than the first pinched seal.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,389,201 describes the manufacture of a similar electric discharge lamp. The lamp vessel under manufacture is here flushed with argon while the current supply conductors with the electrodes and the solid and liquid ingredients of the filling are being introduced. The free end of the first neck-shaped portion is subsequently heated until the glass has softened to the point where it collapses and closes the relevant portion. The argon flow, however, must be interrupted for this, so that impurities such as air or combustion gases from the burner can penetrate the lamp vessel. When the free end has been closed, argon is admitted into the lamp vessel to a pressure of less than 1 bar, and the two seals are made by causing the glass of the neck-shaped portions to collapse. It is a disadvantage of this method that cleaning of the lamp vessel is interrupted and its effect wiped out in order to close the free end. It is also a disadvantage that an additional operation is to be carried out for closing this free end. A further disadvantage is that ingredients of the lamp filling, for example hygroscopic salts, are in open communication with the surroundings of the lamp during this additional operation and may accordingly themselves absorb impurities.

Method for making a capped electric lamp by using reduced internal pressure to collapse glass


An apparatus that can also be used for generating the average of two integers. The apparatus can be divided into a plurality of sub-adders that operate on sub-words of the input integers in parallel. Hence, the adder can be used for adding or subtracting one set of two integers wherein each integer is of some predetermined length or a plurality of sets of two integers provided the sum of the lengths of the integers is less than or equal to this predetermined length. The apparatus can also generate the sum, or difference, of each of the sub-words divided by two. The parallel operations can be carried out in response to a single instruction. The results of the division by two are rounded in a manner that eliminates biasing of the results.

Computers normally include an arithmetic logic unit that includes an adder that adds numbers of some maximum number of bits. Adders for words of length 32 and 64 bits are common in microprocessors and the like. While these adders will also operate on much smaller words, when doing so, the majority of the logic circuits contained in the adders are idle. For example, a 64-bit adder can be used to add two 8-bit words by placing each of the 8-bit words in the least significant portion of a corresponding 64-bit word and then adding the 64-bit words. During the addition, the logic circuitry concerned with adding the 7 high order bytes of each of the words is effectively idle. Hence, 7/8.sup.ths of the capacity of the adder is being wasted during this operation.
Computations involving the addition of a large number of pairs of small words are often encountered in multi-media data processing. For example, consider the problem of adding two gray-scale images to generate a sum image. The pixels of the images are typically stored as one byte integers representing the light intensity at a corresponding point in the image. Since storage space is always at a premium, the pixels of the image are typically packed into words. If the basic word size on the computer is 32-bits, the pixels could be packed four per word. Each image may have a million pixels. Hence, the computation of the sum image involves adding two pixels from the component image to generate a corresponding pixel in the sum image. If there are a million pixels in each image, a million such additions must be performed. Each addition requires the "unpacking" of two words, one from each component image, the addition of the two unpacked bytes, and then the storage of the result in the correct byte of a word in the sum image.
If the basic word size of the computer is 32-bits, the computer will normally have a 32-bit adder. During these computations, 75% of the adding capacity of the adder will be idle. Hence, a conventional arithmetic logic unit is not being used optimally when performing this type of image calculation.
The computation times encountered in these types of operations can be excessive. Hence, special parallel computer architectures are often employed to reduce the time between the execution of the sum image command and the time at which the sum image is completed. Since all of the additions are independent of each other, the adds can be performed in parallel without regard to ordering. A computer with M adders can, in principle, provide a result in 1/M.sup.th the time provided the movement of the pixels from memory to the adders does not become a bottleneck. Hence, it would be advantageous to provide a computer architecture in which multiple additions can be performed in parallel. Unfortunately, the cost of providing these additional adders and the hardware needed to control them is often prohibitive.
It should also be noted that the image addition problem discussed above often includes generating an average image. An image having pixels that are the average of the corresponding pixels in the component images is equivalent to generating the pixels of the sum image discussed above and then dividing the intensity of each of the sum image pixels by 2. This type of image computation is preferred since it prevents overflows. If the two corresponding component image pixel values have values greater than 128, then the sum image pixel cannot be represented as an 8-bit integer. To avoid this problem, the average image is used, since the average image pixels will always be representable as one byte integers if the component image pixels were one byte integers.
Broadly, it is the object of the present invention to provide an improved adder.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide an adder that operates at high efficiency when multiple additions involving words that are smaller than the width of the adder are added.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an adder that can generate the average of two numbers in a single machine cycle.
It is a still further object of the present invention to provide an adder that is adapted for computing a plurality of average values of pairs of numbers that are smaller than the width of the adder.
These and other objects of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the following detailed description of the invention and the accompanying drawings.

Parallel adding and averaging circuit and method


The present invention relates to methods of treating viral disease using mutagenic nucleoside analogs. In particular, the invention provides 5-aldehydo-uracil nucleosides and derivatives thereof, and methods of administration thereof to increase the virus mutation rate in a virally infected cell.

RNA viral diseases are responsible for the vast majority of viral morbidity and mortality of viral diseases of mankind, including AIDS, hepatitis, rhinovirus infections of the respiratory tract, flu, measles, polio and others. There are a number of other chronic persistent diseases caused by RNA or DNA viruses that replicate through an RNA intermediate which are difficult to treat, such as hepatitis B and C, and T-cell human leukemia. A number of common human diseases are caused by RNA viruses that are replicated by a viral encoded RNA replicase. Included in this group are influenza (Zurcher, et al., J. Gen. Virol. 77:1745 (1996), dengue fever (Becker, Virus-Genes 9:33 (1994), and rhinovirus infections (Horsnell, et al., J. Gen. Virol., 76:2549 (1995). Important RNA viral diseases of animals include feline leukemia and immunodeficiency, Visna maedi of sheep, bovine viral diarrhea, bovine mucosal disease, and bovine leukemia. Although some vaccines are available for DNA viruses, diseases such as hepatitis B are still prevalent. Hepatitis B is caused by a DNA virus that replicates its genome through an RNA intermediate (Summers and Mason, Cell 29:4003 (1982). While an effective vaccine exists as a preventive, there is no efficacious treatment for chronic persistent HBV infection.
Currently there is no effective therapy for many viral diseases. While vaccination against influenza can be effective, a new vaccine must be generated each year, depending on the mutations that were fixed in the circulating strain in the previous year, a consequence of the rapid evolution of the viral genome. Current treatment of hepatitis C employs interferon, but it is seldom curative for the disease.
Thus, there exists a need for an effective prevention or amelioration of RNA and DNA virus mediated diseases. The present invention satisfies this need and provides related advantages as well.

Mutagenic nucleoside analogs for the treatment of viral disease


Provided herein are methods for measuring protein biosynthesis by using 2H2O or radioactive 3H2O and applicable uses thereof.

Publications referred to by reference numbering in this specification correspond to the reference list at the end of the specification are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety.
Control over protein synthesis rates is involved in the regulation of most biological processes and is believed to be the primary cause of numerous diseases. Regulation of the synthesis rates of biomolecules in living systems is one of the most fundamental features of biochemical and physiologic control. For this reason, measurement of biosynthetic rates in vivo has been the subject of enormous research effort over the past 50 years. Among the macromolecules that have been studied, proteins have received perhaps the most intense attention due to their central role in controlling biological processes. The measurement of protein synthesis, as for all other biomolecules, has traditionally required the use of isotopic labels (stable isotopes or radioisotopes). Many studies have described isotopic studies of protein biosynthesis (see Waterlow, 1978, and Hellerstein & Neese, 1999).
In essence, four general approaches have been described for measuring protein biosynthetic rates (Waterlow, 1979). These are: (1) exogenous labeling of proteins of interest, with subsequent re-introduction into the biological system followed by measurement of die-away curves of the labeled protein; (2) endogenous pulse-labeling of proteins from a labeled biosynthetic precursor, followed by measurement of die-away curves of the labeled proteins of interest; (3) endogenous pulse-labeling of proteins from a labeled biosynthetic precursor, followed by measurement of label incorporation curves into the proteins of interest, and comparison to estimates of the changing content of label present over time in the biosynthetic precursor pool; (4) endogenous labeling of proteins by continuous administration of a labeled biosynthetic precursor, with measurement of label incorporation into the proteins of interest, and comparison to steady-state label content in the biosynthetic precursor pool (use of precursor-product relationship).
Among these general labeling strategies, perhaps the most reliable technically and operationally is the continuous administration of a labeled biosynthetic precursor (approach #4). This approach takes advantage of a mathematical principle known as the precursor-product relationship or, in physics, Newton's cooling equation.
The conceptual basis of the precursor-product relationship is shown in FIG. 1. The central principle is that the label content of the product approaches a known value, or asymptote, which in turn is determined by and measurable as the label content in the biosynthetic precursor pool.
As summarized by Waterlow et al (1979), this use of the precursor-product relationship presents several key practical advantages compared to alternative strategies, particularly when the half-lives of the product pool molecules (e.g., proteins) are longer than the half-lives of the precursor pool molecules (e.g., free amino acids). The first advantage is that if the isotopic enrichment of the amino acid biosynthetic precursor pool can be determined and is relatively stable during the continuous label administration period, only a single time point of the protein end-product is, in principle, required to characterize the synthesis rate of the protein molecule. This is so because the basic precursor-product equation can be used in its integrated form when the precursor pool enrichment (SA)is held steady:
                    ⅆ                  S          B                    /              ⅆ        t              =                            k                                (                                          S                A                            -                              S                B                                      )                          .                                          If                                                    S        A                                            is                                      constant        ,                      S              B                          (          t          )                      =                            S          A                                  (                      1            -                          ⅇ                              -                kt                                              )                                                    or        ,                      S              B                          (          t          )                      =          k                    [                                            ∫              0              t                                                                  S                A                                                          ⅆ                t                                              -                                    ∫              0              t                                                                  S                B                                                          (                                  ⅆ                  t                                )                                                    ]            This relationship is depicted graphically in FIG. 1.
Accordingly, multiple sampling of the protein is not required (unlike decay curves after endogenous or exogenous labeling) and multiple sampling of the precursor pool is not required (unlike pulse-labeling approaches). By maintaining a constant or near-constant isotope enrichment in the precursor pool, problems related to non-steady state corrections, non-homogeneity or incomplete mixing in the amino acid precursor pool are also avoided.
Waterlow et al (1979) showed mathematically that synthesis rates are rigorously calculable by this approach even when the protein mass is increasing or decreasing (i.e., if there is a non-steady state in the end-product pool). This feature allows for broad application of this approach, regardless of the physiologic conditions present in the system being studied.
There are some practical disadvantages of the continuous administration approach, however. The most important of these are: (1) the need for continuous administration of the isotopically labeled biosynthetic precursor, in order to maintain relative steady isotopic enrichments in the precursor amino acid pool. This requirement typically necessitates continuous intravenous infusion or frequent repeated oral dosing over many days, or even longer. The need for intravenous administration severely constrains routine medical diagnostic or field use of this approach; (2) the potentially high cost of maintaining a constant level of label in the biosynthetic precursor pool for a relatively long period of time; (3) the need to measure the interim isotopic enrichment of the biosynthetic precursor pool and establish its constancy; and (4) problems in identifying the "true precursor" pool for protein biosynthesis in living cells and individuals.
The problem of identifying the true precursor pool for biosynthesis applies to all applications of the precursor-product relationship, not just for protein synthesis, and derives from the central principle of the technique: the assumption that the labeling curve in the product approaches a known asymptote, or plateau value, which is determined by the label content of the precursor pool (FIG. 1). It is therefore essential to establish during any labeling study the actual asymptotic or plateau value that is being approached. This asymptote value can either be established by waiting long enough to allow the complete shape of the labeling curve in the product molecule to become apparent (FIG. 1) or by using a surrogate measure based upon the known biochemical organization of the protein biosynthetic system (i.e., from the label content in the free amino acid pool leading to protein synthesis). However, the biochemical organization of protein synthesis is extremely complex and unpredictable, making the latter approach subject to significant systematic errors (Waterlow 1979; Airhart 1974; Khairallah and Mortimore 1976).
Alternatively, allowing the shape of the curve to become apparent requires continuous administration for several half-lives of the protein end-product. This requirement is most often not practical, in that protein half-lives may be several days, weeks or months. It is not practical to maintain an intravenous infusion for more than 24 to 48 hours (even intravenous infusions of this length require medical personnel and monitoring) and oral administration of precursor metabolites cannot achieve stable values in metabolic pools.
Accordingly, it has long been recognized in the field (Waterlow 1979; Hellerstein and Neese 1992; Hellerstein and Neese 1999) that an ideal method would allow constant isotope levels in the precursor pool to be maintained for prolonged periods of time in a simple, non-demanding manner, for example, on the order of a few half-lives of long-lived proteins. However, there has not been a technique that has fulfilled this objective. A method for measuring protein synthesis that is widely applicable, reliable, easy to perform, inexpensive, without toxicities or complications, applicable in human subjects, free of the need for medical supervision or in-patient procedures (such as intravenous infusions), does not require complex instructions, and possesses the advantages of simple interpretation, therefore would be extremely valuable and useful in fields ranging from medical diagnostics to drug discovery, genetics, functional genomics, and basic research.

Measurement of protein synthesis rates in humans and experimental systems by use of isotopically labeled water

The Regents of the University of California


A key-operated safety switch including a control roller and a component for unlocking the control roller. The unlocking component may be applied by way of a cam surface against a lock engaged in a catch of the control roller, so as to free the control roller when the key is inserted.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention concerns a key-operated electric safety switch comprising a casing surmounted by a control head and housing elements of electrical contact, the control head including a control roller capable of acting on the contact elements, and an unlocking component associated with the control roller in order to free said roller, the unlocking component and the control roller being controlled by the key when said key is inserted in the head.


A negatively charged toner composition comprised of crosslinked resin particles, silane treated magnetite particles, wax particles, charge enhancing additive particles, and surface additive particles.

This invention is generally directed to toner and developer compositions, and more specifically the present invention is directed to toner compositions, including magnetic, single component, and colored toner compositions. In one embodiment of the present invention, the toner compositions are comprised of resin particles, certain magnetite particles, a charge enhancing additive, a wax component, and external additives, such as colloidal silicas like Aerosil R972.RTM. or Aerosil R812.RTM., available from Degussa Chemical. Furthermore, in another embodiment of the present invention there are provided single component toner compositions comprised of resin particles, certain magnetic components such as silane treated magnetites like Toda MAT305K3, a (3-chloropropyl)trimethoxysilane treated magnetite, obtained from Toda Kogyo Corporation of Japan, alkylene waxes like polypropylene, and polyethylene with a low molecular weight, for example from about 500 to about 20,000, and preferably with an average molecular weight of about 4,000, and available from Sanyo Corporation of Japan, charge control additives, and as external surface additives metal salts of fatty acids, colloidal silicas, or mixtures thereof. The toner compositions of the present invention are useful in electrostatographic imaging systems, especially xerographic imaging and printing systems wherein the toner is substantially insensitive to relative humidity, and enables developed images with excellent optical density.
Developer and toner compositions with certain waxes therein are known. For example, there are illustrated in U.K. Patent Publication 1,442,835, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference, toner compositions containing resin particles, and polyalkylene compounds, such as polyethylene and polypropylene of a molecular weight of from about 1,500 to 6,000, reference page 3, lines 97 to 119, which compositions prevent toner offsetting in electrostatic imaging processes. Additionally, the '835 publication discloses the addition of paraffin waxes together with, or without a metal salt of a fatty acid, reference page 2, lines 55 to 58. In addition, many patents disclose the use of metal salts of fatty acids for incorporation into toner compositions, such as U.S. Pat. No. 3,655,374. Also, it is known that the aforementioned toner compositions with metal salts of fatty acids can be selected for electrostatic imaging methods wherein blade cleaning of the photoreceptor is accomplished, reference Palmeriti et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,635,704, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference. Additionally, there are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 3,983,045 three component developer compositions comprising toner particles, a friction reducing material, and a finely divided nonsmearable abrasive material, reference column 4, beginning at line 31. Examples of friction reducing materials include saturated or unsaturated, substituted or unsubstituted, fatty acids preferably of from 8 to 35 carbon atoms, or metal salts of such fatty acids; fatty alcohols corresponding to said acids; mono and polyhydric alcohol esters of said acids and corresponding amides; polyethylene glycols and methoxy-polyethylene glycols; terephthalic acids; and the like, reference column 7, lines 13 to 43.
Described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,367,275 are methods of preventing offsetting of electrostatic images of the toner composition to the fuser roll, which toner subsequently offsets to supporting substrates such as papers wherein there are selected toner compositions containing specific external lubricants including various waxes, see column 5, lines 32 to 45.
Of background interest are U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,165,420; 3,236,776; 4,145,300; 4,271,249; 4,556,624; 4,557,991 and 4,604,338.
Moreover, toner and developer compositions containing charge enhancing additives, especially additives which impart a positive charge to the toner resin, are well known. Thus, for example, there is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,893,935 the use of certain quaternary ammonium salts as charge control agents for electrostatic toner compositions. There are also described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,986,521 reversal developer compositions comprised of toner resin particles coated with finely divided colloidal silica. According to the disclosure of this patent, the development of images on negatively charged surfaces is accomplished by applying a developer composition having a positively charged triboelectric relationship with respect to the colloidal silica. Further, there is illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,390, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference, developer and toner compositions having incorporated therein as charge enhancing additives organic sulfate and sulfonate compositions; and in U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,672, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference, positively charged toner compositions containing resin particles and pigment particles, and as a charge enhancing additive alkyl pyridinium compounds, inclusive of cetyl pyridinium chloride. Toner compositions with certain negative charge enhancing additives are also known. Further toners with magnetites, such as Mapico Black, are known. The aforementioned Mapico Black toners have a number of disadvantages with certain resin particles, for example they are sensitive to relative humidity, and this and other disadvantages are avoided, or substantially prevented with the toners and processes of the present invention. Other prior art disclosing positively charged toner compositions with charge enhancing additives include U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,944,493; 4,007,293; 4,079,014 and 4,394,430.
Toner compositions with negative charge enhancing additives, such as TRH, available as Spilon Black, reference for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,040, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference, are also known. Moreover, toner compositions with a vinyl monomer obtained by polymerizing said monomer in the presence of a titanate coupling agent, and at least one inorganic material, such as magentite, is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,600,676. With the invention of the present application wherein there is selected a magnetite treated with a silane coupling, a number of advantages are achievable as compared to toners with the aforementioned titanate treated magnetite, such as a higher optical density at various relative humidities, such as above 60 percent.
Although the above described toner and developer compositions are useful for their intended purposes, there is a need for improved compositions. More specifically, there is a need for toner compositions, including single component compositions which possess advantages not achievable with similar prior art toner compositions. There is also a need for toner compositions with reduced humidity sensitivity, no, or minimal offsetting of toner, and wherein developed images with optical densities of 1.2 to 1.5 result. Also, there is a need for single component toners wherein the developed images thereof are of excellent resolution, and no significant background or variation of optical density on the paper substrate results.

Magnetic toner compositions containing charge enhancing additive particles


An apparatus for protecting cosmetic enhancements, such as false eyelashes, eyelash extensions, or enhanced eyebrows from water, such as shower water, is disclosed. The protective apparatus may comprise a headband, a visor, and left and right ear pieces. The protective apparatus may be worn above a wearer's eyebrow lines and may adjust to create a water impervious seal with a wearer's forehead or face. A structure comprising a combination of the headband and left and right ear pieces' may create the water impervious seal between the protective apparatus and the wearer's face or forehead. The structure may comprise a planar stretchable material, left and right ear pieces, and ear piece adjustment mechanisms. A combination of all or any of the above-listed elements may support deflecting water from the cosmetic enhancements. The water impervious seal may minimize water seepage to the wearer's cosmetic enhancements.

What was once a trend, false eyelashes, eyelash extensions and enhanced eyebrows have now turned into one of the biggest booms and everyday accessories in the cosmetic industry. False eyelashes or eyelash extensions are used to lengthen, add depth or fullness, or curl natural eyelashes. With more than 300 different types of false eyelashes in the marketplace today, a consumer can choose from an assortment of styles, materials, lengths and cost. The market for false eyelashes is expected to surpass more than $1.5B in the next 5 years. Accordingly, use of false eyelashes or eyelash extensions and enhanced eyebrows is widespread.
Typically, the false eyelash or eyelash extension application processes may take up to two hours and cost between $50-400. Similarly, microblading is an eyebrow enhancing approach, comprises semi-permanent make-up or tattooing where pigment is added to the eyebrow area to create a fullness and defined shape. Typically, microblading will last one to three years depending on skin type and skincare routine and is also very costly to maintain. A consumer of false eyelashes, eyelash extensions, or eyebrow enhancements may commit both time and financial resources to these cosmetic industry offerings. Accordingly, the consumer may take steps to protect these cosmetic enhancements throughout the enhancements' use.

Apparatus and method for protecting cosmetic enhancements


A social networking system includes a question and answer system that displays to a viewing user questions and answers provides by other users of the social networking system. The question and answer system may display answers to a particular question in a way that visually indicates both the global answer set and a subset of the global answer set, such as the viewing user's friends. The social networking system may also display to a viewing user news stories about another user asking or answering a question, where the format of the displayed new stories is based on an affinity that the viewing user has for the user who provided the question or answer mentioned in the news story. The displayed questions and/or answers may be associated with an object in the social networking system, where the user interface provides additional information about those objects.

This invention relates generally to social networking and, in particular, to a user interface for displaying questions asked and answered by users of a social networking.
Traditional question and answer software systems use a search interface that links into a set of documents that discuss various topics for answering users' questions. For example, a question entered by a user is searched using natural language processing systems to retrieve documents that answer the question. Often, the documents that are presented to the user do not specifically answer the question entered, and instead they simply offer an encyclopedic explanation of the general topic of the question.
User-generated content question and answer systems have emerged in recent years to address this problem. In these systems, a user posts a question to a forum, and one or more other users answer the question. Answers to the question are displayed under the question, often in sequential format. Other systems allow users to post polls which allow other users to select a pre-designated answer. Yet other systems allow users to vote on answers to post questions. In these systems, however, the display of answer data to posted questions is inflexible and lacks social context.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Presenting question and answer data in a social networking system


Techniques for monitoring for fraudulent login attempts to remote services through an application. The method generally includes receiving a request to connect an application to a remote service. A login attempt counter tracking a number of attempts by a user to connect the application to one or more remote services is incremented. Based on determining that the login attempt counter is less than a maximum number of login attempts predicted to correspond to legitimate login activity in the application, the first username is compared to a second username included in a previous request. A distance is calculated between the first username and the second username, and one or more actions are taken to process the request based on determining whether the calculated distance exceeds a maximum predicted distance between usernames in successive requests that corresponds to legitimate login activity.

Many applications provide functionality for allowing users to connect to a service to interact with data maintained by the service. For example, in an accounting application, the application may expose login mechanisms to synchronize with, commit data to, and pull data from account records maintained by one or more external services. In another example, in an application that aggregates data from various controls systems, the application may expose login mechanisms to allow for data input/output and command transmission between the application and the external controls systems.
Generally, to connect an application with an external service, an application may transmit a request to connect with the external service including user credentials that identify the user account to log into. Typically, in response, the application may receive a response indicating whether the request to connection with the external service was successful or was unsuccessful. A successful response generally allows a user to continue to interact with the external service, while an unsuccessful response may indicate an error encountered during the attempt to interact with the service. For example, if user credentials are incorrect, the application may receive a response indicating that the login attempt failed and, in some embodiments, an indication of (1) whether the username exists, and (2) if the username exists, whether the password was incorrect. In response, a user may attempt to connect with the external service using different user credentials.
In some cases, user account credentials may be compromised and available for purchase in a list of compromised user account credentials. The list may include user account credentials with significantly different usernames (i.e., representing different users of a service), and some of the user account credentials may not work when a purchaser of such a list attempts to log into the service using any particular credential in the list of compromised user account credentials. Services may be set up to lock an account from access when a threshold number of incorrect credentials are used in an attempt to access a particular user's account for that service. However, because credentials in a list of compromised account credentials may not implicate the same user's account for that threshold number of attempts, owners of such lists may attempt to connect to the service sequentially using each credential in the list of compromised account credentials.
Accordingly, techniques are needed to mitigate security risks from login attempts generated from collections of compromised user account credentials.

Method and system for monitoring for and blocking fraudulent attempts to log into remote services using list validation attacks


A method and composition for making concrete includes an antifreeze admixe which is added to the concrete to prevent the freezing of water in the concrete when the concrete is cured during the winter or other cold conditions. The concrete admixture includes sodium nitrate and sodium sulfate combined with one another in a predetermined ratio. In a preferred a embodiment the ratio of sodium nitrate to sodium sulfate equals 3:1. A dosage of greater than 2% by weight of cement of the above described admixture was found to significantly increase the compressive strength of concrete cast of cold (below freezing, or 0 degrees celsius) temperatures, and dosages of 6% and 8% by weight of cement of the specified admixture were found to be particularly effective.

Concrete that contains no admixtures and that is cured during the winter or other cold conditions can be superior in strength to concrete that is cured during the summer or otherwise relatively warm conditions. This superiority can be achieved only if the concrete is protected from freezing.
Current winter protection techniques entail some form of heat to maintain the temperature of the concrete above freezing until it has developed sufficient strength to resist frost damage and to support structural loads. This adds time and expense to concreting operations.
It would be desirable to cast concrete in such a fashion that the need for external application of heat protection would be reduced or eliminated, while still preventing a portion or all of the water in the curing concrete from freezing, as well as inducing the cement to hydrate at a much faster rate that it normally would at a low temperature. It is noted that such low temperature concrete would be useful during the winter in temperate climates as well as during other cold conditions such as are experienced during the entire year in colder climates.

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army


An apparatus for severing poultry legs at the knee joint is described. The poultry legs consisting of an thigh and drumstick are suspended from the distal end of the drumstick by a conveyor and are received in recesses in a synchronously revolving supporting disc just above the knee joint. Guide rails above and below the supporting disc push the leg against a projecting edge at the base of the recesses and progressively bend the leg in the natural bending position while simultaneously lifting it until the supporting edge lies in the crook of the knee joint. This position is maintained by means of openings in the disc in which the thigh is blocked and by webs extending downwards from the trailing flank of the recesses which likewise prevent the thigh from twisting out of alignment. A cutting device then severs the joint at an angle which halves the bending angle of the leg.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns an apparatus for automatically severing poultry legs in the area of the knee joint, the poultry legs being separated from the body and respectively comprising an inside leg portion or thigh and a lower leg portion (shank), also, in the case of poultry and the like, termed drumstick, the apparatus comprising holders revolving in an essentially horizontal plane for holding the legs suspended at the distal end of the drumstick, means for supporting the legs, guiding means for guiding and aligning the legs and cutting means for severing the legs.
When processing poultry legs in this manner it is essential that the severing of the thigh from the drumstick occurs in such a manner that splintering or shaving off of the bone is avoided to ensure high quality of the resulting cuts.
2. Prior Art
EP 0 381 093 discloses an apparatus for cutting up a poultry body which is equipped with a station for dividing poultry legs which have been separated from the body in a previous operation. The legs are suspended from the ankle joint and conveyed around a support disc which has recesses arranged around its circumference for receiving the legs and is driven synchronously with the hanging conveyor. A knife for severing the legs is arranged at the periphery of the disc.
With this apparatus it is intended that the components of the knee joint be pulled apart by shear forces so that the leg can be severed cleanly between the ball and socket of the joint. A disadvantage is that such an operation can be achieved only when the apparatus is precisely adapted to the length of the drumstick of the leg being processed.
A further apparatus adapted to cut through the legs of animals, and specifically poultry, near the knee joint is disclosed in EP 0 442 554. In this apparatus the legs are conveyed while suspended from the ankle joint and positioned with respect to a cutting device by elements which act on the knee cap before the cutting device severs the leg from the rear of the naturally bent knee. In order that the legs may be correctly positioned prior to the cutting operation several positioning elements are required which are individually controlled to act on the poultry leg in a strict order. The resulting apparatus is consequently very complex and costly to manufacture and to maintain.

Nordischer Maschinenbau Rud. Baader GmbH + CO KG


The method and apparatus include an insert for increasing the aesthetic value of a floral box. The insert has a bottom wall being substantially rectangular in shape, a first end wall and a second end wall. The first end wall is parallel and equal in length to the second end wall. The first end wall and the second end wall extend from the bottom wall. There is a first side wall and a second side wall. The first side wall is parallel and equal in length to the second side wall. The first side wall and the second side wall extend from the bottom wall. The first end wall, the second end wall, the first side wall and the second side wall diverge away from the bottom wall. The insert is made from a colored plastic material. The insert is formed by placing a piece of plastic on a heated mold that has the desired shape.

The present invention relates to a plastic insert that enhances the beauty of existing floral boxes.
Currently, the floral industry distributes its wares in a variety of clear rectangular shaped plastic boxes. Clear plastic is typically used so the recipient of the flowers can see them through the box. Millions of dollars are spent annually on the purchase of plastic flower boxes alone. A more aesthetic way of presenting the flowers would be desirable to both the purchaser and the seller.


In an apparatus for measuring the heart wall movement of a person, including a measuring head (10, 12) placeable on the breast with an electrode arrangement (76, 78) and a measuring circuit (84) for capacitively measuring the skin movement with respect to the electrode arrangement (76, 78), the measuring head has a holding ring (10) with an annular surface perpendicular to the ring axis (26) intended for placement on the body (30, 32) and straps for fastening the measuring head (10, 12) to the body. In the holding ring (10) is an adapter (12) including the electrode arrangement (76, 78) resiliently supported for movement in the direction of the ring axis (26) as well as in two other axes perpendicular to the ring axis and to one another. In one exemplary embodiment, the adapter (12) has an annular contact surface (42) intended for placement on a body and an electrode carrier (56) surrounded by the contact surface with a concave electrode carrying surface (74) in the center of which is formed an elevation (80) with at least one electrode (76, 78) being arranged in the annular section of the carrying surface (74) between the contact surface (42) and the elevation (80).

An apparatus of the previously mentioned kind serves to create a so-called cardiokymogram (CKG) which especially in combination with an electrocardiogram (EKG) can provide information as to whether the heart muscle upon stimulation by impulses visible in the EKG contracts in an orderly way. The heart wall movement continues to the tissue and can be detected on the outer surface of the breast as a very small movement of the skin. This movement can for example be detected if the outer surface of the skin and an electrode form a condenser contained in the frequency determining portion of an oscillator. One such movement of the skin causes a change in the capacity of such condenser and thereby a change in the oscillation frequency of the oscillator. The thereby evoked frequency modulation permits the production of a signal representing the heart wall movement.
The movement to be captured has a very small amplitude and is therefore not only influenced by the properties of the tissue and of the skin, but is also superimposed on body movements produced by breathing or otherwise. With a previously known apparatus of the aforementioned kind, it was possible to obtain usable signals only under laboratory conditions and through absolute quieting of the patient to be examined. With this, however, it was not previously possible to create a CKG with simultaneous stressing of the patient's body. Basically heart flaws can usually first be discovered with body stressing of the patient. For this, portable measuring devices have already been made which make possible the obtainment of a 24 hour EKG. The parallel taking of a CKG over the same amount of time was not possible with the previously known measuring apparatus.

Apparatus for measuring the heart wall movement of a person


Dual-axis hinge assemblies comprising mechanical devices which provide integrated synchronous rotation of a support element, such as a space antenna shaft, attached to a vertical hinge shaft about its own axis while simultaneously pivoting the support shaft about a horizontal hinge shaft having a second axis which extends in a direction perpendicular to the axis of the vertical hinge shaft. The hinge assembly is adapted to be mounted parallel to a side surface of a spacecraft body and restrained by a holddown device, and is biased to cause the space antenna to pivot on the horizontal hinge shaft from restrained position to deployed position and to simultaneously turn on its own axis about a vertical hinge shaft when the restraint is removed, to aim the antenna reflector disk in a predetermined direction.

High-gain antenna reflectors have been deployed into space from launch vehicles for several decades. The configurations of such reflectors have varied widely as material science developed and as the sophistication of technology and scientific needs increased.
Large diameter antenna reflectors pose particular problems both during deployment and post-deployment. Doubly-curved, rigid surfaces which are sturdy when in a deployed position cannot be folded for storage. Often, reflectors are stored one to two years in a folded, stored position prior to deployment. In an attempt to meet this imposed combination of parameters, large reflectors have been segmented into petals so that these petals could be stowed in various overlapped configurations. However, the structure required in deploying such petals has tended to be rather complex and massive, thus reducing the feasibility of such structures. For this reason, parabolic antenna reflecting surfaces larger than those that can be designed with petals typically employ some form of a compliant structure. Reference is made to U.S. Pat. 4,899,167, for its disclosure of such a system.
Responsive to the need for such a compliant structure, rib and mesh designs have been built, tested and used. However, such antennas tend to suffer from chording in both radial and circumferential directions. The use of mesh in such a configuration has an inherent disadvantage in diminishing the reflective quality of the resulting parabolic surface. Further, a mesh cannot be made to form a truly parabolic configuration. Reference is made to U.S. Pat. 3,707,720 for its disclosure of such a system.
Other antenna designs typically include a center post about which the petals are configured, much like an umbrella configuration. This also affects the reflective quality of the resulting surface, since the center portion typically is the point of optimum reflectance, which is then blocked by the center post. Thus, it is desirable to have a structure that is deployable from a compact, stored position to a parabolic, open position without the use of a center post. Reference is made to U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,286,270; 3,397,399 and 3,715,760 which disclose such systems.
Large lightweight flexible antennas have been formed from graphite fiber-reinforced plastic composite fabrics which can be wrapped around a spacecraft body into compact form, launched and caused to unfold relative to the spacecraft body to provide a satellite body having large reflective antennas.
For example, space satellites require antennas for signal reception and/or transmission. Such satellites and antennas must be relatively lightweight, strong, capable of being folded into compact condition, and capable of being activated remotely into unfolded, deployed condition in which they are operational for their intended purposes. It is generally desirable to use flexible antenna reflectors which are hingedly attached to the supporting spacecraft platform so that they can be folded up against the sides of the spacecraft into compact storage position during the launching of the spacecraft, and can be actuated remotely for unfolding and deployment into operating position in space. Such deployment may involve rotating the antenna supports on a hinge axis to unfold the reflectors to a position in which they extend perpendicular to the sides of the spacecraft, and also rotating the reflectors about a second axis, perpendicular to the first axis, to aim the reflectors in the direction of the signal source or target.
It is known to provide satellites with independent motorized units having complex gearing in order to accomplish remote orientation of their antennas about two different axes during deployment. Such motorized units are relatively heavy, subject to failure, expensive and less reliable than mechanical hinges. Therefore it is the principal object of the present invention to provide a simplified dual-axis hinge assembly which overcomes the problems of prior-known motor-driven dual axis hinge assemblies, particularly for space satellite use.
There is a need for relatively simple, lightweight, mechanical hinge assemblies having two integrated axes of rotation which co-operate to rotate and extend a supported element, such as a space antenna, to a desired radial position about a first axis while simultaneously rotating the supported element to a desired position about a second axis which extends perpendicular to the first axis to aim the reflector in a desired direction.

Synchronous rotation dual-axis mechanical hinge assemblies


A feeding assembly includes: a frame; a pickup assembly carried by the frame and including a pickup roll, a plurality of tines carried by the pickup roll, and a pair of end flares, each of the end flares being disposed adjacent to a respective lateral end of the pickup roll and configured to redirect crop material picked up by the tines as the pickup roll rotates; and a windguard assembly including a windguard roll coupled to the frame by a pair of arm assemblies. Each of the arm assemblies includes: a first arm pivotably coupled to the frame; a second arm coupled to the first arm and the windguard roll; and an arm connector coupling the first arm to the second arm such that the second arm is laterally offset relative to the first arm and is positioned laterally between a pair of vertical planes defined by the end flares.

The present invention pertains to agricultural vehicles and, more specifically, to agricultural vehicles that include a windguard.
Agricultural harvesting machines, such as balers, are used to consolidate and package crop material so as to facilitate the storage and handling of the crop material for later use. In the case of hay, a mower-conditioner is typically used to cut and condition the crop material for windrow drying in the sun. In the case of straw, an agricultural combine discharges non-grain crop material from the rear of the combine defining the straw (such as wheat or oat straw) which is to be picked up by the baler. The cut crop material is typically raked and dried, and a baler, such as a large square baler or round baler, straddles the windrows and travels along the windrows to pick up the crop material and form it into bales.
A round baler may generally include a chassis, supported by wheels, a pickup unit to engage and lift the crop material into the baler, a cutting unit, a main bale chamber for forming a bale, and a wrapping mechanism for wrapping or tying a material around the bale after it has been formed in the main bale chamber. As the baler is towed over a windrow, the pickup unit lifts the crop material into the baler. Then, the crop material may be cut into smaller pieces by the cutting unit. As the crop material enters the main bale chamber, multiple carrier elements, e.g. rollers, chains and slats, and/or belts, will begin to roll a bale of hay within the chamber. These carrier elements are movable so that the chamber can initially contract and subsequently expand to maintain an appropriate amount of pressure on the periphery of the bale. After the bale is formed and wrapped by the wrapping mechanism, the rear of the baler is configured to open for allowing the bale to be discharged onto the field.
Many balers include a windguard, which holds down crop material as it is being fed to prevent it from being blown off the pickup floor and ensure adequate compaction of the crop material for appropriate feeding into the vehicle. In certain instances, known windguards interfere with crop material feeding into the vehicle.
What is needed in the art is a way to reduce the risk of a windguard interfering with crop material being fed into an agricultural vehicle.

Agricultural vehicle with windguard having offset arms


A cover is provided, which is adapted for being mounted to a vehicle steering wheel having spokes and a hub open at a side facing a vehicle occupant and provided with a gas bag module integrated therein. The cover is formed as a flexible hollow body enveloping the hub and comprising an upper wall, a lower wall and a side wall connecting the upper and the lower walls. The hollow body can be opened in the vicinity of the lower wall so that it may be fitted over the hub and engages behind the steering wheel by the lower wall in order to fix the hollow body to the steering wheel.

Known covers arranged at a front face of a vehicle steering wheel having a gas bag module integrated in a hub part thereof, take the shape of a curved plate and are mounted on the front face of the hub part and screwed in place from behind. Furthermore, covers exist which feature latching lugs, capable of snapping into place in corresponding recesses in the steering wheel.

Cover for a gas bag module integrated in an vehicle steering wheel


In a method of controlling the hardness of a damper in an aircraft landing gear, the aircraft having a structure that is deformable at a natural frequency, the hardness of the damper is adjusted during a contraction of the damper as a function of the natural frequency.

Various systems have already been described for adapting the stiffness and/or the hardness of damping in a vehicle suspension.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,730,816 describes an apparatus for controlling the hardness of a suspension for a road vehicle; the apparatus has two chambers interconnected by a pipe fitted with an electromagnetically controlled valve having two constrictions, and a hydropneumatic accumulator acting as a spring; the single valve is fast, and it influences the hardness both of the spring and of the damper as a function of signals delivered by sensors to an electronic apparatus that controls the position of the valve. The hardness of damping is measured at all times and its desired value is calculated by the electronic apparatus, which value is then applied to the control valve; the hardness of damping and of the suspension can vary as a function of the state of the road, the state of the load, the acceleration of the vehicle, or the speed of the vehicle, e.g. in application of a servo-control relationship that reduces the hardness of the suspension at slow speed.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,276,622 describes a system for controlling variation in the damping coefficient of a damper for the purpose of avoiding end-of-stroke knocks.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,120,009 describes a shock absorber for an aircraft landing gear of length, stiffness, and damping hardness that are variable as a function of signals delivered by sensors to an electronic apparatus controlling three valves that control the flow rate of fluid entering or leaving one of the chambers of the shock absorber; the sensors may be sensitive to operating parameters of the damper such as the speed of its piston, to operating parameters of the airplane such as its speed, and/or to parameters of the landing gear.
The document "Testing of semiactive landing gear control for general aviation aircraft" by Gian Luca Ghiringhelli, Journal of Aircraft, Vol. 37, No. 4, July-August 2000, pp. 606-616, proposes mathematical models for the behavior of landing gear tires and dampers, and describes experiments for validating those models and their applications to controlling a valve for controlling the hardness of a damper.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,474,598 describes an oleopneumatic damper for landing gear including an electromagnetic coil for controlling the viscosity of a magneto-rheological oil flowing from one chamber of the damper to the other.

Active suspension method and apparatus for a rotary wing aircraft


A method includes capturing first data associated with a first packet flow originating from a first host using a first capture agent deployed at the first host to yield first flow data, capturing second data associated with a second packet flow originating from the first host from a second capture agent deployed outside of the first host to yield second flow data and comparing the first flow data and the second flow data to yield a difference. When the difference is above a threshold value, the method includes determining that a hidden process exists and corrective action can be taken.

Network traffic produced by a compute environment (whether from a container, VM, hardware switch, hypervisor or physical server) is captured by entities called sensors or capture agents that can be deployed in or inside different environments as mentioned herein. Sensors export data or metadata of the observed network activity to collection agents called "collectors." Collectors can be a group of processes running on a single machine or a cluster of machines. For the sake of simplicity, all collectors are treated as one logical entity and referred to as one collector. In actual deployment on a datacenter scale, there will be more than just one collector, each responsible for handling export data from a group of sensors. Collectors are capable of doing preprocessing and analysis of the data collected from sensors. A collector is capable of sending the processed or unprocessed data to a cluster of processes responsible for analysis of network data. The entities which receive the data from collector can be a cluster of processes, which logical group can be referred to as a pipeline. Note that sensors and collectors are not limited to observing and processing just network data, but can also capture other system information like currently active processes, active file handles, socket handles, status of I/O devices, memory, etc.
There are deficiencies in the current use of collectors and sensors. Various techniques are used to hide the presence of malware and the network traffic generated by malware. Network traffic generated by a malware or any agent that wishes to send data out of the system can do so by placing itself at various levels in the Operating System (OS) stack. Data can be sent out by various means, some of which can bypass the OS stack altogether. For example, a compromised network device driver or firmware can send data out without being detected by the OS (either Guest or Host OS in a virtualized environment). Sometimes, a compromised device or service can generate and send packets which hide a process used by the malware which may otherwise indicate the system is compromised (e.g., via the process). Network traffic can often be detected by analyzing packets on the wire or the physical medium. A packet analyzer system (hardware or software) placed on the wire can see all packets, but has no means for identifying a process in a packet if the process is hidden from the host OS, making it difficult to identify processes used or attacked by malware. Precisely, a packet analyzer cannot identify a hidden process when a portion of the flow associated with the process is hidden.

System and method of detecting hidden processes by analyzing packet flows


Apparatus and methodology subject matters relate to an improved electrochemical single or multi-cell energy storage device. Also, an outer casing may be provided as a pair of U-shaped shells, a single foil piece, or a tube-shaped structure which encases the internal electrochemical cell stack. The energy storage device and such casing when used advantageously exhibit low internal resistance, low ESR, a high voltage/capacity, and a low contact resistance between the internal stack and the outer casing.

This subject matter generally relates to electrochemical systems for storage and release of electrical energy. In particular, the present subject matter relates to electrochemical systems for use in electronic circuits, for example, as capacitors or batteries. More particularly, the present subject matter relates to electrochemical systems for operation in electronic circuitry, for example, as capacitors or batteries, with either of a non-liquid, organic solution, aqueous solution or a protonic medium electrolyte material positioned between the electrodes.
Further still, the present subject matter relates to improved designs for bi-polar assemblies that address the deficiencies in existing bi-polar designs. In particular, this subject matter relates to an assembly of a plurality of single cells of an electrochemical system.
As electronic devices and other electrical apparatuses become increasingly more portable and provide more functionality, advances must be made in the devices of such devices that enable such portability. As is often the case with current electronics technology, the limiting factor in both size and functionality of an electronic apparatus is the size and weight of its component parts. In particular, the size and weight of its energy storage components. Additionally, the miniaturization of electronics has seen the push towards integrating various components into a single device to save both room and weight within both portable and stationary devices.
The current main energy source used for portable electronics is the electrochemical battery and/or the electrochemical capacitor. One of the limiting features of such current energy storage devices is the packaging of the electrochemical system. Prior art enclosures for flat and low height designs have suffered from several disadvantages. Coin cells for round shaped assemblies have needed to be crimped or swaged closed which requires expensive precision tooling. Further, such a method of enclosure requires accurate placement and/or control of closing pressures which can be very time consuming. Prismatic cell designs for rectangular and square shaped assemblies require precise corner radii and equivalent closing force across the entire area of the design to ensure good contact between the casing and the internal cells. While useful for their purpose, these prior art designs have forced higher production costs and longer production times due to the precision and technically complex assembly methods.
Further, in both coin and prismatic designs a grommet is needed to prevent shorting between the two poles of the electrochemical system. Should the electrochemical device consist of a plurality of cells in a stack then the grommet must serve to insulate the edge of the pack from the enclosure and insulate the two portions of the enclosure that contact the two poles of the device. Thus the grommet acts to prevent the manufacture of some desirable forms of connections to a plurality of cells.
It is, therefore, desirable to provide a multi-cell energy storage device which may comprise either an electrochemical capacitor, a double-layer capacitor or a battery. In an electrochemical capacitor version of the present subject matter, which may also be referred to as a pseudo-capacitor or batcap, the electrodes comprise material that may participate in reversible charge transfer reactions. Thus, a portion of the energy is stored in the double-layer at the surface of the electrodes and another portion is contributed by the charge transfer reactions. In a double-layer capacitor version of the present subject matter, essentially all of the energy is stored in the double layer at the surface of the electrodes. In a battery version of the present subject matter, the anode and cathode materials are specifically chosen so that each reacts during operation of the cell. The chemical energy that is stored in the electrodes is converted to electrical energy via charge transfer reactions of active materials. It is also desirable to provide a new packaging for an electrochemical single or multi-cell energy storage device wherein the cells in a multi-cell design may be in series, parallel or a combination thereof by virtue of the device's construction in one integrated structure.


A method, system or computer usable program product for backing up a system image including receiving a request to backup a first system image on a first computer system onto a server, selecting a similar system image from a catalog of images, identifying a first set of differences between the similar system image and the first system image, and backing up the first system image by transferring the first set of differences to the server.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to backing up a system, and in particular, to a computer implemented method for backing up differences from a prior system image.
2. Description of Related Art
Enterprises and individuals often backup their locally stored computer data in a remote location. On primary reason for such data redundancy is to restore the locally stored data after a data loss event such as a hard disk crash. Another purpose is to periodically retain copies of data for possible future use according to data retention policies. These data retention policies may be established and implemented for various business and legal data archival purposes including disaster recovery, statutory and judicial legal requirements, historical analysis, etc. The data being backed up may include general data, data formats, permissions, system configurations, etc.
An effective method of backing up locally stored computer data is to store a complete image of the computer system to a remote location. This would allow for easy reconstruction of the computer system in case of a partial or complete loss of computer data. One simple technique is to repeatedly store a complete image of the computer system to a remote location. This may be performed periodically, upon certain events such as when the computer system is to be shut down, or upon user request.
Another effective method of backing up locally stored computer data is to initially store a complete image of the computer system to a remote location, followed by storing incremental copies based on changes since the last update. Various techniques may be used to determine which portions of the computer system data has been modified since a previous backup. As a result of this approach, the amount of time required to perform each incremental backup is reduced, although reconstructing a complete image of the computer system may require going through the initial backup and multiple incremental backups.

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A burner combustion method is employed in which at least two burners (2) are disposed opposite each other in a furnace (1) so as to cause combustion, the method comprising:

At present, global environmental issues are gaining increasingly more attention. One of the important and urgent tasks is the reduction of nitrogen oxides represented by NOx. In methods for reducing NOx, techniques for suppressing NOx emission are important, and include exhaust gas recirculation, lean combustion, thick and thin combustion, multi-stage combustion, and the like, which are widely used from the industrial to the customer market. Low-NOx combustors to which such a technique is applied have promoted the reduction of NOx to some degree. However, more effective methods for reducing NOx have been further required.
One of the methods for reducing NOx that has hitherto been studied and developed is a method which involves cyclically changing the flow rate of fuel, or air or the like serving as an oxidant to perform one kind of thick and thin combustion temporally controlled (hereinafter referred to as a "forced oscillating combustion"). This kind of method has been proposed (see Patent Literatures 1 to 6).
In the method, the flow rate of supply of one of a fuel fluid and an oxidant fluid, or both the fuel fluid and the oxidant fluid is changed to vary an oxygen ratio of combustion flame (that is, a value obtained by dividing an amount of supply of oxygen by a theoretically required oxygen amount) thereby alternately performing fuel-rich combustion and fuel-lean combustion. As a result, the method achieves the reduction of NOx in the combustion gas.
Patent Literature 7 discloses a method for reducing nitrogen oxides which involves using oscillating combustion, that is, so-called forced oscillating combustion under a high concentration of pure oxygen as an oxidant, and also a device for performing the method.
In general, a heating furnace and a melting furnace are provided with a plurality of burners. In applying the forced oscillating combustion to each burner, combustion conditions and oscillation cycles should be appropriately controlled to obtain a great effect of NOx reduction.

Abstract: cyclically changing at least one of a flow rate of a fuel fluid and a flow rate of an oxidant fluid supplied to the respective burners (2) while cyclically changing a concentration of oxygen in the oxidant fluid thereby cyclically changing an oxygen ratio obtained by dividing a supply oxygen amount by a theoretically required oxygen amount, whereby, the burners (2) are made to cause combustion in a cyclical oscillation state, wherein

Abstract: with respect to the cyclical change in an oscillation state of the burners (2), a phase difference is provided between a cyclical change in an oscillation state of at least one burner (2) and cyclical changes in oscillation states of other burners (2).