A leg support for attachment to a crutch for supporting the affected leg of a user, and having a cushioned upper surface. The support is preferably adjustable to a variety of heights on the crutch, and adjustable to position the cushioned upper member at one or more preselected angles for enhanced comfort.

Crutches have taken many forms over the years, and all have been designed to permit a user to ambulate while protecting a leg, that is to be able to ambulate without the need to place all or part of the user""s body weight on the user""s leg(s). Even so, known crutches have not addressed the needs of many users to be able to rest the affected leg by supporting it while standing for long periods of time.
This invention addresses this long felt and unmet need by providing a leg support that can be readily attached to a conventional crutch, and which provides a support whereon the user can rest the affected leg. The invention will now be described in detail with reference to the drawings.


A method for reducing iron-oxide-containing feedstocks by introducing a reducing gas into a high-pressure reducing unit (1) where the reducing gas is consumed by reducing iron-oxide-containing feedstocks and then the reducing gas is withdrawn as top gas from the high-pressure reducing unit (1). At least one subportion of the top gas is admixed to a feed gas as recycle gas (15). The reducing gas is generated by CO2 being separated off from the gas mixture obtained from the addition of the recycle gas (15) to the feed gas after one or more compression steps. The recycle gas (15) is added to the feed gas in at least two recycle gas substreams that are separated from one another with recycle gas substream pressures at various distances from the high-pressure reducing unit (1).

In concrete terms, raw materials containing iron oxide, such as iron ore, materials containing iron ore, partly reduced materials containing iron ore are reduced in the inventive method in a high-pressure reduction unit by introduction of a reduction gas into the high-pressure reduction unit. The reduction gas consumed during the reduction is drawn off from the high-pressure reduction unit as top gas. The reduction gas is created from a feed gas which is exported, for example, as an export gas from a plant for pig iron production and has at least a partial quantity of the withdrawn top gas mixed with it as a recycle gas and from CO2 separated from the gas mixture obtained by the mixing of the recycle gas with the feed gas after one or more compression steps.
Furthermore the invention relates to a facility for carrying out the method described above. The facility comprises a high-pressure reduction unit with a reduction gas line and a top gas line, a feed gas line for supply of feed gas or for supply of a gas mixture of the feed gas and recycle gas respectively into a device for separation of CO2. Compression devices are disposed in the feed gas line. The recycle gas is supplied to the feed gas via a recycle gas part flow line emerging into the feed gas line. A high-pressure reduction unit is to be understood in this case as a reduction unit which is designed for an operating pressure of greater than 2 bar (200 kPa), preferably of greater than 3 bar (300 kPa), even more preferably of greater than 4 bar (400 kPa). The operating pressure corresponds to the pressure of the reduction gas introduced into the reduction unit.
An object of the present invention is the use of the facility for carrying out the described method in a plant network with a plant for production of pig iron and/or crude steel products, especially a FINEX® plant or a COREX® plant.

Method and device for reducing iron-oxide-containing feedstocks in a high-pressure reducing unit


A vehicle system for detecting low clearance locations may include a controller configured to access a geographical information database configured to maintain a plurality of predefined points of interest defined by a clearance height. The controller may communicate with a first sensor to detect a low clearance structure and determine, via a second sensor, a location of the low clearance structure. The controller may update the geographical information database with the location of the low clearance structure to generate a point of interest.

Vehicles are often equipped with racks, mounts, or trailers to allow the operator to transport cargo on the roof of the vehicle or tow cargo behind the vehicle. The cargo often extends the vertical height of the vehicle, increasing the risk for collision between the cargo and low clearance objects, such as overhangs or garage doors for example. Such collisions may result in loss of life and property damage to the drivers as well as an economic burden to governmental entities and business to inspect or repair damage from incidents.
There have been several proposed solutions to mitigate the risk of vehicle collisions with low clearance structures. For example, a reminder device has been proposed, such as a tag hanging from the vehicle's rear view mirror. However, such a reminder device only reminds the user that cargo is on the roof and not to forget, but does not make specific reference to any particular clearance height constraints.
Further, an electronic system involving vehicle proximity to a known low clearance location has been proposed. These systems include a global positioning system configured to compare relative proximity to location of a structure with a known low clearance and the vehicle. However, the warning is based on proximity to any low clearance, and not tailored to the current vehicle height. Additionally, such systems are not configured to monitor in real-time unknown or unrecorded low clearance structures and alert the user accordingly. Accordingly, there is a need for a system to detect an approaching overhead structure and alert the user of a potential collision in response to the entered vehicle height, predefined low clearance structures, and real-time detection of such structures.

System for determining clearance of approaching overhead structure


A multiplier configured to perform multiplication of both scalar floating point values (Xxc3x97Y) and packed floating point values (i.e., X1xc3x97Y1 and X2xc3x97Y2). In addition, the multiplier may be configured to calculate Xxc3x97Yxe2x88x92Z. The multiplier comprises selection logic for selecting source operands, a partial product generator, an adder tree, and two or more adders configured to sum the results from the adder tree to achieve a final result. The multiplier may also be configured to perform iterative multiplication operations to implement such arithmetical operations such as division and square root. The multiplier may be configured to generate two versions of the final result, one assuming there is an overflow, and another assuming there is not an overflow. A computer system and method for performing multiplication are also disclosed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of microprocessors and, more particularly, to multipliers that are usable to perform floating point calculations in microprocessors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Microprocessors are typically designed with a number of xe2x80x9cexecution unitsxe2x80x9d that are each optimized to perform a particular set of functions or instructions. For example, one or more execution units within a microprocessor may be optimized to perform memory accesses, i.e., load and store operations. Other execution units may be optimized to perform general arithmetic and logic functions, e.g., shifts and compares. Many microprocessors also have specialized execution units configured to perform more complex floating-point arithmetic operations including multiplication and reciprocal operations. These specialized execution units typically comprise hardware that is optimized to perform one or more floating-point arithmetic functions.
Most microprocessors must support multiple data types. For example, x86 compatible microprocessors must execute instructions that are defined to operate upon an integer data type and instructions that are defined to operate upon floating-point data types. Floating-point data can represent numbers within a much larger range than integer data. For example, a 32-bit signed integer can represent the integers between xe2x88x922331 and 231xe2x88x921 (using two""s complement format). In contrast, a 32-bit (xe2x80x9csingle precisionxe2x80x9d) floating-point number as defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) Standard 754 has a range (in normalized format) from 2xe2x88x92126 to 2127xc3x97(2xe2x88x922xe2x88x9223) in both positive and negative numbers.
Turning now to FIG. 1A, an exemplary format for an 8-bit integer 100 is shown. As illustrated in the figure, negative integers are represented using the two""s complement format 104. To negate an integer, all bits are inverted to obtain the one""s complement format 102. A constant of one is then added to the least significant bit (LSB).
Turning now to FIG. 1B, an exemplary format for a 32-bit (single precision) floating-point number 106 is shown. A floating-point number is represented by a significand, an exponent and a sign bit. The base for the floating-point number is raised to the power of the exponent and multiplied by the significand to arrive at the number represented. In microprocessors, base 2 is typically used. The significand comprises a number of bits used to represent the most significant digits of the number. Typically, the significand comprises one bit to the left of the radix point and the remaining bits to the right of the radix point. In order to save space, the bit to the left of the radix point, known as the integer bit, is not explicitly stored. Instead, it is implied in the format of the number. Additional information regarding floating-point numbers and operations performed thereon may be obtained in IEEE Standard 754 (IEEE-754). Unlike the integer representation, two""s complement format is not typically used in the floating-point representation. Instead, sign and magnitude form are used. Thus, only the sign bit is changed when converting from positive value 106 to negative value 108.
In the x86 architecture, the floating point format supports a number of special cases. These special cases may appear in one or more operands or one or more results for a particular instruction. FIG. 2 illustrates the sign, exponent, and significand formats of special and exceptional cases that are included in the IEEE-754 floating-point standard. The special and exceptional cases shown in FIG. 2 include a zero value, an infinity value, NaN (not-a-number) values, and a denormal value. An xe2x80x98xxe2x80x99 in FIG. 2 represents a value that can be either one or zero. NaN values may include a QNaN (quiet not-a-number) value and a SNaN (signaling not-a-number) value as defined by a particular architecture. The numbers depicted in FIG. 2 are shown in base 2 format as indicated by the subscript 2 following each number. As shown, a number with all zeros in its exponent and significand represents a zero value in the IEEE-754 floating-point standard. A number with all ones in its exponent, a one in the most significant bit of its significand, and zeros in the remaining bits of its significant represents an infinity value. The remaining special and exceptional cases are depicted similarly.
Given the substantial differences in floating point and integer formats, microprocessor designers have typically used two sets of execution units, i.e., one set optimized to perform arithmetic on integer instructions and one set optimized to perform arithmetic on floating point instructions. Unfortunately, this approach has some potential drawbacks. Die space on a microprocessor is a relatively scarce commodity, and the die space required to implement complex execution units such as multipliers is significant. Thus, duplicating multipliers for both integer and floating point formats consumes precious real estate that could be used to implement additional functionality.
The recent addition of three-dimensional graphics instructions (e.g., AMD""s 3DNow(trademark) instructions) to the standard x86 instruction has further complicated matters by increasing the performance demands on the microprocessor""s arithmatic execution units (and multiplier execution units in particular). As those skilled in the art will appreciate, 3DNow(trademark) instructions are so-called SIME (single instruction, multiple data) instructions that have operands that include multiple floating point values packed together.
As a result, a method for executing arithmetic instructions with different instruction and data formats is needed. In particular, a method for executing multiply instructions having different data types without dramatically increasing the die space used is desired.
The problems outlined above are in large part solved by the multiplier and method for performing multiplication described herein. In one embodiment, a single multiplier may be configured to perform scalar floating point multiplication and packed floating point multiplication, e.g., single-instruction multiple-data (SIMD) multiplication.
The multiplier may include selection logic that is configured to select a multiplier operand and a multiplicand operand from among a plurality of different potential sources, wherein the potential sources may include one or more of the following: a floating point operand, a packed floating point operand, or the result of a previous iterative multiplication instruction. For example, the multiplier may perform scalar 90-bit format floating point multiplication (i.e., single, double, extended, or internal precision), packed 90-bit format (i.e., 2 packed 32-bit floating point values); or the results of a previous multiplication instruction (i.e., via an internal bypass mechanism for instructions such as iterative multiplication operations). For example, some instructions such as reciprocal instructions (used to perform division) and square root instructions may be implemented using iterative algorithms that perform a number of different multiplication operations before obtaining the correct result. In these situations it may particularly advantageous for a multiplier to have the capability of internally bypassing the results of a previous multiplication operation directly to the selection logic for another multiplication operation.
In some embodiments, square root and divide instructions may be translated into a series of special multiplication opcodes, wherein each multiplication opcode is configured to perform a particular function in addition to standard multiplication. For example, one of the iterative special multiplication instructions may be a xe2x80x9cBACKMULxe2x80x9d instruction that accepts three source operands, A, B, and Q, and calculates the value Bxc2x7Qxe2x88x92A.
In some embodiments, the multiplier may be further configured to detect divide operations having a multiplier that is exactly a power of two. The multiplier may be configured to execute these divide operations without proceeding through the entire iterative division process. Instead, the multiplier may be configured to shift the exponent and round the significand to the appropriate precision without significant additional hardware.
In some embodiments, the multiplier may be further configured to perform independent multiplication instructions during the idle clock cycles that may occur during complex iterative instructions such as square root and non-power of two divides.


A sprinkler head guard includes an inner casing that has a cylindrical shape, and vertically aligned top and bottom openings. A first coupling is conjoined to the inner casing and has a threaded inner surface. A second coupling has axially offset lower and upper ends having threaded outer surfaces. The upper end is mated with the first coupling. The lower end is mateable to a water supply line. An outer casing is slidably and telescopically engageable with the inner casing, and has a bore that becomes situated about the first coupling. The outer casing has a top lip that is flanged outwardly and includes rectilinear creases formed therein. Each crease defines a line of weakness, allowing a user to snap off a top lip portion. The inner and outer casings are shaped for housing a sprinkler head therein. A mechanism is included for locking the casings together.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to protective guards and, more particularly, to a sprinkler head protective guard for preventing a lawn mower and the like from damaging an in-ground sprinkler head.
2. Prior Art
There are many applications for pop-up sprinklers wherein the sprinkler is contained within a casing buried in the ground and which pops up to a position above the casing during operation. Typically, the sprinkler casing is buried in the ground so that its top surface is substantially flush with the ground level, and the sprinkler is spring-biased to the inoperative position retracted inside the casing. A cover is typically attached to the sprinkler and overlies the top of the casing when the sprinkler is in the inoperative position. During irrigation, water is supplied to the sprinkler through the bottom of the casing and the sprinkler extends to the operative position by popping up out of the casing to a position above the ground, the sprinkler carrying the cover with it during its movement to the extended, operative position.
Pop-up sprinklers of the general type herein involved are widely used in connection with lawns, golf courses, parks, and other installations where it is undesirable to have a permanently-mounted sprinkler projecting above the ground when not in use. One problem that has long been encountered in the use of such pop-up sprinklers is that of dirt, sand, weeds, grass, and other deleterious particulate matter entering the open top of the sprinkler casing during sprinkler operation and which can cause the sprinkler to jam such that it either does not pop up all the way to the operative position, or does not fully retract into the casing after use. This problem has been particularly noticeable where pop-up sprinklers are used in sandy and gravel-concentrated soils. Another problem associated with pop-up sprinklers is that sometimes they do not retract all the way into their housing, and then become vulnerable to being damaged as a lawn mower or other cutting device passes over the location of the sprinkler head.
Accordingly, a need remains for a sprinkler head protective guard in order to overcome the above-noted shortcomings. The present invention satisfies such a need by providing a sprinkler guard that is convenient to use, easy to install, durable in design, facilitates sprinkler head function, and improves the appearance of one's landscape. The fact that the sprinkler head remains unobstructed advantageously ensures that the waster is effectively and efficiently dispensed. The sprinkler guard also prevents a sprinkler head from being impacted by an object such as a person's foot or a lawnmower blade.


An ink jet recording apparatus including: a printing head having a plurality of nozzle opening rows, the nozzle opening rows jetting ink drops separately from each other; a cap for selectively sealing the plurality of nozzle opening rows and a pressure device for forcibly discharging ink from the plurality of nozzle opening rows; and control means for causing the cap to seal the nozzle opening rows and the pressure device to forcibly discharge ink from the nozzle opening rows to perform a jetting recovery operation when an electric power is turned on or at a print start time, for causing ink drops to be jetted from the nozzle opening rows based on print data to perform a printing operation and stopping the printing operation for performing an ink jetting capability maintaining operation of the nozzle opening rows, and further causing the cap to seal the nozzle opening rows and the pressure device to forcibly discharge ink from the nozzle openings to perform the jetting recovery operation, wherein the controller stops the printing operation and the ink jetting capability maintaining operation with respect to at least one of the plurality of nozzle opening rows during the printing operation for another one of the plurality of nozzle opening rows.

This invention relates to an ink jet recording apparatus having a plurality of ink jet printing heads moving in the width direction of a recording paper for jetting ink of different colors to the recording paper in order to print color image, the ink jet printing heads being mounted on a single carriage for enabling printing at a high density, and more particularly to a management technique appropriate for such a recording apparatus.
A recording apparatus having ink jet printing heads produces comparatively little noise during printing and can form small dots at a high density. Accordingly, such an apparatus is used for various types of color printing.
Since the recording apparatus jets ink, which is pressurized in a pressure generation chamber to recording paper as ink drops from nozzles for forming dots, it is necessary to prevent the ink from running on the recording paper in order to improve the print quality. The percentage of an ink solvent is made as small as possible and a material that is easily evaporated is used.
Since, an ink solvent is evaporated from the nozzle openings during printing, ink viscosity rises. If the nozzle face is sealed with a cap the ink viscosity in the nozzle openings still rises, and therefore jetting of ink is hindered.
To solve such a problem, a printing head is moved to an ink receptacle provided in a non-print area and ink is jetted from all nozzle openings at the expiration of a predetermined time interval during printing, for example, as disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. Sho. 64-40342.
Since graphics processing can be executed comparatively easily as personal computers have developed, a printer that can output a hard copy of a color image displayed on a display is required. An ink jet printer that can execute color printing comprises a printing head for black printing and a printing head for color printing both mounted on a carriage taking into account the ink consumption amount difference and the recording density difference between colors and prevention of mixing colors at a stop time.
Although such an ink jet printer can execute text printing and color graphics printing on the same page, the user might want to use the ink jet printer to execute only monochrome printing in black ink for a long time or to execute only color printing in cyan, magenta, and yellow color inks for a long time.
In such a case, since the other printing head not involved in printing, for example, the color printing head during text printing, does not jet ink drops, ink dries in the nozzle openings in an extremely short time, clogging the nozzle openings.
To solve such a problem, normally, upon the expiration of a predetermined time interval, the printing head not involved in the print operation is moved to a non-print area and is made to an perform idle jetting operation jetting ink drops from the nozzle openings for in order to prevent dried ink from clogging the nozzle openings.
However, when ink used with one printing head differs from ink used with the other in an ink drying degree, even if one printing head is executing printing, idle jetting for the other must be performed. As a result, the printing speed is lowered and ink for the other printing head not involved in printing is consumed by the idle jetting.

Ink jet recording apparatus with means for stopping printing and ink jetting capability maintaining operations for one nozzle opening row during a printing operation for another row


A tire includes a tire carcass, and a tread extending circumferentially about the tire carcass and including a noise-reducing tread pattern. The noise-reducing tread pattern includes a plurality of tread elements, with the tread elements having a first pitch length (1), a second pitch length (2), or a third pitch length (3). The noise-reducing tread pattern includes one of the following circumferential configurations: a circumferential row including 40 pitches, with 13 occurrences of “1,” 13 occurrences of “2,” and 14 occurrences of “3;” a circumferential row including 38 pitches, with 10 occurrences of “1,” 19 occurrences of “2,” and 9 occurrences of “3;” a circumferential row including 42 pitches, with 10 occurrences of “1,” 19 occurrences of “2,” and 13 occurrences of “3;” and a circumferential row including 44 pitches, with 11 occurrences of “1,” 20 occurrences of “2,” and 13 occurrences of “3.”

The mud terrain market is understood in the industry to apply to vehicles or machines where aggressive off-road usage is common or where usage in mud, rock, sand, and/or gravel predominates. Due to these aggressive applications, the tread elements of off-road tires are generally much larger to allow for improved survivability in conditions which are harsher than those experienced by passenger vehicles or other on-road vehicles. However, when vehicles with mud terrain tires are applied to on-road usage, these open and larger type tread elements may have a generally objectionable noise level as the tire contacts the road pavement at various speeds and vehicle loads.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,327,558 to Stuckey et al. is agricultural related and directed to a tire including a tread extending circumferentially about a tire carcass. The tread includes a plurality of tread elements disposed in a tread pattern. The tread elements have one of two different pitch lengths and are disposed in a noise-reducing pitch sequence.
As should be appreciated, there is a continuing need to improve performance, quality, reliability, and satisfaction of mud terrain tires. The present disclosure is directed to such an endeavor.

Tire having noise-reducing tread pattern


A method for using a portable terminal in a dark environment by checking a battery level and an ambient illuminance; and driving a light-emitting unit corresponding to a preset terminal according to predetermined criteria based on the check outcome.

1 Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a portable terminal, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus associated with the charging of a portable terminal battery.
2. Description of the Related Art With the diversity and convenience of the features provided in tablet computers such as Galaxy Tab® and smart phones such as Galaxy series®, for example, the use of these portable devices is becoming increasingly popular.
However, a number of diverse features provided in the portable terminals lead to an increase in the user's portable terminal usage time, which in turn cause a rapid battery loss in the portable terminals. As result, the latest multifunctional portable terminals require more frequent battery charging, compared with the cell phones with only simple calling features.
Generally, portable terminals are charged by inserting a charging cable into a charging terminal mounted in the main body of the portable terminals. However, it is not easy for users to exactly align and insert the charging cable into the charging terminal, especially in a dark room, because of the small size and peculiar shape of the charging terminal.
Therefore, there is a need for a portable terminal to allow a user to charge the portable terminal even in a dark environment in more easier and convenient manner.

Method and apparatus for using portable terminal


A digital gas metering system includes inlet and outlet manifolds, a plurality of conduits each extending between the inlet manifold and the outlet manifold, and a solenoid-operated valve in each conduit. At least one of the valves is a tri-stable valve. Each tri-stable valve has a highest flow setting, a lowest flow setting, and an intermediate flow setting. The preferred embodiment utilizes at least two tri-stable valves, and these have respective highest flow settings which form a geometric progression in which each term is substantially triple the preceding term.

In the prior art, it is already known to use a straight 2.sup.n progression to determine the flow capacities of solenoid valves and orifices. The 2.sup.n concept functions well and is fundamentally valid. However, it has a number of drawbacks, and it is useful here to discuss these in greater detail.
Firstly, the 2.sup.n progression (1, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, etc.) requires a substantial number of solenoid valves. Naturally, the greater the number of solenoid valves, the greater is the cost in terms of additional solenoids, additional electrical driver channels, and a larger valve body. Also, the greater the number of solenoids, the greater the amount of electrical power that it requires.
The second drawback relates to the fact that, utilizing a straight 2.sup.n progression, the smallest valve orifice is so tiny as to be difficult to machine (i.e. drill breakage, expensive EDM'ing, etc.).
A further drawback is that the largest orifice in the prior system may be difficult to open electromagnetically. Nominally, 50% of the total flow in this prior art system is provided by the largest orifice. Even if the largest orifice deviates from the 2.sup.n rule to accommodate manufacturing issues, it would be common for the largest orifice to provide 36%-50% of the total rated flow. It is also well known that the larger the orifice to be opened (all other things being equal), the greater the electromagnetic force required to open it.
A final drawback of this prior system relates to the frequency at which the valves must be seated. Any design which could decrease the frequency of valve seating would improve the life expectancy of the system.
Another prior approach, as exemplified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,150,690, issued Sep. 29, 1992, uses a combination of two or more equal-flow-rate pulsing valves and one or more bi-stable valves in a modified 2.sup.n progression. The latter concept is functional and fundamentally valid, however it also has four notable drawbacks, which are summarized below.
The first drawback is that the system is not efficient if continuous flow is required, i.e. requires a larger number of solenoids to accomplish the same flow. In the latter case, the first three solenoid valves must be operated as bi-stable flow devices. In that situation, the first three solenoids would have the maximum total flow capacity of 4.multidot.Q1 (i.e. Q1+Q1+2Q1). By comparison, the concept first above discussed would have a total capacity of 7.multidot.Q1 (Q1+2Q1+4Q1). (NOTE: For the present invention to have a minimum flow capacity (and increment) of Q1, its first 3 solenoids would typically be tri-stable and would typically have a total capacity of 26.multidot.Q1 (2Q1+6Q1+18Q1). As will be seen from the descriptive material below, the present invention allows the system to utilize two or three less solenoids than the prior development discussed in this section.)
A further drawback of the approach exemplified by U.S. Pat. No. 5,150,690 relates to the fact that pulsing solenoids limit the life expectancy of the system. In applications having long periods of continuous (steady) flow demand, the use of pulsing solenoids dramatically reduces the life of the total system (i.e. life to rebuild). For example, if a solenoid were pulsed at 60 Hz for 3 minutes, during which time the flow demand were unchanged, the valve would have experienced 10,800 seatings where none were "required".
A further drawback relates to the fact that commercially available pulsing solenoids are usable only in a narrow range of pressures and flows. Due to the high number of valve seatings expected during the product's life, commercially available pulsing solenoids tend to have metal-to-metal seats. In fact, the most common devices may be liquid fuel injectors adapted for this purpose. However, such devices are very capital intensive to produce and thus are targeted on a narrow range of working pressures and flows (typically 15-150 psig pressure and equivalent orifice diameters of <0.056"). Notably, pulsating solenoids for industrial use may be employed in applications ranging from 15-3000 psig and flow rates from 500 SCFH to 500,000 SCFH. Due to the capital intensive nature of these devices, pulsing solenoid (injector) manufacturers tend to be willing to change design features (working pressure, working voltage, orifice area) only for very high volumes that are not foreseeable for this type of product. As a result, pulsing injectors are not regarded as feasible for industrial use.
Another drawback is that pulsing solenoids are sensitive to manufacturing tolerances (orifice diameter and stroke), and are thus expensive. Pulsing solenoids, as mentioned above, tend to have a metal-to-metal seat. As a result, surface contours are held to very tight tolerances (especially if the seat is spherical), surface finishes are exceptionally smooth, and the sealing parts are most commonly lapped (i.e. with diamond grit) to achieve acceptable sealing capability. In most instances, the flow is controlled by a combination of orifice diameter and valve stroke. In manufacture, the production line systems measure, set, and stake the stroke to provide the nominal flow rate of each individual injector (solenoid). Further, as such devices are intended for ultra high speed uses where a few hundred microseconds are critical to performance, a second adjustment is usually made on each production line piece to adjust a spring pre-load that controls valve opening/closing time. The net result is that, even at volumes of millions per year, such devices are expensive. At low volumes, such as would be expected for digital gas metering, these devices are exceptionally expensive (i.e. if an off-the-shelf part cannot be used).

Digital gas metering system using tri-stable and bi-stable solenoids


Several embodiments of open and closed loop frames substantially elliptical in shape are disclosed for in-line skates. Some embodiments include independent suspension for each wheel. The frame is flexible to provide shock absorption and rebound. The frame stiffness increases with the applied load. The frame stiffness and flexibility may be adjustable. The rocker of the skate is made to vary with the applied load so that the skate has high maneuverability yet is very stable when gliding. The frame includes a boot mounting system which adds no stress concentrations, thus assuring even flex properties over the entire frame, and high durability. Overload protection is included to further enhance durability.

Although some in-line skating takes place on very smooth surfaces, most of the time skating takes place on boardwalks, bike paths, streets and city parks. Rough surfaces are the rule rather than exception for in-line skaters.
In-line skates are also used for stunts. It is not uncommon to see skaters jump off ramps or walls, descend with high speeds down stairs or glide down handrails. In many cases the landings can be rough.
Skates on the market today are essentially rigid, and thus fully transmit the shocks encountered at the wheels to the skater's body. This makes skating on less-than-ideal surfaces uncomfortable and fatiguing, and thus, less enjoyable and safe. Many skates have frames which are bolted or riveted to the boots. The associated holes add stress concentrations to the frame which weaken it. To compensate, the frames are made heavier and more rigid.
Several attempts have been made to reduce the vibrations caused by rough roads by adding springs to the design. This increases the number of parts and makes construction of the skate more difficult.
The present invention offers a suspension system with a truly simple and elegant elliptical frame design to the in-line skate industry that features the performance advantages of shock absorption, rebound and high maneuverability. In an alternative embodiment, the present invention further offers an adjustable suspension system to attain enhanced and variable performance characteristics. Both open loop and closed loop frame embodiments are disclosed. All the skate wheels are supported in a highly shock absorbent manner. Additionally, each in-line skate wheel can be independently suspended. Moreover, the suspension system may be adjusted to increase or decrease shock absorption, rebound and maneuverability, complementary to the skills of the individual user. The overall design is also light weight and can be produced in a cost efficient manner.


The connection assembly for boxes includes a connection support which connects integrally a base plate and a cover plate which faces to the base plate upwardly via a predetermined space; a rotary shaft member which is supported pivotably by and perpendicular to the base plate and the cover plate; an engage piece which is installed into the predetermined space at a horizontal state, capable of rotating with the rotary shaft member together; a return spring, a center part thereof wound around the rotary shaft member and both ends thereof supported by a spring pressure part of the rotary shaft member and an engage piece of the base plate; a lock piece for the engage piece, an end part thereof which is supported pivotably by a fixed shaft which is provided at one side of the base plate, having an engage part which projects from an upper surface of the base plate; and a spring which is attached to the fixed shaft, capable of biasing the lock piece to an engagement direction. Therefore, it is not uncoupled easily at an engagement state when in earthquake, and it can uncouple easily at the engagement state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a connection means for boxes after the connection means is attached to the top plate of the boxes when the boxes such as storing boxes, arrangement boxes and containers are positioned side-by-side.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The present inventor's Japanese published unexamined application No. 2002-284169 connection structure of a storing box as follows:
(1) The top plate member of a storing box consists of an inner plate and an outer plate fixed to the inner plate.
(2) A pair of engaging lock pieces is installed in the corners on the diagonal line of the top plate member respectively.
(3) The engaging lock pieces can project with passing through a inner space from cut parts for the engaging lock piece which are formed parts adjacent the two sides connection part of the top plate member respectively.
(4) An engaging lock arm that rotates at a predetermined angle engages with the cut part of the next box and engages with the corner part of the top plate member.
As a result of carrying out an earthquake-proof examination of the embodiment described above the engaging lock arm was revealed to have a weak point for the gap to the rotation direction. Then, the connection tool of the boxes that the engage state is maintained easily when in earthquake is demanded now.


A condensation particle counter is capable of efficiently measuring the number and size of fine particles. The condensation particle counter includes a saturator, a plurality of condensers and a plurality of optical particle counters. The saturator is designed to generate a saturated gas by saturating a gas in which fine particles are suspended with working fluid. The condensers are connected to a downstream side of the saturator to condense the saturated gas so that liquid droplets can grow around the fine particles. The optical particle counters are connected to downstream sides of the condensers to optically detect the liquid droplets supplied from the condensers. Each of the condensers has a condenser tube for interconnecting the saturator and each of the optical particle counters. The condenser tube is provided with a hydrophilic inner surface layer.

A condensation particle counter comprises a saturator, a condenser and an optical particle counter (OPC) and is widely used in measuring the number and size of fine particles. The saturator of the condensation particle counter contains working fluid to saturate an aerosol, i.e., a particle-suspended gas. Examples of the working fluid include alcohol-based fluid such as alcohol, butanol, isopropyl alcohol or the like and organic compound fluid such as ethylene glycol or the like.
The saturator is heated by a heater and kept at a temperature higher than an ambient temperature, as a result of which the working fluid contained in the saturator is evaporated. If the particle-suspended gas is introduced into the saturator, it is saturated by the working fluid and turned to a saturated gas which in turn is supplied to the condenser from the saturator. In case of using alcohol as the working fluid, the saturator is kept at a temperature of 35° C. and the condenser is kept at a temperature of 10° C. As the temperature of the condenser drops, the saturated gas is turned to a supersaturated gas. Condensation of the saturated gas occurs in such a fashion that liquid droplets grow bigger around fine particles as their nuclei. The liquid droplets thus grown are supplied to the optical particle counter. If the saturated gas is diffused faster than the heat transfer speed in the condenser, the saturated gas is not condensed around the fine particles but condensed only on the wall surface of the condenser. The optical particle counter is designed to count the number and size of the fine particles by detecting the liquid droplets.
There are provided many advantages if water is used as the working fluid of the condensation particle counter. This is because water is not harmful to the human body and does not generate any odor or pollutant. In case water is used as the working fluid in the conventional condensation particle counter, however, the water vapor is condensed only on the wall surface of the condenser that remains at a low temperature and there occurs no condensation that uses fine particles as nuclei. Therefore, the fine particles are discharged as they are. This poses a problem in that the fine particles cannot be detected by means of the optical particle counter.
For the reasons mentioned above, the conventional condensation particle counter makes use of an organic compound as the working fluid. The organic compound is detrimental to the human body and gives off a strong smell. In addition, the organic compound is highly difficult to handle because it is flammable. Particularly, if an alcohol-based organic material is used as the working fluid of the condensation particle counter in a semiconductor manufacturing process, the organic material acts as a pollutant and therefore becomes a cause of defect. Inasmuch as the organic compound tends to absorb moisture contained in a gas, the condensation particle counter suffers from degradation in performance if the organic compound is used for a long period of time. Thus, there is a need to periodically replace the organic compound, which task is onerous.
The conventional condensation particle counter has a fixed aerosol measuring capacity. Therefore, several condensation particle counters have to be used in combination in order to measure a large quantity of aerosol in one place, which is cumbersome and inconvenient. Furthermore, in case of using several condensation particle counters at one time, it is very difficult to uniformly control the temperature of the saturator and the condenser of the individual condensation particle counters. If a great deviation exists in the temperature of the saturator and the condenser, the data obtained by measuring the fine particles become less reliable.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The invention provides a faulted circuit indicator apparatus with transmission line state display, as well as methods for using the apparatus. The faulted circuit indicator has a sensor that can be electrically coupled to an electrical conductor for collecting data relating to a state of the electrical conductor. The faulted circuit indicator also has a controller that is logically coupled to the sensor for receiving data and determining whether a fault condition has occurred on the electrical conductor. The faulted circuit indicator also has one or more indicators that are logically coupled to the controller for indicating whether a fault condition has occurred as well as the state of the electrical conductor. The state of the conductor may be the voltage, the temperature, or the vibration present on the conductor.

Faulted circuit indicators (FCIs) are well known in the field of electric power distribution systems. Generally, FCIs are electrically connected to transmission lines in a power distribution system at various locations throughout the system, often in close proximity to system loads. When a fault occurs in a transmission line, FCIs between the power source and the fault will detect that a fault has occurred. Typically, FCIs that have detected a fault then display an indication that the fault has been detected. A technician can then identify a fault by locating the transmission line between an FCI that indicates it has detected a fault and an FCI that displays no such indication.
Most FCIs are capable of displaying only a binary result: whether the FCI has detected a fault or not. Prior art FCIs cannot display to a technician the present state of the transmission lines to which the FCIs are attached, other than to display that a fault has passed through that line.
Modern power distribution systems may have multiple sources of electricity (or "feeds") for a particular transmission line. Simply turning off a single feed circuit to a particular portion of a transmission line may not guarantee that a particular line is de-energized. Furthermore, in some three-phase power systems, one phase may fault and trip an FCI, while the other phases remain energized. Thus, technicians must carry additional equipment to determine whether a particular transmission line is de-energized, and cannot safely rely solely on a fault indication from a prior art FCI.
Further, because of their binary nature, prior art FCIs provide little assistance in locating a transient or intermittent fault. Generally, prior art FCIs are reset either by a manual trigger, wherein a technician manually manipulates the FCI to remove the fault indication, or by a current trigger, wherein if the FCI determines that conditions on the transmission line have returned to normal, the FCI automatically resets. In the prior art, an automatic reset is a desirable feature because it ensures that the FCI only indicates existing faults, which reduces the likelihood that a false fault indication will increase the amount of time necessary for a technician to diagnose and repair an actual fault. The result of an automatic reset is, however, that an intermittent or transient fault would trigger an FCI's indicator only for a short time, followed by an immediate reset of the indicator, making the location of a faulted FCI during the presence of a faulted condition nearly impossible.
Moreover, prior art FCIs cannot monitor other conditions on a transmission line that may pose risks to the life or performance of the transmission line and other related equipment. For example, power surges at certain levels may not be sufficient to result in a fault condition that would be indicated by present FCIs, but may shorten the life of a transmission line that experiences those surges and any transformers or other equipment attached to that line. Additionally, conditions such as excess heat or vibration on a line may be indicative of a problem on a transmission line that, with the use of present FCIs, cannot be detected until a fault occurs, potentially resulting in a loss of service for customers that might have been avoided had the condition been diagnosed earlier.
Finally, when a fault occurs, the only way of determining which portion of transmission line that contains the fault is to send technicians to the general vicinity of a power outage to search for FCIs that indicate a fault. Because transmission lines are often located underground, this may require the technicians to travel from FCI to FCI on foot until the first faulted FCI is located. Thus, even with the help of FCIs, the process of locating a fault can be time consuming, resulting in increased costs to the electrical utility company servicing the fault, as well as extended periods of outages for their customers.
Prior art systems address the above problems through the use of additional equipment, such as meters, that are carried by repair and maintenance personnel working for utility companies. Unfortunately, these solutions do not address the issues of transient fault location, constant line monitoring for unfavorable conditions, or improved response time when a fault has occurred. Further, because of the need for handheld equipment, a technician must still approach a transmission line that has been indicated as faulted to determine if the line is energized, and therefore unsafe for repair work.
Accordingly, there is a need to overcome the limitations of the prior art by developing an FCI that is capable of displaying the present state of a transmission line. Beyond the need for displaying the present state of a transmission line, FCIs should also be capable of monitoring line conditions aside from simple current flow to assist in the determination of unfavorable conditions, storing historical fault and line state information to assist in the diagnosis of transient and intermittent faults, and communicating fault and line state information to a remote location to reduce the time needed to recover from a fault event.

Method for repairing a transmission line in an electrical power distribution system


Systems and methods are provided for forming a laminate. The method includes indexing a layup mandrel to a lamination machine disposed at a first location, transporting the lamination machine and the layup mandrel in a process direction from the first location towards a second location, laying up a laminate comprising layers of fiber-reinforced material onto the layup mandrel via the lamination machine while the lamination machine and the layup mandrel are transported in the process direction, removing the layup mandrel and the laminate at the second location, and returning the lamination machine to the first location for laying up another laminate onto another mandrel.

Multi-layer laminates of constituent material (e.g., Carbon Fiber Reinforced Polymer (CFRP)) may be formed into any of a variety of shapes for hardening into a composite part. To facilitate the fabrication of composite parts, a robot such as an Automated Fiber Placement (AFP) machine may be utilized. For example, a large (e.g., multi-ton) AFP machine may occupy a cell, wherein the AFP machine lays up one or more layers of tows of constituent material that form a laminate which is then cured.
Fabrication of a composite part remains time consuming, however, because individual operations such as layup, consolidation, bagging, and curing are performed at different cells within the fabrication environment, and technicians must physically transport laminates on carts before proceeding with a next step of the fabrication process in another cell.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method and system that take into account at least some of the issues discussed above, as well as other possible issues.

Continuous-line fabrication for composite parts


The invention relates to a metallic implant, which has vitreous-crystalline bioactive material on the surface thereof. According to the invention, a metallic implant base body arranged on the surface of the particles has a bioactive, vitreous-crystalline material consisting of 15-45 wt. % CaO, 40-45 wt. % P2O5, 10-40 wt. % ZrO2 and 0.7-3.5 wt. % fluoride, having apatite and calcium zirconium phosphate as main crystalline and a glass phase as an auxiliary component. Said vitreous crystalline material contains at least 35 wt. % main crystal phases and at least 5-15 wt. % auxiliary compounds. All of the percentage data is expressed in relation to the total weight of the vitreous crystalline material and the particle size of the vitreous crystalline material is between 60-350 μm.

Inorganic materials with long-term stability are known per se. Materials which are specifically used as bioactive bone-replacement materials and have a sufficient long-term stability are also described in the relevant literature. For example, there have been numerous publications dedicated to the successful clinical use of glass ceramics and/or sintered glass ceramics with the main crystal phases apatite and wollastonite [Kokubo, T., Biomaterials, 12 (1991) 155-163; Berger, G. et al.: Long-term stable bioactive glass ceramics as an implant material—ten years of clinical experience, Fourth World Biomaterial Congress, Berlin, Apr. 24-28, 1992, Transactions p. 33]. The chemical stability of the aforesaid materials was surpassed by other bioactive materials based on calcium-zirconium/titanium phosphate which can only be produced by means of ceramic methods, but do not form a melt at temperatures which are common in the glass industry (approximately 1,650° C.), which, as is known, brings about disadvantages as regards the mechanical stability of such granulated materials and in particular of molded bodies manufactured therefrom (Biomaterials 18 (1997) 1671-1675).
Furthermore, it is known that metallic implants are roughened on their surface in order to improve bonding to the surrounding tissue. During this blasting operation, particles are always incorporated into the metallic surface owing to tribochemical reactions.
Commonly, commercial methods relate to blasting with Al2O3. The roughening effect on the surface is very good, whereas the concentration of Al2O3 on the surface is problematic from the aspect of biocompatibility. An improvement was achieved through the use of glass-ceramic materials which contain apatite and wollastonite or apatite, wollastonite and Ca7Mg2P2O24 as main crystal phase as described in DE 41 26 800 A1. Here, particles with a thickness of at least 1 μm are incorporated into the surface of the implant at a hardness according to Mohs of 5-7° of the vitreous-crystalline or ceramic materials. The roughness of the surface thus created ranges between 5 and 10 μm.
The chemical long-term stability of the aforesaid materials in connection with their bioactivity (direct connective tissue-free bone contact) has so far been regarded as unsurpassed.
Long-term stable commercial materials are derived from apatites. They are either ceramics with hydroxyapatites or fluoroapatites (HAp, FAp) as main crystal phase and with poor processing properties or they are glass ceramics which in most cases include another crystal phase, e.g. wollastonite for achieving improved mechanical properties, mica phases for achieving machinability, etc. The processing properties of glass ceramics are in general considered to be sufficient. Seen from the aspect of long-term stability, the known combinations of apatites, further crystal phases and/or residual glass components always result in materials whose solubility is higher than that of the pure phases (HAp, FAp).

Surface treated metallic implant and blasting material

Humboldt-Universitaet Berlin, Charite Universitaetsklinikum

BAM Bundesanstalt fuer Materialforschung und - pruefung


A foldable holder for flexible trash bags, the holder having planar sections which are connected to one another along adjacent edges so as to form a closed or tubular body. The preferred material for the planar sections or panels is corrugated paperboard (i.e., "cardboard"). The preferred configuration includes four connected panels which are sized to create a square-shaped holder when the panels are moved to their fully expanded condition. Two opposite panels are scored vertically along their mid-regions so that they may be folded internally until they touch--or nearly touch, thereby allowing the other two sides to be brought together in a parallel fashion. The collapsed mode for the holder (wherein the holder constitutes only about 5% of its expanded mode) constitutes a handy storage condition for the holder, so that it might be tucked behind an appliance such as a stove or hung in a closet when it is not in use. The sizes of the respective panels are designed so that the circumference of the expanded holder will be as large as the nominal circumference of the bag that is to be supported, but not more than about 2% greater than the nominal circumference of the bag, whereby a very slight stretching action may be required in order to install the holder inside a bag. A slightly stretched plastic bag will tend to hold the expanded holder in its full-open condition, such that no auxiliary clips, braces or frames are needed in order to maintain a holder open. The holder is self-supporting, so that it may be loaded in either its vertical or horizontal mode. When the bag is full, the top of the holder is grabbed and manually lifted out of the bag.

This invention relates generally to rigid supports and holders for flexible plastic bags of the kind that are not self-supporting and which are commonly used to receive and transport residential trash, leaves, brush and related matter that is to be discarded; more specifically, it relates to a device for preventing any discarded matter that has sharp corners or sharp points (such as rose brush clippings) from accidentally tearing the sides of such a plastic bag during the process of loading the discarded matter in the bag.
It is known that large flexible bags, typically made of thin polyethylene, are especially handy for disposing of trash and waste matter which is to be discarded, especially including refuse from a yard--such as leaves, weeds, branches and thorns, grass clippings, etc. These bags are usually relatively large, often rated at 39 to 55 gallons; and many such bags are specifically sold for the purpose of accommodating lawn and yard refuse. These relatively large bags are often called "lawn and leaf" bags, although they probably differ from other plastic bags only in their total capacity and perhaps their wall thickness.
In addition to "lawn and leaf" or similar bags intended for outdoor use, it is common to use polyethylene bags having a capacity of about 26 to 33 gallons for handling household trash and garbage that tends to regularly materialize inside a residence, including discarded packing material, waste paper, junk mail, empty bottles and food scraps, etc. Such indoor-type or "garbage" bags are more commonly used within a house, of course, and they are less frequently exposed to the kind of sharp material which would be expected to cut or tear a bag. That is, if a household trash bag fails, it normally does so because its capacity was exceeded, i.e., too many heavy things were put into the bag, and the excess weight caused a seam or wall to part. But because there is no way to anticipate whether a consumer will use a 26-gallon plastic bag inside the house or in the yard, all such bags having a size that is large enough to make them practical for outdoor use will be considered to fall within the scope of this invention. For convenience, then, all plastic bags having a rated capacity of at least 26 gallons will be referred to herein as simply trash bags.
It is known to use auxiliary holders for trash bags in order to support them during the time that trash is being accumulated therein. One such holder is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,037,778 to Boyle entitled "Universal Bag Support." Apart from the technical advantages or disadvantages of the Boyle structure, his disclosure makes a very good point when it suggests that plastic bag holders may advantageously be divided into two principal groups: those which support a bag from the outside and those which support it from the inside. The Boyle disclosure is also believed to be accurate when it describes many of the disadvantages of holders that are of the "outside" support category; naturally, Boyle recommends and teaches a holder of the "inside-the-bag" type.
There are believed to be many inherent disadvantages of outside supports, including complexity, cost, the possibility of losing clamps or loose parts, etc. However, one such outside support has at least been proposed that would reduce at least one of the problems of the prior art--in that it reduces the number of parts to only two. This two-piece holder comprises a special elastic member (like a giant rubber band) that cooperates with a specially configured cardboard support; this holder is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,338,979 to Dow entitled "Bag Holding Device and Process." However, as with all such constructions, a trash bag in a Dow holder is vulnerable because it is inside the holder--where it comes into contact with all kinds of things that can tear the wall of a bag. That is, the sharp edge of a can or the thorns of a rose bush could easily puncture and then proceed to introduce a longitudinal tear in an unprotected bag that is resting inside the holder. Persons who have had experience with thorns starting at the top of a bag and ripping their way all the way down to the bottom of a polyethylene bag will clearly appreciate the deficiency of supporting a bag upright but leaving its sides exposed to tearing elements. The typical result of using such a holder to collect thorny refuse is that grabbing the top of the plastic bag and lifting it out of the holder causes the immediate dumping of all the accumulated trash onto the ground adjacent the holder.
The aforementioned Boyle holder, on the other hand, is an inside-the-bag support, and it does seem like it might solve at least a few of the problems associated with outside supports. However, it is believed that even a Boyle holder is not perfect, in that the effort to make it a truly "universal" holder for all kinds and sizes of trash bags has required such compromises as to render the holder less efficient in some ways than it could be. For one thing, the desire to fabricate a Boyle holder out of economical cardboard and yet make it expandable in girth has required that the side panels be arranged as a serial array of panels that are not connected along one "edge." The result is what may be referred to as a "wrap-around" holder that includes one very long piece of cardboard having a length that ideally exceeds the maximum anticipated circumference of the bags that are to be held. (In this regard, it should be known that even a conventional 33-gallon trash bag has a circumference of about five feet, and some 55-gallon bags have a circumference of nearly eight feet.) Of course, if the circumference of the bag is not exceeded, so that there is no overlap of the two ends of the wrapped holder, than at least part of the plastic bag will remain unprotected by virtue of the gap in the cardboard "wall" when the holder is installed. And to paraphrase an old saying about the strength of a chain, a holder that is intended to provide tear protection for the walls of trash bags is only as good as the weakest part of the holder/bag combination. Expressed in other words, if any part of a vulnerable trash bag is left unprotected, then the entire bag is subject to becoming sufficiently damaged that the entire bag can fail. Another way of evaluating a trash bag holder is based upon the recognition that trash bags (somewhat like eggshells) do not generally fail in part; a bag is either totally successful in keeping its trash contained--or it is usually considered to be a failure by its user. That is, no one takes any real satisfaction that only half of a trash bag's contents have spilled onto a freshly swept side-walk or driveway--when one side of a bag rips. In the real world of trash removal, then, there is no room for partial success of trash bags.
Another deficiency of a wrap-around holder like that shown by Boyle is that it can be efficiently used only in the mode in which it is shown in the figures of the Boyle patent--namely, upright. That is, if a Boyle holder is truly collapsable (for compact storage) as he claims, then there is no guaranteed way of keeping the holder--and hence a bag--open when it is lying on its side. Those persons who like to first accumulate leaves in a pile and then sweep them into a horizontally oriented bag would likely need the aid of an assistant in order to grasp and hold a Boyle device in an open condition in order for it to receive leaves. Turning what could be a one-man yard job into a two-man job is not what most people would consider to be progress, unless one's goal is perhaps to try to cure the world's unemployment problem.
It follows, therefore, that there remained a need for a satisfactory way of efficiently supporting flexible bags in at least a temporary fashion so that they can be filled with refuse, while at the same time protecting all of the side walls of the bag from being ripped by a sharp edge. It is an object of this invention to provide such a holder and do so in an economic manner.
Another object is to provide a holder for flexible bags which can be stowed in a relatively flat condition so that it occupies a minimum amount of space, while at the same time providing a stable construction for holding a bag in such a way as to encompass the maximum volume of space permitted by the geometry of the bag.
A further object is to provide a holder that is stable and not subject to collapse when in either a horizontal and a vertical mode, so that leaves or other refuse can be accumulated in a trash bag by a single person using either the "vertical dump" or the "horizontal sweep" method of trash loading.
These and other objects will be apparent from a reading of the specification and the claims appended thereto, as well as reference to the several figures of the drawings provided herewith.

Protective insert for a plastic trash bag


A vinyl chloride homopolymer or copolymer composition contains a silane, a compound capable of generating free radicals and a stabilizer comprising a lead compound or an organotin compound which is effective to prevent discoloration and degradation of the homopolymer or copolymer and does not inhibit the grafting of the vinyl silane on the homopolymer or copolymer. The graft homopolymer or copolymer is exposed to moisture to cross-link it, suitably after molding or otherwise fabricating the graft polymer to form an article. There is also provided a method of moisture cross-linking poly(vinyl chloride) and vinyl chloride copolymers.

i) Field of Invention
This invention relates to a method of moisture cross-linking of vinyl chloride homopolymers and copolymers. The process comprises a grafting of PVC resin with vinyltrialkoxysilane in the presence of an initiator, preferably a peroxide, followed by the hydrolysis of the alkoxy group of the silane to yield a cross-linked structure through the formations of Si--O--Si bonds.
ii) Description of Prior Art
The cross-linking of a polymer improves the physical properties of the product at elevated temperature. This includes the improvement in the thermal dimensional stability, resistance to thermal deformation, resistance to solvents, and stress cracking, etc. The usual method to cross-link poly(vinyl chloride), i.e. PVC, is to expose the PVC construct containing cross-linking agents to a high energy radiation source such as an electron beam (Salmon, J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 16, 671 (1972); Valdiserri and Reed, Rubber World, 170 (5), 40 (1974)). This method is suitable only for thin layers, since for thicker material the surface regions are degraded before significant cross-linking occurs in the interior. Because such radiation is inherently non-discriminatory, in addition to the cross-linking it tends to initiate degradation reactions in PVC that are exacerbated by any subsequent heat treatments, either in processing or in application. The conventional chemical method which is used for cross-linking polyethylene, that is with organic peroxides, is not satisfactory since the degradation of PVC predominates over cross-linking (Miller, Ind. Eng. Chem., 51, 1271 (1959); Mori and Nakaamura, J. Polym. Sci., A-1, 9, 639 (1971); Mori and Nakamura, J. Polym. Sci. Polym. Chem. Ed., 16, 1981 (1978); Mora and Nakamura, J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 22, 2685 (1978); Hjertberg, Dahl, and Sorvik, J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 37, 1239 (1989)).
Another method of cross-linking polymers is by modifying the polymer chain by chemically grafting active groups such as organofunctional silanes (Cartasegna, Rubber Chem. Technol., 59, 724 (1985)), which in the presence of water form a cross-linked product. The silane cross-linking of polyethylene is well known as Sioplas-E (Scott and Humpries, Mod. Plast., 50, 82 (1973)) and Monosil (Maillefer, Technical Paper, Reg. Tech. Conf. Soc. Plast. Eng., p. 12 (1979)) systems which are commercially established processes. The process involves the grafting of a silane group on to the backbone of polyethylene by using vinylalkoxysilanes in the presence of a peroxide initiator, by reactive compounding or, by copolymerization of ethylene with silane in the reactor. (Neste Polyetylen AB, Sweden, Information Booklet, VISICO, IN 0180 1987 03/E; Bullen, Capaccio, Frye, and Brock, Br. Polym. J., 21, 117 (1989)). This reaction is initiated by free radicals produced through the thermal decomposition of an organic peroxide. This is summarized in the reaction sequence shown below: ##STR1##
After fabricating the end product, the cross-linking is achieved through the action of water when a Si--O--Si bridge is formed by the combination of two or more pendent silane groups, as shown below. In order to accelerate the cross-linking reaction a condensation catalyst is also employed. ##STR2##
Several attempts have been made to cross-link PVC by the silane method. In 1969, the Dow Corning Co. patented a process of copolymerizing vinyl chloride with vinyl silane (Lewis, Collins, and Malani Br. Pat. 139, 248 (1969)). A second patent on this subject was obtained by Dow Corning for a process using amino silanes to cross-link the PVC (Saam and Thomas, Br. Pat. 1,485,263 (1973)). In the latter work aminosilane was grafted to the PVC by reactive processing; several other references using amino silane as a cross-linking agent are in the literature but the process has not been exploited commercially to any extent (Shindo and Hirai, Makromol. Chem., 155, (1972); Kelnar, PhD Thesis, Institute of Chemical Technology, Prague, (1988); Hearn, Baird, Nethsinghe and Gilbert, Polym. Commun., 31 (5),194 (1990); Kellner and Schatz, Sb. Vysk. Sk. Chem.-Technol. Praze, Polym., Chem.,Vlastnosti Zprac., S17, 31 (1988)). More recently, the use of mercaptosilanes as a grafting agent has also been reported (Kellner and Schatz, Sb. Vysk. Sk. Chem.-Technol. Praze, Polym., Chem., Vlastnosti Zprac., S17, 31 (1988); Fujikura Cable Works Ltd., Japan Kokai 565,854 (1981), Chem. Abstr., 94, 209757 (1981); Fujikura Cable Works Ltd., Japan Kokai 5,796,048 (1982), Chem. Abstr., 97, 183070 (1982); Fujikura Cable Works Ltd., Japan Kokai 5,796,049 (1982), Chem. Abstr., 97, 183071 (1982); Fujikura Cable Works Ltd., Japan Kokai 5,787,438 (1982), Chem. Abstr., 97, 199068 (1982); Yamamoto, Ogawara and Hirokawa, Japan Kokai 63010605 (1988), Chem. Abstr., 109(6), 38487w; Schatz, Kelner and Vysoky Ger. Offen. 3719151 (1987), Chem. Abstr., 108(24), 205319f). Kelner and Schatz have successfully cross-linked PVC by using mercapto-alkoxy silanes with minimum degradation of PVC (Kelnar and Schatz J. Appl. Polym. Sci., 48, 657, 669 (1993)). Blends of PVC with other grafted polymers have also been used as a means to achieve the properties of the cross-linked PVC (Japan Kokai Tokyo Koho JP 60 42429 (85 42429) 1985; Hasue and Yamane, Japan Kokai 61, 243,848 (1986), Chem. Abstr.,107, 8477 (1987); Hayashi Japan. Kokai JP 53021249 (1978), Chem. Abstr., 89(10), 75893q).
In spite of considerable attempts during the last 25 years, the silane grafting process for cross-linking PVC has not been commercially exploited to any extent. Presumably this is due to the degradation of PVC which accompanies the grafting process, making the end product unacceptable. The present invention describes the moisture cross-linking of a thermoplastic PVC compound using vinyltrialkoxysilane with a minimum amount of degradation making the end product and this process commercially viable.

Moisture cross-linking of vinyl chloride homopolymers and copolymers


A carrying structure for a vehicle battery includes a vehicle floor panel having a step portion that rises upward toward a rear of the vehicle. A battery is arranged at the step portion for feeding electric power to a driving motor that drives driving wheels of the vehicle. A seat is arranged above the battery, and a tip-up mechanism enables the seat to tip up toward a front of the vehicle with a front part of the seat serving as a rotational pivot.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a type of carrying structure for a vehicle battery pack in an automobile equipped with a driving motor driven by the electric power from the battery pack.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, automobiles having a driving motor rotated by electric power from a battery (e.g. secondary battery) as a drive source have been put into practical use. Such vehicles are driven by a driving motor rotated by the electric power from the battery. Such automobiles carry a battery pack configured by connecting plural battery modules in tandem, with each battery module including plural battery cells connected in series. For conventional automobiles, in order to make effective use of the cabin space and to improve safety in a collision, the layout is usually such that the battery pack is arranged below the rear seat (i.e. the second row of seats for vehicles having three rows of seats) on the inner cabin side of the floor panel.
However, in conventional vehicles, the rear seat (i.e. the second row of seats) is mounted on a seat rail, for sliding the seat back-and-forth inside the vehicle body, via a mounting fixture. Consequently, when battery pack maintenance or replacement operations are to be performed, a worker cannot access the battery pack unless the rear seat and seat rails are temporarily removed, making the operation difficult and inefficient.

Carrying structure for a vehicle battery pack


The present invention relates to formulations and methods for treatment of sexual dysfunction in females diagnosed with both sexual dysfunction and controlled hypertension.

It is known that agonists of the melanocortin receptor, and particular melanocortin 4 receptor (MC4-R) agonists, may be employed for treatment of sexual dysfunction. The cyclic, heptapeptide melanocortin receptor agonist Ac-Nle-cyclo(-Asp-His-D-Phe-Arg-Trp-Lys)-OH, with the USAN adopted name bremelanotide and formerly known as PT-141, as further disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,579,968 and 6,794,489, has been employed in clinical trials for sexual dysfunction.
It has been reported in the literature that MC4-R agonists induce an adrenergic response, resulting in an increase in blood pressure and heart rate. See, for example, J. J. Kuo, A. A. Silva and J. E. Hall, Hypothalamic melanocortin receptors and chronic regulation of arterial pressure and renal function. Hypertension 41:768-774 (2003); J. J. Kuo, A. A. da Silva, L. S. Tallam and J. E. Hall, Role of adrenergic activity in pressor responses to chronic melanocortin receptor activation. Hypertension 43:370-375 (2004); U. Nordheim, J. R. Nicholson, K. Dokladny, P. Dunant and K. G. Hofbauer, Cardiovascular responses to melanocortin 4-receptor stimulation in conscious unrestrained normotensive rats. Peptides 27:438-443 (2006).
Adverse events have been observed with melanocortin agonists, including bremelanotide, primarily relating to an increase in blood pressure, and nausea and vomiting. Indeed, the FDA was particularly concerned with the impact of bremelanotide on individuals with hypertension. The FDA determined the blood pressure data from the phase 3 trials (studies 301 and 302) were limited because they did not evaluate BP effects with daily bremelanotide use, did not include ambulatory blood pressure monitoring, and excluded subjects from therapy with elevated blood pressure. The FDA further found that Study 54 (White W B. J Hypertens. 2017; 35:761-768) was limited by (1) the relatively selective population, without significant cardiovascular risk factors; (2) evidence that the BP effect had not resolved by 24 hours and may, therefore, persist longer than 24 hours; and (3) absence of data following long-term repeat use of bremelanotide. As the safety of bremelanotide in patients diagnosed with both female sexual dysfunction and controlled hypertension was unknown, the FDA required a more detailed study using ambulatory blood pressure monitoring to better understand the blood pressure effects of bremelanotide for the proposed indication and population.
The present inventors have determined that patients diagnosed with both female sexual dysfunction and controlled hypertension may safely treat the female sexual dysfunction with bremelanotide, as detailed below.

Use of bremelanotide in patients with controlled hypertension


The present disclosure provides a display substrate and a display device. The display substrate includes a first reference voltage line, a second reference voltage line and a first reference voltage auxiliary line, the first reference voltage line, the second reference voltage line and the first reference voltage auxiliary line are respectively disposed in one of a second wiring layer, a third wiring layer and a fourth wiring layer, the first reference voltage line is electrically coupled to the first reference voltage auxiliary line through via holes penetrating an insulating layer therebetween, the first reference voltage line and the first reference voltage auxiliary line extend in different directions, the second reference voltage line and the first reference voltage auxiliary line extend in a same direction, the first reference voltage line extends in a row or column direction, and the second reference voltage line extends in the row or column direction.

In the related art, a pixel circuit of an organic light emitting diode display substrate may be provided with two reference voltage input terminals, and independent reference voltages need to be applied to the two reference voltage input terminals respectively. Correspondingly, two reference voltage lines are needed to be provided for the pixel circuit in the display substrate. The two reference voltage lines generally have different degrees of influence on the pixel circuit, and thus, for the reference voltage line having a greater influence on the pixel circuit, stability and uniformity of a voltage thereof and a self-resistance thereof become important indexes paid attention by those skilled in the art.
In the related art, reference voltage auxiliary lines are disposed in gaps between pixel electrodes of the organic light emitting diode display substrate, and the reference voltage auxiliary lines in the gaps between the pixel electrodes are electrically coupled to the reference voltage lines through via holes, thereby reducing resistances of the reference voltage lines.
Since the reference voltage auxiliary lines are disposed in the gaps between the pixel electrodes, an aperture ratio of display is affected.

Display substrate including first reference voltage line being electrically coupled to first reference voltage auxiliary line through via holes penetrating through insulation layer therebetween, and display device having the same


An electrosurgical instrument is useful for therapeutic treatment of varices, especially small varicose dilatations of the cutaneous veins. A surgical instrument is provided for rapid, reliable and minimally discomforting therapy of small varicose dilatations of the cutaneous veins and similar disorders, ensuring the lowest possible rate of recidivism while minimizing side effects. The instrument has two fork-shaped protruding needle electrodes which connect to different poles of an electrical power source and which are each partially enclosed in an electrical insulating layer. The forward tip region of the needle electrodes is left open.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electrosurgical instrument for the therapy of varices, in particular of small varicose dilatations of the cutaneous veins.
2. The Prior Art
Varices are understood to be veins extending along the surface of the body, which, in most cases, are pathologically dilatated lig bags or in the form of knots. Due to occupations requiring standing, overweight, tight garments or pregnancy, small varicose dilatations of the cutaneous veins of the legs develop particularly frequently from an innate weakness of the connective tissue. In view of the civilizationally conditioned increase in said promoting factors, more and more people suffer from the consequences of the primary varicosis caused thereby. In the advanced stage, varices are sometimes very painful and not infrequently lead to work disability. Therefore, the earliest possible therapeutic treatment of small varicose dilatations of the cutaneous veins and small varices is indicated.
According to the state of the art, the so-called sclerosing is commonly applied for the treatment of small varicose dilatations of the cutaneous veins. In this connection, following a prior injection of air, an obliterating agent is injected in the affected section of the veins. This is followed by a compression treatment, for example in the form of compression bandages or compression hoses.
The aforementioned method has the advantage that especially in the treatment of small varicose dilatations of the cutaneous veins, no surgical intervention is required. Otherwise, however, known obliterating methods lead to unsatisfactory results: Medicinal sclerosing often leads to more or less extensive spotted discolorations of the skin, which is not only perceived as annoying cosmetically, but also represents a psychic stress for the patient. Furthermore, the therapy is relatively protracted because several successive treatments are required at intervals of several days. Moreover, with sclerosing, the rate of recidivism is relatively high.
Furthermore, attempts have been made to therapeutically treat small varicose dilatations of the cutaneous veins by irradiation with laser light. These methods, however, have been insufficient heretofore, and permitted only minor cosmetic corrections. The laser therapy, according to the current state of knowledge, seems to hold only little promise for success for a comprehensive treatment of small varicose dilatations of the cutaneous veins and varices.
A method of treating varices is known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,301,258, which is based on the destruction of, the diseased section of the vein by means of electrical current (diathermy current). The instrument for carrying out the method, which is disclosed in the US-document as well, has two electrodes, which are electrically insulated against each other and arranged at the distal end of a small cylindrical probe, as well as means for generating and transmitting electrical current to said electrodes.
For treating the varix, the probe is inserted in the skin of the patient through a cut and subcutaneously guided on until the electrodes, for which provision is made at the distal end of the probe, have reached the site to be treated. Subsequently, an electrical current is permitted to flow through the electrodes; the heat generated in this connection leads to the destruction of the neighboring vein section. However, the surgical instrument for the treatment of varices according to the aforementioned US-patent is not suitable for ambulatory therapy because the surgical intervention connected therewith requires a hospital stay and leads to considerable stress for the patient.
A surgical instrument for us in diathermyand similar medical and surgical treatment is known from U.S. Pat. No. 1,943,543, said instrument consisting of a grip, an insulating sleeve, and two electrodes mounted on the grip. The two electrodes are surrounded by the insulating sleeve, and can be left free by displacing the sleeve. When the electrodes are inserted in the tissue to be treated, the insulating sleeve remains on the surface of the tissue, so that the electrode section projecting into the tissue remains uninsulated. The above surgical instrument is not suitable for the treatment of varices because due to the lack of insulation of the electrodes, current can flow along the surface of the skin, which leads to the formation of cosmetically disfiguring current marks.
From this results the problem of the invention, which is to provide the treating therapist with a surgical instrument permitting a therapy of varices with small varicose dilatations of cutaneous veins and the like, which can be carried out quickly and safely with as little stress as possible for the patient and with minimized side effects. In addition, the objective is to keep the rate of recidivism as low as possible.
For solving said problem, the invention proposes on the basis of the surgical instrument for the treatment of varices according to U.S. Pat. No. 3,301,258 that the instrument has two fork-like arranged, protruding needle electrodes, which are connectable to different poles of an electrical current source, and which each are partly enclosed by a thin electrical insulation layer, which leaves the forward tip zone of the needle electrodes free, whereby the transition from the tip zone to the insulated zone is substantially stepless.

Electrosurgical instrument for therapeutic treatment of varices


When a Si content (mass %) is set to [Si], an Al content (mass %) is set to [Al], and a Mn content (mass %) is set to [Mn], a parameter Q represented by “Q=[Si]+2[Al]−[Mn]” is 2.00 or more, the total mass of S contained in sulfides or oxysulfides of Mg, Ca, Sr, Ba, Ce, La, Nd, Pr, Zn, or Cd is 10% or more of the total mass of S contained in a non-oriented electrical steel sheet, a {100} crystal orientation intensity is 3.0 or more, a thickness is 0.15 mm to 0.30 mm, and an average crystal grain diameter is 65 μm to 100 μm.

A non-oriented electrical steel sheet is used for, for example, an iron core of a motor, and the non-oriented electrical steel sheet is required to have excellent magnetic properties, for example, a low core loss and a high magnetic flux density, in all directions parallel to its sheet surface (sometimes referred to as "all directions within a sheet surface", hereinafter). Although various techniques have been proposed so far, it is difficult to obtain sufficient magnetic properties in all directions within a sheet surface. For example, even if it is possible to obtain sufficient magnetic properties in a certain specific direction within a sheet surface, it is sometimes impossible to obtain sufficient magnetic properties in the other directions.


Typically, unit loads with wooden pallets in warehouses are moved by pallet lifters or AMRs which are bulkier in size and require more power with high operating costs. This disclosure relates generally to a unit load lifter designed with counterbalance arm mounted on an autonomous mobile robot (AMR) to load and unload unit load from one position to another position autonomously. The unit load lifter includes a horizontal slide unit and a vertical axis fork assembly. The horizontal slide unit include base plate of the unit load lifter is mounted on the AMR. A plurality of fixed guides is integrated with the base plate to house the vertical axis fork assembly by a plurality of rollers on a roller mounting plate. The vertical axis fork assembly include an actuating end of a linear actuator is connected to the sliding plate to drive the at least one fork up and down.

Currently the industry environment is transforming with traditional warehouses into smart warehouses. There are numerous fork type pallet movers or forklift trucks available in the warehouses. Typically, in warehouses the unit loads with wooden pallets are moved by fork type pallet lifters and are operated by humans. Also, there are fork type automated guided vehicles (AGV) or fork type autonomous mobile robots (AMR) to perform a job. These vehicles are having a large counterweight or counterbalance mechanism underneath the fork. Further the conventional vehicles in the warehouse are longer in size and hence wheelbase requires longer maneuvering space and are unable to park in tight spaces. Unlike the conventional vehicles, a pallet type autonomous mobile robots have zero turning radius enabling a vehicle to rotate about its own center. Secondly, the "Fork type" AGVs, pallet lifters or AMRs are bulkier in size and significantly heavier and require more power and operating costs are high as compared to unit load AMRs.

Automated unit load lifter mounted on an autonomous mobile robot for carrying a unit load


The present invention relates to a photocathode having a structure for improving the quantum efficiency and sharpening the absorption edge characteristic on the long wavelength side within the wavelength range of incident light to improve the photosensitivity, and an electron tube having the same. The photocathode according to the present invention comprises at least a p-type GaAlN layer for absorbing incident light to excite photoelectrons, a p-type GaN layer which covers the second major surface of the p-type GaAlN layer, the second major surface opposing a first major surface that faces a substrate, and a surface layer provided to sandwich the p-type GaN layer with the p-type GaAlN layer and mainly containing an alkali metal or an alkali metal oxide.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a photocathode applicable to an image-pickup tube or photometry device and a phototube having the same and, more particularly, a photocathode having a plurality of layers each mainly containing a compound semiconductor material and functioning so as to emit photoelectrons which are excited by incident light.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally, a compound semiconductor layer of CsTe is applied to a photocathode for the UV range. The spectral sensitivity characteristic of this photocathode has a high radiation sensitivity to incident light having a wavelength of about 180 to 320 nm. However, to improve the quantum efficiency or absorption edge characteristic in the long wavelength side within the wavelength range of incident light, there is a decisive difficulty caused by a defect called a color center.
As a photocathode for the UV range for which various operation characteristics are expected to be improved as compared with the photocathode having the CsTe layer, a photocathode having a compound semiconductor layer mainly containing Ga.sub.1-x Al.sub.x N (0<x<1) is available. The spectral sensitivity characteristic of this photocathode is adjusted by changing the absorption edge characteristic in the long wavelength side within the incident wavelength range of about 200 to 350 nm in correspondence with the composition of Ga.sub.1-x Al.sub.x N, i.e., an alloy of AlN and GaN.
Prior arts associated with such a photocathode having a layer mainly containing a compound semiconductor material of Ga.sub.1-x Al.sub.x N are disclosed in, e.g.,
"U.S. Pat. No. 3,387,161 (1968)", PA1 "U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,065 (1976)", and PA1 Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 61-267374.

Photocathode and electron tube having enhanced absorption edge characteristics