A method for optimizing a braking sequence in a vehicle with automatic transmission (3) and gearbox (9) and automatic cruise control, which cruise control controls acceleration and braking to achieve a set speed, taking into account the distance to the vehicle in front. Data simulations are carried out continually of how the vehicle will be driven in the future, for a set of different combinations of engine speed at which a gear change takes place, gear change step and braking sequence, and a braking sequence with associated gear change schedule is selected that will be optimal. The vehicle is equipped with at least two different braking systems, for example service brake and auxiliary brake (48, 6). The system selects to brake primarily with the braking system that has the least tendency to wear.

An adaptive cruise control system (ACC) in a vehicle measures the distance to a vehicle in front. This distance information is used to modify the adaptive cruise control in such a way that the distance to the vehicle in front is never less than a predetermined value.
When a vehicle in front is driving more slowly than the vehicle in question, the adaptive cruise control must ensure that the vehicle in question is braked. This can be carried out in a number of ways. For example, the fuel supply to the motor of the vehicle in question can be shut off completely so that the vehicle slows down. If all the fuel is shut off and additional braking is required, this can be carried out using the vehicle's service brake. A disadvantage of using the vehicle's service brake is that the service brake is a friction brake with a tendency to wear. For this reason, particularly on heavy goods vehicles, so-called auxiliary brakes are often used. Examples of auxiliary brakes are motor compression brakes and retarders. When an auxiliary brake is arranged in the vehicle's motor or between the motor and the gearbox, the gear selection is of great significance for what braking force is applied to the vehicle's driving wheels.
A vehicle with cruise control is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,076,622 and in which the cruise control can also control the gear selection and auxiliary braking. A problem with this solution is that the gear selection and the auxiliary braking cannot be optimized with regard to future topography. For example, at the start of a long steep down-grade, a sufficiently low gear will not be selected, which eventually leads to the auxiliary braking becoming insufficient at a relatively early stage on the gradient and it becoming necessary for additional braking to be carried out with the service brake in order to avoid driving into the vehicle in front.
A vehicle with cruise control is known through FR 2813397, where a control system with a navigation system using position determination (GPS, Global Positioning System) calculates in advance the highest and lowest points, that is the transitions where an uphill gradient changes to a downhill gradient or vice versa, for the immediately imminent road on which the vehicle is being driven. The distance to a vehicle in front is optimized by the control system controlling the acceleration and braking with the vehicle's service brake, taking into account the highest and lowest points on the road on which the vehicle is being driven. A problem with this solution is that the most favorable braking sequence can not be selected taking into account brake wear and gear selection. In addition, the future topography, in accordance with which the cruise control carries out the control, is greatly simplified. Only the transitions in gradient along the road on which the vehicle is being driven are calculated. The topography between the transitions in gradient is not taken into account.
SE 0103630-0 shows a known motordriven vehicle with cruise control, where a control system calculates future topography using a navigation system with position determination (GPS, Global Positioning System) or by extrapolation. By means of simulation, the control system selects an acceleration and/or retardation that is matched to the future topography, by controlling the acceleration and braking. A problem with this solution is that the most favorable braking sequence cannot be selected which takes into account brake wear, gear selection and distance to the vehicle in front.
Against the background of the above, the task of the invention is thus to make it possible to control a vehicle's braking sequence in a more optimal way, in a vehicle with cruise control of the ACC type (Adaptive Cruise Control), with acceleration function, brake function and distance measurement to the vehicle in front.

Method for optimizing a braking sequence


An antimony recovery process is disclosed in which antimony-containing material is leached in a solvent including elemental sulfur and a caustic to preferentially leach antimony. The antimony-containing leach liquor from the leaching step is separated from the insoluble residue by filtration, and the antimony compounds in the separated leach liquor are crystallized to separate the antimony compounds from impurities which are left in solution in the leach liquor. The crystals are then redissolved and treated to create marketable antimony products of high purity, such as antimony metal, sodium hydroxy antimonate, sodium antimonate, antimony pentoxide, and antimony pentasulfide. Alternatively, the crystallized antimony compounds comprising primarily sodium thioantimonate crystals may be recovered and sold without further treatment. Waste products may be treated with soluble iron compounds and lime to render the waste products safe for disposal. Additionally, feed material having a high weight ratio of soluble arsenic to soluble antimony may be pretreated, if desired, to improve the purity of the recovered antimony products and to remove the arsenic for further treatment or disposal.

This invention relates to the recovery of antimony from antimony-containing materials, particularly ores, ore concentrates, smelter flue dusts, metals or the like. This invention also relates to the safe treatment of such materials which contain antimony and arsenic.
Several types of ore and similar materials contain significant amounts of antimony and arsenic. In refining metals from the various ores, it is desirable to separate the antimony and arsenic from the target metals. Many antimony products are also marketable, so it is desirable to recover these antimony compounds in as pure a form as commercially reasonable. Additionally, arsenic-containing products and waste products resulting from these separation processes must be treated with care to minimize pollution control problems. In that regard, it is often desirable to separate arsenic and arsenic-containing compounds from these materials in stable forms that may be conveniently, economically, and safely disposed.
Certain prior art methods have been proposed and used for separating antimony and arsenic from materials such as ores and ore concentrates. The most prevalent prior art method involves a pyrometallurgical process known as liquation in which ores containing antimony in the form of stibnite are heated to above the melting point of stibnite. This temperature is very low relative to the melting points of the other metal sulfides which are contained in the ore. The stibnite melts and "drains" preferentially from the rest of the ore and can then be collected. Similarly, antimony oxide production by oxidative roasting is common. These prior art processes suffer greatly from their inability to effectively separate impurities from the final antimony products.
In addition, certain prior art hydrometallurgical processes have been proposed or developed to avoid pollution control problems arising from the use of such smelting processes. Nonetheless, such prior art hydrometallurgical processes suffer from various shortcomings, particularly with respect to the leaching of the ore or other material and with respect to the purity of the antimony products obtained. For example, in leaching stages of these prior art processes, undesirably high percentages of antimony can be left in the insoluble leach residue. Also, expensive solvents or reagents are used which are not easily regenerated or recycled.
Antimony is often present in the material to be treated in both its +3 (trivalent) and +5 (pentavalent) valence states. It is desirable during leaching to obtain an antimony product in its +5 state rather than its +3 state (i.e., as sodium thioantimonate rather than sodium thioantimonite). This is because the crystallization qualities of antimony in its +5 valence state are greatly enhanced compared to the crystallization qualities of antimony in its +3 state.
Some solvents may perform acceptably when used in connection with ores containing antimony in its pentavalent form but perform inadequately when antimony is present in its trivalent form. Additionally, prior art processes for treating materials including antimony in its trivalent form often require two stage leaching. This adds to the cost and complexity of the processes and disadvantageously results in a diminished percentage recovery of antimony. Also, antimony products produced using such prior art processes are of relatively low purity, and the contained impurities impair the commercial value of the antimony products.
Finally, it has been discovered that smelter flue dust often contains excessive amounts of arsenic and antimony making the flue dust a hazardous waste. As such, disposal of the flue dust must be handled with great care and at great expense. Such flue dusts also may contain valuable constituents such as Cu, Cd, Ga, Te, Sn, Ge, Zn, Pb, In, Ag, Au, and platinum group metals.


The present invention provides a slider wherein a Y-shaped guide groove which allows a fastener chain to pass therethrough is provided in a body of a slider, the intermediate partition which is raised inward on both sides of a guide post and extends from an inside end of the guide post toward a rear mouth is provided on an inner surface of one of upper and lower blades, and a top surface of the intermediate partition is formed into an entirely inclined slope such that a shoulder mouth side is higher than a rear mouth side, thereby enabling to catch and introduce coupling heads of fastener elements exposed from the side edges of the fastener tapes, so that the coupling heads of the right and left fastener elements are engaged with each other between the guide post and the rear mouth.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a slider of a linear slide fastener, and more specifically, to a slider for a slide fastener which is applicable to a fastener chain in which linear fastener elements formed into a coil shape or zigzag shape are attached to one side edge of a fastener tape, particularly, a flat thin linear slide fastener chain having no core thread, in which fastener elements are knitted or woven so that a coupling head side of the fastener elements is exposed from a fastener tape.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is conventionally known a slide fastener slider, as shown in FIG. 17, having the following configuration. Raised portions 111 which are raised in a fixed height from an upper blade 104 are provided on proximal portions on both sides of a guide post 106 of an inner surface of the upper blade 104 of a slider body. A front end portion whose tip is pointed toward a rear mouth side 114 is provided so as to be continuous from the raised portions 111. A wedge-shaped projection is provided to connect the front end portion with the raised portion 111, so that an intermediate partition is formed of the raised portion 111, the wedge-shaped projection and the front end portion and the edge portions of these components of the intermediate partition are formed into a square shape. Consequently, a coupling head of the fastener element can be caught and introduced from the raised portion 111 to the front end portion.
As a conventionally known slide fastener slider, a slider of type shown in FIG. 18 has been known. An intermediate partition of this slider is formed raised in a fixed height from a lower blade 205 in the center in a longitudinal direction thereof so that the intermediate partition extends from an inside end of the guide post 206 toward a rear mouth of a body 202, while no intermediate partition is provided on proximal portions on both sides of the guide post 206 provided on the body.    Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 9-37817
In the slider shown in FIG. 17, the intermediate partition provided on the inner surface of the upper blade 104 such that the intermediate partition extends from both sides of the guide post 106 to the rear mouth side is projected in a fixed height from the inner surface of the upper blade 104. Further, the edges of the intermediate partition including the raised portion 111, the wedge-shaped projection and the front end portion are formed into a square shape. Consequently, when the slider is slid along the fastener elements, frictional resistance between the upper blade 104 and the fastener chain is increased if the intermediate partition is formed high, and the fastener elements fall in so that the engagement motion sometimes becomes unstable if it is formed low. Further, because the edge of the intermediate partition is formed in the square shape, the fastener elements can be damaged by the sliding motion when the slider is slid. Additionally, there is a fear that the sliding operation of the slider cannot be carried out smoothly.
In the slider of the conventionally known slide fastener shown in FIG. 18, the intermediate partition provided on the lower blade 205 of the slider body is extended from the inside end of the guide post 206 toward the rear mouth. Thus, no intermediate partition exists on both sides of the guide post 206. When a fastener stringer 224 is inserted into a guide groove 208 of the slider of this type from the shoulder mouth of the body, coupling heads to which right and left fastener stringers 224 are coupled are placed on the surface of the intermediate partition on the rear mouth side of the body. With this configuration, even if a tension in the lateral direction is applied to the fastener chain to some extent, a stable coupling condition can be maintained.
However, if a lateral pulling load, that is, a tension in the direction of an indicated arrow is applied to the fastener stringer 224 on both sides of the guide post 206, the coupling head of the fastener element 223 is brought into pressure contact with the lower blade 205 of the body because no intermediate partition is provided. In addition, with a connecting portion, at which the fastener elements 223 are inverted, brought into pressure contact with the corner portion on the flange 207 side of the upper blade 204, the fastener elements 223 are arranged in an inclined state to the slider. Consequently, it becomes very hard to slide the fastener stringer 224 and the sliding resistance when the slider is slid is increased, and further the fastener elements 223 can damage the coupling heads due to the sliding contact with the slider. Particularly as the lateral pulling load is applied more strongly to flat thin fastener elements 223 of knitted type or woven type in which no core thread exists within the fastener elements 223, the fastener stringers 224 tend to bite each other with the fastener elements 223 inclined.


A hobby horse includes a neck and head portion secured to the user's waist by a belt attachment. A rein switch is supported within the head interior and is coupled to each end of a closed rein set and is responsive to pulling action upon the reins. A motion sensing switch is supported within the head portion of the hobby horse and responds to motion and changes of motion of the child user and hobby horse. A pair of pressure sensitive switches are disposed proximate the forehead and mouth portions of the hobby horse and respond to simulated feeding and petting actions on the part of the user. A sound producing circuit includes a battery power system, a speaker and a sound sensitizing circuit operatively coupled to the range switch, the motion switch, the forehead switch, and the mouth switch to provide a plurality of sound outputs responsive to play activities sensed by the switches. The rein sensing switch is resistant to overstressing by the child user in pulling upon the reins.

One of the most pervasive toys provided to young children through the years is that generally referred to as a hobby horse toy which derives its name from the use of a frontal member which replicates the upper neck and head of a horse or pony. Such hobby toys originally provided a horse's upper neck and head secured to a long stick or rod having a rolling wheel secured to the bottom end thereof. The user "rode" the hobby horse by extending the head and neck portion forwardly and the elongated rod downwardly between the user's legs to rest upon the rolling wheel. Generally simulated reins secured to the horse head provided convenient holding means. Due to the popularity of hobby horses, additional variants have been developed which have included riding toys formed to resemble a horse or pony and having a riding seat or saddle. Additional hobby horse structures have been provided which attach to the user's thigh for bouncing a young child and waist attaching hobby horses secured directly to the user's waist or supported by shoulder's harnesses.
Examples of the foregoing hobby horses are found in a number of issued patents. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,224,762 issued to Strader sets forth a HOBBY HORSE having a simulated horse head supported by a waist harness or belt. A mainframe bar extends downwardly from the waist belt between the user's legs in a generally U-shaped form to stabilize the hobby horse and free the user's hand for play.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,920,239 issued to White sets forth a HOBBY HORSE adapted to be worn about the waist of a child. The horse comprises a forward section having a head and adjoining fore quarters part, a hind section comprising the rump and adjoining part and elastic sides joining the fore and hind sections to provide waist attachment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,642 issued to Adams sets forth a TOY having a toy horse supported on the user by a shoulder harness assembly. The horse includes a hollow body member having a central opening formed in the upper back portion thereof. The head is pivotally secured to the body portion and coupled to a linkage mechanism extending through the horse body to provide head movement by the user.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,888,263 issued to Ruhmann, et al. sets forth a KNEE-RIDING HORSE having a simulated horse head and saddle portion adapted to be worn by the user above the knee on the lower thigh. In its intended use, the user may place a young child upon the simulated horse supported by the user's thigh and knee and provide an entertaining bouncing activity for the young child.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,000,712 issued to Curry, Sr. sets forth a RIDING TOY having a knee riding type toy horse similar to that set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 2,888,263 which provides a substantially more padded saddle and body portion for the child to rest upon during the play activity.
French Patent 1,371,924 issued to Hemar sets forth a hobby horse toy having forward and rear portions coupled by a harness and belt apparatus to provide enclosure about the child user's waist and support using a shoulder harness.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,940,755 issued to Pouder sets forth a TOY HORSE having an elongated frame member supporting a simulated horse's head at one end and a pair of rolling wheels at the remaining end A pair of tines and cam apparatus are supported at the lower end and actuated by the rolling of the wheels.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,169,764 issued to Royce sets forth a TOY DEVICE having an elongated frame member supporting a simulated horse's head at the upper portion thereof and a rolling wheel at the lower portion thereof. The horse's lower jaw is pivotally secured and coupled to a movable handle by a linkage member to provide jaw actuation as the handle is moved.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,074,820 issued to Nakayama sets forth a STUFFED VIBRATING SOUNDING SITTING TOY having a stuffed toy body such as a horse comprising a main switch turned on in response to a load applied externally, a vibrator actuated when the main switch is turned on to vibrate at least a part of the body of the stuffed toy and a sound generator for producing accompanying sound.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,915,312 issued to Barthel sets forth a SOUND PRODUCING MECHANISM FOR A CHILD'S AMUSEMENT DEVICE having a support frame including upwardly extending support members between which a simulated horse is resiliently suspended by a plurality of spring members. Sound producing means are operatively coupled to the spring suspended horse body to produce sounds as the body is moved by the rider.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,157,826 issued to Sims, et al. sets forth a TOY ASSEMBLY WITH SOUND DEVICE which may be combined with a toy hobby horse. A whinny or neigh sound may be produced by child operated movement of the reins to stress and subsequently release a weight loaded spring lever within the horse's head. A coil spring is positioned to contact the spring lever for generation of the noise. A one-way stop mechanism retains the weighted spring lever until sufficient stress is developed.
While the foregoing described representative prior art devices have in many instances provided amusing and enjoyable hobby horse toys, there remains nonetheless a continuing need in the art for evermore improved, entertaining and amusing hobby horse toys.


A turbo compressor in which a rotor having impellers is supported by a magnetic bearing is constructed such that a control valve is provided in a thrust balancing line connecting a suction line of the compressor to a balancing chamber formed outside a balancing drum provided at one end side of a rotor. The control valve serves to regulate a rate at which a gas flows through the thrust balancing line, and is adapted to be controlled in relation to a load imposed upon the magnetic thrust bearing.

This invention relates to a turbo compressor having a rotor supported by a magnetic bearing and a method of controlling the turbo compressor, and more particularly, to a high-pressure type of single-shaft multistage centrifugal compressor.
As shown in FIG. 3, a single-shaft multi-stage centrifugal compressor includes a rotor 2 having a plurality of impellers 10 are attached thereto, with the rotor 20 and impellers 10 being incorporated in a casing 1 and, with the rotor 10 being supported by oil bearings 7. The rotor 2 is rotated by a motor to draw a gas being compressed through a nozzle 4. Driving energy is thereby applied to the gas by the impeller 10, and the gas is thereby increased in pressure and is discharged through a nozzle 5.
The pressure of the gas is higher at a compression stage closer to the rear portion of the compressor, and the interstage labyrinth diameter is smaller than the mouth labyrinth diameter. Therefore the static pressure acts on one impeller as an axial force in the direction from the discharge side to the suction side. To reduce this thrust force to a magnitude within the range of an allowable load capacity of the thrust bearing corresponding to the axial-end diameter of the rotor, a balancing drum 11 is provided at an axial end of the final-stage impeller, and a chamber 12 communicating with the suction side is formed outside the balancing drum 11.
In this type of turbo compressors using oil bearings, the friction loss of the bearings is generally several tens of kilowatts. If the above-mentioned oil bearings are replaced with non-contact type magnetic bearings, the running cost of the compressor can be reduced and the lubrication system can be maintenance-free.
As a turbo compressor using a balancing drum, a compressor disclosed in Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 62-258195 is known.
The load capacity of magnetic bearings, however, is on the order of about 1/10 of that of oil bearings (ordinarily, several kg/cm.sup.2 or less in terms of surface pressure), and a problem of an increase in the size of a thrust bearing portion is therefore encountered. That is, if a magnetic bearing is used, the diameter of a journal bearing portion is increased in comparison with oil bearings and the inside diameter of the thrust bearing is also increased, because the load capacity of the magnetic bearing is small. Also there is a need to increase the area of a thrust collar, i.e., the diameter of the thrust collar in comparison with oil bearings. If the thrust bearing is disposed outside of the journal bearing and if the thrust collar is large, a problem of a natural oscillation frequency of the compressor rotor in a high-order mode is reduced close to the number of revolutions in steady operation arises. If the thrust bearing is disposed inside the journal bearing, a problem of a further increase in the diameter of the shaft sealing device, a problem of the allowable peripheral speed of the shaft sealing device being exceeded, and a problem of difficulty in constructing the compressor are encountered.
A thrust force acting on the compressor shaft is calculated from a static pressure on an impeller portion, fluid force caused by a gas flow, leaks through gaps, and so on. However, the thrust force is changed due to the difference between design conditions and operating conditions or by a change in these conditions or a change with time (such as wear of labyrinth seals). Therefore the reliability of the bearing system cannot be satisfactorily high unless a thrust bearing having a sufficiently large load capacity is selected. For this reason, a large thrust bearing having such a large capacity is required in the conventional compressors.

Turbo compressor and method of controlling the same


Hinge arrangements for pivotally supporting a lid covering a storage compartment of a convertible roof in a vehicle are disclosed, including a first hinge fixed to the lid, and a second hinge fixed to the vehicle, the ends of both hinges being pivotally arranged about a common pivot axis which is disposed at or above the plane of the lid.

Certain cars are of the convertible type, which comprise a convertible roof, i.e. a roof for the occupant compartment which can be raised and lowered. The roof can be raised and lowered either automatically, by means of a power device, or manually. When it assumes its lowered condition, the roof is normally stored in a particular storage compartment which is arranged near the luggage compartment of the vehicle.
The storage compartment of the roof can be shaped as a tub which extends across the vehicle and which is covered by a lid, the shape of which corresponds to the dimensions of the tub. The lid is pivotally arranged by means of a hinge arrangement. When the roof is to be raised, the lid is first opened, after which the roof is raised out of the storage compartment. Thereafter, the lid can then be swung down so as to cover the now empty storage compartment. Next, the roof is secured at its front and rear, normally along the upper edge of the windscreen and behind said lid, respectively. In this manner, the roof can be arranged over the occupant compartment of the vehicle.
When the roof is lowered, the above-described operation is reversed. In this regard, the roof is first released at its front and rear edges. Thereafter, the lid of the storage compartment of the roof is opened and the roof is lowered and stowed in said compartment. Next, the lid of the storage compartment is closed.
A previously known arrangement of the above-described type which includes a roof which can be raised and lowered, is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,338,085. In this regard, the roof can be stowed in a space adjacent to the luggage compartment of the vehicle. The storage compartment of the roof is covered by a lid which is pivotally arranged by means of a hinge arrangement. From this patent it is evident that this arrangement creates a problem due to the fact that the hinge arrangement encroaches significantly on the space available in the vehicle. In this regard, the hinges are formed by two bent, tubular elements which are arranged in an axis of rotation. These elements require a large amount of space when the lid is to be raised or lowered, which results in the above-mentioned problem.
Another problem associated with these known arrangements is that when the lid of the storage compartment of the roof is to be opened, it will be swung so that its rear edge is positioned partly above the luggage compartment of the vehicle. This results in the luggage compartment lid having to be closed before the lid of the roof can be opened. Otherwise, if the luggage compartment lid were to be opened when the roof lid is opened, either or both of the ids could be damaged.
A principle object of the present invention is to solve the above-mentioned problems and to provide an improved hinge arrangement which in particular is intended for a lid of a storage compartment for a convertible roof in a vehicle.
A particular object of the present invention is to provide a hinge arrangement which encroaches as little as possible on the available space in the vehicle.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a hinge arrangement which allows pivoting of the lid of the storage compartment of the roof, in a manner so as to allow this lid to be open at the same time as the luggage compartment of the vehicle is open.


A laser scanning head in which the range of the beam waist is varied independently of any measurement of the actual range of the symbol. The optical member is a condenser lens that is moved by energizing a magnetic coil; the lens is operated independently of the scanning movement of the laser beam, to produce a continuous, progressive variation (e.g., a continuous oscillation) in the range of the beam waist, so that at some point in the variation the spot size on the symbol will be of an appropriate size. The movement of the lens can be synchronized with the beam scan (e.g., so that the same spot size can be maintained for several scans). Spot size can be chosen adaptively, by varying the range of the beam waist until the contrast in the reflected light collected from the symbol exceeds a predetermined level.

Various optical readers and optical scanning systems have been developed heretofore for reading bar code symbols appearing on a label or on the surface of an article. The bar code symbol itself is a coded pattern of indicia comprised of a series of bars of various widths spaced apart from one another to bound spaces of various widths, the bars and spaces having different light reflecting characteristics. The readers and scanning systems electro-optically transform the graphic indicia into electrical signals, which are decoded into alphanumerical characters that are intended to be descriptive of the article or some characteristic thereof. Such characters are typically represented in digital form and utilized as an input to a data processing system for applications in point-of-sale processing, inventory control, and the like. Scanning systems of this general type have been disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,251,798; 4,369,361; 4,387,297; 4,409,470; 4,760,248; and 4,896,026, all of which have been assigned to the same assignee as the instant application.
As disclosed in some of the above patents, one embodiment of such a scanning system resides, inter alia, in a hand-held, portable laser scanning head supported by a user, which is configured to allow the user to aim the head, and more particularly, the light beam, at a target and a symbol to be read.
The light source in a laser scanner is typically a gas laser or semiconductor laser. The use of a semiconductor devices such as a laser diode as the light source in scanning systems is especially desirable because of their small size, low cost and low power requirements. The laser beam is optically modified, typically by a condenser lens, to form a waist-shaped beam in which the width of the beam diminishes with distance until reaching a minimum, or waist, and then increases. The beam is focused so that a desired spot size is achieved at the target distance, typically so that the waist is located at the target distance. It is preferred that the spot size at the target distance be approximately the same as the minimum width between regions of different light reflectivity, i.e., the bars and spaces of the symbol.
Bar code symbols are formed from bars or elements that are typically rectangular in shape with a variety of possible widths. The specific arrangement of elements defines the character represented according to a set of rules and definitions specified by the code or "symbology" used. The relative size of the bars and spaces is determined by the type of coding used, as is the actual size of the bars and spaces. The number of characters per inch represented by the bar code symbol is referred to as the density of the symbol. To encode a desired sequence of characters, groups of elements are concatenated together to form the complete bar code symbol, with each character of the message being represented by its own corresponding group of elements. In some symbologies a unique "start" and "stop" character is used to indicate where the bar code begins and ends. A number of different bar code symbologies exist. These symbologies include, e.g., UPC/EAN, Code 39, Code 128, Codabar, and Interleaved 2 of 5, etc.
In order to increase the amount of data that can be represented or stored on a given amount of surface area, several new bar code symbologies have recently been developed. One of these new code standards, Code 49, introduces a "two-dimensional" concept by stacking rows of characters vertically instead of extending the bars horizontally. That is, there are several rows of bar and space patterns, instead of only one row. The structure of Code 49 is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,794,239, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
In the scanning systems known in the art, the light beam is directed by a lens or similar optical components along a light path toward a target that includes a bar code symbol on the surface. The scanning functions by repetitively scanning the light beam in a line or series of lines across the symbol. The scanning component may either sweep the beam spot across the symbol and trace a scan line across and past the symbol, or scan the field of view of the scanner, or do both. Scanning systems also include a sensor or photodetector which functions to detect light reflected from the symbol. The photo-detector is therefore positioned in the scanner or in an optical path in which it has a field of view which extends across and slightly past the symbol. A portion of the reflected light which is reflected off the symbol is detected and converted into an electrical signal, and electronic circuitry or software decodes the electrical signal into a digital representation of the data represented by the symbol that has been scanned. For example, the analog electrical signal from the photodetector may typically be converted into a pulse width modulated digital signal, with the widths corresponding to the physical widths of the bars and spaces. Such a signal is then decoded according to the specific symbology into a binary representation of the data encoded in the symbol, and to the alphanumeric characters so represented.
The decoding process in known scanning systems usually work in the following way. The decoder receives the pulse width modulated digital signal from the scanner, and an algorithm implemented in software attempts to decode the scan. If the start and stop characters and the characters between them in the scan were decoded successfully and completely, the decoding process terminates and an indicator of a successful read (such as a green light and/or an audible beep) is provided to the user. Otherwise, the decoder receives the next scan, performs another decode attempt on that scan, and so on, until a completely decoded scan is achieved or no more scans are available.
Such a signal is then decoded according to the specific symbology into a binary representation of the data encoded in the symbol, and to the alphanumeric characters so represented.
Bar code symbols are printed in varying densities. High density symbols (line widths <5 mil) are, for example, used for small parts (e.g., integrated circuits) and for symbols with high information density. Low density symbols (line widths .gtoreq.50 mil) are, for example, used for coding packages (e.g., UPC/EAN symbols) and containers in warehouses. As it is generally preferred that the beam scanned across the bar code symbol have a width comparable to that of the minimum width between regions of different light reflectivity (e.g., the minimum width of a bar element), different beam widths are needed to read different density bar codes. Furthermore, bar codes of the same density can be located at varying distances from the laser scanning head, and thus there is a need to vary the beam spot size at each of many different ranges from the scanning head.
Conventional laser scanners have a condenser lens that focuses the laser diode so that the spot size is correct at the range at which the bar code reader is expected to operate. With such fixed focus systems, there is typically a "dead zone" in front of the scanner in which the spot size is too large for scanning to occur. Also, such scanners must be focused at the factory by adjusting the condenser lens along the optical axis while observing the spot size and then permanently setting the position of the lens at the position that achieves the desired size. This step is a relatively costly one, adding to the cost of manufacturing the laser scanner.
Various proposals have been made for improvements over these fixed focus scanners. A prior filed U.S. patent application of Bergstein, U.S. Ser. No. 07/503,374, discloses an afocal optical system in which the laser beam is collimated so that its width (or spot size) remains approximately constant over a wide range (i.e., so as to reduce as much as possible the waist shape of the beam). Krichever et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,808,804 shows moving different condenser lens elements into and out of the optical path of the laser beam, and moving the laser diode along the optical axis, to vary the working distance and/or the spot size of the beam. Gabeler U.S. Pat. No. 4,920,255 shows a bar code reading system in which the range of the surface bearing the bar code is detected using an ultrasonic ranging system, and the detected range is used to prescribe the setting of the optics focusing a laser beam on the bar code (the output signal from the ultrasonic ranging system drives a stepper motor in the laser focusing optics). Drucker U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,275 discloses a variety of means for optically modifying the light reflected from the bar code symbol, to vary the distance at which the symbol is in focus on the photodetector within a bar code reader; the techniques taught include altering the shape of a lens, moving an aperture in the optical path, moving a mirror (or a fiber optic cable), and providing an array of sensors, each effectively focused at a different range. U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,006 discloses the use of a plurality of varying focal length holograms generated by a rotating disk to focus at differing overlapping distance ranges.

Laser scanning device with automatic range and spot size adjustment


One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates secure messaging. The system starts by creating a message at an origin. Next, the system computes a digest of the message. This digest is signed using an origin private encryption key. The message and the signed digest are forwarded to a queue for delivery to a recipient. Upon receiving the message and the signed digest at the queue, the system verifies that the digest was signed at the origin by using an origin public encryption key. If the signature is valid, the origin cannot deny creating the message. Valid messages and digests are placed on the queue and the recipient is notified that the message is available.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communications between computer applications. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus to facilitate secure message queuing.
2. Related Art
Computer applications executing on a computing system often need to communicate with other computer applications executing on other computing systems. One method of communicating between these computer applications is to establish a direct link between the computer systems. Establishing direct links from one application to another, however, is impractical because these computer applications may not be executing at the same time.
Another method of communicating between computer applications is to use messaging queues. When using messaging queues, a client can perform a number of operations, including sending a message to a queue or to a list of intended recipients, receiving a message from a queue, and registering to be notified of messages in the queue.
Although using messaging queues to communicate between different processes is effective and can allow computer applications to communicate with each other, even when these computer applications execute at different times, there can be problems in validating whether a specific message was actually sent or received. As an example, suppose that a recipient of a message performs an action in reliance on a message and, at some later time, the originator of the message denies sending the message. Or conversely, suppose that the originator sends a message and at some later time the recipient denies having received the message. In either case, determining the truth is difficult to impossible because of the lack of proof about whether the message was actually sent or received.
Some public key cryptographic systems have attempted to provide a non-repudiation of origination service for computer applications, which are in direct communication with each other. However, non-repudiation of recipient services and services which apply to queuing systems are presently non-existent.
What is needed is a method and an apparatus that provides non-repudiation of both message origination and message receipt within a queuing system.

Method and apparatus for secure message queuing


A method for detecting deposited particles (P) on a surface (11) of an object (3, 14) includes: irradiating a partial region of the surface (11) of the object (3, 14) with measurement radiation; detecting measurement radiation scattered on the irradiated partial region, and detecting particles in the partial region of the surface of the object (3, 14) based on the detected measurement radiation. In the steps of irradiating and detecting, the surface (11) of the object (3, 14) has an anti-reflective coating (13) and/or a surface structure (15) for reducing the reflectivity of the surface (11) for the measurement radiation (9), wherein the particle detection limit is lowered due to the anti-reflective coating (13) and/or the surface structure (15). Also disclosed are a wafer (3) and a mask blank for carrying out the method.

The deposited particles are typically undesirable disturbing particles. It is possible for example to check the cleanliness in a clean room based on the number of the detected disturbing particles. The (test) object can in principle be any object that has a surface suitable for detecting disturbing particles.
The above-described method can be performed for example for detecting deposited particles on the surface of a plate-type object in the form of a (typically non-exposed) wafer or of a mask blank for microlithography, for example for EUV lithography. The measurement principle of particle detection is based on the scattering of the measurement radiation at the surface of the object. Measurement apparatuses that are based on the principle of particle detection by detecting measurement radiation that is scattered back at a surface are offered for example by Rudolph Technologies Inc. under the trade name "Reflex FSI" for examining wafers or under the trade name "Reflex TT MBI" for examining masks.
In these measurement apparatuses, measurement radiation in the form of a laser beam is typically used to irradiate the surface of the object at a specified angle of incidence. The measurement radiation scattered at the surface is detected in a dark-field measurement, that is to say the detection angle range within which the measurement radiation that is scattered at the surface of the object is detected deviates from the angle of incidence of the measurement radiation that is used to irradiate the surface, with the result that the radiation portion that is reflected at the surface is ignored.
In such a dark-field measurement, the entire radiation portion that is reflected at a perfect, completely smooth surface is suppressed on said surface, which means that only the measurement radiation scattered at the surface is detected. However, each surface has a roughness at the microscopic level, which means that a portion of measurement radiation that is reflected at the surface is inevitably also detected during the detection of the measurement radiation. Said portion of the detected measurement radiation produces a background signal, the strength of which depends on the roughness or on the polishing quality of the surface and possibly on the homogeneity of (thin) films applied on the surface, with the surface to be examined being formed on the upper side thereof.
In addition to the background signal, which is also referred to as haze signal, a defect signal is also recorded during the detection of the measurement radiation. In the above-described measurement principle, the surface of the object is typically divided into a measurement grid and a respective matrix element or a partial region of the surface is scanned by the measurement radiation. The measurement radiation that is detected during the scanning of the partial region or of the matrix element is added up or integrated. The detected measurement radiation or the detected measurement signal per partial region or per matrix element is additively composed of the background signal or haze signal and of the defect signal. The defect signal is caused by particles deposited on the surface or possibly depressions and by local defects such as scratches or local surface defects. Scratches or local surface defects can generally be distinguished from particles by way of local patterns in the detected measurement radiation of adjacent partial regions being identified. For example, if the detected measurement radiation in a plurality of adjacent partial regions lies above a threshold value, a local surface defect can be identified. While surface defects typically have a two-dimensional extent, scratches typically have a directional spatial distribution with a substantially one-dimensional extent and therefore can generally likewise be identified and distinguished from particles. Independently of the distinction between particles and scratches or local surface defects in the defect signal, it is necessary for the detection of particles to distinguish between the values of the scattered light intensity that are assigned to the haze signal and the values of the scattered light intensity that are assigned to the defect signal. The haze signal or the roughness of the surface consequently limits the particle detection limit, that is to say the minimum diameter, at which the particles can still be uniquely detected. A typical order of magnitude for the detection limit of particles or for the minimum particle diameter in the present application is approximately 100 nm or less.

Method for detecting particles on the surface of an object, wafer, and mask blank


A suspension system includes a SMA suspension component, an actuator and a controller. Altering the mechanical characteristic of the SMA suspension component alters the kinematic properties of the vehicle wheel relative to the vehicle body and the suspension characteristics of the vehicle. In one disclosed embodiment a SMA suspension spring is height adjustable to alter the vehicle handling characteristics. In another disclosed embodiment a SMA suspension component stabilizer bar is shape adjustable. The SMA stabilizer bar is maintained in a first shape to provide a first handling characteristic. To provide a second handling characteristic the SMA stabilizer bar is moved into contact with a fixed vehicle component such as a vehicle frame component. The flexibility of the stabilizer bar is thereby reduced and the vehicle handling characteristics are optimized for a second condition.

The present invention relates to a suspension system for a vehicle, and more specifically to a shape memory alloy suspension component to regulate the suspension characteristics of a vehicle.
A suspension system in a vehicle is usually provided with various suspension components, such as springs, dampers, anti-sway bars, stabilizer bars and the like which regulate the handling characteristics of the vehicle. Such suspension components are typically arranged between the vehicle wheel and vehicle body. Inherent characteristics of the components necessarily limit the suspension system to fixed properties and thus fixed handling characteristics. That is, each system has its own characteristics, which cannot be varied. This is a disadvantage when certain handling characteristics may be preferred for one road condition and not preferred for another road condition.
A particular example of this problem is provided by current sport utility vehicles which may be driven on both highway and off-road environments. The sport utility vehicle must incorporate a suspension that is applicable for each environment. Because the suspension system provides fixed characteristics, which require trade-offs that allow usage in both environments the suspension system is prevented from being optimized for either usage.
The term Shape Memory Alloys (SMA) is applied to that group of materials that demonstrate the ability to change shape, stiffness, position, natural frequency, and other mechanical characteristics in response to temperature or electromagnetic fields. Materials, both organic and metallic, possessing shape-memory, are known. An article made from such materials can be deformed from an original, heat-stable configuration to a second, heat-unstable configuration. The article is said to have shape-memory for the reason that upon application of heat alone it can be caused to revert, or attempt to revert, from its heat unstable configuration to its original heat-stable configuration, i.e., it xe2x80x9cremembersxe2x80x9d its original shape.
The ability to display shape-memory is a result of the fact that the alloy undergoes a reversible transformation from an austenitic state to a martensitic state with a change in temperature. An article made from such an alloy is easily deformed from its original configuration to a new configuration when cooled to a temperature below which the alloy is transferred from the austenitic state to the martensitic state.
Although a relatively wide variety of alloys are know to exhibit the shape memory effect, preferred are those that can recover substantial amounts of strain or that generate significant force upon changing shape. The best known and most readily available SMA is Nitinol, an alloy of nickel and titanium. Other such SMAs are nickel-titanium alloys and copper-base alloys such as CuZnAl and CuAlNi.
Actuators have heretofore been developed which employ shape-memory alloys or materials. However, such materials and alloys have not been incorporated into suspension systems.
It is therefore desirable to provide shape memory alloy suspension component to allow the suspension characteristics of a vehicle to be regulated.
The Shape Memory Alloy (SMA) suspension system according to the present invention generally includes a SMA suspension component, an actuator and a controller. It is known that SMAs respond to a shift in temperature above and below a phase transformation temperature to actuate or change a mechanical property of the SMA. The particular mechanical characteristic of the SMA suspension component, such as shape, stiffness, position, natural frequency, can therefore be altered. Altering the mechanical characteristic of the SMA suspension component thereby alters the kinematic properties of the vehicle wheel relative to the vehicle body and the suspension characteristics of the vehicle.
To alter the SMA suspension component, the present invention attaches an actuator to the vehicle body in the vicinity of the SMA component. The actuator referably generates heat, an electromagnetic field or electric current to shift the SMA component temperature above or below a phase transformation temperature to actuate or change a mechanical characteristic of the SMA suspension component in a known manner. Preferably, a controller is in communication with the actuator. The controller controls the actuators automatically based upon sensors which communicate with the SMA suspension components or alternatively or additionally by manual input from the driver.
In one disclosed embodiment a SMA suspension component spring is illustrated. The spring is manufactured of SMA such that the adjustable mechanical characteristic is the spring height. Changing the spring height thereby alters the vehicle handling characteristics.
In another disclosed embodiment a SMA suspension component stabilizer bar is illustrated. The stabilizer bar is manufactured of SMA such that the adjustable mechanical characteristic is the shape of the stabilizer bar. In the disclosed embodiment, the SMA stabilizer bar is maintained in a first shape which clears the vehicle frame. The function of the stabilizer bar is substantially removed and the vehicle handling characteristics are optimized for a first condition such as an off-road environment. The off-road performance is thereby improved as the suspension articulation and traction are increased by reducing the function of the stabilizer bar.
When the SMA characteristics of the stabilizer bar are inactivated the stabilizer bar shape is expanded to contact a fixed vehicle component such as a vehicle frame component. By bringing the stabilizer bar into contact with the frame, the flexibility of the stabilizer bar is reduced and the vehicle handling characteristics are optimized for a second condition such as an on-road environment.
The SMA suspension components according to the present invention thereby allows the suspension characteristics of a vehicle to be changed to suit desired handling and environment conditions.

Suspension characteristic control using shape memory alloy materials


A plurality of intermediate deck boards span across joists in a decking system in which each deck board includes a lower frame portion extruded of a first material and an insert body inserted into the top side of the lower frame portion which is formed of a second material. Additional extruded members are used as starting and ending rows of the deck boards and as finishing boards across the ends of the intermediate deck boards, in which each of the deck boards defines a respective portion of an upper deck surface of the assembled deck structure. The perimeter extruded members include mounting channels for mounting a railing structure thereon.

Various types of manufactured deck boards are known for use in construction of a patio deck structure for increased performance or durability as compared to conventional wooden deck boards which require regular maintenance by the application of paint or stain thereto.
Various examples of manufactured deck boards are disclosed in the following patent publications: U.S. Pat. No. 3,914,913 by Roberts; U.S. Pat. No. 5,819,491 by Davis; and EP 1808546 by Wybo. In many instances extruded material is used, such as plastic or metal, which results in a durable and strong deck board, but the finished appearance of the deck board is limited to the types of material which are suitable for extrusion and the materials for such extruded deck boards are typically selected based on performance rather than optimal appearance.
US2005/0204683 by Showers et al discloses another example of manufactured deck boards together with finishing boards for capping the deck boards about a perimeter of the assembled deck structure. The configuration of the finishing boards however only provide a decorative covering over the edges of the deck boards and are not suitable for anchoring the edges of the deck boards, nor do they contribute to increasing the upper deck surface area. Furthermore, no means are provided to accommodate for attachment of a railing in a secure manner.

Extruded deck board with finishing material insert


An apparatus and method to quickly, easily and temporarily secure fabric to an ironing board or the like to facilitate the removal of hair, lint, or other particulate matter which is adhered to the surface of the fabric. The fabric to be cleaned is positioned on an ironing board in the same manner as placing the fabric on the board for ironing. A pressure applying member is placed over the fabric to be cleaned, most commonly near the longitudinal end of the fabric. Each end of the pressure applying member is connected to a tension mechanism such as a spring or elastomeric cord. The other end of the tension mechanism is connected, in turn, to a connecting means such as a J-hook. When the connecting means are hooked over the far and near edges of the ironing board, the tension mechanism is pulled taut, forcing the pressure member down with sufficient force to hold the fabric in place against the pull of a vacuum or lint brush.

The present invention comprises an apparatus and method for quickly and releasably attaching fabric to an ironing board or the like to hold the fabric in place to facilitate the removal of pet hair, lint and other detritus by vacuum, lint brush or any other means that would exert a force on the fabric sufficient to cause the fabric to lift and bunch.
In addition to providing a surface to iron clothes and other fabrics, an ironing board also provides a convenient surface for the removal of unwanted hair, lint and other detritus from these same fabrics. Unfortunately, without suitable means for holding the fabric in place on the surface of the ironing board, a vacuum cleaner will lift and bunch the fabric. This movement makes the cleaning process extremely difficult. Likewise, the lint brush has nearly identical problems. If the operator holds one end of the fabric with one hand and the lint brush in the other hand, the brush can only be stroked in one direction. When the operator tries to stroke the clothing in the reverse direction, once again, the fabric lifts and bunches.
In both cases, the cleaning process needs a "third hand" or other means to secure the fabric. The apparatus and method of this invention eliminates the need for that third hand. It holds the fabric or article of clothing in place while it is being cleaned with a vacuum cleaner or lint brush.
There is no prior art known to the inventor relating to apparatus and methods for quickly and temporarily securing clothing and other fabrics to an ironing board for the purpose of assisting in the removal of hair, lint and other unwanted detritus.

Apparatus and method for releasably holding fabric in place on an ironing board or the like


A closed loop continuous emulsion polymerization apparatus at least comprising a circulation pump, a reactor tube which connects the outlet of the circulation pump to its inlet, at least one feed for supplying raw materials, an outlet, and means for cooling the tube, characterized in that the reactor further comprises an additional tube for by-passing a pig around the circulation pump, a pig receiving station which is in parallel connection with the circulation pump or the reactor tube, and optionally means for directing a pig into the pig receiving station. The invention allows simple removal of the pig from the reactor, afforts great freedom in selecting the type of circulation pump and material and shape of the pig, and enables total control over the launching of the pig substantially independent of the reaction medium flow.

Such a process is known from, int. al., M. Wilkinson and K. Geddes, "An award winning process," Chemistry in Britain, pp. 1050-1053, December 1993. This publication describes that emulsion polymers are manufactured by addition polymerization of low molecular weight unsaturated monomers, in the presence of water and stabilizers. In the past, the polymerization was carried out as a batch process or a delayed addition batch process, but in the late sixties the closed loop continuous reactor was first developed.
A problem encountered in polymerization processes employing a tubular reactor is the formation of deposits from the reaction products on the internal wall of the reactor. These deposits lead to a need for an increased delivery pressure from the circulation pump and impair heat transfer from the reaction medium to, e.g., a coolant in a jacket surrounding the reactor tube, thus leading to higher (and often deleterious) reactor temperatures or necessitating either an increased coolant circulation rate, a lower coolant temperature, or a reduced rate of production (so as to match the heat removal).
A further general disadvantage of a fouled reactor is the reduction of volume, increasing both the recycle rate and the shear on the emulsion. This shifts the process conditions which may have been optimized on a clean reactor. In any case, product properties will drift, nullifying the advantages of consistency of production expected from continuous reactors.
One way of cleaning the inside of tubes or pipework is the use of a cleaning member or pig which is forced through the tube. German patent application 32 33 557, for instance, describes various ways of using a pig for cleaning the internal wall of a tubular reactor. In one embodiment (illustrated in FIG. 1 of the application), two ball valves are provided in the reactor tube for receiving and launching one or more pigs. The reaction product is used to drive the pig and leaves the reactor after the pig has passed the outlet. Thus, the reaction product is not and cannot be recirculated, rendering this configuration unsuitable for continuous polymerization. In a further embodiment (FIG. 3), spherical-shaped scraper pigs are passed through the pump. This method imposes severe limitations on the shape of the pig and the type of pump used. For instance, the use of a positive displacement type pump to give the low shears desirable for emulsion polymer production is not possible.
For completeness' sake, it is noted that U.S. Pat. No. 3,425,083 discloses an endless pipe which has a bent form allowing a cleaning member to circulate constantly through the pipe and past its inlet and outlet for a liquid medium. The outlet has a smaller capacity than the inlet, so that part of the liquid medium is returned from the outlet through a return portion of the pipe to and past the inlet for recycling. No means are provided for removing the cleaning member or for interrupting its circulation. Further, the pipe is intended for heating liquids like milk and not for cooling reacting emulsions. In fact, reactors are not mentioned at all.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,682,186 discloses an apparatus for by-passing scrapers or product displacers around a pipeline booster or compression station. The main line is provided with two check valves for receiving and launching the pig. Loop reactors are not mentioned.

Closed loop continuous polymerization reactor and polymerization process


For efficient reclamation of pre-allocated direct memory access (DMA) memory in a computing environment, hot-add random access memory (RAM) is emulated for a general purpose use by reclamation of pre-allocated DMA memory reserved at boot time for responding to an emergency by notifying a non-kernel use device user that the non-kernel use device has a smaller window, stopping and remapping to the smaller window, and notifying a kernel that new memory has been added, wherein the new memory is a region left after the remap.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to computers, and more particularly to efficient reclamation of pre-allocated direct memory access (DMA) memory in a computing environment.
Description of the Related Art
In today's society, computer systems are commonplace. Computer systems may be found in the workplace, at home, or at school. A data processing system typically includes a processor subsystem having at least one central processing unit (CPU), an input/output (I/O) subsystem, a memory subsystem and a bus subsystem. These data processing systems may include data storage systems, or disk storage systems, to process and store data. Many of these computer systems include virtual storage components and computing clusters. Computing clusters and virtual storage components are found in a variety of computing environments.
Large amounts of data have to be processed daily and the current trend suggests that these amounts will continue being ever-increasing in the foreseeable future. For the most part, computing systems face a significant challenge to meet the increasingly stringent reliability demands and while providing complex and sophisticated data storage systems. In many modern computing data storage/processing systems, certain hardware data subsystems within the computer are allowed to access and use memory independently of the central processing unit (CPU), which is referred to as direct memory access (DMA). Accordingly, it would be desirable to improve computing efficiency within the data storage systems to add physical memory, in a DMA hardware infrastructure, that may be required for high availability servers without compromising reliability and data availability.

Efficient reclamation of pre-allocated direct memory access (DMA) memory

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


A system and method for detecting a misfire condition for a cylinder of an internal combustion engine is based upon the firing times for each cylinder and a comparison of firing times between successive cylinders in the engine firing sequence. A differential firing time parameter represents the result of this comparison and is used a passive test to determine whether a particular cylinder is misfiring. Cylinders identified in the passive test are subjected to an active test in which the cylinder is overfueled by increasing amounts for each engine cycle after commencement of the active misfire test. The change in differential firing parameter for the identified resulting from the overfueling is compared to an active test threshold value indicative of an expected change for a healthy cylinder. A cylinder falling outside this active threshold value is determined to be a bad cylinder.

The present invention concerns a system and method for detecting misfires of cylinders of an internal combustion engine. The invention contemplates the detection of misfires or lack of combustion of individual faulty cylinders of an engine, and particularly for engines having a microprocessor based electronic control module, or ECM.
The Clean Air Act of 1975 sought to control exhaust emissions from internal combustion engines for light duty motor vehicles. In response to that Act, most automotive manufacturers have employed catalytic converters to control the emission of carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons and other noxious gases. Recently, regulatory agencies have proposed that passenger, light-duty and medium-duty vehicles incorporate some form of indicator to indicate a malfunction of an emission-related component that interfaces with the on-board engine control computer or microprocessor.
Misfire of engine cylinders can damage the catalyst of a catalytic converter. Some regulations for spark-ignition engines require identification of a misfiring cylinder as well as a percent misfire over a predetermined number of engine cycles. Other regulations have specifically targeted diesel engines. For example, the California Air Resources Board has initiated an On Board Diagnostics program, OBD II, that requires monitoring of each cylinder at least once per driving cycle. The OBD II regulations require that the diagnostic system be able to identify multiple faulty cylinders and provide a driver-observable indication of the fault condition.
Many techniques and systems have been proposed to detect and identify faulty cylinders. Some of these techniques are summarized in SAE Paper No. 960039, entitled "An Overview of Misfiring Cylinder Engine Diagnostic Techniques Based on Crankshaft Angular Velocity Measurement". The approaches summarized in this technical overview generally concentrate on crankshaft speed and angular velocity or torque variations.
Other approaches are briefly discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,529,041 to Andrews, owned by the assignee of the present invention. The systems summarized in the '041 Patent are characterized as "passive" monitors, meaning that they monitor each cylinder's contribution to engine speed under normal fueling conditions and register a misfire upon detection of a characteristic deceleration. As noted in the background of the '041 Patent, which text is incorporated herein by reference, passive systems are susceptible to certain errors, such as false positive failures, and often incapable of detecting "weak" misfire conditions such as may occur at low idle.
In response to the noted deficiencies of the prior passive systems, the inventor in the '041 Patent proposed an "active" misfire detection strategy that was inherently more robust than the prior systems and less likely to incorrectly detect engine misfires. The details of this prior inventive system can be discerned from the specification of the '041 Patent, which is also incorporated herein by reference. In brief, the '041 Patent describes an active monitoring system that senses engine rotational speed at predetermined crank angles corresponding to specific cylinders. The active aspect of the invention of the '041 Patent involves providing a quantity of fuel to the cylinder being tested that exceeds the fuel demanded by that cylinder. If the engine speed at the specific crank angle does not increase in accordance with the excess quantity of fuel, then the subject cylinder is identified as misfiring.
The system and method disclosed in the '041 Patent solves many of the problems associated with the prior passive approaches. However, this active approach has its own drawbacks. For instance, since this active detection system requires overfueling a subject cylinder, the misfire detection test is designed to be conducted only once per driving cycle or vehicle trip. Moreover, since the active approach involves overfueling, some deliberate intervention is required to initiate the test sequence.
Another difficulty with the prior misfire detection systems resides in the manner in which the occurrence of a misfire is detected. For example, some systems rely upon crankshaft angular velocity, while others utilize engine speed fluctuations. These approaches can complicate the misfire detection algorithms that must be implemented by the ECM.
Moreover, none of these prior systems adequately address the variations in proper cylinder firing vs. misfiring that occur due to changes in the overall engine operating condition. In addition, the need remains for a misfire detection system and method that can provide a quantitative evaluation of the nature or degree of the misfire condition of the affected cylinder(s).

Passive and active misfire diagnosis for internal combustion engines


An antenna device built in a radio communication device, including a substrate having a support portion and a groove, and an electrically conductive elongate antenna member having first and second end portions, and wherein the elongate antenna member is supported at the first end portion by the support portion, and at least the second end portion of the elongate antenna member extends along the groove such that at least an extreme end of the second end portion is positioned within a depth of the groove.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to an antenna device used for a radio communication device, and more particularly to an antenna device built in the radio communication device.
2. Description of Related Art
Radio communication devices configured to effect radio communication through a radio wave, such as a telephone set and a mobile terminal, are provided with an antenna device. U.S. Pat. No. 5,966,097 (corresponding to JP-9-326632 A) discloses an example of a known antenna device built in a radio communication device. This type of antenna device includes an electrically conductive elongate or linear antenna member such as a piano wire (music wire) which is supported on a surface of an electrically conductive planar member, and is electrically connected to the electrically conductive planar member.
In the antenna device disclosed in the above-identified U.S. patent, the electrically conductive elongate or linear antenna member is exposed at its one end, and is therefore likely to catch or stick to a closing of a worker or a member surrounding the antenna device, when the antenna device is handled by the worker. Accordingly, the worker should take care to prevent the antenna device from catching the worker's closing or surrounding member.

Antenna device, and radio communication apparatus including the antenna device


The invention relates to the treatment of waste water containing a harmful ion such as a heavy metal ion or fluorine ion by the coagulating sedimentation method using an inorganic coagulant such as an iron compound or an aluminum compound. After separating treated water from the sediment (sludge) in which the harmful ion is incorporated in insoluble form, the pH of a mixture of the sediment and water is suitably adjusted to cause elution of the harmful ion from the sediment. Then the sediment is separated from the eluate and reused as an inorganic coagulant. By reusing the sediment in this manner, the waste water treatment is accomplished without producing a large quantity of sludge and the consumption of inorganic coagulant and auxiliary chemicals can be greatly reduced, while the concentration of the harmful ion in the treated water becomes sufficiently low.

This invention relates to a method of treating waste water containing a harmful ion such as a heavy metal ion or fluorine ion to remove the harmful ion by coagulating sedimentation by using an inorganic coagulant such as an iron salt or an aluminum salt.
For the treatment of waste water containing a harmful ion such as a heavy metal ion or fluorine ion, a conventional method is the coagulating sedimentation method using an inorganic coagulant. That is, under an appropriate pH condition a coagulant such as an iron salt, aluminum salt or magnesium salt is added to the waste water to form a hydroxide sediment in which the harmful ion is incorporated by adsorption, coprecipitation and/or reaction with the coagulant, and then the sediment is separated from the treated water. In the case of waste water containing fluorine, another conventional method is the addition of a calcium compound to precipitate fluorine as calcium fluoride. A problem common to these conventional methods is that the hydroxide sediment or calcium fluoride precipitate becomes sludge which is large in quantity and high in water content and which is harmful waste.
To decrease the quantity of sludge produced by the treatment of waste water, there are some proposals of reusing a portion of the sludge as coagulant for treating waste water For example, JP-A 60-241988 relates to the treatment of waste water containing fluorine with a calcium compound and an inorganic coagulant such as aluminum sulfate and proposes to reuse at least a portion (e.g., 20 to 50%) of the sludge as part of the coagulant. However, in this method the coagulating capability of the fresh coagulant is adversely affected by fluorine existing in the reused sludge. Therefore, the efficiency of the treatment is lowered, and it is difficult to greatly decrease the quantity of produced sludge.
JP-B 58-13230 proposes to treat waste water containing fluorine by the steps of first removing most of fluorine as calcium fluoride precipitate, then forming magnesium hydroxide precipitate which incorporates therein the remaining fluorine, separating the composite precipitate from treated water, dissolving the separated precipitate in acidic water and recycling the obtained solution. JP-A 1-107890, which relates to the treatment of waste water containing boron and fluorine by the addition of a calcium compound and an aluminum compound, proposes to reuse aluminum in the sludge by eluting aluminum from the sludge separated from treated water and recycling the aluminum eluate. By these methods it is possible to decrease the quantity of produced sludge to some extent, but it is difficult to greatly decrease sludge because it is difficult to dissolve most of magnesium or aluminum in the sludge. Besides, a large quantity of acid or base is consumed to dissolve magnesium or aluminum.

Method of treating waste water to remove harmful ion by coagulating sedimentation


Optical fiber cables with a central strength member encircled by a jacket having ducts which are disposed around the strength member and which receive one or more optical fibers with jacket material between the ducts and the outer surface of the jacket. The optical fibers are free to move in the ducts, and preferably, the optical fibers are tight buffered. Portions of the jacket intermediate the ducts connect to the strength member which resists longitudinal movement of the jacket relative to the core. However, the jacket can be separated from the core by manual pulling force after the jacket is axially and radially cut at a pair of diametrically opposite ducts. Preferably, the jacket has outer surface indicia showing the positions of the slots, and the cables can include water blocking materials.

Optical fiber cables have been widely deployed mainly as trunk lines and rings around cities. The design of such cables was based on long haul or urban loop requirements and optical fiber counts were high, i.e. 24 to 864 and higher fiber counts. Because long distance applications were most common, emphasis was based upon minimizing signal loss. Other factors considered in the designs were the ease of management of large numbers of fibers during access, splicing and storage. Generally, access to a single fiber was not involved because usually splices were made at the terminations of the cable or the splicing involved the branching off of several optical fibers.
One common optical fiber cable design is known as stranded loose tube cable. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,390,273. In such cables, there is a central strength member around which a plurality of plastic tubes, each loosely receiving a plurality of optical fibers, are wound either helically or in S-Z fashion. The tubes and strength member are encircled by a jacket or sheath which can comprise one or more layers of plastic or of plastic and metal. Such cable provides good protection for the fibers, and when the fiber count is high, organization of the fibers is facilitated since the fibers are distributed among several tubes, e.g. six tubes. However, when the fiber count is low, e.g. two to twelve fibers, multiple tubes are not desirable, not only for cost reasons, but also because for a given cable size, the space within the cable is not efficiently used.
Another common optical fiber cable design is known as a central loose tube cable. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,509,097. In such cables, a centrally disposed tube, e.g. made of plastic, loosely receives a plurality of optical fibers, and to provide resistance to tensile and contraction forces, strength members are disposed radially outwardly of the tube and usually within a jacket or sheath. The strength members can be yarns, which are not effective for resisting contraction forces, or relatively rigid rods which resist both tensile and contraction forces.
The central loose tube design provides less protection for the optical fibers than the stranded loose tube design, but can be smaller in size and the fibers are easier to access. However, substantial handling of the cable is required to make the fibers available for splicing or connection to other devices, all of the fibers are exposed when the tube is opened which is not desirable if a splice connection to only a single optical fiber is desired, identification of groups is more difficult since the fibers are in one tube and the cable can be less flexible due to the location of the strength members.
Another cable design which is less common in the United States is known as a slotted core cable. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,193,134. In such cables, there is a core comprising a central strength member encircled by a layer of plastic having a radial thickness sufficient to permit the formation of longitudinal slots or grooves of a size which will loosely receive a plurality of optical fibers in each slot or groove. The slots open outwardly of the core and are closed in the finished cable by a jacket or sheath to form ducts for the optical fibers. Such cables have characteristics similar to the central loose tube cables, but they are difficult to manufacture due to the fact that the optical fibers are fed by fiber pay-offs into the preformed slots. The pay-offs must follow accurately the slots in the core as it is advanced during the feeding of the fibers into the slots while maintaining precise tension control on the fibers. Such conditions can be especially difficult if the slots are S-Z slots, or alternating direction slots which, as is known in the art, are desirable for mid-span access to the fibers.
One of the problems with the slotted core cable when it is to be used for a cable with only a few optical fibers is that only a small reduction in the diameter of the core can be made. Thus, the layer of plastic around the strength member must have a thickness which will not only provide slots of a radial depth and circumferential width sufficient to loosely receive the fibers, but also provide a circumferentially continuous plastic portion inwardly of the slots to prevent separation of the sidewalls of the slots and to maintain the spacing of such sidewalls. For the latter reason, the plastic layer has a minimum radial thickness which is greater than the radial thickness required to provide slots for the fibers.
Because of the tubes, known as buffer tubes, or the slots used, in the designs described hereinbefore, to protect the optical fibers, such designs do not use "tight buffered" fibers. As used herein, "tight buffered" means an optical fiber having, in addition to the layers commonly applied during the manufacture of the fiber, a contacting layer or layers of protective material, such as a polymeric material. Such protective layer or layers increase the outer diameter of the fiber from a typical value of 0.25 mm to from about 0.6 mm to about 0.9 mm. Tight buffered fibers are well known in the art, and because of the tightly encircling layer or layers, the fibers can be handled without further protection, such as buffer tubes or a protective sleeve on an exposed length of fiber.
In all of the cable designs described hereinbefore, the cable usually includes a plastic outer jacket. In order to provide the necessary physical characteristics for the jacket, normally, it must have a radial thickness which is greater than the diameter of an optical fiber.
To provide high speed access of a user's equipment, e.g. at the user's home or business, to the optical fiber cables already installed as trunk or feeder cables, there is a demand for a simple, relatively inexpensive and easy to manufacture cable which can be used to connect the user to the large capacity, high speed cables described hereinbefore. Such a cable is often called a fiber to the home (FTTH) cable. An FTTH cable usually does not need to have more than 12 optical fibers and can have only one optical fiber and typically, is relatively short so that signal loss is not a significant factor. However, an FTTH cable should have the other characteristics of the larger, long distance cables such as ease of handling, ease of access to the fibers, ease of connection of the fibers to other devices, adequate protection of the fibers, flexibility and be adapted to withstand the temperatures of the outdoors. Also, access to a single optical fiber should be convenient without impairing the safety of other optical fibers in the cable. It is known from U.K. Patent Application GB 2,114,771A to provide longitudinally extending compartments in a jacket for loosely receiving an optical fiber, or a bundle of optical fibers, in each compartment. However, the cable disclosed therein is not satisfactory as an FTTH cable not only because the jacket is bonded to the strength member or is integral with a layer of rubber or plastics encircling the strength member so that the jacket cannot be easily separated manually from the strength member, but also because the location of the fiber receiving compartments cannot be readily determined from externally of the cable.
It is apparent from the foregoing description of prior art cables that the foregoing long distance cables cannot provide the characteristics desired for an FTTH cable. The use of a central strength member can provide the strength and flexibility requirements, but if provided with the plastic layer of a size needed for a stranded loose tube or slotted core cable, the diameter of the cable is unnecessarily large and excess plastic material is required. It should be borne in mind that the element used as the core for the strength member need be only about 3–5 mm in diameter and any plastic layer, or "upjacketing", around the element can be omitted if it does not contact the optical fibers, if it does not provide slots for receiving the optical fibers or if it does not provide a form for receiving buffer tubes. If the fibers are to contact the strength member (core element plus plastic layer), the plastic layer can be relatively thin as compared to the thickness of a plastic layer for a loose tube or slotted core cable.

Optical fiber cable with fiber receiving jacket ducts

Prysmian Communications Cables and Systems USA, LLC


A dispenser for dispensing gloves is provided which includes a housing having an exit port, the housing also formed to include a compartment which is configured to hold a plurality of gloves therein. The dispenser includes a glove pusher movably coupled to the housing. At least a portion of the glove pusher is configured to move within the compartment of the housing and push at least a portion of a glove disposed in the compartment through the exit port. A cartridge configured to be disposed into a compartment of a dispenser is disclosed. The cartridge is formed to permit a portion of a dispenser to move into the internal compartment of the cartridge to move at least one of the plurality of gloves at least partially through the at least one opening in the cartridge. A dispensing assembly also may include a stack of gloves or a cartridge containing a plurality of gloves. A method of using a glove dispenser is also provided.

This invention relates to a dispenser adapted to dispense gloves and configured to hold a cartridge or container containing a plurality of gloves. Hospital, laboratory or industrial glove dispensing systems typically consist of quantities of gloves that are contained in a corrugated box with a perforated region. When the perforated region is removed, an opening is provided through which gloves are withdrawn by a user. Problems exist with this system.
The opening is sized such that gloves often partially protrude therethrough. The size of the opening may permit the gloves adjacent thereto and/or protruding therethrough to become contaminated. Alternatively, when the box becomes nearly empty, the opening permits unwanted particles, contaminates, and the like to enter the box. Conversely, when the box is full, it may be difficult for a user to withdrawn one glove at a time, because multiple gloves may block the opening. In this instance, when attempting to withdraw a single glove, additional gloves may inadvertently be withdrawn or fall out of the box, resulting in waste. When the box becomes nearly depleted, a user may need to put his/her hand into the box to withdraw one or more gloves. This action may introduce contamination into the box as well.
Accordingly, there is a need for a dispenser and/or a dispensing assembly which desirably includes a dispenser and may include a cartridge configured to holding a plurality of gloves. Such a dispenser assembly desirably permits a plurality of gloves to be easily dispensed one at a time. The dispenser desirably operates to present one glove at a time to a user, thereby minimizing the introduction of contaminants into the cartridge and plurality of gloves. In addition, waste due to inadvertent multiple dispensing of gloves is also greatly reduced. Further, the opening to the cartridge and/or dispenser is desirably configured and positioned to minimize the likelihood of contaminants entering the cartridge.
Such a dispenser assembly would be easily assembled and easily mounted, if desired, for use on a surface. Such a dispenser would desirably be made from a material which would provide some resistance to air borne, liquid and/or solid contaminants.

Dispenser assembly for dispensing gloves including a cartridge and a dispenser with a glove pusher


A vehicle information providing apparatus determines and displays the range of presence of a person or other object based on the characteristics of images recorded by infrared cameras. An image processing unit carries out brightness change search processing in the infrared camera image zone represented by a gray scale using a search area wherein the size of a first detected area detected by binarization and correlation operation serves as the reference. In addition, the parallax between the first detected area and the searched area having a change in brightness is compared, a search area having a parallax that differs from that of the first searched area is eliminated, and a search area having a parallax identical to that of the first searched area is provided a highlighted display as an object identical to that of the first detected area.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle information providing apparatus that detects and displays, for example, a physical object present in the vicinity of a vehicle.
2. Background of the Invention
Conventionally, in order to notify the driver of a vehicle about an obstacle such as a pedestrian on the travel path, an apparatus is known in which an image from one or a plurality of infrared cameras mounted on the front of the vehicle is displayed at a position visible from the driver's seat to complement the front visual field of the driver. The image displayed to the driver is displayed on an image display apparatus such as a NAVIDisplay disposed in the dashboard of the vehicle, a HUD (Head Up Display) that displays information at a position on the front window that does not obscure the front visual field of the driver, a meter integrated display that is integrated with a meter that displays the travel state of the automobile numerically, or the like.
In addition, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, First Publication, Hei 11-328364 discloses an apparatus that records the environment in the vicinity of the vehicle and displays the result to the driver in this manner. In this apparatus, the temperature of the exposed skin of the head of the detected object is higher than the temperature of the other parts, and first the position of the head of the detected object is identified using the fact that it is comparatively easy to record as an image of an infrared camera. The zone corresponding to the body of the detected object is determined based on the information of the identified position of the head. Thereby, for example, caution can be prompted by displaying to the driver not only the head of the pedestrian, but also the entire body.
However, in the conventional apparatus described above, in the case that the detected object is recorded from the front, the amount of infrared radiation of the skin of the face is large in comparison to other parts, and thus the position of the head of the detected object is easy to detect. However, although detecting the zone of the entire body therefrom is easy, in such a case as the detected object being recorded from the back, the parts other than the face are extracted, and it is difficult to identify the position of the head.
In addition, the temperature of parts of the body of the detected object change depending on the conditions and the environment. Examples are parts whose temperature rises due to direct exposure to the sun and parts whose temperature is lowered due to being blown on by the wind. Consequently, due to the increase or decrease in temperature, it is not always the case that the position of the head can be identified from the recorded image. The zone that corresponds to the body identified from the part recognized as the position of the head may be different from the zone in which the detected object is actually present.
In consideration of the problems described above, it is an object of the present invention to provide a vehicle information providing apparatus that determines and displays the range of presence of a person from the characteristics of images recorded by an infrared camera.


The hot-dip aluminum alloy plated steel has a base steel and a plated layer, in which the composition of the plated layer contains, by % by mass, Fe: 25% to 75%, Mg: 2% to 20%, and Ca: 0.02% to 2% with a remainder of Al and inevitable impurities, the plated layer contains one or both of an α-Mg phase and an Al3Mg2 phase, and the sum of the partial volume fraction of the α-Mg phase and the partial volume fraction of the Al3Mg2 phase in a range of a depth of 5 μm from a surface of the plated layer is 1% to 40%.

Hitherto, a Zn plated steel obtained by performing plating of a Zn-containing alloy on the surface of a steel has been used in wide fields of, such as automobiles, home appliances, and construction materials. However, since Zn has problems of rising prices, depleting resources, and the like, there is a demand for a plating metal that can replace Zn.
Meanwhile, Al is cheap and also has a rich amount of deposits. Due to excellent corrosion resistance and heat resistance, an aluminum plated steel sheet that is plated with aluminum, similarly to Zn plated steels, is widely used for home appliances, and construction and automobile structural materials.
However, the aluminum plated steel sheet has a problem of a relatively small sacrificial corrosion-preventing action. This is because Al has a characteristic of being easily passivated, particularly, in a dry environment, and the sacrificial corrosion-preventing performance is degraded due to generation of a passive film. Therefore, it has been difficult to replace a zinc plate having an excellent sacrificial corrosion-preventing performance with an aluminum plate of the related art.
In recent years, since there has been a strong demand for a highly corrosion-resistant steel in which corrosion (for example, perforation corrosion) does not occur over a long period of time (for example, for several years) even in a highly corrosive environment, a number of proposals have been made to enhance the corrosion resistance of a hot-dip aluminum alloy plated steel sheet (for example, refer to Patent Documents 1 to 4).
In the proposals, steel sheet compositions or plating bath compositions are devised, and the comprehensive corrosion resistance of a hot-dip aluminum plated steel sheet is improved. Meanwhile, recently, as a result of diversifying uses of hot-dip aluminum plated steel sheets, there have been increasing cases in which hot-dip aluminum plated steel sheets are used after being cut into a necessary shape or severely deformed. Therefore, there is a strong demand for an increase in shear cut edge corrosion resistance and processed part corrosion resistance, that is, improvement of the sacrificial corrosion-preventing performance.
Patent Document 5 discloses an Al plated steel sheet having excellent processed part corrosion resistance and end surface corrosion resistance. However, since the steel sheet includes expensive Zn in the plated layer, the steel sheet is disadvantageous in home appliances, and construction and automobile structural materials in terms of costs.
Patent Document 6 discloses a high-strength Al plated steel sheet having excellent processed part corrosion resistance, but quenching is essential after a pressing process, and versatility is lacking.
Patent Document 7 discloses an aluminum alloy plated steel containing Mg and Ca. However, in the disclosure, the method of attaching a plating layer to a steel is not limited to hot dipping, and no studies have been performed regarding stable manufacturing through industrially advantageous hot dipping.

Hot-dip aluminum alloy plated steel having excellent shear cut edge corrosion resistance and processed part corrosion resistance, and method of manufacturing the same

NIPPON STEEL & SUMITOMO METAL CORPORATION