A shatter-resistant basketball backboard is provided, which comprises a tempered glass basketball backboard having a front surface and back surface; and a plastic film adhered to the rear surface of the backboard. In preferred embodiments, the plastic film is comprised of at least one plastic layer and an adhesive layer. The plastic film can have a release liner adjacent to the adhesive layer, and a scratch resistant coating adjacent to the plastic layer. Ultraviolet resistance properties can also reside in the film or adhesive. The plastic film can be made of polyethylene terephthalate, polycarbonate or like materials. Plastic film can be applied either in an OEM or retrofit installation.

The shattering of glass basketball goals during play has become a serious impediment to the safety of the participants. Current glass backboards typically are one-half (1/2) to three-eighth (3/8) inch tempered glass. When subjected to appropriate forces, such as during a player's dunk or other force applied to the rim, the tempered glass is stressed beyond its elastic limit and shatters into a myriad of small glass pieces. Typically, these pieces are roughly oblong, and approximately one-half (1/2) to one (1) inch long. These glass projectiles rain down on the players on the court, creating a possibility for skin lacerations and serious eye injury. Also, the shower of glass pieces can ricochet towards participants positioned courtside, such as cheerleaders, ball boys, cameramen and spectators. The danger to the safety of people at the game cannot be ignored by sports arena owners and operators.
In addition to the safety issues, the shattering of a glass backboard creates clean-up problems. Maintenance personal must carefully locate and remove thousands of glass particles that have fallen to the floor and slid under objects. Missing just a single piece can cause great damage if a player subsequently falls on the glass fragment. Also, even if some portions of the shattered glass do not fall to the floor during breakage, they likely will during replacement operations.
Finally, the shattering of backboard can also have a significant effect on the tempo of the game. The time necessary to clean-up and replace a backboard can cause a long delay in the game, possibly affecting the momentum experienced by one or both teams. Also, there is a feeling of machismo associated with the shattering of a glass backboard, allowing the team inflicting such damage to gain a perceived or real emotional advantage. Such events and passion can influence the outcome of a sporting event.
Recent attempts to address the above problems focus upon decreasing the stresses imparted to the glass backboard during play. Such attempts primarily address the mounting of a basketball rim to a basketball goal. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,588,188 and 5,037,092. While these latest attempts may reduce the incidence of backboard shatter for new installations, backboards continue to shatter all too frequently. None of these solutions seek to restrain the glass particles from dismantling from the backboard unit once the inevitable breakage occurs. Also, apparently no prior art solutions have targeted broken glass retention systems which can be applied to existing installations in a retro-fit manner to decrease their hazardous potential.
Thus there is a need in the art for an improved glass backboard goal that minimizes the ill effects of the shattering of tempered glass.

Basketball backboard with shatter-resistant properties


A power/communication kit for use with a reader module where the code reader module includes a reader connector and a reader housing, the power/communication kit comprising a plurality of different power/communication modules wherein each module communicates via a different communication protocol and each includes a power source and a communication component suitable for communicating via an associated communication protocol, wherein, each of the modules is securable to the reader module in a similar fashion such that any one of the power/communication modules can be swapped for any other of the power/communication modules so that the reader can be used with different communication systems.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to hand held image based ID code readers and more particularly to an assembly that includes a single imaging module that can be used with any of several different power/communication modules so that the imaging module can be used in any of several different applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Images acquired for code reading, also known as direct part mark ("DPM") or label-based identification, include one or more 1D (e.g., a barcode) or 2D (e.g., a Data Matrix code) symbols located on an object. The code reading process includes repeatedly introducing an object marked with either 1D or 2D codes within a field of view of an image acquisition sensor (e.g., CMOS camera, CCD, etc.), illuminating the codes, and acquiring images, i.e., image data, containing the codes. Each code contains a set of predetermined patterns from which an attached data processor, such as a computer, can derive useful information about the object (e.g., serial number, type, model, price, etc.).
The handheld ID code reader can be connected to a server or remote processor via a network to exchange code reading results, images, as well as reader setup and reader status information. This connection can be facilitated via several different interfaces. For instance, exemplary interface options include a tether which includes a cable and a power source or a wireless interface that uses RF for data transition and energy storage devices (e.g., rechargeable batteries) as a power source. When a reader is to be used generally in one area, a tethered interface may be employed and, where an interface is to be used in many different and disperse locations, a wireless interface may be employed.
In addition to requiring either wireless or tethered interfaces, different systems often require different communication protocols and reader interfaces. For instance, some systems may require a reader to communicate via any one of RS232, Bluethooth, USB, PS2, Ethernet, RS485, etc. Here, if a reader includes an RS232 interface, that reader cannot be used with a system that communicates via one of the other interface types (e.g., USB, Ethernet, etc.). Thus, if a facility installs a new system that communicates via USB or some other interface type, the RS232 reader could not be used in the new system. Similarly, if a reader is configured to communicate via a tether and Ethernet and a facility upgrades the communication system to wireless Bluetooth, the reader cannot be used with the new system.
One solution to the above problem would be to provide a reader that is equipped to communicate via any of the possible types of interfaces. While this solution would provide a versatile reader, there are several shortcomings to this solution. First, with respect to Ergonomics, having a high number of interfaces requires a reader to have a connector with a high number of contacts. A multi-interface connector can only reasonably be placed at the bottom side of a reader handle. More contacts increase the size of the connector and the handle size/diameter. Due to ergonomic constraints there is a limit on handle size. In addition, more interface contacts would require more wires inside a tethered cable resulting in higher cable weight and lower flexibility making it difficult to easily move the reader. Moreover, for the majority of practical applications, only one interface is desired at a time.
With respect to power requirements, the intention of a wireless reader with RF communication is that it operates without any cables. This requires a battery to power the device. Because of the relative high power consumption of an image based ID reader the operating time is limited by the battery capacity. This makes it necessary to have a rechargeable battery. A typical interface for a tethered ID readers is RS232, which allows exchanging data serially. RS232 cannot power a device and some kind of external power supply (e.g. wall adapter) is necessary to power the reader. In contrast, other interfaces like PS2, USB and Ethernet (Power Over Ethernet (POE)) are capable of providing enough power for an attached reader. Some protocols, especially USB and POE have complex power management requirements like start-up current limitations, power sequencing and classification, and low power mode. An extremely complex interface assembly would be required to support all of the possible communication protocols currently in use.
With respect to electronics for each of the interface types, different interface types communicate using different signal levels and have different requirements in terms of signal speed and quality. Multiplexing different interface signals to a limited number of connector pins would require a huge technical effort and is not practicable in a cost and size reasonable way. In addition, electronic parts could be damaged if an error occurs and a multiplexer is set to a wrong connection type. Moreover, all contacts with external connections must be protected against electro static discharge (ESD). Because of the different signal levels and high speed requirements associated with different interface types, a one for all protection circuit is not optimal for all interface types.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Reader with swappable power/communication module


A hydrofinishing process for improving the color, thermal and oxidative stability of a base stock for lubricating oil wherein the lubricating oil stock is contacted with hydrogen in the presence of a nickel-molybdenum catalyst, at a pressure in the range of 400 psi to 3000 psi, at a weight hourly space velocity in the range of 0.25-4.5 and at a temperature in the range of 550.degree. F. to 750.degree. F.

I. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an improved method of preparing base stocks for lubricating oil with improved color, thermal and oxidative stability. More particularly, it relates to an improved method of preparing base stocks for lubricating oil with improved color, thermal and oxidative stability by varying the temperatures and pressures of the hydrofinishing process.
II. Background of the Invention
It is well-known that lubricants are susceptible to deterioration by oxidation. Lubricants can be attacked by oxygen or air at high temperatures to form heavy dark viscous sludges, varnish and resins. Such deterioration reduces a lubricant's effectiveness to perform its required task. Accompanying the deterioration of lubricants by oxidation is the resultant corrosion of the metal surfaces for which such lubricants were designed to protect. Acids develop from the sludges and resins which are corrosive enough to destroy most metals. In addition, increased demands on lubricants brought about by newer and larger engines and other rotating or moving equipment, operating at increasing temperatures, pressures and speeds dictate the need for improvement in a lubricant's resistance to deterioration by oxidation. A lubricant's color, thermal and oxidative stability reflect the lubricant's resistance to oxidation.
This invention relates to an improved method for preparing base stocks for lubricating oil using a hydrogen treatment technique. The three most common hydrogen treatment techniques associated with lubricating oil production, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,915,841 to Murphy, Jr., et al., are hydrocracking, hydrotreating and hydrofinishing.
Hydrocracking is an extremely severe hydrogen treatment, usually conducted at comparatively high temperatures requiring employment of a catalyst having substantial cracking activity, e.g., an activity index (A.I.) greater than 40 and generally greater than 60. This type of process is conducted to effect extensive and somewhat random severing of carbon-to-carbon bonds resulting in an substantial overall reduction in molecular weight and boiling point of the treated material. Thus, for example, hydrocracking processes are generally employed to effect an extremely high conversion, e.g., 90% by volume, to materials boiling below the boiling range of the feedstock or below a designated boiling point. Usually a hydrocracking process is employed to produce a product boiling predominantly, if not completely, below about 600.degree. F. to 650.degree. F. Most frequently, this type of process is employed to convert higher boiling hydrocarbons with products boiling in the furnace oil and naphtha range. When applied in connection with lubricating oils, hydrocracking processes produce only a minor quantity of materials boiling in the lubricating oil range, i.e., 625.degree. F. to 650.degree. F., to the extent, at times, the production of a lubricating oil is merely incidental to the production of naphtha and furnace oil.
As distinguished from hydrocracking and hydrofinishing, hydrotreating is a processing technique significantly more severe than hydrofinishing although substantially less severe than hydrocracking. The catalyst required in a hydrotreating process must possess cracking activity and generally possess a particular type of activity termed "ring scission activity." A hydrotreating process effects a substantial molecular rearrangement as compared to the hydrofinishing but does not effect the extensive and somewhat random breakdown in molecules effected in hydrocracking.
On the other end of the spectrum, hydrofinishing is a mild hydrogen treatment process employing a catalyst having substantially no cracking activity. This fixed-bed catalytic hydrogenation process effects removal of contaminants such as color forming bodies and a reduction of minor quantities of sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen compounds. Unlike hydrocracking or hydrotreating, hydrofinishing does not saturate aromatics, nor break carbon-carbon bonds. As a general rule, hydrofinishing is employed in lieu of older techniques of acid and clay contacting for the purpose of improving color, odor, thermal and oxidative stability of lubricating oil base stocks. The operating conditions of the hydrofinishing process are a function of the feedstock composition, catalyst type and product specifications.
Conventional hydrofinishing temperatures and pressures have nominally been in the 450.degree. F. to 500.degree. F. and 400 psi to 700 psi range. However, conventional hydrofinishing conditions have not produced lubricating oil base stocks with satisfactory color, thermal and oxidative stability needed for operating under conditions of steadily increasing temperatures and pressures. Accordingly, this invention provides a process whereby the color, thermal and oxidative stability of lubricating oil stocks is improved. Surprisingly, these improvements were obtained by increasing the temperature of the hydrofinishing process.


A compact, easily used, high quality sealing plug for use with ultrasonic testing equipment which incorporates a single annular body with an indented diaphragm portion, two lips, an annular vertical wall extending upwardly from said indented diaphragm portion of said single circular body with two annular lips extending outwardly therefrom, one at the upper end of said annular wall and the other therebelow so that when said seal is in use, the upper lip will maintain a position above the insulation material in which the seal is placed, while the lower lip will be below said outermost surface, both lips counteracting each other to maintain tension therebetween and the present invention from becoming unintentionally dislodged from its location. Alternative embodiments of the present invention are also disclosed which include alternative lip arrangements for alternative sealing needs and desires. A handle is mounted to the uppermost portion of said seal to allow for removal and reinsertion into the insulation material being plugged. Insulation material is also affixed to the lower end of said annular body immediately below said indented diaphragm portion so as to maintain an insulation covering over the area which has been exposed for an electronic testing or the like.

I. Field of the Invention
In various types of high and low temperature arrangements used in chemical plants, refineries and similar types of industrial locations, a multitude of pipes, tanks and related equipment must be used as storage and conduit systems for the material or materials utilized in the various processes employed at the various locations mentioned. Often this equipment must carry and store fluids that range from cryogenic temperatures to 1400 degrees fahrenheit and which may also be caustic or corrosive in nature. Due to the nature of these fluids or gases, the equipment within which they are transported and stored must deploy various types of configurations of insulating material such as preformed links of insulation defining half cylinders which are clamped around the pipes, molded insulation formed or applied directly on or to the pipes or strips of insulation wrapped around the pipes. In order to ensure the integrity of the transportation and storage equipment such as pipes and vessels, periodic checks are necessary so as to determine whether or not there has been corrosion on the interior or exterior of the piping or equipment. Periodic checks of the thickness of the material also permit maintenance personnel to schedule replacement activities so that the unanticipated shut down of a system can be avoided. Of the methods used to determine and check structural integrity of the vessels and piping, a preferred procedure is to utilize ultrasonic testing equipment which will provide indication of the pipe or vessel wall thickness These types of devices utilize ultrasonic transducers which must be maintained in direct contact with the metal wall of the pipe or vessel subject to testing in order to make the appropriate measurements of thickness. Since, as noted above, the equipment which is being tested is normally insulated the insulating material must be removed in order for the test to be properly conducted. The presence of the insulating prevents such test activity. Following testing it is necessary to replace the insulation in order to maintain the insulation integrity of the system and avoid possible heat loss, gain and/or injury to workers.
In light of the need to have direct contact with the various pieces of equipment, thousands of dollars are often wasted annually in stripping, inspecting and then reinsulating this equipment. Often, various methods of ultrasonic inspection require the expensive removal and replacement of large sections of pipe jacketing and insulation. Even when only small holes are made, the exposed test points can easily end up as ragged, dangerous eyesores which allow substantial temperature loss. Further, moisture can enter at these points and wet the insulation and cause external pipe corrosion.
II. Description of the Prior Art:
Various types of demountable insulating plug configurations have been tried, however, none are presently available which provide all of the advantages of the present invention. Some of those various prior art devices are as follows:
U.S. Pat. No. 3,658,096 issued to Higuera discloses a plug formed of a "biscuit" of selected insulating material in desired shape secured to one flat surface of a cap which has substantially larger dimensions, the plug includes a handle which is integrally formed to certain locking tabs, each end of said handle extending through the cap and/or withdrawn when the handle is pulled and reinserted into the appropriate location when the handle is pushed
U.S. Pat. No. 3,827,462 issued to Celesta, discloses a plug which comprises a member for insertion into the hole, a cap integrally constructed with the member, a groove which extends across the cap, and a spring means which has a length greater than that of the groove and which can be placed into the groove when the plug is being utilized so as to engage the insulation with the two ends of the spring in order to retain the plug in the whole.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,091,842 issued to Greenawalt et al., discloses a resealable sealing assembly which utilizes a cylindrically shaped hollow plug with a concavely curved angular lip at the top of said plug which plug also has an angular cleat protruding outwardly from the side, and a hollowed sleeve which surrounds the plug which maintains contact with the insulation material and is bonded thereto.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,010,926 issued to Herman Kurth et al., discloses an insulation access aperture liner which simply serves the same purpose as the sleeve described and disclosed in the Greenawalt patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,014,866 issued to Moore, discloses an insulation seal which is essentially a plug and separate sleeve sealing assembly, again similar to that described and claimed in the Greenawalt patent. The sleeve assembly maintains contact with the insulation material and a plug which fits within that sleeve.
Applicants are also aware that substantially flat stoppers such as that which makes up the annular body portion of applicants' invention have been used for a multitude of purposes by the general public. However, applicants do not believe that such an item has been used as described and claimed herein as part of the overall invention overall which is the subject of this application.


A USB power adapter includes a printed circuit board, a male USB connector coupled to the printed circuit board and configured to mate with a female USB connector of a first device; and a female USB connector coupled to the printed circuit board and configured to mate with a male USB connector of a cable which has a non-USB device connector on its other end for connection to a second device. Circuitry integrated on the printed circuit board electrically couples the male USB connector and the female USB connector. More specifically, the circuitry connects one or more pins of the male USB connector to one or more pins of the female USB connector whereupon the first device either supplies power to or synchronizes for data transfer with the second device when the first and second devices are connected via the power adapter and the USB cable.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a USB adapter that can be used as an interface between a conventional USB cable (that includes a USB connector and a non-USB connector at opposite ends) and an intelligent electronic device, such as, without limitation, a laptop or desktop computer, a USB hub, or any other USB enabled device and, more particularly, to a USB adapter with integrated male USB and female USB connectors for connection between a conventional USB cable and the USB port of the intelligent electronic device to add functionality in applications where a device connected to the non-USB connector end of the conventional USB cable does not conform to USB standards.
2. Description of Related Art
Universal Serial Bus (USB) cables are designed to work with devices that are designed to well known USB standards. Typically, a USB cable connected via its male USB plug to a mating female USB connector of an intelligent electronic device, such as a desktop or laptop computer, a USB hub, or any other type or variety of USB enabled device, can be utilized to transfer data to or from a device connected to the non-USB connector end of the USB cable and/or to transfer power from the intelligent electronic device to the device connected to the non-USB connector end of the USB cable. Heretofore, if the device connected to the non-USB connector end of the USB cable was not compatible with USB standards, said device would not be able to establish data communication with the intelligent electronic device and/or would not be able to receive electrical power from the intelligent electronic device.
Accordingly, a need exists for a USB adapter that can act as an interface with a conventional USB cable that connects an intelligent electronic device and a device that is non-USB standard compliant to enable one- or two-way data communication between the devices and/or to enable electrical power to be supplied to the non-USB standards compliant device from the intelligent electronic device.

USB power adapter with integrated male and female connectors to charge and sync functions


In an oligomerization apparatus comprising at least two oligomerization reactors, at least portions of product streams from two reactors are separated in the same separator vessel; a liquid product stream from the first oligomerization reactor is fed to a fractionation column and a side cut from the fractionation column feeds the second oligomerization reactor.

Processes for the oligomerization of light olefins to produce C8 olefin oligomers are known. Oligomerization processes have been long employed to produce high quality motor fuel from C4 olefins. Such oligomerization processes are also referred to as catalytic condensation and polymerization with the resulting motor fuel often referred to as polymer gasoline. Methods have always been sought to improve the octane number of the gasoline boiling range oligomerization products. Indirect alkylation is a noteworthy C4 olefin dimerization process.
In one form of the indirect alkylation process, an ionic exchange resin catalyst oligomerizes light olefins to produce oligomers such as C8 olefins. In such processes, the oligomerization zone can be preceded by a dehydrogenation zone to convert paraffinic feed into olefinic feed or a dehydration zone to convert TBA to isobutylene and/or succeeded by a hydrogenation zone to convert heavy oligomeric olefins into heavy alkanes that can be blended with gasoline stock.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,016 discloses a heat exchanged oligomerization reactor that contains a cationic exchange resin catalyst. C4 olefins contacted with the resin catalyst oligomerize to C4 oligomers. Water or methanol may be present in small amounts, insufficient to form an entrained second phase, to serve as a catalyst modifier.
Modern oligomerization processes often include an oxygenate such as tert-butyl alcohol (TBA) and/or sec-butyl alcohol (SBA) in the feed for modifying the catalyst to maintain desired product selectivity. The modifier does not participate in the reaction. References disclosing resin catalyzed oligomerization in the presence of an oxygenate modifier include U.S. Pat. No. 5,877,372 and EP 994 088 A1. TBA and SBA have become the resin catalyst modifier of preference.
In oligomerization processes, it is typically necessary to separate unreacted light olefins from the product heavy oligomers in the effluent from the oligomerization zone. Separation is conventionally performed in a distillation column typically following the oligomerization zone. The lighter components comprising primarily unreacted C4− olefins and compounds that were present in the feed stream exit from the overhead of the distillation column. The heavier components comprising C5+ olefins and primarily oligomers and compounds exit out the bottoms of the distillation column. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,423,264; U.S. Pat. No. 6,011,191 and WO 01/27053, the overhead stream is routed to a second oligomerization reactor followed by a second separation. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,998,685, the overhead stream is recycled to the oligomerization reactor.
An object of the present invention is to utilize at least two reactors for oligomerizing light olefins while sharing one product separation column.
An additional object of the present invention is to take a side draw from the product separation column as feed to the second oligomerization reactor.

Apparatus for oligomerization in multiple stages with single fractionation column


A waste press with an ejection device in which at least one lifting plate is arranged on or in a bottom floor of a shaft formed by a press housing and at least one pull rod of the ejection device connected in an articulated manner to the lifting plate is arranged in the press area of the shaft on or in a rear wall. In addition, a coupling member is provided for at least temporarily connecting the pull rod and the press plate. The coupling member which temporarily transmits the movement of the pressing plate to the lifting plate of the ejection device is constructed as a connecting unit arranged on the outside of the rear wall of the press housing, wherein the connecting unit is controlled by mechanically acting guide arranged on the press housing and forming a part of the press housing, and wherein the connecting unit protrudes through a cutout formed in the rear wall and is forcibly pivotable in and out and acts temporarily on the pressing plate. In addition, the connecting unit is permanently connected in an articulated manner to the upper end of the pull rod. An adjusting device which can be actuated through the front door acts on the guide of the connecting unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a waste press with an ejection device in which at least one lifting plate is arranged on or in a bottom floor of a shaft formed by a press housing and at least one pull rod of the ejection device connected in an articulated manner to the lifting plate is arranged in the press area of the shaft on or in a rear wall. In addition, a coupling member is provided for at least temporarily connecting the pull rod and the press plate. The waste press is used for pressing cartons, foils and similar used packaging materials into bales.
2. Description of the Related Art
Already known in the art are waste presses with an ejection device which have in the bottom area of the shaft of the press a lifting plate which can be pivoted toward the door opening. In these waste presses, the drive unit for the lifting movement for pivoting the lifting plate is arranged on the outside at the rear wall of the press housing. The structural elements for connecting the lifting plate to the drive unit extend outwardly through a slot or through slots provided in the rear wall of the press housing and extending down into the pressing area, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,311,092.
These types of ejection devices are expensive and require a lot of maintenance because of the hydraulic system and the safety circuits in the control program to be provided additionally. Also, through the slots extending down to the pressing area, the materials to be pressed may travel to the outside, or clogging of the slot frequently leads to damage which reduces an effective utilization of the press.
In other types of ejection devices, for example, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,182,236, ropes anchored in the floor area of the shaft at the front door stop edge are guided through the slots in the rear wall and are individually manually connected to the rear wall for achieving a position of rest. For preparing for the work step of ejecting bales, hooks connected to the ends of the ropes are guided through the slots in the rear wall and hooked into holes of the pressing plate. When the pressing plate which up to now has acted on the bale is moved upwardly, the ropes are tensioned in the direction toward the door opening and eject the finished bale.
In this type of configuration, the pressed material acting on the bottom side of the pressing plate makes it difficult to guide the hooks of the ropes into the holes of the pressing plate. Moreover, when preparing for the next pressing procedure, additional manipulations are required for placing the ropes in the described position. Furthermore, safety circuits are also in this solution required in the control program, so that the ejection device cannot be actuated with the front door being closed, which would lead to significant damage of the press.
Therefore, the applicant has in the past provided, inter alia, ejection devices in baling presses which were provided with a lifting plate at the bottom side, a pull means, preferably a pull rod, which is connected in an articulated manner to the lifting plate and is essentially vertically moveable in the shaft of the press in or at the rear wall thereof, wherein a pivotable or slidable catch member arranged in the area of the rear wall and on the upper side of the pressing plate can be hooked manually at the upper end of the pull means into an eye only after the front door has been opened. Any pressed packaging material lodged between the pressing plate and the rear wall makes it difficult to hook in the catch member. In addition, when actuating the catch member with the pressing plate being in the position in which it is placed on the bale, the operator of the press must reach over the pressing plate and laterally past the pressing die connected to the pressing plate, which means that the operator usually is with his upper body in the shaft of the press. Consequently, safety circuits in the control program must absolutely prevent an unintentional actuation of the pressing plates during this work step. Subsequently, during the subsequent upward movement of the pressing plate, the catch member takes up the pull means, preferably the pull rod, and the lifting plate at the bottom is tilted in the direction toward the released door opening for ejecting the finished and tied bale. For preparing for the next pressing procedure, the pressing plate must initially be moved into the lower position for switching off the ejection device and must then again be moved upwardly.

Waste press with ejection device for bales


Some embodiments relate to a processor to provide a plurality of execution threads, a local memory associated with the processor, and a content-addressable memory associated with the processor. An execution thread of the processor may determine an ordering queue, associate a current thread with a last position in the ordering queue, receive a queue release signal from a previous thread in the ordering queue, and execute a critical code segment associated with the ordering queue.

Conventional communication networks allow network devices to exchange messages with one another. A message may be transmitted in the form of multiple packets, each of which includes data and header information. Network devices process the header information in order to route the packets to their destination and to properly reassemble the message.
A network device may receive multiple packets of multiple messages. Multi-threaded processors are currently used by some network devices to process such packets. According to conventional processing, one or more threads of a multi-threaded processor process a first-received packet and one or more threads of the processor then process a next-received packet. This arrangement is intended to ensure that a first packet of a message is processed before a second packet of the message is processed.


Nucleic acid sequence encoding Allium fistulosum leaf agglutinin (AFAL) is disclosed. The invention provides Allium fistulosum leaf agglutinin (AFAL) recombinant protein, its encoding nucleotides, primers and the process of preparation thereof, said recombinant protein is useful for insect control and haemagglutination activity. AFAL is found more toxic to sap sucking insect pest Aphis gossypii (cotton aphid) and Bemisia tabaci (whiteflies) as compared to known Allium sativum leaf agglutinin. AFAL can be used in the development of transgenic plants for resistance against sap sucking and chewing pests.

Plant lectins, also known as "agglutinins", are heterogeneous group of carbohydrate binding proteins, which are able to bind simple sugars and/or complex carbohydrates reversibly (Van Damme et al. 1998; CRC Crit Rev Plant Sci 17:575-692). They show a marked heterogeneity with respect to their molecular structures, sugar binding specificity and temporal and spatial regulation. Mannose binding lectins are widely found in higher plants and play a significant role in defense due to their ability to recognize high-Mannose-type glycans of microbial pathogens and plant predators (Van Damme et al. 1998, 1998, CRC Grit Rev Plant Sci 17:575-692; Van Damme et al. 2004 Trends Plant Sci 9:484-9). Mannose binding lectin from garlic leaf [Allium sativum leaf agglutinin (ASAL)] is a 25 kDa homodimeric protein, structurally and evolutionarily related to Galanthus nivalis agglutinin (GNA) (Smeets et al. 1997a, Plant Mol Biol 35: 531-535; Van Damme et al. 1992, Eur J Biochem 206:413-420). Some of the biological properties of ASAL are—(1) it readily agglutinates rabbit erythrocytes but does not affect human erythrocytes (Bandhopadhyay et. al. 2001, Plant Sci. 161:1025-1033; Smeets et al. 1997a, Plant Mol Biol 35: 531-535), (2) it has inhibitory effect against retrovirus (HIV1 and HIV2) induced cytopathicity in MT-4 cells (Smeets et. al. 1997b, Plant Mol Biol 33:223-234) and (3) it is toxic (growth inhibitory) against a spectrum of insects of order Homoptera, Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Some important pests inhibited by ASAL are aphids [mustard aphid, peach potato aphid, tobacco aphid (Bandhopadhyay et al. 2001, Plant Mol Biol 33:223-234 Hossain et al. 2006, Crop Sci 46:2022-2032; Smeets et al. 1997a, Plant Mol Biol 35: 531-535), red cotton bug (Bandhopadhyay et al. 2001, Plant. Mol. Biol. 33:223-234), brown plant hopper, green leaf hopper (Saha et al. 2006, Plant Mol. Biol. 62:735-52) and cotton leaf worm (Sadeghi et al. 2008, Transgenic Res. 17:9-18). Although exact mechanism of insecticidal action of lectins is still not well understood, three different modes of action have been proposed—(1) binding of the lectins to the peritrophic matrix of the midgut, inhibiting nutrient absorption (Harper et al 1998, Tissue Cell 30: 166-176), (2) binding to glycoproteins on epithelial cells of the midgut and disrupting tissue integrity (Powell et al. 1998, J Insect Physiol. 44: 529-539; Sauvion et al. 2004, J Insect Physiol. 50: 1137-1150) and (3) binding to carbohydrate moieties of the sensory receptors of insect mouth parts, disrupting membrane integrity and interfering in the food detection ability of insects (Murdock et al. 2002, J Agric Food Chem. 50: 6605-6611). All these mechanisms result in decreased ability of insect to ingest food or absorb nutrients, leading to delayed development and premature death.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,545,820 (Gatehouse, et al., 1996) discloses the use of lectins having specific mannose-binding ability, derived from family Amaryllidaceae or Alliaceae for the control of insect pests. WO/1992/002139 relates to the use of lectins having specific mannose-binding ability, derived from family Amaryllidaceae or Alliaceae for the control of insect pests and the development of transgenic plants expressing such lectins. U.S. Pat. No. 5,407,454 relates to selected plant lectins having larvicidal activity against a number of common insect pests of agricultural crops. Insect resistance in the transgenic plants is due to insertion of larvicidal lectin gene in all the cells of the plants.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,127,532 (Raikhel) refers to transgenic plants containing cDNA encoding Gramineae lectin. Such transgenic plants expressed barley lectin and stored in in the leaves. The transgenic plants, particularly the leaves exhibit insecticidal and fungicidal′ properties.
Allium fistulosum
Allium fistulosum L. (Welsh onion, Japanese bunching onion) is a perennial onion. Other names that may apply to this plant include green onion, spring onion, escallion, and salad onion. These names are ambiguous, as they may also be used to refer to any young green onion stalk, whether grown from Welsh onions, common bulb onions, or other similar members of the genus Allium. The species is very similar in taste and odor to the related bulb onion, Allium cepa, and hybrids between the two (tree onions). The Welsh onion, however, does not develop bulbs, and possesses hollow leaves ("fistulosum" means "hollow") and scapes. Large varieties of the Welsh onion resemble the leek, such as the Japanese 'negi', whilst smaller varieties resemble chives. Many Welsh onions can be multiplied by forming perennial evergreen clumps. Next to culinary use, it is also grown as an ornamental plant. Historically, the Welsh onion was known as the cibol.
The name "Welsh onion" has become a misnomer in modern English, as Allium fistulosum is not indigenous to Wales. "Welsh" preserves the original meaning of the Old English word "welisc", or Old German "welsche", meaning "foreign" (compare wal- in "walnut", of the same etymological origin). The species originated in Asia, possibly Siberia or China.
Culinary Use
In the West, the Welsh onion is primarily used as a scallion or salad onion, but is widely used in other parts of the world, particularly East Asia.    Russia: Welsh onion is used in Russia in the spring for adding green leaves to salads.    Asia: The Welsh onion is an ingredient in Asian cuisine, especially in East and Southeast Asia. It is particularly important in China, Japan, and Korea, hence the other English name for this plant, 'Japanese bunching onion'. Bulb onions were introduced to East Asia in the 19th century, but A. fistulosum remains more popular and widespread. In Japan, it is used in miso soup, negimaki (beef and scallion rolls), among others, and it is widely sliced up and used as a garnish on teriyaki or takoyaki.    Jamaica: Known as escallion, the Welsh onion is an ingredient in Jamaican cuisine, in combination with thyme, scotch bonnet pepper, garlic and allspice (called pimenta). Recipes with escallion sometimes suggest leek as a substitute in salads. Jamaican dried spice mixtures using escallion are available commercially. The Jamaican name is probably a variant of scallion, the term used loosely for the spring onion and various other plants in the genus Allium. Lacking in the Prior Art
Allium lectin disclosed in present invention shows high insecticidal activity and therefore novel. Homology of the nucleotide sequence with available nucleotide sequences in database shows more than 90% homology.

Council of Scientific and Industrial Research


An optical disk device in which the laser light power for writing data onto an optical disk is optimized. Test data is written onto an optical disk while laser light power is varied and the laser light power is optimized based on the quality of replayed signals of the test data. The space value of the replayed signal of the test data is detected and, when the space value is a value which should not exist, it is judged that 3T mark period is missing or excessively written and the laser light power in which such a space value is obtained is removed from the candidates for the optimum laser light power. Also, jitter and error rate of the replayed signal are detected. Even when the jitter is at a desirable value, if the error rate is greater than or equal to a predetermined value, the laser light power in which such an error rate is obtained is removed from consideration as a possible optimum laser light power.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disk device, and in particular to optimization of a writing power when data is written onto a recordable optical disk.
2. Description of the Related Art
When data is to be written onto a recordable optical disk such as a CD-R, CD-RW, DVD-R, or DVD-RW disk, test data is repeatedly written as a test in a predetermined region (PCA area) of the optical disk while the writing power is varied, the test data is replayed, a writing power in which the quality of the replayed signal is maximized is selected as the optimum writing power, and the data is written (a process commonly referred to as optimum power control (OPC)).
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2000-137918 discloses such a method in which test data is written as a test in the PCA area of an optical disk while varying the writing power, jitter value of the written test data is measured, and the writing power in which the jitter value is minimized is determined as the optimum writing power.
In a CD-R or CD-RW system, signals having lengths from 3T to 11T are written and in a DVD-R or DVD-RW system, signals having lengths from 3T to 14T are written. Therefore, when the writing power is to be optimized through OPC as described above, it is desirable to optimize the writing power using test data of length 3T to 11T or 3T to 14T.
However, in general, it is difficult to write the shortest signal, the signal with length 3T ("3T signal"), and therefore, the signal may sometimes be missing because of a writing error. Because the jitter value is calculated from the edge difference between the rising edge and the falling edge of the signal and a reference clock, even when the 3T signal is missing, for example, the jitter value is measured at the rising edge or the falling edge of the remaining signals of 4T to 11T or 4T to 14T. As a result, the jitter value appears to be small although the test data is not normally written, and there had been a problem in that the optimum writing power is selected based on this apparently small jitter value.
This problem will now be described in more detail. FIGS. 12A through 12E show a test data string, rising and falling edges of a replayed binarized signal based on which jitter value is calculated, the reference clock, and difference between the rising and falling edges and the reference clock. FIG. 12A shows the actual data string of the test data. As shown in FIG. 12A, it is assumed that the actual test data has a data string of 6T (mark), 3T (space), 3T (mark), 3T (space), 4T (mark), 3T (space), 3T (mark), 9T (space) periods. Here, "mark" indicates a marking period in which laser light of a writing power is illuminated and a pit is actually formed on the optical disk and "space" indicates a space period in which laser light of a bias (replay) power is illuminated between the marking periods of writing power and no pit is formed. In a DVD-R system, however, a multi-pulse is employed for forming the pit and the bias level between the multi-pulses is "mark" and not "space".
FIG. 12B shows a replayed signal obtained by replaying the written test data. FIG. 12B also shows a threshold value for binarizing the replayed signal. Because the 6T (mark) period and 4T (mark) period have relatively large pulse width, sufficient energy can be illuminated to write a pit, and, thus, the level of the replayed signal is greater than the threshold value. However, the 3T (mark) period has a small pulse width and, when the writing power is insufficient, the level of replayed signal may sometimes fall short of the threshold value because a pit is not adequately formed. In such a case, when the replayed signal is binarized using the threshold value, the 3T (mark) period is not captured and will be missing.
FIG. 12C shows a binarized signal obtained by binarizing the replayed signal. Because3T (mark) period is missing, a data signal of 6T (mark), 9T (space), 4T (mark), and 15T (space) periods, which differs from the original test data, is retrieved. When such a binarized signal and a reference clock as shown in FIG. 12D are compared and the edge difference between the rising and falling edges of the binarized signal and the reference clock is detected, a signal as shown in FIG. 12E would be obtained. As shown, because the 3T (mark) period is missing, the edge difference in a corresponding portion present in the original data will not be detected. As a result, the overall edge difference, that is, the jitter value, appears smaller than it actually is. Therefore, jitter value for the writing power appears to be smaller than the actual value, and thus, there is a problem in that although in reality, the writing power is insufficient, this power may be erroneously determined as the optimum writing power.
On the other hand, there may be cases wherein, instead of missing a 3T (mark) signal, the 3T (mark) signal is excessively recorded due to excessive writing power, and is detected as data of a length 4T or more. In such a case also, although in reality, the test data is not normally written, the jitter value appears smaller.
FIGS. 13A–13E show a specific example of such a case. As shown in FIG. 13A, the actual test data contains 6T (mark), 3T (space), 3T (mark), 3T (space), 4T (mark), 3T (space), 3T (mark), and 9T (space) periods.
FIG. 13B shows a replayed signal. When the 3T mark signal is excessively recorded, the portion in which the level of the replayed signal exceeds the threshold value level becomes larger, resulting in a binarized signal of 6T (mark), 3T (space), 4T (mark), 2T (space), 4T (mark), 3T (space), 4T (mark), and 8T (space) periods as shown in FIG. 13C. As can be seen, the actual 3T (mark) period is detected as a 4T (mark) period and the actual 3T (space) period appears to be a 2T (space) period. In this case, when the edge difference is detected between the binarized signal and the reference clock, the edge difference appears smaller than that of a 3T (mark) period, resulting in smaller apparent jitter value. Because in OPC, the writing power with minimum jitter value is determined as the optimum writing power, a writing power may be erroneously determined as the optimum writing power even when the writing power is actually excessive.
FIG. 14 shows a relationship between the pulse width of 3T (writing power) and jitter value. In FIG. 14, the horizontal axis represents the pulse width (writing power) of 3T (mark) period and the vertical axis represents the jitter value. Normally, when a 3T (mark) period is written, the jitter becomes a minimum at a certain point and increases as the pulse width moves away from the minimum point. However, when the pulse width of a 3T (mark) period is small (insufficient writing power), as in the region I in FIG. 14 and is missing, the jitter value becomes smaller because the edge difference of the actual 3T (mark) period does not appear as described above. On the other hand, when the pulse width of 3T (mark) period is excessively increased (excessive writing power) as in region II in FIG. 14, a 3T (mark) period appears as a 4T (mark) period as described above and jitter value again appears smaller as the 3T (mark) period is not present. Therefore, as shown in FIG. 14, the characteristic appears to have a shape with two peaks. In this case, the writing power where the jitter value is minimized cannot be calculated, and a writing power which is smaller than the actual optimum writing power or a writing power which is greater than the actual optimum writing power may be erroneously determined as the optimum writing power, resulting in a problem in that the actual data cannot be written with high quality.


A process for producing single-walled carbon nanotubes in a continuous manner includes carbon plasma generation, plasma stabilization, and product deposition. The plasma is generated by electrical resistance heating or electron beam vaporization of feedstock. The plasma is stabilized with radio frequency energy from inductance coils and with electrical resistance heaters in the reactor. Stabilization homogenizes the plasma energy density and concentration, leading to a more efficient reactor. Finally, a transition metal catalyst and associated catalyst support are used to form the end product. The formation region may have variations of geometry and supporting equipment that will affect the rate and purity of the swcnt production. The formation region is immediately downstream from the plasma stabilization region. In addition, the entire apparatus is designed so that it can be mounted vertically such that continuous deposition of product can be applied with precision using an overhead robotic arm.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates in general to an improved process for manufacturing carbon nanotubes and, in particular, to an improved system, method, and apparatus for continuous synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Currently, production of single-walled carbon nanotubes (swcnt) is substantially limited to an experimental or laboratory scale with the largest production rates being on the order of only grams per day. There are several different processes that are used for swcnt production, such as laser ablation methods, arc discharge methods, and chemical vapor deposition (CVD) methods. Some of these prior art processes have also combined plasma generation, thermal annealing, and the use of various transition metal catalyst supports with one of the three techniques. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 6,451,175 to Lal; U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,450 to Zhou; U.S. Pat. No. 6,232,706 to Dai; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,221,330 to Moy.
There are a number of problems with these existing, prior art methods. Many of them are batch-type processes that are capable of producing product only once per cycle, rather than producing a continuous supply of end product which would be far more desirable. As a result, the rates of production are relatively low, with some methods generating only enough product to scarcely conduct laboratory testing on the end product. Consequently, it would be very difficult if not impossible to scale these methods up to industrial quantity production levels. The scalability of production methods is critical for many potential industrial applications for swcnt. A few examples include high performance structures manufacturers, such as those in military, aerospace, motorsports, marine, etc., fabrication businesses and, more generally, materials suppliers. The inability to make large quantities of swcnt affordable inherently limits their applications to uses as reinforcements for composites and the like. Unfortunately, swcnt-reinforced composites have a number of limitations themselves, including: fiber/matrix adhesion problems, strength limitations due to matrix design, and only providing incremental improvements in other areas of performance. Furthermore, some prior art methods of producing swcnt make a resultant product that is the relatively low in purity. Thus, an improved process for continuous production of a relatively pure form of swcnt would be highly desirable for many practical applications.

System, method, and apparatus for continuous synthesis of single-walled carbon nanotubes


A system for removing matter from a partially or totally occluded stent includes a cutter that is urged radially outward toward the inner surface of the stent. Preferably, the cutter has a hardness that is less than or equal to the hardness of the material used to make the stent. Aspiration may be provided to remove portions of the occluding material from the vessel.

The present invention relates to medical devices in general, and in particular, to rotational atherectomy devices.
One of the most common types of vascular diseases afflicting Americans today involves the narrowing of blood vessels by plaque or other materials. Left untreated, such narrowed vessels can contribute to high blood pressure, strokes, or cardiac arrest.
One of the most common techniques for treating a fully or partially blocked vessel is to bypass the blockage with a healthy vessel obtained from elsewhere in the body. A less traumatic approach involves the insertion of a balloon angioplasty device into the vessel and expanding the balloon to compress the occlusion against the vessel wall. Another minimally invasive technique is an atherectomy procedure, where a high-speed cutting device such as the Rotoblator(trademark), produced by SCIMED Life Systems, Inc., the U.S. assignee of the present invention, is inserted into the vessel and advances against the occlusion in order to grind it into small particles that are passed by the body.
In many instances, a physician will place a stent in the area of the treated occlusion. In the case of balloon angioplasty, stents operate to prevent the compressed occlusion from springing back to its former size. For vessels that have undergone an atherectomy procedure, the stent helps maintain an open passage or lumen through the vessel.
Regardless of the procedure used, a fair percentage of stents become re-occluded within a relatively short period of time. However, the material that occludes the stent is somewhat different from the occluding material that blocked the vessel in the first instance. Therefore, techniques used to treat an original occlusion are not believed to be as effective when treating a re-occluded stent. Therefore, there is a need for a device and method of effectively treating re-occluded stents in a manner that does minimal or no damage to the stent itself.
The present invention is a system and method for removing occluding material from a stent that is positioned within a vessel. In one embodiment of the invention, a rotational cutter is made of a material having a hardness less than or equal to the hardness of the material used to make the stent. The cutter has a number of recessed blades such that the outer surface of the cutter is relatively smooth and cutting is limited to tissue that enters channels in which the blades are placed. The cutter is preferably routed on a guide wire that is shaped such that the cutter is pressed radially outward against the inner surface of the stent. To aid in the removal of ablated material that is cut from the stent, an aspiration system including a catheter coupled to a source of negative pressure operates to aspirate ablated particles.
In another embodiment of the invention, a cutting mechanism includes a catheter with a self-expanding stent on the distal end thereof. One or more knives are secured to the stent such that the knives are pushed radially outward by the stent. Once the expanding stent is positioned in an occluded stent, the one or more knives are extended and rotated to remove occluding material. Ablated material from the occluded stent is preferably aspirated from the vessel.
In another embodiment of the invention, a cutting mechanism includes a helically-wound cutter that surrounds an inflatable balloon. The balloon is inflated to urge the cutter radially outward against the inner wall of the stent. Ablated particles removed from the stent are preferably aspirated from the vessel.


The present invention relates to an edible oil-in-water micro-emulsion for imparting crisping and browning to a food product when the micro-emulsion is coated onto the food product and the coated food product is then subjected to microwave radiation.

One serious problem in the microwave re-heating of food products is the lack of crispness and browning of products which are reheated in that manner. Browning and crisping are particularly desirable when heating, bread, batter-based baked products or battered food products such as battered fish or meat. The problem with this lack of crispness and browning is directly related to the temperature which can be obtained on the surface of the product during microwave heating and to the moisture transfer within the product. The surface temperature will depend on number of factors.
Firstly, the air in the microwave oven is not heated, and is at a temperature which is slightly higher than ambient. When the product heats up, water vapor is driven out of the product. As the product surface is at or near ambient temperature, the water vapor will condense upon it and moisten it. In order to dry out the surface of the product, more microwave heating is necessary which will result in an over heating if not a burning of the core of the product.
Secondly, the microwave focusing effect due to the microwave penetration depth and the size of the product generates hot spots in the interior of the product heated in such ovens. The resulting temperature gradients which drive the moisture from the hot spot i.e. from the interior to the exterior, are thus inverse to what is required to dry out the surface.
A conventional way to solve the problem of lack of crisping and browning is to use what is known as susceptors. A susceptor is a device which comprises material that, when subjected to microwaves, absorbs energy and is heated to 200.degree. C. to 450.degree. C. (400.degree. F. to 800.degree. F.) Traditionally, the susceptor is positioned beneath and in close contact with the product to be heated and provides, by conduction or radiation, a crisping or browning of the product surface. A susceptor may e.g. be a plastic or paper substrate in which a thin layer of metal particles is deposited. Use of susceptors is however for many purposes undesirable, for example, it only allows surfaces directly adjacent to the susceptor to be crisped or browned. Also, the use of susceptors introduces a risk of migration of volatile gases into the food product, and it adds to the cost of the product.
Alternative microwave browning technology relates to emulsions which are added onto the product prior to it being microwave heated, and which e.g. are based on Maillard reactions or agents that change color when heated. Although such browning agents may be suitable for the browning of a product, they do not add to the crispness as they do not substantially change the micro-wave heating regime. Browning agents of this type in the prior art are emulsions and have a dispersed phase with droplet of e.g. 0.1 mm.

Edible micro-emulsion and method of preparing a food product treated with the micro-emulsion


Various methods are disclosed for mapping optical coherence tomography (OCT) data to facilitate review and diagnosis. In one aspect, high resolution 2D line scans are obtained along with lower density 3D cube scans and displayed in a manner to provide context to the clinician. In another aspect, OCT data is analyzed to provide information about non-uniformities of the tissue. Binary image maps of maps useful for determining tautness of membranes are also disclosed.

Optical Coherence Tomography (OCT) is a technique for performing high resolution cross-sectional imaging that can provide images of tissue structure on the micron scale in situ and in real time [Huang, D., E. A. Swanson, et al. Science 254 (5035): 1178-81]. OCT is a method of interferometry that determines the scattering profile of a sample along the OCT beam. Each scattering profile is called an axial scan, or A-scan. Cross-sectional images, and by extension 3D volumes, are built up from many A-scans, with the OCT beam moved to a set of transverse locations on the sample. Motion of the sample with respect to the OCT scanner will cause the actual locations measured on the sample to be arranged differently than the scan pattern in scanner coordinates, unless the motion is detected and the OCT beam placement corrected to track the motion.
In recent years, frequency domain OCT techniques have been applied to living samples [Nassif, N. A., B. Cense, et al. Optics Express 12(3): 367-376]. The frequency domain techniques have significant advantages in speed and signal-to-noise ratio as compared to time domain OCT [Leitgeb, R. A., et al. Optics Express 11(8): 889-894; de Boer, J. F. et al. Optics Letters 28: 2067-2069; Choma, M. A. and M. V. Sarunic Optics Express 11: 2183-2189]. The greater speed of modem OCT systems allows the acquisition of larger data sets, including 3D volume images of human tissue.
In the case of opthalmology, a typical patient can comfortably hold his eye open for a few seconds. OCT systems can advantageously use these few seconds to collect extensive images [Hitzenberger, C. K. et al. "Three-dimensional imaging of the human retina by high-speed optical coherence tomography." Optics Express 11(21): 2753-2761, and "Spectral Radar: Optical Coherence Tomography in the Fourier Domain", Lindner, M. W., Andretzky, P., Kiesewetter, F., and Häusler, G. in B. E. Bouma and G. J. Tearney, Handbook of optical coherence tomography (Marcel Dekker, New York, 2002)].
Various approaches have been developed for analyzing and the displaying information obtained from OCT methods. For example, in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/223,549, filed Sep. 9, 2005 (and incorporated herein by reference), a method is disclosed for generating elevation maps or images of a tissue layer/boundary with respect to the location of a fitted reference surface, comprising the steps of finding and segmenting a desired tissue layer/boundary; fitting a smooth reference surface to the segmented tissue layer/boundary; calculating elevations of the same or other tissue layer/boundary relative to the fitted reference surface; and generating maps of elevation relative to the fitted surface.
The subject application relates to additional display methods which will facilitate the diagnosis and treatment of pathologies in the eye of a patient.

Methods for mapping tissue with optical coherence tomography data


Expandable tubing and methods seal a connection between expandable tubulars, and in particular, seal a connection between expandable tubulars post-expansion. In one embodiment, a method includes sealing a connection between expandable tubulars in the form of sections of an expandable liner. The method comprises the steps of connecting a first expandable tubular in the form of a first section of the liner and a second expandable tubular in the form of a second section of the liner. A seal is located between radially overlapping portions of the liner sections, and the seal is configured to maintain sealing between the liner sections both pre and post expansion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to expandable tubing and methods of sealing a connection between expandable tubulars. In particular, but not exclusively, the present invention relates to methods of sealing a connection between expandable tubulars post-expansion.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the oil and gas exploration and production industry, there has been much research into the development of expandable tubulars in recent years. A number of different types of expandable tubing have been developed, including expandable sand-exclusion tubing based assemblies and solid expandable tubing such as expandable casing, liner, patches and straddles.
The tubing is typically expanded using either an expansion cone or mandrel, or a roller expansion tool, such as that disclosed in the applicant's International patent publication no. WO 00/37766.
In certain circumstances, it is necessary to seal connections between lengths of expandable tubing, such as between sections of tubing forming a casing or liner string. However, it has been found difficult to obtain an adequate seal between the tubing sections post-expansion.
One reason for this is that a relative radial separation can occur between male and female (pin and box) connections by which adjacent tubing sections are coupled together, following expansion.
It is amongst the objects of embodiments of the present invention to obviate or mitigate the foregoing disadvantage.


An apparatus for calculating a modular multiplication includes an examiner for examining digits of the multiplier with a lookahead algorithm to obtain a multiplication shift value. In addition, a determinator and intermediate-result shift value are provided which determine a positive intermediate-result shift value. A calculator for calculating a multiplicand shift value as the difference between the intermediate-result shift value and the multiplication shift value. The intermediate result from the preceding iteration step as well as the multiplicand are then shifted by the corresponding shifting magnitudes to then perform a three-operands addition with the shifted values, if need be while considering lookahead parameters.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to cryptography and, in particular, to concepts for calculating a multiplication of a multiplier and a multiplicand with regard to a modulus within a cryptographic calculation, the multiplier, the multiplicand and the modulus being parameters of the cryptographic calculation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cryptography is one of the major applications for modular arithmetic. An essential algorithm for cryptography is the known RSA algorithm. The RSA algorithm is based on a modular exponentiation which may be represented as follows:C=Md mod (N).
Here, C is an encrypted message, M is a non-encrypted message, d is the secret key, and N is the modulus. The modulus N is usually created by multiplying two prime numbers p and q. The modular exponentiation is split into multiplications by means of the known square-and-multiply algorithm. To this end, the exponent d is split into powers of two, so that the modular exponentiation may be split into several modular multiplications. In order to be able to implement the modular exponentiation efficiently in terms of computation, the modular exponentiation is therefore split into modular multiplications, which may then be split into modular additions.
DE 3631992 discloses a cryptography method wherein modular multiplication may be accelerated using a multiplication-lookahead method and using a reduction-lookahead method. The method described in DE 3631992 C2 is also referred to as a ZDN method and will be described in more detail with regard to FIG. 18. After a starting step 900 of the algorithm, the global variables M, C and N are initialized. The aim is to calculate the following modular multiplication:Z=M*C mod N.
M is referred to as the multiplier, where C is referred to as the multiplicand. Z is the result of the modular multiplication, whereas N is the modulus.
Hereupon, different local variables are initialized, which need not be explained in further detail. Subsequently, two lookahead methods are applied. In the multiplication-lookahead method GEN_MULT_LA, a multiplication shift value sz as well as a multiplication-lookahead parameter a are calculated using different lookahead rules (910). Hereupon, the current content of the Z register is subjected to a left-shift operation by sz digits (920).
Essentially in parallel therewith, a reduction-lookahead method GEN_Mod_LA (930) is performed to calculate a reduction shift value SN and a reduction parameter b. In step 940, the current content of the modulus register, i.e. N, is shifted to the left and right, respectively, by SN digits so as to create a shifted modulus value N′. The central three-operands operation of the ZDN method takes place in step 950. Here, the intermediate result Z′ is added, after step 920, to multiplicand C, which is multiplied by the multiplication-lookahead parameter a, and to the shifted modulus N′, which is multiplied by the reduction-lookahead parameter b. Depending on the current situation, the lookahead parameters a and b may have a value of +1, 0 or −1.
A typical case is for the multiplication-lookahead parameter a to be +1, and for the reduction-lookahead parameter b to be −1, so that the multiplicand C is added to a shifted intermediate result Z′, and so that the shifted modulus N′ is subtracted therefrom. a will have a value equal to 0 if the multiplication-lookahead method allows more than a preset number of individual left shifts, i.e. if sZ is larger than the maximum admissible value of sZ, which is also referred to as k. In the event that a equals 0 and that Z′ is still fairly small due to the preceding modular reduction, i.e. to the preceding subtraction of the shifted modulus, and that Z′ is, in particular, smaller than the shifted modulus N′, no reduction need take place, so that parameter b equals 0.
Steps 910 to 950 are performed for such time until all digits of the multiplicand have been processed i.e. until m equals 0, and until a parameter n also equals 0, which parameter indicates whether the shifted modulus N′ is even larger than the original modulus N, or whether further reduction steps must be performed by subtracting the modulus from Z despite the fact that all digits of the multiplicand have already been processed.
Eventually it will also be determined whether Z is smaller than 0. If this is so, modulus N must be added to Z so as to achieve a final reduction, so that eventually the correct result Z of the modular multiplication is obtained. In a step 960, the modular multiplication by means of the ZDN method is terminated.
The multiplication shift value sZ as well as the multiplication parameter a, which are calculated by means of the multiplication-lookahead algorithm in step 910, result from the topology of the multiplier as well as from the lookahead rules used which are described in DE 3631992 C2.
The reduction shift value SN and the reduction parameter b are determined, as is also described in DE 3631992 C2, by comparing the current content of the Z register with a value 2/3×N. The name of the ZDN method is based on this comparison (ZDN=Zwei Drittel N=two thirds of N).
The ZDN method, as is depicted in FIG. 18, traces the modular multiplication back to a three-operands addition (block 950 in FIG. 18), wherein the multiplication-lookahead method and, hand in hand therewith, the reduction-lookahead method, are used for increasing the calculating-time efficiency. Therefore, an advantage in terms of calculating time may be obtained as compared with the Montgomery reduction.
The reduction-lookahead method, which is performed in block 930 of FIG. 18, will be explained below in more detail with reference to FIG. 19. Initially, in a block 1000, a reservation for the local variables, i.e. for the reduction-lookahead parameter b and the reduction shift value SN, is performed. In a block 1010, the reduction shift value SN is initialized to zero. Hereupon, the value ZDN, which equals 2/3 of modulus N, is calculated in a block 1020. This value which is determined in block 1020 is stored on the crypto-coprocessor on a register of its own, i.e. the ZDN register.
It is then determined, in a block 1030, whether the variable n equals 0, or whether the shift value SN equals −k. k is a value defining the maximum shift value specified by the hardware. In the first run, block 1030 is answered by NO, so that in a block 1040, parameter n is decremented, and so that in a block 1060, the reduction shift value is also decremented by 1. Then, in a block 1080, the variable ZDN is redefined, i.e. is defined as half its value, which may readily be achieved by a right-shift of the value found in the ZDN register. It is then established, in a block 1100, whether the absolute value of the current intermediate result is higher than the value found in the ZDN register.
This comparative operation performed in block 1100 is the central operation of the reduction-lookahead method. If the question is answered with YES, the iteration is terminated, and the reduction-lookahead parameter is defined, as is represented in block 1120. If, however, the question to be answered in block 1100 is answered with NO, an iterative backward jump is performed to examine the current values of n and SN in block 1030. If block 1030 is answered with YES at some point in the iteration, the process jumps to a block 1140, wherein the reduction parameter b is set to zero. In the three-operands operation represented in block 950 in FIG. 18, the result is that no modulus is added or subtracted, which means that the intermediate result of Z was so small that no modular reduction was necessary. In a block 1160, the variable n is then redefined, the reduction shift value SN being eventually calculated in a block 1180, which reduction shift value SN is needed, in a block 940 of FIG. 18, to perform the left shift of the modulus so as to achieve a shifted modulus.
In blocks 1200, 1220 and 1240, the current values of n and k are finally examined for further variables MAX and cur_k so as to examine the current definition of the N register to ensure that no register overshoot takes place. The further details are not relevant to the present invention but are described more fully in DE 3631992 C2.
The algorithm represented in FIGS. 18 and 19 may be implemented in terms of hardware, as is shown in FIG. 10. For the three-operands operation to be performed in block 950, an arithmetic unit 700 is required, which unit is designated as AU in FIG. 10. The latter is coupled to a register C 710 for the multiplicand, to a register N 720 for the modulus, and to a register Z 730 for the current intermediate result of the modular multiplication. It may further be seen from FIG. 10 that the result of the three-operands operation is re-fed into the Z register 730 via a feedback arrow 740. FIG. 10 also shows the interconnection of the registers. The value ZDN calculated in block 1020 of FIG. 19 must be stored in a ZDN register 750 of its own. The ZDN comparison and/or the iteration loop presented in FIG. 19 is further process-controlled by a designated control logic 760 for the ZDN comparison.
The main work of the ZDN algorithm for calculating Z:=M×C mod N therefore consists in the following two operations:    1. Calculation of the shift values sz and si for registers Z and N, so that the following equation is met:2/3N×2−si<|Z|≦4/3N×2−si and    2. Calculation of the three-operands sum:Z:=2szZ+a C+b×2sz−si N
Multiplication-lookahead parameter a and reduction-lookahead parameter b may, as is known, take on values of −1, 0 and +1.
It shall be pointed out that the intermediate result Z, the multiplicand C and the modulus N of long numbers, i.e. numbers whose numbers of digits and/or bits may easily be larger than 512, it being possible that these figures have up to more than 2048 digits.
The known method described above for performing the modular multiplication also comprises the following three-operands addition, which has been slightly altered, of the following form:N:=N*2snZ:=Z*2sz+vc*C+vn*N.
In the above equations, sz designates the shift value of the intermediate result Z, as is calculated from the known Booth method, i.e. from the multiplication-lookahead method. sn designates the shift value of N calculated as set forth above.
In a practical implementation, the shift values sz and Sn must not be infinitely high, especially as shifters for shifting long numbers are provided for this purpose, which may only accomplish a bit shift, in a long-number register, to a maximum shift value. In this manner, a shift value sz of between 0 and 5 is made possible in a cryptography processor operating in accordance with the known ZDN method. With regard to the shift of the modulus, a shift value between −3 and +3 is used.
The limited shift values have the drawback that, e.g., the shift value sz for shifting the intermediate result Z from a previous iteration step is often too small for a current iteration step. To be precise, this is the case if the multiplication-lookahead algorithm establishes that the nature of the multiplier is such that, for example, a shift value larger than 5 is possible. This applies if, depending on the lookahead rule, e.g. more than 5 subsequent zeros come up in the multiplier. If it is contemplated that the multiplier M has 1024 or even 2048 bits, this situation may easily occur relatively frequently. Due to the limited shift value, the known ZDN method will react, in this "special case", by performing a three-operands operation, to be precise with the maximum shift value, however by setting the multiplication-lookahead parameter vc to 0, i.e. by not adding anything to the multiplicand in this step. In the next iteration step, a new multiplication shift value sz is calculated, which, if it is larger than the maximum shift value Szmax, is again limited by the maximum shift value, which again leads to a degenerated "three-operands addition", wherein the multiplicand is again not added, i.e. wherein only the shifted intermediate result as well as the shifted modulus are added taking into consideration the sign for the modulus.
It may be seen from the above consideration that in such a special case, when the multiplication-lookahead algorithm would permit a large shift, same cannot be implemented with maximum efficiency, which is due to the limited shift magnitude Szmax.
The known ZDN method is therefore not capable of making use of the full increase in efficiency of the multiplication-lookahead method. In order to achieve an increase in efficiency, a shifter enlargement would have to be performed in the known ZDN method, which shifter enlargement, however, leads to the fact, in particular in integrated circuits for chip cards, that more chip area is needed, which is not always tolerable due to tight chip area specifications furnished by chip-card manufacturers, and/or which may lead to considerable price rises.
It shall be pointed out at this stage that in particular in the field of cryptography processors, there is an extremely competitive market where even small price differences will lead to one provider surviving while another provider will not survive. This is due to the fact that processors for chip cards are a mass product, since chip cards are typically manufactured in large numbers.
On the other hand, there are considerable security demands placed on chip-card processors, since chip cards are typically in the hand of users, i.e. also in the hand of attackers which are in full control of the chip-card processor to be attacked. Therefore, security demands placed upon cryptography algorithms are more and more on the increase, which may be seen, for example, in the fact that for increasing the security of the RSA algorithm, the operands are now not only required to have a length of, e.g., 1024, but have to be 2048 bits long.
Nevertheless, the overall area taken up by the processor is preset by the chip-card manufacturer. This means that a manufacturer of chip-card processors must accommodate on a preset area calculating units and memories requiring a large amount of space. By contrast, cryptography algorithms which are more and more complicated also need more and more working memory, so that an enlargement of a calculating unit to the effect that, for example, a larger shifter is installed, is often not tolerable for this reason. That is, if more chip area were attributed to the calculating unit, i.e., for example, to a shifter, a smaller amount of working memory could, in turn, be implemented on the specified chip area, which in turn leads to the fact that certain highly complicated cryptography algorithms cannot be performed at all and/or are slower in terms of calculation than when they are performed and implemented by products of competitors.

Apparatus and method for calculating a multiplication


A high performance computing system and method communicate data packets between computing nodes on a multi-lane communications link using a modified header bit encoding. Each data packet is provided with flow control information and error detection information, then divided into per-lane payloads. Sync header bits for each payload are added to the payloads in non-adjacent locations, thereby decreasing the probability that a single correlated burst error will invert both header bits. The encoded blocks that include the payload and the interspersed header bits are then simultaneously transmitted on the multiple lanes for reception, error detection, and reassembly by a receiving computing node.

High performance computing (HPC) systems include large, distributed systems having many computing nodes that communicate with each other to solve a shared computation. The connections between nodes are often formed from high speed serial interconnects that transmit bits of data (i.e., ones and zeroes) in parallel data lanes at a maximum speed, or bit rate. The long term reliability of high speed serial interconnects is being challenged as transmission rates increase. In particular, as bit rates increase, there is a corresponding increase in signal loss caused by the underlying physical media. This signal loss is managed by increasing circuit complexity, using higher cost materials, and actively repeating the signal (or reducing the physical distance between nodes). All of these mitigation tools attempt to achieve high Mean Time To False Packet Acceptance (MTTFPA), with maximum service time or availability.
One cause of signal loss is due to the physical nature of digital transmission media. Bits of data are transmitted on a physical medium by varying a voltage. For example, +1V may represent a value of 1, while −1V may represent a value of 0; different systems will use different voltages, but the concept is the same. The voltages are sampled by the receiving circuitry to determine the bit values at fixed intervals according to the bit rate. The physical material forming the channel that conveys these voltages from one point to another requires a small time to transition from one voltage to the other. Due to this voltage transition time, each transmitted bit "smears" its voltage value into a time slot allocated to the next bit. If the voltage transition frequency (that is, the reciprocal of the transition time) represents even a modest fraction of the bit rate, this smearing may cause the sampled voltage to reach less than its optimum value at the sampling time, and in fact may cause the sampled voltage to indicate an incorrect bit value. This is common when, for example, a 1-bit value (e.g. +1V) follows a long sequence of 0-bits that have given the physical media a sufficient time to strongly adjust to the 0-bit voltage (−1V).
This situation is improved by the use of pseudo-random bit patterns for transmitting bits. Data for transmission often are run through various encoding and decoding algorithms to provide a roughly even mix of transmitted 0-bits and 1-bits, which provides various electrical and data protocol advantages by reducing the probability of long 0-bit or 1-bit sequences. However, it is still possible to generate long runs of zeros or ones, occasionally causing strong voltage "smear" and incorrect bit decisions at the optimum sampling time as described above.
For these reasons, various algorithms are employed to increase the gap between the minimum sampled 1-bit voltage and the maximum sampled 0-bit voltage. These gaps are often visualized using plots of the voltage waveforms overlapping over time. These plots are called "eye diagrams" because the shape of the overlapping waveforms resembles the appearance of a human eye. Algorithms for increasing the distance between sampled voltages "open the eyes" in the diagram, and improve bit recognition rates by receivers.
One of the common algorithms for increasing the voltage gap is decision feedback equalization (DFE). This algorithm works by sampling the "smear" caused by receipt of each bit (or a number of previous bits) and adding a multiple of that smear to the voltage of the next received signal, before the signal is sampled to determine the bit. By adding this correction signal, the channel dynamically increases the 1-bit voltage and decreases the 0-bit voltage for each sampled bit by using feedback from the previous bit(s), thereby "equalizing" the channel voltages. The smeared bits that are sampled for this purpose are called "tapped", and thus there are single-tap and multi-tap DFEs.
The DFE algorithm can cause burst errors, as now described. A "burst error" occurs when an algorithm for which the determination of a given bit value as a 0 or a 1 influences the determination of the next bit value, so that errors have a chance to propagate to one or more subsequent bits, thereby producing a localized "burst" of errors. In the case of DFE, the addition of smear from an incorrectly detected bit value will move the channel voltage in the wrong direction when the next bit is sampled, increasing the probability that the next bit will also be incorrectly detected. The DFE smear multiplier is typically small, e.g. one tenth of the transmission voltage in an exemplary system, so the system will eventually correct itself after detecting a correct bit (or, in a multi-tap system, a series of correct bits). However, correction will occur only after the receiver has been impacted by the burst error.
Various means are known to reduce the effect of burst errors on receivers. Channel architecture and data coding can improve burst error minimization. Specifically, data striping and bit transmission order impact error detection and correction capability in the presence of burst errors. Recently, some standards organizations have developed standards (IEEE 802.3bj and IFBTA) that incorporate Forward Error Correction (FEC) into their specifications to address reliability issues. FEC involves the addition of check bits into the data stream, and thereby permits correction of faulty bits, but at the cost of significant added latency. Moreover, this latency cumulates over each hop between nodes in an HPC system. At 25 gigabits per second (Gb/s) bit rate, the latency increase for an exemplary standards-based Reed-Solomon FEC code is greater than 50 nanoseconds (ns) per hop. This increase is unacceptable for a latency sensitive protocol in a HPC system, and in particular for one where the average uncorrected per-hop latency is well under 100 ns, because it dramatically reduces system performance. The status quo data transmission that lacks error correction and processes the resultant uncorrected burst error bits, also is unacceptable because it can lead to system crashes.

Low latency serial data encoding scheme for enhanced burst error immunity and long term reliability


A medical system comprises processing circuitry configured to: receive a first trained model, wherein the trained model has been trained using a first data set acquired in a first cohort; receive a second data set acquired in a second cohort; input data included in the second data set and data representative of the first trained model into a second trained model; and receive from the second trained model an affinity-relating value which represents an affinity between the data included in the second data set and the first trained model.

It is known to train machine learning algorithms to process data, for example medical data.
It is anticipated that in the future, machine learning algorithms will be trained at point-of-care, for example in a hospital. Training machine learning algorithms at the point of care may allow the fine-tuning of pre-existing models to perform on patient specific tasks. Allowing deep learning algorithm development to be conducted on-site with the data may circumvent barriers to data being taken off-site. For example, barriers to data being taken off-site may include data transfer agreements and other surrounding legal issues associated with sensitive data.
To facilitate the training of machine learning algorithms at point-of-care, it is anticipated that the process of developing a deep learning algorithm may be simplified. The process of developing a deep learning algorithm may then be considered to be de-skilled. Many steps and decisions that are currently made manually by data scientists may be automated in future.
In some circumstances, there may be an abundance of pre-trained models to choose from when approaching any new candidate task. The abundance of pre-trained model may be referred to as a model zoo. Some models may be better suited to a particular new task and/or set of new data than others. Some models may required less data to be fine-tuned.
Models may have limited support. Models may perform best in a domain in which they were trained. Models may perform best on data that is the same or similar to the data on which they were trained.
When applying machine learning (for example, when applying medical learning to medical tasks), fitting to a distribution of available data is performed. When using a model on target data, it may be desirable to measure how close the target data is to the source distribution of data on which the model was trained. The distribution on which the model is trained may be a distribution on which it is known that the model has adequate and well-tested performance. If the distance between the distribution on which the model was trained and a new distribution to which the model is to be applied is large, the model may be less applicable to the new distribution.
In some circumstances, it may be difficult to measure a difference between data sets. There are many axes along which a distance between data could be measured. For example, in the case of medical images, one could say that two images having identical mean and standard deviation of pixel intensities were coming from the same distribution. However, this method of assessment may not take into account that the medical images may have difference anatomical content, noise characteristics, alignment properties or other properties.
If data cannot be shared across institutions, there may not be information available about the data on which a given model is trained. Frequently, it may be difficult to obtain access to source data on which a model is trained, for example due to restrictive data sharing policies between institutions.
FIG. 1 is a schematic illustration of a process of model selection. A new data set 10 is obtained. The new data set may comprise, for example, imaging data, text data, structured data or a combination of heterogeneous data.
A plurality of trained models 12 is available. There is a question of which of the trained models 12 to use in processing the new data set 10. There may be differences in the data on which the trained models were trained. Each of the trained models 12 may have been trained on different data, for example data that differs in anatomy, modality, scanner, or population.
It may be desirable to process the data set 10 using the model which was trained on a data distribution most similar to that of the new data set 10, or using a plurality of models that were trained on a data distribution or distributions that were most similar to that of the new data set 10.
A data distribution 14 of the new data set 10 is represented in FIG. 1. FIG. 1 also shows data distributions 16A, 16B, 16C, 16D, 16E, 16F of some of the trained models 12. Data distribution 16A is most similar to the data distribution 14 of the new data set 10. Therefore, it may be desirable to process the new data set 10 using a trained model 12 that was trained on data distribution 16A.
However, as explained above, the data distribution on which the trained model 12 was trained may not be available. Access may be provided only to the trained models and not to the original training data.
In some circumstances, a generative model may be part of a trained model, for example as used in some modern continual learning set ups. See, for example, van de Ven, G. M. and Tolias, A. S., 2018, Generative replay with feedback connections as a general strategy for continual learning. If a generative model is part of the trained model, then a few samples can be generated. A generated data distribution may be compared to a data distribution 14 of the new data 10. For example, data distributions may be compared using A-distances. See, for example, Ben-David, S., Blitzer, J., Crammer, K. and Pereira, F., 2007. Analysis of representations for domain adaptation. In Advances in neural information processing systems (pp. 137-144).
In other circumstances, a model may be such that samples cannot be generated. It may not be possible to compare a new data distribution to a distribution of generated samples. It may not be possible to compare the new data distribution to the actual data on which the model was trained, if no access to the training data is provided.


An internal combustion engine has a crankcase having a first crankcase portion fastened to a second crankcase portion along a first plane, a crankshaft, a cylinder block defining two cylinders, two pistons, and a cylinder head. A crankshaft support defines a crankshaft support aperture. A central portion of the crankshaft is received in the crankshaft support aperture. At least one fastener fastens the crankshaft support to the cylinder block. The at least one fastener is perpendicular to a crankshaft axis and is disposed in a second plane. The crankshaft axis is normal to the first plane. The second plane is one of coplanar with and parallel to the first plane.

In many internal combustion engines, in order to facilitate manufacturing, the engine casing is made of multiple components that are then fastened to each other. One of these components is the crankcase which, amongst other things, houses and supports the crankshaft for rotation therein.
One method of manufacturing the crankcase is casting. In order to facilitate the casting, the crankcase is typically made of two or more parts that are then fastened to each other. In crankcase made of two parts, the crankcase can be split along a plane containing the crankshaft axis, such as a horizontal plane, or along a plane that is perpendicular to the crankshaft axis. The latter provides some advantages with respect to the casting of the two portions of the crankcase.
Splitting the crankcase along a plane that is perpendicular to the crankshaft is often used for single cylinder engine as each portion of the crankcase forms one of the two supports necessary to support the crankshaft.
However, splitting the crankcase along a plane that is perpendicular to the crankshaft in a two-cylinder engine is more problematic. The plane along which the crankcase is split is preferably between the two cylinders. As such, the crankcase is split along the position where the crankshaft should be supported in the crankcase between the two cylinders.
In low power engines, one design consists in leaving the central portion of the crankshaft unsupported, and if necessary, providing a stiffer crankshaft to prevent crankshaft deformation. However, in high power engines, the crankshaft has to be supported between the two cylinders.
One solution consists in providing a separate central crankshaft support that is fastened to one of the two crankcase portions before fastening the two portions to each other. The fasteners are inserted perpendicularly to the plane along which the crankshaft portions are split (i.e. parallel to the crankshaft axis). Although this provides a support for the central portion of the crankshaft, it also causes torques to be applied to the crankcase. These torques are caused by forces transferred from the crankshaft to the crankshaft support during operation of the engine.
There is therefore a need for an internal combustion engine having a crankcase that is split along a plane that is perpendicular to the crankshaft and which provides support to a central portion of the crankshaft while limiting the torque being applied to the crankcase as a result of force transfer from the crankshaft.

Internal combustion engine having a split crankcase