A combination including a base plate or device plate for supporting a wiring device and a face plate over the wiring device and attached to the device plate. The device plate is positioned on an opening formed in the cover of a cable raceway for receiving a wiring device. The device plate has wiring device attachment bars at its opposite edges which are upraised above the cover of the raceway for raising up the supported wiring device. A divider is attached in the base plate of the combination and extends up from the top edge of the dividing strip in the raceway to the underside of the face plate to separate two cable carrying compartments within the raceway.

The present invention relates to a cable raceway used to transmit cable along a structure to an electrical or wiring device and more particularly to a base plate and cover for supporting an electrical device or wiring device at an opening in the cover of the raceway.
Cable raceways support and enclose electrical cables to bring them to wiring devices or electric devices requiring the cables. A raceway may be attached to or inside and extends along a wall or ceiling. A simple form of raceway design includes a U-shaped hollow body, open on one side, and the open side is covered by a securable, removable cover to enclose the hollow raceway. The bottom wall of the raceway is generally the wall attached to the structure along which the raceway extends, so that the cover of the raceway faces outward to the side of the raceway.
A typical wiring device at the cable raceway might be any device which is to be connected to some cables passing through the raceway. The wiring device is typically supported at the raceway cover and may be supported on the cover or on a plate on the cover, etc. There is no limit on the size, configuration, or number of cable connection to a wiring device, except of course that the wiring device has to be supportable on the particular raceway embodiment. The wiring device itself typically includes support elements, e.g. brackets tabs, flanges, etc., by which it is intended that the wiring device be supported on a surface, such as on the raceway or in a wall.
At each interval along the raceway where a wiring device or electrical use device is to be positioned, there is an opening in the cover of the raceway at which the wiring device is positioned. Some of the cables in the raceway are attached to the wiring device.
A portion of the wiring device projects behind the cover or the surface of the raceway on which it is supported and projects into the raceway. It may project quite far to the bottom or rear of a shallow raceway leaving insufficient space behind the wiring device for the cables and the connection of the cables to the particular wiring device. It is often useful to be able to raise a wiring device further forward out of the raceway than positioning it on the cover over a shallow raceway would otherwise permit.
A raceway may carry cables for several purposes and at several voltages, e.g. cables supplying electricity to machinery or for operating lights and appliances, and also cables for supplying low voltage or low power equipment, such as telephones or telecommunications equipment. To prevent interference in either of the different types of cables carried in the raceway, especially due to different voltages, and to satisfy building codes of different localities, the different types of cable, e.g. cables carrying quite different voltages, should be segregated from each other in their paths along the raceway. To this end, it is typical to provide a dividing strip extending along the length of the raceway, located generally midway across the width dimension between the side walls of the U and projecting out from the bottom or rear wall of the raceway and extending to the open end or the front of the raceway, with the outer edge of the dividing strip being at the level of the edges of the side walls of the raceway. The cover closing the raceway rests on the edges of the raceway side walls and closes against the top of the dividing strip.
One or more wiring devices can be positioned at one open area along the raceway cover. Each wiring device or several wiring devices may include connections for cables carrying different voltages. For example, at a wall socket or receptacle, one frequently sees an electric socket with two higher voltage outlets for receiving electric plugs for lights or domestic appliances and two plug sockets for telephone or for other low voltage supply jacks or plugs. Alternatively, there may be a first wiring device along the raceway with only higher voltage electrical sockets and a second wiring device elsewhere along the raceway with only lower voltage sockets, e.g. telephone connections. Especially in the case of a wiring device or electrical device that has connections to two sets of cables which should normally be kept divided by the dividing wall, e.g. cables at different voltages, no means presently exists in the support on the raceway for a wiring device, and particularly in a support that raises the wiring device outward from the raceway, to keep the cables separated, for the reasons discussed above.

Device plate and face plate for wiring device in electric cable raceway


When an array of proximity sensors is used as a keyboard, it can provide an ambiguous output if a user's finger overlaps several keys or if liquid is spilled on the keyboard. This ambiguity is reduced by an iterative method that repeatedly measures a detected signal strength associated with each key, compares all the measured signal strengths to find a maximum, determines that the key having the maximum signal strength is the unique user-selected key and then suppresses or ignores signals from all other keys as long as the signal from the selected key remains above some nominal threshold value.

Arrays of capacitive proximity sensors are often used in keyboards, keypads and other touch-input apparatus. Two characteristics of capacitive sensors that lead to their use instead of conventional metallic switches are: 1) Capacitive sensors can be made in small sizes, which is desirable if a small, tightly packed keyboard is required; and 2) Capacitive sensors are particularly easy to environmentally seal, which is desirable if the keyboard is to be used in a wet environment or where there is a concern that contaminants may be spilled on the keyboard.
Conventional capacitive sensors, when tightly packed, or when used in the presence of conductive liquid films, suffer a keying ambiguity problem. In a small keyboard, for example, a user's finger is likely to overlap from a desired key onto adjacent ones. This is especially problematic if the user has large fingers or if he or she presses on the keyboard surface hard enough to deform his or her finger. The same sort of effect is found when a conducting film is spilled on a keyboard, in which case the user's finger is sensed as though it were the size of the puddle. Problems of this sort are particularly acute in cash register keyboards used in food service establishments where beverage and food sauce spills are a frequent occurrence.
In his U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,165, the inventor teaches a capacitive field sensor employing a single coupling plate, which may be used as a key switch, and a method of detecting a change in capacitance of the coupling plate to ground. The apparatus taught in U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,165 comprises pulse circuitry for charging the coupling plate and for subsequently transferring the charge from the plate into a charge detector, which may be a sampling capacitor. The transferring operation is carried out by means of a transfer switch electrically connected between the coupling plate and the charge detector. One aspect of the teaching of that patent is the provision of apparatus for measuring a capacitance to ground of a plate, the apparatus comprising: a control means; a charging means connecting the plate to a voltage source supplying a first selected voltage; a discharging means responsive to a discharging output from the control means to connect the plate to a charge measurement capacitor that has a selected capacitance value and that has a first of its two terminals maintained at a second selected voltage, the second of the terminals supplying a voltage output representative of the capacitance to ground of the plate. From another viewpoint, U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,165 teaches a method of operating a capacitive sensor for sensing the presence of an object proximate a sensing plate by measuring a change in a capacitance to an electrical ground. This method comprises the steps of: a) setting an output of a charge detector comprising filter means to a first selected voltage; b) charging the plate from a voltage source to a second selected voltage; c) discharging, for a selected discharging interval, the plate into the charge detector; d) repeating steps b) through c); and e) reading an output of the charge detector as a representation of the capacitance of the plate. Yet another provision of U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,165 is a method of operating a capacitive sensor electrically connected between an electrical ground and a sensing plate disposed adjacent an external surface of a first object (e.g., a keyboard), the sensor measuring a capacitive change responsive to a second object (e.g., a user's finger) adjacent the first object, where the two objects are separately electrically coupled to the ground, the method comprising the steps of: a) charging the plate from a voltage source; b) connecting, for a discharging interval having a selected discharging duration, the plate to a charge detector having an output representative of the change of the capacitance to ground of the plate; and c) reading the output of the charge detector. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 5,730,165 is herein incorporated by reference.
In his U.S. Pat. No. 6,466,036, the inventor teaches pulse circuitry for measuring capacitance to ground, the circuitry comprising a plurality of electrical switching elements, each of which has one side electrically connected to either a power supply voltage or to a circuit ground point. This circuit arrangement, which may be used with a keyboard as well as for many other applications, is more compatible with available integrated circuit design and manufacturing practices than is earlier pulse circuitry, which commonly had one side of at least one switching element floating. These improved arrangements provide superior performance at a lower manufacturing cost.
In his U.S. Pat. No. 6,466,036, the inventor describes apparatus for measuring the capacitance to ground of a plate. This apparatus comprises at least three switching elements, each of the at least three switching elements having both a respective open state and a single respective closed state, each of the at least three switching elements electrically connected to one of two distinct reference voltages; a sample capacitor having a proximal one of its two terminals connected to the plate by means not comprising one of the switching elements; a voltage measurement circuit connected to one of the terminals of the sample capacitor by means not comprising one of the switching elements, the measurement circuit comprising one of a logic gate and a voltage comparator. In this arrangement a first of the at least three switching elements connects the distal terminal of the sample capacitor to the first reference voltage when in its closed state and disconnects the distal terminal from the first reference voltage when in its open state. A second of the at least three switching elements connects the proximal terminal of the sample capacitor to the second reference voltage when in its closed state and disconnects the proximal terminal from the second reference voltage when in its open state. The third of the at least three switching elements connects the distal terminal of the sample capacitor to the second reference voltage when in its closed state and disconnects the distal terminal from the second reference voltage when in its open state. The apparatus further comprises a controller for operating the at least three switching elements so that at any time at least one of the at least three switching elements is in its respective open state. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 6,466,036 is herein incorporated by reference.
In his U.S. Pat. No. 6,452,514, the inventor teaches several key switch arrays based on measuring changes in capacitive coupling between electrode pairs. In particular, he teaches a key matrix comprising a first plurality, N, of input lines, a second plurality, M, of output lines and N times M keys, wherein each key comprises a respective capacitive sensor for sensing the presence of an object proximate thereto and wherein each key is disposed adjacent a respective intersection of an input line and an output line. This key matrix is characterized in that each of the keys comprises a respective driven plate connected to one of the N input lines and a respective receiving plate connected to one of the M output lines; each of the input lines is electrically connected to a respective signal generator for supplying a respective periodic plurality of voltage cycles to each of the driven plates connected to it. There is also a controller for controlling each of a plurality of switching elements in an arrangement in which it controls a first selected number of the plurality of switching elements so as to connect each of the receiving plates to a reference potential when that receiving plate is not connected to one of the two terminals of a charge integrator that can be selectively connected to at least one of the receiving plates during a selected portion of the respective voltage cycle supplied to the driven plate associated with the at least one of the receiving plates, the charge integrator directly connected to at least a first of the plurality of switching elements. There is also a measurement circuit for measuring a voltage on the charge integrator as an indication of the proximate presence of the object. The disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 6,452,514 is incorporated herein by reference.


A method of forming conductive features on a substrate, the method includes reacting a metal compound with a reducing agent in the presence of a stabilizer in a reaction mixture comprising the metal compound, the reducing agent, and the stabilizer, wherein the reaction mixture is substantially free of solvent, to form a plurality of metal nanoparticles with molecules of the stabilizer on the surface of the metal nanoparticles. After isolating the plurality of metal nanoparticles, a liquid composition that includes a polymeric binder, a liquid and the plurality of metal nanoparticles with molecules of the stabilizer on the surface of the metal nanoparticles is deposited on a substrate by a liquid deposition technique to form a deposited composition. The deposited composition is then heated to form conductive features on the substrate.

Fabrication of electronic circuit elements using liquid deposition techniques is of profound interest as such techniques provide potentially low-cost alternatives to conventional mainstream amorphous silicon technologies for electronic applications such as thin film transistors (TFTs), light-emitting diodes (LEDs), RFID tags, photovoltaics, etc. However the deposition and/or patterning of functional electrodes, pixel pads, and conductive traces, lines and tracks which meet the conductivity, processing, and cost requirements for practical applications have been a great challenge. Silver is of particular interest as a conductive element for electronic devices because silver is much lower in cost than gold and silver possesses much better environmental stability than copper.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,270,694, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, discloses a process comprising reacting a silver compound with a reducing agent comprising a hydrazine compound in the presence of a thermally removable stabilizer in a reaction mixture comprising the silver compound, the reducing agent, the stabilizer, and an optional solvent, to form a plurality of silver-containing nanoparticles with molecules of the stabilizer on the surface of the silver-containing nanoparticles.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,494,608, which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, discloses a composition comprising a liquid and a plurality of silver-containing nanoparticles with a stabilizer, wherein the silver-containing nanoparticles are a product of a reaction of a silver compound with a reducing agent comprising a hydrazine compound in the presence of a thermally removable stabilizer in a reaction mixture comprising the silver compound, the reducing agent, the stabilizer, and an organic solvent wherein the hydrazine compound is a hydrocarbyl hydrazine, a hydrocarbyl hydrazine salt, a hydrazide, a carbazate, a sulfonohydrazide, or a mixture thereof, and wherein the stabilizer includes an organoamine.
Silver nanoparticles have also been prepared, for example as described in U.S. Pub. No. 2007/0099357 A1, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety, using 1) amine-stabilized silver nanoparticles and 2) exchanging the amine stabilizer with a carboxylic acid stabilizer. However, this method typically requires a carboxylic acid with a carbon chain length greater than 12 carbon atoms to afford sufficient solubility for solution-processing. Due to the high boiling point of such long-chain carboxylic acids and the strong bond between the carboxylic acid and silver nanoparticles, the annealing temperature required for obtaining conductive silver films is typically greater than 200° C.
While currently available methods for preparing conductive elements for electronic devices are suitable for their intended purposes, there remains a need for an method suitable for preparing conductive structures with a thickness of several micrometers and a low annealing temperature, wherein the metal nanoparticles used to prepared the conductive structure possess an increased shelf life. Although some specialty plastic substrates can withstand annealing temperatures of 250° C., most plastic substrates cannot and thus, dimensional stability is still an issue. Moreover, low cost plastic substrates favor an annealing temperature below 150° C. Further, a need remains for lower cost, environmentally safe methods for preparing liquid processable, stable metal nanoparticle compositions that are suitable for fabricating electrically conductive elements of electronic devices and have an increased shelf life.

Ultra low melt metal nanoparticle composition for thick-film applications


The present invention is directed to protocells for specific targeting of hepatocellular and other cancer cells which comprise a nanoporous silica core with a supported lipid bilayer; at least one agent which facilitates cancer cell death (such as a traditional small molecule, a macromolecular cargo (e.g. siRNA or a protein toxin such as ricin toxin A-chain or diphtheria toxin A-chain) and/or a histone-packaged plasmid DNA disposed within the nanoporous silica core (preferably supercoiled in order to more efficiently package the DNA into protocells) which is optionally modified with a nuclear localization sequence to assist in localizing protocells within the nucleus of the cancer cell and the ability to express peptides involved in therapy (apoptosis/cell death) of the cancer cell or as a reporter, a targeting peptide which targets cancer cells in tissue to be treated such that binding of the protocell to the targeted cells is specific and enhanced and a fusogenic peptide that promotes endosomal escape of protocells and encapsulated DNA. Protocells according to the present invention may be used to treat cancer, especially including hepatocellular (liver) cancer using novel binding peptides (c-MET peptides) which selectively bind to hepatocellular tissue or to function in diagnosis of cancer, including cancer treatment and drug discovery.

Targeted delivery of drugs encapsulated within nanocarriers can potentially ameliorate a number of problems exhibited by conventional 'free' drugs, including poor solubility, limited stability, rapid clearing, and, in particular, lack of selectivity, which results in non-specific toxicity to normal cells and prevents the dose escalation necessary to eradicate diseased cells. Passive targeting schemes, which rely on the enhanced permeability of the tumor vasculature and decreased draining efficacy of tumor lymphatics to direct accumulation of nanocarriers at tumor sites (the so-called enhanced permeability and retention, or EPR effect), overcome many of these problems, but the lack of cell-specific interactions needed to induce nanocarrier internalization decreases therapeutic efficacy and can result in drug expulsion and induction of multiple drug resistance.
One of the challenges in nanomedicine is to engineer nanostructures and materials that can efficiently encapsulate cargo, for example, drugs, at high concentration, cross the cell membrane, and controllably release the drugs at the target site over a prescribed period of time. Recently, inorganic nanoparticles have emerged as a new generation of drug or therapy delivery vehicles in nanomedicine. More recently, gating methods that employ coumarin, azobenzene, rotaxane, polymers, or nanoparticles have been developed to seal a cargo within a particle and allow a triggered release according to an optical or electrochemical stimulus.
While liposomes have been widely used in drug delivery due to their low immunogenicity and low toxicity, they still need to be improved in several aspects. First, the loading of cargo can only be achieved under the condition in which liposomes are prepared. Therefore, the concentration and category of cargo may be limited. Second, the stability of liposomes is relatively low. The lipid bilayer of the liposomes often tends to age and fuse, which changes their size and size distribution. Third, the release of cargo in liposomes is instantaneous upon rupture of the liposome which makes it difficult to control the release.
A porous nanoparticle-supported lipid bilayer (protocell), formed via fusion of liposomes to nanoporous silica particles, is a novel type of nanocarrier that addresses multiple challenges associated with targeted delivery of cancer therapeutics and diagnostics. Like liposomes, protocells are biocompatible, biodegradable, and non-immunogenic, but their nanoporous silica core confers a drastically enhanced cargo capacity and prolonged bilayer stability when compared to similarly-sized liposomal delivery agents. The porosity and surface chemistry of the core can, furthermore, be modulated to promote encapsulation of a wide variety of therapeutic agents, such as drugs, nucleic acids, and protein toxins. The rate of cargo release can be controlled by pore size, chemical composition and the overall degree of silica condensation of the core, making protocells useful in applications requiring either burst or controlled release profiles. Finally, the protocell's supported lipid bilayer (SLB) can be modified with variously with ligands to promote selective delivery and with PEG to extend circulation times.
The need to improve the activity of chemotherapeutic agents and to enhance cancer therapy is ongoing. The use of protocells in conjunction with alternative approaches to targeting, binding, enhancing invasion of cancer and depositing chemotherapeutic agents in proximity to their site of activity are important facets of cancer therapy. The present invention is undertaken to advance the art of cancer therapy and to improve the delivery of agents which can influence therapeutic outcome, whether by enhancing the administration of cancer therapeutic agents or in diagnostics, to facilitate approaches to diagnosing cancer and monitoring cancer therapy.

Porous nanoparticle-supported lipid bilayers (protocells) for targeted delivery and methods of using same


A network device is disclosed. The network device comprises a port to allow reception of a TCAP query. A processor translates the TCAP query into a dial access request and a port allows transmission of the dial access request and to receive a call disposition message.

1. Field
This disclosure relates to port policy management in a centralized call control packet network, more particularly to managing communications between policy systems and Softswitches/Call Agents to manage calls.
2. Background
Signaling system 7 (SS7) was developed by the International Telecommunications Union (ITU) to specify a protocol for call establishment and teardown from exchange to exchange in a public switched telephone network (PSTN). SS7 is a powerful form of common channel signaling (CCS), which allows information about a phone call to be carried separately from the actual phone call itself. The phone call, comprised of audio signals from one party to another, can be carried on the bearer channel or voice circuit. The signals to establish the call and teardown the call are carried on separate circuits to keep the voice circuits free. This prevents calls that cannot be completed, such as those where the destination phone is busy, from tying up the voice circuits. Other types of call signaling can be used, such as PRI (primary rate interface) and CAS (channel assisted signaling).
With the advent of packet network telephony, where telephone call data is carried across packet networks, such as Internet Protocol (IP) networks, an interface was needed to allow the PSTN system to interface with the data network. These interfaces are often referred to as 'Softswitches,' short for software switches. The term 'call agent' may also be used and those two terms will be used interchangeable in this discussion. The Softswitch translates the control signals from the PSTN, such as those using SS7 signaling, to the signals used in the packet network, such as IP signaling. Generally, Softswitches are concerned with call control and service intelligence for PSTN and packet networks.
However, as the use of packet networks for telephony has increased, the need for more tightly controlled management of the resources of the telephony network has increased. The wholesalers, the entities that actually own the packet networks, want better control of the network resources in order to provide a legally binding level of service to the providers, who are the entities that offer users' access to the networks. For example, AT&T may own the actual wires across which the data is running, and AOL may provide the users access to the network for Voice over IP phone calls. The dimensions of AOL's access to the circuits may be governed by a service level agreement (SLA) between AOL and AT&T. In addition, AT&T may have other controls it may want to impose on the network, such as the number of users from any provider allowed to access the network from a particular point-of-presence (POP). These policies need to be enforced network wide.
However, currently, most policy systems are based upon dial protocols, such as Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service (RADIUS). The port policy management systems based on RADIUS protocol cannot be used easily by the Softswitch without significant modifications to the call control systems, as Softswitches are designed to handle voice calls, not dial calls. This prevents a network-wide policy enforcement for networks that includes Softswitch based solutions. Further, there are several Softswitch vendors, so it would be desirable to use a standardized form of providing the interface that would allow Softswitches from any vendor to interact with a policy system, based on a protocol that is supported by all the Softswitches in the market place.

Port policy management for calls in a centralized call control packet network


A method for bending magnesium alloy tubes. The method includes heating the tube at moderate temperature in the range of about 100° C. to 200° C., and bending the tube to a bend angle or forming the tube to a desired shape.

Weight reduction for automobile fuel economy has spurred the growth of magnesium consumption over the last decade at an annual rate of 15%. To date, the automotive applications of magnesium have been die castings, because of the high productivity of the die casting process. To maintain the competitiveness of current magnesium components, and further expand to new applications, improved wrought magnesium alloys and manufacturing processes for such alloys are needed.
Currently, magnesium and its known alloys have poor bendability and formability except in the usual working temperature range for magnesium alloys of 260° C.–320° C., which is the temperature range for conventional "warm" forming of sheet product.
To expand the applicability of magnesium alloys to additional components and structures of a vehicle, improved methods of working magnesium alloys at less cost and without compromising quality are desirable.

Moderate temperature bending of magnesium alloy tubes


This invention describes a slip-over sleep mask, having a tubular-shaped body consisting of a soft cloth or fabric material, which is to be used to effectively block out any light from entering a person's eyes while sleeping. The sleep mask is to be slipped over and worn around a person's head, as one piece, covering the eyes and ears. Permanently attached to the inside lower frontal portion of said tubular-shaped body is a separate ruffled or pleated piece of soft cloth or fabric material. This attached material fills in any gaps of space that exist in the areas between the eyes and nose of a person's face which would otherwise allow for any unwanted light to enter inward. The one piece, slip-over design of the sleep mask stretches and clings naturally to a person's face, thus preventing any movement or shifting of itself during sleep.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention is directed toward a slip-over sleep mask, having a tubular-shaped body consisting of a soft cloth or fabric material, which is to be used to effectively block out any light from entering a person's eyes while sleeping. The sleep mask is to be slipped over and worn around a person's head, as one piece, covering the eyes, ears, top portions of the nose, as well as portions of the sides and back of the head. Permanently attached to the inside lower frontal portion of said tubular-shaped body is a separate ruffled or pleated piece, or pieces, of soft cloth or fabric material. This attached material, due to its design and location on the mask, fills in any gaps of space that exist in the lower areas between the eyes and nose of a person's face, thus creating a blockage to light. Without this said attached material, the mask would otherwise allow for any unwanted rays of light to enter inward into a person's field of vision through the said lower areas between the eyes and nose. These are areas that other sleep masks, presently available on the market today, fail to completely fill in and block from the light. The one piece, slip-over design, of the sleep mask of the present invention, enables the body of the mask to stretch and cling naturally and comfortably to a person's face and head, thus preventing any movement or shifting of itself during sleep. This same one piece design also eliminates the need for the use of any noisy, uncomfortable straps or bulky connectors that are presently used with other sleep masks marketed today. These straps and connectors are usually located at the sides or back of the head and could cause discomfort to a person while trying to sleep, especially during the normal movements of that person's head against a mattress or pillow. Related sleep aids that are currently marketed today utilize the above mentioned fastening methods, involving the noisy, uncomfortable straps or bulky attachments, to affix the sleep aid to the head. These straps and attachments have a tendency to break or come apart.
An additional result achieved by the use of the present invention is the containing and controlling of a person's hair while sleeping. If the hair on a person's head is too frizzy, unruly or in a state of experiencing too much volume, the natural stretch and cling fit of the sleep mask of the present invention helps to lightly compress the hair, keeping it in a more conformed and organized shape.
There is also a third result achieved by the use of the present invention. Since the ears of a person are also covered while wearing the slip-over sleep mask of the present invention, any surrounding noise levels that could disrupt a person's sleep are reduced.
2. Description of Prior Art
There are two other products available today that may seem similar in design, to the above mentioned present invention, but differ in overall construction and in problems that they set out to solve. One such invention is the Therapeutic Sleeping Aid Device (U.S. Pat. No. 6,363,285). This invention can be worn over the head in the form of a wrap but includes a far infrared radiation material which permeates into the skin of a human being. Another such invention is the Sound Muffling Sleep Mask (U.S. Pat. No. D465,234). This is a mask that does not consist of a one-piece, slip-over tubular design but rather is separated, having two separate ends that are to be connected at the back of the head, forming a large-layered lump where the connection is made. Both these inventions do not include a permanently attached ruffled or pleated piece of soft cloth or fabric material which is located in the inside lower frontal portion of its main body that fills in any gaps of space that exist in the areas between the eyes and nose of a person's face which would otherwise allow for any unwanted light to enter inward. In years past, there have been numerous types of sleep masks on the market that consisted of two ends that had to be connected to a person's head by means of stapled rubber straps, cloth straps, Velcro, and clips. These commonly seen masks may have contained added pieces of cloth or fabric material attached to their lower frontal portion, where the eyes and nose areas met, but so far, there has never been a one-piece, slip-over mask, that covered the eyes and ears, with a permanently affixed piece of ruffled or pleated cloth or fabric material attached on the inside frontal portion of the mask, where the eyes and nose areas of the mask meet.


The device that includes a normalization engine configured to populate data fields in a normalized data structure with network information in accordance with normalization rules. The device further includes a virtualization engine configured to generate virtual data defining one or more virtual objects in accordance with virtualization rules that map data fields from the normalized data structure to physical attributes of virtual objects and to transmit the virtual data defining the one or more virtual objects for display on a user device. The virtualization engine is further configured to receive user feedback that identifies a selected virtual object, to identify data field values in the normalized data structure for the physical attributes of the selected virtual object, and to generate an error report comprising at least a portion of the identified data fields values. The virtualization engine is further configured to send the error report to the user device.

Detecting network or hardware errors in computer networks poses a technical challenge due to the large number of interconnected devices. Computer networks are made up of numerous types of devices that each offer different types of functionality. Each of these devices has their own configuration and settings. Conventional systems do not have the ability to detect errors caused by conflicting device configurations and/or settings. For example, conventional systems typically aggregate network information, process the information, and represent the network information using tables or charts. Detecting network and hardware configuration errors using tables and charts alone is not always possible because these types of data structures only provides a static view of a particular aspect of a network's configuration. Conventional systems do not have the ability to dynamically represent the network information in a way that shows how different elements of the network information (e.g. hardware configurations or settings) are related and/or interact with each other. For example, network information may be represented using a table that identifies IP addresses and data traffic, however the table representation does not indicate how this information is related to or affected by other network components.
Because conventional systems are unable to detect these kinds of errors, the network may suffer from degraded performance (e.g. data throughput or network utilization), weakened security, and other related issues. Thus, it is desirable to provide the ability to detect network errors caused by conflicting device configurations and/or settings.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Network error detection using virtual reality display devices


A method and apparatus for performing quickly and efficiently generating the error correction polynomial. In accordance with the present invention, multiple coefficients of the syndrome vector are processed in parallel by a Berlekamp algorithm logic block of the present invention. The Berlekamp algorithm's iterations can be performed in less than 60 clock cycles for a large order error correction polynomial, thereby enabling the polynomial to be generated very rapidly. In order to perform the Berlekamp algorithm at such a high rate of speed, Galois field multiplier logic is utilized in performing the algorithm. Furthermore, because of the large number of logical multiplication and addition operations that are performed in parallel, the Galois filed multiplier logic in accordance with the preferred embodiment of the present invention is configured in such a way that redundancy in processing polynomial coefficients is greatly reduced, which enables the number of logic gates needed to implement the Galois field multiplier logic to be vastly reduced. This reduction in the number of gates used for this purpose reduces area and power consumption requirements.

When information is transmitted over a communications link between a receiver and a transmitter, the bits that describe the information being transmitted can be corrupted. In other words, the receiver may determine that a received bit that is supposed to be a binary 1 is a binary 0, and vice versa. Corruption of bits in a data stream may be caused by a variety of factors or components in the communications link. For example, in an optical fiber network, optical energy is transmitted in the form of optical pulses that have particular levels that correspond to binary 1s and 0s. If the level of the optical energy is too low, the receiver can have difficulty determining whether a pulse corresponds to a binary 1 or a binary 0. Repeaters, or amplifiers, normally are disposed at particular locations along the communications link that amplify the optical signals so that they are at the proper levels to enable the receiver to determine whether it has received a binary 1 or a binary 0. Typically, the optical signals are converted into electrical signals at the repeaters. The electrical signals are then amplified and converted into optical signals, which are then modulated back onto the optical fiber. Similarly, at the receiver, the optical signals typically are converted back into electrical signals, which the receiver compares to a threshold value to determine whether it has received a binary 1 or a binary 0.
Because it is possible for the bits to be corrupted, techniques have been developed and implemented that provide error correction. In other words, if a bit received by the receiver is erroneously determined to be a binary 1 when it was meant to be a binary 0 when it was transmitted, and vice versa, receivers utilize various techniques to determine whether a bit value has been incorrectly identified and to correct the bit value. One known technique used for such purposes is generally referred to as the "Automatic Repeat Request" (ARQ) technique. In accordance with this technique, when the receiver detects a bit error, it sends a signal to the transmitter that tells the transmitter to retransmit the block of data that contained the error. The receiver processes the retransmitted data block and detects bit errors. The data block may need to be retransmitted several times before the receiver determines that the data is without error. Of course, retransmitting data utilizes bandwidth and generally slows down the overall throughput of the communications system.
A technique known as Forward Error Correction (FEC) is commonly used in the communications industry to reduce errors in data being transmitted over a communications link without requiring retransmission of data. FEC not only detects bit errors, but corrects detected bit errors. One of the primary advantages of FEC over ARQ is that no retransmission of data is required with FEC. This is because FEC techniques introduce redundancy in the data bits that enables the receiver of a communications system to detect errors in data being transmitted and to correct the detected errors. The redundancy generally is introduced by utilizing data bits from the data stream to encode the data stream. The receiver has a decoder that has intelligence with regard to the encoding scheme used by the transmitter, which enables the receiver to decode the data and detect and correct errors without the need for retransmission. Another advantage of FEC is that, because it does not require retransmission of data, simplex links can be used, which is desirable in certain situations, such as when the receivers are receive-only terminals.
Generally, FEC techniques and systems fall into two broad categories, namely, block coding and convolution coding. Various block coding and convolution coding techniques are currently in use in the communications industry. In the past, the use of block codes has generally been limited to use in communications systems that have relatively low data rates for various reasons, such as the aforementioned adverse effects on overall coding gain (signal-to-noise ratio, Eb/No), which is expressed in decibels (dB), for short data bursts and the reduced overall throughput that can result from the synchronization requirement. Convolution coding has generally been the preferred FEC technique for high data rate implementations. However, convolution coding results in higher output bit error rates (BER) than the output (BERs) that can be achieved using block coding. Some customers want FEC systems with very low BERs (e.g., 10−15), which generally cannot be achieved using convolution coding, but which can be achieved using block coding, such as Bose-Chaudhuri-Hocquenghem (BCH) block coding, for example.
FEC decoding requires that a vector known as the syndrome vector be computed by multiplying the code word received by the decoder of the FEC system receiver by a matrix known as the parity-check matrix. This syndrome vector is then processed in accordance with a Berlekamp algorithm, which generates an error location polynomial. The error correction polynomial, once resolved, is analyzed in accordance with a Chien search algorithm, which determines the actual locations of the bit errors in the received code word. The Chien search engine then passes results to an error correction logic block which exclusive-ORs (XORs) the output from the Chien search engine with delayed corresponding bits of the code word, which causes the bits that are erroneous to be inverted and thereby corrected.
The typical approach to performing the Berlekamp algorithm is to process one bit or syndrome value of the syndrome vector per clock cycle, which is generally suitable for relatively low data rate systems, but is not suitable for high data rate systems. A need exists for a method and apparatus for performing the Berlekamp algorithm to determine the error correction polynomial very quickly so that the error correction polynomial can be computed very rapidly, thereby enabling the decoder to be suitable for use in high data rate systems.

Method and apparatus for computing the error locator polynomial in a decoder of a forward error correction (FEC) system


An internally lighted flag mast that reflects light externally using reflective surfaces within the flag mast to illuminate a flag hanging therefrom. An opaque cover, sides and baffles on the flag mast block direct light from being emitted and only allow reflected light to illuminate the flag. During darkness, a photosensor means automatically activates the light source.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains generally to flag poles and devices for illuminating flags attached thereto, and more particularly to an apparatus for supporting and illuminating a display flag which uses reflected light from an internal light source to illuminate a flag hanging therefrom.
2. Description of the Background Art
In the past, flags being flown from flag poles during periods of darkness have been illuminated using projection lights positioned near the base of the flag pole, or in some instances by an illumination source that was positioned atop the flag pole above the flag. Such methods of flag illumination have been found to be generally ineffective, however, because the illumination source remains stationary while the orientation of the flag can vary with changes in wind direction and strength. When this occurs, either all or part of the flag's surface may not be exposed to the light rays, thus resulting in either all or part of the flag remaining in darkness.
To solve this problem, lights have been mounted vertically along the flag pole adjacent the flag. One approach is to mount the lights vertically on a rotatable section at the upper end of the flag pole where the flag is attached. That approach would allow the lights to change direction along with changes in direction of the flag due to the wind. Another approach is to configure the lights to shine directly outward 360.degree., thus illuminating the flag at any direction.
Even though illuminated flag poles are well known, previously developed approaches to illuminating flags contain several deficiencies. First, the flag is attached along its side vertically to the flag pole. This leaves the flag dangling downward when there is insufficient wind to fly the flag, thus rendering a substantial portion of the flag non-visible, even with illumination. Second, even when increasingly popular display flags supported along their top edge are flown, the direct light used to illuminate the flag can produce an annoying glare for those viewing the flag and, in some instances, the glare can impact persons not even directly viewing the flag. Illuminated flag poles that use reflected light scatter light as they are shown or can only produce light in a directional flood, both of which result in the annoying glare.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an apparatus which can support and provide complete illumination of a flag without the drawbacks associated with light glare and scattered light from the illumination source, and for a flag pole capable of flying a flag such that a substantial portion of the flag's surface is continuously displayed irregardless of wind direction or strength. The present invention satisfies those needs, as well as others, and overcomes the deficiencies in prior approaches to supporting and illuminating flags.

Apparatus for supporting and illuminating display flags


In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, there is provided a door closure apparatus for covering a single opening in a vehicle body. The apparatus including a first door, a second door and a third door, each door being pivotally supported by hinges which are concealed from view when the first, second, and third doors are in a closed position.

1. Technical Field
This invention generally relates to a vehicle closure apparatus and, more particularly, to a closure apparatus having multiple doors with concealed hinges for covering a single opening in a vehicle body.
2. Discussion
One advantage of having a large vehicle, such as a van, minivan, or sport utility vehicle, is that a large cargo area is available for carrying cargo. In order to fully utilize this cargo area, a large opening is generally provided in the vehicle body so that objects which would not fit through the traditional door openings of a vehicle can be loaded into the cargo area. A noted disadvantage of having a large opening in the vehicle body is the fact that a large door must be provided to cover the opening. Traditionally within the automotive industry these doors, or closures, as they are often referred to, have been placed at the rear of the vehicle and are generally a one or two piece design.
Initially, two-piece designs were used in which there were either two horizontal doors or two vertical doors. Typically, vertical doors were utilized on cargo vans or full sized passenger vans while horizontal doors were utilized on station wagons and were typically a clam shell type opening.
One-piece doors, typically referred to as a liftgate, have been used with increasing frequency on sport utility type vehicles and minivans. The liftgate is typically hinged along the top portion of the door which generally coincides with the roof line at the rear of the vehicle. The liftgate typically extends from the roof line to a point just above the rear bumper and pivots upwardly so that the liftgate is overhead when fully opened.
Several disadvantages of the liftgate are the room required behind the vehicle in order to open the liftgate, and the weight of the liftgate itself. Since the liftgate is a single piece basically running from the roof line down to the bumper level, a fairly large amount of clearance is required behind the vehicle in order to provide clearance for the liftgate to swing from a closed position to an open position. This condition often requires the user to move the vehicle away from other vehicles which have been parked behind it so that the liftgate can be opened. The one-piece lifigate also limits how close the vehicle can be parked to an opening (such as a garage door) when items are being unloaded from the cargo area.
Further, since the liftgate is a large single piece unit often incorporating a rear window, a rear window wiper, and a wiper motor, the weight of the liftgate can be considerable. The effect of the weight of the liftgate can be compensated for by providing hydraulic lifts or struts to assist the operator in opening the liftgate. However, the force of the lifts must then be overcome in order to close the liftgate thereby increasing the effort required to lower the liftgate. The struts are generally designed to provide enough lifting force that even if they wear or some of the internal pressure bleeds down over time they will still provide sufficient force to assist in lifting and holding the liftgate in the open position. Therefore, when the struts are new the force which must be overcome can be significant.
Another disadvantage of one-piece liftgates is the height of the liftgate when it is in the open position. Some people find the liftgate handle, which may pivot down when the liftgate is open or may be fixed to the liftgate structure, difficult to reach while at the same time others find that there is insufficient head clearance when they walk underneath the liftgate.
Several disadvantages of the two-piece vertical door systems utilized on cargo vans and full size vans is the physical limitation presented to the vehicle stylist in trying to soften the look of the rear of the vehicle. Fundamental kinematics of the motion of the doors and the hinging required to support the doors limits the tumble home, or slope, a two-piece vertical door system is allowed to have from the roof line to the lower window portion of the vehicle. This lower window portion is often referred to as the belt line of the vehicle. With ever increasing emphasis on reduced coefficient of drag and aerodynamic performance, stylists have tended toward having an increased tumble home at the rear of the vehicle. By utilizing the two full height vertical doors for the rear opening of the vehicle the ability to increase the tumble home is limited. Further, many automotive stylists wish to increase the rear tumble home in order to provide a more aesthetically pleasing side view of the vehicle such that the rear of the vehicle has character lines which are coordinated with the sloping front ends of many new vehicles.


A generator is connectable to a turbine for generating electric power or a motor. An electric power generator system or a motor comprises an asynchronous short-circuited rotor generator or motor comprising a stator, a rotor, and a transformer having a first winding and a second winding, the first winding having a first end and a second end. The stator and the transformer are connectable in series with an electric power distribution grid.

It is known in the state of the art that currently there are many asynchronous short-circuited rotor generators, such as the so-called squirrel cage rotor, coupled to turbines, such as wind turbines, and connected directly to a three-phase electric power distribution grid by voltage step-up transformers. Consequently, said configuration of turbine connected to a generator is used to produce electric power that reaches end users through the three-phase electric power distribution grid.
Asynchronous short-circuited rotor generators, i.e., squirrel cage, are widely used because they are simple, robust, and relatively inexpensive. However, such squirrel cage generators also have disadvantages, such as high current demand during startup requiring a soft start function, a minimal ability to vary the rotational speed of the turbine because of a stiff characteristic torque versus rotational speed in the stable operation region, with resulting significant oscillations of the electromagnetic torque and of the active power transmitted to the electrical system, the inability to meet a requirement for dynamic reactive power exchange from the distribution grid for proper operation, the inability of starting up and operating as a stand-alone system, the inability to be insulated from the external power oscillations from the distribution grid, and the inability to damp such power oscillations.
It would be highly desirable to have a squirrel-cage generator which retained the features of simplicity, robustness. and relative low cost without the disadvantages discussed above.

Stator controlled induction generators with short-circuited rotor


Compositions comprising a reactive gas and a matrix gas are disclosed, as well as articles of manufacture and methods of making the articles. The methods of manufacturing preferably employ zeolites to remove moisture from the reactive gas and from the matrix gas, and then combine the moisture reduced gases either in a container, or prior to filling a container, which has been previously vacuum-baked and passivated. The invention produces stable standard gas compositions having improved shelf-life.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention is generally related to the field of manufacturing compositions comprising an acid gas and a matrix gas having reduced moisture, and which are stable in acid gas concentration for more than an insignificant time period. The invention is also related to articles of manufacture containing these compositions, such as metal cylinders containing the compositions, ton units containing the compositions, and the like.
2. Related Art
Moisture is known to react with reactive gases, such as the so-called "acid gases", for example, hydrogen sulfide, carbonylsulfide, carbondisulfide and mercaptans (mercaptans are also referred to as thiols) to form a complex compound. (The term "acid gas" is used herein to denote either gas phase, liquid phase, or mixture of gas and liquid phases, unless the phase is specifically mentioned.)
One problem presents itself: if one is interested in producing reactive gas standard compositions, in other words reactive gases having a known concentration of one of these gases in a matrix or carrier fluid, then one must consider how to reduce or remove the moisture. Gas standards may have to have, and preferably do have, a long shelf life, since the standard reactive gas may not be required immediately after production. A source of reactive gas may contain a considerable amount of moisture. Therefore, the reduction or removal of moisture from the reactive gas is of primary importance if the stability of the reactive gas in the standard gas is to be maintained. It has also recently been observed that moisture in the matrix gas (prior to its being mixed with the acid gas) contributes to the problem, for if one removes moisture from the reactive gas, and then mixes the dried reactive gas with a wet matrix gas, the problem has not been entirely solved, even if the moisture level in the matrix gas is comparatively low.
A second, related problem involves the containers that the reactive gas standards are stored in. If metal or metal lined, reactive gases will react with and/or become adsorbed onto the metal, and will ultimately change the concentration of the reactive gas.
Grossman et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,834) describes alloys, such as alloys of nickel, titanium, and zirconium, that react with water and reactive gases (such as hydrogen, hydrogen-containing compounds such as hydrocarbons, carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, oxygen, and nitrogen) at temperatures ranging from about 200° C. to about 650° C. While the patent does not discuss acid gases, it is apparent that hydrogen sulfide, carbonyl sulfide, and mercaptans are hydrogen-containing compounds, so that there would not be any expected benefits using these alloys to remove moisture from these acid gases. While carbondisulfide does not contain hydrogen, and therefore there could be some moisture reduction from a composition comprising carbondisulfide and moisture using these alloys, the high temperature is prohibitive for commercial use.
Tamhankar et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,224) describes a one-step process for removing minute quantities of impurities from inert gases, where the impurities are selected from the group consisting of carbon monoxide, carbon dioxide, oxygen, hydrogen, water and mixture thereof. The process comprises contacting the gas with a particulate material comprised of nickel in an amount of at least about 5% by weight as elemental nickel and having a large surface area, from about 100 to about 200 m2/g. There is no disclosure of removal of moisture from reactive gases; there is therefore no discussion or suggestion of moisture removal from reactive gases, moisture removal from matrix gases and mixing same to form a standard gas composition.
Tom et al (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,853,148 and 4,925,646) discloses processes and compositions for drying of gaseous hydrogen halides of the formula HX, where X is selected from the group consisting of bromine, chlorine, fluorine, and iodine. The patent describes the use of, for example, an organometallic compound such as an alkylmagnesium compound, on a support. The halide is substituted for the alkyl functional group. Suitable supports are, alumina, silica, and aluminosilicates (natural or synthetic). However, there is no description or suggestion of reducing or removing moisture from sulfur-containing reactive gases, or of removal of moisture from matrix gases and mixing the reduced moisture gases to form a standard gas. Alvarez, Jr. et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,910,292) describes a process and apparatus for removal of water from corrosive halogen gases, using a high silica zeolite, preferably high silica mordenite. The patent describes removing moisture down to less than or equal to 100 ppb water concentration in halogen gases, particularly chlorine- or bromine-containing gases, but once again, there is lacking any teaching of suggestion of standard gas compositions. U.S. Pat. No. 6,183,539 discloses utilizing high sodium, low silica faujasite particles for the adsorption of carbon dioxide and water vapor from gas streams. The disclosed types of gas streams in which this type of high sodium, low silica faujasite crystals can be utilized includes air, nitrogen, hydrogen, natural gas, individual hydrocarbons and monomers, such as ethylene, propylene, 1,3 butadiene, isoprene and other such gas systems. There is no mention of sulfur-containing acid gas purification using the faujasites, or production of standard gas compositions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,358,627 discloses use of "acid resistant" molecular sieves, such as that known under the trade designation "AW300", for reducing the chloride concentration in chlorinated liquid hydrocarbons that contain an ethylenically unsaturated chlorinated hydrocarbon, water and hydrogen chloride. The method includes providing certain nitrogen-containing compounds in the system and contacting the system with the molecular sieve. There is no disclosure or suggestion, however, of removal or reduction of moisture from gas phase compositions, or production of standard gas compositions.
Given the problems of moisture reacting with sulfur-containing acid gases and other reactive gases, and the fact that some or all reactive gases will react with metals, there is a definite and unmet need for standard gas compositions, articles of manufacture including those standards which are stable over reasonable periods of time, and methods of producing same.

Reduced moisture compositions comprising an acid gas and a matrix gas, articles of manufacture comprising said compositions, and processes for manufacturing same


One embodiment provides a computer program product for cognitive visual and ontological mapping of tabular data. The computer program product comprises a computer readable storage medium having program instructions embodied therewith. The program instructions are executable by a processor to cause the processor to receive a data query and ontology information relating to the data query, receive context information relating to a display device, determine a measure of interest for the data query and one or more constraints for the measure of interest, determine saliency features based on the context information, and generate a user interface comprising query results corresponding to the data query arranged in a dynamic tabular format for display on the display device. The dynamic tabular format is based on the ontology information, the measure of interest, the one or more constraints for the measure of interest, and the saliency features.

Data visualization involves the visual representation of data. To make complex data more accessible, understandable and usable, the data is placed in a visual context using statistical graphics, plots, information graphics or other data visualization tools. Data visualization is especially useful for analytical tasks, such as making comparisons or understanding causality. Patterns, trends and correlations that might go undetected in numerical or text-based data can be exposed and recognized easier with data visualization.

Cognitive visual and ontological mapping of tabular data based on a distribution of a measure of interest

International Business Machines Corporation


Firearms having a locked breech are disclosed. An example firearm includes a barrel; a bolt head; a firing pin having a bulge; a bolt head carrier having a forward position and a rearward position; a central force receiving component receiving a rear end of the barrel and defining a plurality of recesses; and a locking bolt penetrating the bolt head. The locking bolt is movable between: (1) a locked position wherein the locking bolt engages in the recesses of the central force receiving component to thereby lock the bolt head to the central force receiving component and (2) an unlocked position wherein the bolt head is free to move with the bolt head carrier. The locking bolt is pressed by the bolt head carrier into the locked position when the bolt head carrier is in the distal position. The locking bolt defines an oblong hole which is penetrated by the firing pin. The oblong hole has a beveled edge which engages the bulge of the firing pin to push the firing pin rearward when the locking bolt moves from the locked position to the unlocked position. The barrel defines a gas intake opening. A gas cylinder is located in the central force receiving component. The gas cylinder is in communication with the gas intake opening. The bolt head carrier forms at least a portion of a gas piston which cooperates with the gas cylinder.

Throughout this patent, position designations such as "above," "below," "top" "forward," "rear," etc. are referenced to a firearm held in a normal firing position (i.e., pointed away from the shooter in a generally horizontal direction).
Semi-automatic firearms with sensitive cartridge cases, in particular semi-automatic shot guns, have always been problematic. In particular, problems arise due to the extremely low resistance of the cartridges to residual pressure when loading the weapon. With semi-automatic shot guns, it is an additional problem in that cartridges with exactly the same measurements can have very different payloads, which in turn makes for different residual pressures.
Additionally, the breech on many semi-automatic weapons tends to open when the bullet is still in the barrel and/or when the gas pressure has not fallen sufficiently.
With a semi-automatic weapon, like a shot gun or a semi-automatic pistol designed for strong cartridges and/or a long-barreled pistol, low residual pressure will cause most cartridge shells to inflate or burst when the lock is opened. Such residual pressure is unavoidable in a simple semi-automatic pistol with a blow-back breech. But locked recoil operated guns also have residual pressure when the breech opens which some shotgun cartridge shells cannot sustain. Recoil-loading semi-automatic rifles, which are made for weak cartridges, have jamming problems when used with stronger ammunition. These jamming problems can be attributed to the increased residual pressure associated with stronger ammunition.
Some shot-gun cartridge shells have, in the past, been made entirely of metal. However, due to the high price and weight associated with such a construction, such metal shells were not generally accepted.
An additional problem is the low tensile-load capacity of a shot-gun cartridge shell in its longitudinal direction. With cheap shot-gun cartridge shells made of cardboard with metal bottoms, such loads may cause the metal bottom in the cartridge chamber to separate from the remainder of the shell. The low conicity of shot-gun cartridges contributes to this tendency.
For approximately 100 years, shot guns have used a recoil-loading system in which, upon the firing of a shot, the barrel and the closed breech first recoil back over the full recoil range. The pressure is almost completely dissipated in this run-back process. (Browning, Walther type weapons utilize this sort of recoil loading system.) In such systems, after the breech reaches the rearmost position, it remains fixed and the barrel is decelerated under the power of a spring such that the barrel is returned relatively slowly towards the front. The breech and the cartridge shell remain stationary as the barrel returns to the forward position, so that the cartridge is gently extracted from the barrel. Thus, excessive longitudinal forces do not act upon the cartridge shell. After the ejection of the cartridge shell, the breech snaps forward again under the effect of the closing spring. In the process, the breech carries a new cartridge forward into the cartridge chamber.
Such a shot gun is very reliable—even with differently charged ammunition. But, it has two different disadvantages. First, a built-in brake is provided to slow the movement of the barrel and perform an adjustment for extreme cartridge charge differences (i.e., for different sized cartridges). However, this brake only works under strictly defined conditions (for example, only when the components are lightly oiled). Second, the relatively slow, powerful backwards movement of the barrel requires support from the housing. This support takes place in that the weapon is pressed into the shoulder of the shooter. However, if the weapon is shot from the hip, then this support is not provided, which can lead to serious loading malfunctions. Such a system is, therefore, not suitable for shot guns that are used in military and/or police applications.
Recently, the tendency has been to switch to gas pressure loaders for shot guns. Gas pressure loaders have long been used in semi-automatic rifles and have proven themselves in that context. But, semi-automatic shot guns require a defined gas pressure and an easily removable, rugged shot cartridge shell. With modern, powerful cartridges that have a cartridge floor made of metal with a long sleeve and a shell body made of longitudinally ribbed plastic, such gas pressure loader shot guns enjoy trouble-free operation. Moreover, even with poor quality cartridges, gas pressure loader firearms do not have the support disadvantage of recoil-loading shot guns. Thus, the gas pressure loader functions the same when the weapon is fired from the hip and when the weapon is fired from the shoulder.
However, gas pressure loaders are very complicated. Depending on the powder used, they require different levels of cleaning and are susceptible to dirt, rust, and lack of oil due to the many metal-on-metal contact areas. Cutting down on gas pistons by loading the breech with drawn-off powder gases leads to structural simplification, but increases the risk of fouling.
Modern recoil loaders are also known that operate without movement of the barrel (e.g., the G3 weapon). However, this functionality is achieved at a cost in sensitivity with respect to ammunition. In other words, such recoil loading weapons, in particular these types of shot guns, are very sensitive as far as ammunition is concerned.
Another recoil-loading system that is locked, but still has a rigid barrel, is also known for shot guns. This system, which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,942, has a bolt head carrier seated loosely in the weapon. The bolt head carrier remains in position due to its mass inertia while all other parts of the weapon run backwards due to the recoil. The bolt head carrier and the bolt head are constructed such that they eventually strike each other. This seemingly simple weapon is, in fact, very complicated. Moreover, the recoil loading system does not seem to function safely, as a weapon that came to market with this system is no longer offered for sale.
This system was later combined with a pump gun mechanism in the Benelli Super M 3. In that combination, the semi-automatic activity could be optionally disabled. These known weapons have a tube magazine, which is not practical for a service weapon.
Soon after the emergence of the repeating firearms with cylinder breech mechanisms, attempts were made to simplify the loading motion. To load by hand, the marksman had to make a transverse motion, a back motion, a forward motion and again a transverse motion. Consequently, a kind of worm gear was developed, which converts a simple back and forward motion into the above specified complicated movement. Due to the complicated mechanics, these so-called straight pull action systems either did not prove themselves or were too expensive. In the case of these known straight pull action systems, a breech block is assigned to the actual breech or bolt head, which could be viewed as a bolt head carrier.
There are also other systems for simplifying the loading motion. Such a system was realized prior to the above named straight pull action system. In that earlier system, the breech can be moved in a straight line forward until reaching the cartridge base in the cartridge chamber. When the breech reaches this position, a cross slide or locking block is moved into recesses in the breech and into the case of the weapon to thereby lock the breech. A bottom lever is rotated downward in an arc-shaped motion in an initial run to release the locking block. The unlocked breech is then pulled back in an end run. The breech is not closed and locked until the bottom lever is rotated upward. A box magazine has also been known for use with this system since 1895.
Similar systems are not activated by a bottom lever, but rather by a slide which is joined to the fore end and can be moved in a straight line. However, in these systems, the locking block executes a rotating motion.
All of the above described systems are quite complicated and correspondingly expensive and sensitive.
In the case of locking blocks with bottom levers and fore end loaders, particularly in the case of those that use heavy cartridges, high surface pressures occur. These pressures can only be counteracted by awkwardly shaped constructions or extremely high precision.
Particularly in the case of weapons for emergency use, ruggedness, small dimensions, and reliability should be combined with a low price. Such weapons are typically only used in rare emergencies, but then they must function safely under difficult circumstances.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,906,651 appears to illustrate a cartridge with a round profile seated on the breech block of a breech that has two opposing extractor hooks.


A power storage apparatus includes a power storage module having a plurality of power storage elements which are aligned in one direction; a device placed adjacently to the power storage module in the direction of the alignment of the power storage elements; a high-voltage cable used in charge and discharge of the power storage module; and a support structure configured to support the high-voltage cable at a plurality of points to position the high-voltage cable along a reference path. The high-voltage cable is configured to electrically connect an electrode terminal of the power storage module to the device. The electrode terminal is one of two electrode terminals of the power storage module and is located on a farther side of the power storage module from the device.

In a battery module in which a plurality of cells are electrically connected in series, a negative cable and a positive cable are connected as high-voltage cables to electrode terminals (corresponding to a positive terminal and a negative terminal of battery module) in two particular cells in order to perform charge and discharge of the battery module (see, Japanese patent laid-open publication No. 2006-228526). The positive cable has one end connected to the positive terminal of the battery module and the other end connected to a device (for example, a relay). The negative cable has one end connected to the negative terminal of the battery module and the other end connected to the device (for example, a relay).
In the abovementioned conventional structure, it may be difficult to connect both ends of the high-voltage cable at predetermined connection positions due to the tolerance of the length of the high-voltage cable. For example, in a state in which the one end of the positive cable is connected to the positive terminal of the battery module, it may be difficult to connect the other end of the positive cable to the device.


The invention relates to an implantable capsule, particularly an autonomous capsule of cardiac stimulation, including a tubular body provided at the distal end of an anchoring element with a helical screw adapted to penetrate tissue a wall of an organ of a patient, the body housing a set of functional elements of the capsule. It includes, in an annular area surrounding the base of the screw recessed arrangements defining a set of flush tips oriented in a circumferential direction opposite to that of the screwing, to avoid the unscrewing of the capsule.

The invention relates to "active implantable medical devices" as defined by Directive 90/385/EEC of 20 Jun. 1990 of the Council of the European Communities, specifically to devices that continuously monitor heart rhythm and deliver to the heart if necessary stimulation, resynchronization and/or defibrillation pulses in cases of arrhythmia detected by the device.
The invention relates especially, but is not limited to, those devices that are in the form of an autonomous capsule intended to be implanted in a heart chamber (atrium or ventricle, right or left). These capsules are free of any mechanical connection to an implantable (such as a housing of the stimulation pulse generator) or non-implantable (external device such as programmer or monitoring device for patient remote monitoring) main device. For this reason they are called "leadless capsules" to distinguish them from electrodes or sensors disposed at the distal end of a conventional probe (lead), which is traversed throughout its length by one or more conductors connecting the electrode or sensor to a generator connected to an opposite, proximal end of the lead.
EP 2394695 A1 (Sorin CRM),now EP 2394695 B1, describes an autonomous intracardiac capsule, and a method to implant it to the selected detection/stimulation site and reposition it if necessary.
Note, however, as will be understood by reading the description, that the autonomous nature of the capsule is not inherently a necessary feature of the invention, and that the latter can be both applied to capsules permanently mounted at the distal end of a lead.
An implantable capsule includes a body housing the main components of the device (electronic circuits, power source, stimulation electrodes, etc.) and a base secured to the body and rigidly supporting methods for fixing to the wall.
In the case of cardiac leads, two types of fasteners are known and conventionally employed: fixation with "barbs" is the oldest and is still used marginally, but the leads based on a fixing screw have supplanted barb leads and currently represent the majority of the market. They allow a generally robust and effective fixation.
The screw is a projecting helical screw extending axially the capsule body and adapted to penetrate the heart tissue by screwing in the implantation site, in the same method as the conventional screw leads.
However, the fixing of such devices is still a critical point to the extent that accidental detachment of the capsule would cause the latter to be released into the heart chamber and then transported by the blood in the venous or arterial system. Complication risk to the patient would be extremely high, as well as the risk of cardiac system injury which can be generated by the end of the fastening system or other projecting regions of the implant such as a needle electrode or a projecting ridge.
More than a lead device, an autonomous device undergoes stresses and movements generated by the heart wall, as it does not benefit from the axial holding force from the lead body.
To fulfill its permanent anchoring function, the fastening system must also include a function of irreversibility. That is to say it can be removed from the heart wall only by the doctor's voluntary action and according to a predefined method, but in no case by repeated movements or vibrations of the heart, or by modification of heart muscle due to the disease or tissue aging.
WO 2012/051235 A1 discloses reverse rotation prevention methods which implement arrangements with protruding spikes formed directly on the screw and oriented in an opposite circumferential direction to the direction of screwing, or protruding spikes penetrating the tissues at the base of the screw. This implies significant damage to all tissues crossed or adjacent during implantation of the implant.

Implantable capsule for leadless cardiac pacing


A system and method for managing emergency calls are disclosed herein. The method includes receiving an emergency related call at a call center, and during the emergency related call, retrieving information related to i) a type of incident being reported, ii) a location of the incident being reported, and iii) a description of the incident being reported. A public safety answering point to notify of the incident is identified, where such identification is based upon at least some of the retrieved information. A database is searched for outgoing calls to the identified public safety answering point, and based upon results from the searching, a determination is made as to whether to contact the identified public safety answering point.

Some vehicle communication systems allow drivers to contact a particular service provider in the event of an emergency. The service provider may be able to determine the location of the driver, and then contact a public safety or service answering point (PSAP) that is located within the boundary within which the vehicle is located. To assist the service provider, a database of public safety answering geographic boundaries and the phone numbers may be accessed.

System and method for managing emergency calls


The present invention relates to a process for preparing alkyl halosilanes by reacting a contact material which comprises, in addition to silicon, at least one copper-containing compound as catalyst and at least one promoter, with an alkyl halide.

The basic process for preparing methyl chlorosilanes is the direct reaction of milled silicon with methyl chloride in the presence of copper as catalyst. The reaction is known to a person skilled in the art as the "Rochow synthesis" and is described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,380,995.
According to this process, a mixture of methyl chlorosilanes in which dichlorodimethylsilane (Di) is the main constituent is formed. In addition, methyl trichlorosilane (Tri) and other products such as, for instance, trimethyl chlorosilane (mono), tetramethyl silane (TMS), methyl hydrogen dichlorosilane (MeH) and higher boiling methylchlorodisilanes (PS) are formed.
Since the discovery of this synthesis, efforts have been made to improve the performance of the synthesis and to increase the proportion of dichlorodimethylsilane.
This is achieved in particular by using purer raw materials and by the use of promoters. Suitable promoters, according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,602,101, are zinc, tin and phosphorus, as the elements or in the form of their compounds. U.S. Pat. No. 5,059,706 also discloses, in addition to zinc and optionally tin, the use of volatile phosphorus compounds as promoters. At high phosphorus concentrations, although acceptable selectivities with respect to dichlorodimethylsilane are obtained, the yields are unsatisfactory.
The object of the present invention was, therefore, the provision of a process for preparing alkyl chlorosilanes which has a high selectivity and a high yield.


In accordance with an embodiment, an apparatus includes a millimeter wave radar sensor system configured to detect a location of a body of a person, where the detected location of the body of the person defines a direction of the person relative to the apparatus; and a microphone system configured to generate at least one audio beam as a function at least of the direction.

Voice controlled electronic systems are becoming increasingly more common in smart-phone applications and Internet connected devices. During operation, such systems listen to voice commands issued by a user and perform actions in response to such commands. For example, a voice activated system may play music, provide a verbal weather forecast adjust a thermostat setting or lighting in response to the user's vocal request. Such systems may be deployed to provide control of electronic equipment a smart home.
Ensuring accurate detection of vocal commands designed to trigger a specific response can be challenging given the extremely varied spatial configurations of their surroundings. For example, noisy environments, such as a large crowded room with many people speaking at once may pose difficulties in detecting a user's verbal command.

System and method for a voice-controllable apparatus


A distributed processing system includes a first site and a second site, each containing at least one device having cache storage, nonvolatile storage, where, in response to moving a process running on the processor of the first site to the processor running on the second site, data in the cache storage of the first site is no longer accessed by the process, the data being read into the cache of the storage of the first site in response to the process accessing data in the non-volatile memory of the first site prior to being moved to the second site. A process running on the processor of the first site moving to the processor running on the second site and corresponding cache slots may be detected by parsing the VMFS containing virtual machine disks used by the process.

A virtual machine (VM) is a software implementation of a machine that executes programs like a physical machine. Virtualization software allows multiple VMs with separate operating systems to run in isolation on the same physical server. Each VM may have its own set of virtual hardware (e.g., RAM, CPU, NIC, etc.) upon which an operating system and applications are loaded. The operating system may see a consistent, normalized set of hardware regardless of the actual physical hardware components. A virtual center may operate to control virtual machines in data centers and, for example, in connection with cloud computing. The virtual center may further include a virtual data center that provides logical control and management of data storage in a data center, and provides for sub-dividing contents of virtual components into compute resources, network resources and storage resources.
Configuring and deploying VMs is known in the field of computer science. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,577,722 to Khandekar, et al., entitled "Provisioning of Computer Systems Using Virtual Machines," which is incorporated herein by reference, discloses techniques for configuring and deploying a VM according to user specifications. VMs may be provisioned with respect to any appropriate resource, including, for example, storage resources, CPU processing resources and/or memory. Operations of VMs may include using virtual machine images. A VM that may be moved between different locations and processing thereafter continued without interruption. Reference is made to U.S. Pat. No. 8,667,490 B1 to van der Goot, entitled "Active/Active Storage and Virtual Machine Mobility Over Asynchronous Distances," which is incorporated herein by reference.
While data and processes are moved between different sites, it is desirable that the cached data be kept coherent with respect to modifications that may be made to the data at the different sites. An example of a system for providing distributed cache coherence is described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,975,018 to Unrau et al., entitled "Systems and Methods for Providing Distributed Cache Coherency," which is incorporated herein by reference. Other systems and techniques for managing and sharing storage array functions among multiple storage groups in a storage network are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,266,706 to Brown et al. entitled "Methods and Systems for Implementing Shared Disk Array Management Functions," which is incorporated herein by reference.
One drawback to maintain cache coherency is that, after a VM, application and/or process (hereinafter, collectively, "process") is moved from an originating location to a destination location, the cached data for the process may be maintained on the originating location. Although cache coherency may provide cached data consistency, data access efficiency may suffer if a process on a first site needs to access cached data on a second site. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a system that addresses the above-noted problems and efficiently and effectively provides for handling cached data for a process that is moved from one site to another.


An economical centralized DC power consumption control system is used to separate electric power into an AC circuit for high-power-consumption electric appliances such as TV set, refrigerator, washing machine, and air conditioner and a DC circuit for low-power-consumption electric appliances such as lamp, electric fan, notebook computer, tablet computer, mobile phone, and digital camera. The DC circuit is equipped with multiple high-powered power supplies, each of which transforms commercial power to DC power, provides electricity to various low-power-consumption electric appliances, and directly links the electric appliances for supply of electric energy without individual rectifiers/transformers.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for saving energy and, in particular, a centralized DC power supply providing DC power to electric appliances and a method for saving power by modulating total or individual power consumption.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Currently, a lighting facility, an electric appliance, or a 3C product needs a specific power supply (with a rectifier/transformer installed internally) which is able to transform 110/220V commercial power to an applicable voltage or DC power for the appliance. In this regard, a manufacturer may provide a power supply with the minimum power rating for a conventional electric appliance by considering manufacturing costs rather than considering power conversion efficiency of the electric appliance.
Therefore, 10˜60% energy loss is created by a conventional electric appliance's power supply and radiated as heat in the course of transforming AC power to DC power. For example, a 60 W power supply with power conversion efficiency of 60% implies 24 W electric power converted to heat, which is dissipated in ambient air and results in not only senseless repetitive energy loss or waste but also creates burden for an air conditioner system, which consumes additional electric power to take heat away.
In a power supply control system of a conventional lighting facility, each lighting unit needs a specific power supply, each of which causes the above-noted energy loss and is additionally provided with a dimmer unit for dimming the single lighting unit. For simultaneous dimming of more than one lighting unit, a dimmer control circuit should be designed in the dimmer unit of each lighting unit. However, a conventional dimming approach consuming electricity to reduce illumination of a lighting unit still fails to reduce total power consumption and generate energy savings.
As shown in FIG. 4A, three 40 W, 50 W and 60 W lamps 8 as lighting facilities linking an AC power unit 81 consume full power, that is, 40+50+60=150 W.
As shown in FIG. 4B, LED lamps 7 as alternative lighting facilities comprise rectifiers/transformers 71, which are held in the LED lamps 7 or installed additionally and have the same functions of conventional lamps 8 (FIG. 4A), consuming full power of 150 W while turned on simultaneously.
In summary, conventional lighting facilities have the following drawbacks:
1. A specific power supply working with each lighting unit has a lower power rating, a low Power Factor (PF) and poor power conversion efficiency which contribute to power consumption costs;
2. Specific power supplies working with all lighting units result in repetitive energy losses during power conversion, which contribute to power consumption costs;
3. Identical dimmer units installed in all lighting units for dimming increase acquisition costs; and
4. An approach based on resistances to consume electric power and reduce illumination of a lighting unit increases electricity expenses because the total power consumption remains the same.
Accordingly, the inventor, considering various drawbacks derived from conventional methods, created and developed a centralized DC power supply system and a method for economically controlling power consumption, after years of research.

Centralized DC power supply control system and method of economically controlling power consumption


In one embodiment, a method includes identifying a number of configured proactive repetitions in downlink transmissions from the base station, selecting k antenna states for receiving repetitive downlink transmissions among the number of antenna states, where k equals the number of configured proactive repetitions, and where each of the k antenna states corresponds to each of the repetitive downlink transmissions, transmitting a CSI report for each of the k antenna states to the base station, where a CSI report for an antenna state is used by the base station to adjust configurations for the corresponding downlink transmission, receiving signals for each of the k repetitive downlink transmissions from the base station using each of the k antenna states, and decoding the downlink transmission based on k sets of received signals, each of the k sets being received using each of the k selected antenna states.

With advances of wireless communication technologies, services and applications that require stringent latency and reliability are drawing attention. The 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) has introduced Ultra-Reliable and Low-Latency Communications (URLLC) as a new service category in 5th Generation (5G) cellular networks to accommodate such requirements. 5G URLLC imposes challenging goals for the Radio Access Network (RAN) in terms of the required packet loss performance and user plane latency. The general URLLC reliability requirement for one transmission of a 32-byte layer-2 protocol data unit is a minimum error rate of 10-5 with a maximum allowed user plane latency of 1 ms. Proactive repetition may be a standard transmission mechanism for URLLC, in which a data unit may be proactively transmitted k times. Proactive repetition may sacrifice latency to a certain degree for better packet loss performance. Significant improvement to system throughput and packet loss performance comes with higher Multiple-Input and Multiple-Output (MIMO) order. However, due to a limitation of power consumption, available silicon area, processing capability, or even system budget, many User Equipment (UE) devices may not have sufficient number of Radio Frequency (RF) chains to support the high MIMO order required to take full advantage of the potential reliability improvement.

Reliability by switching between antenna states


A tool holding jig for a grinding machine has a tool holder 29 mounted on a parallelogram linkage having lower swivel rods 19 inclined slightly so that, as the tool holder 29 is rocked to and fro across the face 31 of a grinding wheel by a reciprocating drive arm 53, the grinding pressure is greatest at the center of the rocking motion.

Hand tools such as chisels are conventionally given a good cutting edge by hand-honing on an oil-stone. However from time to time more radical grinding is necessary e.g. to remove nicks in the sharpened edge and to re-establish the conventional 25.degree. angle between the two faces at the edge. This can be done by using a surface grinder with a cup-shaped grinding wheel and a carriage for holding the hand tool which is reciprocated to and fro across the axial annular working face of the grinding wheel by a chain e.g. for a distance of two feet. Such surface grinders are expensive and non-portable (they have cast iron beds) and they can take a long time to remove perhaps 1-2 thou (25 to 50 micrometers) from the sharpened edge due to the length of travel. Alternatively a portable grinder with a standard disc grinding wheel can also be used but such a grinder is not provided with a carriage and the operator has to be skilled if he is to provide a straight sharpened edge in the minimum time without overheating the steel so that its temper is lost.
There is therefore a need for a relatively inexpensive adapter apparatus for a bench grinder which will permit safe, rapid, accurate, automatic grinding of a tool or blade near where it is being used rather than in an engineering workshop.
A tool holding jig is known from GB 378162 for use when grinding chisels and plane blades. This jig comprises a pair of linkages arranged in a parallelogram configuration by each having one end universally pivotally mounted on a base of a grinding machine and by each having near its other end a uniaxially pivotal connection to a tool holding member onto which a tool can be clamped. In use, the tool is rocked to and fro across the grindstone manually using handles at said other ends of the linkages. A problem with this known jig is that the angle to which the tool is ground is dependent on the position in which the tool is clamped to the holding member, and thus care needs to be taken when mounting the tool in the holding member to ensure the correct angle will be achieved. A further problem with this known jig is that the type of pivotal connections which are shown and described will enable the parallelogram configuration to skew so that the difficulty will be caused when attempting to grind a straight square edge.

Grinding apparatus comprising a tool holding jig