A hollow telescopic fishing rod has a rod body made from resin and reinforcing fibers. The rod body has an inner circumferential surface, wherein concave surface portions and convex surface portions are formed in the inner circumferential surface of the rod body. The reinforcing fibers are applied to the convex surface portions in the circumferential direction.

The applicant has already proposed a hollow telescopic fishing rod (Japanese Utility Application No. 88259/93) where a fishing line extends through the hollow center of the fishing rod. The gist of the proposal is the formation of concave/convex inner-circumferential surface in the fishing rod material made from resin and reinforcing fibers. By such a structure, a fishing line can be held by the convex portions and lifted up from the inner-surface of the fishing rod so that the friction resistance which is generated by winding and unwinding of the fishing line can be mitigated. If a spiral is stored within the fishing rod and forms convex portions as shown in the Japanese Patent Application No. 304836/89, for example, there is a problem that this spiral could come off the inner-surface of the fishing rod when the rod is bent because the convex portions and the inner-surface are separate things. In the prior application stated in the Japanese Utility Application No. 88259/93, however, the inner-surface of the fishing rod itself forms convexes. Therefore, the convex portions should not come off when the fishing rod is bent.
As mentioned above, though the prior art has already had a basic effect that the convex portions hardly come off the inner-surface of the fishing rod, this structure does not offer sufficient strength for use in a long run as the fishing rod material itself forms convex portions. Therefore, some countermeasure has been needed to solve this problem.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Pass-through fishing rod and method of manufacturing same


A pivotal bar-lock comprising an anchor hasp having a locking hub and a first locking element integrally formed with a first mounting plate; a locking hasp integrally formed with a second mounting plate and having a mating element and a second locking element formed therein; and a locking bar rotatably mounted on the anchor hasp, the locking bar having a cylinder lock encased therein and an engagement element formed therewith, the cylinder lock being operable such that when rotated into an unlocked mode, the locking bar is pivotally enabled to assume one of open, in-transit, and closed positions in interaction with the first and second locking elements, and when the cylinder lock is rotated into a locked mode, the engagement element of the locking bar engages the mating element of the locking hasp.

The bar-lock is a type of lock known for thousands of years. This type of lock was in use in ancient walled cities, in which a large brace, typically a piece of timber wood, or an entire tree trunk, was placed against the width of a gate from the inside, the gate normally opening inward as shown in prior art FIG. 1A. In later prior art, a metal bar was placed in U-shaped or L-shaped anchor braces fastened to each side of the gate posts to hold the bar firmly against the gate, thus preventing the gate from opening, as shown in prior art FIG. 1B. With advances in technological developments, the locking function of the bar-lock was limited to locking stables, barns, sheds, and the like, where the brace locks the doors from the outside and prevents the exit of livestock from secure areas. Additional prior art designs of bar type locks are shown in FIGS. 2-5.
A modern example of the prior art use of bar-locks is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,548,058 to the present inventor, in which protected hasps are mounted alongside the opening of, for example, a double-door (see FIG. 6) so as to mesh when the doors are closed, with a padlock body being inserted within one opening in the hasps to join with a shackle inserted into an opposing opening in the hasps and locked in place with a key. This is known as a protected hasp lock.
Protected hasp locks, such as that described, are inconvenient to use. This is because once the padlock is opened, the padlock body and shackle must be stored until the lock is re-closed, and they may be misplaced and difficult to find. In addition, it is inconvenient and sometimes difficult for a user to operate the prior art padlock with only one hand free, since it needs both hands in order hold the lock body at the same time as using a key.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a lock having the advantageous security features of the protected hasp lock, and the simplicity of a bar-lock.

Pivotal bar-lock with encased cylinder lock


A system and method for producing a 16-QAM-modulated signal are disclosed. The methodology, in an exemplary expedient, generally comprises splitting light from a CW laser into two parts; modulating the first part with a first signal and modulating the second part with a second signal; phase shifting the modulated second part by about π/2; combining the modulated first part with the phase shifted and modulated second part to produce a four-level modulated signal; phase modulating the four-level modulated signal with a third signal with a phase modulation of about (0, π/2) to produce an 8-QAM-modulated signal, and thereafter modulating that signal with a fourth signal with a phase-modulation of about (0, π) to produce the 16-QAM-modulated signal.

Wave division multiplexing (WDM) optical networks are well known. A WDM channel is typically transmitted by a single mode semiconductor laser, where information to be communicated is imposed on the light by modulating the laser current or by externally modulating the light by applying a voltage to a modulator coupled to the laser source. A receiver subsequently photo-detects and converts the light into electric current either by direct or coherent detection.
Due to the rapid growth of optical networks and the need for greater capacity, significant research has focused on finding efficient multi-level optical modulation formats. Any digital modulation scheme uses a finite number of distinct signals to represent digital data. Phase-shift-keying (PSK) uses a finite number of phases; each assigned a unique pattern of binary bits. Usually, each phase encodes an equal number of bits, and each pattern of bits forms the symbol that is represented by the particular phase. The demodulator, which is designed specifically for the symbol-set used by the modulator, determines the phase of the received signal and maps it back to the symbol it represents, thereby recovering the original data. The receiver compares the phase of the received signal to a reference signal. This expedient utilizes coherent detection and is referred to as CPSK.
Alternatively, in lieu of using the bit patterns to establish the phase of the wave, CPSK employs differential phase changes. The demodulator then determines these phase changes in lieu of the actual phase of the signal. This scheme is referred to as differential phase-shift keying (DPSK), and is easier to implement than PSK as there is no need for the demodulator to maintain the reference signal to determine the exact phase of the received signal.
BPSK (also sometimes called PRK, Phase Reversal Keying) is the simplest form of PSK. It utilizes a pair of phases separated by 180° and is known as 2-PSK.
Quaternary or quadriphase PSK, 4-PSK, or 4-QAM (QPSK) uses four points on a constellation diagram as is known in the art. The four-phase QPSK can encode two bits per symbol—twice the rate of BPSK—and experimentation has demonstrated that this may double the data rate compared to a BPSK system while maintaining the bandwidth of the signal. Alternatively, QPSK can maintain the data-rate of BPSK at half the requisite bandwidth.
Optical modulations based on four-level quadrature-phase-shift-key (QPSK) have been effectively demonstrated for both 40 Gb/s and 100 Gb/s optical transmission. In the quest for even higher spectral efficiency, eight-level 8-PSK modulation has been proposed and demonstrated experimentally.
8-QAM is another eight-level modulation format. In comparison to 8-PSK, 8-QAM is tolerant of greater noise (on the order of 1.6 dB), with identical spectral utilization.
Optical modulation formats based on 4-ary quadrature-phase-shift-key (QPSK) and 8-PSK have already been demonstrated for 100 Gb/s optical transmission are discussed in the publications by Xiang Zhou, Jianjun Yu, Mein Du, and Guodong Zhang, "2 Tb/s (20×107 Gb/s) RZ-DQPSK straight-line transmission over 1005 km of standard single mode fiber (SSMF) without Raman amplification," OFC 2008, paper OMQ3; P. J. Winzer, G. Raybon, S. Chandrasekhar, C. D. Doerr, T. Kawanishi, T. Sakamoto, K. Higuma, "10×107 Gb/s NRZ-DQPSK transmission at 1.0 b/s/Hz over 12×100 km including 6 optical routing nodes," Proc.OFC2007, Anaheim, Calif., 2007, PDP 24; Xiang Zhou, Jianjun Yu, Dayou Qian, Ting Wang, Guodong Zhang, and P. D. Magill, "8×114 Gb/s, 25-GHz-spaced, PolMux-RZ-8PSK transmission over 640 km of SSMF employing digital coherent detection and EDFA-only amplification," OFC 2008, PDP1; and M. Seimetz, L. Molle, D.-D. Gross, B. Auth, R. Freund, "Coherent RZ-8PSK transmission at 30 Gb/s over 1200 km employing Homodyne detection with digital carrier phase estimation," Proc. ECOC2007, Berlin, September 2007, paper We 8.3.4,
Rectangular 16-QAM has been shown to be a very attractive modulation format to further increase the spectral efficiency as disclosed in Joseph M. Kahn and Keang-Po Ho, "Spectral Efficiency Limits and Modulation/Detection Techniques for DWDM Systems," IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, Vol. 10, No. 2, March/April 2004, pp. 259-272. As shown by Kahn, rectangular 16-QAM can increase the spectral efficiency (SE) by 33% over 8-PSK while only introducing a 0.5 dB noise penalty.
A method to generate rectangular 16-QAM optical signals is proposed by Y. Mori, C. Zhang, K. Igarashi, K. Katoh, K. Kikuchi, "Unrepeated 200-km Transmission of 40-Gbit/s 16-QAM Signals using Digital Coherent Optical Receiver," OECC 2008, 2008, PDP 4; and P. J. Winzer, A. H. Gnauck, "112 Gb/s Polarization-Multiplexed 16-QAM on a 25-GHz WDM Grid," ECOC 2008, 2008, paper Th.3.E.5, The method uses a digital or analogue method to generate two multilevel electrical signals which are then used to drive a dual parallel Mach-Zehnder modulator (MZM). At present, the generation of high-speed multilevel electrical signals is still quite difficult and may be very expensive due to the need of broadband linear electrical power amplifiers.
Another method to also generate rectangular 16-QAM optical signals is proposed T. Sakamoto et al, ECOC '07, PD2.8, 2007. The method uses four binary electrical signals to drive a quadparallel MZM, which consists of two amplitude-asymmetric dualparallel MZMs in a parallel configuration. In addition, very accurate phase and polarization control of the two amplitude asymmetric dual-parallel MZMs are required, which may also be a potential problem for the practical application. In fact, quad-parallel is still not commercially available yet.

Methods and apparatus for generating 16-QAM-modulated optical signal


A laser system is described which concurrently directs highly equivalent diffracted beams derived from an initial laser beam to both sides of a substrate. The diffracted beams may be generated with sufficient energy to soften spots on the surfaces of the substrate to form texture bumps as are used on substrates for magnetic disks. The diffracted beams are generated by a multichannel acousto-optic modulator (MCAOM) having at least two channels. The crystal in the MCAOM has at least two mounting faces oriented so that the acoustic transducers mounted thereon generate acoustic fields which intersect the incident laser beam at a common angle, i.e., the Bragg angle. Energizing any of the transducers causes a corresponding first order beam to be diffracted out. Preferably the diffracted beams are generated by alternating driving signals to transducers to produce two beams with pulse intensity greater than 50% of that of the incident beam which can be directed to opposite sides of a substrate for extremely uniform texturing.

The magnetic surfaces of the disks used for data storage must be extremely smooth with peak-to-valley roughness of some thin film disks being less than 100 Angstroms. The design of most disk drives allows the sliders to rest on the disk surface when the disk is not spinning. If the sliders were allowed to rest on a very smooth surface, the result would be unacceptably high stiction forces between the disk surface and the sliders. To reduce the stiction forces between sliders and smooth disks, a band on the disk surface may be deliberately roughened by, for example, laser texturing to form a contact start/stop (CSS) region.
Laser texturing of a CSS is described by Ranjan, et al., in J. Appl. Phys. 4-91, p.5746ff. The average surface roughness (Ra) was varied by altering the beam current. U.S. Pat. No. 5,528,922 describes the use of increased number of laser pulses to increase the height of a peripheral ridge in crater shaped bumps. U.S. Pat. No. 5,062,021 describes the use of laser created bumps to form a CSS region, controlling depth and height of the bumps by varying the laser power and pulse duration, and altering the shape of the bumps by varying the laser beam inclination relative to the disk surface.
A typical CSS region contains a generally spiral pattern formed from tens of thousands of bumps in a 3 mm wide annular region. Using prior art techniques laser bumps can be produced in various shapes including sombrero-like bumps, ring-shaped or dome-shaped bumps. Dome-shaped bumps are preferred for glass disks. The diameter of the bumps is typically 5 to 30 microns with spacing of 10 to 100 microns and a height on the order of a few tens of nanometers.
The laser texturing of disks takes place prior to deposition of the thin film coatings, but may follow certain preparatory steps. For example, typically AlMg substrates are electrolessly plated with NiP and polished as an initial step. Other substrates such as glass are not plated, but may require polishing. The prepared substrate is laser textured and sputtered with the appropriate layers and progressively assembled into a functional disk drive using conventional techniques.
Since both sides of a disk normally need to be textured, there is an advantage to a system which can texture the two sides simultaneously to cut the processing time more than in half, as well as to reduce disk-handling steps and associated risks of damage. Since the two sides must be extremely uniform it is required that the beams on each side be essentially identical. Beam splitting is one way to get similar beams from a single source. Acousto-optic modulators (AOMs) are often used to split and/or modulate a laser beam. The basic principle of AOMs is that a transparent medium subject to a stress undergoes a change in the index of refraction. When the stress is associated with a high frequency sound wave, such as might be produced by a piezoelectric transducer, the change in refraction is periodic. The periodic refraction pattern can act as a diffraction grating producing what is called Bragg diffraction. The undiffracted beam is called the zeroth order beam and the primary diffracted beam is called the first order beam. The amount of light diffracted in an AOM is a function of the acoustic power being applied and can, therefore, be modulated by varying the applied power. Generation of a second modulated beam using prior art techniques requires a second AOM in series with the first. The second modulated beam created this way may vary significantly from the first in intensity or size and may contain an admixture of the other modulated beam.

Laser system for simultaneous texturing of two sides of a substrate

International Business Machines Corporation


A high-speed electric-heating temperature-control single corrugating machine comprises a first paper conveying roller, an upper corrugating roller and a lower corrugating roller, a glue pasting roller is configured to paste glue on the corrugated core paper, a pressure roller is configured to bond the corrugated core paper pasted with glue with base paper to form corrugated paper, a second paper conveying roller is configured to convey the corrugated paper out, a third paper conveying roller is configured to convey the base paper to the upper corrugating roller, a first heating device is configured to heat the corrugated paper, a second heating device is configured to heat the base paper, a first infrared heating device is configured to heat the core paper passing through the upper corrugating roller and a second infrared heating device is configured to heat the upper corrugating roller are arranged.

In a single corrugating machine provided by the prior art, a steam boiler is used for generating steam; a steam pipe is connected with a preheating cylinder or a forge furnace; the steam is used for raising the temperature; before base paper enters the single corrugating machine, a preheating cylinder with a diameter of 1,000 mm is configured to heat the base paper; before corrugated paper enters the single corrugating machine, a preheating cylinder with a diameter of 1,000 mm is configured to heat the corrugated paper; and the single corrugating machine is provided with 0 to 2 preheating cylinders with a diameter of 500 mm, which are configured to heat the base paper and the corrugated paper respectively, one pressure furnace, two corrugating rollers and three forge rollers, wherein the pressure furnace and the corrugating rollers are both configured to heat the corrugated paper. The existing single corrugating machine has the defects of high heat dissipation, low heat efficiency, complex and heavy mechanism and high cost. Moreover, the existing single corrugating machine is high in air pollution and low in product quality.

High-speed electric-heating temperature-control single corrugating machine


A system and method of automatically communicating traffic information from a traffic probe vehicle to a traffic information and management system when the probe vehicle is operated within an active traffic information reporting region. Geographic information about a traffic reporting region, or plurality of regions, is stored in the probe vehicle as an array of geographic cells so as to reduce the data storage requirements. The geographic cells have associated with them certain cell parameters related to the cell, such as a recording priority, a recording interval and a reporting interval. The recording priority of a cell may be associated with certain roadway types located within that cell. As a probe vehicle travels within an active traffic information reporting region, its location is established within the traffic information reporting region and a corresponding geographic cell.

The use of probe vehicles to collect and transmit information about current traffic conditions for use in conjunction with a traffic information and management system has been proposed previously. Traffic probe vehicles are vehicles that are specifically equipped to obtain, store and transmit traffic-related information. They may comprise vehicles that are specifically designated and equipped for the purpose of providing such information, or vehicles that are being used in ordinary service, such as commercial vehicles, fleet vehicles or passenger vehicles, and that are also equipped to obtain, store and transmit traffic-related information in conjunction with such service.
Relatively low concentrations (e.g. less than 10%) of probe vehicles in an entire population of vehicles can provide significant information on traffic conditions on the various types of roadways in a particular geographic area. Estimates of traffic speeds and travel times based on information received from probe vehicles can be more accurate, and provide traffic information having higher resolution and greater geographic coverage than that available from other types of traffic information systems.
A significant challenge associated with acquiring and processing real-time traffic information from probe vehicles is the cost of transmitting voluminous raw data from the vehicles to a traffic information system. While estimates of these costs have been reduced dramatically as the costs of wireless data transmission have been reduced, nevertheless, it is believed that the economic viability of probe-based traffic information systems will require the implementation of communication methods which reduce the volume of information communicated and the frequency of communication, thereby reducing the communication-related expenses. Methods which have been suggested to reduce the amount of data transmitted have generally included both data compression and data reduction algorithms. While implementation and improvement of both methods are desirable, improvements in data reduction methods are particularly desirable if they can typically be implemented in existing hardware and vehicular systems relatively quickly and with a relatively smaller number of changes, thereby reducing or eliminating the need for extensive and costly modifications, qualifications and other testing.
When using probe vehicle based traffic information systems, each vehicle independently collects, stores, and transmits its own raw data according to a predetermined data storage and transmission algorithm. Therefore, any strategy or method for reducing the data transmitted must ultimately be implemented by the individual vehicle.
While various approaches have been suggested to enable the collection, storage, transmission and use of probe vehicle data, including selective transmission schemes, such approaches have certain disadvantages in that they typically require the use of dedicated hardware, software or both, or do not provide sufficient flexibility or selectivity with regard to the prioritization, collection or transmission of traffic information for a particular roadway, or require specialized and expensive data collection or processing systems, or combinations of these limitations.
Based on the limitations noted above, none of the existing methods are optimal for providing real-time traffic information about a traffic network comprising a large number (i.e., many thousands and perhaps millions) of individually owned and operated vehicles that are free to drive anywhere at any time over a network of hundreds or perhaps thousands of roadways as is the situation in many major metropolitan areas or traffic corridors.
Therefore, it is desirable to develop a method of obtaining storing and communicating traffic information that reduces the amount of information that must be communicated, and hence the associated communication costs, between the probe vehicles and the traffic information system and that utilizes existing vehicle systems, such as on-board global positioning systems, cellular communications systems and vehicle control systems to reduce the cost of implementing such a method.

System and method of communicating traffic information


The optical lens, especially for a motor vehicle, is provided with a soft-focus effect, e.g. to soften a light-dark boundary on an illuminated surface. For this purpose the optical lens has an optically active surface (5′) provided with an embossed fine structure (2) extending radially outward in a direction from an optical axis (O) toward an outer periphery (P) in an undulating form and an embossed microstructure (3) superimposed on the embossed fine structure (2). The fine structure (2) has a roughness that is greater than that of the microstructure (3). The fine structure (2) preferably has a roughness of from 1 μm to 10 μm and the microstructure (3) has a roughness (h) in a range of from 0.1 μm to 2.5 μm.

The invention relates to an optical-projection lens. Such a lens has the function primarily of projecting an object from the object plane into an image plane. In many cases, the projections and the object should be similar to one another. Examples of such a lens in the automotive industry are the well-known projection lenses. However, the invention is expressly not limited to them.
In the use of such an optical lens, preferably an aspherical optical lens, unwanted effects can occur which can be ascribed to the intrinsically wanted sharp projection contours. An example that can be named is the boundary between light and dark in low-beam headlights of a motor vehicle. The sharp boundary between light and dark means that some regions of the road are illuminated only in some segments. However, providing that the adjoining regions also be illuminated is not only desirable, but within limits is also required by law.


Methods and apparatus related to receiving a request that includes robot instructions and/or environmental parameters, operating each of a plurality of robots based on the robot instructions and/or in an environment configured based on the environmental parameters, and storing data generated by the robots during the operating. In some implementations, at least part of the stored data that is generated by the robots is provided in response to the request and/or additional data that is generated based on the stored data is provided in response to the request.

Robots can be configured to perform a variety of functions. For example, a robot can be configured to utilize one or more end effectors to grasp objects, open doors, clean a surface, etc. Various techniques may be utilized to configure robots. As one example, humans may utilize various programming environments (e.g., text based, graphical based) to create source code that dictates at least some operations of a robot. The source code can be compiled into object code, which may be executed by one or more processors of the robot to control one or more operations of the robot. As another example, neural network models can be trained based on training data and utilized in the control of one or more operations of the robot.

Operating multiple testing robots based on robot instructions and/or environmental parameters received in a request


A signal processor with a simplified circuit configuration provides an improved processing speed and can be realized of small size and at inexpensive cost. The signal processor includes signal holding means for holding output signals from plural signal sources (S1-S4), and signal mixing means (M31-M34) for mixing at least two signals among the plural signals held to output plural mixed signals. Since the mixed signals are less than the signal sources in number, the small number of signal lines can lead to an increased processing speed. Then the mixed signals corresponding to discrete signals from plural signal sources enables processing without substantially destroying information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a signal processor for processing plural signals and used for information storage devices, photoelectric converters, and the like.
2. Related Background Art
In image sensors and semiconductor memory devices, typically, read-only memories (ROMs), a X-Y address system configuration is employed, where a shift register performs a vertical scanning operation and a horizontal scanning operation to output sequentially chronological externally output signals from signal sources such as memory cells and photo cells.
An explanation will be given for an example of the conventional signal processor. FIG. 1 is a circuit diagram showing the conventional signal processor. FIG. 2 is a drive timing chart for the conventional signal processor.
Referring now to FIG. 1, signal sources S1, S2, S3, and S4 are typical photo cells each for outputting a voltage. The photo signals are chronologically outputted to the output line 5 via N-type MOS transistors M11, M12, . . . M14, M21, M22 . . . M24 acting as switching elements, and capacitance elements C11, C12 . . . C14 acting as signal holding means.
First, when a pulse applied to the terminal 1 rises up at the time t.sub.0, the photo signals for the cells M11 to M14 are read out and held in the capacitance elements C11 to C14, respectively. Then when the pulse applied to the terminal 1 falls down, the scanning circuit 11 starts to operate. A selection pulse is outputted to the signal line L1 at the time t.sub.2. At this time; the signal held in the capacitance element C11 is outputted to the terminal 12 via the signal line 5 and the output amplifier 10.
Then when the pulse on the signal line L1 falls down and the reset pulse is applied to the terminal 2 at the time t.sub.4, the output line 5 is reset to the reset reference potential of the terminal 3.
Similarly, the output operation and the reset operation are repeated for the remaining signal sources S2 to S4. The signals which are read out in parallel from the signal sources S1 to S4 and then held in the capacitance elements C11 to C14 are converted into time series signals.
In an actual signal processor, the signal sources are over 100 in number, and recently has become over 100 thousand in number.
Hence even if the reading time per signal source is short, there are limitations in reducing the time necessary to output signals from all signal sources as time series signals.
On the other hand, in many cases, when photo cells are used as the signal sources, the signals from the signal sources are outputted as visible images. For such images, the case may occur where a bright signal occupies only a very small region in one frame and a dark signal occupies the remaining region thereof, as when a match flames in the dark.
In such a case, the conventional signal processor performs necessary image signal processing by outputting all cell signals chronologically and then storing them in an external random access memory.
Hence the conventional processor is sufficient for general purpose devices. However, the processing rate cannot be improved because access to all cells causes unnecessary signal outputting time when a process is performed using only a partial signal.
This technical problem applies not only to the photo cells but also to sequential signal outputting devices.

Signal processor comprising means for holding output signals of image sensors and means for mixing the held signals


This disclosure relates to a hole cutter comprising a spindle having a rearward end shaped to be engaged and rotated by a drive machine, the spindle further having a front end and an axial center bore. A cylindrical blade is attached to the front end of the spindle. A centering pin is supported in telescopic relation within the center bore of the spindle, the pin engaging with the spindle to limit the forward movement of the pin relative to the spindle. A spring is supported in the center bore and urges the pin forwardly relative to the spindle to normally project a portion of the pin forwardly from the spindle and the blade. A center drill is attached to the front end of the spindle and projects forwardly from the blade, the drill having an axial center bore which receives the projected portion of the pin. The drill further has a bit attached to its front end.

The present invention relates to a hole cutter or core drill for cutting a relatively large hole in a relatively thick plate of metal such as steel.
The applicant's U.S. Pat. No. 4,408,935 dated Oct. 11, 1983 shows a metal borer of this general type including a shank 4, a cylindrical blade 1 and a centering pin 8, which is supported by the shank and urged by a spring to normally project forwardly from the blade. When in use, first, a thick metal plate has a small center recess formed by a separate drill, and the pointed end of pin 8 is located in the recess. Then, the shank 4 is rotated and pressed forwardly so that the blade 1 cuts a hole around the recess, while the pin 8 is retracted into the shank 4. If the center recess is too shallow or the spring is too weak, the pin 8 may jump out of the recess during the operation, thus losing the centering action.
The applicant's Japanese Patent Early Publication No. H.4-105,811 dated Apr. 7, 1992 shows another hole cutter including a shank 2, a cylindrical blade 6 and a center drill 10, which is fixed to the shank 2 and projects forwardly from the blade 6. First, the drill 10 bores a center bore in a metal plate. If the plate is thick, the center boring may continue after the blade 6 begins cutting, and consequently add a resistance to the cutting resistance of the blade 6, thus lowering the operation efficiency.
It is a general object of the present invention to provide a hole cutter having both a center drill for initially boring a sufficiently deep center bore in a metal plate, and a centering pin for insertion into the bore.


The specification describes of multilevel printed circuit boards and a process for their manufacture in which capacitors and other passive components are buried between levels of the multilevel board. The capacitor in the multilevel structure is designed so that access is conveniently provided to connect from the parallel plate electrodes of the interlevel capacitor to the board surface or to another board level using plated through hole interconnects.

It has been recognized for some time that the density and complexity of interconnections in printed circuit board technology can be increased substantially using multilevel structures. Printed circuits are formed on two or more levels and are interconnected through the board levels using through hole connections or, less typically, with edge connections. Not only is the interconnect density increased for a given board area, but crossovers are substantially simplified.
More recently it has been recognized that further savings in board area can be realized if circuit components as well as interconnects are located in interlevel sites in the MPCB. Typically these devices are thin film passive devices such as resistors, capacitors and inductors. See e.g., T. Lenihan et al, "mbedded Thin Film Resistor, Capacitors and Inductors in Flexible Polyimide Films", 1996 Electronic Components and Technology Conference (IEEE), pp. 119-124.
A simple and cost effective process for implementing this design concept would represent a significant advance in the technology.


A geofence system which locates a position as within or without the complex polygon type geofence using a simplified algorithm. The algorithm obtains a position and compares it to the polygon by establishing a ray from the position constructed in a cardinal direction of the coordinate system. The “polarity” of the count of intersections between the ray and geofence indicates whether the position is inside the geofence or not.

1. Technical Field
The invention relates to geofencing for vehicles, and more particularly, to providing a simplified method for determining if a vehicle's position is within or without an irregular geofence.
2. Description of the Problem
A geofence may be defined in part as a virtual spatial boundary. Geofences are a byproduct of the marriage of mobile, inexpensive telecommunications platforms and data processing systems. They are enhanced in accuracy by making use of global positioning systems which allow accurate, precise determination of the location of both the boundary of a geofence and position of a mobile platform relative to the geofence. A geofence typically operates by triggering of a physical response through the mobile, location sensitive device when the device crosses a boundary, though the system on which the method is implemented may simply operate to note the fact of the crossing to an operator. The spatial location of geofences have commonly been established by selecting a point feature, which may be a point defined by latitude and longitude, and then defining either a radius, or major/minor axis for the point feature, to establish a boundary around the point.
United States Pat. Appl. Pub. 2006/02003005 described construction, using graphical user interface tools, of geofences with boundaries corresponding to real world objects. The area enclosed by such a fence would typically be an irregular polygon, the expression of which might result from simple selection of an object to be enclosed by the fence, such as the campus of a school. An irregular geofence was recognized as more readily applied to real world situations. Among the issues raised with respect to such irregular polygon shaped fences was the difficulty of fully and correctly representing the actual polygon for devices with limited data processing resources. The reference provided the contingency of "decimating" the polygon to avoid overwhelming the resources of such devices.

System and method for determining position within or without a complex polygon geofence

International Truck Intellectual Property Company, LLC


A clock tree circuit Including a first clock source, generating a first signal, and a first tree circuit. The first clock tree circuit includes a first driving stage for receiving the first signal, a second driving stage, connected to the first driving stage, a third driving stage, connected to the second driving stage, and a metal connection element, coupled between different nodes of the third driving stage and configured as a short-circuited element.

Field of the Invention
The disclosure generally relates to a clock tree circuit, and more particularly, to a clock tree circuit for reducing clock skew and clock jitter.
Description of the Related Art
Clock tree circuits are commonly used in the field of digital circuit design. However, since driving paths in clock tree circuits often have different lengths, they tend to result in clock skew and/or clock jitter and degrade the performance of the clock tree circuits. The different lengths of driving paths may also be caused by on-chip variation (OCV), which is unpredictable and uncontrollable. Accordingly, there is a need to design a novel clock tree circuit to solve the above problem.

Clock tree circuit and memory controller


The present invention relates to an insert for a carrying strap for carrying objects at the body. In an exemplary embodiment, the insert includes an essentially elastic section and a limitation section, wherein a length of the limitation section limits elongation of the essentially elastic section. The length of the limitation section is adjustable.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an insert for a carrying strap for carrying objects by persons.
2. Background Art
Carrying objects is made easier when they can be carried by hand using a handle or when they can be carried at the body using a carrying strap.
A carrying strap has the advantage that the weight of the object is distributed over larger areas of the body. The use of two carrying straps, for example with a backpack, makes it possible to distribute the weight symmetrically over the body. In this way, heavy loads can be more easily carried.
Carrying an object can involve vertical movements and accelerations that result in additional vertical forces that act on the body of the carrier of the object. These vertical forces increase when going up a staircase, on uneven ground, or when walking fast, for example. These forces may be sensed as a hitch or an impact on the body.
For cushioning such forces it is known to provide carrying straps with an elastic section that distributes the momentum carried over to the body caused by vertical accelerations over a longer period and therefore results in a smaller force exerted on the body. For example, International Application Publication No. WO 03/007749 A1 describes a backpack with carrying straps that include such an elastic section.
When carrying heavy loads and/or in cases of strong vertical accelerations, however, there is the risk that the elastic section may be elongated too far or may be over-elongated beyond the elasticity of its material. In order to avoid this problem, it is known to limit the elongation of the elastic section, for example by an inelastic strap having ends stitched to the ends of the elastic section, as described in German Patent No. DE 299 10 127. Similar techniques for limiting the elongation of elastic sections are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,827,578 and 4,976,388, and US Patent Application Publication No 2006/0163305. In addition to limitation of the elongation of a carrying strap, International Application Publication No. WO 94/16595 describes an elastic section of a carrying strap that includes several layers of different length, providing graduated cushioning of vertical forces.
Although such a limited cushioning makes it easier to carry loads, the comfort provided is confined to a specific range of vertical forces. In contrast, the forces desired to be cushioned may vary widely. A specific cushioning that is considered comfortable during walking may result, during running, in a substantially greater elongation of the elastic section, due to the stronger vertical forces, that may not be considered comfortable.
What is needed is improved elastic cushioning of a carrying strap so that adjustment to different vertical forces is possible.


A programmable logic device architecture with a highly routable programmable interconnect structure. The arrangement of the logic array blocks (LABs), programmable interconnect structure, and other logical elements forms a Clos network. After specific constraints have been met, the architecture is guaranteed to route. The architecture is provably routable when there is no fan-out in the middle stage. A LAB (200) comprises an input multiplexer region (504), logic elements (300), input-output pins (516), and output multiplexer region (508).

The present invention relates to the field of programmable logic integrated circuits. More specifically, the present invention provides an enhanced programmable logic architecture, improving upon the composition, configuration, and arrangements of logic array blocks and logic elements and also the interconnections between these logic array blocks and logic elements.
Programmable Logic Devices (PLDs) are well known to those in the electronic art. Such programmable logic devices are commonly referred as PALs (Programmable Array Logic), PLAs (Programmable Logic Arrays), FPLAs (Field Programmable Logic Arrays), PLDs (Programmable Logic Devices), EPLDs (Erasable Programmable Logic Devices), EEPLDs (Electrically Erasable Programmable Logic Devices), LCAs (Logic Cell Arrays), FPGAs (Field Programmable Gate Arrays), and the like. Such devices are used in a wide array of applications where it is desirable to program standard, off-the-shelf devices for a specific application. Such devices include, for example, the well-known, Classic(trademark), MAX(copyright) 5000, MAX(copyright) 7000, FLEX(copyright) 8000, and FLEX(copyright) 10K families of devices made by Altera Corp.
PLDs are generally known in which many logic array blocks (LABs) are provided in a two-dimensional array. Further, PLDs have an array of intersecting signal conductors for programmably selecting and conducting logic signals to, from, and between the logic array blocks. LABs contain a number of relatively elementary logic individual programmable logic elements (LEs) which provide relatively elementary logic gates such as NAND, NOR, and exclusive OR gates.
Resulting from the continued scaling and shrinking of semiconductor device geometries, which are used to form integrated circuits (also known as xe2x80x9cchipsxe2x80x9d), integrated circuits have progressively become smaller and denser. For programmable logic, it becomes possible to put greater numbers of programmable logic elements onto one integrated circuit. Furthermore, as the number of elements increases, it becomes increasingly important to improve the techniques and architectures used for interconnecting the elements and routing signals between the logic blocks. In particular, it is important to provide enough interconnection resources between the programmable logic elements so that the capabilities of the logical elements can be fully utilized and so that complex logic functions (e.g., requiring the combination of multiple LABs and LEs) can be performed, without providing so much interconnection resources that there is a wasteful excess of this type of resource.
While such devices have met with substantial success, such devices also meet with certain limitations, especially in situations in which the provision of additional or alternative types of interconnections between the logic modules would have benefits sufficient to justify the additional circuitry and programming complexity. Such additional interconnection paths may be desirable for making frequently needed kinds of interconnections, for speeding certain kinds of interconnections, for allowing short distance connections to be made without tying up more general purpose and therefore long distance interconnection resources, etc. There is also a continuing demand for logic devices with larger capacity. This produces a need to implement logic functions more efficiently and to make better use of the portion of the device which is devoted to interconnecting individual logic modules.
As can be seen, an improved programmable logic array integrated circuit architecture is needed, especially an architecture providing additional possibilities for interconnections between the logic modules and improved techniques for organizing and interconnecting the programmable logic elements, including LABs and LEs.
The present invention is a programmable logic device architecture with a highly routable programmable interconnect structure. The arrangement of the logic array blocks (LABs), programmable interconnect structure, and other logical elements forms a Clos network. In one embodiment, the present invention implements a three-stage Clos network.
After specific constraints have been met, the architecture is guaranteed to route. The architecture is provably routable when there is no fan-out in the middle stage. Provable routability refers to a condition where it has been mathematically shown, as long as certain constraints have been satisfied, that a signal at any input at the first stage may be routed to any output at the third stage.
A LAB of the present invention comprises an input multiplexer region (IMR), logic elements, input-output pins, and output multiplexer region (OMR). The PLD of the present invention implements a Clos network in the directions of the programmable global horizontal interconnect (row) and programmable global vertical interconnect (column).
More specifically, for the row interconnect, the OMR implements a full crossbar switch for the first stage of a Clos network. Multiplexers in a programmable global horizontal interconnect form a second stage. And, the IMR implements a full crossbar switch for a third stage of a Clos network. For the column interconnect, the IMR implements a first stage of a Clos network. Multiplexers in the programmable global vertical interconnect form a second stage. And, the OMR forms a third stage of a Clos network.
In accordance with the teachings of the present invention, a logic array block for a programmable logic device is disclosed, which includes: a plurality of logic elements, where the logic elements are programmably configurable to implement logical functions; an input multiplexer region, which programmably couples a plurality of global horizontal conductors to inputs of the logic elements; and an output multiplexer region, which programmably couples outputs of the logic elements to the plurality of global horizontal conductors.
Other objects, features, and advantages of the present invention will become apparent upon consideration of the following detailed description and the accompanying drawings, in which like reference designations represent like features throughout the figures.

Programmable logic device with highly routable interconnect


The method of forming a surface layer on a substrate is accomplished by dendrimerizing a mixture of branched monomers on the substrate surface wherein the monomers introduce heterogeneous functionalized branches and homogenous connectivity to the substrate. A cascade polymer coated substrate is formed consisting essentially of a substrate including a surface and at least one dendrimerized surface layer consisting of heterogeneous functionalities the layer being linked to the substrate by homogenous linkages, preferably isocyanate linkages.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,703,271, filed Apr. 2, 1996, discloses a method of synthesizing multi-tier cascade polymers, as well as coating substrate surfaces, utilizing a novel family of stable trifunctionalized isocyanates. Continuing with applicants' previous work utilizing dendrimeric monomer building blocks to construct cascade polymers of predetermined internal and external architecture, applicants have begun to realize and further materialize some of the potential uses of the novel isocyanate building blocks. Previous work by applicants in forming cascade polymers were limited to the coupling of an acid (dendritic termini) and an amine. In an effort to bypass this relatively limited combination, applicants demonstrated the facile conversion of unique, sterically protected "Behera's amine" to the corresponding isocyanate by its treatment with triphogene (commercially available from Aldrich Chemical Co., catalog #33,075.2, referred to as "bis(trichloromethyl)carbonate") in the presence of triethylamine Newkome and Weis, 1996!.
The isocyanate monomers are excellent building blocks or modules for use in the transformation and introduction of surface functionality on either a cascade polymer under construction or on surfaces of substrates in general. The isocyanate based monomers also provide for rapid, iterative tier construction. That is, the layering of tiers or layers over a surface or about an existing cascade polymer can be performed relatively rapidly using the isocyanate monomers. Preliminary evaluations by applicants have demonstrated the facile reaction of Behera's isocyanate with generations 2 through 5 (8, 16, 32, 64 termini, respectively) of amine terminated, poly(propylene imine) dendrimers Worner, and Mulhaupt, 1993; deBrabander-van den Berg and Meijer, 1993! using tert-butyl alcohol as solvent. In this case, the reaction of Behera's amine isocyate building block with the poly(propylene imino) dendrimers constitutes the formation of a new dendrimer, using the dendrimers prepared as described by Worner, and Mulhaupt, as the starting core. This confirms the potential of the monomer to react with nucleophilic groups, as well as affords a reasonable insight into the reacting potential for other hindered isocyanate building blocks. Stoichiometric reactions result in the isolation of pure (95% or greater) surface modified dendrimer with no by-products. These materials can be sequentially deprotected and subjected to farther elaboration.
In view of the above, there is significant demonstration that the isocyanate based building blocks can be employed to "dendrimerize" any common material(s) possessing an acidic proton(s) or nucleophilic site(s). Examples of such substrates include silica based substances, functionalized classical linear polymers, functionalized classical micelles, microgels, spherical polymers and, as demonstrated via reaction with the poly(propylene imine dendrimers, cascade polymers. Such surface coatings or films are useful for the creation of thermally and chemically stable coatings. Thus, these coatings can be used as protective coatings on clothing, other fabrics, metal surfaces, composite-based materials, semiconducting materials or the like. Surface property modification, such as wetability, is also possible.
Biological molecules are often identified by the synthesis and screening of large collections (termed "libraries") of structures. Such methods are commonly employed with the humoral immune system, which can generate and screen some 10.sup.12 antibody molecules to identify one that specifically recognizes and binds a foreign pathogen. The development of catalytic antibodies was one of the first applications of such molecular libraries to chemistry. Other such methods have been further developed for generating and screening large populations of biological molecules in vitro for binding, catalysts or both. A large effort has been devoted towards the application of these "combinatorial libraries". Such libraries are generated by combining large numbers of precursors.
The present invention relates to the further advancement of the use of monomers normally employed in the preparation of cascade polymers and more specifically to stable multifunctionalized isocyanates in combination with combinatorial chemistry to provide novel surface layers on substrates. That is, the potential to create and utilize new materials prepared "combinatorially" is exploited by the present invention. An advancement in cascade polymer dendrimeric chemistry is derived wherein combinatorial Xiang et al., 1995! methods of dendritic construction utilize monomer mixtures possessing varying compositions of differing monomers (preferably isocyanate based monomers) for sequential tier formation.

Combinatorial method of forming cascade polymer surfaces


The present invention provides method and apparatus for object classifier generation, and method and apparatus for detecting object in image. The method for generating a two-cell structure feature descriptor of a two-cell structure composed of a center cell and a neighbor cell in an image region, wherein the neighbor cell is one of eight cells around and adjacent to the center cell, the method comprising: calculating step for calculating statistics of gradients in the center cell and the neighbor cell respectively; and comparing step for comparing the calculated statistics of gradients in the center cell and the neighbor cell, so as to obtain a two-cell structure feature descriptor for describing the feature of the two-cell structure, and

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to image detection. In particular, the present invention relates to method and apparatus for object classifier generation, and further relates to method and apparatus for detecting an object in an image.
2. Description of the Related Art
Object detection for an image, such as, human detection, has very important applications in video surveillance, content-based image/video retrieval, video annotation, and assisted living. There is a vast literature on techniques of human detection. Most of them focus on the generation of a classifier, which is substantially essential and critical for object detection. Generally, a classifier usually relates to one kind of object and is used for detecting whether such kind of object exists in an image to be detected.
One thread, among the successful approaches, has been to build on the pioneering work of Viola and Jones for face detection [Document 1]. In Document 1, Haar-like features are calculated via the integral image and a novel cascade structure of classifiers is learned by Adaboost. Adaboost is well known in the art and provides an effective learning process and strong bounds on generalized performance [Document 6]. Such learning-based methods have come to be dominant currently; key issues here are the features and the learning algorithms that are used.
In 2005, Dalal proposed the normalized histogram of oriented gradients (HOG) descriptor for human detection [Document 2], as shown in FIG. 1A, which illustrates histogram of oriented gradients in the prior art as described in Document 2. Each detection window is divided into cells having a size of 8*8 pixels and each group of 2*2 cells is integrated into a block, so blocks overlap with each other. Each cell consists of a 9-bin HOG and each block contains a concatenated vector of all its cells. Each block is thus represented by a 36-D feature vector that is normalized to an L2 unit length. Each 64*128 sample image is represented by 7*15 blocks, giving a total of 3780 features per detection window, which is usually expressed as a feature vector f=[ . . . , . . . , . . . ]. These features are then used to train a linear SVM classifier. An overview of the method disclosed in Document 2 is shown in FIG. 1B. The HOG features give very good performance for human detection.
In 2006, Zhu calculated the HOG features via integral images and integrated the cascade structure classifier to speed up the method disclosed in Document 2 [Document 3]. The 36-D block feature vector is normalized to a L1 unit length and then used to build a SVM weaker classifier. The framework of the method disclosed in Document 3 is shown in FIG. 1C. The method disclosed in Document greatly improves the detection speed while maintaining an accuracy level similar to the method disclosed in Document 3.
However in both methods disclosed in Document 2 and Document 3, a local contrast normalization step within each block of HOG is critical for good performance. However, many division operations in the normalization step will significantly increase the computation overhead, especially for the embedding system.
Recently, some comparison features are proposed for human detection such as Associated Pairing Comparison Features (APCF) [Document 4] and Joint Ranking of Granules Features (JROG) [Document 5].
In Document 4, APCF is based on simple pairing comparison of color and gradient orientation in granular space which is called PCC and PCG respectively, and several PCC or PCG features are associated to form an APCF feature. APCF features are then used to build a cascade structure classifier, as shown in FIG. 1D, in which the left portion illustrates pairing comparison of color, and the right portion illustrates pairing comparison of gradient. Due to rich pairs of granules in the granular space such simple APCF features achieve more accurate detection results than the method disclosed in Document 3. The detection speed is similar to the method disclosed in Document 3.
JROG is a simplified form of APCF features. In Document 5, JROG features are used to build a full body detector and several part detectors to keep a high detection accuracy which may decrease due to the simplification of JROG. Eventually, the method disclosed in Document 5 achieves comparable detection accuracy and higher efficiency than the method disclosed in Document 4. The overview of both methods disclosed in Documents 4 and 5 can be illustrated as FIG. 1E.
One advantage of above assembled binary comparison features is their simplicity in form. No normalization step is required during calculation. Another advantage is that abundant granules encode richer information than other features such as Haar-like features. However their comparisons are between granular intensities or granular gradient orientations, instead of the statistics of gradients within image patches (for example, in a form of HOG). From the relatively successful performance of HOG we can see that the statistics of gradients within image patches are very discriminative for human detection. At the same time, since a granule is usually a pixel or has a square shape, the width and height of a granule are the same, which limits the ability to find useful patterns.
In view of the above, there still needs a method and apparatus capable of obtaining a more discriminative feature with higher computation speed.
Furthermore, there still need a method and apparatus capable of efficiently and accurately detecting object in an image.
[Cited Documents]
1. P. Viola and M. Jones. Rapid object detection using a boosted cascade of simple features. IEEE CVPR, 2001.
2. N. Dalal and B. Triggs. Histograms of oriented gradients for human detection. IEEE CVPR, 2005.
3. Q. Zhu, S. Avidan, M. Yeh, K. Cheng. Fast Human detection using a cascade of histograms of oriented gradients. IEEE CVPR, 2006.
4. G. Duan, C. Huang, H. Ai, and S. Lao. Boosting associated pairing comparison features for pedestrian detection. Ninth IEEE International Workshop on Visual Surveillance, 2009.
5. C. Huang, R. Nevatia. High performance object detection by collaborative learning of joint ranking of granules features. IEEE CVPR, 2010.
6. Y. Freund, R. E. Schapire. A decision-theoretic generalization of on-line learning and an application to boosting. Second European Conference on Computational Learning Theory, 1995.

Method and apparatus for object classifier generation, and method and apparatus for detecting object in image

Abstract: wherein the two-cell structure feature descriptor is one bit binary value.


A management server includes a communication unit configured to receive job data and transmit the job data to the image forming apparatus so that the image forming apparatus executes the job, and a registering unit. When the communication unit receives the job data containing account information, if it is determined that the account information contained in the job data satisfies the registration condition, the registering unit registers the account information contained in the job data. If it is determined that the registration condition is not satisfied, the registering unit does not register the account information contained in the job data.

The present disclosure relates to a management server for managing account information and an image forming system including the management server.
Conventionally, there is known an image forming system including a management server for managing account information. For instance, the conventional image forming system includes a general-purpose certificate server as the management server. In addition, the image forming system includes an intermediate certificate server, a personal computer, an image forming apparatus, and the like. Further, the devices in the image forming system are connected so as to communicate with each other.
When the image forming apparatus is used as a printer, a user who uses the image forming apparatus inputs user information of the user (a user ID and a password) to the personal computer. The user information input to the personal computer is transmitted from the personal computer to the management server via the intermediate certificate server.
When receiving the user information, the management server checks whether or not the user information is correct information on the basis of a user account database. A result of the checking is transmitted to the intermediate certificate server. Further, if the user information is correct, the intermediate certificate server allows the user who has input the user information to use the image forming apparatus. In this way, it is possible to suppress unauthorized use of the image forming apparatus by a user who is not allowed to use the image forming apparatus.

Management server and image forming system including the same


An improved single-step catalytic vapor phase (amm)oxidation process for the conversion of one or more C2-C8 alkanes to one or more oxidation products, including unsaturated carboxylic acids and unsaturated nitriles, whereby a higher yield of the oxidation products is achieved.

Unsaturated carboxylic acids such as acrylic acid and methacrylic acid are industrially important as starting materials for various synthetic resins, coating materials and plasticizers. Nitriles, such as acrylonitrile and methacrylonitrile, are industrially important intermediates for the preparation of fibers, synthetic resins, synthetic rubbers, and the like. Such unsaturated carboxylic acids and nitriles can be produced by catalytic (amm)oxidation of lower (i.e., C2-C8) alkanes and alkenes, such as ethane, ethane, propane, propene, butane (including n- and iso-butane), butane (including n- and iso-butene) and pentane (including n- and iso-pentane) and pentane (including n- and iso-pentene).
For example, the currently practiced commercial process for the production of acrylic acid involves a two-step catalytic vapor phase oxidation reaction using an alkene, propene, as the hydrocarbon starting material. In the two-step oxidation reaction, propene is converted to acrolein over a suitable mixed metal oxide catalyst in the first step. In the second step, acrolein product from the first step is converted to acrylic acid using a second suitable mixed metal oxide catalyst. In most cases, the catalyst formulations are proprietary to the catalyst supplier, but the technology is well established. Furthermore, it is known to include additional starting materials, including additional reactants, such as molecular oxygen and/or steam, and inert materials, such as nitrogen and carbon dioxide, along with the hydrocarbon starting material that is fed to such two-step oxidation processes. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,146, which discloses a two-step catalytic vapor phase oxidation process for conversion of propene to acrylic acid. In the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,146, carbon dioxide is fed to the two-step oxidation process in an amount of from 3% to 50% by volume, based upon the total volume of the starting materials, which also include propene and molecular oxygen. There is, however, no correlation provided, expressly or implicitly, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,218,146 between the amount of carbon dioxide which is fed to the process and the yield of acrylic acid product.
The most popular method for producing nitrites is to subject an alkene (olefin), such as propene or isobutene, to a catalytic reaction with ammonia and oxygen in the presence of a suitable catalyst in a gaseous phase at a high temperature. There are various known catalysts suitable for conducting this reaction and, while many of the catalyst formulations are proprietary to the catalyst supplier, this technology is also well established. Furthermore, it is known to include additional starting materials, including additional reactants, such as molecular oxygen and/or steam, and inert materials, such as nitrogen and carbon dioxide, along with the hydrocarbon and ammonia starting materials that are fed to such two-step ammoxidation processes.
In view of the lower price of alkanes (for example, propane and isobutene) in comparison to alkenes (for example, propene and isobutene), attention has been drawn to the development of catalysts and processes for the production of unsaturated carboxylic acids and unsaturated nitrites in a single-step vapor phase (amm)oxidation process using the cheaper alkane as the hydrocarbon starting material. For example, catalysts capable of catalyzing the single-step oxidation of propane to acrylic acid in yields up to 52% have been developed and continue to be improved.
In addition, some refinements to the single-step oxidation process itself have been developed and further improvements to the single-step oxidation process continue to be sought and welcomed by industry. For example, it is known to include additional starting materials, including additional reactants, such as molecular oxygen and/or steam, as well as inert materials, such as nitrogen and carbon dioxide to act as diluents or heat moderators, along with the hydrocarbon starting material that is fed to the one-step oxidation process.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,646,158 which states that carbon dioxide may be fed to the oxidation process in amounts greater than 5% by volume, based on the total volume of the feed gases, but no examples are provided that include feeding carbon dioxide to the disclosed process. Thus, carbon dioxide is not required for this process and no conclusions may be drawn from U.S. Pat. No. 6,646,158 regarding the efficacy of carbon dioxide as a diluent or heat moderator. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 6,693,059 discloses the possibility of feeding a diluting gas, such as nitrogen, argon, helium or carbon dioxide, in an amount of from 0% to 20%, by volume, to a single-step oxidation process which converts propane to acrylic acid. This patent, however, is focused on the catalyst composition and activity and no examples are provided that include feeding carbon dioxide to the single-step oxidation process. O. V. Krylov et al., in "The regularities in the interaction of alkanes with CO2 on oxide catalysts," Catalysis Today 24 (1995) 371-375, disclose the use of carbon dioxide as a non-traditional oxidant in the oxidation of methane, ethane and propane, but the products include only synthesis gases (hydrogen and carbon monoxide) and simple oxydehydrogenation products such as alkenes, without production of unsaturated carboxylic acids or nitrites. Thus, none of these prior disclosures explore or discuss the use of carbon dioxide as a feed component to single-step (amm)oxidation processes for increasing the production of (amm)oxidation products, including unsaturated carboxylic acids and nitrites.
Thus, the chemical industry would welcome further improvements to increase the yields of single-step (amm)oxidation processes for the conversion of one or more C2 to C8 alkanes to valuable (amm)oxidation products, including unsaturated carboxylic acids and nitrites.


A discharge chute assembly (30) includes a chute (32) and a pivotal deflector (34), the overlapping end portions of which define a partial spherical or bail joint (40) which maintains a tight seal against backflow and leakage over the entire range of rotation and deflection of the assembly. The assembly (30) is preferably secured to a rotatable base (54) by means of lower pivots (70) and a releasable fastener (72) for collapsibility.

Snowthrowers typically incorporate pivotal discharge chutes for directing the snow forwardly or to one side or the other, as desired. Moreover, a pivotal deflector is usually provided at the end of the discharge chute for adjusting the angle of deflection in order to adjust the distance the snow is thrown. Such discharge chute assemblies are typically located in a central position atop the snowthrower.
Various such discharge chute assemblies have been available heretofore. For example, some discharge chute assemblies incorporate telescoping sections, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,552,714 to Linzy and 2,768,453 to Adams are representative in this regard. Other discharge assemblies incorporate a deflector which is pivoted to the outer end of the chute. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,879,866 and 3,867,773 to Gunderson and U.S. Pat. No. 3,828,450 to Boeck show discharge chute assemblies wherein the deflector is secured by means of a fixed pivot. However, such discharge chute assemblies tend to leak snow backwardly at the junction between the chute and deflector, particularly at extreme angles of rotation and/or deflection. This disadvantage also has been recognized in the prior art. For example, one approach has been to provide a flexible seal at the pivot joint and deflector, as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,376,345 to Hochwitz. Another approach has been to provide a sliding pivot connection. U.S. Pat. No. 3,552,045 to Fieber and U.S. Pat. No. 3,510,171 to Bacon are illustrative of this latter approach. While these attempts have not been completely ineffective, they have not been altogether satisfactory either.
There is still a need for a discharge chute assembly for snowthrowers which eliminates such leakage over the entire range of pivotal adjustment.

Discharge chute assembly for snowthrower


This invention relates to a process for the production of absolute alcohol from aqueous alcohol, whereby saving of energy to a greater extent is rendered possible in a more simple process, as compared with the prior art azeotropic distillation method using benzene or cyclohexane. That is, aqueous alcohol is subjected to extractive distillation in a first distillation column under such a condition that a liquid and gas of a solvent simultaneously coexist using low pressure propane, propylene and butane as the solvent, absolute alcohol substantially free from water is recovered from the bottom of the distillation column and subjected to stripping of hydrocarbons in a second distillation column, during which the gaseous phases of the first and second distillation columns are mixed and compressed, utilized through recompression as a heat source of a reboiler of the first distillation column, subjected to separation of water content and recycled to the upper parts of the first and second distillation columns. In accordance with the process, the energy required can largely be reduced.. In Examples, the energy required for producing 1 kg of absolute alcohol is reduced to 1/5 to 1/10 of the prior art azeotropic distillation method, which shows the advantages of the present invention.. According to the process of the present invention, installations such as compressors, heat exchangers, decanters, etc. can be omitted and the installation cost can be reduced by about 30%.

Fermented alcohols from carbohydrates such as sweet potatoes, corns, etc. are important raw materials for drinking or industrial use, but an aqueous alcohol solution obtained by the fermentation method has a low alcohol concentration, i.e. 10 to 20% by weight and accordingly, it is required to concentrate it to about 95 to 100% by weight.
Up to the present time, a distillation method has been employed as the concentrating method, but this distillation method is not economical because of difficulty in recovering the evaporation latent heat of alcohol and water, as a predominant component. Thus, it has eagerly been desired to develop a concentrating method of the energy saving type.
In the conventional distillation method, an energy level corresponding to about 3000 kcal/kg.multidot.alcohol is required for concentrating alcohol from 10% by weight to 95% by weight. For concentrating alcohol from 95% by weight to absolute alcohol of at least 99.2% by weight, azeotropic distillation using diethyl ether, benzene or cyclohexane has been carried out with about 1000 to 2000 kcal/kg.multidot.alcohol. Thus, energy saving is also desired.
On the other hand, there has been proposed a method comprising extracting and separating alcohol from water by the use of carbon dioxide under supercritical state or pseudocritical state, thereby concentrating the alcohol, as a concentrating method of the energy saving type (Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 56201/1981 and 141528/1984).
In the case of using carbon dioxide as a solvent, however, it has lately been reported that the solubility of alcohol is so low that a large amount of carbon dioxide is required, the selective extraction of alcohol is limited and the maximum alcohol concentration is limited to about 91% by weight. According it is impossible to obtain a concentration exceeding this limit.

Process for the recovery of absolute ethanol by vapor compression extractive distillation

Ministry of International Trade and Industry


A personal flotation device (PFD) comprises a front flotation portion overlaying an upper region of a wearer's chest and a rear flotation portion overlaying an upper region of the wearer's back. The front flotation portion is joined with the rear flotation portion along a transverse top edge of the PFD adapted to overlay shoulders of the wearer. A seat portion is adapted to extend between the wearer's legs and is substantially free of buoyant materials relative to the main flotation member. At least one fastening strap is releasably fastenable to retain the main flotation member in place on the wearer. A majority of buoyancy provided by the PFD is disposed above a horizontally extending reference axis which corresponds to a center of gravity of the wearer. At least one ballast weight may also be provided and is disposed below the reference axis.

Many life vests and personal flotation devices have been developed in the past, all of which generally have the same common purpose of keeping a wearer afloat in a body of water. However, many existing personal flotation devices are intended for, or at least best suited for use by, adults. Thus, many so-called children's personal flotation devices are often merely scaled-down versions of larger adult personal flotation devices, and therefore are not purpose designed for the needs for such small infants.
Some attempts have been made to provide a personal flotation device that is suited for children. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,956,786 issued May 18, 1976; U.S. Pat. No. 5,030,153 issued Jul. 9, 1991; U.S. Pat. No. 5,766,114 issued Jun. 16, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 5,775,967 issued Jul. 7, 1998; U.S. Pat. No. 5,951,348 issued Sep. 14, 1999; U.S. Pat. No. 6,447,353 issued Sep. 10, 2002; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,582,266 issued Jun. 24, 2003, all disclose various personal flotation device designs intended for use by children. However, these designs all have various constraints and/or weaknesses for which improvement is desired.
Accordingly, an improved personal flotation device particularly suited to infants is sought.


A gas turbine meter that is miniaturized based on its design is disclosed. While the size of the gas turbine meter is small, it performs all the functions of prior gas turbine meters and has a large rangeability over a very large range of pressure. The turbine meter includes a body which is bilateral or symmetrical, permitting the turbine meter to be installed in either orientation in a flow line. Diffusers are included with the turbine meter that maintain the rotor of the turbine meter in position and prevent dust from entering into bearings which connect the rotor with the diffusers. The rotor of the turbine meter optimally has twelve flat vanes, each having blades angled at 45.degree. from the plane of the blank in which it was made. Close clearance is maintained between the blades and the interior of the meter. Slots are formed at the lower end of the rotor, thereby forming the shanks of the vanes. The slots are optimally sized to increase stiffness. The magnetic strength of the magnetic pick-up which measures the rate of rotation of the vanes within the interior of the housing of the meter has a small gauss strength to avoid magnetic drag.

Pipes are used to transport fluids of all sorts. Because the measurement of these fluids is important, various types of fluid measuring devices such as orifice plates, flow meters, turbine meters, etc. are installed in-line with pipe sections. The use of such a measurement for flow has been known since ancient times.
The present invention relates in general to turbine flow meters. Turbine flow meters usually include a measuring chamber having a flow guide in the front of such chamber, a measuring wheel supported for rotation in the chamber and includes a magnetic device which counts the blade turnings for blades mounted on the hub of the measuring wheel.
The basic theory with regard to electronic turbine meters is that fluid flow through the meter impinges upon the turbine blades which are free to rotate about an axis along the center line of the turbine housing. The angular (rotational) velocity of the turbine rotor is directly proportional to the fluid velocity through the turbine. The output of the turbine meter is measured by an electrical pickup mounted in the meter body. The output frequency of this electrical pickup is proportional to the flow rate. Also, each electrical pulse is proportional to a small incremental volume of flow. This incremental output is digital in form, and as such, can be totalized with a maximum error of one pulse regardless of the volume measured.
Problems with existing turbine meters include a shift in the meter factor (K) curve over pressure change, rangeability over a large range of pressures, large size, and the intrusion of dirt.
It is an object of the present invention to avoid the meter factor curve change over the operating pressure of the meter, to permit high flow rangeability over a large range of pressure, such as substantially ambient to 1500 p.s.i. It is a further object of the present invention to substantially reduce the size of the meter. An additional object of the present invention is to inhibit intrusion of dirt within the mechanism of the measuring wheels supported for rotation in the chamber.


A technique for run-time tracking changes to variables and memory locations during code execution to increase efficiency of execution of the code and to facilitate in debugging the code. In one example embodiment, this is achieved by determining whether a received instruction in a trackable instruction during code execution. The trackable instructions can include one or more trackable variables. The trackable instruction is then decoded and a track instruction cache and a track variable cache are then updated with associated decoded trackable instruction and the one or more trackable variables, respectively.

A known factor influencing the decoding of generated code is the execution of unnecessary instructions, which do not alter the outcome of a program. These instructions occur during operations, such as range check, value reuse, and finding maximum or minimum value in an array, and the like. Generally, it is difficult to detect these unnecessary instructions during the compiling process as they occur only during code execution. These instructions can have a significant impact on the computation subsystem, as well as the memory subsystem performance.
One conventional method for achieving optimization in such conditions is to receive source code and to compile it in a manner that provides an efficient object code. Other conventional methods employ techniques, such as value reuse, range check elimination, dead code elimination, background trackable instructions, and loop transformations to optimize the code, which reduces execution of unnecessary instructions, and so on. However, these techniques do not perform run-time tracking of changes to variables, expressions, and/or memory locations and therefore are not suitable for detecting the unnecessary instructions that can occur during code execution.
Furthermore, the conventional techniques only track changes to either variables or memory locations but not both. Therefore, there is a need to track changes to variables and memory locations during code execution to achieve a better optimization by the processor, to reduce the execution of these unnecessary instructions and can further aid in debugging code.

System and method for run-time value tracking during execution

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


An apparatus and a method for attaching articles to a plastic bag wall and particularly for attaching flat articles, such as coupons, cards, packets, samples, etc., to an inside wall of a panel of the bag and at different locations thereon. The articles are attached by feeding a bag-forming film sheet of plastic material to an article insertion station where the plastic sheet passes about a nip roll. An article transfer mechanism transfers articles from a discharge end of one or more supply magazines to two or more support surfaces at an article insertion station. These support surfaces are aligned with distinct sections of the bag-forming film sheet. An attaching film sheet is fed over a support roll which is in frictional rotational contact with the nip roll with the attaching film sheet aligned over the distinct sections of the bag-forming film sheet. The nip roll is moved in the direction towards the support surface to grasp a leading edge of an article positioned on the support surface to position same between the bag-forming film sheet and the attaching film sheet along the distinct sections. The two sheets are then sealed together with the article captive therebetween. The composite film can then be fed to a bag-forming station.

In U.S. Pat. No. 4,268,344 issued May 19, 1981, there is described a method and an apparatus for positioning and securing a coupon within a transparent plastic bag. This coupon is positioned on the bag-forming film sheet and attached thereto by placing an attaching film sheet over the coupon and sealing both sheets together so that the coupon is retained in an immovable position on an inside wall of the bag which is later formed. These coupons are positioned at a common precise position on the bag. We have found that by doing this, there results certain inconveniences. One of these inconveniences is that when the bags are formed to be later supported and attached on wicket pins of a bag-loading machine, the area where the bag has the coupon bulges out and causes an enlargement and deformation of the stack of bags positioned on the wicket pins. This deformation of the stack causes problems in handling the bags in a bag-loading machine. In an attempt to resolve this problem, fewer bags are positioned on the wicket pins. This means that the machine must be stopped more frequently to reload the wicket pins or to correct a malfunction caused by the bulging out of the stack of bags.
Another inconvenience of the above-mentioned prior art bags provided with coupons is that the machine for inserting the coupon is very slow and only between 70 to 80 coupons can be secured to the film every minute. This is caused by the fact that the transfer of coupons is done mechanically in a reciprocating transverse manner.
With the above-mentioned prior art machine, it is only possible to affix a single coupon to a bag wall. There is, however, a need to insert two or more coupons or cards to the same wall of a bag or to affix two flat articles which are different from one another and positioned side by side in a non-interfering manner.

Apparatus and method for attaching articles to a plastic bag wall


The present invention provides systems and methods that allow a user to track packages throughout the course of delivery without requiring the user to completely reenter tracking information such as an 18 character tracking number and also allow the user to use a wide variety of communication devices to track and retrack a package without requiring the user to reenter the entire tracking number.

In the field of package shipping, packages are routed from origins to destinations throughout the world according to destination addresses typed on shipping labels applied to the packages. Typically, package delivery companies apply a label bearing a machine-readable code to each package in the system to identify the package so that it may be readily tracked as it moves throughout the package distribution system.
Often, information about a package's location is provided to a customer by the delivery company through a variety of different mechanisms so that a customer may easily periodically check on the status of a package. For instance, the customer (or "user" of a package tracking system) may check a delivery company's tracking system from his personal computer by accessing an Internet web site. Alternatively, the customer may check the tracking system while he is in transit using mobile communication devices. Often, customers make many checks to determine package location throughout the overall delivery process.
With the proliferation of a myriad of communication devices, more and more customers want to track packages using more than just the traditional mechanisms such as interactive voice response systems or connecting to Internet based tracking sites using a desktop computer. At the same time, these customers also want the same ease of use for multiple alternative communication devices in checking package location. For instance, a customer might want to use a personal computer and Internet site while at home or in the office sitting at his desk, but then want to use a mobile device such as a cell phone, personal digital assistant or pager while he is in transit. Especially with the advance in wireless technologies, customer demand has drastically increased for the ability to track packages using a mobile communication device with at least the same ease had at home or in the office sitting in front of a computer. However, many of today's mobile communication devices lack the user-friendly input interfaces typically associated with a desktop computer (i.e., a full size keyboard). Accordingly, many mobile users that desire to track packages need to enter tracking numbers comprising many characters (i.e., 18 digits) while using an interface that is cumbersome each time they want to check on the status of a package. Accordingly, a need exists for systems and methods that allow a user to track packages throughout the course of delivery and which allow the user to use one or more communication devices without requiring the user to reenter a tracking number each time.

Systems and associated methods for wireless services for package tracking during delivery


A method of servicing a trim cartridge assembly for a valve assembly. The method includes cutting a portion of a bonnet of a trim cartridge assembly and separating the bonnet from a cage of the trim cartridge assembly. The method also includes removing at least one of a retaining ring, a remaining portion of the bonnet, and a spiral wound gasket. The method still further includes replacing the remaining portion of the bonnet with a spacer of a trim cartridge repair kit and disposing a replacement flat sheet gasket of the trim cartridge repair kit at a first end of the spacer. The method also includes disposing a replacement spiral wound gasket of the trim cartridge repair kit at a second end of the spacer opposite the first end of the spacer.

A trim cartridge assembly typically mates a bonnet, a cage element, and a seat element of a valve assembly together for ease of assembly, disassembly, and serviceability. In current trim cartridge assemblies, a snap ring joint or an internal retaining ring is used to assemble the cage to the bonnet. However, both the snap ring joint and the internal retaining ring, and sometimes other components of the trim cartridge assembly, cannot be disassembled without significant damage to the bonnet and the cage, for example. As a result, when parts of the trim cartridge assembly are worn or damaged after extended use and/or in need of service, such parts are typically unable to be serviced and replaced, and the trim cartridge assembly is typically deemed non-serviceable.


Methods and nodes for enabling and producing input generated by speech of a user, to an application. When the application has been activated (2:1), an application node (200) detects (2:2) a current context of the user and selects (2:3), from a set of predefined contexts (204a), a predefined context that matches the detected current context. The application node (200) then provides (2:4) keywords associated with the selected predefined context to a speech recognition node (202). When receiving (2:5) speech from the user, the speech recognition node (202) is able to recognize (2:6) any of the keyword in the speech. The recognized keyword is then used (2:7) as input to the application.

In the field of telecommunication, speech recognition is sometimes employed in various communication services, meaning that a user is able to speak voice commands into a User Equipment, UE, for controlling some functionality therein or in a communication network, rather than entering written commands and pressing buttons on a keyboard or the like. In some applications, a speech recognition function in the UE or in the network is able to translate the entered voice command into a text such as a recognizable message or just a single word. A spoken voice command in the UE may also be sent in digitally encoded form to a speech recognition entity where the actual speech recognition is executed by analyzing and translating the speech into corresponding text. Recently, speech recognition has been applied for smart phones e.g. the speech-based service called "Siri" developed for Apple iPhones.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of how conventional speech recognition can be used in a communication network for controlling some service function or apparatus which could be any voice-controllable device or function such as, e.g., a teleconference bridge, a banking service, an electronic game, functions in a telephone or computer, control of various home appliances, and so forth. Thus, when a spoken command is entered in a UE 100, shown as an action 1:1, the UE 100 provides a digitized version of the speech as signals to a speech recognition entity 102, shown as another action 1:2. The speech recognition entity 102 then translates the received speech signals into a text version of the speech, in an action 1:3. As said above, the speech recognition entity 102 may be implemented in the network or in the UE 100 itself.
Possibly, the entity 102 may also utilize a function referred to as "Artificial Intelligence", AI, 104 to make a more or less elaborated interpretation of the spoken command, as shown by a schematic action 1:4. In that case, the AI function 104 basically deduces the meaning of a spoken question or command once it has been converted to text by the speech recognition 102. As a result, the speech recognition entity 102 may issue a control message or command corresponding to the entered speech, as shown in an action 1:5, which somehow controls or otherwise interacts with a service function or apparatus 106. The service function or apparatus 106 may then process the control message and operate accordingly such as providing a suitable response back to the UE 100, as shown by a final action 1:6.
In general, the speech recognition services known today include two parts, the actual speech recognition and the interpretation thereof e.g. by means of an AI function or the like. In different typical implementations, both of these parts may reside in the UE or partly or completely in nodes of the network. In the above-mentioned service Siri for iPhones, a simplified speech analysis and AI analysis is made by the phone, which in parallel may send the speech in text form to an AI function in the network for obtaining a more advanced analysis and creation of a suitable response or other action.
Voice-controlled applications are configured to operate according to different received speech input as commands or queries, e.g. an electronic game application implemented in a game server in the network which may receive various spoken lines from game participants for controlling the ongoing game. One or more words in a received speech input are typically significant for the command or query and are therefore often called "keywords" in this field. The one or more keywords in a received speech input must therefore be recognized such that the application is able to act and operate upon the speech input in a proper manner. To support this process, some kind of automatic speech analysis of the speech input needs to be made.
Computer implemented speech analysis may be executed according to some different techniques. A first example is generally referred to as "speech recognition" where all speech received in audio form is translated, word by word, into a text version of the entire speech input, thus comprising a chain of words. It is then easy for a computer to identify any keywords occurring in the text.
A second example is referred to as "keyword spotting" which does not require translation of the entire speech input into text but the audio is searched only for specific words or phrases by recognizing their sound, more or less, and then translating them into text. In general, keyword spotting requires less computing than speech recognition since only a limited word or phrase must be recognized for translation instead of an entire vocabulary.
A third example is referred to as "phonetic-based search" which is similar to keyword spotting in that only certain words are searched and identified in the speech input, although it does not require converting the speech input into text. In phonetic-based search, the process is divided into separate indexing and searching stages. In the indexing stage, the speech input is indexed to produce a phonetic search track which is a phonetic representation of the speech rather than words in text form. Once the indexing has been completed, the searching stage includes searching for a keyword in the form of phoneme, i.e. sound-based, sequences in the phonetic search track.
Even though certain significant keywords can be recognized and identified in a received speech input, e.g. using any of the above techniques, some applications may need to act and operate upon received keywords in different ways depending on the current situation. For example, a command may need certain actions when coming from one user and other actions when coming from another user. Further, some keywords may be significant for the application to act upon in one situation while other keywords may be significant for the application in another situation. It is thus a problem in currently known solutions that the use of keywords in speech input for controlling applications is somewhat static or inflexible and not adaptable to different situations.

Methods and nodes for enabling and producing input to an application