A device and method for temporarily plugging and visually identifying the condition of tubes.

In a tube and shell heat exchanger, such as a vertical tube chemical reactor, there are various situations in which it is desirable to temporarily plug or indicate the condition of one or more tubes. A temporary plug may be used to protect a tube or catalyst inside the tube, or to identify the condition of the tube, or to aid in keeping track of the work progress on tubes while the reactor is out of service for maintenance. In the prior art, this is usually done by a colored plastic cap or plug inside the top end of each tube, with a particular cap or plug color intended to identify a particular tube condition (such as a tube to be unloaded, cleaned, loaded, pressure-drop tested, tube failed due to high pressure drop, tube failed due to a low pressure drop, tube passed the pressure drop test, tubes that have or will have thermocouples or pressure sensors, or even tubes from which catalyst samples may be removed for laboratory analysis after the catalyst has been used).
This procedure requires large numbers of caps or plugs of different colors to be used as the tubes in the reactor are worked on to indicate the status of particular tubes and to serve as a visual indication of the work flow progress on all of the tubes in the reactor while the tubes are brought to within the desired specifications for cleaning, empty, full, outage, and pressure drop. It is not unusual to run out of different colors to designate the numerous tube conditions, resulting in improvisations by the catalyst changeover crew in order to identify the condition of the tubes. For instance, a cap or plug may be removed from a tube and if pliable enough then twisted and reinserted sideways into the top edge of the tube to designate the new condition of the tube. Sometimes two caps or plugs are stacked on top of each other and inserted into a tube. In both of these cases, the caps or plugs then project awkwardly from the tube and are more prone to being accidentally kicked and dislodged from the tube, so they no longer perform the desired function of visually identifying the tube condition. In the case of the twisted and reinserted cap or plug, it can become lodged down inside the tube if walked upon, such that it may not be easily seen and may even unknowingly be left behind.
In order to prevent the caps or plugs from being accidentally dislodged from, or pushed down into the tubes, they usually are designed to fit snugly inside the tubes. Some caps or plugs are simple pipe thread protectors that are applied to protect the threads on the ends of threaded pipes that use a tapered thread like those available from Caplugs from Buffalo, N.Y. (www.caplugs.com). Since these devices are tapered, they can be pushed very securely into a tube. Upper tubesheets with caps or plugs in them are continuously walked upon by the catalyst change crew, and heavy machines and supplies are temporarily located and moved across this upper tube sheet, forcing the caps or plugs securely into the tubes.
Cap or plug size availability is often somewhat limited, as these caps or plugs are sized for commercially sized pipe threads, although custom sizes could be used. Reactor tube inner diameters are seldom standard pipe sizes, and instead are often custom sized to optimize heat transfer. In the case of tight fitting tapered caps or plugs, this results in two problems. First, the tight wedging action of the tapered cap or plug within or upon the tube makes it very difficult to remove the cap or plug from the tube, so it usually is pried but with a screwdriver, which may damage the cap or plug and may even score the inside wall of the tube. Second, after a cap or plug which has been removed and reinserted a number of times may become; cut or otherwise damaged by the blade of a screw driver, or by being removed by narrow end (needle nose) pliers, it may no longer fit snugly inside the tube, making it more prone to being accidentally kicked out or otherwise, dislodged from its tube, or it may be damaged so that it is no longer serviceable.
Tape, such as duct tape, can be attached to the caps or plugs in certain tubes in order to identify them (this tape may be accidentally scuffed off or otherwise removed from its corresponding cap or plug). Sometimes caps or plugs are actually taped to the tubesheet (resulting in art undesirable sticky residue on the tubesheet when the tape is removed).
Most tube caps or plugs, such as those intended to protect the threads on the ends of pipes, include an open cavity or depression where dirt, catalyst and foreign material can accumulate. It can be difficult and time consuming to remove the dirt, spilled catalyst and foreign material from these cavities, especially when many thousands of such caps or plugs are used.
Some tube plugs have a flat top (do not include an open cavity) but they incorporate a tapered body that fits snugly into the tubes and require a screw driver or fork device to remove them, making them time consuming and sometimes difficult to install and remove. Other plugs have a flat top but have a loose fitting body so they effectively float around in the tube. These plugs are relatively easy to install and remove, but they do not seal the tube from air flow, and they are sometimes inadvertently removed while walking across them or by moving equipment across them. Since reactors are often made of carbon steel, the reactor is often kept warm to prevent condensation that could lead to iron oxide formation. Also, it is desirable to keep most catalyst pellets that have been loaded dry and away from moisture. The warm vertical tubes in the reactor vessel may induce natural convection air flow through the tubes, and this may be undesirable as the air being supplied to the bottom of the tube could be moisture-laden ambient air. Another reason for minimizing or eliminating this natural convection phenomenon is that some catalyst can off-gas certain chemicals which can be annoying and even hazardous for the catalyst handling crew. Also, convection air flow can raise the ambient temperature in the dome area above the tubesheet, making it uncomfortable for the catalyst handling personnel. Loose fitting plastic caps with or without recesses or plugs with flat tops can slow down the convection air flow, but they do not stop it.

Device and method for indicating the condition of tubes on a tubesheet


Improvedly extrudable/coatable ethylene (co)polymers, well adopted for the production of film-coated metal composites, are prepared by radical polymerizing ethylene or recipe thereof including at least one ester of an unsaturated carboxylic acid, e.g., (meth)acrylic acid, advantageously under a pressure ranging from about 800 to 2,500 bars and at a temperature ranging from about 140.degree. to 280.degree. C., in the presence of an effective chain-transfer amount of at least one unconjugated diene, e.g., hexa-1,5-diene, deca-1,9-diene or 2-methylocta-1,7-diene.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved free radical (co)polymerization of ethylene, and, more especially, to the preparation of copolymers of ethylene and at least one ester of acrylic or methacrylic acid; the final polymers are particularly well adopted for the coating of metal substrates.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Among the ethylene polymers and copolymers prepared by a free radical route, those having a fluidity index ranging from about 3 to 10 dg/min are well known to be particularly suitable for the deposition of thin film coatings having a thickness ranging from 10 to 500 .mu.m. For such application, two properties are essential to provide a suitable polymer or copolymers. These are the industrial drawing rate thereof, on the one hand, and the "neck-in" on the other. By "neck-in" is intended the contraction in width thereof, defined by the ratio. EQU [(width of the die)-(width of the film)]/(width of the die).
The known processes for the free radical polymerization of ethylene are typically processes which are carried out under high pressure. In this type of process a chain-transfer agent is sometimes employed, generally hydrogen, butane, propane or a lightweight .alpha.-olefin, such as propene or but-1-ene. In the copolymerization of ethylene with at least one ester of acrylic or methacrylic acid, an alkane, an olefin, an aldehyde or a ketone may also be used as the chain-transfer agent.
In the known processes, such as, in particular, those described in EP-A 174,244 and EP-A 177,378, however, it is not possible to attain drawability and "neck-in" levels which universally permit the use of the final copolymers for all coating applications.


An electronic device includes a chassis which has mutually partitioned first chamber, second chamber and third chamber, an electronic substrate which is housed in the first chamber, loudspeaker modules which are housed in the second chamber and the microphones which are housed in the third chamber.

Nowadays, an electronic device which makes it possible to hold a conference and to make telephone calls between/among persons at distant places via voices and projected images by utilizing the Internet, a telephone line and so forth is utilized. The electronic device of this kind is configured on the assumption that a plurality of persons simultaneously makes the telephone calls and so forth at respective places and therefore a microphone and a loudspeaker are loaded on the electronic device (see, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2008-245250).

Electronic device for use in a teleconference


An improved tote box construction is disclosed which incorporates a unitary top rail which can be secured along the top edge of the erected walls of the tote box without the benefit of any mechanical fasteners such as rivets or the like. The unitary top rail is secured onto the tote box by a hook on the bottom edge of a channel side wall which engages downwardly folded tabs on the top edge of the walls of the tote box. The unitary top rail has a vertical lip which facilitates the stacking of multiple tote boxes according to the present invention.

This invention relates to tote boxes and more particularly to tote boxes made from foldable box blanks and having self locking top rails to hold the blanks in an erected, assembled relationship.
Containers which are returnable/reusable are useful for the transportation, storage, and display of goods in commerce. Such containers, commonly called tote boxes, must be of sufficiently rigid construction to enable safe and damage free transport and storage of goods contained therein. These tote boxes are frequently designed so as to be stacked or mounted in a nesting relation for convenient transportation or storage of the tote boxes. In order to be stackable, the upper edge of the tote box is typically reinforced with a top rail or rim member which is adapted to receive another tote box stacked thereupon.
It is conventional to use a variety of materials for the construction of such tote boxes. Such materials typically consist of corrugated paperboard, corrugated plastic sheet, sheet metal and other such materials which are not sufficiently rigid to support a number of filled tote boxes in stacked relation. Therefore, it is also conventional to reinforce the corners of the tote boxes with structural supports so that a lower tote box of a stack of tote boxes can adequately support the load of the upper tote boxes and goods therein without deformation, possibly resulting in damage to the goods contained therein.
Typically these tote box corner supports and top rails require additional fasteners such as rivets, staples, screws or the like to secure the top rail and the corner support to the box itself. These fasteners add material costs and manufacturing steps to the construction of the tote box thereby resulting in an expensive and difficult to assemble tote box.
Accordingly, it is a primary objective of the present invention to provide a tote box made from a novel box blank and top rail which facilitates assembly of the tote box without any fasteners and with a minimum of assembly steps and space.
Another objective of this invention has been to provide such a tote box which facilitates the stacking of additional tote boxes thereon without deformation of the tote box.
It is an additional objective of the present invention to provide a tote box corner support which can be incorporated into the tote box corner with a minimum of assembly steps or operations, and which does not require additional fasteners to secure the corner support to the tote box.
A further object of the present invention has been to reduce the amount of time and expense required to assemble a top edge reinforced tote box.


A technique is disclosed to optimize the call admission control algorithm that governs a shared-communications channel, in which the algorithm accounts for the levels of mobility, on an individual basis, of one or more terminals that need to use the channel. Instead of determining the variation in the distribution of supported data rates aggregated across multiple terminals—which can result in a greater variance in the call admission criterion—the technique of the illustrative embodiment tracks the variation in the distribution, for each terminal, of the data rates for that terminal. In short, the technique of the illustrative embodiment accounts for the variance in data rates that is attributed to the mobility of individual, representative terminals and not to the variance that is attributed to the spatial distribution of multiple terminals.

FIG. 1 depicts a diagram of telecommunications system 100 in the prior art. Telecommunications system 100 comprises wireless telecommunications terminals 101-1 through 101-L, wherein L is a positive integer that is equal to five in the example depicted; access point 103 that serves basic service area 110; and telecommunications network 120, all of which are interconnected as shown.
Basic service area 110 is the service area in which shared access to other nodes in telecommunications system 100 is provided to telecommunications terminals such as terminals 101-1 through 101-L. As depicted in FIG. 1, basic service area 110 is in an IEEE 802.11 wireless local area network. In area 110, the one or more wireless telecommunications terminals that make up the basic service set of area 110 are able to access other nodes in system 100 via a shared-communications channel supported by access point 103.
Telecommunications network 120 is a telecommunications network such as the Internet, the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN), and so forth. Network 120 comprises or is connected to one or more transmission-related nodes such as gateways, routers, or switches that are used to direct packets from one or more sources to the correct destinations of those packets.
The service provided by the path that links a first node with a second node is characterized by its "quality of service." Quality of service, for the purposes of this specification, is defined as, from one node to another, a function of the (i) bandwidth, which can be expressed in units such as bits per second, (ii) error rate, which can be expressed in units such as bit errors per number of bits transmitted, and (iii) latency, which can be expressed in units such as seconds. For example, a shared-communications channel that links a wireless terminal such as terminal 101-1 with an access point such as access point 103 is subject to a quality-of-service level.
Each of telecommunications terminals 101-1, for l=1 through L, is a communications device such as a local area network telephone, a notebook computer, a personal digital assistant (PDA), a tablet PC, and so forth. Terminals 101-1 through 101-L are assigned fixed Internet Protocol addresses and, as wireless stations, are assigned Internet Protocol addresses from a pre-specified block of addresses. Terminals 101-1 through 101-L communicate, through access point 103, with other telecommunications terminals that have connectivity with network 120. In order to communicate, a user at a first telecommunications terminal in system 100, such as terminal 101-1, places a "call" (e.g., voice call, email, text chat, video, etc.) to a user at a second terminal in system 100.
Each telecommunications terminal may use a "codec," as is known in the art, to more efficiently transmit user information, such as voice signals, by compressing the transmitted information and decompressing the received information. A codec has an associated "codec rate" that specifies how much (compressed) information actually has to be transmitted per unit time.
System 100 has to be able to determine whether to admit each call. Call admission control is necessary, considering that terminal 101-1 is also competing with other terminals in its basic service area (i.e., area 110) for the shared-communications channel provided by access point 103. In fact, access point 103 has to be able to handle multiple traffic streams—each stream comprising a series of packets—that are transmitted to or from wireless terminals via the corresponding shared-communications channel.
Furthermore, each terminal has an associated level of mobility. A terminal that is immobile (i.e., is fixed) is able to support a maximum data rate that is more-or-less constant. In contrast, as a mobility-capable terminal moves closer to or away from its access point, the maximum data rate at which the terminal is able to communicate with the access point changes during a call. When the terminal is close to the access point, the signal is generally stronger and, as a result, the maximum data rate is higher. Likewise, when the terminal is far from the access point, the signal is generally weaker and, as a result, the maximum data rate is lower. As a result, the actual shared-communications channel bandwidth that the terminal utilizes—that is, the channel occupancy used by the terminal—during a call changes over time. Furthermore, there can be multiple terminals using the shared-communications channel for calls, where each terminal is able to move independently of one another during a call.
In some techniques in the prior art, the spatial distribution of the different terminals within the basic service area might be considered during the call admission process. This is advantageous in that it considers the data rates for the actual shared-communications channel, instead of merely using data rates from an analytical model of the basic service area. However, this is disadvantageous in that the terminals, being at different distances from the access point, have different supported data rates, which can cause the call admission criterion to have greater variance and lower the utilized bandwidth. As a consequence in some cases, the net effect is to allow fewer calls.

Accounting for telecommunications terminal mobility in call admission control


An apparatus for providing a self-adjusting tie down includes a bolt extending into a foundation and a nut on that bolt which is supported by two shims, one of which can move relative to the other. A spring exerts substantially constant force on the movable shim, preventing gaps from forming between the nut and the shims underneath.

A typical wood-frame structure rests on a concrete foundation. The bottom framing element of each wall of the structure, which directly contacts the foundation, is called the sill. The sill can be attached to the foundation to prevent the structure from sliding off the foundation. Devices for attaching the sill to the foundation are referred to as hold-downs.
Presently, traditional bolt and nut systems are used to hold down the wooden sill of a wood-framed structure. First, a bolt is sunk into the foundation. Next, workers drill a hole in the sill for each bolt, and the sill is placed on the foundation so that the bolts pass through the holes. Finally, a nut is mated with each bolt and tightened securely against the sill. The downward pressure exerted on the sill by the nut holds the sill, and thereby the structure, in place. Consequently, the area of the sill directly underneath the nut is critical to the effectiveness of this hold-down system.
However, the wooden sill tends to deteriorate with age, for several reasons. The structure above the sill exerts a substantial weight on it. Over time, that weight alone can compress or crush the wooden sill. As the wood dries out, it can shrink; further, it may become more brittle, providing less resistance against the constant weight of the structure above. Termites or other insects may attack the sill, destroying its integrity and rendering it vulnerable to crushing. Hurricanes, tornados, and earthquakes can create severe shear stresses and uplifting forces in the walls of the structure, repeatedly forcing the sill against the nut and weakening, crushing, or splintering the wood directly underneath the nut. Overtightening the nut at the time of construction can crush or splinter the wood underneath the nut, precisely where the nut and bolt system requires a snug fit in order to function.
As the sill deteriorates, and as the wooden area underneath the nut deteriorates, the position of the nut remains constant relative to the bolt. Consequently, a gap forms between the nut and the sill. This gap significantly weakens the hold-down mechanism. It allows the sill, and the structure, to shift relative to the foundation. The resultant fatigue loads cause the sill to deteriorate further underneath the nut, widening the gap and rendering the hold-down progressively weaker. When strong forces such as those produced by a hurricane, tornado, or earthquake create severe shear and uplift forces in the wood-framed structure, the gap between the nut and the sill destroys the functionality of the hold-down by allowing those shear and uplift forces to shake the structure up and down, increasing the likelihood of its damage or destruction.


An imaging lens includes sequentially, from an object side, a first lens group, a second lens group, a third lens group, and a fourth lens group. The first lens group includes only a first lens having a meniscus shape with a concave surface facing the object side. The second lens group has positive refracting power as a whole and includes sequentially, from the object side, a second-first lens having positive refracting power and a second-second lens cemented to or separated from the second-first lens and having negative refracting power. The third lens group includes only a third lens having a meniscus shape with a concave surface facing the object side. The fourth lens group includes only a fourth lens.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a small imaging lens for forming an optical image on a solid-state image sensing device such as a CCD type image sensor or CMOS type image sensor, and an imaging apparatus using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Imaging apparatuses using solid-state image sensing devices such as CCD (Charge-Coupled Device) type image sensors and CMOS (Complementary Metal-Oxide Semiconductor) type image sensors include digital still cameras, digital video cameras, and the like. Imaging apparatuses using such solid-state image sensing devices are suitable for miniaturization, and hence have recently been mounted in compact information terminals such as cellular phone sets. With increases in the miniaturization and pixel density of solid-state image sensing devices, demands have arisen for smaller and higher-performance imaging lenses to be mounted in these imaging apparatuses. As imaging lenses used for such an application, 4 element/3 group lenses each sequentially including, from the object side, an aperture stop, a first lens group having positive refracting power and including a cemented lens, a second lens group having an aspherical shape, and a third lens group having aspherical shape which are sequentially arranged from the object side is known, which are higher in performance than one or two element lenses. Among such lenses, a lens whose total length (the on-axis length from the aperture stop to the image-side focal point) is small, in particular, is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-228922.
The lens disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Unexamined Publication (Kokai) No. 2002-228922 is of a type which is designed to achieve miniaturization of an imaging lens by having an aperture stop placed nearest to the object side, a cemented lens as the first lens group which is constituted by positive and negative lenses, and aspherical lenses as the second and third lens groups, and letting the first lens group mainly contribute to the refracting power of the whole imaging lens system. However, as an imaging lens having such an arrangement, i.e., an arrangement in which a positive lens group having strong refracting power is placed near an aperture stop nearest to the object side, is reduced in total length, the exit pupil of the whole imaging lens system is brought near to the image-side focal plane, resulting in difficulty in obtaining good image-side telecentric characteristics. On the other hand, obtaining good image-side telecentric characteristics makes it difficult to perform aberration correction.

Small imaging lens and imaging apparatus


Apparatus, systems, and/or methods for weld wire preheating are disclosed. Some examples of the present disclosure relate to welding-type systems that use one or more preheaters to heat welding wire prior to an arc and/or deposition on a weldment. The welding wire may have one or more characteristics. A preheating control may determine a governing characteristic of the one or more welding wire characteristics and establish a threshold temperature and/or target temperature based on the governing characteristic. The preheating control may further control the one or more preheaters based on the threshold temperature and/or target temperature, in order to avoid a deformation and/or degradation of the welding wire that would impact column strength, wire feeding, weld process stability, and/or welding consumable longevity.

Welding is, at its core, simply a way of fusing two pieces of metal. Arc welding uses electrical power as a source of heat to melt and bond a metal wire (and/or welding electrode) to a metal workpiece. Electrical current is routed through a circuit that includes the electrode and workpiece. The current creates an electrical arc that melts the welding wire and the workpiece to form the desired weld.
Arc welding performance may vary depending upon whether a weld is made with a "cold" or "hot" electrode wire. In general, an electrode may be considered cold when the electrode is at or relatively near the ambient temperature. An electrode may be considered hot, by contrast, when the electrode is at a much more elevated temperature. In some applications, it is believed that welding is facilitated when the electrode wire is hot (and/or preheated).
Limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present disclosure as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

Systems, methods, and apparatus for control of wire preheating in welding-type systems


An improved process for forming a UV emitting diode is described. The process includes providing a substrate. A super-lattice is formed directly on the substrate at a temperature of at least 800 to no more than 1,300° C. wherein the super-lattice comprises AlxInyGa1-x-yN wherein 0<x≦1, 0≦y≦1 and 0<x+y≦1. A first conductive layer with a first type of conductivity is formed on the super-lattice wherein the first conductive layer comprises AlxInyGa1-x-yN wherein 0<x≦1, 0≦y≦1 and 0<x+y≦1. A quantum well region is formed on the first conductive layer wherein the quantum well region comprises AlxInyGa1-x-yN wherein 0<x≦1, 0≦y≦1 and 0<x+y≦1. A second conductive layer is formed on the quantum well with a second type of conductivity wherein the second conductive layer comprises AlxInyGa1-x-yN wherein 0<x≦1, 0≦y≦1 and 0<x+y≦1. A first metal contact is formed in electrical contact with the first conductive layer and a second metal contact is formed in electrical contact with the second conductive layer.

The present invention is directed to an improved ultraviolet (UV) light emitting diode. More specifically, the present invention is related to an improved UV light emitting diode which can be manufactured without a low temperature buffer layer thereby providing improved efficiency, improved processing and an enhanced ability to incorporate heat dissipation technology.
UV light emitting diodes are highly desirable for a number of applications and proposed applications. They are expected to find great utility in such diverse areas as bio-chemical sensors, air and water purification, food processing and packaging, and various forms of medical applications such as dentistry, dermatology and optometry.
The shorter wavelength radiation is also expected to be advantageous for use in optical data storage systems such as optical disk wherein the data density can be increased over longer wavelength systems. Other areas could also benefit from a high energy, efficient, UV diode.
UV and deep-UV diodes typically utilize unitary, binary, ternary, quaternary and penternary group III metal nitrides such as AlN, GaN, InN, AlGaN, AlInN, GaInN, AlGaInN and BAlInGaN. The inherent properties of these materials have thwarted full exploitation of UV emitting diodes. These materials have inherently high electrical resistance and low thermal conductivity. As a result the amount of current which can be supplied to the diode is limited by internal heating which decreases the amount of light that can be generated relative to visible emitting diodes.
Yet another problem with group III nitrides is the lack of a suitable support upon which the materials can be grown. The most common supports, such as sapphire, have lattice parameters which are sufficiently different from the group III nitrides that crystal defects are generated at the interface with the substrate. The defects propagate into the active layers of the diode structure thereby further decreasing efficiency. Also, due to the difference in the coefficient of thermal expansion of group III nitrides, relative to typical supports, significant crack formation occurs during subsequent processing.
Lattice defects and thermal expansion cracking are typically mitigated by a low temperature buffer layer which is grown at a relatively low temperature of 400 to less than 700° C. between the substrate and the active layers of the diode. Low temperature buffer layers are typically a relatively soft material, such as AlN, wherein the thermal expansion differences are dampened. Buffer layers also have the advantage of significantly reducing lattice defects. The lattice defects are effectively terminated within the buffer layer and therefore do not reach the active layers.
The diode is often separated from the substrate by cleavage at the low temperature buffer by known techniques such as laser lift-off. Unfortunately, the cleavage is not clean and typically some fraction of the low temperature buffer layer material remains on the substrate with an uneven surface remaining on the diode. The uneven exterior of the diode further decreases diode quality and efficiency due to light attenuation and light scatter.
A large portion of the research efforts related to UV diodes has focused on improving the buffer layer, methods for forming the buffer layer and manufacturing a ultraviolet light emitting diode. Pulsed growth techniques have been demonstrated to be particularly beneficial. A particularly efficient buffer layer is formed by a pulsed lateral overgrowth (PLOG) technique described in commonly assigned U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/445,959, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,304,756, and which corresponds to WO 2008/054994, both of which are incorporated herein by reference. Another method for forming a buffer layer is pulsed atomic layer epitaxy (PALE) which is described in commonly owned application. WO2009/023722, which corresponds to U.S. Pat. No. 8,354,663, which are both incorporated herein by reference. Another method of improving the stability of the device, is forming an array of light-emitting devices (LED) and a method for making an array of LED's, particularly one that emits deep ultraviolet light which is described in commonly owned application WO2009/023722, cited above.
Even with the highly advanced methods of forming buffers the problems associated with thermally induced cracks and crystalline defects from lattice mismatches remains. These problems, though mitigated, still limit the full exploitation of UV diodes.
There has been an ongoing effort to further mitigate the deficiencies described above. The present invention advances the art by techniques which are considered to be a contrary approach.
However, there remains a need for a higher quality, more reliable, more robust, deep UV light-emitting diodes and laser diode arrays.
Milli-watt power DUV LEDs on sapphire substrates with AlGaN multiple quantum well (MQW) active regions have been previously reported for the UVA, UVB and the UVC regions. The LED design used in the prior art benefited from several key innovations, namely: (1) the use of pulsed atomic layer epitaxy (PALE) to improve the quality of the buffer AlN layer; (2) the use of a PALE deposited AlN/AlxGa1-xN, short-period super-lattice layer insertion between the buffer AlN and the n-contact AlGaN layer for controlling the thin-film stress and mitigating epilayer cracking; and (3) a p-GaN/p-AlGaN hetero-junction contact layer for improved hole injection.
To date, under a cw-pump current of 20 mA, the average output powers for state-of-the-art UVC and UVB LEDs are about 1 mW. These LEDs typically have effective areas ranging from approximately 200 μm×200 μm to 300 μm×300 μm with various geometrical shapes demonstrated. Due to the poor thermal conductivity of the sapphire substrates, the output power quickly saturates at pump currents around 40-50 mA. At 20 mA pump current, the device lifetimes (50% power reduction) are approximately 1000 h for packaged devices that are flip-chipped to a heat sink. Without being constrained by theory, the key reasons for this power/lifetime limitation are the dislocations in the active region and the excessive heating due to the high device series and poor thermal conductivity of sapphire. Unfortunately, many commercial applications require the output powers and lifetimes to be significantly better than the best values reported to date.
The high operating voltages, or high series resistance, of deep UV LED's stems from poor or lower doping efficiency of high aluminum content epilayers needed for such short wavelength emission. The series resistance further increases the temperature rise of the active junction by joule heating which then results in degraded device performance. The problem becomes severe with decreasing emission wavelength and with increasing device area. Increasing the device active area has adverse effects due to the severe crowding in high aluminum content layers. The present invention solves this problem.
The present invention reduces series resistance which results in a decrease in joule heating. In the micro-pillar design the diameter is within the charge spreading length. For example, for a 280 nm UV LED the mesa diameter is preferably about 25-30 μm which is less than, the estimated current spreading length of 40 μm. Furthermore, the micropillar is surrounded by n-type electrode with a small distance of separation between the pillar edge and the n-type electrode edge. Since these micropillars are immersed in a pool of n-type electrode and the diameter is less than the current spreading length the current crowding problem is eliminated. Moreover, by interconnecting each pillar with the novel flat electrode over a leakage suppression layer the total device area can be increased which reduces the device resistance and operating voltages. As a consequence of this reduction, the device is much cooler than conventional UV LED's which helps in biasing these UV LEDs to much higher drive currents for a stable high power performance.
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art of ultraviolet light-emitting diodes and laser diodes that many modifications and substitutions can be made to the preferred embodiments described herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention, defined by the appended claims.

High power ultraviolet light emitting diode with superlattice


One embodiment of the present invention facilitates skewing a bi-directional object layout to provide good cache behavior. During operation, the system receives a request to access an object. This request includes an object identifier and an object offset that specifies the offset of a target field within the object, wherein the object has a bi-directional layout that locates scalar fields at positive offsets and reference fields at negative offsets, so that a reference field can be immediately identified from its object offset. Next, the system determines a skew value for a cache line containing the object, wherein data within the cache line is shifted based upon the skew value, so that reference fields with small negative offsets are likely to be located in the same cache line as scalar fields with small positive offsets. Next, the system uses the skew value in accessing the object.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the design of computer systems that support automatic memory management for objects defined within an object-oriented programming system. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for skewing a bi-directional object layout to provide good cache behavior, wherein the bi-directional object layout allows reference fields within an object to be easily identified for garbage collection purposes.
2. Related Art
Programming languages with automatic memory management, such as the JAVA™ programming language, are widely recognized for making software easier to develop. Unlike conventional programming languages, such as C or C++, that require programmers to perform explicit memory deallocation operations to manage dynamic data structures, the JAVA programming language takes care of memory management automatically.
Automatic memory management systems typically allocate objects from memory as they are needed during execution of a program. When objects are no longer being used by the program, they are typically reclaimed through a process known as "garbage collection."
Garbage collection typically operates by first identifying and marking "live" objects that are reachable from roots of a program. Once all reachable objects are marked, all remaining objects that are not marked are considered "garbage." These remaining objects are subsequently reclaimed to make room in memory.
During the marking process, it is advantageous to be able to rapidly determine which fields within an object are "reference fields" that can potentially point to other reachable objects. One way to accomplish this is to use a bi-directional object layout, which allows a reference field to be identified by examining its offset.
Referring to FIG. 1, a conventional object layout 102 includes a header 106 that is located at offset zero from a base address 104 for the object. Object layout 102 also includes other fields at increasing offsets, including scalar fields 108 and reference fields 110. (Note that scalar fields 108 and reference fields 110 can be intermixed.) Each subclass appends fields in order.
In contrast, a bi-directional object layout 112 uses negative offsets for reference fields. This bi-directional layout 112 grows in both directions from the header 116. Scalar fields are placed at positive offsets and reference fields are placed at negative offsets. This allows a reference field to be identified immediately by examining its offset. This bi-directional object layout scheme is described in more detail in U.S. Pat. No. 5,900,001, entitled "Method and Apparatus for Optimizing Exact Garbage Collection Using a Bifurcated Data Structure," by inventors Mario I. Wolczko and David M. Ungar, issued May 4, 1999.
Although use of a bi-directional layout can greatly improve system performance during garbage collection, it often has the unfortunate side-effect of causing small objects to occupy two cache lines in a cache that is part of an object-based memory hierarchy because of the way offsets are aligned with the base address of a cache line. For example, assuming a 64-byte cache line and 4-byte references, an object header (at offset zero) is the first word in one cache line, and a class reference at, for example, offset −4 is the final word in a preceding cache line starting at offset −64. Splitting small objects across two cache lines in this way leads to unused cache space and unnecessary data transfers.
What is needed is a method and apparatus that facilitates using a bi-directional object layout without the above-described problems.

Method and apparatus for skewing a bi-directional object layout to improve cache performance


A system and method for accepting and responding to queries based on information stored on multiple heterogenous information sources. A uniform query interface to large collections of structured information sources is provided to a user to pose queries using a uniform schema of the available information. A query plan for answering the query is formulated from descriptions of the contents and capabilities of the available information sources. Based on these descriptions logical solutions which are subsets of the complete solution to the query are derived. An order for executing these solutions is determined based on the input requirements and other capabilities of the relevant information sources.

The World Wide Web ("WWW") provides access to a multitude of information sources, of which a growing number are structured, and provides a query interface (e.g., HTML forms). Unlike unstructured sources that can only be viewed and browsed by the user, structured sources answer specific user queries. Even more sources behave as structured sources with an appropriate interface program, for example, those for parsing structured text files. Currently, the interaction with services that access rich collections of structured information sources, for example, French Teletel, France's public telephone system, is much like browsing. The user must consider the available sources, decide which sources to access, and then individually interact with them, using only the schema and query interface peculiar to that source.
Since there is no effective tool for combining information from multiple structured sources, it is very difficult to search relevant sources, defined as sources having information responsive in either in whole or in part to a query, even if a list of sources is available, and certainly when the user has to find the relevant sources on the WWW.
There are several challenges in providing a system to query multiple information sources. First, information sources are generally autonomous and therefore heterogeneous, i.e. using different data models, schema and representations for objects. A service for responding to a user's query from information found in multiple sources must account for these differences. Second, the service must account for the fact that many information sources have closely related data: many publication repositories, many market databases, and many name servers. The service must be capable of modeling the fine differences between the content of different sources to determine efficiently which sources contain information necessary to answer a given query. Third, information sources tend to contain incomplete information. For example, few publication repositories can claim to contain all publications of a certain class, and therefore multiple sources need to be queried for the same information. Finally, information sources differ not only in their content, but also in their capabilities. For example, one source may require that certain arguments be bound in queries, while another source may have the ability to perform limited forms of processing. For example, responding to a query may ideally require a selection on certain attributes, in order to minimize the amount of data transmitted over the network, and to optimize the data processing required to answer a user's query.
Several existing systems provide access to multiple information sources using the notion of a mediator, as described in G. Wiederhold, "Mediators in the Architecture of Future Information Systems," IEEE Computer, pp.38-49 (1992), hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. However, in these systems mediators are built either for specific information sources or for specific query forms. They are not source and query independent. Examples of systems using the notion of a mediator include TSIMMIS, described in S. Chawathe, et al., "The TSIMMIS Project: Integration of Heterogenous Information Sources," Proceedings of IPSJ, Tokyo (October 1994)); HERMES described in V. S. Subrahmanian, et al, "HERMES: A Heterogeneous Reasoning and Mediator System," Technical Report, University of Maryland (1995); and Nomenclator described in Joann J. Ordille, "Descriptive Name Services for Large Internets," PhD thesis, University of Wisconsin, (1993) and Joann J. Ordille and Barton P. Miller, "Distributed Active Catalogs and Meta-Data Caching in Descriptive Name Services" Proceedings of the 13th International IEEE Conference on Distributed Computing Systems, pp. 120-9 (1993), all of which are hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein.
In the Nomenclator system, for example, multiple CCSO, X.500 and relational nameservers are incorporated. The CCSO nameserver is more fully described in R. Hedberg et al., "The CCSO Nameserver (Ph) Architecture," URL:ftp://ftp.internic.net/internet-drafts/draft-ietf-ids-ph-02.txt (Internet Draft 12/95) and S. Dorner and P. Pomes, "The CCSO Nameserver--A Description," Technical Report, Computer and Communications Services Office (U. Ill. 8/92), both of which are hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. A description of X.500 can be found in CCITT, The Directory, Recommendations X.500, X.501, X.509, X.518-X.521 (1988), hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. Source descriptions are given as equality selections on a single relation, and queries can only reference one relation.
The SIMS system, described in Yigal Arens, et al., "Retrieving and Integrating Data from Multiple Information Sources" Int'l Journal on Intelligent and Cooperative Information System (1994), describes information sources via class descriptions. SIMS, as well as the Internet Softbot, described in Oren Etzioni and Daniel Weld, "A Softbot-Based Interface to the Internet," Communication of ACM 37 (7):72-76 (1994), hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein, use artificial intelligence planning techniques for identifying the relevant information sources and creating a query plan. These approaches do not consider capability descriptions of the sources, and do not guarantee to find all and only the relevant sources.
In Alon Y. Levy, et al., "Data Model and Query Evaluation in Global Information Systems," Journal of Intelligent Information Systems, Special Issue on Networked Information Discovery and Retrieval (1995), hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein, a language was proposed for describing information sources. However, with the language and algorithms described, only a limited number of information sources could be incorporated in a response to a query.
Finally, there are several indexing systems for finding information on the World Wide Web such as Yahoo, Lycos, Harvest, described in C. Mic. Bowman, et al., "Scalable Internet Resource Discovery: Research Problems and Approaches," Communication of ACM, 37(8):98-107 (1994), and Gloss described in Luis Gravano, et al., "The Effectiveness of Gloss for the Text Database Discovery Problem," in Proceedings of SIGMOD-94 pp. 126-137 (1994), both of which are hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. These systems are all based on keyword searches on contents or annotations of documents, and are only able to retrieve documents that match these keywords. They cannot answer semantically meaningful queries that require considering the contents of the sources.
One system for specifying high-level queries over unstructured information sources is W3QS, described in David Konopnicki and Oded Shmueli, "W3QS: A Query System for the WWW," Proceedings of the 21st VLDB Conference (1995), hereby incorporated by reference as if fully set forth herein. While this system enables a user to specify in the query, patterns of nodes on the web and properties of such nodes that can be checked using existing Unix utilities, and enables a lot of otherwise manual searches to be done by a search engine, it does not make use of the contents of structured sources, and it does not combine information from multiple sources.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/203,082, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,655,116 allowed on Jul. 31, 1996 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/347,016, now U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,831 allowed on Jul. 17, 1996, both of which are commonly assigned with the present application, relate to apparatus and method for retrieving information from multiple information sources using a world view of the avaliable information sources. The subject matter covered by these applications, however, do not exploit the capabilities of the information sources in solving queries.

Information manifold for query processing


A method for allocating CDMA channels applicable to a mobile communication system that performs communication by using two or more CDMA channels, the method comprising: for each active sector corresponding to a particular mobile station, independently allocating CDMA channels (i.e., frequency assignments) such that each active sector is allocated at least one CDMA channel; and transmitting packet data by using the allocated CDMA channel.

An HRPD (High Rate Packet Data) is a standard for wireless (radio) access technology that is optimized for high speed, high capacity data transmissions. The HRPD system applies Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA) technology and Time Division Multiplexing (TDM) technology to allow a mobile station to transmit data. Accordingly, due to its improved data transmission rate and capacity, the HRPD system can provide multimedia contents in various technical fields of application, such as wireless Internet access, real-time road traffic information, wireless live broadcasts, movies, games and the like.
In order to transmit large capacity data at a higher rate, an Nx HRPD system transmits packets upon allocating more than one CDMA channel (frequency assignment) to one mobile station. Namely, a method that transmits packets by using a multi-carrier is employed.
According to the related art, in a system that transmits packets by using a multi-carrier, the same CDMA channel (frequency assignment) is allocated to the active sectors. Namely, allocating the CDMA channel (frequency assignment) to all other active sectors in the same manner as that for a serving sector, which is currently transmitting packet data to a particular mobile station, is problematic because of inefficiencies from the point of radio resource management.
Also, in the related art, when data is transmitted by using the allocated CDMA channels (FAs), no determination is made as to whether which of the many CDMA channels (FAs) should be used to transmit control messages. However, because control signals can be considered to be more important than traffic data, there is a need to transmit such control signals in a more effective manner.


According to one embodiment, there is provided a trackball device provided for an operation panel of a predetermined computer, the device includes a first casing including a housing portion, a ball rotatably housed in the housing portion, a detector provided in the housing portion and configured to detect input information based on rotation of the ball, and a second casing including an opening portion and mounted on the first casing to restrain the ball in the housing portion while part of the ball is exposed from the opening portion, wherein the second casing further comprises a ring portion which is provided along the opening portion and exposed from the operation panel when the trackball device is provided on the operation panel, and is configured to be detachable from the first casing upon application of a dynamic action to the ring portion.

A trackball device detects the rotating direction and speed of a ball (sphere) rotated by a user with a pair of orthogonally arranged encoders respectively corresponding to the X- and Y-axis directions, and operates the cursor (pointer) displayed on a screen in accordance with the detected rotating direction and speed. Such a trackball is widely used as the interface unit of a computer typified by a personal computer, a medical image diagnostic apparatus typified by an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus, and the like.
FIG. 17 is a side view of a trackball device 80 used for an operation panel 90 of a conventional ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. FIG. 18 is a sectional view of the trackball device 80 shown in FIG. 17. As shown in FIGS. 17 and 18, the conventional trackball device 80 includes a ball 81, a casing 82 having an opening portion to expose part of the ball 81, and a dial 83 used either for operation in an axial direction different from that indicated by the trackball or for control of application software of the ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. The ball 81 is housed in the casing 82 while being partially exposed from the opening portion and being rotatable. The dial 83 is provided along the opening portion. The user can operate the cursor or the like on the screen by rotating the ball 81 by manually operating the exposed portion of the ball 81 or rotating the dial 83 clockwise or counterclockwise.
In general, the ball 81 tends to become dirty because the user touches it, and dust easily stays in the ball housing portion of the casing 82. Jelly applied to a patient in ultrasonic diagnosis tends to adhere to the trackball device used in an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus. Such dirt on the ball and dust and the like staying in the ball housing portion cause a deterioration in the detection capability of the trackball. Periodic maintenance and cleaning are therefore indispensable to this device.
However, the conventional trackball device has the following problems at the time of maintenance or cleaning. In order to remove the ball 81 from the ball housing portion of the casing 82, the upper plate of the operation panel 90 of the computer has to be detached, then the trackball device 80 has to be detached from the operation panel 90, and then the trackball device 80 has to be disassembled using specially-designed screws. Therefore, the maintenance or cleaning of the trackball device can be performed only by a professional and requires a great deal of time and labor. Since the user cannot clean the trackball device regularly, the cleaning of the ball and the removal of foreign matter from inside a hole or opening may be delayed. As a result, the detection performance of the trackball may be impaired, and the reliability of the apparatus incorporating the trackball may be deteriorated.
It is intended to provide a trackball device which does not have to be detached from an operation panel and does not have to be maintained or cleaned by a professional, and also to provide an ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus incorporating the trackball device.

Trackball device and ultrasonic diagnostic apparatus


An eyeglass protective device, comprising a body portion with an edge. The edge defines an opening through which a pair of eyeglasses may be inserted into the body portion. The body portion protects the eyeglass lenses. An eyeglass bow is accessible when the eyeglasses are in the body portion and may be used to hang the eyeglasses. The body portion is formed from a cloth-like material, is stretchable, is adapted to snugly fit around said eyeglasses, and is adapted for cleaning eyeglass lenses. The body portion has a bow aperture in a predetermined position, wherein an eyeglass bow may extend through the bow aperture. The device may be used for other personal items such as cell phones.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, generally, to protecting, carrying and cleaning any eyewear or other person items such as cell phones with a cover that is lightweight cloth, and allows the eyewear or items, themselves, to act as the attachment device to any article of clothing. More particularly, the invention relates to an all-in-one device that allows the eyewear user to keep their glasses, sunglasses or the like protected, cleaned and carried without any cumbersome cases, clips or cleaning devices other that this cover. The invention has particular utility in preventing scratches and foreign substances from appearing on the lenses or other surfaces, along with the ability to clean those lenses or surfaces should they get dirty or smudged.
2. Background Information
The state of the art includes various devices and methods for protecting, carrying, and cleaning eyewear. Known art devices and methods are believed to have significant limitations and shortcomings. Specifically, eyewear cases tend to be heavy and cumbersome, so they are generally not convenient to be carried to outdoor events. Whether someone needs to wear glasses to see an outdoor concert better, or they are wearing expensive sunglasses during outdoor activities, these eyewear need to be protected after the concert is over or when the sun goes down to eliminate the possibility of scratches or damage to the lenses. Other eyewear cases may be lightweight, but are not easily attachable to clothing, or purse-like items, without the use of clips or ties, that make carrying of them very cumbersome and unfashionable. Hard glasses cases do not clean the lenses, so a cleaning cloth must also be carried. Some soft glasses cases are made for cleaning of the lenses, but still have the problem of carrying them easily with glasses in them.
Since people are outdoors more in the summer months, and the amount of sunshine is the greatest, there is a need for eye protection from the sun. The best protection tends to come from the more expensive sunglasses, which are costly to replace. Because the amount of clothing worn in the summer is minimal, people do not like to carry cumbersome cases, and will many times hook a bow of the sunglasses over a shirt collar, in a belt loop, or in the waistband of a swim suit to keep the sunglasses somewhat protected and attached to their body when they are out of the sun. However, the glasses tend to slip out of the shirt collar and fall on the floor when bending over, or rub up against a rough surface when hooked into pants or shorts, and potentially damage the lenses.
Significant features of the invention include: 1) a bow-through hole or slit to allow the bow to be fed through the soft cover to act as a hanger; 2) elastic or tieable band to keep cover tight and fashionable around the eyewear, which also makes the cover a great tool as a premium product or message/logo carrier; 3) soft, lightweight cloth that is easily carried in any clothing without bulkiness that can also be used to clean lenses of eyewear; 4) Available in any multiple sizes for any common eyewear, and each size has stretchability to fit over many sizes of eyewear.
The present invention provides an eyeglass protective device which is believed to constitute an improvement over the known art.


A base station for a cellular telephone system provided with a solar shield formed of conductive material. The solar shield also functions as a ground plane for an antenna mounted to its outer surface.

This invention relates to an electrical assembly contained within an enclosure and which cooperates with a radiating antenna outside the enclosure and, more particularly, to structure which functions as a combined solar shield and antenna ground plane for such an assembly.
An electrical assembly utilized as a base station for a cellular telephone system is typically mounted outdoors, where it is exposed to the environment. Such an assembly includes heat generating components and is mounted within an enclosure, and therefore some means for dissipating the heat must be provided. In addition, such an assembly is usually provided with an outer cover which acts as a solar shield and which is beneficial in sheltering the assembly from solar heat. It is also known to provide a heat sink including heat conducting fins on the enclosure under the solar shield for dissipating heat generated within the enclosure. The outer cover also acts as a wind shield to protect the fins from excessive wind which could overcool the internal electronic components of the base station. The electrical assembly also cooperates with a radiating antenna outside the enclosure. The antenna is usually mounted under the cover which must therefore be non-conductive to allow electromagnetic waves to pass therethrough. However, with such an arrangement, the heat sink fins distort the radiation pattern of the antenna. Therefore, in the past, a ground plane has been provided between the antenna and the heat sink. This antenna ground plane adds an additional component and its associated cost, and interferes with the flow of air ventilating the heat fins. It would therefore be desirable to provide structure which does not suffer from the aforedescribed disadvantages.

Combined solar shield and antenna ground plane structure for an electrical assembly


A fuel cell system and a method of operating the same. The fuel cell system in particular includes an air discharge part provided on the anode of a fuel cell, and a controller that is configured to measure a purging period of recirculated hydrogen and an operating temperature of the fuel cell, and operate the air discharge part based on the measured values to prevent the anode from becoming poisoned due to the emission of CO gases.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a fuel cell system and a method of operating the same capable of preventing an increase in a carbon monoxide (CO) concentration and CO poisoning on an anode in a hydrogen side recirculation system when fuel starvation occurs on the hydrogen side during operation of a fuel cell vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
During operation of a fuel cell, fuel-starvation may occur on the hydrogen side of the system if the hydrogen concentration is reduced, thus resulting in the production of CO gases. This means that there is a higher probability that CO poisoning of an electrode catalyst on the hydrogen side of the system may occur.
In a fuel cell system, hydrogen distribution is locally deteriorated when a channel is blocked due to moisture which is diffused in the reverse direction on the cathode during operation. As a result, fuel-starvation occurs on the hydrogen side of the system, thereby creating a higher probability that CO is generated on the anode.
These CO gases poison the catalyst and thus result in the deterioration of the general performance of a fuel cell. When the hydrogen concentration is reduced on the anode, the electrode on the hydrogen side is CO-poisoned, so that the stack performance of the fuel cell gradually deteriorates. Therefore, there is a need for a technology that removes CO-poisoning on the hydrogen side and recovers the stack performance by performing air-bleeding toward the hydrogen side during an idle-stop interval or a shut-down interval of a fuel cell vehicle for the purpose of recovering the stack performance of the fuel cell.
The matters described as the related art have been provided only for facilitating the understanding of the background of the present invention and should not be construed as acknowledging it as the prior art already known to those skilled in the art.

Fuel cell system and method of operating the same


An arrow holding device for retaining an arrow within an arrow support rest until the user is prepared to shoot without affecting the flight of the arrow. The arrow holding device includes a base plate that is attachable to the support rest, a guide arm extending from the base plate, a securing strap attached to the base plate, and a ring member attached to the distal end of the securing strap for removably engaging the guide arm. The securing strap is positioned about the shaft of an arrow and then the ring member is positioned upon the guide arm to prevent movement of the arrow within the support rest. When the user draws the arrow rearwardly the securing strap moves rearwardly until the ring member is pulled from the guide arm thereby releasing the securing strap from about the shaft of the arrow.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to arrow support rests for bows and more specifically it relates to an arrow holding device for retaining an arrow within an arrow support rest until the user is prepared to shoot without affecting the flight of the arrow.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Arrow support rests have been in use for years. Typically, an arrow support rest is comprised of a structure that is attached to the side member of a bow extending below the normal position of the arrow so as to support the arrow in a desired position. Most arrow support rests include a pair of extended prongs that are positioned on opposing sides of the arrow shaft. The user is able to retain the arrow upon the bow without having to physically grasp the arrow during non-usage. The three most popular shoot-through arrow support rests currently on the market are QUIKTUNE, BODOODLE, and GOLDEN KEY FUTURA.
However, a problem occurs when the user moves the bow around which causes the arrow to fall from the support rest. The arrow often times becomes xe2x80x9cjammedxe2x80x9d between the arrow support rest and the side member of the bow. Other times the arrow simply falls completely from the support rest and bow.
While these devices may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they are not as suitable for retaining an arrow within an arrow support rest until the user is prepared to shoot without affecting the flight of the arrow. Conventional arrow support rests are not designed to effectively retain the arrow within them for extended periods of time until the arrow is released.
In these respects, the arrow holding device according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of retaining an arrow within an arrow support rest until the user is prepared to shoot without affecting the flight of the arrow.
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of arrow support rests now present in the prior art, the present invention provides a new arrow holding device construction wherein the same can be utilized for retaining an arrow within an arrow support rest until the user is prepared to shoot without affecting the flight of the arrow.
The general purpose of the present invention, which will be described subsequently in greater detail, is to provide a new arrow holding device that has many of the advantages of the arrow support rests mentioned heretofore and many novel features that result in a new arrow holding device which is not anticipated, rendered obvious, suggested, or even implied by any of the prior art arrow support rests, either alone or in any combination thereof.
To attain this, the present invention generally comprises a base plate that is attachable to the support rest, a guide arm extending from the base plate, a securing strap attached to the base plate, and a ring member attached to the distal end of the securing strap for removably engaging the guide arm. The securing strap is positioned about the shaft of an arrow and then the ring member is positioned upon the guide arm to prevent movement of the arrow within the support rest. When the user draws the arrow rearwardly the securing strap moves rearwardly until the ring member is pulled from the guide arm thereby releasing the securing strap from about the shaft of the arrow.
There has thus been outlined, rather broadly, the more important features of the invention in order that the detailed description thereof may be better understood, and in order that the present contribution to the art may be better appreciated. There are additional features of the invention that will be described hereinafter and that will form the subject matter of the claims appended hereto.
In this respect, before explaining at least one embodiment of the invention in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and to the arrangements of the components set forth in the following description or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments and of being practiced and carried out in various ways. Also, it is to be understood that the phraseology and terminology employed herein are for the purpose of the description and should not be regarded as limiting.
A primary object of the present invention is to provide an arrow holding device that will overcome the shortcomings of the prior art devices.
A second object is to provide an arrow holding device for retaining an arrow within an arrow support rest until the user is prepared to shoot without affecting the flight of the arrow.
Another object is to provide an arrow holding device that may be utilized with various designs of arrow support rests.
An additional object is to provide an arrow holding device that does not interfere with the flight of the arrow.
A further object is to provide an arrow holding device that is able to retain an arrow within a support rest for extended periods of time.
Another object is to provide an arrow holding device that automatically releases the arrow when the arrow is slightly drawn.
A further object is to provide an arrow holding device that allows a bow user to position the bow at various positions including upside down and sideways without the arrow becoming accidentally dislodged from the arrow support rest.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become obvious to the reader and it is intended that these objects and advantages are within the scope of the present invention.
To the accomplishment of the above and related objects, this invention may be embodied in the form illustrated in the accompanying drawings, attention being called to the fact, however, that the drawings are illustrative only, and that changes may be made in the specific construction illustrated and described within the scope of the appended claims.


A passive macromodel for lossy, dispersive multiconductor transmission lines uses a multiplicative approximation of the matrix exponential known as the Lie product. The circuit implementation of the macromodel is a cascade of elementary cells, each cell being the combination of a pure delay element and a lumped circuit representing the transmission line losses. Compared with passive rational macromodeling, the Lie product macromodel is capable of efficiently simulating long, low-loss multiconductor transmission lines while preserving passivity. This result is combined with transmission line theory to derive a time-domain error criterion for the Lie product macromodel. This criterion is used to determine the minimum number of cells needed in the macromodel to assure that the magnitude of the time-domain error is less than a given engineering tolerance.

High-performance electrical system design requires the use of sophisticated interconnections between system components. These interconnections must be designed to achieve three interrelated objectives: minimize signaling delay between components; minimize electromagnetic cross talk noise between interconnections; and ensure immunity to external electromagnetic interferences. Two main examples of these interconnections are multiconductor transmission lines and connectors.
Transmission lines are interconnects whose electrical length is large compared with the wavelength of the transmitted signal. A transmission line macromodel is a mathematical model that enables analysis and simulation of transmission lines in electrical circuits. Passivity of the macromodel is advantageous because it results in a more robust, reliable and efficient transmission line analysis.
Multiconductor transmission lines are present throughout any electrical system comprising several integrated circuits (chips). They are used on a printed circuit board (PCB) for signal transmission between different chipsets. Multiconductor transmission lines are also used to transfer signals inside a package containing the chip as well as to transfer signals inside the chip itself. PCB and package transmission lines are known in the art as off-chip transmission lines while the lines responsible for transferring signals within the chip are known in the art as on-chip transmission lines. The transmission line nature of an interconnection depends on the wavelength of the signal carried by the interconnection. With the constant increase in electronic system speed, the signal wavelengths are becoming shorter. The net result is that more and more of the interconnections are behaving as transmission lines, which makes the task of modeling and analyzing overwhelming. The situation is rendered even more complex by the fact that the on-chip and off-chip transmission lines behave very differently in terms of the losses (i.e., attenuation and the distortion) incurred by the signals they carry. Because of their small cross sections, on-chip transmission lines are very lossy relative to off-chip transmission lines. Among off-chip transmission lines, packaging transmission lines are in general more lossy than PCB transmission lines. These differences in location (on-chip, off-chip), length (short, long), losses (high, low), and signal wavelength make the efficient modeling, simulation, and analysis of transmission lines a difficult engineering task.
In an article by A. Dounavis et al entitled "Delay extraction and passive macromodeling of lossy coupled transmission lines" in Digest of Electrical Performance of Electronic Packaging, volume 12, pages 251-254, Princeton, N.J., October 2003, a passive macromodel for lossy, dispersive multiconductor transmission lines has been proposed. The article is hereby incorporated herein by reference. The macromodel was a multiplicative approximation of the matrix exponential known as the Lie product. The circuit implementation of the macromodel is a cascade of elementary cells, each cell being the combination of a pure delay element and a lumped circuit representing the transmission line losses.
The present invention combines the results of the Dounavis et al paper with transmission line theory to derive a time-domain error criteria for the Lie product macromodel. The error criteria is then used to derive a lower bound on the number of cells needed in the macromodel so that the worst-case magnitude of the time-domain error is less than a given engineering tolerance.

Method for order selection in passive transmission line macromodels based on the lie criteria

International Business Machines Corporation


Disclosed herein are suture clip delivery devices that can be loaded with several flat, disk-shaped suture clips and can deploy the suture clips one after another onto respective sutures without reloading the device with additional suture clips. An exemplary device includes a handle portion with an actuation mechanism that is coupled to a shaft portion that holds and deploys the suture clips. The shaft portion includes a mandrel on which the suture clips are mounted and a retainer that restricts the suture clips from moving proximally when the actuation mechanism pulls the mandrel proximally, which causes a distal-most suture clip to slide off the mandrel and be deployed onto one or more suture. The mandrel and remaining suture clips can them move distally to prepare to deploy the next suture clip.

Sutures are used for a variety of surgical purposes, such as approximation of tissue and ligation of tissue. When placing sutures, the strand of suture material to be used typically has a needle affixed to one end which is passed (looped) through the tissue to be approximated or ligated, forming a stitch. The stitch is then tensioned appropriately, and the two free ends of the suture loop, the needle end and the non-needle end, are knotted to retain the desired tension in the stitch. Forming knots in suture during open surgery is a simple matter, though time-consuming, but forming knots in sutures during endoscopic surgery can require two surgeons to cooperate in a multi-step process which is performed with multiple instruments to pass the needle and suture back and forth to tie the suture knot.
Suture locking devices that eliminate the need to tie knots in order to speed up surgical procedures are known. Suture retainers or locks are used in place of suture knots to prevent passage of a suture end into and through tissue and to maintain the tension applied to the suture material during a suturing procedure.
When using a method that employs a clip to secure sutures, the clip can be delivered by advancing the clip along the suture lines to the area of interest, and then engaging the clip to the sutures such that the clip secures the sutures in place. With the clip thus secured, the excess sutures can be cut and removed from the patient. However, deployment of several suture clips during a procedure can be very time consuming, difficult to accomplish without error, and prone to inconsistent tensioning from one clip to the next. In light of the foregoing, there is presently a need for improved systems for securing sutures with suture clips.


A liquid pumping apparatus and pump method is provided in which a reciprocal drive piston is carried in a pump body and is reciprocated back and forth by a mechanical power source such as a crankshaft. The pump body has a pump chamber which receives the liquid to be pumped. A pump piston which is separate from the drive piston is operatively connected to the pump chamber to expand and contract the volume of the pump chamber to first fill the pump chamber with liquid and then expel the liquid from the pump chamber in a pumping action. The pump piston is coupled to the drive piston for movement therewith during a portion of a pump cycle such that the drive piston is effective to move the pump piston in its volume expanding direction relative to the pump chamber at a first speed. Then, the connection between the pump piston and drive piston is broken and the pump piston is accelerated in its volume contracting direction to a second substantially faster speed to pump the liquid out of the pump chamber.

The Toro Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota is the owner of U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,101,745 and 5,119,744. These patents disclose using high pressure water jets for soil cultivation. Namely, high pressure water jets are formed and injected directly into the ground from a movable implement that traverses over the ground. The high pressure jets form small holes or openings in the turf extending down to or below the root zone of the turf. These openings relieve soil compaction and allow water and other nutrients to reach and nourish the root zone of the turf, thereby generally promoting turf growth. The jets also fracture the soil to reduce overall soil density.
In the soil cultivation implement shown in these patents, a manifold is provided having a plurality of downwardly directed nozzles which point toward the ground. High pressure water applied to the manifold is formed into individual jets by the nozzles with the jets then being injected into the ground. The device includes a water supply means for periodically supplying high pressure water to the manifold to periodically create the water jets. The jets form an array of spaced holes in the turf as the implement travels over the ground.
While the water supply means shown in these prior Toro patents is effective for its intended purpose, it is relatively complex. It includes a mechanically driven pump having one or more reciprocating pump plungers which are driven back and forth in chambers to pump water at relatively high pressures, e.g. up to 5,000 psi. The high pressure water exiting the pump is received in an accumulator for use at those times when water injection is required. While the accumulator can be precharged by gas to about half the desired pressure, the incoming water from the pump raises the pressure of the accumulated liquid in the accumulator to the high pressures that are required. Finally, a valve periodically opens the outlet of the accumulator to supply a burst of high pressure water to the manifold. This valve is mechanically driven in a timed relationship to the implement's speed to allow proper spacing between the holes placed in the turf.
Three major components are required in the prior art water supply means just described, i.e. a high pressure, mechanically driven pump, a high pressure liquid accumulator, and a high pressure valve for periodically opening the outlet of the accumulator. All of these components have to withstand the high water pressures involved. The need for a plurality of separate components adds to the expense, complexity and weight of the soil cultivation apparatus.

High pressure liquid pump apparatus and pumping method


A rubber composition based on at least one diene elastomer, including, as inforcing filler, alumina which has a BET surface ranging from 30 to 400 m.sup.2 /g, a mean particle size smaller than or equal to 500 nm, a high proportion of Al--OH surface reactive functional groups, a high dispersibility and a coupling agent present in a quantity, expressed in moles per square meter of alumina, ranging from 10.sup.-7 to 10.sup.-5, particularly suitable for the manufacture of tires.

The present invention relates to a diene rubber composition comprising, preferably in major part, alumina as reinforcing filler, which can be employed for the manufacture of tires.
With the aim of reducing fuel consumption and the pollutants emitted by motor vehicles, great efforts have been made by tire designers to produce tires which exhibit at the same time a very low rolling resistance, improved adherence both to dry ground and to wet or snow-covered ground and very good resistance to wear.
Many solutions have been proposed for lowering the rolling resistance and improving the adherence of tires, but they are generally reflected in a very considerable loss of abrasion resistance. It is well known, in fact, to a person skilled in the art that the incorporation of conventional white fillers such as silica, alumina, bentonite, clay, kaolin, chalk, titanium oxide, talc, and the like into rubber compositions employed in the manufacture of tires and especially of treads, is undoubtedly reflected in a lowering of the rolling resistance and in an improvement in the adherence to wet, snow-covered or glare-iced ground, but also in an unacceptable loss in resistance to wear.
An effective solution to this problem has been described in Patent Application EP-A-0 501 227, which describes a sulfur-vulcanizable diene rubber composition obtained by thermomechanical working of a copolymer of a conjugated diene and of an aromatic vinyl compound prepared by solution polymerization with 30 to 150 parts by weight per 100 parts of elastomer of a specific highly dispersible precipitated silica.
Other compositions possessing such an excellent compromise between a number of contradictory properties would be of major interest to tire manufacturers who would thus have various methods of operation at their disposal. In addition, the improvement in the resistance to wear thus obtained could optionally be converted into lowering of the rolling resistance by decreasing the tread thickness. Manufacture of tires exhibiting an unaltered lifetime, but lighter and therefore consuming less energy, could thus be envisaged.

Diene rubber composition based on alumina as reinforcing filler and its use for the manufacture of a tire

Compagnie Generale des Etablissements Michelin-Michelin & Cie


A multi-cylinder internal combustion engine having an exhaust system with an exhaust emission after-treatment device for exhaust gases from the cylinders, an air supply system for supplying fresh air to the cylinders, a fuel supply system for supplying fuel to each cylinder, and a controller to cut off the fuel supply and disable at least one cylinder, and preferably two cylinders in opposing pairs. A valve assembly is located between the cylinders to be disabled and the emission after-treatment device and is operable to divert gases from said the disabled cylinders via a recirculation conduit back to the air supply system.

Cylinder disablement is a method of isolating selected cylinders of a multi-cylinder engine in order to reduce fuel consumption. This may be done by disabling the cylinder valves, typically by electro-hydraulic control as is shown in DE 197 16 042 C, or mechanical disablement as is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,336,775 or U.S. Pat. No. 4,615,307. Also a variable timing/lift may be adapted and modified to completely eliminate the lift of one exhaust valve for each cylinder. GB 2 342 893 discloses a method of controlling exhaust valves so that the valves remain closed following cold starting of the engine.
Another method of cylinder disablement is to cut off the supply of fuel to selected cylinders, particularly to save fuel under conditions of light load. This increases the load on the other cylinders and reduces pumping losses.
The inventors herein have recognized a problem with this procedure, namely that the disabled cylinders will pump fresh air into the exhaust system. This will prevent a standard three way catalyst in an exhaust emission after-treatment device from functioning correctly in the conversion of all pollutants to less harmful products. It also causes a significant gas flow through the intake and exhaust systems causing some pumping losses.
According to the present invention, a system that overcomes the above disadvantages includes: a multi-cylinder internal combustion engine; an air supply system for supplying fresh air to said engine cylinders; a fuel supply system for supplying fuel to said engine cylinders; an emission after-treatment device coupled downstream of said engine; a valve assembly coupled between said engine and said emission after-treatment device, said assembly including a first valve and a second valve; and a controller disabling fuel supply to at least one of said engine cylinders, said controller adjusting said first valve to divert exhaust gases from said disabled cylinders back to said air supply system; and adjusting said second valve to control the flow of engine exhaust gases to said emission after-treatment device.
Each assembly is associated with a plurality of cylinders to be disabled. Preferably the cylinders are disabled in opposing pairs, for example in a four cylinder in line engine the cylinders 2 & 3 will be disabled. This has the advantage that gas flows from the two cylinders may be readily combined for recirculation to the air supply system.
The second valve may also be used as an EGR (exhaust gas recirculation) valve.
The valves are preferably butterfly valves which are formed from a suitable high temperature resistant material, that is, temperatures in excess of 950° C. The valves may be located in the exhaust manifold passageways of the cylinders to be disabled and preferably where two adjacent cylinders are disabled the two manifold passageways may be interconnected for connection to a single recirculation conduit.
The valves may be independently operated by a respective actuator, the two actuators being controlled by the control means which in turn may be part of the ECU (Engine Control Unit). The butterfly valves are preferably rotationally off-set by 90 degrees of arc. This prevents simultaneous closure of the exhaust and recirculation passageways. In an alternative arrangement, the two valves may be linked for operation by a single actuator. Preferably, the two valves are mounted on a common spindle operated by the single actuator.
The invention is applicable any engine configuration, for example, 4, 6, 8, or 12 cylinders arranged in-line or in a V 8 configuration, and to engines having catalyst after-treatment devices which are arranged in either banks or cascades. The invention is particularly suitable for V configuration engines where the fuel to a complete bank of cylinders can be diverted to the other bank of cylinders thus disabling a complete bank of cylinders.
For V configuration engines, where at least one cylinder of each bank of cylinders may be selectively disabled, a respective valve assembly may be provided for each or the cylinder to be disabled, and more preferably, a respective valve assembly is provided only for each bank containing a cylinder to be disabled.
The above advantages, and other advantages and features of the present invention will be readily apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, and from the claims.

Internal combustion engine having cylinder disablement


A method, system, and computer are disclosed for managing a financial transaction associated with a financial account, wherein the transaction would cause an outstanding balance of the financial account to exceed a credit limit. The method comprises determining a merchant type for a merchant which is a party to the transaction. A merchant credit risk associated with the determined merchant type is determined. The merchant credit risk is compared to a threshold value defining an acceptable credit risk. The transaction is approved based on the comparison of the merchant credit risk with the threshold value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to systems and methods for processing credit card transactions, and, more particularly, to systems and methods for processing credit card transactions that exceed a credit limit associated with the credit card.
2. The Related Art
A credit card is a financial product that is most commonly represented by a plastic card-like member. Credit cards are generally issued by a bank and provide a mechanism by which an authorized cardholder purchases products (e.g., goods or services) without an immediate, direct exchange of cash. With each purchase, a cardholder thereby incurs debt which he or she may thereafter (i.e., upon receipt of a monthly or otherwise periodic statement) fully pay the outstanding balance. Alternatively, the cardholder may, as a matter of necessity or choice, defer at least a portion of the balance for later payment with accompanying interest or finance charges for the period during which payment of the outstanding debt is deferred.
The spending power (i.e., the total amount of funds available to the cardholder at any particular time for making purchases and the like) of a credit card is typically limited to a particular amount (the "credit limit") predetermined by the issuer of the card. The size of the issuer-imposed credit limit is generally based on a number of nonexclusive factors, the most important of which are often the cardholder's earning capacity and credit history. When purchases are made or debts incurred with the credit card, the available portion of the credit limit is reduced by the purchase or debt amounts. In addition, interest and/or finance charges are also subtracted from the available portion of the credit limit on a periodic basis. The total debits on a credit card are referred to as the "outstanding balance," while the remaining or available balance of the credit limit is typically called the "available balance" and reflects the dynamically adjusted current spending power of the credit card. The cardholder may increase the available balance, up to the credit limit, by paying to the issuer (or its representative) the entire outstanding balance or a fractional portion thereof.
Under most known credit card administration methods, the card issuer informs the cardholder of the credit limit associated with the credit card. In this way, the credit limit acts as a threshold above which the card issuer will not normally allow purchases by the cardholder. A cardholder may sometimes circumvent the credit limit by applying for a higher credit limit or by requesting and obtaining express authorization from the card issuer to make an emergency purchase above the credit limit. Both of these options are granted only at the discretion of the card issuer, generally on a case-by-case basis.
In a typical credit card administration scheme, transactions are approved via the interaction of a point-of-sale terminal and a central data processor. When a merchant attempts to debit a credit card account, the merchant's point-of-sale terminal sends an electronic message to the central data processor. The central data processor determines whether the potential transaction, if accepted, would cause the outstanding balance to exceed the credit limit. In other words, the central data processor determines whether the potential transaction is of a greater monetary value than the available balance. The central data processor also determines if the card issuer has placed some sort of hold or other block on further transactions. Additionally, the central data processor may also execute some anti-fraud algorithms to determine patterns of suspect buying behavior (e.g., those patterns indicating theft or fraud). If all of these tests are passed, then the central data processor may issue an approval to the point-of-sale terminal. The merchant then completes the transaction.
As mentioned above, the increases in the credit limit and the authorizations to exceed the credit limit typically require the cardholder to contact the card issuer to request an increased credit limit. Oftentimes, however, the cardholder does not realize that a credit limit increase is needed for a particular transaction or is simply unable to contact the card issuer prior to the transaction. Thus, there is a need for a process allowing a card issuer to review transactions that will exceed a credit limit to determine whether a transaction approval is warranted for a particular transaction. Moreover, there is a need for card issuers to make this determination at the time of he transaction.

Systems and methods for processing credit card transactions that exceed a credit limit


A method includes generating a sampling signal having a non-uniform sampling interval and sampling a received signal with an analog-to-digital converter (ADC) using the sampling signal. The method also includes mapping the sampled received signal onto a frequency grid of sinusoids, where each sinusoid has a signal amplitude and a signal phase. The method further includes estimating the signal amplitude and the signal phase for each sinusoid in the frequency grid. In addition, the method includes computing an average background power level and detecting signals with power higher than the average background power level. The non-uniform sampling interval varies predictably.

A variety of signal sampling techniques are known. Traditional uniform sampling techniques often limit the maximum frequency of the signal that can be recovered due to the Nyquist limit and the effect of aliasing caused by slow sampling. Techniques to defeat aliasing fall into two general categories: multiple uniform sampling techniques and non-uniform sampling techniques. There are also some hybrid techniques that have been used, such as those that use non-uniform modulation of the signal followed by uniform sampling, in an attempt to overcome the Nyquist limit and to find ways to combat the effects of aliasing. However, these techniques often require substantial hardware or computing resources to recover signals of interest in a wideband application. The resources needed to extract a signal of interest typically grow rapidly as the frequency spectrum of interest widens.
In the area of extremely wideband receivers, there is yet another class of problems that arises when looking for weaker signals in the presence of stronger signals. These problems get compounded when the weaker signals can occur anywhere within an extremely broad spectrum and are mixed with strong signals of interest. In addition, the application environment is often constrained by the availability of hardware and computing resources.

Defeat of aliasing by incremental sampling