A GUI software development system that executes in a multitasking environment is enhanced with the addition of a property setting manager program that provides a means whereby a programmer may readily store and retrieve one of a plurality of program object property sets for a particular program object, be the object a visual control or a non-visual object that provides a distinct added functionality to the program. The property setting manager program provides functionality to extract current property settings of a control or object and save those settings as a predefined property set for future use. Predefined property sets are automatically made available to the programmer upon detection of an event indicating a corresponding control or object is being added to a computer program under development. Multiple unique predefined property settings for a particular programming object or control are stored for later recall so that the programming effort required to establish initial property settings is minimized. Further, an edit feature enables property settings of a program object or control to be easily modified to a new or different set of property settings at a later time. Predefined naming prefixes are automatically presented to the user upon detection of the addition of a new program object or control to aid in establishing standardized or preferred personalized reference names for each new program object.

Some years ago, a young Steve Jobs, one of the cofounders of Apple Computer, visited a facility owned by Xerox Corp. known as PARC (Palo Alto Research Center) and observed an advanced engineering system developed by Xerox. The Xerox system included a graphical interface, icons and a pointing device with switches (well known today as a mouse). The Xerox system was not a commercial success, and largely disappeared. However, the exposure to that system lead Steve Jobs to return to Apple Computer and inspired the creation of the Macintosh GUI.
In the meantime, IBM personal computer (or more widely known as "IBM PC") users were relegated to the command line, text mode display of the then available DOS (Disk Operating System) originally developed for IBM by Microsoft Corporation. With the huge success of the Apple Macintosh computer, IBM PC software companies began a concerted effort to develop similar GUI products for the IBM compatible. Specifically, IBM again returned to Microsoft for software development and the result was the ill-fated OS/1 OS. Further efforts by the two superpowers of the PC world resulted in two well known GUI operating systems presently available for the IBM compatible and known in the trade as Windows.RTM. from Microsoft Corporation and OS/2.RTM. from IBM (it should be noted that OS/2.RTM. was initially developed under contract from IBM by Microsoft Corporation). It is estimated that Windows.RTM. Operating System version 3.1 has sold more than 60 million copies worldwide as of this date. The actual user base is more likely larger as a result of illegally installed copies of Windows.RTM..
One of the distinct advantages of a GUI operating system (hereinafter also referred to as "GUI") is a standardized graphical presentation of information and "controls" or user interface objects. Such graphical objects include sizable windows, menus, pushbuttons, scroll bars, checkboxes, radio buttons and the like. User input is received by a GUI program via menus, pushbuttons, list boxes, edit boxes, mouse "clicks" alone or coupled with the "Alt", "Shift" and "Ctrl" keys, keyboard commands and a variety of other techniques well known to those skilled in the art. Programs developed for GUI's have a more consistent appearance, and menu structures have advanced to the point where most software developers adhere to a fairly standard format for common menu command items such as FILE, EDIT, FORMAT, OPTIONS, HELP etc., thereby enabling the user to become more rapidly proficient in using a new GUI based program.
A distinct drawback to GUI based program development was the necessity for programmers to shift from program development wherein the program has exclusive access to the computer hardware to programming in a multi-tasking environment wherein direct access to the hardware is generally not allowed when following recommended programming techniques. I/O (Input/Output) to and from hardware devices is handled by the GUI OS via device drivers, and programs are "event driven" in that the OS sends a program a notification (or message) signaling the occurrence of an event (such as a user clicking the mouse) and the program must respond accordingly, or perhaps ignore the event if so desired.
Initially, developing a GUI based program was a fairly tedious task, and required specific attention to a multitude of details or events that might take place wherein a program must properly respond to the event yet share the resources of the computer with other programs executing in the GUI environment. Numerous trial and error attempts were required to properly layout the visual appearance of a GUI based program. Eventually, graphical user interface design tools or visual development programming tools evolved to simplify the programmers efforts in developing such software. Yet, the event driven model of GUI programming still required a great deal of knowledge with respect to the internal hardware components of the PC. Then came the Visual Basic.RTM. Programming System for Windows.RTM. (Visual Basic.RTM. and Windows.RTM. are registered trademarks of Microsoft Corporation) a program development system that operates in the Windows.RTM. operating system (hereinafter Windows.RTM. OS).
Visual Basic.RTM. (hereinafter VB) is a programming development system from Microsoft Corporation that has revolutionized the program development cycle for GUI based programs. Now in the third version, VB enables the development of very sophisticated programs in a relatively short time span. VB uses the Basic programming language, modified to accommodate the features of GUI programming and the underlying OS. One of the more radical advances provided by VB is the manner in which a programmer designs the visual objects and layout of the appearance of the program without having to execute the program. A programmer, in designing the visual interface of a GUI program with VB, merely selects a new object to be added to the program by moving the mouse pointer and clicking on that item with the mouse, then moves the mouse pointer over the "form" (a visual representation of a GUI window that will be displayed when the program is executed). Next, a click-drag mouse operation adds the object to the program window or form. User interface visual objects are referred to as "controls" in the VB programming environment, and such will be the terminology used throughout this document. A double-click on the control opens up a code window wherein code associated with the events to which the control responds can be inserted by the programmer. Further, VB is extensible in that third party software developers can develop "custom controls" that provide new functionality yet simplify the implementation of such new features or characteristics of the finished program.
Referring now to FIG. 1, a visual representation of the programming environment for VB 1 is shown. Window 10 is the main program window for VB which includes a user accessible menu 10a and a toolbar 10b with graphical pushbuttons 10c located thereon. A brief example of the steps required for adding a "pushbutton" control to a "form" using VB includes: (1) selecting the pushbutton control 11 from the control toolbox window 12 (a collection of icons representing the controls available to the programmer) by clicking on the visual representation of the pushbutton control, (2) click-drag on the form 13 to literally "paint" the control onto form 13, (3) moving the new pushbutton control 14 to the desired location on the form by clicking on the control and moving the mouse pointer to the new location then releasing the mouse button.
A new control may added to a form by simply double-clicking on the control in the toolbox window 12 and the control will be added to the currently active form 13 and positioned in the center of the form. Other techniques, such as copy and paste or cut and paste, may also be used to add a new control to a form.
After the programmer has added the new pushbutton control 14 to the currently visible form in the design environment of VB, the properties of the control must be set. Properties for a pushbutton control include those items listed in the properties window 15, which is a visual representation of the properties window for a pushbutton control. The properties window 15 includes three areas, the object box 15a, the settings box 15b and the properties list 15c. The object box 15a provides a means for selecting the object or control of interest. As shown in the object box 15a, the COMMAND1 CommandButton (or pushbutton) control 14 is currently selected, and its properties are accordingly listed in the properties list 15c.
Each object or control pictorially depicted via pushbuttons with icons in the toolbox 12 has its own unique list of properties that are defined via the properties window 15. As a programmer adds program objects or controls to the form 13, predefined default properties of the object are established automatically by VB and are also shown in the properties window 15. VB initializes the properties to predefined or default settings, yet it is most commonly the case that the default settings are not those desired by the programmer. Thus, as each object or control is added to form 13, the initial run-time properties for the object may be optionally altered by the programmer. Initial properties are those that are automatically activated upon initial execution of the program that includes form 13 and pushbutton 14. The process for changing the properties of a control includes selecting the control 14 so that its properties are visible in the properties window 15, selecting one of the properties in the list 15c, and entering the desired values in the settings box 15b. The settings box 15b is a drop-down list box with edit capabilities that enables selection of settings from a list and, alternatively, allows the programmer to type in the desired property settings using the keyboard. It becomes readily apparent that as the number of controls added to form 13 increases, the time and effort consumed to establish the properties of each control is magnified directly.
With the foregoing in mind, what is needed is a more convenient and time saving technique for establishing the properties of a control or graphical object that forms a part of a computer program designed and developed within a GUI environment software development system.

Property setting manager for objects and controls of a graphical user interface software development system


Thermoplastic sealants and methods for forming a joint, such as a weld joint, between one or more structural members using thermoplastic sealants are provided. The thermoplastic sealants have melting temperatures lower than the melting temperature of at least one of the structural members. The thermoplastic sealants may further include fillers, and are disposed between faying surfaces of the structural members. The sealants can fill the spaces between the structural members to prevent the entry of chemicals, moisture, debris and other substances.

Joints between structural members are often formed by overlapping the two members together to create a lap joint. The lap joint is secured together by various means. In some instances, holes are drilled and rivets or other fasteners are disposed through the holes. Such overlapping surfaces can also be joined by welding the structural members together using one or more welds at the overlap of the materials. One type of welding process used to join lap joints is friction stir welding (FSW) in which a rotatable pin extends in a direction generally perpendicular to the interface of the members and is urged through the members along the interface.
However, the surfaces of each piece of joined metal adjacent the fasteners or welds mated by the lap joint, called "fay" surfaces, are often not fully bonded by the weld or other fasteners. The resulting spaces in the interface are open to moisture, chemicals, debris, and other foreign materials. This can result in increased corrosion of the structural members. In FSW, for example, the resulting nugget is typically not as wide as the interface of the overlapping members, such that the members define spaces in the interface in which corrosion can occur.
In order to control corrosion in these joints, sealants are often disposed in the spaces prior to, during, and/or after welding. Conventional sealants are known to reduce moisture which may be trapped between the faying surfaces and/or brought in by capillary action. These sealants are also useful for reducing mechanical and fatigue problems resulting from rubbing between the faying surfaces, vibration, and the like. Conventional faying surface sealants include polysulfide, polythioether, and the like, which are applied to the mating surfaces prior to joining.
However, many conventional sealants are degraded by the heat and mechanical activities involved in the welding process, as well as by vibration during use of the joined component. In some instances, the sealants become loosened from the interface. Specifically, when the sealant is applied before welding, care must be taken to avoid introducing the sealant into the nugget of the joint because the sealant can negatively impact the strength and/or corrosion resistance of the joint. This can involve placing masking tape on the area of the structural members where the nugget will be formed, disposing the sealant on the structural members, and then removing the masking tape to leave a relatively clean area for forming the nugget. However, such a process is time consuming. Additionally, even if such precautions are taken, some of the sealant can be squeezed into the interface as members are positioned and urged together to form the joint. The sealant then mixes with the plasticized material of the joint, thereby reducing the quality of the weld joint.
Therefore, what is needed are improved sealants and methods for forming a corrosion resistant joint in structural members.

Sealants for structural member joints and methods of using same

The Curators of the University of Missouri


The rising edge triggered flip-flops and falling edge triggered flip-flops in one or more clock domains of a target system can be simultaneously initialized to predetermined logic states by activating the flip-flop set/clear inputs, freezing the flip-flop clock signals high or low, subsequently deactivating the flip-flop set/clear inputs, and then re-enabling the clock signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to synchronizers and, more particularly, to a high speed synchronizer suitable for simultaneously initializing rising edge triggered flip-flops and falling edge triggered flip-flops that can be located in the same clock domain or in different clock domains.
2. Description of the Related Art
A clock domain contains a group of flip-flops that are driven by the same primary clock signal. A logic circuit can include any number of different clock domains. For example, one group of flip-flops can be driven by a first clock signal, while another group of flip-flops can be driven by a second clock signal.
In many cases, the clock signals driving the different clock domains are totally asynchronous to each other. In other words, each primary clock signal can have a different frequency and/or different clock phase and/or different clock width (duty cycle) in comparison to the other primary clock signals.
Many digital logic applications utilize rising edge triggered flip-flops and falling edge triggered flip-flops. These flip-flops can be of several types, including D flip-flops, RS flip-flops, JK flip-flops and toggle flip-flops. For example, a D flip-flop is a logic device that has a D input, a clock input and Q/QZ outputs. A D flip-flop can also have an asynchronous set input and/or an asynchronous clear input. In operation, a D flip-flop stores the logic state on its D input in response to a clock signal on its clock input. Furthermore, a D flip-flop outputs the stored logic state on its Q/QZ outputs, where QZ is the logical complement (inverse) of Q.
A rising edge triggered D flip-flop is a flip-flop that outputs the logic state on its D input in response to a rising edge on its clock input. Similarly, a falling edge triggered D flip-flop is a flip-flop that outputs the logic state on its D input in response to a falling edge on its clock input. Of course, rising edge triggered flip-flops and falling edge triggered flip-flops can be located in the same clock domain or in different clock domains.
Furthermore, the Q output of a rising/falling edge triggered D flip-flop can be initialized to the logic zero state by applying a clear pulse to the flip-flop clear input. The clear pulse is usually asynchronous to the clock pulse. Thus, if the clear pulse is applied by a sufficient time before a given clock pulse, the flip-flop Q output will be set to the logic zero state prior to the next clock pulse.
Similarly, the Q output of a rising/falling edge triggered D flip-flop can be initialized to the logic one state by applying a set pulse to the flip-flop set input. The set pulse is usually asynchronous to the clock pulse. Thus, if the set pulse is applied by a sufficient time before a given clock pulse, the flip-flop Q output will be set to the logic one state prior to the next clock pulse.
FIGS. 1A–1D illustrate the timing of a prior-art clear signal that is being applied to a pair of target flip-flops that are rising edge triggered. As shown in FIGS. 1A–1D, the target flip-flops receive a clock signal CLK and a clear signal CLR, which is asynchronous to the clock signal CLK. Furthermore, the first target flip-flop outputs a signal Q1 that represents the value stored in the first target flip-flop, while the second target flip-flop outputs a signal Q2 that represents the value stored in the second target flip-flop.
As shown in FIGS. 1A–1B, the clear signal CLR rises between the first and second clock pulses of the clock signal CLK, a time TOA before the rising edge of the second clock pulse. In response, the Q1 output of the first target flip-flop is initialized to a logic zero, a propagation delay time T1 following the rising edge of the clear signal CLR. Similarly, the Q2 output of the second target flip-flop is also initialized to a logic zero, a propagation delay time T2 following the rising edge of the clear signal CLR.
Since the propagation delay times T1 and T2 are both less than the time TOA, the first and second target flip-flops will both be in the cleared state before the next rising edge of the clock signal CLK.
FIGS. 2A–2D also show the timing of a prior-art clear signal that is being applied to a pair of target flip-flops that are rising edge triggered. As shown in FIGS. 2A–2D, the target flip-flops receive a clock signal CLK and a clear signal CLR, which is asynchronous to the clock signal CLK. Furthermore, the first target flip-flop outputs a signal Q1 that represents the value stored in the first target flip-flop, while the second target flip-flop outputs a signal Q2 that represents the value stored in the second target flip-flop.
As shown in FIGS. 2A–2B, the clear signal CLR rises between the first and second clock pulses of the clock signal CLK, a time TOB before the rising edge of the second clock pulse. In response, the Q1 output of the first target flip-flop is initialized to a logic zero, a propagation delay time T1 following the rising edge of the clear signal CLR. Similarly, the Q2 output of the second target flip-flop is also initialized to a logic zero, a propagation delay time T2 following the rising edge of the clear signal CLR.
Referring to FIGS. 2A–2D, it can be seen that propagation delay time T1 is shorter than the time TOB, whereas propagation delay time T2 is longer than the time TOB. As a result, the Q1 output of the first target flip-flop falls to zero before the rising edge of the next clock pulse, whereas the Q2 output of the second target flip-flop falls to zero after the rising edge of the next clock pulse. Therefore, both target flip-flops are not initialized to zero prior to the next rising edge of the clock signal CLK.
In order to insure that all of the rising edge triggered flip-flops in a given clock domain are properly cleared, the time interval from the rising edge of the clear signal to the next rising edge of the clock signal must be greater than the longest clear signal propagation delay time for the slowest flip-flop. Therefore, in order to insure that there is sufficient time to initialize each flip-flop in a given clock domain, the rising edge of the clear signal is usually synchronized to, and nearly aligned with, the rising edge of the clock signal.
FIG. 3 shows a block diagram that illustrates a prior-art, rising edge triggered clear signal synchronizer 300. This circuit insures that the rising edge of the clear signal is synchronized to, and nearly aligned with, the rising edge of the clock signal.
As shown in FIG. 3, synchronizer 300 includes a first flip-flop FF1 and a second flip-flop FF2 that are connected as a two bit shift register. (Two flip-flops are employed, instead of one, in order to greatly reduce the probability that the second flip-flop output will go into a meta-stable state). Flip-flop FF1 includes a D input that receives a clear signal CLR, a clock input that receives a clock signal CLK, and a Q output that generates a flip-flop output signal QA.
Furthermore, flip-flop FF2 includes a D input that receives the QA signal from the Q output of flip-flop FF1, a clock input that receives the clock signal CLK, and a Q output that generates a synchronized clear signal CLR_SYNC.
FIGS. 4A–4F show timing diagrams that illustrate the operation of synchronizer 300. As shown in FIGS. 4A–4F, the clear signal CLR rises to a logic high between the first and second clock pulses of the clock signal CLK. In particular, the clear signal CLR rises to a logic high at a time T0 before the rising edge of the second clock pulse. Assuming that the setup time of flip-flop FF1 has been met, flip-flop FF1 will capture the logic high on its D input on the rising edge of the second clock pulse. Thus, at a propagation delay time after the clock signal CLK rises, flip-flop FF1 will output the QA signal as a logic high on its Q output.
Referring to FIGS. 4A–4F, flip-flop FF2 captures the logic high on its D input on the rising edge of the third pulse of the clock signal CLK. Thus flip-flop FF2 outputs the synchronized clear signal CLR_SYNC as a logic high on its Q output, at a propagation delay time after the clock signal CLK rises. As shown in FIGS. 4A–4F, the clear signal CLR_SYNC is synchronized to, and nearly aligned with, the rising edge of the clock signal CLK.
The synchronized clear signal CLR_SYNC is then fed into the clear input of a target pair of rising edge triggered flip-flops. The first target flip-flop outputs a signal Q1 that represents the value stored in the first target flip-flop. Similarly, the second target flip-flop outputs a signal Q2 that represents the value stored in the second target flip-flop.
As shown in FIGS. 4D–4F, in response to the rising edge of the synchronized clear signal CLR_SYNC, the Q1 output from the first target flip-flop is initialized to a logic zero at a propagation delay time T1 after the rising edge of the clock signal CLK. Similarly, in response to the rising edge of the synchronized clear signal CLR_SYNC, the Q2 output from the second target flip-flop is initialized to a logic zero at a propagation delay time T2 after the rising edge of the clock signal CLK.
Thus, as shown in FIGS. 4D–4F, since the rising edge of the clear signal CLR_SYNC is synchronized to, and nearly aligned with, the rising edge of the clock signal CLK, the target flip-flops have nearly a complete clock period to respond to the clear signal (e.g., initialize their Q outputs to a logic zero) before the next rising edge of the clock signal CLK. In other words, as long as the propagation delay times T1 and T2 are both less than the clock period (which is almost always the case), both target flip-flops will be properly cleared to zero before the rising edge of the next (e.g. fourth) clock pulse.
Therefore, synchronizer 300 insures that a number of rising edge triggered flip-flops with different propagation delay times can be cleared to a known state before the rising edge of the next clock signal CLK. Similarly, by converting flip-flops FF1 and FF2 into falling edge triggered flip-flops (using inverted clock inputs), the resulting circuit insures that a number of falling edge triggered flip-flops with different propagation delay times can also be initialized to a known state before the falling edge of the next clock signal CLK.
Nevertheless, a serious limitation of synchronizer 300 is that it cannot clear rising edge triggered flip-flops and falling edge triggered flip-flops at the same time. The reason for this is that synchronizer 300 cannot synchronize the clear signal CLR_SYNC to both edges of the clock signal CLK at the same time. Thus there is a definite need for an improved synchronization circuit that can simultaneously clear rising edge triggered flip-flops and falling edge triggered flip-flops at the same time.

High speed synchronizer for simultaneously initializing rising edge triggered and falling edge triggered flip-flops


Systems and methods mark or identify network data as being of interest by modifying the network data with a tag. A tag may be an unordered set of tag elements, and each tag element may be an ordered sequence of bits. For each data segment or packet transmitted, one or more fields of a network packet may be masked with a randomly chosen tag element.

Individuals or organizations accessing computer networks wishing to conceal their identity and origin can use anonymizing processes. When data has been routed through an anonymizing process it can be extremely difficult, and often practically impossible, to determine the source of the data. An individual or organization may use an anonymizing process to evade surveillance, or to conduct illicit activity without fear of being discovered.
Examples of anonymizing processes include Tor (The Onion Router), I2P (The Invisible Internet Project), and Freenet. While anonymizing processes can be beneficial when used to avoid unwarranted state surveillance or censorship, the processes can also impede law enforcement investigations. Criminals will often use anonymizing processes to evade law enforcement when unlawfully accessing computer resources. For this reason there exists a need for a method of tagging illicit network data to facilitate the tracking of unauthorized computer access.


A system automatically maintains at least one of a pH level and a sanitizing agent level of water in a water feature. The system includes a sensor assembly responsive to at least one of a pH level of the water and a sanitizing agent level of the water. The system further includes a controller which generates control signals in response to signals from the sensor assembly. The system further includes at least one of a first source containing an sanitizing agent material and a second source containing a pH-modifying material. The system further includes a third source comprising a valve assembly and a third container containing a liquid calibrant material. The valve assembly is responsive to at least a portion of the control signals from the controller by selectively allowing the calibrant material to flow from the third container through the sensor assembly to the water feature.

1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates generally to water maintenance systems for a water feature, and more specifically, to an automated water maintenance system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Balancing the water chemistry (e.g., pH levels and sanitizing agent levels) in water features (e.g., spas or swimming pools) can be a challenging and expensive operation. In particular, "balancing the water" in a spa can be much more challenging than in a pool due to the relatively small volume of water in spas. The number of people per unit volume of water is typically much higher in a spa than in a pool. For example, four people in a 300-gallon spa are comparable to 150 people in an average swimming pool. Because the water chemistry is affected by the frequency of use and the number of bathers, maintaining the water chemistry in spas can require more diligence to maintain than in pools.
Because of the relatively small volume of water in spas, users have significant difficulty in adjusting the pH level using highly concentrated pH-modifying materials, such as acidic materials (e.g., sodium bisulfate) or alkaline materials (e.g., sodium carbonate). In addition, the effects of the acidity or alkalinity of other chemicals, which are added in considerable volumes to sanitize the water, must be addressed in adjusting the pH level. For example, devices such as chlorine or bromine generators tend to increase the pH of the water as a byproduct of the chlorine or bromine generation. Excessive pH levels, either acidic or alkaline, will generally remain in the water until corrected. The persistence of low or high pH levels can cause or contribute to corrosion of metal components of the heater and to scaling of the heater. In addition, because sanitizing agents such as chlorine are less efficient at high pH levels, improper pH levels can lead to unsanitary conditions.
Control of the sanitizing agent (e.g., chlorine or bromine) to ensure that a spa is sanitary is similarly difficult and expensive. Existing systems require operator monitoring and intervention to deal with deviations or low levels of the sanitizing agent. For example, in spas and swimming pools, simple floating dispensers are often used. Such dispensers must be adjusted to a proper feed rate and require attention over a period of days. Variations of the frequency of use of the water feature by bathers or other system parameters can render such devices useless and can require supplemental addition of sanitizing agents to the water. There is a certain forgiveness with the addition of excess sanitizing agent, since excess levels will eventually dissipate or will otherwise be consumed. However, an overfeed condition in which too much sanitizing agent is used can result in corrosion of metal components of the water feature in general, and in the heater in particular.
Manual control of the pH level typically requires the user to test the water at regular intervals using a test kit or test strip and then to "adjust" the pH level by adding several ounces of an acidic material (e.g., sodium bisulfate for spas and muriatic acid for swimming pools). The user must then test again after several hours to ensure that the proper amount of acidic material has been added. If the pH level is still too high, the user must add additional acidic material and wait several hours once again. If the pH level is too low (sometimes the result of today's busy, impatient consumer adding too much acidic material), the user must add a pH-increasing chemical to the water. This repeated addition of chemicals to the water of the water feature in an attempt to control the pH level and the sanitizing agent level is sometimes referred to as "chemical warfare." Some frustrated consumers often end up draining their spas and starting over with fresh water rather than spending the time and effort to "balance the water." Other frustrated consumers simply ignore the pH level of the water altogether, which can result in unsanitary conditions due to the reduced efficacy of the sanitizing agent.
Some systems for control of pH levels and/or sanitizing agent levels utilize a peristaltic or diaphragm pump and an open tank. The pump forces a solution into the plumbing of the water feature, usually downstream of the water heater. Peristaltic pumps often require frequent tubing replacements (e.g., every three to six months, depending on usage). Other systems utilize cartridges which are connected via flexible tubing to both the suction and pressure plumbing of the water circulation system. Such systems have the disadvantage of feeding concentrated chlorine at a low pH level directly into the circulation system ahead of the heater, pump, and filter, potentially causing corrosion of these components. Such older systems have largely been replaced by inline feeders which introduce sanitizing agent directly into the plumbing through a pressure differential. These systems can be placed after the heater and other circulation system components.
Other systems for control of sanitizing agent levels utilize a venturi feed and an open tank. The venturi feed creates a vacuum which draws solution into a tee where the solution is mixed with the water being circulated. The feed can be controlled through the use of valves or by manually adjusting a valve on the vacuum side of the tee. Such systems are prone to clogging of the injector orifices.
Erosion feeders are most commonly used on residential and small commercial pools for control of sanitizing agent levels. For example, a feeder containing chlorine tablets can be installed in the return-line plumbing. The tablets are exposed to the flowing stream, and gradually dissolve. Such systems are typically manually adjusted.
Liquid feeders are most commonly used on residential pools. In certain such system, an open tank feeder containing liquid chlorine is connected to the suction and pressure sides of the circulation system. Air is allowed into the feeder to replace the solution as the contents are depleted. A float valve in the feeder maintains the water level in the feeder. Such systems can not be installed below the water level of the water feature due to backflow. Concentrated chlorine enters the water pump and water heater in this arrangement and can damage various equipment of the water feature. Additionally, failure of the float system can cause loss of pool water.
Automatic control of the pH level of a water feature is further complicated by periodic recalibration of the pH controller. Typical pH electrodes have a reference potential defined by a reference gel or solution. This reference material is depleted through migration through the porous junction, resulting in changes of the reference potential. Typically, to calibrate an automatic pH control system, a user must prepare a standard buffer solution (e.g., a pH 7.0 buffer) as a standardizing calibrant, and put the pH controller in calibration mode. The user removes the pH sensor, places it in the container of buffer solution, and recalibrates the pH controller. This procedure can be quite difficult for a user. In addition, the location of the pH sensor can make it difficult to access. The recalibration process is typically performed monthly, or even weekly in some cases, and can require more effort than simply testing and adding chemicals.

System for maintaining pH and sanitizing agent levels of water in a water feature


A trench gate semiconductor device, which is capable of securing a sufficient margin for a photo process while achieving an enhancement in gate-source leakage characteristics, is disclosed. Embodiments relate to a trench gate semiconductor device including an oxide film buffer filling a trench in an upper surface of an epitaxial layer over a semiconductor substrate; a gate poly formed in a gate trench, the gate trench extending from the oxide film buffer to the epitaxial layer; NPN junctions formed beneath the oxide film buffer at opposite sides of the gate poly; and poly plugs to electrically connect P type portions of the NPN junctions to upper metal electrodes.

In a trench gate metal-oxide-silicon field-effect transistor (MOSFET), which is a kind of a trench gate semiconductor device, a gate is placed in a trench formed on a semiconductor device. FIG. 1 is a sectional view illustrating a MOSFET structure having a trench gate. As shown in FIG. 1, an insulating film is formed over inner surfaces of a plurality of trenches formed on a semiconductor substrate, and a gate poly 1 is deposited over the insulating film such that it fills the trenches. Thus, trench gates are formed.
An etchback or chemical mechanical polishing (CMP) process is carried out after the deposition of the gate poly 1 in the trenches, in order to planarize the entire upper surface of the resulting structure. However, the process used for planarization, for example, the etchback process, may increase a possibility that a gate oxide film positioned is attacked at the top of each trench gate in a region indicated by a circle 2 in FIG. 1. Degraded gate-source leakage characteristics may result.
Furthermore, in related cases, the trench gates have a limited spacing, in order to secure a sufficient margin for a photo process to form source electrodes. For this reason, it is difficult to fabricate a semiconductor device having a small cell pitch.

Trench gate semiconductor with NPN junctions beneath shallow trench isolation structures


An FPGA architecture and method to reduce the size of the bitstream used in configuring or reconfiguring the FPGA. To facilitate features of the compression process, an FPGA is modified to implement an addressable data register in place of a conventional shift register. This allows data frames to be arranged in order of similarity, and a bitstream formed from one full data frame along with an address into which the frame is to be loaded, and subsequent partial data frames including only changed words along with the row address of the changes and the column address into which modified frames are to be loaded, rather than shifting in entire frames of data for subsequent frames.

This invention relates to integrated circuits, particularly programmable logic devices or field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs). More particularly, this invention relates to compression methods for reducing the size of a bitstream used to program an FPGA.
Field programmable gate arrays (FPGAs) are configured to perform particular functions by loading a stream of bits, or bitstream, into a memory that controls configuration of configurable logic blocks (CLBs). Each CLB includes configurable logic, horizontal and vertical line segments that connect across adjacent cells to form interconnect lines, and a routing or switching structure to selectively connect the logic to the line segments.
It is sometimes desirable to change the functionality of the FPGA by reconfiguring some or all of the logic blocks. In the past, reconfiguration involved reprogramming the entire FPGA by loading a complete new bitstream into the FPGA to reconfigure all of the CLBs.
As FPGAs have grown rapidly in size, partial reconfiguration techniques have evolved to enable reconfiguration of selected portions of the FPGA without affecting other portions of the same FPGA. Due to the architecture of FPGAs, however, partial reconfiguration has been traditionally limited to reconfiguring entire columns of memory for controlling CLBs.
FIG. 1 shows an FPGA 20 to illustrate the limitations of conventional partial reconfiguration. The FPGA 20 has an array of tiles, each tile comprising configurable logic and related interconnect, which are collectively referred to as a configurable logic block (CLB) 22. For illustration purposes, only a few CLBs are shown in FIG. 1 and only a few of the interconnect lines have been drawn. Typically, an FPGA 20 is implemented with thousands of repeatable CLBs 22, each having many horizontal and vertical line segments. Young, Chaudhary and Bauer in U.S. Pat. No. 5,914,616 describe such a structure in more detail, and this patent is incorporated herein by reference.
Each CLB 22 has configurable logic, horizontal and vertical line segments that connect across adjacent cells to form interconnect lines, and a routing or switching structure to selectively connect the logic to the line segments. configuration of the logic and connection between line segments is controlled by a configuration memory, into which a configuration is loaded for enabling the logic and interconnect lines to perform a desired function. In some FPGAs, data in the configuration memory is loaded by addressing sections of configuration memory on address lines and applying data to data lines. In some FPGAs, a frame of configuration data is fed serially into a shift register, then shifted in parallel to an addressed column of configuration memory cells. Vertical wires form address lines, as represented by address lines 24, that generally span the height of the FPGA. Horizontal wires form data lines, as represented by data lines 26, that usually span the width of the FPGA.
In the FPGA of FIG. 1, configuration data from the bitstream is placed onto the data lines 26 by a shift register 28. The bitstream contains frames of data, where each frame fills the shift register 28 and is used to program one column of memory cells accessed by a corresponding address line. As an example, the shift register 28 might hold a frame consisting of several thousands bits. The bitstream also contains commands to load a corresponding data frame into the shift register and once loaded, commands to select the appropriate address line associated with the data frame.
After an entire frame is loaded into the shift register 28, the data bits may be temporarily transferred to a shadow register 30 so that the shift register 28 is free to begin receiving the next frame of data. An address line is selected to transfer the data from the shadow register 30 via the data lines 26 into selected memory cells of the CLBs. This process is repeated for all address lines 24 to fully program the CLBs 22 on the FPGA 20.
Using conventional methods, FPGA 20 can be partially reconfigured by shifting data bits into the shift register 28 and selecting only the address lines 24 of the CLBs 22 that are being reprogrammed. Unfortunately, since the address lines 24 span entire columns of CLBs 22, all of the CLBs connected by the common address lines 24 are reconfigured, whether or not the programmer wants to change all blocks. This is represented pictorially in FIG. 1 as a partial reconfiguration zone 32.
As FPGAs continue to increase in size and complexity, it would be desirable and advantageous to partially reconfigure smaller sections of the FPGA that include less than all of the CLBs connected to a common address line. Accordingly, there is a need for an improved process or architecture that enables partial reconfiguration of selectable CLBs on the FPGA.
Another problem resulting from the FPGA""s rapid growth in size concerns the enormously increasing length of the bitstream used to program the FPGA. Clock speeds used to shift the bitstreams into an FPGA have increased, but less dramatically, thus increasing the length of time required to load the bitstream into the FPGA.
In an effort to address this problem, some FPGA architectures dedicate multiple data pins to receive the bitstream, rather than a single pin as used in earlier design generations. This improvement, however, costs package pins, and there remains a desire to further reduce the time required to configure or reconfigure an FPGA.
One way to improve the speed of FPGA configuration is to reduce the size of the bitstream. Unfortunately, standard compression algorithms used in other signal processing environments are not effective for FPGA bitstreams because they require large amounts of memory. Conventional compression algorithms that do not require large amounts of memory, such as run length encoding (RLE), have not proven effective with typical bitstream data. Accordingly, there remains a need to compress the size of the bitstream in a way that reduces the length of time required to load the bitstream into the FPGA.
This invention relies on an FPGA architecture that can reconfigure a part of the FPGA at a resolution of one word. In one embodiment, the method enables partial reconfiguration of selectable configurable logic blocks (CLBs) connected to one or more address lines, without affecting other CLBs connected to the same address lines.
This invention concerns a system and method to reduce the size of the bitstream used in configuring or reconfiguring the FPGA. The compression method evaluates the configuration data and identifies, for a given frame, the most similar frame in the configuration data. The most similar frame may be an identical frame, in which all words or bits are the same, or a similar frame in which only a few bits or words differ between them. The compression method reorganizes the frames within the bitstream to group the similar frames so that the amount of data bits being changed from one frame to the next is minimized. Duplicated words/bits that do not change from one frame to the next are removed, leaving only their corresponding commands and addresses for selecting the address lines that are intended to program cells with this data.
To enable loading of individual words, as opposed to whole frames, the FPGA is implemented with an addressable data register instead of a conventional shift register. Individual words from a data frame of the bitstream can be loaded directly into the data register at an addressed location.


A conductor pipe connector assembly for coupling a pressure containing component to a conductor pipe of a subterranean well includes an annular slip bowl circumscribing the conductor pipe. An annular slip segment is located between the slip bowl and the conductor pipe. A slip actuation ring is located between the slip bowl and the slip segment, the slip actuation ring having a beveled surface in sliding contact with one of the slip bowl and the slip segment. An elongate annular piston member circumscribes the conductor pipe and is coupled to the slip action ring, the piston member is movable by a pressure medium, such as hydraulic fluid or pressurized gas, to an engaged position to urge the slip segment radially inward against the conductor pipe.

1. Field of the Disclosure
This invention relates in general to subterranean wells, and in particular to connectors for attaching to a conductor pipe associated with the subterranean well.
2. Description of Prior Art
In a subterranean well of the type concerned herein, a tubular member extends generally upwards from the subterranean well. Typically the tubular member can be casing, a drill string, or other conductor pipe that extends out of the subterranean well. A conductor pipe connector assembly connects the upper end of the conductor pipe to a pressure containing component, such as a surface wellhead, a multibowl component, or a drilling diverter system.
Many current connector assemblies are mechanical in nature. Such mechanical systems can be cumbersome in size with the mechanical components defining a relatively large outer diameter clearance to operate. In certain situations, the forces required to operate the mechanical connector can become so large that it is difficult for an operator to properly energize the connector.


The invention relates to novel polymers containing one or more 3,7-dialkyl-benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene repeating units, methods for their preparation and monomers used therein, blends, mixtures and formulations containing them, the use of the polymers, blends, mixtures and formulations as semiconductor in organic electronic (OE) devices, especially in organic photovoltaic (OPV) devices, and to OE and OPV devices comprising these polymers, blends, mixtures or formulations.

In recent years there has been growing interest in the use of conjugated, semiconducting polymers for electronic applications. One particular area of importance is organic photovoltaics (OPV). Conjugated polymers have found use in OPVs as they allow devices to be manufactured by solution-processing techniques such as spin casting, dip coating or ink jet printing. Solution processing can be carried out cheaper and on a larger scale compared to the evaporative techniques used to make inorganic thin film devices. Currently, polymer based photovoltaic devices are achieving efficiencies up to 8%.
The conjugated polymer serves as the main absorber of the solar energy, therefore a low band gap is a basic requirement of the ideal polymer design to absorb the maximum of the solar spectrum. A commonly used strategy to provide conjugated polymers with narrow band gap is to utilize alternating copolymers consisting of both electron rich donor units and electron deficient acceptor units within the polymer backbone.
However, the conjugated polymers that have been suggested in prior art for use in OPV devices do still suffer from certain drawbacks. For example many polymers suffer from limited solubility in commonly used organic solvents, which can inhibit their suitability for device manufacturing methods based on solution processing, or show only limited power conversion efficiency in OPV bulk-hetero-junction devices, or have only limited charge carrier mobility, or are difficult to synthesize and require synthesis methods which are unsuitable for mass production.
Therefore, there is still a need for organic semiconducting (OSC) materials that are easy to synthesize, especially by methods suitable for mass production, show good structural organization and film-forming properties, exhibit good electronic properties, especially a high charge carrier mobility, good processibility, especially a high solubility in organic solvents, and high stability in air. Especially for use in OPV cells, there is a need for OSC materials having a low bandgap, which enable improved light harvesting by the photoactive layer and can lead to higher cell efficiencies, compared to the polymers from prior art.
It was an aim of the present invention to provide compounds for use as organic semiconducting materials that do not have the drawbacks of prior art materials as described above, are easy to synthesize, especially by methods suitable for mass production, and do especially show good processibility, high stability, good solubility in organic solvents, high charge carrier mobility, and a low bandgap. Another aim of the invention was to extend the pool of OSC materials available to the expert. Other aims of the present invention are immediately evident to the expert from the following detailed description.
The inventors of the present invention have found that one or more of the above aims can be achieved by providing conjugated copolymers containing a 3,7-disubstituted benzo[1,2-b:4,5-b′]dithiophene (hereinafter shortly referred to as "BDT") repeating unit as donor and one or more heteroaryl units as acceptor.
It was found that these copolymers are attractive candidates for photovoltaic applications, specifically in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) photovoltaic devices. By the incorporation of the electron-donating BDT unit and an electron-accepting unit into a co-polymer i.e. a "donor-acceptor" polymer, a reduction of the bandgap can be achieved, which enables improved light harvesting properties in bulk heterojunction (BHJ) photovoltaic devices. Also, by modifying the BDT core unit with the addition of an alkyl functionality at the 3- and 7-positions, the solubility and electronic properties of the copolymer can be further optimised.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,524,922 B2 discloses polymers comprising a BDT unit that is substituted in 4- and 8-position and/or in 3- and 7-position by optionally substituted groups like alkyl or aryl groups.
US 2010/0078074 A1 discloses polymers comprising a BDT unit that is substituted in 4- and 8-position and/or in 3- and 7-position by a group selected from the group consisting of H, alkyl, alkoxy, cyano, nitro and optionally substituted aryl.
WO 2010/135701 A1 discloses polymers comprising a BDT unit that is substituted in 4- and 8-position and/or in 3- and 7-position by a group selected from broad variety including H, CN, alkoxy, thioalkyl, ketone, ester, sulfonate, alkyl, alkenyl, alkynyl, haloalkyl, cycloalkyl, aryl, haloaryl, cycloheteroalkyl and heteroaryl.
US 2011/049477 A1 discloses polymers comprising a BDT unit that is substituted in 4- and 8-position and/or in 3- and 7-position by a group selected from broad variety including H, alkyl, aryl, halogen, hydroxyl, aryloxy, alkoxy, alkenyl, alkynyl, amino, thioalkyl, phosphino, sily, —COR, COOK, —PO3R2, —OPO3R2 and CN.
US 2011/0040069 A1 discloses compounds and polymers comprising a polycyclic fused ring moiety, which consists of one to five fused benzene rings that are flanked on each side by one benzo-fused furan, thiophene or selenophene ring which is substituted by a halogen, alkyl or aryl group, and further discloses the use of these polymers in organic transistors.
However these documents do not disclose the specific copolymers as claimed in the present invention or their use in OPV devices.


Systems and methods for controlling an automatic climate control system of a vehicle include, by one or more onboard processors in operative communication with one or more sensors, initiating the automatic climate control system. The processors receive from the one or more sensors at least a vehicle input and a user identifier input. A unique user climate control system actuation action is implemented according to the received vehicle input and user identifier input provided by applying at least one predictive model to a stored set of climate control system operating parameters. A unique user climate control system operating pattern is implemented according to the received vehicle input and user identifier input provided by applying at least one different predictive model to the stored set of climate control system operating parameters.

Various systems and mechanisms are provided in the modern vehicle for establishing and maintaining vehicle occupant comfort, primarily mediated by way of the vehicle climate control systems, for example the heating, ventilation, and air-conditioning (HVAC) systems. In operating such systems and mechanisms, typically the vehicle occupant is required to exercise some element of manual control to adjust the mechanisms to his or her satisfaction. Climate control systems often require extensive user interaction to produce the desired result on passenger cabin comfort levels according to particular external and internal climate conditions.
Climate controls can be confusing and often require extensive user interaction to obtain the desired result. However, patterns of driver/passenger behavior to obtain desired cabin climate comfort conditions can be identified. As one non-limiting example, the "max AC" setting of the HVAC system, when actuated, typically changes the temperature setpoint to the lowest possible level, turns on automatic recirculation, and sets the HVAC blower speed to the maximum allowable. Because the goal is to cool the passenger cabin as quickly as possible, the user normally allows "max AC" setting remains constant as the passenger cabin temperature changes. Typically, the "max AC" setting is engaged only for a short period of time. As the perceived cabin temperature approaches the desired temperature/comfort level, users then manually adjust the climate control system to arrive at the exact desired condition.
This type of user behavior pattern for various climate control settings can be used in developing adaptive models for automating the climate control system settings under particular climate conditions, reducing the amount of user manual interaction required. In particular, such adaptive models would advantageously adjust climate control systems automatically according to determined user behavior patterns continually as the passenger cabin environment changes, i.e. as temperature and other elements contributing to comfort or perceived comfort levels change.


An output mechanism includes a closing lever adapted to rotate from a neutral position in two opening and closing directions when a motor is allowed to rotate clockwise and counterclockwise and to rotate a latch from a half-latched position to a full-latched position when rotating in the closing direction and having an engagement portion at a free end portion thereof, and an opening lever having an engagement arm adapted to rotate from a waiting position to an open position by the engagement portion when the closing lever rotates from the neutral position thereof in the opening direction and to allow the engagement portion to move idly after having reached the open position and an opening portion adapted to release the engagement of a locking plate with the latch by virtue of the rotation of the engagement arm. The motor, the opening lever and the closing lever are fixed to and secured pivotally to a base plate secured to a lock main body, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an automotive lock opening and closing apparatus provided with a closing function for forcibly moving a lock device for an automotive open and close body from a half-latched position to a full-latched position by driving a motor and an opening function for releasing the engagement of the lock device with a striker.
The present application is based on Japanese Patent Applications No. Hei. 11-373609 and 373610, which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
An automotive lock opening and closing apparatus as described above (for example, JP-B-5-27748) is known which comprises a lock main body having a latch for engaging with and disengaging from a striker and a locking plate for engaging with and disengaging from the latch and an output mechanism having a rotating member which can rotate from a neutral position in two directions, wherein the engagement of the latch with the locking plate is released when the rotating member is allowed to rotate in one direction from the neutral position and the latch is moved from a half-latched position to a full-latched position when the rotating member is allowed to rotate in the other direction.
In a conventional automotive lock opening and closing apparatus as described above, however, since the latch and the locking plate of the lock main body are connected to the rotating member of the output mechanism via the connecting member such as a rod or the like, respectively, there are caused problems that the connected constituent components get loosened, thereby making it difficult to obtain the positive operation of the apparatus and that the entire size of the apparatus is made large, thereby putting limitations on the mounting space.
Further, in the conventional automotive lock opening and closing apparatus as described above, in order to make common use of a motor as a motor for moving the latch on which a large magnitude of load is acting and as a motor for moving the locking plate which can be moved with a small magnitude of force, a high-output motor is used. Also, the connecting mechanism for connecting the rotating member with the locking plate or the opening mechanism is made rigid in construction so as to bear a large magnitude of load.
This results in the opening mechanism of excessive quality and the output mechanism which is large in size and heavy in weight and increases the production cost.
The present invention was made in view of the problems inherent in the conventional art, and an object thereof is to provide an automotive lock opening and closing apparatus which can be made simple in construction and small in size and which can obtain the positive operation thereof.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an automotive lock opening and closing apparatus which can make an opening mechanism, as well as an output mechanism small in size and light in weight.
According to the present invention, there is provided an automotive lock opening and closing apparatus comprising an output mechanism, the output mechanism comprising: a lock main body having a latch for engaging with a striker and a locking plate for engaging with the latch for preventing rotation of the latch; a motor rotating clockwise and counterclockwise, wherein an engagement of the latch with the locking plate is released when the motor is allowed to rotate clockwise and the latch is moved from a half-latched position to a full-latched position when the motor is allowed to rotate counterclockwise; an opening lever for releasing the engagement of the locking plate with the latch by being caused to engage with the locking plate when the motor is allowed to rotate clockwise; and a closing lever adapted to rotate the latch from the half-latched position to the full-latched position by being caused to engage with the latch when the motor is allowed to rotate counterclockwise, wherein the lock main body has secured thereto a base plate to which the motor is fixed and to which the opening lever and the closing lever are pivotally secured, respectively.
In the above an automotive lock opening and closing apparatus, the output mechanism may be pivotally secured to the base plate and further comprises a rotating member which can rotate from a neutral position in two opening and closing directions when the motor is allowed to rotate clockwise and counterclockwise, and wherein the rotating member and the opening lever and closing lever are linked with each other, respectively.
Preferably, the rotating member and the closing lever are disposed on one side of the base plate on the lock main. body, while the opening lever is disposed on the other side of the base plate, and wherein the opening lever and the closing lever-or the. rotating member are linked with each other via a pin penetrating through the base plate.
Further, according to the present invention, there is provided an automotive lock opening and closing apparatus comprising an output mechanism, the output mechanism comprising: a lock main body having a latch for engaging with a striker and a locking plate for engaging with the latch for preventing rotation of the latch; a motor rotating clockwise and counterclockwise, wherein an engagement of the latch with the locking plate is released when the motor is allowed to rotate clockwise and the latch is moved from a half-latched position to a full-latched position when the motor is allowed to rotate counterclockwise; a closing lever adapted to rotate from a neutral position in two opening and closing directions when the motor is allowed to rotate clockwise and counterclockwise and to rotate the latch from the half-latched position to the full-latched position when rotating in the closing direction and having an engagement portion at a free end portion thereof; and an opening lever having an engagement arm adapted to rotate from a waiting position to an open position by the engagement portion when the closing lever rotates from the neutral position thereof in the opening direction and to allow the engagement portion to move idly after having reached the open position and an opening portion adapted to release the engagement of the locking plate with the latch by virtue of the rotation of the engagement arm.
In the above automotive lock opening and closing mechanism a sliding contact edge may be provided at a distal end of the engagement arm of the opening lever for preventing the rotation of the opening lever for restoration toward the waiting position by being brought into contact with the engagement portion when the engagement portion moves idly.
Preferably, the sliding contact edge is formed so as to form an arc-like configuration arcing around a rotational center of the closing lever when the opening lever is located at the open position.
Features and advantages of the invention will become understood from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments described in conjunction with the attached drawings.

Automotive lock opening and closing apparatus


Improving the dynamic range of captured images is disclosed by using sub-pixel arrays to capture light at different exposures and generate color pixel outputs for an image in a single frame. Each sub-pixel array can include multiple sub-pixels. The sub-pixels that make up a sub-pixel array can include red (R) sub-pixels, green (G) sub-pixels, blue (B) sub-pixels, and in some embodiments, clear sub-pixels. Those sub-pixel arrays having clear sub-pixels effectively have a higher exposure level and can capture low-light scenes (for dark areas) better than those sub-pixel arrays without clear sub-pixels. Each sub-pixel array can produce a color pixel output that is a combination of the outputs of the sub-pixels in the sub-pixel array. Each sub-pixel in a sub-pixel array can have the same exposure time, or in some embodiments, individual sub-pixels within a sub-pixel array can have different exposure times to improve the overall dynamic range even more.

Digital image capture devices are becoming ubiquitous in today's society. High-definition video cameras for the motion picture industry, image scanners, professional still photography cameras, consumer-level "point-and-shoot" cameras and hand-held personal devices such as mobile telephones are just a few examples of modern devices that commonly utilize digital color image sensors to capture images. Regardless of the image capture device, in most instances the most desirable images are produced when the sensors in those devices can capture fine details in both the bright and dark areas of a scene or image to be captured. In other words, the quality of the captured image is often a function of the amount of detail at various light levels that can be captured. For example, a sensor capable of generating an image with fine detail in both the bright and dark areas of the scene is generally considered superior to a sensor that captures fine detail in either bright or dark areas, but not both simultaneously.
Thus, higher dynamic range becomes an important concern for digital imaging performance. For sensors with a linear response, their dynamic range can be defined as the ratio of their output's saturation level to the noise floor at dark. This definition is not suitable for sensors without a linear response. For all image sensors with or without linear response, the dynamic range can be measured by the ratio of the maximum detectable light level to the minimum detectable light level. Prior dynamic range extension methods fall into two general categories: improvement of sensor structure, a revision of the capturing procedure, or a combination of the two.
Structure approaches can be implemented at the pixel level or at the sensor array level. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 7,259,412 introduces a HDR transistor in a pixel cell. A revised sensor array with additional high voltage supply and voltage level shifter circuits is proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,861,635. The typical method for the second category is to use different exposures over multiple frames (e.g. long and short exposures in two different frames to capture both dark and bright areas of the image), and then combine the results from the two frames. The details are described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,133,069 and U.S. Pat. No. 7,190,402. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,202,463 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,018,365, different approaches with combination of two categories are introduced.


The present invention describes a device for metering powder coatings and powder components for powder and liquid coatings, which comprises a storage vessel at the outlet of which is a free-swinging receiving vessel with a metering base, wherein the receiving vessel is connected to a vibration drive, wherein the distance between the outlet of the storage vessel and the metering base of the receiving vessel is dimensioned as a function of the bulk solids properties of the powder material, wherein the metering base of the receiving vessel is vibrated during metering, and a collecting vessel beneath the receiving vessel, wherein the metered powder material is collected in the collecting vessel.

This invention relates to a device for metering free-flowing to poor-flow dry powders and powder mixtures for use in powder or liquid coating compositions.
Various possibilities are known for metering bulk solids in general and powder coatings or powder coating components in particular, e.g., feed screws, vibrating feed units, metering gates, metering valves.
Feed screws are able to convey the material to be transported or metered in any configuration and gradient but with the disadvantage that the technological properties of the metered material may be affected considerably by the shear forces of the screw. A further disadvantage is that, particularly with highly free-flowing products, accurate metering may be guaranteed only at great expense. Metering of bulk solids using vibrating feed units takes place by vibration. With very fine bulk solids, lumps or briquettes may be formed. Metering gates which may be operated electrically, pneumatically or hydraulically permit a relatively high degree of metering accuracy but they can be used only with very free-flowing materials. Metering valves, e.g., in the form of metering cones, are technically complex and may lead to caking and lumps on the valve or on the product discharge.
The metering units mentioned are therefore unsuitable in terms of metering accuracy, metering speed and discharge behaviour, particularly for poor-flow powders used in coating compositions, such as pigments and additives.
Metering devices based on screen metering with a vibration drive are also known. For example, DE-AS 1619823 describes a process for the preparation of crystals by flame melting of materials in powder form, wherein a vibrating screen is used as the conveyor unit. The purpose of this vibrating screen is to feed a defined amount of the powder to the flame melting device by vibration. The amount of powder is fed to the vibrating screen in a complex manner by way of a tapping mechanism on a powder storage vessel by means of a striking device arranged on the vessel. The amount of powder situated on the vibrating screen should always be kept constant and small in order to prevent briquetting of the fine powder. To this end, expensive monitoring devices are required.
According to DE-A 3038269, a vibrating screen is integrated in a storage vessel for seed dressing agent in powder form. This storage vessel with an integrated vibrating screen is mounted on the relevant collecting or metering vessel and is used to fill the vessel by metering by means of the vibrating screen. A disadvantage of this procedure is that the storage vessel has to be attached in a complex manner to the collecting or metering vessel by way of additional fixing devices. The screen itself can be changed only in a very labour-intensive and time-consuming manner, if at all. It is scarcely possible to use relatively large storage vessels in view of the size and weight to be fixed to the collecting vessels.
The present invention provides an easy-to-handle device for metering dry powder materials, which device permits a metering process which does not depend on complex designs, with high accuracy and speed of metering at the metering site, regardless of the form of the metered material and without loss of quality of the material to be metered.
The device for metering dry powders comprises a storage vessel having an outlet, and a free-swinging receiving vessel having a vibratable metering base, wherein said receiving vessel is positioned at the outlet of said storage vessel and wherein the distance between the outlet of the storage vessel and the metering base of the receiving vessel can be dimensioned as a function of the bulk solids properties of the powder material, and the metering base of the receiving vessel is vibrated during metering.


In a cooling apparatus for a high-frequency receiver having an input circuit which carries signals that are not yet sufficiently amplified, the input circuit is thermally connected to a miniature cooler and is thermally insulated, including a cold output of the miniature cooler, from the environment. It is particularly favorable if the miniature cooler has no moving parts on the cooling end. The miniature receiver is preferably configured as a pulse tube cooler.

The noise of a high-frequency receiver, which limits the reception of weak signals, is created for the most part in the ohmic sections of the input circuit or input filter, and in the amplifier stage downstream thereof. Depending on the detailed configuration of these components, this also applies to the shielding or grounding surfaces. Noise can be reduced to one-third by cooling to temperatures of, for example, less than 80K.
It is the object of the present invention to indicate a cooling apparatus with which the noise of a high-frequency receiver can be substantially reduced, such that the power required for cooling, and the outlay for insulating the components being cooled, are to be minimized.
According to the present invention, this object is achieved by the fact that the input circuit is thermally connected to a miniature cooler and is thermally insulated, including a cold output of the miniature cooler, from the environment.
Depending on the specific prerequisites, the input circuit can contain an input filter and/or an amplifier stage, in particular a transistor.

Cooling apparatus for a high-frequency receiver


Systems, methods, and program product to calculate global energy utility targets and to model and determine an optimal solution for a non-thermodynamically constrained process or cluster of processes subject to non-thermodynamic constraints under all possible process changes and streams specific minimum temperature approaches, are provided. An exemplary system can utilize thermodynamic constraints exhibited in stream-specific minimum temperature approach values ΔTmini as optimization parameters, in addition to other process conditions degrees of freedom including the addition of new waste heat carrier streams to target for minimizing energy consumption of the non-thermodynamic constrained waste heat recovery problem and to identify the optimal operating conditions that result in desired minimum energy consumption subject to the non-thermodynamic constraints.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of energy recovery systems, and in particular, systems, program product, and methods related to determining, calculating, and modeling energy consumption requirements of a non-thermodynamically constrained process or cluster of processes.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many different types of processes consume energy to obtain an output result, or to produce a required product or compound. For example, chemical processes consume energy to provide a desired result. For large-scale processes that consume significant amounts of energy, it is preferable to minimize the energy consumed, where possible. In the case of, for example, electrical energy generation systems or relatively large manufacturing plant or factories, it is preferable to optimize and potentially minimize the consumption of energy through careful operation, design or reconfiguration of the plant and equipment used, taking into considerations process constraints such as safety, health and environment.
For example, in some industrial manufacturing processes, specific streams of material flows need to be supplied to different types of equipment and machinery at specific temperatures. These material flows may need to be heated or cooled from an original starting temperature to a target temperature. This, in turn, will require the consumption of energy to not only cool specific streams, but also to heat other specific streams while monitoring for corrosion problems, scaling problems, streams location, environmental compliances, and hazardous situations.
The total energy employed or consumed by the industrial manufacturing processes can be optimized to a global minimal level through, for example, careful placement and configuration of specific material streams with respect to one another. For example, there may be the potential for hot streams that require cooling to be placed in proximity with cold streams that require heating. Streams having thermal energy already present that needs to be removed, or streams that need to have heat added, can be associated with one another to optimize the energy consumption of the process. In addition, the minimum temperature differences between hot streams and cold streams upon optimization can also result in huge savings in energy consumption. These savings, however, are not realizable as long as there are some constraints that may prevent some of the streams from being matched with some others, and therefore, needs some consideration. These "non-thermodynamic" constraints, for example, can be related to corrosion, environmental reasons, scaling, leakage problems, streams far apart, or streams in different hazardous zones, etc.
These considerations can be taken into account during the energy targeting phase prior to design, or alternatively, during the reconfiguration or refitting of the plant or equipment. It is by the inventor that it would be preferable to consider these optimization issues with a modeling system prior to the actual design, redesign, construction or modification of the actual plant and equipment. State-of-the-art software currently on the market, including AspenTech Inc. software Aspen Pinch and HX-NET Pinch Express of KBC and Sprint of UMIST, however, do not address such targeting problem for non-thermodynamically constrained process situations under all possible combinations of solutions in the process, which can include the modifying resource stream conditions of one or more of all streams and/or adding one or more heat carriers at different flow and supply temperatures. In the targeting phase, these software products only allow specific stream conditions of a process to be tracked and individual operational attributes associated with these streams to be modeled and adjusted, if required. In general terms, such software products are normally employed to track the temperatures and heat capacity flows of specific material streams in a process. Although such software can provides useful tools, they are not particularly flexible in application, and do not address some of the above problems systematically.
For example, in grassroots heat exchanger network design, the parameter known as global ΔTmin (referred to interchangeably as minimum approach temperature or minimum temperature approach) is typically used in the state-of-the-art commercial software to represent the desired level of heat recovery between hot and cold streams, such as, for example, the minimum temperature difference allowed to recover energy through a heat exchanger. A single value for a specific material stream attribute can only be adjusted at one time including the ΔTmin. This forces a user of the system to employ a trial and error approach through 'tweaking' particular attributes of specific streams one at a time, to hopefully arrive at an optimized value for Qc and/or Qh, which represent the total energy consumed for heating (Qh) and the total energy consumed for cooling (Qc) for the process model. This limitation becomes compounded and makes the existing software difficult to employ effectively in large-scale processes, which employ many material streams, where these material streams may have a number of operational attributes that can be modeled and adjusted. This is also the case when several sets of stream-specific minimum temperature approaches need to be analyzed for optimal energy recovery for constrained waste energy recovery system.
Further, process stream changes not only may result in reduction in energy utility, but may also bring reduction in ΔTmin. Thus, in current state-of-the art technology, the capital/energy trade-off in energy system synthesis must be readjusted after each process change. Recognized by the inventor is that the change in the driving force distribution due to both stream-specific ΔTmin and each process change also affects the utility level selection, and that the problem is interlinked and multi-dimensional in that process changes and stream-specific ΔTmin selection are often competing for optimal selection of utilities, optimal process conditions, and optimal energy recovery system synthesis especially for constrained waste heat recovery problems that exhibit several process constraints in matching hot and cold streams, for example, as identified above.
The two main methods that are currently in use in academia and in commercial products to attempt to address such issues are: mathematical programming and thermodynamic-heuristics based pinch technology. Both methods, however, fail to solve the problem of finding energy targets for waste heat recovery constrained problems, systematically, under all reasonably possible combinations of solutions using steam specific minimum temperature approach values or account for insertion of new carrier streams and/or changing specific streams flow, supply temperatures and target temperatures simultaneously, without manual iteration.
It is recognized by the inventor that driving force variation in constrained energy recovery systems can come from the combined effect of: the system's process conditions, the hot and cold stream minimum temperature approach value(s) ΔTmin, and the nature of the streams included in the waste heat recovery problem. As such, it is recognized by the inventor that the optimal selection of the optimal solution to the constrained waste heat recovery system that can provide a significant positive impact on energy consumption, utility selection, utility systems, and/or energy recovery systems capital investment, would be a great contribution, especially in the current energy crisis market.
Currently, there are no methods or associated algorithms that can handle the theoretical, practical, and more economical non-thermodynamically constrained waste heat recovery targeting problem under variable process conditions to target and find optimal conditions without manual iterations (manual data entry) and in a user-friendly manner.
NZ Patent No. 527,244 (July 2004) and WO Application No. 2005/1,010,783 (February 2005) have addressed the problem of energy targeting to find an optimal driving force distribution due to process conditions optimization, but only for a global ΔTmin, and not for stream-specific ΔTmini. Other prior teachings have suggested using heuristics to find the energy utility targets and an optimal driving force distribution at constant process conditions and stream-dependent ΔTmin. Still other prior teachings have tried to find an optimal driving force distribution through process conditions optimization at a fixed global ΔTmin using mathematical programming.
U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 11/768,084, filed Jun. 25, 2007, by Noureldin et al., has addressed the problem of the energy targeting and finding the optimal process conditions taking into consideration heat exchangers network capital cost and pareto calculation, but in the energy targeting calculation portion it did not explicitly describe and analyze application to non-thermodynamics-based constraints such as, for example, corrosion, scaling, the physical existence of streams, safety and hazardous issues, health and environmental compliances and operability or other constraints that were not embedded in the list of the problem constraints.
In most industrial processes, it is at least inefficient, if not impractical, to require that all heat exchangers (and thus, all process streams and utilities) obey the same global minimum value for driving forces, since streams (process and utility), in general, have very different heat transfer coefficients. Quite often, the difference in film heat transfer coefficients can be several orders of magnitude. Thus, some heat exchangers require large ΔTmin values in order to avoid requiring an excessive heat transfer area, while other units will manage well with much smaller ΔTmin values. Accordingly, recognized by the inventor is that a hot stream-specific minimum temperature approach optimal set can lead to much better energy consumption targets, especially for non-thermodynamically constrained waste heat recovery problems. Further, when considering retrofitting, the same problems exist with still no practical solution to simultaneously finding energy targets under all possible combinations of different process conditions, while using stream-specific minimum temperature approach values (ΔTmini).
Some scientists have recognized the need for at least assigning individual contributions to the minimum driving forces for each stream and utility, based upon the heat transfer coefficient of matched streams. These ΔTmin contributions could possibly, not only reflect heat transfer conditions, but could be used to represent the need for expensive materials of construction, heat exchanger types, etc. These methods, however, are based upon heuristics and are iterative, lack systemization, and do not consider the possible changes in process conditions that can result in significant changes in the energy system driving force distribution.
It has also been recognized by the inventor that in most industrial processes, it is at least inefficient, if not impractical, to properly target and find the most optimal conditions for waste heat recovery systems by employing an analysis which assumes non-constrained matches among hot and cold process streams. Further, while some researchers and commercial software are attempting to target for constrained energy recovery systems using linear programming, they do not consider the effect under even a reasonable expected set of possible combinations of process modifications that can include parametric and structural modifications such as, for example, the addition of one or more heat carrier streams, which can render better solutions of the constrained problem.
Accordingly, recognized by the inventor is that it would be beneficial to have a system, method and program product that can employ an algorithm that utilizes both process conditions manipulation including the creation of new heat carrier streams, and stream-specific minimum temperature approach values ΔTmini manipulation to target for energy consumption of constrained waste heat recovery problems under all possible solutions that can substantially reduce the effect of the constraints on the waste heat recovered values and that can be employed to find the best solution to reach the desired target systematically, without iteration or enumeration, without customized modeling, and in a user friendly manner.

System, method, and program product for targeting and identification of optimal process variables in constrained energy recovery systems


The Ceramic frames and capsules for Z-axis modules shown herein are formed by placing chips 10 into a ceramic frame 12, breaking apart the frame 12 into sub-frames 26, and bonding the sub-frames 26 into a module 30. The sub-frames 26 may be separated by ceramic sub-backings 28. Each sub-frame 26 and sub-backing 28 forms a capsule 22.

The present invention relates to Z-axis modules, and has particular relation to Z-axis modules which demonstrate reduced flexing, increased electrical isolation, and improved thermal conductivity.
Modern focal plane array technology requires not only that suitable detectors be located at the focal plane, but also that the signals detected by these detectors be processed immediately, both in space and time. A convenient method for accomplishing this is to stack a large plurality of integrated circuits, or chips, so that their edges directly connect with the detectors. The edge opposite the detector can then produce a processed signal.
Unfortunately, these chips are more flexible than is desired, which causes performance limitations. Further, existing mounting devices can provide insufficient electrical isolation of the chips from one another, and further can provide insufficient means for removing the heat generated by the chips.