The present invention generally provides a motor-fan unit including a motor assembly having a shaft, a commutator supported on the shaft, and a pair of brushes in electrical contact with the commutator, a fan assembly having an impeller coupled to the shaft, an end plate assembly located between the impeller and the motor assembly, said end plate assembly including a plate portion defining an opening throughwhich the shaft passes, wherein said commutator is located near the opening, and a pair of brush retainers adapted to receive the brushes formed on the plate portion adjacent said commutator, the brush retainers opening toward the fan assembly.

Electronic motors and generators are well known in the art and have been put to use in a variety of applications. One application is the handling of air. In these circumstances an electric motor is coupled with a fan to create a flow or vacuum as necessary. Often, the fan is used to provide cooling air to the motor. In these instances, a fan mounted on a shaft driven by the motor draws air into a fan shroud to compress or pressurize the air. The pressurized air is released into the motor housing via one or more ports which direct the air across the motor windings to draw heat into the flow and exhaust it from the motor housing.
The motor includes several components including field windings, that surround a centrally located shaft, which is rotatably mounted in suitable bearings. A commutator is mounted on the shaft and placed in electrical contact with a power supply by a pair of opposed brushes contacting the commutator. In most motors found in the industry, the motor's components are supported on a skeletal frame, which is often made of metal to provide adequate support. Recently, non-metal molded motor frames and housings have been used to reduce the weight of the motor and reduce the leakage prevalent in skeletal designs. In either case, the commutator brushes must be supported by the motor frame. In skeletal frames, a shelf is provided adjacent the commutator with the brush supported thereon. A U-shaped clip is placed over the brush and fastened to the shelf, by screws, to secure the brush next to the commutator. In the non-metal frames, tube-like fittings are provided to support the brushes. These fittings add complexity to the molding of the motor components and often require the use of mandrels or sacrificial molding techniques. While it is desirable to use molded products in the construction of motor-fan assemblies to reduce leakage and improve efficiency, the additional complexity of molding the brush fittings reduces the ability of such devices to remain cost effective. Additionally, these fittings are closed off from the cooling air stream reducing the heat transfer rate at the brushes. The reduced heat transfer at the brushes, thus, reduces the efficiency of the motor. Therefore, there is a need for a motor-fan unit that addresses at least one of these deficiencies in the art.

Electric motor and brush retaining assembly


A mattress assembly includes a cover, a spring pack positioned within the cover, and an inner core positioned within the cover. The inner core includes opposite first and second portions. The first portion has a firmness that is different than a firmness of the second portion. The inner core is configured to be moved between a first configuration in which the first portion directly engages the spring pack and a second configuration in which the second portion directly engages the spring pack to alter a firmness of a sleep surface of the mattress. Methods of use are disclosed.

Sleep is critical for people to feel and perform their best, in every aspect of their lives. Sleep is an essential path to better health and reaching personal goals. Indeed, sleep affects everything from the ability to commit new information to memory to weight gain. It is therefore essential for people to use bedding that suit both their personal sleep preference and body type in order to achieve comfortable, restful sleep.
Infants and toddlers often require firmer mattresses than older children. In order to prevent having to purchase a new mattress when children become older, some mattresses include a first side having a firmness that is suited for toddlers and a second side having a firmness that is suited for older children. In that young children are likely to wet the bed, such mattresses may include a waterproof cover to prevent urine from getting into the mattress. However, such waterproof covers prevent body heat from ventilating through the mattress and are hence uncomfortable to sleep on. Furthermore, conventional mattresses typically include a cover that is sewn onto an inner core of the mattress, thus requiring that the cover be flipped when the mattress is flipped. This disclosure describes an improvement over these prior art technologies.


A titanium nitride coating (or equivalent metal or alloy) is applied over the abrasive surface of conventional CBN and diamond tools by the process of physical vapor deposition at temperatures below the tempering temperature of the core metal and below the temperature at which the difference between the coefficients of expansion of the substrate and of the abrasive causes stresses that damage the bond between them. Specific operating conditions are required during the deposition process in order to ensure the proper level of adhesion of the titanium nitride layer to the underlying material. Under these conditions, the process does not affect the integrity of the steel core of the grinding tool and the titanium nitride or equivalent coating stabilizes and reinforces the existing bond between the cubic boron nitride or diamond and the core, resulting in a grinding tool with greater efficiency and longer life. The titanium nitride layer provides a very hard coating with a low coefficient of friction that is well adhered to the underlying abrasive layer and to the layer providing the bond with the supporting substrate. As a result, during the grinding process the protective layer comes into contact with the work piece and prevents adhesion of the abrasive material with the work piece as well as loading up of the cutting surface with ground material.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to the general field of protective substances used to coat the cutting surfaces of metal-working tools in order to improve their abrasive performance and longevity. In particular, it provides a new way of improving the performance of grinding tools by applying a thin layer of titanium nitride, titanium carbide, or other equivalent coating over the abrasive material used to coat the steel substrate of grinding tools.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Abrasive substances are used for cutting, smoothing and polishing the surface of other hard materials. Naturally, in each instance the abrasive used must be harder than the surface it is working on in order to ensure proper performance and durability. Therefore, materials known for their high degree of hardness, such as diamond, aluminum oxide and silicon carbide, have long been used as the cutting edge of tools to improve the quality of grinding, sawing, lapping, machining and drilling. These materials reduce production time and costs, and facilitate the maintenance of consistently high tolerances with little or no effect on the metallurgical integrity of the final product.
Typically, the working surface of a tool made of steel or other metallic substrate is coated with a layer of harder and more abrasion-resistant material by chemical bonding, electrometallurgical deposition, or other methods of application. Thus, in addition to the properties of the abrasive material itself, the performance of the tool is affected by the quality and durability of the bonding between the abrasive particles and the tool substrate. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,464,804; 3,645,706; 3,650,714; 3,859,057; 3,879,901 and 3,929,432 describe several processes and products directed at improving both of these critical characteristics in grinding tools.
Because of its hardness, for a long time diamond was the preferred abrasive used for grinding very hard superalloys and composite materials, but it could not be used effectively on steels and other ferrous surfaces because of its tendency to react and be absorbed into such surfaces at the temperature and pressure conditions normally occurring in the grinding and machining process (a characteristic known as carbon solubility potential). A great improvement was achieved by the development of the synthetic superabrasive substance cubic boron nitride (CBN), marketed by the General Electric Company under the trademark "Borazon," which exhibits abrasive properties comparable to diamond and can be used effectively for grinding hardened steels. In fact, the performance of CBN is far superior to that of aluminum oxide, the conventional abrasive used on hardened steel tools.
The manufacture of most CBN grinding wheels currently found in the industry is based on four major types of bonding techniques to incorporate the CBN cutting surface into the wheel's metal core, which generally consists of steel. These techniques include resin bonding, metal bonding, vitreous bonding and electroplating. The resulting CBN-coated grinding wheels are now routinely used (generally referred to as Borozon wheels) in the machining of hard ferrous metals, cast irons, and nickel-base and cobalt-base superalloys. They can grind more material, to a higher degree of accuracy and at a lower cost, than any other abrasive. In fact, the limiting factor in the life of such tools is typically determined not by wear on the cutting surface but by its break-down and separation from the metal core resulting from failure of the bonding layer.
Therefore, any process, material, or technique that might result in the strengthening of the bond of the CBN or any other abrasive material with the supporting substrate would be of great usefulness and commercial value to the industry. The present invention deals with a new approach to strengthening the bond between the metal core (substrate) of the grinding wheel and the CBN layer on its cutting surface. The approach is based on the physical vapor deposition of a protective layer, such as titanium nitride, on the CBN-bonded surface. In addition, this invention also shows that the same process can be used to coat standard diamond tools with titanium nitride or equivalent protective layers to greatly reduce their carbon solubility.
Nitrides, carbides and other equivalent substances have been used for some time in thin coatings to provide wear protection to moving parts of equipment and machinery. This protection has become particularly critical in recent years in automated production processes, where machine break-downs caused by wear of individual parts are a significant component of overall costs. Therefore, thin layers of these materials (especially titanium nitride) have proven very successful in reducing operating costs. They are extremely hard, abrasion-resistant, and adhere well to the supporting surface even in very thin layers, which is very important for the dimensional tolerances allowed for coated parts. Such protective materials have not heretofore been used, though, to coat abrasive particles (such as CBN and diamond) that themselves are bonded to a metallic supporting substrate.
In general, the deposition of these thin layers of coating materials has been achieved at relatively high temperatures by chemical vapor deposition (CVD) and by physical vapor deposition (PVD) of a layer of the material (for example, titanium nitride) over the substrate tool. Typically, titanium nitride is deposited by chemical vapor deposition at temperatures in the order of 1,200.degree. to 1,700.degree. F. and by physical vapor deposition at 600.degree. to 1,200.degree. F. When applied to nickel-plated Borozon or diamond wheels, these temperatures tend to affect the integrity of the substrate and the stability of the abrasive-steel bond. This invention is based on the discovery that any of the several procedures known in the art as the physical vapor deposition (PVD) process can be used successfully at relatively low temperatures to produce Borozon tools coated with titanium-nitride or equivalent protective coatings for improved durability and efficiency.
This invention is further based on the recognition that titanium nitride and equivalent coatings may be used effectively also for protecting steel tools and wheels coated with diamond particles bonded to the steel substrate by means of electroplated nickel. The titanium nitride layer has shown to have the same bond-strengthening characteristics previously seen in Borozon-coated wheels. In addition, because of the presence of the buffer layer provided by the deposition of titanium nitride, the carbon solubility potential of the diamond is reduced, making it economical to use diamond tools for grinding steels and other ferrous materials.
Although the invention refers more particularly to titanium nitride, other equivalent coatings that utilize metals such as titanium, zirconium, boron and aluminum or alloyed metals like titanium-aluminum, titanium-zirconium, and chromium-aluminum in conjunction with gaseous carbon, oxygen, nitrogen, or mixtures thereof, may be equivalently utilized by those skilled in the art to produce a protective layer deposited over the abrasive medium by physical vapor deposition methods.

Titanium-nitride and titanium-carbide coated grinding tools and method therefor


A drill bit forming a borehole in the earth may be urged sideways, creating a curve in the borehole, by a cross-sectional shape of the borehole. For example, a borehole with a cross-sectional shape comprising two circular arcs of distinct radii, one larger and one smaller than a gauge of the drill bit, may push the drill bit away from the smaller circular arc and into the larger circular arc. Forming a borehole with such circular arcs may be accomplished by extending a cutting element from a side of the drill bit for only a portion of a full rotation of the drill bit.

When exploring for or extracting subterranean resources, such as oil, gas, or geothermal energy, and in similar endeavors, it is common to form boreholes in the earth. Such boreholes may be formed by engaging the earth with a rotating drill bit capable of degrading tough subterranean materials. As rotation continues the borehole may elongate and the drill bit may be fed into it on the end of a drill string.
At times it may be desirable to alter a direction of travel of the drill bit as it is forming a borehole. This may be to steer it toward valuable resources or away from obstacles. A variety of techniques have been developed to accomplish such steering. Many known drill bit steering techniques require pushing against an interior surface of a borehole. This pushing often requires great amounts of energy to be expended downhole. Further, the amount of energy required may increase as a desired radius of curvature of the borehole decreases. Thus, a means for forming a curving borehole, and especially a curving borehole comprising a relatively small radius of curvature, while expending less energy downhole may prove valuable.

Abstract: The relative radii and angular ranges occupied by the circular arcs may affect a radius of curvature formed in the borehole. The radii and angular ranges occupied by these circular arcs may be adjusted by altering the timing of extension and retraction of the extendable cutting element.


The present invention relates to transfected primary, secondary, and immortalized cells of vertebrate origin particularly mammalian origin, transfected with exogenous genetic material (DNA) which encodes a desired (e.g., a therapeutic) product or is itself a desired (e.g., therapeutic) product, methods by which primary, secondary and immortalized cells are transfected to include exogenous genetic material, including DNA targeting by homologous recombination, methods for the activation and amplification of endogenous cellular genes, methods by which cells useful for large-scale protein production can be obtained, methods of producing clonal cell strains or heterogenous cell strains, and methods of gene therapy in which transfected primary, secondary or immortalized cells are used.. The present invention includes primary, secondary, and immortalized cells, such as fibroblasts, keratinocytes, epithelial cells, endothelial cells, glial cells, neural cells, formed elements of the blood, muscle cells, and other cells which can be cultured.

Current approaches to treating disease by administering therapeutic proteins include in vitro production of therapeutic proteins for conventional pharmaceutical delivery (e.g. intravenous, subcutaneous, or intramuscular injection) and, more recently, gene therapy.
Proteins of therapeutic interest are generally produced by introducing exogenous DNA encoding the protein of therapeutic interest into appropriate cells. Presently-available approaches to gene therapy make use of infectious vectors, such as retroviral vectors, which include the genetic material to be expressed. Such approaches have limitations, such as the potential of generating replication-competent virus during vector production; recombination between the therapeutic virus and endogenous retroviral genomes, potentially generating infectious agents with novel cell specificities, host ranges, or increased virulence and cytotoxicity; independent integration into large numbers of cells, increasing the risk of a tumorigenic insertional event; limited cloning capacity in the retrovirus (which restricts therapeutic applicability) and short-lived in vivo expression of the product of interest. A better approach to providing gene products, particularly one which avoids the risks associated with presently available methods and provides long-term treatment, would be valuable.


A basketball game area for recreation consisting of multiple zones, each having at least one hoop and backboard combination, multiple shooting indicators, and obstacles which can be free standing, and/or affixed to the hoop or backboard. The location of the obstacle in relation to the indicator changes the trajectory required to shoot the ball into the hoop. The placement of each indicator increases the difficulty in placing the ball through the hoop. The game rules provide the order of proceeding through the courts and proceeding through the sequential shooting indicators within each of the courts. The first player proceeds to the first courts, attempting to shoot the ball through the hoop, avoiding the obstacle, scoring points for placing the ball through the hoop. The players continue shooting one at a time until all players have taken a shot at the first basket from each of the indicators and then continue to proceed through the courts.

1. Field of the Invention
The disclosed basketball game utilizes multiple courts, or zones, each with an obstacle and defined shooting areas.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Basketball has been a dominate sport in the world for many years. On all levels, basketball, like all competitive activities, requires repetitive practice at shooting baskets. The repetitive process of shooting baskets can, however, require more perseverance than many people have. Due to the popularity of the game and the advantages of making "practice" more enjoyable, a variety of games have been established at many amusement areas, and the like.
The game of basketball normally includes a basket hoop and net arrangement mounted on a backboard through which a leather ball is thrown for the purpose of scoring points. The ball may be thrown directly through the basket hoop or, in the alternative, may be banked off the backboard in such a way as to cause it to go through the basket hoop. The backboard is usually flat and vertically disposed and large enough to allow bank shots from a variety of different directions. Unfortunately, this orientation of vertical backboard and horizontal hoop only permits a limited number of different bank shots to be made. When the backboard and hoop is utilized in a game in which opponents attempt to block shots, the variation of bank shots available is large enough to provide sufficient challenge. However, when a game involving just shot making is played, the limitations on the variety of available shots become severely obvious.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,494 discloses a backboard having a flat central panel and two flat wing panels affixed by hinges to the sides. The variation in bank shots which may be made utilizing this backboard is limited due to the limited portions which may be changed or repositioned. To increase the variety of bank shots available U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,214 discloses a basketball game which includes multiple stations, each of which has a basket hoop and a backboard which is arranged differently with respect to the hoop for presenting a different variety of bank shots to be made at each station. The '214 patent however, only relates to bank shots and does not provide the ability to practice shooting around obstacles.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,543 discloses a game providing a different challenge at each court by changing the size or shape of the goal, shooting stance required of the participant and incorporating motion to the goal. Fixed and moving barriers are also incorporated to provide additional difficulty.
Many other design and utility patents have issued on non-court basketball games wherein the ball is retained in a confined area by a net.


Disclosed herein is a framework for facilitating patient signal analysis. In accordance with one aspect, the framework generates a signature cycle matrix corresponding to a single cycle of the patient signal data by segmenting the patient signal data into multiple portions. The signature cycle matrix may further be segmented into sub-matrices corresponding to different levels. Properties of the sub-matrices may then be determined to generate diagnostic results.

The most predominant killers of Americans are Coronary Artery Disease (CAD), heart-related problems and cardiac disorders. Cardiac electrophysiological response and activity analysis are critical for the management of cardiac disorders in the heart tissue and cells, such as ventricular myocardial ischemia caused by a lack of blood oxygen. The clinical reference standard for evaluating cardiac rhythm and events is the 12-lead electrocardiogram (ECG) or multi-channel intra-cardiac electrograms (ICEG).
Currently, analysis of waveform morphologies and time-domain parameters, such as P wave, QRS complex, ST segment, T wave, etc., are used for identifying cardiac arrhythmia events, such as atrial fibrillation (AF), myocardial ischemia (MI), ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation (VT/VF), and so forth. However, the waveform morphologies and time domain parameter analysis are sometimes subjective and time-consuming, and requires extensive medical expertise and clinical experience for accurate interpretation and proper cardiac rhythm management.
Recent research efforts have started to apply more sophisticated mathematical theories to biomedical signal interpretation, such as frequency analysis, symbolic complexity analysis and signal entropy evaluation. However, cardiac electrophysiological (EP) signals (e.g., ECG and ICEG) vary with time and current signal analysis usually cannot localize the precise malfunction severity and trend of cardiac events (e.g. the myocardial ischemia and infarction), such as cardiac pathology irregularity stages, arrhythmia occurrence, drug delivery evaluation, etc.
Known clinical methods typically focus on overall EP signal voltage amplitude analysis for detecting arrhythmia. These methods may not use all the information provided by the EP signals, such as electrophysiological excitation and response activities during the tissue contraction (depolarization) and tissue reperfusion (repolarization). Cardiac abnormality and arrhythmia related information (e.g., timing, energy, etc.), especially in the early stage, may not be efficiently and effectively extracted and characterized by current clinical approaches.
Many traditional medical methods use signal morphology changes to track early cardiac pathologies. However, minute signal morphology changes may not be clearly visible and it is hard to quantitatively evaluate and quantify, for example, QR slope shape change without R peak and Q peak amplitude voltage changes. In addition, there is no known efficient approach to integrate all cardiac electrophysiological activities from different parts of the heart into one single mathematical calculation.
Further, known clinical evaluations may not be efficiently applicable in some cases. For example, myocardial ischemia (MI) detections usually use the golden standard based on ST segment voltage deviation (e.g., 0.1 mV elevation). There are at least two shortcomings with this golden standard for MI analysis: (A) This standard only works for surface ECG signals, but not for intra-cardiac electrogram (ICEG) signals; and (B) the ST segment deviation (voltage) cannot be utilized as a quantitative method for myocardial ischemia severity diagnosis and characterization.
Usually, surface ECG signal analysis based on multi-channel waveform time domain parameters are utilized for cardiac arrhythmia detection, such as heart rate variability (HRV), cardiac wave morphology, R wave, ST segment and T wave amplitudes, etc. However there are no efficient quantitative methods available for cardiac status detection and characterization (e.g., MI) such as quantitative characterization of severity of ongoing ischemia events with chest pain, discomfort, etc. Additionally, most clinical approaches for cardiac arrhythmia identification based on ECG signals are subjective and need extensive clinical expertise and knowledge for accurate pathology interpretation and proper cardiac rhythm management. Furthermore, current known ischemia event detection algorithms may cause false alarms due to single parameter analysis. For example, the amplitude voltage of the ST segment may not be able to provide the severity level of the ischemia event, and heart rate variability may not be able to provide the arrhythmia urgency level either.


Providing disaster recovery of a distribute file system metadata server as a service is disclosed. In various embodiments, an indication is received to provide alternative access to a file system metadata server. A copy of a self-describing backup of the file system metadata server is obtained, e.g., from cloud-based storage. The backup is used to provide access to a read only instance of the file system metadata server.

Distributed file system metadata servers may reside in an enterprise or other network that may become inaccessible to some clients and/or applications that are not on the same network. In some cases, an enterprise or other owner, operator, and/or user of a distributed file system may not have the infrastructure in place and/or the in house expertise required to be able to provide for timely recovery of the file system metadata server in the event of a catastrophic loss, e.g., a non-recoverable hardware failure or a fire or other destructive event affecting a large portion of the enterprise's IT infrastructure.


An object of the present invention is to provide a vibration-damping device which enhances the durability of a rubber elastic body; and inhibits the occurrence of voids in an outer cylinder. The vibration-damping device includes: an inner cylinder; a resin-made outer cylinder arranged outside the inner cylinder in a radial direction of the outer cylinder; and a rubber elastic body connecting the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder.

A vibration-damping device incorporated in an engine mount or the like of an automobile has been known as this type of vibration-damping device. This vibration-damping device includes: an inner cylinder; an outer cylinder arranged around the outer circumference of the inner cylinder with a space in between; and a rubber elastic body which elastically connects the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder.
A reduction in the weight of an automobile in recent years has encouraged consideration for the use of resin members in the vibration-damping device.
For example, a vibration-damping device disclosed in Patent Literature 1 employs a resin-made outer cylinder. The outer cylinder of this vibration-damping device includes a portion with a large thickness, and a portion with a small thickness.
Regarding this type of vibration-damping device, generally, uncured rubber elastic body is poured between the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder, and after the pouring, the rubber elastic body is cured. This curing bonds the rubber elastic body to the inner cylinder and the outer cylinder.
In a conventional vibration-damping device, the rubber elastic body after the cured bonding may be subjected to tensile stress remaining in a radial direction. This causes a problem with the durability of the rubber elastic body. To solve this problem, in a vibration-damping device employing a metal-made outer cylinder, compressive force is applied to the rubber elastic body after the cured bonding to reduce or remove the tensile stress remaining in the rubber elastic body after the cured bonding. The application of the compressive force is done by drawing the outer cylinder to reduce the diameter of the outer cylinder.


A submersible light (10) comprising a lens (12) sealed to the front of the reflector (20), a replaceable light source (22) housed in an aperture (25) in the reflector, a pressure member (30) positioned behind the reflector to define an air chamber (32) open at the base of the light but in sealed communication with the aperture whereby, in use, as the light becomes submerged liquid enters the base of the pressure member to pressurise the air within the pressure member to in turn form a pocket of pressurised air in the space between the lens and the reflector and thus prevent entry of liquid into that space.

Many off road vehicles are designed to make river and creek crossings. Often these vehicles include auxiliary driving lights that provide improved illumination of the passage of the vehicle. Many driving lights are Quartz Halogen or Xenon systems with replaceable bulbs. The fact that the bulbs are replaceable means that the space between the lens and reflector of the lights is not totally sealed. Thus, in situations where an off road vehicle passes through deep water, driving lights can be submerged in water. Once moisture enters the space between the reflector and the lens it is extremely difficult to remove. The efficiency of the light is consequently substantially impaired.
It is the solution of this problem that has brought about the present invention.


The erosion control system includes a plurality of erosion control blocks connected to one another by connectors to form an interconnected network of erosion control blocks conforming to the underlying terrain for erosion prevention. Each erosion control block includes a plurality of apertures therethrough each forming a side wall. The connector includes a pair of projecting legs for insertion into adjacent erosion control blocks. Each leg attachingly engages the side wall of the aperture of an erosion control block for connecting that erosion control block to an adjacent block. The legs include tapered extensions which frictionally engage the side wall, and in one embodiment of the erosion control block, the side wall includes a shoulder which engages the terminal end of the tapered extension. The erosion control block may have one end with convex arcuate surface and another end with a concave arcuate surface for providing an articulating joint between adjacent erosion control blocks. The erosion control block also may include a plurality of horizontal hydraulic grooves in the bottom planar surface of the block for hydrostatic relief.

The present invention relates to the control of soil erosion especially on the sides of rivers, drainage canals, riverbeds, levees, beaches, storm drains and the like, and more particularly relates to an erosion control system comprising a plurality of blocks, each of which is connected to the adjacent block by a connector which maintains horizontal and/or vertical block placement yet allows an articulated movement of the blocks with respect to one another allowing conformation of the overall block system to the underlying terrain, and still more particularly to blocks having horizontal hydraulic grooves for relieving hydrostatic pressure.
During the last 20 years, an industry has developed around the use of a variety of articulating concrete block matrices designed to control erosion. Most designs have the ability to conform, to varying degrees, to the settlement of soils and provide an environment for revegetation after excavation and construction of dikes, embankments and structures designed to withstand the erosive forces at the interface of water and land.
As the industry has grown, the physical properties of the devices have been tested by the Federal Highways Department and other Government departments and standard tests are being derived to assess the benefits of any system tested by these standard tests.
It is unanimously agreed in the industry and the specifying community that the principal attributes required of erosion control systems are the ability of individual blocks to remain stable during water flow in the channel or revetment profile and to relieve hydrostatic pressure under dynamic hydraulic conditions. The method and ease of installation and the degree to which the completed revetment will grow and support vegetation is a matter of choice for the end user.
The systems available today are assembled in matrix, either by connecting by means of cable or systems of interlock. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,372,705, incorporated herein by reference. The benefit of interlocking systems is that they can be laid manually. The disadvantage is, in applications that require laying in deep water, they need to be additionally cabled, incurring an additional cost of block production and installation.
The stability of the individual block is a function of the density of the concrete material, the length of the block in the direction of flow, the surface characteristics of the block and any physical connection with the adjacent blocks that would resist a turning moment. Water flows underneath the erosion control blocks, through the apertures in the blocks and between the blocks. This water flow occurs both under normal water flow conditions and when the water forms waves that break over the erosion system.
Hydrostatic pressure causes failures in concrete linings and erosion systems which do not have adequate open area. Under water flow conditions, the water flow across the top of the blocks creates a low pressure area on the surface of the blocks forming a traction force that pulls water and material up through the open areas in the revetment. The open areas permit an equalization of pressure between the upper and lower planar surfaces of the block. Thus, the erosion system must have open area to relieve the hydrostatic pressure.
Typically the erosion control blocks rest on a filter fabric. Where the lower planar surface of the block engages the fabric, the block prevents water flow through that portion of the fabric and only the remaining open areas in the filter fabric are available for relieving hydrostatic pressure. The open area of the filter fabric typically is about 6 to 8% of its area. Prior art erosion control blocks generally have vertical apertures through the block to provide approximately a 20% open area through the erosion system. Thus, the total percentage of open area which is available for the water to flow though the erosion system is about 6 to 8% of the 20%.
The surface roughness of any erosion system varies, within narrow limits, from one another. The open areas through the block due to these vertical apertures increases the roughness along the upper surface of the block. As the roughness increases, the volumetric flow of the water through the water channel or revetment is reduced thereby requiring that the water channel be made larger to handle the required volume of water flow. Thus, it is a trade off between having a sufficient number of vertical apertures through the block to provide hydraulic relief and the increased roughness of the upper surface of the block which reduces the given volume of water flow through the channel.
The density of the concrete material for the blocks is generally constant for all systems. The unit weight is somewhat limited to the amount easily handled over a normal working period by manual labor. The mutual support of the adjacent blocks varies widely with each design.
The hydraulic design attribute that differs between the various systems is the effect of this mutual support afforded by the adjoining blocks in the matrix. Whether the blocks are cabled or are interlocking, the "initial friction" between the blocks is the only force imparted by the adjacent blocks. Cables, that are in most cases in round channels, give no resistance to initial uplift of the blocks. The factor that is significant, and varies between systems, is the lineal length of surface in mutual contact as a proportion of the unit size of block. For instance a keyed or interlocked block has more contacting surface than a square block of the same height and weight. A typical problem with the dependency on this friction is the fact that a lot, and maybe most, of the applications of these systems are not on regular flat planes, there generally being humps and hollows and it is no more possible to conform to these features with fixed horizontal dimensions than to wrap a sheet of paper around a ball, without tears or creases. The practical problem for designers is that testing of the blocks are conducted in a flume with regular dimensions, yet site conditions seldom emulate the test conditions because the blocks must be cut and sized to fit the bends and abrupt changes of direction in the water channel since water channels do not have regular dimensions or directions.
It is generally accepted, that it is less expensive to manufacture block systems by means, of existing concrete masonry block plants than by wet casting. The large majority of, and the only widely available, concrete masonry production facilities utilize a production module that is designed to produce three standard concrete block masonry units. This module is typically 24 inches by 16 inches. The cost of producing an erosion control block is dominated by the production yield, in useful square area, per cycle of this production module, through the block machine. The block system that gets the most yield per cycle is going to be less expensive per unit of applied area of system. Interlocking systems generally get less yield per cycle. Cable systems that are not keyed get more yield, but require the blocks to have a number of holes running horizontally through the center. This requires special equipment and slows the production cycle time, largely off-setting the yield advantage.
To produce horizontal grooves along the bottom of the block in a horizontal production mold is difficult because it is difficult to get the blocks out of the production module. One would have to slide the blocks off the production module across the grooves requiring the block to ride up and over the forms on the bottom of the production module.
The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of the prior art.


System and methods for balancing a vehicle battery system are presented. In certain embodiments, a method for balancing a vehicle battery system including a plurality of sections may include calculating a plurality of quanta of energy required for each of the plurality of sections to reaching a balancing point. Based at least in part on the calculated plural of quanta of energy, it may be determined that the plurality of sections of the battery system are unbalanced. To balance the battery system, a balancing system may be selectively actuated to change the amounts of energy stored in one or more of the plurality of cells such that the plurality of quanta of energy are within a particular range.

Passenger vehicles often include electric batteries for operating features of a vehicle's electrical and drivetrain systems. For example, vehicles commonly include a 12V lead-acid automotive battery configured to supply electric energy to vehicle starter systems (e.g., a starter motor), lighting systems, and/or ignition systems. In electric, fuel cell ("FC"), and/or hybrid vehicles, a high voltage ("HV") battery system may be used to power electric drivetrain components of the vehicle (e.g., electric drive motors and the like).
In certain designs, battery systems included in a vehicle may include one or more sections. For example, a vehicle battery system may include a battery pack that comprises one or more sections of battery cells. Over extended periods of use, different battery sections may develop differences in capacities, states of charge, discharge rates, impedances, and/or voltages. Similarly, a battery cell or a battery section may be replaced and/or added, resulting in differences capacities, states of charge, discharge rates, impedances, and/or voltages between the new battery cell or section and the existing battery cells or sections.

Vehicle battery system balancing systems and methods


A printed circuit assembly comprises a first printed circuit (5) having conductive (4) paths formed on a top surface (27) thereof and a second printed circuit (1) having conductive paths (2) formed on a top surface thereof. The first printed overlies the second circuit in a staggered relationship so that an edge thereof lies on the top surface of the second printed circuit. The second printed circuit has a portion protruding beyond this edge. A first set of contact members (13) is formed on the first printed circuit adjacent its edge. A second set of corresponding contact members (14) is formed on the protruding portion of the second printed circuit in opposing relationship to the first set of contact members. A sheet member is fitted over the printed circuits and carries bridging members for establishing electrical contact between corresponding pairs of contact members.

In the electronics industry, keypads are often formed by laying out contacts on a flexible printed circuit. An elastomeric membrane formed with domes is then laid over the flexible printed circuit. The domes have conductive tops so that when they are depressed they bridge the underlying electrical contacts to complete the connection. Such keypads can be used in telephones, calculators and the like.
Some method must be found to attach the flexible printed circuit containing the keypad contacts to the underlying printed circuit board so that the appropriate electrical connections are made. A common technique is to use end connectors or "Zebra strip" connectors mounted on the printed circuit board into which a tongue formed on the end of the flexible circuit can be plugged.
The problem with this technique is that the connectors take up valuable space and also increase the time and complexity of assembly. In order to mass produce the keypads, it is desirable that assembly be a simple as possible so that it lends itself to automation.
An object of the invention is to alleviate the aforementioned problems.

Interconnect arrangement for printed circuits


An electronic money system is provided which requires lower management and running cost, and features higher flexibility. An acquirer/brand holder managing an electronic money brand manages all keys used for authentication processing in the system, and issues the keys as necessary. The acquirer/brand holder distributes keys according to a tie-up agreement to IC card issuers, a POS center, an MMK center, and an affiliate merchant terminal unit. The POS center, the MMK center, and the affiliate merchant terminal unit are apparatuses for users to use the IC cards or for managing them. The acquirer/brand holder, however, does not distribute issued keys to cybershops which users can access by using a personal computer and a reader/writer. Instead, in this case the acquirer/brand holder saves the issued key itself, and carries out authentication processing with a predetermined IC card upon a request from the cybershop.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing method, an electronic money service providing system, and a recording medium. More particularly, the present invention relates to an information processing system, an information processing method, an electronic money service providing system, and a recording medium that allow many issuers and affiliate merchants to participate in one brand and permit a reduction in cost required for distributing cryptographic keys to issuers and the affiliate merchants and for running and managing a system in an electronic money business.
2. Description of the Related Art
More integrated circuit (IC) cards are being used in electronic money systems and security systems. The IC card is a card-shaped device with an IC chip embedded therein, and mainly includes a processing unit, such as a central processing unit (CPU), for performing a variety of types of processing and a memory for storing data necessary for processing. Data is read from or written to the IC card by using a predetermined reader/writer in an electrical contact state or a contactless state in which electromagnetic waves are utilized.
In using IC cards on an electronic money system, a security system, or the like, it is important to ensure security, including the protection of the confidentiality of data and the prevention of the falsification of IC cards. It is necessary, therefore, to manage resources for storing data and to achieve control for flexible access with high security.
An electronic money business involving an IC card is constructed by three functions, namely, a brand holder that manages an electronic money brand, an acquirer that acquires and manages affiliate merchants in the electronic money business, and an issuer that issues IC cards.
Heretofore, an electronic money business has been run by a business unit that integrally implements three functions, namely, a brand holder, an acquirer, and issuer. Alternatively, a plurality of acquirers and a plurality of issuers may enter into partnership with each other to create a single brand holder, with the individual domains being independent.
However, when a single business unit integrally effecting the three functions (a brand holder, an acquirer, and an issuer) runs an electronic money business, the business unit has to assume all the investment in the systems required for running the electronic money business. These investment costs include the cost of hardware resources, such as terminal apparatuses for affiliate merchants, and the cost for issuing and managing IC cards in running the business. The electronic money systems are based on a prepaid system in which users pay in advance or provisionally pay, so that the commission charges cannot be set higher than other settlement methods (e.g., credit cards and debit cards). This has made it difficult to increase profits in relation to the initial investment.
However, when the respective business domains are independent and a plurality of acquirers and a plurality of issuers enter into partnership for a single brand holder to run an electronic money business, the initial investment for running the business can be shared among the business domains, making it possible to reduce the initial investment assumed by each business unit. This, however, leads to a complicated business conformation. Because the electronic money system is run by a plurality of the business units in partnership, it becomes difficult to share the revenue of the entire business among the individual business domains.
In addition, when a single IC card is interactively operated by a plurality of service providers, arrangements must be made so that the information or applications regarding a specific service provided by a certain service provider cannot be accessed without authorization by another service provider interactively operating the IC card. Thus, the information or applications for services to be carried out in cooperation must be made sharable among the service providers in the partnership while maintaining security at the same time.
However, setting up a brand holder, an acquirer, and an issuer discretely so as to make them independent means split business domains. This inevitably results in complicated distribution and management of cryptographic keys used for the authentication processing required when electronic money is loaded into IC cards or electronic money is used at affiliate merchants. This has led to an increase in the cost of maintaining and managing business systems.

Information processing system, information processing method, electronic money service providing system, and recording medium


A foldable shelf including a picture in a picture frame, the picture including at least one foldable shelf member, which in a first configuration is generally flat and removably fixed in the picture frame, and in a second configuration is folded out of the picture frame and removably fixed in a position adapted for supporting an object thereupon.

Many different kinds of shelves are known and used for supporting objects, such as books, vases, glassware, silverware, candelabra and many more. Typically such shelves are either part of a cabinet (e.g., bookshelves) whose weight is supported on the floor, or separate shelves that are supported on walls with brackets and the like.
Some objects are stored on the shelf but are not used on the shelf. For example, a vase may be stored on the shelf when not in use, and may be removed from the shelf and placed on a table for displaying flowers placed therein. Similarly, a candelabrum may be stored on the shelf when not in use, and may be removed from the shelf and placed on a table for lighting wax candles and the like.


Colored film-covered glass articles include a glass substrate and a colored film covering the glass substrate, the colored film containing, by wt %, greater than 50 to 95 of silicon oxide, 0.about.30 of at least one member selected from the group consisting of zirconium oxide, tantalum oxide and titanium oxide, 0.about.25 of cerium oxide, 5.about.20 of gold as coloring fine particles as main components. The glass articles have a visible light reflectance at a side of the glass substrate not covered with the colored film is 10.0% or below. The small visible light reflectance is caused by the surface plasmon absorption of the fine particles of gold.

The methods of making colored glass include an ion-exchange method wherein inorganic salts of silver or copper are applied onto a glass surface and calcined, so that the ultrafine particles of the inorganic salt of silver or copper are allowed to penetrate into the glass substrate, thereby causing a transparent colloidal color development, and a method wherein a metallic film is vacuum deposited on a glass substrate by use of sputtering techniques. Moreover, there is a method wherein an oxidant of a metal salt is dissolved in a metal alkoxide solution and applied onto a substrate, followed by thermal treatment to form a film of ultrafine particles of the metal.
Especially, the color development caused by the surface plasmon of the ultrafine particles of a metal has been heretofore utilized in coloration of ceramic wares because of the good heat resistance and weatherability. For instance, in accordance with J. Sol-Gel Sci. Techn. 1, 305-312 (1994), a colored film is obtained by coating an alkoxide solution of chloroauric acid and a silane on a glass substrate, and thermally treating the coating to form ultrafine particles of gold. Further, according to the invention described in Japanese Laid-open Patent Application No. 6-191896, fine particles of gold are deposited on a glass substrate by thermal decomposition to obtain a colored film composed, for example, of gold fine particles-titanium oxide-silica, with the reflectance being as excessively high as 11.7% at minimum.
On the other hand, those glasses for vehicles or buildings which have a colored film adhered thereto, such as by coating, usually exhibit a high reflectance at the glass surface, and there are known few colored film-attached glass articles of low reflectance. If the reflectance at the glass surface is high, drivers of cars running on the opposite lane become dazed, constituting a hindrance to their driving. In contrast, the glass surface of a low reflectance makes a very calm impression.


A Provided is a semiconductor storage element that includes a memory cell transistor including a gate insulator film at least partially including ferroelectric material, and a selection transistor provided in such a manner that one of a source or a drain is connected with a gate electrode of the memory cell transistor via a connection layer, and a gate insulator film faces the gate insulator film of the memory cell transistor in a layer stack direction across the connection layer.

In recent years, a Large Scale Integration (LSI) on which an analog circuit, a memory, a logic circuit, and the like are mixedly mounted on one chip is commercialized as a System on a Chip (SoC).
As the memory mounted on the LSI, for example, a Static Random Access Memory (RAM) or the like is used. On the other hand, in recent years, it is considered to use a semiconductor storage element, such as a Dynamic RAM (DRAM), a Magnetic RAM (MRAM), or a Ferroelectric RAM (FeRAM), for reducing cost and power consumption more.
Here, the FeRAM is a semiconductor storage element that stores information using a direction of residual polarization of the ferroelectric. As a structure of the FeRAM, for example, a one-Transistor-one-Capacitor (1T1C)-type structure that uses a capacitor including a ferroelectric material, as a memory cell, a one-Transistor (1T)-type structure that uses, as a memory cell, a field effect transistor that uses a ferroelectric material in a gate insulator film, and the like are proposed.
Nevertheless, in the FeRAM of the 1T-type structure, a plurality of memory cells shares word lines and bit lines. Thus, in a case where voltage is applied to a memory cell when information is written, the voltage is applied not only to a selected memory cell but also to an unselected memory cell that shares the word lines and the bit lines. Accordingly, in the FeRAM of the 1T-type structure, there has been a possibility that, when information is written into a memory cell, information stored in the unselected memory cell is rewritten.
For example, Patent Literature 1 described below discloses a ferroelectric memory in which voltage is prevented from being applied to an unselected memory cell other than a memory cell into which information is to be written, by connecting a selection transistor to a gate of a ferroelectric transistor serving as a memory cell. In such a ferroelectric memory, information stored in the unselected memory cell can be prevented from being rewritten when information is written into the memory cell.

Semiconductor storage element, semiconductor storage device, and semiconductor system

SONY SEMICONDUCTOR SOLUTIONS CORPORATION


An injection mold for producing a double walled drinking vessel includes first and second mold portions. The first mold portion forms a first and second cavities corresponding to the outer shape of the outer container and the outer shape of the inner container, respectively. The first and second cavities are located concentrically with respect to a central axis. An index plate is rotatable and axially movable along the central axis relative to the first mold portion. The index plate includes a first core and a second core. The first cavity has a first cavity injection gate for injecting mold material into the first cavity for forming the outer container. The second cavity has a second cavity injection gate for injecting mold material into the second cavity for forming the inner container. The first cavity has a further injection gate for injecting joint material for joining the outer and inner containers.

The present invention relates to an injection mold and a method for producing a double walled drinking vessel, the double walled drinking vessel comprising an outer container and an inner container.
Double walled drinking vessels comprising an outer container and an inner container in many cases encase a hollow space between them. The air captured in that hollow space has insulating properties so that the adjustment time of the temperature of the liquid inside the inner container to the ambient temperature is significantly extended compared to single wall drinking vessels. In other words cold beverages will longer stay cold and hot beverages will longer stay hot. Due to the insulating properties the hand of the user holding the vessel is exposed to the temperature of the beverage only to a limited extent. The danger that the hand gets burned or cold is reduced.
Double walled drinking vessels are for example disclosed in WO 2015/091003 A1 and WO 2016/083226 A1. In the first case the outer container is connected to the inner container by a form closure whereas in the latter case the outer container is frictionally engaged to the inner container. Another double walled drinking vessel is distributed under the trademark "Pavina". In this double walled drinking vessel the outer and inner container are injection molded and welded together by ultrasonic welding. A certain disadvantage of this way to connect the outer and the inner container to each other is that the weld seam may not be absolutely tight so that despite a proper mechanical connection air and water may ingress into the hollow space, in particular when the vessel is cleaned by means of a dishwasher. The water may condense inside the hollow space leading to a disadvantageous appearance.
It is one task of one embodiment of the present invention to present an injection mold and a method for producing a double walled drinking vessel leading to an improved connection between the outer container and the inner container of a double walled drinking vessel.


A filtering apparatus and filtering system where a hinge belt 10 of a hinge-belt type filtering apparatus 100 is continuously rotated by driving of a drive motor 65 such that hinge scrapers are rotated along a bottom plate 6b of the hinge filtering apparatus main body, from a horizontal part to a slope part of the hinge filtering apparatus main body.

This invention relates to a filtering apparatus and a filtering system and, more particularly to a filtering apparatus which cleans cutting oil used as coolant in a metal cutting process by a machining center such as a lathe or a milling machine, by separating curled cuttings from the cutting oil with a conveyor having a hinge belt, and a filtering system which enables recycling of the cutting oil by fine filtration, with a combination of the hinge-belt type filtering apparatus and a filtering apparatus using a drum filter.

Filtering apparatus and filtering system


A voltage regulator module includes a first circuit board assembly, a second circuit board assembly and a magnetic core assembly. The first circuit board assembly includes a first printed circuit board. The second circuit board assembly includes a second printed circuit board, at least one output capacitor, a plurality of ball grid arrays and at least one bonding pad. The second printed circuit board includes a first surface and a second surface. The plurality of ball grid arrays are disposed on the second surface of the second printed circuit board. The at least one bonding pad is arranged beside the first surface of the second printed circuit board. The magnetic core assembly is arranged between the first circuit board assembly and the second circuit board assembly and electrically connected with the at least one bonding pad. The at least one output capacitor is embedded within the second circuit board assembly.

Please refer to FIGS. 1A and 1B. FIG. 1A schematically illustrates the structure of a conventional electronic device. FIG. 1B schematically illustrates the structure of a voltage regulator module of the electronic device as shown in FIG. 1A. As shown in FIGS. 1A and 1B, the electronic device 1 includes a central processing unit (CPU) 11, a voltage regulator module 12 and a system board 13. The voltage regulator module 12 is used for converting an input voltage into a regulated voltage and providing the regulated voltage to the central processing unit 11. The voltage regulator module 12 and the central processing unit 11 are disposed on a first surface of the system board 13. For meeting the load dynamic switching requirements, the output terminal of the voltage regulator module 12 is located near the input terminal of the central processing unit 11.
Moreover, the voltage regulator module 12 further includes an output capacitor 14, a printed circuit board 15 and a magnetic element 16. The output capacitor 14 is disposed on a second surface of the system board 13. The first surface and the second surface of the system board 13 are opposed to each other. The output capacitor 14 is located beside the input terminal of the central processing unit 11. The magnetic element 16 is disposed on the printed circuit board 15. Moreover, a switch element is disposed in a vacant space between the printed circuit board 15 and the magnetic element 16. The printed circuit board 15 is disposed on the first surface of the system board 13. The heat from the voltage regulator module 12 can be transferred to the system board 13 through the printed circuit board 15. Moreover, the heat is dissipated away through a heat dissipation mechanism (not shown) of the system board 13.
Recently, the required current for the central processing unit 11 is gradually increased. In addition, the trend of the volume of the electronic device is toward miniaturization. Since the central processing unit 11 and the voltage regulator module 12 are located at the same side of the system board 13, the electronic device cannot meet the load dynamic switching requirements.
For reducing the volume of the electronic device and effectively enhancing the dynamic switching performance of the voltage regulator module, another electronic device is disclosed. FIG. 2 schematically illustrates the structure of another conventional electronic device. In the electronic device 1′ of FIG. 2, the voltage regulator module 12 is disposed on the second surface of the system board 13. That is, the voltage regulator module 12 is located at the position of the output capacitor 14 as shown in FIG. 1A. Under this circumstance, the voltage regulator module 12 and the central processing unit 11 are located at opposite sides of the system board 13. Correspondingly, the layout of the inner components of the voltage regulator module 12 needs to be adjusted. For example, the installation position of the output capacitor is changed from the second surface of the system board 13 to the inner space of the voltage regulator module 12. Consequently, the volume of the electronic device 1′ is effectively reduced. Moreover, the output capacitor 14 is located near the output terminal of the voltage regulator module 12 and the input terminal of the central processing unit 11, the dynamic switching performance of the voltage regulator module 12 is enhanced.
Although the dynamic switching performance of the voltage regulator module 12 of the electronic device 1′ as shown in FIG. 2 is enhanced, there are still some drawbacks. For example, the first side of the voltage regulator module 12 is welded on the system board 13, and the second side of the voltage regulator module 12 is fixed on the casing of the electronic device 1′ through a heat sink and spring screws. Firstly, the heat from the voltage regulator module 12 cannot be effectively transferred to the casing of electronic device 1′ and dissipated away through the casing of the electronic device 1′. Secondly, the voltage regulator module 12 is unable to withstand the pressure from the heat sink and the spring screws. As mentioned above, the output capacitor is disposed within the voltage regulator module. Thirdly, a plurality of ball grid arrays are usually mounted on the printed circuit board of the voltage regulator module 12. In case that the force applied to the ball grid arrays is not uniform, the soldering material is possibly cracked or detached and the product reliability is impaired. For solving this problem, the surface of the printed circuit board of the voltage regulator module 12 has to provide a large space for improving the force on the ball grid arrays. However, the installation space of the output capacitor is restricted. That is, the voltage regulator module 12 cannot be equipped with more output capacitors according to the practical requirements. Fourthly, the voltage regulator module includes a plurality of components for transferring signals. For example, a signal communication part composed of a plurality of pins is disposed within the voltage regulator module 12. The plurality of pins of the signal communication part are mounted on the printed circuit board of the voltage regulator module 12. Since the gap between every two pins of the signal communication part is large, the number of pins mounted on the given area is limited. That is, the distribution density of the pins is low. Moreover, since the cross-section area of each pin is small, the reliability of mounting the pin is usually unsatisfied. In case that the soldering materials between the pins are connected, a short-circuited problem occurs.
Therefore, there is a need of providing an improved voltage regulator module in order to overcome the drawbacks of the conventional technologies.


A method and system for duobinary coding of optical signals, wherein a precoded duobinary signal is supplied to a phase modulator which converts it to a phase-modulated optical signal, an optical filter carries out the function of the coder and converts the phase-modulated signal to an optical duobinary signal, and the duobinary coding results in a reduction in the bandwidth. A wavelength division multiplex system is provided by precoding a number of binary signals and converting them to phase-modulated signals, which are in turn, combined via an optical multiplexer, wherein the multiplex signal formed in this way is supplied to an optical filter which operates simultaneously as a coder for all the signals and produces a group of duobinary signals, and a number of groups of duobinary signals can be interleaved in one another in order to produce a dense wavelength division multiplex signal.

Duobinary coding is advantageously used in transmission systems in order to reduce the transmission bandwidth or to increase the transmission capacity. In the case of duobinary coding, a special case of partial response binary coding, a binary data signal is converted to a three-stage signal using a specific coding rule. The bandwidth requirement for this ternary transmission signal is, in consequence, halved in comparison to that of a binary data signal. The code, which was originally developed for transmission of electrical signals, is also used for the transmission of optical signals, owing to these characteristics.
The use of this code is also explained for optical signal transmission in the journal "Journal of Lightwave Technology", Vol. 16, No. 5, May 1998, pages 788 to 797, "Characteristics of Optical Duobinary Signals in Terabit/s Capacity, High-Spectral Efficiency WDM Systems", Takashi Ono et al. The duobinary signals are converted to an amplitude-modulated and phase-modulated optical transmission signal. Two duobinary (ternary) values are transmitted via one high signal level and two different phase angles, with the carrier signal being at zero level, or at only a low level, for a third value. In principle, it is also possible to transmit other states but these are generally less advantageous for optical systems. The duobinary coding can be carried out via a precoder and at least one electrical filter, after which conversion to an optical signal is carried out via an optical modulator; for example, a Mach-Zehnder modulator.
An arrangement for duobinary coding using a precoder and two electrical low-pass filters, via which an optical modulator is driven, is described in Electronics Letters Jan. 18, 2001, Vol. 37, No. 2, pages 109 to 110 "320 Gbit/s WDM repeaterless transmission using fully encoded 40 Gbit/s optical duobinary channels with dispersion tolerance of 380 ps/nm" by K. Yonenaga et al. However, it is difficult to drive the modulator satisfactorily in both directions via two identical signals at a high transmission rate of approximately 40 Gbit/s. Furthermore, electrical coding of the signal results in the optical signal downstream from the nonlinear Mach-Zehnder modulator being spectrally broadened, thus reducing the bandwidth efficiency. The electrical low-pass filters are required for each modulator.
An object of the present invention, therefore, is to specify a method and a system for duobinary coding with improved signal quality. A method and a system for wavelength division multiplex systems (WDM systems), which can be implemented with little effort, is desired as well.

Method and system for duobinary coding of optical signals


The present invention relates to a socket having loading detecting function, which comprises: a housing; at least a socket; a sensor; a relay; a detection circuit capable of detecting the loading value of the socket; and a control unit. The control unit can be used for recording the maximum of the loading value, and said maximum is multiplied by an coefficient thereby obtaining a first threshold value; meanwhile comparing the loading value to the first threshold value and a second threshold value, when the loading value is lower than both of the first threshold value and the second threshold value, the control unit terminates the relay after a second time period for cutting off the electric source of the socket.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a socket having loading detecting function, especially to a socket having loading detecting function capable of shutting off the electric source of an electric equipment being in a standby state and turning on the electric source while sensing a turning-on signal of the electric equipment for achieving an objective of saving energy.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional electric equipment, e.g. a television, an audio system or an air conditioner, is often equipped with a remote controlling function, so a user can control the electric equipment by using a remote control. Generally, the electric equipment having remote controlling function is required to turn on the electric source for being in a standby state, so a control signal emitted by the remote control can be received at anytime. However, the electric equipment consumes the standby current while being in the standby state, the standby current is not high but still waste considerable amount of energy in long term because the electric source is turned on most of the time. Moreover, a conventional electric equipment is inserted with a socket for obtaining the electric source required for operation, the socket may be provided with function of surge absorbing or overcurrent protection, but not equipped with an energy-saving function.

Socket having loading detecting function


A document dispenser comprises a document guide defining a guide portion of an advancing document path and a document identification code reading aperture formed in the document guide wherein a single detector in communication with the dispenser controller is positioned proximate the document identification code reading aperture and is operative to read a specific document identification code through the document identification code reading aperture. Correlated data, indicative of a specific document identification code and corresponding document data input during dispensing of a document carrying the specific document identification code, is generated subsequent the reading of the identification code. A plurality of alternative document identification code reading apertures are formed in the document guide.

The present invention relates to document dispensers. Specifically, the present invention relates to document dispensers used to generate documents carrying data designated at the dispenser or data designated elsewhere and transmitted to the dispenser.
A money order dispenser is an example of a document dispenser wherein data is designated at the dispenser and reproduced on the face of a document contained in the dispenser. For example, a money order amount is often designated on a dispenser keyboard and imprinted on the face of the document. In the case of money orders, the amount for which a specific money order has been issued must be accurately reported to facilitate proper reconciliation of money orders issued and money orders cashed. Further, it may be necessary to verify that the present amount shown on the face of the money order corresponds to the amount for which it was originally issued in order to detect possible fraud or other security violations. Similar concerns apply to document dispensers in general.
One prior art money order dispenser incorporates four optical readers used to read a four bit binary number present on the face of the money order. Each optical reader reads a separate binary coded digit of the money order serial number. This dispenser does not provide a means by which an industry standard bar code present on the money order may be read. Further, the prior art dispenser may be too costly and too difficult to produce and maintain because four optical scanners and corresponding scanner circuitry must be utilized. The prior art dispenser's use of four optical scanners also presents a significant design obstacle because each of its optical readers must be accurately aligned with the corresponding coded digit on the document to be dispensed.
Accordingly, there is a need for a document dispenser which ensures document data integrity through detection of an encoded document identification number, preferably an industry standard bar code, while providing for a relatively simple, cost effective, and reliable identification number detecting arrangement.

Document dispenser with reading aperture formed in document guide


An apparatus to enhance oil extraction from pores of a bowling ball includes a housing unit with an opening, a tank disposed within the opening and able to store a fluid, a rack disposed within the tank to secure the bowling ball in a stationary position and orient the ball such that at least one finger hole of the ball is positioned above an upper level of the stored fluid, a heating unit coupled to the tank to heat the stored fluid, and at least one ultrasonic transducer coupled to the tank. The at least one transducer directs sound waves through the heated fluid toward the secured bowling ball, thereby extracting oil from the bowling ball.

The embodiments herein relate generally to devices for extracting oil from bowling balls.
Bowling alleys regularly use oil to protect and condition the surfaces of lanes. Over time, bowling balls collect and absorb significant amounts of oil and/or dirt. This affects the speed and rotation of the ball as it travels down the lane, which can negatively affect the bowler's performance and overall score during a game.
Several bowling ball maintenance and cleaning devices exist such as U.S. Patent Application Publications 2013/0340792 and 2013/0319474. However, these devices rely on the circulation of heated air or steam to clean or remove oil from a bowling ball. These devices are limited in removing oil from the ball because the circulated air and steam do not reliably penetrate the surface of the bowling ball. Therefore, the cleaning effectiveness of these devices is diminished. U.S. Pat. No. 2,845,077 discloses an apparatus for cleaning articles by using a cleaning liquid and transducing element. However, this apparatus is limited because it is not designed to secure a bowling ball. Further, the apparatus is disadvantageous because the transducing elements are not oriented to maximize oil extraction from a bowling ball.
As such, there is a need in the industry for an apparatus that enhances oil extraction from a bowling ball, which addresses the limitations of the prior art described above.

Ultrasonic apparatus to enhance oil extraction from a bowling ball


A highly corrosion-resistant SiC material is formed on a base body by a CVD process. The SiC material contains β-SiC crystals so oriented that the ratio of the sum of peak intensities of x-ray diffraction for (220) and (311) planes of the β-Sic csystals to the sum of peak intensities of x-ray diffraction for (111), (200), (220), (311) and (222) planes Of the β-SiC crystals is 0.15 or above. The SiC material may contain both β-SiC crystals and α-SiC crystals of 6H structure. A base body with a SiC material by a CVD process is used as an internal component member of a semiconductor device fabricating system.

A method of fabricating a semiconductor device includes the steps of forming, for example, a poly-Si layer and a metal layer of a metal, such as Al, W, Cu or such, on a semiconductor wafer. A CVD process is one of processes of forming such layers.
When forming a desired film on a semiconductor wafer by a single-wafer CVD process, the semiconductor wafer is supported on a susceptor placed in a processing chamber. A shield ring is put on the susceptor so as to surround the semiconductor wafer. Prevalently used susceptors and shield rings are those of amorphous carbon or sintered SiC or those formed by coating with a CVD-SiC material.
When depositing a film on a semiconductor wafer by a CVD process in a reaction chamber, the reaction chamber is filled with reactive process gases. Consequently, a film is deposited on parts including the susceptor and the shield ring placed in the reaction chamber as well as on the semiconductor wafer. Thus, the parts placed in the reaction chamber must be cleaned after processing a predetermined semiconductor wafers by a film deposition process.
Generally, the interior of the reaction chamber is cleaned by a wet cleaning method using an acid or alkaline solution. When cleaning the reaction chamber by the wet cleaning method, the film forming system including the reaction chamber must be stopped and the parts must be removed from the reaction chamber. The wet cleaning method takes time and reduces film-forming efficiency. When depositing a film on a semiconductor wafer after removing the parts from the reaction chamber, cleaning the same and returning the same into the reaction chamber, it is possible that impurities adhere to the semiconductor wafer. The impurities adhering to the semiconductor wafer affect adversely to products and reduce the life of the parts.
Recently, an in-situ dry cleaning method using a halogen-containing cleaning gas, such as ClF3 gas, is used to solve problems that may be caused by the wet cleaning method. The dry cleaning method cleans the parts without removing the same from the reaction chamber by supplying a cleaning gas, such as ClF3 gas.
However, during the cleaning of the parts including a susceptor of sintered SiC by the dry cleaning method using ClF3 gas or the like, ClF3 gas etches a sintering agent bonding SiC particles together and, consequently, the particles of SiC separate. Thus, the sintered SiC parts have unsatisfactory corrosion resistance and are practically incompetent. An amorphous carbon part is superior in corrosion resistance to a sintered SiC part. However, amorphous carbon reacts with ClF3 gas, a CF film is deposited on the surfaces of the parts including a shower head and placed in the reaction chamber, and the CF film comes off the surfaces of the parts in particles occasionally. The particles contaminate the semiconductor wafer, reducing the yield rate of the product.
Corrosion resistance of parts including a susceptor formed by coating blanks with a CVD-SiC material is more satisfactory than that of parts of sintered SiC, and the parts formed by coating blanks with a CVD-SiC material do not cause problems that may be caused by parts formed of amorphous carbon. However, the surfaces of the parts formed by coating blanks with a CVD-SiC material are subject to etching and hence the life of those parts is short. The SiC material is easily etched, and the SiC material is liable to be reduced to particles, which reduces the yield rate.
The uniformity of the surface of the conventional CVD-SiC material is not necessarily satisfactory, and a CVD-SiC material having a uniform surface has been desired.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

SiC material, semiconductor device fabricating system and SiC material forming method


A droplet ejection apparatus includes: a base; a plotting system having a droplet ejection head that ejects functional liquid as a droplet, a carriage that holds the droplet ejection head, and a stage that holds a work at which the droplet is plotted; and an optical system having a light source that outputs a laser beam and an optical path, which is constituted between the light source and the droplet and through which the laser beam passes to irradiate the droplet; wherein: the plotting system and the optical system are established on the base sharing the upper surface of the base as a reference surface, and pattern is plotted and fixed through cooperation control of both systems.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a droplet ejection apparatus, particularly to a droplet ejection apparatus having a plotting system that ejects droplets and an optical system that irradiates the ejected droplets with laser beams, and more particularly to a droplet ejection apparatus that forms wiring patterns.
2. Related Art
When patterning metal wiring using a droplet ejection technique, it needs to reduce process time, cost, and energy in the drying and baking process. At present, the drying and baking is conducted using a hot plate or a clean oven. However, because it takes long time for the process, there are the cost and energy problems. Thus, a process is proposed by which a metal wiring pattern is formed by discharging droplets, and, thereafter, the drying and baking is conducted using laser.
JP-A-2004-241770 proposes an inkjet device, with which a conductive material is discharged on a work on a substrate to plot a conductive layer, and the plotted conductive layer is heat-treated with a lamp or laser light. With this device, an inkjet process chamber that discharges the conductive material is provided separately from an irradiation chamber that emits the lamp or laser light. The work is subjected to the plotting process in the inkjet process chamber, then transported to the irradiation chamber to be irradiated with the laser light or the like.
In the device shown in JP-A-2004-241770, it is difficult to accurately control parameters concerning droplet discharge and laser irradiation, such as the time needed between the landing of the droplet on the work and the laser irradiation because the plotting system that discharges the conductive material and the optical system that irradiates the discharged conductive material with the lamp or laser light are provided separately from each other. Further, because the device of JP-A-2004-241770 has the plotting system and the optical system on different reference surfaces, it takes time and effort to align the plotted conductive layer with the laser light irradiation spot. Moreover, because the work is transported from the inkjet process chamber to the laser irradiation chamber, it requires time for the transportation.


Methods and devices are disclosed for introducing a compressor bypass flow that is returned from location that is downstream of a pressure source of an internal combustion engine to an air filter housing that is located upstream of the pressure source.

Some internal combustion engines include turbochargers with a compressor to compress intake air. Fuel can be added upstream of the compressor for compression and mixing with the intake flow. In addition, some compressors include a bypass in which excess or rejected compressed intake air from the downstream system and fuel (compressor bypass (CBP) flow) are returned from downstream of the compressor to upstream of the compressor. Other systems return high pressure combustion gases that escape between the pistons and cylinders (also known as blow-by or closed crankcase ventilation (CCV) gases) upstream of the compressor to prevent the release of these gases to atmosphere. However, present systems separately return CCV gases and CBP flow directly to the intake piping and/or other locations that may disturb the flow to the turbocharger so that engine performance and transient response are negatively impacted. In addition, introducers for CBP flow can be bulky and expensive to manufacture and implement. Therefore, further improvements in this technology area are needed.