An apparatus for generating an output clock is disclosed. The apparatus comprises: N variable offset clock circuits for receiving N input clocks and for generating N intermediate clocks having N phase offsets controlled by N intermediate signals, respectively, where N>1; a clock multiplexer for selecting one of the N intermediate clocks as the output clock according to a finite-state signal having N possible states; and a finite-state-machine for receiving a control signal and the N intermediate clocks and for generating the finite-state signal and the N intermediate signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for generating a variable delay clock and in particular to a system of generating clock with an unbounded amount of delay.
2. Description of Related Art
DLL (delay lock loop) is well known in prior art for clock generation. FIG. 1 depicts a functional block diagram of a typical N-stage DLL 100, which comprises: a VCDL (voltage-controlled delay line) 110, a PD (phase detector) 120, and a LF (loop filter) 130. VCDL 110 further comprises N variable delay cells 111_1, 111_2, and so on. VCDL 110 receives an input clock CLK_IN and a control voltage Vc from LF 130, and generates N output clocks CLK_1, CLK_2, and so on. CLK_1 is the output of the 1st variable delay cell 111_1, CLK_2 is the output of the 2nd variable delay cell 111_2, and so on. All N delay cells (111_1, 111_2, and so on) are constructed from substantially the same circuit; therefore they all cause substantially the same amount of delay to their respective inputs. The phase of the output clock CLK_N from the last variable delay cell 111_N is compared with the phase of the input clock CLK_IN by the PD 120, which generates a phase error signal PE indicative of the phase relationship between the input clock CLK_IN and the output clock CLK_N. The phase error signal PE generated by PD 120 is filtered by the LF 130, resulting in the control voltage Vc to control the delay for each of the N delay cells of VCDL 110. In steady state, a steady control voltage Vc is established so that the output clock CLK_N is aligned with the input clock CLK_IN; the phase error signal PE is virtually zero, indicating no further change to the control voltage Vc is needed. Let the period of the input clock CLK_IN be T. In steady state, each delay cell (111_1, 111_2, and so on) must cause a delay of T/N so that CLK_N can be aligned with CLK_IN. In many applications, a phase inversion operation (not shown in FIG. 1) is performed at the output of the last delay cell to generate an additional 180-degree phase shift (or equivalent T/2 delay). In this case, each delay cell (111_1, 111_2, and so on) causes a delay of T/(2N) in steady state.
A clock multiplexer is often used along with a DLL to generate a clock of a variable phase (or delay). A clock generation system 200 constructed using a N-stage DLL 100 and a clock multiplexer 220 is illustrated in FIG. 2. N-stage DLL 100 receives an input clock CLK_IN and generates N output clocks CLK_1, CLK_2, and so on, in a manner illustrated in FIG. 1. Clock multiplexer 220 receives those N output clocks from N-stage DLL 100 along with a control signal PHASE_SELECT, and generates CLK_OUT as the output clock of the clock generation system 200. The output clock CLK_OUT is selected among the N output clocks CLK_1, CLK_2, and so on, based on the PHASE_SELECT signal.
Although prior art clock generation system 200 can generate a clock with a desired phase (or delay), there are two problems. First, a clock multiplexer circuit is needed. A high frequency clock multiplexer is hard to implement in an integrated circuits, especially when the number of inputs is high. Second, the resolution of the delay depends on the number of stages of delay buffers. In general, a N-stage DLL (with an aforementioned phase inversion at the output of the last delay cell) provides a resolution of 180/N degrees in phase delay. To achieve a 10-degrees resolution of phase delay, for instance, it takes an 18-stage DLL. Therefore, it is impractical to use DLL to generate a variable delay clock with high resolution in the phase delay.
What is needed is a clock generation system that offers a high resolution in clock phase yet does not require a high complexity phase multiplexer.

Variable delay clock circuit and method thereof


The invention provides active-matrix display devices with non-linear two-pole switching elements such as MIMs or three-pole switching elements such as TFTs having a smaller difference in charge current at a different image content by using a suitable. ##EQU1## This leads to less burn-in of the image to be displayed. Moreover, a satisfactory transmission characteristic is obtained at a higher value of .epsilon..sub..perp.. For TFTs it is then possible to use smaller auxiliary capacitances due to the higher values of (.epsilon..sub..perp.). The latter aspect may in turn be utilized to realise a larger aperture.

The invention relates to a liquid crystal display device comprising a matrix of pixels arranged in rows and columns, a group of row electrodes and a group of column electrodes for driving the pixels, each pixel comprising a display element defined by picture electrodes, which element comprises a layer of liquid crystal material between the picture electrodes and is connected to a row or column electrode via a switching element.
In this application, a switching element is understood to mean both a two-pole and a three-pole switching element. Examples of two-pole switching elements are nonlinear switching elements such MIMs, diodes or varistors, but linear switching elements are not excluded. Examples of three-pole switching elements are TFTs.
Said display devices are used, for example in television applications and datagraphic display devices.
Display devices of the type described in the opening paragraph are generally known. A display device using two-pole switching elements (MIMs) is known, for example from U.S. Pat. No. 5,159,325. This Patent describes such a device with drive means which are adapted in such a way that a uniform image is obtained.
Notably if a twisted-nematic liquid crystalline material is used and a MIM (metal-isolator-metal) is chosen for the switching element, the burn-in phenomenon occurs (image retention). Dark characters against a light background, e.g. in datagraphic applications, then remain visible after selection of the characters.


The current invention relates to a security element for security substrates, such as those used for banknotes and the like, having enhanced public recognition, anti-counterfeit and detection properties. A security element comprising an elongate strip of a light transmitting polymeric substrate, said substrate being provided with a magnetic feature and a metallic design, the metallic design being provided by a combination of metal and non-metallic regions and comprising indicia, characters, patterns, designs, or geometrical shapes or a combination of the aforesaid design comprising at least one repeating pattern or which one or more of the frequency, the instantaneous amplitude and/or the maximum amplitude of the pattern varies along the length of the element, said pattern being positioned relative to the magnetic feature such that it does not overlap therewith.

1. Field of the Invention
The current invention relates to a security element for security substrates, such as those used for banknotes and the like, having enhanced public recognition, anti-counterfeit and detection properties.
2. The Prior Art
It is widely known to include security elements, such as security threads or strips, into security documents to protect against forgery. Typically these elements comprise a polymer carrier to which a metal layer is applied, though they may also have additional functional layers such as magnetic, thermochromic or luminescent layers.
Security elements of this type have the advantage that they can be verified both visually and by machine. However, there is a constant need to improve the security of these devices in order to remain one step ahead of the counterfeiters. Developments have included improving the public recognition, machine readable, and anti-counterfeit properties.
Public recognition or visually identifiable features have been known for some time and include security elements with microprint; metallic indicia on a transparent element (such as are disclosed in EP-A-279880, U.S. Pat. No. 4,941,017 & U.S. Pat. No. 4,652,015) and metallic security elements with transparent indicia (such as are disclosed in EP-A-0319157). The latter security elements, supplied by the De La Rue Group, are known by the trade mark Cleartext®, and are utilised in a number of the world's major currencies. Cleartext® security elements have proved to be highly successful due the ease with which the public can verify them without the need for additional aids or equipment. A variant of the Cleartext® type of security element is described in EP-A-659587, in which the security elements are provided with demetallised characters of varying heights.
The principles behind Cleartext® and this type of security element have been further improved by enhancing both the anti-counterfeit and aesthetic properties as described in EP-A-972111. In this specification the security element design comprises at least one repeating geometric pattern of which one of more of the frequency, instantaneous amplitude and/or maximum amplitude of the pattern varies along the length of the element and design having at least one non-linear boundary. Such designs are much harder to counterfeit and consequently more secure. They also have the additional benefit of being highly aesthetic and can be designed in such a way as to co-ordinate with other design features on a document.
It has also been recognised that there is an increasing need to be able to identify and characterise security documents automatically by machine. This can be achieved by the provision of additional functional layers to security elements as described earlier. It is particularly common to make use of magnetic layers and, more recently, coded magnetic layers. One such coded security element is described in EP-A-0407550. Here the code is provided in the form of a machine-readable binary code in the magnetic layer. The code consists of alternating 'termination' and 'word' segments, which are made up of blocks or 'bits' of magnetic coating. Each word segment has the same length, with the presence of magnetic material in a bit denoting a '1', and the absence of magnetic material a '0'. This thread allows for unique identification of the security elements but is not intended as a publicly verifiable feature.
The need to combine the benefits of a machine readable layer and the public recognition properties of Cleartext® has been recognised and EP-A-0516790 describes a security element comprising a transparent carrier material, a metallic layer with gaps and a magnetic layer disposed above or below the metal layer. The gaps take the form of characters, patterns or other indicia and are located in those areas where no magnetic layer is present, thus ensuring that the negative writing on the thread is readable in transmitted light. The security elements may have an additional magnetic layer, electro-conductive material added to the magnetic layer or magnetic material added to the metallic layer, providing a form of 'coding'. This security element has the advantage that it combines an easily recognisable feature with a machine-verifiable one.
EP-A-0961996 and EP-A-0938417 disclose further improved security elements comprising a plastic layer, an opaque layer with gaps and a magnetic layer. In common with the security elements described in EP-A-0516790 the gaps are positioned in those areas where no magnetic layer is present so they are visible in transmitted light, but the magnetic layer is additionally periodically spaced with non-magnetic areas to form a coding. The coding may take the form of the codes described in EP-A-0407550, or may be of a different type. Though both EP-A-0516790 and EP-A-0961996 do provide both public and machine-readable properties the current invention seeks to further improve on the machine readable, public recognition and anti-counterfeit properties.


A parallel manufacturing system for use in a manufacturing plant that utilizes a massively parallel computer determines the scheduling of all manufacturing operations used in connection with the manufacture of the products made in the plant. The system utilizes an explosion procedure to determine the net requirements for all components used in the manufacturing operations, and then schedules any manufacturing operations necessary to make the required components.

The present invention relates to a parallel manufacturing system, for use in a manufacturing plant, that determines when all manufacturing operations which produce the products and components made in the plant should be performed.
In a manufacturing plant in which one or more products are made, such as an automobile assembly plant, it is necessary to schedule manufacturing operations based upon the quantities of the products that are needed and to ensure that all components used in each manufacturing operation are in inventory when that operation is scheduled to begin. Any failure to properly schedule manufacturing operations or to have the necessary components in inventory may result in late manufacture of the product and missed customer deadlines as a result.
The task of scheduling operations and ensuring a sufficient inventory of components for those operations is a complex one, particularly for a large manufacturing plant where thousands of manufacturing operations and thousands of components are used in the manufacture of numerous products. Systems that are used to determine when manufacturing operations should be performed and when components used in those operations should be in inventory are referred to herein as "manufacturing systems."
Conventional manufacturing systems in widespread use utilize a generally standard approach in addressing the above task. Manufacturing systems incorporating this standard approach are referred to herein as "MRP II" systems, and the MRP II approach is described in detail in a book entitled "Material Requirements Planning" by Joseph Orlicky and published by McGraw. Hill.
The general manner in which an MRP II system operates with respect to the manufacture of a product is as follows. The initial step is to determine the "net requirement" of the product by netting customer orders or production forecasts for the product against the current inventory of the product. The net requirements of the product is then used to determine the quantities of the components that are used in the manufacture of the product.
Components typically have different relationships to end product, depending upon when such components are used in the manufacturing process and in what operations they are used. These relationships are typically illustrated with a product tree. The product is at the highest level of the tree; all components used in the final assembly of the product occupy the next lower level in the tree; the subcomponents that are necessary to make each of those components occupy the next lower level in the tree; and so on.
After the net requirements for the product are determined, the net requirements for the components in the next lower level in the product tree are determined. This determination is based on netting the inventory of a particular component against the quantity needed as reflected by the net requirements for the product. There may also be customer orders for the component which must be taken into account. This may occur when a customer orders components used in the repair of the product.
The step of determining the net requirements for the components is again repeated for the next lower level of the product tree. The process continues until the net requirements of all components in the product tree have been determined.
After a conventional MRP II system determines the net requirements for all components needed for the manufacture of a product, the production of the required quantities of components is scheduled based upon a predetermined "lead time" required for the manufacture of each component. The lead time generally corresponds to the time required to manufacture the component, but in practice is lead time is made artificially longer.
The scheduling of the manufacture of a component is based on the lead times of all subcomponents necessary for the manufacture of that component. For example, assume that 40 units of component A must be manufactured on day 10, that component A has three subcomponents A1, A2 and A3, and that each of those subcomponents has a lead time of four days. In this case, the manufacturing operation that produces component A would be scheduled for day 10, and the manufacturing operations that produce subcomponents A1-A3 would be scheduled for day 6 so that they would be completely manufactured and ready for use in the manufacturing operation that produces component A on day 10.
The starting dates for all manufacturing operations are determined based upon the predetermined lead times and results in a rough production schedule for the plant. The production schedule is rough because there are invariably scheduling conflicts, i.e. lack of capacity to perform the manufacturing operations. Plant operators then analyze the rough production schedule and reschedule manufacturing operations in an attempt to minimize the number of conflicts.
The above process of determining the net requirements and generating the rough production schedule is typically carried out by a large mainframe computer. For relatively large manufacturing plants, the mainframe computer may take 15 hours or more to generate a rough production schedule for the plant, due to the large number of components and operations that are used in the manufacture of the products. The rough production schedule is usually generated relatively infrequently, every week for example.
There are a number of fundamental disadvantages in the operation of conventional MRP II systems as described generally above. A primary disadvantage of such systems is the failure to take into account the real-time nature of the manufacturing task. A conventional MRP II system may generate a production schedule once a week. However, during that week, plant operators are continuously rescheduling operations, ordering additional inventory, and making other day-to-day decisions that affect the production schedule. The rescheduling of an operation, in addition to affecting the components made by that operation, also affects the quantity of components consumed during that operation. Thus, a change in one operation in the system may have a relatively complex effect on the production schedule. However, since no schedule changes or other actions are accounted for until the next time the production schedule is generated, the actual day-to-day status of the manufacturing plant is not known.
Another disadvantage of MRP II systems is that lead times are typically exaggerated to ensure that all components are ready when needed. As a result, components are manufactured before they are needed. The effect of exaggerated lead times is multiplied as the MRP II system traverses down the levels of the product tree. For example, if the lead time for each component in a 10-level product tree is exaggerated by two days, the components in the lowest level of the tree will be manufactured 18 days (9 component levels*2 days per level) before they are actually needed. The exaggeration of lead times not only generates undesired excess inventory, it also further divorces the rough production plan from reality.
Conventional MRP II systems also rely on and generate a tremendous amount of unnecessary paperwork that complicates the system, impedes the ability of the system to be updated, and introduces erroneous assumptions into the system, further degrading system performance. Two examples of such paperwork are release orders and allocation orders.
A release order is an order authorizing the performance of a set of manufacturing operations. Theoretically, a release order should be generated for the date the operation is scheduled to begin. However, in practice, release orders are generated in advance of the start date of the operation to allow time for paperwork handling. The disadvantage of generating premature release orders is that it when release orders are generated, the operations affected by those orders are no longer rescheduled. Once a release order has been generated, the manufacturing system considers that order to be in progress and it cannot be rescheduled. The number of orders that cannot be rescheduled increases as the length of time that release orders are generated in advance.
After a release order is generated, an allocation request is used to reserve a quantity of each component in inventory needed for manufacture of the component specified in the release order. Once that quantity of components is allocated to the order, it is no longer considered inventory that can be used for other manufacturing operations.
One problem with allocation is that, typically, hundreds of released orders are generated before all of their components are available; consequently, work on many of the orders cannot proceed due to lack of components. Components reserved for unworkable orders end up preventing other orders from being performed. As a result, this causes sizable inventories to build up and at the same time generates rampant parts shortages.
Another problem with allocation is that the actual quantity produced on an order is very often slightly less than the exact quantity ordered. Thus, when orders are completed, a reconciliation must be made to "unallocate" components. During the time required to do this, inventory balances are incorrect, resulting in flawed material requirements planning.
Conventional MRP II systems generate paperwork when orders are released that includes a printed production order, a picking list and turnaround documents to be used in reporting production. This paperwork is dispensed to work centers by dispatchers. When any change is required in the sequence of production, or if production orders are changed or cancelled, the paperwork must be shuffled. As a result, any significant production change is greatly hampered.
Due to the above factors, such as the exaggeration of lead times, the infrequent generation of the production schedule, and inaccuracies and erroneous assumptions introduced in the paperwork trail, the integrity of the production schedule of a conventional MRP II system is severely degraded.
And when the integrity of the schedule becomes compromised, and plant operators and other personnel realize that the schedule no longer reflects when manufacturing operations must take place to make products to meet customer demands, the production schedule becomes nothing more than a formality, and production scheduling routinely takes place on an emergency, seat-of-the-pants basis.


A visualization training device with adjustable electro-optical shutters comprises a pair of goggles (10) and a control unit (20). The goggles have a single lens made of an electro-optical shutter (11) which uses liquid crystals as the light valve. The control unit produces a square wave which alternately drives the shutter opened and closed. The opening and closing cycles are adjustable in duty cycle and frequency via a duty cycle control knob (21) and a frequency control knob (22). When the shutter is opened, it is transparent so that the user has a panoramic view of external visual information. When the shutter is closed, it becomes an opaque white to occlude the visual information from the user, so that the user must mentally visualize the previous information. The opening and viewing, and closing and visualizing cycle is repeated to train and improve the visualization ability of the user.

1. Field Of The Invention
The present invention relates generally to devices for visualization training, specifically by interrupting the visual field of a user with a shutter.
2. Prior Art
In the past, the field of psychology has addressed many issues regarding the brain and its functioning. How it works and how it can be improved has been the focus of many areas of study. The brain has the ability to process 30 billion bits of information per second. However, even with our present understanding of the mind, we are still unable to fully tap the brain's vast potential. An area of brain function that is of vital importance is visualization or imagery. Visualization is the ability to "see" or imagine images with the mind alone, without input from the eyes. For example, one can visualize the experience of driving a racing car, scenes of a movie being made, a new aircraft design, or the experience of a personal relationship. Therefore, visualization is a vital part of creativity, imagination, and memory. Consequently, if our visualization skills can be improved, then our creativity, imagination, and memory can also be enhanced.
Ironically, the ability to use the eyes to see information can be as much of a disadvantage to learning as it is beneficial. Without doubt, the eyes are one of our most important senses. They are used extensively as an "input device" to the brain. However, relying too much on the eyes reduces the need for the brain to visualize and memorize information. For example, if visual information is viewed by the eye for an unlimited amount of time, there is no need to remember or recall this information. In fact, relying on vision to obtain information prevents the brain from being improved. Therefore, the solution is to reduce our reliance on our visual sense, forcing the brain to rely more on visualization and memory. As a result, these skills are exercised and improved. After all, muscles should be exercised and developed. Similarly, the brain should also be exercised regularly for its continued development.
Visualization techniques have been used for many years for different applications. Psychiatrists use a form of visualization, hypnosis, for purposes ranging from curing depression to helping crime witnesses recall their experiences. Terminally ill patients have been known to "mysteriously" cure themselves by visualizing or imagining getting well. Artists visualize or imagine their work before expressing their images on canvas, stone, or metal. Athletes, especially those who follow predetermined programs, such as skaters and skiers, visualize their performance repeatedly prior to competition as a form of practice. Napoleon fought battles in his mind, then found that the visualization made real battles easier to win. Albert Einstein said, "Visualization is more important than knowledge." He also said that he visualized riding on the end of a light beam to help him develop the theory of relativity. Obviously, a wide range of activities can greatly benefit from visualization.
Visualization can also help to improve memory as well. The recall of information, or memory, is often in the form of visual images. The mind's "eye" must first see the image before the person can remember. Therefore, if the ability to visualize is increased, the ability to remember should also be increased. According to a college textbook, "Imagery facilitates the teaming of information and produces good recall performances. Subjects taught to make up strange visual images of the material to be learned perform at a much higher level than subjects who do not use images. Presumably, encoding words as images somehow enhances the storage of the items in long-term memory. For hundreds of years memory experts have relied heavily on visual images to improve their performances." Lyle E. Boume, Jr. and Bruce R. Ekstrand, Psychology: Its Principles And Meanings. Fourth Edition, (New York: CBS College Publishing, 1982), page 155.
A visualized picture or image that is as clear as reality is referred to as hallucination. The brain cannot distinguish between what is vividly imagined, or hallucinated, from what is real. The ability of the brain to create such a "virtual reality" has been studied by using the technique of sensory deprivation. According to Dr. William Fezler, "Studies in the area of sensory deprivation provide even more data to substantiate that your imagery can be as vivid as reality. It was shown, for example, that if you remove the real world (outside), an imaginary (inside) one as real in appearance will soon materialize. Researchers sensorially deprived subjects, [i.e., they] removed the outside world, with a number of devices. They put halved ping-pong balls over the eyes to remove vision. The body was bound to eliminate touch. Nose, mouth, and ears were plugged to eradicate smell (and breathing!), taste, and hearing. Within six hours a whole new experience, graphic in all five senses, materialized. When the world was taken away, subjects created their own! You have the power to imagine so vividly that you can't tell your image from reality. This is the first major step to creation." William Fezler, Ph.D., "Creative Imagery, How to Visualize In AH Five Senses" (N.Y.: Fiveside, 1989, p. 84). Although highly effective, the ping-pong balls are inconvenient and uncomfortable to wear. Furthermore, they will make the users appear very silly indeed.
The Theory Of Props states that the senses can be heightened by plugging in the actual sensory experience while practicing visualization. According to personal development coach and author of the bestseller Unlimited Power, Anthony Robbins: "Most peoples' pictures are not that clear, although they could be. All you have to do is practice. And, how do you practice? Well, you don't try to master everything overnight. You take a look at somebody's nose, and you focus just on their nose, not their whole face and body. And, you look at it, and then close you eyes, and then you pretend that you are seeing it in you mind. . .Actually look at their nose--open your eyes, see the nose--close your eyes, imagine you're seeing it. You do it over and over until pretty soon you're opening and closing your eyes so fast . . .that your brain doesn't know when you're actually seeing it and when you're making it up, Pretty soon you'll get good at seeing the nose. You'll close your eyes and just be able to picture the nose. Then do nose and eyes. Then, nose, eyes, and mouth and the face and expand until you can see the whole person." Anthony Robbins, Personal Power cassette program (Robbins Research International, 1989). Produced by Guthy-Renker Corp., Moving Beyond Procrastination To Unlimited Power Anchoring Yourself To Success, Volume 6 Side 2B.
The Theory Of Props basically requires subjects to perform eye blinking. Subjects look at and study an image for a few seconds. Then, after closing the eyes, they attempt to continue to "see" or visualize the same image with the mind alone. This process is repeated while the rate of eye blinking is increased. The objective is to "trick" the brain into thinking that it is seeing the image when the eyes are closed. This technique helps the brain to develop its visualization skills. However, continued eye blinking can be extremely tiring, while it also cannot eliminate the distraction of the subject's surrounding environment.
Other techniques have also been developed for teaching. For years, flash cards have been used to drill individuals on particular subjects. The intent is to elicit a quick response by presenting questions briefly and rapidly to the individual. The eyes must quickly see what is being presented so the brain can process the information. Therefore, vision is important only for an instant, so that the brain must then focus on a solution to the question at hand. However, small, printed or handwritten flash cards are very limited in the information which can be presented. Furthermore, they cannot prevent the individual from being distracted by the surrounding environment.
Inventions such as tachistoscopes, stroboscopes, and stereoscopic viewers are also used to control the presentation of visual information. Recently, these systems have incorporated electrooptical devices to improve their versatility and performance. All these systems consist of a shuttering device and a control unit for synchronized presentation of visual information. The following is a brief description of these systems and their intended use:
A. Tachistoscopes are for exposing visual stimuli as pictures, letters, or words for extremely brief periods of time. They are used especially for testing perception. U.S. Pat. No. 4,726,673 to Blankenhom (1988) shows a tachistoscope using a pair of electro-optical light valves for wearing over the eyes of a subject. The valves are opened and closed in synchronization with alternating images presented by a television fed by two independent cameras. PA1 B. Stroboscopes are used for studying moving objects, especially those in rapid motion. It synchronizes the cyclic motion of an object with the visual presentation of the object to a viewer. An example is a spinning disk with holes or apertures on the edge through which a moving object is viewed. The rate at which the apertures pass the eyes is synchronized with the repetition rate of a repeating event, such as dripping water. As a result, the moving object will appear to be frozen. PA1 C. Stereoscopic viewing systems are used for conveying depth in two-dimensional images. This is accomplished by viewing two different perspectives of the same scene. Using a display device and two individual electro-optical shutters, one in front of each eye, the different perspectives can be rapidly alternated on a single screen and viewed by the appropriate eye. This yields a three-dimensional picture. The synchronized shutters and alternating perspectives happen so rapidly that the brain sees the two different perspectives at the same time. By displaying two perspectives of each frame in a motion picture, a three-dimensional motion picture will result. Examples of stereoscopic viewing systems are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,424,529 to Roese et al. (1984), and 4,698,668 to Milgram (1987).
In conclusion, the above techniques are either limited in the range of information that they can present, will quickly cause eye fatigue, or cannot eliminate distracting stimuli in the subject's environment. On the other hand, the above devices must all be linked and synchronized in some way with the information being observed or presented. Because of the need to synchronize the shutter devices to the visual information being presented, the equipment required is relatively complex, expensive, or difficult to use. Therefore, no current technique or device is appropriate for use as an aid for visualization training.

Visualization training device with adjustable electro-optical shutter


A toilet moving cart system for efficiently moving a toilet. The toilet moving cart system includes a base for receiving a conventional toilet, a stub member within the base, a plurality of wheels attached to the base, and a handle attached to the base. The stub member extends upwardly into the lower opening within the toilet when the toilet is positioned upon the base. A cap is removably attached to the base for sealing the fill valve within the toilet during transportation to prevent water leakage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to toilets and more specifically it relates to a toilet moving cart system for efficiently moving a toilet.
2. Description of the Related Art
Any discussion of the prior art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such prior art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
Toilets have been in use for years. As shown in FIG. 2 of the drawings, a conventional toilet (12) is typically comprised of a water tank (14), and a bowl (16) having a base and a lower opening fluidly connected to a siphon channel. A fill valve (18) is positioned within water tank to allow the tank to fill to a predetermined height. The lower opening in the base of the bowl is sealed with a wax seal to a sewage pipe in the building structure.
When moving an existing toilet from a building structure, there can be a volume of water remaining in the bowl and the water tank which can escape through the lower opening when the toilet is moved. Also, conventional toilets are relatively heavy and cumbersome to manually move.
While these devices may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they are not as suitable for efficiently moving a toilet. Conventional methods of moving toilets into and out of a building mainly involve physically lifting and moving the toilet.
In these respects, the toilet moving cart system according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of efficiently moving a toilet.


Assemblies of temperature monitored, semiconductor light emitting diodes (LEDs) are disclosed that produce color temperature adjustable white light sources. Warm-white LEDs are combined with green and blue LEDs to produce light have continuous spectrum spanning the wavelength range of 400 to 700 nm with a white light point located at a selectable Planckian locus location and a color rendering index greater than 80. The circuitry includes LED temperature monitoring used to adjust LEDs spectral and luminosity output. Alternate arrangements combine warm-white LEDs with green, blue and red LEDs; warm-white and cool-white LEDs with green, blue and red LEDs; warm-white and cool-white LEDs with green LEDs; and a warm-white and cool-white LEDs with green-white LEDs.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to the technical field of using assemblies of semiconductor light emitting diodes (LEDs) to produce a source of white light, and more particularly to methods and systems to produce color temperature adjustable, LED based, white light sources using suitably powered, and temperature monitored, assemblies of LEDs.
(2) Description of Related Art
Human perception of an object's color results from color sensors in the eye responding to electromagnetic radiation reflected off the object. What color an object appears, therefore, depends on a combination of the reflectance spectrum of the object, the spectral distribution of light in the source illuminating the object and the spectral response of the color sensors in the human eye.
The human eye has three types of color sensors, typically called S, M and L-cones, each of which has a fairly wide spectral response but each of which is more attuned to one of red, green or blue light. There is also a fourth type of sensor, the rods, which are extremely sensitive to light and dominate in low illumination and peripheral view conditions but play an insignificant role in the high illumination, foveal vision situations in which color perception occurs. The stimuli from these sensors combine to provide the brain with the signals it perceives as colors. Human color perception is further complicated by the fact that the combination of signals from the sensors have a response that is non-linear with respect to the intensity of the illuminating light. Moreover, the brain attempts to adapt to account for the type of light illuminating an object. For example, the human brain attempts to see a green apple illuminated by daylight as being the same color green both at midday and closer to dawn or dusk, when the daylight is more yellowish and may also be less intense.
Because of these factors, the light illuminating an object is important in determining the perceived color of an object, and particularly in determining if two colors appear to match. Many people will be familiar with the problem of selecting a jacket to match a pair of black pants while indoors, only to go out into bright daylight and discover that the jacket is in fact navy blue and no longer appears the same color as the trousers.
This problem of using the correct source of light has become of great technical significance in the fields of film and television video production, particularly when scenes are filmed indoors and illuminated by artificial lighting.
The human eye has evolved viewing objects illuminated primarily by daylight. Daylight is a combination of direct radiation from the sun, and skylight, which is sunlight scattered by the atmosphere. The sun is a Planckian, or black-body, radiation source. This is a source that emits light across a broad, continuous range of wavelengths with a spectral distribution that follows Planck's law of radiation and depends only on the temperature of the light emitting body. The sun has a Planckian temperature of 5,800 K. When combined with the Rayleigh scattered sunlight from the sky, it produces a white-light that closely approximates a Planckian radiation source having a temperature of 6,500 K. The Commission Internationale de L'Eclairage (CIE), an international body that develops standards on colorimetry and illuminants, defines such light as CIE Standard Illuminant D65.
Other Planckian sources include candle flames which produce a reddish-yellow light having a color temperature of 2,000 K and tungsten incandescent lighting having a color temperature of 2,500-2,800 K.
By combining tungsten black body light emitters with appropriate filters, cinematographers are able to illuminate indoor scenes with light having the properties of daylight at various times of day, i.e. to produce light sources having color temperatures that range from 3,200 K (dusk/dawn) through 3,400 K (1 hour from dusk/dawn), 5,500 K (noon on a clear day), 6,500 K (noon on an overcast day) to 9,000 to 12,000 K (blue sky).
All light sources may be defined as having a "white point". This is a pair of chromaticity coordinates that may be used to represent the spectrum, or profile, of the light it emits. The white point may, for instance, be obtained by first normalizing the intensity of the light source's profile, then calculating the degree to which each of the three cones of the eye would be stimulated by that profile. These three values, the so-called tri-stimulus values, may then be used to obtain xy values on a CIE defined normalized, two axis chromaticity diagram.
These white light sources produced by filtered tungsten light may closely resemble light from a Planckian source, and the positions on the CIE chromaticity diagram given by the xy values of their white points form a curve that is termed the Planckian locus.
Other artificial light sources such as fluorescent lights emit light more efficiently than tungsten filament lamps. However, they have spectral distributions that differ significantly from black body radiation. Their white points typically do not lie on the Planckian locus, but they may be characterized as having correlated color temperature (CCT). This is the point on the Planckian locus that is joined to their white point by a straight line drawn normal to the Planckian locus.
Florescent lights are available that have correlated color temperatures (CCT) in a range of 2,900 K, termed a warm-white florescent light, to about 4,300 K, termed a cool-white florescent light. Colors that appear to match under, for instance a warm-white florescent light may not match under a D65 conditions, or under a cool-white florescent lamp.
In trying to characterize and account for these non-Planckian light sources, the CIE developed a Color Rendering Index (CRI) that further characterizes light sources. A light source's CRI is a measure of how closely an object's color as seen illuminated by that light source appears to match the color of that object when illuminated by a D65 light source, i.e., daylight at noon on an overcast day. A D65 light source, therefore has a perfect CRI of 100. The CIE has developed standard sets of colored materials that are used in comparing light sources and calculating their CRI.
Semi-conductor light emitting diodes (LEDs) have emerged over the last few decades as even more efficient and adaptable sources of light. LEDs typically have narrow spectral bands. However, white light can be produced from these relatively monochromatic LED's by, for instance, combining a red LED, a green LED and a blue LED. Such sources may be characterized by a combination of their white point and their CRI.
Although a white light made by combining the output of three separate color LEDs may be adjusted to have a white point at any chosen CCT without the need for additional filters, and even for that white point to lie on the Planckian locus, its CRI is likely to be very poor because of the gaps in the light spectrum between the narrow bands of light emitted by the separate colored LEDs.
Another method of producing white-light sources using LEDs is to combine an LED with a phosphor. Because of the broader spectral output of the LED induced phosphorescence, the CRI of such a white light may be considerably improved, but the CCT is now more dependent on the phosphor and may be difficult to tailor to a specific need.
The technical problem is, therefore, how to combine LEDs to produce, preferably without the need for filters, white light having both a predetermined, adjustable CCT that remains stable once selected, and a high CRI while being reasonably efficient, relatively easy to construct and to be affordable.
The relevant prior art includes:
U.S. Pat. No. 8,174,189 issued to Kim et al. on May 8, 2012 entitled "White LED device capable of adjusting correlated color temperature" that describes a white Light Emitting Diode (LED) device that enables the adjustment of a Correlated Color temperature to realize emotional illumination. The white LED device includes a package body for accommodating a plurality of light source units; a first light source unit accommodated in the package body, configured to have one or more first LED chips and a first phosphor, and configured to emit white light having a first Correlated Color Temperature (CCT); a second light source unit accommodated in the package body, configured to have one or more second LED chips and a second phosphor, and configured to emit white light having a second CCT; and a current control unit for varying current, to be supplied to at least one of the first and second LED chips, so as to adjust the first and second CCTs.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,008,850 issued to Su et al. on Aug. 30, 2011 entitled "Color temperature tunable white light emitting device" that describes a color temperature tunable white light emitting device, including a substrate with an ultraviolet light emitting diode, a purple light emitting diode, and a blue light emitting diode provided over the substrate. The UV LED, the purple LED and the blue LED are coated with a phosphor layer. An omnidirectional reflector is disposed over the phosphor layer. A medium layer is disposed between the omni-directional reflector and the phosphor layer. A transparent substrate is disposed over the omnidirectional reflector and an optical diffuser is disposed over the transparent substrate.
US Patent Application 20110037081 by Wu-Cheng Kuo et al. published on Feb. 17, 2011 entitled "White Light-Emitting Diode Packages with Tunable Color Temperature" that describes a white light-emitting diode package with tunable color temperature, including a package substrate with a first light emitting diode (first LED) disposed over a first portion of the substrate and a second light emitting diode (second LED) disposed over a second portion different from the first portion of the substrate. A phosphor layer is coated around the first and second LED, wherein the phosphor layer is formed by blending at least one colored phosphor grain with a transparent optical resin, and the at least one colored phosphor grain in the transparent optical resin is excited by light from the first and second LED to react and emit white light. In one embodiment, the first and second LED are both blue LEDs for emitting blue light of different wavelengths or ultraviolet (UV) LEDs for emitting UV light of different wavelengths.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,972,022 issued to Pohlert et al. on Jul. 5, 2011 "Stand-mounted light panel for natural illumination in film, television or video" that describes a lighting apparatus comprises a light panel having a panel frame, and a plurality of LEDs or other light elements secured to the panel frame. A self-contained battery unit securably attaches to the outside of the panel frame. The light panel may have a dimmer switch, and may also be capable of receiving power from a source other than the self-contained battery unit. The lighting apparatus can be mounted to a camera or a stand through adapters. Diffusion lenses or color gels can be integrated with or detachable from the light panel. The lighting apparatus may conveniently be provided in the form of a kit, with one or more of a light panel, self-contained battery unit, compact stand, connecting cable(s), adapter(s), lenses or color gels, and so on, provided in a single package.
Various implementations are known in the art, but fail to address all of the problems solved by the invention described herein. Various embodiments of this invention are illustrated in the accompanying drawings and will be described in more detail herein below.

Color temperature adjustable, LED based, white light source


An optical module: an optical plug that supports one end of an optical fiber and has a first surface that is generally in parallel with an extension direction of the optical fiber at one end side thereof and two second surfaces traversing the first surface; an optical element container that has an optical element and a transparent surface traversing an optical axis of the optical element, and is disposed such that the optical axis of the optical element and an optical axis of the optical fiber cross one another; an optical block having an optical reflection surface disposed at an intersection of the optical axis of the optical element and the optical axis of the optical fiber; and a resin member that includes a first guide surface in contact with one of the two second surfaces of the optical plug and a second guide surface in contact with the transparent surface of the optical container on which the optical plug is mounted.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to optical modules that are used for optical communications.
2. Related Art
As a typical example of an optical module that is used for optical communications optical module, an optical module described in Japanese laid-open patent application JP-A-2002-365491 (patent document 1) is known. The optical module described in the above document is not necessarily suitable when easiness in assembly is a considering factor, and requires further improvement. This inconvenience would likely become more noticeable when further miniaturization of optical modules is pursued.


A cloud gateway outage risk detector can receive, by an event listener module, user session data associated with a plurality of user sessions over a cloud gateway. The event listener module can store the data in a database. A run-time collection module can obtain at least a portion of the data. The run-time collection module can provide the portion of the data to a run-time risk criteria evaluation module that can determine, based upon the portion of the data, a run-time outage risk criteria for the cloud gateway. A baseline risk criteria evaluation module can obtain historical data from the database. The baseline risk criteria evaluation module can determine, based upon the data, a baseline outage risk criteria for the cloud gateway. The run-time risk criteria evaluation module can determine whether the run-time outage risk criteria meets or exceeds an outage risk threshold.

Network functions virtualization ("NFV") is a technology initiative that aims to move traditional and evolving mobility networking functions, such as access network elements, core network elements, transport network elements, and others, from purpose-built hardware to commercial-off-the-shelf ("COTS") server-based platforms. This is achieved through virtualization of mobility networking functions to create virtual networking functions ("VNFs") that operate on COTS hardware.
Software-defined network ("SDN") is an architectural framework that provides a software-centric cloud environment for creating intelligent networks that are programmable, application aware, and more open than traditional hardware-based network architectures. SDN provides an agile and cost-effective communications platform for handling the dramatic increase in data traffic on carrier networks by providing a high degree of scalability, security, and flexibility. SDN provides several benefits over traditional networks. SDN allows for the creation of multiple virtual network control planes on common hardware. SDN helps extend service virtualization and software control into many existing network elements. SDN enables applications to request and manipulate services provided by the network and to allow the network to expose network states back to the applications. SDN exposes network capabilities through application programming interfaces ("APIs"), making the control of network equipment remotely accessible and modifiable via third-party software clients using open protocols such as OpenFlow, available from Open Network Forum ("ONF").
Combining SDN and NFV functionality, such as in Domain 2.0, available from AT&T, provides a highly complex and dynamic set of relationships between virtual, logical, and physical resources. Networks, such as embodied in Domain 2.0 deployments, provide intelligent software systems and applications operating on general purpose commodity hardware (e.g., COTS). This not only drives down capital expenditures, ongoing operational costs, and helps to configure networks with less human intervention, but also creates significant opportunities to scale and monetize existing and new intelligent services.
Within service providers, such as AT&T, orchestration systems like Enhanced Control, Orchestration, Management, and Policy ("ECOMP") have been created to dramatically reduce monotonous tasks and monitoring required by human operators through data-based analytics. Current orchestration systems often incite frustration among operators due to over-complicated network status readouts, non-specific network manipulations automatically performed by the orchestration system, and the inability to quickly "revert" changes caused by such manipulations. AT&T's ECOMP has been combined with the Open Orchestrator Project ("OPEN-O") to create the Open Network Automation Platform ("ONAP") project supported by the Linux Foundation. ONAP is an open source software platform that delivers capabilities for the design, creation, orchestration, monitoring, and life cycle management of SDNs and the VNFs operating therein, as well as higher-level services that utilize the functionality of SDN/VNF. ONAP provides automatic, policy-driven interaction of these functions and services in a dynamic, real-time cloud environment. ONAP also provides graphical design tools for function/service creation.
In recent years, SDN technology has been implemented for wide area networks ("WANs") to bring network virtualization to the network edge. Historically, businesses have relied on site-to-site multiprotocol label switching ("MPLS") virtual private network ("VPN") to connect corporate and branch locations. MPLS VPN links provide the highest service level guarantees for network availability, packet loss, congestion, jitter, and latency. Although MPLS VPN links provide excellent performance and reliability, MPLS VPN links may not be cost-effective for some implementations. IP VPNs provide a less expensive alternative and can use tunneling protocols such as IPsec to emulate a private network on public infrastructure. IP VPNs do not deliver the performance and security of MPLS VPNs, and therefore are not recommended to be used for traffic associated with business critical applications. SD-WANs enable the ability to dynamically route traffic over multiple WAN connections based upon pre-defined policies and WAN link performance monitoring. In doing so, SD-WANs combine the reliability offered by MPLS links with the cost-effectiveness of dual, single, or mobile broadband links to create hybrid networks that can deliver reduced costs, increased network agility, optimized cloud connectivity, and enhanced application and performance visibility.
SD-WAN service can utilize universal customer premises equipment ("uCPE") installed at each edge location. The uCPEs can reside on COTS hardware and can host one or more VNFs, each of which can provide functionality such as firewalls, routers, WAN optimization, traffic controllers, and the like. A centralized cloud-based orchestrator can remotely configure the uCPEs using business rules based upon which the uCPEs can determine whether traffic should be sent over an inexpensive Internet connection (e.g., for non-critical traffic) or over a secure MPLS VPN (e.g., for critical and/or sensitive traffic). These connections can terminate in virtual SD-WAN gateways operating in cloud environments, such as, for example, MICROSOFT AZURE, AMAZON WEB SERVICES ("AWS"), AT&T Integrated Cloud ("AIC"), other public clouds, or other private clouds, thereby allowing SD-WAN traffic to be sent over a secure, high performance backbone before reaching its destination. Deployment of SD-WAN can be implemented on a per-site basis so that customers can migrate existing network infrastructure to SD-WAN in phases to accommodate MPLS-only, IPsec-only, SD-WAN only, and hybridization of multiple technologies coexisting on the same network.
An increasing number of enterprise information technology infrastructures include both on-premises and in-cloud application components. Enterprise networks utilize connectivity between these components using different implementations of secure tunnels layer over secured or non-secured network connections. The cloud side of these connections are often terminated on virtualized network gateways. Data traffic originated by multiple enterprise users and/or external customers travels over these connections, so proper gateway function is critical for operability of the entire infrastructure.
Currently, network gateways are monitored by enterprise fault management systems or by tools provided by cloud providers such as MICROSOFT, AMAZON, or GOOGLE. This monitoring creates fault alarms in response to pre-defined fault events and/or pre-defined thresholds. In many gateway outage incidents, however, the gateway failure develops gradually such that by the time a fault system issues an alarm, many enterprise users and/or external customers have already experienced an outage of their connection(s).


Methods and apparatus are presented for enabling data connectivity when a handoff occurs between one communication network and another communication network, wherein the communication networks belong to different air interface standards. The mobile station triggers a Compression Control Protocol (CCP) request message to a tethered device if the mobile station determines that a new PDSN is not enabled to perform the CCP protocol. The tethered device then responds with a CCP request message with or without new negotiation parameters. The mobile station forwards the CCP request message to the new PDSN. Since the new PDSN is not enabled with CCP, the new PDSN responds with a CCP rejection message. The rejection message is passed from the mobile station back to the tethered device. The tethered device then sends uncompressed data packets to the PDSN.

1. Field
The present invention relates generally to communications, and more specifically, to the transmission of packetized data over wireless communication systems.
2. Background
The field of wireless communications has many applications including, e.g., cordless telephones, paging, wireless local loops, personal digital assistants (PDAs), Internet telephony, and satellite communication systems. A particularly important application is cellular telephone systems for mobile subscribers. As used herein, the term "cellular" system encompasses both cellular and personal communications services (PCS) frequencies. Various over-the-air interfaces have been developed for such cellular telephone systems including, e.g., frequency division multiple access (FDMA), time division multiple access (TDMA), and code division multiple access (CDMA). In connection therewith, various domestic and international standards have been established including, e.g., Advanced Mobile Phone Service (AMPS), Global System for Mobile (GSM), and Interim Standard 95 (IS-95). IS-95 and its derivatives, IS-95A, IS-95B, ANSI J-STD-008 (often referred to collectively herein as IS-95), and proposed high-data-rate systems are promulgated by the Telecommunication Industry Association (TIA) and other well known standards bodies.
Cellular telephone systems configured in accordance with the use of the IS-95 standard employ CDMA signal processing techniques to provide highly efficient and robust cellular telephone service. Exemplary cellular telephone systems configured substantially in accordance with the use of the IS-95 standard are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,103,459 and 4,901,307, which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein. An exemplary system utilizing CDMA techniques is the cdma2000 ITU-R Radio Transmission Technology (RTT) Candidate Submission (referred to herein as cdma2000), issued by the TIA. The standard for cdma2000 is presented in IS-2000 and IS-856 (cdma2000 1xEV-DO). The cdma2000 1xEV-DO standard is based on a data communication system disclosed in co-pending application Ser. No. 08/963,386, entitled "METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR HIGH RATE PACKET DATA TRANSMISSION," filed on Nov. 3, 1997, which is assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated by reference herein. The cdma2000 1xEV-DO communication system defines a set of data rates at which an access point (AP) may send data to a subscriber station (access terminal, AT). Because the AP is analogous to a base station, the terminology with respect to cells and sectors is the same as with respect to voice systems. Yet another CDMA standard is the W-CDMA standard, as embodied in 3rd Generation Partnership Project "3GPP", Document Nos. 3G TS 25.211, 3G TS 25.212, 3G TS 25.213, and 3G TS 25.214.
Given the growing demand for wireless data applications, the need for very efficient wireless data communication systems has become increasingly significant. One such wireless data application is the transmission of data packets that originate or terminate at packet-switching networks. Various protocols exist for transmitting packetized traffic over packet-switching networks so that information arrives at its intended destination. One such protocol is "The Internet Protocol," Request for Comment (RFC) 791 (September, 1981). The internet protocol (IP) breaks up messages into packets, routes the packets from a sender to a destination, and reassembles the packets into the original messages at the destination. The IP protocol requires that each data packet begins with an IP header containing source and destination address fields that uniquely identifies host and destination computers. Another protocol is the Point-to-Point Protocol (PPP), promulgated in RFC 1661 (July 1994), which is an encapsulation protocol for transporting IP traffic over point-to-point links. Yet another protocol is the IP Mobility Support, promulgated in RFC 2002 (October 1996), which is a protocol that provides for transparent routing of IP datagrams to mobile nodes.
Hence, the transmission of data packets from the IP network over a wireless communication network or from the wireless communication network over the IP network can be accomplished by adherence to a set of protocols, referred to as a protocol stack. A wireless communication device may be the origination or the destination of the IP packet, or alternatively, the wireless communication device may be a transparent link to a tethered electronic device. In either case, payload information is broken into packets wherein header information is added to each packet. Each protocol layer sequentially adds its own header information to each packet. The IP layer sits on top of the PPP layer, which sits on the RLP layer, which sits on top of the physical layer. The RLP layer is the Radio Link Protocol layer, which is responsible for retransmitting packets when a transmission error occurs. The packets are transported over the air to a packet data service node (PDSN) via an Access Network (AN), whereupon the packet is subsequently sent over the IP network. Alternatively, IP packets are transmitted over the IP network to a PDSN, from a PDSN to an AN, and then over-the-air to a wireless communication device. The wireless communication device is also referred to as an Access Terminal (AT) herein.
Various problems arise due to the mobility of wireless communication devices. Some of these problems arise when a mobile wireless communication device moves from the support of one communication system to the support of another communication system. For example, it is currently envisioned that a mobile wireless communication device may be designed to move from the support of a cdma2000 1xRTT system to a cdma2000 1xEV-DO system or vice versa. The interoperability of a device that may support both air interface standards is currently the subject of a proposed standard known as TIA/EIA/IS-878, which is entitled, "Inter-Operability Specification (IOS) for High Rate Packet Data (HRPD) Network Access Interfaces." However, this vision of ubiquitous mobility within CDMA standards is relatively recent, and mobility amongst CDMA and other air interface standards (GPRS, UMTS, etc.) has yet to be specified. When the IS-2000, IS-856, and IS-878 standards were originally created, inter-operability in the presence of certain optional and/or tangential PPP options and network control protocols (NCPs), such as the connection control protocol (CCP), were not considered. Hence, various manufacturers and system operators are currently in the predicament of being unable to support PPP sessions across different CDMA standards because the different standards allow for different options. For instance, a cdma2000 1xEV-DO system may permit data to be compressed according to the Compression Control Protocol (CCP) during a PPP session. However, an adjacent cdma2000 1xRTT may be configured to disallow the negotiation of CCP. Hence, if the tethered device connected via the mobile station has negotiated CCP and is transmitted compressed packets, then performs a handoff from said 1xEV-DO system to said 1xRTT system, the 1xRTT system will not be able to decompress the compressed data packets from the mobile station and hence, will discard the compressed data packets. One possible solution is to force a PPP resynchronization between the mobile station and the tethered device, in order to reestablish the framing parameters. However, this solution is problematic when the mobile station is attached to a tethered device whose programming will not permit PPP resynchronizations, such as Microsoft Windows™ 2000 and earlier. Furthermore, such full resynchronization requires renegotiation of LCP, reauthentication, and all desired NCPs. Resynchronization of all such protocols is suboptimal in that it introduces unnecessary delay in the data connectivity and may potentially interrupt higher-level protocol sessions (e.g. TCP connections). There is a present need to address this concern.

Maintaining data connectivity for handoffs between compression-enabled and compression-disabled communication systems


An adhesive resin composition comprises (A) 2 to 98% by weight of an ethylene copolymer resin containing 0.01 to 20% by weight of the unit of an unsaturated carboxylic acid anhydride in the main chain; and (B) 98 to 2% by weight of a resin mixture comprising (i) 50 to 90% by weight of a copolymer resin of ethylene/vinyl acetate, (ii) 40 to 9.5% by weight of a binary copolymer resin of ethylene and an .alpha.-olefin having 3 to 12 carbon atoms, and (iii) 10 to 0.5% by weight of an ethylene/propylene/unconjugated diene terpolymer. The resin mixture is obtained by mixing (i), (ii) and (iii) in a molten state and has a toluene extraction residue of 10 to 60% by weight. The adhesive resin composition is utilized as an adhesive material between layers of a multi-layer laminate and scrap or waste material from the adhesive resin composition or from the multilayer laminate can be recycled as an adhesive resin composition having excellent interlayer strength and compatibility.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an adhesive resin composition which is utilized as an adhesive material between layers of a multi-layer laminate. Scrap or waste material from the adhesive resin or from the multi-layer laminate can be recycled as an adhesive resin composition.
2. Description of the Related Arts
In recent years, resin containers having the gas barrier property have been widely used in place of metal containers, particularly in the area of food containers. The resin containers have the advantage of good appearance, cleanness, light weight and good productivity which are lacking in metal containers.
The resin containers having the oxygen gas barrier property are prepared by molding multi-layer laminates or multi-layer sheets formed by laminating a resin having the oxygen gas barrier property, such as polyamide resins (sometimes abbreviated to "PA" hereinafter), polyvinylidene chloride copolymer resins and saponified products of ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymers (sometimes abbreviated to "EVOH" hereinafter), to polyolefin resins. The multi-layer laminates are generally prepared by forming an adhesive layer of various kinds of adhesive resins between the layers because adhesion between the resin having the oxygen gas barrier property and the polyolefin resin is generally poor.
When PA is used as the resin having the oxygen gas barrier property, polyolefin resins modified with an acid anhydride, such as maleic anhydride, are generally used as the adhesive resin. Blends of olefin resins with a copolymer of an .alpha.-olefin and an .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated carboxylic acid or an ester thereof, a polyolefin resin modified by grafting of an .alpha.,.beta.-unsaturated carboxylic acid, an ionomer resin obtained by ionizing a copolymer of ethylene and methacrylic acid or an ester thereof with sodium, zinc, magnesium or the like or an ethylene-propylene-diene rubber modified with maleic anhydride have also been proposed as the adhesive resin.
When EVOH is used as the resin having the oxygen gas barrier property, resins obtained by grafting or copolymerization of an unsaturated carboxylic acid, an acid anhydride or an ester monomer to a polyolefin resin are used as the adhesive resin U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,026,967 and 3,953,655, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 98784/1976 and Japanese Patent Publication Nos. 15423/1969 and 4822/1974).
When containers are formed by molding from the multi-layer laminate or the multi-layer sheet, a considerable amount of scrap material is formed. The amount of the scrap material is 40% in some molding methods. Utilization by recycling of the waste plastics is urged by the society for protection of resources on the earth.
Because of this social requirement, improvement of the overall recycling of the utilized materials by addition of the adhesive resins described above as a compatibilizer is under investigation with some resin compositions and in the production of molded products from the resin compositions.
However, the method of recycling for reuse by addition of the adhesive resins as described above have problems that interlayer strength is decreased to a great extent to cause separation of the layers and that gel is formed and yellow discoloring occurs because of the unreacted monomer for the modification remaining in the adhesive resin.


The instant invention is directed to a process for upgrading heavy oils using a slurry composition. The slurry composition is prepared in a series of steps, involving mixing a Group VIB metal oxide with aqueous ammonia to form an aqueous mixture and sulfiding the mixture to form a slurry. The slurry is then promoted with a Group VIII metal compound. Subsequent steps involve mixing the slurry with a hydrocarbon oil, and combining the resulting mixture with hydrogen gas (under conditions which maintain the water in a liquid phase) to produce the active slurry catalyst.

Slurry catalyst compositions and means for their preparation are known in the refining arts. Some examples are discussed below.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,710,486 discloses a process for the preparation of a dispersed Group VIB metal sulfide hydrocarbon oil hydroprocessing catalyst. Process steps include reacting aqueous ammonia and a Group VIB metal compound, such as molybdenum oxide or tungsten oxide, to form a water soluble oxygen-containing compound such as ammonium molybdate or tungstate.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,970,190 discloses a process for the preparation of a dispersed Group VIB metal sulfide catalyst for use in hydrocarbon oil hydroprocessing. This catalyst is promoted with a Group VIII metal. Process steps include dissolving a Group VIB metal compound, such as molybdenum oxide or tungsten oxide, with ammonia to form a water soluble compound such as aqueous ammonium molybdate or ammonium tungstate.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,164,075 and 5,484,755 (the latter patent being incorporated by reference) disclose processes for preparation of high activity slurry catalysts for hydroprocessing heavy hydrocarbon oils produced from Group VIB metal compounds. An aqueous mixture of the metal compound is sulfided with from greater than about 8 to about 14 standard cubic feet of hydrogen sulfide per pound of Group VIB metal. These patents demonstrate a process of forming a slurry catalyst precursor and adding it to a heavy feed oil to form the active catalyst. These patents do not, however, demonstrate the criticality of the oil viscosity in the formation of a highly active catalyst composition, nor the significance of maintaining water in the liquid phase in a crucial reaction step.
In the inventions disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,164,075 and 5,484,755, the failure to form the oil and water emulsion or the slurry phase results in an inactive catalyst or a catalyst having low activity.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,162,282 and 5,178,749 are directed to processes for hydroprocessing of heavy hydrocarbonaceous oils. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,162,282, a catalyst precursor is prepared by reacting a Group VIB metal compound with a sulfiding agent in an aqueous environment, substantially in the absence of oil. The precursor is heated to convert it to an active catalyst, which subsequently contacts feed at hydroprocessing conditions. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,178,749, an active catalyst slurry is prepared by sulfiding an aqueous mixture of a Group VIB metal compound with hydrogen sulfide gas. The slurry is introduced, along with the oil to be treated, into a fixed or ebullating bed of hydrodesulfurization-hydrodemetalation catalyst at hydroprocessing conditions. Although both of these patents disclose hydroprocessing with catalyst formed from precursors or slurries comprising Group VIB metal compounds, neither involves the use of oils in the formation of the catalyst precursors or slurries.
This application discloses a new slurry catalyst composition that is highly active. This activity results from preparation of the catalyst using a process employing a single hydrocarbon oil (preferably a vacuum gas oil) having an appropriate viscosity range at 212° F. Product yields are primarily in the middle distillate range.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Process for upgrading heavy oil using a highly active slurry catalyst composition


A method of removing a metallic erosion shield secured by a layer of non-metallic adhesive to a leading edge structure of a helicopter rotor blade comprising, the step of providing an electric field between the metallic component and an electrode, in the presence of an electrolyte between the metallic component and the electrode whereby the erosion shield is removed by an electrochemical process.

This invention relates to a method of and apparatus for removing a metallic erosion shield from attachment to a helicopter rotor blade.
A helicopter rotor blade whether made of composite and/or metallic material, is conventionally provided with an erosion shield which extends around the leading edge of the blade throughout at least part of a blade span, to protect the blade leading edge structure from erosion in use, as the blade moves through the air. Such erosion shields are made of titanium or like metallic material, and are usually attached to the composite blade by means of a layer of adhesive.
Such erosion shields tend to wear out and require replacement during the life of the blade. It is thus necessary to remove a worn out erosion shield in order to replace it. The conventional method of removing a worn shield is to split the shield along the leading edge of the blade and literally wind back the two portions from the split line, using a manual and skillful technique.

Method of and apparatus for removing a metallic erosion shield from attachment to a helicopter rotor blade


A spark suppression device includes a plurality of blades or vanes that are mounted transversely in a duct of an air handling/dust collection system communicating with a spark source. A controlled flow of air carries sparks from the spark source through the spark suppression device. Sparks are suppressed by turbulence created in the airstream from the blades that have a downstream curvature. The turbulence strips away a hot air bubble surrounding a spark ember, thereby effectively cooling the spark and significantly reducing combustion at the spark ember. Other attributes of the invention contributing to spark suppression include an overlapping arrangement of the blades that results in high-velocity impact of the sparks against the blades, thereby breaking up the spark embers into smaller embers, and creation of rapid increased pressure within the spark suppression device that also helps to strip away the spark ember from the surrounding hot air bubble.

There are many industrial processes that result in the production of sparks, either actively, passively or accidentally. Active production of sparks include those processes that generate a tremendous quantity of sparks, for example, welding and plasma cutting operations. Passive production of sparks refers to processes that are known to periodically generate sparks, yet spark production is relatively infrequent, for example a drying process that produces sparks primarily during startup and shutdown periods of operation. Accidental spark production refers to spark generation as the result of an accidental occurrence, for example, sparks are generated by the impact between two objects in an industrial process, and then the sparks become entrained in a process airstream. In many of these processes, the sparks are conveyed in a dust collection or air handling filtration system that treats the air surrounding the industrial process. The sparks are relatively small embers of burning substances discharged from a body in combustion. These sparks can cause damage to dust collection and filtration systems. For example, in a dust collection system, nuisance sparks carried downstream in a duct can burn through-holes in the filtration system's filter media, resulting in hazardous fires, or at a minimum, degradation in the filtration system's ability to effectively treat the air stream. Relatively large sparks are capable of also igniting combustible dust that may collect on the filter media, potentially causing catastrophic fires. Even without such fires, smaller sparks may burn-damage the filter media, requiring frequent replacement of the filter media, thereby significantly adding to the cost of operating and maintaining the filtration system.
Conventional spark detection and extinguishment systems for reducing the threat and incidence of fire are typically complex and may involve the application of a chemical retardant and/or water to the affected area upon detection of a spark(s). These conventional suppression systems are expensive, vulnerable to drift, tampering and malfunction. Additionally, activation of these systems often results in compromising the filtration system, because the system may need to be cleaned to remove the extinguishing substances and/or the byproducts of mixing and reacting of extinguishing substances with particulates in the process stream. Conventional extinguishment systems often use water deluge; these systems may be incompatible and potentially hazardous with particulate loading (i.e., some metal dusts) in certain industrial air streams. Also, filter media wetted in deluge systems may need to be removed and replaced with dry filter media, incurring significant maintenance costs and operational downtime.
Particularly for those industrial processes that take place on a smaller scale, incorporating known spark suppression systems is prohibitively expensive; therefore, there are few economically viable options available for smaller scale operations to have effective spark suppression capability.
Therefore, there is a need to provide a simple, economical and effective spark suppression system that may be easily and affordably installed in both large and small-scale industrial processes.

Method and apparatus for suppressing sparks


The present disclosure relates to absorbent articles comprising belts comprising one or more pluralities of tightly spaced (less than 4 mm, less than 3 mm, less than 2 mm, and less than 1 mm) and/or low decitex (less than 300, less than 200, less than 100 dtex) and/or low strain (less than 300%, less than 200%, less than 100%) elastics to deliver low pressure less than 1 psi (according to the conditions defined by the Pressure-Under-Strand Test in the Method below) under the elastics, while providing adequate modulus of (between about 2 gf/mm and 15 gf/mm), resulting in a Product Hip-to-Waist Silhouette from about 0.8 to about 1.1 and a Product Waist-to-Crotch Silhouette from about 0.8 to about 2.0 to provide for the advantages described above.

The present disclosure details elastomeric laminates which allow elastomeric absorbent article components (e.g., belts, side panels, etc.) to incorporated into absorbent articles to create more rectangular shapes. The inventive elastomeric laminates as disclosed herein enable products which deliver consumer preferred stretch properties (modulus, pressure on body, air permeability, etc.), while maintaining a wide flexibility in product dimensions (via pre-strain). They accomplish this via the wide latitude of moduli not available with today's marketed stranded products. Today's marketed stranded products are limited in their modulus range. This is due to their strand spacing's and strand decitex, which result in a relatively low modulus and therefore require more stretch to deliver the necessary pressure for sustaining fit. Therefore, they typically require more pre-strain, hence result in a more contracted relaxed product. A key benefit of present disclosure is that the improved elastomeric laminates deliver sufficient wearing pressure, necessary for good fit, without the amount of pre-strain required in today's currently marketed stranded closed-form pant articles. This results in articles that have greater dimensional flexibility without compromising wearing comfort and good fit.
A key benefit of having the Relaxed Product Waist Width, the Relaxed Product Hip Width, and the Relaxed Product Crotch Width (each defined below) relatively equal to each other is that they combine to create a more rectangular, more uniform, and, hence, a more stable package. Absorbent articles are generally distributed to consumers in packages of multiple stacked articles, as illustrated in FIG. 17. The more dimensionally rectangular the articles, in particular at lateral and longitudinal distal edges, the greater the uniformity and stability of the package. The stability of the package is further enhanced if the lateral distal edges are roughly parallel to each other and longitudinal distal edges are roughly parallel to each other. This creates a generally rectangular shape, enabling improved package stability, which allows greater ease of shipping and storing (e.g., in trucks and on store shelves). For Adult incontinence diapers, due to their larger overall dimensions, the Product Waist-to-Crotch Silhouette can be from about 0.8 up to about 2.8. This still facilitates rectangular, stable packages without the necessity for a Relaxed Product Crotch Width that is too large relative to the size of the wearer.
The present disclosure also details elastomeric laminates that enable the design concepts detailed above. The inventive elastomeric laminates disclosed herein comprise a greater number of elastic strands having a greater fineness and a closer spacing than has been previously disclosed or practiced in disposable absorbent articles. These improved elastomeric laminates can be used as disposable absorbent article (e.g., taped diapers, pants, pads, and liners) components for fit and gasketing at the waist, legs, crotch, and sides of the wearer to generally provide the greatest level of extensibility, the most comfortable wearing conditions, improved leakage protection, and a better fit.
More particularly, these improved elastomeric laminates offer several advantages that enable the best executions of the design concepts detailed above, including less pressure of the elastics on the wearer's skin at a given modulus versus traditional elastomeric laminates known today. These improvements result in enhancing application, fit, comfort, and reduced marking of the wearer's skin. The inventive elastomeric laminates disclosed in this application perform better than traditional stranded and film versions of laminates used in disposable absorbent articles today.

Hip-to-waist and waist-to-crotch silhouette(s) of absorbent article(s) comprising beamed elastics


A hanging structure comprises a hanging element and a hanging seat. Opposite sides of the hanging element and the hanging seat respectively comprise a hanging sleeve and a hanging hook configured to define a detachable hanging connection. The hanging sleeve comprises a receiving cavity, and a lower portion of the receiving cavity comprises an opening surface. A first side of the receiving cavity facing the hanging hook comprises a baffle board, and a lower end surface of the baffle board comprises an opening extending toward an upper end surface of the baffle board. The hanging hook comprises a first portion configured to be disposed in the receiving cavity and a second portion configured to be disposed in the opening.

Successful hanging technology on the market today for showers often use magnetics. By placing strong magnets inside a handheld shower and a hanging seat, or by placing a strong magnet on either the handheld shower or the hanging seat and placing an iron piece on the other of the handheld shower and the hanging seat, the handheld showerhead can be magnetically held in place. The cost of a strong magnet is high and an instantaneous collision between the handheld shower and the hanging seat generates a lot of noise, which affects the experience.

Xiamen Solex High-Tech Industries Co., Ltd.


The present invention provides a cup holder assembly adapted for a seat and the seat with the cup holder assembly. The cup holder assembly includes a lateral cover installed on a lateral side of the seat, a main body, and a connection portion connected to a lateral side of the main body. The connection portion hangs on the lateral cover so as to hang the main body on the lateral cover, and a cup can be disposed inside the main body of the cup holder assembly. It not only has simple structure and convenient operation but also can prevent from overturning the cup.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cup holder assembly and a seat therewith, and more specifically, to a cup holder assembly and a seat therewith with simple structure and convenient operation and capable of adjusting an inclined angle of a cup.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A cup is essential to people's daily life for drinking water. It is usually placed on the desktop for accessibility, but it is easy to overturn the cup carelessly, so that a cup holder is designed for solving the problem. The cup holder can contain a cup, a water bottle, a drink can, and so on, so that people don't worry about spilling water and don't have to hold the cup on hands laboriously. A conventional cup holder is often connected to a seat in a clamping or other manner and disposed on an armrest of the seat. If the armrest is not linked to a backrest of the seat, a position of the cup holder cannot be adjusted as adjusting an inclined angle of the backrest, so that the cup disposed inside the cup holder will not incline. However, some seats are designed to set the armrest and the backrest to be linked or integrated, such as a child safety seat. As for this structural design, the cup disposed inside the cup holder will incline accordingly as adjusting the inclined angle of the backrest, resulting in limited placement function of the cup holder, and the water may even spill from the cup due to the inclined cup holder.


A traction control system for a motor vehicle having driving wheels and driven wheels includes a device for detecting the speed of each of the driving wheels of the vehicle, a device for detecting the speed of each of the driven wheels of the vehicle, a device for calculating a slip value of the driving wheels based on the detected speeds of the driving and driven wheels, a traction control device for controlling the driving wheel so that the slip value of each driving wheel is equal to a predetermined desired slip value when the slip value of each driving wheel is greater than the predetermined desired slip value, and a device for estimating a friction coefficient of a road surface which is employed when the predetermined desired slip value is determined. The estimating device calculates, in a first predetermined time period immediately after the traction control is started, an acceleration of the driven wheel based on a speed difference of the driven wheel during a second predetermined time period and an acceleration of the driven wheel based on a speed difference of the driven wheel during a third predetermined time period after the first predetermined time period has passed. The estimating device then estimates the friction coefficient of the road surface by using the calculated acceleration of the driven wheel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a traction control system for a motor vehicle, and in particular to a traction control system in which a slip value of a driving wheel is controlled by employing an estimated friction coefficient of a road surface.
2. Description of Related Art
The traction control system for the motor vehicle detects a slip value of a driving wheel and controls an output of an engine and braking force so that the slip value of the driving wheel is equal to a predetermined desired slip value. The traction control system is used to prevent a decrease of an acceleration of the vehicle caused by the slip which is caused by an excessive driving torque of the driving wheel in an accelerating operation and the like.
The traction control system needs to provide the desired slip value which is determined by a friction coefficient .mu. of the road surface, a vehicle speed, an accelerator opening, a steering angle, selection of sports and normal mode, and the like.
The conventional traction control system as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 60-197434 estimates the friction coefficient .mu. of the road surface based on the acceleration value of the driven wheel when it is determined that a slip is caused. Therefore, in the conventional traction control system, it is difficult to estimate the friction coefficient .mu. of the road surface accurately based on the slip condition, the running condition of the vehicle and the like.

Traction control system for motor vehicle


An alarm management module (13) is for a wastewater pumping station that includes at least one pump (9a, 9b) arranged for pumping wastewater out of a wastewater pit (1). The alarm management module (13) is configured to process at least one level variable (h) indicative of a filling level of the wastewater pit (1) and at least one capacity variable (p %, P %, C %) indicative of a pumping capacity of the wastewater pumping station. The alarm management module (13) is configured to trigger an intervention alarm only if all of the following conditions are met:    a) the at least one level variable (h) is at or above a predetermined alarm level threshold (hm),    b) the at least one level variable (h) is increasing, and    c) the at least one capacity variable (p %, P %, C %) is below a capacity threshold.

Sewage or wastewater collection systems for wastewater treatment plants typically comprise one or more wastewater pits, wells or sumps for temporarily collecting and buffering wastewater. Typically, wastewater flows into such pits passively under gravity flow and/or actively driven through a force main. One, two or more pumps are usually installed in or at each pit to pump wastewater out of the pit. If the inflow of wastewater is larger than the outflow for a certain period of time, the wastewater pit, well or sump will eventually overflow. Such overflows should be prevented as much as possible to avoid environmental impact. Therefore, it is known to trigger an overflow alarm when a certain filling level of the pit is reached. Operators and/or maintenance staff are requested to intervene and take action upon such an overflow alarm.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,594,851 B1 describes a wastewater treatment system and a method for reducing energy used in operation of a wastewater treatment facility.
It is a challenge for known alarm management systems to handle a large number of different simultaneous alarms among which operators and/or maintenance staff must decide which alarm to prioritise for intervening and taking action.

Alarm management module for a wastewater pumping station