Lean flameout upon ignition in a turbine system including a turbine wheel (10) driven by motive gases including gases of combustion from a combustor (20) may be avoided by locating an orifice (130) downstream of the servo/.DELTA.P valve (52) that controls fuel flow to the fuel inlet (22) of the combustor (20).

Both commercial and miliary aircraft typically carry auxiliary power units (APU) and often additionally may utilize a so-called emergency power unit (EPU). In some instances, the functions of both are combined.
In emergency systems, EPUs, or APUs that operate additionally as EPUs must be brought into full operational capacity in a relatively short period of time, such as two or three seconds. In the usual case, these systems employ a turbine wheel for driving emergency power sources such as an electrical generator, a hydraulic pump or both so as to provide the energy necessary to continue to operate the aircraft. Consequently, it is necessary that the turbine wheel be accelerated up to normal operating speed in a relatively short period of time so that if an APU is being utilized to provide emergency power, it can reach a self sustaining speed. Where an EPU is being utilized, it still must be accelerated rapidly and then its operation maintained for some predetermined time period.
Because these systems are intended for operation in emergency conditions, it is necessary that they have an extremely high degree of reliability. One obviously necessary feature is the ability to start rapidly without fail and maintain operation for the desired time period.
As noted above, these systems typically employ a turbine wheel, or even a complete turbine engine to drive the emergency power sources. Thus, in order that there be reliable starting of the system, ignition of fuel in a combustor feeding the turbine wheel must be reliably had and the continued combustion of the fuel maintained over the desired period of operation.
As is typical with many turbine systems, the control of fuel flow is achieved by a so-called .DELTA.P valve. .DELTA.P valves conventionally include a variable orifice along with a valve that is operable, in response to command from a fuel control system, to control the pressure drop across the orifice. Thus, for a given pressure drop, a constant fuel flow will be assured.
These valves typically respond to increases or decreases in pressure downstream of the valve as is well-known. As a consequence, in some cases, the pressure rise within a combustor associated with a turbine wheel to be driven and fueled by fuel via the .DELTA.P valve will result in a lesser pressure drop across the .DELTA.P valve which in turn means a reduction in fuel flow until the valve responds. Consequently, a lean flameout may result immediately after ignition where valve response to the pressure surge of ignition is slow, and intolerable situation in a piece of equipment adapted for emergency use.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the above problems.

Method for preventing lean flaeout at ignition of a stored energy system for driving a turbine wheel


A method for drying a surface comprises supporting a fabric cover above the surface, and holding side edges of the fabric cover against the surface such that an air channel is formed between the fabric cover and the surface. The air channel has an inlet end and a discharge end, and a pressurized warm air stream having a relative humidity less than an ambient relative humidity is directed into the inlet end of the air channel such that the warm air stream moves through the air channel to the discharge end and out to the atmosphere. An apparatus for practicing the invention provides a plenum along the inlet end with plenum outlets to discharge the warm air stream, and cover supports extending out from the plenum to support the cover above the surface. A fabric tube plenum and cover supports provide versatility and portability.

Wet ground conditions on a construction site or in a building shell can delay progress on the project. Conventionally, it is required to wait for weather conditions to change, and for natural drying conditions to occur. Where economically feasible, it is also sometimes known to remove wet soil and replace it with drier material if such is available within a reasonable distance. Such removal is often not possible if soil is very wet.
Wet soil conditions are of course more common in geographic areas with high rainfall, and in such areas considerable down-time is experienced. Often just as the ground is drying to a suitable level, more rain will fall wetting the soil again.
The problem of flooded or wet buildings has been addressed in the prior art. U.S. Pat. No. 6,457,258 to Cressy et al. discloses an apparatus for drying flooded buildings by introducing very hot and dry air into the building, indicated as being at 125° F. and 5% relative humidity, in order to dry the building very quickly to prevent mold growth and allow an early return to occupants. In the apparatus of Cressy et al., outside air is heated by a furnace and the heated air is blown into the building where it picks up moisture and then is exhausted back outside.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,647,639 to Storrer, "Moisture Removal System", addresses the problem of extracting water promptly to prevent the formation of rot, mold, rust and the like in flooded buildings. Storrer reveals the prior art as including passive drying through opening windows, etc. and active drying using forced air (heated or not) to expedite evaporation.


Provided is an image capturing apparatus for capturing an image of a target object by optically scanning the target object by moving in a predetermined scanning direction. The apparatus includes light-receiving devices that are arranged on a light-receiving surface of the image capturing apparatus in a direction perpendicular to the scanning direction, where each light-receiving device accumulates an electric charge according to an amount of light received from the target object; and an output device that outputs the electric charge accumulated by each light-receiving device regularly at a predetermined output period which is determined in a manner such that the larger the length in the scanning direction of a light-receiving range for the target object by the light-receiving device, the longer the output period.

In a conventional technique, when performing image capturing by scanning a target object in a specific scanning direction (e.g., satellite observation using the orbit of an artificial satellite), an optical detector called a line CCD (Charge Coupled Device) is used, in which a plurality of light-receiving elements, each corresponding to one pixel, are arranged in a direction perpendicular to the scanning direction (see, for example, Patent Document 1).
Hereinafter, an image capturing method of the conventional technique by an image capturing apparatus using the line CCD will be described using the drawings.
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing a known satellite observation method.
As shown in FIG. 5, an artificial satellite which moves in an AT (Along Track) direction, which is a traveling direction of the satellite and also a scanning direction. The artificial satellite includes an image capturing apparatus which has a line CCD in which light-receiving elements are arranged in a CT (Cross Track) direction perpendicular to the orbit of the satellite.
After the image capturing is started, the image capturing apparatus moves in the AT direction in accordance with the movement of the artificial satellite. The light-receiving elements of the line CCD in the image capturing apparatus receive light from each corresponding image capturing range (i.e., light-receiving range from the target object by the light-receiving elements) and accumulate (electric) charge which is obtained by photoelectric conversion and corresponds to the amount of received light.
When the line CCD completes the scanning of an image capturing range corresponding to one pixel in the AT direction, the light-receiving elements each output the accumulated charge, and start light reception from the next image capturing range. Accordingly, the line CCD sequentially outputs electric charge corresponding to the amount of light from the image capturing range in the CT direction, where each image capturing range corresponds to one pixel in the AT direction.
If the output charge is converted into image information for the CT direction, and the sequentially-obtained image information is aligned in order of the image capturing time, then the image of the target object is obtained.

Image capturing apparatus, image capturing method, image capturing circuit, and program


The packing end cap includes a collar defining an interior cavity into which an item to be packaged may extend. The collar is comprised of longitudinal leg members interconnected at opposite ends by lateral leg members. An expansion joint is integrated within each lateral and longitudinal leg member. A plurality of blocks can also be disposed within the interior cavity hinged across an interior edge of a lateral member. Each block can pivot about the interior edge, enabling it to be positionable in a first position substantially parallel to a plane defined by the collar, and a second position perpendicular to the plane.

This application relates generally to packing cushions for use in protecting and positioning an item within a container during shipping or storage. More particularly, this application pertains to a packing end cap construction expandible to fit a variety of differently sized and shaped items.
Packing end caps or cushions have long been used to protect and position an item stored within a container. One type of cap is formed of a lightweight, highly shock-absorbent material, such as a suitable expanded or foamed plastic material. Such a cap may be in the form of a collar having recesses and/or abutments arranged to mateably receive an end of the associated item. Packing end caps are usually used in pairs, respectively fitted on opposite ends of an item. The end of an item is typically disposed within and is supported by the collar, which acts as a spacer between the ends of the item and the adjacent ends of the container.
The problem with current packing end cap designs is that they are often sized to fit only one particular item. As a result, a plurality of different packing end caps are typically needed to ship differently sized and shaped items. Also, many packing end cap constructions are bulky and require large amounts of storage space to store.
Consequently, significant improvement in packing end cap design can be achieved by providing a packing end cap which can adjust to fit a plurality of different items. Furthermore, significant improvement can also be achieved by providing a packing end cap which can be easily stacked without occupying excessive storage space.
Therefore, it is a general object of the invention to provide an improved packing end cap construction which avoids the disadvantages of prior packing end cap designs, while affording additional structural and operating advantages.
An important feature of the invention is the provision of a packing end cap which is expandable to fit a variety of differently sized items.
Another important feature of the invention is the provision of a packing end cap which occupies minimal storage space and facilitates stacking when not in use.
Another feature of the invention is the provision of a packing end cap of the type set forth, which is of relatively simple and economical construction.
The invention consists of certain novel features and a combination of parts hereinafter fully described and illustrated in the accompanying drawings, it being understood that various changes in the details maybe made without departing from the spirit, or sacrificing any of the advantages of the present invention.


Aluminum particles are reacted with heavy metal ions in a first acidic aqueous solution to form heavy metallic particles that are suitable for recycling and reuse when recovered from the first aqueous solution. The first residual aqueous solution may also contains ferrous ions obtained by acid redissolving a co-precipitated heavy metal hydroxide and ferrous hydroxide sludge that is produced in the treatment of a dilute chelated heavy metal solution. The first residual aqueous solution with heavy metals substantially removed is recycled and reused as the ferrous reagent for treating said dilute chelated heavy metal bearing solution. The process disclosed herein is useful for treating both dilute and concentrated wastes and wastewaters generated by industries such as metal plating and metal etching and printed circuit board fabrication.

This invention comprises a process that utilizes aluminum particles in conjunction with other materials for effectively and completely removing and reclaiming environmentally toxic heavy metals from aqueous solutions. More particularly, this invention relates to such a process wherein heavy metals are effectively removed from chelated solutions as insoluble metal hydroxide sludge which is recycled to another step and reclaimed as heavy metallic particles, and a useful concentrated solution of ferrous ions is produced that is recycled to another step and used as an effective reagent for treating the chelated waste water. And, wherein the metal hydroxide sludge is recycled and consumed within said process, production of F006 hazardous waste sludge is substantially reduced or eliminated. An alkaline aqueous effluent containing some dissolved aluminum but having an exceptionally low residual concentration of dissolved toxic heavy metals is produced, which shall compy with most regulatory discharge limits. The present invention is useful for treating heavy metal ion containing aqueous wastes and waste water generated by industries such as metal plating, metal surface finishing or printed circuit board manufacturing.
Prior to the present invention, it has been generally accepted that plating waste metals removed from alkaline solutions as metal hydroxide sludges must be handled as hazardous waste. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) jurisdiction over these wastes is well established. When generated by an electroplating facility and shipped off site, such sludge materials are defined as categorical F006 hazardous waste. Transporting and receiving and processing of these materials even for reclamation and recycling, are restricted to EPA or State licensed operators. Due partly to this, and also due in part to the low metal concentration in such sludges, high recycling costs are incurred that usually exceed the recoverable value of the metals.
Metals such as iron and aluminum have long been known to react directly with certain other metals that are dissolved in acidic aqueous solution. When aluminum dissolves into an acidic solution containing certain dissolved metals, the other dissolved metal deposits a metallic layer on the surface of the aluminum. Referred to as metallic replacement or cementation, this characteristic of metals has commonly been used in the commercial extraction of copper from ores and acid leaching of mine tailings.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,546 issued Apr. 4, 1978 to Wallace discloses a novel method for using finely divided mechanically worked strips of aluminum foil or gauze or chaff coated in a thin imperfect oxide layer of usually less than 500 angstroms thick in a process for removing heavy metals from spent plating, stripping, and dragout baths. The choice of the form of the aluminum is said to be important to the performance of the invention. Wallace reveals that 1.0N sodium hydroxide is used to elevate solution pH values to about 11 before contacting the solutions with the metallic aluminum material. This method is inconvenient and costly when dealing with concentrated acid waste solutions due to high amounts of exothermic heat being generated and the costly consumption of sodium hydroxide. The methods disclosed here also requires the use of coarse mechanically worked aluminum which is a very costly form of fabricated raw material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,450,002 issued to Durkee on May 22, 1984 reveals a method for using a complicated array of flow chambers for contacting metallic aluminum with an acidic heavy metal solution. Specific flowing velocities are prescribed as being necessary to entrain and carry away the cementation produced metallic copper to a part of the apparatus where it is separated by filtration from the flowing solution. A very costly custom designed and fabricated apparatus would be needed in order to practice the method disclosed here. There is no description of how any metal hydroxides are formed and no reference given as to the recycling of any materials within the disclosed process.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,950,326 issued to Holly on Aug. 21, 1990 reveals another application of alkaline aluminum metal cementation for the specific treatment of spent electroless copper baths after the reducing agent (normally formaldehyde) is first deactivated by a treatment with hydrogen peroxide. Finely divided aluminum particles, preferrably smaller than about 60-100 microns are speficied for this use. A final dissolved copper concentration of less than 1 ppm is described. Although many detailed notions are revealed, no examples are provided. A major limitation of the domain covered in this disclosure is its application only to one specific waste solution as noted. There is no reference to metal hydroxides being generated or recycled and nothing pertaining to the use of ferrous ions is revealed here.
U.K. Patent Application GB 125828 A, filed Jun. 16, 1983 discloses a process for removing copper ion from solution by contacting the solution with steel wool, converting only a small portion of the iron into copper. This process is commercially undesirable due to 1) the uneconomically low conversion of iron to copper, and 2) the high cost of steel wool and 3) the high labor cost for handling the materials. The recovered copper has a lower recycling value due to the cost of processing required for separating it from the residual steel wool fibers.
Many other methods exist for removing heavy metal ions from aqueous solutions, and which are commonly practiced in the pretreatment of industrial waste-waters containing environmentally toxic metals. When dissolved heavy metal solutions are free of chelating agents, they can be effectively treated by simply admixing an alkaline or caustic compound to precipitate the insoluble metal hydroxide. Sodium hydroxide, soda ash, lime or magnesium hydroxide slurry are all used to do this. Unfortunately, such processes generate large volumes of metal hydroxide sludge which must be disposed of or recycled by a very costly and highly regulated method.
Frequently, however, complexing ammonium ions of chelating compounds such as the sodium salts of etheylenediaminetetra-acetic acid (E.D.T.A.) and others having similar properties are present. They occur as ingredients in the used plating baths, cleaners and brighteners drained into the waste-water. In such cases, it is necessary either; 1) to use a strong chemical that breaks the chelant-to-heavy metal bond and forms a stable, insoluble compound or complex of the toxic metals, or 2) to add a substance that exerts a stronger attraction for the chelant than does the toxic metal ion, to free the heavy metal to precipitate as an insoluble hydroxide. Processes of both types are currently practiced.
Sodium sulfide is used to effectively precipitate heavy metals. Its sole advantage is the extremely low solubility of most heavy metal sulfides. Most are capable of existing in the presence of even the strongest chelating agents. Undesirable aspects of using a sulfide process include the extreme toxicity of hydrogen sulfide gas which can be generated by contacting the sulfides with strong acids. Also, metal sulfide precipitates are slimy and difficult to filter. Large quantities of flocculants and filter aids are used, generating large volumes of sludge and corresponding high disposal costs.
Sodium borohydride is a strong, water soluble reducing agent that has an advantage of producing a compact semi-metallic sludge. There are several reasons for its not having broad acceptance for heavy metal removal in waste-water treatment: 1) it is very expensive, 2) precipitated metals easily reoxidize and redissolve in the presence of dissolved ammonia, 3) dangerous concentrations of potentially explosive hydrogen gas can accumulate in the space above a reaction using sodium borohydride, and 4) at times when pH is not controlled perfectly, reactions occurring at an elevated pH of 8 or higher give off toxic fumes of hydrogen sulfide gas, dangerous to workers and sensitive equipment.
Hydrazine is another strong reducing chemical capable of breaking a metal ion bond to chelants. It is used to a limited extent for heavy metal removal, but like borohydride, it too is very expensive to use and it too can generate dangerous volumes of hydrogen gas when acidified. Hydrazine has also been placed on a list of chemicals suspected of being carcinogenic. This has been a major impediment to its industrial use.
Several compounds have been used that form insoluble metal complexes with heavy metal ions. All exert a stronger attraction to the metal ion than the chelants normally occurring with the metals in the waste-waters. Insoluble starch xanthate is one such material, reportedly effective at complete removal of dissolved metal from the water. Its drawback is its generation of huge volumes of sludge, which retains a high water content and costs the user a severe penalty for disposing of same as a hazardous waste.
Other such complexing agents have gained widespread use including sodium dimethyldithiocarbamate (D.T.C.), and sodium diethyidithiocarbamate (D.E.T.C.). These are fairly effective at completely removing some heavy metal ions from a chelated solution but are found to be ineffective for treating waste water containing E.D.T.A. complexed lead ions. Further, D.T.C. products require costly reclaiming methods in order to recycle the recovered heavy metal. The precipitate is low density and difficult to gravity settle. The sludge often floats on water and requires using coagulent compounds to increase sludge density so it will settle, thereby multiplying the amount of hazardous waste sludge produced. In addition, the dithiocarbamate compounds exhibit acute biological toxicity toward aquatic plant and animal species. Sodium dimethylidithiocarbamate is used as the active ingredient in several EPA registered pesticide products.
At the present time, strict biological toxicity standards are being enforced upon industries by municipal sewerage authorities. Effluent toxicity is measured by placing live specimens of plant and animal species in diluted samples of such treated waste-waters. Recent data indicate that interactions exist between very low concentrations of certain heavy metals such as copper and silver, and certain anions such as nitrate, which produce more toxicity than is attributable to each component by itself. The implication of these developments is that even lower levels of removal of heavy metal ions from industrial effluents is required. A costly evaluation of background toxicity factors is required when an industry's effluent fails to meet specific toxicity limits.
The conventional waste-water treatment process, perhaps most frequently used by the largest number of industries, uses ferrous sulfate heptahydrate powder. Ferrous ion is substituted at a controlled acidic pH of about 2 to 3, to replace toxic heavy metal ions that are bonded by chelating agents. This allows the heavy metal ions to be rendered insoluble as hydroxides which are precipitated from an alkaline solution.
In the presence of strong chelants or free ammonia dissolved in alkaline solutions, a large excess of this source of ferrous ion is required. Normally, 5 to 10 ferrous ions are added for each copper ion being removed from chelated waste-waters. In heavily chelated streams, as many as 25 to 30 ferrous ions per heavy metal ion may be required in order to prevent the chelants from dissolving the heavy metal hydroxide. Commercial ferrous sulfate has seven waters of hydration and is only about 20% iron by weight. In some cases, over 100 pounds of ferrous sulfate powder is added to the waste water for each pound of chelated or ammoniated copper removed, thereby generating 60 to 80 pounds of sludge.
In typical treatment systems, each additional pound of iron used adds about 4 pounds to the weight of sludge made. This can be reduced to about 3 pounds of dry sludge per pound of iron if a sludge dryer is used. When ferrous sulfate is dissolved into waste water, it causes acidity in the water. Each mole of iron introduced this way requires using two moles of sodium hydroxide to neutralize the acidity and form ferrous hydroxide. Therefore, when large excess amounts of ferrous sulfate heptahydrate powder are used, the total chemical cost for treatment is compounded. Higher hazardous waste sludge disposal costs are also incurred.
It has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,102,556 to recycle ferric hydroxide sludge which may contain occluded heavy metals in order to produce iron chloride. The iron chloride is utilized in a process known as Unipure process described in U.S. application Ser. No. 042,565 filed Apr. 16, 1987 and U.S. application Ser. No. 07/359,872 filed May 1, 1989. In this process, an aqueous solution of heavy metals and a ferrous component, e.g., ferrous chloride is rapidly oxidized, usually by air injection to produce a sludge containing the heavy metals and ferric or oxyferric hydroxide. This sludge is recycled to produce the ferrous chloride in a two step procedure. In the first step the sludge is reacted with hydrochloric acid to produce dissolved ferric chloride. In the second step, the ferric chloride is reacted with iron, usually in the form of iron powder to produce the ferrous chloride. Intermediate filtration steps can be utilized to remove undissolved species such as unreacted iron, metal chlorides or hematite. This process is inefficient and undesirable since valuable reducing capacity of metallic iron is consumed in converting ferric iron to ferrous iron, rather than being consumed to reduce dissolved heavy metal ions to heavy metals precipitate that can be easily recovered. In addition, the use of an oxidation step on the heavy metal solution containing iron limits its utility for treatments of solutions containing chelated heavy metals since the presence of a strong oxidation potential enhances the attraction of the chelating agents for the heavy metals and decreases the bonding attractions between the chelating agents and the dissolved iron. As a result the tendency of the heavy metals to remain dissolved is increased. To overcome the disadvantage, the Unipure process is required to use excessively high ratios of iron to heavy metal in the water treatment process that employs such oxidation of the iron. This results in an increased consumption of iron and a net increase of the amount of process sludge produced. Typically an increase of 1 part by weight of net metallic iron results in a net increased production of about 5 to 10 parts by weight of iron bearing wet sludge.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,039,428 discloses a process for removing heavy metals from water by effecting precipitation on the surface of particles having alkaline surface activity and to produce a waste water stream. Alkaline reagent is added to a portion of the waste water to render the particle surfaces alkaline active. The activated particles then are recycled to the precipitation step. A second portion of waste water from the precipitation step is filtered to produce sludge and water, free of particles and sludge. This process does not involve a reducing step to form heavy metal particles.
It would be highly desirable to provide a safe, simple, reliable and economical process for removing heavy metals from aqueous solutions that would:
1) yield a superior quality aqueous effluent that is low in biological toxicity and compliant with all regulations for discharging into a public sewer or waterway, and, PA1 2) eliminate producing an F006 hazardous waste sludge that is normally generated at an alkaline pH and usually has a lower metal content, and PA1 3) reclaim the metals in a concentrated metallic form that yields a net positive value when recycled, and, PA1 4) use readily available and economic materials that are non-hazardous and do not cause irritating or foul odors or explosive gases.

Recycle process for removing dissolved heavy metals from water with aluminum particles


Provided are an electro-conductive composition improved on its wettability and handled with ease and an electronic equipment using the same. The electro-conductive composition comprises: 28 to 45 wt % metallic particles X to form an alloy with a solder at a soldering temperature and to increase a melting point of the solder to a temperature higher than the soldering temperature; 30 to 60 wt % metallic particles Y hard to form an alloy with the solder at the soldering temperature, wherein the sum of contents of the metallic particles X and Y is in the range of 75 to 93 wt %; and the rest of a resin.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electro-conductive composition used as an underlayer for a solder, for example, in soldering an electronic component on a printed circuit board or the like fabricated by printing an electro-conductive composition composed of electro-conductive particles such as metallic particles or the like and an electronic equipment using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In soldering an electronic component on a printed circuit board fabricated by printing an electro-conductive composition, for example, it is important that not only does a solder have a good wettability to an conductive layer of a printed circuit board with which an electronic component is connected, but a molten solder is prevented from penetrating into the conductive layer beyond a depth in soldering. Such incompatible actions are hard to be simultaneously exerted in a controllable manner in the same printed electro-conductive layer and it has in this regard been considered that direct soldering is difficult on a metal-resin composition used in an electro-conductive layer or the like on a printed circuit board. In order to make it possible to conduct soldering on an electro-conductive layer, the inventors has conceived a method in which a first composition mainly composed of metallic particles having a good wettability and a second composition mainly composed of metallic particles having a poor wettability are used as an underlayer of the solder in a superposing manner, like as the top layer composed of metallic powder which has good wettability with molten solder over the bottom layer composed of metallic powder which has poor wettability with molten solder. Since the compositions are required in use to be formed in a sequentially layered manner, there is a necessity for two compositions to be coated on an electro-conductive path on a circuit board in two applications. For example, in the case where a fine pattern is fabricated by screen process printing or the like, there have been problems that it is hard to conduct two-layer printing using the compositions without misalignment and the number of fabricating steps increase in such a process. For this reason, the inventors have developed a composition with which underlayer preparation for soldering by formation of an electro-conductive composition layer can be completed with a single application.
However, if the first composition and the second composition are simply mixed with each other, there arises no problem in wettability, but such a mixture is poor in a blocking action against penetration of a molten solder. For this reason, a solder penetrates through the mixture as a underlayer to reach a metal-resin composition printed as an circuit forming electro-conductive layer, whereby the metal-resin composition comes to solid like a metal. In such a condition, the metal resin composition loses a resin property at the interface between the composition and a board and as a result, an adhesive force of the metal-resin composition to the board becomes insufficient, so that, though it depends on circumstances, there has been a fear that the metal-resin composition, that is the electro-conductive layer, is separated from the board.

Electro-conductive composition and electronic equipment using same


Disclosed is an indoor unit of an air conditioner, in which discharge units respectively provided on upper and lower portions of the indoor unit have an improved discharge structure such that the discharge units are interchangeable, to increase cooling efficiency regardless of installation position of the indoor unit. The indoor unit includes a cabinet; a first discharge unit being detachably provided on the cabinet and configured to discharge air in a forward direction; and a second discharge unit separated from the first discharge unit, being detachably provided on the cabinet and configured to discharge air in the oblique direction, the first discharge unit and the second discharge unit being interchangeable according to a height of a position at which the cabinet is installed. The indoor unit of the air conditioner sets the optimum direction of discharged air, thus increasing the cooling efficiency of an indoor space.

1. Field
The present invention relates to an indoor unit of an air conditioner, and more particularly, to an indoor unit of an air conditioner in which discharge units respectively provided on upper and lower portions of the indoor unit have an improved discharge structure such that the discharge units are interchangeable.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, air conditioners are apparatuses that regulate the temperature, the humidity, the distribution of an air current, etc., suitable for human living using a refrigerating cycle and remove dust from air. The refrigerating cycle is composed of a compressor, a condenser, an evaporator, a blower fan, etc.
Air conditioners are divided into integration type air conditioners, in which a refrigerating cycle is installed in a single cabinet and the cabinet is installed on a window, and split type air conditioners, in which a refrigerating cycle is divided into two cabinets and the cabinets are respectively installed inside and outside a room. Split type air conditioners are divided into a wall-mounted type air conditioner, a standing type air conditioner, a ceiling-mounted type air conditioner, a ceiling-buried type air conditioner, etc., according to installation methods. Particularly, an air conditioner, which can be installed by various methods according to user's requirement, i.e., used as a wall-mounted type air conditioner or a standing type air conditioner, is referred to as a convertible type air conditioner.
In order to increase the cooling efficiency of a convertible type air conditioner, the direction of air discharged from an indoor unit of the convertible type air conditioner must be varied according to installation positions. For example, in the case that the indoor unit of the convertible type air conditioner stands on the floor, a discharge hole provided on an upper portion of the indoor unit of the air conditioner discharges air upwardly and a discharge hole provided on a lower portion of the indoor unit of the air conditioner discharges air forwardly so as to rapidly cool an indoor space. On the other hand, in the case that the indoor unit of the convertible type air conditioner is mounted on a wall, the discharge hole provided on the upper portion of the indoor unit of the air conditioner discharges air forwardly and the discharge hole provided on the lower portion of the indoor unit of the air conditioner discharges air downwardly so as to rapidly cool an indoor space.
However, convertible type air conditioners are put on the market under the condition that air discharging directions of upper and lower discharge holes of an indoor unit are already fixed. Thereby, in the case that an installation position is changed by the user's need, the cooling efficiency of an indoor space is lowered and abnormal noise is generated. For example, a wall-mounted type air conditioner is designed such that a discharge hole provided on the upper portion of an indoor unit discharges air forwardly and a discharge hole provided on the lower portion of the indoor unit discharges air downwardly. Thus, even in the case that the indoor unit of the wall-mounted type air conditioner stands on the floor according to a user's need, the discharge hole provided on the upper portion of the indoor unit discharges air forwardly and the discharge hole provided on the lower portion of the indoor unit discharges air downwardly. In this case, it takes a long time to cool down to the upper region of the indoor space, and thus power consumption is increased. Further, the air discharged from the lower discharge hole generates abnormal noise due to collision with the floor.
On the other hand, a standing type air conditioner is designed such that a discharge hole provided on the upper portion of an indoor unit discharges air upwardly and a discharge hole provided on the lower portion of the indoor unit discharges air forwardly. However, in the case that the indoor unit of the standing type air conditioner is mounted on a wall according to the user's need, the air discharged from the upper discharge hole generates abnormal noise due to collision with the ceiling.


A selective catalytic reduction (SCR) process with a palladium catalyst for reducing NOx in a gas, using hydrogen as a reducing agent is provided. The process comprises contacting the gas stream with a catalyst system, the catalyst system comprising (ZrO2)SO4, palladium, and a pre-sulfated zirconia binder. The inclusion of a pre-sulfated zirconia binder substantially increases the durability of a Pd-based SCR catalyst system. A system for implementing the disclosed process is further provided.

Coal-based integrated gasification combined cycle plant (IGCC) technology enables production of electricity with a gas turbine utilizing a fuel that is rich in hydrogen and has a very limited amount of CO2. Combustion of the hydrogen-containing fuel requires an oxidizing source such as air, which contains nitrogen (N2). As a result, a by-product in exhaust gas stemming from hydrogen-containing fuel combustion is a significant amount of NOx. The exhaust gas further comprises significant amounts of H2O, O2, and SO2. The NOx in the exhaust gas may be reduced by using selective catalytic reduction (SCR) systems along with low NOx combustors in the gas turbine. Since fuel produced and used at an IGCC plant contains hydrogen (H2), the fuel may also provide hydrogen as a reducing agent in the SCR process by introducing a small amount of H2 from the fuel supply into the SCR system. The use of hydrogen as a NOx reducing agent enables the elimination of typical reducing agents such as, for example, ammonia (NH3) and urea (N2H6CO) in the SCR system, and thus prevents discharge of ammonia slip into the ambient air, which is an inherent problem with current ammonia-based SCR technology.
Reduction of NOx using H2 has the potential to generate reaction products that include both N2 and N2O. Catalysts that display high selectivity towards the formation of N2 are preferred. Conversely, it has been found that the selectivity of Pt-based H2—SCR catalysts toward N2 formation is relatively low, and undesirable by-products such as N2O and NH3 are produced. Recently, an attempt to improve H2—SCR efficiency with respect to NOx removal and N2 selectivity under oxidizing conditions was made (U.S. Pat. No. 7,105,137). The developed Pt-based catalyst described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,105,137 remained durable for only 24 hours when operating in a reaction mixture that contained 5 vol. % O2, 5 vol. % H2O, and up to 25 ppmv of SO2. In addition, M. Machida et al. (Applied Catalysis B: Environmental 35 (2001) 107) demonstrated that a Pt-based H2—SCR may have high selectivity to N2 under oxidizing conditions (10 vol. % O2) in the absence of H2O and SO2 in the process stream. However, demonstrations of the H2—SCR's ability to efficiently reduce NOx emissions were performed using mixtures of gases that have relatively low concentrations of O2, H2O, and SO2 or high concentrations of only one of these constituents (O2, H2O, or SO2). The exhaust gas composition of Machida et al. is contrasted to a gas turbine exhaust mixture from combustion of H2-containing fuels at IGCC plants, which contain up to about 10% O2, up to about 20% H2O and up to about 25 ppmv SO2. Importantly, catalyst systems are known by one skilled in the art to be particularly prone to deactivation and degradation over time due to exposure to sulfur compounds and/or high concentrations of water vapor.
It is known by those skilled in the art that H2—SCR is an efficient technology in O2-lean conditions, especially when amounts of water and sulfur compounds are limited to less than about 5 vol. % and to less than about 5 ppmv, respectively.
Commercial processes, such as Selexol™, may remove greater than 97% of the sulfur from syngas. Still, the concentration of sulfur compounds in syngas can be up to about 25 ppmv even after treatment. Taking into consideration dilution of syngas with nitrogen, the concentration of SO2 in IGCC gas turbine exhaust can be at the level of up to about 10 ppmv. After CO2 sequestration and burning of H2-fuel, concentrations of H2O in the exhaust can be as high as 20-25% by volume, and oxygen content can be as high as about 10-12 vol. %. Under these conditions, developing a process to reduce NOx emissions in the exhaust of IGCC gas turbines by using H2—SCR is challenging. Thus, despite the above-described enhancements, there is a need to develop processes to reduce NOx emissions in gas turbine exhaust utilizing an H2—SCR that provides high NOx reduction efficiency at the level of 90+% with high (greater than about 80%) selectivity to N2. Additional processes are needed to substantially extend durability and stability of catalyst systems in the presence of 10-25 vol. % of water, 5-10 vol. % of O2, and 5-25 ppm of SO2, for example.

Selective catalytic reduction system and process using a pre-sulfated zirconia binder


The present invention provides a method and apparatus for re-assigning network addresses to a plurality of network servers by re-configuring a client host coupled to the network servers. According to the invention, when there are changes to network connections, the IP addresses (i.e., network addresses) of the individual network servers can be re-assigned automatically at the client host without powering off the network servers. According to the invention, in re-assigning a new network address to a port of the network server, a bootstrap protocol (BOOTP) request is first issued by the client host to the network server. The BOOTP request is received by the network server which then sends a BOOTP response to the client host to request a new network address. After the client host receives the BOOTP response, it sends a BOOTP reply to the network server. The BOOTP reply includes a new network address for the port of the network server. The above procedure is repeated for each port of the network server. Thus, each of the network server is re-assigned with a new network address. In this way, re-assignment of IP addresses of network servers is more efficiently performed. Furthermore, the work efforts are substantially reduced and are centralized.

The invention relates to a network system, and more particularly relates to a method and apparatus for re-assigning network addresses to a plurality of network servers by re-configuring a client host connected to the network servers.
Network systems have been utilized for connecting terminals, such as personal computers (PCs), workstations, etc., in different locations. In recent years, WAN systems have been widely implemented to provide connections for terminals in distant areas and provide Internet services. In a WAN system, typically a WAN concentrator is used as a diskless network server which connects terminals at one area to terminals at another distant area to facilitate communications between them. When a terminal at one area intends to communicate with a terminal at another distant area through the WAN network via a WAN concentrator, it sends a request with a specific network address (i.e., an IP address) to the WAN concentrator serving the sending terminal. When the WAN concentrator receives the IP address and recognizes it as its own IP address, it will facilitate the communication accordingly.
In a typical network arrangement, a CPU of a terminal, referred to as a client host, is connected to a number of network servers distributed in many different sites for example in a company. When there are changes to network connections due to, e.g., addition of network servers or re-allocation of workload among the network servers, it is desirable to re-assign the IP addresses of all the network servers so that the IP addresses are synchronized to one another. Conventionally, re-assignment of the IP addresses of network servers are accomplished by resetting the network servers by powering them off and then perform re-configuration operations on the network servers. The IP address re-assignment is done directly on each network server at the individual network server sites. When there are numerous changes to network connections occurring at different times, the amount of time required for individually re-configuring and re-assigning IP addresses to the network servers is tremendous.
Accordingly, there is a need for a system that allows re-assignment of the IP addresses of the network servers more efficiently.

Method and apparatus for re-assigning network addresses to network servers by re-configuring a client host connected thereto


Medical monitoring technologies are integrated with wireless networks to wirelessly send signals from a monitoring device to a cellular telephone or other personal electronic device (PED). A sensor is placed inside or on the patient's body. Information from the monitoring sensor is transmitted to a nearby and/or remote PED. The information transmitted to the PED may then be displayed, processed, stored or forwarded to another location if needed. The monitoring system of the present invention monitors a variety of bodily processes, but preferably measures vital signals such as heart rate, blood pressure, respiration rates, etc. The present invention may also be used to monitor glucose levels in diabetic users. Further, the device may be used as an alert system to alert the patient and third parties when a patient experiences an adverse medical condition.

Adverse medical conditions may lead to long-term illness effects or even death. Often, the warning signs of adverse medical conditions are not recognized in time to take preventative measures. The lack of notice can lead to severe long-term effects for conditions such as heart conditions. Other conditions, such as diabetes require frequent and continued monitoring to prevent dangerous effects.
The severity of problems caused by adverse medical effects can be mitigated by early detection of the condition and subsequent treatment. Early detection systems are available, but suffer from limitations on ease of use and practicability. Existing monitoring systems utilize heavy or awkward technology that must be connected directly to a patient. The patient must be in close proximity to the monitoring technology in order for monitoring to occur through wires. Other technology may be carried around by a patient, but is still bulky and restricts movement.
Needs exist for improved early detection and monitoring systems for adverse medical conditions that provide continuous monitoring and allow a patient mobility.
In recent years, the availability and performance of wireless computer networks has increased exponentially. The popularity of cellular telephones and other wireless information devices, such as laptop computers, Palm Pilots, global positioning systems, and other personal electronic devices increases every day. Increases in performance coupled with decreases in prices have made wireless networks available to a large part of the population.
Current medical monitoring systems do not adequately utilize wireless technologies to provide real-time monitoring of medical conditions with patient mobility.
Needs exist for monitoring methods that combine early detection and monitoring of adverse medical conditions with wireless technology.

Vital signals and glucose monitoring personal wireless system


In a pad connection structure for a plurality of embedded memory devices in a system-on-a-chip configuration, common pads are separately allotted to signal lines of embedded memory devices used for identical purposes and corresponding multiplexers are connected between the common pads and the signal lines of the embedded memory devices, thereby significantly reducing the number of input and output pads of the memory merged logic, minimizing damage to the pads, as a result of low probing frequency, and sequentially testing the embedded memory devices in a single testing operation.

In current semiconductor products, memory-merged logic is popular for a variety of memory configurations, including, for example, dynamic random access memory (DRAM), static random access memory (SRAM), flash memory and the like embedded on a single chip. For memory merged logic developed as a system-on-chip, as the degree of integration of embedded memory devices increases, for example to over 1M-bits of memory cells on a single chip, redundant memory cells have become popular in such systems.
Testing procedures are applied to memory-merged logic systems in order to determine the presence of defects in the memory cells of the embedded memory devices. For example, an Electrical Die Shorting (EDS) process may be employed. In this process, a probe connected to a tester system makes electrical connection with the embedded memory devices of the memory merged logic through a probing pad at the time of the memory tests.
Under conventional testing procedures, the respective tests are separately performed for the different embedded memory devices, such as DRAM, SRAM, flash memory and the like. Thus, test pins are allotted, without any consideration of the use of the pins, such as input, output and input/output pins, so that it has been possible to carry out separate tests for respective embedded memory devices. As such EDS tests are performed, the probe comes in contact with a probing pad a multiple number of times. Such high probing frequency tends to damage the probing pads, which in turn can lead to an decrease in the yield percentage of the semiconductor products.

Pad connection structure of embedded memory devices and related memory testing method


Embodiments include methods, performed by a first mesh node, of forwarding a received message in a wireless mesh network. Such methods include receiving, from a third mesh node in the wireless mesh network, a message whose destination is a second mesh node in the wireless mesh network. Such methods also including forwarding a plurality of repetitions of the message to the second mesh node. Successive repetitions of the message are separated by respective time delays, which are based on whether the first mesh node has an established friendship relationship with the second mesh node. For example, if the first and second mesh nodes have a friendship relationship, at least three repetitions of the message are forwarded by unicast transmission, and the respective time delays are equal and are between 100-200 μs. Embodiments also include complementary methods performed by a second mesh node, and mesh nodes configured to perform such methods.

A wireless mesh network, WMN, comprises a plurality of mesh nodes organized in a mesh topology. Here, each mesh node is also some sort of provider by forwarding data to the next mesh node. The network infrastructure is decentralized and simplified because each mesh node only needs to be able to transmit to a neighbouring mesh node. Such wireless mesh networks could allow people living in remote areas and small businesses operating in rural neighbourhoods to connect their networks together for affordable internet connections.
Wireless mesh network can be implemented with various wireless technologies including 802.11, 802.15, cellular technologies and Bluetooth. Bluetooth mesh networking is standardized by the Bluetooth Special Interest Group, SIG, and the first release of Bluetooth Mesh was released in July 2017. The solution is based on flooding using broadcasting over a set of shared channels referred to as the advertisement channels.
A node acting as a relay in a Bluetooth mesh network scans the advertisement channels for mesh messages. When a message is detected and received, the node checks to see if it is the destination of the message. If the node is not the destination of the node, the node checks if it has already received and forwarded the message. If yes, the message is discarded. If not, the message is forwarded in the mesh network by re-transmitting it over the advertisement channels so that the neighbours of the node can receive it. Typically some random delay is introduced before forwarding the message to avoid collisions. By means of this distributed mechanism, the message is forwarded from node to node in the network so that the message arrives at the destination.
The advertising mechanism works such that a given message is also repeated in three separate physical channels, denoted as advertising channels, opportunely spaced in frequency to guarantee robustness to frequency selective fading and interference. On the receiver side, nodes must scan all channels periodically. Therefore, it is not possible to predict in which channel a message is received. To lower the probability of message collisions on all advertising channels, the Bluetooth Mesh specification recommends randomizing the gap within consecutive messages within an advertising event. Up to 10 ms delay is allowed between each of the messages in the advertising event.
The features within the Bluetooth SIG specification enable many nodes in the mesh network to be battery-powered or to use techniques such as energy harvesting. If a node cannot scan continuously, then it is possible that it will not receive mesh messages that it should be processing. In order to facilitate the use of such nodes within a network, the concept of "Friendship" is used within the Bluetooth Mesh network by Low power nodes.
Friendship is first established and initiated by the Low Power Node. Friendship is a special relationship between a Low Power node and one neighbouring "Friend Node". These nodes must be within a single hop of one another and in the same subnet. Once friendship is established, the Friend node performs several actions that help reduce the power consumption of the Low Power node. The Friend node maintains a Friend queue for the low power node, which stores incoming messages addressed to the Low Power node.
The Friend node delivers those messages to the Low Power node when requested by the Low Power node. Also, the Friend node delivers security updates to the Low Power node. Furthermore, a Friend node may be friends with multiple Low Power nodes, but a Low Power node can only be friends with a single friend node.
Controllers, or nodes in mesh network, are typically implemented with a single-mode operation for the transmission of advertisements and today's solutions do not consider the type of advertising data to be sent. The recommendation of randomizing the gap between consecutive messages within an advertising event introduces advantages for the successful end to end delivery of mesh messages, but also increases the average delay for successful transmission, thus increasing the energy consumption at Low Power nodes.
As an example, assuming messages are sent back to back, the duration of an advertising triplet transmission is less than 1 ms. When introducing random delay between messages, the advertising triplet transmission time can exceed 20 ms.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method of forwarding a received message in a mesh network comprising a plurality of communicatively interconnected mesh nodes as well as a corresponding mesh node


In response to determining a bit cell of a bit cell array of a memory device is a defective bit cell, a portion of the bit cell array including the defective bit cell is decoupled from a power source of the memory device. The portion can be decoupled via a fuse, a transistor, and the like.

Memory devices typically are composed of an array of bit cells, with each bit cell storing a corresponding bit of data. Each bit cell generally is configured as one or more transistors that store or retain an electrical charge representative of a bit value (e.g., a logic "0" or a logic "1"). As a result of errors in the fabrication process, a subset of the bit cells of the memory device may be determined to be defective. To compensate for the likely occurrence of defective bit cells, memory devices typically implement redundant bit cells (typically arranged as redundant rows, redundant columns, redundant sectors, and combinations thereof). The memory devices typically use a fuse array or logic to reroute an memory address associated with a portion of bit cell array having a defective bit cell to a corresponding portion of the redundant bit cells (e.g., rerouting a memory address to a row having a defective bit cell to a redundant row of bit cells). However, while these techniques compensate for the operational failure of the defective bit cells, these defective bit cells often continue to draw power during operation. In certain instances, the same defect that causes a bit cell to fail functionally also results in a short in the bit cell, which can sink substantial current and cause operational failure of the entire memory device during low power states, such as while the memory device is in a sleep mode. Accordingly, an improved technique for compensating for defective bit cells in a memory device would be advantageous.
The use of the same reference symbols in different drawings indicates similar or identical items.

Memory device having selectively decoupleable memory portions and method thereof


The present disclosure relates to anti-CD200 antibodies (e.g., variant anti-CD200 antibodies having decreased or no effector function) and to biomarkers for use in a variety of diagnostic and therapeutic methods, e.g., determining whether a human has been administered one or more of the antibodies at a dose sufficient to induce a desired immunomodulatory effect in the human and/or selecting an appropriate dosing schedule for a patient.

Human CD200 protein is a type 1a transmembrane glycoprotein that is normally expressed on thymocytes (e.g., T cells and B cells), neurons, and endothelial cells. Through engagement with its cognate receptor, CD200R, CD200 protein transduces an immunoregulatory signal that can suppress T-cell-mediated immune responses. CD200 knockout animal studies as well as experiments using antagonist anti-CD200 antibodies and recombinant CD200-Fc fusion proteins have demonstrated that CD200 protein functions as an immunosuppressive agent in autoimmune disorder and during transplantation. (See, e.g., Hoek et al. (2000) Science 290:1768-1771 and Gorczynski et al. (1999) J Immunol 163:1654-1660). The interaction between CD200 and CD200R results in altered cytokine profiles and promotes a TH2 T cell response (humoral immune response) over a TH1 response (cellular immune response). See, e.g., Kretz-Rommel (2007) J Immunol 178:5595-5605.
The human immune system employs a variety of immunosurveillance mechanisms, which can identify malignant cells within a host organism and kill the cells before a cancer develops. See, e.g., Geertsen et al. (1999) Int J Mol Med 3(1):49-57; Kerebijn et al. (1999) Crit. Rev Oncol Hematol 31(1):31-53; and Pardoll (2003) Annu Rev Immunol 21:807-39. However, cancer cells are known to evade detection by the immune system. One potential mechanism by which cancer cells escape immunosurveillance is expression or overexpression of CD200 protein. In fact, CD200 protein has been shown to be expressed or overexpressed on a variety of human cancer cells including, e.g., B cell chronic lymphocytic leukemia cells, prostate cancer cells, breast cancer cells, colon cancer cells, and brain cancer cells. See, e.g., Kawasaki et al. (2007) Biochem Biophys Res Commun 364(4):778-782; Kretz-Rommel et al. (2007), supra; and Siva et al. (2008) Cancer Immunol Immunother 57(7):987-96.
Molecular biomarkers are often used in early drug development studies to determine, for example, whether a drug is biologically active in a patient—that the drug produced a measurable biological effect in the patient to which the drug is administered. For example, biomarkers can be useful during phase I studies to establish dosing schedules for future phase II studies and in general to help determine clinically-meaningful and optimized dosing schedules for treating patients suffering from disease. Biomarkers can also be useful for identifying the occurrence of potential side-effects or other non-therapeutic effects in a human treated with a drug to thereby determine a safety profile for the drug.

Biomarkers of immunomodulatory effects in humans treated with anti-CD200 antibodies


A binocular vision localization method, device and system are provided. The method includes calculating first pose change information according to two frames of images collected by a binocular camera unit at two consecutive moments and calculating second pose change information according to inertia parameters collected by an inertial measurement unit between the two consecutive moments. Matched feature points in the two frames are extracted from the two frames respectively. A reprojection error of each feature point is calculated. The calculations are taken as nodes or edges of a general graph optimization algorithm to acquire optimized third pose change information for localization. The system includes a binocular vision localization device, and a binocular camera unit and an inertial measurement unit respectively connected thereto, a left-eye camera and a right-eye camera are symmetrically located on two sides of the inertial measurement unit. This can improve accuracy and real-time performance for pose estimation.

Simultaneous Localization And Mapping (SLAM) technology is an important technology in the field of robots. At present, this technology has been widely applied to the fields of mobile robots, unmanned aerial vehicles, virtual reality, augmented reality, etc.
Currently, the SLAM technology is divided into two parts: front-end and rear-end. The front-end part mainly involves collection of sensor information, and the rear-end part mainly involves processing of the sensor information, including position and posture calculation, position and posture optimization, loop closure detection, mapping, and the like. At present, a camera is mainly used to collect information in SLAM. However, the camera is easily affected by the environments (such as lights, white walls, desktops and etc.), making it impossible to perform the pose estimation. Moreover, the rear-end data processing algorithms currently used in SLAM can hardly satisfying application scenarios with high requirements on real-time performance.
Thus, the existing space localization and mapping methods not only have low accuracy in pose estimation, but also have poor real-time performance.

Binocular vision localization method, device and system


A frame includes a cabinet, a door, and a bracket. The cabinet has an opened front face. The door has a door frame and an inner door section. The door frame is connected to the cabinet for the door to open and close relative to the front face of the cabinet. The bracket connects the inner door section to the door frame such that the inner door section is offset from the front face of the cabinet by a separation distance and covers the front face of the cabinet from the separation distance when the door is closed. The bracket has a sufficient length such that the separation distance between the inner door section and the front face of the cabinet when the door is closed permits fiber optic components to extend through the front face of the cabinet without being compressed by the inner door section.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure generally relates to fiber distribution frames.
2. Background Art
A fiber distribution frame serves as the primary interface between outside plant fiber optic facilities entering a central office structure and the fiber optic equipment installed within that same location. The fiber distribution frame provides a centralized point for the organization and administration of the fiber optic facility and intra-building fiber equipment cables; provides a flexible platform for future fiber growth; and provides re-configurable connections between any two terminations or appearances.
In its most basic form, a fiber distribution frame is a housing, cabinet, enclosure, etc., which houses fiber optic components or portions of fiber optic components. Fiber optic components include fiber optic cables, fiber optic jumpers, fiber optic strands, fiber optic connectors, etc. In general, fiber optic components extend into and out of the fiber distribution frame. The fiber distribution frame has connecting panels and the like for enabling the incoming and exiting fiber optic components to be selectively cross-connected together.
A fiber distribution frame includes a door which is connected by a hinge or the like to the front-side of the frame. The door opens and shuts in order to provide and limit access to the fiber optic components housed within the fiber distribution frame. When shut, the door functions to shield the fiber optic components from the outside environment and from inadvertent or unauthorized access by human personnel. It is desired to limit access to fiber optic components communicating optical signals having high laser output power.
A problem occurs when the door is shut too close to the fiber optic components placed within the front-side area of the fiber distribution frame and actually touches or contacts portions of these components. The contacted fiber optic component portions will be compressed somewhat during contact with the door and if the door is shut too close then the door will compress the contacted portions to a large extent. For example, the contacted portions of the fiber optic components may be bent at an immediate 90° angle.
Fiber optic components require a minimum bend radius to function properly. That is, fiber optic components cannot be bent past the minimum bend radius in order for the components to function properly. A bend radius in a fiber optic component less than the minimum bend radius may cause the component to unduly attenuate an optical signal transmitted by the component thereby resulting in loss of signal strength. If the fiber optic component is bent to a large extent, the component may experience fracture thereby requiring replacement by another component.


The present invention relates to novel pyrimidine acyclonucleoside derivatives represented by the following general formula (I), antiviral agents containing the derivatives as the active ingredients and processes of preparation thereof. ##STR1## wherein R.sup.1 is ethyl or isopropyl; R.sup.2 is (3,5 dimethylphenyl)selenenyl; R.sup.3 is phenyl or methyl; X is oxygen; and Y is oxygen.

AIDS (Acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), caused by human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), is one of the world's most serious health problems. 3'-Deoxy-3'-azidothymidine (AZT), which is available in the clinic, has been proven to improve the clinical and immunological status of patients with AIDS and AIDS-related complex. However, serious side effects such as anemia and leukopenia strongly limit its clinical usefulness. Although 2',3'-dideoxyinosine (DDI) and 2',3'-dideoxycytidine (DDC) have more recently been approved for the patients who do not tolerate AZT, they are also suffering from side effects such as peripheral neuropathy and pancreatitis. Therfore, there is an urgent need to develop a substance possessing higher antiviral activity and lower toxicity to the host cells. Various pyrimidine acyclonucleoside derivatives having (substituted) phenylthio group or (substituted) benzyl group at the 6-position of the pyrimidine ring have been disclosed and found to have effective antiviral activity against retrovirus (WO 89/09213, EP 420,763 A2, EP 449,726 A1). A few 6-phenylselenenyl substituted pyrimidine acyclonucleoside derivatives (J. Med. Chem. 1991, 34, 3305-3309, Antiviral Chem. & Chemother. 1992, 3(5), 263-266 and J. Heterocyclic Chem. 1194, 31, 177-185) have been synthesized, however, the antiviral activity against retrovirus is only marginal. The present inventors have synthesized a wide variety of novel pyrimidine acyclonucleoside derivatives having ethyl group or isopropyl group at the 5-position and having (substituted) phenylselenenyl group at the 6-position of the pyrimidine ring, and found that most of these pyrimidine acyclonucleoside derivatives possessed excellent antiretroviral activity to satisfy the above demand(KR Application No. 94-3794, 94-18324 and 94-18325). The present invention has been accomplishied based on this finding.


Transmitters and receivers deal with streams of data, wherein the receiver is expected to begin using received data before receiving all of the data. Concurrent streams are sent and FEC coding is used with the streams and done as an aggregate. The transmitter performs FEC operations over the plurality of streams, wherein source blocks from at least two streams logically associated into a jumbo source block and FEC processing is performed to generate one or more jumbo repair block from the jumbo source block. Each of the source blocks comprises one or more source symbols from their respective stream. The jumbo source symbols can be of constant size and are suitably aligned along size boundaries that make processing efficient. Each source symbol need not be the same size, and the number of source symbols from each stream in a jumbo source block need not be the same value across streams.

Transmission of files and streams between a sender and a recipient over a communications channel has been the subject of much literature. Preferably, a recipient desires to receive an exact copy of data transmitted over a channel by a sender with some level of certainty. Where the channel does not have perfect fidelity (which covers most all physically realizable systems), one concern is how to deal with data lost or garbled in transmission. Lost data (erasures) are often easier to deal with than corrupted data (errors) because the recipient cannot always tell when corrupted data is data received in error. Many error-correcting codes have been developed to correct for erasures and/or for errors. Typically, the particular code used is chosen based on some information about the infidelities of the channel through which the data is being transmitted and the nature of the data being transmitted. For example, where the channel is known to have long periods of infidelity, a burst error code might be best suited for that application. Where only short, infrequent errors are expected a simple parity code might be best.
Data transmission is straightforward when a transmitter and a receiver have all of the computing power and electrical power needed for communications and the channel between the transmitter and receiver is clean enough to allow for relatively error-free communications. The problem of data transmission becomes more difficult when the channel is in an adverse environment or the transmitter and/or receiver has limited capability.
One solution is the use of forward error correcting (FEC) techniques, wherein data is coded at the transmitter such that a receiver can recover from transmission erasures and errors. Where feasible, a reverse channel from the receiver to the transmitter allows for the receiver to communicate about errors to the transmitter, which can then adjust its transmission process accordingly. Often, however, a reverse channel is not available or feasible or is available only with limited capacity. For example, where the transmitter is transmitting to a large number of receivers, the transmitter might not be able to handle reverse channels from all those receivers. As another example, the communication channel may be a storage medium and thus the transmission of the data is forward through time and, unless someone invents a time travel machine that can go back in time, a reverse channel for this channel is infeasible. As a result, communication protocols often need to be designed without a reverse channel or with a limited capacity reverse channel and, as such, the transmitter may have to deal with widely varying channel conditions without a full view of those channel conditions.
The problem of data transmission between transmitters and receivers is made more difficult when the receivers need to be low-power, small devices that might be portable or mobile and need to receive data at high bandwidths. For example, a wireless network might be set up to deliver files or streams from a stationary transmitter to a large or indeterminate number of portable or mobile receivers either as a broadcast or multicast where the receivers are constrained in their computing power, memory size, available electrical power, antenna size, device size and other design constraints. Another example is in storage applications where the receiver retrieves data from a storage medium which exhibits infidelities in reproduction of the original data. Such receivers are often embedded with the storage medium itself in devices, for example disk drives, which are highly constrained in terms of computing power and electrical power.
In such a system, considerations to be addressed include having little or no reverse channel, limited memory, limited computing cycles, power, mobility and timing.
In the case of a packet protocol used for data transport over a channel that can lose packets, a file, stream or other block of data to be transmitted over a packet network is partitioned into equal size input symbols, encoding symbols the same size as the input symbols are generated from the input symbols using an FEC code, and the encoding symbols are placed and sent in packets. The "size" of a symbol can be measured in bits, whether or not the symbol is actually broken into a bit stream, where a symbol has a size of M bits when the symbol is selected from an alphabet of 2M symbols. In such a packet-based communication system, a packet oriented erasure FEC coding scheme might be suitable. A file transmission is called reliable if it allows the intended recipient to recover an exact copy of the original file even in the face of erasures in the network. A stream transmission is called reliable if it allows the intended recipient to recover an exact copy of each part of the stream in a timely manner even in the face of erasures in the network. Both file transmission and stream transmission can also be somewhat reliable, in the sense that some parts of the file or stream are not recoverable or for streaming if some parts of the stream are not recoverable in a timely fashion. Packet loss often occurs because sporadic congestion causes the buffering mechanism in a router to reach its capacity, forcing it to drop incoming packets. Protection against erasures during transport has been the subject of much study.
In the case of a protocol used for data transmission over a noisy channel that can corrupt bits, a block of data to be transmitted over a data transmission channel is partitioned into equal size input symbols, encoding symbols of the same size are generated from the input symbols and the encoding symbols are sent over the channel. For such a noisy channel the size of a symbol is typically one bit or a few bits, whether or not a symbol is actually broken into a bit stream. In such a communication system, a bit-stream oriented error-correction FEC coding scheme might be suitable. A data transmission is called reliable if it allows the intended recipient to recover an exact copy of the original block even in the face of errors (symbol corruption, either detected or undetected in the channel). The transmission can also be somewhat reliable, in the sense that some parts of the block may remain corrupted after recovery. Symbols are often corrupted by sporadic noise, periodic noise, interference, weak signal, blockages in the channel, and a variety of other causes.
Chain reaction codes are FEC codes that allow for generation of an arbitrary number of output symbols from the fixed input symbols of a file or stream. Sometimes, they are referred to as fountain or rateless FEC codes, since the code does not have an a-priori fixed transmission rate and the number of possible output symbols can be independent of the number of input symbols. Novel techniques for generating, using and operating chain reaction codes are shown, for example, in Luby and Shokrollahi.
It is also known to use multi-stage chain reaction ("MSCR") codes, such as those described in Shokrollahi and developed by Digital Fountain, Inc. under the trade name "Raptor" codes. Multi-stage chain reaction codes are used, for example, in an encoder that receives input symbols from a source file or source stream, generates intermediate symbols from the input symbols and the intermediate symbols are the source symbols for a chain reaction encoder.
For some applications, other variations of codes might be more suitable or otherwise preferred. As used herein, input symbols refer to the data received from a file or stream and source symbols refer to the symbols that are used to generate output symbols. In some cases, the source symbols include the input symbols and in some cases, the source symbols are the input symbols. However, there are cases where the input symbols are encoded and/or transformed into an intermediate set of symbols and that intermediate set is used to generate the output symbols without reference to the input symbols (directly). Thus, input symbols comprise information known to the sender which is to be communicated to the receiver, source symbols are the symbols used by at least one stage of an encoder and are derived from the input symbols, and output symbols comprise symbols that are transmitted by the sender to the receiver.
In some applications, the receiver may begin to use the data before the transmission is complete. For example, with a video-on-demand system, the receiver might start playing out a video after only a small portion of the video data is received and assume that the rest of the video data will be received before it is needed. In such systems, encoding should not be done over the entire transmission, because then some output symbols at the end of the transmission might encode for input symbols needed at the beginning of the video, in which case those output symbols are wasteful since their information is needed when it is not available and is not needed when it is available. To avoid this, the data stream is typically divided into blocks wherein the input data of the block is encoded and sent before the next block is prepared and blocks normally do not depend on input symbols outside those blocks.
There are tradeoffs with the use of blocks: too small a block size and not enough error protection is provided, whereas too large a block size and too much delay is seen at the receiver as it waits for blocks to be completely recovered.

FEC streaming with aggregation of concurrent streams for FEC computation


A curvature variable mirror includes a mirror base material that is configured such that the curvature is variable and that reflects laser light on the mirror reflective surface side, wherein the mirror base material is formed by using spring-material copper alloy, and the spring-material copper alloy is constituted by using any of phosphor bronze, copper-nickel-zinc alloy, chromium copper, zirconium copper, titanium copper alloy, copper-nickel alloy, and alloy obtained by adding at least one of Ni (nickel), Sn (tin), Si (silicone), Mg (magnesium), Zn (zinc), Mn (manganese), Pb (lead), Fe (iron), and Al (aluminum) to copper.

A laser machining device is a device that reflects laser light emitted from a laser oscillator off a curvature variable mirror, a laser-light reflecting mirror, or other mirrors to irradiate a workpiece with the laser light. Oxygen-free copper has a high heat conductivity, and therefore has been used conventionally for a mirror base material that constitutes the curvature variable mirror or other mirrors. When distortion occurs in the mirror base material described above, a desired beam diameter cannot be obtained. Therefore, there is a need for a mirror base material that prevents the occurrence of distortion.
For example, a variable shape mirror described in Patent Literature 1 uses a metal material such as phosphor bronze as a material of a support spring that couples the variable shape mirror with a support body. This prevents the occurrence of abnormal deformation of such an elastic member.

Curvature variable mirror, curvature variable unit, and manufacturing method of curvature variable mirror


A connecting device of the invention includes a contact for electrically connecting with a lead terminal of cold cathode fluorescent lamp (electronic component), a body for accommodating the contact and having an insertion opening to allow the lead terminal to be inserted/removed from a side of the body, a shutter for opening/closing the insertion opening of the body, and an operation member mounted to the body for operating the open/close of the shutter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to connecting devices for electrically connecting lead terminals of electronic components such as cold cathode fluorescent lamps.
2. Description of the Related Art
As this kind of connecting device, there is one in which a contact to be accommodated in a body includes a first connection part adapted to elastically hold a lead terminal of a cold cathode fluorescent lamp in between, and a second connection part for connection to a substrate.
For example, as a first connecting device, there is one in which a first connection part includes a fixed piece and a curved movable piece having a rectangular hole into which the fixed piece is inserted. The device is adapted such that when the movable piece is press-operated, a space is formed between a wall face of the hole and the fixed piece, so the lead terminal is inserted into the space so as to be held between them (refer to Japanese Unexamined Utility Model Publication No. 06-17123).
As a second connecting device, there is one in which a first connection part includes a fixed bracket to be mounted to an accommodation part of the body, and an almost reverse L-shaped movable piece movable vertically with respect to the top end face of the fixed bracket, and an operation member for moving the movable piece. The device is adapted such that when the movable piece is pressed by the operation member, a space is formed between the tip part of the movable piece and the top end face of the fixing bracket, so the lead terminal is inserted into the space so as to be held between them (refer to Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-77558).
As a third connecting device, there is one in which a contact is a coil spring to be accommodated in the body. The device is adapted such that the coil spring is to be compressed to form a space between one end part of the coil spring and an inner wall of the body, so the lead terminal is inserted into the space so as to be held between them (Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 09-92018).


A system for fixing the neck onto the body of a stringed instrument in which the truss-rod (9) of the neck is seated in a corresponding milled portion (8) formed in the body (3) in the region of the foot, the bushes (4) are seated in suitable countersinks (6) formed in the upper side of the neck (2) underneath the fingerboard (1) and are connected to corresponding bushes (11) seated in suitable countersinks (10) formed in the underside of the body of the instrument (3).

The present invention relates to the construction of stringed instruments, in particular amplified guitars and basses.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for fixing the neck to the body of the instrument.
Traditional, so-called solid-body instruments, in particular electric guitars and basses, adopt a system for fixing the neck to the body which uses self-tapping screws and, in most cases, a metal plate positioned underneath the foot of the body opposite the fixing screws. The latter, which are normally four in number, pass through the holes in the metal plate and the foot forming part of the body; they then engage inside the bottom end of the neck, fixing the latter to the body in the seating provided by means of milling.
This system has various drawbacks. The threading in the wood material is often delicate and this results in a limited number of possible maintenance operations involving disassembly and the corresponding overhaul of the neck and body, with the need for adjustment of the position, any varnishing and touch-up work, correction of the relative inclination of the neck and body and other stringed-instrument repair operations. The bonding force between neck and body is directly dependent upon the quality of the woods used in addition to the cross-section of the screws.
This type of construction requires the presence of a strong, but awkward fixing foot which is retained on the body of the instrument. The foot constitutes a further problem, in particular for the musician, who often has difficulty in gaining access to the highest positions on the fingerboard, forcing him to/her to assume unnatural and tiring positions and making it somewhat difficult to play certain sequences of notes at high speed or in particular positions.
An alternative is provided by instruments having the neck mounted in a fixed manner on the body, by means of bonding or a single-body construction. This solution, however, involves technical problems, such as the impossibility of re-positioning the neck should it, with the passing of time, undergo slight variations or adjustments in position, and a timbre--i.e. a response to the vibration frequencies of the instrument--which is different from that of an instrument with a screwed body and neck.

System for fixing the neck onto the body of stringed instruments


Embodiments of the present invention disclose a management method, apparatus, and system for coverage optimization. The method includes obtaining measurement reports of a coverage optimization target region, and determining an actual value of a coverage optimization target within the coverage optimization target region according to the measurement reports. Coverage optimization processing is performed on the coverage optimization target region when the actual value of the coverage optimization target is smaller than a preset expected value of the coverage optimization target. According to the embodiments of the present invention, automatic determination is implemented to determine whether the coverage optimization processing needs to be performed on the coverage optimization target region, thereby improving management efficiency of coverage optimization.

Generally, in network coverage, base station distribution and cell configuration are planned by using a plan tool at an initial stage of network planning, and manual adjustment is performed by using a network optimization tool during a network operation process.
During a practical application process, if a call drop rate of a certain region is high, network management personnel determine that a network coverage exception might occur. For example, the region is a network coverage hole. Therefore, the network management personnel perform coverage optimization processing on the network in this region, for example, use the network optimization tool to change an antenna direction, adjust antenna transmit power, and the like.
In the prior art, the network management personnel manually determine whether network coverage optimization needs to be performed, which needs consumption of a large quantity of manpower and materials, and may result in problems such as delayed or inaccurate coverage optimization processing. Therefore, management efficiency of the coverage optimization is relatively low.

Management method, apparatus, and system for coverage optimization


A method of recording data to an area including a defective ECC block of a DVD+RW, and an optical disk written in the recording method are provided. In the method, when data is recorded to an area including a defective ECC block, data recording ends at an ECC block right before the defective ECC block. Then, the data recording resumes from the last 8 channel bits of the ECC block immediately after the defective ECC block. Accordingly, recording/reproducing of data to/from an optical disk is consistently performed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disk and a method of recording data to the same, and more particularly, to a method of recording data to an area of a DVD+RW disk having a defective block, and an optical disk on which data is recorded using the recording method.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical disks, which are optical information storage media, are widely used in optical pickup devices that record/reproduce information in a non-contact manner. Types of optical disks are compact discs (CD) and digital versatile discs (DVD), and high density DVDs (HD-DVD). Optical disks capable of recording, erasing, and reproducing data are a CD-R, a CD-RW, a DVD-RW, a DVD-RAM, a DVD+RW, or the like.
In DVD+RW disks, a basic recordable unit capable of recording a predetermined amount of data is called an error correction code (ECC) block. A method of recording data to several ECC blocks is shown in FIG. 1A. In the related art, when data is recorded sequentially, linking can be properly performed by using the last 8-channel bits 100-a of an ECC block before an N-th ECC block 102, where recording starts. Since linking may not start at an exact location due to an error in the number of rotations of a disk during recording, a spare area of ±5T is provided so that recording can start in the spare area. In other words, by providing the spare area of ±5T between an ideal recording start point and a real recording start point, if recording starts anywhere within the spare area, proper recording can be performed.
To follow the above-described linking system, the last 8-channel bits 104-a of the ECC block 104 remains unrecorded so that linking for consecutive recording is properly accomplished.
A conventional consecutive recording method based on the linking system is shown in FIG. 1B. Referring to FIG. 1B, data is recorded in an (N−1)th ECC block 100 excluding the last 8-channel bits 100-a. After the recording of the (N−1)th ECC block 100, while M ECC blocks starting from the N-th ECC block 102 are being recorded, linking occurs in the last 8 channel bits 100-a of the (N−1)th ECC block 100. Only the last 8 channel bits 104-a among the bits of the (N+M−1)th ECC block 100 are unrecorded.
FIG. 1C shows a case where data is recorded in a blank area to which data was not recorded. If an (N−2)th ECC block 110 right before a (N−1)th ECC block 112 where recording starts is a blank block to which data was not recorded, dummy data is recorded in the (N−1)th ECC block 112, and recording of user data starts from an N-th ECC block 114. Here, recording of the dummy data starts from the last 8 channel bits 110-a of the (N−2)th ECC block 110. The last 8-channel bits 116-a of a (N+M−1)th ECC block 116 where recording ends remain unrecorded.
In the related art, a method has been prescribed regarding how linking occurs in a case where consecutive recording is performed on a DVD+RW, while a method has not been prescribed regarding how a linking system is applied if a defective block is generated between ECC blocks where consecutive recording is being performed. Also, a method of consecutive recording and a method of recording data in a blank disk block are specified in the related art, while data overwriting to a disk where data has already been recorded has not been prescribed. Thus, there is a need to prescribe how linking occurs if a defective block is generated and how overwriting is performed.

Optical disk and method of recording data to the same


A system controls the audio focus for a user in a virtual conference call. The system retrieves sound parameters associated with participants in the virtual conference call with the user from a user profile of the user. The sound parameters define volume adjustments to be applied to audio data received from the participants for generating an audio mix customized to the user. The system receives the audio data from client devices of the participants, and for each of the participants, adjusts the audio data of the participant using the associated sound parameter of the participant. The system adds the adjusted audio data of the participants to the audio mix for the user and provides the audio mix to a client device of the user.

In virtual conference calls, the audio data generated by each user is added to an audio mix and transmitted to the users. This allows users in the virtual conference calls to communicate with each other in a natural way, simulating aspects of being present physically present at a physical location. However, the audio mix provided to the users may become muddled when there are many participants in a virtual conference call. Furthermore, the audio data generated by different participants may have different levels of importance to a user.

Customized audio mixing for users in virtual conference calls


A media distribution system is provided in which a primary means of transport for digital media is through a device with housing shaped as an optical disc and insertable into various current and future optical disc drive devices. Media travels from different digital sources such as a personal media library and other networked resources to embedded memory on the optical disc shaped device via a capable personal computer or electronic device. This media is then able to be presented in the most appropriate format in a number of different types of current and legacy devices with optical drives such as CD audio devices and DVD players.

Networks enable computers to share information. Increasingly, this information is entertainment-related media such as movies, music, pictures and print. In the broad sense, a computer network includes not only physical interconnections but also transports data via physical media such as optical discs. Physical media transport is important for reaching devices that do not have access to a physical network. These include low cost or legacy devices such as consumer electronics equipment as well as mobile devices such as portable and automobile based electronics.
In order to enable mobility of digital audio and video, many commercial portable digital players have been developed. These digital media players have internal storage for holding a collection of entertainment-related media files, which allows the devices to hold a subset of the content available from a personal collection and the larger network. These devices generally operate by having the user copy the content on the device itself which is equipped with embedded screens and speakers, and do not easily interface with existing entertainment equipment without separate peripherals.
In general, the potential use of the portable media suffers since there are many environments that cannot access the media libraries on these existing devices without a separately attached peripheral. Some examples of existing inaccessible environments include a TV in the living room, speakers in the car or a legacy portable audio device. Moreover, the peripheral needed in different situations can vary widely.

Distributing media using a portable digital device compatible with optical drive devices