An improved die retaining element has a highly efficient, durable and wear and abrasion resistant flange portion surrounding an opening for securing a die mold therein. The flange portion may have practically any geometric configuration, such as round, but is most effective when in a continuous plane with the powder feed box in sliding contact with a feed box. In particular, the flange portion may selectively have either a high precision tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (TZP) ceramic or zirconia-alumina ceramic composite, depending on the surface material of the feeder box in sliding contact therewith. In one embodiment, the flange portion has tetragonal zirconia polycrystal ceramic and the feeder box has zirconia-alumina ceramic composite sliding surface. In another embodiment, flange portion has a zirconium-alumina ceramic composite sliding portion and the feeder box has a tetragonal zirconia polycrystal ceramic sliding portion.

In compression molding operations, efficient filling of the molds with materials in the powder form has a significant bearing in determining the unit manufacturing cost (UMC). Feeder boxes arc used to carry loose powder to the top of the die where it shakes dropping powder into the die cavity. The die cavity is located underneath the die clamp ring or the die retaining ring. The die cavity is filled by the shaking motion of the feeder box which is connected to a hydraulic actuated cylinder. The feeder box slides on a flat surface called "ware plate" in a reciprocating motion. The time interval between the two extreme locations of the feeder box, when the compacting of the powders in the die cavity is effected. The top surfaces of the ware plate, the die retaining ring and the bottom surface of the feeder box need to be at the same level for the smooth operation of the powder filling mechanism. When the die cavity is filled with powder, it is compressed by the action of punches making a "green part". The proper filling of the die cavity depends, among several other factors, on the sliding motion of the bottom of the feeder box on a plate normally known as feeder box ware plate and also on the die clamp (or retaining) ring. If there is a misalignment of the feeder box with respect to the ware plate and also with respect to the die clamp (or retaining) ring or if there is a slight gap between those components, excessive powder loss results. This problem is magnified if the powder particles are very fine (submicron) or are very hard. In such cases, the jamming of the feeder box (in worst case, breakage of the feeder box or ware plate or die clamp ring) can lead to interruption of the manufacturing process and a higher UMC for the part.
Misalignment of the feeder box with respect to the ware plate and/or with respect to die clamp ring can occur due to gouging of one of the surfaces, which is a common occurrence in industrial compression molding machines where the box and the plate and also the clamp ring are usually made of steels. Repeated sliding of two surfaces of metal parts, as in this specific case of surfaces of feeder box and the ware plate (or die clamp ring), usually leads to excessive wear and abrasion of those surfaces leading to the loss of materials, contaminating the powder feed, and also creating a gap between the box and the plate and also between the feeder box and the die clamp ring. This gap between the feeder box and the ware plate and also between the feeder box and the die clamp ring leads to the loss of powder, and in some cases jamming of the feeder mechanism. Normally, the machine components will begin to show signs of wear at about 5000 cycles of operation. At about one million cycle, the feeder plate will have to be replaced, if not sooner. Powdered material will start leaking out from under the feeder box and falling on the rest of the movable components of the machine making maintenance a large problem. Also, the motion of the feeder box will become agitated and impede the free flowing motion of powder during die filling.
In order to overcome the aforementioned problems one needs to search for the right material. Experience indicates that ytrria-doped tetragonal zirconia polycrystal (Y-TZP) ceramic materials offer many advantages over conventional materials, including many other ceramics. Y-TZP is one of the toughest ceramics. The toughness is achieved at the expense of hardness and strength. Tetragonal zirconia alloy-alumina composite, that is, the product of sintering a particulate mixture of zirconia alloy and alumina, is another tough and relatively soft structural ceramic composite. Y-TZP ceramic and zirconia-alumina composites have tribological properties that are not as attractive as other high performance structural ceramics like SiC and Si.sub.3 N.sub.4. However, most of the conventional high performance ceramics are extremely brittle. An example of a material having good hardness and strength is monolithic cubic spinel, however, this material is also highly brittle and is unusable for structural applications.
It is further known that a powder feed assemblage having a feeder box surface, particularly the lower surface of the box in sliding contact with a ware plate surface and die clamp ring has a longer service life and better performance if made with a relatively hard material having high fracture toughness and the mating surfaces have low coefficient friction.
An alternative approach is taught by U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,913, which is hereby incorporated herein by reference. In that approach, a tetragonal zirconia alloy article, which can be near net-shape, is compacted and then sintered in the presence of an MgO, CaO, Y.sub.2 O.sub.3, Sc.sub.2 O.sub.3, Ce.sub.2 O.sub.3, or other rare earth oxide dopant to produce an article having a tetragonal core and a cubic case. The dopant can be provided in a number of different forms such as a solid plate, a powder, or a layer produced by decomposition of an organo-metallic precursor film. In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/994,820, now abandoned in favor of Continuation-in-Part application Ser. No. 08/231,870, filed Apr. 25, 1994, a method is described for producing articles having a tetragonal zirconia alloy core and a monoclinic case. In U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/994,818, now abandoned in favor of a Continuation-in-Part application U.S. Ser. No. 08/400,416, hereby incorporated by reference, a method is described for producing articles having a tetragonal zirconia alloy and .alpha.-alumina (alpha-Al.sub.2 O.sub.3) core and a case of tetragonal zirconia and cubic spinel. In the core and the case the predominant species is tetragonal zirconia. The application also teaches a method for producing articles having a core that is tetragonal zirconia alloy along with less than about 5 weight percent alumina and having a case that is cubic phase zirconia and cubic spinel (MgAl.sub.2 O.sub.4). a-alumina is about as hard as cubic zirconia. These types of ceramics with composite structures with varying degrees of physical and mechanical properties are termed as "functionally gradient ceramics". In functionally gradient ceramics, where the core and shell of the ceramic bodies having different crystal structures hereby disclosed in above-referenced U.S. Patents and U.S. Patent Applications.
As will be more completely disclosed, the method of our invention applies to a powder feeder assemblage, i.e., a complete set of stationary ware plate, die clamp ring and sliding feeder box bottom surface made of ceramic and ceramic composites, particularly one type member of the assemblage is made of Y-TZP. If the stationary parts are made of Y-TZP, the sliding part is made of either zirconia-alumina composites or of functionally gradient ceramics based on Y-TZP ceramic or ZrO.sub.2 --Al.sub.2 O.sub.3 composites. Proper choices of ceramics in manufacturing these feeder box, die clamp ring and ware plate assembly are essential to overcome the problems described above.
Therefore, a need persists for an apparatus and method of making precision ceramic powder feed assemblies that have superior wear and abrasion resistance while being cost effective and easy to manufacture.


Various embodiments provide a method and apparatus for dynamically allocating resources to processes by using unified resources. In particular, a superVM allows a process from an application to utilize resources (e.g., CPU, memory, and storage) from other VMs. Advantageously, sharing resources of of VMs that are operating below capacity increases cost efficiencies and providing resources without the overhead of spawning new VMs to VMs requiring additional resources increases application performance. Moreover, legacy applications may run utilize resources from multiple VMs without modification.

This section introduces aspects that may be helpful in facilitating a better understanding of the inventions. Accordingly, the statements of this section are to be read in this light and are not to be understood as admissions about what is in the prior art or what is not in the prior art.
In some known IaaS (Infrastructure as a Service) cloud deployment models, the cloud providers provide infrastructure in the form of virtual machines (VMs), and the enterprises deploy their applications on top of them. In some of these models, as the demand of applications increase/decrease, enterprises add or remove VMs as appropriate.

Method and apparatus for providing a unified resource view of multiple virtual machines


The present invention relates to a microorganism of Corynebacterium genus having enhanced L-lysine productivity and a method of producing L-lysine using the same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a recombinant microorganism of Corynebacterium genus having enhanced L-lysine productivity by inactivating endogenous NCgI 1090 gene having the amino acid sequence containing repeated aspartate residues and a method of producing L-lysine using the same.

L-amino acid, in particular L-lysine has been widely used as for animal feeds, as a raw material for medicines and in pharmaceutical industry, and produced by fermentation of the microorganisms of Corynebacterium genus.
Microorganisms of Corynebacterium genus, particularly Corynebacterium glutamicum is a Gram-positive microorganism that are widely used in L-amino acid production. The method of producing L-amino acids using the microorganisms of Corynebacterium genus is very important. So, there have been many attempts made to improve the method.
One of the attempts is to improve the microorganisms of Corynebacterium genus that produces L-amino acid by disrupting specific genes or attenuation expressing specific genes using a recombinant DNA techniques. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,872,553 discloses a method of producing L-lysine of microorganisms of Corynebacterium genus by fermentation which comprises the following steps: a) growing microorganisms of Corynebacterium genus having an attenuated DNA encoding phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) carboxykinase (PCK) by one of the mutation method selected from the group consisting of insertion or one or more base pairs in the DNA, deletion of one or more base pairs in the DNA, transition or transversion of base pairs by introducing a nonsense codon in the DNA or having reduced phosphoenolpyruvate (PEP) carboxykinase (PCK) compared with microorganisms of Corynebacterium genus that are not attenuated; b) concentrating desired L-amino acid product in medium or cells; and c) separating L-amino acid.
In addition, many studies on how each gene involved in L-amino acids biosynthesis affects L-amino acid production by amplifying the genes to develop microorganisms of Corynebacterium genus have been conducted (Eggeling, Amino Acids 6, 261-272 (1994)). Also, microorganisms of Corynebacterium genus can be developed by introducing foreign genes from other bacteria. For example, Japanese Laid-off Patent Publication No. Hei 7-121228 discloses a method of producing L-glutamic acid and L-proline by culturing the microorganism of Corynebacterium genus or Brevibacterium genus that contain recombinant construct between DNA fragment having genetic information involving synthesis of citric acid synthase and vector DNA, and producing L-glutamic acid and L-proline from the cultures.
However, it is still required to produce a strain with enhanced L-lysine productivity, in spite of the above trials.


Systems and methods for detecting and verifying closed places (e.g., claims no longer in business) from trip data are provided. A networked system accesses trip data associated with the POI. The networked system processes the trip data to generate at least two time buckets based on timestamps from the trip data associated with the POI, and calculates trip counts associated with the POI for each of the time buckets. Using a machine learning algorithm and based on the at least two time buckets, the networked system determines that the trip counts show a decline over time that indicates that the POI is likely closed. In response to the determining, the networked system updates a database to indicate the POI is closed.

Various systems maintain a catalog of places of interest (POI) that include a name, address, and in some cases, a geographic coordinate. A constant challenge in maintaining such a catalog is that the POI (e.g., business) may often close or move. In these situations, an update of the catalog is often slow to manifest or may never be updated.

Detecting attribute change from trip data


A method of treating cardiac or myocardial conditions comprises the administration of an effective amount of autologous bone marrow. The bone marrow may optionally be stimulated and/or administered in combination with a pharmaceutical drug, protein, gene or other factor or therapy that may enhance bone marrow production of angiogenic growth factors and/or promote endothelial cell proliferation or migration or blood vessel formation.

The use of recombinant genes or growth-factors to enhance myocardial collateral blood vessel function may represent a new approach to the treatment of cardiovascular disease. Kornowski, R., et al., "Delivery strategies for therapeutic myocardial angiogenesis", Circulation 2000; 101:454–458. Proof of concept has been demonstrated in animal models of myocardial ischemia, and clinical trials are underway. Unger, E. F., et al., "Basic fibroblast growth factor enhances myocardial collateral flow in a canine model", Am J Physiol 1994; 266:H1588–1595; Banai, S. et al., "Angiogenic-induced enhancement of collateral blood flow to ischemic myocardium by vascular endothelial growth factor in dogs", Circulation 1994; 83–2189; Lazarous, D. F., et al., "Effect of chronic systemic administration of basic fibroblast growth factor on collateral development in the canine heart", Circulation 1995; 91:145–153; Lazarous, D. F., et al., "Comparative effects of basic development and the arterial response to injury", Circulation 1996; 94:1074–1082; Giordano, F. J., et al., "Intracoronary gene transfer of fibroblast growth factor-S increases blood flow and contractile function in an ischemic region of the heart", Nature Med 1996; 2:534–9. Most strategies for trans-catheter delivery of angiogenic factors have employed an intracoronary route which may have limitations due to imprecise localization of genes or proteins and systemic delivery to non-cardiac tissue. Thus, it would be desirable to have the capacity for direct delivery of angiogenic factors or genes to precisely defined regions of the myocardium rather than to the entire heart, and to minimize the potential for systemic exposure. Guzman, R. J., et al., "Efficient gene transfer into myocardium by direct injection of adenovirus vectors", Circ Res 1993; 73:1202–7; Mack, C. A., et al., "Biologic bypass with the use of adenovirus-mediated gene transfer of the complementary deoxyribonucleic acid for VEGF-121, improves myocardial perfusion and function in the ischemic porcine heart", J Thorac Cardiovasc Surg 1998;115:168–77.
The effect of direct intra-operative intramyocardial injection of angiogenic factors on collateral function has been studied in animal models of myocardial ischemia. Open chest, transepicardial administration of an adenoviral vector containing a transgene encoding an angiogenic peptide resulted in enhanced collateral function. (Mack et al., supra.) Angiogenesis was also reported to occur with direct intramyocardial injection of an angiogenic peptide or a plasmid vector during open heart surgery in patients. Schumacher, B., et al., "Induction of neoangiogenesis in ischemic myocardium by human growth factors. First clinical results of a new treatment of coronary heart disease", Circulation 1998; 97:645–650; Losordo, D. W., et al., "Gene therapy for myocardial angiogenesis: initial clinical results with direct myocardial injection of phVEGF165 as sole therapy for myocardial ischemia", Circulation 1998; 98:2800.
Despite the promising hope for therapeutic angiogenesis as a new modality to treat patients with coronary artery disease, there is still a huge gap regarding what specific strategy will optimally promote a clinically relevant therapeutic angiogenic response. Moreover, it is unclear which one (or more) out of multiple angiogenic growth factors may be associated with a beneficial angiogenic response. In addition, the use of different tissue delivery platforms, e.g., proteins, adenovirus, or "naked" DNA, to promote the optimal angiogenic response has remained an open issue.

Intramyocardial injection of autologous bone marrow


The air intake for air-breathing engines for supersonic flight velocities, especially ram jet engines and ram rocket engines of missiles, with an essentially rectangular intake contour, has a closing flap covering the said intake contour and an actuating mechanism. The closing flap has a one-piece design and is adapted to the intake contour such that it completely covers the air intake in its closed position, so that all peripheral scarved front edges are covered and thereby protected against erosion as well as against the penetration of foreign bodies.

Various engines whose intakes are provided with closing flaps have been known. For example, the Applicant's of DE-PS 42 35 631 describe a cross section-controlled rectangular air intake, in which a pivotable adjusting ramp, which makes it possible to greatly vary the inlet cross section and consequently the air throughput, is located in the lower part of the intake between plane-parallel side walls. A diffuser part located between the adjusting ramp and an upper, fixed shock wave ramp makes it possible to absorb the inlet head wave in the case of a small internal cross section contraction and consequently to build up an internal supersonic compression. The lower closure of the flow is guaranteed by an auxiliary flap, which extends under the adjusting ramp to a connection web arranged between the side walls. This air intake makes it possible to achieve a low-resistance throughput control at the lowest possible external resistance for the entire range of Mach numbers.
The external and internal geometry of the air intake not only for engines of airplanes but also for engines of missiles is set by the operating conditions. It is, in general, absolutely necessary, especially in the case of missiles started from the air, to close the air inlet before the start of the engine by displaceable parts of the air intake or by closing flaps.


A data transmitter for detecting a reference time stamp for use in reproducing a system clock from a transport packet data of a first transport stream, adding the detected reference time stamp as a header information to the transport packet data, converting the transport packet data and the header information into a second transport stream, and transmitting the second transport stream.

Digital satellite broadcast first begun in the United States in 1994 has entered into a practical stage for actual use after it has propagated to Japan, European nations, and the other countries in 1996. At the same time, there has been advancement in development of high-speed digital interfaces for receiving such digital signals via digital broadcasting, and transferring them isochronously (in real time) to individual receivers. In particular, a serial bus of the IEEE 1394 standard is expected to be the interface suitable for multimedia transmissions dominated primarily by moving video images, for the reason of such advantages as a high data rate and its ability to carry isochronous transmission and asynchronous transmission simultaneously.
Described hereinafter pertains to a transmitter of the prior art for receiving the above-mentioned broadcast and transmitting it to individual receivers via a serial bus, and a receiver of the prior art for receiving transmitted packet data.
The transmitter of the prior art analyzes a transport stream received in it, and detects a reference time stamp transmitted at approximately 100 msec intervals. The reference time stamp is a time reference derived from counting a system clock (27 Mhz) of the broadcasting station.
The transmitter comprises a voltage-controlled oscillator for generating a clock of 27 Mhz, a counter for counting the clock output by the voltage controlled oscillator, and a PLL circuit for latching a counted value of the counter at a timing of which the reference time stamp is detected and controlling an oscillation frequency of the voltage controlled oscillator according to a difference between the latched value and a value of the reference time stamp.
This PLL circuit reproduces a clock of 27 Mhz, which is synchronized with the system clock of the broadcasting station, and the time reference. The transmitter then adds the reproduced reference time stamp and a transmission time stamp as a header information to every packet data transferred via the IEEE-1394 serial bus. Then, the transmitter converts the transport stream received therein into a transport stream of the IEEE-1394, and transmits it to the receiver.
The receiver of the prior art receives the transport stream of the IEEE-1394 transmitted by the transmitter, and detects the transmission time stamp. The receiver restores the transport stream to the original state before the conversion with the detected transmission time stamp, and detects the reference time stamp.
A PLL circuit composed similarly in the receiver, as that of the transmitter, then, reproduces the system clock of 27 Mhz and the time reference.
If the receiver serves as an output device, it decodes the data with this reproduced system clock. On the other hand, if the receiver functions as a recording device, it produces a recording time stamp from the reproduced time reference, and records the time stamp together with the data in a recording medium.
However, both of the above-described data transmitter and the data recording device have a problem that they need to carry a large mass of hardware, as they require the PLL circuit for generating a clock in synchronization with the clock of the broadcasting station, when the data transmitter transmits the data to the data recording device.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


Described are a system and technique to mitigate the impacts of clutter in a radar system. The system and technique require only linear co-polarized measurements can be incorporated into the standard radar signal processing chain without slowing down radar performance.

As is known in the art, in radar, undesirable returns (or echoes) are sometimes referred to as clutter. There are a variety of different types of clutter. Sea clutter, for example, refers to unwanted radar returns generated in response to a radio frequency (RF) signal being redirected from the sea. Sea clutter returns are highly dependent on many variables, including, but not limited to environmental parameters, radar parameters and geometric parameters.
Maritime surveillance radars face the challenge of seeing relatively small objects (i.e. objects which are small as compared to the radar field of view) against backscatter from water (i.e. sea clutter). Sea clutter poses unique challenges for maritime radars at all angles of incidence, but especially for radars directed towards water at a near-horizontal incidence angle (e.g. radars looking out to sea). In such low grazing-angle (LGA) geometries, the typical probability distribution assumptions underlying conventional constant false alarm rate (CFAR) detection do not hold. As a result, the false alarm rate of CFAR detectors may increase so dramatically that trackers may be inundated with spurious detections. False alarms on LGA sea clutter can look object-like and can persist for several seconds. The false alarm problem becomes more prevalent for finer range resolution (i.e. higher bandwidth) waveforms. LGA sea clutter is also a temporally non-stationary and spatially inhomogeneous process, rendering statistical solutions to the CFAR-in-LGA-sea clutter problem difficult to realize.
As is also known, polarization is an underutilized dimension of signal information in radar. This is true for surveillance radar in general and for maritime surveillance radar in particular. Fully polarimetric radars are still largely experimental due, at least in part, to perceptions of their complexity and expense. Nevertheless, mitigation of LGA sea clutter through the use polarimetric information has been suggested. Much of the work on LGA sea clutter, including in the polarimetric regime, often relies upon impractical assumptions regarding the statistical nature of the clutter and/or of the target. Even approaches that make the fewest such assumptions have not been shown to be robust across radar and environmental parameters.

System and technique for mitigation of clutter in radar


A method of forming a heating element for use with a steering wheel includes (i) forming a first heating part of a heating element which is coated in a longitudinal direction of the rim along an inner diameter portion of the rim by continuously connecting loops having the same shape, (ii) forming a second heating part of the heating element which is coated in the longitudinal direction of the rim along an outer diameter portion of the rim by continuously connecting loops having the same shape, (iii) forming a third heating part of the heating element which is coated in the longitudinal direction of the rim by continuously connecting loops having the same shape between the first heating part and the second heating part; and (iv) adjusting an electrical resistance of the heating element according to a coating width or thickness of the conductive paste.

Technical Field
The present invention relates to a steering wheel including a heating element, and more particularly, to a steering wheel including a heating element which may minimize a temperature deviation felt by a driver by heating an entire surface of a rim to a uniform temperature. The present invention also relates to a steering wheel including a heating element which may continuously generate heat even though a portion of the heating element is cracked or is electrically disconnected, minimize an increase in a diameter of the steering wheel although the heating element is employed, and directly transfer a transfer film, on which an aesthetic decoration pattern such as a wood pattern is printed, onto a surface of the heating element.
Background Art
A steering wheel is a driver-manipulated element of a steering system of a vehicle. Many studies have been conducted with regard to the steering wheel for improving its esthetic appearance, convenience of holding, use of functional elements therewith, etc. In particular, when starting to drive a vehicle in winter, a temperature of a steering wheel is lower than that of a human body, which affects the driver and might pose a safety-related problem. Accordingly, various apparatuses for heating a steering wheel to a temperature greater than that of a human body have been studied.
In a conventional technique for heating a steering wheel as disclosed in Korean Utility Model Application No. 1989-0020599, Korean Patent Application No. 1992-0000945, and Korean Utility Model Application No. 1996-16958, heating coils 3 are buried in a rim portion 10 of a steering wheel as shown in FIG. 1.
In order to bury the heating coils 3, as shown in FIG. 2, an insulating covering material 2 is coated around a core 1 and the heating coils 3 are bonded to an outer circumferential surface of the insulating covering material 2. Afterwards, a surface of the rim portion 10 is finished using a finishing member 4 such as a synthetic resin.
In another method of burying the heating coils 3, as disclosed in Korean Utility Model Registration Application No. 1996-066213 (FIG. 3), after winding a heating wire 5 in a coil shape on an outer circumferential surface of the core 1, a surface of the heating wire 5 is finished by using a synthetic resin mold 6.
However, as shown in FIG. 2, when the heating coils 3 are fixed around the outer circumferential surface of the insulating covering material 2, it is quite difficult to arrange the thin heating coils 3 at uniform intervals in a working process, and a temperature deviation between areas in the rim portion 10 occurs in practice due to irregular distances between the heating coils 3.
Also, as shown in FIG. 3, when the heating wire 5 is wound in a coil shape, a temperature deviation may also occur due to irregular winding gaps, and, in particular, since only one heating wire 5 is wound, when the heating wire 5 breaks during a working process, it is necessary to replace and re-wind the entire heating wire 5 again. Also, when the heating coils 3 or the heating wire 5 is buried as described above, it takes a certain period of time for heat to be transferred from the heating coils 3 or the heating wire 5 to a surface of the rim portion 10.
A plane heater 14 for a steering wheel is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Application No. 2007-290685 (FIG. 4). In the plane heater 14, heating wires 17 are fixed to a supporter 16 formed of a nonwoven material. FIG. 5 is a photograph of an actual plane heater 14, and FIG. 6 is a photograph showing a steering wheel including the plane heater 14. As shown in FIG. 6, the plane heater 14 is mounted on an outer circumference of a rim of the steering wheel. The plane heater 14 provides a cushioning effect when a driver holds the steering wheel since the supporter 16 of the plane heater 14 is formed of a nonwoven material.
However, when the plane heater 14 is used, a thickness (diameter) of the steering wheel is increased due to the supporter 16 formed of a nonwoven material. Also, the steering wheel is finished by covering an actual wood 20 or a leather to protect the plane heater 14 and to gentrify a decoration. In this case, a thickness of the steering wheel is further increased.
The Cubic Printing (Curl-fit) method for a rim of a steering wheel of a vehicle disclosed in Korean Patent Registration No. 10-0472399 of the current inventor may not be applied to the plane heater 14 having a rough surface as described above. That is, a transfer film, on which a wood pattern for an esthetic decoration of the steering wheel is printed, may not be directly transferred onto the rough surface of the plane heater 14. For a decoration of the steering wheel, as shown in FIG. 6, after processing a wood piece 20, the processed wood piece 20 must be applied to the plane heater 14 (after processing two pieces of woods having a semi-circle shape, the two pieces of woods are joined to surround the surface of the plane heater 14).
In this case, the manufacture of the steering wheel is time-consuming, and thus, expensive. Also, due to the low thermal conductivity of the wood piece 20, the overall thermal conductivity of the steering wheel is reduced, and accordingly, heat of the plane heater 14 may not be efficiently utilized.

Method for forming a heating element for use with a steering wheel


A process for the removal of cyanides from contaminated oily solid waste performed by utilizing a single processing zone wherein multiple processing steps are carried out to remove contaminants. The steps include loading a contaminated oily solid waste into a zone where the solid is reduced in size, adjusting the pH of the oily solid waste, dewatering or deoiling the oily solid waste and drying the resulting solid, extracting the resulting dried solid with organic solvent, and further drying the extracted solid to remove residual moisture, cyanide, solvent, and volatile organics.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention pertains to a process for the removal of cyanides from a cyanide-contaminated oily solid.
2. Description of the Related Art
One of the basic problems of a solvent extraction process for the decontamination of oily solid wastes is the high cyanide content remaining on the solid following solvent extraction, which content exceeds Best Demonstrated Available Technology (BDAT) standards required by the EPA. Thermal desorption, the other leading alternative for on-site waste treatment, also cannot effectively eliminate cyanides.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,239,620 discloses cyanide removal from wastewaters. The method involves contacting an activated solid upstream of a wastewater treating plant with a concentrated cyanide bearing wastewater stream at a low pH within the range of 3-6. This process, however, fails to address removing cyanides from solids.
It would be highly desirable to remove cyanides from refinery oily solid to meet BDAT standards set by the EPA so that this solid can be sent to a Class 1 landfill, or to an on-site backfill.

Cyanide removal from oily solid using a solvent extraction process


A method and an apparatus for testing night vision are disclosed. At least one visual mark is presented to a test person having an open pupil from a distance of several meters. The visual mark is configured as a light point, and a visual impression of the test person is determined by means of the visual mark. The apparatus comprises means for opening a pupil of a test person, in particular a darkened room. An examination position for the test person and a presentation apparatus for visual marks arranged at a distance of several meters from the examination position are also provided. The presentation apparatus comprises at least one point-shaped light source. A light beam thereof is directed towards the examination position. Means are provided for determining a visual impression of the test person with the help of the visual marks.

The refractive properties of an eye depend, inter alia, from the pupil diameter. This means that a refraction measurement that was carried out under normal light conditions is longer valid for poor light conditions because the size of the pupil has increased. If, therefore, a person owns a spectacle that was optimized for daylight, the visual acuity at twilight, and, in particular during night driving in a vehicle, may be reduced because the spectacle is not optimized for these light conditions. As a consequence, it may happen that persons see very well at daytime, be it with or without a spectacle, whereas they are almost blind at night because the daytime refraction of their eyes is entirely different from their nighttime refraction.
In the prior art several methods and apparatuses have already been suggested for testing the visual behavior during twilight and in the darkness. Other phenomena are related thereto, like adaptation, i.e. the ability of the eye to adapt itself more or less quickly from bright ambient conditions to dark conditions.
For measuring the visual impression, in particular the visual acuity of an eye, subjective as well as objective approaches are known. The visual impression comprises the entire perception of the test person, i.e. including potential peripheral limitations in the field of his/her vision (tunnel vision) and limited areas of vision loss within the field of vision (skotoma). The visual acuity is related solely to the sharp vision, i.e. the recognition of details, independent from the above limitations.
With the subjective approach certain visual marks are presented to the test person for him/her to look at through a test spectacle into which test spectacle lenses are inserted one after the other by an examination person. The test person then informs the examination person with which test spectacle lens he/she can best see the visual mark, in particular in the sharpest way. Accordingly, the subjective ruling of the test person influences the examination.
With the objective approach, in contrast, one, for example, measures the refraction of the eye without any interaction with the test person, for example with a wavefront analyzer. This method, accordingly, results in an objectively optimum result which, however, in practice is not always congruent with the subjective impression of the test person. Therefore, both methods are often combined in order to achieve an optimum result.
In the field of apparatuses for measuring the vision of an eye, one distinguishes between those, in which the test person sits freely in a room and looks at visual marks appearing at a distance of several meters, further those configured as box-type tabletop devices into which the test person looks through two eyepieces, and finally those which the test person carries as goggles or helmets. The two last-mentioned apparatuses have the disadvantage that they may result in a so-called device-myopia because the test person does not look under normal conditions.
From German patent specification 30 03 588 C2 it is known to test twilight vision, flare stability and adaptation ability by means of an apparatus in which certain visual marks of predetermined brightness are projected onto a screen at predetermined ambient brightness. The test person is located at a distance of at least three meters from the screen. The visual marks are of known character, and are, for example, configured as Landolt rings. With such an apparatus a precise examination and determination of night visual acuity is impossible.
From U.S. Pat. No. 3,328,113 a device for testing night vision is known. With this prior art device peripheral light points are presented to the test person as visual marks. The light points are generated by means of a flickering light source and a rotatable aperture disk arranged in front thereof in connection with radial slits in the front plate of the device. The aperture disk is provided with openings of different diameter in the range of between 0.6 and 14 mm having different distances from the aperture disk axis of rotation. In this way one can present light points of different size and different distance from the axis of rotation by rotating the aperture plate arranged immediately behind the radial slits. A chin rest for the test person is arranged at about 40 cm in front of the device. With this prior art device one can, therefore, also just test the vision at darkness. A visual acuity measurement is not provided.
Besides the above, the prior art also describes tabletop devices (German disclosure document DE 23 21 570; U.S. Pat. No. 5,870,168; Japanese disclosure document JP 2001-087225 A) as well as helmet- or goggle-type apparatuses (German disclosure document DE 43 26 760 A1; German patent specification DE 197 29 102 C2) used, inter alia, for testing twilight vision, however use conventional visual marks, and, some of them flaring means for testing adaptation capability.

Apparatus and method for testing night vision


The present invention is directed to a disposable absorbent article. The disposable absorbent article of the present invention includes: a topsheet, a backsheet combined with the topsheet, a fluid storage layer disposed between the topsheet and backsheet and having a body-facing surface and a garment-facing surface opposing the body-facing surface. The disposable absorbent article further includes an odor/antimicrobial reduction layer disposed either between the topsheet and the fluid storage layer or between the backsheet and the fluid storage layer. The odor/antimicrobial reduction layer contains an odor/antimicrobial material. The odor/antimicrobial reduction layer has a predetermined pattern of the odor/antimicrobial material.

A wide variety of disposable absorbent articles are designed not only to be efficient in the absorption of body fluids such as urine, blood, menses and the like, but also to be sanitary and comfortable in-use, are known in literature. Disposable absorbent products of this type generally comprise a fluid-permeable topsheet material, an absorbent core (or a fluid storage layer), and a fluid-impermeable backsheet material. Various shapes, sizes and thicknesses of such articles have been explored in an attempt to make their use more comfortable and convenient.
For some time now, studies for such disposable absorbent articles have been primarily focused on the absorptive capacity of the article. As a result, various absorbent polymers with high absorptive power have been developed. Such known superabsorbent materials (also known as hydrogel-forming absorbent polymers) are capable of absorbing from about 30 to 60 grams of water per gram of polymer.
More recently, research has been focused on the removal of foul odors and the prevention of skin diseases such as dermatitis, rash and redness caused by wearing a disposable absorbent article for a relatively long time. Many body fluids have an unpleasant odor (or an malodor), or develop such an odor when in contact with air and/or bacteria for prolonged periods. Additionally, urine and/or other exudates absorbed into the absorbent article are converted to ammonia by urease produced by skin-flora, i.e., a group of normal microorganisms on the skin. This ammonia, in turn, may cause dermatitis, rash and/or other forms of skin irritation. Such disease of the skin in infants can be a serious medical matter which, in extreme cases, can result in death.
Antimicrobial materials and bactericides in general are chemical compositions that are used to prevent microbiological contamination and deterioration of products, materials, and systems. Such antimicrobial materials and bactericides can also effectively work for the removal or reduction of foul odors developed from disposable absorbent articles which has already absorbed body fluids. However, depending on the manner of the application of antimicrobial materials or bactericides in disposable absorbent articles, it is found that such antimicrobial materials and bactericides tend to affect the absorptive capacity of disposable absorbent articles.
For example, Japanese Patent (Kokoku) Publication No. H4-17058 discloses a disposable diaper which includes an absorbent layer containing a superabsorbent material and a antimicrobial material included in the superabsorbent material. Similarly, Japanese Patent (Kokai) Publication No. 145-277143 discloses a disposable diaper which includes a superabsorbent material containing an odor reduction material. Metalphthalocyanine derivatives are disclosed in H5-277143 as examples of the odor reduction material. Further, Japanese Patent (Kokai) Publication No. S64-25856 discloses a sanitary napkin which includes an absorbent sheet including a superabsorbent material and a metalphthalocyanine derivative as an odor reduction material. In those structures disclosed, the antimicrobial or odor reduction material is in contact with the superabsorbent material, as a result, the absorptive capacity of the superabsorbent material tends to be decreased because of the existence of the antimicrobial or odor reduction material.
To prevent the antimicrobial materials and/or bactericides from affecting the absorptive capacity of disposable absorbent articles, it is preferred that the antimicrobial materials and/or bactericides is provided in a layer which is isolated from the superabsorbent material. However, the antimicrobial materials and/or bactericides tend to be expensive and increase the manufacturing cost of the disposable absorbent articles, therefore, an appropriate (and a minimum) amount of the antimicrobial materials and/or bactericides needs to be used while providing an effective odor and/or antimicrobial reduction function. Further, it is not generally easy in the manufacturing process to control the total amount of the antimicrobial materials and/or bactericides which is applied to a component material(s) of disposable absorbent articles.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for disposable absorbent articles which have an effective odor and/or antimicrobial reduction function with a minimum manufacturing cost increase. Further, there is also a need for disposable absorbent articles which have a structure that can easily control the total amount of odor and/or antimicrobial reduction material applied thereto.

Disposable absorbent article having a patterned odor/antimicrobial reduction layer


A method to trace a variable or other expression through a computer program is disclosed. A user determines the variable and the conditions upon which activity of the variable will be monitored. As a result of the invention, every time that variable is referenced in a memory operation or other activity by the program and the conditions set forth by the user are satisfied, the state of that variable is saved as a snapshot without interrupting or stopping execution of the program. The snapshots are accumulated in a history table. The history table can be retrieved and the state of the variable in any given snapshot can be restored. Other variables and expressions can be attached to the trigger variable and the states of these other variables at the time of the activity of the trigger variable may also be saved in the snapshot. The method may be incorporated into a program as a tracing device or a program product separate from the logical processing device executing the program.

An important aspect of the design and development of a computer program is debugging intended to locate and identify errors in a computer program under development. Typically, a programmer uses another computer program commonly known as a "debugger" to debug a program under development. Conventional debuggers typically support two primary operations to assist a computer programmer. A first operation supported by conventional debuggers is a "step" function which permits a computer programmer to process instructions, also known as "statements", one at a time in a computer program and see the results of each instruction upon completion. While the step operation provides a programmer with a large amount of information about a program during its execution, stepping through hundreds or thousands of program instructions can be extremely tedious and time consuming. The programmer may be required to step through many program instructions that are already known to be error-free before a set of instructions to be analyzed are executed.
To address this difficulty, a second operation supported by conventional debuggers is a breakpoint operation, which permits a computer programmer to identify a break point. A break point is a precise instruction at which execution of a computer program is halted. As a computer program is executed by a debugger, the program executes in a normal fashion until a breakpoint is reached, stops execution, and displays the results of the computer program to the programmer for analysis.
Step operations and breakpoints are typically used together to simplify the debugging process. Specifically, a common debugging operation is to set a breakpoint at the beginning of a desired set of instructions to be analyzed, and then begin execution of the program undergoing debugging. Execution halts at a breakpoint and the programmer then steps through the desired set of instructions line-by-line using the step operation. Consequently, a programmer is able to quickly isolate and analyze a particular set of instructions without having to step through irrelevant portions of a computer program.
Most breakpoints supported by conventional debuggers are unconditional meaning that once such a breakpoint is reached, execution of the program is always halted. Some debuggers also support the use of conditional breakpoints, which only halt execution of a program when a variable used by the program is set to a predetermined value at the time such a breakpoint is reached. One significant drawback to conventional breakpoints results from the fact that some instructions in a computer program are executed fairly often for different purposes, and may result in many needless stoppages before a desired stoppage is encountered. This problem is especially pronounced in object-oriented programming (OOP) and other highly modular languages where a single general purpose portion of a computer program may be executed in a number of different situations for different purposes.
With an object-oriented programming language, for example, a program is constructed from a number of "objects," each of which includes data and/or one or more sets of instructions, often referred to as routines or methods that define specific operations that can be performed on the data. A large number of objects may be used to build a computer program with each object interacting with other objects in the computer program to perform desired operations. When one object invokes a particular routine in another object, the former object is often said to be calling the routine in the latter object. Some general purpose objects in a computer program may support basic operations, e.g., displaying information to a user, printing information on a printer, storing or retrieving information from a database, etc. Particularly, these generic type of objects are called by many different objects so that placing a conventional breakpoint in a routine of one of these common generic objects will result in hundreds of unwanted stoppages prior to occurrence of a desired stoppage. Thus, context sensitive breakpoints can be set in certain debuggers to retrieve the sequence of routines in the computer program that are called just prior to reaching the breakpoint, such as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,312 entitled "Apparatus, Program Product and Method of Debugging Utilizing a Context Sensitive Breakpoint" issued 20, Jun. 2000, commonly owned by the assignee and herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. Context sensitive breakpoints locate the specific calls in other objects that relate to the desired stoppage in a particular object. This eliminates the extremely time consuming and tedious task of setting each breakpoint and eliminates the risk that not all relevant calls are located so not all desired circumstances for inducing stoppages may be recognized during debugging.
But, setting breakpoints and halting execution of a program undergoing debugging is still onerous. Significant time is spent going through the breakpoints, whether the breakpoints are general or are context specific, as above. Merely watching breakpoints, moreover, does not solve the problem of determining the dynamics of an executing program in which variables and other expressions stored in a memory location may constantly change. These changing variables, moreover, may have either a direct or an indirect impact on other variables and other computer expressions. The state of the art of debugging and trace programs, therefore, simply does not permit a dynamic program to continue to execute while recording only the impact of the program's execution resulting from changes of state of specified computer expressions.
Therefore, a significant need continues to exist for an improved manner of debugging computer programs, specifically in the area of identifying specific variables or memory locations which are used by the program undergoing debugging, and being able to restore the state of those memory locations at different points in the program.

Storing and restoring snapshots of a computer process

International Business Machines Corporation


An AED includes a housing. Electronic circuitry is disposed in the housing for delivery of an electric shock to a stricken patient. A removable battery pack is selectively, operably, communicatively coupled to the electronic circuitry. The battery pack has an anticipatory detector for generating an anticipatory signal to the electronic circuitry. The signal indicates to the electronic circuitry that the disengagement of the battery pack from the AED is imminent. The present invention further includes a method for ensuring that the high voltage storage circuits of the AED are safely discharged prior to disengaging the battery pack from the AED.

There is a need in the industry for a battery pack for use with an AED. Preferably, the battery pack should have the following characteristics. The battery pack should be removably coupled to the AED. When coupled to the AED, the battery pack should be held semi-rigidly in place such that virtually no relative motion occurs between the battery pack and the AED. Additionally, the battery pack should be held securely in place once joined to the AED so that it is very unlikely that the battery pack will become inadvertently disengaged from the AED.
An AED typically uses integral batteries to power various electronic components of the AED and to generate the very high voltages necessary for shocking a patient. The AED has the capability of delivering very high voltage impulses to a stricken patient. Such voltages may exceed 2,000 volts. The high voltages are typically developed from the relatively low voltage battery by charging a capacitor bank prior to delivery of the shock to the patient. Removal of the battery pack from the AED removes power from the electronic components that provide control to the capacitor bank. If the battery is removed from the AED when the capacitors are charged to the high voltage, there is no control remaining over the ultimate discharge of the capacitors. Accordingly, in addition to the aforementioned characteristics, there is a need to sense the imminent removal of the battery from the AED and, while there is still power to the various electronic components and control remaining, to safely discharge the capacitors.

AED and battery pack with anticipatory battery disengagement detection


This is directed to systems and methods for integrating hotel services in a single application available to a portable electronic device. Using the single application, a user can access and control hotel services before arriving at the hotel, upon arriving at the hotel, in the hotel room, in the local vicinity, and after leaving the hotel. Such services can include, for example, checking-in and checking out, purchasing in-room dining or in-room entertainment, making reservations at local restaurants or local attractions, scheduling hotel guest reminders, and controlling room setting either within the room or outside of the room.

As travelers stay in hotels or locations other than their homes, many interactions between the travelers and the hotels can take place. For example, a traveler can interact with a hotel to make a reservation, check-in, order room service, control room settings, use a concierge to identify attractions of interest in the vicinity, purchase entertainment options, check-out, and schedule subsequent aspects of a trip (e.g., order a taxi, reserve a rental car, or check-in to a flight). All of these interactions can require distinct actions from the user from different devices or elements. For example, a user can call to make a reservation, check-in in-person upon reaching the hotel, order entertainment using a menu available from a television screen, identify attractions from a telephone or through an in-person conversation with a concierge, and check-out by receiving a receipt slipped underneath the user's door.
Although this combination of approaches for interacting with the hotel and with the available hotel services can be serviceable, it remains cumbersome and requires the hotel to accommodate all of the possible forms of interaction. From a user's perspective, the lack of centralization of interactions with the hotel and with the available hotel services can require more effort from the user wishing to take advantage of hotel services, and perhaps even dissuade the user from using available hotel services (thus at a cost to the hotel).

Systems and methods for accessing hotel services using a portable electronic device


The present invention relates to water dispersible granular compositions comprising a dinitroaniline herbicide and a dispersion enhancing agent and to a process for the preparation of said compositions. Such compositions are storage stable and contain desirable dispersion properties.

Water dispersible granules (WDG's) are becoming increasingly important in the formulation of agricultural compositions because they are more safely handled and environmentally friendly. For example, chemical spills of WDG's are easily cleaned, no toxic solvents are present in the WDG formulation, and it is possible to package WDG's in water soluble packaging, thus reducing user exposure.
The typical processes for making WDG's are pan granulation, spray drying, fluid bed granulation, and mixing agglomeration. The choice of which process to use depends on several factors, including the physical and chemical properties of the active ingredient(s), environmental and safety aspects, and volume and packaging requirements.
Pan granulation produces compositions having good dispersibility and can be used for low-melt, active ingredients. The disadvantage of pan granulation is that the granules are often dusty, and the size distribution of the granule is difficult to control. Spray drying produces compositions in high volume and good dispersibility, however the bulk density of the product is usually low and it is difficult to spray dry low-melt, active ingredients. Fluid bed granulation has basically the same advantages/disadvantages as spray drying, while mixing agglomeration has similar advantages/disadvantages as pan granulation.
The inert components of a typical prior art WDG formulation include a wetting agent, a suspension agent, a disintegrating agent and a carrier. Some commonly used wetting agents are sodium dioctyl sulfosuccinate, sodium dodecylbenzyl sulfonate, sodium lauryl sulfonate. Suspension agents are usually high molecular weight ionic compounds such as alkyl naphthalene sulfonates or lignosulfonates. Salts, such as sodium chloride, sodium sesquicarbonate, and sodium acetate are often used as disintegrating aids. A wide range of carriers can be used. The most commonly used carriers are kaolin, diatomite, attapulgite, montmorillonite, bentonite and calcite.
Dinitroaniline herbicides, which are useful for the selective control of certain grasses and broadleaf weeds, have typically been formulated as emulsifiable concentrates, flowables, wettable powders or the like, which are diluted in a tank mix. These formulations, however, require handling, measuring and mixing prior to application. Attempts have been made, therefore, to prepare granular formulations which do not require the additional handling and attendant exposure before application to the soil.
Conventional dispersible granular compositions containing dinitroaniline herbicides have been difficult to prepare. Such herbicides, which are solid at room temperature but have melting points below 100.degree. C., have a tendency to cake, fuse or lump up when stored at or exposed to elevated temperatures, due to the excessive softening or partial melting of the herbicides. Moreover, they are often dusty and may cause staining.
In general, the above referred-to conventional dispersible granular compositions are prepared by blending and milling the appropriate amount of the selected dinitroaniline herbicide, a conventional inert carrier and one or more wetting and/or suspension agent(s), and optionally a disintegrating agent, followed by granulating the blend in the appropriate equipment using a binder solution as the granulating agent.
Efforts to produce stable granular formulations of such dinitroaniline herbicides without the drawbacks discussed above, and capable of uniform distribution, have been tried (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,019,155). Efforts to prepare water dispersible granular compositions containing dinitroaniline herbicides with increased thermal stability have also been tried (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,511,395). Efforts to improve dispersibility of a dinitroaniline-containing herbicidal composition in a solvent-free, WDG formulation, however, continue.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a solvent-free, water dispersible granular composition with improved dispersion properties.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a water dispersible granular composition comprising a novel dispersion enhancing agent.
It is another object of this invention to produce a non-dusting, non-staining, water dispersible granular composition having granules of substantially uniform size and density.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide storage stable water dispersible granular compositions.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a novel method for producing water dispersible granular compositions.
These and other objects of the invention will become more evident in the detailed description that follows.

Water dispersible granular herbicidal compositions comprising dinitroaniline herbicides, montmorillonite carrier, and a base


The invention comprises a steering gear for an automotive vehicle having a rotary valve mechanism that controls pressure distribution to a fluid motor that establishes a power assist during steering maneuvers, pressure reaction pistons being provided to establish a resistance to relative movement of the rotary valve elements, and a modulator valve in the steering system for establishing a variable pressure on the reaction pistons wherein provision is made for changing the pressure modulating characteristics of the modulator valve depending upon vehicle speed.

My invention comprises improvements in a power steering gear of the kind disclosed in my pending application Ser. No. 046,701, filed April 16, 1993, which is a continuation-in-part of my patent application Ser. No. 811,963, filed Dec. 23, 1991, entitled "Electronic Power Assist Control" now abandoned. Both of these patent applications are assigned to the assignee of the present invention.
As in the case of the power steering gear disclosed in my co-pending application Ser. No. 046,701, the steering gear of my present invention comprises a fluid motor for actuating dirigible wheels of a motor vehicle. Steering pressure for the fluid motor is developed by a power steering pump driven by the vehicle engine. A rotary valve assembly is used to control pressure distribution from the pump to the motor to effect a power steering assist in either direction during turning maneuvers. The rotary valve assembly has an inner valve member connected mechanically to the steering shaft and a rotary valve sleeve surrounding the inner valve member. The valve sleeve is connected mechanically to the driven portions of the steering gear mechanism as steering torque is delivered to the dirigible wheels. A torsion bar resiliently resists relative angular displacement of the sleeve and the inner valve member.
The valve assembly comprises registering valve lands on the inner valve member and in the sleeve. The valve lands cooperate to control pressure distribution from the pump to either of two sides of a double-acting piston of a fluid motor. Pressure developed in the pressure passage connecting the pump with the motor is distributed to each of two pressure working chambers defined in part by the double-acting piston. When the pressure in one working chamber increases and the pressure in the other working chamber decreases, the vehicle is adapted to turn in one direction. Upon a reversal in the direction of the pressure differential in the fluid motor, the steering direction reverses.
Effective flow area across the valve lands of the rotary valve mechanism changes as steering torque is applied. Since the flow delivered by the pump is constant regardless of pump speed, the pressure differential developed in either one working chamber or the other is a function of the reciprocal of the square of the effective flow area across the valve lands. This characteristic is described in my co-pending application identified above.
A vehicle speed sensitive steering gear is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,736. The relationship between torque applied to the input shaft and the steering pressure developed in the fluid motor of the '736 patent can be changed by a vehicle speed sensitive valve arrangement in which a parallel flow path from the pump to the valve system is established at high speeds, thereby making the pressure sensitive to changes in torque. As the vehicle speed increases, the flow through the parallel flow circuit is increased thereby providing a reduced power assist at high speeds.
In a steering system such as that shown in prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,736, it is necessary to overcome the effect of lateral acceleration during a turning maneuver at any given speed. Thus, the steering assist during straight ahead driving at a given speed will be less than the steering assist that is available during a turning maneuver at that same speed because the effort that must be applied to the steering shaft must be greater during the turning maneuver in order to overcome the effects of lateral acceleration of the vehicle. This increased force results in an increase in steering pressure. The vehicle operator compensates for the change in steering effort that is required to execute a turning maneuver compared to the steering effort that is required for steering corrections at the same vehicle speed during straight ahead driving.
The steering system described in my co-pending application provides a different steering characteristic than that which is described in prior art U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,736. The resistance to steering effort in the design of my co-pending application is determined by a modulated steering pressure that acts on reaction pistons. This opposes relative movement of the steering valve elements. The steering pressure then will increase linearly during torque increases. A pressure modulator valve is actuated when the steering pressure reaches a calibrated value. The output of the modulator valve then is distributed to the reaction pistons. At any steering torque in excess of the value that triggers the operation of the modulator valve, the differential steering pressure resulting from an incremental increase in steering torque will increase at a greater rate. This change from one pressure/torque relationship to the other is characterized by a so-called breakpoint.
When the vehicle is operated at high speeds and the steering torque increases to a value greater than a calibrated value, the steering pressure applied to the reaction pistons increases at a reduced rate, thereby reducing the torque increase for a given steering pressure increase.

Variable assist power steering gear with hydraulic reaction controls


A brew basket is disclosed for use with conventional coffee makers of the type found in offices, hotels and restaurants. The brew basket is configured to receive ground coffee in the form of a compressed wafer and provides increased extraction of coffee solids from compressed coffee wafers and a significant reduction in extraction time. The basket has a relatively shallow profile and is dimensioned so that when the brew basket is mounted on the coffee maker, substantially the entire upper surface of the compressed wafer disposed in the brew basket is wetted by the hot water discharged from the spray head of the coffee maker. In addition the basket is dimensioned to maintain a water level in the brew basket sufficient to at least partially submerge the compressed wafer during extraction, to further increase extraction efficiency.

Coffee making machines, in which hot water is supplied to infuse ground coffee, are widely used in food service establishments, such as offices, hotels and restaurants. In such coffee making machines a brew basket in which a pre-measured quantity of ground coffee is disposed, is slidably mounted on the bottom wall of an upper housing of the coffee maker directly below a spray head that discharges hot water from a heated tank within the device in a downwardly diverging conical pattern onto the ground coffee in the bottom of the brew basket. Typically, a pair of opposed guide brackets on the bottom wall of the upper housing of the coffee maker support the brew basket by means of a marginal rim around the upper edge of the basket so that the upper edge of the brew basket is centrally disposed under the spray head.
Usually, a conventional brew basket has a frusto-conical shape, having a height of about 7 to 12 cm or more with the bottom wall of the basket is being provided with an outlet for brewed coffee. Conventional brew baskets typically have several internal peripheral steps for supporting a filter paper cone on which the ground coffee to be infused is disposed. In the past, loose ground coffee has usually been used such coffee making machines, with the ground coffee either being transferred from a bulk container or from a pre-measured packet. Recently, in order to facilitate the use of such coffee makers and to reduce the inconvenience of handling and storing packages of loose ground coffee, tablets or wafers of compressed ground coffee have been developed, with such compressed wafers containing a pre-measured quantity of ground coffee. While convenient to use, such compressed coffee wafers have not been particularly well suited for use in conventional brew baskets of commercial coffee makers. Compressed coffee wafers, when placed in the bottom of a conventional brew basket, do not provide brewed coffee of equivalent strength to that obtained by use of the same amount of ground coffee in loose form. This has required persons who desire the convenience of use of compressed coffee wafers to accept coffee of less than a desired strength, or to use wafers containing additional amounts of ground coffee in an attempt to obtain brewed coffee of a desired strength.


Described herein are systems and methods to utilize factual information based on stored blood glucose data to allow greater insight into the management of diabetes of a user.

Glucose monitoring is a fact of everyday life for diabetic individuals. The accuracy of such monitoring can significantly affect the health and ultimately the quality of life of the person with diabetes. Generally, a diabetic patient measures blood glucose levels several times a day to monitor and control blood sugar levels. Failure to test blood glucose levels accurately and on a regular basis can result in serious diabetes-related complications, including cardiovascular disease, kidney disease, nerve damage and blindness. There are a number of electronic devices currently available which enable an individual to test the glucose level in a small sample of blood. One such glucose meter is the OneTouch® Profile™ glucose meter, a product which is manufactured by LifeScan.
In addition to glucose monitoring, diabetic individuals often have to maintain tight control over their lifestyle, so that they are not adversely affected by, for example, irregular food consumption or exercise. In addition, a physician dealing with a particular diabetic individual may require detailed information on the lifestyle of the individual to provide effective treatment or modification of treatment for controlling diabetes. Currently, one of the ways of monitoring the lifestyle of an individual with diabetes has been for the individual to keep a paper logbook of their lifestyle. Another way is for an individual to simply rely on remembering facts about their lifestyle and then relay these details to their physician on each visit.
The aforementioned methods of recording lifestyle information are inherently difficult, time consuming, and possibly inaccurate. Paper logbooks are not necessarily always carried by an individual and may not be accurately completed when required. Such paper logbooks are small and it is therefore difficult to enter detailed information requiring detailed descriptors of lifestyle events. Furthermore, an individual may often forget key facts about their lifestyle when questioned by a physician who has to manually review and interpret information from a hand-written notebook. There is no analysis provided by the paper logbook to distill or separate the component information. Also, there are no graphical reductions or summary of the information. Entry of data into a secondary data storage system, such as a database or other electronic system, requires a laborious transcription of information, including lifestyle data, into this secondary data storage. Difficulty of data recordation encourages retrospective entry of pertinent information that results in inaccurate and incomplete records.
There currently exist a number of portable electronic devices that can measure glucose levels in an individual and store the levels for recalling or uploading to another computer for analysis. One such device is the Accu-Check™ Complete™ System from Roche Diagnostics, which provides limited functionality for storing lifestyle data. However, the Accu-Check™ Complete™ System only permits a limited selection of lifestyle variables to be stored in a meter. There is a no intelligent feedback from values previously entered into the meter and the user interface is unintuitive for an infrequent user of the meter.

Analyte testing method and system with high and low blood glucose trends notification


A compact flash lamp array includes a housing defining a plurality of cavities, each cavity having a light emitting opening and an exhaust vent and containing a combustible mass. A transparent cover is fixed over the light emitting opening and means are provided for individually firing the combustible mass in each cavity. A valve cooperating with the exhaust vents opens the exhaust vent of a cavity in which a combustible mass is fired and closes the cavities containing unfired combustible masses.

Currently available single use cameras with flash illumination are provided with electronic flash. The electronic flash unit is relatively expensive, representing a significant portion on the overall cost of the camera. Although the electronic flash unit may be recovered and recycled a number of times, thereby reducing the effective cost of the electronics, it has been observed that an array of chemical flash lamps could be an attractive alternative to electronic flash in single use cameras and related applications.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,347,053 issued Aug. 31, 1982, to Fohl et al. discloses a flash illumination assembly having a plurality of electrically fired flash lamps located in a circular housing. The combustion products from the individual flash lamps are vented into a common central expansion chamber that is an integral part of the flash lamp array. One problem associated with such an array of flash lamps is that the combustion products emitted from one of the flash lamps into the common central expansion chamber may ignite others of the flash lamps, thereby causing a "chain fire". Another further problem with this arrangement is that combustion products from the fired lamps will enter and fog the unfired lamps.
There is a need therefore for an improved array of flash lamps.


An aerogel matrix composite of a bulk aerogel and fibers dispersed within the bulk aerogel, and a method for preparing the aerogel matrix composite having the steps: Making a first solution by mixing a metal alkoxide with an alcohol; making a second solution by mixing an alcohol, water, and base; mixing the first and second solutions to form a third solution and mixing fibers therewith; aging the third solution containing the fibers to obtain a gelled composition; completely submerging the gelled composition in a liquid suitable for supercritical drying; heating and pressurizing the gelled composition at a rate between about 75.degree. C. per hour to about 500.degree. C. per hour until at least the critical temperature and pressure of at least the major liquid in the gel composition are reached; maintaining at least the critical temperature and pressure for a time sufficient to transform the liquid to a supercritical fluid; and reducing the pressure and temperature to ambient conditions by reducing the pressure at a rate above 500 psi per hour, and maintaining temperature above at least the critical temperature until the critical pressure transition is passed.

Escalating energy costs have lead to increased efforts in exploring more effective insulation materials for windows, houses, water heaters, as well as other appliances and equipment. In recent years, aerogels have been suggested as prospective insulation materials for these applications. Aerogels are a unique class of ultra-low-density (0.1-0.2 g/cc) materials with 90-99 percent porosity; the high porosity, intrinsic pore structure, and low density makes aerogels extremely valuable materials for these applications. Conventional aerogel preparation techniques involve the preparation of a gel that is subsequently dried under supercritical conditions. Monolithic aerogels prepared using these techniques disclosed in the literature are fragile and the preparation process involves complex time-consuming steps.
Alternatively, aerogel powder-fiber compacts (APFC) have also been suggested as prospective thermal insulation materials. APFCs are prepared by a process involving the prefabrication of several ingredients (aerogel powder, fibers, binders), which are later mixed together and compacted to form insulation boards or cloths. The preparation of APFCs, however, requires large amounts of aerogel powder and involves a significant number of steps in the fabrication process. Additionally, the insulating properties of the typical APFCs disclosed previously are inferior to those of the fragile, monolithic aerogels.
Related U.S. Pat. Nos. include: 2,808,338; 2,945,817; 3,629,116; 3,869,334; 4,402,927; 4,447,345; and 4,610,863. Related European patents include: EP 018,955 (1980) and EP 382,310 (1990). British patent application 2,141,418 discloses a process for the production of carbon containing materials having ultrafine grains. The patent further discloses producing a very dense body containing carbon by placing carbon fibers in a silica aerogel and chemically depositing carbon in the vapor phase into the silica aerogel to form a dense body with high thermal conductivity.


The present invention provides nanoparticle dispersion for topical delivery to skin of a mammal. The nanoparticle dispersion includes: a sorbitan ester surfactant; one or more poly(ethoxylate) surfactants, one or more lipids; and ibuprofen. Methods of preparing various water continuous dispersion of nanoparticles are also provided.

It is often the case that poorly water-soluble pharmacological compounds are difficult to administer to living organisms in an effective manner because of one or more problems including poor bioavailability, too rapid decomposition and excretion, which creates a need for frequent re-dosing, and irritation or tissue damage at the location of introduction.
The bioavailability of poorly water soluble, orally administered drug is a major challenge for the pharmaceutical industry as many newly launched drugs possess low aqueous solubility, which leads to poor dissolution and low absorption. Furthermore, poor solubility results in variability in absorption and lack of dose proportionality. Compounding the problems of poor absorption is the problem that pharmacologically useful compounds may be substantially degraded in the gastrointestinal tract before absorption can occur. Solutions have been proposed including Self-Emulsifying Drug Delivery Systems (SEDDS's), defined as isotropic mixtures of one or more hydrophilic solvents and co-solvents/surfactants that are capable to form fine oil-in-water (o/w) emulsions upon mild agitation and dilution in gastrointestinal fluids, and various types of emulsions or suspensions.
A further problem of oral drug administration is the potential for harm to the gastrointestinal tract. This problem is most commonly associated with non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID's). NSAID's diminish the production of prostaglandins by inhibiting cyclooxygenase enzymes, either COX-1 or COX-2 or both. NSAID's that inhibit COX-1 enzymes interfere with prostaglandin production and blood clotting in the gastrointestinal tract and oral ingestion may lead to gastrointestinal distress and ulceration. For this reason, COX-2 inhibitors have been sought as oral medications. However, COX-2 inhibiting drugs are also associated with increased risk of heart attack and stroke and currently celecoxib is the only COX-2 NSAID available in the United States, and it is available only by prescription. Topical administration is a potential solution for COX-1 inhibiting NSAID's including aspirin (ortho-acetyl salicylic acid), ibuprofen (p-isobutyl 2-propenoic acid), and naproxen ((+)-(S)-2-(6-methoxynaphthalen-2-yl) propanoic acid), which are considered much safer than COX-2 inhibitors and have long been available as over the counter products. Unfortunately, in the United States the only products of these medications are oral forms, and topical products available elsewhere are characterized by poor bioavailability. While it is very desirable to provide COX-1 inhibiting NSAID compounds as topical medications, the only topical NSAID products available in the United States contain diclofenac as the sodium salt dissolved in solvent systems based on propylene glycol, alcohols and dimethylsulfoxide, and are known to cause irritation in significant proportions of patients.
Whether for oral, rectal, intraperitoneal or topical administration, there is a need to improve the usefulness of poorly water soluble high Kow pharmacologically active compounds including NSAID's by improving bioavailability of drug delivery via transmucosal and transdermal routes. For parenteral administration, there is a need to provide effective dispersed forms of poorly water soluble high Kow drugs.
It would be desirable to have liposomal forms of high Kow compounds including NSAID's that are safe, offer high bioavailability, have pharmacologically meaningful concentrations of active compounds, have acceptable organoleptic properties and cosmetically desirable feel, and which are available from simple and reliable manufacturing processes.
A problem with nanoparticle carriers for high pKow, water insoluble drugs is failure to effectively encapsulate the drug in the nanoparticle, resulting in formation of crystals of drug in the product. Crystallization of active pharmaceutical ingredients is unacceptable because a portion of the drug is in a form with lower bioavailability, resulting in diminished efficacy and lack of dose proportionality. Heretofore there are no known nanoparticles which effectively encapsulate ibuprofen as the neutral high pKow, water insoluble compound.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Ibuprofen nanoparticle carriers encapsulated with hermatic surfactant films


A rotary torso comprises: a frame with a base, several supporting columns vertically installed on the base, a U shape railing installed a little bit above the supporting columns, and a U shape handle installed at the top of the supporting columns; a hollow box shape rotating arm, with one rotatable end pivot installed by a shaft bearing at the central bottom of a fixed shaft; a rotating plate, with a rotatable central hub, supported at the rotating shaft at the free end of the rotating arm; and a driving structure installed inside the hollow part of the rotating arm.. The driving structure comprises: a driving sprocket installed at a rotating shaft supported by a shaft bearing at the free end of the rotating arm; a fixed sprocket installed at the fixed shaft on the same plane of the driving shaft; and a driving chain circularly suspended between the driving sprocket and the fixed sprocket, when the rotating plate rotates in one direction, the rotating arm rotates in the opposite direction of the rotating plate by the driving structure with the fixed shaft as a center.. The frame can be partly detached and folded into layers.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a rotary torso, and more particularly to the improvement of a driving structure of a vertical rotary torso.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are various kinds of waist twisting instruments, and the swinging loop and the rotating plates are most common. In Taiwanese Patent No. 166930 (1991), a waist twisting and abdomen tightening body building instrument is disclosed. The driving structure of it consists of the follows. One end of it has a downward cam shaft which can rotate and scarf into the central bearing block of a base. The other end has a horizontal lever (rotating arm) in a bearing block of a upward cam shaft, and via a centrally downward cam shaft, a rotating plate can rotate freely and scarf into an upward bearing block at the other end of the lever. When users hold the handles installed at the protecting railing above the rim of the base, the feet stepping on the rotating plate and the waists twisting, the rotating plate rotates with the free end of the horizontal lever of the bearing block as the center. Meanwhile, the horizontal lever rotates according to body weights and the torque produced by the rotating force of the rotating plate. On the other hand, the rotating plate rotates eccentrically to the center of the base, and simultaneously rotates around the center of the base. This kind of theory of motion is very common in children's playing instruments in the scientific museum and the rotating cup in the fun fair.
However, to apply this structure in body building instruments for practical exercise, the rotating plate and the rotating arm are not related with each other, and rotate isotropically and irregularly with the axis of rotating plate and the rotating arm respectively. Therefore, the standing position of the users cannot be kept at the same location, and the body is and twisted. Especially, these two rotating parts trend to rotate faster and faster, thus cause the users hard to control and stand steadily, or even fall down. To prevent users to fall down, a three-way supporting abdomen tightening ring has to be installed to keep the body in balance. In addition, the above body building instrument cannot be folded, and this is inconvenient in storage and transportation.


An optoelectronic pickup that generates a fluctuating voltage that is analogous to the vibrations of a vibrating body. When utilized with the vibrating body of a musical instrument and amplified and fed to a speaker the musical tones are reproduced at an amplified level. When the signal is fed to an FM transmitter the musical tones can be reproduced in any FM radio receiver. The device makes possible portable electric instruments and ‘wireless’-electrical instruments, i.e. a guitar that does not require a connecting cord or amplifier. The device anticipates new and unique musical instruments.

The present invention relates to an optoelectric pickup unit that is responsive to that part of a musical instrument that vibrates when the instrument is played.
The standard magnetic pickup has a weak signal and can only be utilized with metal strings, is sensitive to stray fluctuating magnetic fields and has limited frequency response.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,733,953 issued to Mr. Ferber in 1973 discloses an optoelectric pickup that operates on the principal of a string intersecting the path of a light beam from a light-emitting device toward a light-detecting device. Mr. Ferbers' invention has some of the same advantages as the present invention but must still have a complicated sound box with an acoustic speaker, which makes for a large and heavy instrument that is technically difficult to manufacture.
U.S. Pat. No. 05,012,086 issued to Mr. Bernard in 1991 claims to overcome several of the disadvantages of previous optoelectrical pickups but is itself of such a highly technical nature as to be difficult to understand or reproduce.
Pizeo-electric transducer pickups have been devised that overcome some of the deficiencies of the magnetic pickup but these, like most others, require an electrical connection cord and a separate amplifying system.

Electronic assembly for the production of wireless string instruments


A surgical device for injecting a chemical agent within a subject for use in endoscopic injection therapies is disclosed. The device includes a support body, a motion transmitting unit, an agent delivery system and a guide housing. The motion transmitting unit is movable relative to the support body. The agent delivery system includes a needle for extending into a subject and structure defining a conduit between the support body and the needle. The guide housing has a flexible elongated body, an internal elongated passage and friction reducing material lining the passage. At least a portion of the motion transmitting unit adjacent the needle is slideably housed within the guide housing. The device offers a surgeon improved ease of needle extension and retraction when the distal end of the endoscope is bent at acute angles.

Endoscopic injection therapy was first used to stop certain types of internal bleeding as early as 1939. This therapy method involves the injection of a chemical agent through a needle injector into or around a bleeding site within the human body to stop excessive bleeding. A variety of other applications for endoscopic injections have been developed, including biliary duct treatments.
Bile is a bitter yellow or greenish liquid that is secreted by the liver into the gastrointestinal tract. Bile aids in the digestion of fats and enters the stomach through the bile duct. In some cases, the bile duct can become blocked. This condition causes jaundice and can lead to further complications. Conventional solutions to this problem have included using an endoscopic surgical tool to cut open a portion of the bile valve. Although this procedure typically is successful in opening the valve sufficiently for bile flow, excessive bleeding is a common and dangerous complication with this and other similar procedures.
Procedures for treating the bile duct blockage, as well as treating subsequent bleeding caused by the procedures, have been limited by the relative inaccessibility of the valve. In a typical endoscopic procedure to stop excessive bleeding, a surgeon uses an endoscope to visualize the bleeding site, and then passes the needle through the instrument channel until it reaches the distal end of the scope. The surgeon then extends the needle into a subject to deliver a chemical agent. In a biliary injection procedure, the target area is the bile duct and areas adjacent the cut location.
The outlet port of the bile duct is located at an undesirable angle, making access difficult by conventional endoscopic injection therapy techniques. Although surgeons in most cases can maneuver a scope into a desired position, extending the needle in order to inject the chemical agent is made prohibitively difficult by the bile duct location.
When the distal end of a conventional endoscope is bent acutely in order to access the bile duct, the kinetic friction on internally moveable parts increases. Using conventional injection therapy devices within a scope, surgeons experience difficulty in extending needles prior to injecting the chemical agent. Even if a surgeon can successfully extend the needle, there is an equal difficulty in retracting the needle after injection of the chemical agent. In a severe case, the surgeon may be forced to withdraw the endoscope with the needle still partially extended out of the endoscope. This undesirable condition can cause injure to the patient.
Consequently, a cut made in the bile duct is typically clotted with conventional media to stop bleeding. This technique is not without failure. About half of the deaths due to post-surgical complications of bile duct treatments are caused by excessive bleeding.
The present invention provides a new and improved therapeutic injection device for use in endoscopes that is particularly beneficial in biliary endoscopes for hemorrhage control. The device features very low internal kinetic friction enabling ease of needle extension. Moreover, the design allows extreme flexibility and low friction needle extension and retraction at acute angles near the tip of the device. The device also features precise and repeatable operational features in regard to the length of the device. The invention can be modified for use with a variety of endoscopes, including a duodenoscope having side viewing optics and a side exiting instrument channel.


A remote seal assembly includes a seal body and an extension. The seal body defines a cavity with a diaphragm that seals the cavity from a process fluid. The extension is connected with the seal body on a first end and is configured for connection to a capillary tube on a second end. The extension defines a bore extending from the first end to the second end that is fluidically coupled to the cavity. A length of the extension is related to a temperature of the second end of the extension such that the second end of the extension is at or below an outgassing temperature of the material used to connect the extension and the capillary tube.

The present invention relates to remote seal assemblies. More specifically, the present invention relates a remote seal assembly including capillary weld extension with thermal isolation for coupling a process control instrument to a process fluid.
Some types of process control instruments, such as pressure transmitters, have a pressure sensor which is fluidically coupled to an isolation diaphragm by a capillary tube that is filled with a fill fluid. The isolation diaphragm comprises part of a subassembly called a "remote seal" or a "diaphragm seal", which isolates the pressure sensor from corrosive process fluids being sensed. Pressure is transferred from the isolation diaphragm to the sensor through the fill fluid, which is substantially incompressible. The capillary or tube is typically flexible and may extend for several meters. The process medium exerts pressure on the isolation diaphragm which conveys the exerted pressure to the pressure sensor disposed in a transmitter housing separate or remote from the diaphragm.
Typically, the isolation diaphragm and any process-wetted parts of the remote seal are made from a corrosion resistive material, such that the process medium does not damage the subassembly. However, the housing of the remote seal may partially contact the process medium in some embodiments. Therefore, it is sometimes necessary that the housing of the remote seal either be protected from contact with the process medium or otherwise be corrosion resistive.
Within the process control industry, remote seal systems are typically used in extreme hot and cold applications to isolate the sensor from the process environment. The remote seal fulfills this function by thermally isolating the pressure transmitter from the process with an oil filled capillary system.
Unfortunately, the metallic, corrosion resistive construction of remote seal systems is known to outgas at high temperature. The term "outgas" refers to the emission of gases, such as hydrogen, from a solid material over time. In remote seal systems, when outgassing occurs, gas diffuses from the metal and enters the seal fill fluid. Diffusion of gases into the fill fluid is detrimental to the seal performance, particularly in vacuum applications.
Two sources of outgassing have been identified in remote seal systems. One source stems from gases dissolved in a bulk of the metal during fabrication. Another source involves gases dissolved in the welds used to join remote seal components. Typically, remote seals are formed from stainless steel, hastelloy, or other corrosion resistive materials, and sometimes contaminants or other gases are trapped in the bulk of the metal during the fabrication process. During welding processes typically used to join the remote seal components, gases become trapped in the weld material, creating a source for outgassing.
Steps can be taken to reduce outgassing in remote seal assemblies. For example, ultra-pure materials can be used to fabricate the remote seal components. However, even ultra-pure materials outgas when exposed to high temperatures over a period of time.
Another possible step is to perform a high temperature vacuum bake out of the entire remote seal system. The high temperature bakeout process reduces outgassing. Unfortunately, transferring this technique to remote seals in general is challenging due to the complex offering of remote seals available.
Moreover, while remote seal metal parts can be baked out as components to address gas source problems, this technique does not address the outgassing due to the weld joints. Vacuum bake out of the welds requires an assembly bake after construction but prior to use. An assembly bake of remote seal systems is extremely undesirable because of the multiple configurations offered for capillary size, length, and armor material. The assembly bake would also have to be part of the manufacturing process, adding significant process time and requiring multiple ovens worldwide for capacity reasons. Moreover, bakeout of an assembly with a polyvinyl chloride (PVC) armored capillary tube would be largely ineffective for high temperature devices, because the PVC could not withstand the high temperature bakeout required to eliminate outgassing from the corrosion resistive remote seal body.

Capillary weld extension with thermal isolation