Products and methods for producing products which comprise polyethylene and inorganic minerals for a single layer plastic composition.

Printed and unprinted flexible and semi-rigid packaging materials are commonly used for packing retail, industrial, and commercial products into plastic bags such as T-sacks, sacks, pouches, wrappers and the like. Desired product features of plastic compositions include printability and different levels of opacity. Since some plastic products may be used in a sterile environment, sterilization may also be a required step in the manufacturing process.
The amount and type of resin used, and the thickness, material weight and density of the materials all affect the cost and other characteristics of the plastic compositions. Key performance attributes of these materials include substantial barrier protection, product protection and containment, shipping, storage, and dispensing applications. Barrier protection refers to the ability of a packaging material to stop or retard the passage of atmospheric gases or water vapor into the material from the outside environment. The prior art uses metalizing to provide a lustrous metallic appearance, that when applied to plastic film, improves gas and light barrier properties of the film.
Polyethylene (PE) film has been used in the prior art on preparation of plastic compositions because of its transparency, toughness, heat seal-ability, low water vapor transmission rate, low temperature performance and low cost. PE films are highly permeable to oxygen and other non-polar gases and have high viscoelastic flow properties.
Polypropylene (PP) film is a transparent, tough, thermoplastic film. Un-oriented film is soft and becomes brittle at low temperature, however this property as well as strength, stiffness, and clarity can be improved by orientation e.g. bi-axially oriented polypropylene (BOPP). Polystyrene film is a transparent, stiff film of high permeability and moderate temperature resistance that can be oriented to improve strength. Films can also be made of polyamide (PA). PA is used almost entirely as a film or sheet material in packaging applications. The clear film offers a good oxygen barrier, and is particularly tough and abrasion resistant. However, PA film is a poor moisture barrier, does not heat seal, and has cost disadvantages. Films can also be made of polychlorotrifluoroethylene (PCTFE or CTFE), which is a plastic material characterized by exceptional moisture and good oxygen barrier characteristics as well as good clarity.
A problem that exists with prior films is that these products do not incorporate low cost, environmentally friendly materials and designs. Environmentally friendly materials can have desirable attributes such as biodegradability, compostability, and recyclability, and may also use less energy, pollute less, and generate fewer greenhouse gases in their manufacture than previous materials. Such environmentally friendly materials are increasingly in demand from consumers and retailers.
Another significant problem that exists with prior flexible film packaging is the high concentration of expensive plastic and polymers required to achieve the performance specifications needed. Yet another problem is the very expensive combinations of plastics, foils, coatings, and metalized films to achieve structural, barrier, sealing and printability aspects.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,507,581 relates to a stone based copolymer substrate which includes calcium carbonate from approximately 50-85% by weight varying in size generally from 1.0 to 3.0 microns; HDPE from approximately 2-25% by weight; and a biopolymer from approximately 2-25% by weight. The biopolymer may include a polymer of lactic acid (PLA), polyhydroxybutanoate (PHB), polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA), Nylon 611 and Poly lactic Acid.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,569,411 is directed to flexible packaging composites which include one or more mineral-containing layers with thermoplastic bonding agent. The composite may also contain one or more non-mineral containing layers, including various combinations of extruded resins, cast or blown films, and fibers. The mineral-containing layer is substantially and continuously bonded to the other layers. The polymer, fiber and mineral containing layers can be made such that the resulting composite structure formed is machined to form a storage article. The specification provides that the bonding agents can include, but are not limited to, HDPE, and another bonding agent that is a high molecular weight high density polyethylene. The film composite comprises: at least one mineral-containing layer containing a thermoplastic bonding agent in an amount of about 15-30% by weight and a mineral material that is present in an amount of about 70-85% by weight. The film composite comprises: at least one mineral-containing layer bonded to said at least one non mineral-containing layer, said at least one mineral-containing layer containing a thermoplastic bonding agent in an amount of about 15-30% by weight and a mineral material that is present in an amount of about 70-85% by weight. The film composite comprises: at least one minerals containing layer that is at least 0.5 mil in caliper containing a thermoplastic bonding agent in an amount of about 15-30% by weight and a mineral content that is present in an amount of about 70-85% by weight.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,177,066 is directed to a high visual impact plastic packaging, wherein plasticized or laminated paperboard materials can be used, as well as plastic materials such as mineral-based materials, poly lactic acid, and recycled or recyclable polyurethane. The packaging is created into separate portions that include blister portions, cavity portions, windows and holes, and compacted regions.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,062,190 is directed to a stone based copolymer substrate which includes calcium carbonate from approximately 50-85% by weight and varying in size generally from 1.0 to 3.0 microns; HDPE from approximately 2-25% by weight; and a biopolymer from approximately 2-25% by weight.
U.S. Patent Publication 2013/0227881 is directed to a recycled plastic composite composition which includes a recycled EVA 30% to 80% by weight and a stone powder from 20% to 70% by weight.
U.S. Patent Publication 2009/0047499 is directed to a multi-layer composite structure and storage article made therefrom, which includes a fiber-containing layer, such as a fiberboard layer or other layer having fibers from natural or synthetic sources, and a ground calcium carbonate-containing layer covering the fiber-containing layer. The extruded calcium carbonate containing layer comprising at least 30% by weight of the thermoplastic bonding agent.
U.S. Patent Publication 2009/0047511 is directed to a multi-layer composite material structure and storage article made therefrom which includes a fiber-containing layer, such as fiberboard layer or other layer having fibers from natural or synthetic sources, and a mineral-containing layer covering the fiber-containing layer.
U.S. Patent Publication 2009/0142528 is directed to a composite structure having at least two layers, comprising less than 25% Polymers, a fiber-containing layer, such as a layer of paperboard or other layer having fibers from natural or synthetic sources, and a mineral-containing layer covering and bonded to the fiber-containing layer.
US. Patent Publication 2014/0057061 is directed to flexible packaging composites having at least two layers which include one or more mineral-containing layers with a thermoplastic bonding agent. A flexible film composite suitable for use as a packaging material for storage of articles, comprising: at least one mineral-containing layer containing a thermoplastic bonding agent and a mineral material. The mineral containing layer is an external most layer of the flexible film composite. The mineral material is selected from the group consisting of ground calcium carbonate, diatomaceous earth, mica, silica, glass, zeolite, slate, and combinations thereof, and at least one layer adhered to the at least one mineral-containing layer by a wet or dry lamination technique. The mineral-containing layer and the at least one other layer form a composite material that is flexible. The mineral material is present in the mineral-containing layer in an amount of up to 85% by weight. The at least one other layer comprises a non-mineral containing layer selected from the group consisting of ink, nylon, a sealant, foil, oriented polypropylene (OPP), metalized oriented polypropylene (OPP), polypropylene, polypropylene terephthalate (PET), a peel and stick label backing, polyethylene, ethylene-vinyl alcohol (EVOH), paper, a fiber material coated with polyethylene, a fiber containing layer, a biodegradable polymer, a photodegradable polymer, and a polyester. The at least one mineral containing layer is sterilizable.
U.S. Patent Publication 2014/0272352 is directed to a composite structure which includes at least one or more fiber-containing layers and one or more mineral-containing layers. The mineral-containing layer comprises a thermoplastic bonding agent fixing the minerals in place. A recyclable composite packaging material, comprising: a fiber-containing layer, and a mineral-containing layer bonded to the fiber-containing layer. The mineral-containing layer comprises a thermoplastic bonding agent and has a mineral content of 20-70 wt %; and wherein thickness and composition of the mineral containing layer are selected to provide a screen cleanliness efficiency of 60% to 100% and a removal efficiency of the mineral containing layer from the fiber-containing layer of 50% to 95% by mass in a repulping recycling operation.
U.S. Patent Publication 2014/0274632 is directed to a composite structure including a fiber-containing layer, such as a fiberboard layer or other layer having fibers from natural and/or synthetic sources, and a mineral-containing layer covering the fiber-containing layer. A composite packaging material, comprising: one or more mineral-containing layer extrusion bonded to a fiber-containing layer; wherein the mineral-containing layer is formed from a mineral containing polymer comprising a polymer composition and a mineral composition.
U.S. Patent Publication 2014/0274633 is directed to a composite structure having at least two layers, including a fiber-containing layer, such as a fiberboard layer or other layer having fibers from natural and/or synthetic sources, and a mineral-containing layer covering the fiber-containing layer.

Product and method for a plastic composition comprising inorganic materials


A method is provided for joining a filler material to a substrate material. The method includes melting the filler material within a melting chamber of a crucible such that the filler material is molten. The crucible has an outlet fluidly connected to the melting chamber. The method also includes holding the filler material within the melting chamber of the crucible by applying a first pressure differential across the outlet of the crucible, and releasing the filler material from the melting chamber of the crucible by applying a second pressure differential across the outlet of the crucible to deliver the filler material to a target site of the substrate material. The second pressure differential has a different value than the first pressure differential.

Application fatigue may cause various metal, ceramic, and alloy components (e.g., super alloys) to experience wear. For example, cracking, abrasion, erosion, and/or a variety of other conditions may cause the removal or wear of original substrate material. To repair the worn components, filler material may be added (e.g., welded) to fill in cracks, to patch abrasions, and/or to otherwise replace material lost to erosion. Likewise, when joining two or more components together, filler material may be added to the original substrate material of one or more of the components. Filler material that is the same as, or similar to, the substrate material may be used to provide relatively strong uniform mechanical properties across the repaired and/or joined components.
When the filler material is a relatively high temperature performance alloy (e.g., nickel and/or cobalt based super alloys used in relatively hot gas paths of gas turbine engines) that has a relatively high melting temperature, a relatively significant application of energy must be applied to the filler material before the filler material can be applied to the original substrate material. But, the large amount of radiant heat (e.g., produced by a welding apparatus) that is used to melt the filler material may also affect the original substrate material. For example, the impingement of the radiant heat may cause slumping, melting, recrystallization, grain growth, and/or other changes to the microstructure of the original substrate material. Such changes in the original substrate material may reduce the strength, toughness, and/or other mechanical properties of the component(s) being repaired and/or joined together. Moreover, the impingement of the radiant heat on the original substrate material may cause the joint between the filler material and the original substrate material to fracture during cooling, which is commonly referred to as "hot tearing".
While filler materials with lower melting temperatures may alternatively be used, such filler materials may provide lower performance at high temperatures and/or possess mechanical properties that are increasingly different than the mechanical properties of the original substrate material. For example, a brazing process may impart less heat to the original substrate material. But, the melting point of brazing materials must be lower than the melting point of the original substrate material, which may require the use of melting point suppressing elements (e.g., silicon and/or boron) in quantities that result in the formation of relatively high amounts of brittle intermetallic phases that deleteriously affect the mechanical properties of the repaired and/or joined component(s). What is needed is a technique and system that allow the use of relatively high melting temperature filler material without causing problems with the original substrate material.

Methods and systems for joining materials


A method for determining a recording signal of a recorder to record data onto a disc, the recording signal comprising a top pulse having a first power value Ph includes steps of: generating first test power values based on an initial first power value to record test data onto the disc; detecting concentricity parameters PS corresponding to the first test power values; quadratic curve fitting the concentricity parameters PS and the first test power values; determining an optimum value of the first power value Ph.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a recorder and a method for determining a recording signal of the recorder.
2. Description of Related Art
Optical recorders for recording data onto recordable optical discs are widely used. Recordable discs, such as DVD-R/RW, DVD+R/RW, and CD-R/RW, are popular optical storage media in the consumer electronics market.
A typical recorder uses a laser beam to record the data onto the disc. The laser beam is controlled by a recording signal of the recorder. The power level of the recording signal determines the optical power of the laser beam. If the optical power of the laser beam is not strong enough, the data recorded on the disc by the laser beam may not be readable.
Generally, the recording signal of the recorder to record the data onto the disc are predetermined by a disc manufacturer or the recorder manufacturer. For example, a recorder identifies a disc loaded in the recorder by reading a media ID (MID) embedded in the disc; thus optimized parameters for determining the recording signal stored in the recorder is selected according to the MID.
However, the optimized recording parameters for the recording signal may not be appropriate to record different discs; even if the discs have a same MID. For example, a first batch of the discs may have data written on them soon after being manufactured, while a second batch of the discs may have data written on them after an extended period of time and may have being subjected to different environmental conditions. The recording properties of these two batches of discs may change due to such conditions as temperature and humidity.
Therefore, a method and an apparatus for determining the recording signal are desired.

Recorder and method for determining recording signal


The invention relates to an aeroplane comprising several decks which are arranged above each other, for passengers, freight and/or crew members, also comprising at least one staircase connected to the decks. Said aeroplane is characterized in that the staircase is provided with photoluminescent markings which enable the staircase to be recognized easily, even in poor lighting conditions, whereby orientation of passengers and crew members to exit is made easier in the event of an emergency.

The invention relates to an airplane having a plurality of decks, arranged one on top of the other, for passengers, freight and/or crew and at least one staircase connecting the decks.
It is known in airplanes to arrange luminaires in a line in the aisles, said luminaires being switched on in the event of emergency in order to show the passengers the way to the emergency exit. Although these systems are supplied by a separate emergency battery such that the markers operate even in the event of a failure of the general on-board electrical system, the emergency power supply may also be disrupted, with the result that the markers can no longer be switched on in the event of an emergency. It is also possible for sections of the markers to be incapable of being operated, which makes it necessary for them to be replaced before the airplane is started, which in turn results in late starts and delays.
It is known, in order to avoid these disadvantages, to attach fluorescent strips or rails using photoluminescent substances to the floor at the sides of the aisles, and these fluorescent strips or rails can, in the event of an emergency, point the passengers in the direction of the exit even when there is a failure of the electrical system of the airplane (EP 0 828 657 B1). The photoluminescent materials have the property of remaining lit themselves even for some time after they are no longer illuminated.
An airplane is known which has a plurality of decks, arranged one on top of the other, for passengers, freight and/or crew and at least one staircase, which connects the decks and is provided with photoluminescent rail- or strip-like markers which are arranged on both sides of the staircase steps at the lateral ends thereof (U.S. Pat. No. 5,7756,016).
The invention is based on the object of equipping an airplane of the type mentioned initially such that all of the passengers/crew members, i.e. even passengers and crew members who are located on different decks, can safely find the way to an emergency exit.

Emergency light in a multilevel aeroplane


One aspect of the present invention is a purified human GMP synthetase and a method of purifying it from naturally occurring sources. Another aspect of the present invention is a recombinant human GMP synthetase as well as DNA sequences coding for human GMP synthetase, expression vectors comprising such a coding sequence, and host cells transformed with these expression vectors capable of producing human GMP synthetase. Also forming part of this invention is a recombinant process for the production of GMP synthetase. Further provided is a method of purifying GMP synthetase from natural or recombinant sources. Other aspects of the invention include antibodies to human GMP synthetase and the use of such antibodies to assay for human GMP synthetase. Another aspect of this invention is the use of purified naturally occurring human GMP synthetase or recombinant human GMP synthetase to identify inhibitors of GMP synthetase activity. Another aspect of the invention is inhibitors of human GMP synthetase activity obtained using purified human GMP synthetase. Such inhibitors preferably have an IC.sub.50 of 5 .mu.M or less, more preferably 1 .mu.M or less.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to purified human GMP synthetase, its production by recombinant technology and nucleic acid sequences encoding for human GMP synthetase and its use in assaying for inhibitors of human GMP synthetase activity and the inhibitors identifiable by such assays.
Human guanosine 5'-monophosphate (GMP) synthetase is a key enzyme in the de nova synthesis of guanine nucleotides. Biosynthesis of guanine nucleotides is not only essential for deoxyribonucleic acid (DNA) and ribonucleic acid (RNA) synthesis, but also for providing guanosine 5'-triphosphate (GTP) which is involved in a number of cellular processes important for cell division. GTP hydrolysis is required for microtubule assembly, protein glycosylation, synthesis of adediine nucleotides, protein translation and activation of G proteins. A key step in the de novo synthesis of guanine nucleotides is the conversion of inosine 5'-monophosphate (IMP) to guanosine 5'-monophosphate (GMP). Two enzymes are involved in converting IMP to GMP: IMP dehydrogenase (EC 184.108.40.206) which catalyzes the oxidation of IMP to XMP (xanthine 5'-monophosphate) and GMP synthetase (EC 18.104.22.168.) which catalyzes the amination of XMP to GTP. The reaction catalyzed by GMP synthetase is: EQU XMP+ATP+glutamine.fwdarw.GMP+AMP+PP.sub.i +glutamate
Both GMP synthetase and IMP dehydrogenase exhibit elevated levels of activity in rapidly proliferating cells, such as neoplastic and regenerating tissues. Inhibition of GMP synthetase or IMP dehydrogenase has been shown to result in the inhibition of cell growth. Because of this anti-proliferative effect of GMP synthetase and IMP dehydrogenase inhibitors, both enzymes are potential targets for anti-cancer and immunosuppressive therapies. In fact, in recent clinical trials, a potent inhibitor of IMP dehydrogenase, mycophenolic acid, was shown to be effective in treatment of transplant rejection and rheumatoid arthritis.
The inhibition of lymphocyte proliferation by mycophenolic acid is closely correlated with the lowering of the intracellular pool of guanine nucleotides. Furthermore, this inhibition of proliferation can be blocked by the addition of exogenous guanosine. These data suggest that the immunosuppressive activity of mycophenolic acid is a result of the depletion of the guanine nucleotide pool. Since GMP synthetase is crucial for the de novo synthesis of guanine nucleotides, the inhibition of GMP synthetase should also result in the depletion of guanine nucleotides and therefore could be a target for immunosuppressive and cancer therapies.
Despite its significance, the information available for human GMP synthetase is limited. Heretofore, the human enzyme has not been obtained in a purified state. Even though a partially purified preparation from human fibroblast cells (T. Page, B, Bakay and W. L. Nyhan; Int. J. Biochem., 16, 117-120, (1984)) has been reported, it contained varying amounts 5'-nucleotidase, purine nucleoside phosphorylase, and GMP kinase. The degree of purification of the enzyme was approximately 50-fold over the naturally occurring material and its specific activity was reported to be 5990 pmoles guanine compound produced/min/mg. By contrast, the present invention discloses a purified human GMP synthetase purified 936-fold over the naturally occurring material with a specific activity of at least 2,500,000 pmoles adenosine 5'-monophosphate (AMP) produced/min/mg. GMP synthetases of mammalian origin have been isolated in varying degrees of purity from a variety of sources. However, mammalian GMP synthetases, even if available in a high degree of purity, are of limited utility in screening for inhibitors for the purposes of human therapy.
Genetic information for human GMP synthetase is not available. Although the cDNA for GMP synthetase has been isolated from E. coli, B.subtilis and D. discoideum, no human or mammalian cDNAs or genes for GMP synthetase are available. Therefore it has not been possible to produce human GMP synthetase by recombinant DNA technology.
Accordingly, human GMP synthetase has not been available in a form suitable either for elucidation of its mechanism or for its use in screening for potential inhibitors. Neither has there been sequence information such as, for example, cDNA sequences coding for human GMP synthetase which would enable the production of human GMP synthetase by recombinant DNA technology. For these reasons, it is desirable to produce pure, well characterized human GMP synthetase in large quantities for the purposes, for example, of elucidating the mechanisms of its activity, identifying its role in various disease states and screening for therapeutically significant inhibitors of guanine nucleotide biosynthesis. Furthermore, it would be desirable to produce human GMP synthetase by means of recombinant DNA technology because it would make the enzyme available in much larger amounts than is practical in purification from natural sources.

Cloning and expression of human GMP synthetase, its use in screening for inhibitors of human GMP synthetase and inhibitors of human GMP synthetase


Computer-based methods and systems for automatically determining convergence when registering image sets are provided. Example embodiments provide an Enhanced Image Registration System (EIRS), which includes an Image Comparison Module, a Transformation Optimizer, and a Convergence Calculator. When the EIRS receives two image sets to align, the Image Comparison Module compares two image sets to determine or measure how closely the image sets are aligned. The Transformation Optimizer determines an appropriate transformation to apply to one of the image sets to align it with the reference image set. The Transformation Optimizer then applies the determined transformation. The Convergence Calculator examines one or more points within the transformed image set to determine when convergence is attained.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and system for determining convergence in an optimization system, and in particular, to methods and systems for determining convergence when registering sets of images.
2. Description of the Related Art
Medical imaging has taken on an ever increasing, if not vital, importance as a component in research and diagnostic applications in current clinical settings. The application of medical imaging can be found in the areas of planning, implementing and evaluating surgical and radio-therapeutical procedures. Imagining modalities generally fall within two categories: anatomical and functional. Anatomical modalities (i.e. depicting primarily morphology) include among others X-ray, computed tomography (CT), Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI), Ultrasound (US), portal images and video sequences obtained by various means, such as laparoscopy or laryngoscopy.
It should be noted that derivative techniques can also be detached from the original modalities and may appear under a separated name, such as Magnetic Resonance Angiography (MRA), Digital Subtraction Angiography (DSA), Computed Tomography Angiography (CTA) and Doppler.
Functional modalities depict data or information focused primarily on the metabolism of the underlying anatomy. It includes Single-photo Emission computed Tomography (SPECT), scintigraphy and Positron Emission Tomography (PET) (that generally constitutes the nuclear medicine imaging modalities) and fMRI (functional MRI) as well as a host of other modalities.
The information acquired from multiple imaging modalities in a clinical setting is normally of a complementary nature. A proper integration of this complementary data from the separate image sets, wherein an image set is a collection of related images, usually of the same modality and usually acquired during a single scanning session, is desired, if not required, to extract the most amount of information from the image sets. It should be noted that the image set may have been taken later in time and the time difference may be the only difference between the image set(s). This frequently occurs in situations where the growth or reduction in a cell mass is being tracked to determine if a particular treatment regimen is effective or not.
The initial step in the integration of data contained in the image sets is to bring the modalities involved into spatial alignment. This procedure is referred to as registration. After registration a fusion step is generally preformed, to provide an integrated display of the data present in the image sets.
Generally, in the registration process an image set is used as a reference while a transformation is applied to subsequent image sets in order to align any common subject matter between the image sets to match the reference set. While a variety of image registration methods exist they generally include five basic aspects: defining permissible transformations, selection of the matching features, the specification of an evaluation measure, specification of an optimization strategy and a determination as to when the search for proper alignment has converged adequately enough to be terminated.
Permissible transformations of a subsequent second image set is typically defined by an image registration process in order to specify the anticipated adjustments necessary to align the image sets. A transformation is defined as a set of movements applied to an image set, such as deformable, affine, rigid and perspective. Deformable transformations permit local deformations to the image. For example, deforming a cube into a sphere. Affine transformations (in 3D) have twelve degrees of freedom permitting translations, rotations, skewing and scaling in each of the x-, y- and z-directions. Rigid transformations provide only translations and rotations for a total of six degrees of freedom in 3D images. Perspective transformations map between images of different dimensions, for example mapping a 3D image onto a 2D image or surface.
In addition, the image registration process typically allows a user to select matching features. The matching features are the image elements that are extracted for comparison. Generally these are subdivided into voxel-based or feature-based. Voxel-based matching uses the voxel (or pixel) gray-level intensity values for comparison. Feature-based matching uses a higher-level image processing technique to extract some element of the image, for example edges.
The image registration process also typically defines an evaluation measure to determine the closeness of the match between two images. Several strategies exist for this measure and these depend on the image features being used for the match. While many features and measures exist, one of the most popular is a measure of mutual information ("MI") to determine the closeness of fit between the gray-level intensities between two images. Some of the advantages of MI over other strategies is that it is robust, fast and can work with images that have different gray level intensity mappings such as those found in cross modality medical imaging. Cross modality medical imaging relates to processing medical images from multiple acquisition modes. For example, MI can be used for evaluation when comparing magnetic resonance images (MRI) to computed tomography (CT) images.
Since it is prohibitively time intensive to examine all possible combinations of transformations between two image sets, it is desirable for an image registration system to intelligently constrain the number of transformations performed. An optimization strategy determines the next transformation to apply in order to better align the images during a subsequent iteration. A good optimization technique will result in quick movement towards an optimal alignment. Many methods exist, examples of which are Powell's method and steepest ascent, discussed in Maes, F., et al., "Multimodality image registration by maximization of mutual information". IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 1997. 16(2): p. 187–198 and Wells, W. M. I., et al., "Multi-modal volume registration by maximization of mutual information". Medical Image Analysis, 1996. 1(1): p. 35–51, respectively, incorporated by reference herein.
A successful image registration process also needs to determine when the alignment search has converged adequately enough to terminate the search. Existing systems often employ one of two strategies. The first strategy requires setting the number of iterations to a fixed value that is large enough to ensure convergence. Problems with this strategy are that setting too large of a value results in slow convergence, while setting the value too low results in a loss of robustness as some data sets may not converge. The second strategy examines one or more parameters, usually the evaluation measure, and determines when it has converged. This is the approach used by Powell's method, which terminates after the step size of the evaluation measure falls below some threshold (t). A problem with this strategy is that the evaluation measure may be "noisy" (a graph of the evaluation measure over time does not follow a smooth path and is very noisy), especially in the case of stochastic approximation of the mutual information. It then becomes difficult to determine convergence without a large windowed smoothing function. Another problem is that the evaluation measure often gets trapped in local minima, resulting in a false determination of convergence. For example, a graph of the evaluation measure may have one or more small areas with little change that may be misinterpreted by the system as indicative of convergence. Another method uses a measure that combines MI and gradient information. This method is described in detail in Pluim, J. P. W., J. B. A. Maintz, and M. A. Viergever, entitled "Image registration by maximization of combined mutual information and gradient information". IEEE Transactions on Medical Imaging, 2000. 19(8): p. 809–814, incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
The prior art and conventional wisdom have failed to provide a method that is easy to utilize while facilitating diverse convergence criteria for myriad users. The prior art is further deficient in that it focuses on only a few of the components that can indicate convergence while omitting many parameters that may not have converged or converged sufficiently.
The prior art is further deficient and lacking in that it does not take into consideration, and addresses the problem by avoiding it, the interplay between different parameters, for instance, by setting the translation movement to be bound but it does not quantify or attempt to quantify the convergence criteria for rotation or skewing. Based upon the initial selection, the other parameters which at the onset were thought to be minor can have a significant effect on convergence prediction and may even dominate the convergence prediction.

System and method for determining convergence of image set registration


A method for applying a coating on a surface of a lamination of plies of fiber-reinforced plastic material. The surface of the lamination includes exposed ends of reinforcement fibers. The method includes selecting an electrically conductive material that is abradable in a solid state by rubbing against the surface of the lamination having exposed ends of reinforcement fibers, and rubbing the electrically conductive material against the surface of the lamination to cause particles of electrically conductive material to be abraded and deposited on the surface of the lamination.

This disclosure generally relates to the use of fasteners to secure two or more structures or workpieces (at least one of which is made of composite material, such as fiber-reinforced plastic) in a manner such that interference fit of the fasteners within joint holes (hereinafter "holes") in the structure may be achieved. In particular, this disclosure relates to apparatus and methods for fastening a layer of composite material to another layer of material using an interference fit fastener assembly having a bolt or a pin and a mating part (e.g., a nut or a collar).
As used herein, the category "mating parts" comprises internally threaded nuts and collars and swaged collars. As used herein, the category "fasteners" includes bolts, pins, rivets, and/or any other suitable device. As used herein, the term "external projections" should be construed broadly to encompass at least the following types: (1) external threads and (2) external annular rings. As used herein, the term "hole" means a surface that bounds a space and connects openings in opposing surfaces of a part. In the context of fiber-reinforced plastic material, the surface bounding the space is formed by resin and fibers.
At least one method for fastening multiple layers of material together is to clamp up the layers, drill holes, and then insert fasteners into the holes to secure the layers together. The fasteners are usually inserted in a net or clearance fit in the receiving holes in the layers. For many applications, this will be sufficient. However, when the assembled structure is subjected to cyclic loading, the looseness of the fit of the fasteners within their holes can result in continual working of the fasteners within their holes.
Additional challenges are presented when one or more of the fastened layers are made of composite material. For example, carbon fiber-reinforced plastic (CFRP) is considerably less conductive than metal. Electrical current is conducted through carbon fibers in the CFRP structure. Any discontinuity between the carbon fibers and the metallic fastener in the CFRP hole is undesirable.
An interference fit of the fastener (hereinafter "interference fit fastener") in the hole may effectively reduce discontinuities due to cyclic loading of the assembled structure. Interference creates a tighter joint that reduces movement, resulting in enhanced fatigue performance. Additionally, interference fit fasteners may help dissipate electrical current.
One method for minimizing the variation in interference fit for sleeveless fasteners used to fasten a layer of composite material (hereinafter "composite layer") to another layer of material (e.g., a metallic layer or another composite layer), while enhancing the electrical conductivity between the fibers of the composite material (e.g., CFRP) and the metallic fastener, involves coating the hole with molten low-melting alloy. However, the molten low-melting alloy tends to be repelled by the fibrous CFRP surface due to the high surface tension of the molten low-melting alloy. This can be due to extreme curvatures at the fiber level dimension. The surface tension of the low-melting alloy can inhibit spreading at this scale.

Method, apparatus and applicator for applying a coating on a surface of a lamination


A node device for forming a multi-hop network is provided. The node device is configured to avoid interference from coexisting interfering networks and includes a transceiver configured to receive and transmit data with respect to a Destination Oriented Directed Acyclic Graph (DODAG) Information Object message (DIO message), a memory configured to store computer executable programs including an interfered-node count (IC), single-rate link count (SLC), multi-rate link count (MLC), hop count (HP), path communication latency (PCL) and an interference efficient and multi-rate supported routing program CoM-RPL, and a processor configured to perform steps of the computer executable programs. The steps include determining if the received DIO message indicates a new DODAG or an existing DODAG. In this case, if a determined result in the determining indicates the new DODAG and no single-rate link and no interfered node on a path of multi-hop network, the node device joins DODAG network and the processor selects a sender of the DIO message as a default parent, computes a rank for itself, updates DIO message with its rank, IC, SLC, TRM, HP, PCL and transmits scheduled DIO messages based on transmission rate mode.

Internet of Things (IoT) and machine-to-machine (M2M) applications have been rapidly growing. A broad range of wireless communication technologies have been developed to cater the diverse applications. IEEE 802.11ah and IEEE 802.15.4g are two commonly referred standards developed for IoT applications. Both 802.11ah and 802.15.4g are designed to operate in Sub-1 GHz (S1G) band for outdoor IoT applications while 802.15.4g can also operate at 2.4 GHz band. When co-located 802.11ah and 802.15.4g networks operate on overlapped frequency band, one network becomes an interfering network to another network. The problem is that one network does not know the existence of another network because they cannot communicate. As heterogeneous wireless technologies are emerging, interference among the networks using different communication technologies becomes critical issue to be addressed in routing data packet.
The existing routing protocols such as Routing Protocol for Low-power and lossy networks (RPL) have been designed to route data in a wireless network without considering interferences, i.e., the network is deployed at a location where no other wireless network is installed. In this case, all devices use the same communication technology. As a result, the neighboring devices can communicate with each other even they may have different resources and capabilities, e.g., some devices may be battery powered and other devices may be mains powered, some devices may have larger memory and other devices may have smaller memory. An advantage of routing data in such network is that neighboring devices can coordinate to achieve the best performance, e.g., devices can use "Request To Send"/"Clear To Send" (RTS/CTS) mechanism to reduce data collisions.
However, in the case of coexisting wireless networks, there are at least two wireless networks being co-located using different communication technologies. If these networks use overlapping frequency band, they coexist and interfere with each other. Due to the use of different communication technologies, devices in one network cannot communicate with devices in another network. As a result, the networks cannot use the RTS/CTS mechanism because the RTS packet in one network is not readable in another network. Therefore, routing data in coexisting wireless networks is much more challenging. The conventional routing protocols may not work well in a wireless network that coexists with other wireless networks due to inefficient routing path selection, which may cause heavy data loss and/or long data delay. Heavy data loss and long data latency are not acceptable for applications such as security and monitoring.
FIG. 2A shows an example, in which conventional routing protocols will select a routing path with heavy data loss, which results in an unreliable network. One multi-hop wireless network, e.g. 802.15.4g network, consists of sink node S, data nodes A, B, C and D. An interfering network, e.g. 802.11ah network, consists of nodes E and F. For node D to select a routing path to sink S, the conventional routing protocols will select D→B→S instead of D→C→A→S, because path D→B→S is shorter than path D→C→A→S. However, in this case, there is an interfering network such that the communication link between nodes E and F interferes with communication link between node B and sink S. If E and F have heavy communication, node B can hardly send data to sink S because interfering nodes such as 802.11ah nodes are much more aggressive than wireless nodes such as 802.15.4g nodes in terms of channel access contention. As a result, node D should select longer path D→C→A→S instead.
In addition, multi-rate devices are emerging. A multi-rate device can transmit data with different transmission rates, e.g., 100 kbps and 200 kbps. Using lower transmission rate, communication range is longer, which results in shorter routing path. Using higher transmission rate, communication range is shorter, which results in longer path. However, a shorter lower transmission rate path may have longer latency in delivering data than a longer higher transmission rate path. For time critical applications, the long latency is not acceptable. Conventional routing protocols do not take multi-rate feature into account. As a result, the selected path may cause more delay.
FIG. 3 shows an example, in which conventional routing protocols select a longer delay routing path. The network consists of sink node S, data nodes X, Y, Z and W. For data node W to select a routing path to sink S, conventional routing protocol will select W→Z→S instead of W→Y→X→S because path W→Z→S is shorter than path W→Y→X→S. However, in this case, the path W→Z→S is a lower transmission rate path, on which transmission rate between each link is 100 kbps. This lower transmission rate path takes 0.016 second to deliver 100 bytes data from node W to sink S. On the other hand, path W→Y→X→S is a higher transmission rate path, on which transmission rate between each link is 200 kbps. This higher transmission rate path only needs 0.012 second to deliver 100 bytes data from node W to sink S. Therefore, node W should select longer path W→Y→X→S instead.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide new routing methods that consider both interfering networks and multi-rate capability of the network devices.

Routing data in wireless network that coexists with interfering wireless networks

Mitsubishi Electric Research Laboratories, Inc.


According to one broad aspect of this disclosure, a method is provided for producing polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) from organic waste. The method comprises homogenizing organic waste to obtain a feedstock that has 1:1 to 3:1 (w/w) water to organic waste ratio. The feedstock is inoculated with an inoculum of acidogenic fermentative bacteria in order to obtain an inoculated feedstock. The inoculated feedstock is incubated for 5 to 10 days, 3 to 10 days, optionally 7 days, optionally 3 days, to obtain a fermentation broth. The fermentation broth comprises volatile fatty acids (VFAs) and undigested organic waste. The fermentation broth is filtered with a filter with a pore size ranging from 0.2 μm to 500,000 NMWC to remove the acidogenic fermentative bacteria and undigested organic waste, to obtain a clarified broth comprising concentrated VFAs. The clarified broth and high-PHA producing bacteria are incubated to produce intracellular PHA granules in the high-PHA producing bacteria. PHA polymers are extracted from the intracellular PHA granules.

The adverse environmental impacts of petroleum-based plastic waste have raised a critical worldwide concern. Thus, the worldwide demand for bioplastics has increased significantly and is estimated to be a 1-billion-dollar global industry in 2017. Polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHAs) are biopolyesters that include polyhydroxybutyrate (PHB), polyhydroxyvalerate (PHV), and polyhydroxyhexonate (PHH). These thermoplastic polymers are significantly versatile and have a wide spectrum of properties that can be achieved by manipulating the monomer composition, polymer molecular weight (MW) and crystallinity which can ultimately determine the polymer's mechanical and thermal properties, and hence the potential application. Many factors such as the types of microbes, carbon feedstock and growth parameters (i.e. carbon/nitrogen (C/N) ratio, dissolved oxygen content, and pH) can influence the polymer composition. PHAs are also biocompatible and biodegradable, and are a promising alternative for conventional petroleum-based plastics with their added environmental and biomedical benefits.
PHAs are synthesized as an intracellular energy storage mechanism in a wide range of bacterial species. Biosynthesis of PHA can be induced by subjecting PHA-producing microbes to carbon-rich and nitrogen- and phosphorous-limiting conditions. Current commercial PHA production relies on sugar- or plant oil-based feedstock. In addition to their high cost, the use of agricultural products for bioplastic production raises issues of land use and competition with food production. Organic waste is a potential alternate feedstock that avoids these issues and can be obtained at low or negative cost. The use of organic waste as a feedstock also results in diversion of these wastes from landfills, where they decompose and contribute significantly to global greenhouse gas emissions. Before use as a feedstock for PHA production, organic waste must undergo hydrolysis and acidogenesis. During this process, controlled mixed microbial cultures convert the organic waste into volatile fatty acids (VFAs), which can be utilized as a carbon source by PHA-producing bacteria.

Method for producing polyhydroxyalkanoates (PHA) from organic waste


A retaining apparatus for securing curved wind turbine rotor blades for at least one of storage and transport is described. The retaining apparatus includes an end frame configured to be connected to a root of a first blade and a connecting frame having a first end and a second end. The first end of the connecting frame is rotatably connected to the end frame. The retaining apparatus also includes a portion configured to be positioned at least partially around a tip of a second blade. The portion is rotatably connected to the second end of the connecting frame. The retaining apparatus also includes a turnbuckle having a first end and a second end, wherein the first end of the turnbuckle is rotatably connected to the end frame, the second end of the turnbuckle rotatably connected to the second end of the connecting frame.

This invention relates generally to transportation and storage of a wind turbine blade and more specifically, to methods and apparatus for containing, storing and/or transporting rotor blades.
Some known rotor blades, such as, but not limited to, wind turbine rotor blades used to generate electrical power from wind, can be rather large (e.g., some exceed 50 meters in length and 4 meters in width). Because of their size and/or fragility, these large rotor blades may be damaged during transportation from a rotor blade manufacturer to the location the rotor blades are used. For example, some known rotor blades may be damaged during loading into and/or unloading from at least some known transportation containers. Such damage may degrade performance of the blade.
Rotor blades may come in a variety of different sizes and shapes. Accordingly, at least some known transportation containers are sized to fit the largest blade, which may increase a weight and overall size of transporting smaller blades. An alternative to using containers uniformly sized to the largest blade is to provide different containers for differently sized blades. However, providing different containers may increase a cost and/or difficulty of transporting rotor blades, for example because of possible logistical difficulties of providing containers of the proper size for each shipment and/or additional manufacturing and/or design processes.
At least some known rotor blade transportation containers may be transported using more than one mode of transportation, for example by ship, truck, and/or rail. However, some modes of transportation may have restrictions on large loads, for example, limits defining a maximum height and/or width of the load. For example, when transporting large loads over land, the container height may sometimes be limited to about 4.0 meters. Height and/or width limits may facilitate ensuring containers clear bridges, overpasses, and/or other obstructions located on overland transportation routes. However, such limits may increase a difficulty of transporting more than one rotor blade in a single container, which may increase a cost of transportation.

Method and apparatus for containing, storing and/or transporting curved wind turbine rotor blades


A chuck includes a hollow cylindrical sleeve (3) having at least two, opposite, rotation transmitting strip-shaped webs (4a, 4b) projecting radially inward, and at least one locking member (2) radially displaceable through a radial opening formed in the receiving sleeve, with the receiving side end of the rotation transmitting webs (4a, 4b) being spaced from a receiving side edge of the radial opening (6) by a distance (X) 1.5 times greater than the guide diameter (D) of the receiving sleeve (3).

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a chuck with a radially displaceable locking member, in particular, for a hammer drill for receiving a percussion drill.
2. Description of Prior Art
Working tools, which are driven by rotary percussion power tools, have a shank that is formlockingly received in a chuck of the power tool for rotation therewith, with a possibility of a limited axial displacement relative thereto. The shank is axially secured in the chuck with a radially displaceable locking member that penetrates into a groove formed in the shank and closed at its power tool side end.
German Publications DE 19724532 and DE 3205063 both disclose a chuck having a hollow cylindrical receiving sleeve having a predetermined guide diameter and a strip-shaped, rotation transmitting web projecting radially inward and having a predetermined web height, and a radially displaceable locking member. The rotation transmitting web extends from the receiving side, up to the receiving side edge of the sleeve opening, through which the locking member is radially displaced, over an axial length that approximately corresponds to the guide diameter of the receiving sleeve.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,107,949 discloses practically standardized shanks and associated chucks, which at present are primarily used worldwide with hammer drill systems. The shanks have a cylindrical guide surface with a guide diameter of 10 mm, locking grooves which are axially closed at their free end surface, and trapezoidal rotation transmitting grooves which are axially open at their free end surfaces. The associated chucks are provided with at least one, radially displaceable, locking member engageable in a locking groove and limiting the axial displacement of the shank, and thereby of the working tool, in the chuck. Two opposite rotation transmitting webs engage in respective rotation transmitting grooves of the shank and transmit a torque over respective tangential contact surfaces. These shanks were originally designed for drill diameters up to 17 mm and are, thus, associated with small low-power hammer drills with a power less than 650 W. With such power tool power-working tool combination wear problems were practically non-existent.
With the increase of power of the hand-held power tools, in particular, of hammer drills, in certain operational modes, high torques are transmitted to a working tool. Meanwhile, the practical application region of the hammer drills has expanded to drill diameters of 30 mm. It has been shown that a drill with a diameter above 17 mm leads to an increase wear and damage of the chuck in particular, to a noticeably high wear of the contact surfaces of the rotation transmitting webs. In particular, with modern, reinforcement-proof hammer drills, increased occurrences of a working tool blocking in a reinforced bore are observed. When the user wants to pull the hammer drill out of the bore, high torques are applied to the working tool, and high jerky tension forces are generated which are transmitted to the working tool by the receiving side edge of the receiving opening for the locking member.
These forces lead to breaking of the receiving sleeve in the vicinity of the receiving side edge when these forces exceed the allowable multi-axes tension.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is a chuck for powerful hand-held power tool and having a reduced wear and susceptibility to being damaged.


A roofer's safety brace unit consisting of a pair of main frame track components, an extension arm, a pivotably attached support arm equipped with a rubberized foot pad at one end thereof and a running wheel at the other end thereof placeable upon a roof by virtue of the function of a plurality of chair shaped lateral support units equipped with rubberized foot pads such as are attached to plank holding brackets affixable to the main frame track components or extension arm, and, one of which brackets is further equipped with a pivotable plank bar such that when a duplicate pair of such safety brace units is utilized by a roofer, planking suitable to safely supporting the weight of a roofer working on a roof is readily and dependably held fast in place.

1. Field of the Invention
The instant invention is one that relates to mechanical devices suitable for facilitating the repair and/or maintenance of roofing on buildings.
2. Regarding Possible Prior Art
The art such as is set forth in the Art Statement which accompanies this application does not anticipate the instant invention.


An article includes a ceramic-based substrate and a barrier layer on the ceramic-based substrate. The barrier layer includes a matrix phase and gettering particles in the matrix phase. The gettering particles with an aspect ratio greater than one are aligned such that a maximum dimension of the gettering particles extends along an axis that is generally parallel to the substrate. The barrier layer includes a dispersion of diffusive particles in the matrix phase. A composite material and a method of applying a barrier layer to a substrate are also disclosed.

A gas turbine engine typically includes a fan section, a compressor section, a combustor section and a turbine section. Air entering the compressor section is compressed and delivered into the combustion section where it is mixed with fuel and ignited to generate a high-energy exhaust gas flow. The high-energy exhaust gas flow expands through the turbine section to drive the compressor and the fan section. The compressor section typically includes low and high pressure compressors, and the turbine section includes low and high pressure turbines.
This disclosure relates to composite articles, such as those used in gas turbine engines. Components, such as gas turbine engine components, may be subjected to high temperatures, corrosive and oxidative conditions, and elevated stress levels. In order to improve the thermal and/or oxidative stability, the component may include a protective barrier coating.


The mirror attachment for eyeglasses is a lightweight rectangular mirror which is attached to the temple piece of a pair of eyeglasses by a hinged arm. The mirror may be folded to a closed position generally parallel to the temple piece when not in use and extended to a vertical plane parallel to and anterior to the plane of the eyeglass lens when in use. The hinged arm has a proximal portion and a distal portion which are articulated by a knuckle joint hinge. The proximal portion is attached to the temple piece by a hinged joint on a U-shaped clip which is secured to the temple piece by a set screw. The distal portion is attached to the mirror by a hinged joint on a similar U-shaped clip secured to the top of the mirror medially. Alternatively, the mirror attachment may be attached to the brim of a cap or a visor attached to an elastic headband worn under a cap.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to accessories for personal safety and for sporting activities, and particularly to a mirror attachment for use with eyeglasses or for attachment to the bill of a visor or cap which provides the wearer with a view of the area to the rear.
2. Description of the Related Art
On various occasions it may prove useful for a person to be able to view objects and movements to his rear without the necessity of turning around backwards. The ability to see to one's rear without wasted effort is useful in various sports, such as cycling and running, as well as for personal safety, e.g., for pedestrians walking along the side of roadways, or for persons in occupations where there is a risk of being assaulted from behind, such as security guards and night watchmen. A number of different devices have been developed for attachment to spectacles or to the brim of a cap which are designed to provide some degree of rear view vision.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,431,147, issued Oct. 10, 1922 to H. A. Borresen, shows a reflector which may be attached to aviator's goggles or to eyeglasses, the reflector being attached to an arm by a ball and socket (or universal) connector, and the arm being attached to the frame of the goggles or eyeglasses by a second ball and socket connector. U.S. Pat. No. 1,504,344, issued Aug. 12, 1924 to H. K. Hennigh, shows a polished metal reflector attached to the cap of a motorcycle driver by wire.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,988, 058, issued Oct. 26, 1976 to Chaney, et al. discloses a rear view mirror for attachment to eyeglasses or a cap by means of a U-shaped support arm having ball and socket joints at both ends of the arm, one for attachment to the mirror, and the other for attachment to the stem of an L-shaped bracket, which, in turn, connects to the frame of the eyeglasses or a cap my means of a pair of prongs which mate with sockets on an elastomeric cushion. U.S. Pat. No. 4,349,246, issued Sep. 14, 1982 to T. S. Binner, shows a rear view mirror attached to a stem by a ball and socket joint, the stem being attached to eyeglasses or a cap by a pair of spring loaded tongues resembling an alligator clip.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,490,012, issued Dec. 25, 1984 to D. M. Magiske, teaches a mirror for attachment to the brim or crown of a hat by means of a mounting base with bifurcated arms secured to the brim by a set screw and a mirror connected to the base by a flexible arm, preferably made from resin insulation filled with solder. U.S. Des. Pat. No. 284,462, issued Jul. 1, 1986, and utility Pat. No. 4,603,944, issued Aug. 5, 1986 to Greenal et. al. show embodiments of a rear view mirror for attachment either to a bicycle crash helmet, or to eyeglasses. The former has a mirror attached to a rod by a ball and socket joint, the rod threading into a clamp against the helmet, the latter having two ball and socket joints and a spring clamp for attachment to eyeglasses.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,798,454, issued Jan. 17, 1989 to K. H. Hyun, teaches a mirror mounted on a rod which telescopes into a channel defined in the ear piece or temple piece of eyeglasses. The rod is spring biased into an extended position and moved by a tab which folds into a recess to lock the rod in a retracted position. U.S. Pat. No. 4,934,806, issued Jun. 19, 1990 to Berke, et al. shows a pair of reflective surfaces joined to a pair of eyeglasses by U-shaped arms, the reflective surfaces being pivotally attached to the arms by a resilient snap fit, and the arms being pivotally attached to the eyeglass frames. The reflective surfaces are viewed through "windows" in the arms.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,974,954, issued Dec. 4, 1990 to G. H. Muller, describes spectacles with rear view vision elements bilaterally which are mounted to arms by a spherical joint, the arms rotating about a horizontal screw. U.S. Pat. No. 5,048,943, issued Sep. 17, 1991 to J. H. Allen, discloses a mirror pivoting around a pin at the end of an arm connected to the temple piece of a pair of eyeglasses by a ball and socket joint. The mirror is rectangular and is stored in a rectangular recess in the temple piece.
U.S. Des. Pat. No. 378,159, issued Feb. 25, 1997 to L. Mulkey, shows a mirror for headgear having an alligator clip attached to a connector by a pivot pin, and a mirror having a short arm mounted to the same connector by a pivot pin. U.K. Patent No. 1,257,117, published Dec. 15, 1971, describes a mirror for physicians which attaches to spectacles including a mirror and three arms connected by two ball and socket joints, the arms being attached to spectacles by a clip.
U.K. Patent No. 2,104,236, published Mar. 2, 1983, shows a mirror attached to an arm, the arm being attached to a clip for attachment to spectacles, the arm having ball and socket joints at both ends. French Patent No. 2,532,070, published Feb. 24, 1984, shows driving mirror spectacles having a support lashed to the temple piece of the spectacles, a "primary axle" extending through the support, a secondary axle hinged to the primary axle, and a mirror.
The majority of such devices rely upon ball and socket joints or upon complicated mechanisms to connect the reflector to the frame of the eyeglasses or to extend the mirror in front of the lens. Consequently they are expensive to manufacture and difficult to adjust. None of the above inventions and patents, taken either singularly or in combination, is seen to describe the instant invention as claimed. Thus a mirror attachment for eyeglasses solving the aforementioned problems is desired.

Rear-view mirror for attachment to eyeglasses and cap brims


Pulverizing apparatus, known as hammer mills, for crushing rocks, etcetera, are known, which use swinging hammers, pivotally mounted on a rotating axis within a casing. The present invention provides a crushing apparatus comprising a housing with first and second cylindrical chambers, the first chamber having an inlet for input of material to be crushed, and the second chamber having an outlet for expulsion of crushed material. An axle is mounted for rotation in the housing and provided with means for rotating the axle. Hammers are mounted for rotation in the first chamber. Blades are mounted for rotation in the second chamber and have a flat surface for moving air in the second chamber. A flywheel is mounted for rotation on the rotating axle and forms a central wall between the first and second chamber while being adapted to leave a clearance between the first and second chamber sufficient for movement of crushed particles.

Pulverizing apparatus, known as hammer mills, for crushing rocks, etcetera, are known, which use swinging hammers, pivotally mounted on a rotating axis within a casing. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 1,646,720. Typically, one or more hammers rotate rapidly about a central shaft. The rapidly rotating hammers strike and crush the rocks. The rocks are then screened to ensure crushing to the appropriate size. See also, U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,013,527; 1,721,821 and 2,169,684. These existing hammer mill rock pulverizers tend to jam frequently, particularly if traces of moisture are present, and are not useful for producing a continuous supply of pulverized rock of the proper consistency.
Current environmental concerns dictate that glass bottles be recycled rather than disposed of in land fills. For a number of reasons, including cost, it is preferable in many situations to crush the glass bottles into a fine sand, and use such sand for other purposes such as covering land fill. Such sand should be of uniform particle size to avoid hazards. Hence there is a need for a pulverizing apparatus which is well suited for crushing glass into a uniform sand.


A method for encrypting video data in which the encryption achieves a high standard of security and is carried out at a reduced computation cost. The encryption comprises disordering a set of video data to be encrypted and obscuring the disordered video data.

Methods for encrypting video data are used to ensure a secure transmission of video data, thus preventing unauthorised third parties from eavesdropping on the video data. Different methods have been proposed.
On the basis of an introductory consideration of known methods for encrypting video data, Liu and König propose ("A Novel Encryption Algorithm for High Resolution Video", Proceeding of ACM NOSSDAV'05, Stevenson, Wash., USA, June 2005, pp. 69-74) a method for encrypting video data, which they call "Puzzle method". In this method, a video data set, also called video frame, is obscured in a first method step by partially encrypting with a key stream the video data to be encrypted, and partially linking those video data to each other by means of an exclusive-or (XOR) operation. The video data obscured in this way are subsequently divided into video data blocks. The encryption is completed by interchanging the divided video data blocks in accordance with a permutation list.
It has been shown that, after encrypting the data by means of the known method, cracking the encryption by means of differential attacks by unauthorised third parties could be possible. There is therefore a demand for improving the security against attacks on the encrypted video data.

Brandenburgische Technische Universitaet Cottbus


An regeneration system for use in a power system is disclosed. The regeneration system may include a source of intake air, an engine brake configured to reduce the speed of an engine by compression and release of the intake air, and a valve configured to divert a portion of the intake air to an auxiliary device. The regeneration system may further include a controller in communication with the engine brake and the valve. The controller may be configured to move the valve to reduce the portion of intake air diverted to the auxiliary device when the engine brake is active.

Modern diesel engines often include subsystems designed to increase performance. One example of such a subsystem includes an engine brake. An engine brake can be used to slow a vehicle faster than service brakes and without significant component wear by, for example, opening the engine's exhaust valves during a compression stroke of the engine. Opening the exhaust valves releases kinetic energy transferred from the moving vehicle to the air in the engine's cylinders in the form of compression and heat, and minimizes the energy returned back to the vehicle. The amount of engine braking is dependent upon the amount of air available for compression in the cylinder. That is, a larger volume of air within the cylinder will require and, thus, dissipate more compression energy. Therefore an engine brake will provide more braking when more air is available.
Another example of a performance enhancing engine subsystem includes a particulate trap and associated regeneration device. Diesel engines exhaust a complex mixture of air pollutants composed of solid particulate material in the form of unburned carbon particles. In order to meet stringent emissions standards, engine manufacturers have developed devices for treatment of engine exhaust after it leaves the engine. One such exhaust treatment device is the particulate trap, which includes a filter designed to collect particulate matter from the exhaust flow of an engine. The use of the particulate trap for extended periods of time, however, enables particulate matter to accumulate on the filter, thereby causing damage to the filter and/or a decline in engine performance. One method of restoring the performance of a particulate trap includes regeneration. Regeneration of a particulate trap filter is accomplished by increasing the temperature of the filter and the trapped particulate matter above the combustion temperature of the particulate matter, thereby burning away the collected particulate matter. This increase in temperature may be accomplished by heating the exhaust gases upstream from the particulate trap with the use of a burner that creates a flame within the exhaust conduit leading to the particulate trap. The burner may include a fuel injector for creating the flame, and the burner may be supplied with air from the intake system of the engine.
As the number and complexity of engine subsystems increases, so does their interaction with and effect upon each other. For example, if air from the engine intake is supplied to the regeneration device to aid in combustion, then the effectiveness of engine braking may be reduced due to the reduced amount of air available for compression within the cylinders. Each engine subsystem and its related control can be designed to either isolate effects upon other subsystems, or to allow the subsystems to cooperate and positively effect each other.
One example of an engine having cooperating subsystems is described in U.S. Patent Application Publication no. 2005/0172617 (the '617 publication) by Persson, published on Aug. 11, 2005. The '617 publication discloses a method of regenerating a particulate filter by injecting fuel into an exhaust stream to raise the temperature of the exhaust. The injected fuel is oxidized by an oxidation catalyst upstream from particulate filters, thereby heating the exhaust and the particulate filter to a temperature sufficient to ignite carbon particles trapped in the particulate filter. Because the injected fuel, by itself, may be insufficient to ignite the trapped carbon particles, the regeneration system only operates during periods of engine braking, due to the increased exhaust temperatures that occur during engine braking. In this manner, heat from the injected fuel, combined with the elevated exhaust temperatures of engine braking, may be sufficient to regenerate the particulate filter.
While the system of the '617 publication may allow related subsystems to positively affect each other, it may be too limiting. Specifically, although the system may be capable of sufficiently regenerating a particulate filter, it is dependent upon the activation of engine braking. In instances where engine braking is not active or only active for a short time (i.e. a time insufficient to produce adequate temperatures), regeneration may be only minimally successful, thereby leading to reduced engine performance and economy, and an increased need for particulate filter service.
The system of the present disclosure solves one or more of the problems set forth above.


The present invention is directed to a bed frame designed for quick assembly. In an exemplary embodiment, the invention may comprise a wire lattice that forms the support surface for a mattress and, if necessary, box springs. The wire lattice can be secured to a perimeter frame using brackets which hook onto the lattice and also attach to the sides of the frame. The bed frame may include vertical supports or legs that can be quickly attached to the frame. Each leg may include an attachment plate and a catch extending above the attachment plate. The leg can be secured to the bed frame by sliding the attachment plate into a receiver attached to the bed frame. As the attachment plate is being inserted, the catch may engage a series of corrugations formed in the receiver. The catch may press against a corrugation to lock the leg into the receiver.

A conventional bed includes a mattress resting atop a box spring, which sits on a bed frame. The bed could also have a headboard attached to one end of the frame and a footboard attached to the opposite end of the frame. A typical bed frame includes an upper section that supports a box spring and mattress and a lower section that rests on the floor. The upper section may include rails and/or slats for supporting the box spring and mattress. A conventional bed frame may have L-shaped rails arranged in a rectangular configuration with slats extending between the rails. The perimeter of a box spring can sit on the rails with the interior part of the box spring being supported by the slats. The lower section of a bed frame typically includes legs or some other type of support resting on a floor.
Bed frames are usually constructed of metal, wood, or a combination of the two. These materials tend to be heavy and a typical frame has multiple components, some of which are quite large. Assembling the components may require an assortment of hardware (e.g., nuts, bolts, and washers) and tools. Fastening together the large and heavy components can make assembly of a bed frame awkward and difficult. Assembly often requires more than one person and it can take a significant amount of time. The weight of the materials also makes shipping the bed frame from a manufacturer to a retail store or consumer expensive.
To address these problems, manufacturers have tried to make bed frames lighter and easier to assemble. For example, some frames utilize hollow (e.g., tubular) components or components made of plastic. Other bed frames have been designed to include only relatively small components so that each component is lighter and easier to handle. This has the obvious drawback that more pieces means there is a greater chance of losing a piece. Also, making bed frame components lighter does not necessarily make the frame easier to assemble. Many bed frames still require threaded fasteners to join the various components. Installing fasteners is tedious and time consuming, and keeping track of fasteners and the tools required to install fasteners can be difficult.
In certain scenarios, the speed in which a bed frame can be assembled may have a significant impact on cost. For example, when furnishing a newly built hotel, it could take 100 hours or more for a person to assemble bed frames for all of the rooms. That can translate to thousands of dollars spent on simply setting up bed frames. If assembly time can be reduced, the cost of installing the bed frames will be reduced.
At least one manufacturer has developed a bed frame designed for tool-less assembly. U.S. Pat. No. 6,883,191 discloses a bed foundation constructed of blow-molded plastic that may be assembled without the use of tools. While the bed frame in that patent may not need tools, it still requires threaded fasteners. Specifically, the patent describes using lag bolts, screws or similar devices to hold the legs to the side rails and using wing nuts to tighten such fasteners. Because threaded fasteners are required, assembly is still tedious and there is a risk that the fasteners could be lost.
Thus, there remains a need in the art for a bed frame that avoids drawbacks common to existing frames. Specifically, a bed frame is needed that is strong, durable, relatively lightweight, and can be quickly and easily assembled. The present invention addresses this need.


A fastener installation tool including a cylinder assembly having a housing and a handle/sleeve assembly attached to the housing. The handle/sleeve assembly includes a handle having a bore and an inner wall defined by the bore. The handle/sleeve assembly further includes an outer sleeve having an outer wall and an inner wall, and an inner sleeve having an outer wall and an inner wall. The outer sleeve is positioned within the bore of the handle, while the inner sleeve is positioned concentrically within the outer sleeve to form an annular space between the outer wall of the inner sleeve and the inner wall of the outer sleeve. The annular space is utilized to conduct hydraulic fluid.

Fastener installation tools are utilized to install fasteners to secure a plurality of work pieces to one another. The fasteners may be conventional pull-type fasteners which include a separable pintail portion engageable by a nose assembly of the tool. It is desirable to provide a relatively lightweight, less expensive fastener installation tool.

Fastener installation tool with internal concentric sleeves


The present disclosure relates to an image merging system that automatically and seamlessly detects and merges missing people for a set of digital images into a composite group photo. For instance, the image merging system utilizes a number of models and operations to automatically analyze multiple digital images to identify a missing person from a base image, segment the missing person from the second image, and generate a composite group photo by merging the segmented image of the missing person into the base image. In this manner, the image merging system automatically creates merged group photos that appear natural and realistic.

Recent years have witnessed a significant increase in digital image editing. Indeed, advances in both hardware and software have increased the ability of individuals to capture, create, and edit digital images. For instance, the hardware on most modern computing devices (e.g., servers, desktops, laptops, tablets, and smartphones) enables digital image editing without significant lag time or processing delays. Similarly, improvements in software have enabled individuals to modify, combine, filter, or otherwise edit digital images. Examples of editing digital images include detecting an object, copying the object from one image into a new background, and removing an object from an image.
Notwithstanding these improvements in digital image editing, conventional systems have a number of problems in relation to flexibility and efficiency of operation in image editing systems, particularly with respect to combining or merging people and objects from multiple digital images into the same digital image. As an example, conventional systems are largely unable to automatically add missing persons to a digital image in a natural and realistic manner. To illustrate, while these conventional systems provide tools to assist users in editing digital images, they do not typically include the ability to automatically detect and merge missing people or objects across multiple digital images. Indeed, these conventional systems are rigidly restricted to a limited number of operations.
Additionally, conventional systems are inefficient. For example, conventional systems have significant shortfalls in relation to merging people and objects across images. For example, many conventional systems require a larger number of steps to add a missing person or object to a digital image. Further, many of these steps are inefficient as the rely on user input and user actions and require high precision user input in order to arrive at a good quality result. The high precision required can make it difficult or impossible to perform such operations using hand held devices (e.g., smart phones or tablets) due to the lack of screen space. As such, conventional systems often require merging people and objects to performed on traditional desktop computers with traditional input devices (e.g., a computer mouse). As many photographs are captured using handheld devices, conventional systems can require users to transfer images to other devices (e.g., a traditional desktop computer) in order to merge people and objects across images.
To better illustrate these inefficiencies, several conventional systems provide inefficient mouse input-based tools that further require users to manually perform numerous steps to add a missing person to an image. In some cases, these tools can be imprecise and difficult to use. In other cases, the tools are complex and require a high level of skill and expertise to operate. In both cases, conventional systems require the user to perform numerous manual steps to add a missing person to a digital image, which increases the number of operations needed to be performed by a computing device. Indeed, significant time and user interactions with different selection tools by the user waste substantial computing resources in detecting, displaying, selecting, merging, blending, and correcting missing persons in digital images.
In addition to the foregoing, conventional systems typically require switching between different user interfaces to merge people from different images. In particular, conventional systems typically require opening a first image in a first graphical user interface to select a person to move to a second image. Such systems then typically require opening a second user interface displaying the second image in order to add the selected person from the first image. More particularly, the process of merging people from different images can often require switching between user interfaces multiples times as part of the operation.
These, along with additional problems and issues exist in image editing systems with respect to automatically merging objects and people in digital images.

Automatically merging people and objects from multiple digital images to generate a composite digital image


A light-emitting diode (LED) bulb includes a reflector, a plurality of LEDs disposed within a recess of the reflector, a thermally conductive liquid disposed within the recess, and an adjustment mechanism to move the LEDs from a first position to a second position, with respect to the reflector. The thermally conductive liquid may transfer heat generated by the LEDs to the reflector, and the reflector may dissipate heat transferred by the thermally conductive liquid to the surrounding environment. The reflector may also reflect light from the LEDs to produce a first light-distribution profile, having a respective first beam angle, when the LEDs are in the first position, and to produce a second light-distribution profile, having a respective second beam angle, when the LEDs are in the second position.

1. Field
The present disclosure relates generally to light-emitting diode (LED) bulbs and, more specifically, to an LED bulb having an adjustable light-distribution profile.
2. Related Art
Traditionally, lighting has been generated using fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs. While both types of light bulbs have been reliably used, each suffers from certain drawbacks. For instance, incandescent bulbs tend to be inefficient, using only 2-3% of their power to produce light, while the remaining 97-98% of their power is lost as heat. Fluorescent bulbs, while more efficient than incandescent bulbs, do not produce the same warm light as that generated by incandescent bulbs. Additionally, there are health and environmental concerns regarding the mercury contained in fluorescent bulbs.
Thus, an alternative light source is desired. One such alternative is a bulb utilizing an LED. An LED comprises a semiconductor junction that emits light due to an electrical current flowing through the junction. Compared to a traditional incandescent bulb, an LED bulb is capable of producing more light using the same amount of power. Additionally, the operational life of an LED bulb is orders of magnitude longer than that of an incandescent bulb—for example, 10,000-100,000 hours as opposed to 1,000-2,000 hours.
Although LEDs provide advantages in efficiency and lifetime, they also present various design challenges related to heat dissipation and light distribution. LEDs are about 80% efficient, meaning that 20% of power supplied to LEDs is lost as heat. In many cases, an LED bulb is operated so that the heat produced is below an acceptable threshold level. Preventing an LED from reaching excessive temperatures may maximize the lifetime of the LED and also maximize the overall light output. The operating temperature of LEDs in an LED bulb depends on multiple factors, including the number of LEDs, the type of LEDs, and the thermal properties of the bulb. Traditionally, the heat from the LEDs is conducted through an LED mount to a base of the bulb, where it is dissipated to the surrounding environment.
Another challenge associated with LED bulbs is that the light distribution of the LEDs tends to be highly dependent on direction. That is, in at least some cases, an LED emits significantly more light in certain directions than it does in others. Thus, the placement and orientation of the LEDs in an LED bulb have a significant impact on the light-distribution profile of the device. If the placement of the LEDs is adjustable (as described in some embodiments below), additional difficulties may arise when dissipating heat through the base of the bulb, as done in some traditional LED bulbs.
Thus, there is a need for an LED bulb that allows for adjustable placement of the LED while also dissipating a sufficient amount of heat to ensure reliable operation of the LEDs.


A Security Association (SA) lookup table is maintained at a network interface. The SA data is stored in a memory external to the network interface, for example, in the memory of a host electronic system in which the network interface provides network access. The lookup table stores sufficient information for the network interface, or another system component, to access the SA data. When a cryptography operation is to be performed, the SA data is retrieved from the external memory and delivered to the processor performing the cryptographic operations. In one embodiment, destination Internet Protocol (IP) address and the IPSec protocol are checked after the SA data is retrieved from the external memory. In one embodiment, the lookup table entries contain only an offset value from a base address value to locate the SA data.

The IP Security (IPSec) standard provides techniques for protecting both confidentiality and integrity of data transferred over a network. IPSec is described in IP Security Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) Request for Comments (RFC) 2401, published November 1998. Because IPSec provides a way to encrypt and decrypt data below the Transmission Control Protocol (TCP)/User Datagram Protocol (UDP) layer, the protection is transparent to applications that transfer data. Thus, a system may utilize IPSec without requiring changes at the application level. However, the algorithms used for cryptography (crypto) operations (e.g., encryption, decryption, authentication) on the data for IPSec require many processor cycles to execute. The processor cycles spent on crypto operations decrease the cycles available to applications and other parts of the protocol stack. This in turn decreases throughput in the system.
One solution to this problem is to offload the cryptography operations to hardware external to the processor, for example, a network interface card (NIC). One offload technique is to decrypt the data directly off the network connection before the packet is transferred to host memory. Often, data transfers between the NIC and host memory are accomplished using a direct memory access (DMA) device. The process of decrypting and authenticating ingress data before it is transferred to host memory is referred to as "Inline Receive."
An alternative to Inline Receive is a technique referred to as "Secondary Use," which uses an out-of-band acceleration technique to decrypt receive packets. All packets received from the network are transferred to host memory via DMA transfer. The network driver then parses each received packet to match it with a corresponding security association (SA). A security association is a data structure that contains information necessary to encrypt, decrypt and or authenticate a packet of data.
Assuming the cryptographic operation processor in located on the NIC, the driver must instruct the NIC processor to transfer the packet across the bus, perform the cryptographic operation on the packet and then send the packet back across the bus to host memory. The result is that the packet is transferred across the bus three times, which is an inefficient use of host resources. The Secondary Use technique further introduces latency that can degrade throughput of protocols that are sensitive to round trip timing delays, for example, TCP.
Inline Receive provides better overall performance as compared to Secondary Use at the expense of increased complexity and expense of the network interface. One of the factors that results in increased expense is that, for Inline Receive, the network interface generally stores the SAs for the incoming data streams. In order to support a large number of incoming data streams, the network interface would then store a large number of SAs, which are generally stored in a cache memory on the network interface. Increasing this cache size increases the expense of the network interface.

Techniques for storing and retrieving security information corresponding to cryptographic operations to support cryptographic processing for multiple network traffic streams


An innerspring mattress construction is provided which includes a laminated liquid or moisture barrier layer which itself provides improved attachment properties. Also provided is a water mattress construction having improved resistance to leakage. Also provided is an improved pocketed coil construction which is resistant to moisture.

In the mattress industry, it is well known that in certain mattress environments there is need to provide water, water vapor, or other liquid, vapor, or moisture barriers in order to prevent same from undesirably seeping or passing into certain portions of the mattress, or from passing out of the mattress. In the case of an innerspring mattress, particularly in hospitals or other health care environments, there is a need to prevent water, urine, or other liquids from passing through the upholstered cover of the mattress and into the innerspring portion of the mattress. Once within the area of the innerspring portion of the mattress, fluids are difficult to remove and can cause rusting or other undesirable effects.
In the instance of water mattresses, there is also a need to prevent the water within the water mattress from leaking into the cover of the mattress should a water bladder break or tear in some manner, and there is also a need to provide a vapor barrier between the water bladder(s) and the user.
Water-resistant materials have been used so as to provide a liquid or vapor barrier, but to date these barriers have been found ineffective in that some barrier material (such as a vinyl) is difficult to sew or otherwise fasten within the mattress. Another particular difficulty is that of tearing or ripping of the barrier material.
Therefore a need has been recognized for a mattress construction which provides a water or other liquid barrier, but also is resistant to tearing during manufacture or use of the mattress. A need has also been recognized to provide an improved water mattress construction which has improved resistance to interior water leakage and providing a vapor barrier. A need has also been recognized to provide a pocketed coil construction which has liquid- or moisture-resistant characteristics.

Mattress having 2-ply moisture barrier and replaceable upholstery