A hose device includes a hose portion (3), at least a first end portion (2) and a channel (5) which extends along the hose device (1) through the first end portion and the hose portion. The hose device has flexible and elastic properties. The first end portion (2) of the hose device is in a mounted state arranged to be attached to a tubular connection member (7) by having the connection member introduced in the channel (5). The hose device has a transition portion (4), which is located between the first end portion (2) and the hose portion (3). The channel (5) thus extends also through the transition portion and has, at the transition portion (4), in a non-mounted state a non-circular cross-sectional shape and in the mounted state a substantially circular cross-sectional shape, which permits a free liquid flow through the channel (5).

The present invention refers to a hose device including a hose portion, at least a first end portion and a channel, which extends along the hose device through the first end portion and the hose portion, wherein the hose device has flexible and elastic properties, wherein the first end portion of the hose device in a mounted state is arranged to be attached to a tubular connection member by having the connection member introduced in the channel and wherein the hose device includes a transition portion, which is located between the first end portion and the hose portion.
Such hose devices are comprised by a short milk conduit, which normally is manufactured in a rubber-like material and extends between a teatcup and a teatcup claw of a milking member. The short milk conduit may be a separate hose or be a part of a teatcup liner, which is mounted in the shell of the teatcup. When the milk conduit is provided on the connection member of the teatcup claw, which normally is designed as an obliquely cut pipe nipple, the inner cross-sectional shape of the milk conduit is deformed in such a way that the cross-sectional area is reduced, i.e. a constriction is formed in an area immediately outside the nipple. Such a constriction prevents a free milk flow through the milk conduit.
The patent literature includes several documents describing such hose devices, which form a short milk conduit between a teatcup and a teatcup claw.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,341,953 discloses a short milk hose having a bead which extends radially outwardly from the milk hose immediately outside an obliquely cut connection nipple. The purpose of the bead is to prevent the hose from being damaged when the teatcup is falling downwardly.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,694,379 discloses a teatcup liner hose having a reduced thickness of material in an area immediately outside the connection portion. The purpose of this reduction is to improve the possibility of the hose to close when the teatcup is hanging downwardly.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,643,630 discloses a teatcup liner hose having a bended end, which is intended to be attached to a connection nipple. The purpose of the bended end appears to be to improve the closing capability of the teatcup liner hose and to ensure a free milk flow in a milking position.


A system and method for controlling adaptive vehicle occupant restraint devices use a processor for receiving input signals from a plurality of sensors, for generating control parameters using a predetermined program, and for generating control signals from the control parameters to adaptively control the restraint devices during an accident.

This disclosure relates to vehicle restraint devices, and in particular to a system and method for adaptively controlling vehicle restraint devices.
In passenger vehicles, passenger restraint systems employed for restraining passengers during an accident are designed to meet safety standards and assessment tests. Seat belts are typically simple retractable straps which hold the occupant in place. In a crash, the tension in the belt generally increases linearly with the amount of stretch imparted to it by the occupant. Thus, the tension in the belt is ever increasing which translates into increasing force levels imparted to the chest of the occupant. Since injuries are related to peak forces and accelerations sustained by occupants, this type of restraint is less than ideal.
A constant force retractor has a load limiting feature which eliminates this peak force application to the occupant. One such retractor is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,547,143, which is incorporated herein by reference.
A constant-force seat belt retractor system and air bag together create a restraint system which may be tuned to provide optimal restraint performance in a given crash situation for a given occupant. This system once tuned for a specific vehicle and occupant size will not account for the condition that various sized occupants require different restraint force levels for optimal protection. A system tuned for an average male at 35 mph may be more firm than is appropriate for a smaller, lighter occupant, while the system tuned for the average-sized person may have marginally adequate restraining capability to keep a rather heavy person from impacting the windshield or instrument panel.
Such lack of adaptability also involves several other factors, such as the rapidity of deployment of the air bag with correspondingly high deployment forces. Accidents less severe than the predetermined standards may cause vehicle occupants to experience different forces due to the inability of the system to recognize and adapt to different crash situations and occupant characteristics. A belted occupant may be more effectively restrained by a less firm air bag than is required for an occupant who is not wearing a seat belt.
The adaptive occupant restraint system and method is a significant improvement over the prior art as it is able to tailor occupant restraint during a crash to the specific occupant characteristics (weight, proximity to airbag, and seat belt usage) as well as to the crash severity.
A system for controlling adaptive vehicle occupant restraint devices uses a processor for receiving input signals from a plurality of sensors, for generating control parameters using a predetermined program, and for generating control signals from the control parameters to adaptively control the restraint devices during an accident.

Sensing logic system and method for adaptive control of vehicle restraint devices


An improved method for draping curtains which allows one person to form a decorative window treatment known as a bishop tail without requiring any specialized skills or training. The method described hereinafter allows a fabric scarf to be draped from a rod of conventional configuration in a decorative manner about a window opening. The method uses hook and loop type fasteners means to secure the fabric scarf to the rod and thereby prevent the fabric scarf from sagging at the top. Curtain rings are placed over the ends of the depending fabric scarf and then installed on the rod near its ends to allow a portion of the fabric scarf to form a decorative downwardly curved arc of fabric. The newly formed arc is then "dressed" or folded into pleats in accordance with the teaching of U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,972 to William L. Tacchella. A hook closure ring is then installed through the previously hemmed edges of the fabric scarf and hung by a cord from the wall bracket to form the bishop tail.. An alternate embodiment is shown with a pair of bishop sleeves placed below the previously described bishop tail of the preferred embodiment. A second section of fabric scarf is hemmed on one edge and hung by a hook closure ring from the bracket behind the first bishop sleeve. The depending portion of the draped end of the fabric scarf is gathered and placed within a hook closure ring. The hook closure ring is then suspended by a pinch ring from the rear of the fabric scarf to form a bishop sleeve. The process is then repeated for the other side of the window.

This invention relates to a method for draping curtains to provide a custom designed wall or window look quickly and inexpensively. Typically a window curtain is supported over a window on a horizontal rod attached to the wall with the curtain fabric hanging therefrom. A decorative embellishment added to these window treatments is to drape the end portion of the curtain in a decorative puff referred to as a bishop tail. The present invention provides a method for draping and dressing the curtain fabric which can be easily performed by one person without requiring any special skills.
A second embellishment commonly known as a bishop sleeve can be used in conjunction with the bishop tail. This embellishment includes a second section of curtain fabric hung from the curtain bracket behind the first bishop tail. The depending portion of the draped end of the curtain fabric is gathered and draped in an ornamental fashion below the bishop tail. The process is then repeated for the other side of the window. This embellishment requires a considerable degree of skill to execute properly. In particular, in the past it was necessary to hem the fabric at a pre-determined location and carefully loop a cord or similar device through the hem to form the bishop sleeve decorative treatment. This prior method was difficult to implement since considerable skill was required to place the hem for each side of the curtain in the correct position to ensure each side of the curtain was evenly draped.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,284,258 to S. Kleiman discloses a festoon support device composed of a pair of specially shaped brackets secured to a wall for supporting a curtain in a festoon configuration.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,646 to C. Hannerstig discloses a method for draping curtains utilizing a special bracket from which the curtain fabric is draped. The special bracket further allows an ornamental fabric rosette to be formed on the special bracket without special skill or assistance.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,567 to C. Hannerstig, a continuation-in-part of U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,646, further defines a method for forming tie-back puffs utilizing the aforementioned special bracket.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,146,972 to W. Tacchella discloses a method for draping curtains which allows a person to form a decorative window treatment without requiring any specialiized skills or training.

Method for forming a bishop tail and bishop sleeve


A computer-implemented method is described comprising: identifying a set of contacts and/or contact groups permitted to contact a user of a data processing device during a scheduled event in an electronic calendar; receiving a communication event from a first contact over a first communication channel; comparing the first contact against the identified set of contacts and/or contact groups permitted to contact the user; and notifying the user of the communication event during the scheduled event only if the first contact is in the set of contacts and/or contact groups.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of data processing systems. More particularly, the invention relates to a system and method for integrating information maintained by personal information management and/or messaging applications.
2. Description of the Related Art
Personal information management ("PIM") applications and electronic messaging applications have become irreplaceable tools in today's business environment. Virtually all corporate employees rely on PIM/messaging software in one form or another. In addition, a growing number of individual personal computer ("PC") user and/or personal digital assistant ("PDA") users rely on PIM/messaging applications to send/receive e-mail and instant messages, organize personal information such as addresses, to-do lists and personal schedules.
Two well known PIM/messaging application suites are Microsoft Outlook® and Lotus Notes®. Each of these application suites includes an e-mail client for sending/receiving e-mail, an electronic calendar for scheduling appointments, an address book for managing contact information, and a to-do list for managing upcoming tasks.
However, one limitation found in prior systems is that little or no interaction is permitted between the different PIM/messaging applications. For example, although the user's calendar may indicate that the user is in an all-day meeting, the calendar application is not capable of communicating this information to the e-mail or instant messaging application. If this level of interaction were possible, the user could configure his/her e-mail or instant messaging client to generate an automatic response and/or to enter into a "silent" mode whenever the user's calendar indicates that the user is in a meeting (e.g., "I am currently in a meeting and will respond to your message when I return").
Accordingly, what is needed is an improved suite of PIM/messaging applications. What is also needed is a suite of PIM/messaging applications which interact together in a variety of useful ways.

System and method for integrating personal information management and messaging applications


A Francis turbine with a improved shape of blades to reduce the secondary flow around the blades and improve the hydraulic efficiency is provided. A Francis turbine comprises a rotating shaft, a crown, a plurality of blades and a band. The band is coaxially coupled with the crown by the blades and the rotating shaft, the crown, the blades, and the band as a whole are driven by water and rotate toward a turbine direction during a turbine operation. On a leading edge of at least one of the blades, a local maximum point exists between the crown and the band. The leading edge leans toward the turbine direction from the band connecting point, where the band and the leading edge are connected. And, a circumferential distance in the rotating direction between the band connecting point and the leading edge is the largest at the local maximum point.

A Francis turbine is used in a hydraulic machine, including a reversible pump-turbine, for power generation.
A conventional Francis turbine runner is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,479,757. This conventional Francis turbine runner includes blades whose inlet (a leading edge) shape is curved toward a direction opposite to a rotating direction of a turbine operation from a band side to a crown side.
Another conventional Francis turbine runner is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,135,716. This conventional Francis turbine runner includes blades whose outlet (a trailing edge) shape is curved toward a rotating direction of a turbine direction from a crown side to a band side. This conventional Francis turbine runner also includes blades whose inlet (a leading edge) shape is curved toward a rotating direction of a turbine operation from a band side to a crown side.
Those shapes of the blades of conventional Francis turbines are developed to improve a hydraulic efficiency or to reduce cavitations. Still there is room to develop the shape of the blades that improves the efficiency because of the recent development of technology in fields such as computational fluid dynamics.
Especially, it is known that secondary flow, which is a flow not being along a flow line, distorts a pressure distribution on the blades and results in loss of hydraulic efficiency.


An optical scanning system in which plural scan lines are sequentially scanned, and parameters association with the scanning are monitored. If one or more parameters change during the scanning operation, the system automatically begins rescanning, rather than continuing to scan the entire frame. This results in a system that operates more quickly than prior art systems, which have to waste an entire frame.

One and two dimensional symbols, such as barcodes and the like, have become commonplace in modern day society. Such symbols are utilized everywhere from supermarket scanners to postal delivery systems, and in a variety of other fields. In inventory, factory, and other systems, it is often the case that a conveyor belt includes a variety of items that are moved through the field of view of a scanner, so that such items can be counted, inventoried, or processed in some other way.
Such systems, it is important that the symbol to be read, which is usually placed on the side of a package or other reading surface, be quickly read by the scanning system because the items are moving through the field of view relatively quickly. If the scanning system takes too long to read the symbol, the symbol may completely pass the scanning system before the reading operation is complete. This will cause items to be miscounted and the system could not function properly. In most other applications, reading the symbol as quickly as possible is important, a problem increased by the fact that in two dimensional symbols, the lines are usually scanned sequentially.
Another problem with such systems is that ambient conditions, such as lighting conditions and shutter speed used for reading the symbol may change. Such changes may require adjustments to parameters within the optical reading system, such as the integration time. If the adjustment occurs during the reading of a frame, the entire frame must be discarded because it contains mixed data gathered at two different shutter speeds.
It is an object of the invention to provide a system wherein scanning can be accomplished and any changes made quickly enough so that both one of two dimensional barcodes, and other optical symbols, can be read efficiently enough to allow for the foregoing changes to occur.
It is another object of the invention to ensure that a two dimensional symbol is not read in a manner that requires frames to be discarded because conditions changed in the middle of reading the frame.

Optical module with accelerated reset capability


A hardmetal object is cathodically protected from corrosion by a protective electrode during the spark-erosion process, which protective electrode is electrically connected to the hardmetal object via an external power source. The protective electrode is preferably plate-shaped.

The invention relates to a method of machining a hardmetal object by means of spark erosion in an aqueous solution, utilizing measures which counteract corrosion of said object. The invention also relates to a spark-erosion device comprising a work vessel and a sparking wire electrode which is led through said work vessel.
Using the spark-erosion technique, hardmetal objects having a complicated or a simple configuration can be rapidly and accurately manufactured. For this purpose, a spark-erosion device is used which comprises a metal sparking wire electrode. In the spark-erosion process, the wire electrode is usually kept at a negative, pulsed, electric voltage of maximally several hundreds of volts relative to the object to be machined. The wire electrode can be used to cut the hardmetal, because under the influence of electric discharges particles are removed from the hardmetal. Hardmetal objects are to be understood to mean, in particular, objects of sintered metallic carbides and borides which also complete up to several tens of percents by weight of metals as binders. A well known and advantageously used example thereof is sintered WC comprising 10% by weight of Co.
Spark erosion takes place under a liquid in a work vessel. At present, demineralized water is preferably used for this purpose. The liquid has a desired, high electric resistance of at least 5.10.sup.3 Ohm.cm. Organic compounds increasing the discharge stabilization and/or reducing the wear of the wire electrode, may be dissolved in the demineralized water. Spark erosion of hardmetal objects in aqueous solutions has disadvantages. From European Patent Specification No. 176.224, it is known that corrosion of the faces which are cut in the object in the spark-erosion process may occur. In EP 176.224, a special bipolar pulse frequency of the voltage on the sparking wire electrode is proposed to alleviate this corrosion problem. Applicants have established that this measure is insufficient. The use of a bipolar pulse frequency does not provide a complete protection against corrosion of the hardmetal object.

Method of and device for the spark erosion of hardmeal objects


An exemplary method includes a media service provider system 1) generating, based on a first set of most-accessed media programs of a first media distribution model of a media service and a second set of most-accessed media programs of a second media distribution model of the media service, data representative of a merged set of most-accessed media programs that includes at least one media program from the first set of most-accessed media programs and at least one media program from the second set of most-accessed media programs and 2) providing, for display, user interface content representing the merged set of most-accessed media programs. In the method, the first media distribution model includes a digital media distribution model that utilizes a digital media distribution channel, and the second media distribution model includes a physical media distribution model that utilizes a physical media distribution channel.

There are diverse ways for people to find and consume media programs. For example, a person wanting to watch a movie may utilize a traditional video distribution service such as a video rental or purchase service ("video service") to find, access, and watch a movie. The video service may allow the person to rent or purchase a physical copy of the movie from a local video store or video vending kiosk, or to rent or purchase a digital copy of the movie through an online video service, which may stream or download the digital copy of the movie to a user computing device for playback to the user.
Such a video service typically provides a user of the service with tools for discovering video programs offered for access through the video service. While a conventional video service provides useful tools for discovery of the video programs offered by the service, there remains room for new and/or improved tools that may further benefit users and/or a provider of the service. For example, there remains room to improve tools for identifying and promoting popular video programs to better assist a user of the service in conveniently discovering information about and/or accessing popular video programs and/or other video programs that may be of interest to the user.

Systems and methods for determining and presenting top-ranked media programs of a media service that distributes media programs by way of a plurality of different media distribution models

Verizon and Redbox Digital Entertainment Services, LLC


A multiple laser peening cell apparatus for receiving pulses of energy from a laser shock peening device is comprised of a first cell for receiving a first pulse of energy, a second cell for receiving a second pulse of energy, and a beam distribution means, for directing the first pulse of energy and the second pulse of energy. Also, a method of directing pulses of energy originating from a single source to multiple workpieces comprises the steps of creating a first pulse of energy, directing the first pulse of energy to a first workpiece located in a first laser peening cell, creating a second pulse of energy, and directing the second pulse of energy to a second workpiece located in a second laser peening cell.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laser shock peening apparatus, and more particularly, to a method and apparatus for utilizing a multiple beam dispenser in a plurality of laser peening cells.
2. Description of the Related Art
Laser shock peening is a process for improving the fatigue, hardness, and corrosion resistance properties of materials by focusing radiation on preselected surface areas of a workpiece. Laser shock peening the workpiece can avoid gross deformation, cracking, and spallation of the workpiece, and nonplanar workpieces can be laser shock processed without the need of elaborate and costly shock focusing schemes.
Laser peening, or also referred to as laser shock processing and laser shock peening, typically utilizes two overlays: a transparent overlay (usually water) and an opaque overlay, typically an oil based, acrylic based, or water based, black paint. During processing, a laser beam is directed to pass through the water overlay and is absorbed by the black paint, causing a rapid plasma formation and vaporization of the paint surface and the generation of a high amplitude shock wave. The shock wave cold works the surface of the workpiece and creates compressive residual stresses, which provide an increase in fatigue properties of the part. When using a water-based paint, a high-speed water jet quickly removes any remaining paint on the workpiece, and the workpiece surface is subsequently dried by the use of a high-pressure fluid or gas jet.
Finally, the workpiece is repositioned for further processing. A workpiece is processed by producing a matrix of overlapping spots that cover the fatigue critical zone of the part.
The entire laser-peening process occurs inside a peening cell, wherein a part manipulator positions the workpiece. Laser systems used for laser peening are typically interfaced to a single laser peening cell. Consequently, there are limits to the types of workpieces that can be laser peened with single-peening-cell configurations. Additionally, the laser system cannot be utilized during initial workpiece set-up and alignment, which results in significant loss of productivity and higher laser peening costs.
Having the foregoing in mind, it is a primary object of this invention to fully use the available laser time by dividing operational time into multiple peening cells. The utilization of multiple peening cells allows for two cells to be used at once, or for set-up and alignment or cell maintenance to be conducted in one cell while a second or alternative cell is used for peening and production. Furthermore, the invention allows for the construction of a variety of differently sized peening cells for treatment of various workpieces without necessitating additional laser systems.
The present invention is directed to a method and apparatus for utilizing multiple processing cells. The preferred embodiment of the invention comprises a multiple-beam laser for utilization in laser shock processing applications, and consists of multiple peening cells that better utilize the potential of the laser. In the invention, a plurality of peening cells share the operating time of a set of laser beams.
In one embodiment of the present invention, the peening cells vary in size, thereby providing for a small part manipulator in a first cell, and a larger part manipulator in a second cell. This embodiment would be useful in an application where target workpieces vary greatly in size, and the utilization of a smaller cell would be impossible, while the utilization of a larger cell for both large and small applications would be inefficient. A multiple-beam laser directed at a plurality of varying sized laser peening cells could be constructed to have, for example, two laser beams in a first cell, and two laser beams in a second cell. When additional beams are needed in one of the cells, mirrors could temporarily divert beams from another cell.
In another embodiment of the present invention, a multiple laser beam system could be directed into a first peening cell, and redirected to a second peening cell upon an operator""s command, either by physically moving the entire laser, or by utilizing a system of mirrors.
Yet another embodiment of the present invention further comprises a logic control device for controlling the usage of the varying peening cells, thereby optimizing the efficiency of the laser system.
The invention can also be expressed in the form of a method, wherein a first pulse of energy is created, the first pulse of energy is directed into a first peening cell, a second pulse of energy is created, the second pulse of energy is directed into a second peening cell, and the process repeats itself as determined by a job-sensing microprocessor.
An advantage of the present invention is that each pulse of the laser energy can be utilized. In the present laser peening systems, many laser pulses cannot be utilized because the workpiece is not available to be processed.
The system, in another embodiment of the invention, allows for utilization of each potential laser pulse, i.e., flashlamp pump pulse (or diode pumping pulse for diode pumped systems) through time sharing.
Another advantage of the present invention is that more workpieces can be produced in a given amount of operation time.
Yet another advantage of the present invention is that with use of multiple peening cells, it is possible that while one cell is down for repair or for setting up a new workpiece, the laser can continue to process other parts in the other peening cells. This way the laser is in continuous use, maximizing its use and minimizing wasted flashlamp pulses.

Multiple beam time sharing for a laser shock peening apparatus


An apparatus is provided for reducing the extent of heel of a nautical vessel by applying a buoyant righting moment on the leeward side of a hull of the vessel. Supports are coupled to and extend laterally beneath the hull and carry hollow bulbs on their extremities. The bulbs on both sides of the vessel are each divided by fore and aft partitions into inboard and outboard chambers. A passage is defined between the inboard chambers and a separate passage is defined between the outboard chambers. A first fluid fills the outboard chambers and the passage therebetween, while a second fluid having a specific gravity different than that of the first fluid fills, the inboard, chambers and the passageway therebetween. A sensor and actuator responsive to heel of the hull selectively shifts a portion of the first fluid from the outboard chamber of a first one of the bulbs to the outboard chamber of the other of the bulbs and concurrently shifts a portion of the second fluid from the inboard chamber of the other bulb to the inboard chamber of the first bulb. A buoyant fluid, such as air, can thereby be shifted to an outboard chamber beneath the leeward side of a heeling vessel to exert a righting moment to counter the heeling force of the wind.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for shifting buoyancy to leeward in a nautical vessel to increase righting moment and reduce heel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Nautical vessels adapted for propulsion through the water all respond to transverse components of the force of the wind by heeling. In the case of a sailing vessel which is propelled forward by the force of wind the effects of heeling have a considerable impact on the speed with which the vessel can travel under any given wind conditions, as well as the extent to which the vessel can point into the wind.
Conventional sailing vessels may have either a monohull or a multiple hull configuration. A monohull sailing vessel has a single, elongated hull which is narrowest at the bow, broadens amidships, and narrows somewhat at the stern. The surface of the hull is streamlined so as to minimize water resistance as the hull travels through the water.
Monohull sailing vessels invariably employ some type of keel. The keel of most modern sailing vessels is formed as a thin, relatively narrow slab-like structure, which is streamlined at its fore and aft edges, and which extends downwardly from the bottom of the hull at some location amidship. The keel is formed of some heavy material, such as steel or lead.
The keel performs several important functions. Because a keel is relatively broad in a fore and aft direction, it presents a very large surface area perpendicular to the direction of forward travel of the vessel. The keel thereby offers considerable resistance to the transverse components of the wind and wave forces acting normal to the desired direction of travel of the vessel. The relatively large resistance to transverse or lateral motion by the keel limits the extent to which the vessel is pushed sideways in the water perpendicular to its intended direction of travel.
The keel also performs an extremely important function by providing ballast which creates a righting moment. This moment varies depending upon the extent to which a vessel is tilted by the transverse or lateral component of wind acting against the sails of the vessel. The force component of the wind in the sails acting perpendicular to the fore and aft alignment of the hull cause the vessel to tilt or cant to one side. This is termed heeling. Since the water resists sideways movement of the hull, the top of the vessel will tilt or heel at an incline away from the direction of the wind. The force of the wind acting normal to the desired direction of travel of the vessel thereby creates a moment which, if unopposed, could force the masts of the vessel into the water and capsize the vessel. However, when the top of the mast of a vessel is pushed to the direction toward which the wind is moving, which is the leeward direction, the rotational moment exerted on the hull causes the keel to rise upward in the water on the windward side of the hull.
Due to its very large weight, the keel of the vessel counters the heeling force of the wind by exerting an opposing moment on the vessel in a direction opposite to that exerted by the transverse component of the wind. The more powerful the force of the wind, the greater will be the heeling force on the vessel and the more the keel will rise closer to the horizontal. As the keel rises its moment arm or lever arm for the ballast it contains increases, thereby increasing the righting moment which the keel exerts on the vessel. Conversely, as the vessel heels the extent to which the transverse component of the wind acts normal to the sails is reduced. The vessel therefore reaches some equilibrium angle of heel at which the transverse moment exerted on the upper portion of the vessel by the wind is countered by an opposing transverse moment exerted on the lower portion of the vessel by the keel.
A sailing vessel operates most efficiently when it is heeled to somewhat. However, if the vessel heels to severely, it will spill the wind, thus reducing the driving force of the sails and reducing the speed with which the vessel is propelled through the water. The optimum extent of heeling varies from one vessel to another, but for monohull sailing vessels the optimum angel of heel is typically between about 10 degrees and 25 degrees from the vertical. Most sailing vessels do not operate efficiently in traveling at an angle to the wind if they heel less than about 8 degrees or greater than about 30 degrees.
While sailors can reduce heeling by reducing the sail area carried aloft, speed is inevitably sacrificed since the wind strength invariably lightens intermittently and momentarily. Therefore, when the sail area carried aloft is optimum for an average wind speed, momentary lulls in the wind detract from the driving force of the sails. Sailors therefore tend to carry enough sail area aloft to take advantage of momentary gusts of wind. With conventional sailing vessel designs there is therefore a continuous, recurring problem of excessive heeling, especially in gusty, heavy wind conditions.

Apparatus for transferring buoyancy in a nautical vessel


A network switching apparatus and method for congestion control. Each one of the connection ports of the switching apparatus includes a low priority queue and a high priority queue. When a data packet enters a switching apparatus, the switching apparatus according to the type of the data packet enqueues the data packet to the low priority queue or the high priority queue. When congestion occurs at the switching apparatus, the low priority queue and the high priority queue can respectively perform the different ways of the congestion control, according to the input congestion mode. Also, when the switching apparatus receives a pause frame, response flow control can be performed, according to the output congestion mode. Since the different ways of the congestion control are performed according to the different types of the data packet, the congestion control can be optimized.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a network switching apparatus and method, and more particularly to a network switching apparatus and method being provided for congestion control.
2. Description of Related Art
A network switch can allow a number of workstations or local area network (LAN), which have been connected to the switch, to simultaneously transceive data information, so as to enhance the performance of the whole network. In order to achieve the switching purpose, the switching apparatus should record the connection operation that which one of the workstation or LAN is connected to which one of the connection port. This is in other words like the address learning function of a bridge. When the switching apparatus receives a data packet, it first goes to the forwarding table to look up the target port in response to the data packet. If it can be found from the table, then the data packet is exported to the target port, which connects the target of workstation or LAN. If it is not found from the table, then this data packet is broadcasted to all of the connection ports, so as to ensure that the target of workstation or LAN can receive the data packet.
Referring to FIG. 1, it schematically illustrates a conventional network switching apparatus. A network switching apparatus 100 is connected with a number of work-stations or LANs 130. The network switching apparatus 100 includes a network switching controller 110, a share buffer 120, and a plurality of connection ports 115. The connection ports 115 are connected with the workstations or LANs 130. The switching apparatus 100 receives a data packet from these workstations or LANs 130 through the connection ports 115. The data packet is then forwarded to the workstation or LAN 130 as intended by the data packet. The network switching controller 110 is connected to the share buffer 120. The network switching controller 110 that temporarily stores the data packet into the share buffer 120. After the target connection port, which is intended by the data packet, is determined for output. And then, the packet is transmitted to the target workstation or LAN 130 through the target connection port.
According to the standard of the IEEE 802.3u protocol, the auto-negotiation function is incorporated therein to allow the network switching apparatus and Ethernet adapters of the workstation or LAN can perform the auto-negotiation between each other, so as to obtain the status of each other, such as the information about the transceiving speed for the Ethernet adapter, or types of full duplex or half duplex, and so on. Also and the transmission mode between each other is negotiated to have the best mode. Full duplex is superior to half duplex. The faster speed of 100M is superior to the slower speed of 10M. After the best one of transmission mode is negotiated, in order to increase the throughput, the switching apparatus can further provide congestion control, so as to allow the data packets in the switching apparatus to be transmitted. In the share buffer 120, those portions of memory not being used yet are called the free buffers. When the number of the free buffers is zero, the congestion must occur. Due to this reason, the congestion control should be performed before the congestion occurs, so as to prevent the congestion from occurring.
Referring to FIG. 2, it schematically illustrates an example of the congestion occurring on the Ethernet switching controller 110. Assume all of the connection ports having the same transmitting speed of 100 Mbps, the connection ports 1,2, and 3 are serving as the source ports, and the connection ports 4, 5, and 6 are serving as the target ports. For the situation, the connection port 2 is transmitting data packets to the connection port 5 with 100% bandwidth, and at the same time the connection port 1 is transmitting data packets to the connection ports 4 and 5 with 50% bandwidth respectively, and the connection port 3 is transmitting data packets to the connection port 6 with 100% bandwidth. In this situation, the transmitting speed for transmitting to the connection port 5 is then 150 Mbps, which speed has been over maximum diverting ability of the connection port 5. Therefore, the data packets will be gathered at the connection port 5. This would cause that the free buffers in the share buffer 120 will be used up.If the free buffers in the share buffer 120 are used up, then it will cause the other connection ports cannot properly work in the normal condition, and a congestion situation will occur. Conventionally, the network switching apparatus, according to the connected Ethernet adapter of the workstation or LAN, usually provides three types of congestion controls. (1) When the connected one is a half duplex device, backpressure control is adopted, that is, the switching apparatus issues a collision signal, to damage the data packet. When the source workstation or LAN has detected the collision signal, the data packet will be transmitted again after waiting for a certain period of time. (2) When the connected device has the function of full duplex but has no ability to perform the flow control, drop control is adopted. A full duplex device implies that the transmitting action and receiving action can be performed at the same time through the different transmission lines, such that the collision signal cannot be used. In this situation, the switching apparatus therefore drops the data packet at the destination port without occupying any free buffer. (3) When the connected device has the function of full duplex and has the ability to perform the flow control, flow control is adopted. The switching apparatus can issue a pause signal to the source workstation or LAN for flow control so that the source port will not send any packet to the destination port for a period, and then the purpose to alleviate the situation of congestion occurring on the connection port can be achieved.
The U.S. Pat. No. 4,942,569 has introduced a method for sequentially exporting the data packets according to the priority of them. However, the conventional method of congestion control is still not enough to solve the large amount of network flow, which increases day by day. In fact, it has been the object strongly desired by the manufacturers to find a method of congestion control to have better efficiency.

Networking switching apparatus and method for congestion control


Method and apparatus for sealed pressurized enclosure containing a sludge digester designed to receive wastewater from commercial establishments for the purpose of removing fats, oils and greases using the high velocity impact provided by the sludge digester. Air containing ozone is pumped through the sludge digester causing a flow of material so that the stream of material is directed onto a series of stationary concentric ridges wherein the solids in the liquid material are forcefully impacted against the stationary concentric ridges so as to break the solid particles up into smaller particles.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to water and wastewater treatment and, more particularly, is concerned with domestic and industrial wastewater treatment.
2. Description of the Related Art
Devices related to the present invention have been described in the related art, however, none of the related art devices disclose the unique features of the present invention.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,963,508 dated Jun. 21, 2011, McGuffin disclosed a method and apparatus for digesting sludge. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,361,270 dated Apr. 22, 2008, McBride disclosed an apparatus for water treatment. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,976,384 dated Nov. 2, 1999, Campbell, et al., disclosed a process for treating wastewater. In U.S. Pat. No. 3,966,608 dated Jun. 29, 1976, Mason, et al., disclosed a liquid treatment apparatus. In U.S. Pat. No. 4,002,561 dated Jan. 11, 1977, Traverse disclosed a method and apparatus for aerobic sewage treatment. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,637,231 dated Jun. 10, 1997, Hill, et al., disclosed a method and apparatus for using ozone in a pressure vessel for treating pollutants.
While these devices may be suitable for the purposes for which they were designed, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as hereinafter described.

Method and apparatus for treatment of water and wastewater


Fluorescence imaging system for an operating theatre, comprising a device illuminating the operating theatre and emitting a white light, and a fluorescence imaging device. Said fluorescence imaging device comprises a light source emitting radiation for excitation of a fluorescent marker in a range of emission wavelengths of between 600 and 900 nm. The light emitted by the illuminating device is filtered by a low-pass filter, of which the cut-off wavelength is below the emission range of the fluorescent marker, but is nonetheless able to show an increase or fluctuations in the attenuation for wavelengths above the emission range of the fluorescent marker, the product of the attenuation of the filter of the detector and of the attenuation of the low-pass filter of the illuminating device leading to an attenuation by a factor of at least 106.

Fluorescence medical imaging is a promising technique in particular for surgical procedures for the purpose of guiding a surgeon's action.
This technique is based on administering a substance to a patient that contains a fluorescent marker e.g., for observation of a target organ or tissue that is to undergo surgical procedure or for observation of a flow monitored by the marker.
By means of the presence of the fluorescent marker in or close to the target organ or tissue, the illumination of the region of the patient comprising the organ has the effect of exciting the marker, which in turn emits radiation at a wavelength slightly longer than the excitation wavelength.
The chief applications are in the Near InfraRed (NIR) i.e. the excitation radiation and the fluorescence radiation lie in a wavelength range of between 700 and 900 nm. Once detected, the fluorescent radiation can be superimposed over an image of the organ concerned to view the target organ or tissue in relation to the outer visible portion of the organ.
The principle of fluorescence imaging is schematically illustrated in FIG. 1.
The imaging device I comprises a light source S intended to excite the fluorescent marker located in a region O of which it is desired to obtain images (the marker possibly being concentrated in this region or passing therethrough in a flow) the radiation LS provided by the light source having the effect of making the marker fluorescent.
In medical applications, the region O is generally located underneath the patient's skin P.
It is made fluorescent by administering, to the patient, a substance containing a fluorescent marker so that the marker concentrates in or passes through the region O, and by exciting the marker via radiation emitted by the light source S.
The device I also comprises a detector D adapted to detect and record the fluorescent radiation LF emitted by the marker located in the region O and excited by the source S.
For example, the detector comprises a CCD camera.
For this purpose, the light source S is filtered (filter Fs) so as to excite the fluorescent marker with radiation LE not containing wavelengths corresponding to the fluorescence to be measured.
For example, when the fluorescence to be measured is in the near infrared (i.e. in a wavelength range of between 700 and 900 nm) it is necessary fully to eliminate the wavelengths in the fluorescence range, not only in the excitation radiation but also in ambient light.
If not, these wavelengths would be detected by the detector D and would generate noise on the fluorescence image, harming the quality thereof.
Upstream of the detector D, the device comprises a filter FD adapted so as only to allow those photons LF to pass towards the detector whose wavelength is the fluorescence wavelength.
For fluorescence in the near infrared, the filter FD is generally a high-pass filter which transmits all the wavelengths above a given threshold.
FIG. 2 illustrates the filtering principle of such a fluorescence imaging device and gives the transmission curves T as a function of the wavelength λ for ambient light (curve fA), the excitation light source (curve fE), and the detector (curve fD).
In the example illustrated in this Figure, the excitation wavelength is 780 nm, ambient light is filtered so as essentially to contain wavelengths between 400 and 750 nm, while the detector is filtered so as to receive all wavelengths longer than about 820 nm.
During a surgical procedure, the patient is installed on a table in the operating room and the region to be operated is illuminated with specific lighting device present in the room.
Such a lighting device is typically a "surgical luminaire" in the form of a dome-shaped light-head carried by an arm and oriented in the direction of the patient so as to avoid any shadow area.
The fluorescence imaging device described above is also installed in the operating room and positioned for adequate viewing of the region in the patient of which it is desired to images and to detect the fluorescence emitted by this region.
The excitation light source can be fixed to the surgical luminaire itself, for example using a suitable attachment system.
On account of its very strong power (typically between 40 and 150 kLux), the lighting in the operating room may perturb detection of fluorescence radiation by producing photons that are detected by the detector.
So as not to deteriorate the quality of the fluorescence image, the light provided by the surgical luminaire must be filtered so that it does not contain wavelengths corresponding to the fluorescence to be measured.
Yet at 150 kLux, even a very slight leakage of light from the operating room lighting in the range of wavelengths measured by the detector through its filter is able to limit the quality of fluorescence images.
In addition, requirements in terms of quality of surgical lighting are drastic.
In this respect, standard NF EN 60601-2-41 can be cited concerning the particular safety rules for surgical luminaires and diagnostic lighting.
For example, the emitted light is white light which must have a color temperature generally between 3000 K and 6700 K.
It is additionally stipulated in the standard that the color rendering index (CRI) must be between 85 and 100%, preferably on the order of 95%.
As a result, the filtering of the light emitted by the surgical luminaire must not lead to degradation of the aforementioned characteristics.
Also, on account of the large surface area to be filtered for a surgical luminaire (in the order 0.5 m2), it is necessary to design a low-cost filter.
Fluorescence imaging devices have already been described to guide surgical procedures.
Some systems overcome the influence of white light by switching off the surgical luminaire when conducting fluorescence imaging.
However, having to switch off the light is not conducive to a surgical procedure.
Other fluorescence imaging devices have been designed to provide continuous lighting.
For use in an operating room, the white light emitted by the surgical luminaire or the imaging device is filtered on and after the excitation wavelength so as not to contain photons of longer wavelength than the excitation wavelength, which may be 670 or 760 nm.
The fluorescence detector at 700 nm is filtered with a band-pass filter of 689 to 725 nm, whilst the detector of fluorescence at 800 nm is filtered with a band-pass filter of 800 to 848 nm.
These band-pass filters are intended only to allow detection of wavelengths corresponding to the fluorescence signal, eliminating longer wavelengths.
In at least one device, a single detector is intended to detect the fluorescence wavelengths around 700 nm and 800 nm.
The detector is filtered by a dual band-pass filter with a first bandwidth of between 689 and 725 nm, and a second bandwidth of between 803 and 853 nm.
The excitation light source is a laser diode at a wavelength of 750 nm, whilst the lighting of the operating room is provided by a halogen lamp emitting white light.
A band-pass filter is positioned upstream of the detector to prevent transmission thereto of wavelengths longer than the fluorescence wavelength.
However, with all the above-described devices, a fluorescent background can be seen in the images obtained which reduces the contrast with the fluorescence emitted by the organ or tissue of interest.

Fluorescence imaging system for an operating room


A transmitter comprising a baseband modulator arranged to modulate a complex baseband signal and to output a complex modulated signal xin(n) with amplitude g and phase q, i.e. xin(n)=g(n)ejq(n), to the input port of a filter, the filter in turn having its output coupled to a transmit unit, said filter being arranged to output a filtered complex output signal xout(n) with amplitude g but phase m, i.e. xout(n)=g(n)ejm(n), so that the filter is arranged to affect the phase but not the amplitude of its input signal. The filter is arranged to have as its transfer function for the phase of its input signal the z-transform F(z)=1+wz−1, where w is a weighting function whose value is determined by means of the additive noise autocorrelation, the phase noise autocorrelation and the signal amplitude of xin.

Commercial communication systems today strive for the highest possible spectral and power efficiency at the lowest possible cost, complexity and overall energy consumption. In order to reach the high spectral efficiencies required to support the necessary data rates in networks today, phase-coherent signaling are often used, especially in microwave backhaul systems which operate at a high signal to noise ratio, SNR.
As an example, consider the single carrier system 100 for phase-coherent signaling shown in FIG. 1. The system 100 is a transmitter-receiver chain, where the transmitter 20 receives a baseband signal, BB, which is modulated in a modulator 10, filtered in a low pass filter 11, and then "up-converted" to radio frequency, RF, in a transmitter unit Tx 12 by means of a transmit oscillator, before being transmitted by means of a transmitter antenna 21. The receiver 23 receives the transmitted signal via a receiver antenna 22, "down-converts" it to a lower frequency by means of a receiver oscillator comprised in a receive unit Rx 13, filtered in a low-pass filter 14, passed through a carrier recovery unit 15, which is connected to a detector 16, and finally demodulated in a demodulator 17, so that the BB signal which was input to the transmitter unit 20 is recovered on the receiver side.
The systems 100 performance in terms of data throughput and bit error rate, BER, is in practice limited by non-ideal physical components in both the transmitter and in the receiver. Examples of degrading factors introduced by non-ideal components include additive noise, introduced mainly by electrical components in the receiver 22, and phase noise introduced mainly by imperfections in the oscillators which are included in the transmit unit Tx 12 and in the receive unit Rx 13.
Regarding the terms "additive noise" and "phase noise" which have been used above, these terms are here used in the sense that additive noise is noise that adds to the amplitude and phase of the signal, while phase noise is noise that adds to the phase of the signal. Phase noise and additive noise are accumulated throughout the communication system, and are quantified at the output of the receive unit Rx 205.
The additive noise in the system 100 is suppressed to some extent by means of passive matched filtering at the transmitting and the receiving ends of the system. The phase noise, on the other hand, is compensated for actively by some type of phase tracking system or carrier recovery unit, where well-known methods for carrier recovery include Phase Locked Loop (PLL) based approaches and Kalman filtering.
The modulator 10 and the demodulator 17 of FIG. 1 may be a "mapper" and a corresponding "demapper" for a 1024-QAM constellation, as an alternative to which the information carried in the phase of the signal could be differentially encoded and then demodulated. Compared to a directly modulated QAM-signal that carries information in amplitude and instantaneous phase, a differentially encoded signal carries information directly in amplitude but in the difference in phase between consecutive symbols. In such systems, the accumulated random fluctuations in phase caused by non-ideal oscillators do not need to be tracked over time, since the cumulative phase noise process is absorbed by the differential encoding of the signal.
Significant efforts have been spent in trying to improve algorithms and methods for carrier recovery, the reason being that the better the carrier recovery algorithm performs, the less expensive and power consuming oscillators can be used in the system. These efforts have resulted in algorithms with high performance, but also with high complexity as compared to the low complexity classic methods based on, e.g., PLLs. Hence, the performance problem associated with "legacy" carrier recovery methods has been alleviated, while introducing complexity issues.
A drawback of many advanced systems for carrier recovery based on, e.g., the expectation maximization (EM) method or factor graph methods is that they rely on stochastic models of the system. If such models are not correct, then the stability of the entire communication system is at risk.
Another drawback associated with most carrier recovery methods is that they compute (often iteratively) a phase estimate based on an error signal that is derived from detecting the transmitted data. Hence, they require knowledge of, e.g., the modulation format and rate that is used for communication. Also, detection errors will affect the quality of the error signal, and may lead to an error prone system or to system instability.
A differentially encoded and demodulated communication system is, as noted above, much less sensitive to phase fluctuation. However, in a typical differentially demodulating receiver, it can be shown that a signal to noise ratio, SNR, penalty of 3 dB is incurred in the phase channel.


In a purifier for removing particulates from an exhaust gas, a pressure difference, and a flow rate of the air supplied to the filter element is adjusted in such a manner that a difference between a pressure difference of an air across a substantially invariable air flow resistance before the air reaches a filter element collecting and storing the particulates therein and a reference pressure difference is a predetermined value, while heating the air.

The present invention relates to a purifier for removing particulates from an exhaust gas generated by a combustion engine, a burner or the like, and a regeneration method therefor.
In a prior art exhaust gas purifier as disclosed by JP-A-7-19028 (particularly by FIG. 4 thereof), an orifice valve for measuring an air pump output flow rate in a relatively small air pump output flow rate and a valve for supplying a relatively large air pump output flow rate are arranged in parallel to each other between an air pump and a heater, are closed to isolate the air pump from the exhaust gas while collecting the particulates from the exhaust gas, and communicate with the exhaust gas at an upstream side of the heater. The air pump output flow rate is calculated from a pressure difference across the orifice valve.

Exhaust gas purifier and regeneration method therefor

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


The present invention relates to the treatment of brain damage by cellular transplantation. According to one aspect of the invention, a method for treating a motor, sensory and/or cognitive deficit comprises administering a composition comprising pluripotent cells into the damaged brain in a region contra-lateral to that containing the site of damage. The cells are preferably conditionally immortal.

Stroke is the largest cause of adult disability worldwide. The incidence of stroke is about 1.3% of the US population, and 39.4% of victims show significant residual impairments, ranging from hemiplegia to restricted limb use and speech defects. Approximately 60% of strokes are caused by occlusion of the middle cerebral artery (MCAo), resulting in damage in the striatum and cortex with consequent deficits to sensory and motor systems. There is therefore a substantial clinical need for treatments that reduce or alleviate the deficits.
Typical therapies for stroke are aimed at interrupting the cascade of events that lead to intraneuronal calcium accumulation and cell death, and to provide stimulation through rehabilitation, e.g. physiotherapy, to promote intracerebral reorganisation. However, pharmacological treatments must be administered quickly to protect against cell death that typically occurs within three hours of occlusion. In addition, the therapy based on rehabilitation appears to be limited to a period of 3-6 months after stroke, after which residual disabilities do not undergo appreciable reduction.
There has been much interest recently in the possibility of transplanting new cells into the damaged neuronal system to promote repair and alleviate the disorders. One difficulty associated with cell transplantation is the need to provide clonal cell lines from different regions of the brain. This has proved to be a major difficulty in preparing cells for transplantation. WO-A-97/10329 describes the use of conditionally immortalised pluripotent neuroepithelial cells in the transplantation into the damaged brain. The neuroepithelial cells express a temperature-sensitive oncogene so that they are capable of unlimited expansion under permissive low temperatures in vitro, but cease dividing to develop into mature neural cells on implantation into the higher temperature of the brain (38° C.). A particular advantage of these cells has been shown to be their ability to develop into site-appropriate neurons or glia, under the control of signals from the host brain, so that problems associated with choosing the correct tissue for transplantation is avoided. It has also been shown that the cells can migrate to the site of damage when transplanted into a region proximal to the damaged site. Therefore, the use of these cells offers a viable alternative to pharmacological treatments for repair of brain damage.
However, although the cells were shown to migrate to discrete areas of damage, focal ischaemia results in extensive damage and it is by no means certain that areas of infarction would provide a sufficiently well vascularised matrix to support the survival of grafted cells.
There is therefore the need for improvements in transplantation in order to provide cells that successfully graft into the adult damaged brain and compensate for the deficits.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A catheter housing device for securing a catheter and needle assembly to a patient. The device can include a cover, an IV/catheter lock, a hub, and one or more fastening straps. The device can replace conventional devices and techniques for securing a catheter and needle to a patient that utilize adhesive materials and/or methods, which are ill-equipped to solve complications including infection/contamination of the insertion site, irritation/damage to the vein or insertion site due to inappropriate angling of the catheter/needle, etc. The devices and methods disclosed herein can provide catheter/needle securement and optimal inclination, a hermetically sealed chamber to resist infection and/or contamination, inert gas or soothing anesthetic vapor drugs in and around the device, and various skin-contacting layers and structures that promote ventilation and patient comfort in and around the insertion site.

Intravenous catheter care has been used on patients for hundreds of years. Peripheral intravenous catheter (herein referred to collectively as "IV catheter") placement is one of the most common invasive procedures performed on patients. After cleaning a catheter site, a catheter needle is inserted into a vein of a patient. However, traditional methods of cleaning the catheter insertion site (for example, a quick swabbing of the insertion region by an alcohol swab or other antiseptic solution) are inadequate to eliminate risks of contamination or infection. Germs and bacteria commonly inhabit layers of the skin underneath the surface layer. For example, up to 80% of resident microorganisms can inhabit the first 5 layers of the skin's stratum corneum, and up to 20% of the remaining microorganisms exist in biofilms in the underlying epidermal and dermal layers and sebaceous glands. Traditional techniques of applying an adhesive film dressing therefore will cover and incubate such germs at or near the insertion site. Such contamination can lead to various infections and complications, such as blood stream infection and/or phlebitis, among others. Furthermore, traditional adhesive catheter securement techniques inhibit normal skin respiration and/or ventilation processes and also raise the humidity and/or temperature levels underneath the adhesive materials. This in turn can also promote microorganism growth.
Another disadvantage of traditional catheter securement devices and techniques is that firmly fixing the catheter device to a patient's skin results in the catheter cannula tip being improperly angled within the vein and/or vein wall or lumen such that the cannula tip can erode or otherwise cause damage to the vein and/or vein wall or lumen and/or surrounding regions. Such erosion or other damage can be exacerbated when the patient moves or the catheter cannula tip is otherwise altered in its angle or position. In traditional approaches, after inserting a needle and/or catheter into a patient. A care provider typically applies a series of tapes in order to stabilize the catheter in an attempt to prevent catheter movement. Unfortunately, IV catheters applied in this manner have a very high failure rate. These failures are due to a variety of reasons including mechanical failures or occlusion, dislodgment, infection, phlebitis (inflammation of the vein that can lead to blood clots), and infiltration to surrounding tissue. Moreover, even without any of these failures, commonly accepted practice requires the removal of catheters after a 72-96 hour dwell time. Thus, even under the best circumstances, catheters have a relatively short life span that requires frequent adjustment and/or movement. Catheter failures and frequent catheter movement can result in costly catheter replacements and eventually to venous depletion. Venous depletion leads to more invasive, risky, and costly venous access devices.


A semiconductor device includes a transmitter, a termination resistance adjusting section, a transmitter control section and a control signal generating section. The transmitter has two output terminals and operates based on a control current. The termination resistance adjusting section is connected with the output terminals of the transmitter and applies a termination resistance adjusted in response to a control signal to each of the output terminals of the transmitter. The transmitter control section supplies the control current to the transmitter in response the control signal. The control signal generating section compares a first voltage corresponding to an external resistance and a second voltage corresponding to an internal resistance whose precision is lower than that of the external resistance, and outputs the control signal to the termination resistance adjusting section and the transmitter control section based on the comparing result.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device, and more particularly relates to a semiconductor device with a termination resistance adjusting circuit for adjusting a termination resistor.
2. Description of the Related Art
A technique is conventionally known in which a termination resistor is built in a semiconductor device in order to attain cost-down of a transmission system and reduction of a substrate mounting area. When the termination resistor built in the semiconductor device is not adjusted, there may be a high possibility that the resistance of the termination resistor has a wide distribution due to manufacturing variation of the termination resistor. If the resistance of the termination resistor is out of a desired range, signal reflection is caused to deteriorate transmission quality, which results in the decrease in a production yield. Also, the resistance of the termination resistor is a factor to determine an output signal voltage of a transmitting circuit in the transmission system. Therefore, stabilization of both the resistance of the termination resistor and the output signal voltage is required.
Conventional techniques are known in Japanese Laid Open Patent Application (JP-P2003-298395A and JP-P2004-32721A: first and second conventional examples), in which a resistance adjusting circuit is built in a semiconductor device to operate a circuit adequately even if the resistance of a termination resistor is out of a desired range.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing the configuration of a termination resistance adjusting circuit 100 in the first conventional example. In the first conventional example, a stable reference current Iref is generated based on reference voltages VrefH and VrefL and an external resistance 119 and is applied to a replica resistor 130. Voltages Va and Vb generated at that time, and the reference voltages VrefH and VrefL are compared by a control voltage generator 120. Thus, the control voltage generator 120 recognizes the difference between the replica resistor 130 and the external resistance 119 from the comparison result and carries out an adjustment so that the resistance of the replica resistor 130 and that of the external resistance 119 are coincident with each other.
Also, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the configuration of an impedance variable circuit 200 in the second conventional example. In the impedance variable circuit shown in FIG. 2, a synthetic resistance of resistors (201 to 209) is varied by controlling switches (SW1 to SW9) and is used as a termination resistor.
FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram showing a specific circuit configuration of a termination resistance adjusting circuit 300, which is constituted from the above-mentioned termination resistance adjusting circuit 100 and the impedance variable circuit 200. As shown in FIG. 3, the termination resistance adjusting circuit 300 is composed of a termination resistor generator 101, a transmitting circuit 102, a first reference current generator 104, a second reference current generator 105 and a termination resistance controller 106. In the termination resistance adjusting circuit 300, the first reference current generator 104 generates a stable reference current Iref1 based on a reference voltage Vref and an external resistance 109, and applies the reference current Iref1 to a replica resistor 130 of the termination resistance controller 106. Also, the second reference current generator 105 generates a stable reference current Iref4 based on a reference voltage Vref and an internal resistance 108, and applies the reference current Iref4 to a replica resistor 131 of the termination resistance controller 106. The termination resistance controller 106 compares a voltage V1 generated based on the current Iref1 and the resistor 130 and a voltage V2 generated based on the current Iref4 and the resistor 131, and recognizes the difference between the internal resistance 108 and the external resistance 109 from the comparing result. Then, the termination resistance controller 106 outputs a control signal Vcont to the termination resistor generator 101 based on the comparing result. The termination resistor generator 101 generates a resistance through separation and synthesis of resistors in response to the control signal Vcont, such that a precision of the internal resistance is coincident with that of the external resistance.
When the termination resistor is assumed to be a resistor value R150 and the reference current is assumed to be a reference current Iref2, a transmitting circuit output voltage Vo is represented by:Vo=R150*Iref2   (1)
In the conventional termination resistance adjusting circuit 300 shown in FIG. 3, the voltages V1 and V2 are compared. The voltage V2 is generated when the current Iref4 is applied to the resistor 131. The current Iref4 is generated based on a reference voltage Vref and the internal resistance 108. The reference voltage Vref is supplied from a band gap power supply circuit or the like, in which an output voltage variation caused due to external factors such as a temperature variation, a power source voltage variation and the like is small.
The voltage V1 is generated when the current Iref1 is applied to the resistor 130. The current Iref1 is generated based on the reference voltage Vref and the external resistance 109 which is more stable than the internal resistance in an absolute precision. The reference voltage Vref is supplied from the above-mentioned band gap power supply circuit or the like.
Here, when the internal resistances 108 and 131 are assumed to be R108 and R131, respectively, and the external resistance 109 and the internal resistance 130 are similarly assumed to be R109 and R130, respectively, the voltages V1 and V2 are represented by the following equations.V2=(Vref/R108)*R131   (2)V1=(Vref/R109)*R130   (3)In this case, since the internal resistances 131 and 108 have the same structure, the relative precision is insured. Therefore, the item of "R131/R108" in the above equation (2) has a constant value. Thus, the voltage V2 is the stable voltage similar to the reference voltage Vref.
Also, since the external resistance 109 has an extremely high precision as compared with the internal resistance, the item of "Vref/R109" in the above equation (3) can be regarded as a constant value. Thus, the voltage V1 is a value proportional to the internal resistance 130. FIG. 4 shows the above relation. When the voltages V1 and V2 are compared, if the voltage V1 is determined to be excessively higher than the voltage V2 (namely, the internal resistance is excessively high), the control signal Vcont is outputted to adjust the resistance R150 to a low value. Consequently, the precision of the termination resistor 150 after the adjustment is similar to that of the external resistance 109.
However, the actual adjustment is carried out in a step manner of a definite range. Thus, even in the ideally adjusted state, the resistances before and after the adjustment are discontinuous, which brings about an error depending on the adjustment resolution of the termination resistor 150. In particular, it could be understood that the maximum error (ERR) is generated in the vicinity of the adjustment.
Under the assumption that the termination resistor has been adjusted, a fixed current Iref2 is generated based on the stable power voltage Vref and the external resistance 109 and applied to the transmitting circuit 102. Thus, the transmitting circuit output voltage Vo is a function of the termination resistor 150, as represented by the following equation (4).Vo=Iref2*R150   (4)
FIG. 5 is a diagram showing the waveform of an output signal outputted from the termination resistance adjusting circuit 300. With reference to the waveform shown in FIG. 5, the voltage error +ERR, −ERR remains in the output signal waveform due to the adjustment error of the termination resistor 150. The voltage error +ERR, −ERR sometimes causes poor measurement reproducibility or a large deviation of the output voltage of the transmitting circuit 102.
In order to avoid these problems, a method is known in which the adjustment resolution is made higher. However, if such a method is employed, the higher precision of the termination resistance controller 106 is required, which leads to a larger circuit scale. Also, since the number of switching circuits in the termination resistor generator 101 is increased, a capacitive load becomes greater, which restricts a frequency band.
The termination resistance adjusting circuit is desired in which the adjustment error to the termination resistor has no influence on the output voltage, without the increase in the circuit scale and the limitation on the frequency band.

Semiconductor device with termination resistance adjusting circuit


A control apparatus for a vehicle that decreases shift shock generated by full engagement of a clutch at completion of an inertia phase. The apparatus includes a driving source, a step automatic transmission arranged to attain a predetermined shift stage by engagement of frictional engagement elements, a rotational speed control to control the driving source so that an input rotational speed of the transmission becomes a predetermined target value during the inertia phase, a torque control to control the driving source so that the input torque of the transmission becomes a predetermined target value during the non-inertia phase, and a torque correction to correct the engagement torque of the engagement element or the input torque of the transmission so that the engagement torque of the engagement element before completion of the inertia phase is substantially identical to the input torque of the transmission after completion of the inertia phase.

In a conventional hybrid vehicle, a rotation feedback control of a motor-generator is performed to decrease a shift shock so that an input rotation speed corresponds to a target rotation speed during an inertia phase during which the input rotational speed varies in accordance with the shift. Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 10-257610 teaches one such rotation feedback control.

Control apparatus of driving system for vehicle


In an embodiment, a support arm includes: a thermoplastic material and a filler. A cross-section of the support arm taken along a line from an inner edge to an outer edge of the support arm comprises a modified I-shaped, a I/U-shaped, or a U-shaped cross-section.

Tray table arms are employed across the transportation segment in transportation vessels such as airplanes, trains, helicopters, and buses. For example, airplanes are equipped with tray tables for use by passengers during flight. Tray tables are typically stowed in the seatback of most passenger seats in a non-operative position and are lowered into an operative position during flight. Tray tables are customarily connected to a set of support arms (also referred to as tray table arms) which pivot downwardly from the seatback immediately forward of the passenger to the operative position. The support arms are commonly attached to the sides of the seat frame so as not to interfere with the living space of either passenger, and to support the tray table about each of its ends. Likewise, the tray table can be supported by a single support arm.
Tray table arms are generally made from isotropic metals such as aluminum due to their excellent isotropic mechanical properties as well as due to their lower weights as compared to metals such as steel. FIG. 1 illustrates a typical metal support arm 1. Such metal support arms are formed with uniform open sections that are C-shaped, where an exemplary C-shaped cross-section 10 taken along line A-A of FIG. 1 is illustrated in FIG. 2. The C-shaped cross-section is used in part due to the simplicity of the design in manufacturing and has the further benefit of acting as a shield to the moving stopper pin that is used for fine tuning the position of the table from the external interference, debris accumulation, and intentional abuse.
Weight reduction in aerospace components offers significant benefits in terms of cost reduction arising from fuel savings or more mileage from the same level of fuel. There accordingly remains a need in the art for a lighter weight support arm that does not experience premature failure.

Geometric and material hybrid systems for tray table arm


A method of hydrating a human can include: providing a bicep hydration sleeve; attaching the hydration sleeve to a bicep region of the human; lifting the hydration sleeve to the mouth of the human by moving the bicep toward the chin; inserting the mouthpiece of the hydration sleeve into the mouth; and drinking from the hydration sleeve, wherein the lifting, inserting, and drinking are performed without handling the hydration sleeve with either hand of the human.

Dehydration or lack of adequate fluids can significantly impact the ability of a human to function, especially during athletic activities. While many devices are available to provide fluids to persons engaged in athletic activities, there are still many deficiencies of the available devices to adequately provide fluids without compromising athletic performance. Therefore, there still remains a need for improved hydration devices that are suitable for use while actively engaging in athletic activities without substantially compromising athletic performance.

Modular hydration sleeve and methods thereof


A device isolates a substance from blood. The substance includes particles with an effective diameter that is within a range defined by effective diameters of constituents of blood. The device comprises a first sheet of graphene including a first plurality of apertures. The first plurality of apertures are configured to pass objects with an effective diameter less than or equal to the effective diameter of the particles of the substance. The device comprises a second sheet of graphene including a second plurality of apertures. The second plurality of apertures are configured to pass objects with an effective diameter less than the effective diameter of the particles of the substance. The device may be configured to include a conduit system. The device may be configured to operate according to a reversible cycle.

Blood includes several constituents ranging in size. For example, hemoglobin has an effective molecular radius of 3.25 nanometers (nm) and sodium has an effective molecular radius of 0.10 nm. Substances having particles with a size within the range of blood constituents may be harmful when they are dissolved or suspended in blood. For example, certain viruses and toxics are sized within the range of constituents of blood. Further, some individuals may have conditions that lead to elevated amounts of regularly occurring constituents. Elevated amounts of regularly occurring blood constituents may be unhealthy to individuals. For example, diabetes is a metabolic disease that may lead to elevated levels of glucose. Elevated levels of glucose may lead to serious complications, such as organ failure.
In order to control blood sugar levels, diabetics may follow a strict diet regimen or inject insulin. However, insulin injections do not literally remove sugar from the blood. Insulin opens cell walls to allow glucose to enter where it is converted to glycogen and fat. Thus, insulin injections may lead to obesity, which may aggravate diabetes and increase the risk of other diseases, such as heart disease, colon cancer, and hypertension.

Graphene-based filter for isolating a substance from blood


The invention relates to an apparatus, method and a computer program product for establishing a request for a session by an application server, determining by an emergency related local service function that the session includes an emergency session, wherein the emergency related local service function is co-located at the application server, and, transmitting the request for the session to an emergency call state control function of the internet protocol multimedia subsystem based on the determination.

Within the IP (Internet Protocol) Multimedia Subsystem (IMS) as defined by 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) defined by Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) is used for controlling communication. SIP is an application-layer control protocol for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions with one or more participants. These sessions may include Internet multimedia conferences, Internet telephone calls, and multimedia distribution. Members in a session can communicate via multicast or via a mesh of unicast relations, or a combination of these. Session Description Protocol (SDP) is a protocol which conveys information about media streams in multimedia sessions to allow the recipients of a session description to participate in the session. The SDP offers and answers can be carried in SIP messages. Diameter protocol has been defined by IETF and is intended to provide an Authentication, Authorization and Accounting (AAA) framework for applications such as network access or IP mobility.
Generally, for properly establishing and handling a communication connection between network elements such as a user equipment and another communication equipment or user equipment, a database, a server, etc., one or more intermediate network elements such as control network elements, support nodes, service nodes and interworking elements are involved which may belong to different communication networks.
Emergency calls and emergency session shall receive special treatment in communication networks, meaning the phone calls for example to police or ambulance services are given priority over normal phone calls and can be routed to emergency center near caller if the location of the caller is known.
For the IMS emergency services, a proxy call state control function (P-CSCF) is responsible for detecting whether a received request is addressed to an emergency service. Because the emergency service is a visited network service, involvement of an S-CSCF located in the home network of the user should be avoided during routing the request to an emergency center.

Emergency service in communication system


An agricultural harvester is provided that Includes a frame carrying a structure movable about an endless path to deliver a crop to a header. The frame includes a guide assembly including a guide member supported by the frame. The frame also includes at least one tine secured to the guide member without extending through the guide member, and the at least one tine extending from the guide member above the structure to guide the crop between the at least one tine and the structure to the header. The at least one tine is installable and removable from the guide member without disconnecting the guide member from the frame. At least one tine is installable and removable from the guide member substantially without tools.

Crop gathering devices for collecting crops arranged in windrows can include a belt positioned along the front of the device. The belt is driven to rotate between opposed pairs of roller assemblies to convey the crops into a header that is secured to an agricultural harvester, such as a combine which is directed along the windrow. One or more wheels is located near the belt opposite the header to maintain a spacing between the belt and the ground that most effectively conveys crops onto the belt.
Positioned above the crop gathering device, also referred to as a windrow pickup, is a guide assembly, also referred to as a windguard assembly. The guide assembly tines ensure that the crop material is properly conveyed into the header in spite of any wind or varying crop conditions. Typically, the guide assembly consists of a pipe and a series of tines held in position above and in front of the pickup. Affixed to the pipe are a series of tines. The pipe may be raised or lowered by activating hydraulic cylinders on each end by the operator from the combine cab. Tine angular adjustment may also be performed manually at the end of the pipe. These tines frequently break off or are damaged during the life of the crop gathering device. The guide or windguard tines are typically wrapped, welded or bolted onto the pipe making replacement difficult. The prior art shows a variety of means to attach the windguard tines to the pipe, however these methods have not been entirely successful.
What is needed are replaceable guide assembly tines that can be easily removed for servicing or replacement with a minimum or complete absence of tools.

Replaceable guide assembly tines for an agricultural harvester


A cobalt-free low cost high strength martensitic stainless steel, with concentration of Ni up to 3.0% and Mo up to 1.0% of weight, has HRC of 53, UTS of 297 ksi, YS of 220 ksi, Charpy V-notch impact energy of 17.8 ft-lb, corrosion resistance in salt spray test ASTM 117. The steel was melted in an open induction furnace and vacuum arc remelting (VAR) and/or electroslag remelting (ESR) were not used to refine the steel. Further processing included homogenized annealing, hot rolling, and recrystallization annealing. The steel was heat treated by oil quenching, refrigeration, and low tempering. The steel has a microstructure consisting essentially of small packets of fine martensite laths, retained austenite, and carbides as centers of growth of the martensite laths. The cost and energy in making the steel are substantially reduced.

Aircraft/aerospace, automotive, and oil/gas structural members are highly stressed components, made of expensive high strength and moderate toughness stainless steels that are used in aggressive corrosive environments. Their high costs are due to large amounts of alloying elements and expensive processing. The availability of some of the alloying elements, by way of example, cobalt (Co) is limited and their use poses future economic and military risks.
The performance of an aircraft/aerospace, etc. stainless steel at room temperature consists of an ultimate tensile strength of 250 to 280 ksi, a yield strength of 200 to 240 ksi, and resistance to corrosion in aggressive environments. As used herein the term "high strength stainless steel" means a high strength steel that has this performance.
Recently introduced Ferrium S53 is exemplary of an expensive high-strength, moderate impact toughness, quench and tempered martensitic, secondary-hardened stainless steel that is used for structural aerospace components. Its high cost is due to 14% by weight of cobalt (Co), 2% by weight of molybdenum (Mo), and 5.5% by weight of nickel (Ni) and has limited the use of this steel.
Carpenter Custom 465 is another example of an expensive high strength stainless steel with 11% by weight of nickel (Ni) and 1% by weight of molybdenum (Mo). It is a moderate impact toughness martensitic age-hardening (maraging) stainless steel that is used for structural aerospace, military, and oil/gas drilling applications.
Ferrium S53 and Carpenter Custom 465 share the cost shortcomings of costly raw materials and the high energy consuming processes of vacuum arc remelting (VAR) and electroslag remelting (ESR).

Low cost high strength martensitic stainless steel


The present invention concerns a cart with a flat cargo platform adapted to travel in the horizontal direction via foldable wheels mounted respectively via one wheel fork, and with a vertically pivotable pole handle.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention concerns a cart with foldable wheels.
2. Description of the Related Art
A cart of this type is known from WO 00/73122. It includes a perpendicularly somewhat diagonally upwardly projecting frame element for pushing the cart. The projecting frame is collapsible into the cargo platform. Further, wheels foldable about horizontal axis are provided on the bottom side of the cargo platform, wherein the front wheels besides this are pivotable about a vertical axis. This known cart is not very easy to operate, since is includes relatively complex mechanisms for locking the push element and wheels into place in the assembled condition as well as the folded together condition. Besides this, it is difficult to keep the cart moving in the desired direction, since the pivotable front wheels do not easily follow any movement and may even prevent sideways movement. Finally, the manufacture thereof is complicated to the extent that different wheels must be manufactured and assembled to the front and the back ends of the cart. This increases the difficulty in the blocking of the front wheels. The pivotable front wheels, so-called swivel or steering wheels, must have an axial bearing, in order to be able to accept the load pressure of the transport cart, while at the same time, be easily rotatable. These steering wheels are broad or thick, particularly in the area of the bearings, and in the folded-in condition, are relatively thick, which increases the overall thickness of the folded-together cart. Besides this, the steering wheeels can get directed to a wrong direction on contact with even small impediments (cables, cross-grates, edges of carpets, etc.), making it necessary, while pushing the cart, to repeatedly force the cart back onto the desired direction. The complicated design of this known cart, in particular due to the many necessary construction components, is characterized by a high intrinsic weight, which is of disadvantage when folding and unfolding the cart, as well as during the transport thereof.

Cart with foldable wheels and center pole


Methods and systems for three-dimensional imaging through turbulence such as produced by the Earth's atmosphere are described. A first light source may direct an output of pulses to a target through atmospheric turbulence. A first image sensor, for example a time of arrival sensor or focal plane, may receive light from the first light source and may be used to record two-dimensional images or image slices of the target. A second light source may also be used. A second image sensor may receive light reflected from the target. An atmospheric point spread function may be derived or calculated by a means for multiframe blind deconvolution from one or more images of the target received at the second image sensor. The point spread function may be used to deblur or improve the resolution of each of the two-dimensional image slices from the first image sensor. The two-dimensional image slices may be combined to form a three-dimensional image of the target.

Atmospheric blurring is a major limitation to forming images of high-altitude and space objects using ground-based telescopes. This limitation may be quantified by the seeing coherence length, also known as Fried's seeing parameter, ro, which provides a measure of the largest spatial frequency that is present in a long-exposure image formed by a telescope of interest. For many telescopes and atmospheric imaging systems, the seeing parameter ro typically has values under 10 cm.
Diffraction-limited telescopes may record spatial frequencies as the ratio of D/λdo, where D is the telescope diameter, λ is the nominal wavelength being sensed, and do is the distance from the telescope to the observed object. In many situations, however, long exposure imagery acquired through atmospheric turbulence may only contain frequencies up to the turbulence-limited cut-off frequency ro/λdo.
While exposure times on the order of a few milliseconds or less may provide images with spatial frequency information out to the diffraction limit, blur effects from atmospheric turbulence can degrade such images and diminish resolution capability.
What are needed therefore are systems and methods for three-dimensional imaging of objects through atmospheric turbulence with high resolution capability.

Three-dimensional imaging with multiframe blind deconvolution