A needling machine for the fabrication of non woven products includes apparatus for needling a lap passing between two perforated steel plates, and introducing mechanism for introducing the fiber lap between the two plates, an extractor for extracting the lap downstream of the needling apparatus, a drive source for driving the needling apparatus with a periodical-striking motion, and a processing and control device connected to the needling drive source. The needling machine further includes an electromechanical speed control for driving at a variable speed the extractor, controlled by the processing and control device to provide the extraction means with an extraction speed modulated to the striking frequency at about an average extraction speed.

The present invention relates to a needling machine and an associated feed control method.
The purpose of a needling machine is to mechanically consolidate a fiber fleece coming from a crosslapper or from any other system and passing between two perforated steel plates called a table and a stripper respectively. This fibre fleece is traversed by needles disposed on a support which is generally referred to as a needle board. The stripper is located facing the needle board which is driven with an alternating motion. The needles penetrate successively into the stripper, into the fibre fleece and into the table and they then carry out a reverse motion over a needling period during which the fibre fleece is displaced by a distance called the feed step. Fibre fleeces are driven in the needling machine upstream by an insertion device consisting of a first pair of rollers and downstream of the needling machine by an extraction device comprising a second pair of rollers.
In traditional needling machines, the feed movement of the fibre fleece is intermittent and takes place only when the needles are withdrawn from the product.
Now, a current development in the design of needling machines consists in increasing the striking rates and the speeds of progress of the product though the machines, in order to increase productivity. But the product to be needled is then subjected, at each stop and start of motion, to excessive accelerations which are difficult to control and which can result in degradation of the product.
From DE-A-1 660 776 there are known insertion means and extraction means driven more or less at the rhythm of the needling by means of a differential transmission coupled to the striking device. This method of driving the extraction rollers does not allow an easy and optimal modulation of the extraction speed according to the type of needled product and according to the rank of the needling machine in question in a line of machines.
The purpose of the invention is to overcome these disadvantages by proposing a needling machine which is designed to allow a modulation of the angular velocity of the extraction rollers during each needling period, this modulation being able to be of variable amplitude up to the obtaining of zero angular acceleration.
This purpose is achieved with a needling machine comprising means for needling, according to a variable striking frequency, a fibre fleece generally passing between two perforated steel plates, a first pair of rollers for inserting the fibre fleece between the two plates with an approximately constant insertion speed, a second pair of rollers for extracting the fibre fleece emerging from the plates, means of driving the needling means with a periodic striking motion, control and processing means connected to these needling drive means and electromechanical means for driving the extraction rollers at a variable speed.

Needling machine and associated feed control method


A multi-layered painting includes a first paint layer applied to a backing material as a viscous liquid. The first paint layer is either an oil-based, non-latex paint or a latex, non-oil-based paint. A sealing medium is applied over the first paint layer to form a barrier to bleed-through from and to subsequent paint layers. A second paint layer is applied over the sealing medium as a viscous liquid. The second paint layer is the other of the oil-based, non-latex paint and the latex, non-oil-based paint. One or both of the first and second paint layers includes a transparent luminescent pigment that is not luminescent under only ambient and incandescent light. The paint having the pigment produces a luminescent effect when subject to ultraviolet light, wherein the painting exhibits one visible object when subjected to ambient, incandescent and fluorescent light and at least one different visible object when subjected to ultraviolet light. A method for creating the painting is also disclosed.

Paintings have evolved from the early cave man paintings found in various parts of the world to become some of the most revered and defined works of art today. Paintings are far and away the most widely exhibited form of art work in museums and galleries throughout the world.
Paint is essentially a viscous fluid that consists of a vehicle or binder, and a pigment. Optionally, the paint can include a solvent or thinner, a dryer, a biostat or biocide and an ultraviolet blocker or stabilizer. Paint can be applied as a fluid in thin coats or layers that dry to a solid. The drying phenomena is generally not reversible. That is, the dried paint cannot be transformed back into the viscous fluid state. The change to a solid, i.e., the drying phenomena, may occur by evaporation of the solvent, by chemical reaction or by a combination of both evaporation and chemical reaction.
There are two principal types of paint. One type of paint, commonly known as oil-based paint, uses an oil or oil-based vehicle to carry the pigment or coloring agent. Oil-based paints typically contain a dryer to accelerate the drying process. Such paints typically dry by oxidation and solidify by cross linking, which is a chemical reaction.
Another type of paint is a water-based, latex paint. Such paints use water as the fluid or liquid vehicle. Early water-based paints were water sensitive and thus had limited uses. Recent developments in water-based paints have resulted in paints having greater water resistance. The paint is applied as a fluid and the water evaporates (with possible further chemical change, i.e., oxidation or polymerization), leaving a film coating.
One modern form of painting uses the simulated movement of characters, environment, background and the like to produce visually pleasing effects. Such effects attempt to create the impression or appearance that objects within the painting appear suddenly before a viewer's eyes or move as the viewer's perception or lighting conditions change. One method of achieving the desired simulated motion is by using different types of media such as different types of paint. Mixing such media can be done with the use of ordinary paint in combination with light emitting luminescent or phosphorescent paint, in, for example, a layered application.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that oil-based and water-based latex paints have outstanding characteristics in that they provide a durable media, and offer a wide variety of colors, tones and textures. It has, however, been observed that layering water-based latex paint with oil-based paint, either of which have ultraviolet activated pigments, can result in cracking of the over-coat.
Further, when layering water-based latex paint with oil-based paint, it has been observed that the layers can bleed into each other or the visual images can blur. The consequences of such bleeding and blurring are that the sharpness of the image may be lost and thus the aesthetic value of the painting diminished. This is particularly true for paintings which include such luminescent pigments.
Accordingly, there continues to be a need for a painting and a method therefor which permits the use of layers of oil-based paints and water-based paints one on top of the other, which paints may include a transparent luminescent paint pigment. Such a painting will resist cracking and will provide sharp, visually and aesthetically pleasing images without blurring, fading or bleeding of the painted images.

Multi-layered painting and method therefor


A filter device of the present disclosure includes at least a sheet-shaped fiber structure having a plurality of fibers made of amorphous silicon dioxide, wherein the plurality of fibers are tangled and thus connected together to form voids in the sheet-shaped fiber structure. A filter device of the present disclosure corresponds to an analysis device including: a substrate; a flow path formed on the substrate; and a sheet-shaped fiber structure provided on the inner wall of the flow path, wherein the sheet-shaped fiber structure includes a plurality of fibers made of amorphous silicon dioxide, and the plurality of fibers are tangled and thus connected together to form voids in the sheet-shaped fiber structure.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present disclosure relates to a sheet-shaped fiber structure made of fibrous silicon dioxide. The present disclosure also relates to a filter device as a part of a microreactor, a chemical chip, a biochip, a lab-on-a-chip, a nanochip, a chromatograph, or the like, which includes a sheet-shaped fiber structure for use in extracting only a specific material from a solution, and also relates to an analysis device using such a filter device.
(2) Description of Related Art
A filter device, as an example of application using a sheet-shaped fiber structure, aims to separate only a specific material (object to be examined) from a sample containing a plurality of materials, and is needed in a variety of fields.
For example, the surface of a first substrate made of quartz is subjected to a chemical treatment such as dry etching or wet etching, or a processing using a laser beam, an ion beam or energy ray irradiation to form a plurality of island-shaped columns. Subsequently, a second substrate made of silicon is bonded to the first substrate in such a manner that the columns are sealed between the substrates. The interstices between the island-shaped columns sealed between the first and second substrates are used as filter flow paths, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-239317.
Also disclosed is a device including a first substrate and a flow path groove formed on the surface of the first substrate, as shown in International Patent Publication No. WO 2010/082279. According to the device, a fibrous layer including a plurality of fibrous projections is provided in the flow path groove and located to its opening.
Also disclosed is a material for removing leukocytes, which contains 0.5% by weight or more and less than 50% by weight of ultra fine fibers each having a diameter of 0.02 μm or more and less than 0.8 μm, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 11-12181. According to the material, the ultra fine fibers form a network structure having a circularity of 1.7 or less and an equivalent circle diameter of 1 μm or more and less than 20 μm.
Also disclosed is a member for removing leukocytes, which contains 5% by weight or more and less than 20% by weight of ultra fine fibers each having a diameter of 0.1 μm or more and less than 0.6 μm, as shown in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 11-12180. According to the member, the ultra fine fibers have a degree of curvature of 1.2 or more
An analysis chip, as an example of application using a filter device, conventionally has purposes such as purifying or isolating a very small amount of a product and analyzing components, and generally includes a column tube and a silica gel which is a column filler packed as a solid phase in the column. A known method for producing the silica gel is a method for producing a porous inorganic material by a sol-gel reaction using, as a raw material, an oxide material containing an organic compound such as an alkoxide. Specifically, the silica gel is produced as follows. A silica sol is formed by hydrolyzing, in the presence of an acid, an alkoxysilane in water or a mixed solution of water and an alcohol. The resulting silica sol is added to an oil-based dispersion medium including an aromatic hydrocarbon such as benzene, toluene, xylene, or ethylbenzene and an emulsifier such as a long-chain organic carboxylic acid or a surfactant. The mixture is stirred using a mixer such as a homomixer, and the resulting emulsion is formed into a gel. This production method is one of the most easily practicable methods and thus performed preferably. The silica gel produced by this method is used as a high-performance liquid chromatography filler because it has distinctive surface physical properties, as shown in International Patent Publication No. WO 2006/001300.

Filter device and analysis device using same


One embodiment of the present invention provides a system that facilitates determining a frequency of execution of compiled methods within a virtual machine. The system starts by determining if a compiled method is executing. If so, the system sets a flag corresponding to the compiled method to indicate that the compiled method is executing. Periodically, the system scans the flag and increments the value of a corresponding counter if the flag is set, and then resets the flag. Finally, the system analyzes the value of the counter to determine a frequency of execution of the compiled method.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to virtual machines within computer systems. More specifically, the present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for determining the frequency of execution of compiled methods within a virtual machine.
2. Related Art
The Java 2 Platform, Micro Edition (J2ME™), has become very popular in the wireless device space. Motorola, Nokia, NTT DoCoMo, RIM, Siemens, and many other key players in the wireless device industry have recently started shipping J2ME-enabled devices in very high volume. It has been estimated that over 200 million J2ME-enabled mobile phones were shipped in 2003 alone.
One major limitation of these wireless devices is the relatively small amount of memory available for executing programs. Many methods have been developed to optimize memory usage in these memory-constrained devices. Once such method involves using a dynamic compiler that supports both the execution of interpreted code and compiled code. Code that is executed more often is compiled and executed in compiled mode, while code that is executed less often is executed in interpreted mode. Note that the compiled code executes much faster than the interpreted code; however, the compiled code takes up a lot more space than the executed code.
Whether this dynamically generated compiled code resides on the object heap or in a separate code cache region of memory, this compiled code is typically evicted from memory when it is no longer frequently accessed, and this eviction typically takes place through a garbage collection (GC) process. Note that the compiled code may contain pointers to objects which are handled by the GC process.
Although the actual eviction of the compiled code happens during GC, the victim selection portion of the eviction process is ideally based on information gathered during mutator execution, wherein the system can gather information to rank compiled methods according to how frequently they are used.
As memory constraints become tighter, the quality of this ranking process becomes increasingly more important to sustaining high overall execution speed. On the other hand, if the ranking mechanism becomes too complicated, obtaining ranking data may create a significant additional burden on the mutator.
In order to determine when a method is in use, it is a common practice to insert software hooks into specific locations in a method. These hooks can gather data and perform various computations when they are encountered during program execution.
Current victim selection schemes that use hooks fall into two categories, heavyweight hooks and lightweight hooks. With heavyweight hooks, the system performs some weighting calculation concerning a routine directly in the above hooks. For example, the hook can increment a counter in a Java method. In contrast, lightweight hooks produce a minimal amount of mutator slowdown by computing as little as possible in the hooks. For example, there is a self-modifying code scheme in the Connected Limited Device Configuration HotSpot Implementation (CLDC HI) within J2ME™ that patches the Java method callee prolog only the first time a hook is executed during a given GC cycle. In subsequent uses of the same routine, there is no mutator overhead.
Another way to determine method usage is to use statistical sampling. Statistical sampling operates by periodically analyzing the current stack to determine when routines are executing. (The statistical sampling method also counts as lightweight, since it typically executes relatively infrequently.)
However, all of the above-described techniques have drawbacks. They either slow down the mutator significantly, or they do not gather enough information for good victim selection. Furthermore, the interval between GCs is generally too large to establish a useful ranking among large numbers of methods. (Reflecting multiple GC intervals in multiple bits as in CLDC HI does not solve this problem, since one GC interval is generally already too long.)
Hence, what is needed is a method for determining a frequency of execution of compiled methods within a virtual machine without the drawbacks listed above.

Method and apparatus for determining frequency of execution for compiled methods within a virtual machine


An adjustable plant stake assembly having cross braces, stake anchors and couplers is provided that can be used with conventional plant stakes. The cross braces extend between two adjacent plant stakes and are adjustable in length to adjust the spacing between the stakes. The stake anchors support the stakes and include a step portion that enables the anchor to be driven into the ground by stepping on the step. As the plant grows in height, each plant stake can be lengthened by connecting an additional plant stake to the top of the existing stake using one of the couplers. A kit including the plant stakes, cross braces, stake anchors and couplers is also included.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the field of horticulture and, more particularly, to an adjustable framework for supporting growing plants, such as tomato, pepper and other plants whose stalks or branches have a tendency to bend or break due to the weight of the vegetable, fruit or flower growing thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
Many plants benefit from the availability of a vertical support framework sized to the plant that can protect the plant from shear stress that might otherwise break the plant's stalk or branches. This framework can be as simple as a vertical pole to which the plant is tied, or can be much more complex, with cross bars and upright ribs that form a latticework or wire cage to support the plant. Such framework is particularly useful for tomato plants, pepper plants and similar plants with heavy vegetables, fruit or flowers growing thereon.
Preassembled wire cages for plant support are awkward to use and unwieldy to store. Typically, they must be placed around the plant at an early stage in its growth as they are difficult to place on the plant after it has reached a larger size. However, while the plant is small, the wire cages dwarf the plant, creating an unsightly appearance. Later, the plant may outgrow the cage, necessitating its removal and replacement with a larger cage which, again, can be difficult to place on the plant.
A plant kit assembly directed to solving the problems with wire cages while providing support to plants is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 7,188,448 ("the '448 patent"), which is owned by the assignee of the present application, Woodstream Corporation. The disclosure of the '448 patent is expressly incorporated herein by reference as if fully set forth.
In the '448 patent, a removable clip device having a beam portion with C-shaped clamps on each end is used to secure two adjacent plant stakes in a spaced relationship that is determined by the length of the beam. The clip devices can be easily installed and removed, allowing the diameter of the framework surrounding the plant to be adjusted by adding additional stakes and/or by changing the relative angles between the stakes. The spacing between the stakes cannot be adjusted, however, as the beam portion has a fixed length. This can create a problem when the plant structure or other factors make it difficult to space the stakes in accordance with the beam length.
Another problem that is often encountered is difficulty in installing the plant stakes that serve to anchor the support framework. In most cases a hammer or mallet is required to pound the stakes into the ground. When the plant is large with well-developed branches that extend outwardly, it can be difficult to swing the hammer freely enough to apply the force necessary to drive the stakes without risking damage to the plant. Also, tall stakes can be difficult to drive into the ground as it is often difficult to achieve the necessary downward force on the top of the stake to obtain a substantially vertical driving orientation, e.g., the stake flexes from the impact rather than penetrating deeper into the ground.

Adjustable plant stake assembly with improved ground anchors and kit therefor


The present invention relates to the technical field of machines used for peeling nuts, such as almonds and the like which have been previously blanched, the machines having an accessible frame inside which there is a series of rollers arranged in pairs with nuts passing between them and each of them being associated with a rotating shaft, respectively, with movements at different speeds.

There are on the market today machines of this type which perform the tasks of peeling these nuts such as almonds and the like. These machines usually include pairs of vertically arranged rollers such that the nut passes between the rollers of each pair consecutively and the different rotational speed of the rollers of one and the same pair generates on the surface of the nuts a surface movement stripping away the skin thereof.
These machines achieve the objective of peeling nuts, which is the process whereby the tegument of the nut is detached from the grain. This tegument is the skin covering the nut and is normally brown in color like in almonds, peanuts and hazelnuts. In this peeling process, the temperature and the blanching time must be controlled since the nut has to be previously blanched with hot water to soften the skin and achieve better peeling.
These machines however have certain drawbacks. One of them consists of the difficulties existing in the tasks of cleaning and maintaining the inside of the machine.
Since the nuts must be blanched prior to the passage thereof between the rollers, they are wet when they reach the roller and although most of the skins that detached from them fall into the skin collection hoppers, a lot of them remain stuck to parts of the machine and to the rollers themselves, slowing down the operation thereof. For this reason, it is necessary to perform periodic cleaning tasks, and it is extremely important that these tasks can be carried out in a comfortable and simple manner.
Likewise, another drawback of this machine is due to the fact that continuous rubbing of the skins of the nuts against the rollers will gradually wear down the rollers and it is necessary to change them to maintain their effectiveness in the task of peeling these nuts.
When it is necessary to access the inside of the frame to perform these tasks, these tasks being either cleaning or replacement, if the rollers of the machines are secured by both ends of their shaft both to the front face and to the rear face of the frame, access to the inside must be made through one of the sides of the machine, which complicates access to all the parts of the machine. Furthermore, in order to change the rollers it is necessary to release the shafts at one of their ends, change the roller and reinstall all the components thereof.
Likewise, these machines have an additional problem because only one of the rollers of each pair can move laterally to modify the distance for the passage of the nut between both. This generates shifts in the central plane through which the nut falls, with a loss of efficiency and faults in peeling.
As a solution to these problems the same applicant is the owner of reference patent ES 2342651-A1 which describes a peeling machine for peeling almonds and the like in which each of the rolls or rollers of each pair is associated with a respective shaft suspended at one of its ends from a vertical panel dividing the inner space of the frame into two cavities, a front cavity and a rear cavity, said shafts projecting towards the front cavity and this frame being closed at the front portion by means of a large door allowing easy access to all the members of the machine.
Therefore, the movement to modify the distance for the passage of the nut between rollers is obtained by a symmetrical movement of both cylinders of each pair, the central plane through which the nut falls being kept constant.
Likewise, in this machine one of the ends of the shaft of each cylinder has been released, specifically the front end and the frame containing the cylinders has an access door on its front face. Therefore, all the elements inside the machine can be easily accessed through said front door for cleaning, repair or maintenance work in which the cylinders must be changed.
This improves these maintenance and cleaning tasks which become much easier and quicker to perform.
However, this machine has certain drawbacks which already existed in earlier machines and are not solved with this new machine. These consist of the fact that although the cleaning and replacement tasks are made easier, the rollers still experience very significant wear and at the same time also get dirty fairly quickly. Therefore, although the cleaning and maintenance processes are quicker and more comfortable, it is still necessary to perform them very often and every time this occurs, the machine must be shut down to clean or remove the cylinders, whereby the productivity of the machine decreases. Furthermore, in the case of roller replacement, there is an added drawback of the high roller weight, making the process even more difficult.


Embodiments include methods, apparatus, and systems for tracking metadata changes during copying in a storage system. One embodiment includes a method that uses a bitmap and two fences to track changes to metadata while a copy of the metadata is being transferred from a source disk array to a destination disk array.

In some storage systems, data in a logical disk residing on a virtual disk array is stored and retrieved from physical disks within a disk array. Mapping information referred to as "metadata" is used to locate the stored data. This metadata can be kept in the disk array controller memory and/or on physical disks within the disk array.
When a logical disk is transferred from one disk array to another disk array, this metadata must also be copied so that the destination disk array can locate the stored data. During the transfer of a logical disk, it is preferable to allow continued host access to the stored data in that logical disk on the source array. However, continued access to the logical disk can cause changes in the source metadata. Problems arise if the source metadata is changed while this metadata is being copied since the destination disk array would not have an accurate copy of the metadata.
In order to guarantee that the metadata is identical on the source and destination disk arrays, some storage systems lock access to the data during an entire time that all of the metadata is being copied. During this time, host computers are denied access to the data during the copy. This process is effective in preventing changes to metadata being copied, but causes problems in applications running on the host computer. Commands can timeout and applications can appear to hang.

Tracking metadata changes during data copy in a storage system

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A lever (70) is rotatably mounted on a second lever-side connector (L2) connectable to a mating connector to extend between facing side surfaces. The lever (70) is rotatable substantially along a connecting direction between a connection surface of the second lever-side connector (L2) and a wire drawing surface (H). A correcting portion (71A) of a wire cover (71) mounted to cover the wire drawing surface is formed to rise at a position displaced toward a central part from a base portion (71B), and collects and accommodates wires (W) in the correcting portion (71A).

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a connector and to a connector assembly provided therewith.
2. Description of the Related Art
Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-223955 discloses a lever-type connector with a wire cover mounted on the rear end surface of a housing and opposite to a connecting surface. The wire cover functions to correct a wiring direction of wires drawn out from the rear end surface in a predetermined direction. A lever is mounted rotatably on opposite side surfaces of the housing and functions as a force multiplying mechanism to reduce a connector connecting force.
However, the lever straddles the wire cover. Accordingly, an operating portion of the lever must be set at a height position above the projecting height of the wire cover. Thus, conventionally, it has been impossible to miniaturize the lever due to restriction caused by the projecting height of the wire cover.
The invention was completed in view of the above situation and aims to improve operability and enable miniaturization of a lever.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Connector and connector assembly provided therewith


A semiconductor device according to an embodiment is a semiconductor device including: a first diode having a first anode and a first cathode, the first anode for electrically connecting to one of a first electrode and a second electrode of a semiconductor element including the first electrode, the second electrode, and a gate electrode; a first capacitor having a first end electrically connected to the first cathode, and a first other end; a bias element having a first bias element end electrically connected to the first cathode and the first end, and a second bias element end for electrically connecting to a positive electrode of a direct-current power supply including the positive electrode and a negative electrode; a second diode having a second anode and a second cathode, the second anode electrically connected to the first other end; a second capacitor having a second end and a second other end, the second end electrically connected to the second cathode; a switch electrically connected in parallel to the second capacitor between the second end and the second other end; an analog-digital converter or sample-and-hold circuit electrically connected to the second cathode and the second end; and a third diode having a third anode and a third cathode, the third anode electrically connected to the second other end, and the third cathode electrically connected to the first other end and the second anode.

In a power transistor that performs switching operation at high speed, a surge voltage due to parasitic inductance may be generated, for example, when the transistor is turned off. The generation of the surge voltage is problematic, because a gate insulating film is destroyed, or ringing is caused in the circuit. The surge voltage is a high voltage and generated in a short period of time, and thus difficult to detect.

Semiconductor device, power conversion device, driving device, vehicle, and elevator


Provided are techniques for unified cognition for a virtual personal cognitive assistant. Internet of Things (IoT) devices are coupled to a cognitive model, wherein the cognitive model includes a cognitive classifier, and wherein the cognitive classifier includes a cognitive dimension map and a recognition process. Input from one or more of the IoT devices is received. The cognitive dimension map is used to identify rules based on the input. The recognition process is used to identify events based on the rules. Then, the events are issued to one or more of the IoT devices, wherein the one or more IoT devices execute actions in response to the events.

Embodied cognition may be described as placing cognitive computing capabilities in a cognitive computing system of an object (e.g., a robot, an avatar, etc.) of the physical world. This enhances cognitive computing capabilities of the cognitive computing system in understanding, reasoning, learning, and other cognitive processes by providing the cognitive computing system the ability to see, hear, talk, move, etc. through the object. In turn, such a cognitive computing system is enabled to provide human cognitive abilities through user and object partnership and collaborations.
An example of such embodied cognition includes embodied cognition in a speaker with the ability to engage users in natural language dialogue for conducting tasks such as ordering items for purchase. Another example of such embodied cognition includes embodied cognition in a robot to interact with customers for concierge services.
Conventional implementations of embodied cognition focus on embedding cognitive computing capabilities in one object of the physical world, with a set of functions preloaded onto the object, and let humans, as generic users, come to interact with that object as a single instance of embodied cognition. That is, a conventional implementation primarily covers a single embodied cognition object that interacts generically with multiple users.
For example, an object that has face recognition may call a user in front of that object by name or look up records for that user.

Multi-dimensional cognition for unified cognition in cognitive assistance

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


An apparatus and method for preventing an acoustic shock of a portable terminal are disclosed. The apparatus includes a transceiver gain determining unit including a table of gain values for sound signals in each of one or more call modes, configured to output a particular gain value corresponding to a particular call mode; a reference value determining unit configured to receive the gain value from the transceiver gain determining unit, monitor a change in the gain value, and determine a predetermined reference energy value based on the change in the gain value; and an output level adjusting unit configured to receive an input signal, compare the input signal with the predetermined reference energy value, and adjust the level of the input signal to output an output signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for preventing an acoustic shock. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus and method for preventing an acoustic shock hazard to users of a portable terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
An acoustic shock to a portable terminal, which results to a user typically from hearing an unexpected loud sound via a telephone such as a portable terminal, are sometimes referred to as Acoustic Incidents, may interfere with voice signals being transmitted or received during a phone call, thus making it difficult to accurately receive the content of the phone call. Also, a sudden acoustic shock may cause a headache, an auditory damage, and/or a temporary auditory trouble. Additionally some people might experience shock, nausea and anxiety. The headaches, fatigue, and hypersensitivity to loud noise and tinnitus (ringing sound in the ears) may continue unabatedly for days, or weeks. Thus, the acoustic shock is recognized as a serious problem both by users and manufacturers of portable terminals.
An acoustic shock preventing apparatus has been developed in an attempt to solve the problem of acoustic shock. However, because the conventional acoustic shock preventing apparatus considers and processes only a frequency of a specific tone component of an input signal, it is not effective for an acoustic shock such as a white noise that is generated as a large signal over the entire frequency band. In fact, the problem of acoustic shock is particularly unsolved with regard to digital data, and with users of portable terminals sometimes wearing ear buds or headsets, the potential for discomfort or injury is greater than ever.
Also, the conventional acoustic shock preventing apparatus can provide the best performance when applied to the last stage of a receiver path. However, when an additional gain is present at a rear end of a portable terminal, it may cause the problem of an additional tuning issue in the conventional acoustic shock preventing apparatus.

Apparatus and method for preventing acoustic shock of portable terminal


A currently captured image R of an object is displayed nearly at a center portion of a display frame SC on a display screen ST1 that is a shooting mode. When a time dial 22 is rotated for one step in the counterclockwise direction, the currently captured image R is moved rightward. A reproduced image P1 captured before the currently captured image R is displayed on the left thereof. A reproduced image P2 captured before the reproduced image P1 is displayed on the left thereof. The currently captured image R and the reproduced images P1 and P2 are displayed at the same time on a display screen ST2 as a co-existent state of a shooting mode and a reproducing mode. When the time dial 22 is rotated for one step in the counterclockwise direction, only the reproduced images P1 to P4 are displayed on a display screen ST3 that is a reproducing mode. As a plurality of reproduced images, the reproduced images P1 to P4 are displayed along a time axis.

Digital cameras that have a displaying device for example an LCD (Liquid Crystal Display) with a relatively large screen have been widespread. When an object is shot, the LCD is used to set a composition, an angle of view, and so forth. In addition, when a recorded image is reproduced, the LCD is used to display the reproduced image.
An electronic camera that can shoot moving images and still images and that can display them in the order of days, months, and years of which they were shot along a time axis is described in the specification of Japanese Patent No. 303324. The digital camera described in the document displays captured images so that they can be easily searched for an image to be reproduced.
The conventional digital camera needed an operation of an input device to switch a mode between a shooting mode and a reproducing mode. As a result, since the shooting mode and the reproducing mode were separated, for example it was difficult for the user to shoot an image while checking an image that has been just captured. It is preferred that a user interface of a digital camera be predictable and intuitional by a plurality of users. It can be said that such an interface has an affinity with a user's conceptual model. The electronic camera described in the specification of Japanese Patent No. 3403324 deals with only images that were captured. Thus, the specification does not mention an image captured in the shooting mode. The specification does not mention that modes are switched having an affinity with the user's conceptual model.
In addition, when a recorded image needed to be deleted, after the shooting mode was switched to the reproducing mode, the recorded image needed to be deleted. Thus, the operability of the digital camera was not good.
Therefore, an object of the present invention is to provide an imaging apparatus, a screen displaying method, and a user interface that allow a shooting mode and a reproducing mode to be switched having an affinity with a seamless conceptual model and thereby their operability to be improved.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an imaging apparatus, a screen displaying method, and a user interface that allow a shooting mode and a reproducing mode to co-exist and thereby their operability to be improved.

Imaging apparatus, user interface, and associated methodology for a co-existent shooting and reproduction mode


A telescoping rod assembly which can be secured between two supports has a first hollow tube having first and second ends with a second hollow tube, also having first and second ends, fitted within the first hollow tube. One end of the second hollow tube is used for bracing against one of the supports. A flexible threaded rod is fitted within the second hollow tube, with one end of the flexible threaded rod used for bracing against the other support. Threading means are secured to the second hollow tube for extendable threading the flexible threaded rod in the first hollow tube. The first hollow tube is secured to the end of the flexible threaded rod which is braced against one of the supports.

In order to mount a shower curtain for a shower, it is necessary to first secure a shower curtain rod between two of the walls which define the shower area. In some cases, the shower curtain rod can be a fixed length tube permanently mounted between the walls. The problem with a design of this type, is that the fixed length rod must be cut exactly to the dimensions of the shower space. The rod is then fitted into a pair of rod mounts with each mount secured to a wall. Should it be necessary to adjust the height of the shower rod, it would be necessary to revise the rod mounts, repair the wall where the fixed rod was mounted, and secure the mounts to the new location. It may also be necessary to cut a new fixed length rod, if the dimensions of the walls vary between the old and new positions.
Adjustable, pressure fitted shower rods solve the problems associated with a fixed length rod. In such a shower rod, the length of the shower rod is adjustable within a range. Tightening the rod in the space between the two walls maintains a tight fix, sufficient to securely hold a shower curtain without slipping. These designs require a large number of rotations of the threaded rods to extend the rods to the typical four to six foot wall spans.
Same designs, such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 670,585 to Fouler, U.S. Pat. No. 856,316 to Thirston and U.S. Pat. No. 1,548,053 to Mead use a combination of a threaded rod fitted within another threaded rod and a biasing spring to maintain tension as the rod is extended to fit between walls.
Other designs such as those shown in U.S. Pat. No. 2,919,134 to Zero, U.S. Pat. No. 3,521,758 to Gylfoyle and U.S. Pat. No. 704,403 to Phil show threaded rods which do not use a biasing spring to maintain force.
The designs using a spring, aside from having the additional manufacturing cost and added complexity of having a spring component, suffer from the difficulty of having to provide sufficient force to compress this spring when adjusting the rod. Further, there is always the possibility of the rod and spring becoming entangled or the spring popping out of the rod during assembly/disassembly.
In the designs which do not use a spring, the threaded fittings must be sufficiently tight to maintain enough force to keep the rod in place. In these designs, it is possible for the threads to loosen, with the rod slipping or falling. With the light weight materials typically used in the manufacture of shower curtain rods (and curtain rods) some form of biasing mechanism is desirable to maintain a tight fit and prevent slippage of the rod.


The invention provides a method of treating a target area with an ultrasound wave pattern, including: providing an ultrasound apparatus having an ultrasound wave generator operatively attached to a plurality of transducers, coupled to an immersible support and configured to emit an ultrasound wave; immersing the apparatus into a water environment; positioning the apparatus proximate to a target area to treat at least one in situ organism; and emitting a pattern of ultrasound waves from the transducers, the pattern of ultrasound waves additive in effect and emitted onto the target area to threat an in situ underwater organism.

Invasive species in non-native ecological systems and environments often results in overpopulation of that species such that the native species and ambient environment is thrown out of balance. The invasive species may out-compete native species for food and shelter, and may not have any natural predators to keep non-native populations in check. Once an invasive species is introduced into a non-native environment, the non-native species may quickly repopulate the area, drastically shifting the ecological balance and system. For these reasons, vast resources are invested each year in efforts to eliminate invasive plant and animal species in the United States and abroad. Previous control methods vary whether the species is microbial, animal, or plant.
The control and elimination of invasive aquatic animal species is done by methods including, for example, physically catching and removing the animals, sterilization, building mechanical barriers, or treating the water chemical dispersions, toxic bait, or various pesticides. The control of invasive aquatic plants is done, for example, by mechanical harvesting, manual removal, and chemical spraying. Each of the aforementioned methods of control and removal of invasive species has limitations in use and problems and associated with it. Some of the problems include the propagation and increase of pollutants, environmental and ecological damage, great cost, low efficiency, and overall ineffectiveness.
Shipping carries more than 80% of the world trade and in the process 12 billion tons of ballast water per year. Ballast water is an essential part of ship operations, providing trim, stability, propeller immersion, and maintaining safe levels of hull stresses in various states of loading and unloading. However, invasive species are carried in vessel ballast water and introduced via discharge of ballast water. The globalization of trade, the rising tourism and the massive volume of cargo shipments have increased the chance of accidental introduction of invasive species. More than 10,000 species each day were estimated to be transported across the oceans globally in the ballast water of cargo ships. Many species are able to withstand the hardships of a journey across the seas. When the ship docks, unloads its cargo and empties its ballast tanks, the plants, animals, microbes are then unintentionally released into the new waters. Many of those species might successfully adapt into the new environments, outcompete native species and cause economic, social, recreational and ecological losses.
Shipping is widely considered one of the most important causes of anthropogenic changes to species distributions in the aquatic ecosystems, including oceans, rivers, lakes and the like. It is difficult to quantify the economic, ecological, recreational, and social losses caused by invasive species introduction via discharge of ballast water. Even further, the cost associated with losses such as the loss of native species and ecosystem functions are simply impossible to estimate. It is crucial to improve current ballast water management technology in order to reduce the economic, ecological, recreational and social losses caused by non-indigenous species introduction via discharge of ballast water.

Apparatus and method for ultrasound treatment for ballast water management

THE RESEARCH FOUNDATION FOR THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW YORK

UNIVERSITY OF VERMONT AND STATE AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE


A fault protection arrangement for protecting power conversion circuits, for example switch mode power supplies and the like, from overcurrent and short circuit faults. The fault protection arrangement includes multiple fault protection features, for example soft-start delay, fault delay and automatic reset, with the timing of each of these three features capable of being set independently of the other two while minimizing integrated circuit (IC) pin count and also minimizing the number of external components required for programming the timing of these features. The fault protection circuit may be used to advantage with any power conversion regulator topology.

In power conversion, two common failure modes are output overcurrent and output short circuit. Circuit protection arrangements intended to protect against these faults are typically designed to sense the actual output current, for example by measuring the voltage drop across a series sense resistor, power switch, current transformer or the like. These approaches can provide satisfactory protection from overcurrents and short circuits. However, these approaches require additional components which add cost and complexity to the power conversion system. Also, implementations which use components in series with the output, for example a sense resistor, may result in significant additional power dissipation.
In other arrangements, the occurrence of an overcurrent or short circuit may be monitored indirectly, and, in some cases, avoid dissipating excessive additional power. An example of an alternative approach is in the TL5001 Pulse Width Modulation (PWM) Controller made by Texas Instruments. FIG. 1 is a functional block diagram of the TL5001 PWM Controller 10. FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram for a typical power supply circuit 30 using the TL5001 PWM Controller 10.
The diagrams of FIGS. 1 and 2 will be described only to the extent necessary to explain the overcurrent and short circuit protection approach included in the TL5001 PWM Controller.
Referring to FIG. 1, an error amplifier 12 compares a reference voltage 11 with the voltage at a feedback (FB) pin input 13 of the TL5001 PWM Controller 10. Referring to FIG. 2, the input to the FB pin 13 is coupled to the power supply output 15 by a network 17 which sets the gain of the error amplifier 12, and to the compensation (COMP) pin output 16 by a compensation network 9 used in compensating the dc-to-dc converter control loop for stability. Referring again to FIG. 1, in case of a fault, for example if the power supply output 15 is shorted to ground, the error amplifier output 14 output reacts by swinging high to compensate for the low voltage at the power supply output 15. The error amplifier output 14 is coupled to an inverting input 19 of a first short circuit protection (SCP) comparator 20. The first SCP comparator 20 detects the voltage swing and charges an SCP capacitor 21 (FIG. 2) through a current source. The SCP capacitor 21 delays the operation of the fault protection circuitry so that the arrangement does not falsely trigger due to noise, load transients, line transients and the like. This delay will be referred to herein as "fault-delay."
The protection arrangement may include a "soft-start" function in which the operation of the protection arrangement is delayed upon startup to prevent erroneous fault detection due to startup transients. This delay will be referred to herein as "soft-start-delay." In order for the arrangement to function properly, the fault-delay must be longer than the soft-start-delay. If the fault-delay is shorter than the soft-start-delay, then during startup the circuit protection arrangement can trigger after the fault-delay time, even if the soft-start-delay time has not elapsed, and prevent the regulator from starting. This is a limitation of this protection arrangement.
In case of a fault, the SCP capacitor 21 charges to above a predetermined voltage which is monitored by a second SCP comparator 22, and, if a fault is still present, then the second SCP comparator 22 will disable the drive logic and latch the regulator circuit in the off state. The input power must be recycled to restart the regulator circuit.
The fault protection arrangement built into the TL5001 PWM Controller has several limitations. Because the output voltage is input to an error amplifier, the performance of the arrangement is dependent on the characteristics of the error amplifier, e.g. the gain selected. In particular, the trip voltage at which the protection circuit disables the PWM controller may vary depending on the error amplifier characteristic. In case of a temporary fault, it is necessary to recycle input power to restart the PWM controller circuit. Also, the fault-delay time must exceed the soft-start-delay time, or the PWM controller will not start. The protection arrangement used in the TL5001 PWM Controller is designed specifically to be used with the TL5001, and may require modification to be applied to other regulator topologies .
The circuits of FIGS. 1 and 2 are described in the Texas Instruments documents Designing With the TL5001 PWM Controller, SLVA034A, September 1995, and TL5001, TL5001 V Pulse-Width-Modulation Control Circuits, SLVS084S--April 1994--Revised September 1995. The entire contents of both documents are incorporated herein by reference.
There is a need for a fault protection arrangement which can be used with any regulator topology. There is a need for such a fault protection arrangement to have a well defined and consistent trip point in the event of an overcurrent or short circuit fault which trip point does not vary depending upon the characteristics of an error amplifier in the fault protection arrangement. There is further a need for such a fault protection arrangement in which the fault-delay time may be selected to be independent of the soft-start-delay time.


To support a foot, a special shoe is adapted to receive a flat flexible member having a first fastening means on one end thereof, whereby it may be fastened to a shoe. The shoe has first, second, third and fourth fastening means attached thereto. The second and third fastening means are positioned on opposite sides of the medial plane of the arch of the shoe and are spaced from each other within a range of one-half to four inches; the first and fourth fastening means being positioned within a range of one-eighth to two inches upwardly from a sole and within a range of one-half to three inches of a heel, whereby they are located lower than the arch of the shoe and within a range from the arch of one-half to three inches. The flat flexible member has a second fastening means on a second side, whereby one of said first and second fastening means may be fastened to a shoe over the arch of the foot and the other fastened to a location on the shoe near the sole adjacent to the heel. The strap between said first fastening means and second fastening means has a length of between three inches and eight inches. The first fastening means is a hook and loop fastening means having an area of between three and six square inches.

This invention relates to foot supports.
One class of foot support comprises one or more additions to an ordinary shoe that aids in foot comfort and control by restricting the motion of the parts of the foot. Such supports may be removable attachments or permanently attached to the shoe.
In the prior art foot supports of this class, external braces are used or inserts are located in the instep of the shoe to provide support to the arch or the like. Moreover, many shoes have laces to aid in shoe support. However, laces provide support by pulling the shoe more tightly around the foot to create tension in planes that are substantially vertical to the ground and perpendicular to the sole of the foot.
These prior art foot supports have several disadvantages, such as: (1) they do not provide good support for an athlete or an average user of shoes; (2) they do not provide adequate restraint of foot movement during normal use of the foot; (3) they are cumbersome and not easily removed when not in use; (4) they are not readily adjustable to accommodate the individual user; and (5) they do not provide adequate tension in planes forming a diagonal with the sole.


The present invention provides methods of preparing an oligonucleotide, nucleoside or nucleoside analog for selective introduction into a subject's cells, the method comprising (1) selecting a targeted aptamer, internalizing nucleic acid or tumor-homing nucleic acid via iterative rounds of selection, and (i) hybridizing it to an oligonucleotide, (ii) replacing one or more nucleotide with a nucleoside or nucleoside analog, or (iii) synthesizing the it with one or more nucleoside or nucleoside analogs; or (2) preparing a naive combinatorial aptamer, internalizing nucleic acid or tumor-homing nucleic acid prodrug library, and running iterative rounds of selection for the cells. The present invention also provides the agent, the pharmaceutical composition, and methods of treating or preventing cancer and/or viral infection, the method comprising administration of the oligonucleotide, nucleoside or nucleoside analog for selective introduction into a subject's cells.

Throughout this application various publications are referred to in parenthesis. Full citations for these references may be found at the end of the specification. The disclosures of these publications are hereby incorporated by reference in their entirety into the subject application to more fully describe the art to which the subject invention pertains.
From laboratory to clinic, directing therapeutics to specific sites (cells, tumors, tissues) and ensuring that the delivered agents will be active only at the desired sites remains a daunting challenge. Targeting is a particularly critical issue in cancer therapy because of the undesirable side effects of chemotherapeutic agents, many of which can also be toxic to normal cells.
Other technologies have attempted to engineer drug-delivery vehicles that act solely on targeted cells. For example, antibodies have emerged as important players in developing next generation cancer drugs, where they are being used not only as inhibitors, but also for targeted delivery of drugs, toxins and other molecules (reviewed in Carter and Senter 2008; Wu and Senter 2005). The strategy for using antibodies as targeting agents typically involves chemically conjugating the drug of choice to an antibody that recognizes a cell surface receptor. Most commonly, the targeted receptor is known to undergo receptor-mediated endocytosis, which leads to internalization of the targeted cargoes followed by release of the chemotherapeutic agent. While, this approach should be simple and effective, the use of antibodies as therapeutics is somewhat hampered by the need to engineer 'humanized' variants of these proteins that would not be immunogenic. Moreover, while numerous antibody drug conjugation strategies exist, almost all rely on conjugation through surface exposed amino groups (lysines), sulfhydryls (cysteines), or sugars (sialic acids) in these large (150 kDa) proteins. Precise control of drug placement, therefore, is nearly impossible and can compromise antibody function. The resultant conjugates are typically heterogeneous in nature, which can affect consistency in both production as well as efficacy.
The potential problems associated with using antibodies for targeted delivery of drugs has led to investigations into a variety of alternative targeting agents including antibody fragments such as Fabs, diabodies or single chain antibody fragments (Wu and Senter 2005). These engineered portions of antibodies do offer some advantages over full antibodies. In particular, their smaller size (25-40 kDa) aids in extravasation and tissue penetration. Additionally, they can be further engineered to facilitate some conjugation strategies; however, issues with immunity are still a factor. Small peptides, too, can be used for targeting cargoes. These small molecules, typically 8-10 amino acids in length, have generally been isolated using a method called phage display (McGuire et al. 2009); however, such reagents often require multivalent presentation for efficient targeting which can complicate their synthesis and production (Oyama et al. 2003).
The present invention provides an attractive alternative involving a novel system for the targeted delivery of drugs that specifically target tumor cells in whole animals. To do this, an alternate class of targeting molecules composed of nucleic acids called aptamer, internalizing nucleic acid or tumor-homing nucleic acids are used. The present invention also provides the molecules so-identified. These delivery aptamers, internalizing nucleic acids or tumor-homing nucleic acids are composed of cytotoxic nucleoside analogs and are engineered to target specific cells.

Methods of preparing targeted aptamer prodrugs

Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Inc.


An apparatus includes an image sensor, a linear actuator, a projector coupled to the linear actuator, and a controller coupled to the image sensor and to the linear actuator. The controller is configured to determine a location of an eye of a user based on image data from the image sensor. The controller is further configured to activate the linear actuator to drive the projector to a position associated with projecting to the eye at the location. The controller is further configured to initiate projection, via the projector, of an image depicting a view of a three-dimensional scene, the image selected based on the location.

Stereoscopic displays present a different image of a scene to each of a user's eyes. This presentation of different images to each of the eyes is known as stereoscopy. The different images correspond to views from slightly different angles to simulate binocular disparity that would occur due to the eyes' horizontal separation (parallax) if the user was observing the scene in the natural world. Accordingly, stereoscopy generates an impression of depth. Stereoscopic displays typically use some type of glasses, whether active or passive, to switch the left and right eye images from the display to the appropriate eyes.
Further, autostereoscopic displays provide left and right eye images without specialized eyewear. This is typically done by creating what is known as a multi-view display. Such displays generate multiple views using any one of a number of techniques that may involve lenticular lenses, lens arrays, parallax barriers, or multiple projectors. In the case of multiple projectors, the number of views created by the display is typically equivalent to the number of projectors. Therefore, if using 10 projectors, the system can be considered a 10-view 3D display. However, 10 views may be insufficient to provide a smooth motion parallax as the user changes position relative to the display.
If the autostereoscopic display is to have a wide viewing angle, there must be enough views generated to provide a high angular resolution of the image. For example, in a display with a 30 degree viewing angle and 10 views, the angular resolution per view is 3 degrees. This means as the user moves relative to the screen, the image on the display may appear to have "judder" since the images from one view to the next will have a large change in perspective angle. More views (and corresponding projectors) may be introduced to increase angular resolution to eliminate the "judder." Super multiview displays provide the smoothest motion parallax effect and simulate a true light field display. These displays provide multiple views into each of the user's eyes to achieve angular resolution on the order of approximately 0.1″. However, such displays may require greater than 100 projectors to provide such fine angular resolution and smooth parallax.


A device for reducing the internal pressure of an eyeball is provided with a power source and a pair of contacts for generating a current within an eyeball. Also included is at least one inductor coil assembly connected to the power source and having an inductive coil for being situated against an eyeball of a user thereby generating a magnetic field for treating the eyeball.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to electronic treatments and more particularly pertains to a new eye treatment device for reducing the internal pressure within an eyeball.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The use of electronic treatments is known in the prior art. More specifically, electronic treatments heretofore devised and utilized are known to consist basically of familiar, expected and obvious structural configurations, notwithstanding the myriad of designs encompassed by the crowded prior art which have been developed for the fulfillment of countless objectives and requirements.
Known prior art electronic treatments include U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,193; U.S. Pat. No. 4,271,841; U.S. Pat. No. 4,628,933; U.S. Pat. No. Des. 264,243; U.S. Pat. No. 3,902,502; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,155,366.
In these respects, the eye treatment device according to the present invention substantially departs from the conventional concepts and designs of the prior art, and in so doing provides an apparatus primarily developed for the purpose of reducing the internal pressure of an eyeball.


A load release system provides load control safety for a rotary aircraft by automatically and manually releasing a load from an attached anchor when a predetermined load design point is reached. The system includes a cord that is disposed to extend between the load and the anchor, often through an anchor line. The cord is configured to release the load manually or automatically at a predetermined load design point, such as an excessive force, weight, tension, or movement. A load end includes a carabiner that manually attaches to and releases from the load. An anchor end includes a manual quick release ring with a pivoting end that is locked and released with a pin. The manual quick release ring is manually attached to and released from the anchor. An automatic release section automatically separates when the predetermined load design point is reached.

Rotary aircrafts are sensitive to weight imbalance, especially while holding an external load. A common problem in addition to other numerous problems encountered when conventional method and system for difficulty in attaching and releasing an anchor from the external loads attached to the aircraft. Excessive load or movement of the load due to the movement of the aircraft or due to other environmental factors causing directional instability of the load as well as the aircraft.
Thus there is a need for quickly and manually attaching and releasing anchor line to the aerial loads and automatically separating the aerial loads from the anchor.
Numerous innovations for external load adapter system for aircraft have been provided in the prior art as described below. Even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific purposes to which they address, however, they differ from the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,427,500, issued on 29 Aug. 1922, to St John Miles C, teaches an automatically releasing anchoring device for aerial vehicles. Before an airplane will rise from the surface of the ground it is necessary that a considerable propeller speed be attained in order to provide the requisite lifting power. The self-contained anchoring device is secured to the underside of the fuselage of the airplane by screws or bolts engaged through the apertures in the flanges and when it is desired to anchor the airplane thereby the spring-pressed detent is manually released and the anchor cable or wire is drawn from the casing. The automatic break-away hook is secured to the ground by engaging the ring thereof around the stake and the ring in the outer end of the anchor cable is engaged in the hook. The airplane motor is started and when sufficient tension is exerted on the anchor cable by the pull of the airplane propeller, the hook will break and the airplane will be released.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,382,583, issued on 7 May 2002, to John L. Hill, III et al., teaches a safety device may be used to provide separation in the event of a side impact collision. The device may be used in a utility pole guy wire system, interposed between the guy wire and the ground anchor. The device operates in bending. A lateral force of sufficient magnitude applied to the device by the errant vehicle causes a rod within the device to break in tension, even though the tensile strength of the rod may be greater than that of the guy wire. The invention may be designed to tolerate axial loads, but to fail reliably when a side force exceeds a desired threshold.
U.S. No. 2011/0,000,155, published on Jan. 6, 2011, to Frank Wellershoff, teaches a cable end anchorage for fastening at least one cable at a supporting structure includes at least one first connecting element for connection with the supporting structure, at least one second connecting element for connection with the cable and at least one coupling element for connection of the two connecting elements in a force-transmitting manner. In the region of the coupling element, an overload device designed as a predetermined breaking point of the coupling element is provided for unfastening the connection between the two connecting elements when a critical load has been exceeded.
It is apparent now that numerous innovations for load release system for releasing load from anchor have been provided in the prior art that are adequate for various purposes. Furthermore, even though these innovations may be suitable for the specific purposes to which they address, accordingly, they would not be suitable for the purposes of the present invention as heretofore described. Thus a simple load release system for quick release of an aircraft and an attached load from an anchor through both manual quick release and automatic separation mechanisms option is needed.


The invention relates to an alarm and control system for at least one switch cabinet that can be opened and closed by an operator. Said switch cabinet comprises an electroactuated locking unit (17) for locking and releasing its door lock and a plurality of modules (12, 13, 14, 15, 16) that are interlinked via a data-exchange data bus (11) and that comprise respective signal-processing microprocessors. Said modules have a closed scope of functions, independently process the signals supplied to them and emit a decision signal as the result of processing.

The invention relates to an alarm, or monitoring, and control system for at least one switch cabinet that can be opened and closed by an operator.
An alarm and control system of this type is described in DE 200 06 373 U1; the core of this known alarm and control system is a single module with a microprocessor to which a plurality of function units are connected. Thus, input units such as a keyboard, a transponder unit, and/or an optical sensor for receipt of a finger print are connected to the module or, respectively, to its microprocessor, whereby the corresponding signals are processed in the microprocessor of the module such that the received signals are compared with verification codes stored in the microprocessor and the result is transmitted to an electrically functioning locking unit of the switch cabinet connected to the module as a control command commanding the release of the door lock controlled by the locking unit or, in the event of the absence of agreement between the received signal and the justification code, commanding the door lock to remain closed. In association therewith, further signal processing tasks are performed by the microprocessor; thus, the microprocessor controls the energy supply for all connected units, and furthermore, a connection to external network devices such as, for example, a mobile telephone network, is produced or, respectively, operated.
The disadvantage is connected with the known alarm and control system that the microprocessor forming the core of the module must be designed in correspondence with the respective prescribed function requirements and control requirements. As the requirement profiles can change during the lifetime of the switch cabinet or, respectively, during the lifetime of the installed alarm and control system, the microprocessor is, on the one hand, designed with a corresponding reserve in order to connect, as the occasion arises, to further function units and to perform additional signal processing. As a consequence thereof, the installed capacity reserve, which is connected with additional costs, remains unused during conditions in which there is no occurrence of an alteration. On the other hand, if the microprocessor is designed in correspondence with the actual requirements of the alarm and control system an its installation, an expansion of the requirement profiles is only possible if a new microprocessor with correspondingly larger processing capacity is deployed which is, in any event, expensive. A further disadvantage to be noted is that, with respect to the known alarm and control system, a disturbance of the function or, respectively, a fallout of the microprocessor leads to a fallout of the entire control of this switch cabinet that can have significant consequences for the operational security of such devices.

Alarm and control system for a switch cabinet


The invention relates to a gas bag for vehicles, having a flat, two-dimensional shape when being in an uninflated, vented condition and a three-dimensional shape in an inflated condition, the gas bag having a main piece with opposite end portions, each of the end portions having an end contour, and two minor pieces which each have a connecting portion with a contour with corresponds to the end contour of the main piece, and which each have a filling portion, the two filling portions having similar shapes and similar dimensions. The invention also relates to a method of sewing this gas bag.

The invention relates to a gas bag for vehicles, having a flat, two-dimensional shape when being in an uninflated, vented condition and in a three-dimensional shape in an inflated condition. The invention relates in particular to a gas bag module with a gas bag which can be mounted at the roof of the vehicle and which, in an inflated condition, is arranged forward of a vehicle occupant, in particular between the windshield and the dashboard on the one hand and the vehicle occupant on the other hand. Gas bags which in an uninflated, vented condition have a two-dimensional shape offer advantages as regards their production. As the gas bag can be spread in a single plane, all fabric pieces from which the gas bag is made can be sewn together by using two-dimensional seams. These seams can simply be made when the pieces of the gas bag are spread out on a table.


Systems and methods for minimizing extraneous forces and calculating corrected weights of samples based on buoyancy factors for a thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA). The TGA includes a balance chamber and a furnace configured to heat a sample. A null balance is provided in the balance chamber and is used to measure the sample weight change during heating. The furnace includes a cylinder open at the top to receive a sample. The bottom of the cylinder is closed except for a small hole that allows a thermocouple to pass through. An infrared heat source may be provided to heat the cylinder. The balance chamber can be thermally isolated from the furnace using an actively cooled plate and a system of heat shields disposed between the furnace and balance chamber. A thermocouple disk is further provided to limit gas flow in the furnace and increase reliability of sample weight measurements.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to improving weight measurements of thermogravimetric analyzers. More particularly, the present invention relates to improving weight measurements for vertical thermogravimetric analyzers with a balance positioned above the furnace.
2. Background of the Invention
Thermogravimetry is an analytical technique wherein a sample to be evaluated is subjected to a desired temperature program while its weight and temperature are measured. The weight change or the rate of weight change with respect to time or temperature may be displayed as a function of the measured temperature or of time and various evaluations may be performed. The weight curve versus temperature may be analyzed to determine the magnitude of weight changes that occur and the temperature or the range of temperatures at which they occur or other more sophisticated analyses may be performed such as those that determine the kinetics of the process responsible for the weight change.
A typical thermogravimetric analyzer (TGA) consists principally of a sensitive balance to weigh the sample dynamically and a furnace to heat the sample. TGAs are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,165,792, which is incorporated by reference herein and attached as Exhibit 1. There are generally three configurations for TGAs: a horizontal furnace 901 with a balance 903 alongside the furnace, as shown in FIG. 9A, a vertical furnace 905 with the balance 903 below the furnace 905, as shown in FIG. 9B, or a vertical furnace 905 with the balance 903 above the furnace, as shown in FIG. 9C. In each of the configurations, a pan 907 is connected to the balance 903 by a support 909. In principle, any type of balance may be employed. However, the majority of TGAs use a null type balance that measures the force required to maintain the balance in an equilibrium position. (An overview of the different types of balances that may be employed in a TGA may be found in "Automatic and Recording Balances," Saul Gordon and Clement Campbell, Anal. Chem. 32(5) 271R-289R, 1960.)
A null balance comprises a drive system that applies force to the balance movement that supports the sample pan and tare pan or counterweight, a displacement sensor, and electronic control and measurement circuitry. These drive systems are typically electromagnetic drive systems. In operation, a force applied to the balance movement by the drive system maintains the balance in the equilibrium, or null position. The force applied by the drive system to maintain the null position is a measure of the sample weight. Changes in sample weight cause the balance to be displaced from the equilibrium position, the displacement is sensed by the sensor and the balance movement is returned to equilibrium by the drive system. Null balances are capable of sensing mass changes that are well below one microgram. Null balances are also robust and relatively inexpensive.
When attempting to make high sensitivity weight measurements a number of undesirable forces may act on the balance, sample, sample pan, and associated components of the weighing system. (Some of these undesirable forces are described in Ultra Micro Weight Determination in Controlled Environments, S. P. Wolsky and E. J. Zdanuk eds., 1969, Interscience, 39-46). For example, adsorption and desorption from the moving components of the balance may cause spurious weight changes. Temperature fluctuations within the balance may cause weight changes due to thermal expansion of the balance arms or may affect the strength of the field developed by permanent magnets in electromagnetic drive systems so equipped. Static electric charges may collect and act on the balance assembly, sample, and pan. Convection currents within the furnace or within the balance chamber may generate forces on the sample pan and associated components. Buoyancy forces that vary with changes in gas density act on the sample and pan within the furnace. Radiometric forces that result from thermomolecular flow may act on the balance components in regions where temperature gradients exist. This particular problem may be especially severe when operating under vacuum. The dynamic weight baseline performance of a TGA depends critically on minimizing or compensating for these undesirable forces or disturbances.
The dynamic weight baseline of a TGA is the weight measured when an experiment is performed without a sample. In principle, the dynamic weight measurement should be zero regardless of the temperature or the heating rate of the instrument. Deviations from zero are the result of disturbances acting on the balance assembly or pan. Given that a TGA is used to measure changes in weight that occur as a function of temperature or time, any weight change that occurs in the absence of a sample introduces uncertainty in the weight change measured during an experiment when a sample is present.
The choice of TGA configuration can affect the degree to which these extraneous forces act on the weight measurement. The horizontal configuration, as shown in FIG. 9A, is largely immune to convection currents and thermomolecular forces because they act on the weighing system orthogonally to the gravitational force acting on the sample and the balance. Horizontal systems, however, generally have much heavier balance components that act to reduce sensitivity. This is because the sample and its pan must be supported by a cantilever beam structure capable of resisting high temperatures within the furnace. The heavier structure requires a more robust suspension that can also reduce the balance sensitivity. Thermal expansion of the cantilever can materially affect the weight measurement, and although in principle it can be readily compensated for, thermal expansion remains a significant potential source of weighing errors.
Vertically arranged TGAs may have the balance below or above the furnace, as shown in FIGS. 9B and 9C. When the balance is below the furnace, as shown in FIG. 9B, the structure that supports the sample pan must be relatively massive because it supports the pan in compression and must resist the tendency to buckle, a tendency that is exacerbated by the high temperatures that are often achieved in TGA. Like the horizontal TGA, it requires a robust suspension and has relatively low sensitivity. However, it is easier to isolate the balance thermally from the furnace because hot gas and effluent from the furnace tend to rise because their temperature is high and density is low.
A TGA using a vertical furnace with the balance above it, as shown in FIG. 9C, offers the highest sensitivity because the mass of the pan suspension can be minimized, requiring only a fine filament to suspend the pan. This allows the mass of the balance and its suspension to be minimized. However, thermal isolation is more difficult because of the tendency of hot gas and effluents to rise. A vertical TGA is more susceptible to convection effects because of the orientation of the furnace and the relatively large vertical thermal gradients that accompany this configuration, and also because the thermomolecular forces act in parallel to the force of gravity and thus affect the weight measurement directly.

System and method for a thermogravimetric analyzer having improved dynamic weight baseline


The antenna structure has a high frequency wave transmission line that transmits a high frequency wave and an emission antenna part for emitting the high frequency wave supplied via the high frequency wave transmission line. The emission antenna part includes a metal antenna having a rod-like shape and a ceramic layer that covers at least a part of the metal antenna.

For a purpose of improvement in combustion efficiency and reduction in fuel consumption rate of an engine, there is developed an ignition device equipped with a high frequency wave antenna that creates a plasma generation region around a discharge electrode of an ignition plug (see Japanese Unexamined Patent Application, Publication No. 2007-113570). With this ignition device, air fuel mixture in the vicinity of the ignition plug is irradiated with a high frequency wave, thereby enabling improvement in combustion efficiency and reduction in fuel consumption rate. As an emission antenna for emitting the high frequency wave, a metal antenna is generally employed.
However, if the conventional metal antenna is used as the emission antenna of the high frequency wave, a problem is encountered that the metal antenna is insufficient in durability owing to severe wear and degradation. Furthermore, the conventional emission antenna is designed to supply the high frequency wave at a single point such as an ignition point and, therefore, is not capable of emitting the high frequency wave at an appropriate location and/or timing in accordance with flame propagation.

Antenna structure and internal combustion engine


A mobile storage and work cart is described that includes a reconfigurable frame, a plurality of casters extending from the reconfigurable frame and operable for moving the cart, and a work surface attached to the reconfigurable frame and forming a top of the cart. The reconfigurable frame is operable to adjust a height of the work surface.

This invention relates generally to the supporting of fabrication and assembly activities, and more specifically, to a multiple use, transformable cart to contain materials, supplies, and work surfaces for supporting fabrication and assembly activities for mockups and new innovations.
Current work tables and carts are not suited for the support of fabrication and assembly activities for mockups and the like. These devices are not capable of fitting through standard door openings or do not have enough storage and work surface space to accommodate the above described activities. Additionally, at least some of the features of current work tables and carts have not taken ergonomic features into account, nor do they provoke "out of the box" thinking. A further problem with current cart configurations is that they tend to blend into the workplace or laboratory surroundings. This makes the device difficult to distinguish, and therefore it is not easily recognizable as a tool for the above described activities.
To summarize, current work tables and carts do not have the ability to securely store materials, provide a work surface of sufficient size for multiple users, and adjust working height for improved ergonomics. Therefore, a user or a team preparing a mockup or performing other innovative activities typically has to round up the needed materials, then sit at a table and performing the desired activities.


Products are placed in proximity to a liquid holding cooling element containing a volatile liquid and are subjected to a vacuum. The evaporation of the liquid from the cooling element enhances cooling while reducing the evaporation of liquid from the product.

The present invention relates to a process for cooling perishable products and, in particular, to a process which does not require moisture resistant product containers.
Several methods are commonly used for cooling perishable products where rapid cooling is required. These include hydrocooling, vacuum cooling, icing and forced air refrigeration.
In the produce field, it is common to pick heads of lettuce and place them in waxed boxes with the box of lettuce then being hosed down with water either before or after the boxes are loaded onto a truck. Although evaporation of water from the lettuce during transportation assists in cooling the lettuce, relatively insignificant amounts of water are absorbed by the waxed boxes and cooling is limited. Transportation of broccoli in waxed boxes filled with ice is also known.
In addition, vacuum cooling approaches have been used for cooling produce. In accordance with this cooling technique, the warm product is loaded into an air-tight chamber or tube which is subsequently evacuated by a mechanical or steam-ejector vacuum pump to establish a partial vacuum therein. As the total gas pressure in the tube is reduced below the saturation pressure of water at the temperature of the warm product (the "flash point"), water on and within the product begins to evaporate rapidly. The thermal energy required to provide the heat of vaporization of this water comes predominately from the sensible heat (e.g. "field heat") of the product. As a result, the product temperature begins to fall as rapid evaporation begins. Because vacuum pumps are generally very inefficient movers of condensable gases, such as water vapor, chilled coils are provided within the tube or chamber to condense and thereby remove the liberated water vapor. These coils are chilled usually by evaporation of liquid ammonia within, the ammonia being supplied by a conventional vapor-compression refrigeration unit.
In the absence of air or any other restriction to water vapor movement from the product to the chilled coil, the temperature of the product will in time equilibrate with that of the coil (the coil temperature in fact being commonly used as a control variable in vacuum cooling operations). Under these circumstances, the rate of thermal equilibration is largely determined by product characteristics. In general, products high in readily evaporated moisture content, with high thermal conductivity and high evaporative surface-to-volume ratio, will cool more rapidly under vacuum than do other types of products. For example, lettuce and other leafy vegetables cool well under vacuum (high moisture content and high surface-to-volume radio), while melons do not (low evaporation rate and low surface-to-volume ratio).
One example of a prior art vacuum cooling system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,014 to Miller, et al. In these approaches, water has been known to be added to the produce by sprinkling the produce before or while the vacuum is imposed to reduce the amount of moisture removed from the produce during cooling with the water evaporated during cooling being supplied at least in part by the water added to the system instead of entirely by the produce. In these approaches known to the inventor, the vacuum cooled produce sprinkled with water has been packed in waxed boxes which absorb very small amounts of water. This approach requires the use of water resistant containers for the produce.
Therefore, a need exists for a new cooling method for overcoming these and other disadvantages of the prior art.

Cooling process for perishable food and horticultural products


In a method and system to generate a function presenting document data stream, at least one structured field is provided that comprises at least one data region. The structured field is provided with a padding region. Coded additional control data are stored in the padding region.

The method and system concerns a method, a device system and a computer program to process a document data stream that comprises structured fields. A typical document data format of this type is the format AFP™ (Advanced Function Presentation). It is in particular used in electronic production printing environments, meaning in data processing and print systems that process the document data with a speed of up to a few thousand pages per minute.
Details of the document data stream AFP™ are specified in the publication Nr. F-544-3884-01, published by the company International Business Machines Corp. (IBM) with the title "AFP Programming Guide and Line Data Reference". The document data stream AFP was further developed into the document data stream MO:DCA, which is specified in the IBM publication SC31-6802-05 (April 2001) with the title "Mixed Object Document Content Architecture Reference". Details of this data stream, in particular the use of structured fields, are also specified in U.S. Pat. No. 5,768,488.
AFP/MO:DCA data streams are frequently converted into data streams of the Intelligent Printer Data Stream™ (IPDS™) in the course of print production jobs. Such a process is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,982,997.
To select various recording media, in the previously known AFP/IPDS architecture only the number of a feeder bay is specified ("Media Source ID" in the structured field "MMT") (see, for example, the pages 231-242 in the publication Nr. SC31-6802-05 cited above. With these methods, a physical feeder bay of a print device is selected by a print application but the type of the medium to be printed is not specified, such as, for example, specific pre-printed forms, transparent films, color paper, etc. that should be used for the application. Such fixed applications can only be used for a specific given print system and are dependent on setup adjustments of the print device. The problem thereby also exists that such fixed applications do not produce the expected results when they are sent to a different print system.
In the AFP data stream, what are known as map media type (MMT) structured fields are also provided (see publication Nr. SC31-6802-05 on pages 244-246). With them, it is possible in print applications to specify the print media to be used, respectively characterized by name or type designation. A control software to control a print device then checks which feeder bay in a print device contains the desired recording medium and selects the first coinciding bay for printing. Although this type of selection is already better than the above-cited print media selection referring to bay numbers, there are also limitations for this selection based on media name or media type: with regard to the media, predetermined names must be used in order to be recognized such that no unambiguous association can be made with regard to the media properties such as, for example, size, color or coating.
In the specification UP3I Universal Printer Pre- and PostProcessing Interface, Version 1.00 (October 2001), published by the companies Duplo International Ltd., Hunkeler A G, IBM Corporation [sic], Océ Printing Systems GmbH and Strålfors A B, which can be downloaded as a file at the Internet address www.up3i.org, codings for various features of recording media such as, for example, paper widths and lengths, paper coating specifications (matte, glossy), spec. weight, paper color, etc. can be selected on pages 49 through 54. It is thereby provided that such data can be exchanged between different devices of a print production system, thus, for example, between a paper dispenser device and a print device.
Various print data streams and print systems are, for example, specified in the publication "Das Druckerbuch", Dr. Gerd Goldmann (publisher), Océ Printing Systems GmbH, 6th edition (May 2001), ISBN 3-00-001019-x. The server system Océ PRISMApro is specified in chapter 14. This flexible print data server system is, for example, suited to transfer print data from data sources such as a source computer—the print data in a specific print data language such as AFP (Advanced Function Presentation), PCL (Printer Command Language), PostScript, SPDS (Siemens Print Data Stream), or in the language LCDS developed by the company Xerox Corporation—to a print production system.
In the specification and further development of print data streams, the problem sometimes exists that new commands must be inserted into the data stream in order to allow for the technical developments of computers, print devices and/or post-processing devices. The determination of such expansions is for the most part a relatively elaborate method in which various industry partners must cooperate in order to agree among one another on the changes or innovations. If new fields are arbitrarily assigned by a user of the data stream, on the one hand the problem exists that these fields cannot be recognized by other devices, and on the other hand that ambiguities occur, given a later common establishment of a similar or even an identical field, that hamper or make entirely impossible the correct processing of the data stream.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,097,498, it is specified how three new data stream commands, namely WOCC, WOC as well as END are added to the Intelligent Printer Datastream™ (IPDS™).
A further possibility to store additional control data in an AFP data stream is to store data in object containers (see the pages 93-95 in the publication Nr. SC31-6802-05). Ultimately, such auxiliary control data can also be stored in the structured field "No operation" (NOP), which is virtually ignored by standard programs (what are known as parsers) for processing or interpretation of AFP print data streams. However, the previously cited possibilities have the disadvantage that AFP parsers in the interpretation of NOP fields are frequently not in a defined state, whereby interpretation errors can occur.
A method to generate a document data stream that comprises structured fields is known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,327,624 B1.
The publications cited above are herewith incorporated into the present specification by reference.

Method, system of devices and computer for programmes for generating and processing a document data stream containing structured fields


A compression ignition gasoline engine includes a fuel injection valve for injecting fuel containing gasoline as a main component into a cylinder; an EGR device operative to perform high-temperature EGR of introducing burnt gas generated in the cylinder into the cylinder at a high temperature; an octane number determination unit for determining whether fuel injected from the fuel injection valve has a prescribed octane number; and a combustion control unit for controlling the fuel injection valve and the EGR device in such a way that HCCI combustion occurs within the cylinder. The combustion control unit controls the EGR device, in at least a partial load operating range in which HCCI combustion is performed, in such a way that the EGR rate increases, as compared with a case where fuel is determined to have a prescribed octane number, when fuel is determined not to have a prescribed octane number.

An engine as disclosed in Patent Literature 1 is known as an example of a compression ignition gasoline engine as described above. In the engine of Patent Literature 1, HCCI combustion is performed in a predetermined operating range except for high load. Further, when the HCCI combustion is performed, internal EGR of letting burnt gas remain (flow back) in a cylinder is performed, and an EGR rate of the internal EGR (a ratio of EGR gas with respect to a total amount of gas to be introduced into a cylinder) is controlled to decrease, as load increases. Thus, fuel self-ignition is promoted, while suppressing combustion noise.
Herein, it is said that HCCI combustion is likely to be affected by a difference in fuel property, since HCCI combustion is combustion, which occurs by spontaneous reaction of fuel (gasoline) with oxygen in a high-temperature and high-pressure environment. In view of the above, particularly when fuel having a different octane number, which is an index of ignitability, is supplied to an engine, it is presumed that combustion of the fuel may be adversely affected such as the ignition timing is greatly deviated from an intended timing. For example, a user may inadvertently supply regular gasoline or high-octane gasoline, or an octane number may vary among fuel manufacturers, or the like. In view of the above, it is desired to provide a measure for enabling to continue an operation by HCCI combustion without any inconvenience, even if fuel having a different octane number is supplied by a reason as described above.