Centering spring devices are useful in hydraulic control valves for returning the valve to the neutral position under both normal and abnormal operating conditions. Since the actuator moving the valve spool must work against the spring centering device, electrically actuated hydraulic valves have been limited to small sizes. The subject hydraulic control valve incorporates a centering spring device that can be controllably disabled so that the valve spool can be freely moved between the neutral and operating positions. In one embodiment, a centering spring is disabled by hydraulically moving the spring retainers toward each other to compress the spring with hydraulic fluid controlled by a solenoid valve. Maintaining the spring in a compressed condition permits the valve spool to be moved with a smaller actuator thereby making it feasible to control the valve position with an electrical actuator.

Hydraulic control valves typically have a centering spring device to return the valve spool from an operating position to a neutral position when the actuating force acting on the spool is removed. The springs of the device are assembled with a preload and has a certain rate such that as the spool is shifted from its neutral position the return force of the spring increases. The return force of the centering spring device must be sufficient to overcome the flow forces acting on the spool at the operating position and is generally quite high particularly on large valves rated at 200 to 380 liters per minute. The return force of the centering spring device constitutes a major portion of the force required to shift the spool.
The high spring force has not been a problem with pilot operated valves wherein the force required to overcome the centering spring is provided by pressurized pilot fluid. However, the spring force presents a major problem with the use of direct electrical actuators to position the valve spool. Direct electrical actuators that are required to move the spool against both the flow forces and the return force of the spring would be quite large, consume large quantities of electrical power and generate large amounts of heat.
Thus, it would be desirable to eliminate the effect of the centering spring force during a typical work cycle yet be able to reactivate that force to return the spool to the neutral position when the system is shut down or in the event the electrical power is lost.
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.

Hydraulic control valve having a centering spring device


An aerial spray system can be attached to the undersurface of a helicopter for spraying ground level targets while the helicopter is hovering or in level flight. A television camera can be located in near proximity to the spray nozzles for electronically delivering a picture of the ground level condition to a television monitor in the helicopter, such that the technician is better enabled to aim the spray nozzles or target a specific ground level area. The aerial system can be used for riot control, or crop spraying, or forest fire containment.

This invention relates to an aerial spray system especially usable on a helicopter for spraying ground level targets. The invention can be used for different purposes, e.g. spraying pesticides or liquid fertilizer solution onto crops, spraying water and/or chemicals onto forest fires, or spraying tear gas solutions onto crowds of rioting individuals.
In order to control riot situations, military forces or law enforcement agencies sometimes use tear gas guns or water cannon vehicles. However the range of such guns and cannons is somewhat limited to a maximum spray distance of about sixty meters. Also, riot control is hampered by inability of the ground vehicles to move readily through the crowds and/or the inability to have a clear overall view of the crowd that is to be contained or dispersed. Often, law enforcement personnel are subjected to unnecessary risk of thrown objects or sniper attack while attempting to gain information on the riot and/or to control the riot.
The present invention relates to an aerial spray system that can be mounted on the undersurface of a helicopter for spraying rioters or unruly gangs with tear gas solutions or other analogous toxic liquids. Preferably the spray system includes an exterior television camera targeted onto the spray nozzle target area, and a television monitor in the helicopter for displaying the picture taken by the camera; the camera-monitor system enables the helicopter pilot or other technician in the helicopter to see the exact ground area being sprayed at any one moment, thereby enabling the crowd or unruly persons of most concern to be pinpointed and quickly covered in an expeditious fashion.
Also, in preferred practice of the invention a colored dye is incorporated into the tear gas solution being sprayed onto the unruly individuals. The colored dye serves as a tracer for the tear gas solution, and also as an identifier of the unruly individuals causing or generating the disturbance.
A major advantage of the aerial spray system is that the helicopter can quickly traverse relatively large geographical areas, so as to enable law enforcement people in the helicopter to direct the toxic spray where it is most needed at any given moment. The helicopter and camera system provides an overhead view that is more informative than views at ground level. The overhead helicopter spray system is further advantageous in that prevailing winds can be largely eliminated as a cause of spray inaccuracies. The downspray of toxic liquid can be redirected on the basis of the tracer dye effect on the unruly crowd, such that the toxic materials can be delivered to the desired target in spite of wind conditions.
The aerial spray system has principal usage as a riot control device. However, the spray system can be used for other purposes, e.g. treatment of forest fires with water or fire extinguishing chemicals, or the overhead application of liquid fertilizers and pesticides to crops and ground vegetation. Further features of the invention will be apparent from the attached drawings and description of a preferred embodiment of the invention.


A method of a method of controlling a volume of material dispensed by a constant pressure adhesive and sealant dispensing system controlled by a controller during shots includes automatically adjusting a proportional valve control setting for an orifice size of a controlled pressure regulator. An orifice size control pressure corresponding to the proportional valve control setting is applied to an orifice size control inlet of the controlled pressure regulator. A volume of the material dispensed during each shot is monitored and when the volume of material dispensed during each shot of a predetermined number of successive shots is outside a target range, the proportional valve control setting is automatically adjusted by the controller.

A constant pressure dispensing system is used to apply a one part adhesive or a one part sealant to desired components of an assembly, such as to a body-in-white of an automotive vehicle, during the assembly process. The material being dispensed is pumped by a pump through a controlled pressure regulator to a dispensing gun which may be mounted on a robotic arm or may be mounted on a pedestal. The system is referred to as a constant pressure dispensing system since there is always pressure at the inlet of the controlled pressure regulator, although this pressure can vary and need not always be the same. The size of an opening in an orifice in the controlled pressure regulator is set to control a volume of the material being dispensed during a shot when it is applied to components of the assembly. As used herein, a "shot" is the dispensing of one application of material by the constant pressure dispensing system.
FIG. 1 is a basic block diagram of an example of such a constant pressure dispensing system 100 available from the Nordson Corporation. Constant pressure dispensing system 100 includes a tank (or tanks) 102 that hold the material to be dispensed, which is a one-part adhesive or one-part sealant. As would be understood by one of ordinary skill in the art, a "one-part" adhesive or a "one-part" sealant includes both the hardener and the resin as part of the same composition as opposed to a two-part adhesive or two-part sealant where the hardener and resin are separate and then mixed together when the material is being applied. Each material supply tank 102 is fluidly coupled to an inlet 104 of a respective supply pump 106. An outlet 108 of each supply pump 106 is fluidly coupled to an inlet 110 of a flow meter 112. An outlet 114 of flow meter 112 is fluidly coupled to an inlet 116 of a controlled pressure regulator 118 and an outlet 120 of controlled pressure regulator 118 is coupled to an inlet 122 of a dispensing gun 124. An outlet 126 of an air pressure proportional valve 128 is fluidly coupled to an orifice size control inlet 130 of controlled pressure regulator 118. An air inlet 132 of air pressure proportional valve 128 is fluidly coupled to a source 134 of pressurized air. A controller 136 is configured to control constant pressure dispensing system 100, including controlling air pressure proportional valve 128 to set the size of an opening in the orifice (not shown) of controlled pressure regulator 118. In this regard, an output 138 of controller 136 is electrically coupled to an air pressure control input 140 of air pressure proportional valve 128 and an input 142 of controller 136 is electrically coupled to an output 144 of flow meter 112. Controller 136 also includes inputs/outputs 146 electrically coupled to other components of constant pressure dispensing system 100 in known manner.
Controller 136 controls controlled pressure regulator 118 in the following manner to set the size of the orifice opening in controlled pressure regulator 118. Based on a proportional valve control setting, either set in controller 136 or that controller 136 receives from another controller, controller 136 outputs an air pressure control signal to air pressure control input 140 of air pressure proportional valve 128. The air pressure control signal is illustratively an analog direct current voltage as air pressure control input 140 is illustratively an analog direct current voltage input as is known in the art, but could be other types of control signals such as a digital value if the air pressure proportional valve is configured to have digital control. The proportional valve setting for example ranges from 1% to 99% with 99% corresponding to a maximum opening size of the orifice of controlled pressure regulator 118. The analog direct current voltage control signal for example ranges from 0 volts direct current to 10 volts direct current with 0 volts direct current corresponding to 1% orifice opening size and 10 volts direct current corresponding to 99% orifice opening size. If for example the proportional valve control setting is 49 and the range is 0 volts direct current to 10 volts direct current, controller 136 outputs the analog voltage control signal at 4.9 volts direct current (49% of 10 volts direct current) to the air pressure control input 140 of air pressure proportional valve 128.
Air pressure proportional valve 128 provides pressurized air to orifice size control inlet 130 of controlled pressure regulator 118 at an air pressure that corresponds to the value of the air pressure control signal. For example, if the air pressure control signal is 4.9 volts direct current (corresponding to a 49% proportional valve control setting) and air pressure proportional valve has a range of 0 pounds per square inch to 90 pounds per square inch, air pressure proportional valve 128 provides pressurized air at a pressure of 44.1 (49%×90) pounds per square inch to orifice size control inlet 130 of controlled pressure regulator 118.
As is known, controlled pressure regulator 118 has a needle (not shown) that is urged by the air pressure at orifice size control inlet 130 from a closed position where it blocks the orifice of controlled pressure regulator 118 toward a full open position where it does not block this orifice. This varies a size of an opening size through the orifice of the controlled pressure regulator 118 depending or now much or how little the needle blocks the orifice. This opening size determines the flow rate of the material through the controlled pressure regulator and thus the volume of the material being dispensed during each shot.
The material flowing through the orifice of the controlled pressure regulator 118 exerts a force on the needle in a direction opposite the direction that the needle is urged by the air pressure at the orifice size control inlet 130. That is, the force exerted by the material flowing through the orifice urges the needle to its closed position whereas the air pressure at the orifice size control inlet 130 urges the needle to its open position. When the air pressure, material pressure, material viscosity and air pressure are all at nominal values, the actual volume of the material dispensed correlates with a desired volume. However, if any of these vary from nominal, the actual volume will vary. For example, if the pressure of material being dispensed is higher than nominal, this urges the needle to a more closed position resulting in less material being dispensed. If the pressure of material being dispensed is lower than nominal, this allows the needle to be urged to a more open position resulting in more material being dispensed. If the air pressure at the orifice size control inlet 130 of controlled pressure regulator 118 is less than nominal, this allows the needle to be urged to a more closed position by the force of material flow resulting in less material being dispensed. Conversely, if the air pressure at the orifice size control inlet 130 of controlled pressure regulator 118 is higher than nominal, this urges the needle to a more open position flow resulting in more material being dispensed. Variations in viscosity of the material being dispensed similarly affects the amount of material being dispensed. The needle meets more resistance from material flow when the material has a high viscosity, which forces the needle to a more closed position, than when the material has a low viscosity, allowing the needle to be urged to a more open position. Thus, as viscosity of the material being dispensed rises, the amount of material being dispensed falls and as the viscosity of the material falls, the amount of material being dispensed rises.
Heretofore, adjustments to the proportional valve control setting, and thus adjustments to the size of the orifice opening in controlled pressure regulator 118, have been made manually by a user when the constant pressure system determines that the volume of material dispensed during a shot is above a maximum limit or below a minimum limit. Controller 136, via flow meter 112, monitors the volume of material dispensed during each shot. If the volume of material dispensed during a shot exceeds the maximum limit or is less than the maximum limit, constant pressure dispensing system 100 stops and alerts the user whether the volume of material dispensed exceeded the maximum limit or was below the minimum limit. The user then changes the proportional valve control setting so that the volume of material being dispensed during shots will be brought back toward a desired volume.
In an example, the proportional valve control setting is 49, the desired volume of material to be dispensed during a shot (referred to herein as target volume) is 10.0 cm3, and the maximum and minimum limits are +/−35% of the target volume. If the actual volume of material dispensed during the shot is above the maximum limit or below the minimum limit, the constant pressure dispensing system 100 alerts the user that the actual volume of material dispensed was higher than the maximum limit or lower than the minimum limit. The user then manually adjusts the proportional valve control setting by raising it if the volume of material dispensed was lower than the minimum limit or lowering it if the volume of material dispensed was higher than the maximum limit.
Disadvantages of the foregoing includes that due to variations in the pressure of material flow and viscosity of material that often occur due to environmental changes during a day, a number of manual interventions to adjust the volume of material being dispensed are often needed during a production shift with resultant down time. Also, to reduce the number of manual interventions, the maximum and minimum limits are typically set to provide a fairly high range to minimize manual interventions, resulting in the actual volume of material being dispensed from shot to shot varying to some appreciable degree from the target volume. Also, if the user does not adjust the proportional valve control setting in response to an alert, this can result in either too much or too little material being applied.

Method of automatically controlling a volume of material dispensed in a constant pressure material dispensing system


There is disclosed a method of determining a result of an electronic game in order to allow fixed odds betting on the result. The method comprises providing a mechanical ball draw machine (3) configured to draw one ball at a time from a set of balls also provided to said mechanical ball machine (3). The set of balls consists of a plurality of subsets of one or more balls, at least some of the subsets having different numbers of balls and each ball being identifiable as belonging to a subset, whereby the relative numbers of balls in the subsets determine the likelihood of a ball from a subset being drawn thus allowing fixed odds betting to be carried out on a result is determined on the basis of subset identity. The method further comprises drawing a ball or balls using the mechanical ball machine (3) until sufficient balls have been drawn to enable a result to be determined, identifying the subset to which each said ball or balls belongs, and determining the result of the electronic game from the identified subset or subsets.

We have previously developed an electronic game which allows fixed odds betting on the outcome of the game.
The game is a race and players can bet on the participants in the race. The race is typically a simulated horse race and players bet on the simulated horses. To provide a variety of different bets, different probabilities of winning are allocated to horses. A random number generator is used to determine the outcome. Typically, the random number generator produces a value between zero and one, and portions of the range (eg. 0.01-0.20, 0.21-0.35, etc) are assigned to different horses. Thus, the fixed odds which are offered to players of the game are based on the relative chances of electronic horses winning the electronic horse race. To determine the winning horse, the random number generator is run and the value is compared to the allocated portions of the range to determine which horse will win.
In order to allow betting on the second and third placed horses, the game engine is configured to determine second and third positions. To do so, the game engine is configured to re-adjust the portions of the range of possible random number generator values which are allocated to individual horses after each horse is drawn because the horse that filled the previous place should not be selected again. This involves proportionately redistributing the portions of selected horses to the remaining horses.
Once the results have been determined, the game engine simulates an electronic horse race in which the horses determined using the random number generator to finish in first, second and third positions finish in this order in a simulated race conducted over, for example, 30 seconds.
While this game has proved popular and effective in its current form, we have subsequently realised that the mechanism which is used to determine the result, (ie, the random number generator), is either not an allowable mechanism in some jurisdictions or causes the game to be subject to a more complicated (and hence, costly) regulatory scheme.
At the same time, we have determined that such jurisdictions often have less strict regulation of games which use mechanical ball draw machines as these games are considered to be less susceptible to tampering. Hitherto, mechanical ball draw machines have been used to draw numbers from a set of numbers where all the numbers are different in order to determine a result of a game where the result is solely related to the numbers which are drawn.
The present invention utilises a novelly configured mechanical ball draw device in order to allow fixed odds betting on an electronic game.

Determining a result of an electronic game


A cove molding of tri-planar design comprising a floor mounted base leg, a wall mounted vertical leg and a sloping transition leg integrally connected between the two. A cap anchor is provided along with inside and outside corner transition pieces to provide a smooth flush continuum of cove molding in virtually any structural layout. The cove molding can also be used as a flashing member.

The term "cove molding" as used herein, refers to an elongate body, or a continuum of such bodies, used to create a transition between a horizontal surface, such as a floor, and a vertical surface, such as a wall, which intersect at a seam. The word "molding" is not limited to fabrication of the body by any of the conventional molding techniques but may also include extrusion and even welding of sheet material. Nor is the term "molding" limited to articles of purely aesthetic application.
Cove moldings are commonly used to hide a floor to wall seam, to make such a seam easier to clean, to provide a seal or to achieve one or more of a variety of other goals. Cove moldings can be made of a variety of materials from wood to aluminum to fiber reinforced resin, can fit fully into the floor to wall seam or may simply cover the seam and provide a space behind itself for the routing of pipes, hoses or wires. Cove moldings can also be used as flashing devices in roof structures. All such uses are within the scope of the present invention.


A cleaning device for a bundle of tubular filter elements designed with one end open, preferably of an industrial dust filter, is proposed. Injectors for delivery of a pulse-like compressed-air jet into the filter elements are arranged above the openings of the filter elements. The compressed-air supply of the injectors, controlled via valves, takes place via a number of nozzle tubes extending at right angles to the injectors, and a number of injectors are connected in a row to each nozzle tube. Only some of the nozzle tubes are connected directly to valves and these nozzle tubes extend to a deflection, from which at least one further nozzle tube closed at its end extends in the opposite direction. The deflection is preferably at the same time a branching from which two nozzle tubes extend, which are located on the two sides of the centrally arranged nozzle tube.

The invention relates to a cleaning device for a bundle of tubular filter elements designed with one end open, preferably of an industrial dust filter, with injectors for delivery of a pulse-like compressed-air jet into the filter elements arranged opposite the openings of the filter elements, the compressed-air supply of the injectors, controlled via valves, taking place via a number of nozzle tubes extending at right angles to the injectors, and a number of injectors being connected in a row to each nozzle tube.
Such cleaning devices are used chiefly in industrial dust filters, as known from, for example, DE 44 40 279 A1. Filter elements such as e.g. filtering bags, fibrous filters or filtering tubes are distributed uniformly over the surface of a partition which separates the dusty-air space of the filter from its clean-air space. The filter elements project under their own weight into the dusty-air space arranged below, so that the dust-containing air flows through them from outside to inside. The filter elements are open at their upper end, so that they communicate with the clean-air space which is arranged above the partition and is operated at a lower pressure in relation to the dusty-air space.
Such filter elements have to be cleaned at intervals, as they become clogged from outside after a certain period of operation. A commonly used cleaning system consists in, in a reversal of the filtration direction, blowing compressed air in a pulse-like manner into the filter elements from the openings, as a result of which the dust or filter cake adhering on the outside can fly off and falls into a collecting unit arranged below the filter elements.
Especially great demands are made on the regeneration of the filter surfaces when the filter is used in production facilities with frequently changing products. In the case of such use of the filter, it is necessary to clean the entire dusty-air space including the filter elements thoroughly, in order that no product adulteration or product contamination can occur when a product change takes place. Such hygienically appropriate operation is essential above all in the processing of foods or pharmaceutical or medical products.
For generating the compressed-air pulse, injectors are arranged above the filter elements. As a rule, a number of injectors arranged in a row are supplied with the compressed air necessary for the cleaning operation via a common nozzle tube. The nozzle tube serving as a distributor can be connected to a compressed-air reservoir via a rapidly operable valve. By abrupt opening of the valve, compressed air passes into the nozzle tube and, via the injectors attached to the latter, into the filter elements from above. The control technology requirement associated with this is relatively great because, while a number of injectors are connected to the valve-controlled nozzle tube and can thus be operated simultaneously, each nozzle tube nevertheless has to be connected to the pressure reservoir via its own valve. The possibility of connecting all the nozzle tubes, which as a rule run parallel to one another, to a single, common valve and in this way reducing the control technology requirement, is rather of a theoretical nature. In practice, it turns out that, in this way, uniformly distributed pulse strength cannot be achieved in all injectors. Rather there is a risk that some injectors operate with higher pulse strength and other injectors with relatively lower pulse strength, which is not acceptable for uniform de-dusting of a filter.
The object of the invention is to produce a cleaning device for a bundle of tubular filter elements designed with one end open, which cleaning device works with a low control technology requirement and is to operate with uniformly distributed pulse strength of the injectors.

Cleaning device for a bundle of tubular filter elements designed with one end open, preferably of an industrial dust filter


A signal representative of a patient's respiration is split into equal length epochs. A primary feature is extracted from each epoch that acts as a compressed representation of the signal events. Statistics are applied to the primary feature to produce one or more secondary features that represent the entire epoch. Each secondary feature is grouped with one or more other features that are extracted from the entire epoch rather than selected epoch events. This grouping is the epoch pattern. The pattern is manipulated with suitable classifier algorithm to produce a probability for each class within the algorithm, that the signal may be representative of a disease state (Cheyne-Stokes, OSA etc). The epoch is assigned to the class with the highest probability. Also defined are methods of detecting Cheyne-Stokes breathing by analyzing a signal to detect one or regions of hyperpnoea and if the length of a hyperpnoea exceeds a parameter, Cheyne-Stokes is present.

Breathing Disorders
Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) encompasses a group of disorders where the breathing pattern or quality of ventilation is abnormal during sleep. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), the most common such disorder (effecting possible 4-5% of the adult population), is characterized by repetitive closing or collapse of the upper airway and partial or complete diminution of breathing. The obstruction is normally ended by the patient arousing briefly when the muscles of the upper airway act to clear the obstruction. During the repetitive cycle of obstruction and arousal, the OSA patient will always continue to make "efforts" to breath; in other words there is no central or brain-mediated disruption to the breathing cycle.
Conversely, in central sleep apnea (CSA), there is a disruption to breathing which is brain or control-centre in origin. Cheyne-Stokes breathing (CS) is one of the more common forms of CSA. It is caused by an abnormal limit cycle instability of the patient's respiratory controller in which there are rhythmic alternating periods of waxing and waning ventilation. Patients with cardiac failure (a condition where the heart fails to pump adequately) often have CSA, especially as the condition deteriorates or where therapy has ceased to allow effective compensation by the heart. Cheyne-Stokes breathing appears as a cyclical variation in tidal volume seen in heart failure patients. The cycle consists of an apnoea or hypopnoea followed by an overshooting hyperpnoea which often (but not always) has a characteristic hump backed morphology s a.k.a. a "Sydney Harbor Bridge" shape. The exact cause of CS breathing is not fully understood. However, the characteristic waxing and waning cycle is strongly reminiscent of limit cycles in a poorly adjusted control system with a maladjusted gain or destabilizing feedback-loop delay.
Sleep-disordered breathing is undesirable in all its forms because it disrupts sleep architecture (the pattern and proportion of the different forms of sleep) leading to daytime somnolence. The repetitive cessation or diminution of ventilation causes (sometimes dramatic) drops in blood oxygenation levels. These and other complications are probably responsible for the now established sequelae of cardiovascular conditions.
The treatment of choice for OSA is continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) as first described by Sullivan [Sullivan C E, et al. Reversal of obstructive sleep apnea by continuous positive airway pressure applied through the nares. Lancet Apr. 18, 1981 ;1(8225):862-5]. CPAP is also used to treat some heart-failure patients with CSA and congestive heart failure (fluid on the lungs). However, Cheyne-Stokes breathing is ineffectively treated by CPAP and may require the application of servo-ventilation [Teschler H et al. Adaptive pressure support servo-ventilation: a novel treatment for Cheyne-Stokes respiration in heart failure. Am J Respir Crit Care Med. Aug. 15, 2001; 164(4):614-9. Berthon-Jones Ventilatory assistance for treatment of cardiac failure and Cheyne-Stokes breathing. U.S. Pat. No. 6,532,959].
Diagnosis from Multiple Signals
The gold standard for the diagnosis of SDB and sleep apnea is the polysomnograph (PSG): the measurement and recording of a multitude of physiological signals during a stay overnight in a sleep laboratory. Briefly, the PSG signal ensemble normally includes one or more signals indicative of a respiratory parameters such as patient airflow rate (for the calculation of ventilation and the detection of apneas and hypopnoeas), multiple electroencephalogram (EEG), electrooculogram (EOG) and electromyogram (EMG) signals (for the determination of patient sleep state, position and the detection of arousals from sleep), breathing effort signals (either chest and abdominal distension bands or an esophageal pressure-measuring catheter), snore amplitude, and oxygen saturation. Another method of diagnosing SDB is polygraphy (PG) whereby a reduced number of parameters are recorded while the patient sleeps. These parameters include: nasal/oral airflow rate, snore amplitude, oxygen saturation, respiratory effort (thoracic and abdominal) and body position.
In both the PSG and the PG a breathing-effort signal is recorded to enable the discrimination of OSA events from CSA or Cheyne-Stokes breathing. (A third type of event is also possible-the mixed apnea-where the event is initiated by a centrally-mediated lack of breathing drive and ends with an airway obstruction and subsequent arousal). It is impossible for the inexperienced observer to reliably determine the type of apnea without reference to at least the flow signal and a measure of breathing effort. However, an experienced and trained observer (expert) can often readily detect patterns in a run of events (apneas/hypopnoeas) allowing a reliable determination of the type of underlying disease. This is especially true of Cheyne-Stokes breathing which has a very characteristic waxing and waning pattern of ventilation.
Simple Recording Devices
The performance of either a PSG or PG requires trained technicians, is expensive, is time consuming and can itself introduce sleep disturbances. Also, it is well known that a shortage of sleep laboratories is hampering the diagnosis and treatment of current SDB patients, let alone what is considered a vast undiagnosed population. For these reasons a type of "screening" device (e.g., the MICROMESAN® from MAP of Germany, or the APNEALINK™ from ResMed) is available to test patients suspected of having sleep-disordered breathing. Such devices are small, recording just one or two physiological signals, and can be readily sent home with the patient for a screening study. For example: patients' nasal airflow can be recorded and later examined by a physician using a personal computer and a connection to the device. A software package would then be available to read the data from the device, show statistics and make recommendations regarding suspected sleep-related pathology.
Diagnosis Classifier
The calculation of the apnea-hypopnoea index (AHI, number of such events per hour on average) is a measure regularly used to guide the direction of either treatment or further investigation with a fill PSG or PG. A computer program or algorithm which further enables the discrimination between different underlying disease states based on the recorded breathing patterns provides added guidance to the clinical pathway. A strong indication of Cheyne-Stokes disease, for example, would suggest completely different follow-up compared to the more common forms of sleep apnea.
The concept of a classifier is common to many fields where it is desirable to assign an object or an underlying state of an object to one of a number of classes. This concept is used, for example, in the fields of voice recognition (where sound bytes are classified as different words or syllables), radar detection (where visual signals are classified as enemy/friendly targets) and medical diagnosis (where test results are used to classify a patient's disease state). The design of a classifier falls under the field of Pattern Recognition and a classifier can be of the supervised type (the classifier is built from training data which has been pre-classed by a supervisor or "expert") or unsupervised type (where the natural ordering or clustering of the data determines the different classes). Time signal classification usually relies on representing the signal at particular time points with "features". Features are simply numbers that distill the essence of the signal at a point in time, a form of compression. A set (or vector) of features is called a "pattern". A classifier takes a pattern and manipulates it mathematically with a suitable algorithm to produce a probability value for each of a number of classes. The pattern is assigned to the class with the highest probability.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,839,581 there is disclosed a method for detecting CS respiration in patients with congestive heart failure by performing spectral analysis of overnight oximeter recordings to obtain a set of parameters that can be used in the construction of a classification tree and a trained neural network.
In summary, sleep-disordered breathing is a common syndrome with different underlying disease types requiring very different treatment options. There is a need for a small and relatively inexpensive screening devices that can help unblock the treatment bottleneck that currently exists at the sleep laboratory. An algorithm and diagnostic apparatus that can replicate the expert's ability to detect breathing patterns associated with particular disease states will enhance the diagnosis and treatment of patients being screened for sleep-disordered breathing, or for monitoring patients already undergoing therapy. What is needed is an algorithm for flow data in the form of classifier.
What is particularly desirable is a method and apparatus for diagnosing Cheyne-Stokes breathing from flow readings or oximeter readings by use of appropriate software in conjunction with a small hand-held device for use in a home setting.

Method for detecting and discriminating breathing patterns from respiratory signals


A novel process for extracting pectin from waste hull/hypocotyl streams during soybean processing is shown. Chemical extracting agents in addition to or in conjunction with heat and agitation are used to extract pectin from the waste streams. The pectin is then precipitated in alcohol, washed and dried. A process for whitening the extracted pectin is also shown.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a novel process to extract pectin from a waste hull/hypocotyl stream during soybean processing and to a whitened form of soy pectin.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a novel process to extract pectin from waste soybean hull/hypocotyl streams using a chemical extraction agent in addition to heat and agitation followed by precipitation in alcohol, drying and whitening and to a whitened soy pectin product.
2. Description of the Related Art
US farmers produce about half of the 140 million metric tons of soybeans produced worldwide each year (Klugh 1997, Am. Soybean Assoc. 1998). All but 1 million metric tons are oil type beans that are crushed and made into soybean oil for human food products or soybean oil as an industrial feed stock. The defatted soybean meal is used mainly for animal feed. Oil soybeans are composed of about 90% cotyledons, 8% hulls and 2% hypocotyls. Soybean hulls and about 40% of the hypocotyls are sold separately for $0.07 to $0.08/kg and are referred to as soy "mill run" for use as animal feed. Mill run is about 95% hulls that are composed mostly of alpha cellulose and hemicellulose; they contain about 9% protein and are low in lignin. The digestible energy of soy hulls is essentially equal to grains for ruminant animals (Liu 1997). The soy hull pectins of this invention are suitable as a dietary fiber source, i.e., as a dietary supplement or a food additive.
Dietary fiber plays a strong supporting role in many nutraceutical foods where the fiber works in combination with health promoting ingredients such as nutraceuticals and antioxidants (Pszczola 1998). Glore, et al. 1994, reviewed the effects of pectin and other soluble dietary fibers on serum lipids and reported that in 88% of the 77 human studies, soluble fiber significantly lowered total serum cholesterol (TC). Of the studies that reported on the effect of a specific food or type of soluble fiber, beans and legumes reduced TC in 100% (10/10) and pectin reduced TC in 71% (10/14) of these studies. Hunninghake et al. 1994 and Kumar et al. 1997 found similar results. Judd and Truswell 1982 compared the effects of high methoxyl pectin with a degree of esterification (DE) of 71%, to low methoxyl pectin, DE 37%, and found both almost equally effective in lowering TC in humans. In 1980 Jeltema and Zabik reported on the pectin content of soybean hulls. In the water-soluble fraction they found about 0.5% pectin and 0.4% hemicellulose and in the water-insoluble fraction they found 7% pectin, 36% cellulose, 18% hemicellulose and 3% lignin. Gnanasambandam and Proctor 1999 reported on the X-ray diffraction and infrared spectra of laboratory extracted pectins. The specific cholesterol lowering ability of soybean pectin has yet to be established.
Soy, together with several other types of fiber, is being used in a wide variety of nutraceutical food products. Nutraceutical drinks and high fiber instant noodles use soy fiber to reduce fat and increase the health benefits from high dietary fiber levels (Pszczola 1998). A considerable amount of research done on the chemical analysis of pea hulls demonstrated that pea hulls alcohol insoluble residue (AIR) was 94% carbohydrate including 4 to 6% pectinaceous material (Weightman, et al. 1994). Functional properties of the AIR showed high cation exchange capacity and significant water holding and swelling capacities. Dalev and Simeonova, 1995 combined positively charged proteins below their isoelectric point with anionic pectin to produce stable, low oil emulsions for creams and mayonnaises with a high dietary fiber content. Low-methoxyl pectins have been studied as potential moisture barriers in edible coatings (Kester and Fennema 1986) and as low-calorie fat-replacers with improved mouthfeel in salad dressings, frozen deserts and baked goods (Glicksman 1991).
Most commercial pectin is extracted from citrus peel recovered after the juicing operation. Heat and mineral acids are used to solubilize the pectin and either alcohols or aluminum salts are generally used for precipitin. Commercial pectin is also extracted from apple pomace in a similar manner (May 1990). Both citrus peel and apple pomace are high in moisture and are typically dried within a few hours after the juicing operation to prevent attack by moulds and native pectic enzymes. There is an accompanying loss in pectin yield with drying, 15% to 30% for lemon peel (Crandall, et al 1978). A dry starting material like soy hulls and hypocotyls would be stable for long periods of time and not have the expense of needing to be dried, a distinct advantage.
Thus, there is a need in the art for pectins derived from other sources and especially pectins with improved color using a low value starting material such as soybeans and equipment that can be incorporated into existing soybean processing plants.


The present disclosure relates to a thermoplastic composition having a better mold release performance. The disclosed thermoplastic composition comprises polycarbonate components, an impact modifier and a mold release composition. Also disclosed is a method for making the disclosed thermoplastic composition and an article of manufacture comprising the disclosed polymer composition.

The rapid growth of the plastics industry and an ever-increasing use of polymeric materials have emphasized the need for more economical way for preparing various high quality articles from thermoplastic resins.
Injection molding provides a convenient way for preparing various articles. To keep injection mold articles manufacturing economically beneficial, the mold resident cycle should be kept to a minimum. This shorter cycle time provides a shorter resin heat period with consequently less thermal damage to the resin composition. To reduce or minimize cycle times, many manufactures are removing parts at higher temperatures. As a result the parts have a tendency to stick more easily in the mold, or become distorted as they are ejected from the mold, since the thermoplastic material is not as stiff as if it was allowed to cool longer.
Additionally, as many parts are becoming more complex, and as manufactures try to combine multiple parts into one larger part having more detail, there are more potential areas to stick in the mold.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide improved thermoplastic compositions allowing for the part to be ejected at lower pressures or minimal force without cracking or other part deformation. This and other needs are satisfied by the various aspects of the present disclosure.

Synergistic effect of multiple mold release additives in polycarbonate based compositions


A method for regulating a call placement rate (CPR) of an autodialer (AD) (100) includes: measuring a time delay between a first event and a second event; and, adjusting the CPR of the AD (100) in response to the measured time delay.

In general, autodialers and predictive dialers are known in the art. Basically, an autodialer (AD) is an electronic device that automatically places telephone calls to selected telephone numbers over a telecommunications network, for example, such as a public switched telephone network (PSTN). A predictive dialer (PD) is essentially a particular type of AD that uses one or more predictive algorithms, e.g., to regulate various aspects of call placement or other behaviors of the PD. In other words, PDs are essentially a subset of ADs. Accordingly, when referring to ADs herein, it is to be understood that such references are intended to include PDs as well.
With reference to FIG. 1, commonly an AD 10 is used by a call center (CC) 20 or other like facility to automatically place telephone calls to selected telephone numbers and/or targeted parties. In a typical example, a telemarketing company or other organization may use the CC 20 and/or AD 10 to automatically place a significant volume or number of marketing calls, survey calls or other similar telephone calls to the telephone numbers associated with a targeted demographic. Commonly, the CC 20 is served by an end office (EO) 30 or other telecommunications switching facility that provides the CC 20 access to the PSTN 40 or other telecommunications network over which the telephone calls are placed. As shown, the EO 30 is commonly equipped with a telecommunications switch 32, e.g., a class 5 switch such as Lucent Technologies 5ESS or another similar telecommunications switch (be it a hardswitch, a softswitch or otherwise), and the AD 10 is operatively connected to the switch 32 in the usual manner as is known in the art.
Commonly, the AD 10 places a plurality of calls simultaneously and/or in rapid succession to keep a calling campaign progressing as quickly as possible. Often, the CC 20 is provisioned with a plurality of workstations 22 that are operatively connected to the AD 10. As shown, each workstation 22 is manned by a CC operator or agent 24. Accordingly, e.g., when a call placed by the AD 10 is answered by or otherwise connected to the called party, then that call is also routed and/or connected to the workstation 22 of the next available agent 24 at the CC 20. In this manner, the agent 24 receiving the call may communicate with and/or otherwise service the particular called party to which the call was placed.
Often, the CC 20 is interested in connecting called parties to agents 24 as rapidly and/or efficiently as possible to maximize productivity and/or the use of agent time or manpower. Accordingly, there is generally the desire to have the AD 10 place calls as rapidly as its capabilities allow. However, if left unchecked, the rate or flow of placed calls from the AD 10 may at times overload the switch 32 and/or the EO 30 serving the CC 20. That is to say, generally, the switch 32 and/or the EO 30 can only handle or support a limited or otherwise finite amount of call traffic at any given time, and in addition to serving the CC 20, the EO 30 typically also serves other telephone service subscribers, e.g., having customer premises equipment (CPE) and/or other end user telecommunication devices that are operatively connected to the switch 32 in the usual manner as is known in the art. Accordingly, e.g., at peak calling hours, the switch 32 and/or EO 30 may already be handling or otherwise processing a significant volume or amount of call traffic, and if at this time the AD 10 at the CC 20 were to be left unchecked (i.e., allowed to place calls as rapidly its capabilities permitted), then the switch 32 and/or EO 30 could be overloaded or pushed to or near the limit of the volume of calls that it is capable of handling at any given time, thereby potentially diminishing the quality and/or availability of service to other subscribers and/or the CC 20 itself. While the present example illustrates the problem from the viewpoint of the originating EO 30 serving the CC 22, likewise, the same or a similar problem may be experienced at a terminating EO or other network node, e.g., when a particular calling campaign targets telephone numbers that are served by the same terminating EO or targets called parties that are otherwise clustered together or served by the same or a limited number of network facilities. In any event, however, previously developed ADs have not been adequately equipped or provisioned to suitably adjust their call placement rate or flow to accommodate or alleviate call traffic congestion experienced in the originating EO, the terminating EO or nodes elsewhere in the network.
Accordingly, a new and improved AD and/or autodialing method is disclosed that overcomes the above-referenced problems and others.


A magnetostrictive fluid-pressure sensor includes annular inner and outer cylinders, a first connector, annular second and third connectors, and first and second coils. The inner cylinder surrounds a fluid-receiving bore. At least one of the cylinders is a magnetostrictive cylinder. The first connector connects the first ends of the cylinders and has a first portion extending radially inward of the inner cylinder. The second connector connects the second ends of the cylinders and defines a fluid inlet. The third connector connects the cylinders and is positioned longitudinally between the first and second connectors. The first coil is positioned radially between the inner and outer cylinders and longitudinally between the first and third connectors. The second coil is positioned radially between the inner and outer cylinders and longitudinally between the second and third connectors.

Conventional magnetostrictive fluid-pressure sensors include a fluid-pressure sensor which blocks a fluid flow and has an annular magnetostrictive cylinder with a lower deformable section below the fluid block surrounding the fluid and with an upper non-deformable section above the fluid block surrounding a hollow cavity. A first coil surrounds the upper section and provides a reference inductance value. A second coil surrounds the lower section and provides an inductance value corresponding to the change in permeability of the lower section caused by the pressure of the fluid against the fluid block which strains the lower section of the magnetostrictive cylinder changing its permeability. An annular air space separates the coil bobbin from the magnetostrictive cylinder, wherein the coil bobbin contains the first and second coils.
Another conventional fluid-pressure sensor is an automotive spark plug, which includes a single coil surrounding a magnetostrictive collar whose inner surface is exposed to stress waves from an internal combustion engine cylinder.
What is needed is an improved magnetostrictive fluid-pressure sensor.


A piezoelectric element driving circuit includes: a transformer; a switch circuit; a reactance element connected in parallel with the piezoelectric element on one of the primary side and the secondary side of the transformer, the reactance element forming a resonant circuit that performs parallel resonance at the driving frequency with a capacitance component in an equivalent circuit of the piezoelectric element and an inductance component of the transformer; a pulse generating circuit for generating a driving pulse for the switch circuit; and a duty ratio controlling circuit for being supplied with the driving pulse, limiting a duty ratio of the driving pulse such that a value of the driving voltage falls within a range equal to or lower than the specification voltage value on the load side, and outputting the driving pulse whose duty ratio is limited to the switch circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a highly efficient piezoelectric element driving circuit that can vary driving voltage and consumes low power and a pump device that transfers a fluid by the vibration of a piezoelectric element.
2. Description of the Related Art
A piezoelectric element makes a mechanical movement according to an applied voltage because a piezoelectric material is bent when an electric field is applied to the piezoelectric material. Utilizing this characteristic of converting electric energy into kinetic energy, piezoelectric elements are widely applied to actuators, motors, and the like.
A driving circuit in which a resonant element such as a capacitor or the like forming a resonant circuit is connected to a primary side coil of a transformer, and primary side driving frequency is made variable is known as a driving circuit for a piezoelectric element of an oscillatory wave motor (see Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei 5-16277 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 1), for example).
A new actuator using a mode of coupled-vibration with a peripheral structure rather than a discrete piezoelectric element has recently been proposed. In such an actuator, a piezoelectric element and the peripheral structure vibrate in a mechanically coupled manner. Thus, behavior in the coupled-vibration mode at this time is complex. For example, rather than one electric resonance point, there are a plurality of frequency resonance points that are not in a simple high-order relation. In such an actuator, the Q-value of mechanical resonance frequency often becomes high. When driving frequency differs from mechanical resonance frequency of the actuator by 10%, for example, there occurs a phenomenon in which an amount of mechanical output produced by the actuator is decreased significantly.
In a case where the driving circuit described in the above-mentioned Patent Document 1, for example, is applied to such an actuator, when the driving frequency is changed for a purpose of changing mechanical output over a wide range, the driving frequency becomes different from the mechanical resonance frequency of the actuator, and thus mechanical output from the actuator becomes substantially zero.
It is necessary to use a driving circuit that controls the mechanical output of the actuator while operating at a frequency coinciding with the mechanical resonance frequency.
A method of combining a variable output voltage power supply with a driving circuit is conceivable for a purpose of controlling the mechanical output of the actuator at a fixed driving frequency. This method is also described in Patent Document 1. However, a variable output voltage power supply circuit on a relatively large circuit scale is necessary separately from a driving circuit.
A driving circuit is known in which a reactance element such as an inductor or the like forming a parallel resonant circuit together with a load (a piezoelectric element or a piezoelectric motor) on a secondary side of a transformer is provided, and driving frequency is stabilized by optimizing a constant of the reactance element so as to make the resonance frequency of the parallel resonant circuit coincide with the driving frequency (see Japanese Patent No. 2976489 (hereinafter referred to as Patent Document 2), for example).
In the driving circuit described in the above-mentioned Patent Document 2, because the driving frequency is determined by the parallel resonant circuit on the secondary side of the transformer, a switch circuit on a primary side has only a function of regularly performing boosting operation for secondary side voltage and supplying energy. Patent Document 2 discloses a switch circuit that applies a power supply voltage to a midpoint of a primary winding of the transformer and that alternately grounds both ends of the primary winding in order to realize a zero cross waveform of the secondary side voltage.
In the driving circuit disclosed in Patent Document 2, there is a need for suppressing a harmonic component due to a ripple and reducing a loss by making a boosted voltage generated on the secondary side of the transformer a regular sine wave.
Therefore, in the driving circuit described in the above Patent Document 2, power supply of the primary side of the transformer is performed via an inductance element, and the inductance element and a parallel capacitance in an equivalent circuit of an ultrasonic motor as a load are made to perform parallel resonance so that the parallel capacitance is apparently cancelled.
The driving circuit having such a configuration and operation can remove a ripple and reduce a loss, and also makes it possible to set the driving duty ratio of a switching element connected to the primary side of the transformer at a simple 50%.

Piezoelectric element driving circuit and pump device


A fat continuous spread having less than 50% fat and containing less than 10% trans fatty acids is prepared by a process comprising the steps of selecting a structuring amount of interesterfied hardstock and combining the hardstock with the liquid oil to form a fat phase. The fat phase and an aqueous phase containing a gelling agent are introduced into a scrapped surface heat exchanger to form a cooled emulsion having an exit temperature of less than the temperature required to form a substantial amount of alpha crystals in the fat phase. The crystal containing emulsion is then passed into a crystallizing inverter unit which has a temperature no greater than about 4 to about 8.degree. C. of the temperature of the water continuous emulsion containing crystals. In the inverter unit, the emulsion is inverted from a water continuous to a fat continuous emulsion and then introduced into a second cooling unit to form spread products having a mean average droplet size less than 10 microns and containing less than 5% free water.

The present invention is concerned with a process for preparing a dispersion comprising a continuous fat phase and a dispersed gelled aqueous phase. Prior art methods of preparing such low fat continuous spread products first cooled a gelatin containing water continuous composition to a temperature below the gel setting temperature to allow the formation of a gel structure. The resulting water continuous composition was then sheared in a crystallizing inverter unit (C* unit) to invert the water continuous composition into small gelled aqueous beads and form a fat continuous dispersion. It was recognized in the art that this process aided in the control of the aqueous phase droplet size distribution in the final dispersion and that reduced droplet size and distribution are advantageous in determining appearance, flavor and salt release and rheology of the dispersion. Additionally, smaller droplet size and distribution in the final product improves microbial stability. See U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,290 issued to Norton et al. on Sep. 29, 1992.
However, it was observed that low fat containing products which are also high in trans fatty acid content produced by the known methods still exhibited microbial instability. The average droplet of such products still average greater than about 20 microns and provide a possibility for microbial contamination.
The prior art focuses on improving the production process by utilizing cooling temperatures just below the gel setting temperature of the level of gelatin contained in the aqueous phases of these products.
Whereas shelf stable products can thus be produced, the process needs to be improved to produce low trans fatty acid containing spreads. It has been surprisingly observed that certain temperatures at which low trans containing fats crystallize in the process synergistically both crystallize the fat and gelling the gelatin so as to form products with much smaller aqueous droplets than those that could be produced in the prior art.
There therefore exists a need for an improved process for making a fat continuous product having less than 40% fat which has both good organoleptic properties and which is microbiologically stable.
Another object of the invention is to provide an in line production process which is flexible enough to be modified as the trans fatty acid levels of the spread products are reduced.

Process for preparing a microbiologically stable water in oil spread


A method is provided for categorizing businesses, organizations and individuals in order to facilitate geographically-based searching over the Internet. The method includes entering in a database the names of businesses, organizations and/or individuals, for each name entry registering a geographical location identifier, the geographical location identifier indicating the precise geographical location at which the corresponding business, organization or individual is located, for each name entry registering further information such as contact details and a description of the goods or services offered by the business, organization or individual, and for at least some of the name entries adding credential information in respect of the business, organization or individual, or the goods or services offered by the business, organization or individual. A user interrogates the database by nominating a catchment area by reference to one or more geographical points to identify name entries within the catchment area nominated by the user.

Over the past decade, the Internet has become a source of a vast amount of information. Unfortunately, there is no agreed method of indexing or categorisation, so that it is very difficult to identify and locate most of the information which may be relevant to a particular query. Two of the most common ways of locating relevant information on the Internet are to locate a URL in a printed publication or television advertisement and to enter it into a web browser to "visit" the URL and obtain the desired information, or to use one of the many Internet search engines.
The Internet search engines typically maintain indices based on key words which appear on web pages. When some key words are typed into a search engine, the search engine produces a list of hypertext links to documents having those key words. This is a good way of finding some general information on a particular subject, but it is not an effective way of finding all relevant information.
There are advantages and disadvantages to doing business on the Internet. One advantage is that the Internet provides rapid and inexpensive access to an enormous number of different potential customers. This is particularly useful when a business involves selling items such as books or CDs, which have universal appeal and are non-perishable and relatively inexpensive to ship to anywhere in the world. A disadvantage is that the Internet is less suitable for businesses which have a more local customer base, because it does not provide easy ways of targeting local customers. Similarly, many customers have difficulty in identifying Internet businesses are within their geographical location. For example, a pizza shop might have a customer base located exclusively within a 5 km radius, but an Internet search on "pizza shops" might bring up thousands of such shops from all round the world, so that shops in the relevant geographical location are lost amongst the large number of irrelevant ones.
Indeed, the majority of businesses and organizations have a geographically defined constituency, and are not therefore inherently suited to the presently available Internet search engines. Some search engines such as Altavista allow a search to be confined to a particular country, and Yahoo goes further, allowing a search to be restricted according to country, state and city. However, in many cases, a restriction to a particular city is still not enough. In the case of a pizza shop, a list of all pizza shops in a particular city would still contain far too many shops which were not within a 5 km radius of the potential customer.
One way for a person to attempt to overcome this problem when using an Internet search engine is to use the locality of the particular business as a key word. Thus, the person might type "Pizza Shop Preston" into the search engine. However, this is still unsatisfactory because all relevant pizza shops may not have used the locality name "Preston" as a key word on their Internet web sites, and relevant shops in neighbouring locations will not be located. Further, there may be multiple localities throughout the world with the same locality name. For example, there are approximately thirty eight localities which have the name "Preston" in the United States.
An attempt has been made to address this problem in U.S. Pat. No. 5,930,474, which relates to an Internet organiser for accessing geographically and topically based information. The organiser disclosed in that patent essentially requires the breaking down of a city into various localities, and the compilation of "locality guides" for the localities, with each business being listed in a particular locality guide. This is useful to some extent, in a similar manner to a neighbourhood telephone directory. However, it still has numerous shortcomings. It fails to distinguish between different types of goods and services for which different locality sizes are appropriate. For example, a person may only be prepared to travel up to 2 km to do the daily grocery shopping, but may be prepared to travel up to 20 km to purchase an item of furniture. A builder of a major project might be happy to have pre-mixed concrete delivered within a maximum of 20 km due to the perishable nature of the product. On the other hand prefabricated steelwork can be transported hundreds of kilometres without deterioration and without a major cost disadvantage. Further, a business classified as being just within the borders of a particular locality may by that classification miss out on business which it might otherwise have gained from a nearby customer who is classified as residing just within the border of an adjoining locality.
An object of the present invention is to overcome of alleviate one or more of the problems present in the prior art.


A voltage sensing circuit (230) for sensing voltage signals of input alternating current (AC) signals includes a plurality of voltage dividing circuits (23n (n=1, 2, 3, . . . , n)) and a charging circuit (232). The voltage dividing circuits are used for dividing voltage signals of the input AC signals. The voltage dividing circuits are connected to the charging circuit, and then the divided voltage signals can be transmitted between the voltage dividing circuits, thereby pulling high corresponding DC levels of the divided voltage signals.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to electronic driving devices, and particularly to a device for driving discharge lamps in a light source module of a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel.
2. Description of Related Art
Conventionally, a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel uses discharge lamps, such as cold cathode fluorescent lamps (CCFLs), as a light source of a backlight system. Typically, an inverter circuit outputs an alternating current (AC) signal to drive the CCFLs. If voltage of the AC signal output from the inverter circuit is too great, the CCFLs may be damaged; and if the voltage of the AC signal output from the inverter circuit is too low, the CCFLs cannot be started. Therefore, a voltage sensing circuit and a protection circuit are required in the inverter circuit.
Referring to FIG. 4, a block diagram of a conventional driving device 10 for driving a light source module 140 is shown. The driving device 10 includes a driving circuit 100, a transformer circuit 110, a protection circuit 120, and a voltage sensing circuit 130. The transformer circuit 110 outputs an AC signal to the light source module 140. The voltage sensing circuit 130 reads a magnitude of voltage of the AC signal via capacitors C1, C2, and C3 thereof. If the magnitude of the voltage is too great after rectification of the voltage signal by a half-wave rectifier D1 of the voltage sensing circuit 130, the voltage sensing circuit 130 directly outputs an over-voltage signal to the protection circuit 120. However, the driving device of FIG. 4 fails to provide under-voltage protection.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram of another conventional driving device 10′ for driving a light source module 140. Modules of the driving device 10′ are substantially the same as those of the driving device 10, except a voltage sensing circuit 130′ and a protection circuit 120′. The voltage sensing circuit 130′ reads a magnitude of the voltage of the AC signal output from the transformer circuit 110 via capacitors C1, C2, and C3 of the voltage sensing circuit 130′. If the voltage signal is abnormal, after a half-wave rectifier D1 rectifies the voltage signal and diodes D2 and D3 divide the voltage signal, the voltage sensing circuit 130′ outputs an under-voltage signal or an over-voltage signal to the protection circuit 120′. However, this device is susceptible to interference, and circuit impedances thereof are high.


A water composition that is fortified with at least one mineral and has a pH between about 2.5 and 9.5. The water composition has a redox potential that satisfies the following equation:0≧RP−(A−B*pH)wherein RP is the redox potential in millivolts of the mineral-containing water composition, pH is the pH of the mineral-containing water composition, A is 400 and B is 20. The mineral is preferably selected from calcium, iron, zinc, copper, manganese, iodine, magnesium, and mixtures of these. Moreover, the mineral-fortified water composition is preferably substantially free of flavor or sweetener compounds. Even more preferably, the water composition has no metallic taste or after-taste, a Hunter colorimetric “b” reading of less than 5.0, and an NTU turbidity value of less than 5.0. The mineral-fortified water composition may optionally contain other nutrients and vitamins, for example, vitamin A, vitamin C, vitamin E, niacin, thiamin, vitamin B6, vitamin B2, vitamin B 12, folic acid, selenium, and pantathonic acid.

In many countries, the average diet does not contain sufficient levels of necessary minerals and nutrients, such as, iron, zinc, iodine, vitamin A or the B vitamins. Iron deficiency is well documented, it is one of the few nutritional deficiencies in the U.S., and it is common in most developing countries. Recent evidence suggests that nutritional zinc deficiency may be common among the people of many developing countries where they subsist on diets of plant origin (e.g. cereal and legume). Marginal mineral deficiencies may be widespread even in the U.S. because of self-imposed dietary restrictions, use of alcohol and cereal proteins, and the increasing use of refined foods that decrease the intake of trace minerals.
Many mineral deficiencies can be overcome by taking supplements. Other methods of addressing these deficiencies include increasing the intake of foods naturally containing these minerals or fortifying food and beverage products. Usually, in countries where the people suffer from these deficiencies, the economy is such that providing minerals and vitamins as a supplement is expensive and presents significant distribution logistics problems. In addition, compliance, i.e., having the people take the vitamin and mineral supplements on a daily basis, is a serious problem. Accordingly, the delivery of minerals along with other vitamins and nutrients in a form that has high bioavailability and at the same time a non-objectionable taste and appearance, and in a form that would be consumed by a high proportion of the population at risk is desirable.
Vitamin and mineral fortified beverages and foods are known. Although substantial progress has been made in reducing iron deficiency by fortifying products such as infant formulas, breakfast cereals and chocolate drink powders, the formulations require milk that is often not available or affordable. To address the problem of iron and zinc deficiencies in the general population, efforts have been directed to formulating fruit-flavored dry beverage mixes supplemented with nutritional amounts (i.e., at least 5% of the USRDI) of zinc and iron with or without vitamins. Many fruit-flavored powdered beverages contain vitamins and/or minerals but seldom contain both zinc and iron at any significant level, see for example, Composition of Foods: Beverages, Agriculture Handbook No. 8 Series, Nutrition Monitoring Division, pgs 115–153.
There are well-recognized problems associated with adding both vitamins and minerals to beverages. Zinc supplements tend to have an objectionable taste, cause distortion of taste and cause mouth irritation, see for example U.S. Pat. No. 4,684,528 (Godfrey), issued Aug. 4, 1987. Iron supplements tend to discolor foodstuff, or to be organoleptically unsuitable. Moreover, it is particularly difficult to formulate products containing minerals and, in particular, mixtures of bioavailable iron and zinc. These minerals not only affects the organoleptic and aesthetic properties of beverages, but also undesirably affects the nutritional bioavailability of the minerals themselves and the stability of vitamins and flavors.
Several problems exist with delivering a mixture of minerals with or without vitamins in a beverage mix. A few of the problems are choosing mineral compounds which are organoleptically acceptable, bioavailable, cost effective and safe. For example, the water soluble iron and zinc compounds, which are the most bioavailable cause unacceptable metallic aftertaste and flavor changes. In addition, the soluble iron complexes often cause unacceptable color changes. Even further, the iron complexes themselves are often colored. This makes formulating a dry powder that has a uniform color distribution in the mix more difficult. Often the reconstituted beverage does not have a suitable color identifiable with the flavoring agent. If the color of the powder, reconstituted beverage or flavor of the beverage is substantially altered, the beverage will not be consumed. Color and taste are key to consumer acceptance.
Many iron sources that have been successful commercially, have been found to be unsatisfactory for use herein. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,786,578 (Nakel et al), issued November 1988, relates to the use of iron-sugar complexes suitable for supplementing fruit beverages. While this supplement may produce an acceptable taste in certain fruit flavored beverages, the supplement causes discoloration and consumer detectable differences in some colored beverages. Iron sources typically used to fortify chocolate milk were also found undesirable due to color problems and/or flavor problems.
It has further been found that iron is more bioavailable if administered in the form of chelates wherein the chelating ligands are amino acids or protein hydrolysates. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,969,540 (Jensen), issued Jul. 13, 1976 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,020,158 (Ashmead), issued Apr. 26, 1977. These chelated iron compounds are known in the art by various names such as iron proteinates, iron amino acid chelates and peptide or polypeptide chelates. These will be referred to herein simply as "amino acid chelated irons." A particularly desirable amino acid chelated iron is FERROCHEL made by Albion Laboratories. FERROCHEL is a free flowing, fine granular powder that provides a high bioavailable source of ferrous iron that is typically complexed or chelated with the amino acid glycine.
Unfortunately, it has also been found that FERROCHEL, when added to water or other aqueous solutions, imparts relatively quickly a deep rusty yellow color. Such a color can change the color appearance the food or beverage to which FERROCHEL has been added. In the case of many foods and beverages, this color change would be unacceptable. It has been found that FERROCHEL causes unacceptable off-color development in various foods and beverages by interacting with dietary components such as the polyphenols and flavonoids. Furthermore, by accelerating the oxidative rancidity of fats and oils, FERROCHEL (like ferrous sulfate) has been found to cause off-flavor in foods and beverages.
One solution to delivering a mineral-fortified beverage is disclosed in PCT Publication WO 98/48648 (The Procter & Gamble Company), published Nov. 5, 1998, which teaches a dry free-flowing beverage composition that when reconstituted with water has a desirable color and is free of undesirable aftertaste. The dry free-flowing beverage composition contains from about 5% to about 100% of the USRDI of iron, optionally from about 5% to about 100% of the USRDI of zinc, from about 0.001% to about 0.5% of a coloring agent, and from about 0.001% to about 10% of a flavoring agent. An edible acid sufficient to lower the pH to between 3 and 4.5 in the finished beverage is added. As can be appreciated, some of the additives are nutrients, while others are used to mask the taste and off-color caused by adding minerals to an aqueous solution.
An even greater challenge has been faced in providing a mineral fortified drinking water that contains a bioavailable source of iron or zinc mineral. A drinking water, as opposed to a beverage, should contain water as its main ingredient, and which should have the taste and appearance of pure water. Fortification of drinking water with soluble, stable and bioavailable minerals (e.g. iron, zinc) has been a challenge. For instance, when the soluble form of iron (ferrous iron) is added to regular water, it rapidly oxidizes to the insoluble trivalent form, which is ferric iron. Subsequently, the ferric iron combines with hydroxide ions to form iron hydroxide (yellow colored), which later converts to ferric oxide, a red, powdery precipitate called "rust." Thus, it is well known fact that natural water not only oxidizes iron from ferrous to ferric moieties, but also causes (a) the development of undesirable color (yellowish-rusty), (b) poor solubility demonstrated by precipitation and increased turbidity, (c) compromised bioavailability and (b) co-precipitation of other minerals (e.g. zinc, magnesium, calcium) and phosphate.
The behavior of such nutritionally important minerals in natural water (e.g. lakes, streams, rivers and oceans) is due to the oxidizing nature of the natural water. Most fresh water and lakes have a pH range from pH 5 to about 9. Furthermore, they contain not only dissolved oxygen but also other electron accepting species (iron-oxidizing) such as nitrates, manganese (IV), chloride ions. Both the pH range and the presence of the electron accepting species makes natural water an oxidizing media. Thus, it favors poor solubility, off-color development and compromised bioavailability and stability. In fact, the ability (tendency) of natural water to act as an oxidizing media is determined by measuring the Redox potential (Eh) in millivolts (mV). The redox potential for the different species of iron is defined by (a) Eh-pH diagram and (b) Nernest's equation: Eh=Eo+0.059/n log [oxidized species]/[reduced species], where Eh=observed electrode potential, Eo=standard electrode potential, n=number of electrons transferred. Under normal condition, water has relatively high redox potential (>300 mV), which is an indicator of highly oxidizing environment. This is primarily due to the presence of various electron acceptors (oxidizing agents), which include ozone, chlorine, oxygen, nitrates and manganese (1V).
Hence, there is a tendency for iron to turn rusty and precipitate as a result of the oxidizing nature of the water, and to develop a metallic off-taste that is attributed to free iron ions in the water. Since drinking waters should not have perceptible flavors or colors, the development of unacceptable iron coloration, poor solubility, or metallic taste in a drinking water cannot be masked over.
Attempts to provide an iron-containing drinking water in the past have shown limited success. FR Patent publication 2,461,463, published Feb. 6, 1981, discloses a procedure for preparing and stabilizing an iron-containing mineral water by adding an ascorbic acid, or salt thereof, reducing agent, where the weight ratio of ascorbic acid to ferrous ion is from about 2.5–6.5. The reducing agent is added to reduce any ferric ions to the ferrous state, which was believed to be the active bioavailable state of iron.
Further, German Patent No. 19,628,575, published Jan. 29, 1998, discloses drinking water or mineral water such as coffee, fruit teas or soft drinks, containing ferrous iron and an excess of organic or inorganic dietary acids to reduce the water pH to the range of 2–5. Iron gluconate and iron sulfate were disclosed as the added iron source. The resulting acid flavor of these waters was then neutralized by the addition of flavors, sugar and/or sweetener.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a water composition fortified with a nutritional amount of minerals, that is, metal ions, which is palatable and does not have a disagreeable aftertaste while preserving the bioavailability of the metal ions. It is preferred that these compositions have no metallic taste or aftertaste, without the use of any flavor or sweetener. It is desired that these compositions have an acceptable clarity and color, and preferably they are clear and colorless. Moreover, there is a need for water compositions that have a reducing environment, that is, low redox potential values. This would allow for the production of a water composition that maintains metal ions substantially in their reduced state through redox modulation, and wherein the water comprises low levels of the most dominant redox-active species, dissolved oxygen. These and many more advantages are provided by the present invention.


Systems and methods for transmitting signals according to service flows are described herein. In one exemplary embodiment, a routing device, such a cable modem, comprises memory configured to store a configuration file. The cable modem also comprises a network port and a plurality of input ports. The network port is configured to communicate with a cable network via a cable modem termination system (CMTS). The input ports are each configured to communicate with a communication device. The configuration file includes logic for defining a service flow for data transmission on the network port based on one or more input ports.

Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) is a technology allowing voice information to be transmitted within packets over a data network such as the Internet. VoIP signals may be transmitted over regular telephone lines or over "cable" lines that are configured to carry cable television signals. When a personal computer (PC) is connected to the data network via a cable system, data can be transferred at a rate many times greater than the data transfer rate of regular telephone lines. With cable services, a routing device, such as a cable modem, is typically used to allow a PC at the customer premises to access the data network. The cable modem also routes telephone signal transmissions to and from a telephone at the customer premises. Cable modems typically adhere to well-defined standards, such as the Data Over Cable Service Interface Specification (DOCSIS) developed by CableLabs. The most recent version of this standard (DOCSIS 2.0) was released in January 2002.
Regarding VoIP on a cable system, a cable modem is usually configured to give voice signals priority over data or Internet Protocol (IP) signals. In this way, voice signals can be communicated quickly without noticeable delay, even if Internet traffic is heavy. The DOCSIS configuration file stored on the cable modem includes an assignment of a bit rate allocation for different types of signals and a priority list regarding what type of signal is handled before the others. The priority, among other things, is defined according to fields referred to as "service flows". Usually, a service flow defines the type of signals that may correspond to a particular customer device, e.g. a telephone, to establish a priority in which certain signals, e.g. telephone signals, are prioritized over other types of data signals. The configuration file typically defines upstream and downstream signals separately.
During a telephone call over a cable network, two (or more) telephones are linked through the network to allow telephone signals to be transmitted back and forth between the telephones. A dedicated communication path is temporarily established between the two telephone devices. To more efficiently communication along this dedicated communication path, one customer device can transmit a message known as an Address Resolution Protocol (ARP) message. ARP messages are transmitted out over the network to resolve the MAC address of another device on the network. An ARP message contains a known IP address and requests that the device having that IP address returns a message indicating its MAC address. By resolving the MAC address of the other device, the two devices can communicate with each other using MAC addresses if the two devices are on the same IP sub-net. PCs and other devices also send out ARP messages to resolve MAC addresses.
In DOCSIS, ARP messages can be defined within the configuration file stored in the cable modem. For example, ARP messages can be classified under a particular service flow. If ARP messages are classified under a service flow having a high priority, then all the ARP messages received by the cable modem will be given a high priority and will be sent within the high-priority channel, e.g. a voice (signaling) channel. On the other hand, if the ARP messages are classified under a service flow having a lower priority, then all the ARP messages received by the cable modem will be given a lower priority and will be sent within the low-priority channel, e.g. an IP channel.
One problem with this current system is that DOCSIS does not allow ARP messages to be further restricted. Therefore, if ARP messages are given a high priority, then all ARP messages, even those from the lower-priority IP sources, e.g. a PC, are sent within the high-priority channel. These lower-priority ARP messages can thus congest the high-priority channel. Another problem is that, if ARP messages are not given high priority, then high-priority ARP messages from high-priority sources, e.g. a telephone, are sent within the low-priority channel. These high-priority ARP messages can thus be delayed by Internet traffic. Neither of these consequences is desirable and thus a need exists in the industry to address these and other deficiencies and inadequacies.


Methods of calculating and displaying quality metrics on a wireless digital network such as a network using IEEE 802.11 Wi-Fi standards. The quality metric calculation assigns weights only to factors which are observed above a threshold, combining multiple factors into a scalar result. The quality metric is derived from the weighted sum of two or more parameters such as: noise floor offset, channel busy indication, adjacent and overlapping channel interference, interferer duty-cycle, frame retry-rate, PHY error rate and CRC error rate. Quality spectrograms may be used to display calculated quality metrics across a channel, channel range, or frequency band, plotting calculated quality metric versus frequency or channel range over a configurable time frame. Using known locations of radios, quality ranges are mapped onto visual representations such as contour lines, shading density, or color codes, and overlayed for example over floor plans or other site representations.

The present invention relates to wireless digital networks, and in particular, to the problem of measuring and displaying quality metrics in wireless digital networks.
Wireless digital networks are becoming ubiquitous in enterprises, providing secure and cost-effective access to resources. Those networks usually have a plurality of access points (AP) deployed through the enterprise. WiFi networks operating in accordance with IEEE 802.11 standards are examples of such networks.
Unfortunately, the frequencies used by these networks are shared. They are shared not only among the wireless networks themselves, but also with other non-network radiators. As an example, the IEEE 802.11 standards specify a number of channels for use on the 2.4 GHz band. These channels overlap, so Wi-Fi network devices operating on channels 1 and 2 may interfere with each other as they overlap in the frequency spectrum they use. Other services also share the same spectrum. Numerous Bluetooth wireless devices operate in the 2.4 GHz band. The 2.4 GHz band is also used for cordless phones, wireless video and audio links, and other wireless entertainment devices. In addition to these and other intentional radiators, the 2.4 GHz band is also occupied by microwave ovens, which may emit signals capable of interfering with wireless network operation. Similar issues exist with the 5 GHz band.
Operating a wireless digital network such as a Wi-Fi network often involves dealing with sources of interference to the network, and dealing with them in an ongoing and evolving manner. A Wi-Fi network may be working fine one day, and be impacted the next; was it the new microwave oven in the break room? Was it the new Bluetooth headsets for use with desk phones? Or is it the new coffee shop which opened up across the street?
What is needed are tools in the wireless network to help measure network quality, and to display this quality information.

Measuring and displaying wireless network quality

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


In one example, a structure for supporting a printhead includes: a substrate having a first side and a second side; an inlet tower through which liquid may be introduced into the structure; an opening through the substrate near the inlet tower; and an air channel along the substrate connecting the opening in the substrate to the atmosphere.

In some inkjet printers, the printheads are part of a discrete assembly separate from detachable ink containers in which ink is held in a block of foam or other capillary material. The ink holding chamber in these foam based ink containers is vented to the atmosphere through an opening in the top of the container. The container vent opening is sealed during storage and shipment to prevent evaporation from the ink chamber. The container vent is sometimes not functional when the container is installed in a printhead assembly, for example when the user fails to remove the vent seal. The printer will not print properly with a malfunctioning container vent.
The same part numbers designate the same or similar parts throughout the figures.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Vent through a printhead support structure

HEWLETT-PACKARD DEVELOPMENT COMPANY, L.P.


A polarizing beam splitter (PBS) includes a multilayer reflective polarizing film, a pressure sensitive adhesive is disposed on the multilayer reflective polarizing film, a first rigid cover is disposed on the pressure sensitive adhesive. The PBS can be used in a variety of applications.

Optical imaging systems typically include a transmissive or a reflective imager, also referred to as a light valve or light valve array, which imposes an image on a light beam. Transmissive light valves are typically translucent and allow light to pass through. Reflective light valves, on the other hand, reflect only selected portions of the input beam to form an image. Reflective light valves provide important advantages, as controlling circuitry may be placed behind the reflective surface and more advanced integrated circuit technology becomes available when the substrate materials are not limited by their opaqueness. New potentially inexpensive and compact liquid crystal display (LCD) projector configurations may become possible by the use of reflective liquid crystal microdisplays as the imager.
Many reflective LCD imagers rotate the polarization of incident light. In other words, polarized light is either reflected by the imager with its polarization state substantially unmodified for the darkest state or with a degree of polarization rotation imparted to provide a desired grey scale. A 90° rotation provides the brightest state in these systems. Accordingly, a polarized light beam is generally used as the input beam for reflective LCD imagers. A desirable compact arrangement includes a folded light path between a polarizing beam splitter (PBS) and the imager, wherein the illuminating beam and the projected image reflected from the imager share the same physical space between the PBS and the imager. The PBS separates the incoming light from the polarization-rotated image light. A conventional PBS used in a projector system, sometimes referred to as a MacNeille polarizer, uses a stack of inorganic dielectric films placed at Brewster's angle. Light having s-polarization is reflected, while light in the p-polarization state is transmitted through the polarizer.
A single imager may be used for forming a monochromatic image or a color image. Multiple imagers are typically used for forming a color image, where the illuminating light is split into multiple beams of different color. An image is imposed on each of the beams individually, and these beams are then recombined to form a full color image.

Polarizing beam splitter assembly adhesive