A shear orifice valve including a valve body, a torque motor mounted on the valve body, fluid inlet ducts in the valve body, a plurality of first opposed metering orifices in the valve body in communication with the first fluid duct, a plurality of second opposed metering orifices in the valve body in communication with the second fluid duct, an armature in the torque motor, a metering arm having first and second faces on opposite sides thereof coupled to the armature with the first and second faces located between the first and second opposed metering orifices, and a third fluid duct in the valve body for either receiving fluid simultaneously from the first orifices in response to movement of the metering arm in a first direction or for conducting fluid simultaneously to the second orifices in response to movement of the metering arm in a second direction.

The present invention relates to an improved torque motor-operated shear orifice valve.
By way of background, the valve of the present invention is an improvement over the shear orifice valve disclosed in copending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 653,708, filed Feb. 11, 1991. In the prior valve, flow of fluid can only be in one direction, either out through the valve or in through the valve, but not both. A valve of this type is known as a two-way valve and it was not capable of providing both flow out of the valve and flow into the valve in a particular application in which it was installed. In other words, it was not capable of providing what is known in the art as three-way operation.


A turbine guide blade includes a platform which absorbs thermal loads and a fastening region adjoining the platform for absorbing mechanical loads. The fastening region has such a slim construction that it leaves a cold side of the platform readily accessible.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a turbine guide blade which is directed along an axis and has a blade profile, a platform and a fastening region.
German Published, Non-Prosecuted Patent Application DE 26 28 807 A1 discloses an impingement-cooling system for a gas-turbine blade. The gas-turbine blade is directed along a blade axis and has a blade body and a platform region along the blade axis. A platform extends in the platform region, transversely to the blade axis, radially outwardly away from the blade body. Such a platform forms part of a flow duct for a working fluid that flows through a gas turbine in which the turbine blade is fitted. Very high temperatures occur in that flow duct in a gas turbine. As a result, that surface of the platform which is exposed to the hot gas is subjected to high thermal loading.
In order to cool the platform, a perforated wall element is disposed in front of that side of the platform which faces away from the hot gas. Cooling air enters through the holes in the wall element and strikes that side of the platform which faces away from the hot gas. Efficient impingement cooling is thus achieved.
A guide-blade segment having closed-circuit steam cooling is described in European Patent Application EP 0 698 723 A2, corresponding to U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,634,766; 5,591,002; and 5,743,708. The guide-blade segment has a platform region which serves to define a hot-gas duct of a gas turbine. The platform region has an outflow-side hook with which it is connected to a casing of a steam turbine in such a way as to absorb loads. The platform region serves both as a hot-gas screen and to absorb loads.
A turbine blade disclosed in UK Patent 1 516 757, corresponding to U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,012,167 and 4,017,213, is constructed in a similar manner. There too, a cooled platform region acts through an outflow-side hook connecting it to the casing of a gas turbine to assume the functions of both absorbing loads and providing the hot-gas screen.
It is accordingly an object of the invention to provide a turbine guide blade, which overcomes the hereinafore-mentioned disadvantages of the heretofore-known devices of this general type and which can be cooled in a simple and efficient manner.
With the foregoing and other objects in view there is provided, in accordance with the invention, a turbine guide blade, comprising a guide blade axis. A blade profile is disposed along the axis and has a profile contour. A platform follows the blade profile along the axis. The platform has a hot-gas side for defining a hot-gas duct of a turbine and a cold side opposite the hot-gas side. A fastening region follows the platform along the axis, for absorbing most mechanical loads caused by a working medium flowing around the blade profile. The platform has to absorb at most a small portion of the mechanical loads. The fastening region, in a projected view along the axis in a direction from the fastening region toward the blade profile, covers less than three quarters of the cold side.
Such a turbine guide blade has a functional separation for thermal loads on one hand and mechanical loads on the other hand. The thermal loads are absorbed in front of the fastening region largely by the platform. The platform screens a working medium flowing around the blade profile from the fastening region and forms part of a flow duct of a turbine in which the turbine blade is fitted. The platform has a comparatively thin construction, so that it can be cooled in an efficient manner. Such a thin construction is made possible due to the fact that most of the mechanical loads which act on the turbine blade due to the working fluid are absorbed by the fastening part. The turbine guide blade can be fastened in a turbine housing through the fastening part. The force acting on the blade profile and being exerted by the working fluid is transmitted to the turbine casing through the fastening part. The platform must therefore absorb at most a small proportion of those forces and can therefore have a comparatively thin construction. The accessibility of the cold side of the platform may be restricted by the fastening part, e.g. when the fastening part has a platform-like construction. The invention removes that disadvantage by providing a slim construction of the fastening part. Thus the fastening part only partly covers the cold side. The cold side is therefore still readily accessible, e.g. for the fitting of an impingement-cooling plate.
In accordance with another feature of the invention, the fastening region includes a core which is connected to the cold side and has a core contour running in the same direction as the profile contour; and a planar web which extends along the axis and serves for fastening in a turbine casing.
In accordance with a further feature of the invention, the core is connected to the web through a stiffening connecting region.
In accordance with an added feature of the invention, a vertical rib preferably connects the core and the web in a stiffening manner along the axis. A horizontal rib preferably connects the core and the web in a stiffening manner perpendicularly to the axis. Furthermore, four vertical ribs and/or four horizontal ribs are preferably provided.
Projections or hooks, for example, with which the turbine guide blade is hooked in the turbine casing, are disposed on the web. A robust and yet slim construction of the fastening region is achieved by the construction of the fastening region with a core and a stiffening connection between the core and the web. In particular, the fastening region obtains stiffness which is sufficient for the use of the turbine guide blade, by ribbing through the use of the vertical and/or horizontal ribs.
In accordance with an additional feature of the invention, the vertical rib or ribs and/or the horizontal rib or ribs are formed in one piece with the core and with the web.
In accordance with yet another feature of the invention, the turbine guide blade is preferably cast and in fact preferably directionally solidified or single-crystalline.
In accordance with yet a further feature of the invention, the turbine guide blade has an impingement-cooling plate which is disposed in front of the cold side and in turn has a multiplicity of openings directed toward the cold side. With such an impingement-cooling plate, cooling fluid is directed through the openings perpendicularly onto the cold side. The platform is cooled in an especially efficient manner by such impingement cooling. The impingement-cooling plate can be fitted in a very simple manner due to the easy accessibility of the cold side. In addition, the easy accessibility of the cold side also permits the fitting of a more complex impingement-cooling system.
In accordance with a concomitant feature of the invention, the turbine guide blade is constructed as a gas-turbine guide blade. In particular in a stationary gas turbine, very high temperatures for the gas flowing through the gas turbine are achieved. There is thus a need for very efficient cooling of the platform of a gas-turbine guide blade. Very effective cooling is achieved with the concept of a comparatively thin platform which is readily accessible from the cold side, since the production of the gas-turbine guide blade at the same time turns out to be very simple.
Other features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in the appended claims.
Although the invention is illustrated and described herein as embodied in a turbine guide blade, it is nevertheless not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made therein without departing from the spirit of the invention and within the scope and range of equivalents of the claims.
The construction and method of operation of the invention, however, together with additional objects and advantages thereof will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawings.


A computer process, called VGRAM, improves the performance of these string search algorithms in computers by using a carefully chosen dictionary of variable-length grams based on their frequencies in the string collection. A dynamic programming algorithm for computing a tight lower bound on the number of common grams shared by two similar strings in order to improve query performance is disclosed. A method for automatically computing a dictionary of high-quality grams for a workload of queries. Improvement on query performance is achieved by these techniques by a cost-based quantitative approach to deciding good grams for approximate string queries. An approach for answering approximate queries efficiently based on discarding gram lists, and another is based on combining correlated lists. An indexing structure is reduced to a given amount of space, while retaining efficient query processing by using algorithms in a computer based on discarding gram lists and combining correlated lists.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of making string searches in computer databases using gram-based inverted-list indexing structures.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In computerized data analysis methods and machines many applications need to solve the following problem of approximate string matching: from a collection of strings, find those that are similar to a given string, or those in another or possibly the same collection of strings.
Previous techniques convert a string to a set of fixed-length grams, and then use the grams to build indexing structures to do a search. The fixed length grams are substrings of a string to be used as signatures to identify similar strings. If a data set has grams that are very popular, these algorithms can and do have a very low performance.
Many information systems need to support approximate string queries: given a collection of textual strings, such as person names, telephone numbers, and addresses, find the strings in the collection that are similar to a given query string. The following are a few applications. In record linkage, we often need to find from a table those records that are similar to a given query string that could represent the same real-world entity, even though they have slightly different representations, such as Spielberg versus Spielburg.
In Web search, many search engines provide the "Did you mean" feature, which can benefit from the capability of finding keywords similar to a keyword in a search query. Other information systems such as Oracle and Lucene also support approximate string queries on relational tables or documents. Various functions can be used to measure the similarity between strings, such as edit distance (a.k.a. Levenshtein distance), Jaccard similarity, and cosine similarity.
Many algorithms are developed using the idea of "grams" of strings. A q-gram of a string is a substring of length q that can be used as a signature for the string. For example, the 2-grams of the string bingo are bi, in, ng, and go. These algorithms rely on an index of inverted lists of grams for a collection of strings to support queries on this collection. Intuitively, we decompose each string in the collection to grams, and build an inverted list for each gram, which contains the ID of the strings with this gram. For instance, FIG. 1 shows a collection of 5 strings and the corresponding inverted lists of their 2-grams.
The algorithms answer a query using the following observation: if a string r in the collection is similar enough to the query string, then r should share a certain number of common grams with the query string. Therefore, we decompose the query string to grams, and locate the corresponding inverted lists in the index. We find those string IDs that appear at least a certain number of times on these lists, and these candidates are post-processed to remove the false positives.
These gram-based inverted-list indexing structures are "notorious" for their large size relative to the size of their original string data. This large index size causes problems for applications. For example, many systems require a very high real-time performance to answer a query. This requirement is especially important for those applications adopting a Web-based service model. Consider online spell checkers used by email services such as Gmail, Hotmail, and Yahoo! Mail, which have millions of online users. They need to process many user queries each second. There is a big difference between a 10 ms response time versus a 20 ms response time, since the former means a throughput of 50 queries per second (OPS), while the latter means 20 QPS. Such a high-performance requirement can be met only if the index is in memory.
In another scenario, consider the case where these algorithms are implemented inside a database system, which can only allocate a limited amount of memory for the inverted-list index, since there can be many other tasks in the database system that also need memory. In both scenarios, it is very critical to reduce the index size as much as we can to meet a given space constraint.

Method and apparatus for improving performance of approximate string queries using variable length high-quality grams

The Regents of the University of California


According to an embodiment, an image erasing apparatus includes a reading unit, an erasing unit, an image forming unit, and a controller. The reading unit reads identification information formed on a sheet conveyed. The erasing unit erases a part or all of a first image formed on the sheet after the identification information is read. The controller obtains image data corresponding to the identification information that is read by the reading unit. The controller controls the image forming unit so as to form a second image, which is indicated by the obtained image data, onto the sheet from which the first image has been erased.

In recent years, there is a method to issue a reserved-seat ticket having a seat number printed thereon on the day of the event in order to prevent resale of a ticket of an event and the like. In this method, a user brings a reserved-seat voucher having individual information described thereon (for example, his or her full name and the like) and the user's identification card to the event site. In a case where an administrator of the event determines that the individual information on the reserved-seat voucher and the user's identification card match each other, a reserved-seat ticket is issued to the user. In this method, it is necessary to issue as many reserved-seat vouchers and reserved-seat tickets as the number of users. Therefore, depending on the number of users, the cost of the tickers would be enormous. Such problem is not limited to the tickets, and is a common problem that occurs when multiple types of sheets having information formed thereon are issued to the user.

Image erasing apparatus and image erasing method


A tamper-indicating closure serves as a closure for a container (2) which, at its container neck (3), possesses at least one locking surface (5) with which the retaining elements (6) of the tamper indicating band (7) are able to engage. The tamper-indicating band (7) possesses an upper portion (10) which extends downwards from the cap skirt (12) and which is connected with this by a frangible line (11). A plurality of retaining elements (6) are provided on the upper portion (10) of the tamper-indicating band (7). The retaining elements (6) are in each case connected with the adjacent retaining element by a flexible web (13). Each of the retaining elements (6) possesses at least one wedge shape (8) on its surface oriented towards the container neck (3).

The invention relates to improvements in tamper-indicating closures as well as an integrally molded blank for the manufacture of a tamper-indicating closure.
Tamper-indicating closures for various types of containers are widely and numerously known and in use. These types of closure are mainly employed in the beverage and food industry for the most varied of uses. In order to hinder manipulation of such containers, mainly bottles, the closures are provided with a tamper-indicating band which is brought into engagement with a locking surface on the container neck. A protruding bead, one or more ribs, a groove or another shape for an undercutting on the container neck mostly serve as the locking surface.
One difficulty with the use of known closures is mainly that the tamper-indicating band on the one hand should slip over the container neck and locking surface easily and without damage to the frangible web or bridges connecting the band to the closure. In addition the tamper-indicating band must be elastic, in order to avoid too great a resistance when closing the bottle and, with that, damage to the frangible line.
On the other hand, the tamper-indicating band should be formed to be as stiff and resistant as possible, in order to reliably maintain engagement with the locking surface when opening the tamper-indicating closure, so that the tamper-indicating band will tear along the frangible line and thus display the initial opening.
These types of closures can be manufactured in one piece, together with the tamper-indicating band, by means of plastic injection molding. However, subsequent application of a weakened line to the closure blanks, between the closure cap and the tamper-indicating band, is also known. These types of devices and methods are known from U.S. Pat. No. 3,673,761 (Light/CibaGelgy), DE-OS-14 82 603 (Telllac/ALCA SA) or U.S. Pat. No. 4,895,265 (Luc et al./The West Co.).
However, tamper-indicating closures made of metal are also known on which a tamper-indicating band is subsequently affixed. The tamper-indicating element is, with that, normally annular in shape with a holding portion, with which it can be brought into interlocking connection with the closure cap. The holder portion-and with that the closure cap-is connected with the tamper-indicating band by means of connecting bridges or webs.
Other methods of manufacture of such tamper-indicating closures, such as compression molding, co-injection molding and similar, are also known.
A tamper-indicating band is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,801,031 with which an inwardly folded tamper-indicating band possesses pleats in its end area, said pleats being directed inwards. On the one hand, this type of tamper-indicating band can be too stiff in its upper edge area, because the tamper-indicating band exists with its full material thickness between the individual fold-type protrusions. On the other hand, there is the risk that, during opening of the closure and thus with a vertical pressure being exerted onto the folds, the lower area of the tamper-indicating band will elastically yield and as a result the folds can slip over the retaining surface without tearing of the frangible line.
A closure is known from U.S. Pat. No. 4,470,513 (Ostrowsky/Ethyl Molded Products), the tamper-indicating band of which possesses a plurality of retaining elements which are provided with wedge shaped protrusions. It is apparent that such a closure can be further improved with reference to the stretching ability of the tamper-indicating band during initial placement and with reference to its engagement properties with the retaining surface.


A submarine's mast and its protective closure are prevented from inadvertly damaging each other while deploying or retrieving the mast and while securing the closure. Interconnected logic circuitry electronically prevents an improper actuation sequence so that the mast and closure do not collide. Mechanical linkages and fail-safes susceptible to corrosion and damage are eliminated thereby permitting more reliable operation from circuitry safely stowed inside the submarine.

Masts in the form of periscopes and antenna in the sail of a modern submarine are protected from ice and debris by a protective closure. Before such a mast is raised, the closure must open and be stowed out of the way to allow vertical travel by the mast. In addition, when the mast is up or in the extended position, the closure door must be prevented from closing on the mast. Usually, an operator actuates a mast and closure system by switching circuits and valves in the proper sequence. The operator uses input data from mast position indicators and closure position indicators to evaluate the situation and perform the step-by-step actuation sequence. Operation in the wrong sequence may result in damage to and perhaps catastrophic failure of both the mast and closure mechanisms. The current state of the art has concerned itself with mechanical go-no-go linkages and devices which permitted only a set chain of events. Unfortunately these mechanical devices are exposed to salt water and the mechanical stresses attended such an exposed deployment dispose the devices to failure with the expected results. In addition, all the known interlock systems rely on the human element to one degree or another. Ideally, a mast deployment system should be constantly self-monitoring through a system of logic to automatically evaluate critical situations and circumvent improper extension and retrieval sequences that have damage potential. Having such a capability, the human element is discounted to assure more reliable operation.
Thus, there is a continuing need in the state of the art for an automatic electronic mast and closure actuation system which removes the human factor from an operational sequence and which is safely disposed within a submarine.

Position interlock system for submarine masts and closure

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy

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A cosmetic composition for making up and/or caring for the skin, containing a physiologically acceptable medium containing at least one vinyl polymer having at least one carbosiloxane-dendrimer-derived unit and at least 2% by weight of a silica, relative to the total weight of the composition, the ratio by weight between said polymer and said silica being greater than or equal to 1.

The present invention relates to the field of care and makeup for keratin materials, in particular the skin and the mucous membranes. More particularly, the present invention relates to compositions for conferring an effect of mattness and exhibiting an improved staying power over time of the mattness.
Cosmetic compositions, such as, for example, foundations, are commonly used to give the skin, in particular the face, color and an esthetic effect. These makeup products generally contain oils, pigments, fillers and, optionally, additives such as cosmetic or dermatological active agents.
It is known to those skilled in the art to use fillers to obtain a mattness effect. These fillers are most commonly selected according to their good properties of sebum absorption and/or to their ability to scatter light. However, their adhesion to the skin is generally weak, especially in the presence of sebum.
Film-forming polymers can then be used to improve the adhesion of these fillers, and to increase the staying power of the mattness effect over the course of the day.
These polymers are of very different chemical natures and can be carried in the fatty phase or in the aqueous phase. By way of examples of these polymers, mention may be made of silicone resins, polyacrylates, latices, etc.
Thus, U.S. Pat. No. 6,887,859 describes skin care and makeup compositions containing a combination of film-forming polymers and fillers.
While these formulations actually make it possible to confer certain mattness staying power properties on the cosmetic compositions, said properties may however be accompanied by unpleasant sensations and discomfort either during application of the product (difficult to spread, tacky effect, greasy feeling, etc.) or over the course of the day (tautness, mask effect, etc.).
FR 2 878 738 and EP 1 862 162 also describe cosmetic compositions containing a vinyl polymer comprising carbosiloxane-dendrimer-derived units and fillers.
However, there remains the need for cosmetic compositions exhibiting a mattness and an improved mattness staying power, which are pleasant and easy to apply, while at the same time conserving satisfactory application comfort, i.e. not having a feeling of tautness or a mask effect throughout the day and/or not inducing a greasy or tacky feeling when applied.

Cosmetic composition containing a polymer comprising a carbosiloxane dendrimer unit


The present invention relates to methods and devices for treating femoral fractures, wherein a polyaxial cross member is employed to accommodate a wide range of angles and anteversions/retroversions in the femur, and different securing mechanisms can also be employed to hold and retain such polyaxial cross member in place at the desired orientation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to methods and devices for treating femoral fractures. More specifically, the present invention relates to the use of novel compression hip screw and intramedullary nail assemblies with a polyaxial cross member for treating fractures to the femur.
2. Background of the Invention
There are a variety of devices used to treat femoral fractures. Fractures of the neck, head or intertrochanter of the femur have been successfully treated with a variety of compression hip screw and intramedullary nail assemblies. A common compression hip screw (CHS) assembly generally includes a side plate having a barrel member, a lag screw, and a compression screw. The side plate is secured to the exterior of the femur, and the barrel member is inserted into a predrilled hole at a proper angle in the direction of the femoral head. The lag screw, which has a threaded end and a smooth portion, is inserted through the barrel member so that it extends across the break or fracture line and into the femoral head. The threaded portion engages the femoral head. The compression screw connects the lag screw to the plate. By adjusting the tension of the compression screw, the active compression or reduction of the fracture can be adjusted. The smooth portion of the lag screw is free to slide through the barrel member to permit the adjustment of the compression screw for active compression. Furthermore, under load of a patient's body weight, while proper angulation of the femoral head is maintained, the lag screw can slide inside the barrel member to allow the fractured sides of the break to bear on each other for passive compression and optimal healing of the fracture. Some examples of CHS assemblies are the Ambi Classic compression hip screw assembly manufactured by Smith & Nephew Inc. of Memphis, Tenn., and those shown in Fixel, U.S. Pat. No. 4,432,358; Callender, Jr., U.S. Pat. No. 3,374,786; Pugh et al., U.S. Pat. No. 2,702,543; Griggs, U.S. Pat. No. 4,530,355; Blosser, U.S. Pat. No. 3,094,120; and Wagner, U.S. Pat. No. 3,842,825.
A typical intramedullary nail assembly generally includes an intramedullary rod and a cross member directed toward the femoral head. The intramedullary rod is inserted into the marrow canal of the femur. The angled cross-member is inserted through the femur and a proximal end of the intramedullary rod. Some examples of the intramedullary nail assemblies are the Russell-Taylor (RT) reconstruction nail assembly and IMHS (intramedullary hip screw) assembly manufactured by Smith & Nephew Inc. of Memphis, Tenn. A description of the IMHS assembly is in U.S. Pat. No. 5,032,125, issued on Jul. 16, 1991 to Durham et al., which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. As with the common CHS assembly mentioned earlier, both the RT reconstruction nail and the IMHS assemblies allow: a) active sliding compression that surgeons can apply during surgery to reduce the fracture; and b) passive sliding compression under load of a patient's body weight. While the IMHS assembly employs a barrel member similar in some ways to the barrel member in the common CHS assembly, the RT reconstruction nail relies on its own structure without any barrel to provide the active/passive sliding compression.

Methods for treating fractures of the femur and femoral fracture devices


A thin-film logic circuit, which can be fabricated entirely of TFTs of the same conductivity type, includes a logic stage connected to a supply voltage and a level shifter connected to a wider voltage range provided by the supply voltage and ground. The logic circuit produces output signals with full rail-to-rail signal range from ground to the supply voltage and can implement or include a basic logic component such as an inverter, a NAND gate, or a NOR gate or more complicated circuits in which many basic logic components are cascaded together. Such logic circuits can be fabricated directly on flexible structures or large areas such as in flat panel displays.

Thin-film-transistor (TFT) technology is important for fabrication of circuitry that requires the ability to flex and in large area devices such as flat panel displays, imagers, and detectors that require active areas that are large compared to the current size of semiconductor wafers. However, a significant limitation of the TFT technology results from the difficulty in fabricating useful PMOS devices in a-Si Amorphous silicon (a-Si) or other thin film semiconductor materials such as Zinc Oxide and thin-film polysilicon. As a result of this difficulty, many TFT circuits only use NMOS transistors, which can cause problems when trying to implement logic with full rail-to-rail output voltage levels, i.e., signals ranging from ground to the power supply voltage. In particular, TFT logic circuits generally lose signal level from the dynamic voltage range and therefore cannot be easily cascaded in the way that conventional CMOS circuits can.
FIG. 1 shows a circuit diagram for a conventional NMOS inverter 100 that can be fabricated using thin-film transistors in a-Si or other material. Inverter 100 includes two NMOS transistors 110 and 120. Transistor 110 has a gate and a drain connected to supply voltage Vdd and a source connected to an output node 115. Transistor 120 has a drain connected to output node 115, a gate connected to receive an input signal IN, and a source connected to ground.
In operation, when an input signal IN is high, ideally at supply voltage Vdd, transistor 120 carries a saturation current which also flows from supply voltage Vdd through transistor 110. Accordingly, when input signal IN is high, inverter 100 acts as a voltage divider, and output signal OUT is pulled to a voltage that will not be the ground voltage but instead depends on the sizes of transistors 110 and 120. When input signal IN is low (ideally at the ground voltage), transistor 120 will be off, and transistor 110 will pull up output node 115 to a voltage that is lower than supply voltage Vdd by at least the threshold voltage of transistor 110. Accordingly, the output signal OUT from inverter 100 does not have the full rail-to-rail voltage range from ground to supply voltage Vdd.
The problem of being unable to provide output signals with the full rail-to-rail voltage swings limits the number of such logic gates that may be serially connected or cascaded without additional signal correction or conditioning. Accordingly, systems and methods that are able to provide rail-to-rail signal range in TFT circuits and NMOS circuits are desired.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


To determine the tensile breaking force of a selected rod/wrap member weld joint in a metal screen of a tubular sand screen assembly used in downhole oil and gas recovery operations a test specimen, including a single rod segment and arcuate segments of the wrap member welded thereto, is removed from the screen. The removed test specimen is supported between base and cover portions of a specially designed test fixture, and a compressive force is exerted on the fixture to forcibly move the base and cover portions thereof toward one another. Representatively, the fixture is operatively positioned in a conventional spring test machine that exerts such compressive force on the fixture. The base and cover portions of the test fixture are configured such that the compressive force is converted to a tensile force exerted on a selected single rod/wrap weld joints in the specimen, with the spring test machine recording the tensile force exerted on the weld joint at its breakage.

The present invention generally relates to particulate filtration screen apparatus and, in a preferred embodiment thereof, more particularly relates to weld joint strength test apparatuses and methods for use in conjunction with welded metal screen structures such as, for example, sand control screen structures employed in various downhole assemblies used in the water well, environmental, industrial filtration, and oil and gas industries.
Tubular filter structures of the type, for example, having a perforated tubular core surrounded by a welded metal filter screen structure that acts as a pre-filter for removing particulate matter from fluid entering the core through its side wall perforations are used in a variety of applications including but not limited to downhole oil and gas recovery operations, water wells, and industrial pollutant filtration in manufacturing operations. Typically, the metal screen structure comprises a circumferentially spaced series of parallel metal rods outwardly overlying the tubular perforated filter core and longitudinally extending parallel to its axis, and a longitudinally spiraled helical metal wire wrap outwardly circumscribing the rods, with the helical wire wrap being welded each rod at its junctures therewith.
For both quality control and operating strength verification purposes it is desirable to be able to test the tensile breaking force of representative rod/wrap weld joints in a batch of tubular filter structures. Various types of tensile testing devices are potentially available for determining the tensile breaking force of selected individual rod/wrap member weld joints. However, as is well known, these machines tend to be relatively expensive.
Moreover, due to the tubular configuration of the screen structure to be tested, it is difficult to prepare a suitable test specimen from the screen structure for use in the machine, and it is also quite difficult to operatively mount the prepared specimen in the machine. Additionally, in preparing the specimen, the individual weld joint to be tested can easily be damaged, typically leading to erroneous (i.e., lowered) weld joint strength test readings.
In view of the foregoing, it can be readily seen that it would be desirable to provide an improved metal filtration screen weld joint test apparatus and methods that eliminate or at least substantially reduce the problems, limitations and disadvantages typically associated with the use of conventional tensile testing apparatuses as generally described above. It is accordingly an object of the present invention to provide an improved test apparatus and methods.

Particulate filtration screen weld joint test apparatus and associated methods


The present invention provides fluorinated compounds as well as dispersions of the fluorinated compounds. The fluorinated compounds described herein, in some embodiments, can be applied substrates such as textiles, including carpet and other floor coverings.

Manufactures of textiles are continuously searching for compositions to enhance textile fiber performance and durability. In the carpet and floor coverings industry, for example, manufacturers desire compositions operable to render carpet fibers stain resistant. Fluorinated compounds have been used extensively to impart water and oil repellency to textile and carpet fibers. Fluorocarbon compounds, for example, can provide both oil and water repellency, unlike waxes, silicones, etc., which typically provide water repellency, but are somewhat oleophilic, and thus do not provide good oil repellency.
Fluorinated compounds, when applied to fibers in sufficient amount, can lower the surface energy of the fiber or fabric below the surface energy of water or oils that might be spilled onto the fabric, thereby allowing removal of these liquids before penetration into the fiber or fabric. This is of great benefit for fibers and fabrics used in clothing, residential, commercial, and industrial settings as the useful life of the fibers and fabric is substantially increased.
The manufacture of fluorinated compounds, nevertheless, generally employs the use of organic solvents presenting several disadvantages. Substrates, including textile fibers, treated with organic solutions or dispersions of fluorinated compounds, for example, often require an extraction step to remove the organic solvent. An extraction step increases the time and cost of producing a stain repellent substrate.
Organic solvent extraction from a substrate can be avoided by using aqueous dispersions of fluorinated compounds. However, production of aqueous dispersions of fluorinated compounds necessitate stripping of the organic solvent used in the production of the fluorinated compounds. Organic solvent stripping from an aqueous dispersion by distillation and other techniques can additionally increase the time and cost of producing a stain repellent substrate. Furthermore, providing stable aqueous dispersions of fluorinated compounds can be difficult requiring the use of dispersing aids such as surfactants and organic cosolvents.

Stain repellent compositions and applications thereof


A system is described for reformatting halftone data for compression, wherein an original bilevel image is reformatted to produce another bilevel image that allows vertical correlations to be recognized by the compression technique, thus improving compressibility dramatically, with particular suitability for facsimile transmissions. In reformatting it is assumed that a selected halftone frequency H will satisfactorily describe an entire document, and each of successive sets of H consecutive lines are concatenated to form respective single lines. The thus reformatted lines have a clearer halftone periodicity offering greater correlation and permit more efficient coding by well-known standard bilevel compression algorithms (e.g., CCITT G3 (MR) or GF4 (MMR)). For an image with unknown pattern frequency, a technique for readily estimating the frequency for use in reformating the image is described.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to digital image processing methods and more particularly to methods for encoding and decoding image data involving pattern frequencies such as binary halftones.
2. Prior Art
The standard international data transmission CCITT Group 3 MR and Group 4 MMR two-dimensional data compression schemes contain Modified Huffman code tables which were optimized for compressing text and line drawings. However, binary halftone representations of continuous tone images have a very different distribution of run sizes and occurrence of vertical references from such drawings. As a result, the amount of data required to represent these halftone images in "compressed" form may be greater than the amount of data required to represent the original image when these compression schemes or other currently used compression techniques are used. This expansion can be limited to about 1.15 by using "uncompressed mode". However, by definition, this mode does not give any compression.
Some examples of prior systems for dealing with the compression of halftone image data are found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,144,547 to STOFFEL and U.S. Pat. No. 4,559,563 to JOINER, which describe processes for coding mixed (text and halftone) documents using multiple-predictor systems with sets of predefined predictors. STOFFEL teaches the use of each available predictor to predict each unit of input data whereby the best predictor is selected, its identity is encoded, and the unit of data is then encoded using that predictor. The decoder gets an indication from the compressed data stream as to which predictor is to be used to decode each unit of data. JOINER uses the predictor which would have performed best on the previous unit of data to predict the pel values for the current unit of data (so that the identity of the predictor to be used does not have to be transmitted). It will be seen that these teachings are general approaches to the problem of efficiently compressing halftones and are not simple extensions of, but rather would be substituted for, the well known standard bilevel compression algorithms (CCITT G3/G4).
U.S. Pat. No. 4,355,306 to MITCHELL also describes a generic bilevel image coder/decoder system. While this system performs well on halftones, it similarly would not operate as a simple extension of the standard bilevel compression algorithms or other commonly-used techniques.
Other examples are found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,634 to CANESCHI ET AL which describes a coder/decoder for bilevel and halftoned images in which the halftones are formed by having areas of strict alternation of black and white pels, thus restricting its applicability; U.S. Pat. No. 4,425,582 to KADAKIA ET AL and U.S. Pat. No. 4,435,726 to LIAO which disclose an efficient hardware implementation for a specific predictor that is designed to work well on both text and halftone data wherein the predictor and a corresponding de-predictor would be added to an encoder/decoder system, such as that defined by the CCITT G3/G4 standards, to produce a version of the original data altered by a predictor scheme; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,193,096 to STOFFEL which shows a system that scans and halftones an image and then compresses the resulting image based on knowledge of the halftoning process used, so that compression is dependent on the halftoning process generating the image data and thus this teaching is inapplicable in a system where all that is supplied to the coder is the bilevel image, and the coder has no control over the halftoning process.
Consequently, it is desirable, and an object of the present invention, to provide a simple and versatile technique that facilitates the efficient compression of binary halftone data representing continuous tone images by known and widely-used compression processes.

International Business Machines Corporation


A machine with a movable element, such as a machine tool and its spindle carrier, that is powered by a motive means to move the element is provided with a counterbalancing system having at least two counterforce means operably connected to the movable element for exerting a counterbalance force on the movable element in opposition to the first force and wherein a first one of the counterforce means has a controllable servomotor means. The control means controls the servomotor means so as to cause the counterbalancing system to exert a substantially constant counterbalance force on the movable element in opposition to the first force. The second one of the counterforce means may be a hydraulic means having a hydraulic cylinder operably connected to an accumulator and a hydraulic piston operably disposed in the cylinder and connected to the movable-element. The control means has a load sensor to sense a load on the movable element and convert the sensed load into a signal used to control the servomotor means which may be a torque controlled electric servomotor for controlling the vertical travel of a spindle carrier in machine tool.

While the counterbalance system of the present invention is applicable to many types of vertical movable means, it is particularly well adapted as a counterbalance mechanism for the vertically movable spindle carrier of a machine tool such as a numerically-controlled machining center, or the like. As a consequence for purposes of any exemplary embodiment, the counterbalance system will be described in terms of its application to the spindle carrier of a machine tool.
In one of its most common forms, the spindle carrier of a machining center, or the like, is shiftable vertically upwardly and downwardly along ways by a ballscrew assembly operatively connected to the spindle carrier and actuated by a drive motor. A ball screw is typically mounted to the column of the machine tool and engages a ball nut attached to the spindle carrier. Since a spindle carrier can be extremely heavy, weighing 24,000 pounds or more, it is desirable to provide a counterbalance system for the spindle carrier to assist the drive motor in moving the spindle carrier. This also minimizes the compression of the ballscrew assembly and increases its life by reducing the mechanical stress within the material of the ball screw assembly. A numerically-controlled machine tool has a spindle carrier movable along a vertical or Y axis and which is typically powered by an electric drive motor or some other type of motor means. The spindle carrier is movable along vertical ways of the machine tool and is connected to the electric drive motor through a relatively long axially-fixed ballscrew having a length such as one hundred inches, for example. The spindle carrier may weigh 24,000 pounds, for example, thus placing a relatively large load on the ballscrew. This load can stretch and/or compress the ballscrew, which is mounted to a ball nut that may travel the length of the ballscrew, and thus interfere with the operation and degrade the accuracy of the machine tool.
To minimize the stretch or compression of the ballscrew, and to assist the drive motor in moving the spindle carrier, a counterbalance mechanism is used with the spindle carrier. U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,518 describes one such prior counterbalance mechanism which has the spindle carrier attached to one end of a chain which is threaded around sprockets and secured at its other end to a fixed structure. The other end of the chain is attached to a piston rod of a piston slidable within a hydraulic cylinder. By applying hydraulic fluid under pressure to the end of the piston attached to the piston rod, a counterbalance force is applied to the spindle carrier. This counterbalance mechanism enables the spindle carrier to be more easily moved by the electric drive motor. However, the inventor's of U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,518 found that when the spindle carrier was moved downwardly by the electric drive motor, the upward movement of the piston within the cylinder caused an increase in the hydraulic pressure causing compression of the ballscrew and when the spindle carrier was moved upwardly by the electric drive motor, the downward movement of the piston in the hydraulic cylinder caused a decrease in the hydraulic pressure thereby producing tension in the ballscrew. With a typical ballscrew having a length of about one hundred inches, extension or contraction of the ballscrew due to such tension or compression respectively can substantially affect the position to which the spindle carrier is moved by the electric drive motor. The relative force locations within a horizontal plane through the carrier (i.e. the ball screw force), the counterbalance force, the slideway bearing friction force, and the force of the carrier's center of gravity, could result in a moment which will change during the transition from upward to downward carrier motion. This changing moment causes the carrier to rotate or rock depending upon the magnitude of the moment and the compliance of the slideway bearing supporting the carrier. This phenomena will substantially influence the positioning accuracy or lost motion at the machine's tool tip. If it wasn't for this changing moment, a servo slide feedback system could solve the resulting positioning problem. Thus, accurate and precise positioning of the spindle carrier, typically within 0.0005" for example, cannot easily be obtained, if at all. This counterbalance system also has deadband problems at spindle carrier reversal.
Thus the inventor's of U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,518, citing these reasons as well as others such as hydraulic and mechanical inefficiencies including the friction of the chain at the sprockets, movement of the spindle carrier along the ways, and the hydraulic piston sliding in the cylinder, proposed an apparatus which produces a substantially constant counterbalance force. Such an apparatus uses a load cell to produce a signal indicative of the sensed load on the spindle carrier and a control means which uses the signal to vary the hydraulic pressure applied to a piston within the hydraulic cylinder which provides the counterbalance force. The system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,518 has been used and has been found to substantially reduce and eliminate deadband problems at spindle carrier reversal and can compensate for the counterbalance valve and line pressure losses at high slide speeds or hydraulic flow rates, conditions which cause problems with traditional counterbalance systems not having load cell feedback.
A further improvement to this system included an accumulator for the hydraulic piston and cylinder provided a faster response and requires less hydraulic power to operate the system. This resulted in considerable savings in operating energy and expenses, reduced noise, and a requirement for a smaller pump and tank. An example of a machine tool is the High Performance CNC Machining center with ACRAMATIC 850MC Computer Numerical Control which has an accumulator as illustrated in its parts and service manual (1987) on page 2-1-3. Accumulator counterbalance systems, particularly these utilizing gas-charged accumulators are, however, characterized by varying counterbalance pressure or force, as the slide moves over its length of travel, particularly for large machines. As a consequence, the accumulator counterbalance system is most useful where the spindle carrier has a short vertical travel and is relatively lightweight. Under these circumstances, pressure or counterbalance force variations are often negligible or within acceptable limits.
The present invention is based upon the discovery that excellent results can be achieved through the use of a two-part system utilizing portions of the known cylinder and accumulator hydraulic system to provide the major counterbalancing force to a chain, together with a high speed torque controlled servomotor operatively attached to one of the chain sprockets to correct or compensate for any deficient counterbalance force of the accumulator hydraulic system.


A process and machine are disclosed for reflowing solder plated continuous flexible circuit webs. During reflow in a vapor environment, the flexible web is maintained in a planar orientation to produce a relatively uniform distribution of solder. Virtually all of the heat transfer fluid used in producing the vapor is recovered and retained.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process and machine for effecting solder reflow operations and, in particular, to a process and machine for reflowing solder plated continuous flexible circuit webs with negligible loss of heat transfer fluid.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Several methods have been disclosed in the prior art for effecting solder reflow operations on printed circuits through the use of hot saturated vapors. One such method is briefly described in an article entitled "Solvent Vapor Solder Reflow" by E. G. Dingman, appearing in the IBM Technical Disclosure Bulletin, Vol. 13, No. 3, August 1970, at page 639. Dingman discloses use of boiling solvents to rapidly and selectively apply heat to small areas having high thermal conductivity to enable solder rework operations with materials and components that are heat sensitive. It seems readily apparent that Dingman does not address the problems of handling large and continuous flexible circuit webs or loss of the boiling solvent.
One method for continuously handling printed circuits is disclosed in R. C. Pfahl, Jr. et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,866,307, issued Feb. 18, 1975. In this method individual circuit boards are loaded onto a conveyor and passed through a receptacle containing hot saturated vapors of an expensive fluid and a wave soldering font. Individual circuit boards are heated by the vapors and skim the solder wave at a low point of the conveyor catenary. One problem resulting from the Pfahl, Jr. et al approach is that solder tends to pool at the low point of the catenary. Another problem is that despite attempts to retain the expensive fluid, substantial quantities are dragged out of the receptacle along with the conveyor and the circuit boards themselves.
Another method disclosed in T. Y. Chu et al U.S. Pat. No. 3,904,102, issued Sept. 9, 1975, attempts to reduce loss of the expensive fluid by use of a less expensive vapor blanket atop the primary vapor zone. One embodiment of the Chu et al method utilizes batch processing techniques. A group of printed circuits is lowered into a receptacle containing the primary vapor zone and the secondary vapor blanket. In another embodiment a conveyor carries the individual circuits into the vapor zone. However, in both embodiments significant quantities of the expensive primary fluid are still lost. Moreover, the second embodiment continues to suffer from solder pooling effects. The first embodiment obviously is not readily adaptable for handling continuous webs of printed circuits.
A somewhat related application of the use of hot vapors is disclosed in K. W. Kamena U.S. Pat. No. 3,737,499, issued June 5, 1973. The Kamena method is used for modifying plastic surfaces on articles of manufacture. An individual plastic article is inserted into a multicompartmented chamber containing one or more vapor regions. The heated vapors impinge on the surfaces of the plastic articles and dissolve at least a molecular layer to remove any surface blemishes and produce a smooth, continuous finish. Kamena, like Pfahl, Jr. et al and Chu et al, also suffers loss of the vapor material through web dragout.
Accordingly, it is one object of the present invention to implement solder reflow operations on a continuous, flexible circuit web without solder pooling.
Another object is to virtually eliminate any distortion of the web dimensions during solder reflow operations.
Still another object of the present invention is to substantially reduce the possibility of dielectric deterioration caused by the solder reflow process.
Yet another object is to virtually eliminate solder slivers produced during etching operations.
A further object of the present invention is to reveal any discontinuities in the printed circuit which may have been bridged by solder during the solder plating process.
Still a further object of the present invention is to indicate the solderability of the flexible circuits.
Yet another object is to facilitate visual inspection of the flexible circuits.
Still a further object is to improve the appearance of the flexible circuits.
An even further object is to significantly reduce, if not virtually eliminate, any loss of the expensive working fluid resulting from web dragout, diffusion and convection.

Flexible circuit reflow soldering machine

Bell Telephone Laboratories, Incorporated


The present invention provides a restored winding core and a method for manufacturing the same, wherein at least one discarded winding core is first collected. At least one of the extremities of the discarded winding core is internally ground on a predetermined grinding distance to remove the crimping portion and provide a ground portion thereon. The ground portion defines a female joint socket extending at the corresponding extremity of the discarded winding core for providing a machined core extremity. The method also comprises the step of providing at least one hollow insert tube diametrically snugly fitting into the female joint socket. The at least one insert tube is inserted inside the corresponding female joint socket for providing a restored core extremity. The present invention thus allows to restore the damaged extremities of a winding core which can then be reused as a new winding core of the same length. The present method also allows to join several discarded winding cores end to end for providing a restored winding core of a longer length.

Newsprint and other paper used for printing are generally shipped from the paper mill in large rolls. When the rolls are made up at the paper mill, they are wound on a tubular core. Typically, the cores are made of liner and/or chip board.
In the press room or other paper process plant, the roll is mounted on an unwind apparatus with the core of the roll journaled on chucks. Once the web of paper has been unwound from the core, the core is generally discarded or returned to a paper mill to be recycled as waste fiber.
Thus, until recently, it has not been contemplated to reuse a winding core once it has been utilized, other than to cut the core down to a smaller size. Indeed, it has been found that after a single use, the winding core is somewhat damaged. More particularly, the internal extremities of the core which have been crimped during unwinding are damaged and cannot be conveniently journaled on chucks once again. Thus, the practice in the industry is to discard the winding cores once a roll of paper web has been unwound therefrom. The discarded single use winding core is then returned to the paper mill as scrap liner board to be recycled as paper fiber.
FIG. 1 (PRIOR ART), illustrates a paper roll 10 having a winding core 12 journaled on chucks 14 at crimping portions 16, 18. The two chucks 14 support the core 12 and control the rotation of the paper roll 10, as well known in the art. Once the paper has been unrolled from the core 12, the core is intact on its length but is damaged at its internal extremities known as the crimping portions 16, 18.
Known in the art, there are U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,845,871 and 6,051,092, both granted to Lynch et al., which describe a recycled core for winding paper, a method for manufacturing the same and an apparatus for recycling cores. FIGS. 2A to 2E (PRIOR ART) illustrate the conventional prior art method described in the above-mentioned US patents used for manufacturing recycled winding cores. Discarded winding cores 12 are first collected, as illustrated on FIG. 2A. The ends 20, 22 of the core 12 which comprise the crimping portions 16, 18 are then trimmed to remove the crimping portions 16, 18 off the core 12, as illustrated on FIG. 2B. FIG. 2C illustrates a trimmed core 24 which is undamaged and smaller than the original core 12. At this point, a female joint socket 26 is formed at one end of the core 24 while a complementary male joint socket 28 is formed at the other end of the core 24, as illustrated on FIG. 2D. A plurality of such cores 24 are then joined end to end with adhesive to form an elongated multiple-length core master 30, as illustrated on FIG. 2E. An elongated web of finishing material (not shown) equivalent to the length of the multi-length core master 30 and having a width corresponding to the circumference of the core master 30 is then wrapped around the core master 30 with adhesive so as to provide a finished core master. The extremities 32, 34 of the core master 30 are finally trimmed so as to remove the two opposed joint sockets 26, 28, as illustrated on FIG. 2E. The core master 30 can then be cut into recycled winding cores of suitable length. U.S. Pat. No. 6,453,966, which comes from the two above-mentioned US patents, describes an apparatus for wrapping a layer of material on such recycled cores.
These patents provide great improvement over the prior art since most of the length of the core can be recycled. However, with the above-described method, the whole length of the core still cannot be entirely recycled. Moreover, this method requires a complex equipment to machine the cores. In fact, with such a method, a specific machine is used for manufacturing a recycled core of a predetermined length. Thus, to manufacture a recycled core of another length, another specific machine would be required. The same issue arises concerning the diameter of the recycled core since a specific grinding tool is required to form the joint sockets.
Also of interest, there is PCT application No. PCT/JP97/01125, published under publication No. WO98/43908, which describes a winding core, a method for producing the same and an insert member for producing the winding core. Also of interest, there is Japanese patent application No. 2002-006953 published under publication No. 2003-206079 which describes a recycled paper tube and its manufacturing method.
However, these two above-mentioned patent applications still do not allow to recycle the whole length of the used cores in an easy and economical manner.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide an improved method and an apparatus for economically and easily reclaiming discarded winding cores to acceptable standards such that the restored winding cores can be reused as winding cores.

Method for manufacturing restored winding cores


A drug delivery system for administering a drug in controlled pulse doses to an aqueous environment in the body of a living being has one or more, and preferably less than ten, individual drug-containing subunits in a unitary drug depot, such as a tablet or capsule. The individual subunits are designed to dissolve at different sites and/or times in the gastrointestinal tract to release pulse doses of drug into the portal system in an analogous manner to the rate of release from an immediate release dosage form administered according to an appropriate dosing schedule. The dissolution time of the individual subunits can be controlled by several methods including the provision of pH-sensitive enteric coatings and permeability-controlled coatings. The drug delivery system has significant advantages for the oral administration of first-pass metabolized drugs which exhibit a non-linear relationship between input rate of the drug into the portal system and bioavailability.

This invention relates generally to drug delivery systems, and more particularly, to a controlled release drug delivery system which is particularly suited for use with first-pass metabolized drugs and which delivers pulsed doses at predetermined time intervals to achieve a bioavailability which is equivalent to immediate release dosage forms administered in divided doses.
A known approach toward effecting the controlled release of orally administered drugs endeavors to achieve a zero order release profile whereby a substantially constant plasma level of the drug is maintained over a predetermined period of time. Although this known approach is suitable for many drugs, it is burdened with several significant disadvantages, and therefore is inappropriate particularly when used with first-pass metabolized drugs and others which are characterized by idiosyncratic pharmacokinetics or pharmacodynamics resulting in reduced bioavailability, altered drug-to-metabolite ratios, altered steady state levels of drug and metabolite, potential food-drug interactions, and altered pharmacodynamic response.
Strategies for reducing the dosing interval of orally administered drugs typically rely on changing the release pattern of the drug from a delivery system, or dosage form, such that the blood level profile of the drug falls within the therapeutic window of the dosing interval. Factoring into this strategy are the pharmacokinetics of the drug and the absorption rate of the drug in the gastrointestinal tract at the site of, and at the time when, the drug is released from the dosage form. The benefits of extended release delivery systems include a decrease in the frequency of dosing and a reduction in the variability of plasma levels of the administered drug over an immediate release dosage form.
In the case of drugs which do not exhibit first pass metabolism, the relationship between the extent of absorption and the bioavailability is linear. Accordingly, changes in bioavailability can be attributed to changes in the extent of absorption. However, in the case of drugs which exhibit first-pass metabolism, the relationship between extent of absorption (or input rate of drug into the portal system) and bioavailability is nonlinear, thereby leading to reduced bioavailability when drugs are administered at very low rates into the gastrointestinal tract.
There is therefore a need for a drug delivery system which yields a reduction in the oral dosing interval of drugs exhibiting first-pass metabolism while simultaneously maintaining bioavailability equivalent to the immediate release dosage form.
In conventional sustained release dosage forms, the bioavailability is compromised by the decreasing release rate. There is therefore a need for a drug dosage delivery system which will release fractions of the total dose at specified times and sites in the GI tract, and thereby minimize the effect of the release rate on the bioavailability.
Propranolol is a first-pass metabolized drug which exhibits non-linearity, or dose dependent bioavailability in the normal therapeutic dosage range. Propranolol hydrochloride, which is available commercially from Ayerst Laboratories, New York, N.Y. under the trademark INDERAL, was the first beta-adrenergic blocking agent to have widespread clinical usage in treating angina and hypertension. The biological half-life of propranolol in man is between two to six hours, and the dosage range is from about 40 to 2000 mg/day typically administered in two to four divided doses.
In order to extend the dosing interval, a controlled release form of propranolol was developed and sold by Ayerst Laboratories under the trademark INDERAL-LA. However, reports indicate that INDERAL-LA performs unsatisfactorily with respect to bioavailability. Although blood levels of propranolol are sustained for a period of 24 hours, the bioavailability is compromised by about 50% as compared to the immediate release dosage form administered in divided doses. It has been determined that such differences in bioavailability are caused by a higher degree of metabolism on first-pass through the liver for the lower release rate, and not incomplete absorption. Since patients on beta-adrenergic blockers are titrated to a particular dosage level given in divided doses, the benefit of once-a-day therapy is offset by possible changes in dosage needed to achieve efficacy.
It is evident from the foregoing that drugs which are eliminated by metabolism and exhibit a non-linear first-pass effect will have drug-to-metabolite level ratios which are dose rate dependent. Consequently, the kinetics of the parent compound and the metabolite are altered by dose rate leading to potentially different clinical responses to the drug. Propranolol, for example, has a bioavailability which varies from 20% to 80% due to dose rate differences. These differences were observed in humans where, for example, the bioavailability of a controlled release form of propranolol was 60% that of the immediate release dosage form, and the peak plasma levels were three-fold lower with the controlled release form leading to potential reduced clinical efficacy. As a result of these deficiencies, INDERAL-LA was required to be the subject of clinical studies to establish efficacy.
In addition to propranolol, other highly metabolized therapeutic agents are suitable for use with the drug dosage delivery system of the present invention. Some commercially available ones of such agents include other beta-adrenergic blockers such as metoprolol and timolol, calcium channel blockers such as verapamil, diltiazem and the anti-epileptic drug phenytoin. Given the large number of drugs which are eliminated by metabolism, there is a great need for an oral dosage form which reduces the relative extent of metabolism.
There are several significant goals which are desired to be realized with the use of a pulsed drug dosage delivery system which delivers doses of a drug at intervals timed to correspond to the administration of a plurality of immediate release doses at predetermined intervals. These include realization of: plasma level time curves equivalent to the immediate release dosage form; clinical efficacy, established through bioavailability, equivalent to the immediate release dosage form; increase in patient compliance as a result of a reduced or simplified dosing schedule; pharmacodynamic equivalence to that of the immediate release dosage form; metabolic rate equivalence to that obtained by conventional dosing schedules so that no unusual accumulation of metabolites or altered metabolic profile will result; accurate programmability of the pulse delay and determination of the fraction of the total dose at each pulse to achieve a variety of predeterminable dosing schedules and permit allowance for circadian rhythms to optimize plasma level time profiles throughout the day and night; and oral delivery of drugs which undergo particularly extensive first-pass metabolism (both gastro-intestinal and hepatic).
In order to accomplish these objectives with a controlled release dosage form, the dosage form must be reproducible, precise, and programmable. However, as a result of the complexity of developing such a system, there is not presently available a drug dosage delivery system of this type. In fact, at the present time, the operating principles of available controlled release dosage forms for oral delivery are based on relatively simple transport models which do not take into account many of the critical factors required to achieve reproducibility and precise programming, such as the physical properties of enteric coating films, including water diffusion into and plasticizer diffusion out of the polymeric coating films, and the consequent time dependent changes in the diffusion coefficient and permeability of the coating; and the time dependent mechanical properties of the coating and its polymer-plasticizer combination such as modulus of elasticity, tensile strength, type of failure (brittle, ductile, necking) or critical strain at failure. In addition, the composition of the core and the conditions under which the coatings are applied to the core can significantly alter the time rate of change of the properties of the coating. Such core variables as osmotic pressure inducing agents, viscosity inducing agents, disintegrants and the presence or absence of lipid materials can influence the swelling rate of the core and therefore the time for failure of the coating.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a drug delivery system for first-pass metabolized drugs, or other drugs wherein the relationship between extent of absorption and bioavailability is nonlinear, which drug delivery system will have bioavailability equivalent to the immediate release dosage form administered in divided doses.
It is another object of this invention to provide a drug delivery system which reduces oral dosing intervals for first-pass metabolized drugs, and hence improves patient compliance, while maintaining bioavailability equivalent to the immediate release dosage form administered in divided doses.
It is also an object of this invention to provide a drug delivery system for first-pass metabolized drugs which maintains higher plasma levels of drug, and reduces variability in the plasma levels, than currently available controlled release dosage forms.
It is a further object of this invention to provide a drug delivery system for first-pass metabolized drugs which will release an individual dose of drug at specified sites and time in the gastro-intestinal tract so that bioavailability will not be compromised by the decreased release rate of conventional controlled or sustained release dosage forms.
It is additionally an object of this invention to provide a drug delivery system which will provide pulse doses of drugs at precise and reproducible times which correspond to immediate release dosing intervals.
It is yet a further object of this invention to provide a drug delivery system which permits efficacious oral delivery of nonlinear first-pass drugs of the type which are extensively metabolized both gastro-intestinally and hepatically.
It is yet an additional object of this invention to provide a drug delivery system wherein the delivery rate into the portal system is increased, with a corresponding decrease in first pass metabolism.
It is also another object of this invention to provide a method for making a drug delivery device which reliably and precisely programs delivery of pulse doses of drug.
It is a yet further object of this invention to provide a drug delivery system which facilitates accommodation for circadian rhythms in order to optimize plasma level time profiles throughout the day and night.
It is still another object of this invention to provide a method of making a drug delivery system wherein optimal dosing schedules for two, or more drugs, can be achieved by tailoring pulse delivery of each drug to its individual pharmacokinetic and pharmacodynamic properties.
It is also a further object of this invention to provide a drug delivery system which yields a reduction in the oral dosing interval of drugs exhibiting first-pass metabolism while simultaneously maintaining bioavailability equivalent to the immediate release dosage form.
A still further object of this invention is to provide a drug delivery system for oral administration of a drug which reduces the relative extent of metabolism of the administered drug.


Memories and methods for providing and receiving non-data signals at a signal node are disclosed. One such memory includes first and second signal nodes, and first and second signal buffer. The first signal buffer is configured to be operative responsive to a first data strobe signal and further configured to be operative responsive to a non-data signal. The second signal buffer is configured to be operative responsive to a second data strobe signal. An example first data strobe signal is a read data strobe signal provided by the memory. In another example, the first data strobe signal is a write data strobe signal received by the memory. Examples of non-data signals include a data mask signal, data valid signal, error correction signal, as well as other signals.

Data strobe signals are signals that are provided from a memory or provided to the memory when read data is output and write data is received by the memory, respectively. Data strobe signals are related to read and write data, but are not themselves data signals. For example, a read data strobe signal is provided by the memory and typically has signal transitions between a high and low levels that are coincident with the signal transitions between bits of read data output by the memory. A write data strobe signal is provided to the memory and typically has signal transitions that are coincident with "data eyes" of the bits of write data received by the memory. The write data strobe signal may be used by the memory to time the latching of the write data. Both read data and write data strobe signals typically include preamble and post amble portions that frame a strobe portion of the data strobe signals. The preamble portion may be used to establish a stable strobe condition just prior to use (either by the memory in the case of write data or a requesting entity in the case of read data) for example, at a rising edge of a next clock cycle. The post amble portions signal may be used to provide a clean strobe completion, for example, a low time after a falling edge used for data capture.
Read and write data strobe signals are typically provided from and received at a shared signal node. That is, the read data strobe is provided from a signal node during the output of data by the memory and the write data strobe is provided to the same signal node during receipt of write data by the memory. In situations where read and write operations occur immediately in sequence, a buffer coupled to the shared signal node must be allowed to conclude provision of, for example, the read data strobe and then prepare to receive, for example, the write data strobe without missing the beginning of the write strobe. In order to provide sufficient "turn around" time for the buffer, at least one clock period is typically inserted between the end of one data strobe signal and the beginning of the other data strobe signal. During the turn around time, no data can be provided or received by the memory. As a result, data bandwidth of the memory is negatively affected.
In addition to data strobe signals, other signals that are not data signals and that are not data strobe signals, but are related to read or write data may be received or provided by the memory. For example, a data mask DM signal may be provided to a memory receiving write data and used to mask portions of the write data written to memory. Another example is an output data valid QV signal which may be provided by the memory with the output of read data to indicate that the read data is valid and can be latched by a receiving entity. As known, there are other examples of non-data signals related to data as well.
Although not all examples of non-data signals are used in every memory application, memory designers often design a memory to include the functionality in order to provide flexibility in the use of the memory for various types of memory systems. As a result, the memory includes additional signal nodes to and from which non-data signals may be provided, thereby increasing the "pin count" for memories. Increasing memory pin count may be undesirable due to size constraints and board layout complexity resulting from the signal nodes, among other reasons. As the number of memory signals continues to increase, the difficulties associated with increasing memory pin count may increase as well.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Memories and methods for sharing a signal node for the receipt and provision of non-data signals


An amino compound obtained by addition reaction of diamine represented by the following formula (1) and an alkenyl compound and a process for producing the same.

1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an amino compound obtained by addition reaction of an alkenyl compound to a diamine represented by the following formula (1) and a process for producing the same. This amino compound is applicable to a curing agent and a raw material thereof for an epoxy resin to be utilized in a very wide field including application to coating such as an electrodeposition coating for motor car, a heavy-duty paint for ship, bridge and land and marine iron structure, and inner coat of drinking can, application to electricity and electronics to be used in household electric products, communication equipments and control systems of motor car and airplane such as a laminated plate, an electric semiconductor sealing compound, an insulating powder coating, and coil impregnation, application to civil engineering and construction such as earthquake-proof of bridge, lining, reinforcement and repair of concrete structure, a flooring material of building, lining of water supplying facility and sewerage, and pavement for waste water and permeating water, application to adhesive for vehicle and airplane, and application to composite material for airplane, industrial materials and sports equipment, and to a chain extender and a raw material thereof of a polyurethane resin to be utilized in a very wide field including cloths, sports equipment, home appliances, electronics, medical apparatuses, motor cars, transporting apparatus, civil engineering and construction and industrial materials as foam, elastomer, coating, adhesive, binder, fiber, leather, flooring material, water proof material, athletic material, sealant, coking, medical material and fiber treating agent.
H2Nxe2x80x94H2Cxe2x80x94Axe2x80x94CH2xe2x80x94NH2xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
wherein A is a phenylene group or a cyclohexylene group.
2) Prior Art
It has widely known that various polyamino compounds are used as a curing agent for epoxy resin and a raw material thereof or a chain extender and a raw material thereof of a polyurethane resin. Particularly, a curing agent for epoxy resin containing the diamine represented by the formula (1) and a curing agent for epoxy resin used the above-mentioned diamine as a raw material have a feature that curing of an epoxy resin composition fast proceeds since their reactivity with an epoxy resin is higher than a curing agent for epoxy resin containing other aromatic polyamino compound or an aliphatic polyamino compound and a curing agent for epoxy resin used the same as a raw material. Further they have features to provide a coated film excellent in both gloss and levelling and a cured product excellent in both water resistance and chemical resistance.
However, on the other hand, a curing agent for epoxy resin containing the diamine represented by the formula (1) and a curing agent for epoxy resin used the above-mentioned diamine as a raw material have defects that an epoxy resin composition used said curing agent for epoxy resin exhibits a short pot life and its workability is inferior since their reactivity with an epoxy resin is high.
Hitherto, it has been known that when a cyanoethylated polyamino compound obtainable by Michael addition reaction of a polyamino compound and an acrylonitrile is used as a curing agent for epoxy resin, long pot life is provided to an epoxy resin composition, e.g., xe2x80x9cNew Epoxy Resinxe2x80x9d edited by Hiroshi Kakiuchi, published by Shokodo in Japan, 1985, P186. However, acrylonitrile has been designated as a specific chemical substance and a deleterious substance in Japan and exhibits high harmfulness. Thus, recently, restriction on its handling has been increased from the aspects of safety and hygiene.
Further, Japanese Patent Kokai (Laid-open) No. 8-269196 relates to a process for producing a star form-or a comb form-branched aliphatic polyamino compound and a curing resin composition and discloses an aliphatic polyamino compound able to control optionally a pot life after mixing other resin and a curing resin used the same as one component. However, an aliphatic polyamino compound with a low viscosity at a room temperature exhibits a small prolongation effect of a pot life.
Japanese Patent Kokai (Laid-open) No. 11-80322 relates to a compound obtainable by Michael addition reaction of a polyamino compound and an unsaturated carboxylic acid ester compound and discloses a method for prolongation of pot life in curing at a room temperature of an epoxy resin composition with a low viscosity at a room temperature and low harmfulness. However, when it is used as a curing agent for epoxy resin, the pot life of an epoxy resin composition used the curing agent becomes short since, during its long time preservation, ester-amide exchange reaction of an ester group and an amino group present in the amino compound proceeds, so that viscosity is increased due to production of amide and the ester group is decreased.
It has been already known that addition reaction of various amino compounds and an alkenyl compound produces the corresponding amino compound. When an alkenyl compound has a strong electron withdrawing group such as a cyano group or carboxylic acid ester, its reaction readily proceeds. On the other hand, when it has no strong electron withdrawing group, the reaction with the amino compound becomes difficult, but it becomes possible by use of a catalyst (xe2x80x9cProgress of Complex Catalyst Chemistryxe2x80x9d written by Shunichi Murahashi, Kagakuzokan 109, P167-176, 1986, published by Kagaku Dojin, in Japan). For example, acrylonitrile with a cyano group reacts readily with various amino compounds and a cyanoethylated amino compound thus obtained has been applied widely in the field of a curing agent for epoxy resin (xe2x80x9cNew Epoxy Resinxe2x80x9d edited by Hiroshi Kakiuchi, published by Shokodo in Japan, P186, 1985). Further, reaction of acrylate or methacrylate having carboxylic acid ester with various amino compounds produces the corresponding amino compound (E.H. RIDDLE: MONOMERIC ACRYLIC ESTERS, P153-155, 1954)
Even in case of divinyl benzene where an alkenyl compound has no strong electron withdrawing group, it reacts N,Nxe2x80x2-diethyl ethylenediamine by use of an alkaline metal catalyst whereby the corresponding amino compound is obtained (Japanese Patent Kokai (Laid-open) No. 55-11523). It has been known that a nitrogen-containing monomer with carbon-carbon double bond and amine is obtained by the reaction disclosed in Japanese Patent Kokai (Laid-open) No. 55-11523.
An object of the present invention is to provide an amino compound in which a long pot life is provided to an epoxy resin composition used the amino compound as a curing agent for epoxy resin and a process for producing the same.
As a result of extensive studies to provide above-mentioned novel amino compound in order to solve the above-mentioned prior art problems, the inventors have found that a novel amino compound is obtained by addition reaction of the diamine represented by the formula (1) and an alkenyl compound without necessitating use of a harmful raw material such as acrylonitrile designated as a specific chemical substance and a deleterious substance in Japan and the amino compound thus obtained causes no change of both viscosity during preservation and a pot life of an epoxy resin composition used the amino compound as a curing agent for epoxy resin and a long pot life is provided to an epoxy resin composition used the amino compound as a curing agent for epoxy resin, and have accomplished the present invention.
That is, the present invention provides an amino compound obtained by addition reaction of diamine represented by the following formula (1) and an alkenyl compound.
H2Nxe2x80x94H2Cxe2x80x94Axe2x80x94CH2xe2x80x94NH2xe2x80x83xe2x80x83(1)
wherein A is a phenylene group or a cyclohexylene group.
The present invention provides also a process for producing an amino compound which comprises performing addition reaction of diamine represented by the formula (1) and an alkenyl compound in the presence of a strong base catalyst.
Further, the present invention provides a curing agent for epoxy resin containing the above-mentioned amino compound, an epoxy resin composition comprising an epoxy resin and the above-mentioned amino compound as a curing agent for epoxy resin and a cured product cured the epoxy resin composition.

Amino compound and process for producing the same


A media transport mechanism including a high accuracy vacuum belt used in conjunction with a pinch roller assembly. The media transport mechanism includes a vacuum belt supportably wrapped around two sprocket assemblies and a plenum and disposed in facing relation to a print head. The vacuum belt has two pinch roller assemblies disposed in spaced-apart relation across the front surface of the vacuum belt, with each pinch roller assembly including two pinch rollers which, in conjunction with the vacuum belt, grip and advance a sheet of media across the front surface of the vacuum belt during printing. The plenum provides a vacuum hold-down force for holding the media flat against the front surface of the vacuum belt.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a media transport mechanism in a printer and in particular to a high accuracy vacuum belt used in conjunction with pinch roller assemblies for precise media handling.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The prior art devices will be discussed in terms of printers, although the concepts may be equally applicable to other devices having vacuum belts in conjunction with pinch roller assemblies.
There has been a continuing need for precise media handling in a printer, and especially at the region of the media where the printing takes place. The prior art devices adopted one of many ways of transporting media through the printing area; however, each of them suffer from some inherent drawbacks which reduce the accuracy of the printing.
In one type of prior art device which uses a flat stationary platen, friction drive rollers alone are used. Typically, two sets of friction drive rollers are provided on two separate drive shafts. However, the use of friction drive rollers introduces printing inaccuracies due to some deficiencies. First, it is difficult to synchronize two drive shafts. A usual technique to overcome this problem is to slightly over-drive the exit rollers to ensure that the media is tensioned adequately. However, during the entrance and exit of the media, there are times when the media is held down by only one set of rollers. Inaccuracies may be introduced during the transition from one set of rollers to the other set. Second, inaccuracies may occur because the rollers may become deformed. Third, the leading and trailing edges of the media are not well controlled by the two sets of drive rollers.
In a second type of prior art device, a rotary platen is used to advance media through the printing area. However, since the printing surface is curved, the resulting print gap will vary, which will cause inconsistencies in printing.
In a third type of prior art device, a tractor feed device is used to transport continuous sheets of media across a printing area. However, the paper positioning accuracy is severely affected by the accuracy of the holes in the media. Furthermore, tractor feed is inappropriate for transporting individual cut sheets.

High accuracy vacuum belt and pinch roller media transport mechanism


A vane machine includes a housing with a inlet port and an outlet port, a rotor mounted in a cavity of the housing. The rotor has a faceplate and a guide cylinder mounted eccentrically on an end surface of the housing opposite to the faceplate. The guide cylinder is rotatable and provided with a diametrical face groove open from a side of the faceplate, and one or more working vanes mounted on the faceplate such that the faceplate is rotatable and movable in the grooves of the guide cylinder as the faceplate rotates. The diameter of the guide cylinder 7 is D>4a−L, where e is the eccentricity of the axis of the guide cylinder and the length of the working vane is L≦4e×sin 90°/N, where N is the number of working vanes.

This invention relates to mechanical engineering and can be used in hydraulic machines, pumps, compressors and internal combustion engines.
Known is a vane pump comprising a housing in which a barrel is fixed, the barrel being provided with suction and discharge ports, an inner cavity of the barrel comprising a rotor with radial grooves in which vanes are mounted, the vanes interacting with closers (Russian utility model patent RU 40466, Int. class F04C 2/344, published 10, Sep. 2004).
The vane pump of the prior art is characterized by some drawbacks which are structural complexity, insufficient reliability due to many friction couples, as well as inefficient pumping of the working medium.
Known is a vane machine comprising a rotor mounted eccentrically in a stator cavity, movable vanes being mounted in radial grooves of the rotor and rested on a cylindrical guide member received in a bore in the rotor (see Russian patent RU 2011013 Int. class F04C 2/344, published 15, Apr. 1994).
Among drawbacks of this vane machine are complex structure, extensive wear of movable vanes, and inefficient pumping of the working medium.
Known is a pump comprising a housing having a cavity formed therein and provided with an inlet port and an outlet port, a rotor mounted eccentrically in the cavity, blades extending diametrically through the rotor, engaged with the walls of the cavity and dividing the same into a plurality of working chambers, wherein the cross-section of the cavity being a combination of two arches of a circle with different radii and two adjacent curvilinear sections which are complementary portions of Archimedean spiral of common foci, each of the arches being less than half of a circle. Ends of these curvilinear sections are tangentially directed to said arches of a circle in the points of intersection with them, each of the blades moving at a constant velocity as it travels over the non-circular portion of the cavity while sliding through the rotor, the rotor rotating at a constant angular velocity and fitting an arch of a circle of lesser radius (see U.S. Pat. No. 2,260,888 A, 28, Oct. 1941, F04c2/344). Each blade of the pump mounted in the rotor is capable of being free longitudinally moved relative to the axis of the rotor, the distance of its longitudinal moving being limited by three parameters, namely the blade surface groove space, the eccentricity of the rotor axis relative to the axis of the inner cavity of the housing and the shape of the cross-section of the housing cavity. The trajectory of the moving of the blades ends is specified by the shape of the cross-section of the housing cavity in this pump.
This pump also shows complex structure, extensive wear of movable vanes and inefficient pumping of the working medium.
A rotary apparatus as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,373,656 A, 17, Apr. 1945, F04C 2/344 can be regarded as the closest prior art by construction and technical effect. The rotary apparatus comprises a stator and a rotor. The stator comprises a cylindrical housing, and the inner surface of this housing has a general cross-section in the form of a cardioid, except for a part in which the wall is provided with a longitudinal arcuate recess. The rotor comprises a cylindrical shuttle and a blade, the shuttle being adapted for rotation in the housing in such a way that a part of the shuttle enters the recess. The shuttle has a longitudinal diametrical slot in which the blade is mounted for transversal movement therein, the blade having such a length that its edge engages the inner surface of the housing as the shuttle rotates. At either side of the recess, the housing is provided with an inlet port and an outlet port each having a width equal to the thickness of the blade. Further, the rotary apparatus is provided with control means for controlling the blade movement to allow the edge of the blade to sweep the inner surface of the housing, the control means being independent of the shuttle. Thus rotary apparatus is still characterized by inefficient pumping of the working medium. Another its drawback is narrow use due to the cardioid cross-section of the housing inner surface and a limited width of the inlet and outlet ports restricted by the thickness of the working vane.