A method, system, and computer program product for virtual reality-based network traffic load simulation are provided. The method monitors a set of activities for a set of applications. A network load simulation for the set of applications is generated based on the set of activities. A contextual change is identified for an application of the set of applications. The method generates a virtual reality visualization of the network load simulation based on the contextual change. A parameter change is detected from a user interaction within the virtual reality visualization of the network load simulation. The method dynamically modifies the network load simulation within the virtual reality visualization in response to the parameter change.

Data moving across a communications network in a given time period is known as network traffic. This data is generally divided into network packets that form the load placed on the communications network. Systems have been created to measure, control, and simulate network traffic. The data composing network traffic is often largely generated by applications, in an application landscape, communicating with one another through the communications network. Within the application landscape, maintenance is often performed on applications as well as system resources used by those applications. Part of this maintenance includes migrating data from one application to another. These maintenance activities give rise to additional network traffic.

Virtual reality-based network traffic load simulation


Disclosed herein are an insulating film forming method for semiconductor device interconnection and a plasma treatment system for use in the method. The method comprises (i) a step of forming an insulating film free of void, on a substrate having an interconnection pattern, in which a mixed gas of a film forming source gas and an etching gas comprising a fluorine compound is used to perform both deposition of an insulating film by plasma CVD and reactive etching of the insulating film, simultaneously, and (ii) a step of planarizing the surface of the insulating film formed by the step (i) and comprised of, for example, silicon oxide, in which a gas of a material decomposable by a reactive gas capable of decomposing the insulating film is supplied onto the substrate so as to deposit a solid film of the material, e.g. Si(OCH.sub.3).sub.4, on the insulating film on the substrate, the temperature of the substrate is then raised to liquefy the deposited material film, thereby planarizing the surface of the material film, the substrate temperature is again lowered to solidify the planarized liquid material film, and thereafter the insulating film together with the Si(OCH.sub.3).sub. 4 solid film is subjected to plasma etching with, for instance, CF.sub.4 gas as an etching gas. According to the invention, an insulating film which is planar and free of voids can be formed on an interconnection pattern of a substrate, without affecting the characteristics of devices provided on the substrate.

This invention relates to the manufacture of semiconductor devices, and more particularly to an insulating film forming method for semiconductor device interconnection which is suitable for manufacture of highly integrated devices of multilevel interconnection structure, and to an apparatus for carrying out the method.
With the recent trend toward semiconductor devices of higher integration and higher density, the roughness of surface shape of the semiconductor devices has become greater, and reliable formation of a number of layers for interconnection on such a surface has come to be required. It is therefore necessary to form an insulating film for insulating the interconnection layers from each other, independently of the rough shape of the underlying surface and in such a manner that the insulating film will have a planar surface. For planarization of the insulating film, the methods under investigation at present are disclosed in Denki Kagaku (published by the Electrochemical Society of Japan) Vol. 57, No. 4 (1989), pp. 281-285, and Semicon NEWS 1989, June, pp. 49-67.
Many planarization methods which employ sputter-etching, etchback, reflow or the like have been proposed and studied.
For the formation of insulating films between interconnections for a semiconductor device, it is necessary not only to form a planar film but also to avoid influences of the film forming process on the device characteristics, to prevent the formation of voids in the film, to suppress dust generation attendant on the process, and so on. For higher productivity, in addition, the film forming process should not involve a wet treatment, such as use of a coating film, and should enable continuous processing in vacuum.
The above-mentioned prior arts have the following drawbacks. The method which uses sputter-etching and enables continuous processing in vacuum has the problems of influencing the device characteristics and generating dust. The methods using a coating film or etching are disadvantageous in that they use a combination of a wet process and a vacuum process. None of the conventional insulating film forming methods for semiconductor device interconnection satisfies the above-mentioned performance requirements for mass-production.
A general description of the conventional insulating film formation techniques is found, for example, in Semiconductor World, 1989, November, pp. 78-83.

Insulating film forming method for semiconductor device interconnection


A semiconductor device includes a plastic housing and a semiconductor chip, wherein the semiconductor chip includes an active top side and a rear side. An interposer is arranged on the active top side of the semiconductor chip. At least a portion of the interposer is embedded into the plastic housing, while the top side of the interposer forms the top side of the semiconductor device. A top side fitting shape is arranged on the top side of the interposer, where the top side fitting shape has a predetermined radius of curvature that is free of plastic housing composition, and the top side fitting shape has a convex or concave lens-shaped sphere segment shape.

A semiconductor device known in the art is described in U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2004/0036172. The known semiconductor device has a device housing with an integrated circuit comprising a substrate having mutually opposite top sides and undersides. Furthermore, the semiconductor device has a semiconductor chip having a rear side opposite its active top side. The semiconductor chip is mounted on the top side of the substrate in such a way that the rear side of the semiconductor chip faces the substrate. The plastic housing has a thermally conductive interposer arranged on the active top side of the semiconductor chip. A heat sink is arranged on the interposer, the heat sink projecting from the plastic housing by its top side.
In this case, the interposer forms a thermal coupling between the active top side of the semiconductor chip and the heat sink. Consequently, the function of the interposer is extremely limited, since it can neither be used as an intermediate wiring plate nor serve as an additional heat sink.
As is known, semiconductor chips generate heat loss. The latter is dissipated from the semiconductor chip via the housing, with the result that the semiconductor chip is prevented from heating up and thereby being able to be destroyed. The heat dissipation takes place as in the above document in that the semiconductor chip is connected via a good thermal conductor, such as a metal, a heat dissipater and/or a heat sink. The wiring substrate in the form of a printed circuit board on which the housing of the semiconductor device is fixed may already serve as a heat dissipater. In this case, the plastic housing composition performs the function of a thermal connection between the active top side of the semiconductor chip and the wiring substrate.
A further heat path passes directly through the semiconductor chip, such that the heat loss passes to the wiring substrate via the rear side of the semiconductor chip. For this purpose, the chip is generally mounted by its passive rear side onto a provided chip contact area of the wiring substrate. In the case of semiconductor devices which are constructed using BGA technology or using leadframeless technology, the heat can therefore principally be emitted in the direction of a printed circuit board in the form of the wiring substrate. The document cited above enables a third path for dissipating heat loss, in the case of which an interposer is arranged directly on the active top side of the semiconductor chip, and, for its part, it is thermally conductively connected to a heat sink.
In addition to the disadvantages already mentioned above that such an interposer can only be used to a limited extent, a further disadvantage arises in that a multiplicity of thermal transfers have to be provided in order to emit the power loss from the active top side of the semiconductor chip via the third heat path to the surroundings. However, the multiplicity of heat transfers restricts the effectiveness of the heat dissipation using the known means. Moreover, a function of the interposer as an intermediate wiring carrier, as is required for the stacking of semiconductor devices, cannot be fulfilled with the interposer known from the above document.

Semiconductor device comprising a plastic housing, a semiconductor chip and an interposer including a convex or concave lens-shape top side fitting shape


An optical pickup includes an optical system in which light from a light source is introduced through an objective lens into an optical recording medium and in which light reflected from the optical recording medium is introduced into a light-receiving unit and an objective lens driving unit for driving the objective lens based on a light output detected at said light-receiving unit. In this optical pickup, a diffraction element is provided between the light source and the objective lens, the diffraction element is provided with at least first and second diffraction areas and the first and second diffraction areas have such grating shapes that ± first-order diffracted lights diffracted are received by the light-receiving unit at the position in which 0-th order light and ± first-order diffracted lights generated from guide grooves of the optical recording medium may not overlap with each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical pickup, an optical recording and reproducing apparatus and a tracking error signal detecting method useful for optically recording and reproducing information on and from an optical recording medium such as an optical disc and an optical card.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, various types of optical recording mediums with different recording densities have been developed. For example, a CD (Compact Disc) of which available wavelength of laser light is near 780 nm, for example, a DVD (Digital Versatile Disc) of which available wavelength of laser light is near 660 nm, a BD (Blu-ray Disc: Registered Trademark) of which available wavelength of laser light is near 405 nm, a HD-DVD (High Definition DVD) of which available wavelength of laser light is near 405 nm might be numerated as disc-like optical recording mediums, for example.
These optical recording mediums are respectively different in structure. In order to increase a recording density, a track pitch of 1.6 μm of the CD type optical recording medium is microminiaturized as a track pitch of 0.74 μm in DVD type optical recording medium and it is also microminiaturized as a track pitch of approximately 0.3 to 0.35 μm in the BD type optical recording medium.
With respect to the recording track of which track width is microminiaturized as described above, it is necessary to locate light emitted from a light source at target recording tracks with high accuracy.
A DPP (Differential Push-Pull) method is widely used as a method for correcting offset of an objective lens, that is, shift of an optical axis of the objective lens in a tracking method using a push-pull signal (see Cited Patent Reference 1, for example).
According to this DPP method, light traveling from the light source to the optical recording medium is divided into three lights, two sub-beams are irradiated on the position shifted by ½ of the track pitch of the recording track with high accuracy in the radial direction on the surface of the optical recording medium relative to the middle main beam and the tracking error can be detected and the offset of the objective lens can be canceled by detecting these lights at the receiving units.
[Cited Patent Reference 1]: U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,968
[Cited Patent Reference 2]: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-30892

Optical pickup, optical recording and reproducing apparatus and tracking error signal detecting method


A modular radiant heater unit (10) is for use in a stove top (RT) designed for installation of a tubular coil type heating unit (C). The heater can either use a coil (12), or a ribbon heating element (14). The element rests upon a cake (20) of an insulation material fitted within a pan (16) sized to be installed in an opening (6) in the stove type in which a coil type heating unit is normally installed. The heating unit has an electrical connector (24) adapted to readily connect with the electrical connector installed in the stove top. A radiant glass cover (30), sized to fit over the heater unit, is fitted over the pan and held in place by an annular ring (34) which fits about the circumference of the pan and a shield (38) which covers a gap (6) between the heater unit and stove top. Utensils for cooking food are placed upon the glass top. The heater control (K) normally used to control the temperature of a tubular, coil heater, is now used to control the temperature of the radiant heater unit.

This invention relates to electric heating units of the type used in range tops or stove tops, and more particularly, to an integrated radiant heating unit which can be used as a modular heating element equivalent of a conventional tubular heating unit, as well as for incorporation in new cooking appliance designs.
Conventional electric stoves are equipped with one or more (usually four) tubular, coil top cooking units housed in a maintop. Some of the units are designed for one wattage rating, and other of the units have a different rating. The units are independent of each other with each unit being a plug-in unit. That is, each unit can be separately removed and replaced without effecting any of the remaining units. The portion of the maintop about each heating unit is typically a raised surface so pots and pans placed on a cooking unit are supported slightly above the range top surface.
Radiant heating elements are also known in the art. Some stoves are equipped with these types of units rather than the tubular coil top units discussed above. Stoves employing radiant heating units are glass top units. That is, the heating units are supported beneath a sheet of glass and heat produced by a unit radiates onto the bottom of the utensil placed on top of the glass. The glass typically 4 mm. thick and the glass top is, for example, a 20".times.30"(51cm.times.76cm) sheet. A cooking utensil placed on the top of the glass (which is generally level with the rest of the range top) is heated by the heat transferred through the glass to the bottom of the utensil. A specific disadvantage of this arrangement is that the cooktop glass, if and when broken, needs to be replaced as a whole unit. Individual radiant elements also have to be mounted specially and may require special skills or a service call from a professional to replace them. In addition, there are other heating units which are built with a glass cover above a tubular, coil type heater. However, such heaters require a relatively long time to heat up, and their operation is relatively inefficient.
It would be advantageous to have a modular radiant heating unit that can be handled "independent" of the other units. It is also very desirable to have a unit whose operation is energy efficient at all levels of power input settings on the controls.


The present invention relates to a gap supporter for a printed circuit board, and a package including a gap supporter for a printed circuit board and an insulation sheet coupled thereto. A gap supporter for a printed circuit board includes a fixed body part which has a metal thin-film formed on the surface of the lower end thereof, and is fixed to one surface of the printed circuit board by soldering of the metal thin-film; a clamping groove formed in a groove shape on the fixed body part, and having an insulation sheet inserted and clamped thereto to protect an element on one surface of the printed circuit board; and an anti-separation part formed on the other end of the fixed body part so as to be defined by the clamping groove, so as to fix the insulation sheet and prevent the insulation sheet from being separated.

As a flat panel display becomes thinner, an LCD panel and a PCB provided with a drive circuit for driving the LCD panel are closely positioned to face each other. This causes a problem that the PCB is pressed against the LCD panel or a housing case and thus electrical short circuit occurs.
Further, since heights of electronic elements mounted on the PCB or soldering parts are not constant, there is a problem such as bending of the PCB due to a difference in heights when the PCB and LCD panel are close to each other.
Referring to a conventional backlight assembly and a liquid crystal display device using the same disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-5806 (Laid-opened on Jan. 10, 2007), a printed circuit board 210 disposed on the bottom of a backlight assembly 2000 by bending a flexible printed circuit board 230 is described. In this case, the LCD device comprises the display assembly 1000 as well as the backlight assembly 2000, wherein the display assembly 1000 includes an LCD panel 100, a driving circuit unit 200 and an upper housing member 300, while the backlight assembly 2000 includes a lamp unit 400, a light guide plate 500, a reflecting plate 600, an optical sheet 700, a lower housing member 800 and a buffer member 800. Further, a laminate structure from the reflecting plate 600 to the LCD panel 100 is solidly maintained by the lower housing member 800 and the upper housing member 300, while the flexible circuit board 230 is bent downward and thus the PCB 210 is disposed on the bottom of the lower housing member 800. The lower housing member 800 is provided with the buffer member 900 to prevent damage to the flexible circuit board 230.
As such, in the prior art, as a flat panel display device becomes slim, the PCB 210 is positioned to be substantially in close contact with the bottom of the lower housing member 800, therefore, a little gap must be present between the PCB 210 and the lower housing member 800 so as to protect electronic components mounted on the PCB 210.
In addition, since a height of the electronic component mounted on the PCB 210 or the soldering part is not constant, the PCB 210 may be bent when it is in close contact with the lower housing member 800. Therefore, in order to prevent such bending, a little gap should be present therebetween. Accordingly, in order to save such gap, it is necessary to provide a gap supporter between the lower housing member 800 and the PCB 210.
However, the gap supporter according to the related art has failed to firmly secure the insulation sheet for protecting PCB, and also entails a problem in that a worker must manually work on the PCB, hence reducing productivity.

Gap supporter for printed circuit board, and package including gap supporter for printed circuit board and insulation sheet coupled thereto


Describes a multifocal optical article, e.g., an ophthalmic article such as a lens, in which the article includes (1) a rigid optical substrate, e.g., a transparent polymeric substrate, such as a thermoset or thermoplastic substrate, adapted to possess at least one light influencing property on at least a portion of at least one surface of the substrate, e.g., a photochromic and/or polarizing layer, and (2) a multifocal layer of an optical quality material on said substrate having the light influencing property. Describes also the aforedescribed optical article having an abrasion-resistant coating on the multifocal layer, e.g., an abrasion-resistant coating comprising an organo silane. A method for preparing the multifocal optical article comprising curing optical quality material between a multifocal mold and a preform comprising an optical substrate possessing the light influencing property is also described.

Clear ophthalmic articles that provide good imaging qualities, while reducing the transmission of incident light into the eye, are needed for a variety of applications, including but not limited to, sun lenses, plano lenses, fashion lenses, and vision correcting ophthalmic lenses, e.g., prescription lenses. Responsive to that need, photochromic plastic ophthalmic articles have been given considerable attention because of the weight advantage they offer, vis-à-vis, glass lenses.
Photochromism is a phenomenon involving a reversible change in color of a photochromic organic or inorganic material, e.g., a chromene or silver halide salt, or an article comprising such a material. Upon exposure to a source of activating ultraviolet or other actinic radiation, a photochromic material exhibits a change in color, e.g., it becomes darker. When the activating radiation is removed or discontinued, the photochromic material returns to its original color or colorless state. Articles that have photochromic material(s) applied to or incorporated within the article exhibit this reversible change in color and consequently a reversible change in light transmission.
Photochromic plastic ophthalmic articles have been prepared by incorporating photochromic material into the substrate of the plastic article by an imbibition process. In the imbibition process, one or more photochromic materials, e.g., organic photochromic materials, are applied to the surface of the plastic article, either as a neat photochromic dye/compound or dissolved or dispersed in a polymeric or other organic solvent carrier, and then heated to cause the photochromic dye/compound(s) to diffuse into the subsurface region of the plastic article. The subsurface region of such plastic articles are reported to have sufficient free volume to allow photochromic dye/compound(s) to transform from the colorless form into the colored form, and then revert subsequently to their original colorless form.
There are, however, certain polymer matrices that do not readily imbibe photochromic dye/compound(s). In such circumstances, the photochromic dye/compound(s) either do not penetrate sufficiently into the subsurface of the polymer, or the subsurface of the polymer is reported to have insufficient free volume, which prevents the photochromic dye/compound(s) from exhibiting significant photochromic activity. Hence, these polymer matrices cannot be used as a substrate for imbibed (or internally incorporated) photochromic materials for commercially acceptable photochromic optical applications. To allow the use of such polymer matrices as substrates for photochromic articles, it has been proposed to apply organic photochromic coatings to the surface of such polymer substrates.
Multifocal ophthalmic articles are of significant commercial interest because of the large number of individuals that require multiple optical corrections for their lenses, e.g., bifocal, trifocal and progressive lenses. It is desirable, therefore, to provide photochromic multifocal ophthalmic articles that are prepared from polymers that do not readily imbibe organic photochromic materials. Applying a photochromic coating to the surface of a preformed multifocal article has met with minimum success because of coating imperfections and optical distortions that are located near the multifocal region, e.g., the raised bifocal segment. Ophthalmic articles with such coating imperfections do not meet commercially acceptable "cosmetic standards".


Methods and systems are provided for a rebalancing reactor of a flow battery system. In one example, a pH of a battery electrolyte may be maintained by the rebalancing reactor by applying a negative potential to a catalyst bed of the rebalancing reactor. A performance of the rebalancing reactor may further be maintained by treating the catalyst bed with deionized water.

Performance degradation is a significant obstacle in battery systems, arising from a number of factors including, for example, side reactions at the positive or negative electrode, internal shorting, ionic movement, and catalyst poisoning. In a hybrid flow battery, such as an iron redox flow battery, undesirable reactions occurring in battery electrolyte may lead to capacity degradation, resulting in costly compensation. For example, generation of hydrogen gas as well as iron corrosion by proton (H+) and ferric (Fe3+) ions at the negative electrode may drive an electrolyte charge imbalance, thereby reducing battery capacity. Furthermore, at least one side reaction described above may result in hydrogen evolution while iron corrosion occurring at the negative electrode may cause electrolyte instability, further reducing a useful lifetime of a battery.
In order to maintain a performance of the battery, the electrolyte state of charge (SOC) may be rebalanced by a supporting electrochemical reaction occurring at an auxiliary rebalancing reactor. In one example, hydrogen gas produced at the negative electrode may be directed to a catalyst and contact between the hydrogen gas and the catalyst surface may chemically oxidize the hydrogen gas, returning protons to the electrolyte. A low electrolyte pH for sustaining electrolyte stability may be maintained as well as the balance of the electrolyte SOC.
However, the inventors herein have recognized potential issues with such systems. As one example, a presence of anions in the electrolyte may interact with the catalyst in a manner that degrades catalyst performance. The anions may adsorb onto the catalyst surface to form an anionic complex that induces formation of a cationic diffusion double layer. The positive double layer inhibits electro-active species from reaching reaction sites on the catalyst, thus poisoning the catalyst and reducing an efficiency of the rebalancing reactor.
In one example, the issues described above may be addressed by a method for treating a rebalancing reactor of a flow battery including flowing an electrolyte of the flow battery and hydrogen gas generated in the flow battery to the rebalancing reactor, applying a negative potential to a catalyst bed of the rebalancing reactor while charging the flow battery, detecting a decrease in a ferric iron reduction rate at the rebalancing reactor below a threshold rate, halting flow of electrolyte and hydrogen gas to the rebalancing reactor and then flowing deionized water through the rebalancing reactor in response to the decrease in the ferric iron reduction, and indicating, after a threshold interval of operating time elapses, a request for soaking of the catalyst bed in deionized water. In this way, a likelihood of catalyst degradation is reduced and a performance of the flow battery is maintained.
As one example, the catalyst may be soaked in water at elevated temperatures to remove anionic complexes from the surface of the catalyst in between operation of the rebalancing reactor. Fresh catalyst surface is exposed, enabling the catalyst to perform at a higher capacity. Additionally or alternatively, a negative potential may be applied to the catalyst surface during operation of the rebalancing reactor, thereby repelling anions and reducing a likelihood of anion adsorption onto the catalyst.
It should be understood that the summary above is provided to introduce in simplified form a selection of concepts that are further described in the detailed description. It is not meant to identify key or essential features of the claimed subject matter, the scope of which is defined uniquely by the claims that follow the detailed description. Furthermore, the claimed subject matter is not limited to implementations that solve any disadvantages noted above or in any part of this disclosure.

Electrolyte health management for redox flow battery


A new and distinct Vanda cultivar named ‘SPCDW1209’ is disclosed, characterized by grey-orange flower color and bright green leaves. The new variety is a Vanda, typically produced as an indoor ornamental plant.

This application relates to a new cultivar of Vanda hybrid and claims priority to EU application 2012/1963 filed Sep. 17, 2012. The new variety is the product of a planned breeding program. The new variety originated as a seedling from the crossing of the unpatented, proprietary seed parent Vanda 'ON137' with the unpatented, proprietary pollen parent referred to as Vanda 'NCMVN'. The crossing was made by the inventor in his research greenhouse in Chonburi, Thailand in August of 2001.
The new variety was first selected by the inventor, Thumrong Suphachadiwong, a citizen of Thailand, in September of 2006 in a research greenhouse belonging to the inventor in Chonburi, Thailand. After identifying the new variety as a potentially interesting selection, the inventor continued confidential testing and propagation of 'SPCDW1209', assessing stability of the unique characteristics of this variety.
Asexual reproduction of the new cultivar 'SPCDW1209' was first performed at a commercial laboratory belonging to the inventor in Chonburi, Thailand by tissue culture (propagation was performed using the base of leaves) in December of 2006. Access to all plants was restricted, as plants were kept in a greenhouse not open to the public, and tissue culture plantlets were in a laboratory belonging to the inventor, and not accessible to the public. Through subsequent propagation, multiple generations have been reproduced, which have shown that the unique features of this cultivar are stable and reproduced true to type.


A charging device includes a power adapter, a cable assembly, and a control module. The power adapter is used for converting a power supplied from an external power source to a form suitable for charging a battery of an electronic device. The power adapter includes a first magnetic element. The cable assembly is used for electrically connecting the power adapter with the electronic device such that the battery can be charged. The cable assembly includes a first plug connected to the power adapter and a second magnetic element disposed in the first plug. The control module is used for controlling the first magnetic element and the second magnetic element to engage with each other to disconnect the first plug from the power adapter when the battery has been fully recharged.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to a charging device and a charging system using the charging device.
2. Description of Related Art
Many electronic devices such as mobile phones or personal digital assistances can be recharged via a charger. When the electronic devices are fully charged, warning information may be displayed in a display of the electronic device to inform the users. However, if users do not pay attention to the warning information and do not unplug the electronic device, charging will continue. This may result in waste, and possibly damage to the electronic device.
Therefore, there is room for improvement in the art.

Fu Tai Hua Industry (Shenzhen) Co., Ltd.


A process for preparing precursors for amide containing organic peracids is disclosed wherein a polycarboxylic acid is esterified with a low molecular weight alkyl alcohol followed by formation of an amide by reacting the ester with an amine to provide a monoamido carboxylic acid ester. Unwanted diester is removed from the reaction mixture by precipitation at relatively low temperature. The ester is recovered from the reaction mixture by either precipitation or a distillation procedure under high temperature and reduced pressure. The esters are converted to acids highly desirable as precursors for peracids useful as bleaches in laundry detergents.

The discovery of highly stable organic peracid molecules is critical to the commercialization of detergent formulations containing peracid bleaches. Such bleaches have recently been discovered which are highly crystalline in nature and have relatively high melting points. Also, it is very important for highly stable bleaches to be prepared in a manner which eliminates, or at least minimizes their contamination from metals. Metals or metal ions are particularly deleterious to peracids as they catalyze the decomposition of the peroxygen group.
Consequently, the detergent industry requires peracids which are highly stable, have high melting points and are conveniently manufactured in large volumes. Because of their high melting points both the peracids and their precursors are typically purified by precipitation or crystallization techniques. Metal ions typically present in the crystallization media become trapped in the peracid crystals and become impurities which reduce the stability of the peracid. The amount of metal ion contamination is directly related to stability of the peracid.
A recent patent, U.S. Pat. No. 4,634,551 to Burns et al describes novel, relatively stable and high melting crystalline amide peracids. Generally, the precursors to these amide peracids, that is, the amido acids, are reported to have been prepared by the reaction of the appropriate acid chloride with the appropriate amine followed by precipitation of the resulting amido acid. Stability of these amide peracids is affected not only by metal contamination but also by the chloride impurity. Attempts to purify the peracid have proven inadequate to economically remove metals and chlorides. Even purification of the amine precursor is not adequate to provide an economical product of sufficient purity for use in preparing the peracid.
The peroxyacids found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,634,551 are represented by the formula ##STR1## where in R.sup.1 is selected from the groups consisting of alkyl, aryl or alkaryl radicals containing from about 1 to about 14 carbon atoms, R.sup.2 is an alkylene group containing from 2 to 14 carbon atoms and R.sup.3 is H or an alkyl, aryl or alkaryl group containing from 1 to about 10 carbon atoms, the total number of carbon atoms being from about 10 to about 20.
There has been a need for an efficient, high volume means of producing the above described amide acid in high purity and with good stability. It has been discovered that one means of efficiently providing the amide acid precurser in high volumes is by a process which first prepares a monoamido ester of a dicarboxylic acid and then converts the ester to a peracid. The monoamido ester is prepared by esterifying a polycarboxylic acid of the formula ##STR2## with a lower alkyl alcohol and then reacting the ester with a mono alkyl amine of the formula EQU RNH.sub.2
wherein R is an alkyl radical having from 1 to 20 carbon atoms and R.sup.2 is as defined above. A mixture of monoamide and diamide is thus produced.
The reaction mixture obtained by the reaction of the ester and the amine is distilled under reduced pressure to selectively remove the monoamide carboxylic acid ester from the reaction mixture. Such a process is described in EP 0 445 096 which is incorporated herein by reference. It has been found that such distillation efficiently separates the desired product of this invention but, the stress of the high temperatures and reduced pressures which are necessary causes color forming bodies of undefined nature to be created. These color forming bodies and a small amount of the diamide codistill with the distilled product in spite of a strenuous three stage distillation process.
Accordingly, there is needed a process for efficiently preparing the fatty peroxyacids or salts thereof having an amide moiety in very high volume and purity particularly with the absence of color forming bodies. In particular, there is needed for a process which permits lower distillation temperatures, thus reducing the thermal stress on the desired product while providing high product purity without the loss of product in the still bottoms.

Process for preparing peroxyacid precursors having amide moieties in the fatty chain


Method and system are provided for generation of unique ordering of events at cloud scale. The method may include generating a single thread global number sequence at a generator at a controlled frequency of number generation; partitioning the global number sequence into multiple partitions with each partition having a derived stream with an ordered corresponding value provided in each stream of a set of corresponding values. The method may include transmitting ordered corresponding values of a set from an outbound queue of each partition to each partition. The method may include determining that all the ordered corresponding values of a set have been received back. The method uses valid ordered corresponding values as global sequence numbers to provide a distributed clock across the remote participating clusters, where a valid ordered corresponding value is a member of a set of corresponding values that have all been received at their respective receivers.

The present invention relates to a generation of unique ordering of events and more specifically, to unique ordering of events at a cloud scale.
In many contexts one needs to order events. A good example of this is logging in the context of a database server. Logging is a time ordered sequence of events and is fundamental to a database server. Databases order events on a server by using a Log Sequence Number (LSN), which is a monotonically increasing sequence of numbers, which indexes every log record in a database (UNDO and REDO logs). If two log records L1 and L2 have LSN numbers lsn1 and lsn2 such that lsn1<lsn2, then it is known that the event represented by L1 happened earlier than the event happened at L2.
However, in clustered databases each member of the cluster has its own sequence of numbers (LSN) for its log stream and that alone cannot order events in the cluster. In order to maintain the time order of events another level of ordering is needed.
One approach is to designate one member of the cluster as the Master and all other members to obtain the LSN from this member. A second approach is to have a centralized specialized node generating a unique number for every disk write. These approaches bring problems when expanded to cloud scale. Both approaches would mean that access to a centralized node is required before a log record can be written down to disk.
Global ordering of events is often required. The construction of atomic clock infrastructures has a prohibitively high cost and such infrastructures are hard to build. Also, atomic clock infrastructures require many reliable components and it is hard to guarantee reliability across all these components including: time servers, atomic clocks, cooling, radio antennas, radio interference, etc.).

Generation of unique ordering of events at cloud scale

International Business Machines Corporation


A widely tunable laser structure with at least two different sampled or superstructure gratings is provided. The widely tunable laser only requires as much tuning currents as gratings. In the case of two gratings, two tuning currents, instead of 3 tuning currents in a typical laser, are needed. Alternatively, the laser structure can be denoted a sampled or superstructure grating tunable laser with wide tunability characteristics, with a limited amount of needed tuning parameters, e.g., two currents.

Monolithically integrated tunable laser diodes, and in particular widely tunable laser diodes, are considered key devices for future High-Density Wavelength Division Multiplexing (HD-WDM) communication systems. When used as a spare transmitter, they can replace a large number of fixed wavelength Distributed Feedback (DFB) laser diodes and thus reduce inventory costs significantly. In addition, they can be used to introduce additional functionality into optical networks and thus can improve network flexibility or reduce the complexity of other network elements such as cross connects. Dynamic switching of the transmitter wavelength allows to some extent the introduction of packet switching. The tunable laser is also an essential part of another future key component of optical networks, the wavelength converter with tunable pump wavelength.
All widely tunable laser diodes based on electric tuning (i.e., with a tuning range of at least a few tens of nanometers) presented so far rely on at least 3 tuning currents, e.g., a current for each of the 2 grating sections and a phase current in the case of Distributed Bragg Reflector (DBR)-type devices. M.-C. Amann, J. Buus, "Tunable laser diodes", Artech House, Norwood, Mass., 1998. The presence of at least 3 tuning sections has a number of serious drawbacks. First, the entire characterization of the laser and the selection of stable operation points require an extensive, time-consuming and costly characterization (in a 3-dimensional space if the active section current is not considered). Second, the long cavities that result from the presence of at least 3 (often passive) tuning sections in series prohibit direct modulation at high modulation frequencies and often limit the maximum output power.
Tunable twin guide (TTG) laser diode [M.-C. Amann, S. Illek, C. Schanen, et al., "Tunable Twin-Guide Laser—A novel laser diode with improved tuning performance", Appl. Phys. Lett., Vol. 54, pp. 2532-2535, 1989.], presented as an alternative for the long 3-section DBR laser diodes, has a single tuning possibility; hence, tuning is based on a single tuning current, and the tuning of said TTG laser diode is limited.
Over the past years, several advanced laser structures have been proposed with an extended tuning range. Examples are the Y-laser [M. Kuznetsov, P. Verlangieri, A. G. Dentai, C. H. Joyner, and C. A. Burrus, "Design of widely tunable semiconductor three-branch lasers," J. Lightwave Technol., vol. 12, no. 12, pp. 2100-2106, 1994], the co-directionally coupled twin-guide laser [M.-C. Amann, and S. Illek, "Tunable laser diodes utilizing transverse tuning scheme," J. Lightwave Technol., vol. 11, no. 7, pp. 1168-1182, 1993], the Sampled Grating (SG) DBR laser [V. Jayaraman, Z. M. Chuang, and L. A. Coldren, "Theory, design and performance of extended tuning range semiconductor lasers with sampled gratings," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 29, no. 6, pp. 1824-1834, 1993], the Super Structure Grating (SSG) DBR laser [H. Ishii, H. Tanobe, F. Kano, Y. Tohmori, Y. Kondo, and Y. Yoshikuni, "Quasicontinuous wavelength tuning in super-structure-grating (SSG) DBR lasers," IEEE J. Quantum Electron., vol. 32, no. 3, pp. 433-440, 1996] and the Grating assisted Coupler with rear Sampled Reflector (GCSR) laser [M. Öberg, S. Nilsson, K. Streubel, L. Bäackbom, and T. Klinga, "74 nm wavelength tuning range of an InGaAsP/InP vertical grating assisted codirectional coupler laser with rear sampled grating reflector," IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett., vol. 5, no. 7, pp. 735-738, 1993]. In the first two types of devices, a trade-off had to be made between the tuning range and the spectral purity (broad tuning range vs. high Side Mode Suppression Ratio (SMSR)). Therefore, recently most research attention has directed at the (S)SG-DBR and GCSR lasers.

Widely tunable twin guide laser structure


Methods for wavelength determination of a monochromatic light beam are described. The methods involve a detector unit containing at least one pair of photo detectors. One of the detectors in each detector pair is covered with a variable attenuator and the other is not covered by the variable attenuator. The optical transmission coefficient of the variable attenuator is a monotonic function of wavelength. Under illumination of a monochromatic light, the photocurrents produced in the detectors with and without the variable attenuator are compared. The relative values of the photocurrents are used to determine the wavelength of the monochromatic light.

A pulsed laser beam is often used by the enemy to target a tank, ship, air craft or strategic site and to guide the projectiles in attacking the above targets. Once the pulsed laser beam has been sent, the enemy's detection system will detect the reflected pulsed laser beam and analyze the delay to determine, for instance, the distance. Pulsed laser beams thus constitute threats in the battle field. In order to avoid the enemy attack, a jamming means or counter attack means must be exercised before or immediately after the attack. To achieve this effectively, it is required to identify the wavelength of the pulsed laser beam. For instance, if the wavelength of the threatening pulsed laser beam is known, then a pulsed laser tuned at the same wavelength can be switched on to emit pulses to confuse the enemy laser detection system. Alternatively, a counter attack means equipped with a laser beam seeking apparatus tuned at the enemy laser wavelength may be launched to destroy the enemy laser and detection system.
Spectral measurements of optical sources are generally made in three ways: [1] using an interferometer, [2] using a dispersing device and [3] using a filter device. Methods using the interferometer usually require delicate apparatus and precise motion of mirrors for the determination of wavelengths.
Most methods involving interferometers have several drawbacks which prevent their use in practical fields, for a instance, for the wavelength discrimination of single pulses or repetitive pulses. These drawbacks include: [1] the requirements of precise motion for the mirrors, [2] the incident angle of the beam must be known or adjusted with respect to the interferometer, [3] the equipment used is bulky. Methods involving the dispersing device or filter device for the laser spectral determination usually require an array of optical detectors, each connected to an amplifying and multiplexing circuit. For methods involving optical filters for separating the wavelengths, an optical filter with a very narrow pass band corresponding to the wavelength value to be detected is mounted in front of a detector. In order to achieve the wavelength resolution, the number of narrow band pass filters and the number of optical detectors must be large, making the wavelength determination unit too bulky and too slow to react to the incident laser threats. Different spectral analysis units using integrated detector arrays have been proposed. For instance, the U.S. Pat. No. 5,166,755 issued on Nov. 24, 1992 to Gat disclosed a spectrometer apparatus. The Gat apparatus consists of an array of monolithic photosensitive elements and a linear variable filter (LVF) where the number of photosensitive elements is at least the number of wavelengths to be discriminated. Therefore, the resolution of the Gat spectrometer is limited by the number of photosensitive elements current technology can produce and the relatively long total data acquisition time required. Since the number of photosensitive elements is large, the Gat spectrometer may not function when used in the detection of single laser pulses or repetitive pulses. Since the detector array is fabricated on a planar substrate, a finite gap exists between adjacent detector elements. When the position of the LVF for the maximum transmission of the incoming light falls within this gap, the accuracy of the wavelength determination may be reduced considerably.
A unit for the discrimination of a pulsed laser beams has been disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,225,894 issued on Jul. 6, 1993 to Nicholson, Parker, Mathur and Hull. The Nicholson unit consists of broadband filters, optical fiber delay lines with different delay times and detectors. An incoming pulsed laser beam is divided into different portions and each is guided through a delay line. Signals from all of the delay lines are collected and compared with the signals obtained without the delay lines. From the delay time and the transmission properties of the optical filter, the wavelength of the incoming pulsed laser beam is deter mined. Although the number of the detectors is reduced as compared to the Gat apparatus, optical fiber delay lines with different lengths must be employed in the Nicholson unit. In order to obtain a significant time delay for an unequivocal delay time determination, the length of the optical fibers must be relatively large and a complicated time counting circuit must be included in the unit, making the Nicholson unit too bulky to be used in various field applications. In addition to the above, the enemy may launch repetitive pulses with very short intervals between the pulses. In such conditions, it may not be possible to discriminate the wavelength of the laser threats using the Nicholson unit, which relies on counting the time delay of well defined pulses for the wavelength determination. Another drawback of the Nicholson method is that it may not easily be extended to other wavelength regions, such as 3-5 .mu.m and 8-12 .mu.m, due to the various constraints for the delay lines.
In order to overcome the above drawbacks, a novel method using a detector pair has been developed for the determination of laser wavelength. The principle of the wavelength discriminating using the detector pair has been disclosed in a pending patent application Ser. No. 08/310,329, filed on Sep. 22, 1994 now U.S. Pat. No. 5,703,357. The active area of one of the detector elements increases with distance in one direction and the other decreases with the distance. A linear variable narrow band filter (LVF) is placed in front of the detector to define a light strip, the position of which is a function of the wavelength. By measuring the ratio of photo current of the two detector elements, the position of the light strip and thus the wavelength of the monochromatic light can be determined.
The above wavelength determination method still has some drawbacks. Firstly, the length of the detector elements will have to be approximately equal to the length of the LVF. The length of the LVF is determined by the range of wavelength to be covered and the wavelength resolution. For instance, a LVF for 0.6 to 1.1 .mu.m operation with a half height band width of 10 nm is about 15 mm. Secondly, only a small portion of the detector elements is illuminated by the incident light beam. For instance for the LVF of wavelength range 0.6 to 1.1 .mu.m and a half height band width of 10 nm, the ratio of the width of the illuminated detector and the total length is about 10 (nm)/[1100-600](nm)=1/50. Because of the above drawbacks, the detector elements are not operated in the best signal to noise ratio conditions. This is due to the presence of the leakage current and the parasitic capacitances associated with the regions not illuminated by the light.
In view of the above, there is a need to develop more advanced methods for the wavelength determination.

Methods and devices to determine the wavelength of a laser beam


A bedding system may be installable on a mattress. The bedding system may have a bottom sheet, a top sheet, and a duvet. The bottom sheet may have a peripheral portion with bottom sheet mounting elements that secure the bottom sheet to the mattress, and top sheet fastening elements. The top sheet may have top sheet mounting elements that secure the top sheet to the bottom sheet.

Known bedding systems have a number of drawbacks. Fitted sheets with elastic corners are notoriously difficult to fold and difficult to properly orient with the mattress, and in many cases, require two people for effective installation on the mattress. Existing sheets and blankets are easily pulled askew on a mattress. Once this occurs, the bed must be remade. Additionally, aligning sheets and covers can also be challenging, and may require the efforts of two people. Accordingly, it would be an advantage in the art to provide improved bedding systems.


A solar power system is provided for maximizing solar power conversion. The solar power system includes n power units connected in series and n−1 DC-DC converting units, and each of the n−1 DC-DC converting units is coupled to at least one of n solar power units. Each of the n−1 DC-DC converting units is configured to control the correspondingly connected solar power units to operate at a target current generation. The solar power system further includes a controlling unit coupled to the n−1 DC-DC converting units. The controlling unit monitors and compares the n currents generated by the n solar power units. Based on the current comparison, the controlling unit determines a series current and controls the n solar power units so that each of the generated photovoltaic currents is substantially equal to the determined series current.

Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
A photovoltaic (PV) array is a linked collection of solar panels. Most PV arrays use an inverter to convert direct current (DC) power produced by the solar panels into alternating current (AC) power. The panels in a PV array are usually connected in series, as strings, to obtain a desired voltage. A plurality of individual strings is then typically connected in parallel to increase current production.
In conventional PV power generation systems, there is a tradeoff between local power generation and system efficiency. Conventional PV systems do not support local control of PV panels. As shown in FIG. 1, a conventional PV system 100 typically includes a plurality of PV panels 102 connected electrically in series to form a PV string 104, and a single large inverter 106 processes power from the entire PV series string 104 for delivery to a load or a power grid 108. In this arrangement, if one or more of PV panels 102 are shaded or otherwise environmentally compromised, power production is reduced for the entire string 104. PV panel manufacturers have added reverse diodes to partially mitigate electrical impacts of local shading, soiling, or similar problems.
As known to one of ordinary skill in the art, simultaneously operating each individual PV panel 102 of PV string 104 close to or at its potential maximum power production level, termed a maximum power point (MPP), as enabled by on-going environmental conditions, has proven to be hard, even impossible, to attain. It is well established that this inability to operate individual PV panels 102 at their corresponding MPPs sacrifices power production. Power reduction can be 20% or more if PV system 100 is subject to local shading, and can be of the order of several percents even when PV system 100 is uniformly illuminated.
A known improvement to the conventional PV system 100 provides local power processing on a per PV panel basis. For illustration purposes, FIGS. 2 and 3 show DC-DC versions 200 and 300 that provide series and parallel connected, DC-DC converters 206 and 306, respectively. As shown in FIG. 2, DC-DC converters 206 are connected in series via their respective outputs, while, each is also coupled to one of PV panes 208. As shown in FIG. 3, DC-DC converters 306 are connected in parallel via their respective outputs, while each is also coupled to one of PV panels 308. A DC-AC version 400, shown in FIG. 4, provides a direct coupling between a DC-AC inverter 406 and a PV panel power 408, without any DC-DC converters therebetween. Based on the literature, DC-AC version 400 has only been used commercially in a parallel arrangement (not shown) of the DC-AC inverters 406, although a series version (not shown) has been reported.
In each of DC-DC versions 200 and 300, a local DC-DC converter 206, 306 is connected to a respective PV panel 208 308, and to a DC-AC inverter 210, 310, for the delivery of power to a grid 212, 312. The DC-DC versions 200 and 300 sacrifice efficiency, since power needs be processed twice between each PV panel 208, 308 and the grid 200, 300. In AC version 400, a PV system, which includes a large number of PV panels 408, also needs to include a corresponding number of DC-AC inverters 406, each of which processes a power generated by the correspondingly connected PV panel 406, to grid 412. Based on the configurations of FIGS. 2-4, all of the generated power must be processed through local DC-DC converters 206, 306 and DC-AC inverters 406, which can lead to excessive power losses.

THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES OF THE UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS


An apparatus for performing computed tomography having a radiation source and at least one radiation detector spaced from the radiation source and which generates an output signal representative of the strength of the received radiation from the radiation source. A part support for holding a plurality of parts is positioned in between the radiation source and the detectors. The part support is rotatably mounted about an axis generally perpendicular to a vector between the radiation source and the detectors so that, upon rotation of the part support, the radiation detectors generate an output signal corresponding to the internal structure of parts supported on the part support. A computer system receives the output signals from the detectors and, under program control, generates a report of the internal structure of the parts on the part support.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for performing computed tomography.
II. Description of Related Art
There are many situations where it is highly desirable to examine a component to determine if the internal structure of the component contains voids or other flawsas well as dimensional accuracy. In the automotive industry there are many components which, if these components contain a void or other flaw, would compromise the overall operation of the vehicle. For example, a void or other flaw in the engine block closely adjacent the combustion chamber may cause a complete failure of the engine during operation or otherwise compromise the safety and/or performance of the engine.
Such internal flaws of parts are not visible from the exterior of the part. In the automotive industry, internal portions of automotive parts have previously been visually inspected by destructive testing, where the part is physically cut into pieces. The destructive testing process has the disadvantage of destroying the sample, causing new defects during the cutting process and not allowing a large sample or all of the pieces to be inspected. Consequently, in order to examine these parts, there are previously known computed tomography (CT) machines. Such CT machines typically include an x-ray source and one or more x-ray detectors or x-ray film at a position spaced from the source. Each x-ray detector generates an output signal which varies in magnitude with the strength of the received signal from the radiation source.
The part to be examined is then positioned in between the radiation source and the radiation detector or detectors. The part is then scanned by rotating the part relative to the radiation source and the radiation detector thus performing a two-dimensional (2D) x-ray image of the part representative of the density of the part. Successive 2D imaging of the part at axially spaced positions along the part produces individual 2D slices which, when combined, produce a three-dimensional image of the interior structure of the part. In practice, a void within the interior of the part will create an increase in the detected radiation by the detector during the 2D imaging since voids necessarily absorb less radiation than the homogenous structure of the part.
The output from the detectors is then connected to a computer system which then generates an image of the internal structure of the part under examination. Any voids or other defects within the interior of the part are visible on the reconstructed image.
These previously known CT machines, however, all suffer from a number of common disadvantages. One disadvantage of the CT machine is that previously it has only been possible to scan a single part or component at a given time. Furthermore, a complete scan of the part takes an extended period of time which varies as a function of the number of 2D images performed.
Since a complete CT scan of a single part is time consuming, it is not practical to scan all of the production parts in a high part volume situation. Consequently, it has been the previous practice to simply select sample parts from the production run and to examine these parts using a CT machine. However, unexamined parts may contain serious voids or other flaws and yet go undetected.
A still further disadvantage of the previously known method for scanning individual parts with a CT machine is that the parts to be examined are typically shipped from the production facility and to the CT machine facility. At the CT machine facility, the parts are removed from their packaging and mounted on a fixture between the radiation source and detector of the CT machine. Following a complete scan of the part, the part is removed from the CT machine, reinserted into the shipping carton from the production facility, and shipped back to the production facility. All of these procedures, however, are necessarily labor intensive and thus expensive in labor cost.

Method and apparatus for performing computed tomography


A lamp cooling apparatus for cooling a lamp may include a lamp outlet duct connected to the lamp, a lamp inlet duct connected to the lamp, a first joint segment provided at the front end of the lamp outlet duct, a second joint segment provided at the front end of the lamp inlet duct, a first pipe whose one end is adjustably connected to the first joint segment, a third joint segment to which the other end of the first pipe is shiftably connected, a cooling mechanism section for cooling air, connected to the third joint segment, a fourth joint segment connected to a discharge section for discharging air cooled by the cooling mechanism section, and a second pipe whose one end is shiftably connected to the fourth joint segment, and the other end is shiftably connected to the second joint segment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lamp cooling apparatus cooling a lamp used as a light source, and to a projection display device provided with the lamp cooling apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
Various types of image display devices called rear projection display devices have been produced. In these rear projection display devices, a transmission type screen is arranged on the front side of the device, and an image is projected from the back side on the screen. As an image to be projected, an image light corresponding to an image displayed on the display panel is generated by using a lamp such as a xenon lamp as a light source, and guiding the light from the light source to enter a liquid crystal display panel such that the light transmit or reflect the liquid crystal display panel. The generated image light is then guided to enter the back side of the screen to display the image on the screen. In the liquid crystal display panel, the image light may be generated by either one of the following manners. That is, individual panel is used per each primary color signal, and image lights generated at each color panels are combined, or single panel is used to generate the image lights of the respective colors. Instead of the liquid crystal panel, micro mirrors may be driven independently to transform the light from the light source to an image light.
The abovementioned rear projection display devices enable relatively compact configurations of image light generating mechanism such as the light source or the liquid crystal display panel, and further enable the image to be displayed on a large screen. It is therefore relatively easy to obtain a device for displaying an image on a large screen. A screen size may be 50-inch or larger, for example.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP 11-84533 describes an example of this type of the rear projection display devices. Further, Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP 2003-157715 describes an example of the configuration of a lamp and its vicinity used in the rear projection display devices.

Lamp cooling apparatus for enabling adjustments of setting positions and projection display apparatus having such lamp cooling apparatus


Trienoic compounds having activity as antagonists for retinoic acid receptors are provided. Also provided are pharmaceutical compositions incorporating such compounds and methods for their therapeutic use.

The vitamin A metabolite, retinoic acid, has long been recognized to induce a broad spectrum of biological effects. In addition, a variety of structural analogues of retinoic acid have been synthesized that also have been found to be bioactive. Some, such as Retin-A.RTM. and Accutane.RTM., have found utility as therapeutic agents for the treatment of various pathological conditions. In addition, synthetic retinoids have been found to mimic many of the pharmacological actions of retinoic acid.
Medical professionals have become very interested in the therapeutic applications of retinoids. Among their uses approved by the FDA is the treatment of severe forms of acne and psoriasis. A large body of evidence also exists that these compounds can be used to arrest and, to an extent, reverse the effects of skin damage arising from prolonged exposure to the sun. Other evidence exists that these compounds may be useful in the treatment and prevention of a variety of cancerous and pre-cancerous conditions, such as melanoma, cervical cancer, some forms of leukemia, oral leukoplakia and basal and squamous cell carcinomas. Retinoids have also shown an ability to be efficacious in treating and preventing diseases of the eye, cardiovascular system, immune system, skin, respiratory and digestive tracts, and as agents to facilitate wound healing and modulate programmed cell death (apoptosis).
Major insight into the molecular mechanism of retinoic acid signal transduction was gained in 1988, when a member of the steroid/thyroid hormone intracellular receptor superfamily was shown to transduce a retinoic acid signal. Evans, Science, 240:889-95 (1988); Giguere et al., Nature, 330:624-29 (1987); Petkovich et al., Nature, 330: 444-50 (1987). It is now known that retinoids regulate the activity of two distinct intracellular receptor subfamilies; the Retinoic Acid Receptors (RARs) and the Retinoid X Receptors (RXRs), including their isoforms, RAR.alpha., .beta., .gamma. and RXR.alpha., .beta.,.gamma.. In this regard, an endogenous low-molecular-weight ligand which modulates the transcriptional activity of the RARs is all-trans-retinoic acid (ATRA), while an endogenous ligand for the RXRs is 9-cis retinoic acid (9-cis). Heyman et al., Cell, 68:397-406 (1992) and Levin et al. Nature, 355:359-61 (1992).
Although both the RARs and RXRs respond to ATRA in vivo, due to the in vivo conversion of some of the ATRA to 9-cis, the receptors differ in several important aspects. First, the RARs and RXRs are significantly divergent in primary structure (e.g., the ligand binding domains of RAR.alpha. and RXR.alpha. have only 27% amino acid identity). These structural differences are reflected in the different relative degrees of responsiveness of RARs and RXRs to various vitamin A metabolites and synthetic retinoids. In addition, distinctly different patterns of tissue distribution are seen for RARs and RXRs. For example, in contrast to the RARs, which are not expressed at high levels in the visceral tissues, RXR.alpha. mRNA has been shown to be most abundant in the liver, kidney, lung, muscle and intestine. Finally, the RARs and RXRs have different target gene specificity. For example, response elements have recently been identified in the cellular retinal binding protein type II (CRBPII) and Apolipoprotein AI genes which confer responsiveness to RXR, but not RAR. Furthermore, RAR has also been recently shown to repress RXR-mediated activation through the CRBPII RXR response element (Manglesdorf et al., Cell, 66:555-61 (1991)). These data indicate that two retinoic acid responsive pathways are not simply redundant, but instead manifest a complex interplay.
In view of the related, but clearly distinct, nature of these receptors, retinoids which are more selective for the RAR subfamily than the RXR subfamily provide the capacity for independent control of the physiologic processes mediated by the RARs versus RXRs. While offering the distinct therapeutic advantages noted above, RAR agonists also manifest an array of undesired side effects, depending upon the therapeutic dose level employed, including, but not limited to, headache, teratogenesis, mucocutaneous toxicity, musculoskeletal toxicity, dyslipidemias, skin irritation and hepatotoxicity, as well as the relatively rare, but serious, medical condition, hypervitaminosis A syndrome, which typically results from excessive intake of vitamin supplements. These side effects and conditions place limits on the application of RAR agonists in the treatment of various disease states.
Structurally distinct RAR antagonists have been previously described. See, e.g., PCT Application WO 94/14777; Yoshimura et al., 38 J. Med. Chem., 3163 (1995); Kaneko et al., 1 Med. Chem. Res., 220 (1991); Apfel et al., 89 Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci., 7129; Eckhardt et al., 70 Toxicology Letters, 299 (1994); Keidel et al., 14 Molecular and Cellular Biology, 287 (1994); and Eyrolles et al., 37 J. Med. Chem., 1508 (1994). In addition, various polyene compounds have been disclosed to be useful in the treatment of inflammatory conditions, psoriasis, allergic reactions, and for use in sunscreens in cosmetic preparations. See eg., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,534,979 and 5,320,833. Trienediolates of hexadienoic acids have also proved useful in the synthesis of retinoic and nor-retinoic acids. See M. J. Aurell, et al., 49 Tetrahedron, 6089 (1993). Further, trienoic retinoids have been shown to display both RAR and RXR agonist activity. See, PCT Patent Application WO 96/20913, published Jul. 11, 1996. However, no retinoid antagonist activity has been ascribed to these trienoic compounds.

Retinoic acid receptor antagonist compounds and methods


A wheeled top guide for rolling movement of a door along an inverted U-shaped track includes a housing for mounting on the door with an upwardly extending axle and a roller thereon for rolling engagement with one side wall of the trace. A vertically oriented torsion member is seated in the housing and has a vertically extending elongated torsion rod having its lower end fixed on the housing, a horizontally extending arm having one end secured to the upper end of the torsion rod and extending away from the first shaft, and an upwardly extending axle adjacent the other end of the arm. A second roller on this axle is in rolling engagement with the other side wall of the track and is spaced from the first roller. The second roller and arm are resiliently displaceable about the longitudinal axis of the torsion rod towards the housing for insertion of the rollers into the track, and the resulting torque in the torsion rod produces a force biasing the arm and thereby the second roller to maintain the rollers in firm rolling contact with the side walls of the track.

The present invention relates to sliding doors, and, more particularly, to a top guide for such sliding doors to facilitate stable placement and movement along the track in which they are inserted.
Various types of sliding doors are utilized for internal applications within residential and in some commercial structures. Although some sliding doors slide into a pocket formed in the wall of the building, frequently closets employ bypassing doors, i.e., a pair of doors which will slide in parallel tracks so that one side or the other of the door opening is clear to provide access to the closet. Such doors may comprise hollow core doors of wood or the like, or be an assembly of mirrors or other panels seated in metallic or wooden frames.
The tracks which are employed in such structures are generally extruded aluminum or roll formed sheet steel. For bypassing doors, the cross section of track is generally referred to as an inverted "E" in which there are two outside walls and a center wall to provide a pair of channels.
In Jasperson et al U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,783, there is illustrated a top guide utilizing a pair of wheels bearing on opposite walls of each of the channels of the track to provide stability of the door within the opening and desirable guided rolling action along the length of the track. The structure of this patent represents an effort to address the problem of variations in width of the track due to tolerances in forming the track and also the problems encountered as the rollers wear over extended periods of use. Although the structure shown in the Jasperson et al Patent has been beneficial, there has remained a need to provide an longer lived structure in which there is a desirable spring action to maintain the rollers in firm rolling engagement with the two walls of the track in which they operate.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel roller top guide for sliding doors in which there is continuing spring pressure to maintain the rollers in contact with the walls of the track.
It is also an object to provide such a roller top guide utilizing components which can be simply and economically fabricated from synthetic resin.
Another object is to provide such a roller top guide in which the components may be quickly assembled and which can be utilized in connection with both wooden doors and panel doors.


A non-destructive testing device has an excitation coil with a plurality of conductor ribbons attached to a flexible membrane. A frame supports the membrane and incorporates wheels for translation across a surface to be inspected and resilient suspension for maintaining the membrane with the excitation coil and wheels in intimate contact with the surface, the membrane flexing to maintain contact with a smoothly curved surface as found in aircraft structures. A magnetoresitive (MR) array is supported within the frame inserted in the membrane to be in close proximity to the surface. The MR array detects the magnetic field resulting from the eddy currents created by the excitation coil for identification of cracks or features beneath the surface under inspection.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to the field of non-destructive inspection (NDI) of structures and more particularly to a Magnetoresistive (MR) scanning array employing flexible excitation coils incorporated in a hand held positioning device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Non-destructive inspection (NDI) of a aerospace structures to detect flaws may be performed by various techniques that include X-ray radiography, ultrasonics, acoustic emissions, and eddy currents. In particular, eddy current inspection devices are commonly used for NDI of electrically conductive components. Eddy current inspection devices typically use one or more excitation coils to generate an alternating magnetic field, which in turn induces eddy currents in the component, and typically use a pickup coil to detect the magnetic field generated by the eddy currents. When an eddy current encounters an internal flaw of the component, the eddy current flows around the flaw and the resulting magnetic field generated by the eddy current is changed. The pickup coil indirectly detects this change which gives information regarding the location and size of the flaw within the component.
Magnetoresistive (MR) sensors are known for low frequency performance permitting deep feature/flaw detection in metallic structure at sensitivities considerably above those provided by convention eddy current techniques. Exemplary NDI systems employing MR are disclosed in U.S. Patent No. 6,150,809 to Tiernan et al. which uses two parallel sheets of conductors to create the magnetic field and uses a giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensor positioned between the sheets to detect the magnetic field signals generated by eddy currents and application Ser. No. 10/923,519 entitled EDDY CURRENT INSPECTION DEVICE, having a common assignee with the present invention, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference.
Current imaging scanners using MR sensors are not flexible and therefore cannot conform to the surface of the item they are inspecting. In order to be able to faithfully display the subsurface condition of a complex structure such as an aircraft, in some cases it is therefore desirable that the scanner conform to the surface shape and curvature. This allows better coupling of the inspection current into the aircraft, and prevents erroneous scan results from the "rocking" motion of a non-flexible scanner on the curved aircraft surface. Additionally, it is desirable that the scanner be mounted in a structure for operation by hand to allow a technician to accurately yet conveniently perform inspection of the desired structure.

Flexible hand held MR scanning array for cracks/flaws


A boat bumper/fender, comprising a resilient, flexible, weather resistant, body having opposing first end and a second ends, said body composed of a closed cell foam material and having length, width and height, said body being of greater length than width; said body having an internal passage extending substantially the length of said body and terminating at said first and second ends; bushing means adapted to be inserted into said first and second end of said body; anchoring means extending through said body in said passage and extending beyond the ends of said body; said anchoring means further equipped with stop means to cooperatively interact with said bushing to limit movement of the body along said anchoring means.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a flexible, weather resistant, buoyant foam boat bumper/fender that is inexpensive, and easy to use.
The present invention further relates to a flexible, weather resistant, buoyant polyethylene foam boat bumper/fender that is inexpensive and easy to use.
The present invention further relates to a durable weather resistant inexpensive boat bumper/fender that does not require captured air within an inner chamber for its ability to protect boats or other articles from damage due to incidental contact with stationary or other members.
2. Description of the Related Art
Green, U.S. Pat. No. 4,584,958 discloses a bumper for protecting the hull of a boat comprising a plurality of one-piece bumper bodies of resilient deformable material positioned end-to-end. Each of these bodies has a curved portion with a periphery forming a partial cylinder extending through an arc exceeding 180 degrees and a socket portion having a semi-cylindrical cavity with a radius equal to the radius of the partial cylinder. Preferably the curved periphery of the partial cylinder extends through 270 degrees so that the bumper can bend around a 90 degree comer of the boat. Each body has a passage extending lengthwise through both the curved portion and the socket portion. A rope passes through all the passages to connect the bodies together and form a complete bumper. The bodies are positioned on the rope with the curved portion positioned in the socket portion of the adjoining bumper body. Preferably a rope cleat is used to fix the bumper bodies against displacement relative to the rope. The bumper body can be hollow or can be filled with a low density polyethylene.
Green differs from the claimed invention in that Green requires a hollow body that may be filled with low density polyethylene foam. The present invention is directed to a boat bumper that is formed of a UV resistant, marine resistant foam material. On material useful in the claimed invention is polyethylene foam. However the foam of the claimed invention is a closed cell polyethylene foam material. There is no showing the low density polyethylene foam of Green may be the dense, closed cell material useful in the claimed invention. Further, there is no teaching of using the polyethylene material of Green as the body of the boat bumper. Accordingly, Green differs from the claimed invention.
Stevens, U.S. Pat. No. 5,018,471 discloses a resilient marine fender for protecting a boat from damage resulting from impact against a boat dock, piling or other marine structure includes a fender body having an elongate bumper portion on one side of sufficient resiliency to cushion normal impact of the boat and mounting surface on the opposite side thereof of sufficiently frictional character with respect to the piling for generally non-slipping engagement therewith. The bumpers are formed of a material suitably resilient to deform when, for example, a boat or other marine vessel engages against the portions such as the result of marine wave action, in order to absorb the impact forces of the vessel and prevent direct contact between an elongate piling and the boat which could scratch, mar or even structurally damage the vessel. Preferably, each elongate resilient portion is a solid body of a high-density resilient plastic foam, formed for example by molding. There is no showing in Steven of using a high density, closed cell deformable resilient foam material, such as polypropylene, as the bumper fender.
Reinhardt, U.S. Pat. No. 6,095,074 discloses a bumper for a boat dock is provided which is durable, resilient and visible at night. The bumper is constructed of an expanded polymer such as polyethylene or polypropylene. The bumper is preferably made of translucent polyethylene foam with a density of between 2 and 4 pounds per cubic foot. When polyethylene foam is subjected to impact, it absorbs the force of the impact and returns to its original shape. The present invention includes a light for illumination of the bumper itself or illumination of an area immediately adjacent the bumper. A slot in the bumper is provided for accepting the illumination source. If the bumper is translucent, as with white polyethylene foam, the illumination source may be inserted into the back of the bumper such that light is emitted through the front of the bumper. If the bumper is opaque, the illumination source may be inserted into a slot in the bottom of the bumper so that the light is emitted from the bottom of the bumper. The illumination source may be controlled by a radio frequency switch or by a timer. There is no showing of using the foam material of the claimed invention in combination with bushings and an attachment means to make a simple yet effective boat bumper/fender.
The present invention is directed to a boat bumper/fender comprising a resilient, flexible weather resistant, buoyant body equipped with opposing first end and second end. The body has length, width and height, and is of greater length than width. The body has an internal passage extending substantially the entire length of said body and terminating at the first and second ends. Bushing means at either end are adapted to be inserted into said first and second end of said body, and anchoring means extend through the body in said passage and beyond the ends of said body. The anchoring means is further equipped with stop means to cooperatively interact with said bushing to limit movement of the body along said anchoring means. The anchoring means terminate at each end with a securing means to facilitate fastening the anchoring means to a mooring, such as a dock.
Preferably, the boat bumper/fender is tubular and the anchoring means is a length of marine rope threaded through said passage. The stop means is a plate secured to said anchoring means and of sufficient size to interact with said bushing and prevent movement of the body along said anchoring means. The bushing further comprises means to secure each said bushing in said ends and resist removal.
Most preferably, the boat bumper/fender body is comprised of a polyethylene foam material having the formula:
wherein R is an alkyl, and
n is a number such that the molecular weight of the composition is in the range of about 11,000 to about 196,000.
This material is commercially available from Industrial Thermo Polymers, Limited, located Brampton, Ontario, Canada, under the trademark Tundra Foam Logs. This material is resistant to UV light, as well as other weather conditions and is buoyant, having previously been used as flotation devices for aquatic use. Typically, this material presents a closed cell structure that is flexible and deformable without damage to its structure. Other similar materials that may be used are closed cell foams of polypropylene, polybutylene, or other dense closed cell foam materials.
The anchoring means is a marine resistant rope and the stop means is comprised of a knot in said rope to cooperatively engage a washer threaded onto the rope between the knot and each bushing to prevent movement of the body along the anchoring means.

Flexible, buoyant, weather resistant polyethylene foam boat bumper/fender


A pressure sensitive switch includes a first insulating film provided on one surface thereof with an electrode sheet and an insulating spacer having one surface connected to one surface of the first insulating film and a thickness. The insulating spacer is formed with a plurality of holes, each having a diameter larger than the thickness and a plurality of air-vents, each having a width which is narrower than the diameter of the holes in such a manner that the holes and the air-vents are in mutual air communication and extend through the insulating spacer along its thickness direction. A second insulating film is provided on one surface thereof with another electrode sheet and one surface of the second insulating film is connected to the other surface of the insulating spacer. A cord has a first wire and a second wire connected to the electrode sheet of the first insulating film and the electrode sheet of the second insulating film, respectively. A plurality of air passages extend through the first insulating film along its thickness direction and are in air communication with the air-vents and exposed to an exterior atmosphere.

The present invention relates to a mechanically operated pressure sensitive switch which is constructed in such a manner that an electric contact and an electric isolation between two opposed electrodes are established when a force is applied to one of the electrodes and when the force is released from the same, respectively. In particular, the present invention is directed, for example, to a flat or sheet shaped switch adapted to be provided in a seat cushion for indicating whether an occupant is on the seat cushion or not by an on/off binary code.
A conventional pressure sensitive sensor for detecting an occupant on a seat includes a magnet generator provided in a seat cushion and a magnet detector which is set to detect the intensity of a magnetic field generated by the magnet generator. When the occupant sits on the seat cushion, the resulting deformation or downward movement of the seat cushion changes the intensity of the magnetic field. As soon as such a change is detected by the magnet receiver, a controller to which the magnet receiver is connected stores this fact for further use.
Another similar conventional pressure sensitive sensor is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 2535120. This sensor is in the form of a piezoelectric film sheet which is adapted to be provided in a seat cushion. Whenever an occupant sits on and moves away from the seat cushion, a change in force applied thereto varies and such a change is detected as a resistance value change in this sensor.
In addition, Japanese Patent Publication No. Hei2-49029 discloses a pressure sensitive switch. Unlike the foregoing pressure sensitive switches, this pressure sensitive switch is in association with a key board of an electric musical instrument which has a plurality of keys in a row and has a pair of opposed conductive plates between which a semiconductor is interposed. When a force is applied to each key, a resistance value between the conductive plates varies and on the basis of the resulting variation, an application of the force is detected. However, in the first mentioned conventional pressure sensitive switch, the sitting of the occupant on the seat is detected by the lowering movement of the seat per se. For assuring precise detection of such sitting movement by the occupant, a reliable downward movement of the seat has to be established which requires a device which is complex in construction and expensive to manufacture.
As for the second mentioned conventional pressure sensitive switch, the piezoelectric film is an essential component which is very expensive and requires a complex feedback loop electric circuit for oscillating the piezoelectric element continually and a filter for detecting such an oscillation. As a result, the device per se becomes complex in construction which results in a high cost to manufacture.
With respect to the last mentioned conventional pressure sensitive switch, this device is established on the assumption that the force is applied from the finger of a musician to each key. This means that each key is not expected to receive a large force equivalent to the occupant's weight and thus it is very difficult to use the switch for detecting the sitting of the occupant on the seat from the view points of durability, shock-proof, reliability with time and so on. In addition, if copper or silver is employed as the raw material of the conductive plate, the cost of the switch per se becomes very expensive. In brief, the conventional pressure sensitive sensors are not simple in construction, reliable or of low manufacturing cost.

Pressure sensitive seat switch with air vent passages


A method of forming an on-chip heat sink includes forming a device on a substrate. The method also includes forming a plurality of insulator layers over the device. The method further includes forming a heat sink in at least one of the plurality of insulator layers and proximate to the device. The heat sink includes a reservoir of phase change material having a melting point temperature that is less than an upper limit of a design operating temperature of the chip.

Heat can be removed from a device (e.g., transistor, power amplifier, etc.) in an integrated circuit chip using either the substrate itself down to a heat sink, or using wiring that is formed over the device as a heat path for transferring heat away from the device and out of the top of the chip. Such wiring, however, typically has a primary purpose of carrying electric current within the chip and is not primarily optimized for heat transfer. The electric current generates its own heat within the wiring through resistive heating, and the combination of resistive heating and heat transfer from devices can degrade the reliability and the current handling capacity of the wiring.
According to Moore's law of scaling, both the current density and the circuit density increase with each generation. In combination with exotic substrates with limited thermal conductivity such as GaAs or silicon-on-insulator (SOI), the thermal budget limitations in a chip are becoming more and more severe. Circuits or subcircuits typically use the full power budget for only a limited amount of time, often for fractions of milliseconds. With current technology, the power and temperature budget need to account for the heat generated during these periods.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art to overcome the deficiencies and limitations described hereinabove, particularly of a temporal nature.

Phase changing on-chip thermal heat sink

INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS MACHINES CORPORATION


Simplified collaborative searching is provided by pattern recognition such as facial recognition, motion recognition, and the like to provide handsfree functionality. Users join a collaborative search by placing themselves within the field of view of a camera communicationally coupled to a computing device that performs facial recognition and identifies the users, thereby adding them to the collaboration. Users also join by performing simple movements with a portable computing device, such as the ubiquitous mobile phone. A collaboration component tracks the users in the collaboration and identifies them to a search engine, thereby enabling the search engine to perform a collaborative search. The collaboration component also disseminates the collaborative recommendations, either automatically or based upon explicit requests triggered by pattern recognition, including motion recognition and touch recognition. The collaboration component can utilize heuristics to identify individual collaborative sessions, or can utilize existing collaborative infrastructure.

As network communications among multiple computing devices have become ubiquitous, the quantity of information available via such network communications has increased exponentially. For example, the ubiquitous Internet and World Wide Web comprise information sourced by a vast array of entities throughout the world, including corporations, universities, individuals and the like. Such information is often marked, or "tagged", in such a manner that it can be found, identified and indexed by services known as "search engines". Even information that is not optimized for search engine indexing can still be located by services, associated with search engines, which seek out information available through network communications with other computing devices and enable a search engine to index such information for subsequent retrieval.
Due to the sheer volume of information that is available to computing devices through such network communicational connections with other computing devices, users increasingly turn to search engines to find the information they seek. Search engines typically enable users to search for any topic and retrieve, from this vast volume of information, identifications of specific content that is deemed to be responsive to, or associated with, the users' queries. To sort through the vast amounts of information that is available, and timely provide useful responses to users' queries, search engines employ a myriad of mechanisms to optimize the identification and retrieval of responsive and associated information.
One mechanism employed by search engines to increase the chances of providing relevant content in response to users' queries is to collect contextual information from the users submitting the queries. For example, a search engine can utilize the immediately preceding search queries submitted by a user to gain a better understanding of what the user is looking for, or to more accurately glean the user's intentions. A user model can also be built from other user-centric data that the user provides access to, such as their social network information, their computing device information and the like. Search engines also enable users to establish user identities through which users can explicitly indicate specific preferences, attributes and other like information. For example, users can specify a level of filtering to be applied to avoid receiving potentially offensive content. As another example, users can specify geographic location preferences such that searches for physical entities can be limited to particular geographic regions that are relevant to the user.
The ubiquitous network communication connections between computing devices also enable users to interoperate with one another more efficiently than previously possible. One such interoperation of users is in the context of searching, where multiple users can perform a collaborative search. A search engine, upon receiving a search query of a collaborative search, can seek to identify responsive information that is tailored to the multiple users performing the collaborative search. For example, if one user performing a collaborative search had specified a particular geographic region in their user profile, and another user in that same collaborative search had specified a different geographic region in their user profile, the search engine could seek to identify responsive information associated with the intersection of the geographic areas specified by the users performing the collaborative search.

Simplified collaborative searching through pattern recognition


This invention relates to a disc brake protector (1; 101) for a bicycle (200), the disc brake protector comprising (a) an inner cover (10; 110) for fitting around an axle (220) of a bicycle wheel (205, 225) between the wheel and the disc brake, the inner cover comprising a closable opening (15; 115) for insertion of the axle, and (b) an outer cover (5) which is attachable to the inner cover such that, in use, the covers enclose the disc brake. The invention also relates to a method of attaching the disc brake protector, as well as to a bicycle fitted with the disc brake protector.

Most bicycles are fitted with a braking system. Such systems generally comprise a brake pad which is pushed against a braking surface on one or both wheels. The friction between the brake pad and the braking surface causes the bicycle to slow down. The force with which the brake pad is pushed against the braking surface is normally generated by a hand-operated brake lever which is generally provided on the handlebars of the bicycle. Thus, by increasing the force provided to the brake lever, the rider of the bicycle can increase the friction between the brake pad and the braking surface and thereby slow the bicycle down more quickly.
There are two main types of braking systems for bicycles. These are known as rim brakes and disc brakes. For a rim brake, the braking surface is a rim on the outer edge of the wheel. In contrast, in a disc brake the axle of the wheel is fitted with a disc which is generally much smaller in diameter than the wheel. This disc then provides the braking surface. In addition to the disc (also referred to as the rotor), a disc brake comprises a calliper and a pair of disc pads. Disc brakes are often preferred because they can provide a higher braking force, as well as more reliable braking in wet weather.
A problem with disc brakes is that they can get damaged when a bicycle is transported. In addition, their performance can be impaired by overspray from chemicals used on other parts of the bicycle. A solution to these problems has been sought.
In the context of the invention, the word "bicycle" is used to refer to a pedal-driven vehicle having two wheels held in a frame one behind the other (ie a "front" and "back" wheel). A bicycle is generally steered with handlebars attached to the front wheel.