Novel recombinant polypeptides are disclosed herein that include a CD4 polypeptide ligated at its C-terminus with a portion of an immunoglobulin comprising a hinge region and a constant domain of a mammalian immunoglobulin heavy chain. The portion or the IgG is fused at its C-terminus with a polypeptide comprising a tailpiece from the C-terminus of the heavy chain of an IgA antibody ara tailpiece from a C-terminus of the heavy chain of an IgM antibody. Also disclosed herein are methods for using these CD4 fusion proteins.

The primary immunologic abnormality resulting from infection by HIV is the progressive depletion and functional impairment of T lymphocytes expressing the CD4 cell surface glycoprotein (Lane et al., Ann. Rev. Immunol. 3:477, 1985). CD4 is a non-polymorphic glycoprotein with homology to the immunoglobulin gene superfamily (Maddon et al., Cell 42:93, 1985). Together with the CD8 surface antigen, CD4 defines two distinct subsets of mature peripheral T cells (Reinherz et al., Cell 19:821, 1980), which are distinguished by their ability to interact with nominal antigen targets in the context of class I and class II major histocompatibility complex (MHC) antigens, respectively (Swain, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 78:7101, 1981; Engleman et al., J. Immunol. 127:2124, 1981; Spitz et al., J. Immunol. 129:1563, 1982; Biddison et al., J. Exp. Med. 156:1065, 1982; and Wilde et al., J. Immunol. 131:2178, 1983). For the most part, CD4 T cells display the helper/inducer T cell phenotype (Reinherz, supra), although CD4 T cells characterized as cytotoxic/suppressor T cells have also been identified (Thomas et al., J. Exp. Med. 154:459, 1981; Meuer et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 79:4395, 1982; and Krensky et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 79:2365, 1982). The loss of CD4 helper/inducer T cell function probably underlies the profound defects in cellular and humoral immunity leading to the opportunistic infections and malignancies characteristic of the acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS) (H. Lane supra).
Studies of HIV-I infection of fractionated CD4 and CD8 T cells from normal donors and AIDS patients have revealed that depletion of CD4 T cells results from the ability of HIV-I to selectively infect, replicate in, and ultimately destroy this T lymphocyte subset (Klatzmann et al., Science 225:59, 1984). The possibility that CD4 itself is an essential component of the cellular receptor for HIV-I was first indicated by the observation that monoclonal antibodies directed against CD4 block HIV-I infection and syncytia induction (Dalgleish et al., Nature (London) 312:767,1984; McDougal et al., J. Immunol. 135:3151, 1985). This hypothesis has been confirmed by the demonstration that a molecular complex forms between CD4 and gp120, the major envelope glycoprotein of HIV-I (McDougal et al., Science 231:382, 1986); and the finding that HIV-I tropism can be conferred upon ordinarily non-permissive human cells following the stable expression of a CD4 cDNA (Maddon et al., Cell 47:333, 1986).
The widespread use of highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) has dramatically improved the clinical course for many individuals infected with HIV (Berrey, M. M. et al., J Infect Dis 183(10):1466, 2001). However, toxicities associated with long term HAART have put a high priority on the design and development of less toxic therapies. Among the "next generation" of antiviral inhibitors is T-20 (Wild, C. et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 91(26):12676, 1994; Wild, et al. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 89(21):10537, 1992), a relatively non-toxic peptide that disrupts viral fusion thereby protecting CD4+ lymphocytes from de novo infection. In clinical trials T-20 has been shown to reduce plasma viral load by up to two logs (Kilby, et al., Nat Med 4(11):1302, 1998). These results demonstrate that the entry stage of the HIV replication cycle is a viable target for the development of new antiretroviral therapies.
Viral entry is a complex biochemical event that can be subdivided into at least three stages: receptor docking, viral-cell membrane fusion, and particle uptake (D'Souza, M.P. et al., Jama 284(2):215, 2000). Receptor docking is a multi-step process that begins with the gp120 component of a virion spike binding to the CD4 receptor on the target cell. Conformational changes in gp120 induced by gp120-CD4 interaction promote a high affinity interaction between gp120 and either CCR5 or CXCR4 cellular co-receptors. This is followed by gp41 mediated fusion of the viral and target cell membranes. Agents designed to block gp120-CD4, gp120-CCR5/CXCR4 or gp41/cell membrane interactions are in various stages of development (D'Souza, M. P. et al., Jama 284(2):215, 2000). Several laboratories have constructed recombinant fusion proteins that fuse the gp120 binding domain of CD4 to immunoglobulin constant domains (Deen, K. C. et al., Nature 331(6151):82, 1988; Fisher, R. A. et al., Nature 331(6151):76, 1988; Capon, D. J. et al., Nature 337(6207):525, 1989; Traunecker, A. et al., Nature 339(6219):68, 1989; Trkola, A. et al., J Virol 69(11):6609, 1995). One of these, Pro-542 is currently being evaluated in clinical trials (Jacobson, J. M. et al., J Infect Dis 182(1):326, 2000).
The strategy underlying these CD4 based therapies, i.e. blocking the interaction between gp120 and the CD4 receptor, encompasses advantages distinct from current HAART regimens. The CD4 binding site on gp120 includes highly conserved residues; thus, agents targeting this site are unlikely to encounter resistance mutants. Additionally, such agents, by blocking de novo infection, may prevent the expansion of viral reservoirs.
Monomeric soluble CD4 (sCD4) was one of the first reagents in this group to be tested clinically (Schooley et al., Ann Intern Med 112(4):247, 1990). Unfortunately, sCD4 failed to demonstrate significant antiviral activity in vivo (Schooley et al., Ann Intern Med 112(4):247, 1990). Among the problems inherent to sCD4 was its inability to efficiently neutralize primary isolates of HIV. The differential capacity of sCD4 to neutralize tissue culture laboratory adapted (TCLA) strains versus many primary isolates is striking. In the initial report describing this difference, Ho and colleagues found that the concentrations of sCD4 required to neutralize primary isolates were up to 1000-fold higher than those required to neutralize TCLA strains (Ashkenazi et al., Proc Natl Acad Sci USA 88(16):7056, 1991). Surprisingly, when the affinities of sCD4 for soluble gp120s derived from TCLA and primary isolates were measured, no correlation between sCD4 neutralization and CD4:gp120 affinity was observed (Ashkenazi et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88(16):7056,1991; Brighty et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88(17):7802, 1991; Ivey-Hoyle et al., Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA 88(2):512, 1991). However, the affinity of sCD4 for gp120 on primary virions was reduced relative to gp120 on the surface of TCLA virions (Moore et al., J Virol 66, 235-243, 1992). The basis for the differential interaction between sCD4 and soluble gp120 vs. virion associated gp120 is unclear.
There is an additional property of sCD4 that may, at least in part, explain its inability to neutralize primary isolates. At low concentrations sCD4 enhances the infectivity of most primary isolates (Moore et al., Aids 9, Suppl A:S117, 1995; Sullivan et al., J Virol 69(7):4413, 1995; Moore et al., J Virol 66(1):235, 1992; Orloff et al., J Virol 67(3):1461, 1993; Schutten et al., Scand J Immunol 41(1):18, 1995; Willey et al., J Virol 68(2):1029, 1994). Although these observations were made prior to the identification of the HIV fusion/coreceptors, several research groups suggested that sCD4 mediated enhancement resulted from the activation of the fusion component of virion associated spikes (Sullivan et al., J Virol 69(7):4413, 1995; Fu et al., J Virol 67(7):3818, 1993). As has since become clear, sCD4 engagement of gp120 results in conformational changes in gp120 that promote its interaction with CCR5 and thus initiates the process of virus-cell fusion (Doranz et al., J Virol 73(12):10346, 1999; Trkola et al., Nature 384(6605):184, 1996; Wu et al., Nature 384(6605):179, 1996; Zhang et al., Biochemistry 38(29):9405, 1999).
Because sCD4-mediated enhancement of virus infectivity is only observed at low concentrations of sCD4, it likely reflects a condition where virions bear a mixture of unoccupied gp120s along with sCD4-bound gp120s. Neutralization occurs only when the concentration of sCD4 reaches a threshold level where a sufficient number of spikes per virion are prevented from participating in the fusion process. The concentration required to achieve that state is likely to be extremely high for two reasons: 1) sCD4 must compete with surface bound CD4 receptors which are presented in bulk on the surface of a target cell and the effects of avidity strongly favor the receptors presented on the membrane. The lack of high avidity associated with monomeric sCD4 is a critical deficiency in the antiviral activity of this molecule, and 2) sCD4 promotes a high affinity interaction between gp120 and CCR5 (Doranz et al., J Virol 73(12):10346, 1999; Trkola, et al., Nature 384(6605):184, 1996; Wu et al., Nature 384(6605):179, 1996; Zhang et al., Biochemistry 38(29):9405, 1999). Thus, even at relatively high concentrations, sCD4 promotes interactions between the virion and the target cell membrane.
Regardless of the mechanism, it is clear that sCD4 is not the therapeutic agent of choice for treating HIV. Thus, a need remains for a CD4-based agent that can be used to study HIV infection in vitro, and is of use for treating or preventing HIV infection in vivo.

The United States of America as represented by the Department of Health and Human Services


A radiation imaging device (10). The radiation image device (10) comprises a subject radiation station (12) producing photon emissions (14), and at least one semiconductor crystal detector (16) arranged in an edge-on orientation with respect to the emitted photons (14) to directly receive the emitted photons (14) and produce a signal. The semiconductor crystal detector (16) comprises at least one anode and at least one cathode that produces the signal in response to the emitted photons (14).

Scintillation crystals have conventionally been used in non-invasive medical diagnostic techniques that utilize radiation-emitting materials. One such technique is positron emission tomography (PET), which provides in-vivo, functional information about the molecular biochemistry of a given radio-labeled compound (tracer) introduced into a live subject. The radio-label is a positron emitter, which results in high energy photon emissions when positrons annihilate with electrons in body tissue. The tomographic imaging is possible through detection and localization of the many associated highly energetic photons emitted.
In conventional PET, the photons are absorbed in a scintillation crystal, which gives off a flash of light. The light is collected by a photodetector, which detects and converts the light into electric charge that is amplified. The result is a robust electric signal with an amplitude that represents the energy of the incoming photon, a location that indicates where the energetic photon came from within the imaging subject, and a time stamp that signifies when the event occurred. For high spatial resolution imaging, which will allow one to see very minute structures, conventional PET relies on very accurate localization of the energetic photon emissions. This means that the scintillation detector must have very fine position resolution of the entering photons. However, to efficiently absorb the incoming photons, the crystal must also be relatively thick. Efficient absorption of incoming photons is important to allow for high count sensitivity, which translates into good image quality. Further, the signals that are created should be as robust as possible.
The state of the art was advanced by the invention described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,114,703 to Levin et al. The '703 patent provided an efficient method and devices for collection, and made the large surfaces of long and narrow scintillation crystals available for detection. The '703 patent disclosed methods and devices that replaced the bulky and expensive photomultipliers (PMTs) by utilizing semiconductor photodetectors, applying such semiconductor photodiodes directly to surfaces of the scintillation crystals, including at least one large surface of the scintillation crystal. The device of the '703 patent improved the amount of light measured from a scintillation event, while maintaining high spatial resolution offered by long and narrow scintillation crystals. The '703 patent also improved upon the single sheet style conventional devices that receive radiation in the large face of the crystal sheet by eliminating the coupling losses associated with the optical interfaces between the crystal and PMT and replacing the PMT of the conventional devices with directly deposited semiconductor photodiodes.
An overriding goal in radiation imaging is to obtain reconstructed images of very high spatial resolution. Spatial resolution improvements in reconstructed images have come most often from reductions in the size and increases in the number of scintillation crystals. Detection sensitivity, though, is another limiting factor. The '703 patent was directed to improvements in the detection sensitivity. To maintain high detection sensitivity and good image quality, the challenges were to develop a finely pixellated scintillation crystal array with both high detection efficiency and high light collection. High detection efficiency means the crystals must be relatively long, tightly packed, and cover a relatively large axial field-of-view (FOV). High spatial resolution means that the crystals are very narrow.
A difficulty with designs having small scintillation crystals for high resolution is that manufacturing is a significant challenge. It is costly and complex to handle many minute crystal elements and align them with corresponding photodetector elements. Slight misalignments might reduce light collection efficiency. A shortcoming with conventional crystal sheet devices for PET is that the sheet must be thin so that it produces a relatively narrow beam of light onto the photodetector plane. Thus, crystal sheet detectors (e.g. coincidence gamma ray cameras) that have been used in PET suffer from low efficiency for stopping the high energy photons.
A prior application Ser. No. 10/664,768, now published as US-2004-0124360-A1, filed Sep. 17, 2003 (the '768 application) provides additional background for the present invention. The '768 application discloses, among other things, scintillation crystal sheets arranged in stacks parallel to each other. Semiconductor photodetector positional detectors read light from large faces of the scintillation crystal sheets to detect interactions in the scintillation crystal sheets and independently provide positional information concerning the interactions relative to two axes.
A preferred embodiment in the '768 application includes an array of scintillation crystal sheets arranged in a device such that radiation is incident upon small end faces of the sheets ("end face geometry" or "edge-on" geometry), and is fully described in the '768 application. Semiconductor photodiodes read light from large faces of the crystal sheets. The semiconductor photodiodes in the '768 application may be pixellated, meaning that the semiconductor diodes provide both detection of photons generated in the scintillation crystals and positional information about a detection, or may be, one large pixel with positioning capability within that pixel. In another preferred embodiment of the '768 application, radiation is incident on a large face of scintillation crystals ("large face geometry" or "face-on geometry").

Semiconductor crystal high resolution imager

The Board of Trustees of the Leland Stanford Junior University

The Regents of the University of California


A printing method includes controlling timing parameters for application of electrical pulses to a piezoelectric nozzle of an inkjet printing head so as to dispense droplets of a material from the nozzle. The timing parameters are controlled to introduce gas bubbles into the droplets of material so as to reduce the density of the material to a selected density value that is less than a natural density of the material.

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is widely used for building objects, such as models or prototypes. In 3D printing, an object is constructed by deposition of material in a controlled manner so as to form the object. Instructions for guiding construction of the object may be derived from a digital representation of the object to be constructed. Such a digital representation may, for example, be generated by a computer-aided design or computer-aided manufacturing program or application.
Commonly used 3D printers use inkjet printing heads for selectively dispensing material such as photopolymer material. The photopolymer material is deposited layer-by-layer to form a 3D model. Different photopolymer materials may be deposited to form different parts of the object being printed. The photopolymer material may be stored in a liquid or gel form within the inkjet printing head. After the photopolymer material is dispensed by the inkjet printing head, the material may harden or may be cured (e.g. by exposure to light or ultraviolet radiation) in order to cause the material to harden.
An inkjet printing head may include piezoelectric elements. Application of an electrical pulse to a piezoelectric element may generate a pressure wave in the material that is within the printing head. The pressure wave may cause the printing head to jet or expel a drop of the material.
Under some circumstances, a pressure wave may form small cavities (cavitation) within the material. Components of the material may fill the formed cavities in a gaseous state to form gas bubbles within the material. Air bubble generation in ink-jet printing heads is a well-known phenomenon (see e.g., H. Wijshoff, "The dynamics of the piezoelectric inkjet printhead operation", Physics Reports, v. 491 (2010), pp. 77-177). Ink-jet printing heads are preferably used in conventional printing machines for two-dimensional printing. In such application bubble formation in ink drops is considered a parasitic or negative side-effect, and much effort is invested in order to suppress such bubble formation completely or significantly decrease it.

Controlling density of dispensed printing material


A ripple-mode controller provides reliable operation in multi-phase power supply circuits, over a variety of operating conditions. Cross-phase blanking allows the controller to preserve the desired phase relationship between the switching pulses its provides to the different output phases, and permits the controller to operate each output phase at nearly 100% duty cycles. Active current sharing compliments blanking operations by adjusting the width of switching pulses the controller provides to one or more of the output phases based on detecting load current imbalances between the different output phases. With active current sharing, the controller prevents one or more output phases from carrying excessive portions of the load current. Further complimenting its operation, the controller may include virtual ripple generation to increase the noise immunity of its ripple-mode regulation.

The present invention relates to power regulation, and particularly relates to switch-mode power supplies.
Advances in one area of technology often require commensurate advances in supporting technologies to realize the full benefit of the advance. For example, observers of the microprocessor industry are familiar with xe2x80x9cMoore""s Law,xe2x80x9d which posits that the complexity of semiconductor devices doubles every two years. Microprocessor development arguably represents the most dramatic illustration of Moore""s Law. Pioneering microprocessors released in the 1970""s operated at clock speeds well under 500 KHz, and included fewer than five thousand transistors. Modern microprocessors operate at clock speeds in excess of 1 GHz and include millions of transistors. Exploiting these dramatic gains required advances in a host of supporting technologies, from advances in memory technology and circuit fabrication, to advances in power supply design.
Indeed, modern microprocessors could not provide their dramatic performance gains absent today""s sophisticated power supplies. For example, high-end microprocessors can consume in excess of 80 Watts of power and operate at 2 VDC or less. These requirements translate into power supply output current requirements in excess of 40 Amps, yet the power supply must maintain tight output voltage regulation, even when faced with dramatic step changes in output current. In general, modern electronic systems require responsive power supplies capable of providing relatively clean power at well-controlled voltages, over a wide range of quickly changing load conditions.
Often, the requirements placed on electronic power supplies include the dual requirements of good transient response and high efficiency. Linear voltage regulation, where a pass element such as a transistor, is used to drop a supply voltage down to a regulated value have good transient response, but can be inefficient. Linear regulation inefficiency rises with increasing input/output voltage differential. Because of the high current required by high-performance electronic systems, many primary power supplies provide a relatively high voltage, such as 12 or even 24 VDC. Regulating such voltages down to 2 VDC or less, as is common for high-performance microprocessor cores, is impractical using linear regulation.
Switch mode power regulation offers an opportunity for improved efficiency as compared to linear regulation. In switch mode power supplies, one or more reactive circuit elements are rapidly switched from one configuration to another to control the energy flowing into and out of a reactive circuit element or elements. By using reactive elements for energy storage, switch mode power supplies, sometimes referred to as switching regulators, minimize power losses when converting from one voltage to another. However, switch mode power supplies entail a host of potential problems that sometimes offset their good efficiencies.
For example, the transient response of switch mode power supplies can be compromised depending upon the control topology employed. Generally, the signal being regulated by the switch mode power supply is fed back so that the regulator can adjust some characteristic of its switching operations to maintain the desired output voltage. In certain feedback implementations, relatively slow error amplifiers reside within the control feedback loop, making the switch mode power supply slow to respond to fast load transients. Fast load transients are common in microprocessors and other complex circuits that operate under dynamic conditions.
So-called xe2x80x9cripple-modexe2x80x9d regulators use a relatively simple control feedback loop based essentially on high-speed comparator circuits that compare the regulated output voltage, or some signal proportional to the regulated output voltage to a desired output level. The regulated output signal includes some amount of ripple, arising from the switching actions of the switch mode power supply. Switching control response is improved by eliminating error amplifiers from the control loop, which are relatively slow compared to these comparator-based control loops. A constant on-time controller represents one implementation of ripple-mode control. With constant on-time, controllers, a switching controller generates turn-on pulses of a fixed width at a frequency determined by changing load conditions, and possibly changing input or output voltages.
The present invention provides an apparatus and method for ripple-mode control of a multi-phase power supply circuit. A ripple-mode switching controller provides one or more features, including cross-phase blanking, active current sharing, out-of-bounds compensation, and virtual ripple generation. Cross-phase blanking permits the controller to preserve the desired phase relationship between switching pulses it provides to the multiple output phases, even when it generates overlapping switching pulses at maximum duty cycle operation. Active current sharing compliments ripple-mode control by allowing the controller to balance the amount of load current provided by the individual output phases, based on either trimming the width of switching pulses provided to one or more output phases, or based on trimming hysteretic control points. The controller may also include an out-of-bounds function to suppress switching pulses in over-voltage situations, and virtual ripple generation to enhance ripple-mode noise immunity.
Active current sharing may be adapted to both constant on-time and hysteretic implementations of the controller. With active current sharing, the controller typically designates one output phase as a master phase. The controller then adjusts its phase switching operations to balance the current carried by each remaining output phase with respect to the master phase. This prevents one output phase from carrying an unequal or excessive share of output load current. For constant on-time operation, the controller trims the width of switching pulses provided to each of the slave output phases based on the relative amount of load current carried by each slave output phase. For hysteretic control, the controller increases or decreases the upper and lower hysteretic switching points for one or more of the slave output phases to achieve the desired current balance.
Pulse trimming or hysteretic adjustment concepts may be extended to include compensation for changes in supply or output voltages such that the controller""s switching pulses are compensated for changing conditions. For example, in constant on-time applications, the controller can be configured to adjust switching pulse on-time to maintain essentially the same steady-state switching frequency over a range of supply voltages. Likewise, the controller could compensate switching pulse width to maintain steady state switching frequency for a range of selectable output voltages.
Further extending its flexibility, the controller may incorporate virtual ripple generation. A feedback signal taken from the controller""s regulated output includes both actual ESR-induced output ripple, as well as the actual DC offset value of the regulated output voltage. Virtual ripple generation adds a desired amount of arbitrary ripple to this feedback signal to increase the noise immunity of ripple-mode regulation. Because the arbitrary ripple simply adds to the actual feedback signal, rather than replacing it, the controller preserves its transient response by maintaining its sensitivity to the actual DC and AC components of the regulated output voltage.

Self-clocking multiphase power supply controller


Contacts for a high density electric connector are disclosed. The contacts include two types each having a body portion for engaging with a dielectric housing of the connector and a terminal portion for connecting with a printed circuit board, wherein the body portions each have an identical structure and the terminal portions are perpendicularly bent relative to the body portions in opposite directions. The second type contacts are mounted to the housing of the connector in an inverted manner with respect to the mounting manner of the first type contacts and the terminal portions of the contacts are equidistantly spaced from each other when the contacts are mounted to the housing of the connector. Each of the terminal portions extends from a rear side of a corresponding body portion from a point a distance away from a middle line defined by the corresponding body portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to contacts for an electric connector, particularly to contacts for a high density electric connector which has contacts arranged in several rows wherein the contacts lie in an alternating pattern between two neighboring rows.
2. The Prior Art
Contacts are one of the major components constituting an electric connector. Generally, each contact can be divided into a contact portion received in a contact passage formed in a dielectric housing for engaging with a mating contact of a mating connector and a terminal portion for connecting to a printed circuit board.
Conventionally, each contact has a configuration which is symmetrical around a middle line thereof. Such contacts are disclosed in Taiwan Patent Application Nos. 78212155, 80101193, 81205825, 81212441, 83210687, 83212080 and 83212081, and U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,175,821, 4,720,276, 4,720,277, 4,721,484, 5,151,056, and 5,252,079.
Following the trend of increasingly compact computer structure, electric connectors are adapted to accommodate more contacts in a smaller space. Such a connector is called a high density electric connector which has several rows of contacts lying in an alternating pattern between two neighboring rows. Such high density connectors are disclosed in Taiwan Patent Application Nos. 77207089, 79214090, 80209366, 80207178, 81212697, 82213344, 83216753, 84201969, 84208329 and 84211184. The prior art discloses two methods to alternately mount the contacts to the connector. Terminal portions of the contacts can be bent not only perpendicularly but also laterally relative to the contact portions thereof. Alternatively, different die assemblies can be used to stamp the contacts to have different configuration in neighboring rows.
The former of the above-mentioned two methods to form the contacts of a high density connector is laborious and time consuming since more than one bending operation step is required to form the terminal portion. The latter is costly since different die assemblies are required.
Hence, a need exists for contacts of a high density electric connector wherein the contacts are formed by stamping a metal sheet with a single die assembly and terminal portions of the contacts are formed by a single bending operation causing the terminal portions to be perpendicular to the contact portions of the contacts.

Contacts for high density electric connector


Systems, methods, and non-transitory computer-readable media can determine a first dataset provided by a first party, wherein the first dataset includes a set of vectors that are each associated with a user identifier. A second dataset provided by a second party can be determined, wherein the second dataset includes a set of vectors that are each associated with a user identifier. One or more vectors in the first dataset can be matched to vectors in the second dataset based on a secure multi-party computation without revealing respective graph information of the first party or the second party. Respective mappings between vectors in the first dataset to a set of shared universal identifiers can be provided to the first party. Respective mappings between vectors in the second dataset to the set of shared universal identifiers can be provided to the second party.

Today, entities can maintain sensitive data that is not intended for access by others. For example, sensitive data may include personally identifiable information (PII), such as user IDs, names, phone numbers, e-mails, or the like. In some instances, entities may want to collaborate with one another to gain various insights. Such collaboration can require the entities to reveal some of their sensitive data to one another. For example, the entities may perform a lift analysis to measure the effectiveness of an electronic advertising campaign in a platform. In this example, the lift analysis can be performed by joining some portion of each entity's sensitive data. Under conventional approaches, to prevent sensitive data from unauthorized access, the entities will typically rely on a trusted third party to facilitate the collaboration. For example, the entities can provide their respective sensitive data to the trusted third party who then joins the sensitive data and performs the lift analysis. The trusted third party can then provide results of their lift analysis to one or both entities.

Systems and methods for securely sharing and processing data between parties


A system for backing up and restoring the functionalities of an information technology system which comprises an electronic computer, the electronic computer comprising elements for accessing the data communications network, a first hard disk, a removable slider which is adapted to contain the first hard disk, a first data bank; an operations center being adapted to retrieve instructions from the data bank which are adapted to be processed by the computer on the basis of a unique identifier associated with the electronic computer, the computer being further adapted to perform operations for backing up a restore point on elements for backing up data which are present on the first hard disk, on the basis of the instructions, and operations for restoring the data on the first hard disk on the basis of a choice made by a user.

Backing up data and restoring it following a software or hardware error constitutes one of the greatest challenges that a company has to face. A malfunction, caused for example by a computer virus, can render an employee's workstation completely unusable and result in considerable losses of time and money. Such outages can be due to a malfunction of a hardware component, such as a hard disk crash, or of a software component, such as the corruption of the operating system or of applications, but they can also be due to involuntary actions and, last but not least, to incompatibilities between newly-installed programs and pre-existing programs.
In some cases, the user is not capable of ascertaining the exact cause of the malfunction and has to execute (or obtain) technical support services for restoring the functionality of the information technology system. The technical support services can take a long time, be complex, costly and in some cases difficult to obtain as well. Often the technical support services are limited to replacing the non-functioning hardware device. In order to render the system operational again, it is necessary to reinstall the operating system and all the programs with their configurations, i.e. the set of customizations that each user makes to his own system in order to improve its usability is not taken into consideration by this process. Normally, hardware technical support is limited to replacing the faulty part, and installation of the operating system and programs is left to the user.
Normal use by a user of an information technology system generally involves the progressive accumulation thereon of data and programs associated with the work activity such as passwords, preferences, settings or combinations thereof. This means that in order to render a compromised system usable once again, it is not sufficient to restore its mere functionality and instead it would be preferable to bring it to the conditions preceding the onset of the malfunction.
The use of "mirroring" based on the use of RAID 1 configurations is effective in the event of breakage of one of the two hard disks, since it comprises two mirror-symmetrical copies. This method however is not suitable in the event of malfunctioning software, such as the involuntary deletion of an important file or the malfunctioning caused for example by a computer virus, which would be mirrored on the other disk. Even RAID 5 systems with multiple disks, which are capable of reconstructing the disk that might fail, are unsuitable when faced with such events, and for this reason such architectures must be supplemented with systems for backing up. Such systems are widely available on the market but they have the disadvantage of requiring intervention by the user, who has to decide when to make a copy to back up the system, where to do it, and what data to save. Similar problems occur if it is desired to migrate from one computer to another one that is considered more efficient, since this operation can require a considerable amount of time.

System for backing up and restoring the functionalities of an information technology system


A system for use in inspection of a sample is described, the system comprises: an illumination unit configured to provide coherent illumination comprising a plurality of at least two wavelengths and direct said coherent illumination onto an inspection region of a sample; and a collection unit comprising at least one detector array and configured for collecting light returning from said inspection region and generate data indicative of speckle patterns in said plurality of at least two wavelengths at a predetermined sampling rate, wherein said illumination unit is configured for directing light components of said at least two wavelengths toward corresponding two or more segments of said inspection region, and wherein said data indicative of speckle patterns corresponding with said two or more segments.

Optical monitoring of movement or vibrations of a sample provide a simple technique for providing information of biological tissue as well as other samples without a need of physical interactions other than illuminating of the sample.
Several techniques developed by the inventors of the present invention utilize illuminating of a region of a sample with coherent illumination and collecting light returning (reflected and scattered) from the sample for detecting variation in secondary speckle patterns formed by the returned light. The secondary speckle pattern is generally formed by interference of light components scattered from diffraction locations within the inspected region and is collected by imaging an intermediate plane along path of the returning light, e.g. utilizing defocused imaging unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,638,991 presents a method for imaging an object. The method comprises imaging a coherent speckle pattern propagating from an object, using an imaging system being focused on a plane displaced from the object.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,668,672 present a system and method for use in monitoring one or more conditions of a subject's body. The system includes a control unit which includes an input port for receiving image data, a memory utility, and a processor utility. The image data is indicative of data measured by a pixel detector array and is in the form of a sequence of speckle patterns generated by a portion of the subject's body in response to illumination thereof by coherent light according to a certain sampling time pattern. The memory utility stores one or more predetermined models, the model comprising data indicative of a relation between one or more measurable parameters and one or more conditions of the subject's body. The processor utility is configured and operable for processing the image data to determine one or more corresponding body conditions; and generating output data indicative of the corresponding body conditions.

Vibration sensing system with wavelength encoding


The present disclosure provides a medical connector for enteral applications. The medical connector includes a body portion having a distal patient access fitting and a proximal fluid delivery device fitting as well as an administration port. The administration port for administrating or extracting fluids or medicine includes a cylindrical cavity, an administration port seal having a normally-closed slit, a plunger, a plunger sleeve, and a compression member. Engaging a non-luer female tip with the administration port actuates the compression member such that the plunger pierces the normally-closed slit, causing it to open allowing fluid communication with the body portion.

The present disclosure relates to medical connector devices used to link or join medical devices for fluid or gas delivery applications such as enteral feeding sets, catheters, and other medical devices.
Fluid and gas delivery systems are common in medical applications, and utilize various catheters, tubing, and syringes for fluid and/or gas delivery to patients. Intravenous ("I.V.") catheters are typically used to administer I.V. medications into a patient's I.V. or arterial system using catheters having luer fittings defined as set forth in ISO 594:1986 "Conical fittings with a 6% (Luer) taper for syringes, needles and certain other medical equipment" standards ("ISO/ANSI 1986"), which is one type of small-bore connectors. An ISO/ANSI 1986 compliant, or luer catheter typically has a female rigid luer fitting which will fit into a male luer I.V. syringe or I.V. extension or I.V. administration set. From the luer dimensional ISO/ANSI 1986 standards, the luer tip has an outside diameter of 4 mm, a fluid flow path of less than 2.4 mm in diameter, and a length of less than 0.300 inches with a 6% taper. The luer taper is one possible configuration of a small-bore connector common in the healthcare setting. A small-bore connector commonly refers to a connector with an inner diameter of less than 8.5 mm.
Enteral connectors, which are typically small-bore connectors, may take various forms, and recently, at least one worldwide organization seeks to standardize enteral connectors to have non-luer compatible forms, such that misconnections of wrong systems (e.g., administering/connecting I.V. fluids into an enteral system or vice-versa) are reduced or prevented. Previous connector designs have allowed luer tip or luer lock syringes to connect to an enteral catheter. As the administration of enteral formula into a patient's I.V. system can have catastrophic effects leading to serious complications and/or death, a mechanical solution that prevents such misconnections is desirable.
Recently, standards have been proposed for non-luer compatible fittings of all syringes, feeding tubes, and delivery sets having small bore connector fittings with less than 8.5 mm in diameter fluid flow path for enteral administration. These standards have been issued as proposed ISO/ANSI 80369-3 "Small-bore connectors for liquids and gases in healthcare applications—part 3: connectors for enteral applications" standards and set forth in AAMI/CN3:2014 (hereinafter, "AAMI/CN3:2014 and ISO/ANSI 80369-3"). The standards delineate certain requirements for syringes, feeding tubes, and delivery sets having totally non-luer compatible male and female screw-thread type fittings. One such proposed AAMI/CN3:2014 and ISO/ANSI 80369-3 standard connector is presently referred to as the ENFit connector, and has the screw-thread type fitting described in the standard. Connectors that accommodate the screw-thread type fittings and that prevent connection with luer fittings are desirable.


A novel catalyst for alkylating an alkene with an alkane to give an alkylate product has been developed. The catalyst comprises a refractory inorganic oxide on which is dispersed a Group VIII metal, a metal cation and the reaction product of a metal halide and bound surface hydroxyl groups of the refractory inorganic oxide. The catalyst is characterized in that the Group VIII metal is concentrated in an outer layer of the catalyst particle.

In the oil industry the term "alkylate" generally refers to the product of the alkylation of C.sub.2 -C.sub.6 olefins with C.sub.4 -C.sub.6 alkanes (generally known as motor fuel alkylation). The product is a mixture of alkanes. The main use of alkylate is as a component in motor fuel and thus, it is desirable that the alkylate contain branched paraffins and especially trimethylpentanes, since these paraffins have a high octane number. Although alkylate was an important component when anti-knock additives were used, its importance has increased significantly owing to the phaseout of lead in gasoline. Finally, increased demand of alkylate is owing to the decreased use of butane because butane evaporates readily, especially in warm weather, contributing to smog formation.
The alkylation of C.sub.2 -C.sub.6 olefins is generally catalyzed by strong acids such as sulfuric and liquid hydrogen fluoride. Commercially, HF has been favored at least in part because of the relative ease of HF regeneration. An overview of HF-catalyzed alkylation is presented by B. R. Shah in "Handbook of Petroleum Refining Processes", R. A. Meyers, editor, McGraw-Hill Book Company, 1986, pp 1-3 through 1-28. Briefly, the HF-catalyzed alkylation process is carried out as follows. Generally, olefinic and isobutane feedstocks are combined and mixed with HF in an alkylation reaction zone. The reactor effluent is separated into the desired alkylate, acid, and other light gases which are predominantly unreacted isobutanes. The HF is either recycled to the reactor directly or regenerated in whole or in part prior to its being recycled to the reactor. Unreacted isobutane is also recycled to the reactor and the alkylate is blended in with the motor fuel pool.
However, recently there has been heavy environmental pressure to eliminate the use of HF as a catalyst. HF (hydrofluoric acid) is classified as an acutely hazardous material and in Southern California the Board of the South Coast Air Quality Management District has required that the use of HF in alkylation be phased out by Jan. 1, 1998. Accordingly, there is a strong need to find a catalyst which can replace HF as an alkylation catalyst. It is also desirable to have a solid acid as the catalyst since this would allow the use of a fixed bed system which is generally preferred over a liquid/liquid system by the petroleum refining industry.
Although solid acid catalysts are known in the art, they have serious drawbacks which have precluded them from being used commercially for the alkylation of C.sub.2 -C.sub.6 olefins. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,999,074 discloses an alkylation catalyst comprising a refractory inorganic oxide support having dispersed thereon platinum and the reaction products between one or more of the metal halides (those that are active as Friedel-Crafts catalysts) and the refractory inorganic oxide support, e.g., alumina. The platinum metal provides hydrogenation activity for the olefins. One disadvantage of this type of catalyst is that it is too acidic, which results in the catalyst not only catalyzing the alkylation of the olefins but concurrently cracking some of the various alkylate products. Another disadvantage of these types of catalyst is that they are insufficiently selective, again probably arising from its "excess" acidity. By selectivity is meant the extent of monoalkylation versus multiplealkylation. For example, it is most desirable that the olefin react only with the alkanes initially in the feedstocks. However, in practice some of the alkylation products formed also subsequently react with the olefin in the feedstock to form secondary alkylation products. For example, if the feedstock contains only butanes and butenes, the primary alkylation product would be a C.sub.8 paraffin, while secondary alkylation products would be C.sub.12, C.sub.16, and so on. Since this type of catalyst has cracking activity, the secondary alkylation products can be cracked to lower molecular weight hydrocarbons. Finally, another side reaction which should be avoided is oligomerization which leads to inefficient olefin consumption.
Applicants have discovered a novel solid alkylation catalyst which has improved selectivity and a much longer life than previously known catalysts. The catalyst of the present invention comprises a particulate refractory inorganic oxide support having dispersed thereon at least one Group VIII metal such as platinum, a metal cation such as potassium and the reaction product of a metal halide, e.g., aluminum chloride, and bound surface hydroxyl groups on said refractory inorganic oxide. The catalyst is characterized in that at least 40 percent of the Group VIII metal present on the catalyst is located within a 100-300 micrometer external layer of the catalyst particle, while the metal cation is uniformly distributed throughout the particle. The increased life of the instant catalyst makes the use of a solid bed alkylation catalyst commercially feasible.
It should be pointed out that U.S. Pat. No. 5,017,541 discloses a catalyst which is used for isomerization and which is composed of a support, a Friedel-Crafts metal halide and a surface layer platinum group metal. However, this reference does not mention alkylation, nor the use of a metal cation such as potassium.

Alkylation catalyst with non-uniform metal dispersion


The invention relates to methods for controlling of transmission of data in IP networks. According to the invention, the sequence numbers and sending times of transmitted IPSec packets are stored, acknowledgement is sent for every N:th received IPSec packet or after any IPSec packet if T seconds have elapsed after sending a previous acknowledgement packet, the acknowledgement comprising the sequence number of the particular IPSec packet after the reception of which the acknowledgement is sent and the counter values indicating the number of packets and bytes received, and at least the round trip time, packet success rate and throughput value are determined from the reception time of the acknowledgement and the stored sending time associated with the sequence number in the acknowledgement and the counter values indicating the number of packets and bytes received.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to methods for controlling of transmission of data in IP networks. Especially, the invention is related to such a method as specified in the preamble of the independent method claim.
2. Description of Related Art
The public Internet is presently being used more and more for sensitive and mission critical communications. Since the basic mechanisms of the internet were originally not designed with secrecy and confidentiality in mind, the internet is an untrusted network. Skilled individuals can in many cases eavesdrop or divert communications, which requires the use of different kinds of security measures in order to use the internet for sensitive communications.
One widely used structure is the virtual private network (VPN). A virtual private network is established on top of an untrusted network such as the Internet by constructing encrypted data transmission channels. A virtual private network is typically used to connect distant offices of an organization to each other over the public Internet. All traffic from the local area network of a first office directed to a second office is encrypted by a network element at the first office, sent in encrypted form over the internet to the second office, where a network element decrypts the transmitted data and forwards the decrypted data to the local area network of the second office. The VPN is typically transparent to the processes that are communicating between each other.
Virtual private networks are typically constructed using the IPSec protocol suite. The IPSec protocol suite is described in the standard RFC 2401 "Security Architecture for the Internet Protocol". IPSec offers access control, connectionless integrity, data origin authentication, protection against replays, confidentiality (encryption), and limited traffic flow confidentiality. The IPSec protocol suite provides an infrastructure for the data transmission and encryption processes, but does not define any specific encryption method. Many different kinds of encryption methods can be used for IPSec connections. Virtual private networks typically use so called tunnel mode, in which an entire data packet is encrypted, and the result is transmitted as a payload in another data packet. IPSec traffic is unidirectional. IPSec does not provide flow control or error recovery, but leaves these to the protocols carried within the secured channel created by IPSec. IPSec does not thus give any help for measuring the quality of connection such as the throughput of the connection or delays of the connection or even detecting that a connection has turned inoperative. This is a problem especially when a plurality of transmission paths is used for transferring data between two parties.

Data transmission control and performance monitoring method of an IPSec link in a virtual private network


A footwear attachment device for releasable mounting on primary footwear, e.g., a boot or shoe, to provide enhanced traction. The primary footwear has an upper including a toe portion and a heel portion, a sole including a fore-foot portion and a heel portion. The attachment device comprising an integral member having a mounting ring, a forefoot-sole engaging portion, a heel-sole engaging portion, and plural connecting webs. The attachment device is preferably molded of a resilient material. The forefoot-sole engaging portion and the heel-sole engaging portion of the device are each a generally planar member mounted within the bounds of the ring by the connecting webs. The ring is stretchable to enable it to encircle the upper of the primary footwear to releasably mount it, so that its forefoot-sole engaging portion is engagement with the forefoot portion of the sole of the primary footwear, and its heel-sole engaging portion is in engagement with the heel portion of that sole. The forefoot-sole portion and the heel-sole portion of the attachment device each have a ground engaging surface, e.g., a multitude of organized or disorganized fibers, plural ridges, grooves, cleats or combinations thereof, for providing a desired type of traction. A pull tab is also provided on the ring to facilitate the mounting of the ring on the primary footwear. A disposable gritted pad having a pressure-sensitive adhesive is provided for releasable mounting on the ground engaging surface of the attachment device or on the sole of the primary footwear to enhance the traction provided thereby.

This application relates generally to footwear and more particularly to attachments which are adapted to be stretched over a portion of the upper of an article of primary footwear, e.g., a shoe or boot, so that a portion of it is on the sole/heel of primary the primary footwear to alter the amount of ground engaging traction provided thereby, e.g., to enhance the traction to provide increased resistance to slippage.
Various ice gripping, sandal-like, attachments for footwear are commercially and have been disclosed in the patent literature. Examples of such patented devices are found in the following U.S. Pat. No. 1,032,600 (Grout); U.S. Pat. No. 2,361,972 (Smith); U.S. Pat. No. 3,214,850 (McNair); U.S. Pat. No. 3,516,181 (Jordan); U.S. Pat. No. 4,344,238 (Peyser); U.S. Pat. No. 4,353,172 (Bryant); U.S. Pat. No. 4,525,939 (McNeil et al.); and U.S. Pat. No. 4,910,883 (Zock, Jr.).
There are also some spike or cleat-bearing attachments which are commercially available for use on footwear to prevent slippage on ice or other slippery surfaces. One such type of attachment is sold under the trademark "RUD Shoe Chain" and is a rubber ring having chains extending between opposed portions of the ring. The rubber ring is arranged to be stretched over the upper of a boot or shoe so that the chains extend under the sole and heel to provide traction on ice and snow.
Another type of attachment is sold under the trademark SPIKY and is in the form of a resilient rubber sling or overshoe having plural metal spikes or cleats on the bottom thereof and which are arranged to dig into ice when the attachment is worn over an article of primary footwear, e.g., a boot or shoe.
While the aforementioned prior art devices are generally suitable for their intended purposes, they still leave something to be desired from various standpoints, such as simplicity of construction, compactness, ease of mounting and removing, integrity of components and effectiveness.
Other prior art attachment devices for footwear are shown in the following U.S. Pat. No. 1,716,790 (Mitchell), U.S. Pat. No. 1,747,603 (Ruth), U.S. Pat. No. 1,877,080 (Teshima), U.S. Pat. No. 2,076,316 (Beals, Jr.), U.S. Pat. No. 2,617,209 (Jackson), U.S. Pat. No. 2,628,437 (Forsythe), U.S. Pat. No. 3,012,343 (Dinkel), U.S. Pat. No. 3,040,451 (Helkemeyer), U.S. Pat. No. 3,609,888 (Rickman), U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,372 (McCall), U.S. Pat. No. 4,302,890 (Covell et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,727,662 (Ilon), U.S. Pat. No. 4,924,608 (Mongonye), U.S. Pat. No. 5,485,687 (Rohde), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,341,582 (Liautand).

Traction altering footwear attachment device with resilient mounting ring and fiber ground engagement surface


A method for determining a HARQ-ACK codebook and a user equipment are provided. The method for determining the HARQ-ACK codebook includes: determining an HARQ-ACK codebook based on code block group configuration of a BWP where at least one PDSCH corresponding to the HARQ-ACK codebook is located; or, determining an HARQ-ACK codebook based on code block group configuration of a BWP where a PDCCH scheduling at least one PDSCH corresponding to the HARQ-ACK codebook is located.

In the long term evolution (LTE) system, when a network side transmits a transport block (TB), each transport block is divided into multiple code blocks. A user equipment (UE) needs to transmit hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) acknowledgement/non-acknowledgement (ACK/NACK) information for the entire transport block. If a certain code block in the transport block is transmitted incorrectly, all code blocks in the entire transport block need to be retransmitted.
In standardization process of the 5th generation (5G) new ratio (NR) mobile communication system, the code block group (CBG) transmission mode is introduced. That is, code blocks of a transport block are grouped, the transport block includes multiple code block groups, and one code block group includes one or more code blocks. The user equipment can feed back ACK/NACK of each code block group according to the reception of each code block group. In this way, the network side only needs to retransmit the code block group incorrectly received by the user equipment, thereby reducing resources required for retransmission, and reducing processing latency when the user equipment receives the retransmitted data and performs merging.
When the code block group transmission mode is not configured for the user equipment, feeding back the ACK/NACK by the user equipment includes feeding back 1 bit for each transport block. When the code block group transmission mode is configured for the user equipment, the types of ACK/NACK fed back by the user equipment include transport block level (TB level) ACK/NACK and code block group level (CBG level) ACK/NACK. In this case, in the TB level ACK/NACK, the user equipment feeds back M bits for each transport block, where the various bits have the same value and each are used to indicate the ACK/NACK of the transport block. In the CBG level ACK/NACK, the user equipment feeds back M bits for each transport block, where each bit corresponds to ACK/NACK of each code block group. Specifically, the user equipment determines the type of ACK/NACK feedback according to the format of the received downlink control information (DCI) for scheduling downlink data. When the format of the DCI received by the user equipment is a fallback DCI, the type of the ACK/NACK fed back by the user equipment is TB level ACK/NACK. When the format of the DCI received by the user equipment is a normal DCI, the type of the ACK/NACK fed back by the user equipment is CBG level ACK/NACK.
In order to meet services with different demands and meet different application scenarios, subcarrier spacings of the NR system are no longer a single 15 kHz, and multiple types of subcarrier spacings can be supported, where different subcarrier spacings can be applied to different scenarios. In NR Rel-15, the maximum bandwidth of each carrier is 400 MHz. However, considering the capabilities of the user equipment, the maximum bandwidth supported by the user equipment can be less than 400 MHz, and the user equipment can operate on multiple small bandwidth parts (BWP). Each bandwidth part corresponds to a parameter set (Numerology), a bandwidth, and a frequency location. One or more BWPs can be configured for each user equipment, and the network side needs to inform the user equipment of the BWP on which the user equipment operates, that is, which BWP is activated. The active BWP can be dynamically switched through DCI.
In the frequency division dual (FDD) scenario, when the active BWP of the user equipment is switched and code block group transmission configurations of different downlink (DL) BWPs are different, transport block transmission configurations of BWPs associated with multiple physical downlink shared channels (PDSCH) in the time window are different, so the user equipment may not be able to determine the size of the HARQ-ACK codebook.

Method for determining HARQ-ACK codebook and user equipment


A feedstock containing at least 1 wt % butenes, at least 1 wt % pentenes, at least 1 wt % hexenes, at least 10 wppm C4 dienes, at least 10 wppm C5 dienes, and optionally at least 10 wppm C6 dienes can be selectively hydrogenated over a catalyst (e.g., a noble metal) to form a stream containing 100 wppm to 4000 wppm total dienes. The hydrogenated stream, and an olefinic recycle stream having less than 10 wt. % C1+ moieties, can be contacted with a molecular sieve catalyst, e.g., at a recycle to feed ratio between 0.1 and 3.0, at a WHSV of at least 1.0 based on olefin in the feed, and at a reactor ΔT no greater than 40° F. (22° C.), thus forming a reaction product that can then be separated into a distillate, e.g., having from 1 wt % to 30 wt % non-normal C9 olefins, and the aforementioned olefinic recycle stream.

Improved hydrocarbon compositions are needed to help meet the growing demand for middle distillate products, such as aviation turbine fuels, for example, JP-8, and diesel fuel. Diesel fuel generally provides a higher energy efficiency in compression ignition engines than automotive gasoline provides in spark combustion engines, and has a higher rate of demand growth than automotive gasoline, especially outside the U.S. Further, improved fuel compositions are needed to meet the stringent quality specifications for aviation fuel and the ever tightening quality specifications for diesel fuel as established by industry requirements and governmental regulations.
One known route for producing hydrocarbon compositions useful as fuels is the oligomerization of olefins over various molecular sieve catalysts. Exemplary patents relating to olefin oligomerization include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,444,988; 4,456,781; 4,504,693; 4,547,612 and 4,879,428. In these disclosures, feedstock olefins are mixed with an olefinic recycle material and contacted with a zeolite, particularly in a series of fixed bed reactors. The oligomerized reaction product is then separated to provide a distillate stream, and typically a gasoline stream, and any number of olefinic recycle streams.
However, in these known oligomerization processes, the focus is on producing relatively heavy distillate products, and even lube base stocks. To enable the production of relatively heavy materials, the processes employ, either directly or indirectly, a relatively large amount of olefinic recycle (typically>2:1 w/w relative to feed), containing significant quantities of C10+ material. The relatively large recycle rate provides control over the exotherm of the oligomerization reaction in the preferred fixed bed, adiabatic reactor system, while the relatively heavy recycle composition (in conjunction with high conversion of light olefin feed, in part enabled by a relatively low WHSV) enables the growth of heavier oligomers and thus higher molecular weight and denser distillate product. However, the high rate of recycle requires much larger equipment to handle the increased volumetric flow rate, and uses more separation/fractionation energy, and hence more and larger associated energy conservation elements. Further, the high molecular weight of the oligomer product requires very high temperatures for the fractionation tower bottoms streams that may eliminate the use of simple steam reboilers and require more expensive and complicated fired heaters.
The recycle streams in conventional olefin oligomerization processes are produced in a variety of fashions, typically including some sort of single stage flash drum providing a very crude separation of reactor product as a means of providing the relatively heavy components, followed by various fractionation schemes which may or may not provide sharper separations, and again often provide heavy components as recycle. The dense distillate product is generally characterized by a relatively high specific gravity (in excess of 0.775) and a high viscosity, in part due to the composition comprising relatively high levels of aromatics and naphthenes.
Very few references discuss both the merits and methods of producing lighter distillate products, typified by such as jet fuel, kerosene, and No. 1 Diesel, via the oligomerization of C3 to C8 olefins. Jet/kero is generally overlooked as a particularly useful middle distillate product, inasmuch as the volume consumed in the marketplace is considerably smaller than its heavier cousins, No. 2 Diesel and No. 4 Diesel (fuel oil). However, jet/kero is a high volume commercial product in its own right, and is also typically suitable as a particular light grade of diesel, called No. 1 Diesel, that is especially useful in colder climates given its tendency to remain liquid and sustain volatility at much lower temperatures. In addition, jet/kero type streams are often blended in with other stocks to produce No. 2 Diesel, both to modify the diesel fuel characteristics, and to allow introduction of otherwise less valuable blendstocks into the final higher value product.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,600 discloses an oligomerization process for converting lower olefins to distillate hydrocarbons, especially useful as high quality jet or diesel fuels, wherein an olefinic feedstock is reacted over a shape selective acid zeolite, such as ZSM-5, to oligomerize feedstock olefins and further convert recycled hydrocarbons. The reactor effluent is fractionated to recover a light-middle distillate range product stream and to obtain light and heavy hydrocarbon streams for recycle. The middle distillate product has a boiling range of about 165° C. to 290° C. and contains substantially linear C9 to C16 mono-olefinic hydrocarbons, whereas the major portion of the C6 to C8 hydrocarbon components are contained in the lower boiling recycle stream, and the major portion (e.g., 50 wt % to more than 90 wt %) of the C16+ hydrocarbon components are contained in the heavy recycle fraction.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,366 discloses a multi-stage process for upgrading an ethene-rich feed into heavier hydrocarbon products boiling in the lubricant, distillate and gasoline ranges. The process involves initially contacting the ethene-rich feed in a primary reaction stage with a fluidized bed of a zeolite catalyst, such as ZSM-5, and then separating the resultant effluent into at least a liquid stream containing a major amount of aromatics-rich C5+ hydrocarbons and a gas stream rich in propene and butene. The gas stream is then fed to a secondary reaction stage comprising a series of fixed bed reactors containing a medium pore zeolite oligomerization catalyst, such as ZSM-5, ZSM-11, ZSM-12, ZSM-22, ZSM-23 or ZSM-35, preferably having a silica/alumina molar ratio of 20 to 200 and a crystal size of 0.2 to 1 micron. In the secondary reaction stage, at least part of the aromatics-rich, liquid primary stage effluent is mixed with a hot inter-stage stream containing partially upgraded olefins to quench said inter-stage stream and the resultant mixed stream is passed to at least one downstream oligomerization reactor. The conditions in the secondary reaction stage can be varied to control the product slate, but generally include a temperature of 235° C. to 315° C., a pressure of 2800 to 10,000 kPa and a weight hourly space velocity of 0.1 to 1.5. The product necessarily contains a significant quantity of aromatic hydrocarbons.
A similar process is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,855,524, in which an olefin-containing light gas or light naphtha is oligomerized to a C10+ aliphatic hydrocarbon product in multistage reaction zones. In particular, lower alkenes in the feed are oligomerized to intermediate range olefins, mainly in the C5 to C9 range, in a low severity primary reaction zone containing zeolite catalyst particles, preferably in the form of a fluidized bed. The primary reaction zone effluent is then separated into a C4− light gas stream and a predominantly olefinic C5+ intermediate stream substantially free of C4− components. The intermediate stream is then contacted with a medium pore, shape selective, acid oligomerization catalyst in a secondary reaction zone under oligomerization conditions to produce a predominantly C10+ product. To maximize the yield of distillate product, the '524 patent teaches that C10+ hydrocarbons should be removed from said intermediate stream before passage through said secondary reaction zone and that said secondary reaction zone should be operated with catalyst having an average activity alpha greater than 10, at weight hourly space velocity (WHSV) in the range from about 0.1 to about 10 hr−1, at an inlet pressure in excess of about 3200 kPa, an inlet temperature in the range from about 149° C. to about 232° C. and an outlet temperature in the range from about 232° C. to about 343° C. The overall yield and/or quality of the distillate may be further increased by recycling an insufficiently oligomerized portion of the product stream to the secondary reaction zone.
In accordance with the known olefin conversion and oligomerization processes, catalysts are specified that have certain characteristics conducive to their desired products, typically aromatics and heavier distillate products, even lube base stocks. Such characteristics of these known catalysts are not necessarily conducive to the production of lighter distillate products, for example, relatively large crystal size to constrain the larger molecules to enable oligomerization, and relatively high activity to increase the rate of reaction of the less reactive larger molecules. Further, such catalyst attributes in conjunction with the known process conditions favor the production of byproduct cyclics, e.g., aromatics, which are known to be detrimental to distillate and aviation fuel properties.
According to the present invention, it has now been found that by controlling the conditions of the oligomerization process and, in particular, the amount and composition of the recycle, C3 to C8 olefins can be converted into a novel hydrocarbon composition similar in make-up to that of conventional diesel and jet fuel, but with an unusually low specific gravity making it an excellent blending stock to produce fuel products, such as Jet Fuel A and No. 1 and No. 2 Diesel. In addition, the hydrocarbon composition of the invention is very low in sulfur, naphthenes, and aromatics, has a high cetane number and, in view of its low n-paraffin content, has a very low freezing point.
Feedstocks containing olefins suitable for use in the present invention may be obtained from a variety or sources and methods, for example, as a product or byproduct of a Fluid Catalytic Cracking Unit (typically termed in the art "FCCU") for the conversion of various petroleum streams to gasoline, or the pyrolysis at high temperatures of such petroleum streams in the presence of steam (generally termed in the art "Steam Cracking"), or as a byproduct of Fischer Tropsch units that convert a wide variety of refractory hydrocarbons to synthesis gas and subsequently to synthetic petroleum fractions (in one embodiment, termed "Gas To Liquids" or "GTL"). An emerging source of feedstock olefins for use in the present invention is an oxygenate to olefin conversion (generally termed in the art "OTO" or in a particular manifestation, Methanol To Olefins or "MTO").
One problem with olefin feedstocks from such sources is the presence of various non-olefin species that decrease the cycle life of the shape selective acid catalysts, e.g., zeolites, facilitating the oligomerization reaction in which they are used; that is, certain non-olefin species in the olefin feedstock decrease the time the catalyst can be on-stream in between regenerations. A particular non-olefin species of concern is dienes. For example, a problem with oxygenate conversion reactions for use in providing feedstock to oligomerization processes is that the olefin products often include significant quantities of C4+ hydrocarbons comprising a significant proportion of dienes, particularly for MTO using SAPO catalysts. It has therefore been the conventional wisdom, e.g., as disclosed in International Publication No. WO06/33759, to drastically lower the diene levels by substantially converting all the highly unsaturated hydrocarbons, including dienes, to the corresponding olefins. However, such a drastic reduction in dienes generally requires either a second stage reactor operating at significantly less severe conditions, potentially with a different catalyst, or if done in a single stage, will be subject a very large amount of undesirable secondary reactions of the olefins to saturates.
There are other patents and publications relating to feedstocks prepared from oxygenate conversion processes. For instance, International Publication Nos. WO 05/17071 and WO 04/48299 disclose the preparation of feedstocks from oxygenate conversion reactions.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,544,792 discloses feedstock compositions with specified olefin contents and using hydrogen as a co-feed in an oligomerization reaction.
International Publication No. WO 04/09518 discloses a feedstock derived from an oxygenate conversion reaction for use in an oligomerization reaction, but does not specify the presence of dienes therein.
Other commonly-owned U.S. patent applications touching on this topic include, but may not be limited to, U.S. 2006-0199984A1; US 2006-0217580 A1; US 2006-0199987 A1; US 2006-0199985 A1; and US 2006-0199988 A1.
According to the present invention, it has now been found that drastically low levels of dienes in the feed are not required to prevent catalyst life reduction (degradation). Specifically, it has now been found that the impact on catalyst life is slight or undetectable when the feed contains a level of less than about 4000 wppm of total dienes. By being able to tolerate a higher level of dienes in the feed without significantly affecting catalyst life, a significant savings in capital and energy can be realized, allowing effective feedstock production in a single hydrogenation reactor at a single set of conditions. Being able to tolerate this level of dienes in the product of the hydrogenation step (and feed to the oligomerization step) also enables efficient production of the feed from the primary conversion step, such as MTO, steam cracking, or catalytic cracking. Through the present invention, a mixture of different olefins and diolefins may all be processed as a single feedstream, and hence produced by separation from the primary conversion step effluent in relatively few (e.g., one or two) separation steps. Generally, different diolefins require substantially different hydrogenation conditions to process effectively.
Patents and publications relating to hydrogenation of dienes include, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,646,176 and 6,469,223, which disclose selective diene hydrogenation using palladium and nickel catalysts, respectively.
Additionally, International Publication No. WO 05/23423 discloses selective dimerization of isobutene, and European Patent No. EP 0 742 195 further discloses etherification and metathesis.
Further, it has also now been found that having a number of different carbon number olefins in the feed to the oligomerization step can help to provide a distillate (ODG) product that has a wider distribution of carbon numbers and that is substantially closer in boiling characteristics to conventional petroleum-derived distillates. Thus, a synthetic distillate made according to the present invention can be advantageously used as a replacement for, or a blendstock with, those conventional distillate materials.

Feedstock preparation of olefins for oligomerization to produce fuels


An electrosurgical instrument can be provided that includes a pair of opposing jaws, a channel in at least one of the opposing jaws for receiving a reciprocating blade, and a fluid distribution system in communication with the one or more fluid openings located within the channel for delivering a fluid to the jaws.

Generally, forceps may be utilized for laparoscopic surgery. The forceps may be used to control delicate movements inside a patient. These forceps may be used to grip an anatomical feature. The forceps may include a gripping assembly or a cutting assembly. The forceps may include electrical energy for use in the gripping assembly. The forceps have a pair of opposed resilient jaws that are closed against each other or a cutting blade. The jaws, the blade, or both may be powered to cut or coagulate during a surgical procedure. However, electrically powering the jaws or blade to cut tissue or a feature of interest may result in the tissue or feature of interest sticking to the jaws, blade, or both. A non-stick lubricant may be applied to the jaws, the blade, or both; however, through repeated use the lubricant may be removed from a surface and sticking may occur. Examples of some forceps or pumps to move a liquid may be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,447,479 and 4,096,864 and U.S. Patent Application Publication No.: 2003/0114850; 2005/0245841; 2009/0088744; 2010/0306968; and 2011/0306968 all of which are incorporated by reference herein in their entirety for all purposes. During gripping and cutting or electrically heating of the anatomical feature such as tissue the anatomical feature may stick to the jaws or blade so that the anatomical feature cannot easily be detached from the forceps. Furthermore, repeated gripping and electrically heating or cutting of the anatomical feature may potentially damage or injure the anatomical feature requiring additional healing or treatment.
It would be attractive for the forceps to include a fluid distribution system that allows for fluid to be inserted into a desired location without removal of the forceps from a surgical site. What is needed is forceps that includes one or more fluid lines, fluid pumps, fluid openings, or a combination thereof that allow a fluid to be introduced proximate to the jaws, blade, or both from a remote location while the forceps remain within the surgical site. What is needed is a fluid distribution system that applies a lubricant to a portion of the forceps that contacts an anatomical feature before power is applied so that sticking is prevented. It would be attractive to have forceps that allow a user to selectively apply one or more fluids to a desired location so that fluids can be applied to a location of interest without removal of the forceps from the surgical site.

Surgical device having an integral fluid distribution system


An elevator moves through a hoistway with one or more sensors positioned so that they pass by one or more targets that are in fixed positions relative to the hoistway. As they pass, an inductive current is generated, giving the elevator's control circuitry precise information as to the vertical position of the elevator car. The control system adjusts the raising and/or lowering of the elevator car based on that position information and any discrepancy between it and the supposed position at which the control system had believed the car was. Discrepancies are accumulated over time as an indication of cable stretch, and when the stretch exceeds a particular threshold, an alarm is raised for maintenance. The control system also defines a “door zone” around each landing where, based on the precise height measurement achieved herein, it is safe under the circumstances to open the doors of the car.

In the field of elevators, it is desirable to control the position of an elevator car so that the floor of the passenger cabin is aligned with the floor of the building when passengers enter and exit the car. While there may be devices and methods that attempt to accomplish this, it is believed that no one prior to the inventor(s) has made or used an invention as described herein.
The drawings are not intended to be limiting in any way, and it is contemplated that various embodiments of the invention may be carried out in a variety of other ways, including those not necessarily depicted in the drawings. The accompanying drawings incorporated in and forming a part of the specification illustrate several aspects of the present invention, and together with the descriptions serve to explain the principles of the invention; it being understood, however, that this invention is not limited to the precise arrangements shown.


[Means for solving problem] The resin composition of the present invention comprises 100 parts by mass of a specific ethylene/α-olefin/non-conjugated polyene copolymer (A) and 0.1 to 5 parts by mass of a peroxide (B), and the copolymer (A) comprises structural units derived from ethylene (a1), an α-olefin (a2) having 3 to 20 carbon atoms, and a non-conjugated polyene (a3) including intramolecularly two or more partial structures in total selected from the group consisting of structures represented by the following formulae (I) and (II),

In various apparatuses such as automobiles, a material having elasticity and excellent heat resistance may be required, such as a hose used under high thermal conditions.
In recent years, engines for automobiles are increasingly downsized and equipped with a turbocharger for improving fuel efficiency. An engine with a turbocharger is configured so that air compressed by a compressor wheel is cooled by a charge air cooler and then sent to the engine, and the compressor wheel is connected to the charge air cooler by a rubber hose. This turbocharger hose is required to have high heat aging resistance because air at high pressure and high temperature (about 180° C.) flows therethrough. It is also required to have fatigue resistance to withstand continuous pressure oscillation caused by the passage of the air. In such an application, a material with high heat aging resistance such as acrylic rubber and silicone elastomer is currently adopted.
Patent Document 1 describes a composition containing an ethylene/alkyl acrylate copolymer and a cured product of the composition, which is a product of vulcanizate exhibiting improved impact fatigue resistance and heat resistance in comparison with conventional vulcanizates.
Patent Document 2 proposes a tube-engagement structure including an innermost rubber layer and an envelope rubber layer, the innermost layer being made of a fluorocarbon rubber to exhibit excellent heat resistance and fatigue resistance and protect the inner layer of tubes from cracking, and the envelope layer being made of a rubber such as silicone rubber, acrylic rubber, and ethylene/acrylic rubber.
Under such circumstances, a material excellent in not only heat resistance but also fatigue resistance has been desired to emerge.
In addition to the above properties, lamps for automobiles and motorbikes such as head lamps and fog lamps, and the display part of meters are desirably not cloudy. For this reason, materials for packing such as lamp seal packings (lamp seal rubber packings) used for lamps of automobiles and motorbikes and meter packings used for meters are required to have fogging resistance so as not to cloud lamps and glass.
Patent Document 3 proposes a sealing material for automobiles, which includes a hollow sealing portion and a base portion for attachment, both extrusion-molded integrally, the sealing portion being configured by a shaped article of shape memory rubber consisting of a vulcanizable rubber and a particulate resin material dispersed and compounded therein, and the document also describes the use of, as the resin material, a crystalline resin such as a homopolymer and a copolymer of α-olefin, and a resin such as polystyrene, ABS resin, acrylonitrile, and AAS resin, and the use of an ethylene/α-olefin/non-conjugated polyene copolymer rubber as the vulcanizable rubber. However, Patent Document 3 neither specifically describes a specific method of compounding and preparing the rubber shaped article, nor recognizes a problem involving fogging resistance.
The fogging phenomenon which clouds lamps of automobiles and motorcycles and glass in the display part of meters is caused by the reduction of light transmittance owing to the volatilization of a low volatile content compounded in rubber packings and the adhesion thereof to the surface of such lamps and glass. Examples of the causative substance of the fogging phenomenon include a decomposition product from a softening agent, a mold releasing agent, a vulcanizing agent, and a crosslinking agent, and a low volatile content such as an activator, compounded in a resin composition forming packings. Under a high temperature condition caused by the lighting of the lamp or by a usage environment of the meter, the fogging phenomenon is likely to occur owing to the volatilization of a larger amount of the low volatile content. The fogging phenomenon can be reduced unless a low volatile content such as a softening agent is compounded, but in this case, a problem may occur such as the deterioration of moldability, namely, the deterioration of mold fluidity during vulcanization molding and the difficulty in adjusting the hardness of resultant packings.
For this reason, a resin composition has been desired to emerge which enables producing a packing excellent in moldability and fogging resistance.
Patent Document 4 describes an article to be used for lamp seals or packings for meters, which article is a rubber composition crosslinked by organic peroxide, wherein the composition contains an ethylene/α-olefin copolymer rubber or an ethylene/α-olefin/non-conjugated polyene copolymer rubber, and a copolymerized liquid rubber as a synthetic softening agent containing no substance causative of fogging.
In addition to the above properties, rubber shaped articles used for wiper blades of vehicles, such as automobiles, motorbikes, trains, aircrafts, and ships are required to be excellent in heat aging resistance, weather resistance, and ozone resistance since they are always exposed to sunlight, wind, and rain. Further, they are required not to cause fatigue rupture under so-called dynamic conditions, particularly with violent vibration, and to have good reversibility (high impact resilience) for good wiping performance.
Patent Document 5 proposes a mechanical structure of a wiper blade which is useful for smoothly reversing the blade rubber at the turning points of the reciprocating wiper blade without reducing the wiping performance of the wiper blade.
However, the wiping performance and durability of wiper blades is greatly affected by characteristics of their blade rubber portion.
Conventionally, a material, such as natural rubber (NR), butadiene rubber (BR), and chloroprene rubber (CR) is used for constituting the blade rubber portion of wiper blades. In recent years, attempts have been made to use EPDM as a raw material for blade rubber from the viewpoint of its environmental resistance, but its fatigue resistance and impact resilience is insufficient and it has not yet been put into practical use.
Patent Document 6 describes that a rubber composition containing a specific ethylene/α-olefin/non-conjugated polyene copolymer rubber is suitable as a rubber composition for wiper blades, and a resultant rubber shaped article for wiper blades has a long service life time. Further, Patent Document 7 describes that a wiper blade including a polymer composition applied thereto containing an ethylene polymer having a specific particle size and a binder resin is excellent in both slidability and wiping property, and moreover, durability.
However, a wiper blade having more excellent fatigue resistance and impact resilience has been required.
Besides the above described wiper blade, various shaped hoses such as automobile radiator hoses and air hoses tend to be formed, in recent years, by using heat-resistant rubber materials, and peroxides are often used as crosslinking agents in many cases. These shaped hoses are often curved tubes in order to be arranged efficiently in an engine room.
Such curved tubes are produced, for example, by using a mandrel having a curved shape conformed to the shape of rubber hoses to be produced. The material of conventionally used mandrels has been exclusively metal (iron) (for example, Patent Documents 8 and 9), but mandrels made of a heat-resistant resin, especially mandrels made of TPX (polymethylpentene resin) (for example, Patent Documents 10 and 11) are also used from the viewpoint of weight reduction. Mandrels made of resin are not discarded immediately after they were used for forming a bent tube, and are used repeatedly.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Abstract: [Effect] The resin composition of the present invention is excellent in crosslinking properties and the resin composition and its crosslinked shaped article of the present invention can be used, without any limitation, in various applications known as applications of rubber composition, and can be suitably used, for example, for interior and exterior parts for automobiles and applications requiring heat resistance.


In a semiconductor laser device comprising a plurality of semiconductor layers laminated in a vertical direction on a substrate to form a laser resonator, the laser resonator comprises a saturable absorbing region. A spot size of a light waveguide profile in the vertical direction is greater than 0.4 .mu.m. The laser resonator further comprises first and second reflecting films to provide a reflectivity greater than 50(%).

This invention relates to a semiconductor laser device which is operable with low noise even in high ambient temperature.
Recently, a semiconductor laser device is widely used for a light source in the field of a optical disk unit and an optical communication system. In particular, it is required that the semiconductor laser device used for the optical disk unit has a low optical feedback noise on readout of data from an optical disk. On such a requirement, it is well known that a self-pulsation laser device generates laser light which has a low coherence characteristic and the low optical feedback noise. Under the circumstances, if the self-pulsation laser device is used for the light source of the optical disk unit, it is unnecessary to use a high frequency module for suppressing the optical feedback noise and is no need a countermeasure against electromagnetic radiation. As a result, it is possible to provide the optical disk unit with a reduced size and a reduced cost.
In the meantime, self-pulsation operation can be obtained by forming a saturable absorbing region within a laser resonator and by controlling a saturable absorbing quantity. Such a self-pulsation operation and a laser structure are disclosed in "(Extended Abstract of 18th Conference on Solid State Devices and Materials), page 153, a paper number of D-1-2, page 21 of Proceedings in 11-th semiconductor laser symposium". Furthermore, six examples of the self-pulsation laser are reported in Extended Abstracts (41st spring meeting, 1994), the Japan Society of Applied Physics and Related Societies. The report discloses a self-pulsation laser structure that a part of an active layer positioned at both sides of a ridge waveguide is utilized as the saturable absorbing region.
The above-mentioned semiconductor laser device has, however, the following disadvantage. Namely, a conventional semiconductor laser device stops the self-pulsation operation in high ambient temperature. On the other hand, it is anticipated that the light source of the optical disk unit is used in the ambient temperature of 60.degree. C. at most. In this case, the above-mentioned semiconductor laser device is unsuitable for the light source of the optical disk unit which may be used in a high ambient temperature because the noise of the laser device increases.

Semiconductor laser device operable with low noise even in high ambient temperature


A wheel rim stacking apparatus to stack at least two wheel rims in a co axial and vertical relationship. The apparatus including an annular flange including an inwardly directed substantially cylindrical shaped wall of a diameter substantially commensurate with the outside diameter of the bead of a wheel rim to allow the wheel rim to be located with the cylindrical wall to be located on the outside thereof, the cylindrical wall having an upper edge and a lower edge. The annular flange including therefrom a radially inwardly extending landing web positioned intermediate of the upper and lower edge of the cylindrical wall, the landing web presenting (a) an upwardly facing surface by which a lower positioned bead of the wheel rim can engage to provide a vertical support to an upper one of the wheel rims and (b) a lower surface to locate on top of the upper positioned bead of an adjacent lower one of the wheel rims.

Once manufactured, a wheel rim, needs to be transported to the particular sales destinations.
Present methods for transporting wheel rims in large quantities involve stacking the rims on top of each other in columns on pallets.
To ensure that movement and friction between adjacent rims does not cause wheel damage, (which may detract from the aesthetic or functional qualities of the wheel rims), a formed corrugated cardboard tray is typically placed on a wooden pallet. Mag wheels are then placed inside the tray. Corrugated cardboard dividers are then placed between the wheels. Another corrugated cardboard tray is then placed upon top of a singe layer of wheels and the process is repeated until the desired palletised height has been reached. Another corrugated cardboard tray is placed on top of the last layer and the palletised load is strapped down using appropriate strapping such as plastic webbing.
However, inevitably, whether by movement in transporting the pallets to the shipping containers, or movement within the shipping containers themselves, the columns move relative to each other and make the load unstable.
Further, the cardboard compresses, causing the strapping, to slacken, and the stack to become unstable.
It is an object of the present invention to address the foregoing problems or at least to provide the public with a useful choice.


Indexing and storage of context of a plurality of interactive points within an interactive document is provided. The context of the interactive points within the document is stored in a server such that it can be located by the server via the index. Furthermore, information may be received at the server identifying context data for an interactive point stored in the server upon a user activating the interactive point within the document. The server may then transmit to a client the context data stored by the server identified by the information received.

Interactive applications or documents such as those appearing on the World Wide Web (WWW) containing hypertext need to contain a large amount of information to enable the interactivity. Hypertext is the organization of information units into connected associations that a user can choose to make. An instance of such an association is called a link and may be a hypertext link, for example. The information associated with each link is often stored within the document itself and the target information associated with each link can again have more links associated with it.
Each document can have any number of interactive points such as these links and others and is continuing to increase with the complexity and availability of digital information. The storage and retrieval of such information is of importance because the efficiency of providing interactive documents and applications with a large number of interactive points is often dependant on how large the interactive document is. This is compounded when the interactive documents are dynamically generated so that the number of permutations becomes unmanageable. One solution has been to store all of the needed information in the interactive document itself. This suffers due to the bloat in the document size making it undesirable to distribute.
In this regard, there is a need for efficient ways to provide interactive documents in a manner that reduces the bloat in document size.

Interactive document information storage and delivery