A blow-molded plastic structure has a hollow interior portion formed during a blow-molding process, and includes first and second outer portions that are spaced apart from each other, with the hollow interior portion disposed there between. The structure includes a pattern of structural stiffening features that are integrally formed in the second outer portion. The pattern of structural stiffening features includes a plurality of tripodal depressions disposed in rows and columns and a plurality of convex regions disposed in rows and columns between the plurality of tripodal depressions. Each convex region has a maximum height between the first and second outer portions. Each of the tripodal depressions extends into the hollow interior portion, includes three indentations disposed adjacent the first outer portion, and includes an island spaced away from the first outer portion. The island has three sides, each of which is disposed adjacent one of the three indentations.

Various items, such as tables, chairs, partitions, walls, and sports equipment are formed from plastic. In order to reduce the weight of the items, blow-molded plastic is typically used. A blow-molded plastic structure has outer walls that enclose an interior hollow space. While the hollow interior enables the structures to be light-weight, the hollow interior of such blow-molded items may also reduce the strength of the item so that the item is unable to support a relatively large amount of weight or force.
It is known that strengthening ribs made of metal or other durable material may be added to a blow-molded structure to increase the load-bearing strength of the structure. However, such strengthening ribs often significantly increase the weight of the structure and may create stress points in attachment locations that lead to mechanical failure of the structure.
Strengthening ribs may also be integrally formed from plastic during the blow-molding process in order to increase the load-bearing capability of the blow-molded structure. Such ribs may extend over portions of the length and width of the structure to provide load-bearing support for the structure. However, the integrally formed ribs typically require the use of thicker walls that add weight to the structure, increase production time, and increase the cost of producing such structures. The ribs may also interfere with other components of the structure, such as support legs for a table-top made of the blow-molded structure.
In view of the foregoing, there continues to be a need for blow-molded structures having improved load-bearing capability and a simple light-weight configuration.


A dolly for carrying sheet material is provided which consists of an elongated substantially U-shaped frame having a pair of spaced side walls projecting upwardly from a base, so as to receive part of one edge of the sheet material therein. A boss is integrally formed with the base of the frame and depends centrally therefrom. A shaft is mounted in the boss with its ends projecting on opposite sides of the boss. A pair of wheels are provided, with each journalled for rotation on each end of the shaft, so that a person can grip and push the sheet material to transport it along a flat surface.

The instant invention relates generally to transporting devices and more specifically it relates to a dolly for carrying sheet material which provides a structure, so that the sheet material can be supported on its edge and transported by one person.
There are available various conventional transporting devices which do not provide the novel improvements of the invention herein disclosed.

Device for carrying large sheet material


A bird feeder of tube shape has all components critical to providing delivery of seed to wild birds of metal construction. The bird feeder comprises a metal cylinder oriented vertically and suspended from a nearly circular metal hoop, the free ends of which attach near the top rim of the cylinder. The underside of the cylinder is plugged with a metal disc and the top of the cylinder is protected with a removable metal cover. A plurality of smaller metal cylinders oriented horizontally intersect the vertically oriented cylinder on its center line in a staggered vertically spaced relation, the intersecting points being round apertures equal to the outside diameter of the horizontal cylinders. These vertical and horizontal cylinders, being metal, are joined by a series of welds. The cylinders oriented horizontally are of such a length that their ends protrude conspicuously from the outside wall of the vertical cylinder, and are of such design that their ends are cut on an angle with the cut-away portions being on the underside of the tubes and extending well into the interior of the vertically aligned cylinder. The plurality of openings created by the intersections of the horizontal and vertical cylinders provides wild birds access to seed stored in the vertical cylinder.

My invention is a tube feeder made of metal, with a locking cover and a plurality of feeding access holes, intended for use by small wild birds such as chickadees, warblers, finches, etc. While it is primarily intended for use by families and individuals, it may also be used by institutions such as zoos, arboretums and nursing homes in order to attract and feed wild birds. It can also be suspended inside large bird cages to allow caged birds to feed.

Bird feeder constructed of metal cylinders


Material classification for a sample fabricated from an unknown material, particularly a specular sample such as a metallic sample fabricated from an unknown metal. A measurement is obtained of a specular reflection of the sample at at least one observation angle and in at least two spectral bands including first and second spectral bands; a feature vector is calculated using a homogeneous function that combines the measured specular reflections in the first and second spectral bands; and the sample is classified based on the feature vector. The homogeneous function may include a ratio of values of the first and second spectral bands of the measured specular reflections, and the feature vector may be based on a histogram of such ratio values. Classification may include determining a distance between the feature vector of the sample and a feature vector of a reference sample in a predetermined database of labeled samples.

Optical determination of the material type of a sample is appealing in many applications, such as recycling, because it requires no contact. For opaque materials, such as metals, the bidirectional reflectance distribution function (BRDF) describes the optical response (reflection) of the material to incident light from different directions. This response may be used to characterize or classify materials. Because the BRDF is a 4-dimensional function of illumination (solid) angle and observation (solid) angle, typically only "slices" of it are measured, and a classifier is computed from these slices.
Some materials present themselves quite similarly to the classifier, and are thus difficult to classify by conventional means. As an example, metals of similar color can be difficult to distinguish from each other. FIG. 1 shows an example, in which the metals titanium, nickel and aluminum appear quite similar to one another, and are thus difficult to classify. Situations such as this may be challenging to conventional Computer Vision algorithms using RGB images only.

Feature vector for classifying specular objects based on material type


In one embodiment, a digital internal amplified voltage of power management circuitry is forced to an input threshold voltage upon a determination that a set of emergency conditions is satisfied, and is set to an input minimum battery voltage upon a determination that the set of emergency conditions is not satisfied. The emergency conditions may include determining that a battery voltage is less than a threshold voltage and determining that an input minimum battery voltage is less than an input threshold voltage.

In communication circuitry such as smartphones and tablets, powerful application processors are capable of providing high MIPS (Millions of Instructions Per Second) and utilizing high-frequency clocks.
Modern processors are relatively efficient and can operate at high MIPS/milliamp. However, operating at high MIPS results in large currents being drawn from a battery. For example, some games require operation at high MIPS. Other applications may also result in large currents, such as a vibrating alarm being triggered, or operating in a video mode.
These large currents result in a significant voltage drop of the battery voltage, due to the ESR (equivalent series resistance) of the battery and the battery connector. Battery voltage drops on the order of 1 volt may occur over very quickly, perhaps in one second or less. For example, a battery voltage may drop from 3.5 volts down to 2.5 volts. These battery voltage fluctuations are dynamic.
The battery voltage is conventionally used by bias circuitry to generate bias voltages for the power amplifiers. However, conventional bias circuitry requires a minimum bias supply voltage such as 3.2 volts to properly generate bias voltages. As a specific example, bias control circuitry located inside a CMOS (Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor) controller in a multimode multiband power amplifier requires a supply voltage of at least 3.2 volts in order to operate with enough headroom to provide proper bias voltage for power amplifiers.
Thus, if the battery voltage drops from 3.5 volts down to 2.5 volts (below 3.2 volts), then conventional bias circuitry may not operate properly, and the power amplifiers may not operate properly. This is a large problem.

Power management/power amplifier operation under dynamic battery drops


A CPU of a printing apparatus stores print data that is output from an output apparatus in a storage portion, and waits for the print switch on an operation panel to be operated before printing. If the print data pertaining to printing is administrative-use print data for which the output result is to be provided to a store clerk only once, then the CPU deletes the print data from the storage portion after printing. If the print data pertaining to printing is service-use print data for which the output result is to be repeatedly provided to customers, then the CPU continuously stores the print data in the storage portion after printing.

The present invention relates to a printing system that is installed in, for example, a store in a state in which it is ready to be used by a plurality of users and that includes an output apparatus constituted by a personal computer or the like and a printing apparatus constituted by a digital copier or the like, as well as to a printing method performed in such a printing system, and a printing apparatus and an output apparatus that are included in the printing system.
A printing apparatus such as a digital copier may be installed in a store in a state in which it is ready to be used by a plurality of users. This printing apparatus outputs a printing medium that has been subjected to printing based on print data, not only for customers of the store, but also for a store manager or a store clerk.
When the store manager or the store clerk uses the printing apparatus installed in the store, there may be cases where the print data should not be disclosed to the public. In such cases, it is required that no customer is present near the printing apparatus. On the other hand, when the customers of the store use the printing apparatus, a plurality of the customers may request output of a single piece of information, so that it is necessary that the same print data can be repeatedly subjected to printing.
Therefore, as disclosed in JP S62-003322A, there are some conventional printing apparatuses that perform so-called "hold processing" by which print data that has been input from an external output apparatus is held in a storage portion together with unique authentication information, without being subjected to printing, and when the authentication information is input, the print data corresponding to the input authentication information is read from the storage portion and printed on a printing medium.
In addition, the print data to be provided to the customers of the store may include paid-for print data. In this case, the printing apparatus stores, in the storage portion, the amount to be paid for the print data as additional information, together with the authentication information and the print data, and waits for input of the authentication information and completion of billing before reading the corresponding print data from the storage portion.
In general, for print data that is subjected to the hold processing and thus is printed on a printing medium after input of the authentication information, the optimum holding state varies depending on the type of the print data.
However, none of the conventional printing apparatuses have performed the hold processing in a manner that allows the print data to be held in different states depending on the type of the print data.
For example, print data that is to be provided to a specific user (the store manager or the store clerk) often needs to be deleted from the storage portion after it has been printed on a printing medium, whereas print data that is to be provided to a non-specific user (the customer of the store) needs to be stored in the storage portion even after it has been printed on a printing medium. Furthermore, print data that is to be provided to a non-specific user may need to be revised with respect to its content or its additional information after it has been once stored in the storage portion.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a printing system, a printing method, a printing apparatus and an output apparatus that are capable of holding various print data in an optimum state in accordance with the types of the print data.

Printing system, printing method, printing apparatus and output apparatus


A single longitudinal-mode laser includes a first mirror and a second mirror that define a laser cavity therein that does not include a linear polarizer. A birefringent gain medium can generate a lasing light at a lasing wavelength along a light propagation direction in response to a pump light at a pumping wavelength. The birefringent gain medium has an optical axis substantially perpendicular to the light propagation direction. A first wave plate positioned between the first mirror and the birefringent gain medium is a quarter wave plate at the lasing wavelength and a whole wave plate at the pumping wavelength. A second wave plate is positioned between the birefringent gain medium and the second mirror. The first wave plat and the second wave plate in part produce a single longitudinal mode in the lasing light.

The present disclosure relates to single-longitudinal mode laser devices.
Single-longitudinal mode (SLM) laser is an essential laser device in a wide range of applications from stable operation of intra-cavity frequency doubling, precision measurement, high-resolution spectroscopy, coherent lidars, coherent optical communication, to laser trapping or cooling. As already known, in the common standing-wave lasers, and especially homogeneously broadened solid-state lasers, spatial hole-burning in active gain materials usually causes multimode laser operation. Various techniques have been attempted to obtain SLM laser operation.
One conventional SLM laser includes twisted mode in the laser cavity. Referring to FIG. 1A, a conventional SLM laser 100 can include a pair of mirrors 111, 112 that define a laser cavity 120, a linear polarizer 130, a gain medium 140, a quarter wave plate 150, and a quarter wave plate 160 in the laser cavity 120. A pump light 170 is transmitted into the laser cavity 120. A lasing light 180 is generated by the gain medium 140 in response to the pump light 170. The mirror 111 is totally reflective to the lasing light 180 while the mirror 112 is semi reflective and semi-transmissive. The lasing light 180 is reflected by the mirrors 111, 112 to establish a standing wave in the laser cavity. In the forward pass as shown in FIG. 1B, the linear polarizer 130 polarizes the lasing light 180 in a linear direction (P1). The quarter wave plate 150 transfers the linearly polarized lasing light (P1) to a circularly polarized lasing light (P2) that enters the gain medium 140. The gain medium is required to be isotropic, which can maintain the circular polarization (P2) along the forward pass. The quarter wave plate 160 returns the circular polarization (P2) into a linear polarization (P3). The linear polarization (P4) is maintained after the reflection by the mirror 112. The quarter wave plate 160 produces another circularly polarized light with a circular polarization (P5) that is opposite to the circular polarization P2 in the forward direction. The quarter wave plate 150 then returns circular polarization (P5) to another linearly polarized (P6) lasing light, which is parallel to the polarization axis of the linear polarizer 130. The linear polarization (P6) is maintained after the lasing light is reflected by the mirror 111 and passes the linear polarizer 130 in the next forward pass. A portion of the lasing light 180 can transmit through the mirror 112 to form an output laser light 185.
Because the gain medium 140 is isotropic, the circularly polarized lasing light 180 in the forward and the backward direction have the same intensity as well as the same frequency. The oppositely circularly polarized lasing light 180 in the forward and the backward directions can prevent the formation of a standing wave, which suppresses hole burning effect and enables a single longitudinal mode in the laser cavity 120. A limitation of the SLM laser 100, however, is that the gain medium is required to be an isotropic material in order to produce a single longitudinal mode.
In another attempt, a thin gain medium crystal is positioned close to one of the mirrors in a laser cavity to produce single longitudinal mode. Since all modes have a common node at the mirror and to a large extent share the same population of ions in the vicinity of the mirror, the effect of spatial hole burning can therefore suppressed. A gain medium with short absorption depth can also be used instead of a thin gain-medium crystal. This type of lasers is expected to operate at the single-longitudinal mode when the pump power of laser diode is less than 5 times the thresholds. This approach is, however, incapable of producing high-power output r due to the size limitation of the thin gain medium. Moreover, cavity length must be selected by temperature control so that one of its resonant frequency fall within the laser gain region.
Laser operation in a ring cavity is another known technique to obtain SLM output. In this configuration, an intra-cavity optical diode keeps unidirectional laser propagation so that no standing-wave electric fields are formed in the cavity, leading to the elimination of spatial hole-burning in the active material. But this method cannot be used for microchip laser.

Single-longitudinal mode laser with orthogonal-polarization traveling-wave mode


An authoring system for building an application that has a set of graphical objects and is for performing several operations on several graphical objects in response to several user interaction events. The authoring system includes (1) a first set of tools for defining a first description of a first operation that is to be performed on a first graphical object and (2) a second set of tools for defining a second description of a second operation that is to be performed on a second graphical object. The second set of tools provides at least one different tool for defining the second description than the first set of tools provides for defining the first description. The authoring system also includes a conformance module for modifying at least one of the received descriptions to ensure that the descriptions of both the first and second operations are in a uniform description format.

Designing and developing software applications for running on computing devices is a daunting task, as it requires special knowledge and skill as well as experience. Everyday users of computing devices who have the desire and creativity to build their own applications are often driven off by complex and incomprehensible coding syntaxes and unfamiliar concepts like compiling and debugging. For this reason, most people opt to purchase software applications written by professional developers and run the applications on the computing devices they own. Several application-building applications have been developed to lower the barrier to writing software applications. However, these application-building applications still bear difficulties to overcome by everyday people.

Conformance protocol for heterogeneous abstractions for defining user interface behaviors


The present invention relates to polypeptides, more particularly polypeptides of Moraxella (Branhamella) catarrhalis which may be used to prevent, diagnose and/or treat Moraxella (Branhamella) catarrhalis infection.

Moraxella (Branhamella) catarrhalis is a Gram-negative diplococcus that causes respiratory tract infections in humans. M. catarrhalis is now accepted as the third most common cause of otitis media in infants and children, after Streptococcus pneumoniae and Haemophilus influenzae. M. catarrhalis has also been associated with several other types of infection, including sinusitis, persistent cough, and acute laryngitis.
Since approximately 90% of M. catarrhalis strains are resistant to antibiotics (β-lactamase positive) and that recurrent otitis media is associated with high morbidity, there is a need for the development of a vaccine that will protect individuals from M. catarrhalis infection. An infection by M. catarrhalis induces an immune response against antigens found at the surface of the bacterial cells. However, many of these surface proteins are still not characterized, nor has the immune response resulting in protection from infection by different strains been determined.
WO 00/78968 discloses nucleotide sequences from the genome of Moraxella catarrhalis.
To develop a vaccine that will protect individuals from M. catarrhalis infection, efforts have mainly been concentrated on outer membrane proteins such as the high-molecular-mass protein named ubiquitous surface protein A (UspA). This protein is considered a promising vaccine candidate because a monoclonal antibody and polyclonal antibodies were both shown to be bactericidal and protective in the murine pulmonary-clearance model. However, this protein was shown to be highly variable among the different strains of M. catarrhalis. In addition to this protein, other M. catarrhalis proteins have generated interest as potential vaccine candidates. The transferrin-binding protein, which possesses conserved epitopes, exposed on the bacterial surface. However, there was divergence in the degree of antibody cross-reactivity with the protein from one strain to another. Other investigators have also focused on the 45-kDa protein CD (OMP CD). This protein is highly conserved among strains of M. catarrhalis, however adults with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease show variability in the immune response against the OMP CD.
Therefore there remains an unmet need for M. catarrhalis polypeptides that may be used used to prevent, diagnose and/or treat Moraxella (Branhamella) catarrhalis infection.


A hand held test instrument for testing a DSL line is provided. The test instrument includes an interface for unintrusive connection with the DSL under test. The interface is configured to capture Radio Frequency (RF) signals corresponding to a portion of a data stream transmitted by a communication device over the DSL under test. The hand held test instrument further includes a controller module configured to identify unique characteristics of the communication device based on the captured RF signals.

The explosive growth of telecommunications services and products is fostered by improving features and accessibility. Data connections, such as DSL, have become increasingly popular. On the other hand, plain old telephone service (POTS) has become less relevant to many users.
In order to convey telecommunication signals over a traditional telephone line, telephone companies typically supply tip and ring voltage and loop current to support a number of functions including carrying analog voice signals and performing various signaling functions on the telephone line. To be recognized by various switch equipment, telephone devices connected to POTS telephone lines typically generate tones referred to as DTMF (dual-tone multi-frequency) signals. DTMF signals comprise first and second sine wave signals that are added together to encode the number to be dialed. However, DSL technologies provide significantly greater bandwidth as compared to analog telephone equipment.
There are a number of DSL specifications, including ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), ADSL-Lite, R-ADSL (Rate Adaptive Digital Subscriber Line), HDSL (High Speed Digital Subscriber Line), SDSL (Symmetrical Digital Subscriber Line), and VDSL (Very High Speed Digital Subscriber Line), which are referred to collectively as DSL technologies. In one of the more popular versions of DSL, ADSL, a twisted pair carries two types of duplexed signals over different frequency bands. The first signal is the voice signal, generally at 4 KHz and below. The second signal is the data signal, generally modulated at above 4 KHz. With the advent of DSL, the traditional tip and ring voltage and loop current functions are increasingly being replaced with high speed digital signals capable of carrying voice, data and video information to and from a subscriber in a digital fashion.
Communications field service technicians maintaining POTS lines traditionally used a test instrument called a phone test set or lineman's handset. The test set is used by the technician in the installation and troubleshooting of analog phone systems. One of the functions performed by field service technicians is to verify that the real physical circuit being tested is actually the circuit with the reported problem before the technician begins to troubleshoot the issue. The conventional phone test set can be used for line identification purposes by attaching to a circuit and dialing a specific phone number that generates an automated response indicating "the number you are dialing from is xxx-xxx-xxxx." Thus, the telephone number being a unique identifier for the subscriber can help field service technicians to confirm that they identified the correct wire pair from potentially hundreds or thousands of circuits typically present in a junction box. However, with the removal of loop current and ring voltages from existing telephone lines traditional phone test instruments can no longer be used for line identification purposes.
Accordingly, it may be desirable to determine line identifier information from a DSL circuit without using conventional loop current and ring voltages.

Digital subscriber line identification method


Provided are exemplary embodiments of a system and method for allowing predetermined and/or preconfigured lamp assemblies to be utilized with lamp fixtures. The exemplary embodiments may include a fixture assembly, a key configured to couple to the lamp fixture, and a lamp assembly including a base with a receiving structure, wherein the receiving structure is configured to engage the key, such that only predetermined lamp assemblies may couple to the fixture assembly.

Manufacturers and agencies associated with the lighting industry may have developed standard lamp base designs (incorporated into the lamp assembly itself) and corresponding lamp holder designs. The basis for these designs may have been to provide the market with standardized products to facilitate a competitive environment where multiple lamp manufacturers and lamp fixture manufactures could develop and sell interchangeable components that met the basic needs of the lighting market. Standard lamp bases standards like (but not limited to) T5, T8, Th, T12, 2G7, 2G1 1, G23 and GX23 (as referred to for lamps manufactured by Philips Lighting and others) may have been developed as common standards to facilitate the implementation of lamps into various applications. Manufacturers may have developed many different lamp models based on these standard lamp bases.
In many applications the lamp base standards may serve the industry well. However in certain applications, straight utilization of the standard lamp base configurations can be detrimental.
It may be typical to find different model lamps manufactured on one particular lamp base standard, that vary greatly in terms of lamp voltage, current, illumination and power rating. This may present problems with respect to proper and safe usage of lamps with certain lamp fixtures. Straight utilization of the standard lamp bases by manufacturers within lamp fixtures may create a situation where the oft-unknowledgeable user may easily, and potentially unknowingly, implement the wrong lamp type for the device employed. Sometimes lamp models with different power and current ratings utilize the same apparent mechanical design (e.g. Philips Lighting TUV36WPLL and TUV60WPLL), which may increase the probability of incorrect lamp implementation by an unknowledgeable end user.
One problem may be performance. Lamp power may many times be critical to the performance of the system employing the lamp. For instance, where lamps are used for non-illumination purposes (including germicidal applications), the effective dosage of the system may be predominately affected by the power of the lamp utilized. Utilization of the incorrect lamp in these systems can result in failure of the system to achieve critical dosing, which may be required and/or specified. This may result in the device failing to meet the performance specified.
Another problem may be reliability and liability. The reliability of the device employed can be adversely affected by the implementation of the incorrect lamp. Impedance differences associated with different lamp models can induce problems with an employed system. Reliability and liability issues surrounding misapplication of lamps may include implementation of an incorrect lamp that may cause premature lamp failure resulting in loss of performance and warrantee liability. Furthermore, implementation of an incorrect lamp may cause premature ballast (power supply) and controller failure resulting in loss of performance and warrantee liability. Implementation of an incorrect lamp can cause operation of a device outside of acceptable thermal and electrical limits. This can result in loss of performance, warranty liability and personal safety liability. Also, as discussed in the preceding sections, the implementation of an incorrect lamp resulting in diminished dosage performance may result in injury (especially in germicidal applications) and personal liability claims by the consumer.
Yet another problem may be marketing. In many cases, it may be advantageous to the manufacturer and provider of equipment to require replacement parts through their own channels of distribution. With a standard lamp base and fixture, replacement lamps may come from any source and the channels of distribution and sales cannot be assured.
Some manufacturers may have made (or deferred to) the decision to offer products that rely primarily on the knowledge of the user and the utilization of the standard lamp bases to ensure the proper continued operation of their systems in application. This strategy may result in a potential for misapplication of their systems, but also it may achieve a lowest cost approach for the initial device sale and also in lamp replacement sales.
What is needed is a system that may address these and other problems associated with lamp fixtures and assemblies.
These and other objects and advantages of this invention will be apparent from the following descriptions, specifications and drawing.


A valve assembly having a plurality of solenoid operated valving operators, each attached by non-metallic weldment to a manifold having a plurality of outlets. Two of the operators are adapted for connection to separate fluid sources such as hot and cold water and individually valved flow to a common mixing outlet on the manifold and also supply unvalved flow to an auxiliary passage in the manifold. Others of the valving operators are connected to receive flow from the auxiliary passage and provide valved flow individually to others of the outlets.

The present invention relates to electrically operated valves, and particularly those of the type employed for water inlet control to appliances such as clothes washing machines and dishwashers. Appliance water inlet valves for such applications typically employ a solenoid operating a pilot valve/armature which allows discharge from a pilot chamber creating a pressure differential across a main valve member where the pressure forces open the main valve, thus reducing the operating force requirements of the solenoid.
Solenoid operated appliance water inlet valves are typically manufactured with individual solenoids controlling flow from separate inlets adapted for connection to separate sources such as hot and cold water from the household plumbing; and, hot, cold, or mixed flow is provided by energizing either or both of the solenoids to control flow from separate valving chambers having their outlets connected to a common discharge.
However, in certain appliance applications it is desired to provide additional additives to the flow stream discharging from the common mixing valve outlet to provide, as for example, addition of bleach, detergent, or fabric softener at desired times during the machine program for elected treatment of the fluid in which the articles to be cleansed are being washed. Where it is desired to provide such additives to the wash water as it enters the appliance, it has been necessary to provide individual valves for controlling the dispensing of the desired additive into the water inlet stream; and, this has resulted in problems in providing mounting of the individual valves and additional expensive wiring to connect the valve solenoids to the appliance programmer. Furthermore, it has required a multiplicity of individual valves to supply the mixed inlet water to individual distributing valves for controlling the desired additives. Adding a multiplicity of solenoid operated valves to the washing machine in the vicinity of the flow director for the tub has proved to be cumbersome and difficult to achieve in mass production. It has thus been desired to find a way or means of minimizing the number of valves required in washing appliances to provide control of the desired plural additive dispensing functions and further to reduce the amount of fluid conduit interconnections between the mixing valves and the individual distributing valves.


A scheme for constructing a database in a user system, which can automatically store those portions of the structured documents which contain important contents without exerting a burden on the user is disclosed. A structured document provided by a server device is obtained according to a document request made by the user system, where each structured document has a structure represented by tags in each structured document. Then, at least one important portion is automatically extracted from the structured document by utilizing the structure of the structured document according to prescribed extraction criteria specified in advance, and the extracted important portion is stored into the database, while the obtained structured document is transferred to the user system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scheme for constructing a database for a user system which handles structured documents such as WWW (World Wide Web) documents and e-mails, by automatically storing information extracted from the structured documents.
2. Description of the Background Art
A structured document is a document capable of expressing a document structure by using partitions called tags which are embedded in the document. There are also some structured documents which provide a way of defining a document structure called DTD (Document Type Definition). Such structured documents include SGML documents, XML documents, HTML documents, and documents transmitted as e-mails or e-news. In such a structured document, its document structure can be easily analyzed.
In the WWW, e-mails, e-news, etc., the structured documents are exchanged through a communication path such as the Internet or Intranet.
First, the WWW system will be described. In the WWW, structured documents are exchanged by connecting a WWW server which is a structured document delivery server and a browser which is a structured document display device, through a communication path. In the case of accessing a structured document, the browser requests a transmission of a desired structure document with respect to the WWW server, and the WWW server in response transmits the structured document. The structured document exchanged in the WWW is also sometimes referred to as a WWW page.
In the usual WWW, in order to suppress the increase of an amount of data to be transmitted through the communication path and the concentration of processing loads on the WWW server, a data relay device called proxy server is often provided between the WWW server and the browser. This proxy server is located in a middle of the browser and the WWW server, and has a function for relaying a request from the browser to the WWW server.
The proxy server receives a structured document transmission request from the browser, and transmits the structured document transmission request to the WWW server on behalf of the browser. Then, the structured document transmitted from the WWW server is transferred to the browser. It is possible to provide just one proxy server or a plurality of proxy servers between the WWW server and the browser.
Among such proxy servers, there can be a proxy server which has a function for temporarily storing a plurality of structured documents to be transferred in the proxy server. Such a data transfer device having a function for temporarily storing a plurality of structured documents is sometimes also referred to as a cache server.
In the proxy server which temporarily stores a plurality of structured documents, a structured document whose transmission was requested from the browser will be temporarily stored. Then, when there is a transmission request from the browser with respect to the same structured document, the structured document that has been temporarily stored will be transmitted to the browser instead of transferring the transmission request to the WWW server again.
There are also some proxy servers which have a function for checking with the WWW server as to whether the temporarily stored structured document is the latest one or not at a time of transferring the temporarily stored structured document.
Usually, in the proxy server, the structured documents are stored up to some prescribed amount. At a time of temporarily storing the structured document, the structured document is not discriminated according to a browser which had requested that structured document. In the case of storing the structured document in excess of the prescribed amount, the other structured documents which have been temporarily stored will be deleted according to some rule. As a rule to be used here, a simple rule such as that for sequentially deleting a structured document with the oldest last access time among the stored structured documents is often employed. As a memory device for temporarily storing the structured document, a device such as a magnetic disk device is used, for example.
There are also some display devices such as browsers which have a function for temporarily storing a certain amount of structured documents. In such a browser, when a structured document requested by a user is one that is temporarily stored in the browser, the structured document that has been temporarily stored will be displayed instead of requesting the structured document transmission to the www server again.
There are also some browsers which have a function for checking with the WWW server or the proxy server as to whether the temporarily stored structured document is the latest one or not at a time of displaying the temporarily stored structured document.
Usually, in such a browser, the structured documents are stored up to some prescribed amount. In the case of storing the structured document in excess of the prescribed amount, the other structured documents which have been temporarily stored will be deleted according to some rule. As a rule to be used here, a simple rule such as that for sequentially deleting a structured document with the oldest last access time among the stored structured documents is often employed. As a memory device for temporarily storing the structured document, a device such as a magnetic disk device is used, for example.
Conventionally, the WWW has been operated in one of the following three forms.
(1) A form in which the WWW server which is a structured document delivery server and the browser which is a structured document display device are connected through a communication path and structured documents are exchanged between them.
(2) A form in which one or a plurality of proxy servers for relaying structured document requests and responses are provided between the WWW server which is a structured document delivery server and the browser which is a structured document display device, and the WWW server and the browser are connected and structured documents are exchanged between them through these proxy servers.
(3) A form in which one or a plurality of proxy servers for temporarily storing structured documents are provided between the WWW server which is a structured document delivery server and the browser which is a structured document display device, and the WWW server and the browser are connected and structured documents are exchanged between them through these proxy servers.
However, in the case where there is no proxy server between the WWW server and the browser as in the above (1), the structured document will be directly transmitted to the browser so that there has been a problem that the user is required to judge whether it is a document containing important items at a time of receiving it, and store that document according to the need.
Also, in the case where there is a proxy server between the WWW server and the browser as in the above (2), if the proxy server only has a function for relaying requests and responses, the structured document will be directly transmitted to the browser so that there has been a problem that the user is required to judge whether it is a document containing important items at a time of receiving it, and store that document according to the need.
On the other hand, in the case where there is a proxy server having a function for temporarily storing structured documents between the WWW server and the browser as in the above (3) or in the case where the browser itself has a function for temporarily storing received structured documents, the structured documents that are temporarily stored in the proxy server or the browser will be deleted according to some rule. As a rule to be used here, a simple rule such as that for sequentially deleting a structured document with the oldest last access time among the stored structured documents is usually employed. For this reason, even when there is a structured document that contains important contents, that structured document will be deleted without judging whether that document is an important one or not, so that there has been a problem that it can become impossible to access the structured document that contains important contents.
In order to prevent the structured document that contains important contents from being deleted soon, it is possible to store many structured documents, but in this case, there has been a problem that a memory device having a large capacity is required. Also, in this case, because many structured documents are stored, there has been a problem that it requires a considerable amount of time at a time of accessing or searching the structured document that contains important contents.
Next, the e-mail system will be described. The e-mail system comprises an e-mail server and an e-mail transmission and reception device, which are connected through a communication path such as the Internet or Intranet.
A sender of an e-mail creates the e-mail by using the e-mail transmission and reception device, and transmits the e-mail by specifying an address of a receiver. The e-mail server which received the e-mail then transfers the e-mail according to the address of the receiver specified by the sender, either to a destination e-mail server or to an e-mail server for relaying this e-mail when a direct transmission is not possible.
The destination e-mail server stores the transferred e-mails by classifying them according to destination users. The receiver of the e-mail receives the e-mail received by the e-mail server by using the e-mail transmission and reception device, and reads the e-mail. Finally, the e-mail is stored in an e-mail storage server or the e-mail transmission and reception device, or both. There are cases where the structured documents are used as documents of such e-mails.
Usually, the e-mails can be stored up to a capacity of an e-mail storage device associated with the e-mail server, and the e-mail server cannot receive any e-mails beyond that capacity. If that happens, usually a user explicitly deletes e-mails destined to that user.
In this case of the e-mail system, similarly as in the case of the WWW, structured documents contained in e-mails can be stored up to a capacity of a memory device connected to the e-mail server or the e-mail transmission and reception device, but e-mails cannot be received beyond that capacity. For this reason, it is necessary for the user to explicitly delete e-mails, but at that point, there has been a problem that the user have to carry out the deletion while checking the importance of each structured document to be deleted.
Again, in order to prevent the structured document that contains important contents from being deleted soon, it is possible to store many structured documents, but in this case, there has been a problem that a memory device having a large capacity is required. Also, in this case, because many structured documents are stored, there has been a problem that it requires a considerable amount of time at a time of accessing or searching the structured document that contains important contents.
Next, the e-news system will be described. The e-news system comprises an e-news server and an e-news transmission and reception device, which are connected through a communication path such as the Internet or Intranet.
A contributor of an e-news article creates an e-news article by using the e-news transmission and reception device, and transmits it to the e-news server. The e-news server that received the e-news article then transmits the e-news article to the other e-news servers that are connected through communication paths sequentially. Here, the e-news server has a list of e-news articles that had been received, so that it will not receive the already received e-news article once again.
A subscriber of the e-news article receives the e-news article from the e-news server by using the e-news transmission and reception device.
Usually, the e-news articles can be stored up to a capacity of an e-news article storage device associated with the e-news server, and the e-news server cannot receive any e-news articles beyond that capacity. If that happens, the e-news articles are deleted either automatically by the e-news system that is operating on the e-news server, or by a manager of the e-news server explicitly.
In this case of the e-news system, similarly as in the case of the WWW, at a time of deleting the e-news articles, even when there is a structured document contained in the e-news article that contains important contents, that structured document will be deleted without judging whether that document is an important one or not, so that there has been a problem that it can become impossible to access the structured document that contains important contents.
Again, in order to prevent the structured document that contains important contents from being deleted soon, it is possible to store many structured documents, but in this case, there has been a problem that a memory device having a large capacity is required. Also, in this case, because many structured documents are stored, there has been a problem that it requires a considerable amount of time at a time of accessing or searching the structured document that contains important contents.

Scheme for constructing database for user system from structured documents using tags


A power distribution device for connection with a plurality of power supply units includes a signal control element, a transmission mechanism including a current transmission unit and a ground transmission unit, and a plurality of electrical connectors respectively adapted for insertion of and connection with the power supply units. Each electrical connector includes a first conductive terminals electrically connected to the signal control element for transmitting an electrical signal to the signal control element, and a plurality of second conductive terminals electrically connected to the current and ground transmission units for transmitting current to the current and ground transmission units.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a power distribution device, and more particularly to a power distribution device for distributing current supplied by a power supply unit to a power distribution system and an assembling method thereof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a power distribution device is used for distributing current supplied by a power supply unit to a power distribution system for use according to the requirement thereof.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an existing power distribution device 1 includes a casing 11, a motherboard 12 disposed in the casing 11, a circuit board 13 disposed in the casing 11 and spacedly below the motherboard 12, two conductive supports 14, two signal transmission elements 15, and two output elements 16. Each of the motherboard 12 and the circuit board 13 is provided with a plurality of electrical connectors 17, 18. Each electrical connector 17, 18 is used for insertion of a power supply unit (not shown). Current and signal generated by the power supply unit are transmitted to the motherboard 12 and the circuit board 13 through the corresponding electrical connectors 17, 18. Each conductive support 14 is electrically connected between the motherboard 12 and the circuit board 13 for transmitting current. Each signal transmission element 15 is electrically connected between the motherboard 12 and the circuit board 13 for transmitting a signal.
Each output element 16 is electrically connected to the motherboard 12 through a plurality of transmission wires 161 for outputting the current and the signal required by the system. A portion of the power supply unit will send the current and the signal directly to the motherboard 12 through the electrical connectors 17. The other portion of the power supply unit will send the current and the signal to the circuit board 13 through the electrical connectors 18, after which the current and the signal are transmitted to the motherboard 12 through the conductive supports 14 and the signal transmission elements 15, respectively. Through this, the motherboard 12 can send the current and the signal required by the system to the system through the output elements 16.
Because the current generated by the power supply unit is transmitted to the circuit board 13 through the electrical connectors 18 and is then transmitted to the motherboard 12 through the conductive supports 14 so that the current can be outputted to the system through the output elements 16, the transmission path of the current is long, and loss of current during transmission may easily occur. Further, if it is desired to transmit large current through the circuit board 13 and the motherboard 12, the thickness of the copper foil of each of the circuit board 13 and the motherboard 12 must be increased in order to meet the requirement for transmission of large current. A high manufacturing cost will incur as a result. Thus, the existing power distribution device 1 is not suitable for use in transmission of large current. Moreover, since the existing power distribution device 1 has numerous components, the assembly thereof is complicated and consumes a lot of time.
Currently, application of cloud equipment is more and more extensive. In order for the cloud equipment to have fast and large computing function, the power used by the cloud equipment must be high. When the size and the number of the power supply unit disposed in an interior of the cloud equipment are increased, this will adversely affect an accommodation space of the power distribution device 1. Thus, there remains a need to improve the structural design of the existing power distribution device 1.

Power distribution device and assembling method thereof


A touch display device includes a first substrate, a second substrate opposite to the first substrate, a display medium sandwiched between the two substrates, and a touch-sensitive layer including sensitive electrode lines. The first substrate includes a first surface facing the display medium layer and a second surface far away from the display medium layer and opposite to the first surface. The touch-sensitive layer is disposed on the second surface of the first substrate, and first pins are disposed on a side area of the first substrate corresponding to a side of the touch display device to connect the sensitive electrode lines. Second pins are disposed on a side area of the second substrate corresponding to the same side of the touch display device, and connected to the first pins via a first printed circuit board (PCB). The first PCB is a flexible PCB.

Along with the increasingly development of science and technology, digital devices such as mobile phone, personal digital assistant (PDA), notebook and such like, are developed to be more convenient, versatile and artistic. Display screens are indispensable man-machine communication interfaces in these digital devices. At present, most of the display screens use liquid crystal display (LCD) technology.
On the other hand, along with the rapid development and application of information technology, wireless communication and information appliance, in order to be easier, lighter and more user-friendly, many information products use touch panel as an input device instead of conventional input device such as a keyboard or a mouse, and now touch-sensitive LCD device has become a mainstream product.
The touch-sensitive LCD device mainly includes two types, one of the two types is named On Cell whose touch panel is directly attached on the LCD panel, and the other of the two types is named In Cell whose touch sensors are integrated into the LCD panel. However, thickness of a conventional On Cell touch-sensitive LCD device is too large, and due to complex structure and complex manufacturing process, production yield of the In Cell touch-sensitive LCD device is low. Therefore, one layer On Cell touch-sensitive LCD device is developed, which forms a single touch-sensitive layer having transparent electrode pattern between an upper substrate and an upper polarizer of the LCD panel. Comparing with the conventional On Cell touch-sensitive LCD device, one layer On Cell touch-sensitive LCD device at least omits one transparent substrate and one adhesive layer, therefore, the thickness of one layer On Cell touch-sensitive LCD device is smaller. Comparing with In Cell touch-sensitive LCD device, the manufacturing process of one layer On Cell touch-sensitive LCD device is simple, and the production yield of one layer On Cell touch-sensitive LCD device is high. Thus, one layer On Cell touch-sensitive LCD device is widely used.
Referring to FIG. 1, FIG. 1 is a schematic plan view of a typical one layer On Cell touch-sensitive LCD device. As show in FIG. 1, the touch display device 10 includes an upper substrate 11 and a lower substrate 12. A touch-sensitive layer (not shown) formed of transparent conductive material is disposed on the upper substrate 11. Sensitive electrode lines (not shown) of the touch-sensitive layer are connected to an external touch printed circuit board (PCB) (not shown) via a flexible PCB 13. Display electrode lines are disposed on the lower substrate 12, and are connected to a PCB 16 via a flexible PCB 15. A touch signal processing chip is disposed on the external touch PCB, and the flexible PCB 13 transfers touch-sensitive signals from the sensitive electrode lines to the external touch PCB for the touch signal processing chip to process. The PCB 16 is disposed with power supply circuit, timing controller, image signal generator and so on, and provides power supply signals, image signals, driving signals, control signals, timing signals and so on which are used to display images to display panel via the flexible PCB 15.
However, due to the sensitive electrode lines of the touch-sensitive layer needing the flexible PCB 13 to connect the external touch PCB, the cost used to obtain the flexible PCB 13 and the external touch PCB is increased. Further, when assembling modules of the touch display device 10, the flexible PCB 13 and the external touch PCB need to be fixed behind the display panel, which occupies more space and increases the thickness of the touch display device 10. Furthermore, the flexible PCB 13 needs to bypass the lower substrate 12 to connect the external touch PCB, therefore, length of the flexible PCB 13 needs to be large enough; and due to stress generated when the flexible PCB 13 bends being large, the flexible PCB 13 is liable to fall off, which easily causes abnormal touch result.
In addition, in another case, the external touch PCB is omitted, and the touch signal processing chip is directly disposed on the flexible PCB 13. However, although the cost of the external touch PCB is accordingly saved, the disposing of the touch signal processing chip on the flexible PCB 13 needs redesigning mould or mold for the flexible PCB 13, and the manufacturing cost of the flexible PCB 13 is increased.
What is needed, therefore, is an improved touch display device that can overcome the above-described problems.

INFOVISION OPTOELECTRONICS (KUNSHAN) CO., LTD.


A flow label negotiation method is disclosed. The method in the embodiments of the present invention includes: constructing an RSVP-TE path message, where the path message includes a first FL capability flag bit; marking a local FL transmit and receive capability in the first FL capability flag bit; sending the path message to an egress node through a load distribution node; receiving an RSVP-TE resv message which is sent by the egress node through the load distribution node, where the resv message includes a second FL capability flag bit; and obtaining, from the second FL capability flag bit, an FL transmit and receive capability of the egress node, and completing FL negotiation. In addition, the embodiments of the present invention further provide a related device and a system for implementation of the method.

The resource reservation protocol (RSVP, Resource Reservation Protocol) is a control protocol on a network, which is used for performing resource reservation on each node of a path. The RSVP works in a transmission layer, but does not participate in application data transfer. The RSVP supports distribution of a multi-protocol label switching (MPLS, Multi-Protocol Label Switching) label after being extended, and carries resource reservation information at the same time when transferring a label binding message, where the extended RSVP is referred to as a resource reservation protocol-traffic engineering (RSVP-TE, Resource Reservation Protocol-traffic Engineering).
A label switched path (LSP, Label Switched Path) established by adopting the RSVP-TE has a resource reservation function, a label switching router (LSR, Label Switching Router) along the path may distribute certain resources to the LSP, so as to guarantee a service transferred on the LSP. When establishing the LSP, the RSVP-TE mainly depends on two message types, a path (Path) message and a resv (Resv) message. RSVP-TE extension is mainly to add a new object in the Path message and Resv message of the RSVP-TE, and in addition to that the newly added object may carry the label binding information, the newly added object may also carry restriction information in routing the LSR along the path, such as a bandwidth, so as to support a function that the LSP constrains a routing.
The LSP established by adopting the RSVP-TE has the resource reservation function, the LSR (herein after referred to as node for short) along the path may distribute certain resources to the LSP, so as to guarantee the service transferred on the LSP. For RSVP message processing, a standard RSVP processing process is followed: an ingress (Ingress) node of the LSR generates a Path message for a session, and forwards along nodes on the LSP until forwarding to an egress (Egress) node; and after receiving the Path message, the egress node generates a Resv message and returns the Resv message to the ingress node, and in the returning process, the Resv message performs the label distribution and resource reservation on the nodes along the LSP.
At present, under the background of packet data traffic being increasingly large, some multi-path technologies emerge, such as an equal-cost multi-path routing (ECMP, Equal-Cost Multi-Path Routing) technology and a link aggregation group (LAG, Link Aggregation Group) technology.
At present, an MPLS network supports the multi-path technologies such as the ECMP and the LAG, which is widely deployed. The deployment of a multi-path such as the ECMP and the LAG, may, on one hand, provide high bandwidth and path protection, and on the other hand, existence of the multi-path also introduces a certain negative effect: a disorder is caused to packets forwarded through different paths. As the service (especially some real-time services) has a higher and higher demand for quality of service, how to make full use of advantages of the multi-path technologies such as the ECMP and the LAG and avoid a problem brought about by the multi-path technologies are problems that the Internet engineering task force (IETF, Internet Engineering Task Force) concerns about and hopes to solve at present.
In the prior art, to solve the foregoing problem, flow label application is introduced: on the ingress node of the LSP, different service flows are distributed and encapsulated with a flow label, where the service flows may be divided through related information of a data packet header. A flow label is located in a bottom layer of a label stack, the label is invisible in path forwarding, and on a load distribution node (a node before branching) of the multi-path such as the ECMP or the LAG, information of the flow label is used as a parameter of a path calculation (generally a hash algorithm is used), so as to find a suitable equal-cost path link for different service flows to perform load sharing. The introduction of the flow label may accurately forward packets belonging to the same flow by selecting the same path, so as to avoid the disorder of the packets belonging to the same flow.
Because the label-based load sharing carries the flow label in the data packet, a conventional MPLS label stack is changed, and an egress router of the network has to be able to identify and process the flow label, which demands that a special flow is divided and a load sharing mechanism is negotiated between the ingress node and the egress node of an MPLS-based LSP service. In the case of no negotiation mechanism, unnecessary protocol overhead and incorrect processing may be caused because the node does not identify the flow label, so a label-based load sharing mechanism cannot be used without negotiation.

Flow label negotiation method, related device, and system


Apparatus and an accompanying method for use in a conventional dynamic material testing system to advantageously provide enhanced self-resistive specimen heating. Specifically, a fixture (400) is added to the system. The fixture has two supporting arms (201, 451), each holding one of two opposing and conductive anvil assemblies (200, 453). The fixture applies adequate force to each arm sufficient to hold a specimen (466) in position between the anvil assemblies and establish a good abutting electrical contact between the specimen and each assembly but without exerting enough force to deform the specimen as it is being heated. Separate opposing and existing coaxially-oriented shafts (406, 408) controllably strike both arms and move the anvils together, hence squeezing the specimen and generating each deformation therein. Electrical heating current is controllably applied through the support arms, the anvils and the specimen in order to self-resistively heat the specimen in a predefined temporal manner with respect to the specimen deformations.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to apparatus, and an accompanying method for use therein, for use in a conventional dynamic thermo-mechanical material testing system in order to advantageously provide enhanced self-resistive specimen heating that yields greater temperature uniformity throughout a specimen under test than heretofore achieved.
Advantageously, our invention also finds use in a conventional dynamic mechanical material testing system in order to self-resistively heat a test specimen uniformly over its entire volume. Such heating can be controlled and synchronized to a mechanical test program, e.g., a predefined series of mechanical deformations, to impart a desired thermo-mechanical test program to the specimen for use in physical simulation and/or other material testing applications.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Metallic materials play an indispensable role as an essential component of an enormous number of different products and hence occupy an extremely important part of the world economy. As such, during manufacturing, various properties and costs of these materials need to be carefully controlled to maximize their utility and value in a given application.
Different metallic materials possess widely varying mechanical, metallurgical and other properties. Different applications necessitate use of materials with different properties. The specific properties required of a material for use in a given application are first determined followed by selection of a specific material that exhibits appropriate values of these properties.
During their initial production, metallic materials are generally formed into slabs or ingots and then from there controllably deformed into standard sized sheets, rods or coils using, e.g., conventional rolling, forging and/or extruding operations. However, correctly configuring a rolling mill, forge or extruder to properly deform production stock and impart desired physical and/or metallurgical characteristics to the material can be a tedious, time-consuming and expensive process—particularly since a production machine needs to be taken out of productive use for an extended time to properly adjust its operational parameters. Consequently, to avoid such downtime, the art teaches the general concept of determining properties of interest by testing relatively small specimens of each such material under consideration. One such technique for doing so is so-called "physical simulation". Ideally speaking, this technique, through use of a dynamic material testing system, permits each such specimen to undergo appropriate mechanical deformation and, where appropriate, simultaneous thermal processing that, collectively speaking and to the extent possible, accurately mimic, in a small-scale environment, strains and other phenomena that the same material (but of a far larger scale) would experience through an actual production operation, such as rolling, extrusion or forging. Such simulations, when accurately done, permit proper operational parameters of corresponding production machinery to be readily ascertained and, concomitantly, minimize non-productive downtime and its associated high costs.
One crucial property of metallic materials is their ability to conduct electricity. Absent operation at superconductive temperatures, a metallic object possesses a resistance to electrical current flow proportional to its length and resistivity and inversely proportional to its cross-sectional area. Owing to its resistance, the object will generate heat whenever an electric current is passed through it. This form of heating, i.e., so-called "self-resistive heating", finds use in a wide number of diverse applications. To the extent relevant here, dynamic material thermo-mechanical material testing systems can employ self-resistive heating to impart a desired thermal profile to each specimen prior to its being deformed in order to more accurately simulate material temperatures that will be experienced during a production operation.
Generally, in a conventional dynamic thermo-mechanical material testing system, a compressive specimen is held between two anvils or, in the case of a tensile specimen, gripped at each of its two ends in a jaw system. Since the following discussion applies equally well to both compressive and tensile testing, for simplicity, we will simply confine that discussion to compression testing.
For compression testing, the specimen is typically in the form of, for example, a small cylinder of a given material and has a substantially uniform circular cross-sectional area. Such specimens may be on the order of, e.g., 10 mm in diameter and 15 mm long; though other sizes are readily used as well. An electric current is serially passed from one anvil to another and hence generally cross-wise end-to-end through the specimen to generate a rapid, but controlled, heating rate throughout the specimen. Simultaneously therewith, various measurements are made of the specimen. Depending upon the specific measurements being made, the specimen either may or may not undergo controlled compressive deformation while it is being heated. If the specimen is to be deformed, then this deformation can be accomplished by moving one of the two anvils, at a controlled rate with respect to the other, in order to squeeze the specimen by imparting a given compressive force to the specimen. This process may be repeated several times, at differing amounts and rates of deformation, in order to impart a succession of different deformations to the specimen, thus yielding differing and accumulating amounts of strain in the specimen. Physical measurements, such as illustratively specimen dilation and temperature, are typically made while heating or cooling and deformation are simultaneously occurring. This testing not only reveals various static properties of the specimen material itself, such as its continuous heating transformation curve, but also various dynamic properties, such as illustratively hot stress vs. strain rates and hot ductility; the dynamic properties being particularly useful in quantifying the behavior of the material that will likely occur during rolling, forging, extrusion or other material forming and/or joining operations. One system that provides excellent dynamic thermo-mechanical testing is the GLEEBLE 3500 system manufactured by the Dynamic Systems, Inc. of Poestenkill, N.Y. ( which also owns the registered trademark "GLEEBLE" and is the present assignee). Advantageously, this system self-resistively heats the specimen in order to generate transverse, essentially isothermal planes along the entire specimen, i.e., the specimen material in each plane uniformly heats as current passes longitudinally through that plane of the specimen. Consequently, density of the electrical heating current will be relatively uniform throughout that cross-section and, as such, will cause substantially uniform heating over that entire cross-section. Examples of such systems are described in the following United States patents, all of which are incorporated by reference herein: U.S. Pat. No. 6,422,090 (issued to H. S. Ferguson on Jul. 23, 2002); U.S. Pat. No. 5,195,378 (issued to H. S. Ferguson on Mar. 23, 1993); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,092,179 (issued to H. S. Ferguson on Mar. 3, 1992).
In such systems, the anvils need to withstand the relatively high forces imparted to the specimen without noticeably deforming themselves. Hence, these anvils are physically much larger and considerably more massive than the specimens. Consequently, for a given amount of self-resistive heating current serially passing through both the anvils and the specimen, the anvils will attain a much lower temperature than the specimen. As a result, longitudinal temperature gradients will appear end-to-end along the specimen, with a central work zone of the specimen being hottest and specimen temperature falling off towards each anvil—even though the self-resistive heating currents cause essentially isothermal planes to occur transversely across the specimen. These gradients tend to limit the work zone of the specimen to its central region, thus decreasing the effective length of the specimen for the simple reason that the hotter work zone tends to increasingly soften and deform before the cooler regions near the specimen ends do. This, in turn, tends to limit the maximum amount that the specimen can be compressed during each deformation and hence the maximum strain and strain rate that could be imparted to the specimen.
To eliminate these longitudinal gradients, conventional anvil assemblies can be self-heated or separately heated. Unfortunately, owing to the relatively large mass of the anvils compared to the specimen, the heating time of the anvils would be considerably larger than that of the specimen which, in turn, limits a maximum rate at which the specimen could be heated. This, in turn, slows the thermal response of the entire system and is particularly problematic if more than one test temperature is required for a given thermo-mechanical program, i.e., each successive deformation ("hit") is to be performed at a different specimen temperature. Specifically, this requires that the anvils reach thermal equilibrium at each such successive programmed temperature before each hit occurs. Depending on the temperature excursions involved, the required anvil heating or cooling times could drastically slow the overall response of the system. Modern material production equipment, such as multi-stand rolling mills, often dynamically deforms materials at relatively high-speeds. Hence, any appreciable diminution in the response of the test system, such as those imposed by limits associated with the anvil heating and cooling rates, could severely and adversely limit the production processes that could be accurately simulated by such systems, thus potentially diminishing the attractiveness and cost-efficiencies otherwise attainable through use of such systems.
As increasingly high-speed production processes are currently being employed in industry, a concomitant need has recently arisen with conventional thermo-mechanical material testing systems to impart increasingly higher amounts of strain and strain rates to specimens. Therefore, a need exists in the art for another approach which can be used in such systems for substantially, if not totally, eliminating longitudinal thermal gradients from appearing in self-resistively heated test specimens that are held in anvils (and jaw assemblies). Ideally, such an approach should not appreciably slow the response of the system but still yield isothermal planes in the specimens.
To address this need, the art teaches one approach to substantially eliminate these thermal gradients; namely, by generating sufficient self-resistive heat within each anvil to approximately equal that which would otherwise flow from the specimen into the anvil. This, in turn, would eliminate much, if not substantially all, of any temperature difference otherwise occurring between a top surface of each anvil and the specimen bulk and hence preclude any appreciable longitudinal thermal gradients from appearing in the specimen.
To effectuate this approach, the art teaches that each anvil can be formed of an anvil stack having cylindrically shaped upper and lower members separated by a foil interface having relatively high-resistance compared to the anvil. The sides of the anvil stack are electrically and thermally insulated from its supporting structure by a suitable insulating member, typically a woven ceramic tubing or rigid ceramic sleeve. As a result and during one-half cycle of applied current, self-resistive heating current axially flows up from the support through a base of the anvil stack, through the high-resistive foil interface, through an anvil top and into the specimen end (and in an opposite direction during a next half-cycle of applied current). Since the resistance of the foil interface is relatively high compared to the anvil, passage of the heating current through the foil interface causes it to self-resistively heat with the heat propagating throughout the entire anvil, including the anvil top. The foil interface is typically formed of a stack having a predefined number of graphite disks, with each disk being of an approximate diameter of the anvil and of a given thickness to provide a desired resistance. Unfortunately, the graphite disks, when exposed to the rather high impact forces transmitted to the anvil stack during each hit, are rather compliant and tend to deform and unevenly so, from one disk to the next, from each impact. The result is that the abutting electrical contact amongst the graphite disks as well as the resistance of each disk changes with each hit which, in turn, adversely affects the passage of heating current and hence the heating of the specimen.
Therefore, a need still exists in the art for an approach, for use in a dynamic thermo-mechanical material testing system, that can effectively and substantially, if not totally, eliminate thermal gradients from appearing in a specimen then under test while still permitting isothermal planes to occur in the specimen, but without deforming, to any appreciable extent, if at all, under the high impact force generated during each hit.
Furthermore, a considerable number of conventional, commercially available dynamic material testing systems only provide mechanical deformation of the specimen without any capability of thermally processing of the specimen. These systems basically only compress a specimen held end-to-end between two anvils which are themselves moved by a servo-hydraulic or screw driven actuators to controllably squeeze the specimen. However, to accurately simulate production processes, the specimen under test needs to undergo controlled uniform thermal processing synchronized to the occurrence of the mechanical deformations. As such, these systems need to be modified, by the addition of appropriate apparatus, to possess the capability of providing accurate self-resistive specimen heating that establishes isothermal planes across the specimen under test but without causing appreciable, if any, longitudinal temperature gradients to appear along that specimen. Here too, this apparatus should not deform, to any appreciable extent, if at all, under the high impact force generated during each hit. Hence, a need also exists in the art to provide these capabilities in such conventional mechanical testing systems.
Should these needs be met, then, the attractiveness of physically simulating high-speed production processes through dynamic material testing equipment could very well increase, with advantageously substantial cost savings flowing there from to their users.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Apparatus for providing enhanced self-resistive specimen heating in dynamic material testing systems and accompanying method for use therein


Disclosed is an apparatus for generating a memory access signal. The apparatus includes a latch having a set state for driving a set transistor, and a reset state for driving a reset transistor. The latch having an input terminal and an output terminal, and the latch transitions between the set and reset states in accordance with a system clock signal. The apparatus further includes a driver coupled to the output terminal of the latch for producing an access signal, and feedback path for feeding back the access signal to the input terminal of the latch. Wherein the latch operates to switch from the set state to the reset state in accordance with the fed back access signal. In this manner, the system clock is isolated from the set transistor when the latch is already in the set state. Further, the latch operates to switch from the reset state to the set state in accordance with the fed back access signal, such that the system clock is isolated from the reset transistor when the latch is already in the reset state.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to integrated circuits, and more particularly to methods and apparatuses for high speed addressable buffers for selecting addresses in memory devices.
2. Description of the Related Art
As is well known in the art, memory devices are generally array structures composed of 2.sup.n by 2.sup.m individual memory cells which are coupled to wordlines (rows) and complementary pair bit lines (columns). A typical memory cell may be composed of transistors coupled together to form a data storage device. An individual memory cell is typically selected when an X-decoder is used to select rows and a Y-decoder is used to select columns. A synchronous memory device utilizes a system clock S.sub.CLK to generate a clock signal S.sub.CLK to enable a selected address location to drive an output node to a state consistent with data stored in the selected memory cell location. As is well known in the art, in any synchronous memory device, the time delay between a falling edge or a rising edge of a clock signal S.sub.CLK and the true selected data available at the output node is a critically important performance parameter.
FIG. 1A is a block diagram illustrating conventional methods for selecting a specific wordline (i.e., W.sub.1 . . . W.sub.N) from a core 100 in a synchronous memory device. In typical synchronous architectures, computers access memory core 100 through an address input bus 110 that may be coupled to a conventional X-decode address selector 102a, which is coupled to an X-decode buffer 102b, and a Y-decode address buffer (not shown). For ease of understanding, the Y-decode address buffer will not be described, however, the principles and concepts are generally applicable to all conventional addressable buffer configurations.
Typically, X-decode address selector 102a presents a pre-selected wordline address to the X-decode buffer 102b when signal clock S.sub.CLK makes a transition. By way of example, when clock signal S.sub.CLK transitions from either LOW to HIGH, or HIGH to LOW, the selected wordline is able to drive output 103 to a logical state consistent with digital data stored in the selected memory cell location. In other words, when a read operation is performed, a specific wordline address is decoded by the X-decode address selector 102a (once a Y address has already been selected), and presented to the X-decode buffer 102b. Once the clock signal S.sub.CLK produces a rising edge, the X-decode buffer 102b is triggered, thereby enabling the selected wordline to drive output 103 to a logic state consistent with digital data stored in the selected memory core cell location.
Unfortunately, the above-described X-decode buffer configuration may have slow data access times that may be unsuitable for speed sensitive applications. That is, typical X-decode buffer configurations introduce speed reducing propagation delays as well as high input capacitances that detrimentally impact clock signal S.sub.CLK drivers. Because data access times are typically measured in terms of the rise or fall times experienced by the clock signal S.sub.CLK, it is advantageous to reduce the input capacitance as well as reducing propagation delays. Unfortunately, typical X-decode buffers tend to introduce clock signal S.sub.CLK input capacitances that are up to about 30 pF and propagation delays that are approximately equivalent up to about 5 gate delays or more.
FIGS. 1B and 1C illustrate exemplary prior art attempts at decreasing data access times in synchronous memory devices. FIG. 1B illustrates a prior art attempt at reducing synchronous memory data access times by reducing clock input capacitance. In this example, the size of an input driver (I1) is decreased to reduce the input capacitance experienced by clock signal S.sub.CLK. Unfortunately, reducing the size of input driver (I1) necessarily reduces its drive capacity which in turn necessitates an offsetting increase in the number of inverter stages INV.sub.N (where N is even).
In other words, because the input driver (I1) is reduced in strength, a plurality of delay producing inverters must be incorporated to produce a drive strength that is sufficient to drive an output buffer (B1). As such, the increased number of inverter stages (INV.sub.N), adds gate delays to the overall data access time of the synchronous memory device. As a side effect, the increased delays cancel out the enhancements in speed associated with the reduction in clock input capacitance.
FIG. 1C illustrates another prior art attempt at reducing access times in synchronous memory devices. In this configuration, the inverter stages of FIG. 1B are eliminated, which beneficially provides a reduction in access delays. However, removing the inverter stages requires that substantially all of the drive current for output driver (B2) be supplied by the input driver (I2). As a result, the high drive input driver (I2) will generate a large input capacitance for clock signal S.sub.CLK, thereby erasing any benefit provided by having less gate delays.
Unfortunately, in applications using synchronous memory devices where data access times are of critical importance, the slow response of X-decode buffers may disadvantageously limit a system's overall performance. For example, although Central Processing Unit (CPU) system clock speeds have continually increased in recent years, memory access operations are a necessity when performing data reads from memory. As can be appreciated, the slowest operation in a CPU/memory interface will ultimately determine a system's overall processing performance. It is thus important that delays associated with performing memory access operations be reduced to prevent more global system delays.
In view of the foregoing, there is a need for methods and apparatuses for providing high speed memory access circuitry. In particular, there is a need for addressable high speed buffer circuitry that enables memory access operations to occur at higher speeds.

High speed addressing buffer and methods for implementing same


A system for wirelessly transmitting power between a track and independent movers in a motion control system includes a pick-up coil provided proximate to the magnets on the movers. The fundamental component of the voltage applied to the drive coils interacts primarily with the magnetic field generated by the permanent magnets on the movers and not with the pick-up coil. Consequently, the pick-up coil does not interfere with desired operation of the movers but rather, interacts primarily with the harmonic components and has current and voltages induced within the pick-up coil as a result of the harmonic components. The energy captured by the pick-up coil reduces the amplitude of eddy currents on the mover. After harvesting the harmonic content, the pick-up coil may be connected to another circuit on the mover and serve as a supply voltage for the other circuit.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to harvesting energy transferred between a fixed drive member, such as a series of coils positioned along a track, and a moving drive member, such as an independent cart with permanent magnets mounted thereto, in a linear drive system and, more specifically, to a system which utilizes a pick-up coil positioned around or proximate to the permanent magnets on the moving drive member in the Motion control systems utilizing movers and linear motors can be used in a wide variety of processes (e.g. packaging, manufacturing, and machining) and can provide an advantage over conventional conveyor belt systems with enhanced flexibility, extremely high-speed movement, and mechanical simplicity. The motion control system includes a set of independently controlled "movers" each supported on a track for motion along the track. The track is made up of a number of track segments, and a linear drive system controls operation of the movers, causing the movers to travel along the track. Sensors may be spaced at fixed positions along the track and/or on the movers to provide information about the position and speed of the movers.
Each of the movers may be independently moved and positioned along the track in response to an electromagnetic field generated by the linear drive system. In a typical system, the track forms a path over which each mover repeatedly travels. At certain positions along the track other actuators may interact with each mover. For example, the mover may be stopped at a loading station at which a first actuator places a product on the mover. The mover may then be moved along a process segment of the track where various other actuators may fill, machine, position, or otherwise interact with the product on the mover. The mover may be programmed to stop at various locations or to move at a controlled speed past each of the other actuators. After the various processes are performed, the mover may pass or stop at an unloading station at which the product is removed from the mover. The mover then returns to the loading station to receive another unit of the product.
In certain applications, it may be desirable to provide an actuator or a sensor on the mover to interact with the product on the mover. For example, a clamp may actuate to secure the product to the mover or a sensor may detect the presence of the product on the mover. However, the actuator or sensor requires an energy source to operate. Because a mover can travel over long distances, it is often not practical to provide a fixed connection, such as an electrical cable or pneumatic line to the mover. Rather, it may be necessary to provide a portable energy source such as a battery for electric actuators or sensors or a pressurized tank for a hydraulic or pneumatic actuator. However, the portable energy source adds weight and takes up space on the mover. Further, the portable energy source needs to be periodically recharged.
One solution for recharging portable energy sources is to provide a dedicated location along the track at which the energy is supplied. The mover stops at the dedicated location where a temporary connection to an energy source may be established. However, the mover must then wait for the portable energy source to be recharged before resuming operation.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide an improved system for supplying power to independent movers on a track in a motion control system.
Although certain applications may allow energy to be provided to a mover via a fixed connection to the mover, a fixed connection is not without certain drawbacks. The fixed connection may be, for example, an electrical conductor or a hydraulic or pneumatic hose. The motion of the mover is typically restricted to limit the required length of the electrical conductor or hose. The number of movers must be limited and/or the motion of the mover is limited to a reciprocal motion to avoid tangling the conductors or hoses between movers.
Thus, it would be desirable to provide a method and apparatus for wirelessly transmitting power between a track and independent movers in a motion control system.

System and method for wireless power transfer in a linear cart system


An apparatus used for reducing the amount of pathogenic bacteria associated with a bird or other edible animal, and preferably chickens, comprising: (a) a unit having an interior portion having side and bottom walls, an exterior portion having side and bottom walls and end walls connecting said interior portion to said exterior portion wherein the area of said interior portion provides a space which completely surrounds one or more of the birds or animals being treated; (b) one or more flood nozzles mounted within said interior portion of said unit and connected to a source of a bacteria reducing chemical solution to enable the bacteria reducing chemical solution to be applied to the entire interior of the body cavity of the bird or animal being treated; (c) one or more spray nozzles mounted within said interior portion of said unit and connected to a source of a bacteria reducing chemical solution to enable the bacteria reducing chemical solution to be applied to the entire external surfaces of the bird or animal being treated; and (d) one or more lines for connecting said one or more flood nozzles and said one or more spray nozzles to the source of the bacteria reducing chemical solution.

Modern poultry operations process chicken, turkey, duck or other poultry birds through an automated system of slaughter, evisceration, cleaning and packaging. Due to its very nature, the process of evisceration exposes the exterior body surfaces and inner body cavities of the birds to the contents of the digestive tract. In so doing, the bird is exposed to potentially pathogenic microorganisms.
Several methods have been developed, with some regulated into use, to reduce the overall contamination rate of processed poultry. Among these are co-current and counter-current chill tank systems and the addition of various processing aids to these tanks. Current regulations require that each processed bird pass through a chilled water system to reduce its carcass temperature from ambient to 35.degree. F. Several systems are employed to accomplish this.
Generally accepted methodologies utilize mechanical paddles or spirals to submerge and move the bird through the chilling bath. Regulations do not stipulate whether the water flow be co-current, that is in the direction the birds are being moved, or counter-current, where the birds move against the flow. The regulation does require, however, that a makeup and overflow system be provided in the chill system sufficient enough to provide a replacement of the water at a rate not less than one gallon per bird per minute.
While these methods provide adequate cleaning of the carcass and reduce the body temperature to prolong the product's freshness, they are not particularly effective at reducing enteric pathogens. To correct this, several modifications to the chill tank operation have been proposed and evaluated. The most promising of these has been the addition of chlorine to the water supplying the chill tank. Chlorine addition rates have been evaluated from rather low levels to levels as high as 5 parts per million of free chlorine in the tank's effluent flows. While some efficacy using this method has been reported, concern exists due to the potential for the formation of chlorinated organic compounds and their subsequent effect upon ingestion.
Several methods, including competitive bacterial exclusion and the treatment of processed birds with peroxides, acids, surfactants and other compounds have been proposed. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,104,170; 4,683,618; and 4,770,884. Some of these methods are being evaluated and some have been eliminated due to their inherent negative effects on the birds or concern for the safety of the resulting product when ingested.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,849,237 discloses a method for sanitizing poultry carcasses in a poultry processing plant. The method involves, after scalding, defeathering, eviscerating and chilling the bird being treated, sanitizing the bird with ozonated water. The application of the ozonated water to the bird involves both immersing the external portion of the bird in a bath of ozonated water and, while immersed in the bath, subjecting the bird to jets of ozonated water directed into the body cavity of the carcass and along the outside of the carcass. This method is problematical in that it requires an additional area outside of the processing plant production line to synthesize the ozone gas and dissolve it in water prior to treatment. This is to prevent ozone from being released into the atmosphere of the work place and creating a health hazard to the employees. As a result, the costs of treating the birds are significantly increased.
Pressure to find an effective method to reduce the likelihood of food related illnesses has been increasing with continued pressure being seen from both the public and the media. Commonly assigned U.S. Pat. No. 5,069,922 teaches a process for treating poultry carcasses to control salmonellae growth. More specifically, this method comprises treating the poultry with a treatment solution having a pH above about 11.5 and containing a trialkali metal orthophosphate.
To utilize this process on a commercial scale, a long tank is fabricated to allow the plant's overhead monorails to pull the birds through a bath containing the treatment solution. While this method is very successful, it requires large volumes of the trialkali metal orthophosphate to be used and requires a large physical area in a poultry treating plant to accommodate the tank for practical operation.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a method for treating poultry (or other edible animals) to significantly reduce the amounts of potentially pathogenic bacteria of the enteric groups while providing a method which is commercially viable on a plant scale.

Apparatus and method for cleaning poultry