Apparatus and methods for calibrating an optical detector. In one embodiment an optical reference apparatus includes a body having an outer surface. At least a portion of the outer surface has a reflectance that can vary. The optical reference apparatus is adapted to be deployed with a cloud of optical sensors and has a terminal velocity that is about the same as the terminal velocity of the sensors. Further, the variation of the reflectance can be caused by a rotation of the optical reference apparatus (caused by an aerodynamic member). The sensors may be made from porous silicon and the optical reference apparatus may include a retroreflector. The apparatus also provides a method of referencing an optical signal. The method includes deploying an optical reference apparatus with a cloud of sensors and detecting a variation in its reflectance.

Clouds of pollution and other airborne materials are difficult to detect. Yet the concentration of these materials needs to be measured to enable those near the cloud to respond in an appropriate manner. Without an accurate assessment of the strength of the cloud unnecessary evacuations may be ordered or a needed evacuation may not be deemed necessary. The materials that can occur in these clouds include man-made pollution (e.g. a release from a chemical plant), natural pollution (e.g. volcanic fumes), and chemical and biological warfare agents. The difficulty of detecting these clouds arise for several reasons. First, the materials may be invisible and otherwise undetectable by human beings even at concentration levels that pose an immediate health threat. Second, the clouds tend to move with the wind so that, once released, they can travel long distances, thereby appearing without warning. Further, drafts, inversions, and other thermal gradients can cause the cloud to concentrate in some geographic areas (e.g. valleys) while dispersing rapidly from other areas (e.g. hilltops). Similarly, the cloud might be found at some altitudes and not found at others. Also, because these clouds might be found at some height above the ground, it may not be possible to place an instrument in the cloud short of flying a probe into the cloud. The clouds may also have irregular shapes with ill-defined boundaries (i.e. the cloud boundary may be marked by either a sharp or gradual concentration gradient or some combination of the two). Thus, where a particular cloud might be found is subject to a number of vagaries that cause difficulties in predicting where the cloud might exist.
One solution to these problems is to deploy a cloud of minute optical sensors into the suspected location(s) of the clouds. These clouds of minute sensors are sometimes referred to as responsive or "smart dust." Recently, porous silicon optical sensors have become available for this application. Each of these sensors is manufactured from silicon that has been etched to create a porous surface. The etching process is tailored to create pores of a size, depth and number to enable the sensors to selectively bind to a particular, pre-selected material. When the sensors encounter that particular material, the material reacts with the silicon of the sensor. By various mechanisms that depend on the particular material involved, the reflectance spectrum of the silicon changes as a result of the reaction. Thus, observing the reflectance spectrum of the sensors yields a measure of the amount of the material that the sensors have encountered.
In practice, an intense electromagnetic energy source (e.g. a laser or an equivalent) illuminates the sensors so that the reflectance spectrum of the sensors can be observed. However, this practice suffers from several problems also. First, the electromagnetic energy ("light") source and the detector that is used to measure the reflectance spectrum must be initially aligned and held in strict alignment during the measurement process. Maintaining the alignment can be quite difficult because, at times, either the source, sensor cloud, or detector will move relative to one and other. Also, environmental factors along the path that the light travels from the source, to the sensors, and then to the detector may cause an attenuation of the light at some of the frequencies that the sensor attenuates reflected light. As a result, when the light arrives at the detector from the sensor, it is difficult to ascertain whether the attenuation of the light was caused by the sensor's exposure to the material or due to the environmental factors.

Co-deployed optical referencing for responsive dust-based sensing system


A product supply chain may be viewed not just as a series of discrete, unrelated shipment transactions, but as a “process” (or pipeline) that can be subject to statistical process control. The present invention is directed to novel systems and methods for collecting data concerning one or more aspects of a supply chain, for performing statistical analysis on the collected data to facilitate the identification of anomalies or inefficiencies in the process, and for communicating the results of such statistical analysis to those responsible for the supply chain so that remedial measures may be taken, if appropriate. Among other things, a method for analyzing a supply chain process is disclosed that involves automatically determining whether a plurality of data points, each representing at least one determined value of at least one monitored aspect of a supply chain, match a pattern indicative of an anomalous condition in the supply chain process.

For many companies, one of the most important business processes is the movement of perishable goods through the temperature-controlled portions of a supply chain. In many instances, proper operation of the so-called "cold chain" is critical to maintaining the quality of such goods.
Each year, companies spend millions of dollars on refrigerated staging and processing areas, storage, transport, display and/or specialized packaging. Many of them, however, do not know how well the entire, and very expensive, process works.
Traditional temperature monitoring programs are generally used to make accept/reject decisions or for dispute resolution. They are typically not designed to help a company identify and address problems or inefficiencies in its cold chain. Measuring the effectiveness of the cold chain can enable a company to identify and address such problems or inefficiencies, which might otherwise go undetected.
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a prior art system 100 for cold chain analysis that has been employed in the past by the assignee of the present invention. As shown, the system 100 included a temperature sensor 102 which was associated with a quantity of product 104 as the product 104 was transported from a shipping location 106 to a receiving location 108. At the shipping location 106, a hand-held data entry device 110 would be used to manually enter data concerning the product 104 and the temperature sensor 102 associated with it. The data entered in the device 110 was then transmitted to a database 112 at a remote location 114. In some circumstances, the shipper would instead communicate information associating the sensor 102 with the product 104 to the remote location 114 in another manner, such as (1) by sending a packing list for the product, including the sensor identification (ID), by facsimile to the remote location 114, (2) by sending a database containing such information to the remote location 114 on a regular basis, e.g., monthly, or (3) by simply writing product identification information on the sensor 102.
Before the product 104 left the shipping location 106, a person manually depressed a "start" button on the sensor 102 so as to cause the sensor 102 to begin logging temperature information at regular intervals, e.g., every five minutes.
After the sensor 102 reached the receiving location 108, someone would either download the information from the sensor 102 via a downloading device 116 and transmit the downloaded data to the database 112 at the remote location 114, or would ship the sensor 102 to the remote location 114, where data would then be downloaded from it and uploaded to the database 112. At this time, the data collected by the sensor 102 would be associated with the shipment information gathered by the handheld device 110 so as to create a complete record containing information about the shipment, its contents, and the data recorded by all associated sensors.
Some sensors 102 were equipped with "stop" buttons, which may or may not have been activated when the sensors 102 and associated products 104 reached the receiving location 108.
FIG. 2 shows an example of how the data would typically appear when it was first uploaded to the database 112. Since all of the uploaded data was not necessarily accumulated during a period of interest, e.g., the sensor 102 may have been started before it was associated with a product 104 or before the product 104 had entered the supply chain being monitored, or may have been stopped after it was separated from the product 104 or after the product 104 had exited the supply chain being monitored, the data had to be "conditioned" so as to reflect only the period of interest. This conditioning was done manually based on the information that was made available to, and the past experience of, the person performing the conditioning, and therefore required that person to make an educated guess concerning the portion of the data that should properly be used for further analysis.
In the example shown in FIG. 2, it appears likely that the sensor 102 was started several hours before it was associated with a product 104 in the cold chain, and was stopped or had data extracted from it approximately one half hour after it was separated from the product 104. Thus, if this raw (unconditioned) data had been used to perform any type of analysis, the results of that analysis would have been inaccurate and unreliable.
FIG. 3 illustrates an example of how beginning and ending locations for the raw data from a sensor 102 were marked during the conditioning step, with the line 302 identifying the beginning point and the line 304 identifying the ending point 304. To determine how the data should be conditioned, a person had to examine the raw data to identify telltale characteristics indicating the likely points where the sensor 102 entered and left the cold chain, and correlate those points with any other information known about the shipment, such as how long such shipments normally took, the approximate times that the shipments began and ended, etc., so as to permit the person to make an educated guess as to where to place the lines 302, 304.
After the data from a sensor 102 had been conditioned, summary data for the entire shipment could be extracted from it into a spreadsheet format. Such summary data generally included parameters such as shipment ID, origin, destination, carrier, product type, average temperature, minimum temperature, maximum temperature, time above the ideal temperature, time below the ideal temperature, trip time, and degree minutes (i.e., the total number of minutes at each degree). After extraction, the summary data could be accessed and processed by a human being using special software programs to manually generate informative graphs and charts.
After these graphs and charts were generated, the human being had to manually transfer them to a server 126 and thereby make them accessible to a customer's computer 128 (FIG. 1) via the Internet 122 for review and analysis. That is, after logging onto a website maintained on the server 126, a customer at the computer 128 could click on one of a predefined set of hyperlinks to access a corresponding, pre-generated chart or graph stored on the server 126. In some instances, after accessing such an initial chart or graph, the customer could "drill down" to additional pre-defined charts or graphs stored on the server 126 by clicking on a particular part of the initial chart or graph.
Descriptions of three types of charts and graphs that were generated in this prior art system (a box plot, a control chart, and a histogram) are provided below in connection with FIGS. 4–6. Turning first to FIG. 4, an example is shown of how a box plot 400 for accumulated data was generated. Such a box plot provided a summary of the location, spread, and skewness of a distribution. In the box plot 400, the upper quartile (Q3 or 75th percentile) and the lower quartile (Q1 or 25th percentile) of the data are portrayed by the top 410 and bottom 412, respectively, of a rectangular box 408. Roughly 50% of the data is contained within the box 408. The median (50th percentile) is portrayed by a horizontal line segment 402 within the box 408.
The lines 404 that extend from the ends 410, 412 of the box 408, called the "whiskers," are based on the data in the tails of the data and help show the spread of the distribution. The whiskers 404 extend to the most extreme point within a calculated range (e.g., one and one-half times the distance between the ends 410, 412) beyond each end 410, 412 of the box 408. Points falling beyond the whiskers are indicated by individual stars 406. These points are potential outliers, since they are significantly different from the rest of the observations.
If the median line 402 cut the box 408 in half and the whiskers 404 on either end 410, 412 extended about the same distance from the box 408, then the distribution was symmetrical. Lack of symmetry would indicate that the data may not have come from a normal distribution. If the data was normally distributed, then roughly 99% of the data would have been contained between the whiskers 404 of the box plot 400.
FIG. 5 shows an example of a control chart 500 generated using the prior art system discussed above. Such control charts helped the user understand what their current supply chain processes were capable of and how much variation (about the mean) to expect from the current process. Such charts also allowed the user to determine whether variations from point to point were due to expected random variation or due to an assignable cause. Basically, a control chart is a run chart that includes statistically generated upper and lower control limits. The purpose of a control chart was to detect any unwanted changes in the process being analyzed. Abnormal points or certain patterns in the graph signal would reveal these changes.
Extensive research by statisticians has shown that by establishing upper and lower limits at three times the standard deviation of the process (plus and minus, respectively), 99.73% of the random variation would fall within these limits. When a point falls outside the control limits or when certain patterns occur in the data, it is usually due to an assignable cause. A process is therefore said to be in "statistical control" when the process measurements vary randomly within the control limits; that is, the variation present in the process is consistent and predictable over time. The upper and lower control limits are not the same as tolerance or specification limits. Control limits are a function of the way a process actually performs over time. Specification, or tolerance, limits, on the other hand, are a function of what people want the process to do, and may not have any direct relationship to the actual capabilities of the process.
Control charts such as that shown in FIG. 5 have three basic components: (1) performance data 502 plotted over time, (2) a centerline (CL) 504, which is the mathematical average of all the samples plotted, and (3) upper 506 and lower 508 statistical control limits (UCL & LCL) that define the constraints of common cause variations.
In the prior art system 100 discussed above, the control limits 506, 508 were used in conjunction with control charts 500 to help interpret temperature-related data accumulated by sensors 102. Control limits 506, 508 reflected the expected variation in the temperature of the cold chain being monitored. Results that fell outside of these limits were considered to be "out of control" points and would have suggested that some abnormal cause had acted on the cold chain. If the temperature data fluctuated within the limits 506, 508, it was assumed to be the result of common causes within the process (flaws inherent in the process), and could only have been affected if the system was improved or changed. If the temperature data fell outside of the limits 506, 508, it was assumed to be the result of special causes.
In the prior art system 100, several tests were used to spot variations due to assignable causes on a control chart 500: (1) one data point falling outside the control limits, (2) six or more points in a row steadily increasing or decreasing, (3) eight or more points in a row on one side of the centerline, and (4) fourteen or more points alternating up and down. These tests were conducted manually by a human being. That is, a human being had to visually inspect the control charts for the presence of one or more of the above patterns.
FIG. 6 shows an example of a histogram 600 generated using the prior art system discussed above. A histogram, such as the histogram 600, is a graphical representation of a set of measurements. It consists of columns drawn over class intervals, the heights of which are proportional to the number of measurements falling within a given interval.
A histogram is constructed from a frequency table. A frequency table is constructed by dividing the data collected into intervals or "bins," and then counting the number of data points falling within each interval. A graph consisting of several columns is then constructed, with the height of each column being determined by the number of data points collected in a corresponding interval. In the histogram 600, the height of each column indicates the number of shipments during which the measured minimum temperature fell within a respective five degree range of temperatures.
The following example is illustrative of how the above-described charts and graphs stored on the server 126 were accessed by a customer using the prior art system 100. First, after logging onto a website maintained by the server 126, the customer could select a hyperlink corresponding to a particular characteristic (e.g., mean temperature) from among a group of such hyperlinks (e.g., mean temperature, minimum temperature, maximum temperature, degree-minutes>0° F., time>0° F., and trip time). In response to that selection, a pre-selected and pre-generated group of box plots 400 stored on the server 126 could be displayed that were segregated according to some pre-defined criterion (e.g., by the distribution centers through which monitored product flowed). The user could then click on one of the box plots 400 to access a pre-generated control chart 500 stored on the server 126 that included a set of data points upon which the selected box plot was based. The user could then click on one of the data points 502 in the control chart 500 to retrieve from the server 126 either a graph of data from, or a summary chart of information relating to, the trip with which the selected data point 502 corresponded. In some prior art systems the customer could also retrieve from the server 126 a pre-generated histogram 600 for the originally selected criterion, e.g., mean temperature.
In such systems, all of the charts and graphs available for display to the customer were generated and stored on the server 126 sometime before the customer logged onto the website. Once uploaded to the server 126, the content of, and available formats for, those charts and graphs was essentially fixed unless and until new or different charts and graphs were separately generated and uploaded to the server 126. Thus, while the customer was able to select from among a number of pre-selected and pre-generated charts and graphs that had been uploaded to the server 126, the customer's control of (1) which charts and graphs were generated and therefore available for review, (2) the content of the available charts and graphs, and (3) the format in which the available charts or graphs were presented, was limited to requesting that additional or different charts or graphs be manually created and made available via additional hyperlinks on the website.
Returning again to FIG. 1, for purposes entirely unrelated to the monitoring of temperature, in advance of sending a shipment of product 104, a computer 118 at the shipping location 106 typically sent an advanced shipping notification (ASN), sometimes alternatively referred to as "dispatch advice," an "advance ship notice," a "bill of lading," a "ship notice/manifest," etc., over the Internet 122 to a computer 120 at the receiving location 108. As used herein, "advanced shipping notification" is intended to broadly encompass all such notice types. An example of an extensible markup language (XML) file structure for an ASN is attached as Appendix A, to provisional application Ser. No. 60/500,565, incorporated by reference above. Another example of an ASN file structure is set forth in electronic data interchange (EDI) transaction set 856. In addition to other pieces of information, the ASN generally included a tracking number for the shipment. With the tracking number, either of the computers 118 or 120 could access a server 124 maintained by the carrier to track the product 104 through the cold chain. Operators of the computers 118 and 120 could therefore retrieve from the server 124 information such as when the product 104 left the shipping location 106 and arrived at the receiving location 108, as well as occasions on which the product 104 reached certain transition points along the way that were recorded by the carrier.

Automated identification of anomalous conditions in supply chain processes


The present invention relates to the retrieval and storage of image data captured using a digital image acquisition device such as a still camera, a video camera or a scanning device, and of image data stored on removable storage media such as compact flash, smart and memory stick media. An image retrieval architecture is described such that image data may be retrieved from any digital image acquisition device and/or from removable storage media, and a “one-click” operation is available to minimize an amount of interaction needed to retrieve image data from the digital image acquisition device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the retrieval and storage of image data captured using a digital image acquisition device such as a still camera, a video camera or a scanning device, and of image data stored on removable storage media such as compact flash, smart and memory stick media. An image retrieval architecture is described such that image data may be retrieved from any digital image acquisition device and/or from removable storage media, and a "one-click" image upload operation is available to minimize an amount of interaction needed to retrieve image data from the digital image acquisition device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Digital cameras are becoming more popular, particularly as the quality of a captured image begins to approach the quality of analog cameras (e.g., 35MM cameras). However, there are still some drawbacks with digital cameras. For example, a digital camera has limited storage capacity which gives rise to a need to be able to transfer images captured by the digital camera to external storage. In addition, unlike analog images, the procedures for processing images require the user to use some sort of computing equipment (e.g., personal computer, or PC) to retrieve an image in the camera's storage and/or process a retrieved image.
Typically, a digital camera user must individually retrieve each image saved in the camera's storage for storage on the PC. The PC may be owned by the user or an acquaintance, or the user may make use of one of the photo kiosks located in a publicly-accessible place (e.g., stores, hotels, etc.). Individual selection of each image that is to be uploaded from the camera can be tedious and time consuming, and may be especially undesirable when the images are being uploaded using someone else's PC or a photo kiosk.
Further, a user may wish to upload the image to a server (e.g., an Internet server) such as a photo web server to store and/or process the image, to generate photo quality prints, or to share the image with other site users. To make use of the photo web server's capabilities, a user must first upload an image to a PC, then log onto the Internet, locate the server, locate the image stored on the PC that is to be uploaded and select an upload operation. The user uses client software (e.g., a browser) that executes on the PC to provide an interface with the photo web server that steps the user through the upload process. Once the user selects the submit button in the interface, the browser initiates a push operation to push the image onto the server. The photo web server receives the uploaded image and stores it on a server.
However, the conventional mechanisms used to upload a digital image have drawbacks. For example, in order to upload an image, the user must own or have access to a PC. In addition, the upload process involves multiple steps to first upload to the PC and then to a server. If the server is too busy to receive the image at the time it is initiated by the user, the user must repeat some or all of the previously-described upload steps. Further, the conventional mechanism assumes that the client PC has sufficient resources to store an image and to execute browser software that is capable of pushing an image from the PC's storage to the server.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,606,365, issued to Maurinus et al., describes a technique for transmitting sets of raw image information along with a camera identification code, or ID, from a Home Interface Control (HIC) such as a Set Top Box (STB) through an interactive television network to an interactive control node. The camera's ID is used to retrieve corrections and processing software for the camera, and the corrections are made to the image data using the camera's correction information and processing software. The correction information and processing software are either provided by the camera's manufacturer or the camera user.
Maurinus indicates that computing equipment that many households already have in the home, an HIC, may be used to upload image data. However, Maurinus identifies many uncertainties with respect to the manner in which the images are to be uploaded, using an HIC, to a server or cable head end (CHE). In fact, according to Maurinus, the configuration of an HIC had not yet been determined and Maurinus could not provide such specifics. In fact, Maurinus speculates that an HIC will likely be based on a powerful microprocessor-based computer. However, in actuality, an HIC, such as that provided by Scientific-American, Inc. and General Instrument Corporation, typically has limited processing resources.
In addition, according to Maurinus, to use the system a user must first register a camera and, as a result, an identification code, or ID, that identifies the camera is associated with the camera's correction information and software for correcting an image using the correction information.
Maurinus is silent with regard to an actual mechanism for uploading images from the camera to the HIC and to the control node. Maurinus is silent with regard to uploading images using an HIC where the HIC may need to be configured for use with multiple, different cameras.
Thus, it would be beneficial to have an image retrieval capability that provides an approach for uploading images, and that may be used with any manufacturer's cameras regardless of whether or not a camera has first been registered with a service provider.


Network presence of a computing device in a cloud computing network is maintained while power consumption of the computing device is reduced. When the computing device is determined to enter an idle state, at least some of the operations of the computing device running in a virtual machine environment are migrated to a server within the cloud computing network while maintaining connectivity of the computing device to the cloud computing network. When the computing device is determined to be in the idle state, the computing device is put into a sleep mode to reduce power consumption of the computing device. When the computing device is determined to be in an active state, the computing device is woken, and the migrated operations are returned from the server to the computing device. This reduces power consumption of the computing device while maintaining the network presence of the computing device in the cloud computing network.

Desktop and notebook computers running in enterprises and residential settings consume a significant amount of energy even when they are idle. Studies have shown that idle power consumption may be up to approximately 40% of a computer's peak power demands. Turning desktop or notebook computers off or putting them into deep sleep/hibernation modes may eliminate this consumption. However, desktop and notebook computers typically run a number of applications with always-on semantics, many of them requiring persistent network presence, such as VoIP, IM, email, personal media sharing, etc. Turning the computers off or putting them in sleep mode affects the usability of the desktop or notebook computers by preventing them from participating in background activity, such as network resource discovery, operating system (OS) and software updates, peer-to-peer file-sharing, and remote access. Further, there are commonly instances in which desktop computers experience periods of brief idleness interspersed with active use.

Methods, devices, and computer program products for maintaining network presence while conserving power consumption


The method of preventing battery over-discharge measures battery voltage with a control circuit, and switches an over-discharge protection switch connected in series with the batteries off with the control circuit when battery voltage drops below a minimum set voltage. Once the over-discharge protection switch turns to an off state, the off voltage at the output side of the switch is measured, and the over-discharge protection switch is held in the off state by this off voltage. When battery voltage rises above the minimum set voltage, return of the over-discharge protection switch to the on state is prevented.

This invention relates to a method of preventing over-discharge of a battery, and to a battery pack which uses that method. In particular, this invention relates to an over-discharge prevention method and battery pack optimized for lithium ion rechargeable batteries.
Turning to FIG. 1, a circuit diagram of a battery pack which contains a battery over-discharge prevention circuit is shown. The battery pack in this figure has an over-discharge protection switch 3 connected in series with batteries 1. When battery voltage drops below a minimum set voltage, the over-discharge protection switch 3 is turned on to prevent over-discharge of batteries 1. The over-discharge protection switch 3 is switched on and off by the control circuit 4. The control circuit 4 detects battery voltage and switches the over-discharge protection switch 3 off when battery voltage drops below the minimum set voltage.
A field effect transistor (FET) is used as the over-discharge protection switch 3. This is because FET internal resistance in the on state is small, and voltage drop and power loss can be minimized. The FET has a parallel connected parasitic diode. The parasitic diode maintains the FET in an on state with respect to current flowing in the reverse direction. As a result for example, even if battery voltage drops below the minimum set voltage and the FET over-discharge protection switch 3 is turned off, it is still possible to charge the batteries 1.
The battery pack protection circuit shown in FIG. 1 operates in the following manner to prevent over-discharge of batteries 1.
(1) When battery voltage is greater than the minimum set voltage, the control circuit 4 holds the over-discharge protection switch 3 in the on state. PA1 (2) When the batteries 1 are discharged and battery voltage drops below the minimum set voltage, the control circuit 4 turns the over-discharge protection switch 3 off to prevent over-discharge of the batteries 1. When the over-discharge protection switch 3 is turned off, current cannot flow in a direction which discharges the batteries 1 and discharge is stopped.
When battery voltage drops below the minimum set voltage in a battery pack which operates as described above, the over-discharge protection switch is turned off. Since load current cannot flow once the over-discharge protection switch is turned off, battery voltage rises. When battery voltage rises above the minimum set voltage, the over-discharge protection switch turns on allowing load current to flow, and battery voltage once again drops. When battery voltage rises and falls in this manner, the over-discharge protection switch is turned on and off and the batteries are repeatedly connected to and cut-off from the load.
To avoid this problem, a battery pack having hysteresis between the minimum set voltage for turning the over-discharge protection switch off and the reset voltage for restoring the over-discharge protection switch to the on state was developed and cited in Japanese Non-examined Patent Publication No. 4-33271 issued Feb. 4, 1992. Specifically, battery pack reset voltage was set higher than the minimum set voltage. The hysteresis voltage or the difference between the reset voltage and the minimum set voltage was, for example, from 0.5V to 5V per cell for the battery pack of this disclosure. When the hysteresis voltage was too small, the over-discharge protection switch would switch on and off causing switch chattering. To avoid this problem, hysteresis voltage was made larger. Large hysteresis voltage resulted in failure of the over-discharge protection switch to turn on during battery charging which made efficient battery charging impossible. Consequently, the battery pack cited in this disclosure had the drawback that hysteresis voltage was difficult to set.
The present invention was developed to overcome this drawback. Thus it is a primary object of the present invention to provide a method of preventing battery over-discharge and a battery pack which uses that method that can avoid over-discharge protection switch chattering with an extremely simple method and circuit.
The above and further objects and features of the invention will more fully be apparent from the following detailed description with accompanying drawings.

Method of preventing battery over-discharge and a battery pack with a battery over-discharge prevention circuit


A method, computer program product, and system for triggering an update of statistics data used by a query optimizer of a relational database management system for determining an optimal execution plan for executing a received query request on a relational database is provided. A system dependent nominal performance value for executing the query request on a database system is determined. Additionally, an average actual performance value is determined by processing the query request. If a comparison between the average actual performance value and the system dependent nominal performance value yields a result which is greater than a first threshold value, an update cost value and a cost saving value are determined. If a comparison between the cost saving value and the update cost value yields a result which is greater than a second threshold value, the statistics data is updated.

Data in a relational database is organized in related two dimensional tables of columns and rows. A user accesses the data by defining a query request that is constructed in a query language, such as structured query language (SQL). FIG. 1 is a flow diagram 100 showing how a SQL query request 102 is processed by a relational database management system (RDBMS) 104. A SQL query request generally includes a sequence of SQL operations. A SQL operation is the smallest brick of a RDBMS and can be, for example, "reading data from disk" or "joining data from several locations." The RDBMS generates an execution plan for the SQL query request. The execution plan is a sequence of SQL operations that fulfills the objectives of the SQL query when processed on a database 114. There may be various execution plans that can fulfill the objectives of the SQL query request. Each execution plan, however, may have a different cost. The cost can, for instance, be evaluated in terms of computer processing unit (CPU) time required to execute the SQL query.
Most relational database management systems, such as DB2® from IBM® Corporation, generate statistics data 107. The statistics data contains information about the occurrence of values in columns and is used by a query optimizer 105 to determine an optimal execution plan 106 for the SQL query 102. The optimal execution plan is also a sequence of SQL operations, such as SQL operation i 108, SQL operation j 110, SQL operation k 112, etc.
The optimal execution plan is the execution plan by which the SQL query statement can be processed on the database with the minimum costs. Only statistics data which is up-to-date ensures that the selected execution plan for processing the SQL statement on the database is the optimal execution plan. Since data in a database may frequently change, the statistics data has to be updated regularly in order to reflect the changes to the data.
In existing systems, such as the DB2® database system for z/OS from IBM® Corporation, statistics data are updated by the database system in response to commands inputted by a database administrator. The database administrator may update the data on a regular basis, for example, within a maintenance window.
Generally, when the command to update statistics is issued, all statistics data is updated regardless of whether there has been a change to the underlying data that may impact the used statistics. This brute force method, however, may be inefficient and may require a significant amount of processing power. For this reason, the maintenance windows are usually scheduled for off-peak hours. As a consequence, a database may be accessed for a substantial period of time with execution plans developed from outdated statistics data, which could lead to less efficient access of data.
Other systems, for example, the DB2® universal database (UDB) system for Linux, UNIX, and Windows (LUW), contain a so-called learning optimizer (LEO), which updates the relevant statistics data after the execution of each SQL statement. This ensures that the statistics data is always up-to-date. Continuously updating the statistics data, however, requires substantial system resources. Therefore, the employment of a LEO might decrease database performance considerably.
For the reasons given above, neither manually updating statistics data, nor automatically updating statistics data as provided by a LEO, is ideal for database performance. In the following, patent documents that disclose more sophisticated ways of determining when to update statistics data are discussed briefly.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,366,901 discloses a system for automatically maintaining database statistics. According to the invention, for each table for which statistics are collected, a counter is maintained of the number of updates that are made to the columns for which statistics are being collected. When the counter reaches a modification threshold, the system automatically updates the statistics associated with the table. The disadvantage of this invention is that only the number of updates is counted. It may well be that the data changes, but the optimal execution plan determined from outdated statistics data remains the same. The statistics data may therefore be updated without any need and as a consequence, system resources would be wasted.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,389,430 discloses a system for collecting database object statistics by a database management system. The system selects one or more objects and correspondingly one or more object fields and then creates a base set of statistics data for the selected object fields. Each table in a database contains a log record. Each log record is a record of the changes that were made to its corresponding table, and can be used to rebuild a table in the event of a problem. The system reads active log records and updates the base set of statistics when a change is read in the active log records. The system begins extracting log records when an end-of-file of the active log records is reached, and updates the updated statistics data based on the extracted log records. The disadvantage of this invention is that the decision to update is based upon the log record. Changes made to a database may not necessarily require an update of the statistics data. Hence, triggering a statistics update based on log records may waste system resources.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method and system through which the update of statistics data can be triggered without wasting system resources.

International Business Machines Corporation


A television signal receiving apparatus with a channel tuner, such as a television, VCR, or cable box has circuitry for extracting nonprogram type information such as may be carried in the vertical blanking interval of a broadcast signal. In order to ensure a reliable signal source for the nonprogram type information the apparatus has a controller for setting the channel tuner to the proper channel and selecting the proper signal source to receive the nonprogram type information when the apparatus is not used for receiving regular programming signals selected by the viewer.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a system for automatically acquiring non-program information for storage and display by a televisions receiver. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system for automatic switching between alternative signal inputs and the acquisition of a reliable signal source so that the non-program information is always available to the user of the television receiver.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A broadcast television signal is capable of carrying information which is not directly related to the television program meant to be seen by the television viewer. Such information might be program schedule information as provided by a system such as "INSIGHT" (Trademark), a product INSIGHT TELECAST, INC., Fremont, Calif. The INSIGHT system is the subject of U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,706,122 and 4,977,445 to Young. Reference may be had to these patents for further exposition of that subject matter.
Briefly, the INSIGHT system allows user selection of programs from schedule information transmitted to, stored in, and selectively displayed by the television receiver. The INSIGHT system, or other such program schedule information services, may provide updated program schedule information for several future days by broadcasting the program schedules in digital code, whence it is stored in the television receiving set for selective display and control of television programming by the viewer. It will be understood that other information may be similarly broadcast and utilized. This information, or data, will be generically referred to as non-program information.
The non-program information is envisioned to be broadcast by placing the information in the vertical blanking interval (VBI) of a wireless broadcast channel signal. This mode of delivery for the non-program information is envisioned because, barring extensive additional circuitry to the common television receiver and/or development of alternative broadcast media for the nonprogram information, this is the surest way to implement such a system.
But, problems arise when one takes into account that approximately 60% of all American homes rely on cable or wired signal transmission as their principle source for receiving television signals. A cable television company retransmitting the wireless broadcast may be reluctant to pass through non-program information transmitted in the VBI, in which case the television set of the cable viewer will not receive the nonprogram information transmitted in the wireless broadcast.
Another problem is that while a cable company may leave the non-program information signal in its retransmission, the cable decoder box used by cable television viewers who do not have "cable ready" sets, or who need the box to decrypt encrypted programs, transmits a signal only on channel 3 or 4 from the decoder box into the television set. Thus, the tuner on these viewers' sets will always be on channel 3 or 4. But, if the non-program information is broadcast on, e.g.. channel 11, the set will not be able to capture the non-program information, and it will be unavailable to the viewer.
Thus, a system is needed for automatically switching between a problematic cable signal and an alternative signal source which reliably provides the non-program information. It is an object of the present invention to provide a system for accomplishing this.

Non-program signal acquisition system for a television signal receiver


A method of doing business is disclosed that transforms a biometric used by a user in a transaction. The transformation creates a distorted biometric. The distorted biometric is used to identify the user to another party without requiring the user to provide actual physical or behavioral characteristics about himself to the other party.

A biometric is a physical or behavioral characteristics of a person that can be used to determine or authenticate a person's identity. Biometrics such as fingerprint impressions have been used in law enforcement agencies for decades to identify criminals. More recently, other biometrics such as face, iris and signature are starting to be used to identify persons in many types of transactions, e.g., check cashing and ATM use. An automated biometrics identification system analyzes a biometrics signal using pattern recognition techniques and arrives at a decision whether the query biometrics signal is already present in the database. An authentication system tests whether the query biometrics is equal, or similar, to the stored biometrics associated with the claimed identity. A generic automated biometrics system has three stages: (i) signal acquisition; (ii) signal representation and (iii) pattern matching.
Authentication of a person is a fundamental task in many day to day activities. Several well established processes such as possession of driver's license, passwords, ATM cards, PINs and combinations thereof are used depending on the level of security needed by the application. Transaction oriented systems such as bank ATMs, point-of-sale terminals in retail stores require authentication tools for every transaction session. In a typical transaction, the client computer (ATM machine, cash register) transmits the account details of the customer as read from his card and the transaction details as entered by the clerk (or customer) to an authorization server. The authorization server checks the validity of the account, the account balance and credit limit, and then approves or rejects the transaction. Approved credit card transactions result in payment from the credit card banking agencies to the store; approved ATM withdrawal transactions result in delivering of cash by the ATM. For transactions such as the self-serve purchase of gasoline, simply the possession of a credit card is often enough. There is no attempt to determine that the card is used by the rightful owner. Except for the use of PINs (in ATMs and for debit cards) or a signature on the credit card authorization slip in a store, there is very little done to authenticate the user. Biometrics can play a significant role in such scenarios.

Business system and method using a distorted biometrics


The invention provides a method of controlling silica in the liquor circuit of the Bayer process. The method involves addition of a promoter material to enhance the precipitation of DSP and includes adding one or more silica dispersion materials or dry silica forms to those parts of the circuit where precipitation of DSP and removal of silica from solution is desirable; for example the desilication stage of a Bayer process plant. The removal of DSP from solution reduces silica concentration in the liquor and thereby enables better control of process issues such as silica contamination in alumina product and DSP formation in later stages of the process where precipitation as scale onto vessel walls and equipment is problematical. As a result, the invention provides a significant reduction in the total cost of operating a Bayer process.

This invention relates to compositions of matter and methods of using them to treat various industrial process streams, in particular certain compositions that have been found to be particularly effective in promoting the formation of sodium aluminosilicate (also known as desilication product or DSP) in a Bayer process stream.
As described among other places in U.S. Pat. No. 6,814,873, the Bayer process is used to manufacture alumina from raw bauxite ore. Because the Bayer process uses caustic solution to extract alumina values from bauxite it is cost prohibitive to perpetually use fresh caustic solution. As a result, a caustic solution known as "liquor" and/or "spent liquor" is recycled back from later stages of the Bayer process to earlier stages and thus forms a fluid circuit. For the purposes of this application, this description defines the term "liquor". The recycling of liquor within the fluid circuit however has its own complexities.
Raw bauxite contains silica in various forms and amounts. Some of the silica is unreactive so it does not dissolve and remains as solid sand or mud within the Bayer circuit. Other silica (for example clays and kaolinite) is reactive and dissolves in caustic when added into Bayer process liquors. As spent liquor flows repeatedly through the liquor circuit of the Bayer process, the concentration of silica in the liquor increases eventually to a point where it precipitates, typically in conjunction with aluminum and soda to form insoluble sodium aluminosilicate. This material can precipitate as particulates in the liquor but is more often found as a hard scale on vessel walls in various parts of the Bayer process circuit. Aluminosilicate scale comes in at least two forms, sodalite and cancrinite. These and other forms of aluminosilicate scale are commonly referred to, and for purposes of this application define, the terms "desilication product" or "DSP".
DSP has been variously described, in some cases it is considered to have a formula of 3(Na2O.Al2O3.2SiO2.0-2 H2O).2NaX where X represents OH—, Cl—, CO32—, SO42—. Because DSP has an inverse solubility (precipitation increases at higher temperatures) and can precipitate as scales of hard insoluble crystalline solids, the accumulation of silica in Bayer process liquor is problematic. Increased concentration of silica in solution leads to an increased propensity for precipitation of DSP. As solid DSP scale accumulates in Bayer process pipes, vessels, heat transfer equipment, and other process equipment, it forms flow bottlenecks and obstructions and can adversely affect liquor throughput. Because of its thermal conductivity properties, DSP scales on heat exchange also reduce the heat exchange efficiency. In addition, poor control of silica in solution can also affect the quality of the final alumina trihydrate product resulting in SiO2 contaminated alumina.
These adverse effects require plants to operate a range of control measures to mitigate the impact of silica dissolution on the functioning of the process. In terms of scale formation, one of the key issues is the significant downtime of Bayer process equipment that is required. Equipment is typically taken off-line as part of a routine descaling operation to remove scale buildup. In addition, DSP is difficult to remove and de-scaling requires the use of hazardous concentrated acids such as sulfuric acid.
Additionally, plants typically also incorporate a "desilication" step in the Bayer process. This step provides a controlled exit of silicate from the circuit (in the form of "free" DSP solids) and thereby mitigates the buildup of silica in solution. The desilication step is normally conducted prior to the digestion stage and removes some of the silica from the Bayer process liquids. Typically desilication is a process that involves maintaining Bayer slurry under conditions of temperature and holding time that are conducive to the precipitation of silica from solution in the form of sodalite (DSP) particles. Solid particles of sodalite that are formed under such conditions can then be removed from the process along with other insolubles (sand, mud) in the existing solid-liquid separation processes downstream. Conditions are typically arranged to minimize both the formation and impact of any DSP that may form as scale.
Some examples of desilication steps are described in international published applications WO 1996/006043, and WO 2006/003470, and published articles Product Silica Control Options, by B. J. Robson, Page 87, Light Metals, (1998), and A Novel Approach to Post-Desilicating Bayer Process Liquor, by K. I. The, Page 117, Light Metals, (1998). The efficient operation and removal of silica in the desilication process is a key process that plant operators use to control silica in solution. In this way, operators are able to mitigate the adverse impacts of high silica concentration, including product contamination and DSP scale formation. Such desilication steps however, are expensive and are not effective in removing all silica from solution. As a result, substantial quantities of dissolved silica typically pass on to subsequent Bayer process steps and so potential for DSP scale formation and product contamination remains. As a result, several other strategies have been suggested to control DSP scale in the Bayer process.
Another strategy is to reduce DSP scale in the Bayer process through the use of a DSP inhibitor. DSP inhibitors prevent the formation of DSP scale on Bayer process equipment, by inhibiting DSP precipitation and/or altering DSP morphology so it does not adhere to the equipment. Some examples of inhibitors are described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 12/236946, U.S. Pat. No. 6,814,873 B2, US published applications 2004/0162406 A1, 2004/0011744 A1, 2005/0010008 A2, international published applications WO 2008/045677, WO 1997/041075, and WO 1997/041065, and published articles Max HT™ Sodalite Scale Inhibitor: Plant Experience and Impact on the Process, by Donald Spitzer et. al., Pages 57-62, Light Metals 2008, (2008) and Performance Appraisal of Evaporation System with Scale Inhibitor Application in Alnorte Plant, by A. Oliveira et al., Pages 133-136, Light Metals 2008, (2008). All of these attempts however involve tolerating the presence of silica in the Bayer process fluid circuit and compensating for the effects of the silica.
Another alternative strategy for addressing DSP scale is to enhance the removal of the silica upstream in the Bayer process. Increasing the mass of silica removed can result in a reduction of the concentration of silica in solution in subsequent, downstream processes. Such a result is likely to have some impact on DSP scale formation, and may also impact on product quality issues such as silica in alumina product.
Thus there is clear need and utility for an improved method of enhancing the removal of dissolved silica from Bayer process liquor in a controlled manner. The art described in this section is not intended to constitute an admission that any patent, publication or other information referred to herein is "prior art" with respect to this invention, unless specifically designated as such. In addition, this section should not be construed to mean that a search has been made or that no other pertinent information as defined in 37 C.F.R. §1.56(a) exists.

Approach in controlling DSP scale in bayer process


An interchangeable additive injection apparatus provides a plurality of flow paths from one or more upstream additive tanks to one or more downstream fuel containers. A plurality of additive lines converge into an additive conduit at a manifold disposed within the apparatus. A plurality of valves associated with the additive lines are selectively opened and closed to isolate one of the flow paths. A metering device is disposed along the additive conduit for measuring the flow of additive therethrough. A reversible, multiple port housing surrounds at least the valves and manifold. In a forward orientation, a plurality of upstream ports are coupled to upstream additive tanks, and a downstream port is coupled to a fuel tank. By reversing the housing, the apparatus is placed in a reverse orientation wherein the upstream port is connected to an upstream additive tank and a plurality of downstream ports are connected to downstream fuel tanks. In either orientation, an expansion apparatus may be coupled to an expansion port on the additive injection apparatus to provide a number of additional ports and flow paths. A controller is coupled with the injection apparatus to monitor and control the associated pumps, valves and meters.

This invention relates in general to a method and apparatus for injecting additive into fuel products and, more particularly, to a system and method for controlling the flow of additive through an interchangeable additive injection apparatus providing a plurality of flow paths from one or more upstream additive tanks to one or more downstream fuel containers.
A well-known application for additive injection systems is a truck loading terminal wherein tanker trucks are filled with fuel for transporting the fuel to a further distribution site. A tank on the truck is filled primarily with a generic fuel product from a fuel supply pipe. As the fuel is loaded into the tank, one or more fluid additives may be injected into the fuel stream to form a blended mixture of additive and the generic fuel product. The additive is typically injected into a fuel load arm connecting the fuel supply pipe to the fuel tank. The recipient of the shipment of fuel loaded into the tanker truck will often preselect the particular additive and specify the quantity (or ratio) of additive desired for the blended fuel. Consequently, the generic fuel may become the proprietary product of a fuel marketing company by blending a particular additive with the generic fuel in a specified ratio.
Additive injection equipment is used to blend the additive with the generic fuel. It is important to provide an accurate dosage of additive for each individual batch. This requires careful measurement of the additive as well as timely control of additive flow. Otherwise, the equipment may continue to inject additive into the load arm after the fuel stream has terminated. If so, not only will the most recent batch of fuel have a lower ratio of additive to fuel, but a subsequent batch of fuel may unintentionally flush the additive remaining in the load arm into the fuel tank on the truck. The presence of this extra additive in the subsequent batch of fuel will adversely affect the desired additive to fuel ratio for that batch, which may call for a different additive altogether.
Typically, the prescribed additive is incrementally blended into the fuel stream at discrete intervals defined by a preselected ratio of fuel to additive. For example, a particular order may require the injection of one gallon of additive into the load arm after 40 gallons of fuel have been supplied to the load arm. A fuel meter on the fuel supply pipe measures the fuel supplied to the load arm and sends pulses representing the quantity of fuel supplied to the additive injection equipment. Upon receiving a predetermined number of such pulses, the additive injection equipment supplies one gallon of additive to the load arm. Thus, the prescribed dose of additive is cyclically injected into the fuel stream based on the preselected ratio.
In an existing additive injection system, each chemical additive tank includes a control panel having a microprocessor, a solenoid valve and a flow meter. One additional control panel is required for each additional fuel load arm to which the additive tank is coupled for injecting additive therein. These control panels control the flow of additive into the load arm in response to pulses received from the fuel flow meter, the pulses representing the quantity of fuel passing through the supply pipe as described above.
Alternatively, the additive may be continuously fed into the fuel stream in accordance with a predetermined additive to fuel ratio. For continuous injection, the injection of additive commences shortly after fuel begins to flow through the supply pipe into the load arm. Throughout most of the fuel loading process, the proportion of additive to fuel supplied to the fuel tank substantially adheres to the established ratio. However, the rate of additive injection should drop off sharply just prior to the termination of fuel flow through the fuel supply pipe. Otherwise, the previously addressed problem of additive remaining in the fuel load arm may occur.
Another problem associated with conventional additive injection systems is that the control panels, each with its own microprocessor, solenoid valve and flow meter, are an expensive investment. A relatively large number of these expensive control panels is required to enable the additive to flow from any one of a plurality of additive tanks to one or more fuel load arms. As an example, a fuel truck loading terminal with five additive tanks and two fuel load arms would require ten separate control panels, each additive tank requiring a separate control panel for each load arm serviced. Accordingly, the five additive tanks would require a total of ten microprocessors, ten solenoid valves and ten flow meters. Furthermore, when one of the valves or meters fails, the injection system must be shut down until the device can be repaired or replaced. Thus, in addition to the expense of replacement parts, a faulty control panel may cause significant downtime and require considerable operator time before the system can be repaired and is operating again.
Additive injection equipment may also be used to inject certain additives into fuel tanks in a retail setting, such as a service station. A service station may inject varying levels of additive from a single on site additive tank into several fuel tanks to create different grades of gasoline. Typically, each fuel tank at a service station will be associated with its own fuel supply pipe. The additive tank may be individually coupled with each of the fuel supply pipes so that a desired quantity of additive can be blended with the fuel supplied to any one of the fuel tanks. Each of the fuel tanks at the service station is also associated with a separate fuel pump accessible to consumers. Thus, a consumer may individually select a particular grade of gasoline based on the relative quantity of additive contained in the fuel.
By contrast to the wholesale systems employed at truck loading terminals, retail systems typically do not inject additive at intervals in response to the flow rate of fuel into the fuel tank because the flow rates are generally too high for the control panels to measure the pulses. Rather, most retail systems employ a batch process for injecting a preselected quantity of additive into the fuel supply pipe based on the quantity of fuel to be loaded into the fuel tank. For retail applications, fuel and additive are usually manually injected into the fuel tank, but it is not uncommon for an operator to use a computer or microprocessor to indicate the desired quantity of additive or fuel to be loaded just prior to manual injection. In any event, current retail injection systems are generally time and labor intensive and do not provide the accuracy and efficiency of automated injection systems.
An additional problem associated with the additive injection systems of the prior art arises when additive tanks or pipes are exposed to freezing temperatures. In this event, the additive contained therein may become stratified, undermining the injection process. One solution to this problem is to add diluents to the additive, which often increases the expense of the additive. However, it is preferable to avoid the use of diluents and blend concentrated additive with the fuel.

Method and apparatus for injecting additives


Embodiments of the present disclosure provide an insulation monitoring device applied to a power system and a power system. The power system includes at least one power electronic converter module. The insulation monitoring device includes an insulation component, a signal source, an impedance module, and a monitoring module. The insulation component at least partially wraps around the power electronic converter module. The signal source is electrically coupled to a circuit node in the power electronic converter module, the impedance module is connected between the signal source and the insulation component, and the monitoring module is configured to monitor an insulation resistance value of the insulation component, so that an insulation state of the power electronic converter module may be determined.

The high-frequency characteristics of a new type of power field control device enables the entering of a power electronic converter module into an era of high frequency, high power density and high efficiency. At the same time, with the development of smart grids, high-power power electronic converter modules are widely used in power quality control, energy storage, power transmission and new energy fields such as solar energy, wind power and the like. Therefore, a type of medium voltage power electronic converter modules will appear on branch transmission lines in a power system. A medium voltage ranges from 2.4 kV to 69 kV. Generally, for China, American and Europe, typical values for said medium voltage application are respectively 10 kV, 12.47 kV and 20 kV. Under a medium voltage power condition, insulation protection of equipment is the top priority in terms of system safety and reliability.
Solid insulation is introduced in the power electronic converter module. Power electronic circuits and conductors are covered by an insulator. And power electronic circuits and conductors simultaneously contain a high-voltage power frequency component and a high-frequency pulse width modulation (PWM) square wave component. Therefore, it is important to monitor an insulation state of each power electronic converter module.
At present, insulation monitors are available for both direct-current power systems and alternating-current systems, where the insulation monitor may be used for insulation monitoring of a medium voltage and variable frequency conversion system. The insulation monitor requires a set of signal generating device and a microprocessor host, and the disadvantage lies in that the signal generating device and the microprocessor host are low voltage circuits, so an additional voltage coupling device is required to achieve an isolation of high and low voltages. Since the voltage coupling device is expensive, this will inevitably increase a cost of insulation monitoring. In addition, the insulation monitor is used to monitor the entire medium voltage and variable frequency conversion system, but may not separately monitor the insulation state of the power electronic converter modules.

Insulation monitoring device applied to power system and power system


The present disclosure is directed to an integrated circuit and a method for the fabrication of the integrated circuit. The integrated circuit includes a lattice matching structure. The lattice matching structure can include a first buffer region, a second buffer region and a superlattice structure formed from AlxGa1-xN/AlyGa1-yN layer pairs.

The deposition of gallium nitride (GaN) films on silicon substrates is difficult because of a large thermal expansion coefficient mismatch between the two materials. Most deposition techniques involve the deposition of buffer layers or stress-relief layers with a distinct composition that is different from that of the substrate and that of GaN. These techniques result in GaN films which are under tensile stress at room temperature. Tensile stress favors the formation of macroscopic cracks in the GaN, which are detrimental to devices fabricated thereon.

Graded aluminum—gallium—nitride and superlattice buffer layer for III-V nitride layer on silicon substrate

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co., Ltd.


Creating and utilizing electricity and radiation via actions of hoses is detailed. Likewise described is using electricity to heat the hoses and radiation to sanitize fluid such as water of a pool or spa. Electricity may be generated by pulsation of the hoses when employed together with a water-interruption type of automatic pool cleaner, for example. Hoses alternatively or additionally may include chemicals or materials reactive to light or other radiation.

U.S. Pat. No. 5,348,051 to Kallenbach describes an exemplary flexible hose for use with APCs. The hose may be molded of plastic material and have "a corrugated longitudinal cross-section to provide radial stiffness to the hose with flexibility both along and transverse to the axis of the hose." See Kallenbach, col. 1, 11. 22-25. The Kallenbach patent recognizes the forces under which the hose is placed during use with a suction-type APC, noting that the reduced pressure to which the interior of the hose is subjected tends to collapse thinner walls of the hose.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2009/0077759 of van der Meijden, et al., discloses additional types of hoses principally for APCs. Contemplated in the van der Meijden application is that the hoses may be used with water-interruption APCs, in which a valve cyclically interrupts flow of water though a suction-type cleaner. The cyclical interruption "may exert forces on a flexible hose section that causes it to cyclically compress and extend along its longitudinal axis." See van der Meijden, p. 1, ¶0004. Previously, however, the repeated compression and extension of the hose has been considered (at least somewhat) in a negative manner, in that it may cause undesirable wear and failure of the hose. See id.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,145,074 to Henkin, et al., details additional hoses designed mainly to avoid coiling or knotting in use. The hoses alternate axially flexible and axially stiff sections, with the lateral forces to which the stiff sections are subjected "creat[ing] additional tension on the conduit[s] tending to pull [them] straight to unwind coils and twists therein." See Henkin, col. 6, 11. 1-32.
The contents of the Kallenbach and Henkin patents and of the van der Meijden application are incorporated herein in their entireties by this reference. None of these patents or applications, however, addresses the possibility of creating electricity or radiation via actions of hoses or using electricity to heat the hoses or radiation to sanitize pool water. All possibilities are advantageous in certain situations, though, providing need for such results.

Hoses principally for automatic swimming pool cleaners


A contact connected to a word line is formed on a gate electrode of an access transistor of an SRAM cell. The contact passes through an element isolation insulating film to reach an SOI layer. A body region of a driver transistor and that of the access transistor are electrically connected with each other through the SOI layer located under the element isolation insulating film. Therefore, the access transistor is in a DTMOS structure having the gate electrode connected with the body region through the contact, which in turn is also electrically connected to the body region of the driver transistor. Thus, operations can be stabilized while suppressing increase of an area for forming the SRAM cell.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device, and more particularly, it relates to an SRAM (static random access memory).
2. Description of the Background Art
In relation to a MOSFET (metal oxide silicon field-effect transistor) employing an SOI (silicon on insulator) substrate, a DTMOSFET (dynamic threshold voltage MOSFET, hereinafter abbreviated as "DTMOS") is proposed as means for increasing the operating speed and improving the current driving capability (refer to Japanese Patent Application Laying-Open Gazette No. 2001-77368, pp. 4 to 6, FIG. 3, for example).
The SOI substrate has a multilayer structure obtained by stacking a silicon substrate, a buried oxide film (BOX) layer and a silicon layer (SOI layer) in this order. In the DTMOS, a gate electrode having a gate oxide film on the lower surface thereof is selectively formed on the SOI layer. Further, source/drain regions paired through a body region located under the gate electrode are formed in the SOI layer. The feature of the DTMOS resides in that the gate electrode and the body region are electrically connected with each other.
When the gate electrode goes high to turn on the transistor in the DTMOS, a body potential also goes high. Then, the operating threshold voltage of the transistor is reduced so that a larger quantity of current can be fed as compared with a general MOSFET employing an SOI substrate (in other words, the current driving capability is improved).
In general, a gate electrode of a transistor has an electrode part provided on an active region and a pad part provided on an element isolation insulating film connected thereto. As disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laying-Open Gazette No. 2001-77368, a contact reaching the SOI layer provided under the element isolation insulating film is formed in the pad part of the gate electrode of the DTMOS. The SOI layer provided under the element isolation insulating film is joined to the body region provided under the gate electrode and has the same conductivity type as the body region. In other words, the gate electrode and the body region of the DTMOS are electrically connected with each other through the aforementioned contact and the SOI layer provided under the element isolation insulating film.
However, the DTMOS has a larger element forming area as compared with a general MOSFET due to the contact formed in the pad part of the gate electrode for connecting the gate electrode and the body region with each other. Therefore, it is difficult to apply the DTMOS to a device required to form a large number of transistors in a small area on a semiconductor substrate.
An SRAM can be listed an example of such devices. If the DTMOS is applied to each of transistors (memory transistors) constituting memory cells of the SRAM, the operating threshold voltage of each SRAM cell is so reduced that the operating speed performance can be improved. In general, each SRAM cell has four transistors and two loads. Following recent reduction of driving voltages for semiconductor devices, however, SRAM cells each constituted of six transistors including two access transistors, two driver transistors and two load transistors in total have been increasingly mainstreamed. Therefore, it is further difficult to apply the DTMOS to the SRAM.
In the DTMOS, as a gate electrode is connected to a body region, the P-N junction between the body region and a source and a drain may be forward biased during increase of the potential of the gate electrode, thereby causing flow of a leakage current therethrough. Thus, application of the DTMOS to an SRAM cell may increase the power consumption of an SRAM.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


The invention discloses a device for exhausting fumes formed inside accumulators. A chamber formed in the lid of the accumulator communicates with exhaust ducts connected with one another and the accumulator re-fill openings. An anti-explosion paste is located in the chamber and is kept in position by the adherence of a removable cap having a through-going central exhaust opening. A shoulder in the chamber presents a surface against which the anti-explosion paste rests and defines a pre-chamber between the paste and the exhaust duct. The bottom of the pre-chamber has an opening allowing it to communicate with the underlying elements of the accumulator and to drain condensed vapor.

The invention concerns a device for exhausting the fumes forming inside accumulator batteries.
It is a known fact that, particularly in lead accumulator batteries, during their working stage and/or during the recharging stage, fumes form which must be exhausted since, if that is not done, they would cause an inflating of the accumulator with the consequent possible breakage of the same. For this reason the lids are provided with exhaust ducts which connect with one another the refill openings of the accumulator which are made on the lid and open them to the exterior through outlet openings In one or more of said outlet openings a joint complete with a hose is provided for the conveyance of the fumes to the exterior.
Since the fumes forming inside the accumulator also contain highly explosive hydrogen, in some cases it is necessary to also apply an anti-explosion device which, should flames or sparkles be present in the room around the accumulator, has the purpose of preventing the flames or the sparks from entering into the accumulator through the exhaust ducts and causing the explosion by igniting the fumes which are present within the exhaust ducts of the lid. Said anti-explosion device consists of a paste according to a known technique which is made of a material allowing the fumes inside the accumulator to be exhausted, but preventing the entrance into the exhaust ducts of the lid of eventual flames and sparks, which would cause its explosion.
In some constructions this anti-explosion paste is held in a container which is an integral part of the joint applied in the opening of the exhaust duct. In particular, said paste is arranged between the union connecting the joint with the outlet opening of the exhaust duct and the hose conveying the fumes away from the accumulator.
On the other hand, in some other embodiments according to the known technique, the anti-explosion paste is part of the lid of the accumulator and it is positioned within a chamber near the outlet opening of the exhaust ducts.
In both types of embodiment there is the inconvenience that, since the anti-explosion paste is permeable to fumes but not to liquids, it clogs up whenever the condensation resulting from the electrolyte liquid, which is led into the fume-exhaust ducts in the form of vapor, comes to rest on the point of connection of the paste. It is easy to understand how such an occurrence can cause remarkable inconveniences and also dangers, since, if this occurs, the fumes are not let out and they build up inside the accumulator. This causes, as has already been said, the inflating of the accumulator and its ensuing deformation.

Device for exhausting the fumes forming inside accumulation batteries


Vibrations that arise during the winding of a coil of wire onto a rotating mandrel are damped by surrounding the coil with a tube such that the tube is spaced from the coil and by supplying fluid to the tube. The tube extends in the axial direction of the coil along at least a part of its length and, due to the spacing between the tube and the coil, conducts fluid such as water in a confined manner towards at least one end of the tube and releases the fluid from the end of the tube, for example in a region of the coil adjacent to and/or remote from the winding of the coil.

When winding a coil of-wire on a rotating stub mandrel, irregularities in the winding mechanism and in the wire give rise to vibrations and in excursions of the wound coil from its axis of rotation. Vibration can also arise from other sources, such as a mechanism for periodically cutting the coil into predetermined lengths. It is known to damp such vibrations by applying pads or rollers to the rotating coil, but such damping means can damage the wire and is a source of friction. The severity of these vibrations increases with increasing rotational speed of the mandrel and of the coil and effectively limits the rotational speed of the mandrel to some 2,000 to 4,000 r.p.m. These vibrations can give rise to unevenly wound coils and deformed portions of coil where it is cut into desired lengths. Any method of effectively dampening such vibrations would contribute to higher productivity and lower manufacturing costs.

Coil winding method and apparatus for dampening vibrations


A towable road tender device for grading unpaved roadway surfaces. The tender device may be hitched to commercial vehicles but is particularly suited for use with private vehicles, such as small tractors and pickup trucks. A set of relatively lightweight frames reduce the weight to be pulled by the vehicle. The towable road tender device is sized to be operated using small-scale power take-off units commonly available in private vehicles, such as, for example, the power units of conventional front-end plows. The set of lightweight frames includes a support frame that secures the tending tool, a wheel frame that pivots the rear towing wheels either toward or away from the support frame, and an attachment frame joining the other two frames to a hitch on the towing vehicle. The attachment frame is designed to keep the support frame parallel to the plane of the underlying roadway surface as that support frame is raised or lowered. The height differential between the hitch of the towing vehicle and the support frame normally results in a lifting of the front of the support frame and a reduction in the bearing weight of the tending tool on the roadway surface. The attachment frame of the present invention eliminates this problem by pivoting upward when the tending tool is lowered down to the roadway surface. This pivoting not only eliminates the lifting, it enhances the bearing capacity of that tool.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a towable device that may be used to scrape and grade unpaved surfaces such as roadways and the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to a towable road tender (1) that is relatively lightweight; (2) that is readily useable behind small, private tractors and pickup trucks as well as with larger commercial vehicles; (3) that may be operated via convenient small-scale power take-off units, such as the hydraulic units of conventional front-end plow devices; and (4) that may be either centered directly behind the vehicle or set off to one side behind the vehicle. The preferred embodiment of the present towable road tender includes a lightweight frame, a set of pivotable rear wheels, an articulated attachment frame and a pivotable grading blade.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Road grading devices have been available for many years. Many types of road graders are used to complete the restructuring of rough terrain after preliminary smoothing initiated by heavy equipment such as bulldozers. This finish grading yields roadways that may or may not be paved. In most instances, commercially available road graders are of substantial size and weight and provide uniform, smooth leveling. Generally, these graders are single-unit devices that comprise a grading blade positioned under the vehicle operator, and the blade alone is powered upward or downward in order to contact the underlying surface.
Alternatively, there are grading devices that can be drawn behind powered vehicles instead of being made an integral component of such vehicles. These graders can therefore be shifted from one vehicle to another for greater operational flexibility. One example of such grading devices is the land leveler disclosed by Breaux in U.S. Pat. No. 2,866,281 (1958). Breaux describes a grading blade that is affixed to a combination frame which is in turn used to pivot the blade. Another example is the leveling apparatus described by Bailiff in U.S. Pat. No. 2,635,888 (1953). The Bailiff device is a wheeled assembly for a towed grader. The assembly provides for hydraulic operation of the lower portion of a jointed frame that raises and lowers the leveling blade by drawing in or extending the rear wheels. The upper portion of the frame is intended to be used as a trailer unit for transporting materials. The Hallam (U.S. Pat. No. 3,716,105--1973) towable grader highlights the usage of a particular coupling unit that permits the tractor towing the grader to turn in a relatively tight radius. All of the above-referenced disclosures fail, however, to provide a towed grader that may be oriented off-center, or offset, behind the towing vehicle. Such a design would permit the user to drive the towing vehicle safely on the roadway while leveling more precarious positions along the roadway edge without compromising the ability to turn in a tight radius when required.
The above-described towable grading devices, and others like them, provide a means for preparing roadway surfaces without resort to very expensive self-powered machinery. Nevertheless, even these towable devices exclude the typical private user from improving his or her own roadway, driveway and the like. In particular, the towable graders presently available are designed to be pulled behind a piece of heavy-duty equipment, such as an earth mover or commercial tractor, that is capable of moving and maneuvering an object weighing several thousand pounds, which object is often dragging an additional load of roadway dirt. The private user does not have ready access to such equipment and even with such access may not be capable of operating it. More commonly, the private user has a vehicle such as a pickup truck or small-scale tractor, acquired in order to complete common everyday projects. Such vehicles cannot be used to tow the prior art graders described--particularly when such graders are pulling additional loads during a leveling operation. Therefore, the prior art towable graders are not designed for the private user.
Another indication that most prior art graders are commercially oriented is the means by which they are operated. A number of them are operated hydraulically via lines extending from the towing vehicle. (See, for example, the dual-action hydraulic operation of the Bailiff wheel assembly.) The size of the prior towable graders at issue require a reservoir of several gallons of hydraulic fluid for proper operation. The heavy-duty towing equipment previously noted may be able to provide such capacity. At the very least, that equipment is designed to accommodate such additional capacity and to control the operation of hydraulically-powered graders from within the towing vehicle. On the other hand, the vehicles normally employed by the private user cannot readily accommodate such a supplemental reservoir of hydraulic fluid. Instead, such private vehicles would have to be modified considerably in order to provide for proper operation of the prior towable graders--assuming, of course, that such private vehicles had the physical capacity to haul them. That modification would drive up the overall cost of the grader and would probably compromise operation of the vehicle when the grader was not in use. Moreover, further modification would have to be carried out if the grader were to be operated remotely from the towing vehicle itself, an action that would further increase costs. Alternatively, a more suitable towed grader would be operable via systems readily available for private vehicles, such as, for example, the hydraulic units of front-end plowing devices.
There are available towable devices that may be used to "manicure" a roadway. These devices often comprise a screening rake that essentially scrapes loose material from the roadway and that may create small troughs in the roadway as well. These devices necessarily fail to fulfill the goal achieved with the prior art graders and levelers in that they are too lightweight to remove the top, rough layer of the roadway and then deposit the excess material where it may be lacking. The relatively small size of such screening devices allows for usage behind private towing vehicles of the type previously noted. This does not, however, overcome their inherent inability to restructure a roadway. In the scheme of things, such towable "screens" are at the opposite end of the spectrum from the heavy-duty towable graders noted.
There are devices available that might be considered suitable for use as tenders towable behind private vehicles. Typically, these devices are rake systems used for roadway screening. In some instances a grading blade may be affixed to the rake element and used in an attempt to level the roadway. These devices, even with attachable grader blades suffer from the fact that they weigh much less than the prior towable graders. Because of this weight reduction, the supplemental grading blade does not have the forcing load to "dig up" an old roadway in order to produce a level new surface. At best, only loosely-packed portions of the roadway can be drawn by the blade. In most instances, however, the blade simply bounces over hardened roadway sections. As a result, the roadway may become even less level than before use of the lightweight grading blade. Apart from this essential problem with small, towable rake systems, there are other problems which make them less than suitable for adequate road grading. In particular, these devices apparently have no means for 1) quickly and easily raising and lowering the blade when desired; 2) canting the blade to grade at an angle; and 3) offsetting the blade of the rake system to provide for leveling of precarious roadway edges.
One critical drawback that is evident in all of the earlier towable grading systems noted above is the means by which the towed device is connected to the towing vehicle. Specifically, many of the towable systems comprise elaborate connection devices which increase complexity as well as cost. For the private user, the goal is to minimize cost and reduce complexity. For that reason, it is most advantageous to use connection means that are already available on the towing vehicle. Generally, these means are either hitching balls or towing hooks. There are towable graders/screens that provide for ready connection to the towing vehicle in the manner noted. They all fail, however, to address the fact that when the grader is connected to the towing vehicle, the connection results in some cases a serious, and, in other cases, a slight, lifting of the grader unit from the roadway. This lifting is particularly pronounced when the towing vehicle is a pickup truck and the grader is considerably shorter than the rear of the truck. In this lifted position the blade's bearing on the roadway is reduced and so its leveling effectiveness is also reduced. The most common reason for this failure is the fact that the connecting bar between the hitch of the towing vehicle and the frame comprising the grading blade together form a unitary, straight piece. Because of this there is no means for counteracting the lifting effect of the connection. (See, for example, the attachment means of the Bailiff assembly and the more complex Hallam device.) If anything, this design requires, at the very least, a heavier grader frame in order to permit adequate road grading. A heavier frame may not be suitable for use behind the smaller private vehicles contemplated. Thus, both simple and complex towable grading devices have failed to eliminate this undesirable lifting in a relatively simple grader design.
Some attempts to minimize lifting effects have yielded fairly complex systems. In particular, the Breaux leveler includes an elaborate hydraulic system for raising and lowering the front end of the grader frame. This elaborate system does not, however, achieve the desired goal because there is no means for securing the articulated front arm to the towing hitch. Instead, a simple hook is used to complete the connection. As the articulated joint of the frame is pivoted, the attachment hook simply rotates on the towing hook. This may or may not eliminate the upward lifting effect entirely. In any event, the complex Breaux attachment fixture does not take advantage of the towing vehicle's weight as a way of translating supplemental vertical loading force to the grading blade.
A more effective road-tending device would be one of relatively light weight so that the towing load on the towing vehicle would be minimized. At the same time, the device would take advantage of the towing vehicle's own weight in order to provide a bearing load to the grading blade. Prior single-unit graders had such an advantage, primarily because the grading blade was an integral part of the moving vehicle. On the other hand, towable tenders do not have this luxury and are necessarily a compromise between towing weight and leveling capability. The prior art towable graders have failed to effectively achieve this compromise, however, particularly with regard to graders usable behind common private vehicles. Therefore, what is needed is a towable road grader (tender) that may be readily deployed behind small private vehicles such as pickup trucks. What is also needed is a towable road tender that is lightweight and that takes advantage of the towing vehicle's weight to provide bearing load to the tending tool. Further, what is needed is a towable tender that may be pulled either centered directly behind the towing vehicle or offset from center. Still further, what is needed is a towable tender that may be operated using power systems readily available for private vehicles, such as, for example, those hydraulic units provided with conventional front-end plow devices.


A releasable medical device connector comprises a connector fitting with a spin nut which connects to an adaptor. The connector fitting has at least one radially extending member with a variable radius cross section. The spin nut is disposed upon the connector fitting proximal of the radially extending member and is both axially slidable and rotatable upon the elongated body of the connector fitting. A screw thread within a proximal portion of the spin nut is used to secure the tapering portion of the connector fitting to an external thread disposed upon the adaptor. To release the connector, the spin nut is unscrewed from the adaptor and slid so that a distal receptacle of the spin nut engages the radially extending member of the connector fitting. With the spin nut and connector fitting engaged, the medical line can be released from the adaptor by twisting and pulling upon the spin nut. The radially extending member of the connector fitting may also be used to secure the medical line to a retainer comprising one or more slots.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a medical line connector fitting, and more specifically, to a releasable connector for use on an elongated medical article.
2. Description of Related Art
It is frequently desirable in the medical treatment of patients for medical personnel to have some form of access to the vasculature of the patient for delivery or withdrawal of fluids from the bloodstream. When such access is required over any period of time, it is common to introduce a catheter into the bloodstream of the patient to provide reusable access, for instance in order to deliver medication and/or fluids directly into the bloodstream of the patient. It may be desirable to leave such an intravenous catheter in place within the patient throughout treatment to avoid repeatedly having to introduce new catheters.
In intravenous applications, the catheter is generally short and includes a luer connector at one end that is designed for attachment to another medical line. Such a connector may also include a spin nut to lock the medical line to the catheter. In this way the same catheter may be connected to and released from different medical lines in order to exchange the medical lines without the need to introduce multiple intravenous catheters.
After use over an extended period of time, however, the luer connection between the medical line and the catheter hub may become stuck to each other and difficult to release. In particular, the force which was applied via the spin nut when locking the medical line to the catheter hub may press the medical line into the catheter with enough force that the medical line and catheter do not release upon unlocking the spin nut. In addition, fluid dries between the surfaces of the components of the luer connection, which further exacerbates the adhesion between the components.
In such circumstances, the medical technician may need to twist or pull the medical line apart from the catheter. The spin nut has a larger diameter and is easier to grasp than the medical line itself. Therefore a mechanism for transferring force from the spin nut to the medical line may be provided upon the luer connector in order to simplify release of the medical line from the catheter. One example of such a spin nut for use upon a luer connector is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,620,427 to Werschmidt et al.
The splines provided upon the Werschmidt device, however, allow only rotational force to be transferred between the spin nut and the medical line. The splines also do not impede axial motion of the spin nut in the proximal direction. As a result, the spin nut can migrate up onto the medical line, requiring medical personnel to locate the nut and thread it back into a proper position for usage when the medical line is to be attached or released.
Because of the importance and continued use of luer-type connectors between medical lines and intravenous catheters, there is a continued need for improvement in such releasable luer connectors.