A winding apparatus suitable for a toroidal coil. Arms swivel around a core and move up and down. Movable bodies having rollers on which the wire is wound, are mounted on the arms and move along the arms. A tensioning mechanism pulls the movable bodies away from the core while adjusting the pulling forces separately. Chucks pass the wire through the center hole of the core from an entrance to an exit. One chuck holds the wire near a tip which has passed the center hole and brings the tip back to the entrance by crossing the moving path of rollers and moving around the core.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a winding method and apparatus for a toroidal coil.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a toroidal coil, a wire W is helically wound on a ring-shape core CR as shown in FIG. 15. To wind the wire W on such a coil, it is necessary to alternate a process for inserting the wire W into the center hole CR1 of the core CR and a process for bringing the wire W, which has passed through the central hole CR1, back to the entrance side of the center hole CR1 in such a way that the wire W moves around the core CR. It is also necessary to keep tensioning the wire W during winding, to fix the wire W on the core CR and minimize the diameter of the coil. Japanese non-examined patent publication JP63-034912 discloses a method of mechanizing such winding processes as shown in FIGS. 16A through 16E.
In this method shown in FIG. 16A, a rod-shape jig J is attached to the tip of the wire W. A feed chuck A holds the end of the jig J. The feed chuck A moves toward the core CR so that the jig J inserts into the center hole CR1 of the core CR. A driving chuck B holds the tip of the jig J which passes through the center hole CR1.
At this time, a roller R1 is placed on the exit side of the center hole CR1. The roller R1 is hereinafter referred to as the first roller R1. Next, the jig J is released from the feed chuck A and is pulled out from the center hole CR1 by the driving chuck B as shown in FIG. 16B. The jig J then returns to the entrance side of the center hole CR1 such that the wire W is wound around the first roller R1 as shown by an arrow Ya, reaching the condition shown in FIG. 16C. Here, the end of the wire W is fixed near the core CR by an appropriate holding chuck D. After the jig J returns, the feed chuck A holds the end of the jig J and the driving chuck B moves over to the exit side of the center hole CR1. Then, as shown in FIG. 16D, the first roller R1 moves away from the core CR and swivels around the core CR as shown by an arrow Yb while tensioning the wire W. Here, some parts of the feed chuck A and the driving chuck B are omitted in FIG. 16D.
When the first roller R1 moves over to the opposite side of the core CR, the wire W is wound around the core CR as shown in FIG. 16E. At this time, a roller R2 (hereinafter referred to as the second roller R2) different from the first roller R1 is placed on the exit side of the center hole CR1. After the first roller R1 swivels up to the position illustrated in FIG. 16E, the feed chuck A moves toward the core CR and then the driving chuck B holds the tip of the jig J which has passed through the center hole CR1. In this manner, the condition shown in FIG. 16A is again reached. From then on, the wire W is wound by repeating the above-mentioned steps while alternating the rollers R1 and R2. After each round of the wire W winding, the core CR rotates on its own axis by the prescribed angle (the angle corresponding to one pitch of the helical coil wound on the core CR).
The above-mentioned winding method requires following complicated operations. The first roller R1 and the second roller R2 must be capable of interchanging their positions, and of moving separately in the axial direction of the core CR (the axial direction of the center hole CR1). Also, after the first round of the wire W winding (after returning to the condition in FIG. 16A for the first time), when the roller R1 (R2) on the exit side of the center hole CR1 of the core CR moves away from the core CR to tension wire W, the roller R2 (R1) on the entrance side of CR1 is also wound by wire W. Thus, this roller R2 (R1) on the entrance side must move toward the core CR synchronously with the motion of the roller R1 (R2) on the opposite side. Therefore, it is desirable to develop a winding apparatus which performs the above-described operations using simple mechanisms.
Also, the above-mentioned winding method has the following drawbacks. As shown in FIGS. 16C and 16D, the jig J which has passed through the center hole CR1, moves over to the entrance side of the center hole CR1 by operating the driving chuck B and is re-gripped by the feed chuck A. Then, the rollers R1 and R2 swivel. In this procedure, without the jig J, the wire W is pulled toward the exit side of the center hole CR1 when the tip of the wire W returns to the entrance side of the center hole CR1 by operating the driving chuck B. Thus, the wire W is bent over toward the exit side of the center hole CR1 at the holding position of the driving chuck B, and cannot be held by the feed chuck A. Therefore, the jig J is indispensable to secure the straight part which is necessary for the re-gripping. In addition, as shown by X in FIG. 16D, the wire W bends at the end of the jig J when the rollers R1 and R2 start swiveling after the jig J returns to the entrance side of the center hole CR1. Therefore, the wire W is likely to be deformed, and cut during repeated windings.

Toroidal coil winding apparatus and method for winding a wire toroidally on a core


A metal wood golf club head adapted for attachment to a shaft, with a body comprising of a first body portion and a second body portion, each portion constructed of a different density material. Combining a high density material in the first body portion with a low density material in the second body portion, creates an ultra-low center of gravity relative to the geometric face center, resulting in higher launch angles and spin rate ratios. Thickening the lower area of the front face lowers the center of gravity and upwardly shifts the coefficient of restitution to the geometric center of the face.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multi-material, multi-component metal wood golf club head.
2. Description of the Related Art
Golf clubs have achieved a remarkable transformation from persimmon wood clubs to the present day metal woods with their extremely large head sizes. This has been made possible by high strength metallic materials, which allow the golf ball to be hit farther and straighter because of increased club head inertia and coefficient of restitution.
Particularly, development of titanium alloys, which are light (specific gravity: 4.5 to 5.0) and strong, have allowed significant increases in the head size and subsequent practical shaft length of a golf club. Specifically, a large moment of inertia, resulting in an increased area of high speed on the club face can be achieved by use of a large club head. Thus there is a constant demand for club heads of greater size. However, enlarging the club head also increases its weight. Most of the metal wood golf clubs manufactured today have a shell thickness so thin that they border on practical manufacturing limits. This has resulted in the search for materials that are even less dense than titanium. Golf club manufacturers are looking for solutions wherein lighter and stronger materials may be employed. And, in some cases, for materials that will partially replace titanium, which is relatively costly and requires considerable care in forming and casting.
Among the more prominent considerations in club head design are loft, lie, face angle, horizontal face bulge, vertical face roll, center of gravity, inertia, material selection, and overall head weight. While this basic set of criteria is generally the focus of golf club engineering, several other design aspects must also be addressed. The interior design of the club head may be made to achieve particular performance characteristics, such as with the inclusion of hosel or shaft attachment means, or the use of weight members.
The United States Golf Association (USGA), the governing body for the rules of golf in the United States, has specifications for the performance of golf clubs and golf balls. Golf clubs are limited to a Coefficient of Restitution (COR) of 0.83. One USGA rule limits the golf ball's initial velocity after a prescribed impact to 250 feet per second±2% (or 255 feet per second maximum initial velocity). To achieve greater golf ball travel distance, ball velocity after impact and the coefficient of restitution of the ball-club impact must be maximized while remaining within the rules.

Golf club head with progressive face stiffness


A non-halogen flame-retardant insulated wire includes a conductor and an insulating coating layer including an inner layer and an outer layer. The inner layer includes a composition in which 50 to 95 parts by weight of a polyethylene with a density of 0.930 g/cm3 or more and 5 to 50 parts by weight of an ethylene copolymer are mixed. The outer layer has a composition including a base polymer in which 60 to 95 parts by weight of an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer containing 60% by weight or more of vinyl acetate and 5 to 40 parts by weight of a maleic acid-modified ethylene-α-olefin copolymer are mixed, and including 80 to 200 parts by weight of a metal hydroxide. The outer layer resin composition is crosslinked.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an insulated wire, and in particular to a flame-retardant insulated wire which does not contain a halogen compound.
2. Description of the Related Art
Insulated wires provided with flame retardance are widely used in order to prevent fire from easily spreading to insulating coatings of the wires even in the case where flames are caused by abnormalities (e.g., generation of heat and tracking phenomena) at electric connection portions, such as wire joints and electric outlets. Among flame-retardant insulated wires, insulated wires not containing a halogen compound (non-halogen flame-retardant insulated wires) do not generate corrosive halogen gas (e.g., hydrogen chloride) or toxic gas (e.g., dioxin) even when they are burnt, and thus are advantageous in that the burden on the environment and health hazards can be reduced.
Examples of a known resin composition constituting the insulating coating of a non-halogen flame-retardant insulated wire include a resin composition in which a non-halogen flame retardant (e.g., a metal hydroxide, such as magnesium hydroxide) is added and mixed to a polyolefin resin. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-132741 (Patent Document 1) discloses an insulated wire including a conductor, an inner layer covering the conductor, and an outer layer covering the inner layer, in which the inner layer includes a flame-retardant resin composition including a base polymer containing 40 to 90 parts by weight of an ethylene copolymer, 5 to 50 parts by weight of an ethylene-acrylic rubber, and 0.5 to 50 parts by weight of an ionomer or ethylene-methacrylic acid copolymer, and also including 40 to 200 parts by weight of magnesium hydroxide and 1 to 20 parts by weight of a flame retardant promoter relative to 100 parts by weight of the base polymer; and the outer layer includes a resin composition including 100 parts by weight of an ionomer or ethylene-methacrylic acid copolymer, 300 parts by weight or less of magnesium hydroxide, and 20 parts by weight or less of a flame retardant promoter. According to Patent Document 1, after the conductor is covered with the inner layer includes the resin composition having excellent flame retardance and flexibility, the inner layer is covered with the outer layer having excellent abrasion resistance, and therefore, it is possible to provide an insulated wire having excellent abrasion resistance, flame retardance, cold resistance, and mechanical properties.
Furthermore, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2010-97881 (Patent Document 2) discloses an insulated wire including a conductor, an inner layer covering the conductor, and an outer layer covering the inner layer, in which the inner layer contains an ethylene-ethyl acrylate copolymer (EEA) with an ethyl acrylate content (EA amount) of 10% to 20% by weight and has an insulating property; and the outer layer contains an ethylene-vinyl acetate copolymer (EVA) with a vinyl acetate content (VA amount) of 40% to 50% by weight and a non-halogen flame retardant, is crosslinked, and has oil resistance and flame retardance. According to Patent Document 2, it is possible to provide an insulated wire which does not contain a halogen compound and which has high flame retardance, high mechanical properties, a sufficient insulating property, and high oil resistance.
In recent years, regarding requirements for insulated wires, as the number of kinds of properties required has increased, the required levels of safety, durability, environmental protection, and the like have also increased. For example, in the case of wires for vehicle use, in addition to existing requirements for flame retardance, mechanical properties, and a halogen-free property, excellence in terms of oil resistance, fuel resistance, and cold resistance is also strongly required.
In the insulated wire described in Patent Document 1, in order to obtain high flame retardance, a metal hydroxide is added to each of the inner layer and the outer layer. When the addition amount of the metal hydroxide is increased in accordance with the required flame retardance level, mechanical properties (e.g., elongation of the insulating coating) may be degraded, which is a drawback. Furthermore, in the insulated wire described in Patent Document 2, the latest required levels of oil resistance, fuel resistance, and cold resistance are not necessarily satisfied. In other words, further improvements in the properties of insulated wires (in particular, non-halogen flame-retardant insulated wires) are strongly desired.

Non-halogen flame-retardant insulated wire


An encoder has a scale having an optical, magnetic or electrostatic displacement detection pattern. An encoder head detects the displacement detection pattern and generates at least two periodic signals that differ in phase, thereby to determine a displacement with respect to the scale. A center-voltage detecting unit detects only the center voltage of each periodic signal. A reference-voltage adjusting unit adjusts the center voltage detected by the center-voltage detecting unit to a predetermined reference voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an encoder for use in, for example, displacement sensors.
2. Description of the Related Art
An encoder generates periodic signals that differ in phase. The periodic signals output from the encoder and different in phase are input to a processing circuit, which counts cycles per unit time. The processing circuit can acquire data from the periodic signals input to it. The data represents, for example, the direction of movement, position, displacement and speed of a moving body.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-56238 discloses an encoder shown in FIG. 10. As shown in FIG. 10, the encoder has an original-signal generating means 1. The means 1 generates three pseudo sine-wave signals CA, CB and −CA that differ in phase by 90° from one another. The pseudo sine-wave signals CA, CB and −CA are input to a sine-wave-signal generating means 2. The means 2 performs an operation, or resistance division, on the signals CA, CB and −CA, generating pseudo sine-wave signals d0 to d7. The signals d0 to d7 pass through an impedance adjusting means 5 and are converted to signals d0′ to d7′. These signals d0′ to d7′ are supplied to a comparing means 3. The comparing means 3 performs digitalization on the signals d0′ to d7′, generating digitalized signals D0 to D7. The digitalized signals D0 to D7 are supplied to an interpolation circuit 4. The interpolation circuit 4 generates two-phase encoder digital signals A and B from the digitalized signals D0 to D7. The signals A and B differ in phase by 90°.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-56238 teaches the technique of supplying three pseudo sine-wave signals CA, CB and −CA directly to a sine-wave signal generating means 2. It is desired that the pseudo sine-wave signals CA, CB and −CA be at the same reference potential. If so, the means 2 can generate, from the signals CA, CB and −CA, pseudo sine-wave signals d0 to d7 that accord with a specific resistance ratio. Namely, the pseudo sine-wave signals d0 to d7 generated by the sine-wave signal generating means 2 are at phase intervals set by the resistance ratio. If the resistance ratio of such a value that the signals d0 to d7 are at regular phase intervals, the signals d0 to d7 will be at regular intervals at the same reference voltage. Thus, the interpolation circuit 4 can perform interpolation at high precision.


The present invention relates to a plant growth regulator comprising as an active ingredient an epoxycyclohexane derivative represented by general formula (1): ##STR1## wherein R.sup.1 is a hydrogen atom, a C.sub.1 -C.sub.6 alkyl group or C.sub.3 -C.sub.6 cycloalkyl group, and R.sup.2 and R.sup.3 are independently C.sub.1 -C.sub.6 alkyl groups or are combined to form a C.sub.2 -C.sub.3 polymethylene group which may be substituted with a C.sub.1 -C.sub.6 alkyl group, as well as to a plant growth regulator comprising the epoxycyclohexane derivative and a brassinosteroid as active ingredients. The epoxycyclohexane derivatives exhibit a potent plant growth regulating action which is equivalent to or higher than that of abscisic acid, and are useful as plant growth regulators such as a plant growth accelerator, a germination growth accelerator, a transpiration and wilting inhibitor, a cold resistance enhancer, an accelerator for growing, thickening or maturing fruits, roots, stems or bulbs, etc. A synergistic effect is achieved by combination of the epoxycyclohexane derivative with a brassinosteroid.

Abscisic acid is one of plant hormones such as auxin, gibberellin, cytokinin, ethylene etc. Since abscisic acid was found in 1963, its physiological actions including abscission layer formation, dormancy induction, germination suppression, flowering suppression, bolting (flower stalk development) suppression, transpiration suppression, aging promotion, and stress resistance (e.g. cold resistance enforcement) came to be known. Although it is assumed that abscisic acid generally exhibits a growth suppressing action as described above, it was recently found that similar to other plant hormones, abscisic acid exhibits both promoting and suppressing effects depending on its concentration, and for example it promotes plant growth to raise the yield at low concentration (Nakabori et al., Bulletin of the Aomori Agricultural Experiment Station in 1991 (1992)). Further application to the promotion of thickening and maturing fruits (Japanese Patent LOP Publication Nos. 264,005/1992, 264,006/1992 and 264,007/1992), prevention of flowers or unmatured fruits from falling (Japanese Patent LOP Publication No. 139,911/1993), growth promotion for agricultural products (Japanese Patent LOP Publication No. 178,705/1993) or flowering promotion (Japanese Patent LOP Publication No. 186,303/1993) is known.
However, abscisic acid is expensive and among optical isomers of abscisic acid, natural type one demonstrates higher effects, and thus abscisic acid is not practically used. Recently, a method of producing natural type abscisic acid by culturing a microorganism of the genus Botrytis was developed, but it is hard to say that this method is satisfactory (Japanese Patent LOP Publication Nos. 296,696/1988, 296,697/1988 and 60,590/1990). Some reports have been made of its organic synthesis, but there remain problems with a large number of steps, costs, stereoselectivity (Helv. Chim. Acta, 71, 931 (1988); J. Org. Chem., 54, 681 (1989); and Japanese Patent LOP Publication No. 184,966/1991).
Out of those compounds which relate to the plant growth regulator of the present invention, a free carboxylic acid and methyl ester derivative are described in the above literatures as intermediates for chemically synthesizing abscisic acid, but it is not disclosed that such intermediates exhibit abscisic acid-like physiological actions.
On one hand, brassinosteroids are a group of ubiquitous compounds present in plants, and exhibit specific physiological growth actions, such as growth promotion, fertilization and fructification promotion, cold resistance enforcement, promotion for thickening fruits etc., and promotion for germinating or rooting of seeds or cuttings.
However, it was not known that an intimate mixture of abscisic acid or an abscisic acid-like substance and a brassinosteroid exhibits a synergistic effect on plant growth regulation.

Plant growth regulating composition comprising epoxycyclohexane derivatives and brassinosteroids as well as method of regulating plant growth comprising the application thereof


A vehicle capture net disposed between a pair of towers each of which includes a shaft, a pair of spools coupled to the shaft, and a pair of straps connected to the net. Each strap is wound on a spool. A brake is coupled to the shaft and to the spools for providing a restraining force of increasing magnitude as the straps are unwound. Unwinding of the straps from the spools advances the pair of spools on threaded portions of the shaft to compress the adjacent braking surfaces against each other. The vehicle is stopped by deploying a vehicle capture net connected to at least one pair of straps each wound on a spool, permitting the vehicle to collide with the capture net and to unwind the straps from corresponding spools, and providing a restraining force of increasing magnitude on the straps as the straps are unwound from the spools.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the field of vehicle restraints, and in particular to vehicle capture nets or barriers.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The need for a system to stop an unauthorized moving car approaching the entry to a restricted area is of utmost importance to law enforcement and security personnel. This is particularly important in view of heightened awareness of possible terrorist attacks against both government and non-government facilities. Possible solutions to the problem of stopping moving vehicles have been disclosed in Marcotullio et al, U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,993,104 and 5,829,912; Jackson et al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,624,203; and Terio, U.S. Pat. No. 4,576,507. The prior art teaches a variety of techniques for arresting the automobile motion, including hydraulic, pneumatic, as well as governor controlled mechanical braking systems to accomplish the deceleration of the automobile after it engages the barrier, and include methods of storing and deploying the barrier from a storage location.

Method and apparatus for a minimally aggressive vehicle stopping system


An image forming apparatus for preventing sheet jams and displacement of image formation when forming images on both front and rear sides is provided. The apparatus includes first and second width regulation mechanisms, a reverse transport mechanism and a link mechanism. The first width regulation mechanism is provided within a sheet holding chamber, and is movable with respect to a center of an image formation range of an image forming unit. The reverse transport mechanism is configured to turn the sheet from a first side to a second side upon the first side passing through the image forming unit. The second width regulation mechanism, provided within the reverse transport mechanism, is movable in the width direction. The link mechanism is provided between the first and second width regulation mechanisms for changing a position of the second width regulation mechanism in association with position change of the first width regulation mechanism.

The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.
A conventional image forming apparatus is disclosed in JP-A-2002-104694. The image forming apparatus has a housing, a sheet feed cassette, an image forming unit, a first width regulation mechanism, a reverse transport mechanism, and a second width regulation mechanism.
The sheet feed cassette has a sheet holding chamber for holding stacked sheets of paper, and can be housed within and drawn from the housing. The image forming unit is provided within the housing for forming images on sheets transported from the sheet holding chamber of the sheet feed cassette. The first width regulation mechanism is provided within the sheet holding chamber, movable with the center of an image formation range of the image forming unit as a reference position, and positioned according to the sheet width. The reverse transport mechanism is provided within the housing for turning over the sheet that has passed through the image forming unit and transporting the sheet to the image forming unit again. The second width regulation mechanism is provided within the reverse transport mechanism, movable in the width direction, and positioned according to the sheet width.
The first width regulation mechanism and the second width regulation mechanism are respectively independent, and their positions are separately changed by hand. Especially, the position of the second width regulation mechanism is changed by manually swinging a lever provided at the opposite side to the side of the housing at which the sheet feed cassette is housed.
In the conventional image forming apparatus having the above described configuration, the first width regulation mechanism regulates the position of the sheet in the width direction so that the sheet may be transported into the image formation range within the sheet holding chamber. Thereby, the image forming apparatus transports the sheet without displacement relative to the image formation range of the image forming unit and forms an image on the front side thereof. Then, the image forming apparatus ejects the sheet with the image formed on the front side from the housing to the outside, or transports the sheet to the reverse transport mechanism for image formation on the rear side.
Then, when the sheet is transported to the reverse transport mechanism, the sheet is turned over within the reverse transport mechanism, and further, the second width regulation mechanism regulates the position of the sheet in the width direction so that the sheet may be transported into the image formation range again. Thereby, the image forming apparatus transports the sheet without displacement relative to the image formation range of the image forming unit again and forms an image on the rear side thereof. Then, the image forming apparatus ejects the sheet with the images formed on both the front side and the rear side from the housing to the outside.
In this manner, the conventional image forming apparatus can form images only on the front side or both front and rear sides of a sheet.


A first memory stores requester event records describing events that occurred in relation to processes executed in a first server. A second memory stores requestee event records describing events that occurred in relation to processes executed in a second server in response to execution requests issued from the first server. An associating unit searches the first and second memories for requester event records and requestee event records whose transaction identifiers are identical and associates the found records together. A determining unit compares the associated event records with each other in terms of their time information. Based on this comparison, the determining unit determines a correction value for correcting time differences between requester event records in the first memory and requestee event records in the second memory.

There has been a system that provides service to users via a network such as the Internet by running web application software and the like. This system is operated under appropriate management to provide stable services to the users. The operation and management of such systems involves, for example, measurement of system performance for the purpose of monitoring the system's response to user requests and detecting a possible delay. The performance measurement items may include, for example, processing time of each executed process, which begins with reception of a request and ends with transmission of a response to the requesting user. Another measurement item is processing time consumed for database access. In the case of multiple-layer systems such as a web three-layer system made up of web layer, application layer, and database layer, the above measurement may be achieved by using some existing techniques of transaction analysis. For example, one proposed technique collects messages from the network and investigates them to find out how transactions are processed in the system.
As mentioned above, the processing time of a transaction may be measured on the basis of messages produced during the transaction. This measurement begins with identifying such messages. Suppose, for example, that a transaction has invoked a process in an upper layer of a multiple-layer system. The execution period of this process is identified by finding a request message and a response message that relate to the process. When there is found a request message sent to a lower layer of the system during the execution period of the upper-layer process, the found request message is associated with the upper-layer request and response messages, because these messages are deemed to be relating to the same transaction.
The above method includes determination of whether a lower-layer request message has been transmitted within the execution period of an upper-layer process. This determination is made on the basis of time information indicating the occurrence of events such as transmission and reception of messages. For a correct determination, it is important that these events can be put into a time sequence with high accuracy.
In some cases, information about message transmissions and other events is collected at a plurality of different devices. The real-time clocks in these devices are supposed to be synchronized with each other for an enhanced accuracy in determining temporal relationships of events. For example, an existing technique makes a local time base synchronize with a central time base. See, for example, the following literature:
Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2006-011683
Japanese National Publication of International Patent Application No. 2002-510081
However, simply synchronizing real-time clocks may be insufficient in some cases such as when several message-capturing devices are used to collect information about events that occur in different servers. Even if the exact synchronism of real-time clocks is achieved among those capturing devices, the precise moment of time stamping may differ from device to device because the time-stamping process in one device is running independently of those in other devices. Such time differences in the time stamping may result in inconsistency of collected time information. This also happens in the case where several event-capturing processes in a single device are used to collect event information of different servers.
As can be seen from the above discussion, the time information contained in collected event records may have some inconsistencies, which spoil the accuracy of determination as to the relative order of observed events such as transmission and reception of messages. While these event records may be subjected to transaction analysis, the resulting output would be less confident because of the above reasons.
The conventional systems lack the capability of determining correction values for correcting time information of events that occurred in different servers. That is, they are unable to compensate for the possible time differences in event records of server processes which are collected by using several different capturing devices or processes.

Information processing apparatus and method for determining time correction values


The present invention relates to a dental addition silicone impression material containing: an organopolysiloxane; and a nonionic surfactant, wherein the organopolysiloxane contains M units represented by the formula: R3SiO1/2, in which R is a substituted or an unsubstituted alkyl group, a substituted or an unsubstituted aryl group, a substituted or an unsubstituted aralkyl group, a substituted or an unsubstituted alkoxy group or hydroxy group, and three R's are identical or different, and Q units represented by the chemical formula: SiO2.

In the dental field, dental addition silicone impression materials are widely used to obtain dental impressions.
However, a kneaded mixture of addition silicone impression material has a problem that a precise impression cannot be obtained because of its low hydrophilicity.
Patent document 1 discloses a hydrophilic organopolysiloxane composition for a hydrosilylation reaction curable dental impression material, which consists of polyether, includes: (A) a diorganopolysiloxane having 0.1 or more of alkenyl groups bonded to a silicon atom in one molecule; (B) a composition represented by the following formula (1):RpSiO(4−p)/2  (1),wherein, R is an unsubstituted or a substituted of the same or different monovalent hydrocarbon group, an alkoxy group or a hydroxyl group, 0.1 to 80% by mol of all R is an alkenyl group, and p is a positive number satisfying 1≤p<2, a liquid or solid organopolysiloxane having SiO2 units and R3SiO1/2 units in its composition and having a viscosity at 23° C. of 10 mPa·s or more; (C) an organohydrogenpolysiloxane having 2 or more of hydrogen atoms bonded to a silicon atom in one molecule; (D) a hydrosilylation catalyst, (E) a composition represented by the following formula (2):R1O(C2H4O)m(C3H6O)nR1  (2),wherein, R1 represents a group represented by C3H6SiR2k(OR2)3−k (R2 represents a monovalent hydrocarbon group, k represents 0, 1, 2 or 3), or a monovalent hydrocarbon group, and a plurality of R1 and R2 may be the same or different from each other, and at least two of R1 and R2 may be an alkenyl group, m is an integer of 0 to 100, n is an integer of 0 to 350, and m+n is an integer of 3 to 350).

Dental addition silicone impression material


A method, system, and computer program product are disclosed for dynamically managing power in a microprocessor chip that includes physical hardware elements within the microprocessor chip. A process is selected to be executed. Hardware elements that are necessary to execute the process are then identified. The power in the microprocessor chip is dynamically altered by altering a present power state of the hardware elements that were identified as being necessary.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to the field of data processing systems, and more specifically to a method, system, and computer program product for dynamically managing power within a microprocessor chip by selectively altering the present power state of individual physical hardware elements included in the chip according to the present processing demands placed on the chip.
2. Description of Related Art
A microprocessor chip is a device that is fabricated using a single piece of silicon. The microprocessor chip may also be called a chip or an integrated circuit. One or more hardware elements are fabricated on the single microprocessor chip. The hardware elements generally include processing cores and caches, but may also include special functional elements such as compression engines, encryption engines, protocol processing engines, architecture emulation engines, and data stream processing engines. The number of hardware elements that are included in a microprocessor chip is increasing over time driven by two factors: (1) technology advances are enabling more circuits to be packaged per chip, soon reaching the levels of billions of circuits per chip, and (2) the performance improvement for a single core ("single thread performance") is slowing down because of slowing improvements in circuit speed and diminishing returns in instruction-level parallelism.
A processing core also includes multiple sub-elements such as a floating point unit, a load/store unit, an instruction sequencing unit, a fixed point execution unit, an instruction fetch unit, a branch execution unit, and possibly other sub-elements. Some processing cores include several instances of the same type of unit. For example, a processing core may include several separate floating point units and/or several separate load/store units. The terms "processing core" and "processor" are used interchangeably herein to refer to the same device.
Microprocessor chip performance will increasingly be limited by power dissipation as the scaling of the technology results in unacceptable power density increases. This power dissipation is increasingly due to leakage current that is independent of whether or not a given circuit is active. Thus, inactive hardware elements that are powered-on will dissipate essentially as much power as if they were active.
The various hardware elements included in a single microprocessor chip receive power that is distributed throughout the microprocessor chip. One method for distributing power is to provide a power plane within the microprocessor chip. The hardware elements in the microprocessor chip receive power from the power plane.
The trend in the industry has been to continually increase the density of the circuitry in the microprocessor chip which increases the number of hardware elements that are included in a single microprocessor chip. Thus, many hardware elements will be integrated within one single microprocessor chip.
Depending on the particular work being done by the chip, some of the hardware elements will be required while others are not used. In some cases, a significant number of the hardware elements may not be needed during a particular period of time. In other cases, limitations in the power supply infrastructure or limitations in the microprocessor cooling system will not allow all the elements of a single microprocessor chip to be active simultaneously. This is particularly true during the typical function testing of unpackaged chips, or testing used to increase microprocessor hardware reliability. Reliability testing is done under conditions of elevated temperature and elevated voltage and therefore causes the microprocessor chip to dissipate peak power. The current generation of testing equipment will be unable to supply the required power to test the next generation of highly integrated microprocessors which contain large numbers of hardware elements.
Permitting unused hardware elements to remain powered-on, or powered-on in an idle state during normal operations, will also require the chip to dissipate unnecessary power. Therefore, a need exists for a method, system, and product for dynamically managing power in a microprocessor chip by selectively altering the present power state of individual hardware elements included in the microprocessor chip according to the present processing demands placed on the microprocessor chip.

Method for dynamically managing power in microprocessor chips according to present processing demands

International Business Machines Corporation


Techniques are disclosed for efficiently sequencing operations performed in multiple threads of execution in a computer system. In one set of embodiments, sequencing is performed by receiving an instruction to advance a designated next ticket value, incrementing the designated next ticket value in response to receiving the instruction, searching a waiters list of tickets for an element having the designated next ticket value, wherein searching does not require searching the entire waiters list, and the waiters list is in a sorted order based on the values of the tickets, and removing the element having the designated next ticket value from the list using a single atomic operation. The element may be removed by setting a waiters list head element, in a single atomic operation, to refer to an element in the list having a value based upon the designated next ticket value.

Embodiments of the present invention relate generally to multiprocessors and concurrency in computer systems, and more particularly to techniques for synchronizing processing in systems that process events concurrently.
Computer systems can execute program code instructions using one or more processors that perform operations specified by the instructions. The operations can produce effects on the state of the computer, for example, by changing data stored in the computer's memory. The results produced by the instructions can depend on the state of the computer at the time the instructions are executed and on input received from sources external to the computer system. A set of program code instructions being executed on a computer system is referred to as a "process" or a "thread." Multiple processes and/or threads can be executed concurrently using one or more processors, so that the processes and threads execute, or at least appear to execute, simultaneously. That is, each process or thread can be executed simultaneously by a different processor, or can be executed on the same processor using a technique such as time slicing to share a single processor among multiple instruction streams. In both scenarios, computer systems can allow the different processes or threads to use a resource, such as memory, that is shared among the processes or threads.
If multiple concurrent processes or threads can access and change the same data value in memory, such as a bank balance variable, then some form of synchronization between the processes or threads is needed, because unsynchronized access to a shared resource can lead to incorrect results as multiple streams of instructions attempt to modify the same resource, e.g., the bank balance variable, at essentially the same time, with each stream expecting that there will be no other modifications to the resource. For example, two different threads may execute the instructions "balance=balance+5" to add $5 to the bank balance variable. If both threads execute these instructions concurrently without synchronization, then incorrect results may occur. The correct result, after execution of both threads, is an increase of the balance by $10. However, adding $5 to the balance can actually involve multiple instructions, such as an instruction to read the balance variable followed by an instruction to add 5 to the value read from the balance variable and store the result in the balance variable. Thus, if both threads execute the first instruction before executing any further instructions, both threads will read the same initial value (e.g., 0 if the balance is initially zero), and add 5.00 to that value, which will result in both threads storing the value 5 in the balance variable, instead of one thread storing 5 and the second thread storing 10, which is the correct behavior. Executing the threads in sequence, e.g., the first thread followed by the second thread, would result in correct behavior, but may be less efficient than executing the threads concurrently. For example, if each thread executes on a corresponding processor, then both threads can be executed in essentially the same amount of time as one thread. If the threads are executed sequentially, then twice as much time may be used for their execution. Further, there are other advantages to executing multiple threads concurrently. For example, resources such as input/output devices can be used more efficiently by concurrent threads.
Therefore, it is desirable to be able to execute threads concurrently, but synchronization between the threads is needed to ensure correct execution. With synchronization, each thread can, for example, request exclusive access to the balance variable before accessing it. Thus each thread will wait until no other threads are accessing the variable before accessing it. Such mutually exclusive access to the shared resource is useful for maintaining correct behavior of concurrent programs. However, constructing concurrent programs that operate correctly and share resources efficiently can be difficult, because identifying the specific instructions that need to be protected by a synchronization technique, such as mutual exclusion, without protecting more of the program than necessary, is a complex task.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Efficiency sequencer for multiple concurrently-executing threads of execution


A prying bar is described which comprises an elongated portion which has a longitudinal reference axis and is longer than any other portion of the prying bar. The prying bar also has a hook portion which is substantially U-shaped and has a tapered end which defines an imaginary reference line diverging outward relative to the longitudinal reference axis of the elongated portion at an angle equal to or less than 90.degree.. And, the prying bar has a transitional portion formed between the hook portion and the elongated portion. The transitional portion is not parallel to the longitudinal reference axis so that the elongated portion is positioned away from the tapered end of the hook so that clearance is provided for a user""s hand to grasp the elongated portion when prying next to a work surface which is generally parallel to the longitudinal reference axis.

The present invention relates to hand tools, particularly prying bars for construction and wrecking applications.
The conventional pry bar or xe2x80x9ccrow barxe2x80x9d has several functional disadvantages including the inability to work adjacent to an extended work surface which is generally parallel to the main, long portion of the bar. For example, the common crow bar can not be positioned for prying next to an extended, vertical and/or horizontal surface, such as a ceiling, wall or floor. Accordingly, the conventional crow bar can not be used to pry and remove baseboard moldings, ceiling moldings and the like. In addition, the conventional xe2x80x9ccrowbarxe2x80x9d does not provide clearance for a user to grasp the main, long section of the bar when the bar is positioned adjacent to an extended work surface which is generally parallel to the main, long portion of the bar, and therefore, may not be used effectively for lifting objects having an extended vertical work surface.
Subsequently, there have been prying bars configured to overcome the disadvantages of the conventional crow bar. Generally, these improved prying bars each include a long main portion defining an imaginary, longitudinal reference axis. Also, each improved bar has a hook portion with a tapered end defining an imaginary line which intersects the longitudinal reference axis at an angle generally equal to, or greater than 90.degree.. This improved configuration does provide the user with clearance to grasp the prying bar when positioned adjacent to an extended work surface which is generally parallel to the main, long portion of the bar. However, when these bars are used alternatively to lift an object, a user must grasp a portion of the bar formed vertically relative to the ground, making it difficult for a user to lift and/or hold objects vertically.
The present invention involves a prying bar with a transitional portion formed between an elongated portion and a hook portion. The transitional portion is formed to enhance the function of both the hook portion and the elongated portion and also overcome the disadvantages of conventional prying bars.
The present invention more specifically involves a prying bar which comprises an elongated portion which has an imaginary longitudinal reference axis, and is longer than any other portion of the prying bar. The prying bar also has a hook portion which is substantially U-shaped and has a tapered end which defines an imaginary reference line diverging outward relative to the imaginary longitudinal reference axis at an angle equal to or less than 90.degree.. And, the prying bar has a transitional portion formed between the hook portion and the elongated portion. The transitional portion is not parallel to the longitudinal reference axis so that the elongated portion is positioned offset and away from the tapered end of the hook so that clearance is provided for a user""s hand to grasp the elongated portion when prying next to an extended work surface which is generally parallel to the longitudinal reference axis. In some preferred embodiments, the transitional portion of the present invention is further enhanced for a user to grasp during lifting.
The present invention has been developed recognizing the need to configure a prying bar which will overcome the disadvantages of conventional prying bars. Accordingly, it is an important objective of the present invention prying bar described herein that it work well when positioned adjacent to an extended work surface which is generally parallel to the imaginary longitudinal reference axis of the bar, as defined herein. Thus, it is important that a user be able to grasp and pull the prying bar when working adjacent to an extended horizontal and/or vertical work surface, such as a ceiling, wall or floor.
It is another objective of the present invention that it be configured for alternative use by a user for lifting and/or holding objects vertically.
It is another objective of the present invention that it be configured for alternative use by a user with one end of the elongated portion exposed for striking with a striking means such as a hammer.
It is yet another objective of the present invention that it be commercially viable, simple in design, and cost efficient to manufacture.


A method and a communication system which includes a first network element, e.g. portable terminal, connectable to a second network element. One of selectable modes is used for communication. A network element is adapted to perform a mode selection procedure for selecting the same mode for bidirectional communication between the network elements. The mode selection ensures the use of one and the same mode in uplink and downlink direction and thus enables e.g. IP telephony in UMTS using SIP protocol. The invention provides for facilitating a VoIP communication session by way of a radio link with a mobile station. The mobile station forms a QoS (Quality of Service) information element for communication to a radio access network portion. The QoS information element is indicating whether to remove packet header information of the data packets to be communicated upon the radio link pursuant to the communication session.

The present invention relates to a communication system adapted to perform a mode selection by selecting or negotiating the mode to be used. Furthermore, the invention relates to a method to be performed in such a communication system, and to a network element capable of mode selection.
Advancements in digital communication techniques have permitted increased data transmission rates and introduction of new types of communication services. When digital communication techniques are utilized, data which is to be communicated is digitized into digital form, and sometimes formatted into data packets. The data packets are communicated, either individually, or in groups, to a destination. Once received at the destination, the packets are concatenated together to recreate the informational content of the data of which the data packets are formed.
Radio communication systems are exemplary of communication systems which have benefited from advancements in communication technologies and in which digital communication techniques are increasingly utilized. A cellular communication system is an exemplary radio communication system. And, various standards have been promulgated pursuant to which different types of cellular communication systems have been constructed. Additional standard specifications continue to be promulgated relating both to improvements to existing cellular communication systems as well as new constructions of cellular communication systems. Standards relating to so-called, third-generation, cellular communication systems are presently being promulgated. Standards relating to the 3G (third generation) GSM/EDGE (Global System for Mobile Communications/Enhanced Data for Global Evolution) system, for instance are being promulgated.
In packet switched communications, data to be communicated is formatted into packets, and the data packets are communicated at discrete intervals. Because the data can be communicated at discrete intervals, the communication resources, such as the bandwidth available upon the radio links formed between mobile stations and network infrastructure of the system, can be utilized more efficiently.
Packet-switched communications in which communications are effectuated by the communication of data packets include voice communications. When the data packets are formatted pursuant to IP (Internet Protocol) protocols, the resultant communication service is sometimes referred to as VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol). As with other types of voice communication services, VoIP is time sensitive in that the data forming the VoIP data packets must be timely communicated to maintain an acceptable communication quality level.
The data packets are typically formatted pursuant to conventional standards. Each data packet is typically formatted to include a header portion and a payload portion. The payload portion is formed of the data which is to be communicated to effectuate the communication service. In a VoIP service, the voice data is contained in the payload portion of the data packet. And, the header portion includes information needed to route the data to a desired receiving station and to identify the order of the data packet amongst a group of data packets. A conventional data packet includes an RTP (Realtime Transport Protocol) header field, a UDP field, and an IP (Internet Protocol) field. The RTP field includes a time stamp value which specifies the time when the voice data of the packet is created. The time stamp is used at a receiving station to correct for delay fluctuation introduced during communication of the data packet. The RTP field also includes a sequence number. The sequence number is used at a receiving station to detect packet loss and mis-sequencing of data packets. Values of the UDP and IP fields are generally of constant values for data packets generated within a single communication session and identify the identities of the sending and receiving stations.
Communication systems are usually bandwidth-constrained. That is to say, the bandwidth available to define communication channels and allocated for use in a communication system typically limit the communication capacity of the communication system. The communication capacity of the communication system can be increased only when the bandwidth allocated to the communication system is used more efficiently. Constraints placed upon radio communication systems are oftentimes particularly acute as the bandwidth allocated to a radio communication system is typically limited to a frequency region of the electromagnetic spectrum.
A problem associated with the use of packet-formatted data is the relatively high percentage of the bandwidth consumed by the communication of the header portions of all of the data packets. Communication of the voice information pursuant to a VoIP communication service is much less efficient than it otherwise would be if the header portions of the data packets are removed.
To increase the efficiency of use of the bandwidth allocated upon the radio link, proposals have been set forth to provide manners by which to remove the header portions of the data packets prior to their communication upon the radio links formed between mobile stations and the network infrastructure of the communication system.
More generally, communication networks transfer information such as user voice traffic or the like, on a packet-switched and/or circuit-switched basis using modes which may be commanded by the system or negotiated between the involved network elements such as end user equipments. As an example, in evolved networks such as UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunication System) systems, additional functions and services can be incorporated. For instance, novel multimedia services such as multimedia messaging services MMS are supported within the system which services are IP (Internet Protocol)-based services. Packet-based (e.g. IP-based) service sessions such as multimedia service sessions may be controlled by a specific protocol. As an example, the Session Initiation Protocol (SIP) represents a protocol which may be used e.g. for call and connection establishment as well as for transport of endpoint capability information. Such capability information may e.g. relate to voice and multimedia codecs supported by the end terminals.
The functionality and services of such multimedia service systems will be mapped onto the existing network system functions, e.g. of UMTS type. As an example, the system services may be mapped to the PDP contexts and radio signalling, as well as to existing packet-switched core network elements and interfaces, e.g. of UMTS type. Hence, there is a problem of multimedia (e.g. IP multimedia) and network layer (e.g. GPRS layer) interactions and mapping.
As an example, in case of VoIP calls (voice over IP-based connection, i.e. Internet telephony), the radio access network such as GERAN ("GSM/Edge Radio Access Network") and UTRAN (UMTS Terrestrial Radio Access Network), may be informed on the type of application for deciding on the header adaptation method to be used for e.g. a particular PDP context. As an example, two different header adaptation schemes available for selection can for example be "header compression" and "header stripping/removal". The header stripping/removal mode may be used for speech-only traffic where e.g. optimised speech transport is required for instance for integrated lower-end terminal devices. A header compression mode may be utilised e.g. for more general IP multimedia traffic including voice application operation on an external device such as a laptop computer connected to a UMTS phone.
When an inappropriate mode such as inappropriate protocol mode, header adaptation mode or radio access bearer mode should be selected, problems in incorrect message transmission may occur.

Communication system and method providing a mode selection procedure


Embodiments include semiconductor packages. A semiconductor package includes a first patch and a second patch on an interposer. The semiconductor package also includes a first substrate in the first patch, and a second substrate in the second patch. The semiconductor package further includes an encapsulation layer over and around the first and second patches, a plurality of build-up layers on the first patch, the second patch, and the encapsulation layer, and a plurality of dies and a bridge on the build-up layers. The bridge may be communicatively coupled with the first substrate of the first patch and the second substrate of the second patch. The bridge may be an embedded multi-die interconnect bridge (EMIB). The first and second substrates may be EMIBs and/or high-density packaging (HDP) substrates. The bridge may be positioned between two dies, and over an edge of the first patch and an edge of the second patch.

For the past several decades, the scaling of features in integrated circuits has been a driving force behind an ever-growing semiconductor industry. Scaling to smaller and smaller features enables increased densities of functional units on the limited real estate of semiconductor devices. For example, conventional die manufacturing techniques are being pushed to their limits for size of a monolithic die, yet applications are yearning for capabilities that are possible for large dimensional integrated circuits using the latest technology. The drive for ever-more capacity, however, is not without issue. The necessity to optimize the performance of each device becomes increasingly significant.
As monolithic dies have become bigger, small differences that can be overlooked for smaller dies, cannot be compensated for and can often significantly reduce yield. Recent solutions can involve using patch on interposer (POINT) architecture which is used to reduce packaging costs for server products and other electronic products. A POINT typically includes smaller integrated circuits interconnected with a printed circuit board (PCB)-like interposer.
Existing POINT architecture provides cost benefits as it allows for making the higher density routing layers into a smaller patch, and the rest of the layers may be made by a cheaper interposer process. However, as the die size grows and consequently the patch size also grows, POINT architecture may no longer be cost beneficial relative to monolithic packages. Conversely, switching from POINT architectures to monolithic packages/substrates impacts substrate yield, cost, and front end capacity.


A process and apparatus that allows a portion of a feed system to be cleaned quickly by sequentially closing a feed passageway which leads to a sieve section; rotation of the sieve section to an upside-down position to allow blocking clumps of particles to fall away via gravity and reopening the passageway leading to the sieve section to continue with normal operation.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process and an apparatus for separating particles by subjecting them to an electrostatic field and allowing the charged particles to migrate toward or away from electrodes in that field; and more particularly; it relates to a method and an apparatus for rapidly cleaning a portion of the feed system of the above separation apparatus which tends to become clogged with clumps of particles; this method providing a minimum time of interruption of normal production time of the machine.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97-1.98
Not Applicable.

In-situ self-cleaning feed system for separation equipment


A computer-implemented method for optimizing security controls for virtual data centers may include 1) identifying a security policy that applies to at least one workload configured to store data on a first storage appliance, 2) identifying at least one storage-appliance functionality capable of implementing at least a part of the security policy, 3) identifying a second storage appliance that possesses the storage-appliance functionality, and 4) migrating the data from the first storage appliance to the second storage appliance in response to identifying the security policy and the storage-appliance functionality. Variants include methods, systems, and computer-readable media.

In the digital age, organizations increasingly depend on computing resources to manage data and to provide internal and external services. In order to manage increasingly complex information technology infrastructures, some organizations may use virtual data centers. By virtualizing computing resources (e.g., processing, storage, and/or network resources), a virtual data center may enable an administrator to focus on computing tasks to be performed (i.e., "workloads"), and the computing resources required to execute these tasks, instead of the particular configuration of the underlying physical devices.
Additionally, organizations may wish to protect data (e.g., by scanning, encrypting, securely storing, backing up, enforcing access to, monitoring access to, and/or isolating data) in order to ensure compliance with internal or external data-protection requirements, such as governmental laws and regulations, partnership agreements with other organizations, etc. Unfortunately, enforcing such security policies may consume significant computing, storage, and networking resources, thereby potentially impacting the performance of primary applications in the virtual data center. Accordingly, the instant disclosure identifies and addresses a need for additional and improved systems and methods for optimizing security controls for virtual data centers.

Systems and methods for optimizing security controls for virtual data centers


The alpha-halogenated carboxylic acids/esters are dehalogenated by reaction with hydrogen in the presence of a catalytically effective amount of (i) a Group VIII precious metal catalyst and (ii) either sulfur or a sulfur compound, or (iii) a novel precious metal/sulfur solid phase catalyst; the subject dehalogenation is especially adapted for enriching the monochloroacetic acid content of MCAA/DCAA mixtures.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the catalytic dehalogenation of alpha-halogenated carboxylic acids, and, more especially, to the selective catalytic dehalogenation of the dichloroacetic acid (DCAA) fraction present in monochloroacetic acid (MCAA).
2. Description of the Prior Art
The synthesis of monochloroacetic acid is carried out on an industrial scale by the chlorination of acetic acid, but dichloroacetic acid and sometimes a minor amount of trichloroacetic acid are also unavoidably formed. Therefore, upon completion of the chlorination reaction, a mixture of monochloroacetic acid, dichloroacetic acid, trichloroacetic acid and unreacted acetic acid is characteristically produced.
Because of the proximity of the boiling points of MCAA (189.degree. C.) and of DCAA (194.degree. C.), it is practically impossible to separate these species by distillation. On the other hand, it is quite simple to hydrogenate such a mixture to convert the DCAA into MCAA according to the reaction: EQU CHCl.sub.2 COOH+H.sub.2 .fwdarw.CH.sub.2 ClCOOH+HCl
But this hydrogenation is not completely selective and a reversion of MCAA to acetic acid is also observed, as follows: EQU CH.sub.2 ClCOOH+H.sub.2 .fwdarw.CH.sub.3 COOH+HCl
This reaction is carried out in the presence of a catalyst and also produces acetaldehyde, which has the disadvantage of giving rise to objectionable condensation products.
FR 1,581,391 describes such a process based on a catalyst of silica in the form of cylinders 8 mm in length and 3.5 mm in diameter, which has a palladium content of 0.5% by weight.
FR 2,039,987 describes a process of the same type as the above, but entailing introduction of either salts or oxides of the alkali or alkaline earth metals or of rare earths, or an organic compound designated a proton-acceptor, which may be, for example, triethylamine, pyridine, piperidine, glycine, urea, triphenylphosphine, butyraldehyde, diisobutyl ketone, butyl acetate or hydrocyanic acid. This catalyst activator is introduced into the mixture to be hydrogenated and can be recovered by distillation of the hydrogenated mixture. It can be recycled into the mixture to be hydrogenated.

Catalyst for dehalogenation of alpha-halogenated carboxylic acids/esters


A nose cone for a turbomachine, such as a turbojet in particular, the cone being mounted on the end of a shaft carrying fan blades and being associated with a controlled axial displacement mechanism, thereby making it possible to modify the axial position of the cone relative to the fan blades.

At its upstream end, a turbojet has an air inlet feeding both a fan and a compressor having blades that are carried by disks secured to a shaft that extends over a major fraction of the turbojet and that is driven in rotation by a turbine of the turbojet.
A nose cone is mounted on the upstream end of the shaft so that a fraction of the flow of air that penetrates inside the turbojet is deflected towards the blades of the fan, the flow then being separated into a primary flow which passes through an admission orifice of the compressor, and into a secondary flow which flows around the compressor, and which is then mixed with the primary flow, and/or feeds cooling circuits for cooling components of the turbojet.
In the prior art, the nose cone is mounted in stationary manner on the end of the shaft, and its shape and its dimensions are determined so as to optimize the angles of incidence of the air at the roots of the fan blades for a given flight stage.
The shape and the dimensions of the nose cone are also determined so as to provide protection against the ingestion of ice and of solid objects or particles.
The shape and dimensions chosen for the nose cone are therefore the result of a compromise between those two relatively contradictory constraints, and they therefore do not really satisfy either of those two constraints.


A method for rendering or compositing image components, where at least one of the image components has an edge. The edge is rendered or composited a plurality of times, the repetitions being performed with different values of the edge thickness (i.e., the thickness of the line) and with different opacities. This makes it possible to create in this way an opacity gradient or the like, so that the edge may be given a softer and less abrupt appearance, if such is desired.

A number of standard computer systems are available for the production of `computer graphics` whereby images are generated entirely electronically. These often take the form of a computer attached to a raster graphics display or other raster output device, and an input device through which the operator can draw and see the results of his work in real time on the electronic display. In using such devices, it is possible to create images of almost arbitrary complexity.
For the purposes of illustration it can be assumed that each image is made up, at the most primitive level of a large number of individual pixels each of whose colour can be easily altered, and the display of an image is achieved by display of the individual pixels on a computer display device.
In one popular format for storing colour images (known as an RGBO format) the red, green and blue (RGB) information is stored in addition to an opacity value O being stored which relates to the degree of transparency (or Opacity) that particular image has at that particular pixel. The separate storage of the opacity value is known as an `Opacity Plane` or `alpha channel`. It can be assumed to the purposes of discussion of the present invention that the opacity information is stored separately as an opacity plane. This method of storage is especially convenient when multiple images are to be `composited` over one another and transparency effects are to be used in the final composite colour image. A full discussion of the procedure used in compositing images through the use of an opacity plane is disclosed in `Compositing Digital Images` by Thomas Porter and Tom Duff, published in Computer Graphics, Volume 18, Number 3, July 1984, at page 253.
The process of compositing, as outlined in the above mentioned article, involves combining portions of one value with portions of another value, whilst the process of rendering involves the replacement of one value by another, and both are applicable to the prior art and the present invention.
Referring now to FIG. 1 there is shown an image of a hollow triangle 2 in front of a solid square 6. In this example, the triangle 2 is defined by three points 3,4 and 5. Hence the display of the triangle 2 can be achieved by drawing a line between each of these points (or by altering pixels that lie in a line between the points). In order to achieve an edge of greater thickness, it is necessary to draw both the line itself as well as pixels that are adjacent to the line itself. Methods of drawing thick lines are known to those skilled in the art.
Although the types of pictures drawn using such techniques can be of very high quality they do not fall into the catergory of `fine art` and the degree of realism that is achievable is limited. This is caused by the nature of the `hard lines` that are created by such a technique, being substantially different from the possible textures and tonal qualities that a graphic artist would produce using more conventional tools.
It is desirable to produce a final picture with the appearance to the observer that, for example, the foreground triangle 2 is properly blended with the background square 6. One desirable effect to achieve for the proper blending of objects is to have a central portion of an edge 7 having a high opacity value with a gradual decreasing opacity to the exterior portion of an edge 8 which has a low opacity value and is therefore highly transparent.
Referring now to FIG. 2 there is shown an opacity cross section along the line A--A of FIG. 1, showing a first method used in construction of the opacity edge of the triangle in FIG. 1. One desired method of preparation of such opaque values is to define the opaque values proceeding in a linear ramp from a maximum value. One method of doing this would be to create an opacity plane for the triangle 2 with a high opacity (close to value 1) at those pixels close to the central portion of an edge 7, and a low opacity (close to the value 0) at the exterior portion of an edge 8 with the opacity mask decreasing at right angles to the direction of the edge.
However, this method is particularly complicated, especially where the image being rendered has a substantial number of complicated opacity profiles for each edge that must be composited. Referring now to FIG. 3 there is shown a complicated edge profile to be composited up on a square 11. In this example, an edge 10, which is to be composited on the rectangle 11, has a number of jaggered portions 12. It is not readily apparent what the exact form of the opacity mask should be in compositing such an edge as the use of a linear ramp opacity mask at right angles to the direction of the edge does not work at comer edges that do not have a normal to it.
One form of describing computer graphical images, in common use in the art, is to described the image by means of a page description language (PDL). PDL's have become very popular in recent times as they allow more flexibility in the use on a multitude of different output devices in that the description of a particular image is provided on a device independent basis. PDL's normally provide for extensive support for curves and curve thickness which form common parts of computer images. However, if the above methods are used to determine an opacity profile then a pixel by pixel description of the opacity plane of the image must be stored as it is not readily apparent how the picture can be created from a curve based description. This is particularly inconvenient if multiple graphical images are desired to be stored in a computer system due to the resultant increase in image storage space.

Softstroking of edges for computer graphics

Canon Information Systems Research Australia Pty Ltd.


A device controller system incorporates an inexpensive Hall element to detect motion of a brushless DC motor. A magnet, which is part of a motor rotor, passes by the Hall element producing a Hall voltage each rotation. The Hall voltage is coupled through an interface port to a comparator within a process controller. A microprocessor within the process controller calculates a control response based on a comparator output signal. The interface port is rapidly reconfigured to provide signals produced from the control response as output to device drivers on the same input-output pins that receive the Hall voltage. The device drivers produce a current through fan coils producing an update in the magnetic field of each motor phase which updates the speed of the fan according to programming within the process controller. Rapid configuring and reconfiguring of the interface port allows all necessary components of the controller system to be used with a single rotational commutation cycle.

There is continual need to improve response time and resolution in controlling the movement of devices where a controller and feedback loop are incorporated. In these situations, controllers are interfaced with devices and combinations of sensors and device drivers to compose an overall feedback loop. A controller initiates a certain action on a device through the driver circuit, a sensor circuit acquires information regarding how the device has responded to the drive input, and a modified new drive input is calculated. This type of control loop is widely pursued in brushless DC motor (BLDC) commutation and in systems incorporating fans being driven by these motors.
Hall effect sensors are part of a technology application incorporating a magnet on the device being controlled. The Hall effect sensor is used to detect the proximity of a magnetic field coming from the magnet and therefore providing information about a location and movement of the device the magnet is attached to. For example, controlling the speed of a fan connected as part of a DC brushless motor is highly desirable. Maintaining a speed relative to a temperature sensed in the fan's environment and adjusting the speed for maintaining a constant temperature is a technique frequently used.
With reference to FIG. 1, a type of Hall effect sensor, known as a Hall device 125, is powered by connections to a supply voltage VDD 110 and ground 112 within a device controller system 100. The Hall device 125 incorporates additional devices and circuitry beyond an elemental Hall sensor to provide current and voltage sensing capability in a single component. A controller 105 is connected to power between supply voltage VDD 110 and ground 112. The controller 105 conducts the general processes of the system. The Hall device 125 has a Hall device output pin 150 connecting to a controller input pin 135.
Each of two output pins 140a and 140b of the controller 105 connects to a control input of a device driver 120a and 120b. Each of two device drivers 120a and 120b contains a drive resistor 122a and 122b and a drive transistor 124a and 124b. Each of two drive resistors 122a and 122b connects between an input of a device driver 120a and 120b and a base terminal of the corresponding drive transistor 124a and 124b. Each emitter terminal of the drive transistors 124a and 124b connects to ground 112. Each of two fan coils 130a and 130b connects between a fan power supply 115 and a collector terminal of a respective drive transistor 124a and 124b. Each fan coil 130a and 130b relates to one phase of a brushless DC (BLDC) motor (not shown).
The brushless DC motor has magnetic poles associated with a rotor (not shown). During rotation, the magnetic poles of the rotor pass by the Hall device 125, each creating a Hall voltage pulse on the Hall device output pin 150. For a two-phase motor, two pulses will be produced on the Hall device output pin 150 for each rotation of the motor. The Hall voltage pulse is used as input to the controller 105 as part of a commutation scheme for the motor. During the first portion of the brushless DC motor commutation cycle, the Hall voltage pulse is coupled to the controller 105 through the controller input pin 135. The Hall voltage pulse switches between 0 V (volts) and VDD 110 in response to variations of the associated fields from the magnetic rotor poles. The toggling of the Hall voltage pulse is used in combination with programming within the controller 105 as part of the commutation scheme to control the speed of the fan.
The commutation scheme uses a change in the Hall voltage pulse to trigger an interrupt programming routine operating within the controller 105. The interrupt routine interrogates a timer that has been counting up since a last change in the Hall voltage pulse. According to how much time has elapsed since the last change in Hall voltage pulse, and taking into account the rising or falling transition of the present change in the Hall voltage pulse, the controller 105 will produce fan coil control signals at the port pins 140a and 140b. The fan coil control signals are coupled to the device drivers 120a and 120b where they produce a base voltage at the base terminal of the driver transistors 124a and 124a. Changes in the base voltage on the driver transistors 124a and 124b vary the amount of current conducted through the fan coils 130a and 130b. The varying current, in turn, modulates the magnetic field in the coils controlling the respective phases of the brushless DC motor. By varying the timing and duration of the fan coil control signals, the controller 105 will maintain or change the fan speed according to requirements of the programming.
Presently, the use of a Hall device 125 means that in addition to an elemental Hall sensor, devices and circuitry are incorporated in the device to provide current and voltage sensing capability in a single component. The additional circuitry causes the Hall device 125 to cost significantly more than the elemental Hall sensor. Additionally, the controller 105 contains additional components and circuitry capable of measuring signals and voltages. Presently, not all of the measuring components in the device controller system 100 are incorporated in the measurement process. A typical device controller system 100, therefore, may contain components with costly additional measurement circuitry, while at the same time, the system may have measurement components available that are going unused. It would be desirable for a device controller system 100 to be able to use a less expensive Hall sensor and at the same time incorporate any components already available within the system to measure the Hall voltages produced and provide a more cost-effective commutation scheme.

Microcontroller interface with hall element


An aircraft assembly comprising: a pair of covers; a spar web extending between the covers in a thickness direction, the spar web having a length which extends in a span-wise direction; and a container which extends from the spar web and houses at least part of a system component. The container comprises first and second side walls which are spaced apart from each other across the spar web in the thickness direction, and inboard and outboard walls which are spaced apart from each other along the spar web in the span-wise direction. The spar web and at least part of the container are integrally formed as a single piece. Typically the assembly is a wing assembly with a fuel tank; a track; a high-lift device carried by the track; an actuation mechanism for moving the track and high-lift device between an extended high-lift position and a retracted low-lift position; and a track container which extends from the spar web into the fuel tank and houses at least part of the track when it is in its retracted low-lift position. The spar web and at least part of the track container are integrally formed as a single piece, typically from a laminar composite material.

In order to provide aircraft operators with sufficient high lift performance in critical stages of a flight, aircraft wings have been designed to have deployable and retractable slats along the leading edge. This has historically been achieved by mounting the slats on pairs of curved slat tracks, which are driven from their respective stowed and extended positions by a rack and pinion mechanism. Aircraft wings are used to store the fuel required for the flight and as such maximising the volume available for the fuel is important. For this reason the front spar is generally positioned as far forward as possible, leaving minimal space within the wing leading edge to house the various systems and devices which must reside there.
These are two conflicting requirements: a large leading-edge area to house moveable devices and a large fuel volume. The resulting solution has been to allow the slat tracks to penetrate the front spar (fuel boundary) by adding cylindrical track cans which are attached to the rear of the front spar for the tracks to extend into when in the stowed (retracted) position. It is therefore critical to note that for this reason the track cans are also part of the fuel boundary wing box structure.
A typical aircraft wing assembly incorporating such a track can is shown in FIG. 1. The wing has a relatively long slat track 8 carrying a slat 9 which is driven by a pinion gear along a curved path defined by a set of rollers between a retracted low-lift cruise position, an intermediate take-off and climb position, and a fully extended high-lift landing position. FIG. 1 shows the slat in both extreme ends of its movement. As the slat track 8 moves, it slides in and out of a slat track can 16 which is attached to the rear face of the web of the front spar 17.
Track cans are traditionally fabricated as a welded aluminium assembly, which is a notoriously expensive manual process requiring skilled personnel a long time to fabricate. This combination invariably results in a high level of scrap and hence greater expense.
Track cans also present significant problems from a mounting point of view. Integral to the welded construction is a flange at the base of the track can with captive nuts used for attachment to the spar. Each track can (of which there are often more than twelve on each wing) must be fitted and sealed to preserve fuel integrity. This is time consuming and subject to leakage, resulting in greater expense.
Further to these problems are the issues which arise when track cans are used within composite wing box construction. The inherent differences between the mechanical properties of composites when compared to metals results in a reduction in 'flat' spar web area, for a given outer wing profile, to which a track can is able to be mounted. To compound this problem further is the shift towards shallower wing boxes i.e. shallower spar webs. Combining these two problems results in conflicts between track cans and other wing box components.
Similar problems exist in relation to other system components which are normally housed in the leading or trailing edge of an aircraft wing: for instance transformers for an electrical de-icing system, or actuator units for driving a slat deployment mechanism. As with a slat track it would also be desirable to house such components on the "fuel" side of the spar web in order to free up space within the leading or trailing edge.
Although the above discussion has focused on the aircraft wing, similar problems also exist in relation to other aerodynamic parts of the aircraft such as the vertical tail plane and horizontal tail plane.
A so-called "Sine-Wave Spar" is described in "Composite Airframe Structures—Practical Design Information and Data", Page 234, Michael C. Y. Niu, ISBN 962-7128-06-6, Published 1992. The spar web is formed with sinusoidal corrugations which extend from the spar web at a relatively shallow angle.


The object of the present invention is a vehicle door latch, which in its standard design contains a locking mechanism (1, 2) consisting mainly of a catch (1) and pawl (2). In addition, a blocking element (17) for a locking lever (18) is provided, in which the blocking element (17) prevents, when the catch (1) is open, that the locking lever (18) takes up its locking position. According to the invention, the blocking element (17) is a non-slam lock (17) controlled by the catch (1), which with the locking lever (18) in unlocking position, engages into a recess (20) of the locking levers (18) in order to block it.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention refers to a vehicle door latch with a locking mechanism consisting mainly of a catch und pawl and a blocking element for a locking lever, in which the blocking element prevents—when the catch is open—that the locking lever assumes its locking position.—Generally the blocking element ensures that the locking lever remains in its unlocking position when the catch is open or opened.
2. Description of Related Art
In a vehicle door latch of the embodiment described above and according to DE 199 34 128 A1, a special stroke of the internal door handle is required to be able to move a respective central locking lever into its locked position. Patent Application DE 102 40 003, to be considered in accordance with § 3 (2) PatG, also discloses a catch that is combined with a catch lever to form one subassembly.
The overall aim is to achieve that with the door and consequently also the catch open, the respective locking lever cannot assume its locking position as this could also cause the catch to be closed. This in turn would result in the, for example, manually closed vehicle door to strike against the obligatory locking pin, as the catch is no longer open.
The prior embodiments cannot convince in all points, as they require at least costly designs. The invention aims to provide a solution for this.