Apparatus and methods for locking a discharge chute of a mixing vehicle are disclosed. The locking apparatus can be mounted to existing discharge chutes and frame arrangements and may utilize existing pneumatic systems of the mixing vehicle. The locking apparatus generally include a base having a first arm and a second arm pivotally secured to the base. An airbag may be positioned between the first arm and the second arm to bias a clamping region of the locking apparatus in a locked or a released state depending on the configuration of the locking apparatus.

1. Summary of the Invention
The present invention relates to discharge chutes on mixing vehicles and, more particularly, to apparatus and methods securing a discharge chute at a desired position about its range of motion.
2. Description of the Related Art
Vehicles designed to mix and transport concrete typically include mixing drums in which the liquid concrete is held during transportation. The mixing drums normally have a capacity of between seven and ten cubic yards of concrete. This volume of concrete typically weighs between 28,000 lbs and 40,000 lbs. The mixing drums typically rotate on the mixing vehicle to agitate the mass of liquid concrete and to prevent it from setting during transport.
The mixing drums are typically set at an angle on the mixing vehicle which places the discharge opening of the mixing drum above the level of a full load of concrete. When the concrete is to be discharged, rotation of the drum is typically reversed which directs the liquid concrete outwardly through a discharge opening. This discharge opening is typically positioned at the front or rear of the vehicle. The discharged concrete is received and guided to the desired location by a pivoting discharge chute. The discharge chute is typically mounted below the discharge opening. The discharge chute is typically configured to pivotally rotate about a vertical axis on the vehicle. Accordingly, the chute may direct concrete to either side or to the front/rear of the mixing vehicle depending upon the particular configuration of the vehicle. Extensions of the chute may be employed to direct concrete to locations more remote from the vehicle.
At 4,000 pounds per cubic yard, the liquid concrete can produce substantial forces as it is directed by and moves along the discharge chute. When disposed along a long extension, the dynamic mass of concrete can produce significant torque at the connection of the discharge chute to the vehicle. Given the pivoting nature of a typical discharge chute, the forces on the discharge chute can produce movement which is difficult to manually control and may result in unwanted movement of the discharge chute. This movement of the discharge chute can result in the misdirection of the liquid concrete which wastes both the concrete and the man-hours needed for cleanup. In addition, a freely swinging chute can present a significant safety hazard for those working around the discharge chute. Accordingly, various devices and alternative configurations have been employed for controlling and/or locking discharge chutes in a desired position.
Some prior devices for securing the position of a chute include manual operable clamp assemblies mounted to a pivoted chute brace. These clamp assemblies typically consist of a threaded shaft at one end of an upright brace bearing shaft. A wheel is typically threadably engaged to a shaft and can be selectively tightened against the shaft journal to clamp a brace tightly to a vehicle 100 frame. This brace-type brake is partially serviceable for standard length chutes. However, the locking mechanism can vibrate loose and allow the chute to pivot freely.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,279,766 to F. V. Mendoza discloses a transit concrete mixer with particular reference to a brake mechanism. The mechanism disclosed enables selective angular positioning of a concrete chute. The brake components used are of typical automotive drum brake design with axially oriented shoes and brake surfaces. A hydraulic brake cylinder is utilized for actuation of the brake shoes selectively bringing them radially against a brake drum.
The problem of braking a discharge chute at the pivotal mount for the discharge chute is also recognized to a limited degree in the U.S. Patent to Hansen et al, U.S. Pat. No. 3,334,872. Hansen et al discloses a double ended piston hydraulic cylinder that controls pivotal movement of a discharge chute at the chute's mounting point on the concrete mixing truck. The cylinder operates to pivot the discharge chute about its axis and also acts as a positive brake.
The hydraulic cylinder requires use of an expensive and complex hydraulic system that is not typically supplied as standard equipment on concrete mixing trucks. Hydraulic cylinders wear quickly when exposed to concrete with its naturally abrasive component. Maintenance and repair therefore become frequent. Furthermore, use of a hydraulic cylinder could be considered "overkill", since the primary need is not for powered movement of the chute. The discharge chute is usually empty when moved from one position to another. The primary need is for holding the discharge chute stationary after being angularly positioned, when it is full of heavy concrete.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,410,538 to M. L. Potter discloses a positive locking apparatus for positioning a discharge chute at any of several pre-selected angular positions. Potter's arrangement uses a positive detent type lock between the chute frame and a pressure plate pivoted with the chute. A pin is used to interconnect the stationary frame with the pivoted pressure plate by insertion within one of several angularly spaced apertures provided in the movable pressure plate.
The Potter device and other known "detent" type chute locking mechanisms do allow positive positioning of the discharge chute at the pivot point between the discharge chute and stationary frame but do not enable infinite angular adjustment for precise pouring. Further, such mechanisms will not effectively operate to stop a moving discharge chute without causing possible damage to the lockout mechanism. Difficulty is also experienced in removing and placing the lock pin when the discharge chute is loaded.

Apparatus and methods for securing discharge chutes on mixing vehicles


A projecting apparatus for protecting an image onto a screen includes an image module, a first light reflection device and a lens. The image module is for providing a beam of first light. The first light reflection device has a first reflection surface disposed movably relative to the image module for reflecting the first light to form a beam of second light. The lens is for projection the image on the screen according to the second light. Moving the first light reflection device along the beam of first light or second light can adjust the location of the image on the screen in a first direction.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a projecting apparatus, and more particularly to a projecting apparatus, which utilizes a prism or mirror to perform light shift and focus adjustment.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the present high-level projecting apparatus, the lens is usually equipped with mechanism for lens shift and focus adjustment to adjust the location of the image projected onto a screen and the focus location of the image relative to the screen in addition to function of adjusting image size and brightness. However, these delicate mechanisms used in the lens increase the difficulty in designing and manufacturing the lens originally complicated.


The invention relates to a tobacco shred feeding treatment device and a method for improving the heat energy and feed liquid absorption efficiency of tobacco shred, comprising: a tobacco shred feeding machine, said tobacco shred feeding machine mainly comprises a roller, a process warm-air pipe, a power blower, a heater, a steam nozzle, a feed liquid nozzle and an air inlet pipe; the process warm-air is blown into said roller from said air inlet pipe via said steam nozzle and said heater under the action of said power blower, and mixed with the tobacco shred; said air inlet pipe is provided directly under the central axis of said roller; the opening of said air inlet pipe faces up obliquely, and the opening direction of which could be adjusted into any position within the roller according to the requirements; said steam nozzle is mounted between the power blower and the heater, to achieve heating the condensed water in the steam, and to avoid directly injecting the steam to burn the tobacco shred. Under the premise that it is not necessary to configure the tunnel heating and humidifying equipment, the process warm-air with steam can contact with the tobacco shred sufficiently to improve the heat energy and feed liquid absorption efficiency and uniformity.

At present, during the manufacturing of tobacco shred making, there are two kinds of feeding treatment processes: tobacco flake feeding treatment process and tobacco shred feeding treatment process. The traditional shred making production lines all use tobacco flake feeding treatment process. In recent years, the tobacco shred feeding treatment process is increasingly applied in the cigarette production lines. FIG. 1 shows the structure schematic drawing of the existing tobacco shred feeding treatment device. As shown in FIG. 1, the tobacco shred feeding treatment device includes a tobacco shred feeding machine, a vibration groove 1′ and a tunnel heating and humidifying equipment 2′, the vibration groove 1′ and the tunnel heating and humidifying equipment 2′ are provided orderly in the feeding end of tobacco shred feeding machine (the right side of tobacco shred feeding machine shown in FIG. 1). After being heated and humidified by the tunnel heating and humidifying equipment 2′, the tobacco shred is conveyed to the tobacco shred feeding machine via the vibration groove 1′ to get the feeding treatment.
The tobacco shred feeding machine includes a roller 3′, a process warm-air pipe 4′, a power blower 5′, a heater 6′, a steam nozzle 7′, a feed liquid nozzle 8′ and an air inlet 9′. The process warm-air A′ is blown by the power blower 5′, via the hot blast heater 6′ from the position above the central axis of the roller 3′, and flows into the roller 3′ in the same direction as the tobacco shred conveyed from the vibration groove 1′, and mixed with the tobacco shred. At the same time, the tunnel heating and humidifying equipment 2′ implements the heating and humidifying of tobacco shred, and the suitable temperature and humidity is advantageous to improve the feed liquid absorption rate of tobacco shred. The arrow direction B′ depicted in FIG. 1 indicates the direction of the process warm-air A′ with steam, the arrow direction C′ indicates the moisture removal direction in the system, and the arrow direction D′ indicates the tobacco shred conveying direction.
The method of processing tobacco shred by the prior tobacco shred feeding treatment device has the following disadvantages:
1. The process warm-air A′ is blown into the roller 3′ at positions above the central axis of the roller 3′, only contacts with the tobacco shred falling down from above, has a small contact area with tobacco shred, cannot make sufficient heat exchange with the inner tobacco shred, which lead to the temperature and the moisture content of the tobacco shred cannot meet the process requirements. In order to ensure that the tobacco shred meet the process requirements of the temperature and the moisture content, it is necessary to increase the steam pressure to increase the steam injection amount and the speed of the process warm-air, so that the process warm-air with steam and feed liquid in the roller 3′ is directly blown to the end of the roller 3′ in the case of having not contacted with the tobacco shred and being absorbed sufficiently, and most of them are removed by the moisture removing blower 10′, easily to cause the phenomenon of tobacco shred moisture content and feed liquid absorption uneven and cause the waste of feed liquid and energy. At the same time, some of the feed liquid adhere onto the mesh belt of the moisture removing port C′, as time goes by, the feed liquid adhering onto the mesh belt will drop into the tobacco shred at the discharging port, easily to cause the appearance of macular tobacco.
2. The condensed water will be produced when the process warm-air A′ with steam come into contact with the low temperature process warm-air pipe, the condensed water goes into the feeding machine along with the process warm-air A′, and mixes directly with the tobacco shred, causing wet mass and water staining tobacco, which is disadvantageous for the manufacture of subsequent workstage and affects the quality of tobacco shred.
3. The tunnel heating and humidifying equipment 2′ need to be configured in the front end, and the equipment is easily to cause uneven tobacco shred moisture content, and the tobacco shred wet mass and scaling is easily to produce, which lead to the sensory quality reduction of tobacco shred. At the same time, the tunnel heating and humidifying equipment 2′ is a tobacco shred equipment having high energy consumption and serious environmental pollution problem, with high workload of daily cleaning and maintenance.
4. The steam nozzle 7′ is provided in the feeding end of the roller 3′, with the condensed water in the steam directly spraying onto the tobacco shred, causing tobacco shred wet mass and water staining tobacco. Internationally, there are some devices related to steam absorption efficiency of tobacco flake or tobacco shred, which adopt the way of steam nozzle directly injecting to the feed, easily to cause tobacco leaves or tobacco shred burnt, and more easily to cause obvious falling sensory quality reduction particularly for higher quality of flue-cured tobacco.

Tobacco shred feeding treatment device and method for improving heat energy and feed liquid absorption efficiency of tobacco shred


A low-power offset-stored CMOS latch includes, for example, a common current source that is arranged to provide a predetermined bias current for an offset storage phase and enable transistors that are arranged to couple a resolution bias current during a resolution period to a respective input pair device. The low-power offset-stored CMOS latch optionally includes current scaling to provide a resolution bias current that is larger than the predetermined bias current of the offset storage phase.

Electronic circuits are designed using increasingly smaller design features to attain increased integration and reduced power consumption. An example of such electronic circuits includes latches that are formed using logic circuitry and/or memory structures formed on increasingly integrated circuits. Oftentimes, a latch is used as a final stage in a comparator (of a converter, for example), where the latch is arranged to provide signal amplification in order to generate logic-level signals with a minimum of delay. As the design features of integrated circuits are increasingly made smaller, the increased integration of the electronic circuits increasingly requires using latches that have fast response times and minimize power consumption of the electronic circuits formed in the integrated circuits.


A reflective LCD device includes a reflective film having a convex and concave pattern, wherein the convex and concave pattern includes a plurality of pattern groups having a common pattern and each including a plurality of (N) figure elements. Each figure element is obtained by randomizing a corresponding figure element in a standard pattern including a plurality of standard figure elements. In the randomization, the discrete angle of bright spots generated by diffraction of the reflected incident light assumes 0.01 degrees or smaller. The discrete angle α of the bright spots is defined by:α=(λA/Ls×N)·(180/π)where λA and Ls are average wavelength of the incident light and pitch of the standard pattern, respectively.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal display (LCD) device and, more particularly, to a reflective LCD device or transflective LCD device having a reflective film which reflects light incident from outside the LCD device toward an observer.
(b) Description of the Related Art
An LCD device includes an LCD panel, which acts as light switches for controlling the transmission of light, pixel by pixel, for display of images thereon. The LCD panel includes a liquid crystal (LC) layer, a pair of substrates sandwiching therebetween the LC layer, and a pair of polarizing films, each disposed in the vicinity of a corresponding substrates. The LC layer controls the polarization of light and the polarizing films control the transmission of light therethrough based on the polarized direction of the light.
The LCD devices are generally categorized in three types: transmissive type, reflective type and transflective type. The transmissive LCD device uses a light source disposed at the rear side of the LCD panel for displaying images. The reflective LCD device includes a reflective film disposed at the rear side of the LC layer for reflecting the light incident from the front side of the LC layer to pass again through the LC layer for displaying images. The transflective LCD device includes, in each of an array of pixels, a transmissive part having a function similar to the function of the transmissive LCD device and a reflective part having a function similar to the function of the reflective LCD device.
The reflective LCD device, as well as the transflective LCD device, has an advantage of lower power dissipation compared to the transmissive LCD device, and thus is generally used in a portable terminal such as cellular phone and personal digital assistant. The term "reflective LCD device" as used hereinafter, generally includes the transflective LCD device for the sake of convenience, if not recited otherwise.
A recent reflective LCD device includes, as a basic structure thereof, a twisted nematic (TN) LC layer, an array of switching elements for driving the LC layer pixel by pixel, and a reflective film disposed outside or inside the LCD panel. The reflective LCD device is generally driven in an active-matrix-drive scheme, wherein thin film transistors (TFTs) or metal-insulator-metal (MIM) diodes are used as the switching elements for achieving a higher resolution and a higher image quality. A bottom electrode, i.e., pixel electrode connected to the switching element in each pixel is generally used as a part of the reflective film.
Patent Publication JP-B-2825713 describes a reflective LCD device having a reflective film used as pixel electrodes. The surface of the reflective film has a convex and concave pattern corresponding to each pixel and including a plurality of dots or convex portions, which are disposed periodically and protrude from the concave portions. It is recited in the publication that each dot reflects the light incident from a variety of directions toward the direction normal to the LCD panel to thereby improve the brightness and thus the image quality of the LCD panel.
The reflective film is manufactured in the process as described below. A photosensitive organic film is formed on an underlying film, exposed to light through a mask pattern and etched for patterning by using a photolithographic and etching step. The resultant photosensitive organic film has discrete dots, i.e, dots isolated from one another. An interlayer dielectric film and a reflective film are formed on the discrete dots and the underlying film, whereby the surface of the reflective film has smooth, convex portions corresponding to the locations of the dots.
It is known that the light reflected by the reflective film as described above assumes a rainbow color due to the regular pattern of the reflective film which causes interference of light. The rainbow color causes a problem of degradation in the image quality of the LCD device.
Patent Publication JP-B-3012596 describes a solution for the problem of the rainbow color in the reflected light in the LCD device, wherein the dots on the surface of the reflective film are randomly disposed in each pixel to thereby suppress the interference of light. In this publication, the pattern of the dots is common to all the pixels for reducing the amount of work for forming the mask pattern.
Although the problem of the rainbow color is suppressed by the structure described in Patent Publication JP-B-3012596, the solution is not sufficient in view of the image quality required of the recent LCD device. For further suppressing the above problem, it may be considered to use a bead adhesive layer between the front substrate and the polarizing film, the bead adhesive layer being such that a large number of beads are dispersed in the adhesive having a refractive index different from the refractive index of the beads. However, the bead adhesive layer reflects the light as a noise light to thereby degrade the contrast ratio of the LCD device by raising the luminance in display of a black color image.
Patent Publication JP-B-3066192 proposes to suppress the rainbow color in the reflected light by forming dots having different heights for suppressing the rainbow color. However, this configuration is also insufficient for suppressing the rainbow color, especially in the transflective LCD device having a smaller area of the reflective film in each pixel because smaller area intensifies the periodicity of the dots to thereby intensify the rainbow color.
It may be considered to suppress the rainbow color by randomizing the locations of dots in an area including a plurality of pixel areas. However, randomizing of the locations of dots in such a larger area generally requires a larger amount of work and thus is unpractical. In addition, the relation is not known in the art between the degree of randomization of the dots and achievement in the practical degree of suppression of the rainbow color.

LCD device including a reflective film having a convex and concave pattern


A semiconductor device provided with a filled tetrahedral semiconductor is formed by introducing impurity atoms S for substituting the component atoms of sites of lattice points and impurity atoms I to be inserted into interstitial sites of a host semiconductor where component atoms are bonded to form a tetrahedral bonding structure. Such a semiconductor device is made to show a high mobility level and a high current drive force as a semiconductor substance where impurity atoms S are made to have a valance electron agreeing with that of the component atoms of the host semiconductor as a result of charge transfer between impurity atoms S and impurity atoms I and impurity atoms I are bonded in a state of showing an electronic arrangement of a closed shell structure is used as channel material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a semiconductor device provided with a field effect transistor having a metal insulator semiconductor structure (MISFET) and using an FT (Filled Tetrahedral) semiconductor as a channel.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, there is an increasing demand for electronic elements to be used for configuring various information processing systems with a high processing speed as the amount of information to be processed has increased remarkably in recent years. Thus, there is also an increasing demand for high performance and high function CMOS electronic elements. For example, JP-A2001-160594 (KOKAI) discloses the use of high mobility channel material that utilizes strained Si, strained SiGe or the like for the purpose of realizing a high mobility element. Such strained Si can increase the mobility of both electrons and holes if compared with unstrained Si as tensile strain is generated in intra-planar directions and the band structure is changed due to the influence of the strain. Thus, CMOS formed by using a MOSFET having such a strained Si channel can operate at a speed higher than a conventional Si—CMOS of the same size by about 60%.
Strained SiGe has compression strain in intra-planar directions of the substrate. The band structure is changed due to the influence of the compression strain to increase the hole mobility if compared with unstrained Si. Note, however, that the electron mobility is not increased significantly if compared with the increase of the hole mobility. Thus, it is expected that a CMOS that is formed by using a MOSFET having a strained SiGe channel that shows a high Ge composition will operate faster than a strained Si—CMOS of the same size.
However, any of the above-described techniques faces difficulties in terms of process of introducing strain, process of controlling strain, minimization of interface defects, process complexity and so on. Additionally, if strained SiGe is used, the operation speed may be doubled at most. Therefore, the requirements for realizing high performance and high function CMOS electronic elements in the future have not been met satisfactorily. Phys. Rev. Lett. 52675 (1984) proposes an FT (filled tetrahedral) semiconductor structure that is realized by using rare gas. However, there has not been any instance where such a structure is applied to LSI because it is unstable in the LSI thermal process. Therefore, no study has been reported on electric characteristics of FT semiconductors.
Common knowledge technology including JP-A2001-160594 (KOKAI) and Phys. Rev. Lett. 52675 (1984) as listed above cannot satisfactorily modulate the band structure of silicon and hence cannot form a channel showing a sufficient degree of mobility.

Semiconductor device using Filled Tetrahedral semiconductor


A printing apparatus includes a carriage configured to perform a reciprocating movement while facing a sheet, the carriage being equipped with an inkjet head, and a drying unit configured to apply energy from above the carriage to the sheet so as to dry ink, wherein, when the carriage performs the reciprocating movement, the carriage is reversed at a reversing position where the application of the energy to an end of the sheet or an end of an image formed on the sheet is not blocked by the carriage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an inkjet printing apparatus that performs heating for fixing ink.
2. Description of the Related Art
The technical field of performing printing for providing printed products which exhibit high weather resistance for use at an outdoor exhibition and the like has attracted attention. According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-45855, emulsion ink applied on a sheet having poor absorbency is heated so that a film is formed, whereby the ink is solidified and fixed on an ink-applied surface of the sheet. The heating is performed by irradiating the ink-applied surface of the sheet with infrared light.
According to Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2012-45855, a carriage moves reciprocally between a drying unit and an ink-applied surface of a sheet. Therefore, radiated infrared light is partially blocked by the carriage thus moving. In an area where the carriage moves, infrared light which irradiates a certain position is blocked for a moment of time when the carriage passes, and an irradiation time at each position in the area is made substantially uniform.
What matters here are the moments of time when the moving direction of the carriage is reversed when the carriage performs a reciprocating movement. An inkjet head is smaller than a structure of the carriage that holds the inkjet head. At a reversing position, the structure of the carriage blocks infrared light to be radiated onto an end of an image area on the sheet on which ink has been just applied. Further, at the reversing position, the carriage stops and stays for a certain period of time, and the infrared light irradiation time for the image area that is behind the carriage is shorter than the infrared light irradiation time for other image regions. This can be a factor that causes an insufficient dried state of the image end part, and further, color unevenness of an image.


According to an embodiment of the present disclosure, a wound dressing system is presented. The wound dressing system includes a fluid permeable support layer, the support layer configured for positioning within a wound and adapted to generally conform to a topography of the wound, and to permit exudates from the wound to pass therethrough. The wound dressing system further includes a plurality of beads supported by the support layer, the beads defining an insulated inter-connected elongate member and an electrode embedded within and extending through at least a portion of the elongate member. Also, a current is generated by an external energy source that electrically flows through the electrode.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure generally relates to an apparatus for treating an open wound and, more particularly, to a wound dressing system incorporating a plurality of beads, the beads defining an insulated connected elongate member having an embedded electrode therewith.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Wound closure involves the migration of epithelial and subcutaneous tissue adjacent the wound towards the center of the wound until the wound closes. Unfortunately, closure is difficult with large wounds or wounds that have become infected. In such wounds, a zone of stasis (i.e., an area in which localized swelling of tissue restricts the flow of blood to the tissues) forms near the surface of the wound. Without sufficient blood flow, the epithelial and subcutaneous tissues surrounding the wound not only receive diminished oxygen and nutrients, but, are also less able to successfully fight microbial infection and, thus, are less able to close the wound naturally. Such wounds have presented difficulties to medical personnel for many years.
Wound dressings have been used in the medical industry to protect and/or facilitate healing of open wounds. One technique has been to use negative pressure therapy, which is also known as suction or vacuum therapy. A variety of negative pressure devices have been developed to allow excess wound fluids, i.e., exudates, to be removed while at the same time isolating the wound to protect the wound and, consequently, effect recovery time. Various wound dressings have been modified to promote the healing of open wounds.
Issues that continually need to be addressed when using a wound dressing in negative pressure therapy include ease of use, efficiency of healing a wound, and sufficient drainage of wound exudates. One desire is to provide effective electrical stimulation or E-STIM therapy, by providing sufficient current flow to the wound bed of the wound dressing system, to transmit or flow current throughout the damaged tissue to enhance or promote a wound healing process.
Accordingly, a need exists for a system for providing a more consistent and uniform distribution of current to a wound bed of a wound dressing system while maintaining a moist wound environment.

Methods for surgical wound dressing incorporating connected hydrogel beads having an embedded electrode therein


A method for providing a pattern forecast for an object from a number of objects that are associated with one another, in which the pattern forecast is provided by taking into account consumption series of these associated objects. A device for providing a pattern forecast for an object from a number of objects that are associated with one another, the device being designed to provide the pattern forecast by taking into account consumption series of these associated objects.

Pattern forecasts usually include mathematical forecasts for forecast objects based on consumption series, i.e., histories from the past for the particular forecast objects which may be compiled on the basis of patterns.
Previous methods for generating forecasts use only the consumption series for the particular object for which the forecast is to be generated. Through novel methods, fluctuations in the history may be compensated or smoothed directly in generating the forecast.
Forecast methods from the literature include:                the method for exponential smoothing of the first order,        the method for exponential smoothing of the second order,        the method for exponential smoothing of the third-order (according to Winters),        the method of the sliding average, and        regression analysis.
The history of the object for which the forecast is to be generated is used in creating the forecast.


A single degree of freedom positioner resistant to axial and rotational motion on two axes, and to rotation around a third axis, but permitting axial movement along the third axis. The axes are orthogonally related. The positioner is characterized by support of a stage by a plurality of stiffly flexible end supported shear webs that bend in a rolling motion to enable the said axial motion.

Very accurate positioning of an object such as a workpiece or a tool is a fundamental requirement of all product-shaping and deposition mechanisms. Rather large dimensional tolerances on the order of thousandths of an inch have been tolerable for many years, and for a wide range of products they still are. However, newer products, especially in the microelectronics field require that manipulations be held to much closer tolerances, often in the realm of a few microns.
The problems one faces with these new requirements cannot readily be solved by the older approach of better linear guideways and bearings. These all have their own tolerance problems, which are amplified when many of them are involved in the manufacture of the same product. The result has been production equipment which, while made to the best standards attainable with existing approaches, still limit the quality of product that can be produced by them, and increase the scrap rate of a production run.
A large part of this problem resides in the structural support and physical guides required to move and position the tool or the workpiece. Conventional dovetails, rails and rotary bearings all involve problems such as linear runout and backlash that can result in inaccuracies on all six degrees of freedom.
This invention proposes the use of an entirety different positioner which may be thought of as a "motion stage". It prevents motion on five of the six possible degrees of freedom, and severely restrains movement of the stage to the sixth degree. The six degrees of freedom are defined as axial motion along the X, Y and Z axes, and rotation around each of them. In this invention, the single degree of freedom enjoyed will generally be axial along the Z axis. Then axial movement along the X and Y axes, and rotation around any of the X, Y and Z axes is prevented. The Z axis is commonly regarded as the vertical axis. This terminology is used herein for convenience. However, with this invention the Z axis may be directed in other directions, for example horizontally or at an angle to the vertical.
In contrast to the very costly mechanisms presently available for accurate single axis positioning, it is an object of this invention to use simple rotors and flexures that do not involve sliding motion and which inherently prevent twisting, shear, and lateral movement.
It is another object of this invention to provide the positioner as a passive element which permits accurate movement of the stage only along the allowed axis in response to forces exerted along it.
It is another object of this invention to provide the positioner as a product which employs simple flexures and rotors that can readily be manufactured to produce a surprisingly affordable, accurate and useful product.
It is yet another object of this invention to provide a positioner that can be used in a severe vacuum, there to operate efficiently without shedding of particulates or lubricants that could foul the vacuum environment. It inherently does not require lubrication, for example.
It is still another object of this invention to provide guidance for a system in which relatively crude motion means can be used, still to provide such accuracy. For example, an inflatable bladder can be used.

Single degree of freedom axis positioner


An exemplary method implemented by nodes in a telecommunication network includes associating a plurality of public user identities (PUIDs) into groups where each PUID represents a user served by a group of related endpoints, such as a private branch exchange (PBX). The groups are stored at the first node. Each group contains a group address that uniquely identifies the group and the PBX associated the users with PUIDs that are associated with the group. A first registration request is transmitted from the first node to an internet protocol multimedia subsystem (IMS) where the first registration request includes the group address and the PUIDs that are associated with the group. The first registration request seeks to establish implicit registration in the IMS of the PUIDs associated with the group with the group address. A reply from the IMS is received at the first node in response to the first registration request where the reply seeks authentication for the requested implicit registration of the PUIDs. In response to receipt of the reply, authentication information is calculated and transmitted as a second registration request that contains the authentication information and the group address and the PUIDs that are associated with the group. The PUIDs in association with the group address are implicitly registered in the IMS upon a determination that the authentication information is acceptable.

This invention relates to users that are not directly coupled to an internet protocol (IP) multimedia subsystem (IMS) such as users coupled to an IMS by a private branch exchange (PBX). More specifically the invention relates to the registration of such users as subscribers of the IMS even though such users are coupled through an endpoint to the IMS. The endpoints may be a PBX, a key system or potentially a line gateway or other "line aggregator" system. Since the PBX is a common model, it is used as the example in the embodiment described below.
Advances in telephony communications provide benefits for users but sometimes present difficulties which must be overcome by telecommunication service providers. Examples of such difficulties reside in the challenges associated with the use of new equipment utilizing new technology with existing telecommunications infrastructure equipment, and challenges associated with the use of new telecommunications infrastructure equipment utilizing new technology with existing equipment. In order to take advantage of the benefits associated with integrating devices using newer technology with existing devices, compatibility and interoperability problems between devices utilizing the new technology and devices utilizing existing technology must be overcome.
Voice over internet protocol (VOIP) telephony services continue to grow. Consumers with high-speed data connections such as supported by DSL, cable modem or fiber optic lines can elect to have telephony services provided using VOIP technology over such connections. This provides an alternative to the telephony services historically provided to users by telephone companies over dedicated telephone wires. Users served by a PBX system enabled with packet based technology such as VOIP or time division multiplex (TDM) technologies benefit from the use of such technology. Although existing packet based PBX systems provide telephony services between its users and the PBX itself, existing PBX systems may not provide a mechanism whereby its users can become registered as VOIP subscribers in systems outside of the PBX. For example, users of such a VOIP PBX system are unable to take advantage of services provided by an IMS to which the VOIP PBX system is connected because the VOIP PBX does not provide a mechanism such as authentication and service-routing that are required for the PBX users to become registered VOIP subscribers of the IMS. Some services offered by the IMS are made available only to subscribers that are registered with the IMS. This prevents users of such a PBX from obtaining telecommunications services provided via the IMS where registration with the IMS is a prerequisite. There is a need for solution to this problem.

Surrogate registration in internet protocol multimedia subsystem for users indirectly coupled via an end point


A method for operating a gateway for wireless mobile clients in a messaging system, the messaging system being configured to comprise a plurality of mobile wireless clients (1, 1′, 1″), a core messaging system (7) and at least one gateway process or gateway (5, 5′, 5″) acting as a proxy on behalf of the clients (1, 1′, 1″), the method comprising the step of                the gateway (5, 5′, 5″) storing a session context (11), which session context (11) comprises the status of a session established between the core messaging system (7) and one of the clients (1, 1′, 1″), a state of the client connection associated with the session, and a session identifier which is unique to the session.

When working with a mobile application, that is, a program application running on a mobile device, it is desirable that the user may continue working with the application even when disconnected from the network. In such a situation, the end-to-end connection between device and central (wireline) system infrastructure is not available, due to a disruption on the unreliable wireless network component of the connection. In consequence, those applications are best built using a MOM (message oriented middleware) technology that combines client layers and a dedicated wireless gateway proxy that cooperate to shield mobile applications from wireless connection loss. Such MOM components use store and forward, session maintenance and sliding window to ensure message delivery and client session integrity.
Messaging is a model in which applications are loosely coupled through the exchange of self-describing messages. This may be likened to "e-mail for applications". Messaging allows producer applications to send messages to consumer applications, in a reliable and scalable manner. The messaging system decouples producers and consumers. It is in charge of transporting and storing messages. "Producer" and "Consumer" are just roles an application can play. An application can be both producer and consumer simultaneously, or switch roles dynamically at run-time. Two typical communication models implemented by a message system such as the commonly known JMS (Java Messaging System) are "Publish/Subscribe", and "Point to Point messaging".
An approach taken by Softwired Inc., with its MOM technology, iBus//Mobile and iBus//MessageServer products is to use Java and/or C# technology to extend connectivity straight through from the mobile devices to the centralized application servers. Customized applications are deployed on the mobile device, and on the server computers, using standards-based Java messaging middleware technology. A wireless data network such as GPRS, EDGE, UMTS, Mobitex, and future Wireless Broadband '4G' is used to connect the mobile devices to the servers in a flexible and scalable manner.
The iBus//Mobile product defines a protocol between a mobile client layer, and a wireless proxy gateway. The mobile layer makes a JMS based API available to mobile applications, and propagates client application operations on that API across wireless networks (e.g. GSM, GPRS, UMTS) to the proxy using the protocol. Based on protocol messages received in packets across the wireless network, the gateway process is able to reflect/reproduce the mobile client operations (to the mobile API) on a proxy JMS connection between the gateway and the central messaging infrastructure. The gateway maintains this central JMS connection on behalf of the mobile client.
Such a Wireless JMS (WJMS) deployment consists of Java-enabled and non Java mobile devices (PDAs, Communicators, JavaPhones, .Net Compact Framework and Linux devices etc.) with a WJMS client library installed. The devices use a wireless network to communicate with a WJMS gateway service. The gateway is a software component able of receiving WJMS messages from a wireless network, and of relaying these messages to a server-side JMS provider. The JMS provider either is a stand-alone JMS messaging server such as Softwired's iBus//MessageServer product, or a compliant J2EE application server such as BEA's WebLogic Server or SAP Web Application Server or JBoss Application Server product, which should contain a JMS layer. Such a Wireless JMS (WJMS) deployment consists of programmable mobile devices (PDAs, Communicators, JavaPhones, etc.) with the WJMS client layer installed. The devices use a wireless network to communicate with a WJMS gateway service. Provided the WJMS client layer that is compatible with the mobile platform such as JavaME, Java configurations CLDC, CDC (targeting profiles such as MIDP and IMP, .Net Compact Framework (C#)) is available, client applications can be deployed to various environments (e.g. RIM Blackberry, Palm, Symbian, Windows CE, Linux etc).
Softwired's U.S. patents U.S. Pat. No. 6,877,023 "Messaging system for delivering data in the form of portable message formats between message clients" and U.S. Pat. No. 6,721,779 "Messaging proxy system" disclose mechanisms for transporting the higher level WJMS messages over the wireless link while hiding the underlying communication layer. U.S. patent applications U.S. 20020120717 and 20030009511, disclose a message system for delivering data in the form of messages between message clients, the system comprising a server cluster with a group of client manager nodes and a group of independent message manager nodes. The client manager nodes have the function of managing client connections, whereas the message managers are configured to store and distribute messages.
Since wireless connections are inherently unreliable, the connections between clients and gateways will be interrupted from time to time. In consequence, the client, e.g. through an automated procedure implemented in the underlying communication level, will try to reestablish connection. It is now desirable to "reconnect the loose ends" left by the severed communication. Current technology offers no satisfying solution to this problem.


A method and system used for testing a subterranean well. A sensor (34), such as a distributed temperature sensor, comprising a sensing optical fiber (48) connected to an interrogation unit (50), is deployed together with a drill stem test string (20) so that the sensor extends below the packer of the drill stem test string and across at least one formation (22) of the wellbore.

The invention generally relates to subterranean wells. More particularly, the invention relates to the testing of subterranean well formations with the aid of a sensor which may be a distributed temperature sensing system.
Drill stem test strings are used to obtain information from formations in a wellbore, such as information relating to productivity, recoverability, compartmentalization, or fluid properties. Typically, the drill stem test string must be moved from formation to formation in a wellbore since the drill stem test string may not isolate information pertaining to specific formations if it remains in one place. However, moving the drill stem test string not only takes time, but it necessitates unsetting and resetting the string packer which can be problematic and generally requires well kill. The prior art would therefore benefit from a drill stem test string that can obtain information from each of the formations while remaining in a single place.
Production Logging Tools (PLTs) may also be used with drill stem test strings to help obtain or discern the above-identified information from formations in a wellbore. PLTs help to distinguish between information from more than one formation. However, the use of PLTs is expensive. Moreover, high flow rates in a wellbore may prohibit or inhibit the use of PLTs; therefore, in order to use PLTs the wellbore may have to be flowed at a much lower rate than normal thereby providing inaccurate formation information.
Thus, there exists a continuing need for an arrangement and/or technique that addresses one or more of the problems that are stated above.


The method and apparatus for impact pulverization by directing at least one high-velocity gas or vapor jet exiting from a nozzle into a fluidized bed of milling material, wherein the gas or vapor jet is jointly accelerated with a portion of the milling material and thereafter directed into the fluidized bed of milling material.

This invention relates to a fluidized-bed jet-mill pulverization method, whereby a high-velocity gas or vapor jet exiting from a nozzle is directed at a fluidized bed of granular material. The particles around the jet are accelerated to a velocity where their impact on particles stationary or moving in the opposite direction causes these to break up. A method of this type has been described earlier in the German patent (DE-PS) 5 98 421.
More recent developments in the realm of fluidized-bed jet mills have focussed on improved particle charging of the fluid jets entering the fluidized bed.
What current state-of-the-art methods still need is an improved pulse exchange between the high-velocity, high-kinetic-energy gas or vapor jets and the granular, nearly stationary, low-kinetic-energy material in the fluidized bed.
Typically, a pulse exchange between the gas or vapor jet and the granular material takes place almost exclusively in the envelope section of the gas or vapor jets. The particle velocity perpendicular to the flow direction is not enough to permit penetration into the center of the gas jet. As a result, the high velocities in the core area of the jet remain largely unutilized in the pulverization process.
A first solution to the problem is disclosed in DE 42 43 438 C2 and corresponding U.S. Pat. No. 5,423,490, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. This involved a better utilization of the energy carried by the jet by increasing the ratio of the material to be pulverized relative to the gas or vapor jets used for the fluidized-bed jet milling process.
According to that solution, the pulse exchange between the gas or vapor jet and the granular material is to be improved by means of flow channels, provided perpendicular to the flow direction of the jet in the low-pulse areas directly behind the point where the jet exits the nozzle, which channels produce a pressure drop from the surrounding area toward the core of the jet, causing the particles of the milling material to be sucked in toward the center of the jet, where they are accelerated to the impact velocity needed for pulverization.
A shortcoming of this earlier process lies in the fact that the particles of the milling material initially display very little kinetic energy and are accelerated only by the high kinetic energy of the gas or vapor jet. In the process there are substantial differences in velocity between the gas or vapor jet and the as yet accelerated particles of the milling material due to the mass inertia of the particles. Consequently, considerable slippage is likely which in turn causes losses in the flow rate due to turbulences. These flow-rate losses negatively affect economical, cost-effective pulverization that would require a minimum amount of energy.
It follows that accelerating the particles together with the fluid is especially efficient. This phenomenon is also utilized in retro-jet fluid-energy mills employing jet pipes. A method along that line is described in DE 36 20 440 A1 where the bulk material to be broken down is introduced in a pressure extractor chamber and is then expanded i.e. pressure-reduced into a feed pipe together with the precompressed carrier gas and accelerated. In that process, each two jet nozzles operate in mutually opposing directions. Particle pulverization is obtained by the mutual crushing of colliding particles. The drawback here is that the milling effect is limited since each particle is exposed to only one single, one-time break-down impact. Many particles are not broken down at all since the jet coming from the opposite direction deflects them from the impact zone in the center of the jet toward the outside, preventing them from colliding with other particles in the area of the jet.
This has been remedied by directing one particle jet against a solid target, thus assuring that each accelerated particle is subjected to a collision. A process employing that method is described in DE 27 38 980 A1. Its drawback again lies in the high rate of wear of the stationary target.

Method for fluidized bed jet mill grinding


Embodiments herein describe mitigating flexible modes in an airframe of an aircraft by operating a battery for the aircraft as a tuned mass damper. One embodiment comprises an Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (UAV). The UAV includes a flexible airframe, a plurality of propulsors coupled to the flexible airframe that generate thrust for the UAV, a battery that provides electrical power for the plurality of propulsors, and a suspension system that suspends the battery from the flexible airframe and operates the mass of the battery as a tuned mass damper to dampen flexible modes generated in the flexible airframe during flight.

Multirotor aircraft utilizes a plurality of rotors to supply lift to the aircraft. When the airframe of a multi-rotor aircraft is flexible, the thrust of the rotors can impart flexible modes in the airframe that may lead to reduced flight handling qualities of the aircraft. While increasing the rigidity of the multi-rotor aircraft is an option, this may increase the weight of the aircraft, which is undesirable due to the reduction in the available flight time of the aircraft.
Therefore, there is a need to improve the flight performance of multi-rotor aircraft that utilize flexible airframes.


A system that detects whether a user interacting with a featured activity is wearing glasses is described. The system verifies that the user is wearing the glasses and the system prompts the user and a caregiver and may blur, stop or otherwise interrupt a user experience of a featured activity, such as a video game or film, when the system determined that the user is not wearing the glasses. A glasses module may be positioned at frame of the glasses at a head of the user to detect that the user is wearing the glasses. Optical facial processing may detect a face and glasses on the face. Also disclosed is a hearing aid that may be integrated with such a system. A glasses module that aids in depth perception by reporting distance ahead, and a system that trains eye contact with another person wearing glasses are also disclosed.

Autistic individuals or special needs persons sometimes have difficulty learning to wear glasses or hearing aids, and learning to use technology, such as video devices, appropriately, and may have difficulty communicating with people, including with caregivers.
Refractive errors are found in children and adults diagnosed as being on the Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) at a higher rate of incidence than they are found in the general population. The most common refractive errors are near sightedness, farsightedness, astigmatism, and presbyopia. Uncorrected refractive errors are a main cause of visual impairment. Eyeglasses are often prescribed to correct refractive errors.
Eyeglasses are generally used to improve an individual's acuity and perception of visual stimuli but sometimes people need time to remember to wear glasses, particularly when glasses are prescribed for some tasks, such as reading or interacting with a screen of an electronic device.
However, there are significant difficulties in getting children with autism and other special needs individuals to wear eyeglasses. Some published studies have attempted to explore the problem of training special needs children to wear eyeglasses. These studies focus on manual processes that use a combination of reinforcement techniques, including: non-contingent reinforcement, response blocking, and response cost to increase the wearing of eyeglasses. Non-contingent reinforcement is the use of positive reinforcement that is not related to the occurrence of a target behavior and is used commonly as a method for reinforcing attention in children that seek attention inappropriately. Response blocking and response cost are techniques that involve physically preventing a behavior or the loss of a privilege or item, respectively.
Behavioral studies have met with limited success using manual processes. They involve a small number of children and young adults confined to an institutional setting, such as a hospital or residential facility that provides a controlled environment for those with severe behavioral and intellectual disabilities. Thus, the results may not be readily translatable to training children with autism spectrum disorder or other disabilities to wear their eyeglasses in outpatient settings or local optometry clinics. In addition, qualitative methods of evaluation, i.e. InterObserver Agreement, where humans are used as a part of their measurement procedure, hence the data are primarily subjective, limited data interpretation. Thus, getting special needs children to wear corrective eyewear remains a significant issue for parents, caregivers, and a major clinical unmet need in the fields of optometry and ophthalmology.
Three stages in the use of eyeglasses include detecting, training, and supporting in the natural environment. Intervention at early stages of a child's development may be important to ascertaining whether the child is on the autism spectrum. Once autism is detected, training and education may entail interaction between the child with either play objects and devices like tablets and PCs or other individuals. Once special needs children and adults are taught to put on eyeglasses in an outpatient clinic, the next phase requires the maintenance of eyeglasses in the natural environment, home, school and the community.
Local schools and communities spend valuable resources on repetitive and low level educational goals. Trained professionals may burn out quickly when more time is spent on administrative chores than on training and advancing the skills of the professionals in their field.
The instant disclosure builds upon the present inventor's prior disclosure in his granted U.S. Pat. Nos. 9,318,029 and 8,182,267, the entire contents of which are incorporated by reference herein. Additional background includes: U.S. Pat. Nos. 10,506,924, 9,864,430, 9,329,689. The contents of each of these patent documents are incorporated in full by reference herein.

Smart eyeglasses for special needs children and adults


A ring-shaped bearing failure sensor constructed of insulation and electrically conductive material utilizing printed circuit board technology. Because of its construction, high dimensional tolerances can be achieved and the ring can be easily assembled as a component of a generator. Further, the bearing sensor is equipped with a resistor so that the operational readiness of the sensor can be monitored.

Rotating machines, such as generators and motors, feature bearing assemblies (usually two) that support a shaft. The bearing assemblies maintain concentricity between a rotor assembly mounted on the shaft and a stator or housing assembly.
In electrical generators, such as those used to power the electrical systems of aircraft, the generator is connected to the main engine by a drive shaft. The rotor assembly and shaft rotate within the stator assembly. The shaft of most air cooled generators is supported for rotation in the housing using sealed bearing assemblies comprising grease lubricated ball bearings. In the course of normal generator operation, the bearings are subject to wear. Worn bearings, if not replaced, can eventually lead to bearing failure which will cause rotor rub and, because of the generator's kinetic energy, consequent severe damage. Hence, most rotating machines employed in sensitive applications follow a strict bearing replacement schedule with intervals short enough to fall outside the distribution curve of bearing wear-out failures.
In the aircraft industry, periodic scheduled maintenance is conducted based upon the operating time of the equipment. This is commonly referred to as "time-between-overhaul" (TBO). As part of a TBO maintenance program, a generator's bearings are replaced at predetermined service intervals.
The bearing replacement intervals are determined based upon worst-case scenarios of bearing wear, and the bearings are scheduled for replacement before any reasonable possibility of bearing failure can occur. As a result, the bearings are usually replaced long before they are actually worn out, and in many situations, the generators are disassembled and serviced unnecessarily before there is any immediate need for bearing replacement. This results in unnecessary servicing, and lost revenue associated with the equipment downtime.
Prior art has incorporated an auxiliary bearing system to keep the rotor supported in the event of a main bearing failure. This system features a smaller auxiliary bearing assembly mounted in close proximity, near each main bearing assembly. Under normal conditions, the main bearing assemblies support the shaft, while the auxiliary bearing assemblies idle or, in other words, spin freely along with the rotating shaft. This condition is made possible by an annular clearance such as, for example, 0.002 inch between the outer race of the auxiliary bearing and the generator housing; sometimes referred to as the bearing support wall.
In the absence of friction, no relative motion can exist between inner and outer races of the auxiliary bearing and no wear is incurred. In this manner, the auxiliary bearing assemblies remain ready to take over support of the shaft from the main bearing assembly, as soon as the main bearings fail or wear sufficiently for the internal clearance, here defined as the distance between the inner and outer races, to equal or exceed the annular clearance between the auxiliary bearing outer race and the bearing support wall.
Therefore, as a main bearing assembly begins to wear, the distance between its inner and outer race decreases. Since the main bearing outer race is frictionally engaging the bearing support wall, the shaft will slowly move closer to the bearing support wall as the main bearing wears. The annular clearance between the bearing support wall and the outer race of the auxiliary bearing will decrease as the main bearing wears until eventually the outer race of the auxiliary bearing will frictionally engage the bearing support wall. It is at this point where the auxiliary bearing begins to support the shaft.
In the prior art, the bearing support wall is metallic. However, because of the heavy weight or density of steel, the bearing support wall is usually constructed of aluminum with a thin layer of steel, commonly termed a steel liner on the surface which faces the generator shaft.
Completing the prior art system is a bearing failure sensor. This device announces the failure of the main bearing and is essential to achieve "on-condition" operation. It functions by alerting the operator or pilot that a main bearing assembly has failed and that the auxiliary bearing assembly has assumed support of the generator shaft. A typical prior art sensor is illustrated in FIG. 7 and has a grooved channel 90 into which is inserted a wire 92 partially covered with insulation 94. This prior art, in theory, provides adequate operation time to land the aircraft and replace the main bearings before the auxiliary bearings fail.
Prior art has dealt with bearing failure sensors in a variety of ways, though most have been labor intensive and difficult to implement.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,437 issued to Shahamat et al. attempted to address the concerns regarding unnecessary servicing. Shahamat discloses a bearing failure detector in the form of a disc positioned about the generator shaft. The disc itself includes an electrically conductive ring encased in an insulation layer but having the conductive ring exposed along the inside edge of the disc which faces the shaft. Initially, there is a set clearance between the shaft and the conductive ring. The ring is connected to a large resistance which is monitored by a control circuit.
Shahamat et al. teaches that as the bearings wear, the generator shaft will eventually contact the conductive ring, establishing a circuit where the electrical resistance monitored by the control circuit will approach zero and thereafter send an appropriate warning signal to the cockpit.
In Shahamat et al., the conductive ring surface which faces the shaft is bare. This configuration could provide false indications if airborne contaminants or moisture are present. Further, Shahamat et al. relies on the conductive ring contacting the generator shaft to indicate impending failure. This warning indication would only be for a limited time because the possibility exists that the rotating shaft wears through the conductive ring if the diameter of the ring is small.
Even though TBO results in unnecessary servicing of aircraft generators, TBO procedures are necessary because there has been no reliable means by which one could determine whether or not a generator's bearings were close to actual failure.

Modular bearing failure sensor for an electrical generator


Systems and methods of wirelessly transmitting user data are provided. A plurality of wireless communication devices are selected for a user data packet. Distinct user data is included for each of the plurality of wireless communication devices in the user data packet. Portions of the user data packet including the user data for each of the plurality of wireless communication devices are identified. The user data packet is then transmitted over a wireless air interface.

Wireless communication systems typically provide at least one control channel and one or more traffic channels for transmitting and receiving information in packets. The control channels carry control information, which is distinct from user data carried in the traffic channels. The user data can be voice or data information. In wireless communication systems information is typically transmitted in packets. The packets are modulated and transmitted in accordance with a multiple access communication technique, such as Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiple Access (OFDM), and the like.
Wireless communication systems typically implement a multiple access communication technique in accordance with a particular industry standard. For example, in the United States wireless communications employing TDMA typically conform to the IS-54 standard, whereas wireless communications employing CDMA typically conform to, for example, the IS-95 standard. Each standard defines, among other things, the size of user data packets employed for traffic channels. Once defined by a standard, the size of the user data packets carried by the traffic channels typically does not vary. Thus, the decision of the user data packet size for each standard requires careful consideration of a number of factors, including whether the user data packets will carry voice or data. User data packets carrying voice information tend to be smaller than user data packets carrying data because user data packets carrying voice information typically are not retransmitted, and accordingly a lost voice packet must not be noticeable to the receiver of the packet. Moreover, a high perceived Quality of Service (QoS) for voice information requires the frequent transmission of smaller packets compared to the less frequent and larger packets employed for data.

Systems and methods of transmission of user data packets


A machine, method and computer-readable medium for presenting one or more users with suggestions of items from a choice space, wherein the items chosen for presentation are based upon explicit and/or observed preferences of the user. The present invention contemplates use in any number of paradigms involving large user choice spaces, including those relating to the internet and on-line arenas, as well as those relating to television.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scheme for providing one or more users with suggestions for particular items that may be of interest to them from a choice space of items that would be cumbersome or undesirable to navigate through using conventional techniques. More particularly, the present invention relates to a machine, method and medium for adaptably determining items from the choice space that may be of interest to a particular user, and to suggest those items to the user for his or her review. To implement this, embodiments of the present invention envision that each of one or more users enter explicit information indicating their preferences for certain types of items within the choice space. Then, using that explicit information and further observing what specific items each user actually accesses from the choice space for their use, the present invention suggests items in the choice space that may be of individual interest to each of the one or more users. The present invention contemplates use with any number of paradigms, such as television, the internet, on-line services, etc.
2. Related Art
For hundreds, if not thousands of years, schemes have been implemented to allow people to more easily identify and obtain certain items that they desire from within a given choice space (i.e., from within an entity or system containing a plurality of available items). For example, reference books are often provided with an index in the back of them to allow a user to quickly identify the page or pages on which desired items of information can be found. By using this index, it is not necessary for the user to scan through the pages of a book to find the desired items, or even to try to guess from a table of contents where the desired items might reside.
In today's electronic society, users of information are presented with an ever-increasing choice of available items. Television is a prime example of this. Initially, the television industry started out with relatively few channels of potential program items, and thus it was not difficult for a user to peruse a TV guide to determine what it was they wanted to watch. However, with the advent of cable television and an ever-increasing number of available programs, it has become increasingly difficult for users to navigate through the jumble of offerings.
As a partial solution to this problem, companies such as Starsight Telecast of Freemont, Calif. have created on-line guides for user's to electronically look through the available choice of television programs. However, having to navigate through even this type of scheme may be more cumbersome than today's demanding consumer would want to deal with. In addition, a user may want to be provided with additional information, such as what new shows have been made available that may be of interest specifically to him or her, as well as to be notified of interesting shows that may conflict with a current show being watched.
Television is not the only place where users are given an increasingly large number of choices. This phenomenon is also occurring in the realm of the "internet" and on-line services. For example, a graphical application of the internet known as the World Wide Web (the Web) has continued to gain popularity, as is evidenced by the explosive proliferation of Web "sites." As a result, attempting to find a web site having desired items of information can be a very difficult task. To assist a user in finding desired Web sites, tools such as "excite" (found at Web address www.excite.com) and "yahoo" (found at www.yahoo.com) offer various key word and concept searching capabilities to assist a user to find desired sites and items that may be therein. As with the television situation, however, it nonetheless is often difficult for a user to go digging for information in this way. In both situations, a user may wish to simply be presented with a choice of web sites or television programs that they would likely be interested in. This would be in contrast to, for example, having to think up key words to form a search and then navigate through the often oblique search results obtained therefrom.
Consequently, what is needed is a scheme for identifying items within a choice space that may be of interest to a specific user in a simplified way, and then present those items to the user for his or her review.

Machine, method and medium for assisted selection of information from a choice space


A coil electronic component includes a magnetic body, wherein the magnetic body includes a substrate, and a coil part including patterned insulating films disposed on the substrate, a first plating layer formed between the patterned insulating films by plating, and a second plating layer disposed on the first plating layer.

The present disclosure relates to a coil electronic component and a method of manufacturing the same.
An inductor, which is a type of chip electronic component, is a representative passive element configuring an electronic circuit together with a resistor and a capacitor to remove noise therefrom.
A thin film type inductor may be manufactured by forming internal coil parts through plating, hardening a magnetic powder-resin composite in which magnetic powders and a resin are mixed with each other to manufacture a magnetic body, and then forming external electrodes on outer surfaces of the magnetic body.
A direct current (DC) resistance (Rdc), which is one of the main properties of the inductor, may be decreased as a cross-sectional area of an internal coil part is increased. In addition, inductance of the inductor may be increased as an area of the magnetic material through which magnetic flux passes is increased.
Therefore, in order to decrease the DC resistance (Rdc) and improve the inductance, the cross-sectional area of an internal coil and the area of a magnetic material may be increased.
Examples of a method for increasing the cross-sectional area of the internal coil part may include a method of increasing a width of the coil and a method of increasing a thickness of the coil.
However, when the width of the coil is increased, there is an increased risk of generating a short circuit between neighboring coils, and a limit to the number of turns of an implementable coil may occur, causing the area of the magnetic material to deteriorate with regard to efficiency. Furthermore, there may be a limitation with regard to implementation for a high capacity product.
Therefore, the thickness and width of a coil should be increased to give an internal coil part of the structure a high aspect ratio (AR).
An aspect ratio (AR) of an internal coil part may mean a value obtained by dividing the thickness of the coil by the width of the coil. As the thickness of the coil is increased by a greater amount than the width of the coil is increased, the higher aspect ratio (AR) may be implemented.
However, when the coil part is formed by performing a pattern plating method in which a plating resist is patterned and plated by an exposure and development process according to the related art, in order to increase the thickness of the coil, a thickness of the plating resist also needs to be increased. Since there is a limitation of the exposure process in which a lower portion of the plating resist is not smoothly exposed as the thickness of the plating resist is increased in thickness, it may be difficult to increase the thickness of the coil.
In addition, in order to maintain a form of the thick plating resist, the plating resist needs to have a predetermined width or greater. Since the width of the plating resist corresponds to an interval between the neighboring coils, the interval between the neighboring coils may be increased. As a result, there is a limitation in improving DC resistance (Rdc) and inductance (Ls) characteristics.
In the related art, a process is disclosed in which a first plating conductor pattern is formed after a first resist pattern is formed by exposing and developing a resist film, and a second plating conductor pattern is formed after forming a second resist pattern by again exposing and developing the first plating conductor pattern onto the first resist pattern, in order to solve an exposure limitation according to a thickness of the resist film.
When the internal coil part is formed by performing only the pattern plating method, however, there is a limitation in increasing the cross-sectional area of the internal coil part. Furthermore, since the interval between the neighboring coils is increased, it is difficult to improve DC resistance (Rdc) and inductance (Ls) characteristics.
In addition, in order to form the coil part of the structure having the high aspect ratio (AR), a method of implementing the coil part by adding anisotropic plating onto a plating layer by isotropic plating has been generally attempted.
The above-mentioned anisotropic plating scheme may implement the remaining height of the coil required after forming a seed pattern by the anisotropic plating. According to the above-mentioned scheme, since a shape of the coil, which is a fan shape, has decreased uniformity, it may affect a distribution of the DC resistance (Rdc).
In addition, according to the above-mentioned scheme, since the shape of the coil is bent, it may be difficult to form an insulating layer on the coil pattern. Therefore, a non-insulating space between the coil patterns may occur, thereby causing a defect.

Coil electronic component and method of manufacturing the same


In an image information read-out apparatus, a light beam scans an image recorded on a recording medium and an analog image signal representing the image is obtained. A logarithmic amplifier for logarithmic transformation of the analog image signal has certain characteristics in that a nonlinear portion of its range is in a dynamic range of the analog image signal. An A/D convertor digitizes the analog image signal transformed by the logarithmic amplifier and obtains a digital image signal. A correction circuit corrects the digital image signal so that the influence of shading is cancelled and linearly interpolates the part of the digital image signal corresponding to the nonlinear portion of the characteristics of the logarithmic amplifier on the basis of the characteristics of the shading and the characteristics of the nonlinear portion of the characteristics of the logarithmic amplifier, which have been obtained in advance.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image information read-out apparatus, and more particularly to a shading correction which is carried out by an image information read-out apparatus on an image read out by the apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been various known image information read-out apparatuses in which a light beam is caused to scan a recording medium on which an image is recorded and image information representing the image is read out by detecting the reflected light, transmitted light or light emitted from the recording medium. For such image information read-out apparatuses, as well as for image scanners, facsimile machines or the like, a radiation image information read-out apparatus may be used in a radiation image recording and reproducing system using a stimulable phosphor sheet.
In such image information read-out apparatuses, fluctuation in the image signal in the main scanning direction (so-called shading) can occur due to nonuniformity in the projecting angle of the light beam and/or nonuniformity in the sensitivity of the photodetector. In order to overcome this problem, various propositions have been made. Though we have proposed a method in which the sensitivity of the photodetector is corrected to avoid influence of shading, shading is recently mainly compensated for by adding or subtracting correction data to or from a digitized image signal (digital shading correction). See, for instance, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 9(1997)-69940.
However when a shading correction is carried out in a digital region, the following problem arises. That is, for example, when the shading characteristics are as shown in FIG. 4, the effective dynamic range is narrower than the natural dynamic range by an amount corresponding to the shading (i.e., the difference between the maximum value and the minimum value of the shading data).

Image information read-out apparatus with circuit correcting for the influence of shading


Disclosed is a security alarm system for newborns. The security alarm system comprises bracelets, positioning labels, limiting labels and a computer, wherein the bracelets comprise newborn bracelets and mother bracelets corresponding to the newborn bracelets, and the newborn bracelets and the mother bracelets corresponding to the newborn bracelets are matched and connected through unique identification codes; and the positioning labels are arranged in a corridor of a ward area, provide positioning information for the newborn bracelets, and provide communication connection between the newborn bracelets and the computer. In the mode, mother and infant identification can be realized through matching modules; when a newborn goes out, the newborn is positioned and the position is inquired in real time through positioning modules and the positioning labels, an alarm is given when the newborn goes out without authorization through the limiting labels, and images are transmitted in real time through camera modules.

In recent years, the event that a newborn is taken from a hospital without authorization happens occasionally and becomes a problem requiring social attention. Addressing the problem of theft prevention of newborns in hospitals at present typically involves theft prevention technologies using cameras in wards or corridors to take photos of suspects so as to capture the suspects. However, this often occurs only after the newborns are taken and the suspects are escaped, which causes great harm to the parents of the newborn.
A traditional newborn positioning foot ring device has a positioning function. When a newborn equipped with the foot ring is far away from a monitoring range, an alarm is given to a monitoring person. However, the traditional newborn positioning foot ring device does not have an identity recognition function, and the possibility of identity confusion cannot be completely avoided. Therefore, a need is presented to improve existing theft prevention technology of newborns at hospitals.


A method and apparatus for processing service requests for non-transactional databases are disclosed. In the method and apparatus, the execution of a first operation may be initiated based at least in part on receiving a service request from a user. The first operation may be executed synchronously with receipt of the request. Further, one or more execution workflows may be provisioned for asynchronous execution of one or more other operations.

The use of remote computing services, such as remote document storage, has greatly increased in recent years. An organization, for example, may support its operations using both internal networks of computing resources and computing resources managed by others. Computers of the organization, for instance, may communicate with computers of other organizations to access and/or provide documents or other data while using services of another organization. In many instances, organizations configure and operate remote networks using hardware managed by other organizations, thereby reducing infrastructure costs and achieving other advantages. With such configurations of computing resources, ensuring that access to the resources and the data they hold can be challenging, especially given the multitude of different computing systems. For example, computers of the organization may include personal computers, tablets, smartphones, laptops and other devices.
Ensuring that users can share and collaborate on documents is challenging given the variety of hardware and software components of different devices. Furthermore, it is challenging to ensure that user requests are timely processed and that back-end systems are updated in a manner that ensures overall system consistency.

Processing service requests for non-transactional databases


Amenity service point data is stored, where the amenity service point data specifies, for a plurality of amenities in a venue, a respective plurality of different geographic points at which the amenities are located within the venue. Locations of a plurality of mobile computing devices that are within the venue are determined. For each particular amenity among the plurality of amenities, a crowdedness level of the particular amenity is determined based in part on the locations of the plurality of mobile computing devices relative to the geographic point corresponding to the particular amenity. A request to view information relating to a certain amenity is received. Particular information relating to the certain amenity, where the information includes an indication of the crowdedness level of the certain amenity is caused to display. The crowdedness level of the certain amenity is periodically re-determined during duration of an event at the venue.

The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Large venues, such as sports stadiums or shopping malls, often have amenities located at different places throughout the venue. For example, a football stadium may have ten different food vendors spread out throughout the stadium. A shopping mall may have five different restrooms spread out throughout the mall. Different amenities of the same type may offer different goods or services. For example, the ten different food vendors in the stadium may each serve different food.
In some cases, the attention of a visitor to the venue is focused on an occurring in the venue or task being performed in the venue separate from the enjoyment of an amenity. For example, a football fan may come to a football stadium primarily to enjoy a football game. A visitor at a mall may be focused on purchasing a specific item.
The visitor may wish to use the amenity as efficiently as possible so there is minimal distraction from the event being viewed or task being performed. For example, a football fan at a football stadium may wish to obtain his food quickly so that he does not miss an important play in the football game. Techniques for providing information to a visitor that enables the user to select and use the amenities in a venue as efficiently as possible are needed.

Determining and displaying information relating to crowdedness of venue amenities


A spintronic device controls both the electrical charge and the spin of electrons to transmit, process, and store information. The control of electron spin provides additional degrees of freedom to modify the electric and magnetic properties of materials such as magnetic anisotropy. However, the development and integration of spintronic devices has been limited, in part, by the lack of a robust approach to electrically gate magnetism. Conventional approaches to gating magnetism either exhibit impractically small changes to the properties of a magnet or limited operating lifetime due to material degradation. Here, a magneto-ionic device operates using a hydrogen-gated magneto-ionic mechanism to overcome these shortcomings. A gate voltage applied to the magneto-ionic device causes protons to move towards a magnetic layer where the protons reduce to hydrogen. The presence of hydrogen and protons leads to large changes in the magnetic layer without degradation. This voltage-induced process is reversible.

A spintronic device operates, in part, by controlling the spin of electrons to transmit, process, and store information. Compared to conventional electronic devices, which operate by manipulating only the electrical charge of electrons, spintronic devices may control both the electrical charge and the spin of electrons, thus providing additional degrees of freedom to modify the electric and magnetic properties of materials. Exemplary material properties that may be modified by controlling both the electrical charge and spin of electrons include, but are not limited to, the electrical resistance, magnetic anisotropy, magnetic damping, spin-orbit torque efficiency, and exchange interactions, such as the Dzyaloshinskii-Moriya interaction (DMI) and the Ruderman-Kittel-Kasuya-Yosida (RKKY) interaction.
Additionally, the manipulation of the electron spin in spintronic devices can provide several advantages over conventional electronic devices, such as lower power consumption, less heat dissipation, non-volatility for memory devices, and faster switching times. Furthermore, spintronic devices may be fabricated using a broader range of materials, including common metals such as iron, aluminum, and copper. In contrast, conventional electrical devices typically require specialized semiconductor materials.

Magneto-ionic device with a solid state proton pump and methods for using the same


A developing device includes a housing, a developing roller, a developer supply path, a developer conveyance path, a supply-side conveying member, an agitating side conveying member and first projection members. The developing roller is rotatably supported in the housing. The supply-side conveying member includes a supply-side spiral member formed by connecting spiral pieces, in the first direction and having a hollow interior formed by the connected spiral pieces and a first rib member extending in the first direction, is arranged in the developer supply path and conveys the developer in the first direction by being driven and rotated. The first projecting members extend in the first direction along an outer wall portion of the first rib member from a first area where the supply-side spiral member and the first rib member intersect and project radially outward in the rotation of the supply-side conveying member.

The present disclosure relates to a developing device in which developer is conveyed and an image forming apparatus provided with the same.
Conventionally, a developing device is known in which developer is conveyed in a circulating manner between a first conveyance path and a second conveyance path arranged in a developer housing. The developer is conveyed in opposite directions in the first and second conveyance paths by agitating screws arranged in the respective first and second conveyance paths. The agitating screw of the developing device is composed of a shaft portion and a spiral piece arranged around the shaft portion. In the developer housing, the developer is conveyed in a predetermined conveying direction by driving and rotating the agitating screws.
If an adhesion force of the developer increases as the developer is deteriorated, the developer may adhere to the shaft portion. If the developer adheres to the shaft portion, virtual shaft thickening of the agitating screw occurs to reduce the conveying performance of the agitating screw. An agitating screw including no shaft part, i.e. having a hollow shape in an axial central part thereof to solve the shaft thickening of the agitating screw described above is known.
With the agitating screw described above, developer conveying performance in an axial direction tends to be lower as compared with an agitating screw including a shaft portion extending in the axial direction. Thus, the conveying performance in the axial direction of the agitating screw has been affected by surrounding members in some cases. Particularly, with the agitating screw arranged adjacent to a developing roller for carrying developer with a magnetic force, the conveying performance of the agitating screw is subject to fluctuation depending on the developing roller. As a result, there has been a difference in the conveying performance between the agitating screw arranged in the first conveyance path adjacent to the developing roller and that arranged in the second conveyance path distant from the developing roller in some cases. This has resulted in a problem that the circulation of the developer in the developer housing becomes unstable.
The present disclosure was developed in view of the above problem and an object thereof is to adjust a conveying ability of a developer conveying member having a hollow shape by a simple configuration.

Developing device and image forming apparatus provided with same