In-line roller skate constituted by a longitudinal frame on lower portion of which a plurality of skating wheels are arranged, and by a boot constituted by a shell base extended toward the skater's ankle by an upper, and a sole of which is associated with the frame, directly or via an up plate of the frame or a cradle, wherein a detachable linkage arrangement is interposed between the frame and the boot sole, whether or not via a plate or cradle, and is constituted by at least one wedge-shaped lateral flange obtained on an upper portion of the frame and capable of cooperating with a corresponding housing of the sole, plate or cradle, via a tightening member in order to obtain a linkage by progressive wedging effect, resulting in an automatic backlash elimination, between the flange of the frame and the sole, plate or cradle.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relate to a gliding element such as a roller skate, in-line roller skate, or ice skate. This type of skate is generally constituted by a longitudinal frame on a lower portion of which the gliding elements are arranged, i.e., a plurality of wheels or a skating blade, and by a boot whose sole in associated with the frame, directly or via an upper plate of the frame.
2. Background and Material Information
This type of skate can be adapted to the training of the skater on ice, outside of a skating rink, but also for any athletes eager to maintain or perfect, on a hard or tarred ground, the techiques used in gliding sports such as trail skiing, cross country skiing, ice skating, etc.
In known skates of this type, the linkage of the boot on the frame is generally fixed and without possibility of disassembly by the skater.
As a result, it is necessary to replace this assembly, in fact the entire skate, when the frame or the boot are damaged.
It is understood that a substantial expense is incurred whereas replacing either of the elements would be sufficient to restore a partially damaged skate.
furthermore, another drawback encountered with the currently available skate lies in the fact that the morphology of the skater's foot is not necessarily adapted to the orientation of the boot with respect to the frame of the skate.
In fact, no angular adjustment means enable such adaptation.

Gliding element such as an in-line roller skate


A configured aircraft flight management aid system comprises: means of interpretation receiving data taken from external instructions from an external control center, data relating to aircraft equipment failures, cabin problems and problems related to the environment of the aircraft; means of determination receiving data from the means of interpretation and determining at least one reference constraint associated with at least one parameter representative of a flight path, a reference constraint associated with a reference parameter comprising a new constraint, different from the initial constraint when the item of data effectively necessitates following a new path, different from the initial path, and a reference constraint comprising the initial constraint when the means of determination do not have access to any data relating to an event effectively necessitating following a new path; warning means generating a warning to an operator when the path actually flown does not comply with said reference constraint.

These navigation aid systems conventionally comprise an FMS (Flight Management System) flight management system. The flight management system is used by a computer installed on board an aircraft. The means for constructing a flight plan are functions of the computer of the FMS.
Conventionally, a flight plan defines the route that the crew of an aircraft plans to follow in order to go from a departure position to a destination point of its mission as well as the conditions along this route.
The flight plan comprises initial flight constraints on respective parameters representative of a path (four-dimensional, 3D and time/speed) the aircraft is supposed to follow between its position of departure and a point of destination. The parameters representative of the path that the aircraft is supposed to follow can correspond to the position of the aircraft, that is to say its position in a horizontal plane and its altitude, its speed, its vertical speed, its heading, its roll, its pitch, the monitoring of radio signals, the roll, the pitch, the thrust, of waypoints, of a volume in which the aircraft must be around an airport, etc.
The flight constraints associated with these various parameters are values that these parameters must take or ranges of values within which the various parameters must be included. It is, for example, the lateral path (in a horizontal plane) of the aircraft or its vertical path (in a vertical plane), a minimum or maximum altitude, a heading to take, positions of waypoints through which the aircraft must pass, a minimum thrust to be achieved, a maximum speed to reach, etc.
In commercial flight, the aircraft is supposed to follow a flight plan called the active flight plan which comprises initial constraints on parameters representative of a path that the aircraft is supposed to follow initially. Any deviation of the path actually followed by the aircraft with respect to the initial path must be caused by an event which is:                either an external instruction coming from an external center, for example AOC (Air Operation Center) centers or ATC (Air Traffic Control) centers, or an external agreement originating from one of these centers,        or a problem within the aircraft (cabin problem or failure of one of the aircraft's piecessw of equipment),        or a problem related to the environment of the aircraft (meteorological problem, terrain risk or risk of collision related to traffic).
Reciprocally, a certain number of instructions or of problems must give rise to a deviation of the path actually flown by the aircraft with respect to the initial path (more or less long term).
However, the pilot is free to depart or not from the initial path when one of the events listed above occurs. He can also take the initiative to depart from the initial path without one of these events having occurred.
The pilot can thus freely cause the aircraft to deviate substantially from the path that it is supposed to follow (which can be the initial path or a new path adapted to the situation). The consequences of such a deviation can result in a reduction of the fuel reserve, of the safety of the path with respect to obstacles, a violation of noise restrictions, overflying restrictions, penetration into prohibited airspace. In the case of failure of an equipment of the aircraft, the pilot may not divert the aircraft to a path adapted to the situation and this can result in a reduction of the safety margins for the continuation of the flight.


A fast floating-point multiplication and accumulation unit (fmac) is described. The described fmac uses significantly less hardware, thereby yielding a fast and an inexpensive fmac. This fmac uses an m-bit carry propagation adder instead of a 3 m-bit carry propagation adder and a 2 m-bit normalizer instead of a 3 m-bit normalizer. The normalizer relies on a leading one detection, as opposed to leading one/zero prediction used in known fmac's. Even when the product of the multiplication is opposite in sign to the number added to the product, the fmac, disclosed here, only uses an m-bit adder and a 2 m-bit normalizer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to floating-point multiplication and accumulation. More particularly, but without limitation, the present invention relates to floating-point multiplication and accumulation units (fmac) that perform floating-point multiplication and accumulation operations, such as (A.times.B)+C, with significant temporal overlap of suboperations, as explained below.
2. Description of Related Art
Typically, an fmac is a part of a floating-point unit of a microprocessor. An fmac generally performs as one operation floating-point multiplication and accumulation operations, such as (A.times.B)+C. In microprocessor design, fmac's play an important role in, for example, graphics applications. Basically, fmac's reduce the instruction path length by combining two instructions into one. Graphics applications often involve coordinate transformations, which are implemented as matrix transformations. By performing (A.times.B)+C as a single functional operation instead of a separate multiplication and addition, an fmac can increase the speed with which such matrix transformations are performed. For instance, when running at peak condition, an fmac can perform floating-point operations faster by a factor of two, compared to a unit performing separately the addition and multiplication in the operations (A.times.B)+C.
FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art fmac design. In FIG. 1, a binary floating-point number, A 110, is multiplied by another binary floating-point number, B 114. The result of this multiplication is then added to another binary floating-point number, C 118. A floating-point number includes a sign, a signed exponent, and a mantissa. FIG. 1 illustrates the case of A 110, B 114, and C 118, being m-bit numbers, i.e, each having an m-bit mantissa.
In this prior art design, the multiplication of A 110 and B 114, is performed using a multiplication array 122. The multiplication array 122 produces the partial products formed by multiplying, for instance, the mantissa of A 110 by each digit of the mantissa of B 114. The result of the multiplication can be up to a 2 m-bit number, since A 110 and B 114 are m-bit numbers. While the multiplication of A 110 and B 114 is occurring, C's 118 mantissa is pre-normalized 126. The pre-normalization 126 of C's 118 mantissa brings into agreement the exponent of C 118 with the exponent of the product of A 110 and B 114.
Next, a 3 m-bit carry propagation adder 130 adds the product of the multiplication of A 110 and B 114, to the pre-normalized number C 118. The more bit positions an adder has to process, the slower it operates and the more hardware it requires to implement. Nevertheless, this prior art design employs a 3 m-bit CPA 130, because conceivably each bit of the mantissa of C 118 is more significant than any of the bits of the 2 m-bit mantissa of the product of A 110 and B 114. Therefore, an adder adding the normalized C 118 to the product of A 110 and B 114, requires a capacity to handle a 3 m-bit wide mantissa 134.
In parallel with the addition performed by the 3 m-bit adder 130, a leading one/zero anticipator 138 operates on the numbers which are being added by the adder 130 to predict the bit position of the most significant bit of the number resulting from the addition. Actually, a leading one detector is less hardware intensive and faster than the leading one/zero anticipator 138 and also error free unlike the anticipator 138, as explained below. However, this prior art fmac uses the anticipator 138, because it needs to find the most significant bit of the output of the adder 130, while the adder 130 is executing, i.e. in parallel with the addition performed by the adder 130.
The leading one/zero anticipator 138 predicts the location of the most significant one bit in the result of the addition, if the result is positive, and of a leading zero if the result is negative. Predicting the leading zero can result in an error of the most significant bit being predicted one bit position too far to the right. For instance, the anticipator 138 may predict the leading zero of a negative number to appear in the fifth position from the left, but due to a carry generated when taking the twos complement of the negative number, the actual most significant bit ends up being in the fourth position from the left.
Next, the 3 m-bit mantissa output of the 3 m-bit adder 130 is normalized by a 3 m-bit normalizer 142. The normalizer 142 keeps up to m of the most significant bits and discards up to 2 m of the least significant bits of the 3 m-bit mantissa output of the CPA 130. Only an m-bit mantissa is kept, which may have up to m significant bits. In performing the normalization 142, this fmac uses the prediction of the leading one/zero anticipator 138 to determine the position of the most significant bit in the 3 m-bit mantissa output of the 3 m-bit adder 130.
If the m-bit output of the normalizer 142 is negative, then the prior art design of FIG. 1 requires taking the twos complement of the normalized 142 3 m-bit number. To generate the twos complement, the result of the normalization 142 is inverted (not shown) and incremented 146 (that is, the incrementer 146 adds a one to the m-bit number, which is output by the normalizer 142). Then, in some cases, when there is the error in the prediction of the most significant bit position, as explained above, this prior art design applies a binary shift 150 to the m-bit mantissa of the output of the incrementer 146. When activated, the binary shifter 150 shifts the m-bit mantissa to the right by one bit and adds a one to the exponent of the m-bit floating-point number.
Following step 150, the result 154 of the operations (A.times.B)+C is available. The total execution time for this prior art fmac design is approximately the time needed for executing the following: (m-bit.times.m-bit multiplication)+(3 m-bit addition)+(3 m-bit normalization)+(m-bit increment)+(binary shift).

Fast method of floating-point multiplication and accumulation


The invention provides devices and methods for removing and trapping large and/or dense abrasive particles from a polishing slurry. The polishing slurry is introduced into a container and allowed to stagnate, thereby causing large and/or dense particles to separate from the slurry under the influence of gravity. The container includes a cavity or plurality of cavities defined by an inner surface of the container into which the separated particles sink. To prevent the large and/or dense particles from becoming re-suspended into the slurry, the size and shape of the cavity is relatively deep and narrow with respect to the large and/or dense particles, thus providing a trapping effect. The cavities do not effectively trap the smaller particles.

Polishing processes, such as chemical-mechanical polishing ("CMP"), are used in the manufacturing of microelectronic devices to form flat surfaces on semiconductor wafers, field emission displays, and many other microelectronic substrates. For example, the manufacture of semiconductor devices generally involves the formation of various process layers, selective removal or patterning of portions of those layers, and deposition of yet additional process layers above the surface of a semiconducting substrate to form a semiconductor wafer. The process layers can include, by way of example, insulation layers, gate oxide layers, conductive layers, and layers of metal or glass, etc. It is generally desirable in certain steps of the wafer process that the uppermost surface of the process layers be planar, i.e., flat, for the deposition of subsequent layers. Polishing is used to planarize process layers wherein a deposited material, such as a conductive or insulating material, is polished to planarize the wafer for subsequent process steps.
In a typical polishing process (e.g., a CMP process), a substrate is mounted upside down on a carrier in a polishing tool. A force pushes the carrier and the wafer downward toward a polishing pad. The carrier and the wafer are rotated above the rotating polishing pad on the polishing tool's polishing table. A polishing composition, also known as a polishing slurry, generally is introduced between the rotating wafer and the rotating polishing pad during the polishing process. Polishing slurries are widely available, and, as a consumable component of the polishing process, typically must be replenished. To transport and store the slurries, they are provided in a variety of containers ranging in shape and capacity.
For physically removing portions of the process layers, polishing slurries often contain an abrasive material in an aqueous solution. Typical abrasive materials comprise metal oxides (e.g., silicon dioxide, cerium oxide, aluminum oxide, zirconium oxide, tin oxide, coformed particles thereof, and combinations thereof), diamond, boron nitrides, silicon carbide, polymeric materials, and combinations thereof. U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,423, for example, describes a method for chemically-mechanically polishing a metal layer by contacting the surface with a polishing slurry comprising high purity fine metal oxide particles in an aqueous medium. The type of abrasive material selected will depend on the type of substrate being polished. The size of the abrasive particles suspended in the slurry generally ranges from about 1 nanometer (e.g. 1×10−9 meters) to several microns (e.g. 1×10−6 meters), or more. While particles on the order of 20 nanometers to a micron typically function well as abrasives, it has been found that larger abrasive particles (e.g., agglomerates of abrasive particles) may scratch or cause other defects on the polished surfaces of the substrate. Similarly, abrasive particles having a density or hardness significantly greater than the average density or hardness of the abrasive particles can also produce defects during polishing of substrate surfaces. The presence of such defects can ruin the substrate or substantially impair the performance of the finished semiconductor device. To reduce surface defectivity, it is desirable to eliminate undesirably large or dense abrasive particles from the polishing slurry. Therefore, a major focus on the part of slurry manufactures has been to reduce the number of large and/or dense abrasive particles, typically by better controlling the particle production process, dispersion process, or filtering process. Despite these efforts, larger and/or denser particles continue to be present in slurries and surface defectivity remains a problem.


The object of the present invention is to provide an image fixing apparatus which enables achieving saving of energy in fixing by controlling the temperature of a heater to fix a toner image on a recording medium, an image forming apparatus having the image fixing apparatus therein, and an image forming process using the same. To achieve the object, there is provided an image fixing apparatus which includes a heater having a heat source to generate heat; a fixing belt which moves in a direction to which a recording medium is transported in a state where the belt comes into contact with the heater; and a pressing portion which presses the transported recording medium with a toner image carried thereon on an area of the fixing belt which comes into contact with the heater, and is characterized in that the contact surface of the heater which comes into contact with the fixing belt has a smoothly formed convex toward the side which comes into contact with the fixing belt with a curvature radius of 200 mm to 100,000 mm, and an amount of contact time between the fixing belt and the recording medium is 20 msec. or more.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image fixing apparatus which can promote saving of energy in fixing and also relates to an image forming apparatus having the image fixing apparatus therein and the image forming process.
2. Description of the Related Art
There are increasingly demands on saving of energy and higher-speed processing for an image forming apparatus according to an electrophotography technique, such as, printers, copiers, facsimiles in recent years. To meet the demands, it is important to improve the thermal efficiency of an image fixing apparatus configured for fixing a toner image carried onto a recording medium by means of an image transferring process or a direct image-carrying process.
As an image fixing apparatuses for fixing a toner image, image fixing apparatuses according to a contact heating process, such as, a heat roller process, a film-heating process, and an electro magnetic induction heating process have been widely used.
An image fixing apparatus according to a heat roller process is basically configured to have a pair of rotatable rollers which comprises a fixing roller having interiorly a heat source, such as, a halogen lamp, to control the temperature to a given one, and a pressure roller brought into pressure contact with the fixing roller. In the fixing apparatus, a recording medium having a not-fixed toner image is sent into the contact portion between the pair of rotatable rollers, so-called fixing nip portion, to melt the not-fixed toner image by means of heat and pressure actions from the fixing roller and the pressure roller to fix the image.
An image fixing apparatus according to a film-heating process has been proposed in, for instance, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) Nos. 63-313182, and 01-263679. These image fixing apparatuses are configured to make a recording medium having a not-fixed toner image thereon attached firmly to a heater which is mounted and supported by a supporting member through a thin fixing film having thermal resistance to feed heat from the heater to the recording medium through the fixing film while sliding and moving the fixing film to the heater. As for the heater, for example, a ceramic heater which comprises a resistive layer disposed on a ceramic substrate having properties, such as, thermal resistance, insulation, and high thermal conductivity, like an alumina and an aluminum nitride, is used. Because a thin fixing film having a low thermal capacity can be used for the fixing film, an image fixing apparatus according to a film-heating process has a higher efficiency of heat transfer and achieves a shorter warm-up time than those of an image fixing apparatus according to a heat roller process, and it enables a quick start and saving of energy.
As to an image fixing apparatus according to an electromagnetic induction heat process, for instance, there is one described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open (JP-A) No. 08-22206, in which a technique that the Joule heat is induced by eddy currents generated on a magnetic metal member by an alternating magnetic field to make a heater including the magnetic metal member heating through the use of electromagnetic induction is used.
Hereinafter, the image fixing apparatus disclosed in the JP-A 08-22206 will be illustrated referring to FIG. 1. An image fixing apparatus shown in FIG. 1 comprises a film inner surface guide 103 with a heater 102 mounted thereon, the heater 102 comprising an exciting coil unit 100 and an magnetic metal member 101 which is a heating section; a cylindrical film 104 having thermal resistance and wrapping around the film inner surface guide 103 in a state where the magnetic metal member 101 is held in contact with the inside wall thereof; and a pressure roller 105 which is arranged to face the magnetic metal member 101 and brought into pressure contact with the external wall of the film 104 to form a fixing nip portion N between the film 104 and itself and also rotates the film 104.
As for the film 104, a single layer having a film thickness of 100 μm or less, preferably 50 μm to 20 μm or more and thermal resistance, made from a PTFE (polytetrafluoroethylene), a PFA (perfluoroalkoxy), a FEP (fluorinated ethylene propylene) and the like, or a multilayer in which a film made from a PTFE, a PFA, and a FEP and the like coated on the outer circumference of a film made from a polyimide, a polyamideimide, a PEEK (polyether ether ketone), a PES (polyethersulfone), a PPS (polyphenylene sulfide) and the like, are used.
The film inner surface guide 103 comprises a member having rigidity and thermal resistance, formed with a PEEK resin, a PPS resin, and the like, and the heater 102 is engaged into generally the central part of the bottom surface of the film inner surface guide 103 longitudinally along the guide.
The pressure roller 105 comprises a core 105a and a heat-resistant rubber layer 105b which is coated around the core 105a and has excellent demolding properties, such as, a silicone rubber. The pressure roller 105 is arranged with a given pressing force so that it is brought into contact with the magnetic metal member 101 of the heater 102 through the film 104 by means of a bearing unit and a biasing unit (both not shown). The pressure roller 105 is driven to rotate in a counterclockwise direction indicated with the arrow by a drive unit (not shown).
A frictional force is generated between the pressure roller 105 and the film 104 by the rotating drive unit of the pressure roller 105 to lead the film 104 to rotate along with the pressure roller 105, and the film 104 rotates in a sliding manner with a state where it is attached firmly to the magnetic metal member 101 of the heater 102.
In the condition that the heater 102 reaches a given temperature, a recording medium P which is carrying a not-fixed toner image T formed in the image forming section (not shown) is sent to the fixing nip portion N located between the film 104 and the pressure roller 105. The recording medium P is transported to the fixing nip portion N in a state being sandwiched between the pressure roller 105 and the film, and in the course of the transport, heat from the magnetic metal member 101 is given to the recording medium P through the film 104 to lead a the not-fixed toner image T to be melted and fixed on the recording medium P. At the outlet of the fixing nip Portion N, the recording medium P passed through is separated from the surface of the film 104 to be transported to the output tray (not shown).
As described above, an image fixing apparatus according to an electromagnetic induction heating process allows the magnetic metal member 101 as an heat induction unit to be arranged close by the toner image T on the recording medium P through the film 104 by means of generation of eddy currents, and this enables a heat efficiency higher than that of an image fixing apparatus according to a film-heating process.
However, in the above noted image fixing apparatuses according to a heat roller process, a film-heating process, and an electromagnetic induction heating process, it is very difficult to take a sufficient nipping time because rollers are used in order to press a recording medium on a fixing member. To ensure a fixing within the short nipping time, the heat temperature should be set to a needlessly high temperature, which has become a subject to resolve.
Particularly in a system in which the above-noted heater 102 is used, it is impossible to take a large nip width because pressure activities are carried out using the pressure roller 105 made from a rubber, although the heater 102 having a contact surface in a shape of plane plate to be contact with the recording medium P is used. Namely, the configuration stated above makes it impossible to enlarge the nip width unless the diameter of the pressure roller is enlarged, since the rubber member is compressed and transformed by the crimping with the pressure roller 105 to press the recording medium P and the film 104 on the surface of the heater 102 to form the nip portion. Besides, there is a disadvantage that a repulsive force of the rubber portion differs at the central part of and at the end part of the contact surface with the pressure roller 105 which is made from a rubber, and a crimping force at the end part of the contact face weaker than that of the central part. With an increase in a roller diameter of the pressure roller 105, the mass of the pressure roller 105 becomes greater, and this results in a deprivation of heat needed for fixing at the time of nipping, which requires an excessively increased temperature of the heater 102. There is no way of resolving the differences in a pressure force between at the central part and at the end part of the pressure roller 105 made from a rubber, in principle. Therefore, time for undergoing a sufficient pressure force becomes shorten. To make the toner particles deformed and make the toner layer fused with and attached firmly on the surface of the recording medium P, it is required to extract fixing performance by excessively increasing the toner temperature to make the toner viscosity decreased.
It is not preferable that an excessive application of heat like this causes an increased consumption of energy in terms of energy saving since an amount of heat more than needed is needlessly given to the recording medium P and the temperature of the heater 102 becomes higher due to the increased heat temperature, which causes an increased amount of heat radiation, an increased temperature of the film 104 itself, and an increased amount of heat diffusion to the surroundings.
Further, because of raising the toner temperature in a small amount of time, the toner temperature at the portion being in contact with the film 104 extremely differs in temperature from that of the portion being in contact with the recording medium P, and the toner temperature of the portion being in contact with the recording medium P is low and becomes to have a viscosity barely enough to be fixed on the recording medium P, but the toner temperature of the portion being in contact with the film 104 has a problem that it is liable to cause an offset phenomenon because it has exceedingly high temperature and shows a sharp decrease in the viscosity of the toner.

Image fixing apparatus, and, image forming apparatus having the same, and image forming process


On a display configured to provide a photorepresentative view from a user's vantage point of a physical environment in which the user is located, a method is provided comprising receiving, from the user, an input selecting a theme for use in augmenting the photorepresentative view. The method further includes obtaining, optically and in real time, environment information of the physical environment and generating a spatial model of the physical environment based on the environment information. The method further includes identifying, via analysis of the spatial model, one or more features within the spatial model that each corresponds to one or more physical features in the physical environment. The method further includes based on such analysis, displaying, on the display, an augmentation of an identified feature, the augmentation being associated with the theme.

Virtual reality systems exist for simulating virtual environments within which a user may be immersed. Displays such as head-up displays, head-mounted displays, etc. may be utilized to display the virtual environment. It may be desirable to provide a user with a virtual reality experience wherein the user is not fully immersed, but rather remains somewhat connected to the real environment. Thus, augmented reality systems are being developed to augment the user's perception of a real-world environment with graphics, sounds, etc. As an example, augmented reality systems may be used to provide cockpit simulation environments integrating real objects with virtual imagery for pilot training and simulations. Existing augmented reality technologies typically rely on predetermined data, such as a preconfigured model of the simulation environment, etc. so that virtual elements may be integrated appropriately.

Theme-based augmentation of photorepresentative view


The present invention relates to a tree support and cover system. One embodiment of the present invention relates to a tree stand configured for efficient transportation of a tree. The tree stand includes two sets of wheels for use in translating the tree. A first set of wheels is disposed below the tree stand and allows for conventional translation with an erect tree. A second set of wheels is disposed on the side of the tree stand and allows for tipped translation. The tree stand may also include an optional electrical system with one or more electrical items including a timer, a Ground Fault Interrupter outlet, a remote controlled positioning system, etc. A second embodiment of the present invention relates to a collapsible tree cover that can be used to efficiently transport and store the tree. The collapsible tree cover can be concealed within a tree stand or used as a skirt when it is collapsed below the tree. The tree cover includes at least one adjustable expansion system with an elastically biased opening for use in reducing the diameter of the tree. The tree cover includes at least one storage opening which can be used to store items around the trunk of the tree when the tree cover is extended over the tree. The tree stand and tree cover embodiments can also be used in conjunction with one another to provide additional features.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a tree support and cover system. More particularly, the present invention relates to a tree stand and collapsible cover configured for efficient transportation and storage of a tree.
2. Background of the Invention and Related Art
It has become tradition to raise and decorate a Christmas tree throughout the Christmas holiday. Part of this tradition involves lighting and displaying the tree in a well traveled location. Trees are typically decorated with ornaments, candy, and electrical lights. The electrical lights are strung around the tree and plugged into a wall outlet.
Artificial trees have become more popular over the last 10 years because of the environmental concern, annual expense, and cleanup required with living trees. Living trees shed leaves/needles once they are cut and typically deposit a large amount of these needles over the course of the holiday season. In addition, a living tree cannot be used more than one season because it will dry out and die. Living trees must also be disposed of at the end of the season. Likewise, many people have ethical or environment objections to cutting down a 20 year old tree for a one to three month period and then disposing of it.
Artificial trees can be used multiple times, require no water, are typically lighter, and do not shed needles. However, artificial trees must still be stored during the non-Christmas season. Conventional artificial trees occupy a large amount of space and are difficult to efficiently store between uses. Some types of artificial trees include the ability to break apart into smaller and more manageable pieces. In addition, the branches of some artificial trees may be able to hinge or collapse to further minimizing its size. Despite these improvements, it is still inconvenient to store a tree between uses.
During the Christmas season, trees are erected with a tree stand that provides support and stability to the tree. It is often necessary to move the entire tree from one location to another. Therefore, numerous tree stands are equipped with wheels and other portability systems. However, conventional portability systems are designed for direct translation of the tree. This type of movement can be difficult if the tree is very heavy or densely decorated.
Accordingly, there is a need in the industry for an improved tree support and cover system that allows for efficient transportation and storage of the tree.


A fluorination reactor having a reaction zone, an inlet for supplying an organic compound to be fluorinated to the reaction zone, an inlet for supplying elemental fluorine to the reaction zone, and an outlet for recovering a fluorinated reaction product, wherein the reaction zone includes a fluoride-adsorbing composition for adsorbing any HF produced as a byproduct of the reaction between the organic compound and elemental fluorine.

The present invention relates to improvements to fluorination reactions using elemental fluorine in which HF is formed as a byproduct. In particular, the present invention relates to fluorination reactions in which the reactants are contacted in the presence of an HF-adsorbing composition, so any HF formed is removed from the reaction system to prevent the formation of other undesirable hydrogen-containing byproducts. The present invention also relates to improved fluorination reactors with reaction zones packed with HF-adsorbing compositions.


A multi-phase voltage converting device includes voltage converters each performing voltage conversion based on a control period selected from among a plurality of predetermined control periods, and a control device indicating the control period to the voltage converters. The control device updates the control period of voltage converters in a predetermined period related commonly to the plurality of control periods. The update period is a least common multiple of the plurality of control periods. The plurality of voltage converters are n in number, and the control device successively updates the control periods for the plurality of voltage converters with a time difference equal to 1/n of the update period. Thereby, the multi-phase voltage converting device suppressing output voltage ripples can be provided.

Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2004-357388 has disclosed a step-up/down converter of a multi-phase multiplex type that has a step-up function and a step-down function. This step-up/down converter is controlled such that currents having phases shifted from each other are passed for respective phases of the converter.
FIG. 7 is a waveform diagram for illustrating a multi-phase (three-phase) converter.
Referring to FIG. 7, for a single phase, a battery current that is not smoothed with a control period of 100 μs has a large amplitude, and a large ripple current flows even after the smoothing. Conversely, when a three-phase converter operates with the same control period, PWM signals of respective phases may have a phase difference of 120 degrees therebetween, and thereby a ripple current having a period of 33.3 μs and a reduced amplitude is passed in the smoothed battery current.
Thus, the three-phase converter causes the ripple current of a smaller amplitude than the single-phase converter.
The step-up/down converter described above is generally formed of a chopper circuit including reactors and switching elements.
Some kinds of such step-up/down converters control changing or switching of a switching period of the switching elements based on a passed power. An inverse number of the switching period is called a carrier frequency. For example, when the passed power is large, the control may take place to increase the switching period (i.e., to decrease the carrier frequency) for decreasing a switching loss.
FIG. 8 shows an example of consideration for illustrating the changing of the carrier frequency.
Referring to FIG. 8, as can be seen from port output timing indicated by triangular marks, control information including a carrier frequency and a duty ratio is provided for a converter of three phases, i.e., Y-, V- and W-phases from a central control unit to a control unit of each phase. At times t0, t9, t18, t27 and t36 indicated by the triangular marks, the settings held in the control units for the respective phases are collectively rewritten. Each control unit executes the switching control of the corresponding phase based on the setting held thereby.
In each of U-, V- and W-phase current waveforms, an turned-on period Ton of the switching element is present between a downward peak point of the waveform and a subsequent upward peak point, and a turned-ff period Toff of the switching element is present between the upward peak point of the waveform and the subsequent downward peak point. The control period is equal to (Ton+Toff).
From time t0 to time t18, a time difference (phase difference) of Ty is present between the U-phase and the V-phase, and a time difference (phase difference) of Ty is also present between the V-phase and the W-phase.
At time t18, it is assumed that an instruction that doubles the control period with the duty ratio kept at 50% is issued simultaneously to all the phase control units. However, each phase control unit cannot change the control period at some midpoint in the control period.
Accordingly, the control period of the U-phase current waveform immediately doubles at time t18, but the control period of the V-phase doubles at time t20. The control period of the W-phase doubles at time t19.
Thus, the control period of each phase changes only when the ongoing control period expires (i.e., at the downward peak point) after the instruction is received.
In the example shown in FIG. 8, the control period of the W-phase changes earlier than the V-phase. Consequently, in the current waveform at and after time t20, time difference Ty is kept between the U- and V-phase current waveforms, but a time difference TyA different from that before time t18 occurs between the U- and W-phase current waveforms. Thus, such a result occurs that the same phase difference cannot be kept between the phases at the time of carrier switching. Consequently, the output voltage ripple of the multi-phase voltage converting device may be large.

Multi-phase voltage converting device, vehicle and control method of multi-phase voltage converting device


A volume control apparatus comprises signal processing section for performing digital signal processing and a scaling process on an audio signal outputted from a sound source; level adjusting section for amplifying or attenuating a level of the audio signal outputted from the signal processing section, by an amount of adjustment determined based on an instructed amount of change, and outputting the amplified or attenuated audio signal to an outside; storage section for storing a level value of the audio signal outputted to the outside and the amount of adjustment for the audio signal adjusted by the level adjusting section; detecting section for detecting, when a volume controller is controlled by a user, time required for an amount of operation to reach a predetermined value; first setting section for setting an amount of operational change based on the level value stored in the storage section and the detected time; second setting section for setting an allowable amount of change by which the level adjusting section can make an adjustment by an attenuation process, based on the amount of adjustment stored in the storage section; determining section for determining one of the amount of operational change and the allowable amount of change that has a smaller value to be the instructed amount of change; and instructing section for instructing the level adjusting section to adjust the level of the audio signal based on the determined instructed amount of change.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a volume control apparatus and a volume control program, and more particularly, to a volume control apparatus and a volume control program that control volume by adjusting the level of an audio signal.
2. Description of the Related Art
On audio apparatuses such as CD players, DVD players, HDD players, and AV amplifiers, a volume control apparatus that controls volume to be outputted to the outside is mounted. Recently, a number of volume control apparatuses using a rotary encoder have appeared. Such volume control apparatuses control an internal electronic volume based on a pulse train outputted from the rotary encoder. Conventional volume control apparatuses are set such that regardless of the volume level the volume level changes depending only on the rotation angle of the rotary encoder, and thus have a problem of poor operability.
A technique for solving such a problem is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2001-28525. A volume control apparatus disclosed in this document determines an amount of change in volume level based on the operating speed of a rotary encoder and a current volume level. Specifically, in the case of increasing the volume level, the lower the current volume level the amount of change in volume level relative to the operating speed of the rotary encoder is made larger, and the higher the current volume level the amount of change in volume level relative to the operating speed is made smaller. Therefore, with respect to the same operating speed, when the volume level is low the amount of change can be made large, and when the volume level is high the amount of change can be made small. As a result, the operability improves.
Meanwhile, recently, a volume control apparatus in which a digital signal processor (hereinafter, referred to as the DSP) is provided at the previous stage of an electronic volume has appeared. The DSP can control the amplitude and frequency characteristic of an audio signal and thus can control sound quality to a desired one.
When the amplitude and the frequency characteristic are corrected by the DSP, if the level of a corrected audio signal exceeds 0 dB, then a so-called overflow may occur. To prevent occurrence of such an overflow, normally, the DSP performs a scaling process in which the level of a received audio signal is attenuated in advance by a predetermined amount.
In the case of adopting the technique described in Japanese Patent Application Laid Open No. 2001-28525 to a volume control apparatus in which a DSP that performs such a scaling process is provided at the previous stage of an electronic volume, noise or an unusual sound may be generated. Since an audio signal attenuated in advance by a scaling process by the DSP is inputted to the electronic volume, even when the level of an audio signal to be outputted to the outside is less than 0 dB, the electronic volume may perform an amplification process instead of an attenuation process. In this case, an amount of change determined based on a current volume level and an operating speed is too large and thus noise or an unusual sound may be generated.

Volume control apparatus and volume control program


The cranial cover can form a contoured surface to conform to a patient's cranium. The cover is an array of generally evenly spaced screw-receiving openings. Arms extend between the screw-receiving openings from one screw-receiving opening to the adjacent screw-receiving openings. The centerline of each arm is angled to the center of the screw-receiving openings between which the arm extends. The four arms of four adjacent screw-receiving openings create a rhombus shaped central opening.

Surgeons sometimes face the need to reconstruct large defects in the cranium. These defects result from bone loss due to tumor resection, osteomyelitis or trauma. The surgical goal is to cover the area of missing bone to provide mechanical protection for the brain. At the same time, the cover shall restore the normal aesthetic contours of the skull.
Mesh cover plates of titanium or other biocompatible materials are often used. Typically, the mesh has an array of spaced surgical screw-receiving openings with a mesh of arms connecting adjacent openings. A surgeon takes a sheet of this material and trims it to the desired size. After attempting to bend the mesh to conform as closely as possible to the pre-existing cranial shape, the surgeon fastens the mesh to existing bone through the screw-receiving openings at the periphery of the material.
Surgeons encounter one difficulty when using these metal meshes--shaping the mesh to match the anatomical contours of the skull. Because of their construction, the meshes do not readily allow such contouring. The arms interconnecting the openings in prior art meshes are perpendicular to each other and aligned with the centers of the openings. As the material is bent into a spherical shape, the distance between the screw-receiving openings must change slightly. The perpendicular arms do not readily permit the distance to change. More specifically, as the mesh is bent into a more spherical shape, the distance between openings must increase in the more central portion of the mesh and decrease in the peripheral portions of the mesh panel. Therefore, it is very difficult to contour the material to the degree necessary to match the contours existing in human craniums.
Therefore it would be highly desirable to have a new and improved cranial bone plate cover that readily allows the cover to be contoured into a desired configuration and to hold the contoured shape. There have been attempts at changing the design of the mesh. In a mesh sold by Leibinger, the arms connecting the screw-receiving openings have bends as shown in FIG. 1. Though this may be an improvement over the earlier meshes in terms of its ability to achieve spherical contours, the design is less than ideal. The mesh does not hold its shape very well, which permits the mesh to be deformed further after it has been surgically implanted.

Perforated cover for covering spaces in the cranium and conforming to the shape of the cranium


A pharmaceutical composition in the form of a microemulsion preconcentrate comprising a cyclosporin dissolved in a solvent system further comprising a hydrophobic component, a hydrophilic component, and a surfactant, wherein either the hydrophobic component is selected from tocol, tocopherols, tocotrienols, and derivatives thereof, or the hydrophilic component is selected from propylene carbonate or polyethylene glycol having an average molecular weight of less than 1000.

The term "cyclosporins" as used herein shall mean the class of nonpolar polypeptides. as defined in the Merck Index, Eleventh Edition. One such cyclosporin is cyclosporin A, also known as "cyclosporine" and hereinafter referred to as "cyclosporine", known to be therapeutically active as an immunosuppressant.
The term "composition" as used herein is to be understood as meaning any composition containing a drug along with inactive ingredients that are pharmaceutically acceptable by reason of not being excessively toxic in the quantities required.
The term "solvent system" as used herein is to be understood to mean the material in which the drug (i.e. a cyclosporin) is dissolved. The solvent system may be a single solvent or a combination or mixture of ingredients included as solvents, surfactants, diluents or for other purposes.
Cyclosporins are hydrophobic and have low solubility in aqueous media. This makes it difficult to design pharmaceutical compositions which exhibit satisfactory absorption into systemic circulation after oral administration, or absorption into the target tissue upon topical administration.
The cyclosporin can be dissolved in an organic solvent (e.g. ethanol or propylene glycol), but if the solvent is water-miscible, when the composition is mixed with gastrointestinal fluid or other aqueous media the cyclosporin will precipitate.
Various methods of overcoming this problem are known in the prior art, but all have certain limitations.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,388,307 discloses compositions comprising cyclosporine in an emulsion preconcentrate that is not water-miscible, but forms an emulsion upon being mixed into gastrointestinal fluids. A commercial product that has been sold under the trademark "Sandimmune" is made according to U.S. Pat. No. 4,388,307, and, more specifically, comprises cyclosporine dissolved in a solvent system comprising ethanol, a vegetable oil and a surfactant. Although this composition was superior to previously known compositions, it still exhibits absorption that is less than the maximum possible and is variable. Also, the use of ethanol has disadvantages, as ethanol is volatile, and the capsules of Sandimmune must be individually packaged in metallic pouches to avoid loss of ethanol by evaporation.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,625 discloses compositions that are said to be superior in certain respects to the compositions of U.S. Pat. No. 4,388,307. The compositions of U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,625 comprise, in addition to the cyclosporin, a hydrophilic phase, a lipophilic (i.e. hydrophobic) phase and a surfactant. The hydrophilic phase is either propylene glycol or a pharmaceutically acceptable alkyl or tetrahydrofurfuryl di- or partial-ether of a low molecular weight mono- or poly-oxy-alkanediol.
The lipophilic phase comprises a solvent which is non-miscible with the hydrophilic phase. and is preferably a fatty acid triglyceride.
It is disclosed that compositions according to U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,625, when added to water, disperse into emuisions with droplet size of less than 2000 .ANG., which is smaller than obtained with prior art compositions, thus leading to improved absorption.
Emulsions with droplet size of less than 2000 .ANG. are defined as "microemulsions". Compositions that, upon addition to water, disperse into microemulsions are called "microemulsion preconcentrates".
A composition made according to the disclosure of U.S. Pat. No. 5,342,625 is now marketed under the trademark "Neoral", in the form of both a soft gelatin capsule which encloses the microemulsion preconcentrate and an oral liquid which is a microemulsion preconcentrate intended to be diluted into an aqueous drink before ingestion.
For both the soft gelatin capsules and the oral liquid, the labelling indicates that the "Neoral" emulsion preconcentrate comprises cyclosporine dissolved in ethanol and propylene glycol as hydrophilic solvents, corn oil as lipophilic (hydrophobic) solvent, and polyoxyl 40 hydrogzenated castor oil as surfactant. It also contains dl-alpha-tocopherol at a level of about one percent by weight as antioxidant, apparently to prevent oxidation of the corn oil.
While "Neoral" does enable improved absorption relative to Sandimmune, it still has certain undesirable properties. Specifically:
1 Ethanol is volatile, so that the soft gelatin capsules have to be packaged individually in metallic pouches to prevent evaporation of the ethanol. PA0 2. The meiting point of the microemulsion preconcentrate is about 20.degree. C. so that it may solidify at room temperature. This means that the oral solution may have to be warmed and melted to be dispensed. Also it cannot be mixed with a cold aqueous drink and is limited to being mixed into warn aqueous drinks. PA0 3. Ethanol contributes to an undesirable taste of the microemulsion preconcentrate, so that, even after dilution into a sweetened drink, there is still a somewhat unpleasant taste. PA0 4. The concentration of cvciosporine is limited to about 100 mg per mL so that a soft gelatin capsules containing 100 mg of cyclosporine is larger than desirable and difficult to swallow. PA0 1. They may be excessively volatile so that a capsule containing the composition must be packed in metallic foil to prevent evaporation. PA0 2. They may exhibit foul taste. PA0 3. They may be excessively hydrophilic so that when the composition is mixed with water they tend to be extracted from the composition causing, some precipitation of the cyclosporin. PA0 4. The melting points of compositions using such solvents may not be low enough to enable the compositions to be dispersed in cold aqueous drinks. PA0 i) Reaction products of natural or hydrogenated vegetable oils and ethylene glycol; i.e., polyoxyethylene glycolated natural or hydrogenated vegetable oils; for example polyoxyethylene glycolated natural or hydrogenated castor oils. Particularly suitable are the products designated in the United States Pharmacopoeia and National Formulary as Polyoxyl 35 Castor Oil and Polyoxyl 40 Hydrogenated Castor Oil, which are available under the trade names Cremophor EL and Cremophor RH40 respectively. Also suitable for use in this category are the various tensides available under the trade names Nikkol, e.g. Nikkol HCO-60. Nikkol HCO-60 is a reaction product of hydrogenated castor oil and ethylene oxide. PA0 ii) Polyoxyethylene-sorbitan-fatty acid esters; e.g. mono- and tri-lauryl, palmityl, stearyl and oleyl esters: e.g. products of the type known as polysorbates and commercially available under the trade name "Tween". PA0 iii) Polyoxyethylene fatty acid esters: for example, polyoxyethylene stearic acid esters of the type known and commercially available under the trade name Myrj as well as polyoxyethylene fatty acid esters known and commercially available under the trade name "Cetiol HE". PA0 iv) Polyoxyethylene-polyoxypropylene co-polymers, e.g. of the type known and commercially available under the trade names "Pluronic" and "Emkalyx". PA0 v) Polyoxyethylene-polyoxypropylene block co-polymers, e.g. of the type known and commercially available under the trade name "Poloxamer". PA0 vi) Dioctylsuccinate, dioctylsodiumsulfosuccinate, di-[2-ethylhexyl]-succinate or sodium lauryl sulfate. PA0 vii) Phospholipids, in particular lecithins. PA0 viii) Propylene glycol mono- and di-fatty acid esters such as propylene glycol dicaprylate, propylene glycol dilaurate, propylene glycol hydroxystearate, propylene glycol isostearate, propylene glycol laurate, propylene glycol ricinoleate, propylene glycol stearate and so forth. PA0 ix) Bile salts; e.g. alkali metal salts, for example sodium taurocholate. PA0 x) Trans-esterification products of natural vegetable oil triglycerides and polyalkylene polyols; e.g. of the type known and commercially available under the trade name Labrafil M1944CS. PA0 xi) Mono-, di- and mono/di-glycerides, especially esterification products of caprylic or capric acid with glycerol. PA0 xii) Sorbitan fatty acid esters; for example, of the type known and commercially available under the trade name Span. PA0 xiii) Pentaerythritol fatty acid esters and polyalkylene glycol ethers; for example pentaerythrite-dioleate, -distearate, -monolaurate, -polyglycol ether and -monostearate as well as pentaerythrite-fatty acid esters. PA0 xiv) Monoglycerides; e.g. glycerol monooleate, glycerol monopalmitate and glycerol monostearate; for example as known and commercially available under the trade names Myvatex, Myvaplex and Myverol, and acetylated, e.g. mono- and di-acetylated mono-glycerides; for example as known and commercially available under the trade name Myvacet. PA0 xv) Glycerol triacetate or 1,2,3)-triacetin; and PA0 xvi) Sterols and derivatives thereof, for example cholesterols and derivatives thereof, in particular phytosterols; e.g. products comprising sitosterol, campesterol or stigmasterol, and ethylene oxide adducts thereof, for examples soya sterols and derivatives thereof, such as known under the trade name Generol.
International Publication Number WO 94/25068 discloses improved compositions in the form of microemulsion preconcentrates in which the principal solvent for the cyclosporin is an alcohol which is selected from alcohols having a boiling point above 100.degree. C. and a solubility in water of under 10 g per 100 g at 20.degree. C. Such alcohols are referred to as a hydrophobic alcohols.
It is disclosed that a hydrophobic alcohol can be used in place of the combination of hydrophilic and hydrophobic solvents.
Preferred hydrophobic alcohols. within the scope of the disclosure of WO 94/25068. are saturated alkyl alcohols having 8 to 14 carbon atoms per molecule, including 1-octyl, 2-octyl, 1-decyl, 1-dodecyl and 1-tetradecyl alcohols.
Compositions according to the disclosure of WO 94/25068 overcome some of the problems of prior art compositions. However, the hydrophobic alcohols have a foul taste so that, even after dilution into a sweetened aqueous drink, there is still an unpleasant taste.
In view of the difficulties with prior art compositions, the object of the invention is to enable microemulsion preconcentrates comprising cyclosporins which use combinations of excidients (i.e. inactive ingredients) not disclosed in the prior art, and therebv overcome some or all of the problems encountered with prior art compositions.

Microemulsion preconcentrates comprising cyclosporins


A method, implemented in a cloud-based system, includes, responsive to a client device having a Subscriber Identity Module (SIM) card therein connecting to a mobile network from a mobile network operator, receiving authentication of the client device based on the SIM card; receiving forwarded traffic from the client device; and processing the forwarded traffic according to policy, wherein the policy is determined based on one of a user of the client device and a type of the client device, each being determined based on the SIM card.

There is a staggering growth of user devices in enterprises coupled with a shift in remote work. With this influx, Information Technology (IT) administrators' responsibility extends beyond the perimeter of the traditional corporate network. Correspondingly, there has been an unprecedented growth in the cloud services that are made available by an enterprise to its employees, contractors, partners, etc., as well as made available by Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) providers (and Anything-as-a-Service) to its end customers. In all of these cloud applications, there is a need to bring traffic from devices to the cloud, including in a manner that avoids backhauling all of the traffic to a corporate data center. The objective is to tunnel such traffic to a cloud-based system efficiently.
Conventional approaches include client connector applications for traffic forwarding, tunneling protocols from routers to the cloud, proxy configurations such as via a Proxy Auto-Config (PAC) file, and the like. These approaches work well with traditional computing devices, i.e., laptops, desktops, tablets, smart phones, etc. However, the number of devices being connected to the Internet is exploding including IoT devices (e.g., smart scooters, etc.), Operational Technology (OT) platforms (e.g., Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition (SCADA) systems, Industrial Control Systems (ICS), etc.), medical equipment (e.g., CAT and MRI scanners, etc.), connected vehicles, and practically any device that has a Subscriber Identification Module (SIM). The conventional approaches do not work well with the aforementioned devices for traffic forwarding to the cloud. Specifically, these devices or the corresponding users of such devices do not exist within a corporate network, are mobile, can connect to any network, may not have user identification (IDs), may be unknown to the cloud-based system or IT, and/or may not be able to execute a client connector application for traffic forwarding.
Even assuming it was possible to execute the client connector application, there are thousands of possible platforms (i.e., operating systems) and it is simple infeasible to support development for all such platforms. Another possibility can include third-party software integration such as via a Software Development Kit (SDK), library, code, etc. that is integrated in the device's code base to enable forwarding to the cloud. However, this approach suffers similar disadvantages as the client connector application, namely code integration for all products, managing patches and versions of possibly thousands of variations, and ultimately still requires the third-party to implement the solution.

Mobile and IoT device forwarding to the cloud


A flexible hose section for connecting upstream and downstream exhaust pipe sections of an exhaust system includes a corrugated body with opposite ends. The ends are fastened to ends of the exhaust pipe sections to convey fluids or bulk materials through the pipe system. The corrugations or the connections between the flexible hose and pipe section ends are arranged to accommodate axial, lateral, diagonal and torsional displacement between the system components.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to flexible hoses, and in particular to a flexible hose section which controls dynamic stresses in a system with components which are subjected to differential dynamic forces.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conduit and piping systems for conveying fluids and bulk materials are used in a wide variety of applications. Various components for such systems have been devised to accommodate different fluids and materials and to operate in particular environments. For example, some of the components of such systems are fabricated from flexible metal hose, which offers the advantages of durability, flexibility, relatively low cost and adaptability to various sizes, configurations and materials.
Flexible metal hose has been used for many years to interconnect components which move relative to each other. Some of the common configurations of flexible metal hose include spiral-wound, edge-interlocked hose wherein the edges of a strip of sheet metal are interlocked on a hose winding machine to permit limited deflection of the resulting flexible metal hose. Corrugated flexible metal hose, on the other hand, can be roll-formed or spiral-wound using special rollers which shape the corrugations in either annular or spiral (helical) arrangements. The corrugations provide flexibility and permit a corrugated pipe or hose section to be bent and shaped more easily than a comparable hose section with smooth walls. Moreover, corrugations can permit a hose section to be bent around a relatively tight radius, and can dissipate dynamic stresses associated with the vibration of the components to which the flexible hose section is attached.
Corrugated flexible hose sections can have corrugations of different diameters, such as a bellows-type arrangement with the largest-diameter corrugations in the center and corrugations of decreasing diameters toward the ends whereby maximum flexibility is achieved in the center with increasing stiffness toward the ends. Such bellows-type configurations tend to be relatively efficient at dissipating vibrational energy along their entire lengths since their varying stiffness ratios tend to transmit vibrational energy toward their centers for dissipation.
Hybrid flexible metal hose sections have also been fabricated from corrugated sheet metal bands which are spiral wound with their edges interlocked. The resulting hose sections can provide the advantages of both interlocked-edge and corrugated types of flexible metal hose. Such hybrid hose designs can combine the advantages of both of these flexible metal hose types. At least for example, see the Thomas U.S. Pat. No. 5,494,319.
Exhaust systems for internal combustion engines are examples of relatively severe environments in which the operating characteristics of flexible metal hoses can be used to advantage. Flexible metal hose sections are often used for connecting the exhaust pipes from vehicle internal combustion engines with manifold mufflers, tail pipes and other exhaust system components. Flexible metal hose sections are commonly used in the exhaust systems of tractors of tractor-trailer truck rigs because of their flexibility, temperature resistance and corrosion resistance when fabricated from suitable materials, such as stainless steel.
Exhaust systems in general and vehicle exhaust systems in particular must perform reliably under relatively severe operating conditions, which can include temperature extremes, corrosive environmental factors and dynamic stress loading. Dynamic stresses in an exhaust system can originate from vibrations associated with the engine and movement of the vehicle. Such dynamic stresses include axial, lateral and diagonal forces, all of which can normally be effectively attenuated and controlled by flexible metal hose with corrugations and/or edge interlocking. However, torsional forces caused by the differential rotation of the exhaust system components connected by a flexible metal hose section can inflict significant damage, particularly when the flexible hose section ends are fixedly secured and the flexible section design is rigid with respect to rotational forces. Such dynamic torsional forces can lead to premature metal fatigue, cracking and failure of exhaust system components, including previous designs of flexible metal hose.
The present invention addresses these considerations in connection with the application of flexible metal hose to applications involving dynamic stresses. Heretofore there has not been available a dynamic stress controlling flexible hose section with the advantages and features of the present invention.

Dynamic stress controlling flexible hose section


A system and method for exchanging components between platforms is described. As a user terminal changes location or preferences, the user terminal may be provided with a new platform that supports desired services. A method and system that relates to migrating one or more components that provide composite services from one communication platform to another is described. A user terminal may receive one or more composite services provided by two or more components existing on platform. As the user terminal switches from one platform to another, the platforms attempt to provide the same services to the user with little to no interruption. Various aspects relate to shifting one or more components from the first platform to the second platform to provide local support for the services desired by the user terminal.

1. Technical Field
Aspects of the present invention relate to exchanging components among platforms where the components provide services to user terminals.
2. Related Art
Users desire different types of services; from sending and receiving emails to downloading and watching movies, network operators provide these services to users through different combinations of components. Each component may provide a service or a part of a service to the end user. Network operators may deploy the various components to provide a user's terminal with the desired service or combination of services. The components are commonly deployed on platforms accessible by the user terminals.
Issues exist where users desire to change their services and/or where users physically move between platforms. Not all network operators use the same component platform. Rather, different platforms exist based on at least one of location, services provided, quality of service guarantees, and the like. In that network operators provide different sets of components, users often encounter interruptions in their services between the teardown of old components from their old platform and reconstruction of the services using components in their new platform.
Part of the issue relates to load balancing. However, the issue can be complex as the change from one service platform to another may involve reconfiguration of the components, for example, by taking into account local conditions or locally available content. Additional parts of the issue range from traditional scheduling and resource allocation problems to components that may be in different states, may be transferred from one platform to another, may or may not be activated, subject to local conditions, subject to personalization, and may currently have active communication sessions with user terminals.

Service mobility for composed components


A power supply device includes a transformer, a rectification smoothing circuit having positive and negative output ends that rectifies and smoothes an induced voltage at a secondary winding of the transformer so as to generate a direct current voltage between positive and negative output terminals, a serial connection terminal to which another power supply device is connectable and is connected to the positive output end, the negative output terminal is connected to the negative output end, the reverse flow prevention rectifying device is connected between the positive output end and the positive output terminal, its forward direction faces toward the positive output terminal, and the bypass rectifying device is connected between the positive output end and the negative output end, its forward direction faces toward the positive output end. Therefore, a plurality of power supply devices are easily connected in series without providing external diodes for each power supply device.

The present invention relates to a power supply device and a power supply system. Specifically, a plurality of power supply devices are connectable to each other in series. Each of the plurality of power supply devices is particularly suitable for charging a storage battery. Further, the power supply system has a configuration in which the plurality of power supply devices are connected in series.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. H05-276736, a conventional configuration in which a plurality of power supply devices are connected in series has been known. In this configuration, a reverse flow prevention diode and a diode for bypassing an output current (also referred to as "a bypass diode" below) are externally attached to an output terminal of each power supply device (a DC-DC converter). In addition, the plurality of power supply devices to which these two diodes are externally attached are connected in series to configure a power supply system. As a result, a current (a load current) is output for a load.
According to this configuration, even when any of the power supply devices stops an operation, an output voltage of the power supply device that stops the operation is equal to or less than a forward voltage of the reverse flow prevention diode that is externally attached to the stopped power supply device. Then, the bypass diode that is externally attached to the stopped power supply device shifts to be in an ON state. Therefore, the bypass diode works as a detour and makes the output currents of other power supply devices, which are in operation states, go through the bypass diode. As a result, the plurality of power supply devices can keep supplying the output current to the load.
The power supply system described above, however, has some problems to be solved as discussed below. When the power supply system is configured with the plurality of the power supply devices that are connected in series, the reverse flow prevention diode and the bypass diode need to be separately prepared as many times as the number of power supply devices that are connected in series in the power supply system, and at the same time, need to be externally attached to each of the power supply devices. As a result, the problem of a complex interconnection exists.
In the configuration of this power supply system, when the plurality of the power supply devices are connected in series and are operated, the following state can occur in the power supply device that stops the operation. Electronic parts other than the bypass diode do not generate heat, however, only the bypass diode in which the output current continuously flows generates heat. Therefore, it is necessary to further prevent the generated heat in the bypass diode from occurring.
As disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 2006-210516, a power supply device has a cooling fan that cools electronic parts such as a capacitor and a diode that configures a switching element and a rectifying circuit by forcibly exhausting the generated heat to outside a case in which the electronic parts are assembled. Thus, the cooling fan can be placed inside the power supply device together with the bypass diode.
The power supply device in which the cooling fan is placed together with the bypass diode, however, still has the following problems to be solved. Although it is possible that the electronic parts are cooled by operating the cooling fan while the power supply device is operated, the cooling fan cannot be operated while the power supply device is in a stop operation state. Therefore, as explained above, it is difficult to cool the bypass diode that generates heat in the stop operation state.

Power supply device and power supply system that have a serial connection terminal, a reverse flow prevention rectifying device and a bypass rectifying device


A pivot and detent mechanism is disclosed. The mechanism includes: a base 30 for mounting on a vehicle; an arm 40 for supporting a mirror head 20, the arm 40 pivotally connected to the base 30 to allow angular movement of the head 20, the arm having spaced apart first and second flexible branches 44 and 44′; and a deploy detent recess and a cooperating detent member 46 set, the deploy detent member 46 engageable with the detent recess to hold the mirror head 20 with respect to the base 30 in a deployed position. The flexible branches 44 and 44′ are resiliently movable with respect to each other to allow disengagement and engagement of the deploy detent member 46 from the detent recess upon the application of sufficient force to the mirror head 20 allowing the head 20 to move from the deployed position to a non-deployed position. An improved pre-loaded spring is also disclosed.

External rear view mirrors (wing mirrors) fitted to modern vehicles often form the widest part of the vehicle. The heads of these mirrors are usually designed to rotate about a substantially vertical pivot axis in both a forwards and a backwards direction. Such a mirror assembly is shown in FIG. 1.
Generally a detent mechanism is provided to hold the mirror head in its operable or deployed position. The detent mechanism holds the mirror head in a fixed relationship to the mirror bracket during normal operating use. Should the mirror head impact on an object, the detent mechanism allows the mirror head to "break away" to fold towards the vehicle.
Various detent mechanisms are known including the detent mechanism described within the applicant's issued U.S. Pat. No. 5,841,594 (Rothe).
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved vehicle external rear view mirror assembly with a detent mechanism.

Vehicle external rear view mirror with integral pivot detent assembly

Schefenacker Vision Systems Australia Pty Ltd


A power converter having input and output nodes and a method of operating the same. In one embodiment, the power converter includes a switching circuit including first, second and third active phase legs. Each of the first, second and third active legs includes a first switch coupled to one of the input nodes and a second switch coupled to another of the input nodes and has a common switching node therebetween. The power converter further includes a magnetic device including first, second and third primary windings, and first, second and third secondary windings. The first, second and third primary windings are coupled to the common switching node of the first, second and third active phase legs, respectively. The power converter still further includes a rectifier including first, second and third rectifier elements interposed between the first, second and third secondary windings, respectively, and one of the output nodes.

A switched-mode power converter (also referred to as a "power converter") is an electronic power processing circuit that converts an input voltage waveform into an output voltage waveform. The waveforms are typically, but not necessarily, dc waveforms, generated by periodically switching power switches or switches coupled to an inductive circuit element. The switches are generally controlled with a conduction period "D" referred to as a "duty cycle." The duty cycle is a ratio represented by the conduction period of a switch to a switching period thereof. Thus, if a switch conducts for half of the switching period, the duty cycle for the power switch would be 0.5 (or 50 percent).
Feedback controllers associated with power converters manage an operation thereof by controlling the conduction period of a switch employed therein. Generally, a feedback controller is coupled to an output of a power converter in a feedback loop configuration (also referred to as a "control loop" or "closed control loop") to regulate an output characteristic of the power converter such as an output voltage. A switched-mode power converter typically receives a dc input voltage Vin from a source of electrical power at input nodes thereof and provides a regulated output voltage Vout at output nodes thereof to power, for instance, a microprocessor coupled to the output nodes of the power converter.
Switched-mode power converters are key components in many commercial and military systems for the conversion, control and conditioning of electrical power, and often govern the performance and size of the end system. Power density, efficiency and reliability are key metrics used to evaluate power converters. Magnetic devices including isolation transformers (also referred to as "transformers") and inductors used within the power converters contribute a significant percentage to the volume and weight and, hence, determine power converter power density, efficiency, and reliability.
Integrated magnetics provide a technique to combine multiple inductors and/or transformers in a single magnetic core. Integrated magnetics are specifically amenable to interleaved current multiplier power converter topologies where the input or output current is shared between multiple inductors. Integrated magnetics offer several advantages such as improved power density and reduced cost due to the elimination of separate magnetic components, reduced switching ripple in inductor currents, and higher efficiency due to reduced magnetic core and copper losses.
For applications where higher currents (typically greater than 50 amps ("A")) are required at low (typically less than 3.3 volts ("V")) to moderate (typically about 12 V) voltages at high efficiency and power density, a two-phase interleaved current multiplier power converter might be inadequate to meet switching ripple specifications on inductor currents and output voltage. A larger output capacitor can reduce the output ripple voltage, but will increase the volume and weight of the power converter and result in sluggish transient response to dynamic load conditions. Multiphase, interleaved current multiplier power converters beyond the present two-phase designs are required for such applications. Utilizing multiple discrete E-cores to implement multiphase interleaved current multiplier power converters and simply paralleling multiple power converters, however, increases component count and interconnect losses, resulting in poor power density and efficiency.
An additional limitation to using E-cores for high current applications is the detrimental effects of fringing flux due to the limited cross-sectional area of a gapped center leg. Fringing flux represents the flux component that strays away from the main magnetic path and spills into the core window, inducing eddy currents in the windings therein. This results in increased losses (e.g., denoted by I2R, wherein "I" represents the current and "R" represents the resistance) in the windings and reduced efficiency. To reduce the induction of eddy currents due to fringing flux, windings are placed a safe distance from the air gap, resulting in poor utilization of the core window area. In addition, fringing flux represents a loss of inductance, which results in increased switching ripple in the winding currents, leading to higher losses and poorer efficiencies.
Power converters may also often employ current-doubler rectifiers coupled to the secondary winding of a transformer. The transformer is employed typically to accommodate widely dissimilar input and output terminal voltages. The current-doubler rectifiers interleave two currents to produce an output current with double the ripple frequency. A current-doubler rectifier can produce a low output voltage at high current with reduced losses in the secondary winding of the transformer. To produce higher levels of current interleaving to improve output voltage filtering, however, multiple power converters are often coupled in parallel, which results in replication of similar parts to form the power converter topology.
Multiphase power converter topologies can thus provide highly desirable power converter designs, not only for small size, but also for the ability to provide fast response times for a controller regulating the output voltage thereof. A power converter that combines the advantages of an interleaving, multiphase power converter topology with integrated magnetics and a current multiplying rectifier is not presently available for the more severe applications that lie ahead.
Accordingly, what is needed in the art is a power converter topology that employs a switching circuit and a rectifier such as a current multiplying rectifier that can provide higher levels of interleaving without the component replication that is necessary using presently available power converter circuits such as current-doubler rectifiers.

Power converter employing integrated magnetics with a current multiplier rectifier and method of operating the same


A cutterbar drive mechanism cover for use in a specialty crop harvesting header to optimally direct severed crop material from the cutterbar to a crop conveying apparatus which then laterally converges the crop material from outboard ends of the cutting header toward an interior discharge zone for formation of a windrow or for further processing. Crop flow smoothing by the drive cover also reduces disturbances to the crop material during movement within the header which reduces seed loss in seed-bearing specialty crops.

This invention relates generally to a machine for harvesting crops in a field and forming a windrow of cut crop, more particularly, to a specialized header for harvesting specialty crop with an apparatus to smooth crop flow around the cutterbar drive apparatus for efficient crop feeding into the header without damaging the crop.
In modern crop harvesting machines, it is desirable to optimize cutting headers for specific crops in order to maximize harvesting efficiency. Such optimized headers are typically based on existing headers with specific-purpose modifications incorporated to alter finite portions of the crop flow within the header to suit the specific crop. This approach helps control production costs of the equipment and extends the life cycle of a basic header design.
One specific application involves harvesting of grasses, seed or other specialty crops having seeds on a stem which must be cut and dried in a windrow a desired amount before undertaking operations to separate the seed from the stems. Care must be taken when working with such crops to minimize disturbances to the cut crop material which results in dislodgement and loss of the seeds, especially when a rotary disc cutterbar is used. A cutting header must be capable of cutting the crop from the ground and forming a windrow to allow crop drying in advance of subsequent harvesting operations. Experience has shown that changes to crop conveying and handling devices in the header are necessary to streamline crop movement in the header to reduce disturbances to the crop which result in dislodgement of the seeds from the stems.
Headers having a windrow transverse width less than the transverse cutting width of the disc cutterbar requires that the severed crop be conveyed laterally and inwardly in the header for a distance before being discharged rearwardly into the windrow. A number of devices have been created to effect the conveyance of this severed crop. In one known configuration, a drive shaft mechanism extends downwardly from the superstructure of the header to attach to one of the disc cutters and provide driving power to the cutterbar, similar to that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,822, issued on Jan. 19, 1993, to McLean, et al. Many shafts include a crop conveying drum mounted for rotation with the shaft to protect the shaft from crop entanglement and to assist with conveyance of the severed crop into the header. The positioning of this drive shaft mechanism within the normal path of crop movement results in undesirable disruption of the crop material as it is fed which is especially troublesome when specialty, seed-bearing crops are involved.
It would be desirable to provide an alternative method for smoothing and managing seed-bearing crop flow into a header which reduces the loss of seed from the crop due to interaction with the cutterbar drive mechanism while efficiently conveying severed crop material within the header toward a centrally located discharge zone for formation of a windrow that overcomes the above problems and limitations.


In accordance with an embodiment, electronic control is provided for the locking function of Lift-Handle and T-Handle products, while maintaining desirable mechanical latching mechanism functions and operations.

In the vending industry and other industries where product security and secured access are needed, latching and locking handles are commonly used. Two common configurations are the "Lift-Handle" style and the "T-Handle" style. Both the Lift-Handle and T-Handle products comprise a latch mechanism controlled by the handle for manually latching and unlatching an enclosure such as a vending machine or otherwise. Typically these products are mounted to the door of the enclosure, and interface to a slot or receptacle in a cabinet of the enclosure.
The latching mechanism may be any of a variety of mechanisms, such as a threaded bolt that engages into a receptacle, or one or more latch bars or bolts for extending into the cabinet. In the case of the Lift-Handle style latch, movement of the handle from the seated position to an extended or raised position serves to unlatch the door from the cabinet. In the case of the T-Handle style latch, turning of the handle from the vertical seated position to a horizontal position or unscrewing the threaded latch from the receptacle will serve to unlatch the door from the cabinet.
In addition to the latch mechanism, both the Lift-Handle and T-Handle style closures typically comprise a lock-plug for locking and unlocking the handle from movement. Lock plugs are typically controlled by mechanical keys to allow operation of the handle to access the cabinet. However, it is appreciated in the industry that lock plugs are vulnerable to vandalism and theft. As an additional problem related to such plugs, mechanical keys are subject to being lost, copied and stolen.
One solution to the foregoing problems is to replace the above described Lift-Handle and T-Handle products with motorized latch and lock products. Exemplary replacement products are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 6,581,986 entitled "Bayonet Locking System and Method for Vending Machines and the Like." However, there is a further need to provide electronic control of the locking function of Lift-Handle and T-Handle products while maintaining the above-described mechanical latching mechanism function/operation to facilitate retrofit of improved closure systems to existing common cabinets in the industry.


A cooling stand includes a base and a top plate made of a crystal glass material. At least one support member is provided on an upper face of the base for supporting the top plate above the base. One face of the top plate facing away from the base is an inclined supporting face, and the top plate and the base together define a rearward expanded space between them. A heat-producing article can be positioned on the inclined supporting face of the top plate, allowing a user to operate the heat-producing article in a position meeting the ergonomics. Meanwhile, heat produced by the heat-producing article can be highly efficiently absorbed by and then dissipated from the crystal glass material of the top plate through air convection at the rearward expanded space.

Following the rapid development in the electronic and information industrial fields, all kinds of 3C (communication, computer, and consumer electronics) products have been more widely adopted among users and applied to various fields. It is a trend in the electronic and information industries to develop 3C products with further increased computing and processing speed and expanded access capacity. However, the electronic components in the 3C products operating at high speed would also produce a large amount of heat during the operation thereof.
For example, among others, the central processing unit (CPU) of a notebook computer produces the largest part of heat in the computer. When the heat produced by the CPU and accumulated in the computer exceeds an allowable limit, the computer is subject to the danger of shutdown or even becoming seriously damaged. Moreover, to solve the problem of electromagnetic radiation, a case is usually used to enclose all the important computer components and elements therein. Therefore, it is a very important matter to quickly dissipate the heat produced by the CPU and other heat-producing elements in the computer case.
The large amount of heat produced by the CPU would also lead to rise of ambient temperature. Normally, a cooling fan will be mounted to the CPU to help in dissipating the heat produced by the CPU, so as to keep the CPU at a proper working temperature. However, for the notebook computer that has a relatively tightly sealed internal space, the cooling fan mounted therein usually fails to effectively introduce external cold air into the computer case to force out the heat produced by the CPU through forced convection. As a result, the notebook computer usually has low heat dissipation efficiency.
Some users would position a notebook computer on a cooling stand, so that an increased distance exists between the notebook computer and a desk top to provide a convection space, which is helpful in enhancing the heat dissipation efficiency of the notebook computer. However, in general, a conventional cooling stand can only increase the distance between the notebook and the desk top, so that the heat produced by the CPU is dissipated via a heat dissipation hole formed on a bottom of the notebook computer. That is, the conventional cooling stand itself does not absorb the heat produced by the CPU and therefore does not provide the notebook computer with good heat dissipation effect.
In brief, the conventional cooling stand has the following drawbacks: (1) It does not absorb the heat produced by the CPU; and (2) the heat dissipation effect that can be achieved via the conventional cooling stand is low.
It is therefore tried by the inventor to develop an improved cooling stand that can overcome the drawbacks of the conventional cooling stand to provide enhanced heat dissipation effect.


A torque limiting device for motors in electrically driven vehicles includes a control device for controlling an electric driving power supplied to a motor in an electrically driven vehicle; a detecting section for detecting a driven state of the motor and outputting an output signal of the motor; and an upper electric driving power limit setting device in which a plurality of restricting values corresponding to the output signal from the detecting section are previously set, wherein the upper electric driving power limit setting device gives a command to the control device to restrict an upper limit of the driving power on the basis of one of the plurality of restricting values when the output signal is outputted, thereby limiting a torque of the motor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a torque limiting device for motors in electrically driven vehicles and an electrically driven vehicle incorporating the torque limiting device. More particularly, the present invention relates to a torque limiting device which is suitable for limiting the torque so that the motor as a driving power source may not rotate at a speed exceeding a predetermined value in electrically driven vehicles such as an electrically driven bicycle, an electrically driven wheelchair, and an electric automobile, and which is especially suitable for use in an electric bicycle often referred to as an "electrically assisted bicycle" in which the human driving power is assisted by a motor driving power.
2. Description of the Related Arts
Recently, electric motorcars are attracting public attention. Also, popularity is enjoyed by electric bicycles having both a human power driving section utilizing a human power and an electric power driving section utilizing a motor so that the motor is driven in accordance with the magnitude of human driving power to assist the human driving power with the motor driving power.
Such an electric bicycle is disclosed, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. Hei 6(1994)-107266. Namely, it is generally known in the art that a vehicle speed signal detected by a vehicle speed detection means such as a speed sensor provided in a wheel and a pedalling signal which is a human driving power detected by a pedalling power detection means are inputted into a controller whereby the assist ratio, namely the ratio of the motor driving power to the human driving power, are varied in accordance with the vehicle speed on the basis of predetermined table data.
In such an electrically assisted bicycle which outputs a motor output in accordance with the human driving power, a control as shown in the conceptual view of running of FIG. 4 is performed in order to protect the user from the risk of gaining excessive speed. Namely, the assist ratio which is a ratio of the motor driving power relative to the human driving power is maintained within a safety range by setting the assist ratio to be 1 when the bicycle speed is 15 km/h or less, allowing the ratio to linearly decrease from 1 to 0 when the bicycle speed is more than 15 km/h and less than 24 km/h, and setting the ratio to be 0 when the bicycle speed is 24 km/h or more to stop the driving by the motor driving power. The above relation is illustrated by a graph in FIG. 5.
For that purpose, the electrically assisted bicycle includes a torque sensor for detecting the torque of the human driving power, a speed sensor for detecting the running speed, and a microcomputer for performing calculations to determine the motor driving power, whereby the torque of the human driving power obtained by the torque sensor and the running speed obtained by the speed sensor are inputted to change the assist ratio on the basis of the table data stored in the microcomputer.
For example, supposing that a torque of 100 kg.multidot.cm based on the human driving power is applied, the torque based on the motor driving power is set to be 100 kg.multidot.cm when the running speed is 10 km/h, whereas an output of 44 kg.multidot.cm based on the motor driving power is calculated in the microcomputer and outputted when the running speed is 20 km/h because the assist ratio must be reduced to about 0.44.
However, if the speed sensor has errors or if the speed sensor is out of order, the real output may possibly exceed a predetermined value to give an excessive assist ratio or may possibly be too much smaller than the predetermined range to provide a sufficient assist because the speed determined by the speed sensor is different from the real running speed although the microcomputer performs calculations correctly.
Also, since the speed sensor must be provided in a driving wheel or the like which is a body of revolution, a wiring is needed, making the structure complex, or the wiring itself poses an obstacle.

Torque limiting device for motors in electically driven vehicles and electrically driven vehicle incorporation the torque limiting device