A method and apparatus to correct and eliminate optical anomalies and geometrical distortions in an intensified imaging system, specifically a night vision system. An image is received from the original objective lens assembly of an unintensified imaging system which, presumably, has been designed to produce images sized in accordance with the image sensor size of its host camera or camcorder. The format matching lens assembly receives the image from the original objective lens system and magnifies it so that it is output onto the entire circular active area of a mechanically inserted image intensifier. Having received an image across its entire circular active area, the image intensifier is able to amplify or intensify the image using the received light without creating any optical distortions. Once intensified without distortion, the image must be still further modified to fit its original format size. The relay lens assembly receives the intensified image from the mechanically attached image intensifier and demagnifies it so that it is output onto the entire circular active area of the lens of the host camera or host camcorder where it can be viewed with improved resolution and recorded without the presence of any optical distortions. Also, by receiving an image across its entire circular active area, the sensor, a CCD chip or like means inside a conventional camera or camcorder, is better able to optimize the resolution of the viewed object or activity.

Various night vision devices are well known in the art. These devices are primarily, but not exclusively, used by law enforcement and military personnel to improve a user's ability to see during activities performed in low light conditions. Typically, night vision devices operate within the range of the electromagnetic spectrum where incident light has a wavelength of or between 400 to 1000 nanometers (nm). Many night vision devices incorporate a component known as an image intensifier. An image intensifier is a cylindrical assembly inside a tubular housing which multiplies or amplifies the amount of incident light it receives at one end, and outputs or transmits this amplified light directly to an ocular system located at its other end. The ocular system receiving the amplified or intensified light may be a camera or camcorder equipped with a sensor such as a CCD chip or like means, or in the case of specially adapted binoculars or telescopes, the human eye.
According to the present art of imaging systems, the incorporation of image intensifiers into an optical system always introduces optical anomalies and geometrical distortions. Typical of these optical distortions is the anomaly known in the art as "vignetting". Vignetting is illustrated in FIG. 1 and refers to the tunnel vision effect that occurs when images of differing format sizes are received by an optical system having a fixed image format. Invariably, vignetting distortions produce a dark or gray ring of non-illumination along the outer edge of the image. This ring of non-illumination is output onto part of the active circular area of the host camera or camcorder that could otherwise receive and record the viewed object or activity.
The present art of eliminating or preventing image distortions in an intensified imaging system makes use of various methods and techniques but is expensive to manufacture and cumbersome to implement. One method of correcting optical anomalies and geometrical distortions comprises means of an expensive tomography system which establishes an image's frame through the use of a computer and calibration object and then corrects vertical and horizontal distortions according to correction values that have been generated by the calibration process and stored in a computer. Another method has been to apply expensive electronic video hardware which applies vertical and horizontal blanking techniques which must be calibrated to achieve the exact superposition of multiple images to cancel or correct distortions. A third means has been the use or application of mirror subassemblies to split a color lens image into separate images and then electronically filter the separate images according to different requirements prior to recombining the images on a display monitor. Furthermore, geometric distortion-free images have been observed and recorded through an image intensifier by incorporating electronic sweep control circuits to alter the sweep pattern such that the electronic image representations generated by the video camera are distorted in a manner that is complementary to and cancels the distortion created by the image intensifier. As said before, each of these methods is expensive to manufacture and costly to implement. Some require a non-mobile or stationary environment to observe the object or activity under scrutiny. As a result of their cumbersome nature, the logistics of using such systems prohibits their application in a law enforcement or military environment.
Due to the frequency and various conditions under which the aforementioned users engage in nocturnal observations, a variety of image intensifiers are commercially manufactured. However, given the complex nature and construction of the individual components which comprise an image intensifier, it is cost prohibitive for a night vision manufacturer to produce a wide variety of image intensifying products to satisfy all the specific and fragmentary needs of the law enforcement and military markets. This economic constraint is made more acute by the fact that each different image intensifier is only capable of amplifying or intensifying images according to its particularly fixed image format. The fixed image format of an image intensifier is dictated by the mechanical dimensions and parameters of its lenses and accompanying optical apparatus which comprise the cylindrical assembly inside its tubular housing. As a method of distinguishing between the various sizes of image intensifiers, practitioners in the night vision art classify image intensifying hardware according to the diagonal measurement of the circular active area of the tubular housing. Simply put, this diagonal measurement determines the image format size of the image intensifier.
Similarly, other optical systems such as commercially available cameras or camcorders are manufactured in a wide and diverse variety. Because of larger economies of scale as well as less expensive construction costs of the necessary modules and related components, manufacturers of these photographic or video products can sustain the production of many various models which satisfy the specific needs of users despite the fact that each of these optical devices is also only able to produce images according to its particularly fixed image format. These optical products are typically offered for sale to ordinary persons to observe and record events which occur in daylight, near daylight or incandescent interior light conditions. Using the language of practitioners in the night vision industry, products which are only able to observe and record activities in daylight or near daylight conditions are referred to as "unintensified systems" because they are not primarily or especially designed to make use of the reduced light that is present during non-daylight hours. As one might expect, the image format size of an unintensified camera or camcorder system is dictated by the mechanical dimensions and parameters of the lenses and accompanying optical apparatus which comprise the means by which the camera or camcorder views or receives optical images. As a method of distinguishing between the various sizes of camera or camcorder products, practitioners in the art of photographic or video cameras classify optical hardware according to the diagonal measurement of the circular active area of the original objective lens assembly. In short, this diagonal measurement indicates the camera's or camcorder's image format size.
Given the nature of the imaging system art, any method or apparatus which easily and inexpensively incorporated the capabilities of an image intensifier with commercially available cameras or camcorders, without introducing the geometrical distortions that are inherent in an intensifier based imaging system, would be a welcome development. To this end, the present invention provides a night vision device wherein an unintensified imaging system is adapted to observe and record nocturnal activities by mechanically inserting means of an image intensifier and adjacent image correcting modules or subassemblies between the host camera's original objective lens system and the host camera itself. The adjacent image correcting modules or subassemblies are especially needed because of the particularly limited variety of image intensifiers that are presently available and the fact that optical distortions occur whenever an image intensifier having a fixed image format size is coupled with an unintensified lens system or lens assembly that has been designed to output images having a different image format size. These optical anomalies and distortions are geometrical in nature and occur primarily because the image output by the original objective lens system of the unintensified host camera or host camcorder fails to make use of the entire circular active area of the lenses and accompanying optical apparatus which comprise the image intensifier. Similarly, additional geometrical distortions and optical anomalies are produced whenever an image intensifier outputs an intensified image onto a lens system which has been designed to receive images of a different format size.
The present invention provides a new and inexpensive method and apparatus which prevents and eliminates optical anomalies and geometrical distortions.

Method and apparatus for correcting geometrical distortions in an intensified imaging system


A CDMA communication system supports designated mode data bursts and contention-based transmissions on a reverse link common channel from a subscriber unit to a base station. When transmissions are scheduled and serviced in the designated mode data burst, collisions are avoided. The number of slots consumed in the designated mode data bursts depend upon the volume of data the subscriber unit has to transmit to the base station. A common power control channel provides power control bits and reservation indications for at least one reverse link common channel for closed loop reverse link power control on the common channels.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to cellular wireless communications and more particularly to the control and operation of common reverse channels in a code division multiple access (CDMA) cellular wireless communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
Cellular wireless communication systems are generally known to include a plurality of base stations dispersed across a geographic service area. Each of the base stations includes at least one antenna and a base station transceiver system (BTS) and provides wireless service within a respective cell. The BTSs couple to base station controllers (BSCs) with each BSC serving a plurality of BTSs. Typically, the BSCs also couple to a mobile switching center (MSC) which interfaces to the Public Switched Telephone Network (PSTN) and other MSCs. Together, the BTSs, BSCs and the MSC form a wireless network, which provides wireless coverage to mobile stations (MSs) operating within a respective service area.
Wireless communication systems operate according to various protocol standards. One particular protocol standard in place worldwide is the CDMA protocol standard. CDMA is a direct sequence spread spectrum system in which multiple spread spectrum signals are transmitted and received simultaneously over a common frequency band. In the CDMA system, each mobile station (MS) may be assigned a distinct Walsh code, which identifies the signals, transmitted to and received from the MS.
In an example of operation thereunder, forward link signals from a BTS to a first MS are coded with a first Walsh code and then transmitted where the process of transmission includes pseudo noise (PN) scrambling (spreading). Likewise, forward link signals transmitted from the BTS to the second MS are coded with a second Walsh code and then transmitted, perhaps concurrently with transmissions from the BTS to the first MS. The first MS's receiver receives at its antenna all of the energy transmitted by the BTS. However, because Walsh code channels are orthogonal, after correlating the received signal with the first Walsh code, the despreader outputs all the energy intended for the first MS but none of or only a small fraction (i.e., due to orthogonality loss) of the energy intended for the second, third, etc., MS. Likewise, the second MS correlates the received forward link signal with the second Walsh code to receive its intended forward link energy. Each of the MSs then operates upon the despread signal energy to extract data intended for the respective MS. The number of users accommodated on the forward link is limited by intra-cell interference due to orthogonality loss, inter-cell interference and other interference such as that due to thermal noise.
In some specialized applications (e.g., fixed access) it may be considered to design a system such that orthogonal codes (e.g., Walsh codes) separate the signals of the reverse link users. However, for all CDMA systems currently deployed and reported in the literature, the reverse link is strictly interference limited, that is, one user's reverse link energy at the base station receiver acts as interference to other users signals. Thus, in the typical case, a plurality of MSs transmit to the BTS simultaneously on the reverse link with each reverse link transmission spread by a unique PN code or PN code shift. A receiver of the BTS receives the composite reverse link signal and despreads the reverse link transmissions with expected PN code to extract signals received from the first, second, third, etc., MS. The BTS then operates upon each despread signal to extract data sent by the MSs.
Wireless communication systems were originally designed and constructed to service voice communications. However, as packet data communications have increased in popularity, wireless communication systems have been called upon to service not only voice communications but packet data communications as well.
Examples of packet data communications supported by wireless communication systems include Internet sessions, electronic mail transfer, electronic file transfers, and short message services, among other services. Human users of the wireless communication system typically initiate these packet data communications. However, electronic devices may also access the wireless communication system, such devices including vending machines, credit card machines, ATMs and other computer controlled electronic devices. The wireless communication system provides a convenient and cost-effect method for sending packet data transmissions when a landline is not available.
Packet data communications place demands upon wireless communication systems that differ from those placed by voice communications. While voice communications require a substantially constant bandwidth, packet data transmissions are "bursty", with high bandwidth required during some time periods and little or no bandwidth required during other time periods. In servicing either voice or packet data communications, limited channel resources must be assigned. The setup and initialization of a traffic channel in a CDMA system (for either packet data communications or voice services) requires between 20 and 30 frames. In a typical packet data session, once the traffic channel is setup, packet data transmissions between a MS and a BS will occur for a short period of time to complete the setup of the packet data session at all protocol levels. After the initial setup, the packet data transmissions are typically bursty, with periods of inactivity intermixed with bursts of data. Thus, the traffic channel may become idle for periods of time.
According to traffic channel management operations, when a traffic channel is idle for a period of time, e.g., one minute, the traffic channel is released. Thus, during a packet data session, when the traffic channel is inactive for the period of time, it is released. The release of the traffic channel does not, however, release the logical connection established for the MS via higher protocol layers (i.e., above the physical layer). For example, although the physical connection via the traffic channel may be terminated during periods of inactivity, the IP address of the mobile node, call control, and service information is maintained by the network. When the traffic channel is required again, it is again setup. This operation, in combination with the bursty nature of packet data communications requires the frequent allocation and release of traffic channels. Because the setup of a traffic channel consumes significant overhead (e.g., 20 to 30 frames of setup information on the traffic channel before transmission of user data), continued allocation and deallocation of traffic channels in servicing packet data communications is undesirable.
Many packet data communications transfer very little data after the initial setup of a logical link between a MS and a remote computer. For example, credit card verification services require the transmission of a relatively small number of frames of data. This amount of data does not justify the reallocation of a traffic channel since more frames would be consumed in setting up the traffic channel than would be used in transmitting the packet data. Thus, subsequent traffic channel allocation after the initial packet data communication setup of a logical link is not justified for this reason as well.
Responsive to these concerns, reverse link channels have been standardized for the transmission of reverse link packet data transmissions (and messages) from the MS to the BS. An example of an interference-based reverse link channel in a CDMA system is the reverse link access channel (R-ACH); a common channel that is defined within the IS-95 standard. The R-ACH employs the well-known Slotted Aloha protocol, where for IS-95 each slot is comprised of a preamble followed by a message capsule. The preamble is typically 3 to 4 frames and the message capsule is typically 4 to 10 frames. In transmitting packet data on the R-ACH, a MS simply initiates transmission, attempting to successfully complete the transmission to the base station without a collision (i.e., another mobile station trying to send a message during the same slot) from other MSs. Thus, some probability exists that the transmission will be received by the BS without contention from other MSs. The probability of successful transmission to the BS on the R-ACH decreases as the loading increases or with services that require more frequent access via the R-ACH such as telemetry, packet data, or credit card applications. Thus, as usage of the CDMA cellular system increases with new packet data applications the ability to effectively use the R-ACH decreases.
Another problem faced in using the R-ACH relates to the power control of transmissions on the R-ACH. The MS uses the received power of forward link transmissions to estimate the transmission power to use for reverse link transmissions (open loop power control). Based upon its estimate of the transmission power, the MS sends a transmission to the BS on the R-ACH. If the BS does not acknowledge receipt of the transmission, the MS increases its transmission power and retransmits. This process is repeated until the BS acknowledges the transmission or a maximum number of tries have attempted, in which case, the MS ceases its transmissions. Thus, fast closed loop power control does not exist for the R-ACH and the R-ACH channel requires a higher power for effective operation compared to channels which benefit from fast closed loop power control.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for a CDMA system, which has a viable mechanism for satisfying bursty packet data transmissions. Further such mechanism should satisfy the data transmission requirements of a MS without intervention of the BS. According to this mechanism, power control and collision avoidance should be managed on a reverse link channel for support of heavy cell loading and bursty packet communications on the reverse link.

Common power control channel in a CDMA system and a system and method for using such a channel


Some examples relate to database systems for electronic spreadsheets. In one specific example, a system includes a relational database and a document database that is separate from the relational database. The system can retrieve structural data from the relational database, where the structural data describes a column configuration for a set of columns of the electronic spreadsheet, and where the structural data describes a row configuration for a set of rows of the electronic spreadsheet. The system can also retrieve cell data from the document database. The system can then generate the electronic spreadsheet based on the structural data and the cell data, such that the electronic spreadsheet has the column configuration and the row configuration defined in the structural data, and has the cell data positioned in a set of cells located at intersections of the set of rows and the set of columns.

Many industries rely on electronic spreadsheets to store data and perform calculations. One example of an electronic spreadsheet can be a Microsoft Excel® spreadsheet. An electronic spreadsheet has a tabular structure of columns and rows that intersect at cells. Generally, an electronic spreadsheet has two distinct types of cells: heading cells and content cells. Heading cells include unique labels corresponding to each row or column. These unique labels can be referred to as "headers." For example, each column may have a heading cell that includes a header, where the header describes or indexes that column's data content. Each row may also have a heading cell that includes a header, where the header describes or indexes that row's data content. The heading cells can be distinct from and complementary to the content cells, in that the heading cells are used to characterize or index the data stored in the content cells, whereas the content cells have the actual content of interest. Examples of such content may include equations or formulas, textual values, and numerical values.
Although software has been developed to assist in creating electronic spreadsheets on a computer system, the flexibility of the electronic spreadsheets can be limited by the manner in which they are stored on the computer system. It can be challenging to store electronic spreadsheets on a computer system in a manner that is fast, flexible, and extensible.

Database system for storing electronic spreadsheets


A permanent wave end paper comprising an absorbent paper impregnated with at least one pH indicator whereby, when a length of hair to be permanently waved is rolled with a strip of the permanent wave end paper, the strip of permanent wave end paper exhibits a chromatic indication of whether the strip of permanent wave end paper and the length of hair have been saturated with a permanent wave liquid chemical. The permanent wave end paper may comprise a high purity cellulose paper impregnated with a wet strength resin such as urea formaldehyde or melamine. The permanent wave end paper may be included in a kit for imparting a permanent wave to hair that comprises in addition to at least one strip of permanent wave end paper a permanent wave lotion and a permanent wave neutralizing agent. The permanent wave kit may be employed in practicing the process of the invention wherein a strip of permanent wave end paper is disposed against a length of hair to be permanently waved, the length of hair is arranged in a desired configuration, the length of hair and the strip of permanent wave end paper are saturated with a portion of the volume of permanent wave lotion, a sufficient period of time is allowed to pass to allow the permanent wave lotion to rupture at least some of the cystine sulfur to sulfur bonds in the length of hair, and the length of hair and the strip of permanent wave end paper are saturated with a portion of the volume of permanent wave neutralizing agent.

Stated most simply, permanent wave hair dressing is accomplished by rolling a length of hair onto a roller, applying a first liquid chemical to the hair to induce a permanent wave, allowing a length of time to pass, and then applying a second liquid chemical to the hair to stop the permanent waving action of the first liquid chemical. Normally, a segment of paper is rolled along with at least the end of each length of hair to protect the hair from frizzing and the like during the permanent wave process. Appropriately, this paper is commonly referred to as end paper.
It is important to note that there are variables that affect the condition of permanent waves such as differences in hair properties including hair condition and health, the type of permanent wave liquid chemical used, temperature and time, and hairdresser skill and experience. Unfortunately, these factors are not easily controllable. During permanent waving, the condition of the waves must be ensured by feel and observation and is directly related to the proper and thorough saturation of the end papers with the respective permanent wave liquid chemical during application by the hair dresser. If the end papers are not sufficiently and uniformly saturated, the resulting permanent wave will be incomplete or otherwise unacceptable.
Such imperfections are a common occurrence because with presently available end paper it is difficult to observe and determine when the end papers are fully saturated since there is no clear visual differentiation between wet and dry portions of the end paper. For example, where a prior art strip of end paper is white in color, there is substantially no difference in appearance between a wet and a dry portion of a piece of end paper. This problem is particularly prevalent when multiple liquid chemicals are applied during the hair dressing process such as with the application of a permanent wave lotion followed by a permanent wave neutralizing agent. Hairdressers typically must rely on experience and judgment to determine whether hair has been adequately saturated with the permanent wave lotion and the permanent wave neutralizing agent. This reliance often results in either over or under application of the respective liquid chemical with a multiplicity of consequent disadvantages. For example, there may be a waste of liquid chemical, poor wave quality, an increase in hairdressing time, as well as customer dissatisfaction.
Certainly one knowledgeable in the art will be aware that the prior art has attempted to provide indications of the completion of a permanent wave process. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,398,183 to Ando, a lead acetate paper is located adjacent hair undergoing a permanent wave, and a complex detecting apparatus with a light emitting diode and a light receiving portion triggers a buzzer device when a chemical reaction between the lead acetate paper and a volume of hydrogen sulfide gas emitted by the permanent wave process changes the lead acetate paper from brown to black thereby indicating that the permanent wave is complete. As a result, it becomes clear that the Ando patent presents a complicated, costly, cumbersome and impractical method and device. Furthermore, the Ando apparatus is capable of indicating only whether a permanent wave is complete; there is no indication as to whether a given length of hair has been saturated by a permanent wave liquid chemical. Consequently, the Ando apparatus may provide a positive indication of a complete permanent wave process notwithstanding the fact that one or more permanent wave liquid chemicals have been hopelessly misapplied.
In light of the above, it becomes clear that there is a great need in the art for a permanent wave end paper and method that permit a user to ensure that the permanent wave end paper and thus the length of human hair with which the end paper is rolled have been completely saturated with the permanent wave liquid chemical. Certainly, a permanent wave end paper that is simple in use and economical in manufacture and that would demonstrate a change in color in response to saturation by a permanent wave liquid chemical would be ideal.

Permanent wave end paper impregnated with a pH indicator and method


A process for the preparation of an isoflavone from a 2'-hydroxydeoxybenzoin(I) is described. The process uses prepared N,N'-dimethyl(chloromethylene) ammonium chloride as a reactant with (I) in borontrifluoride etherate or other Lewis acid as a solvent. The isoflavones are known biologically active compounds.

(1). Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a process for the preparation of isoflavones and in particular formononetin. The process involves reaction of a 2-hydroxy-deoxybenzoin with N,N'-dimethyl (chloromethylene)ammonium chloride to form the isoflavone. This invention particularly relates to either a "one pot" or a two step process involving the initial formation of 2,4-dihydroxy-4'-methoxydeoxybenzoin followed by its conversion to formononetin.
(2). Description of Related Art
Isoflavones are important compounds which are used for a variety of biological purposes. In particular, formononetin (MYCOFORM, VamTech, L.L.C., okemos, Mich.) is a potent vesicular-arbuscular mycorrhizal stimulating compound (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,085,682, 5,125,955 to Safir et al; Taiwan Patent No. 60604 to Safir et al; U S. Pat. No. 5,691,275 to Nair, et al; Nair, M. G., et al, Applied and Environmental Microbiology 57:434 (1991); Siqueira, J. O., et al., Plant and Soil, 134:233 (1991); and Siqueira, J. O., et al., The New Phytologist, 118:87 (1991)). Formononetin is under extensive field trials on corn, soybean and horticultural crops around the world. The prior art procedures for the production of isoflavones are not economical.
The synthesis of formononetin, which is the preferred isoflavone and is representative, from the corresponding chalcone is a known process. The method (Sekizaki, H., et al., Studies on Zoospore Attracting Activity. II. Synthesis of Isoflavones and Their Activity to Aphanomyces euteiches Zoospore. Biol. Pharm. Bull. 16:698 (1993)) involves the oxidative rearrangement of 2'-hydroxy-4-methoxy-4-(tetrahydropyran-2-yloxy)chalcone by thallium (III) nitrate trihydrate (TTN) in methanol. In spite of the simplicity of this reaction, the overall method suffers from the fact that three steps are required to prepare the starting material 2'-hydroxy-4-methoxy-4-(tetrahydropyran-2-yloxy)chalcone. The method also has the drawback of selective protection (Miles, C. O., et al., Aust. J. Chem 42:1103 (1989)) and deprotection of one of the hydroxyl groups in ring A (benzene ring) of the chalcone. Even with the best method available (Alcantara, A. R., et al., Tetrahedron Letters 28:1515 (1987)) for the condensation of 2-hydroxy-4-(tetrahydropyran-2-yloxyl)acetophenone and p-anisaldehyde the yield was only 64%. Further, this methodology has serious drawbacks such as (a) the use of an expensive and very toxic reagent, thallium (III) nitrate trihydrate (TTN) in excess and (b) the low yield (52%) of formononetin which could be obtained in pure form only after column chromatographic purification.
Another known approach used for the synthesis of formononetin is the general method involving the addition of one carbon to 2-hydroxydeoxybenzoins and their cyclization to form isoflavones. The method introduced by Andrew Pelter (Pelter, Andrew, et al., Synthesis, 5:326 (1976)) involves the reaction of 2-hydroxydeoxybenzoins with N,N-dimethylformamide dimethylacetal (dimethoxydimethyl aminomethane) (two equivalents) in dry benzene. Refluxing a mixture of 2,4-dihydroxy-4'-methoxydeoxybenzoin with N,N-dimethylformamide dimethyl acetal in dry benzene for 4 hours gave formononetin in 85% yield. However, the use of the expensive reagent, N,N-dimethylformamide dimethyl acetal and dry benzene as solvent makes this an unattractive method for the commercial production of formononetin.
A modified version of the above method-microwave mediated synthesis of anticarcinogenic isoflavones from soybeans (Chang, Y-C., et al., J. Agric. Food. Chem 42:1869 (1994)) gave 91% in the case of formononetin. However, this method is totally unsuitable for the large scale preparation due to the fact that microwave mediated reactions are efficient so far in very small scale and possibly in gram quantities. This method has the additional disadvantage of using large excess of N,N-dimethylformamide dimethyl acetal and an equal amount of THF and the requirement of a special reaction vessel to carry out the reaction under microwave conditions.
Another reported method (Wahala, K, et al., J. Chem. Soc Perkin Trans I, 3005 (1991)) involving the in situ formation of deoxybenzoin and its conversion to isoflavones required a large excess of borontrifluoride etherate, dry DMF, and methanesulfonyl chloride under argon atmosphere. All of the reactions are in situ. The experimental conditions, workup procedures, the use of large excess of borontrifluoride etherate and purification by column chromatography to obtain the final product make this method unsuitable for large scale preparations.
A different approach utilizing the modified Vilsmeyer-Haack reaction (Kagal, S. A., et al., Tetrahedron Letters, 14:593 (1962)) has the greatest disadvantage due to the formation of polymeric products along with the unreacted starting material and the reaction required heating (.about.120.degree. C.) for 19 hours. The time consumption and laborious purification procedures make this method a poor choice for large scale preparation even though relatively inexpensive reagents like DMF and phosphorous oxychloride are used in the process.
The method involving the use of 1,3,5-triazine (Jha, H., et al., Angew. Chem Int. Ed. Engl, 20:102 (1981)) in glacial acetic acid, borontrifluoride etherate and acetic anhydride gave formononetin in 91% yield. However, the purification by column chromatography and the use of expensive reagents like 1,3,5-triazine (2 equivalents) makes this method unsuitable for commercial scale production of formononetin.
2,4-Dihydroxy-4'-methoxydeoxybenzoin was prepared by the Fridel Crafts acylation of resorcinol with p-methoxyphenylacetic acid and borontrifluoride etherate in excess. In this reaction, BF.sub.3 etherate was used as a Lewis acid and the solvent for the reaction (Wahala, K., et al., J. Chem. Soc. Perkin Trans I, 3005 (1991)). Another known procedure involved the Hoesch reaction (Organic Synthesis, Collective Volumes, Volume II, P-522, Organic Reactions 5:387 (1949)) of resorcinol with p-methoxyphenyl acetonitrile. However, this procedure is laborious, time consuming and gives poor yield of deoxybenzoin.
A number of methods are available for the preparation of p-methoxyphenylacetic acid and almost all published processes deal with the initial preparation of p-methoxyphenylacetonitrile (Synthesis of p-Methoxyphenylacetonitrile, organic Synthesis, Collective Volumes, Volume IV John Wiley & Sons, Inc. P-576, (1963)) followed by it's hydrolysis. p-Methoxyphenylacetonitrile has been prepared from either methoxybenzyl alcohol or methoxybenzene or p-methoxybenzaldehyde to form p-methoxy benzyl chloride which is then treated with sodium cyanide. Since more than three steps are involved and each step yielding the product in 50-95%, the overall yield of p-methoxyphenyl acetic acid is always less than 60%. These procedures also have the disadvantage of using toxic materials like sodium cyanide, long reaction times and cumbersome isolation procedures. Another known procedure is by the modified Willgerodt reaction (U.S. Pat. No. 5,149,866, Chemical Abstracts 118:38593 (1993); Schwenk, E., et al., J. Org. Chem 11:798 (1946)) which involves the initial preparation of thioacetomorpholide from p-methoxyacetophenone and it's hydrolysis to form p-methoxyphenyl acetic acid. The thioacetomorpholide is prepared by refluxing a mixture of p-methoxy acetophenone, sulfur and morpholine and the hydrolysis is done by refluxing the thioacetomorpholide with alcoholic sodium hydroxide (10 hours) followed by acidification. The product is extracted with diethyl ether and recrystallized from dilute alcohol or water. A reduction in reaction time and the modification of experimental procedures would make this process a better method for the preparation of p-methoxyphenylacetic acid.

Process for the preparation of isoflavones

Board of Trustees operating Michigan State University


An apparatus in one embodiment comprises at least one processing platform including a plurality of processing devices. The processing platform is configured to receive a request to deploy one or more applications of a plurality of selected applications, wherein the plurality of selected applications are selected based on a determined role of an individual within an enterprise, and to deploy the one or more applications for at least one user device responsive to the request. The processing platform is further configured to monitor execution of the one or more applications in connection with the at least one user device, to receive and analyze data corresponding to the execution of the one or more applications, and to automatically generate one or more recommendations in connection with the deployment of the one or more applications for the at least one user device based on the received and analyzed data.

Depending on a user's role in an enterprise, the user will have different device and application needs from other users in the enterprise. For example, necessary equipment and software tools vary based on a user's function (e.g., sales, engineering, business executive, technical support) within an organization.
Accordingly, users can benefit from a device and application workstack that is tailored to their needs, addresses a total end user experience and deploys more than generalized technology solutions.

Productivity platform providing user specific functionality


Systems and techniques are disclosed relating to communications. The systems and techniques involve measuring a quality of a transmission from a remote location, identifying a data rate as a function of the measured quality, the identified data rate being capable of supporting a plurality of packet lengths, selecting one of the packet lengths as a function of a parameter of the measured quality, and providing feedback to the remote location, the feedback relating to the data rate and the selected one of the packet lengths. It is emphasized that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract which will allow a searcher or other reader to quickly ascertain the subject matter of the technical disclosure. It is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or the meaning of the claims.

1. Field
The present invention relates generally to communications, and more specifically, to adaptive rate prioritizing in a variable rate communications system.
2. Background
Wireless communication systems are designed to allow multiple users to share a common communications medium. One such wireless communications system is a code division multiple access (CDMA) system. The CDMA communications system is a modulation and multiple access scheme based on spread-spectrum communications. In a CDMA communications system, a large number of signals share the same frequency spectrum and, as a result, provide an increase in user capacity. This is achieved by transmitting each signal with a different code that modulates a carrier, thereby spreading the signal over the entire spectrum. The transmitted signals can be separated in the receiver by a demodulator using a corresponding code to de-spread the desired signal. The undesired signals, whose codes do not match, contribute only to noise.
Originally developed for voice applications, CDMA communication systems today can support high data rate services. In these systems, a variable data rate request scheme may be used to communicate at the maximum data rate that can be supported by the current channel conditions. By way of example, a wireless device may be configured to measure the quality of a signal transmission from a base station, and provide feedback to the base station to control the data rate.
In most high data rate CDMA communication systems today, the data rates available to the-base station are predetermined. Each available data rate may be assigned to at least one rate index which is generally referred to in the art as a data rate control (DRC) index. Associated with each DRC index is a transmission format which includes a packet length for the payload. The packet length is generally defined in terms of time slots. A specific data rate may be assigned to more than one DRC index with different slot formats. In this case, the conventional approach has been to select the long slot format to increase the probability of potential throughput gain (i.e., ARQ early termination gain) that may occur if the wireless device is able to decode the payload before all the time slots have been transmitted. However, consistent preference for the long slot format has the drawback of reducing overall packing efficiency of the payload. Conversely, maximizing packing efficiency by consistently preferring a short slot format reduces the potential for ARQ early termination gain. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a communications system with adaptable preference capability that enables adaptive selection between long and short slot formats for a given data rate without diminishing the ARQ gain.


An object retention system which aids in safely and efficiently securing ornamental objects such as lights across a structure such as a roof. The object retention system generally includes a retainer rail adapted to be secured to a structure such as a gutter or roof gable. The retainer rail includes a receiver rail having a plurality of receivers adapted to removably retain one or more retainers therein. Each of the retainers is adapted to secure an object such as a decorative light against the retainer rail. The retainer rail includes a channel for aiding in securing to a gutter and a barbed portion for aiding in securing to other structures, such as between roof shingles and flashing. A connector is provided for seamlessly interconnecting multiple retainer rails to each other across a structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to an object retainer and more specifically it relates to an object retention system which aids in safely and efficiently securing ornamental objects such as lights across a structure such as a roof.
2. Description of the Related Art
Any discussion of the related art throughout the specification should in no way be considered as an admission that such related art is widely known or forms part of common general knowledge in the field.
It is increasingly common for homes or other structures to be decorated with various ornamental objects, such as ornamental lights. For example, during the holiday season throughout the world, houses are often decorated with ornamental lights or other objects which extend across the roof of the houses.
It can be exceedingly difficult to secure such ornamental objects to a structure. Often, staples or nails are utilized to temporarily or permanently mount the decorative objects to the structure. This can create significant risks for the person installing the objects. The swinging of a hammer can lead to imbalance and thus result in a fall from a height. Additionally, there is always the risk that a nail or staple will injure the installer of the objects.
Because of the inherent problems with the related art, there is a need for a new and improved object retention system which aids in safely and efficiently securing ornamental objects such as lights across a structure such as a roof.


A heat exchanger includes a plurality of tubes wherein at least some of the tubes are elliptical or oval in cross section and each tube includes a longitudinal axis. Each elliptical tube includes a major axis and a minor axis. The plurality of tubes is arranged in a radial pattern such that the major axes of the elliptical tubes intersect a centerline of the heat exchanger. The plurality of tubes is connected to a heater mount and a heater is also connected to the heater mount. A securing element holds the plurality of tubes, the heater and the heater mount together. A tube liner can extend along the longitudinal axis of at least one of the elliptical or oval tubes of the plurality of tubes. If a tube liner is employed, a purge fluid flow channel is defined between an outer periphery of the tube liner and an inner periphery of at least one of the elliptical or oval tubes of the plurality of tubes.

The present disclosure relates to heaters for heating a liquid. More particularly, the disclosure relates to an inline heat exchanger which can be used to heat a corrosive fluid. If desired, a gas purge can also be used.
It is known to use a purge gas to remove permeate from a heater assembly in order to protect a metal heat exchanger surface. A patent pertaining to such an arrangement is entitled "Gas purged flexible cable type immersion heater and method for heating highly corrosive liquids", U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,024. Another similar patent is entitled "Purged grounded immersion heater", U.S. Pat. No. 5,875,283. The subject matter of both of these patents is incorporated hereinto by reference in their entirety. Both patents utilize a purge gas to remove permeate from the inside of a fluoropolymer tube encasing a heating element. The first element is a simple resistance wire heating coil. The second is a metal encased heating element which provides a ground plane for added safety.
It would be desirable to reduce the amount of expensive fluoropolymer materials which are employed in the existing designs, while still being able to perform the same functions. It would also be desirable to provide heat exchanger tubes aligned in a radial array in order to maximize the area per unit volume and allow for simplified assembly of the unit. It would further be desirable to maintain an uninterrupted flow path through the heat exchanger in order to provide the highest purity of the process fluid, i.e., the fluid which is being heated.


A sectional van trailer having detachable, interchangeable compartments capable of forming a continuous van body is disclosed. One or more van sections or cargo compartments are secured to a trailer frame. The van sections may be individually removed and left at a location for loading or unloading. When removed, the van sections form secure, weather-tight individual containers for the goods disposed therein. The van sections are interconnected and each van section may remain an individual compartment or may be joined with one or more adjacent van sections to form a continuous van body. A tractor mounted hoist apparatus is provided to allow a lone truck operator to move the van sections between the ground, and the trailer frame, a storage stand, or a truck frame. The described embodiments are particularly efficient for moving both household belongings and general commodities on a long-haul trip. Moreover, since the individual van sections may be removed from a trailer, stored, and resecured to a different trailer frame, it is possible to transport the loaded van sections to a hub terminal and then transfer the van sections to outgoing trailers heading for points along the way to a final destination. Use of the present invention allows much more efficient transportation of goods by truck since loads may be planned to allow a direct, rather than circuitous, route to a final destination.

1. The Field of the Invention
This invention relates to transportation equipment used to move goods such as commercial freight and household belongings. More particularly, the present invention pertains to a system including a trailer frame onto which may be removably secured one or more of a plurality of interchangeable individual cargo compartments and all or some of the plurality of cargo compartments may be attached and interconnected to each other to form a continuous van body secured to the trailer frame and also may be removed for loading or unloading and secured to another trailer frame with other similar cargo compartments.
2. The Background Art
An efficient transportation system is essential to the operation of modern industrial societies. During the past several hundred years, the most common methods of transporting goods and materials from one location to a distant location has progressed from animal-drawn wagons, to steam and diesel-driven locomotives, to today where millions of tons of goods and materials are carried upon highways by semitrailer and tractor rigs which have become familiar sights on the world's highways.
The conventional semitrailer and tractor rig (so named because the trailer relies upon the tractor to carry part of its weight) often comprises a trailer 48 feet long, 13 feet high, and 8.5 feet wide. Importantly, the total cost of operating a semitrailer and tractor rig usually varies little between the cost of operating a semitrailer which is only partially full or a semitrailer which is completely full. Thus, by loading more items into a trailer before making a long-haul trip the cost of transporting each item to its destination will be lower than if fewer items were loaded into the trailer. Thus, there is great incentive in the long-haul trucking industry to use the largest possible trailer and to fill the trailers to their capacity during a trip.
While much of the trucking industry is involved with the transportation of commercial freight, a significant and economically important portion of the trucking industry is concerned with the transportation of household belongings. Significantly, the above-mentioned economic considerations of completely filling a trailer before leaving on a long-haul trip also applies in the case of moving household belongings. However, the nature of moving household belongings often makes it extremely difficult to completely fill a trailer of the type previously available in the industry, particularly on a return trip.
Like all customers of the trucking industry, household customers desire that their goods be picked up at their residence exactly at the scheduled time and delivered to their destination as soon as possible, or alternatively, at an exact date and hour. Commercial users of the trucking industry, in contrast to owners of household belongings, are often more willing and able to forgive delays in picking up and delivering fungible goods since individuals are often without furniture, cooking utensils, clothing, and personal belongings during the time that their goods are in transit. Moreover, the residential moving trade is extremely competitive and the residential customer's desire to have timely pickup and delivery works against having the lowest possible operating costs for several reasons such has those summarized below.
First, moving household goods often requires that a tractor-trailer combination be driven directly to the customer's residence. Because of government regulation or practical constraints, often times a full-sized trailer cannot be taken directly to a residence located on narrow streets or driveways, or on streets having weight limits below the weight of a loaded trailer.
Second, it is usually the case that a residential customer does not have enough household belongings to fill an entire trailer previously used in the industry. Such a trailer is 48 feet long and holds approximately 17 average rooms of furniture. Thus, unless the customer is willing to pay for the use of an entire trailer, the remaining third, half, two-thirds, or more, of the trailer must be shared with one or more other customers. Unfortunately, sharing a trailer requires that the pick-up and delivery dates may not be those desired by one or more of the customers sharing a trailer. Also, sharing a trailer often causes the time period between pick-up and delivery dates for one customer to be longer than it otherwise might be.
Third, customers are always concerned about the security of their goods. Sharing a trailer with another unknown person raises questions in customers' minds concerning the security of their goods.
Fourth, since the trailers most often used in the past to move household belongings were particularly adapted to the task, moving commercial goods in such trailers was not feasible. Thus, movers of household belongings have in the past been required to ensure that the trailer returned from a distant location with another load of household belongings, but as a practical matter always partially empty. Alternatively, if the tractor and trailer were required elsewhere before a load could be arranged, the trailer made the return trip empty at great expense to the operator.
In view of the foregoing difficulties and drawbacks found in the previous state of the art, it would be an advance in the art to provide a semitrailer which may be sectioned into a plurality of individually securable compartments and also allow the compartments to be interconnected to form a full-length continuous van body. It would also be an advance in the art to provide a semitrailer which includes a plurality of individual compartments, each compartment being capable of being off-loaded from the trailer, left at a location for loading, and later attached again to the trailer.
It would be another advance in the art to provide a plurality of cargo compartments which may be interchanged and secured to any number of properly equipped semitrailers. It would be a further advance in the art to provide a semitrailer which may be sectioned into individual compartments which are adapted to carry both household belongings and commercial freight.
It would be a still further advance in the art to provide a sectional van trailer and an accompanying tractor-mounted hoisting apparatus which allows a lone individual to both remove and secure an individual cargo compartment to the semitrailer at, for example, pick-up and drop-off locations and locations where cargo compartments are transferred from one semitrailer to another or are placed into storage. It would be yet another advance in the art to provide a semitrailer which protects its contents from contamination by dirt and moisture and securely holds the goods contained therein.

Sectional van trailer having detachable, interchangeable compartments capable of forming a continuous van body


A protective garment of elastic ergonomic material with waist and thighs straps, and a central panel made of fabrics and obstacle elements in various patterns and combinations in order to delay, impede and deflect knife and scissors blades. Both waist and thigh structures enable adjustable girth via a lock and as such create a flexible and a non-elastic rigid and connected overall protective structure resistant to forcible attempts of undressing by pulling and or by cutting or shearing the garment.

Much can be said about the necessity to protect teenage girls and women from being sexual assaulted and raped. Indeed there are various products on the market that address this issue. However, it seems that none of the offered products are offering an effective passive resisting.
There are essentially two ways of providing protection against sexual assault: active and passive protection. Active protection includes physical resistant and various products which are all based on action from the victim; Self-defense skills can help to resist an attempted assault, but cannot be used in all situations and will not always be effective. Tools of self-defense are often not effective in all situations and depend on the courage and resourcefulness of the victim. Products such as pepper spray, tear gas, stun guns, weapons, etc. may allow the attacker to use the product against the victim.
Other products which offer passive protection are not dependent on the skill of the victim. However, such passive protection may cause serious injuries to the attacker such as the anti-rape female condom and an anti-rape tampon. Because some passive protection devices may be intrusive to the victim's comfort and privacy, such devices are not therefore very popular in the market either.
Another type of passive protection is the chastity belt and variations of add-on straps which are typically cumbersome and made of bulky and non-ergonomic materials and may be used as add-ons and therefore not used daily or replace garment and undergarment. What is needed in the market is a form-fitting and comfortable protective garment that may be worn every day and be easily laundered. There has therefore been a long felt need for an ergonomic and versatile protective garment that gives women a high degree of confidence and security for everyday use against assault and rape.
Invention is therefore an item of clothing that can be worn for daily activities that creates an effective barrier layer against physical sexual assault and can allow the wearer to passively resist an attacker.
However, such products can't be practically worn under clothing and are therefore not for daily use. What is needed in the market is a form-fitting and comfortable protective garment that may be worn every day and be easily laundered. There has therefore been a long felt need for an ergonomic and versatile protective garment that gives women a high degree of confidence and security for everyday use against assault and rape.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Ergonomic garment with cut and shearing resistant strapping and an adjustable girth and lock


A fault simulator for a digital combinational circuit implements a critical path tracing algorithm in reconfigurable hardware and comprises: a forward network capable of emulating the digital combinational circuit and having primary outputs; a second forward network capable of emulating the digital combinational circuit in the presence of a stem fault and having corresponding primary outputs, the first and second forward network receiving identical input test signals at primary inputs thereof; a backward network having one primary input for every primary output of said combinational circuit and one primary output for every primary input of the combinational circuit, the backward network receiving signal values propagated to primary outputs in the first forward network in response to the input test signals; and, circuitry provided in the backward network responsive to signal values propagated in the first forward network for computing criticality of paths, the computed critical paths indicating faults in the combinational circuit that are detected by the input test signals.

Fault simulation is the simulating of a circuit in the presence of faults. Comparing the fault simulation results with those of the fault-free simulation of the same circuit simulated with the same applied test T, the faults detected by T can be determined. One use of fault simulation is to evaluate (grade) a test T which is given by its fault coverage, i.e., which is the ratio of the number of faults detected by T to the total number of simulated faults. Fault simulation can be used with different fault models, such as stuck-at faults, bridging faults, etc.
Fault simulation plays an important role in test generation, by determining the faults accidentally detected by a test vector or test sequence generated for a specific target fault. Then all the detected faults are discarded from the set of simulated faults, and a new target fault is selected from the remaining ones. This avoids the much greater computational effort involved in generating tests by explicitly targeting the accidentally detected faults.
Fault simulation is extensively used in fault diagnosis. One technique for doing so employs precomputed fault dictionaries, where all possible faulty responses are stored for comparison with the actual response of the device under test. Another technique, used as part of post-test diagnosis, first isolates a reduced set of "plausible" faults, and then simulated only these faults to find the one(s) whose response agrees with the actual response.
In Digital Systems Testing and Testable Design, by M. Abramovici, M. A. Breuer, and A. D. Friedman, I.E.E.E. Press, 1994, many efficient software-implemented fault simulation algorithms are discussed. However, complex circuits and long test sequences make fault simulation in software a very time-consuming computational process.
Many different hardware-based approaches have been tried to speed up fault simulation, e.g., methods dividing the set of faults among parallel processors executing the same algorithm, such as described in "Fault Simulation in a Distributed Environment," Proc Design Automation Conf., pp. 686-691, 1988 by P. A. Duba, R. K. Roy, J. A. Abraham, and W. A. Rogers. Unfortunately, these usually result in a speed-up which is a sublinear function of the number of processors. While hardware accelerators specially built for fault simulation do achieve higher performance, such performance comes at a significantly higher cost. Also, a special-purpose processor with a hardwired algorithm is a very inflexible solution. By contrast, a microprogrammed multiprocessor architecture, such as described in "Fault Simulation on a Pipelined Multiprocessor System,"Proc. Intn'l Test Conf., pp. 727-734, 1989, by P.Agrawal, V. D. Agrawal, and K. T.Cheng, offers more flexibility (both logic and fault simulation are implemented on the same machine), but the performance is lower.
Logic emulation systems are increasingly being used for rapid ASIC prototyping, and to support hardware-software co-design and in-system verification. One recent solution, such as described by K.-T.Cheng, S.-Y.Huang, and W.-J. Dai, in "Fault Emulation: A New Approach to Fault Grading,"Proc. Int'l. Conf. on Computer-Aided Design, pp. 681-686, Nov. 1995 and by L. Burgun, F. Reblewski, G. Fenelon, J. Barbier and O. Lepape,"Serial Fault Simulation,"Proc. Design Automation Conf., pp.801-806, 1996, has implemented logic emulators for serial fault simulation, where faults are inserted one-at-a-time in the emulation model of the circuit. The advantage is that fault simulation runs at hardware speed, without having to build any special purpose hardware, and it runs on computing platforms which are becoming widely available.
An important requirement is to have an efficient way of performing fault insertion that avoids full reconfiguration of the emulator for different faults. In the K.-T.Cheng et al. reference, a fault insertion circuit is added to the emulation model, so that faults are inserted without any reconfiguration, just by changing logic values in the model. In the L.Burgun et al. reference, fault insertion takes advantage of the incremental reconfigurability of the target emulator, which allows only a small portion of the model to be reconfigured. Although the K.-T.Cheng et al. reference describes a speed-up technique that allows several faults to be concurrently simulated, the performance of this process, referred to as fault emulation, is still limited by its serial nature.
Thus, it would be highly desirable to overcome the drawbacks mentioned-above by providing a new approach to implement fault simulation on reconfigurable hardware.
Moreover, it would be highly desirable to provide a new approach to implement fault simulation on reconfigurable hardware by implementing a critical path tracing algorithm, an implicit fault processing technique which is described in "Critical Path Tracing: An Alternative to Fault Simulation", IE.E.E. Design & Test of Computers, 1984, by M. Abramovici, P. R. Menon, and D. T. Miller, which is incorporated by reference herein. In critical path tracing, explicit fault enumeration is not required, as most faults are processed implicitly. Instead, for every input vector, critical path tracing first simulates the fault-free circuit, then it determines the detected faults by ascertaining which values are so-called critical. For instance, a line "l" has a critical value v in test t if t detects the fault l s-a-v (stuck-at-v). Such as a line with a critical value in t is said to be critical in t. Finding the lines critical in a test t, enables immediate determination of the faults detected by t. As a starting point, the primary outputs (POs) with binary values are critical in any test. The other critical lines are found by a process starting at the POs and backtracing paths composed of critical lines, called critical paths.
A gate input is sensitive in a test t if complementing its value changes the value of the gate output. If a gate output is critical, then its sensitive inputs are also critical. This provides the basic rule for backtracing critical paths through gates. FIGS. 2(a) and 2(b) illustrate a combinational circuit having the sensitive gate inputs marked by dots and the critical paths indicated by heavy lines.
In the critical path tracing algorithm, when a critical path being traced reaches a fanout stem, stem analysis is performed to determine whether the stem is critical by injecting the appropriate fault at the stem and checking whether its fault effects propagate to any PO. For example, as shown in FIG. 2(a), the stem indicated as "B" is not critical, since the fault effects of B s-a-0 propagate along two paths with different inversion parities that cancel each other at the inputs of the reconvergence gate F (Fault effects are denoted by good.sub.-- value/faulty.sub.-- value). However, as shown in FIG. 2(b), the fault effect propagating along the path (B, BI, D, F) reaches F and therefor B is critical.
In many cases, stem criticality can be determined without stem analysis, based only on criticality of the fanout branches. Such stems can be identified by analyzing the reconvergent structure of the circuit in a preprocessing phase. For example, in FIG. 3(a), both paths that fan out from B and reconverge at E have the same inversion parity. Hence fault effects originating at B can never cancel each other, and, whenever B1 or B2 is critical, the stem can be marked as critical without simulating the stem fault.
FIG. 3(b) illustrates a situation when a critical path is not continuous. Although backtracing stops at gate E, (which has no sensitive inputs), stem B is critical since the effect of B s-a-0 is observed at E. In the case exemplified in FIG. 3(a), whenever gate E is critical and D=E=0, stem analysis must be performed for B, a condition which may be identified during a preprocessing stage. A detailed discussion of conditions for stem analysis is given by P. R. Menon, Y. Levendel, and M. Abramovici in "SCRIPT: A Critical Path Tracing Algorithm for Synchronous Sequential Circuits," IE.E.E. Transactions on Computer-Aided Design, June 1991.


A rust-resistant cylindrical metal sleeve for preventing rust and corrosion from developing around the wall of a branch hole when the sleeve is rigidly fitted into a branch hole that is drilled through the wall of a metal conduit such as a water pipeline. The sleeve has a projecting portion on its outer circumference and an inner flange portion inwardly projecting at its lower end. The metal sleeve on its outer circumference is coated with a water-absorbing swelling rubber into which a synthetic resin rubber and a water-absorbing polymer are blended. Preferably, 100 parts by weight of styrene-butadiene rubber or ethylene-propylene-dienemetylene linkage rubber is blended with 10 to 40 parts by weight of the water-absorbing polymer. Since the water-absorbing swelling rubber increases its volume as it absorbs water, pressure in the rubber increases, preventing water ingress through between the metal sleeve and the wall of the branch hole.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention chiefly relates to a rust-resistant sleeve that prevents rust and corrosion from developing around the wall of a branch hole when the sleeve is rigidly fitted into the branch hole that is drilled through the wall of a metal conduit such as a water pipeline.
2. Description of the Related Art
A rust-resistant sleeve is known and in widespread use in water supply systems. Such a rust-resistant sleeve is fitted into a branch hole drilled into the wall of a water pipeline to attain rust and corrosion resistance in the inner surface of the pipeline.
Many of these rust-resistant sleeves are metal sleeves made of copper (phosphor-deoxidized copper), stainless steel or the like, and are directly fitted into a branch hole drilled into the wall of a water pipeline. When the sleeve is installed into the pipeline, undue force may work on the sleeve, causing it to be deformed. Such a deformation creates an insufficient contact between the inner wall of the branch hole and the metal sleeve, thereby causing the sleeve to fail to achieve a good rust resistance performance. In a preventive step, the outer circumference of the metal sleeve is coated with an elastic member such as synthetic rubber.
Since the water pipeline presents naturally a high moisture and splashy environment, the elastic member has preferably a water absorption property to prevent rust development. Conventionally available high-water-absorption materials such as starch-acrylic ester graft, cross-linked carboxymethyl-cellulose, and cross-linked polyvinyl alcohol are used in agriculture fields (for example for soil improvements in water retaining property), in sanitation and medical fields.
A water absorbing rubber into which one of these high-water-absorption resins and SBR (styrene-butadiene rubber) or EPDM (ethylene-propylene-dienemetylene linkage) rubber are blended is occasionally used in civil engineering fields and building construction as dehydrating or sealing compound.
Even if the metal sleeve is covered or coated with an elastic member such as the above rubber for rust resistance, the elasticity of the rubber only serves the contact between the sleeve and the inner wall of the branch hole. To fit the sleeve into the branch hole, the sleeve has to be partly or uniformly expanded in diameter to press firmly the rubber around the circumference of the sleeve, against the inner wall of the branch hole, using a stretching tool. When the deformation of the metal sleeve becomes irregular during the cut and expansion step, an undue external force may destroy partly the rubber, and rust resistance performance is thus degraded.

Rust-resistant sleeve for use in a branch hole of a water pipeline


A method and apparatus for separating kenaf into fiber and core uses a modified stick machine conventionally used in the cotton industry for removing trash from unginned cotton. Lengths of kenaf are delivered onto the periphery of a saw cylinder so the toothed wheels snag the fiber and draw the kenaf across a grate. Core is detached from the fiber, passes through the grate and is delivered to a core outlet. Fiber on the toothed wheels are removed by a doffing wheel and delivered to a fiber outlet. Multiple saw cylinder/doffing wheel assemblies are provided.

Kenaf is a plant of considerable potential, as yet mostly unfulfilled. It is native to central Africa and has been cultivated in Egypt for thousands of years as a source of fiber for making clothing, rugs, rope and other products, as well as for other uses. Kenaf grows to heights of 12-18 feet in a 150 day season and requires little or no pesticides or herbicides if it is grown in the right locale. Kenaf can produce 5-10 tons of dry fiber and core per acre. The plant has two distinct types of material: an outer fiber known as fiber, bast or bast fiber, comprising about one-third by weight of the plant, and a core. The core is a low density woody type material while the bast is a much lower density fluffy type fiber of high tensile strength. As harvested, the bast fibers tenaciously adhere to the core. In a typical harvested kenaf crop, the core is slightly tapered from bottom to top and has a small diameter at the top in the range of 1/4-1/2".
The core and fibers have distinctly different uses and must be separated before they are suitable for these different uses. The core is useable as animal bedding, oil-absorbent material for oil spill cleanup, animal bedding, potting soil, kitty litter and particle board or other similar construction materials.
The most promising high volume use of bast fibers is in paper manufacture. Another potential high volume use is in the manufacture of fiberboard used in automotive door panels and the like. The economics of bast fibers in these high volume situations are attractive because the cost of the cultivated crop compares very favorably to the cost of timber which is the conventional source of fiber used in paper and fiberboard production. The difficulty has been in separating the core from the bast fibers in large quantities. Many different attempts have been made, all heretofore futile, to separate kenaf core from fiber on an industrial scale.
The disclosure of a kenaf separator mounted on the back of a tractor is found in U.S. Pat. No. 2,755,511. Other disclosures of interest are found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 870,838; 1,797,507; 2,688,161; 2,817,119 and 4,974,293.

Method for separating kenaf into core and fiber


A device for measuring the tightness of a transmission belt comprises a hilt, an insertion tube, a frame, a retaining piece and an engaging piece. The hilt is provided with a transverse handle, a sleeve and a retractable axle having a section of a screw thread. The insertion tube, connected to the retractable axle by screwing has an inner passage with an upper screw-thread section and a lower screw-thread section. The insertion tube further includes surface graduations for inspection. The frame has a central through hole and two belt-passing slots respectively on two side arms thereof said frame. The retaining piece is connected to the bottom of the frame. The engaging piece is attached to the bottom terminal of the retractable axle. Thereby, a belt will be inserted through the belt-passing slots of the frame and brought into contact with the engaging piece.

The transmission belts for generators, automobile air conditioners and driving wheels are one important driving mechanism. However, if a transmission belt is too loose, a desired driving effect cannot be attained. A belt's state of tightness is conventionally inspected by an experience technician's visual measurement. Further, is can be detected by pressing the belt by hands, or it can even be detected by listening to the sound when it is operating. However, such measurements based on experience can be easily influenced by the person who does the inspection, therefore being easily distorted by a technician's inexperience and subjectivity. On the other hand, inspecting a transmission belt's tightness is important to driving safety, and suppose that a belt is still valid and a technician retires it, this will lead to a waste of automobile parts and increase car maintenance fee.

Device for measuring the tightness of a transmission belt