A crayon sharpening assembly is disclosed comprising an axially rotating cartridge block (106) having an axial bore (178) for axial receipt of a crayon with a forward end of the crayon positioned within a cutting station (152). A pair of convergent sharpening blades (158, 160) carve a conical nose into the forward crayon end; a secondary horizontal blade (180) engages the forward crayon end and cuts an annular stepped shoulder surrounding the conical nose; and a preparatory vertical blade (188) makes a vertical circumscribing cut through the jacket of the crayon proximate the forward end, whereby restoring the forward crayon end into its manufactured form. A carrying case (12, 14) is provided having a pivotal lid (16), with the sharpener drive assembly (20, 22) built into one end wall. A drawer assembly (100) is removable from the end wall and contains the cartridge block (106) and a housing (102) for collecting shavings generated in the sharpening procedure. A bottom housing door (104) opens to allow expulsion of the shavings. Rotation of the cartridge block (106) is facilitated by an electrically driven drive assembly that is automatically engaged and disengaged by the respective insertion and removal of the crayon and disengaged by the removal of the drawer housing assembly. Rotation of the cartridge block (106) is defeated by a clutch member (230) whenever an article that has a hardness greater than that of a crayon is inserted into the cartridge block cutting station (152).

1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates generally to sharpeners for writing or drawing implements and, more specifically, to electric sharpeners for crayons.
2. The Prior Art
Crayon or pencil sharpeners are common consumer products. Typically such devices are designed to be either portable or mounted to a surface in a fixed fashion. The configuration of conventional sharpeners provide a conical block with opposed walls defining an implement receiving channel. The walls provide sharpening edges, of either metallic or plastic composition, that extend from the base of the housing to its apex. The edges engage and shave the surface of the crayon or pencil as the implement is pressed into the opening and rotated.
In regard specifically to crayon sharpeners, the crayon is inserted downward into the conical housing and rotated against the wall edges. The tip of the crayon, formed of wax, plastic, or similar material, is shaved layer by layer into a conical form, tapering to a point. The shavings pass through openings between the wall edges into a receptacle below that can be detached and emptied when full. Electric sharpeners are designed to rotate the cutting block while the user holds the writing implement stationary against the cutting edges.
Representative of known sharpeners are the embodiments set forth in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,857,881; 4,248,283; and 4,991,299. The cutting elements in each are of the type described above. The '881 embodiment is of note for showing a crayon carton that provides a sharpening element in one of the carton sidewalls. The shavings are collected within a separate internal compartment of the carton and emptied by opening one of the carton flaps.
The state of the art sharpeners work well and are widely accepted by their users. However, several shortcomings are attendant their use, particularly in the sharpening of crayons. In order to appreciate the shortcomings it is important to note that crayons are coloring implements formed by a molding operation into a specific point configuration of plastic or wax, to provide a coloring tip of optimal utility. The form of the tip is frustroconical, tapering downward from a inwardly stepped annular shoulder to a flat circular nose. The flat nose, wider than a point, is more suitable for coloring than a point for it enables a wider band of color to be applied with each stroke. A paper or plastic sleeve is formed to encase the crayon and is either removed by hand prior to sharpening the point or removed by the sharpener during the sharpening procedure.
The molded form of the tip created in the manufacture of the crayon is optimal for its intended use, but quickly deteriorates with use. The post manufacture sharpening of the crayon into a sharp point, as done with prior art sharpeners, however, creates a crayon tip that is inferior to that formed in the original mold. A sharp point will wear down quickly into all undesirable dull round shape. Moreover, a sharp point is much more inefficient in laying) a wide band of color with each stroke.
In addition, the paper jacket surrounding the crayon is relatively abrasive to cut when compared to the soft crayon material. Repeated use of known sharpeners against such a jacket can cause plastic cutting blades of conventional sharpeners to dull quickly. Removing the sleeve by hand can eliminate this deficiency but is inconvenient from the user's standpoint.
Another deficiency in available sharpeners, particularly electrically driven versions, is that they lack adequate user safeguards. Since the users of crayon sharpeners are young children, it is important to guard the user from contact with the cutting blades of the sharpener, both during the sharpening procedure and when the shavings receptacle is being emptied. Moreover, safeguards are needed to insure that young users will not damage the crayon sharpener by inserting into the cutting station inappropriate objects that are much harder than crayons, such as pencils or pens. Commercial sharpeners have blades that are relatively difficult to maintain or repair. Lastly, young users are more likely to use sharpeners in such a manner as to cause end portions of the crayon to break off in the cutting station. Available sharpeners neither deter such breakage nor facilitate easy removal of the broken pieces from the cutting station.


A mill roll analysis system is described that includes a user interface module, a structural analysis engine, and an analysis control script. The user interface module receives mill roll design data from a remote user via a computer network. The analysis control script automatically directs the structural analysis engine to define and evaluate an appropriate analytical model for the mill roll design based on the mill roll design data. The mill roll analysis system presents an intuitive web-based interface for capturing the mill roll design data, and may present predefined mill roll applications and mill roll types for selection for the user. As a result, the remote user need not be familiar with the underlying analytical modeling techniques, which may be highly-complex by nature. Consequently, a user may utilize the system to evaluate and improve mill roll design in order to achieve increased product performance.

Rotatable rolls, often referred to as "mill rolls," are commonly used in the manufacturing and processing of metal sheets and strips (e.g., coils) in continuous production lines. A mill roll typically includes a cover (e.g., a sleeve or coating), such as a non-woven cover, fitted around and fixed to a rotatable shaft. In typical processes using mill rolls, metal sheets or coils move over the mill rolls as the metal feeds through the production line. During this process, the metal subjects the mill rolls to stress and deflections that affect their performance, usable lifetime, or both. As a result, the design of a mill roll may greatly impact the performance and/or usable life of the mill roll.
The design of mill rolls has conventionally involved rough approximation, intuition, trial and error, or a combination thereof. Moreover, a common approach has been to construct and evaluate "test" mill rolls corresponding to various designs under consideration. According to this technique, actual mill rolls for use in the production line would be constructed based on the performance of the test mill rolls, and only after the test mill rolls were thoroughly evaluated. Consequently, this can be a time-consuming, labor-intensive process involving numerous iterations.


A visual indicator device for use on a vehicle that includes a bed and a tailgate that engages with the bed and that may assume open and closed positions relative to the bed. The visual indicator device is for determining, from the cab of the vehicle via a rearview mirror, the status of the position of the tailgate. The visual indicator device includes a support mechanism including a first mechanism mounted to the bed and a second mechanism mounted to the tailgate, an actuation pin mechanism that intercouples the first and second mechanisms, and an indicator flag supported by the first mechanism and responsive to the position of the actuation pin mechanism so that the indicator flag has an indicating position when the tailgate is disengaged from the bed so that the actuation pin mechanism is out of engagement with the indicator flag, and has a rest position when the tailgate is engages with the bed whereby the actuation pin mechanism is in engagement with the indicator flag.

Existing trucks, particularly dump trucks and dump trailers include a rear tailgate that is pivoted from the top and may be automatically locked by the driver from the vehicle driving compartment. The locking mechanism includes a hook member that is actuated to engage a pin at the bottom of the tailgate. This hook member is operated, such as from a solenoid, which is controlled by a button or switch in the driving compartment. Even though this locking arrangement is sufficient for many purposes, there are instances in which the locking mechanism does not properly lock. This can occur, for example, if stones or other debris is caught at the bottom of the tailgate so that the locking mechanism only partially engages. This can be an unsafe condition wherein the tailgate can disengage, particularly when the truck goes over a rough road thus releasing part or all of the material being held in the truck body bed.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a visual indicator that can be observed through the rearview mirror at the side of the vehicle to easily tell the driver whether the tailgate is properly closed or not.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a visual indicator that is readily observed in the driving cab of the truck, that is easy to install, that is relatively inexpensive to purchase and install, and that adds a substantial safety factor to prevent unwanted release of material in the bed of the vehicle.


In a circuit for driving a plasma display panel including a first circuit formed on a scanning substrate for driving a scanning electrode, and a second circuit formed on a common substrate for driving a common electrode, the circuit in accordance with the present invention is characterized by including a single substrate in place of the scanning and common substrates wherein the first and second circuits are formed on the single substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a circuit for driving a plasma display panel.
2. Description of the Related Art
A plasma display panel has the following advantages in comparison with other displays, and hence, is broadly used in a field of a large-scale outdoor display unit or a large-scale television set.
(a) A plasma display panel can be formed thinner.
(b) A plasma display panel provides a greater display contrast ratio.
(c) A plasma display panel can be readily designed to have a larger screen.
(d) A plasma display panel has a higher response speed.
(e) A plasma display panel emits a light by itself. Hence, it would be possible to emit lights in a plurality of colors through the use of fluorescent materials.
Many plasma display panels have been conventionally suggested, for instance, in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 5-290742.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional plasma display panel 200.
The plasma display panel 200 is designed to include an electrically insulating front substrate 201a and an electrically insulating rear substrate 201b.
On the front substrate 201a are arranged scanning electrodes 209 and common electrodes 210 spaced away from each other by a certain distance in parallel with each other.
Each of the scanning electrodes 209 and each of the common electrodes 210 are comprised of a bus electrode 203 having electrical conductivity and a principal discharge electrode 202 formed on the bus electrode 203 and used for generating discharge. The principal electrode 202 is composed of transparent material such as ITO (indium tin oxide) in order to prevent reduction in transmissivity.
The scanning electrodes 209 and the common electrodes 210 are covered with a dielectric layer 204a. A protection layer 205 composed of magnesium oxide is formed on the dielectric layer 204a for protecting the dielectric layer 204a from discharge.
On the rear substrate 201b are arranged a plurality of data electrodes 206 in parallel with one another such that the data electrodes 206 extend perpendicularly to the scanning electrode 209 and the common electrode 210.
Cells are arranged at intersections at which, when viewed vertically, the scanning electrode 209 or the common electrode 210 intersects with the data electrode 206.
The data electrodes 206 are covered with a dielectric layer 204b. A plurality of partition walls 207 is formed on the dielectric layer 204b to define discharge spaces. The partition walls 207 extend in parallel with the data electrodes 206.
Phosphor 208 is coated on an exposed surface of the dielectric layer 204b and sidewalls of the partition walls 207. The phosphor 208 converts ultra-violet ray generated in discharge, into a visible light. For instance, red (R), green (G) and blue (B) phosphors are coated in every three cells.
Discharge gas is hermetically introduced into the discharge spaces sandwiched between the front substrate 201a and the rear substrate 201b and partitioned by the partition walls 207.
FIG. 2 is a plan view of a conventional driver circuit 90 for driving the plasma display panel 200.
The plasma display panel 200 has a front surface through which a light passes towards a user, and a rear surface 109a which is a lower surface of the rear substrate 201b. As mentioned below, several circuits are arranged above the rear surface 109a.
The driver circuit 90 is formed above the rear surface 109a of the plasma display panel 200. The driver circuit 90 is comprised of a common substrate 100, a scanning substrate 101, a relay substrate 111 which mechanically connects the common substrate 100 and the scanning substrate 101 to each other and to which electric charges are collected, data drivers 107, and scanning drivers 108. On the common substrate 100 are formed a sub-scanning block 102 and a sustaining block 103, and on the scanning substrate 101 are formed a priming block 104, a scanning block 105, and a sustaining block 106.
FIG. 3 is a circuit diagram of the driver circuit 90 illustrated in FIG. 2.
The scanning electrode 209 is controlled in operation in accordance with signals transmitted from the scanning drivers 108, and the scanning drivers 108 are controlled in operation by a scanning electrode driving circuit comprised of the priming block 104, the scanning block 105 and the sustaining block 106. The common electrode 210 is controlled in operation by a common electrode driving circuit comprised of the sub-scanning block 102 and the sustaining block 103.
The data electrodes 206 are controlled in operation in accordance with signals transmitted from the data drivers 107.
On the scanning substrate 101 is formed a first circuit for collecting electric charges as well as the scanning electrode driving circuit. On the common substrate 100 is formed a second circuit for collecting electric charges as well as the common electrode driving circuit.
As discharges are generated in the plasma display panel 200, electrical charges are accumulated on the plasma display panel 200. The electric charges accumulated on the plasma display panel 200 are transferred to the relay substrate 111 through the first and second circuits, and collected in capacitors formed on the relay substrate 111.
The conventional driver circuit 90 illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 3 are accompanies with problems as follows.
FIG. 4 is a plan view of the conventional driver circuit 90, showing the first problem of the driver circuit 90.
In the conventional driver circuit 90 illustrated in FIG. 2, since the common substrate 100 and the scanning substrate 101 are formed separately from each other, a heat sink 100a or 101a is also formed in each of the common substrate 100 and the scanning substrate 101. Herein, a heat sink means a part of a switch which generates heat. A principal heat sink is the sustaining blocks 103 and 106.
Since the heat sink 100a formed on the common substrate 100 and the heat skink 101a formed on the scanning substrate 101 generate heat in different amounts, it was not possible to keep switch elements formed on the common and scanning substrates 100 and 101 at the same temperature. As a result, a difference in temperature is generated among switch elements, causing a difference in delay among drive signals.
In addition, since the heat sinks 100a and 101a generate heat at different timing, it was necessary for the conventional driver circuit 90 to include two heat radiator s for the heat sinks 100a and 101a. Such two heat radiator s caused problems of an increase in the number of fabrication steps and an increase in a space necessary for the driver circuit 90 to be formed.
Furthermore, a difference in temperature between the common and scanning substrates 100 and 101 caused variance in CR time constant in accordance with which clamp timing was determined. Thus, clamp timing at which electric charges were collected was inaccurately determined, resulting in that it was not possible to effectively collect electric charges.
FIG. 5 is a plan view of the conventional driver circuit 90, showing the second problem of the driver circuit 90.
In the conventional driver circuit 90, as illustrated in FIG. 5, a sustaining current 110 runs at a ground (GND) line of a module plate. Since the common and scanning substrates 100 and 101 are arranged at opposite ends of the plasma display panel 200, the sustaining current runs in a long path, resulting in generation of high EMI noises.
FIG. 6 is a plan view of the conventional driver circuit 90, showing the third problem of the driver circuit 90.
As mentioned above, the common substrate 100 and the scanning substrate 101 were mechanically connected to each other through the relay substrate 111 in the conventional driver circuit 90. The relay substrate 111 collects electric charges accumulated in charge-collection circuits arranged on the common and scanning substrates 100 and 101. The relay substrate 111 is designed to have an inductance 112 in order to collect electric charges.
However, the inductance 112 causes problems that a wiring length is increased and accordingly a resistance 112a is increased with the result of an increase in a loss of the driver circuit 90.
FIG. 7 is a plan view of the conventional driver circuit 90, showing the fourth problem of the driver circuit 90.
As illustrated in FIG. 7, the common substrate 100 and the scanning substrate 101 include both a Vs clamp circuit 113 and a GND clamp circuit 114. In particular in the common substrate 100, the clamp circuits 113 and 114 make it impossible to locate a waveform-shaping Vs slice diode 115 and a waveform-shaping GND slice diode 116 in the vicinity of an edge of the plasma display panel 200.
FIG. 8A illustrates a desired waveform of a signal output from the driver circuit 90, and FIG. 8B illustrates an actual waveform of a signal output from the driver circuit 90. FIG. 9 is a graph showing a relation between a voltage at which the plasma display panel 200 is driven and the above-mentioned desired and actual waveforms.
As illustrated in FIG. 8B, overshoots occur in the actual waveform due to parasitic inductance of the common substrate 100. This is because the Vs slice diode 115 and the GND slice diode 116 cannot be located in the vicinity of an edge of the plasma display panel 200.
As a result, as illustrated in FIG. 9, a voltage Vw at which a light is wrongly emitted reduces to a degree of the overshoot, and hence, a range Ra of a driving voltage for the actual waveform is reduced in comparison with the same Rd for the desired waveform (driving margin).
Japanese Patent No. 2776419 (Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 9-179521) has suggested a driver circuit for driving a planar display unit including at least one pair of electrodes and panel capacity associated therewith. The driver circuit includes a first path through which a voltage having been applied to the electrodes escapes, a second path through which a voltage is applied to the electrodes, and a capacitor electrically connected to the first and second paths. The first path is comprised of a first coil, a first diode having an anode located close to the electrodes, and a first switch. The second path is comprised of a second coil, a second diode having a cathode located close to the electrodes, and a second switch. The driver circuit further includes a first clamping unit electrically connected between the electrodes and the first coil in the first path, and applying a low voltage to the first path, and a second clamping unit electrically connected between the electrodes and the second coil in the second path, and applying a high voltage to the second path.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 11-344952 has suggested a circuit for driving a display unit including a plurality of pairs of control and sustaining electrodes. The circuit includes a sustaining circuit which applies a voltage alternately to the control electrode and the sustaining electrode, and a control circuit. The sustaining circuit is comprised of first and second switching elements electrically connected in series to opposite ends of a capacitor formed between the control and sustaining electrodes, a resonant coil electrically connected in series between the first and second switching elements, and two switching elements electrically connected in series between a power supply line and a ground line. A node to which the two switching elements are electrically connected is electrically connected to a node to which coils of the first and second switching elements are not electrically connected. The control circuit controls the switching elements.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2001-272944 has suggested a circuit for driving a plasma display panel, including a first sustaining driver circuit which controls a voltage of a scanning electrode, and raises a voltage of the sustaining electrode by virtue of a power supply voltage when the scanning electrode is at a voltage of the power supply voltage, a second sustaining driver circuit which controls a voltage of a sustaining electrode, and raises a voltage of the scanning electrode by virtue of a power supply voltage when the sustaining electrode is at a voltage of the power supply voltage, and a relay circuit through which the first and second sustaining driver circuits are electrically connected to each other.

Circuit for driving plasma display panel


A wheel assembly includes a wheel including a spoke portion radially supporting a rim portion about a central axis, wherein the rim portion presents a radial outer surface relative to the central axis. A tire is mounted to the wheel and cooperates with the wheel to define a tire cavity between the radial outer surface of the rim portion and the tire. A foamed aluminum portion is supported by the wheel, and includes a plurality of pores arranged to define an open-cell foam. The plurality of pores of the foamed aluminum portion is disposed in fluid communication with the tire cavity to absorb noise from within the tire cavity. The foamed aluminum portion may be integrally cast with the wheel, or otherwise affixed to the wheel.

Vehicles are subject to road noise caused by acoustic resonances associated with a wheel assembly of the vehicle. The wheel assembly includes a wheel with a tire mounted thereon. The wheel includes a spoke portion that radially supports a rim portion about a central axis. Road noise resonates within a tire cavity of the wheel assembly, which is defined between the rim portion of the wheel and tire.

Wheel with aluminum foam for tire cavity noise suppression


A cylinder head mount comprising a base portion for mounting to a cylinder head of an engine; a bracket portion configured to receive and support an engine component; and a body portion interposed between the base portion and the bracket portion.

Support structures may be used to mount engine components onto an engine enclosure or even to support the component remotely from the engine. The components that may be typically mounted include aftertreatment devices, mufflers, turbochargers, Exhaust Gas Recirculation (EGR) coolers, oil coolers, electronic control modules (ECM) and oil filters.
Various exhaust treatment components may be mounted individually in an exhaust system within the available space using individual support structures. However, due to the increasing complexity and number of exhaust treatment components and the small amount of available space, mounting and interconnecting exhaust treatment components may be difficult.
Nevertheless, there remains a need for the incorporation of exhaust treatment components within the limited available space, without requiring substantial and costly redesign of the machine. These space constraints may be further exacerbated by other requirements, such as maintaining heat rejection levels from an engine or other components at satisfactory levels.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,717,205, in the name of Caterpillar Inc., discloses a hood assembly for a machine which may have an enclosure to which at least one exhaust aftertreatment device is integrated. The exhaust aftertreatment system may be mated to an exhaust pipe from the engine. The engine hood assembly may include ventilation openings to assist in heat rejection from the engine compartment and from the exhaust aftertreatment devices. However, the exhaust aftertreatment device may be mounted in a exhaust hood assembly that may obstruct the view from the cab of the machine.
Support structures may be used to mount engine components onto a base engine structure. However, vibrations generated by the engine during operation may negatively affect components that are connected thereto. Generally, the support structures that may be used to mount the components may be designed to reduce or obviate excessive vibrations being transferred from an engine to a mounted engine component.
These support structures may be designed to be sufficiently rigid to obviate transfer of vibrations from the operating engine to a mounted engine component. However, such support structures may often be relatively larger and heavier than what is required to maintain component mounting in a static condition. Large and heavy support structures may also result in an increase in production cost of an engine and a decrease in fuel economy of the engine due to their larger size and weight.
US 2008/0223329 A1 discloses a compound bracket system for an internal combustion engine having a first bracket that may be rigidly connected to a crankcase of the internal combustion engine and a second bracket that may be connected to the crankcase through an intake manifold. The first bracket may form at least one mounting pad that is arranged to connect to and support a turbine. The second bracket may form a component cavity that is arranged to accept and support an EGR cooler. The first bracket may have an interconnection pad, and the second component may have a strut with a mounting tab that may be connected to the interconnection pad to increase the rigidity of the second bracket.
The present disclosure is directed, at least in part, to improving or overcoming one or more aspects of the prior art engine component support structures.


A determination is made of users that form a group within a social network in which the users communicate with each other over a network with electronic devices in a client-server architecture. The users in the group within the social network form a peer-to-peer (P2P) storage group within a P2P storage network. In the P2P storage network, users are peers that act as a client and a server for each other.

The rapid expansion of digital information has caused a large demand for data storage. In order to satisfy this demand, enormous amounts of data are stored across thousands and thousands of data centers. These data centers consume massive amounts of energy and account for a significant percentage of electrical load being consumed across the United States. Unfortunately, these data centers are costly to run and inefficient in their use of power. They waste large amounts of electricity and contribute to environmental pollution.
Other systems and methods to store digital information can reduce the burden on data centers.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A method and apparatus for delivering a cryogen in which a cryogen is stored and delivered in a cryogenic storage facility having three tanks. Each of the tanks is filled with the cryogen in a subcooled liquid state to wash contaminants down toward a bottom region thereof. Thereafter, a minor stream composed of superheated vapor is introduced into the bottom region of each tank to pressurize each tank. A major stream of the superheated vapor is then introduced into each tank to form scrubbed cryogenic vapor in the head space region thereof which is used in forming the product stream. Each tank is subsequently used to dispense the cryogen to a vaporizer to form the superheated vapor which is in turn divided into the major and subsidiary streams. The forgoing operations are preferably conducted the three tanks as an out of phase cycle such that one tank dispenses the liquid cryogen to the remaining tanks as the major and subsidiary streams and after having dispensed the cryogen, each tank is refilled which again substantially clears the top head space region thereof of contaminants.

The present invention relates to a cryogenic storage and delivery apparatus and method in which three tanks are used to store a cryogen as a pressurized, saturated liquid, to dispense the cryogen as a vapor by vaporizing the cryogen from the bottom region of one tank and introducing the vaporized cryogen into the bottom region of another tank, thereby to produce scrubbed cryogenic vapor in the top head space region of such tank, and to form a product stream substantially free of contaminants from the scrubbed cryogenic vapor. The utilization of the three tanks takes place in an out of phase cycle designed such that the top head space region of each tank is maintained substantially clear of contaminants.
Liquid cryogen is stored in cryogenic storage facilities consisting of one or more tanks from which the cryogen is delivered from each tank upon demand. Associated with a tank is a pressure building circuit to build the pressure within the tank to a delivery pressure and a heat exchanger, attached to an outlet of the tank, to supply the product at ambient temperature.
The cryogen is delivered from the tank at a delivery pressure. Hence, when a tank is filled, it is necessary to maintain the delivery pressure. This is accomplished by alternately filling the tank from top and bottom inlets in the top and bottom regions of the tank. This creates a problem due to the fact that higher boiling contaminants such as moisture solidify on the walls of the tank and airborne dust drawn in during the filling of the tank also is deposited on the walls of the tank. Thus, after a filling of the tank, the product is initially delivered with a high concentration of the contaminants. This problem is exacerbated due to the pressure building circuit which draws off cryogen from the bottom of the tank and returns cryogenic vapor along with contaminants to the top region of the tank, the region where the cryogen is delivered. In order to solve the contaminant problem it has been known to employ either a tank within a tank or two tanks in which cryogenic vapor from one tank is bubbled through the bottom of another tank in order to solidify the contaminants prior to delivery of a cryogenic liquid or to purify cryogenic vapor prior to delivery. See for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 3,798,918 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,579,566.
Another problem involved in the storage and delivery of the cryogen is that the physical properties of the cryogen are not uniform. The reason for such non-uniformity is that the cryogen is initially delivered from a tank truck in which the cryogen is stored at a much lower pressure than the intended delivery pressure. As the tank is alternately filled from the top and bottom inlets, the cryogen when entering from the top of the tank becomes saturated while the cryogen entering from the bottom of tank subcools due to the exertion of the increased tank pressure. The end result is a top strata of saturated liquid and an underlying layer of subcooled liquid is formed. The properties of the cryogen vary with such strata and hence, the cryogen is delivered with non-uniform properties over time. The varying properties are exasperated by the continuing use of the normal pressure building methods.
As will be discussed, the present invention provides a cryogenic delivery method and apparatus for delivering a product stream composed of stable, saturated cryogen substantially free of contaminants.

Cryogenic storage and delivery method and apparatus


There is provided a spark section (80) of needle-like shape protruding from an inner surface (33) of a ground electrode (30) to define a spark gap between the spark section and an electrode tip on a center electrode. The spark section (80) has a noble metal member (81) and an intermediate member (86) joined to each other. The materials of the noble metal member (81) and the intermediate member (86) are selected in such a manner that the thermal conductivity of the intermediate member (86) is lower than that of the noble metal member (81). This limits heat radiation through the heat radiation passage from the noble metal member (81) through the intermediate member (86) to the ground electrode (30) so as to maintain the noble metal member (81) at a higher temperature than conventional types and reduce a quenching effect of the noble metal member (81) on a flame core generated in the spark gap for improvement in ignition performance.

A spark plug is known, which includes a center electrode, a ground electrode and a needle-like shaped spark section disposed on an inner surface (one side surface) of an end portion of the ground electrode facing the center electrode so as to define a spark gap between the spark section and the center electrode. (See e.g. Patent Document 1.) Herein, the needle-like shaped spark section refers to that, for example, having a protrusion length of 0.6 to 1.6 mm from the inner surface of the ground electrode and an outer diameter (or protruding end face diameter) of 0.5 to 1.2 mm. The spark plug with such a needle-like shaped spark section allows the ground electrode to be located away from the spark gap and reduces the tendency that a flame core generated in the spark gap comes into contact with the ground electrode in the initial stage of flame growth as compared to conventional spark plugs. This makes it possible to decrease a so-called quenching effect of interfering with the flame growth by heat loss upon contact of the flame core with the ground electrode and thereby makes it possible to improve the ignition performance of the spark plug.
The spark section is generally formed using a noble metal having high resistance to spark wear by a concentration of spark discharges. However, there is a large difference between the linear expansion coefficient of the noble metal and the liner expansion coefficient of e.g. nickel-based alloy material commonly used for the ground electrode. If these materials are simply joined together, a crack or separation may occur in the joint between the materials under the influence of thermal load by cooling/heating cycles. Against such a backdrop, Patent Document 1 teaches that the spark section has a noble metal member and an intermediate member having a linear expansion coefficient between those of the noble metal member and the ground electrode and joined to the noble metal member and to the ground electrode so as to increase the joint strength between the spark section and the ground electrode.
In recent years, the combustion conditions of an engine have become increasingly strict for high engine performance and fuel efficiency. This leads to an increase in the amount of heat applied to the ground electrode of the spark plug and an increase in the influence of thermal load applied to the spark section by cooling/heating cycles. As the noble metal member gets heated to a high temperature, it becomes likely that the noble metal member will be consumed by oxidation to cause a deterioration of spark wear resistance. Various modifications have heretofore been made on the spark plug so as to enable rapid heat radiation from the spark section, such as by providing a core material of high thermal conductivity in the ground electrode or by increasing the heat radiation ability of the intermediate member to enhance heat radiation from the noble metal member.
On the other hand, the engine has an exhaust gas passage (exhaust pipe) equipped with a three-way catalyst. This three-way catalyst is activated at a high temperature so as to purify exhaust gas. It is thus common to perform engine control (so-called retard ignition control) that retards the ignition from the normal ignition timing and thereby raises the exhaust gas temperature under low-temperature conditions such as during engine start (e.g. for a lapse of 1 to 2 minutes from turning on the ignition key) so that the high-temperature exhaust gas can be fed to the catalyst to allow early activation of the catalyst and to reduce HC emissions by secondary combustion.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2004-134209.


The present disclosure provides a device and a method for an anchor bolt (cable) supporting structure test and an anchoring system performance comprehensive experiment, and relates to the technical field of anchoring tests. The device includes a gantry, a loading mechanism, a test mechanism and a test piece, wherein the gantry includes a base and an operation platform; the loading mechanism includes a loading frame, a chuck, a surrounding rock force loading oil cylinder and a hollow drawing oil cylinder; the test mechanism includes a load, a displacement and an acoustic emission and other monitoring mechanisms, and the test piece includes a rock test piece, an anchor bolt (cable), an anchor net, and the like; the loading mechanism and the hollow drawing oil cylinder are disposed on the base, and a torsion motor and an anchor bolt drill are disposed on the operation platform, wherein the rock test piece is placed between bearing plates, one end of the anchor bolt (cable) is fixed by the chuck or anchored into the rock test piece, and the other end of the anchor bolt (cable) passes through the hollow drawing oil cylinder. The device is capable of not only testing mechanical properties of the anchor bolt (cable) and an anchoring member, but also realizing simulation of a stress environment of “five sides loaded and one side non-loaded” so as to perform a surrounding rock drilling response or anchoring system performance comprehensive experiment.

At present, anchoring supporting technology is widely used in the engineering fields such as deep roadway and large-span underground cave supporting, reinforcement of a foundation and an abutment of a dam, rock-soil slope reinforcement, deep foundation pit supporting, water supply and traffic tunnels. A scientific supporting scheme may not only effectively guarantee the safety of works construction and production but also reduce costs to obtain the largest economic benefits. Experiments and engineering researches show that an anchor bolt essentially acts to reinforce surrounding rocks effectively so as to prevent occurrence of new opening cracks and slow down propagation of cracks, thereby avoiding large bed separation and slide of structural planes, keeping integrity of the surrounding rocks as possible, and preventing appearance of harmful deformation. High-performance anchor bolt supporting may transfer load distribution of rock soil masses, improve a stress state of a surrounding rock bearing structure within a supporting scope, and inhibit a tensile fracture resulted from a weak intercalation. Anchor bolt (cable) supporting in cooperation with anchor net may restrain deformation of surrounding rocks, adjust stress distribution of surrounding rocks, and prevent loosening and falling of local broken coal rock masses.
Since supporting applications such as an anchor bolt (cable) are subjected to a series of factors, such as geological structure, mining, tectonic pressure, anchoring technique, supporting parameter and material performance, although the current supporting design is made with certain criteria and references, the supporting parameter of an anchoring system is mainly determined based on engineering experiences. In this case, a poor application effect is produced due to insufficient structural knowledge of the surrounding rock and lack of systematic knowledge of an interaction mechanism of the anchoring system and the surrounding rocks. In the above influence factors, the properties of surrounding rocks around a roadway and a stress environment have great influence on anchoring supporting performances and anchoring force damage evolution. After a natural rock mass is disturbed by excavation, the roadway surrounding rocks will have significant structural deformation failures under the redistributed stress environment of "five sides loaded and one side non-loaded" along with stress release, crack initiation and even bed separation. The shallow surrounding rocks within a given scope close to the non-loaded side of the roadway have a higher stress concentration, and cannot realize long-term self-stabilization due to poorer stability. The deep surrounding rocks outside this scope have a better overall stability, a stronger bearing capacity and a higher stress and can be dynamically adjusted along with the deformation of the roadway. When anchoring supporting is performed under this condition, the anchored shallow and deep surrounding rocks with different properties under a stress environment interact with the supporting system for long according to complex interaction mechanism and interaction manner. The laws of the deformation failure and the supporting damage evolution of deep soft rocks will become more complex especially when the deep soft rocks are in latent plasticity or even a plasticity state.
At present, according to the current researches of the mechanical interaction mechanism of anchor bolt supporting, the mechanism of performing reinforcement and control for surrounding rocks by the anchor bolts under a specific geological condition is still not clear. Further, theoretical researches are limited by the existing experimental simulation methods. It is very costly to perform large test piece experiment on site. The existing indoor anchor bolt anchoring performance detection devices are generally designed for drawing researches of rock-like materials or concrete-filled steel pipe anchoring test pieces to evaluate an anchoring effect by drawing force detection or bearing capacity test of anchoring test pieces. An on-site geological environment of anchor bolt supporting cannot be directly simulated under such experimental condition, and problems such as stress distribution, surrounding rock properties and scale effects are not taken into account. Therefore, it is necessary to develop and research an innovative anchoring experiment device in order to realize a more systematic and more delicate experimental research. At the same time, an experimental system is required to be multifunctional in consideration of a great number of requirements of conventional mechanical performance tests of anchoring members and bearing performance tests of surrounding rock test piece.

Device and method for anchor bolt (cable) supporting structure test and anchoring system performance comprehensive experiment

SHANDONG UNIVERSITY OF SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY


A glove box assembly for a vehicle is provided. The glove box assembly includes a storage bin and a dedicated climate controlled bin. The climate controlled bin is arranged to receive cooled air from a vehicle heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) unit for cooling the climate controlled bin independent of the storage bin. The glove box assembly further includes a cooled air inlet. The cooled air inlet is arranged to draw cooled air from the HVAC unit upstream of a blend door when air conditioning is operating so as to provide cooled air to the climate controlled bin independent of a vehicle cabin temperature setting.

Motor vehicles today are used for many purposes including commuting and trips of long duration. During such trips, for example, vehicle occupants often bring food and chilled beverages for consumption and such beverages are typically placed in various cup holders provided in today's vehicles. One disadvantage of the typical cup holders is that the chilled beverages often warm up to ambient vehicle temperature before or during their consumption. To counteract this disadvantage, a cooler is sometimes used by vehicle occupants to keep their beverages cool before consumption. Using such a cooler however, requires using vehicle space that could be used by an occupant or placing the cooler in a vehicle.
Thus, there is a need for a cooled instrument panel compartment that overcomes the aforementioned and other disadvantages.

Cooled instrument panel compartment for a vehicle


Methods, systems and apparatuses are disclosed comprising a tunable multilayered array reinforcement system having a supramolecular adhesive embedded with nanoparticles that are reoriented on-demand in response to or in advance of vibrational effects in a moving or stationary structure.

Many structures, such as vehicles vibrate during operation. Further, each structure has a natural or resonant frequency that depends upon its shape or configuration. Structures of various types are frequently designed so that operational vibration does not match the natural frequency of the structure, so as to avoid natural or resonant frequencies. This is done to prevent damage to the structure, since a resonant frequency can focus mechanical energy into a specific location or part of the structure, and exceed the material strength of the structure at that location, potentially causing damage or failure. Exemplary materials used to fabricate parts include, but are not limited to, materials used to fabricate the mast, transmission mounts, landing gears, etc.
Vibrational forces may be caused by motions of engines, electric motors, etc. and even sound waves. While vibrations occasionally may have desirable consequences, in most arenas, it is desirable to counter or substantially eliminate most vibrational forces, or otherwise redirect a material's load path to preserve the structural integrity of a material and/or structure.
One category of vehicles that are affected by this issue is aircraft, such as rotary wing aircraft (e.g. rotorcraft such as helicopters, etc.). Rotorcraft are frequently subject to high vibration environments. Levels of vibration vary based on factors such as the rotor speed(s), environmental factors and payload. In the field of rotorcraft, additional vibrational forces may be induced to rotorcraft via the rotational operation of rotors. Left unchecked, vibrations in rotorcraft, or other large mobile or stationary structures can accelerate structural fatigue in the materials and components comprising the aircraft. For example, the natural frequency of a rotorcraft airframe can be excited by various factors occurring during a flight cycle including but not limited to: landing, taking off, bump, shifting center of gravity of the rotor, etc. If the natural frequency of the airframe materials is close to the rate of rotation of the rotor, the vibration can be amplified, and vibration increases to a level exceeding the strength of materials used to fabricate parts including, but not limited to, the mast, transmission mounts, landing gears, etc.
Vibration levels, in turn, often determine or limit the size and weight of a given rotary wing aircraft, or limit rotor speeds during operation. To address these issues, existing rotorcraft airframes are frequently stiffened by adding mass to the structure in order to avoid undesirable (e.g. resonant) frequencies of vibration. In the case of rotorcraft, the added mass can be significant (e.g. up to or exceeding hundreds of pounds). Improved load-bearing materials can be helpful in addressing this issue, but generally do not, on their own, allow for a reduction in vibration tuning mass. Furthermore, adding parasitic weight can restrict the speed and payload capabilities of the aircraft, as it is generally considered more desirable to have a lighter weight aircraft to allow more payload and/or achieve higher fuel efficiency.
In addition to the selective addition of weight, another approach for avoiding natural or resonant frequencies is to only operate a vehicle within certain operational ranges, so that only certain vibrational frequencies are possible. However, this approach limits the utility of the vehicle.
The present application relates to one or more of the above issues. Apparatuses, systems and methods for avoiding a structure's critical frequency on rotorcrafts that do not appreciably add to the overweight of the rotorcraft, or that would allow design of a rotorcraft to be made independent of the consideration of vibrational forces would be advantageous.

Multilayer system having reconfigurable dynamic structure reinforcement using nanoparticle embedded supramolecular adhesive and method


A road clearing apparatus that is configured to dislodge snow and ice from a surface of a roadway. The road clearing apparatus includes a housing that is operably secured to a rear of a motor vehicle. The housing is manufactured from a rigid material and includes a first end and a second end. The housing has a plurality of apertures that are formed in the top wall and bottom wall, wherein the plurality of apertures are axially aligned. Operably coupled with the plurality of apertures are rod members. The rod members are movable intermediate a first position and a second position wherein in the second position the rod members are extended downward from the housing so as to engage a roadway surface. Actuators are operably coupled to the rod members and are configured to provide movement thereof. A controller is present to provide an operational interface.

As is known in the art, in various regions of the world an accumulation of snow and/or ice can occur on roadways. Driving in wintery conditions causes thousands of accidents and vehicular deaths every year. The minimized friction results in a reduced ability to control a vehicle in these wintry conditions. Depending upon the area and municipality various methods are employed to control the condition of the roadways and improve travel thereon. Many regions will deploy salt or a mixture of salt/sand on the snow/ice in order to provide improved conditions. As is known in the art, the salt provides melting of the ice while the sand provides improved traction.
Another technique for controlling wintry roadway conditions is plowing. Plowing typically involves specialized equipment and/or vehicles that are equipped with hydraulically operated plows mounted to the front of the vehicle. Smaller applications for parking lots and similar areas often utilize plows attached to conventional pickup trucks. Larger plows are utilized by municipalities for clearing roadways. While plows have proven to be effective it is common for these devices to still leave behind a thin layer of snow and/or ice.
Accordingly, there is a need for a road clearing apparatus that is configured to provide dislodging of snow and/or ice superposed on a roadway wherein the apparatus is configured to be secured to or part of the rear bumper of a vehicle and provides substantial dislodging of snow and/or ice superposed the roadway surface.


Data packets are transmitted from a first access network to a first interface of a multiple interface device (MID), and identical data packets are transmitted concurrently from a second access network to a second interface of the MID. Some of the data packets that are transmitted to the MID from the first access network are not received by the first interface. The MID inspects identifiers of data packets from the first and second interfaces in order to send to the application a stream including all of the data packets. For example, the MID sends to the application the data packets from the first interface, buffers the data packets from the second interface, and sends data packets from the buffer to the application upon detecting that data packets in the buffer were transmitted to the first interface but not received by the first interface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to wireless networks, and specifically to enabling seamless mobility for a multiple interface device in a co-located wireless environment.
2. Background of the Invention
Wide area cellular networks are being upgraded to support the Internet Protocol (IP). This will allow people to surf the web, check e-mail and access the Internet anywhere they could previously make a cellular phone call. These new wide area wireless systems are generally called third generation, or 3G, systems. They will offer bandwidths comparable to a few dial-up modem connections (usually up to 144 Kbps) to practically anywhere.
Coincident with this deployment of wide-area wireless networks is an increased deployment of so-called wireless local area networks (WLANs). These WLANs service areas on the order of 100 meters, use unlicensed spectrum, and offer top speeds on the order of 4-5 Mbps. Many WLAN systems are being deployed in shopping malls, coffeehouses, theaters, bookstores, public parks, etc. In the future these two systems, 3G and WLAN, will often service the same coverage area. This situation leads to what is called a co-located wireless environment. In such an environment a properly equipped mobile device is capable of, and has the option to, access the 3G network as well as the WLAN network.
More and more devices are being equipped with multiple interfaces, or the capability of supporting multiple interfaces. Almost all laptop devices today come with two PCMCIA slots that allow network interface cards to be plugged into the computer. Similarly many palm-top and Personal Data Assistant (PDA) devices come equipped with PCMCIA slots or Compact-Flash (CF) slots that allow for the same plug-in functionality.
Additionally many laptop and mobile device manufacturers are building embedded interfaces into their products. This means that a laptop comes pre-equipped with network access capabilities. This class of devices will be referred to as Multiple Interface Devices (MIDs). A MID is a device having the ability to communicate over more than one access network at the same time. One example of a MID is a laptop computer having an IEEE 802.11 PCMCIA card and a GSM or CDMA PCMCIA card. Another example of a MID is a cellular telephone having a CDMA radio and an embedded Bluetooth radio. Still another example of a MID is a PDA having a cellular radio attachment and an IEEE 802.11 interface.
Seamless mobility refers to an ability of a mobile device to change its point of attachment to a network (i.e., handoff) while not causing any noticeable disruption in service quality or disabling any active communication sessions. When mobile devices use IP protocols to communicate they are identified by a unique IP address. Traditionally the IP protocols where developed to handle fixed networks where there was no mobility. As such each IP address not only represents a mobile terminal's identity on the network, but also its location. This linking of identity with location causes problems when a mobile terminal is moved.
When a mobile terminal moves from one point of attachment to another point of attachment that is in a different subnet, it must acquire a new IP address in order to communicate. However, when it gets a new IP address it can longer receive information that was addressed to its old IP address. Consequently any on-going active sessions with the mobile terminal are disrupted and broken.
The industry has developed a suite of protocols, called Mobile IP, that address this mobility problem. See, for example, C. Perkins, Editor, "IP Mobility Support," Request for Comments: 2002, Network Working Group, IBM Corporation, October 1996. Standard Mobile IP allows a mobile terminal to change points of attachment and continue to receive packets from on-going sessions, although there is small period of time when the mobile terminal is being configured and is unable to receive packets. There have been a number of industry efforts to reduce this configuration time, and consequently improve the user experience by making it more seamless, in what are called fast-handoff procedures.
More specifically, Mobile IP protocols assign a unique permanent Home Address to a mobile terminal. The mobile terminal will always use this address in all of its communications. Mobile IP also specifies mobility agents that exist in both the home network and in visited networks that assist in the mobility procedure. The Home Agent (HA) exists in the home network and manages all the traffic for the mobile terminal. An optional Foreign Agent (FA) exists in visited networks. When a mobile terminal moves from its home network to a visited network, it receives a new IP address, called a care-of address. Within the FA-mode, the mobile terminal will inform the FA of this address, its home address, and the address of its HA. The FA will then forward a Registration Request to the HA. The HA will accept this request and store a mobility binding that links that mobile's home address with the newly acquired care-of address. All traffic destined to the mobile terminal will be addressed to the mobile terminal's home address. The HA will intercept this traffic, consult the mobility binding for the mobile terminal, determine the proper care-of address associated with the mobile terminal's home address, and forward the packet to that care-of address. The Home Agent acts as an administrative assistant that forwards packets to the mobile terminal's new location. Anyone communicating with the mobile terminal is completely unaware of the fact that the mobile terminal has moved.
Mobile devices that have only one interface will experience a "black-out" period when they are unable to receive information. This black-out period lasts from the time that the mobile device acquires its new care-of address to the time that the HA registers that care-of address in its mobility binding.

Seamless mobility for a multiple interface device in a co-located wireless environment


A process for the preparation of a copolymer of carbon monoxide with an olefinically unsaturated compound in which a powder of a copolymer of carbon monoxide with an olefinically unsaturated compound is suspended in a liquid diluent. The suspension is contacted with a catalyst composition which is soluble in the diluent and which is based on a Group VIII metal and a bidentate ligand. The catalyst composition is used in such a quantity that in the polymerization mixture more than 0.1 mmoles of the Group VIII metal is present per liter of liquid phase.

It is well known in the art that processes for the preparation of a copolymer of carbon monoxide and an olefinic monomer can involve the copolymerization of the monomers in the presence of a catalyst composition containing a Group VIII metal and a bidentate ligand of the general formula R.sup.1 R.sup.2 M.sup.1 --R--M.sup.2 R.sup.3 R.sup.4, wherein M.sup.1 and M.sup.2 independently represent a phosphorus, nitrogen, arsenic or antimony atom, R.sup.1, R.sup.2, R.sup.3 and R.sup.4 independently represent a nonsubstituted hydrocarbyl group and R represents a bivalent organic bridging group containing at least 1 carbon atom in the bridge, in a diluent in which the prepared copolymer forms a suspension. EP-A-213671 presents such a process. The copolymers prepared are aliphatic copolymers wherein the monomer units originating from carbon monoxide and the monomer units originating from the olefinically unsaturated compounds occur in alternating or substantially alternating order.
The economy of such processes can be improved by increasing the reactor productivity. The productivity of a polymerization reactor may be defined as the quantity of copolymer which can be prepared within a given period of time using a given reactor volume. The reactor volume is normally in a direct relation with the suspension volume or the volume of the liquid phase. In this document the liquid phase volume is meant to include the volumes of a liquid diluent and any monomer present in the liquid phase at the conditions of the copolymerization, but it excludes the volume of the copolymer suspended in the liquid phase.
The reactor productivity may be increased by raising the temperature or the pressure so that the specific polymerization rate, i.e. the quantity of copolymer produced per mole Group VIII metal per hour, is increased. However, by raising the temperature or the pressure structural features of the prepared copolymer such as the molecular weight may also change. This is not necessarily desired.
The quantity of the Group VIII metal present in the reaction mixture has typically been below 0.1 mmole per liter liquid phase, most frequently in the range of 0.01-0.05 mmole per liter liquid phase. EP-95200719.3 comprises an example of a copolymerization of carbon monoxide with olefinically unsaturated compounds in dichloromethane as a liquid diluent using a catalyst composition based on palladium as a Group VIII metal, 1,3-bisbis(2-methoxyphenyl)phosphino!propane as a bidentate ligand of the general formula R.sup.5 R.sup.6 M.sup.1 --R--M.sup.2 R.sup.7 R.sup.8 and, in addition, tris(perfuorophenyl)borane as an example of a hydrocarbyl boron compound. Prior to the copolymerization a copolymer was suspended in the diluent. The catalyst composition was used in a quantity which contains 0.025 mmoles Group VIII metal and a liquid phase volume was applied which is obtainable by combining in a 300 ml autoclave at 80.degree. C. 110 ml dichloromethane, 25 g propene and such a quantity of a carbon monoxide/-ethene 1:1 molar mixture that a 5.0 MPa pressure is obtained.
In principle, an increase in the reactor productivity may be accomplished by raising the concentration of the catalyst present in the polymerization mixture so that more copolymer may be produced in the same volume and within the same time. However, Applicant has found that, when using as the bidentate ligand a compound of the general formula R.sup.1 R.sup.2 M.sup.1 --R--M.sup.2 R.sup.3 R.sup.4, an increase of the catalyst concentration to a higher value, i.e. outside the range of 0.01-0.05 mmole Group VIII metal per liter liquid phase, leads to a decreased specific polymerization rate and to a decreased molecular weight of the copolymer. These results are not satisfactory.
It has now been found that an increase in the concentration of the catalyst in the polymerization mixture does not lead to a change in the specific polymerization rate if prior to the polymerization a previously prepared copolymer is suspended in the diluent and if as a catalyst component a bidentate ligand is used which comprises a polar substituted hydrocarbyl group at the dentate groups. In this case, the productivity increases in proportion with the catalyst concentration. It is also advantageous and surprising that under these circumstances there is no change in the molecular weight of the copolymer prepared.

Process for the preparation of copolymers


A printer host has a marginless printing mode designation accepting portion for accepting a marginless printing mode designation, a marginless printing condition setting portion for setting an expand printing region of a size that is larger than a size of actual printing paper to be printed, a renderer for converting drawing data, which is stored in a spool file, to a printing command so that a printer performs printing on this expanded printing region, a halftone processing portion, and a data-to-command conversion portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printer host for performing marginless printing, and to a storage medium for storing an operation program of the printer host.
The present application is based on Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-274876, which is incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, the development of techniques for implementing marginless printing in an ink jet printer has been pursued. One such technique is to first form an ink receiving opening in a platen of the ink jet printer and to then spray ink droplets from a print head onto an edge part of printing paper when the edge part there of is located above the ink receiving opening, and to subsequently receive ink droplets, which are not impinged onto the edge part there of, in the ink receiving opening thereby to print the edge part of the printing paper without smearing the ink on the platen. When this marginless printing is performed, it is necessary for a printer to inject ink onto a region whose size is slightly larger than that of printing paper. Thus, after a user prepares a document of a size that is slightly larger than the size of printing paper, for example, A4 size, the user needs to set a printing paper size and a printing region size at values, each of which is slightly larger than A4 size, for a printer driver.
However, such conventional techniques have a drawback in that it is very troublesome for a user to set a printing paper size and a printing region size at values, each of which is slightly larger than A4 size, for a printer driver, as described above, when marginless printing is performed on A4-size printing paper.

Printer host and storage medium storing operation program of the printer host


A two-step process for joining a first part to a second part, the first part having a coefficient of thermal expansion lower than the coefficient of thermal expansion of the second part. An anchor layer is then brazed at a lower temperature to the first part having a high thermal expansion coefficient. The anchor layer has a thickness such that upon cooling it will yield to relieve stress build up resulting from the differing thermal expansion coefficients between it and the first part. The anchor layer is then brazed to the part having a high thermal expansion coefficient. The process is particularly useful for joining carbon-carbon composite parts to copper substrates for use in the manufacture of high temperature heat exchangers as used, for example, in nuclear fusion reactors.

In many manufacturing processes it is necessary to join one or more parts made of disparate materials. Brazing is one favored technique for this task. However, because parts made of different materials will usually have different coefficients of thermal expansion (CTE), the two parts will expand by different amounts when subjected to the heat of the brazing operation. Additionally, as the parts cool from the peak brazing temperatures, they will contract by different amounts. This creates strains which can result in damage along the brazed interface between the two, now joined, parts. The higher the brazing temperature, or the greater the difference between the CTE's of the two materials, the more severe these strains become.
This problem may be particularly acute during the manufacture of high temperature heat exchangers. For example, critical components in nuclear fusion reactors are heat shields composed of carbon-carbon composite ("C--C") surfaces joined to water-cooled copper-based substrates. Because of the very high braze temperatures needed to join these materials, the order-of-magnitude difference between the CTE's of the materials causes large strains to form at the joint interface during the cooling process. The strains are frequently large enough to cause failure of the C--C part near the joint. Joints which survive the cooling process contain significant residual strains at room temperature which lead to premature failure of the joint in a thermal fatigue environment.

Two-step brazing process for joining materials with different coefficients of thermal expansion


A method for adding a low TCR resistor to a baseline CMOS manufacturing flow. A method of forming a low TCR resistor in a CMOS manufacturing flow. A method of forming an n-type and a p-type transistor with a low TCR resistor in a CMOS manufacturing flow.

Modern integrated process flows typically may have many patterning and implantation steps to form the variety of transistors in an IC. For example, core transistors with low turn on voltage (vt), nominal vt, and high vt may be formed in addition to input/output (I/O) transistors and memory cell transistors such as SRAM transistors. Each transistor type typically requires a vt pattern and implant, gate doping pattern and implant, a source and drain extension pattern and implant, and a deep source and drain pattern and implant. A CMOS process flow typically builds both a pmos and nmos transistor of each transistor type. A CMOS flow with 3 core transistor types plus SRAM transistors and I/O transistors may have 20 or more patterning and implant steps to form 5 different nmos transistors and 5 different pmos transistors. In addition if other embedded devices, such as resistors, capacitors or bipolar transistors are constructed, additional patterns and implant steps may be added.
Electronic digital and analog integrated circuits often require resistors to perform the desired functions. One type of resistor which may be formed on an integrated circuit is a polysilicon resistor. N-type or p-type polysilicon resistors are typically formed using source/drain ion implantation or gate doping ion implantation.
One important property of embedded resistors, especially for analog circuits, is the temperature coefficient of resistance (TCR) which measures the change in resistance with a change in temperature. To reach sufficiently low TCR, the impurity of doping concentration must be very high, about 3×1020/cm3 for polysilicon resistors. Typically, additional implants are performed in an integrated process flow with embedded polysilicon resistors to provide resistors with low TCR. These additional implants usually require one or more additional photomask levels and add cost and cycle time to the integrated circuit process flow.

Low temperature coefficient resistor in CMOS flow


An apparatus for interfering with locomotion by a human or animal target includes a microprocessor programmed to track date and time, to initiate and maintain for a period an electrical current, and to record tracked date and time for each initiation of the current. The current, when conducted through the target, interferes with use by the target of the skeletal muscles of the target during the period.

The use of electricity to disable human beings and other living targets is well known. In the middle 1800's, electricity was directed through a harpoon to electrocute a whale. Electrocution also came into use as a method of carrying out a death sentence resulting from the commission by a prisoner of a serious crime. Various methods of applying lethal electrical pulses are well documented. A weapon for applying non-lethal electrical pulses to disable an attacker is also known. The conventional weapon launches a first dart and a second dart. Each dart remains connected to the weapon by an electrically conductive guide wire. The darts strike an individual. Electrical pulses from the weapon travel to the first dart, from the first dart through the individual's body, into the second dart, and return to the weapon via the electrically conductive wire attached to the second dart. The electrical pulses occur at a rate of from 2 to 10 pulses per second, are each about 20 kilovolts, and each deliver from 0.01 to 0.5 joule. U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,132 issued in 1981 describes such a dart weapon. That patent also suggests that pulses in the range of 0.01 to 0.5 joule induce involuntary muscular contractions.
Since about 1981, it has also been known that a certain minor percentage of individuals struck with a conventional dart weapon are not immobilized and can "walk through" the electrical pulses and continue an attack, despite being struck with darts from the weapon. The ability of some individuals to "walk through" the electrical pulses was thought to be an anomaly and usually was not taken seriously because the weapon was effective with and stopped most individuals, and because the weapon when used appeared to "knock down" an individual or animal or appeared to cause the individual or animal to fall. The weapon would also sometimes appear to cause the skin of a human being or animal to twitch. Consequently, it was assumed that the human being or animal was truly physically incapacitated.
I have discovered that an individual can be readily trained to "walk through" 0.01 to 0.5 joule pulses delivered by a conventional dart weapon. I have been involved in training over 20 individuals. In each case the individual was, by focusing on a goal, able to ignore and overcome any discomfort from the dart weapon and to continue to walk, run, or attack. The individual did not lose his or her locomotion. In addition, several cases have been reported where the failure of a conventional dart weapon led to the death of an individual because police officers had to resort to lethal force when the dart weapon failed to stop the individual. It appears that conventional dart weapons cause an individual to fall down by activating sensory neurons and by producing in an individual a psychological reaction which strongly suggests to the individual that he or she is being incapacitated. The discovery that an individual can overcome a conventional dart weapon and continue his or her locomotion suggests possible dire consequences because many police officers in possession of conventional dart weapons mistakenly assume that these weapons are effective against most or many individuals.
Accordingly, it would be highly desirable to provide an improved apparatus and method which would, with a high degree of certainty, enable a police officer or other individual to incapacitate an attacker.

Electrical weapon having controller for timed current through target and date/time recording


A system and method for monitoring and adjusting a constant flow asphalt manufacturing process includes monitoring the ratios of recycled material to virgin material to minimize costs and adjusting the mixture in real time. Pulverized asphalt shingle (PAS) material may be used as a source of recycled asphalt oil and fed to a mixing drum with real-time monitoring while making real-time adjustments to supplement the asphalt with new asphalt oil to the mixer. The systems and methods may also be used for monitoring, metering, and supplementing recycled aggregate from recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) with new aggregate. The systems and methods may use one or more processors or programmable logic controllers (PLC) to meter the addition of new materials.

In order to minimize costs and the resources necessary to produce new asphalt, recycled asphalt pavement (RAP) may be processed to retrieve aggregate material and asphalt cement or asphalt oil contained therein. In addition, asphalt shingles that make up a significant portion of residential roofing materials may also be recycled to produce new asphalt. During the recycling process, some portion of the RAP and the recycled shingles may be recovered as an aggregate material or as asphalt oil.
During the recycling process, the oil content retrieved from the recycled material is not always uniform; therefore, additional virgin oil must be incorporated into the new asphalt. As the oil content of new asphalt is regulated and required to fall within specific ranges, the oil content of the new asphalt is sometimes examined after it is manufactured to determine its conformity to the specified ranges. The lack of uniformity in the amount of oil recovered from recycled materials may result in inadequate new asphalt that may bring about excessive fines and penalties for asphalt producers. Therefore, a need exists for a system to monitor the oil content provided by recycled materials and to adjust, automatically, the incorporation of virgin oil as necessary, in real time.

Systems and methods for mixing an asphalt composition


A web wrap apparatus is provided having a separator with a separating edge deflecting a web against a counter member to separate it. In or at the counter member, retainers are provided, which protrude the web and thus avoid that the web glides along the counter member toward its center area. Preferably the retainers are formed as teeth in a wall of an inverted V-shaped counter member.

From EP 2 113 165 it is known, to have a so-called duckbill feeder with a toothed top plate resting on a bottom plate to clamp net between them, whereas the net is caught by the teeth and presses the top plate down. The top plate is not spring biased, since this makes it easier to insert a new net, when a roll of net is used up.
EP 432 830 also discloses a duckbill for feeding net into a gap between two rolls of a bale chamber. This mechanism contains two moveable plates pressed against each other to hold net between themselves. The leading edges of both plates are provided with teeth or recesses to create a way of protruding into the net and holding it tight. The bottom plate is pressed by way of a spring against the underside of the top plate to clamp the net.
The problem this invention is based on is seen in the need to keep both plates pressed against each other to hold the net against sideward movement, whereas such clamping has the disadvantage that it becomes difficult to insert the net into the nip between the plates, when a new roll of net is used. Another problem is that the net may be destroyed by the leading edge of the plate, when it is deflected for the cutting operation. If as an alternative one of the plates is not spring applied and is able to pivot freely, it is disadvantageous in that it may hit a rotating roll that is part of the bale chamber wall, when the duckbill enters a gap between rolls of the bale chamber. Furthermore, if the plate is free to pivot, the net will not be caught by fingers or the like on one of the plates and the net may move and will be cut unevenly.


A clamping device for releasably hanging articles from an object. The device includes a pair of generally parallel plates having a pair of opposed and generally parallel side surfaces, biasing means to hold the plates together and to urge the opposed side surfaces toward one another, attachment means to secure the device to the object, and manually operable displacement means that, when engaged, overcomes the force of the biasing means and causes the plates to be displaced apart from one another so as to receive an article therebetween. When the manually operable displacement means is disengaged, the biasing means urges the plates toward one another such that the article is secured between the opposed side surfaces. The manually operable displacement means may be comprised of a pair of wedges positioned on opposite ends of the plates.

A large number and variety of devices have been developed over time that are useful for holding or hanging articles from other objects or devices. Such prior devices include those that permanently clamp two articles together as well as those that releasably secure or hang one item from another. Such devices range in complexity from simple hooks to complex mechanical or electro-mechanical structures. Often the degree of complexity surrounding the device is related to the nature, including the weight, of the article being hung or supported and the particular environmental application for the device.
While the variety of such devices that have heretofore been created and put into use is reasonably broad, in many cases their function and application are hampered or limited. Accordingly, it will be appreciated that there continues to be a need for an easily operable clamping device or mechanism that can releasably secure one article or object to another.

Clamping device including biasing means and a pair of plates for hanging articles therefrom


Embodiments of the disclosure generally relate to a dialog system allowing for automatically reactivating a speech acquiring mode after the dialog system delivers a response to a user request. The reactivation parameters, such as a delay, depend on a number of predetermined factors and conversation scenarios. The embodiments further provide for a method of operating of the dialog system. An exemplary method comprises the steps of: activating a speech acquiring mode, receiving a first input of a user, deactivating the speech acquiring mode, obtaining a first response associated with the first input, delivering the first response to the user, determining that a conversation mode is activated, and, based on the determination, automatically re-activating the speech acquiring mode within a first predetermined time period after delivery of the first response to the user.

The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
Today, dialog systems are widely used in the information technology industry, especially as mobile applications for wireless telephones and tablet computers. Generally, a dialog system refers to a computer-based agent having a human-centric interface for accessing, processing, managing, and delivering information. Dialog systems are also known as chat information systems, spoken dialog systems, conversational agents, chatter robots, chatterbots, chatbots, chat agents, digital personal assistants, and automated online assistants, to name a few. All these terms are within the scope of the present disclosure and referred to as a "dialog system" for simplicity.
Traditionally, a dialog system interacts with its users in natural language to simulate an intelligent conversation and provide personalized assistance to the users. For example, a user may generate requests to the dialog system in the form of conversational questions, such as "Where is the nearest hotel?" or "What is the weather like in Arlington?", and receive corresponding answers from the dialog system in the form of an audio and/or displayable message. The users may also provide voice commands to the dialog system so as to perform certain functions including, for example, generating e-mails, making phone calls, searching particular information, acquiring data, navigating, providing notifications and reminders, and so forth. Thus, dialog systems are now very popular and are of great help, especially for holders of portable electronic devices such as smart phones, cellular phones, tablet computers, gaming consoles, and the like.
Historically, dialog systems, and especially spoken dialog systems, require a user to activate a dialog system before he makes a request. It is obvious that otherwise dialog systems acquire all spoken words made by the user, which will lead to the dialog system overloading, excessive use of computing resources, inaccuracy of dialog system responses, and so forth. Accordingly, users need to manually activate dialog systems every time they want to make a request. This may be very annoying and inconvenient for the users. Additionally, the need for manual reactivation of dialog systems does not allow the dialog systems to be user friendly and keep human-like speech conversations, which significantly limits their application.

Dialog system with automatic reactivation of speech acquiring mode


A display device comprises an inspection circuit for inspecting a data reception related circuit to generate inspection information, an inspection result image generation circuit for generating image data indicating the inspection information, a display switching circuit for superimposing inspection result image data on test video data, and a display unit for displaying the test video data superimposing the inspection result image data. As a result, it is possible to carry out inspection after assembly of the display device without disassembling the display device. This in turn makes it possible to carry out a test in a simple manner on the data reception related circuit inside the display device without changing noise environment inside the display device.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to display devices to be tested and their associated technologies.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally known as a standard related to a technology for performing high-speed transmission of digital video data is a standard "Digital Visual Interface Revision 1.0" (hereinafter referred to as the DVI standard (see http://www.ddwg.org/)), published on Apr. 2, 1999.
FIG. 23 is a block diagram illustrating a typical digital video data transmit/receive system that is configured according to the DVI standard.
As shown in FIG. 23, this digital video data transmit/receive system comprises a video data transmitter 500, a cable 501, and a display device 502.
The video data transmitter 500 is connected to the display device 502 through the cable 501.
The video data transmitter 500 includes a video generation circuit 503, a data transmission circuit 504, a clock signal generation circuit 505, a control signal transmission circuit 506, and a control signal reception circuit 507.
The display device 502 includes a reception LSI (reception integrated circuit) 508 and a display unit 509. The reception LSI 508 includes a data reception circuit 510, a PLL circuit (Phase Locked Loop) 511, a control signal reception circuit 512, and a control signal transmission circuit 513.
Now, the operation of the system is briefly described below.
As shown in FIG. 23, the control signal transmission circuit 506 of the video data transmitter 500 sends a control signal informing of transmission of video data to the control signal reception circuit 512 of the display device 502 via the cable 501.
The control signal reception circuit 512 then receives the control signal.
The control signal transmission circuit 513 of the display device 502 transmits display control information such as resolutions of the display device 502 to the control signal reception circuit 507 of the video data transmitter 500 via the cable 501.
The clock signal generation circuit 505 of the video data transmitter 500 generates a clock signal and sends it to the video generation circuit 503 and the PLL circuit 511 of the display device 502.
The video generation circuit 503 outputs video data in sync with the clock signal supplied by the clock signal generation circuit 505.
Then, the data transmission circuit 504 transmits the video data outputted by the video generation circuit 503 to the data reception circuit 510 of the display device 502 via the cable 501.
The data reception circuit 510 of the display device 502 captures the video data in sync with a timing signal that is generated by the PLL circuit 511 in sync with the clock signal.
The data reception circuit 510 outputs the captured video data to the display unit 509, on which the video data is in turn displayed.
Conventionally, image disturbances appearing on the display unit 509 are visually inspected or data error rates are measured to check the operation of such the digital video data transmit/receive system.

Display device, receiver, and test apparatus

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


The present invention relates to a novel class of tracer compounds for fluorescence polarization imunoassays. The novel 4'-methyl fluorescein derivatives are conjugated to ligands via cyclic linkers.

The present invention relates generally to methods and reagents used for the determination of ligands in biological fluids. In particular, the present invention relates to a novel class of 4'-methyl substituted fluorescein conjugates useful as tracer reagents in fluorescence polarization immunoassays.
Drug levels in serum samples can be determined through competitive binding immunoassays. Competitive binding immunoassays for measuring the concentration of an analyte (also referred to as a ligand), such as a drug in a test sample are based on the competition between a ligand in a test sample and a labeled reagent, referred to as a tracer, for a limited number of receptor binding sites on antibodies specific to the ligand and tracer. The concentration of ligand in the sample determines the amount of the tracer that will specifically bind to an antibody. The amount of tracer-antibody conjugate produced can be quantitatively measured and is inversely proportional to the quantity of ligand in the test sample.
Examples of ligands or drugs measurable by the methods of the present invention include steroids such as estriol, adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH), estrone, cholesterol, estradiol, cortisol, testosterone, progesterone, chenodeoxycholic acid, digoxin, cholic acid, digitoxin, deoxycholic acid, lithocholic acids and the ester and amide derivatives thereof; vitamins such as B-12, folic acid, thyroxine, triodothyroxine, histamine, serotonin, prostaglandins such as prostaglandin E(PGE), prostaglandin F(PGF), prostaglandin A(PGA); anti-asthamatic drugs such as theophylline; antineoplastic drugs such as doxorubicin and methotrexate; antiarrhythymic drugs such as disopyramide, lidocaine, procainamide, propranolol, quinidine, N-acetyl procainamide; anticonvulsant drugs such as phenobarbital, phenytoin, primidone, valporoic acid, carbamazepine, flecainide and ethosuximide; antibiotics such as penicillins, cephalosporins, erythromycin, vancomycin, gentamicin, amikacin, chloramphenicol, streptomycin and tobramycin; antiarthritic drugs such as salicylates; antidepressant drugs including tricyclics such as nortriptyline, amitriptyline, imipramine and desipramine; and the like as well as the metabolites thereof. In addition, drugs may include drugs of abuse such as morphine, heroin, hydromophone, oxymorphone, methadone, codeine, hydrocodone, dihydrocodeine, dihydrohydroxy codeinone, dextromethorphan, phenazocine, benzoyl ecgonine, tetrahydro-cannabinoids (THC), barbiturates, benzodiazepine, lysergic acid diethylamide (LSD), propoxyphene, phencyclidine, amphetamines, methaqualone, and their metabolites may be measured in accordance with the methods of the present invention. In addition, environmental pollutants may be measured in accordance with the methods of the present invention. Examples of environmental pollutants include pesticides, herbicides, insecticides, fungicides such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), atrazine, simazine, terbutryn, s-triazines, amitrole, trifluralin, nortflurazon, permethrin, cypermethrin, paraquat, alachlor, metolachlor, chlorsulfuron, phenylurea herbicides, aldrin, chlordane, endosulan, parathion, dioxins, 2-aminobenzimidazole, pentachlorophenol, benzo-.alpha.-pyrene, polyaromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and their metabolites.
Fluorescence polarization (FP) is well known in the immunoassay field as providing a quantitative means for measuring the amount of tracer-antibody conjugate produced in a competitive binding immunoassay (see Biochem.Biophys.Res.Comm. 5:299, 1961). In general, fluorescent polarization techniques are based on the principle that a fluorescein labeled compound when excited by linearly polarized light will emit fluorescence having a degree of polarization inversely related to its rate of rotation.
In fluorescence polarization immunoassays (FPIA), fluorescence polarization is a reproducible function of the ligand or drug concentration, and thus is suitable for the quantitative determination of ligand or drug concentrations in serum for the purpose of therapeutic drug monitoring. When tracer, serum containing antibodies specific for the drug to be measured, and drug-free patient serum are mixed together, most of the tracer binds to the antibodies. As a result, when the bound tracer is excited with polarized light at 489 nm, the light emitted at 520 nm remains highly polarized. However, if drug is present in the patient sample, the drug will compete with the tracer for binding to the antibodies. Thus, more of the tracer will remain unbound and the emitted light is depolarized.
An FPIA according to the present invention can be any type of automated or manual FPIA. Preferably the FPIA is carried out on the automated COBAS FARA II.RTM. chemistry system (Roche Diagnostic Systems, Inc., Branchburg, N.J.) which can measure the binding of fluorescein labeled drug (the tracer) to specific antibodies (see Dandliker and Feigen, Biochem. Biophys. Res. Comm. 5:299, 1961).
In FPIA, the results can be quantified in terms of millipolarization units (mP) from which a calibration curve can be determined and the span can be calculated. The span is the difference (or delta) between the maximum and minimum binding as measured in mP units (delta mP) of the tracer to the antibody as the free drug competes with the bound tracer for antibody binding sites. A larger span provides for better precision in FPIA. The polarization of fluorescence decreases in a regular manner as the concentration of the analyte increases. The higher the delta value, or span, the better the precision and sensitivity of the assay. The concentration of drug in the sample can be determined by comparison to a standard calibration curve.
Several fluorescein derivatives from which fluorescein labelled compounds, or tracers, can be prepared are known and are commercially available. The majority of fluorescein derivatives are derived from the 5 or 6 position of fluorescein (also referred to as isomer I for the 5 position and isomer II for the 6 position) and include 5 or 6-N-hydroxysuccinimidylcarboxyfluorescein, 5-aminomethylfluorescein and 5-or 6-dichloro-1,3,5-triazin-2-ylaminofluorescein (DTAF).
Fluorescein derivatives synthesized out of the 4' position of fluorescein are also known. For example, 4'-aminomethylfluorescein is useful as a nucleophile for coupling to drug derivatives or ligands bearing a carboxylic group (see U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,823 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,510,251). The amine group of the fluorescein reacts with a carboxy group of an analyte to form a peptide bond. However, this method does not allow an analyte containing a cyclic ring to be attached directly at the 4'-methyl carbon atom.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fluorescein derivative which can react directly to cyclic amines to provide a cyclic linker between the fluorescein molecule and the analyte.
More particularly, it is an object of the present invention to prepare an improved 4'-methyl substituted fluorescein derivative modified with a linking group which can be readily conjugated to a ligand having a nucleophilic center. It is also an object of the present invention to prepare a 4'-methyl substituted fluorescein derivative which can be readily conjugated to a ligand modified with a linking group having a nucleophilic center.
Further, it is an object of the present invention to prepare a 4'-methyl substituted fluorescein derivative containing a leaving group which can be readily displaced with an amino group, thereby facilitating the linking of the fluorescein to a drug derivative. The 4'-methyl substituted fluorescein itself can be modified with the amino group, preferably by reaction with a cyclic amine. Alternatively, the amino group can be part of a drug derivative to which the 4'-methyl substituted fluorescein can be conjugated, most preferably a drug derivative having a cyclic amine-containing linker.
A further object of the present invention is to provide a 4'-methyl substituted fluorescein derivative which can be used to prepare a fluorescein tracer having a larger dynamic span which leads to a more precise and sensitive performance in the FPIA.

4'-methyl substituted fluorescein derivatives