A braking system for an in-line skate. The skate includes a boot mounted on a chassis. A cuff is rotatably mounted on the chassis. The chassis also has a plurality of wheels rotatably mounted thereon. The braking system for the skate includes a brake pad housing which is either fixedly or pivotally attached to a rear portion of the cuff, a brake pad disposed in the housing, and a roller arm rotatably mounted on the chassis. The roller arm is spring loaded so that when the brake is not in use, the roller arm is disposed above the wheels. The roller arm has a bearing assembly disposed therein, so that when the brake is actuated by a rearward rotation of the cuff, the brake pad engages the bearing assembly of the roller arm, thereby causing said bearing assembly to engage at least one of the wheels to slow and/or stop the skate. A rear wheel of the skate may be biased to enhance the braking action and reduce wheel wear.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a braking system for an in-line skate. In particular, the present invention relates to a cuff-activated brake pad and roller arm assembly for braking a wheel of an in-line skate.
2. Related Art
Many different types of skate brakes have been developed for in-line skates to address the problem of stopping or slowing while skating. The materials used to make conventional skate wheels and bearings have advanced considerably in the past few years. These advancements allow a skater to travel very quickly, up to at least speeds of 15 to 20 mph, using conventional skates.
As the popularity of in-line skating grows, especially in urban areas, the numbers of skaters on streets and paths increase. With this increase in the number of skaters, there is an increased risk of the chance of collisions between skaters and other skaters, bikers, joggers, pedestrians or cars. Thus, there is a need for a skate brake which will allow skaters to slow and/or stop themselves quickly and retain maneuverability while braking to avoid or prevent an accident A conventional skate brake consists of a large piece of a rubber brake pad, typically attached to the rear of the skate chassis on at least one skate (left or right) in a pair of skates. In operation, the skater must lift the toe of the skate to which the brake is attached, until the rubber brake pad touches and grabs the skating surface to slow the skater. This conventional skate brake has several drawbacks.
A conventional skate brake is awkward to use, because the skater must pick up the toe of one of the skates and at the same time exert a downward force on the brake pad to slow the skate. It is difficult for a beginner and even an intermediate in-line skater to effectuate braking using this conventional brake while maintaining his balance. The result is that in order to compensate for the awkwardness of the braking position, the skater may not exert as much of a downward force on the brake pad. Thus, it takes a long time to slow the skate or bring the skate to a complete stop. This problem is exacerbated when trying to slow or stop while traveling downhill.
Further, a skater is apt to lose his balance by trying to brake while skating over a bumpy surface, because the skater must lift the toe of the skate to force the brake toward the ground. Thus, one foot of the skater is traveling on only one wheel of the skate, the remaining skate wheels being raised off the ground during braking. Having only one wheel in contact with the ground makes the skate difficult to maneuver particularly on a bumpy or uneven skating surface. Further, the contact between the brake pad and the ground during braking makes it difficult to turn the skate. Thus, during braking using a ground-engaging brake, the skater loses control over maneuverability of the skate, thereby increasing the likelihood of a collision.
Another drawback of the conventional skate brake is that a conventional rubber brake pad is relatively soft compared to most skating surfaces, and thus must be replaced frequently due to excessive wear of the pad from braking.
Another drawback of the conventional skate brake is that it is often difficult for the skater to stop the skate when traveling on a rough or bumpy skating surface, because there is less braking surface for the brake pad to grab to slow the skate. Further, vibrations from the bumpy skating surface will cause the skate to bounce so that the brake pad loses contact momentarily with the ground. These factors result in less effective braking and a slower response for slowing or stopping the skate using a conventional brake.
Still another drawback of the conventional skate brake is that the amount of downward force exerted by the skater on the brake pad is limited by the skater's body weight, fitness level and the awkwardness of the position that must be maintained to brake. As such, it is difficult for a skater using a conventional skate brake to stop or slow the skate in a short distance. The above-referenced drawbacks of the conventional skate brake result in reaction times of the skater to potential hazards being slowed significantly.
A second type of skate brake is a cuff-activated brake having a rotatable cuff that forces a rubber brake pad against the skating surface. To actuate the brake, the skater moves his foot forward of his other foot. As the skater's foot moves forward, the skater's calf forces the cuff to rotate rearwardly with respect to the skate boot. A rod or other mechanism attached to the cuff is thereby forced toward the ground. A brake pad, disposed on the lower end of the rod, is forced against the ground.
Activation of this type of cuff-activated brake is not as awkward as a conventional brake, because the skater does not have to lift any wheels of the skate off the ground to actuate the brake. Because this type of braking system allows the skater to better maintain his balance while braking, the skater can often exert more of a downward force on the brake pad, thereby slowing or stopping the skate faster than with a conventional brake. However, the use of a rubber brake pad to engage the ground includes the same drawbacks as discussed above. Namely, the use of a ground-engaging brake pad makes it difficult to brake on bumpy or rough skating surfaces, the skater loses control over maneuverability of the skate during braking, and the rubber brake pad requires frequent replacement due to wear.
Other skates have braking systems that combine a conventional skate brake with a mechanism for simultaneously applying a braking force to one or more of the wheels of the skate. Thus, when the skater tilts the skate to engage the brake pad with the skating surface, the downward force on the brake pad simultaneously activates a second braking mechanism which applies a braking force directly against at least one wheel of the skate. Although this type of braking system applies a second brake directly against the wheel of the skate, the rubber brake pad that contacts the skating surface results in loss of control over maneuverability of the skate. Further, it is difficult to brake on rough or bumpy skating surfaces. Also, the skater must place his body in an awkward position to activate the brake, thereby throwing him off balance and limiting the overall effectiveness of the brake.
Thus, what is needed is a braking system that will effectively apply a sufficient force to a braking member to stop or slow a skate traveling at high speeds in a short distance. Further, what is needed is a braking system that does not require the skater to upset his/her balance and/or center of gravity to actuate the brake. Further, a braking system is needed that provides the skater with controlled maneuverability of the skate while braking.


This invention presents a method to simulate how blood flows through the heart, using the reconstructed 4D motion of the endocardial surface of the left ventricle. The reconstruction, utilizing a computing device, captures the motion of the full 3D surfaces of the complex features, such as the papillary muscles and the ventricular trabeculae. By visualizing the flow field, the capability of viewing the interactions between the blood and the trabeculae in far more detail has been achieved.

Following a heart attack or the development of some cardiovascular diseases, the movement of the heart walls during the cardiac cycle may change, which affects the motion of blood through the heart. Currently, valvular blood flow can be monitored using imaging techniques such as Doppler ultrasound and MRI. However, because the spatial resolution of such techniques are low, and it is not possible to observe the detailed interaction of blood flow and the endo-cardial surface of the heart, the formation of a cardiac thrombus remains difficult to predict. If a physician were able to visualize or quantitatively measure the detailed alteration of the blood flow by altered contraction, he/she might be able to make a better diagnosis or treatment plan.
Heart model reconstruction is essential to the simulation results. The detailed cardiac shape features, which are accurately reconstructed from these images can be used as the boundary conditions for a fluid simulator to derive the hemodynamics along the whole heart cycle.
With the rapid development of high-resolution cardiac CT, patient-specific blood flow simulation is quickly becoming one of the central goals in the study of cardiac blood flow. Mihalef et al. (2009) published a framework for simulating atrioventricular blood flow, and showed simulation results using a complete model of the left side of the heart, including the atrial venae and an aortic stub, together with modeled valve kinematics. The geometry used in Mihalef et al. (2009) was obtained from scans based on data from the Visible Human Project, while the kinematics was transferred to the model from MRI data. Later, Mihalef et al. (2010) used smoothed 4D CT data to simulate left ventricular blood flow, and compared the flow around through the aortic valve in a healthy heart and two diseased hearts. The models derived from CT data in Mihalef et al. (2010) were highly smoothed and were not useful for understanding the true interactions between the blood flow and the walls.
Earlier work in blood flow simulation used less refined models. For example, Jones and Metaxas (1998) were the first to extract boundaries from MRI data to perform patient-specific blood flow simulations. Later, Q. Long et al. (2003) and Saber N. (2003) used simple models of the left side of the heart, with smooth ventricular walls, and imposed boundary conditions in the valve regions.
There has also been work on the 3D cardiac reconstruction from CT images Zheng et al. (2008); von Berg and Lorenz (2005); Lorenz and von Berg (2006). However, despite the higher level of structural detail potentially available in CT data, most prior work has not sought to capture the finer detail structures of the myocardium, such as the papillary muscles and the trabeculae. The conventional approach to reconstructing cardiac structures from 3D images (e.g., for generating generic or patient-specific models of the heart) is a model-based one that uses a smooth parametric model to guide the segmentation of cardiac structures from the 3D images. Such parametric models capture the overall shape of the heart wall, but are too coarse to capture or incorporate many of the finer scale anatomical features. Recent advances in CT technology have made the acquisition of higher resolution cardiac images possible, which can capture previously unseen cardiac structure details. Chen et al. proposed a hybrid framework for 3D cardiac reconstruction [Chen et al. 2004]. That method has provided high resolution segmentation results of the complex cardiac structure. Their results captured the papillary muscles and detail structure of the myocardium.
The described invention uses a high resolution heart model by using segmenting higher-quality CT scans of normal subjects and live patients with cardiovascular disease that allow the capture of the complex details of the heart walls and trabeculae. The approach, which estimates the predefined motion for the valves, whose asynchronous opening and closing provides a simple geometric mechanism for taking care of those boundary conditions, relies on the reasonable assumption that the left ventricle drives essentially all of the dynamics of the blood flow in the left side of the heart. The described invention captures the fine detail structures of the myocardium, as well as the one-to-one correspondence between frames, which is required in the blood simulator. With the one-to-one correspondence, one can do interpolation among different time frames to get a smoother heart cycle reconstruction.

Fluid flow analysis for cardiovascular diagnostics

RUTGERS, THE STATE UNIVERSITY OF NEW JERSEY


A supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) system. The SFE system includes a mechanism for providing supercritical fluid for extracting analyte from a sample. The SFE system also includes an extraction vessel and a mechanism for moving the extraction vessel into fluidic communication with the SFE system so that supercritical fluid can flow through the extraction vessel and extract analyte from the sample. Preferably, the SFE system is additionally comprised of a mechanism for holding a plurality of extraction vessels and an extraction chamber assembly. In this design, the moving mechanism selectively moves an extraction vessel from the holding mechanism into the extraction chamber in fluidic communication with the SFE system. Preferably, the SFE system further includes a computer for controlling the functions of the SFE system. The computer, for instance, could automatically and sequentially control the supercritical fluid extractions of the samples within the holding mechanism. The SFE system preferably includes a mechanism for collecting analyte from the fluid with analyte. The collecting mechanism is in fluid communication with extraction chamber assembly and preferably includes a restrictor for controlling the flow of fluid with analyte to the collecting mechanism. The restrictor converts the fluid with analyte from a first supercritical pressure to a second pressure which is less than the first supercritical pressure.

Supercritical fluid extraction (SFE) is a sample preparation technique used to extract analytes of interest from a sample, for example, environmental pollutants from a soil sample. Some type of sample preparation must be performed for a wide range of environmental, food, polymer, petroleum, pharmaceutical and other classes of samples due to the complex nature of the samples. Many of these samples are so complex that they cannot be directly analyzed by analytical techniques such as gas chromatography (GC) or liquid chromatography (LC). The complex samples must first go through a sample preparation step to perform a gross separation of the analytes of interest from the sample matrix in which they are contained, for example, the environmental pollutants from soil. After the sample preparation step, then just the analytes of interest are analyzed by the analytical technique such as gas chromatography (GC), liquid chromatography (LC), or supercritical fluid chromatography (SFC). Other analytical techniques could be used such as mass spectroscopy (MS) or nuclear magnetic resource (NMR).
The most popular sample preparation steps are Soxhlet extraction and liquid extraction. An alternative to these types of extraction techniques is supercritical fluid extraction (SFE). SFE offers a relatively rapid, simple and inexpensive technique to perform sample preparations. The basis of SFE is that a fluid, such as carbon dioxide, is held at a specific pressure, temperature and flowrate, which is above its critical temperature and pressure and thus is a supercritical fluid. The supercritical fluid is passed through the sample matrix containing the analytes of interest. This sample matrix is contained in an extraction vessel. The fluid diffuses into the pores of the matrix, solubilizes the analytes of interest, and then carries the analytes away from the matrix. The analytes are then collected by some device, so that the analytes can be analyzed by some further analytical technique, such as chromatography. The matrix (now without analytes) is left behind in the extraction vessel. Supercritical fluids have favorable diffusivities and viscosities providing for good mass transfer characteristics. Their solvent strength can be easily controlled by changing fluid pressure or temperature. These are but a few of the advantages of supercritical fluid extraction.
Typically, an SFE system is comprised of a pump which pumps the supercritical fluid to an extraction vessel where analytes are extracted from a sample matrix. The analytes are then transported to a collection device where the supercritical fluid is depressurized to ambient pressure and is vented. The analysis of the collected analytes can be either "off-line", that is, remote from the extraction and/or collection device, or "on-line", that is, fluidically connected to the extraction and/or collection device.
The primary supercritical fluid used in SFE is carbon dioxide due to its low pressure and temperature critical points (71 atm, 31.degree. C., respectively) and its ability to solubilize nonpolar or moderately polar analytes. When it is desired to extract a polar analyte, then it is well known in the art to employ a co-solvent with the carbon dioxide. These co-solvents are typically referred to as modifiers or entrainers and are typically a liquid organic solvent such as methanol, ethanol, propylene carbonate, acetone, tetrahydrofuran, fomic acid, etc. that are blended with the carbon dioxide in 1 to 50% by volume or mole percent to form a mixture that retains much of the diffusion characteristics of the pure carbon dioxide phase but that has a much higher polarity and thus is able to solubilize polar analytes and extract the polar analytes from the sample matrix.
The prior art of SFE is quite large (see, for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,500,432, "Supercritical Fluid Technology", ACS Symposium Series 488, Chapter 12, McNally et al., 1991, pp. 144-164, "A Model for Dynamic Extraction Using Supercritical Fluid", Bartle et al., Journal of Supercritical Fluids", 1990, 3, 143-149, "Supercritical Fluid Extraction & Chromatography", ACS Symposium Series 366, Chapter 3, Wright et al., 1988, pp. 44-62, U.S. Pat. No. 4,597,943, European Patent No. 0444299A1, European Patent No. 0384969A2, European Patent No. 0458125A2, European Patent No. 0438184A1, U.S. Pat. No. 5,031,448, U.S. Pat. No. 5,013,443, U.S. Pat. No. 5,087,360, U.S. Pat. No. 4,984,602).
It has been generally known in the prior art that SFE must be automated to allow the technology to grow (see M. L. Bruce, "Beyond the Hype", August/September 1991, Environmental Lab). Only with a reliable, rapid, multisample analysis will the technique of supercritical fluid extraction be exploited to full advantage. One approach toward SFE automation is shown in "Supercritical Fluid Technology", ACS Symposium Series 488, Chapter 12, McNally et al., 1991, pp. 144-184. In this method, a series of extraction vessels (up to 12) are plumbed into a common rotary valve. The extraction vessels are not moved. The rotary valve is rotated to fluidically connect one of the extraction vessels to the plumbing of the extraction system. This relatively complex valve system is difficult to clean due to the numerous and essentially redundant fluid lines and is prone to leakage due to the rotary valve and the many plumbing fittings.
The basic needs of SFE are well known but the present invention has advantages over the prior art in a number of important areas including: 1) the ability to automate the SFE process so that it runs unattended for preferably up to 44 samples (or more); commensurate with 2) the ability to individually program each extraction vessel or fraction of a vessel with a different pressure, temperature, percent modifier, supercritical fluid flowrate and analyte collection method; and 3) the incorporation of a new variable restrictor that allows the effective decompression of the supercritical fluid into the collection system. The variable restrictor is unique due to its low dead volume, ability to control carbon dioxide flows in the 0.3 to 7.0 ml/min. range, and ability to keep the depressurized carbon dioxide from freezing in the outlet of the value.

Automated supercritical fluid extraction method and apparatus


A wall integrable multisensory therapy device for securement in a wall of a room dedicated for physiological therapeutic treatment is described. The device has a convection conduit with a bottom air intake and a top air outlet. A blower is secured between the inlet port and outlet port to heat air convected therethrough. Associated with the convection conduit is a front panel incorporating therein audio speakers and two different light sources, one being a white light source and the other being a colored light source. The white light source provides a luminotherapeutic sensation and the colored light source provides a chromotherapeutic sensation. The heated air provides a thermotherapeutic sensation. An aromatic liquid dispenser is also associated with the front panel provides an aromatherapeutic sensation. An audio transmitter equipped with speakers provides for a relaxing sensation of hearing to a user person. A control module is associated with a data processor which is programmed to generate combinations of these treatments some being adjustable in intensity levels and all having time adjustment capabilities, as programmed for selection by the user person.

Various multisensory therapy devices are known to provide a relaxed environment to relieve stress in a person. One example of such a device is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,702,767 wherein a housing is integrated with a chair in which a user person sits in a comfortable posture and is subjected to physiological therapeutic treatment such as audio sounds and video images which may be synchronized to an aromatic sensory component or other sensation producing devices to provide a distracting and relaxing environment to the user person. However, these devices are quite expensive, can be used by only a single person at one time and they generate a fixed and repetitive treatment. The treatment cannot be modified by the user person to provide different relaxation sessions. In order to modify the treatment, a second person, usually a technician, is required to operate a computer device. This second person also monitors the patient undergoing the sensory treatment and evaluates the patient and intervenes in the control of the sensory systems depending upon signals received from the components of the system. Accordingly, a profile of a patient being treated can be developed and stored in the computer. Such expensive systems are therefore adapted for use in clinics only for providing treatment and therapy to patients.
It would therefore be beneficial to provide a device which could be incorporated into a room of a home for personal use and which can provide a multitude of such beneficial physiological sensory treatments. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,304,112 describes an integrated stress reduction system which provides relaxing visual, sound, tactile and environmental effects to aid a user person in reducing his or her stress level. Again, in this system the stress level of the user person needs to be detected and a computer controls the intensity and duration of the relaxing effects. The system uses light pattern stress level display using a laser. The use of a laser adds to the complexity and high cost of such system and it is therefore only affordable to a very limited number of people. The apparatus also uses a large video device having a screen and which occupies a very large space. The laser beam is projected on the screen to form a pattern on the screen and speakers need to be mounted in the room at different locations as well as a video camera. It can therefore be concluded that this system is a biofeedback system which cannot be said to be readily available to the general public due to the expensive aspect thereof. Further, it occupies a large space and a special room needs to be built to accommodate such a system.

Wall integrated multisensory therapy device


There is provided a detection apparatus including a housing that includes a working surface, and a sensor configured to detect the force or the moment exerted on the working surface, on at least a first detection axis and a second detection axis. The working surface coincides with a surface that includes the first detection axis and the second detection axis, the working surface being at least partially symmetrical around the first detection axis passing through the center of the sensor.

The present disclosure relates to a detection apparatus.
Force/torque sensors are known which detect the direction and magnitude of exerted force. The force/torque sensor detects, for example, the magnitude of the force in three axis directions (x, y, z) and the magnitude of torque around each of the axes. Examples of the force/torque sensor are described, for example, in Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-325367, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2004-354049, and Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. Hei 8-122178.

Detection apparatus that improves a positional relation between a working surface and a sensor


A displaceable load carrying structure characterized by a main support arrangement (3), first and second sets (4, 5, 6, 7, & 8, 9, 10, 11) of support legs for supporting the main support arrangement (3) said support legs being vertically movable between raised and lowered positions relative to the main support arrangement, characterized in that each such set (4, 5, 6, 7, & 8, 9, 10, 11) of legs is capable of displacement as a set between said raised positions and said lowered positions and displaced relative to the other set while the legs of the other set (8, 9, 10, 11, or 4, 5, 6, 7) are in their lowered main support arrangement (3) supporting positions.

It is well known to carry out mining operations in a sea bed particularly along a continental shelf or other bodies of water that are shallow enough for support structures of the kind that have a number of upstanding legs resting upon the bottom of a body of water connecting with a frame construction supporting a platform, the legs being so associated with the frame construction as to be separately displaceable relative to the frame construction by a combination of individual lifting/lowering movements together with horizontal movements of the platform the result of which moves the structure from one user location to another.
As is indicated above a particular use of such structures is to undersea mining activities that are in practice carried out from the platform which as mentioned is located above the water body surface, i.e., the sea surface.
Undersea mining activities involve a number of different modes of operation that require equipment located above water level for controlling apparatus that is in operation submerged and designed for performing a required under seas mining operation

Displaceable platform structure and method of the displacement thereof


Aromatic amines which are substituted by C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 -alkoxy in the p-position are prepared by catalytic hydrogenation of the underlying aromatic nitro compounds in a reaction medium comprising sulphuric acid and a C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 -alcohol by a Bamberger type rearrangement at elevated temperature, advantageously by carrying out the catalytic hydrogenation under elevated pressure.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to the preparation of aromatic amines which are substituted by C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 -alkoxy in the p-position by catalytic hydrogenation of the underlying aromatic nitro compounds in a reaction medium comprising sulphuric acid and a C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 -alcohol in the so-called Bamberger type rearrangement.
In the Bamberger rearrangement, p-methoxy-aniline is formed, for example, from phenylhydroxylamine under the action of mineral acids and addition of methanol as the nucleophile. As can be seen from the equation below, it is also possible for water to occupy the p-position as the nucleophile with the formation of p-amino-phenol; furthermore, the nucleophilecanalso occupy the o-position with respect to the original hydroxylamine group. For a long time, this Bamberger rearrangement has been associated with the intermediate formation of the hydroxylamine from the underlying nitro compound by catalytic hydrogenation or electrochemical reduction. The mineral acid described most often for this purpose and the only suitable one for industrial applications is sulphuric acid. In such a combination of the hydrogenation of the nitro group with the Bamberger rearrangement, the formation of the not further substituted amino compound from the underlying nitro compound can take place as a further side reaction. These processes can be summarised by the following equations, which exemplify the reduction and reaction of nitrobenzene: ##STR1##
p-Methoxy-aniline (a), which is the product formed in the largest amount in sulphuric acid/methanolic environment, is the generally desired product. In addition, p-aminophenol (b), o-methoxy-aniline (c) and aniline (d) are formed as by-products. The latter (d) is apparently formed here by competition with the Bamberger compound by further reduction of the phenylhydroxylamine.
A further undesired side reaction which takes place is ether formation from the alcohol used, especially since the Bamberger rearrangement which is coupled with the reduction of the nitro compound represents a reaction lasting several hours and even more so, since the reaction is in general carried out at elevated temperature in order to avoid an even longer reaction.
2. Description of the Related Art
It is known that nitroaromatics, such as, for example, nitrobenzene, 2- and 3-nitro-toluene, 2,3-dinitro-toluene or 6-chloro-2-nitrotoluene, can be reduced electrochemically in methanol and in the presence of sulphuric acid or methylsulphuric acid to give 4-alkoxy-aminoaromatics (see German Offenlegungsschrift 2,617,808, JP 55/154,590, Kagaku Kogyo 56 293-296 (1982)). Processes of this type cause high costs of energy and a considerable investment in apparatus.
Furthermore, it is known that nitroaromatics, such as, for example, 2-chloronitrobenzene, 2-nitro-toluene or 2,6-dimethyl-nitrobenzene, can be reacted in alcoholic solution with addition of water or carboxylic acids at a hydrogen pressure of between 0.01 and 1 bar to give 4-alkoxy-aminoaromatics (see German Offenlegungsschrift 3,443,385 and JP 61/109,759). As is known from the literature, the undesirable formation of p-hydroxyaminoaromatics must be expected in the presence of water in a type of competing conventional Bamberger reaction in aqueous reaction media (see HOUBEN-WEYL VI/lc, 91-92). The addition of carboxylic acids is economically a disadvantage.
It is furthermore known that various nitroaromatics, such as, for example, nitrobenzene, can be reacted in alcoholic solution and in the presence of sulphuric acid with the addition of catalyst poisons, such as, for example, dimethyl sulphoxide, or with the use of modified and deactivated catalysts, such as platinum oxide or platinum sulphide, at pressures of up to 6 bar of hydrogen to give 4-alkoxy-aminoaromatics (SU523,082, SU 520,347, SU 514,811 and SU 578,302 and Nippon Kagaku Kaishi 1237 (1982), 245 (1980) and 1532 (1979)). Modified catalysts of this type are expensive and in most cases are not or only to a very limited extent reusable, which constitutes a significant economic disadvantage. The addition of moderators or inhibitors, such as dimethyl sulphoxide, moreover makes the workup and purification of the crude reaction products more difficult and results in lengthening of the reaction times, due to deactivation of the noble metal catalysts, and thus in unfavourable space-time yields.
According to the literature, when Bamberger reactions are carried out in alcoholic reaction media for the purpose of preparing p-alkoxy-aminoaromatics, it must be expected that, if higher hydrogen pressures than about 0.2-2 bar of hydrogen pressure are used, the aminoaromatics formed by simple reduction of the nitro groups or even ringhydrogenated compounds are predominantly obtained. In order to prevent this, elevated pressures are in general avoided and in some cases substantially lengthened reaction times are accepted (see German Offenlegungsschrift 3,443,385, JP 53/084,925, 57/072,945 and 57/002,247).

Process for the preparation of aromatic amines which are substituted by C.sub.1 -C.sub.4 -alkoxy in the p-position


Disclosed is an apparatus and method for driving an organic light emitting display device which facilitates to control current consumption of a display panel according to a temperature of the display panel including a light emitting device or a surrounding temperature of the display panel, the apparatus comprising the display panel including the plurality of pixels provided with the plurality of light emitting devices which emit light according to a current, a temperature sensing unit for generating temperature data by sensing a temperature of the display panel or surrounding temperature; and a panel driver for controlling a data signal to be supplied to each pixel so as to make current consumption of the display panel be lower than a preset current limit value on the basis of input data and temperature data.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present disclosure relates to an organic light emitting display device, and more particularly, to an apparatus and method for driving an organic light emitting display device which facilitates to control current consumption of a display panel according to a temperature of the display panel including a light emitting device or a surrounding temperature of the display panel.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Due to recent multimedia developments, there is an increasing demand for a flat panel display. In order to satisfy this increasing demand, various flat panel displays such as liquid crystal display, plasma display panel, field emission display and organic light emitting display are practically used. Among the various flat panel displays, the organic light emitting display device has been attracted as a next-generation flat panel display owing to advantages of rapid response speed and low power consumption. In addition, the organic light emitting display device can emit light in itself, whereby the organic light emitting display device does not cause a problem related with a narrow viewing angle.
Generally, the organic light emitting display device displays an image by applying a data signal to each pixel, and controlling a current flowing in an organic light emitting device according to a data current corresponding to the data signal. For this, each pixel includes the organic light emitting device, a switching transistor, a driving transistor, and at least one capacitor.
An amount of light emitted from the organic light emitting device is proportional to a current amount supplied from the driving transistor. The switching transistor is switched according to a scanning signal, whereby the switching transistor supplies the data signal supplied from a data line to the driving transistor. The driving transistor is switched according to the data signal supplied from the switching transistor, whereby the driving transistor generates the data current based on the data signal, and supplies the generated data current to the organic light emitting device. The capacitor maintains the data signal supplied to the driving transistor for 1 frame period.
However, in case of the organic light emitting display device according to the related art, current consumption is changed according to a surrounding (or environmental) temperature and/or a temperature of a display panel. That is, as shown in FIG. 1, the current consumption of the organic light emitting display device according to the related art is increased in proportion to the temperature.
Accordingly, in the organic light emitting display device according to the related art, if the current consumption of the display panel is excessively increased by an image of each frame unit, a power supplier may be shut-down due to overcurrent, thereby deteriorating reliability of device (or product). Further, even though data of the same luminance is displayed on the display panel in the organic light emitting display device according to the related art, the current consumption is changed according to the temperature, to thereby shorten lifespan of the organic light emitting device.

Apparatus and method for driving organic light emitting display device


A scheduling node transmits, to a radio node configured for sub-subframe operation, a semi-persistent scheduling (SPS) configuration message configuring the radio node for sub-subframe-based SPS. The SPS configuration message comprises an identifier of the radio node and indicates a pattern of sub-subframes in which a resource allocation for the radio node repeats. The radio node receives the SPS configuration message and configures the radio node for sub-subframe-based SPS according to the SPS configuration message.

Many wireless communication systems involve transmission scheduling between wireless nodes. In some such systems, a first node sets the transmission schedule, and other nodes communicating with the first node adhere to the transmission schedule. One example of such a transmission schedule defines when the other nodes may expect the first node to transmit on a downlink. Another example of such a transmission schedule defines when the other nodes are permitted to transmit on an uplink. The first node may inform the other nodes of the transmission scheduling using Downlink Control Information (DCI). One particular example of such DCI may be DCI as defined by the 3GPP standards organization, e.g., according to 3GPP TS 36.212 V14.0.0 (2016-09). Such DCI may include, for example, a resource allocation, modulation and coding scheme, and other information useful for decoding transmissions. Other examples of such DCI may be particular proprietary to the particular wireless technology used for the communication, or may be defined by other standards organizations. By scheduling transmissions, the first node may coordinate communication between the nodes over a shared wireless medium (e.g., a particular time and/or frequency domain of an air interface).

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Semi-persistent scheduling in sub-subframe operation


Covers for U-channel or C-channel sign posts comprise an extruded hollow plastic form having a length, the form in cross-section including a generally flat front wall and opposing generally flat side walls. Each side wall converges toward the other at an angle from the front wall to a back section having a width less than the front wall, thereby forming a generally trapezoidal interior. Each side wall is bent toward the other to form overlapping portions that make up the back section. In the preferred embodiments, the front wall further includes a co-extruded reflective, fluorescent, phosphorescent or colored lengthwise strip of material to enhance visibility, and the back section further includes an engagement mechanism between the overlapping portions including one or more sets of engaging barbs. The back section may further include a rearward wall extending from one of the overlapping portions and folded over the overlapping portions forming a rearward wall to assist in maintaining the engagement of the barbs.

There are four primary types of steel shapes used for traffic sign support posts: U-channel, square tube, tubular (pipe) and I-beam. U-channel posts have opposing outstanding flanges and come in several sizes. The back portion of a U-channel post may be smooth or may include lengthwise supporting ribs. A plurality of apertures are provided through the back portion and a traffic sign is mounted with threaded fasteners passing through the sign which is juxtaposed against the front flanges. Available sizes and designs may be found at http://www.nsmarion.com/ribbak_b.html, incorporated herein by reference.
Attempts have been made to at least partially cover U-channel sign posts, including cover with reflective materials. U.S. Pat. No. 6,233,898 discloses a reflective member mountable to a traffic sign post, the member having face portion with a rear face portion abutting the outwardly extending flanges of the post and a front face portion to augment the warning capability of the sign post or to provide a text message. This first member has a U-shaped channel that mates about the exterior of the U-shaped channel of the traffic sign post to which it is mounted by means of threaded fasteners. A reflective warning or textual message may be provided on two sides or all sides of the sign post using a second mounting member secured to the first member 10 by means of threaded fasteners passing through the longitudinal edges of second mounting member and through the rear face portion of the first member.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,158,379 and 6,901,879 describe a reflective and/or fluorescent member mountable to a traffic sign post to augment the warning capability of the traffic sign mounted on the traffic sign post. The member in a first embodiment is mounted in the recessed C-channel of the traffic sign post and is partially shielded from the sun during the day and thereby extends the life of the traffic sign which fades from the action of UV sunlight. In a second embodiment, the reflective is mounted on the face of a mounting member, the mounting member having a cross section such that it mates with the U-shaped channel of the traffic sign post, the edges of the mounting member being flanged outwardly and the reflective and/or fluorescent member may also include information of a safety, directional or commercial nature.
While the above described articles may enhance the visibility of traffic sign posts, they use multiple components and may be expensive and problematic to install. Accordingly, the need remains for an easy-to-install, inexpensive yet effective sign post cover.

Extruded plastic u-channel sign post covers


Systems and methods for generating a customized virtual character are disclosed. A system may obtain video data or other media depicting a real person, and then may provide the obtained media to one or more machine learning models configured to learn visual appearance and behavior information regarding the particular person depicted in the video or other media. The system may then generate a custom visual appearance model and a custom behavior model corresponding to the real person, which may subsequently be used to render, within a virtual environment of a video game, a virtual character that resembles the real person in appearance and in-game behavior.

Video game applications have increased in popularity and complexity in recent years. As more players enter the virtual environments of video games, many of which include in-game online interactions with other players, many players desire increased customization options for the virtual characters that they control in these virtual environments. This is particularly true in multi-player video games, where a player will often seek to personalize an avatar or character that will be visible to other players in the game. Some games make a variety of predefined characters available, from which a player may choose a character to control or play as in a given game instance. Other games enable at least some level of customization of predefined characters, such as providing an option for a player to edit a selected character's clothing color or other aspect of the character's visual appearance in the game.

Virtual character generation from image or video data


There are provided methods and apparatus for adaptive reference filtering. An apparatus includes an encoder for encoding at least one picture. The encoder performs adaptive filtering of at least one reference picture to respectively obtain at least one filtered reference picture, and predictively codes the at least one picture using the at least one filtered reference picture. The at least one reference picture is a picture wherein at least one sample thereof is used for inter-prediction either of subsequent to the at least one sample being applied to an in-loop filter or in an absence of the at least one sample being applied to an in-loop filter.

In current encoder and/or decoder designs, motion compensation is used to exploit temporal redundancy by subtracting a prediction block from the current block. However, there exist various situations in which the motion compensated prediction is not efficient. For example, one situation involves when there is a discrepancy of sharpness/blurriness between a current frame to be encoded and a reference frame. This may be caused by, for example, changing focus, camera pan with hand-held devices, and/or a special effect created for a scene change. Such phenomenon can often be observed in dramas when the camera is first focused on one character and then shifts its focus to another character when the two characters appear in different scene/focus depths. The first person looks sharper in the reference frame while the second person is blurred in the reference frame. Herein, we denote this focus-changing example in regular single-view video coding as "Case 1".
Another source of discrepancy that degrades the quality of the prediction signal appears in multi-view video sequences. In multi-view video coding systems, scenes are captured simultaneously by multiple cameras from different view points. Disparity compensation is applied from view to view to exploit the redundancy among different view pictures. Higher coding efficiency can be achieved by performing both motion and disparity compensations, as compared to encoding each view independently. Multi-view video systems may be built with heterogeneous cameras, or cameras that have not been perfectly calibrated. This leads to discrepancies such as, for example, illumination mismatch, color mismatch and/or focus mismatch among different views. The efficiency of cross-view disparity compensation may deteriorate due to such discrepancies. Furthermore, objects with different depths may possess different kinds of incongruity between two views. For example, object A in view 1 may be in focus while view 2 may be in focus with object B. To perform disparity compensation from view 1 to view 2, object A is sharper in the reference frame while object B is blurred. Herein, we denote such camera focus mismatch in multi-view systems as "Case 2".
Most of the previous literature on adaptive reference frame filtering is focused upon generating a sub-pixel reference for motion compensation.
For example, in one conventional adaptive interpolation filtering approach, an adaptive interpolation filter has been proposed on a frame basis. After obtaining the motion vectors using an interpolated reference frame with a fixed six-tap filter corresponding to the International Organization for Standardization/International Electrotechnical Commission (ISO/IEC) Moving Picture Experts Group-4 (MPEG-4) Part 10 Advanced Video Coding (AVC) standard/International Telecommunication Union, Telecommunication Sector (ITU-T) H.264 recommendation (hereinafter the "MPEG-4 AVC standard"), the coefficients of the adaptive interpolation filter are calculated by minimizing a matching error measure such as sum of square difference (SSD) or sum of absolute difference (SAD). The adaptive filter is used to generate the interpolated reference picture, which is then used for motion compensation. The process does not carry out further motion estimation with the newly interpolated sub-pixel reference. The filter design is constrained to be separable in vertical and horizontal directions and is cascaded with bilinear filters.
In an improvement to the previously described adaptive interpolation filtering approach, another approach involves first obtaining the motion vectors with standard interpolation filters. Depending upon the sub-pixel portion of the motion vector, different interpolation filters are designed for different sub-pixel positions. The filters employed are two-dimensional non-separable, with certain symmetric constraints to reduce the number of coefficients to be solved. A second motion estimation/compensation is performed with these new filters to generate a sub-pixel reference.
In the above described prior art approaches relating to adaptive interpolation filtering, the integer pixels in the reference frame remain unchanged, as the interpolation keeps the original data points unchanged. However, such an approach may not be efficient for predictive video coding with inherent discrepancies.
In a prior art approach to video compression using blur compensation, it is proposed to use a blurring filter to generate a blurred reference frame. However, this approach is only directed to situations where the current frame is a blurred version of the reference frame, but not the reverse case. The set of filters that may be selected by the encoder are predefined, which is quite restrictive and suboptimal as compared to the adaptive filter design approach. Moreover, for each frame to be encoded, only one filter from the predefined set will be selected based on frame-level rate reduction.

Methods and apparatus for adaptive reference filtering


The present invention relates to polycyclic iminooxadiazinediones A corresponding to formula I ##STR1## The present invention also relates to mixtures of these polycyclic iminooxadiazinediones with other isocyanate derivatives and to their use for the production of optionally foamed polyurethane plastics, for the production of paints and coatings and for the production or formulation of active ingredients, pharmaceutical products, etc.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to polycyclic iminooxadiazinediones prepared from 1,4-diisocyanates, to a process for their production and to their use for the production of polyisocyanate addition products.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The reaction of isocyanates with an exceptionally large number of H-acid compounds to synthesize high molecular weight polymers based on the work of O. Bayer et al. is known (for example, DE-A 728,981) and has found substantial industrial application. Use is made of the high reactivity of the isocyanate groups with the co-reactants.
The unpleasant physiological properties of low-molecular isocyanates, in particular diisocyanates, occasionally prevent their direct use, for example, in the coatings sector. Various methods are therefore employed for the modification of these monomers with the aim of considerably increasing the vapor pressure of the resulting products and obtaining physiologically safe compounds. Examples of this are the reaction of excess quantities of diisocyanates with dihydric and polyhydric alcohols to form prepolymers as well as the preparation of polyisocyanates saving uretdione ("dimer"), isocyanurate ("trimer") and biuret groups.
In addition, it is occasionally necessary to use NCO groups having reduced reactivity, e.g., in one-component applications with as long a pot life as possible, polyurethane powder coating systems and aqueous systems. To obtain products which can be employed in these applications, it is necessary to carry out a thermally or chemically reversible blocking reaction using compounds, which are split off, optionally in altered form, during the cross-linking reaction to form the polymeric synthetic material or coating film (for example, Progr. Org. Coatings, 3 (1975), 73 and 9 (1981), 3). A number of compounds have proven to be successful in practice for this purpose, for example, .di-elect cons.-caprolactam, dialkyl malonate esters and butanone oxime.
The disadvantage of all these systems is that the blocking agents, which are split off during the curing reaction, have to be disposed of. Otherwise, if they remain in the products, they can adversely affect their range of properties, for example, due to "exudation" or to a deterioration in the physical and/or chemical stability of the products.
In some respects an exception to this disadvantage are the above-mentioned coating polyisocyanates containing uretdione groups ("dimers"), which, in contrast to the many other isocyanate derivatives, may be thermally split into the original isocyanates. Therefore, no decomposition product is released during the curing process.
However, several disadvantages may result from the thermal lability of the uretdione structure. Prolonged storage at an elevated temperature may lead to a slow splitting of the uretdione rings, which results in an increase in the content of residual monomers and consequently in products which are no longer physiologically unobjectionable. Also, the thermally induced dissociation of the uretdione rings, which is necessary for the rapid curing of the composition, takes place only at relatively elevated temperatures, which may lead to discoloration and other unwanted decomposition phenomena.
Also known is the use of the "self-blocking" compounds of the so-called .alpha.-nylon type, which are described in EP-A 14,365 and are similar to uretdiones. However, the splitting of these polymers, which is necessary for the cross-linking, succeeds if at all only at higher temperatures than the temperatures needed for uretdiones. For this reason they have not been previously used, in particular in the coatings sector.
An object of the present invention is to develop systems wherein none or at least a distinctly decreased amount of the isocyanate groups, when compared to known prior art systems containing blocking agents, have to be deactivated by the addition of a blocking agent and nevertheless, even at elevated temperature, do not split into monomeric diisocyanates.
This object may be achieved with the bicyclic and polycyclic iminooxadiazinediones (hereinafter polycyclic iminooxadiazinediones) according to the invention.

Polycyclic iminooxadiazinediones from (cyclo)aliphatic 1,4-diisocyanates


This invention relates to divinyl sulfone crosslinking agents, viscosified treatment fluids, and methods of using these compositions in applications wherein viscosified treatment fluids may be used. In one embodiment, this invention provides a method of treating a portion of a subterranean formation comprising: providing a viscosified treatment fluid that comprises an aqueous base fluid and a crosslinked gelling agent, the crosslinked gelling agent comprising at least one alkyl sulfone bridge, and treating the portion of the subterranean formation.

The present invention relates to methods and compositions for increasing the viscosity of a fluid. More particularly, the present invention relates to divinyl sulfone crosslinking agents, viscosified treatment fluids, and methods of using these compositions in applications wherein viscosified treatment fluids may be used.
Many industrial applications require viscosified fluids or "viscosified treatment fluids." For instance, the upstream energy industry uses viscosified treatment fluids in a variety of production and stimulation operations. For example, such fluids may be used as drilling fluids, fracturing fluids, and/or gravel packing fluids.
Viscosified treatment fluids that are used in subterranean operations generally are aqueous-based fluids that comprise gelling agents. These gelling agents may comprise biopolymers or synthetic polymers. Common gelling agents include, e.g., galactomannan gums, cellulosic polymers, and polysaccharides.
To increase the viscosity viscosified treatment fluid, often the gelling agent is crosslinked with the use of a crosslinking agent. Conventional crosslinking agents usually comprise a metal, transition metal, or metalloid, collectively referred to herein as "metal(s)." Examples include boron, aluminum, antimony, zirconium, magnesium, or titanium. Generally, the metal of a crosslinking agent interacts with at least two gelling agent molecules to form a crosslink between them, thereby forming a crosslinked gelling agent.
Many of the metal based crosslinking agents have drawbacks associated with their use. For instance, boron-containing crosslinking agents generally are limited to viscosified treatment fluids used in environments that have a pH of about 8 and above and a temperature below about 300° F. This pH requirement may preclude using salt water in a viscosified treatment fluid. Similarly, viscosified treatment fluids comprising gelling agents that are crosslinked with boron-containing crosslinking agents may suffer from thermal instability at certain elevated temperatures, like those frequently encountered in some subterranean operations. In addition, boron-containing crosslinking agents often react with additives commonly used with treatment fluids, e.g., glycols (such as ethylene or propylene glycol) or alcohols (such as methanol). To overcome this propensity, boron crosslinking agents typically are added in excess to treatment fluids, which may increase the environmental footprint and the costs associated with the treatment fluid. Similarly, titanium-based crosslinking agents have disadvantages. These include cost, delay in crosslinking, and a limited scope of gelling agents that may be crosslinked. Zirconium-based crosslinking agents also have drawbacks. One of the important drawbacks associated with zirconium-based crosslinking agents is their inability to crosslink xanthan, which is a commonly used gelling agent. Moreover, titanium- and zirconium-based crosslinks form permanent crosslinks that cannot be reversed, which may be undesirable. This quality is important when "breaking" (i.e., reducing the viscosity of) a viscosified treatment fluid comprising a crosslinked gelling agent that has been crosslinked with a titanium- or zirconium-based crosslinking agent because the breaking has to occur by breaking the gelling agent molecules rather than delinking the crosslinks, which can lead to formation fouling. Also, certain formation conditions and cationic species may be problematic for metal-based crosslinking agents.

Divinyl sulfone crosslinking agents and methods of use in subterranean applications


The apparatus is a fall arrestor and lockdown device for vertical lift doors, particularly single membrane fabric vertical lift doors. A pulley on a sensing arm engages the cable which raises and lowers the door. Alternatively, the sensing arm is directly attached to a belt. The sensing arm is mechanically linked to a spring loaded pin reciprocating within a tubular housing. When the cable or belt is tensioned, the sensing arm rotates upwardly to a position where the pin is retracted and the spring compressed thereby allowing the door to move vertically. However, when the cable or belt is not tensioned, the spring urges the pin to an extended position to engage regularly spaced apertures within the guide channel. When the cable or belt is not tensioned due to a cable or belt failure, the device operates as a fall arrestor. When the cable or belt is not tensioned because the door is fully lowered to the ground, the device acts as a lockdown device.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to a fall arrestor and lockdown device for vertical lift doors, particularly single membrane fabric vertical lift doors.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Many applications, such as aircraft hangars, today require large vertical lift doors. This need has been addressed by large single membrane fabric vertical lift doors. However, in the absence of proper safety equipment, such doors have the potential for rapid falls caused by cable or lift belt breaks. It is therefore important that such doors have fall arrestors which are responsive to cable or lift belt breaks. It is also important to realize that such fall arrestors ordinarily are activated only in unexpected cable or lift belt break situations. Such intermittent activation can lead to latent inoperability, such as contamination from debris due to lack of use, which is not detected prior to an unexpected cable or lift belt break.
Some prior art devices use friction methods for fall arrestor systems. These arrestor systems damage the door jamb and/or door beams thereby leading to extended down-time and costly repair. Further, they can allow the door leaf to continue falling after engagement by sliding on debris found in the jambs due to low maintenance or high contamination.
Additionally, it is important for such vertical lift doors to be automatically locked upon closing, so that surreptitious entrance cannot be gained by merely lifting the lower crossbar of the single membrane fabric vertical lift door.
It is therefore an object of this invention to provide a fall arrestor for vertical lift doors, particularly single membrane fabric vertical lift doors.
It is therefore a further object of this invention to provide a fall arrestor for vertical lift doors, particularly single membrane fabric vertical lift doors, which is simple in construction and reliable.
It is therefore a further object of this invention to provide a fall arrestor for vertical lift doors, particularly single membrane fabric vertical lift doors, which positively and reliably engages the door jamb without damage to the door jamb.
It is therefore a further object of this invention to provide a fall arrestor for vertical lift doors, particularly single membrane fabric vertical lift doors, which is periodically cycled to aid in detecting latent inoperability.
It is therefore a further object of this invention to provide a fall arrestor for vertical lift doors, particularly single membrane fabric vertical lift doors, which can be reset quickly after repair of a failed cable or lift belt.
It is therefore a further object of this invention to provide a lockdown device for vertical lift doors, particularly single membrane fabric vertical lift doors.
It is therefore a final object of this invention to provide a fall arrestor and lockdown device for vertical lift doors, particularly single membrane fabric vertical lift doors, which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture.
These and other objects are attained by a fall arrestor and lockdown device which is integral with the guide system on the bottom beam of the door and rigidly attached thereto. The fall arrestor and lockdown device includes a spring activated pin device which is attached by mechanical linkage to a rotatable cable or lift belt tension sensing arm. A wire rope or cable passes through the sensing arm. Alternatively, a lift belt can be attached directly to the arm. When the cable or lift belt is xe2x80x9cchargedxe2x80x9d (tension is applied to the cable or lift belt), the sensing arm rotates thereby moving the linkage, retracting the pin and compressing the coil spring. The pin retracts to clear apertures that are placed in the door jamb according to door-width parameters. In the event that the cable or lift belt breaks, the force of the compressed coil spring overcomes the lift applied by the cable or lift belt in the sensing arm and consequently the pin extends. With pressure applied by the coil spring to the pin, the pin is forced outwardly against the door jamb tracking until it reaches an aperture in the jamb. The pin then fires into the aperture where it then comes to rest upon hitting the edge of the side frame. Upon activation of the arrestor system, the beam fall due to cable or lift belt failure is arrested.
The lockdown feature is accomplished when the door reaches its bottom height. The cable or lift belt will lose tension due to the transfer of load from the cable to the ground. This load transfer allows the sensing arm to articulate or rotate in a controlled manner. The pin thereby extends into a jamb placed into the side frame thereby locking the door. This locking provides resistance to unwanted intrusion as well as resistance to beam lift due to catenary forces form wind loading to the fabric. Upon reinitiation of the door cycle, the tension from the cable or lift belt again charges the arrestor system retracting the pin for the arrestor mode.

Fall arrestor and lockdown device for vertical lift doors


A queue-based scheduling system, which comprises an automated staff scheduling computer program that is highly flexible in enforcing scheduling rules. This flexibility comes from the ability to: (1) Define conditional and unconditional rules; (2) Rank the rules/requests in varying priority as represented by a numeric value assigned to each rule/request; and (3) Specify rules both per individual and per group. These three abilities synergistically produce an automatic scheduling system that can enforce a wide variety of scheduling rules and requirements seen in actual staff scheduling situations. Furthermore, all these abilities rely on using a queue per scheduled assignment to hold requests and rules.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to automation of staff or employee scheduling. More particularly, the invention relates to a method and apparatus for queue-based automated staff scheduling.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Staff scheduling is the process of matching a list of employees with a list of shifts or assignments (hereafter referred to as "assignments") for a specified date range. The choice of a particular individual for a given assignment on a given day is generally subject to several constraints imposed by institutional scheduling policies and individual/group preferences. Scheduling a large task force in the presence of large number of such constraints, makes manual scheduling a daunting task. In many cases, it is infeasible to achieve a good schedule manually. Furthermore, the scheduling rules and preferences are rarely static. There are often exceptions to the scheduling rules and preferences based on various scheduling conditions. These problems also make it difficult to build a general purpose computer program that can automate employee scheduling.
The main challenges in automating the process are twofold:    1. How are the constraints, e.g. rules and preferences, which are specific to the institutional, social, and political environment of an organization, expressed in a form that can be represented in the internal data structures of a general purpose software system? Furthermore, how can these representations be used to express not only rules and individual preferences, but also their exceptions?    2. Once a representation has been found, what is the computational process that makes it tractable to choose a schedule among large number of possible schedules, which grow exponentially as the number of employees or assignments increases?
It would be advantageous to provide a method and apparatus that addresses these problems.

Method and apparatus for queue-based automated staff scheduling


A control system for controlling the operation of a Downhole Steam Generator (DHSG) system includes a cascade control strategy for control of individual final control elements in communication with a local well master controller. The final control elements may control fuel, oxidant, feedwater, and/or carbon dioxide flow to the downhole steam generator. The local well master controller may monitor and adjust the flows to the DHSG to control the operating performance of the DHSG.

Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the invention relate to a control system for controlling the operation of a downhole steam generator.
Description of the Related Art
Downhole steam generators are used to inject steam into heavy oil, extra heavy oil, or bitumen reservoirs at a location near the actual oil-bearing formation. These downhole steam generators generally have systems at the surface for supplying fuel, oxidant, and feedwater. These systems, however, are remote from the downhole steam generator and generally do not provide a means for optimizing performance based on actual measured process parameters.
Therefore, there is a need for new and improved control systems for optimizing the performance of downhole steam generators.


A memory array with self-centered diode access devices results from a process in which diodes are formed in the fill material, each diode having a lightly-doped first layer of the same conductivity type as the conductive lines; a heavily doped second layer of opposite conductivity type; and a conductive cap. Self-aligned, and self-centered spacers in the self-aligned vias define pores that expose the conductive cap. Memory material is deposited within the pores, the memory material making contact with the conductive cap. A top electrode is formed in contact with the memory material.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to high density memory devices based on phase change based memory materials, including chalcogenide based materials and on other programmable resistive materials, and to methods for manufacturing such devices.
2. Description of Related Art
Programmable resistive materials, including phase change based materials, have been used in nonvolatile random access memory cells. Phase change materials, such as chalcogenides, can be caused to change phase between an amorphous state and a crystalline state by application of electrical current at levels suitable for implementation in integrated circuits. The generally amorphous state is characterized by higher resistivity than the generally crystalline state, which can be readily sensed to indicate data.
Phase change materials are capable of being switched between a first structural state in which the material is in a generally amorphous solid phase, and a second structural state in which the material is in a generally crystalline solid phase in the active region of the cell. The term amorphous is used to refer to a relatively less ordered structure, more disordered than a single crystal, which has detectable characteristics such as higher electrical resistivity than the crystalline phase. The term crystalline is used to refer to a relatively more ordered structure, more ordered than in an amorphous structure, which has detectable characteristics such as lower electrical resistivity than the amorphous phase. Other material characteristics affected by the change between amorphous and crystalline phases include atomic order, free electron density and activation energy. The material may be switched into either different solid phases or mixtures of two or more solid phases, providing a gray scale between completely amorphous and completely crystalline states.
The change from the amorphous to the crystalline state is generally a lower current operation, requiring a current that is sufficient to raise the phase change material to a level between a phase transition temperature and a melting temperature. The change from crystalline to amorphous, referred to as reset herein, is generally a higher current operation, which includes a short high current density pulse to melt or breakdown the crystalline structure, after which the phase change material cools quickly, quenching the phase change process, allowing at least a portion of the phase change structure to stabilize in the amorphous state. It is desirable to minimize the magnitude of the reset current used to cause transition of phase change material from a crystalline state to an amorphous state. The magnitude of the needed reset current can be reduced by reducing the volume of the active region in the phase change material element in the cell. Techniques used to reduce the volume of the active region include reducing the contact area between electrodes and the phase change material, so that higher current densities are achieved in the active volume, with small absolute current values through the phase change material element.
One direction of development has been toward forming small pores in an integrated circuit structure, and using small quantities of programmable resistive material to fill the small pores. Patents illustrating development toward small pores include: Ovshinsky, "Multibit Single Cell Memory Element Having Tapered Contact," U.S. Pat. No. 5,687,112, issued 11 Nov. 1997; Zahorik et al., "Method of Making Chalogenide [sic] Memory Device," U.S. Pat. No. 5,789,277, issued 4 Aug. 1998; Doan et al., "Controllable Ovonic Phase-Change Semiconductor Memory Device and Methods of Fabricating the Same," U.S. Pat. No. 6,150,253, issued 21 Nov. 2000.
Another memory cell structure under development, referred to sometimes as a "mushroom" cell because of the shape of the active region on the bottom electrode in a typical structure, is based on the formation of a small electrode in contact with a larger portion of phase change material, and then a usually larger electrode in contact with an opposite surface of the phase change material. Current flow from the small contact to the larger contact is used for reading, setting and resetting the memory cell. The small electrode concentrates the current density at the contact point, so that an active region in the phase change material is confined to a small volume near the contact point. See, for example, Ahn et al., "Highly reliable 50 nm contact cell technology for 256 Mb PRAM," VLSI Technology 2005 Digest of Technical Papers, pages 98-99, 14 Jun. 2005; Denison, International publication No. WO2004/055916 A2, "Phase Change Memory and Method Therefore," Publication Date: 1 Jul. 2004; and Song et al., United States Patent Application Publication No. US 2005/0263829 A1, "Semiconductor Devices Having Phase Change Memory Cells, Electronic Systems Employing the Same and Methods of Fabricating the Same," published 1 Dec. 2005.
Another problem with manufacturing very small dimension structures is alignment. When the structures are made using separate lithographic steps, the sizes of the structures, or of at least one of them, must be large enough to allow for alignment tolerances in the lithographic process. These requirements can restrict the flexibility in the design of the memory cells, and cause variation in the performance of the cells.
A self-aligned, nonvolatile memory structure based upon phase change material is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,579,760 entitled Self-Aligned Programmable Phase Change Memory, invented by Hsiang-Lan Lung, issued Jun. 17, 2003. The memory structure can be made within a very small area on an integrated circuit. For example, the area required for each memory cell in an array is about 4F2, where F is equal to the minimum line width for the manufacturing process. Thus, for processes having a minimum line width of 0.1 microns, the memory cell area is about 0.04 microns squared.
Memory cells, including a stack of materials forming diode access devices and a layer of phase change material, are defined at intersections of bit lines and word lines, and have dimensions that are defined by the widths of the bit lines and word lines in a self-aligned process. However, the dimensions of the word lines and bit lines are still quite large, as compared for example to the size of a pore in a pore-type memory cell. Thus it is desirable to provide a high-density array technology, using self-aligned technology, and which provides for formation of very small pores
It is desirable therefore to provide a reliable method for manufacturing a memory cell structure with self-aligning and self-converging control over the critical dimensions of the pore cell, which will work with high density integrated circuit memory devices.

Memory array with diode driver and method for fabricating the same

International Business Machines Corporation


In a semiconductor device, wherein capacitors are connected with multi-input terminals Q1 to Qn and one end of each capacitor is commonly connected to a sense amplifier, the semiconductor device comprises either the reset element for resetting the commonly connected capacitor terminals or the reset element which is connected between a capacitor and a switch, which is provided between a capacitor and an input terminal, and a structure in which inverted-phase-signals of the drive signals of the reset elements are input is connected with the same terminals as those of the reset elements, scaling down the circuit, improving the processing, and reducing the power consumption.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a semiconductor device and an arithmetic and logic unit, a signal converter and a signal processing system using it, and more particularly, to a semiconductor device which can perform parallel arithmetic and, for example, an arithmetic and logic unit which can perform correlation operation, a signal converter which can analog-to-digital or digital-to-analog convert signals and a signal processing system using it.
2. Related Background Art
Conventionally the semiconductor device which performs parallel processing has a problem that, as the number of signals to be parallelly operated increases, the circuit scale increases serially, which increases the manufacturing cost and decreases the yield. Also it has another problem that, due to an increase in the delay in wiring, etc. and an increase in the number of operations in the circuit which an increase in the circuit scale entails, the processing speed falls as well as that power consumption increases significantly.
In the solid-state image sensor shown in FIG. 1, for example, the image pickup element 41 is arranged along the vertical and horizontal axes and the time-series analog signal from the sensing unit 60 as an area sensor is converted into a digital signal by the analog-to-digital converter 40 and is stored once in the frame memory 39. These signals are processed by the arithmetic and logic circuit 38 and are output from the arithmetic and logic output circuit 50. In concrete terms, it is possible to output an object's movement (.DELTA.X, .DELTA.Y), etc. by correlation operation of pieces of data at different times.
When processing a dynamic image real time, however, there is a problem that, due to the number of processes of the operation processing being very large, the circuit scale increases serially for obtaining a more real image, which decreases the processing speed. For example, a device which can really process the MPEG2 system, being proposed as a dynamic image compression/decompression system, is still under development. In the parallel processing, therefore, there are problems of a decrease in the processing speed due to an increase in the circuit scale and an increase in power consumption. Also they entail problems of an increase in the manufacturing cost and a decrease in the manufacturing yield due to an increase in the circuit scale.
Moreover, the majority logic circuit, which is useful for the operation processing circuit, has been treated in the article "An Economical Majority Logic IC Materialized by the CMOS", which appeared on pages 132 to 144 of the Nov. 5, 1973 issue of "Nikkei Electronics". In that case, however, a majority logic circuit is presented as one of the digital signal processes and, in addition, it is formed by the CMOS. So the number of elements by the CMOS as well as the number of operation processing steps increases. It still has similar problems, therefore, that the circuit scale and power consumption increase and that, additionally, the processing speed falls.

Semiconductor device and an arithmetic and logic unit, a signal converter and a signal processing system using the same


A method for operating a vehicle drive train (1) comprising a prime mover (2), transmission (3), and comprising a driven end (4) may include limiting, during a demand for engaging a form-locking shift element (A, F) of the transmission (3) when a rotational speed of the driven end (4) is close to zero, a rate of change of a transmission input torque present at the form-locking shift element (A, F) to a value. Below the value, forces present at the form-locking shift element (A, F) during an engagement process are less than a load limit. Above the value, irreversible damage to the form-locking shift element (A, F) occurs.

DE 10 2005 002 337 A1 describes an eight-speed multi-stage transmission having friction-locking shift elements. The shift elements are multi-disk clutches or multi-disk brakes. In the presence of a shift request for a ratio change in the transmission, at least one of the friction-locking shift elements is to be disengaged from the power flow of the transmission device and at least one further friction-locking shift element is to be engaged into the power flow of the transmission device in order to transmit a torque.
In general, in the presence of a demand to disengage a friction-locking shift element, regardless of the torque presently transmitted via the friction-locking shift element, it is assumed that the friction-locking shift element is actually transitioning into the disengaged operating condition. To the same extent, a demand to engage a friction-locking shift element is also implementable using comparatively little outlay for open-loop and closed-loop control.
For this reason, a simple software-based evaluation of an actuating current of a pressure regulator of a friction-locking shift element is sufficient. During the determination of an appropriate disengagement control signal or an appropriate engagement control signal for transferring the friction-locking shift element into its disengaged operating condition or its engaged operating condition, respectively, it can be easily verified whether a shift change or a gear change was successful via such evaluation.
Disadvantageously, however, friction-locking shift elements in the disengaged operating condition cause drag torques, which adversely affect an overall efficiency of an automatic transmission to an undesirable extent.
For this reason, transmission devices, such as those described in DE 10 2008 000 429 A1, increasingly include not only friction-locking shift elements but also form-locking shift elements. These types of form-locking shift elements usually have two shift-element halves. The shift-element halves are brought into form-locking engagement with one another via axial displacement of at least one movable shift-element half with respect to the other shift-element half, which is not axially displaceable, at dog elements, or the like of the shift-element halves. Thereupon, the form-locking shift element is engaged and transmits an applied torque. Moreover, it is also possible that both shift-element halves are axially movable with respect to one another.
If the form-locking shift element is to be disengaged from the power flow, the positive engagement between the shift-element halves is disengaged via axial displacement of the movable shift-element half with respect to the axially fixed shift-element half. Form-locking shift elements are used because, in contrast to friction-locking shift elements, essentially no drag torques occur with disengaged form-locking shift elements. Drag torques adversely affect the overall efficiency of a transmission. However, form-locking shift elements, as compared to friction-locking shift elements, are transferable out of a disengaged operating condition, in which no torque is transmitted by the form-locking shift elements, into their engaged operating condition only close to their synchronous speed.
Additionally, form-locking shift elements engaged into the power flow of a transmission device are disengageable from the power flow or transferable into their disengaged operating condition using low shifting forces if the applied torque has an appropriately low value. During gear change operations, or gear disengagement operations, a power flow between a transmission input shaft and a transmission output shaft is to be interrupted in the transmission. In this case, a form-locking shift element is to be transferred, if necessary, from its engaged operating condition into its disengaged operating condition. Due to an excessively rapid or faulty build-up of the torque applied to the form-locking shift element, or due to a faulty reduction of the applied torque, the form-locking shift element may not be transferable into its disengaged operating condition. In addition, it is also possible that mechanical, hydraulic, or electrical malfunctions prevent the disengagement of a form-locking shift element. For this reason, form-locking shift elements, in contrast to friction-locking shift elements, do not necessarily transition into a disengaged operating condition in the presence of an appropriate disengagement control signal.
Additionally, it is also possible that a disengaged form-locking shift element is not transferable into its engaged operating condition within desirably short operating times. This is the case, for example, when the sought positive engagement between the shift-element halves cannot be established due to a so-called tooth-on-tooth position. In the event of such a tooth-on-tooth position, dog elements of the shift-element halves rest against one another at their end faces and the differential speed between the shift-element halves is zero. Such a tooth-on-tooth position is released only when a torque present at the form-locking shift element is greater than the static friction torque between the end faces of the dog elements of the shift-element halves.
Moreover, the establishment of a complete positive engagement between the shift-element halves or the complete engagement of a form-locking shift element is also preventable by a so-called flank clamping between the flanks of the dog elements. In the event of such a flank clamping, the two shift element halves have axial overlap of their dog elements. However, the static friction between the flanks of the dog elements of the shift-element halves, which are resting against one another, is so high that the engagement force acting on the shift elements in the engagement direction is not sufficient to overcome the static friction and completely engage the form-locking shift element.
If, at a rotational speed of the driven end close to zero, a demand for a downshift arises in which one of the form-locking shift elements of the transmission device described above in greater detail is to be transferred into its engaged operating condition, it is possible that a tooth-on-tooth position or a flank clamping occurs. In order to release the tooth-on-tooth position or the flank clamping, all shift elements of the transmission device are abruptly disengaged in approaches known from practical experience. As a result, however, the force-fit connection in the transmission is disadvantageously lost. Subsequently reestablishing the force-fit connection requires a great deal of actuation effort, with little spontaneity.
Starting from the above-described prior art, the problem addressed by the invention is that of creating a method for operating a vehicle drive train by which a form-locking shift element is engageable close to a standstill of the vehicle without losing the force-fit connection in the area of a transmission. Additionally, a control unit for carrying out the method and a computer program product for carrying out the method are to be described.

Method and control apparatus for operating a vehicle drive train


Provided is a reaction wheel assembly ruggedized for use in kinetically launched satellites. An example reaction wheel assembly may include a shaft mounted to a body of a satellite, a wheel mounted to the shaft, wherein a center of a gravity of the wheel is co-aligned with the shaft, and a support device mounted to the body of the satellite. The reaction wheel assembly may include bearings for holding the shaft to the body of the satellite and allowing a rotation of the wheel. The support device can be engaged to support the wheel to reduce a load on the shaft and the bearing, the load being caused by an acceleration of the satellite during a kinetic launch of the satellite. After the satellite is launched into space, the support device can be disengaged from supporting the wheel to allow the wheel to spin.

Reaction wheels are widely used as attitude control actuators on satellites. Generally, a reaction wheel comprises a mass, for example a wheel, with a shaft running through the center of the gravity of the mass. The shaft can be held by bearings, typically deep groove ball bearings, allowing the wheel to rotate about the shaft. The reaction wheel includes an electric motor, typically a direct-current (DC) brushless motor, and an electronic controller that drives the motor controlling the wheel's rotational rate and direction. The wheel and motor are sometimes combined such that the rotor of the electric motor and reaction wheel are part of a single assembly. Satellites may have between one to six (typically four) reaction wheels arranged in different orientations. By accelerating the wheel in one direction, a torque is imposed on the body of the satellite in the opposite direction. This allows controlling orientation of the satellite in a microgravity environment of space.
During a kinetic launch of a satellite, the satellite can undergo static or quasi-static acceleration loading in excess of 5,000 times the standard acceleration due to Earth's gravity. Therefore, the satellites and parts of satellites, including the reaction wheels, need to be designed to withstand such extreme loading.

Ruggedized reaction wheel apparatus for use on kinetically launched satellites


A PCB insertion and extraction device includes a latching lever carrying a latch adapted to cooperate with a catch to latch the lever in an insertion position thereof. The latch is received in a hole extending through the lever and has an operating end which can be manually operated from a front side of the lever to pivot the latch relative to the lever. The catch is defined in the PCB assembly. A switch is provided in the catch so as to be triggered by the latch when the same is positively engaged with the catch.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a device for aiding a printed circuit board (PCB) to be inserted into, extracted from, and retained in an associated PCB channel.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Devices which can be mounted on a printed circuit board or card in order to assist in the insertion and removal of the board from an associated receptacle of an electronic equipment are known in the art.
For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,975,073 issued on Dec. 4, 1990 to Weisman discloses an insertion and extraction aid comprising a lever pivotally mountable to a printed circuit card for pivotal movement with respect thereto is adapted to engage a channel of a piece of electronic equipment selectively between a locked position and an extraction position. A latch is pivotally mounted on the lever and extends rearwardly therefrom for engagement with a catch extending laterally outwardly from one side of the printed circuit card. The latch is manually operated for locking and releasing the lever by pressing a leaf spring provided at one end of the latch against a back surface of the lever, thereby allowing the lever to be disengaged from the channel and the card to then be released therefrom. In some instances, depending on the proximity of the equipment components next to the lever, it might be difficult to have access to the back surface of the lever in order to operate the latch.
Furthermore, it has been found that there is a need for a new latching device which would confirm that the printed circuit board has been fully inserted into its associated receptacle.
It is therefore an aim of the present invention to provide a printed circuit board insertion and extraction aid which offers ease of operation.
It is also an aim of the present invention to provide such an aid which can be operated from a front side thereof.
It is a further aim of the present invention to provide such an aid which is relatively simple and economical to manufacture.
It is a still further aim of the present invention to provide such an extraction and insertion aid that provides a feedback to the user to insure proper insertion of the PCB into an associated PCB holder.
Therefore, in accordance with the present invention, there is provided an insertion/extraction aid for use with a printed circuit board (PCB), comprising a lever adapted to be pivotally mounted to a PCB for movement relative thereto between an insertion position and an extraction position. The lever has opposed front and back sides. The back side generally faces the PCB. A latch is mounted to the lever and has a catch engaging portion extending beyond the back side of the lever for releasably latching the same in the insertion position. An actuator is provided for displacing the catch engaging portion between latched and released positions relative to the lever. The actuator is located on the front side of the lever for allowing the latch to be operated from the front side of the lever.
In accordance with a further embodiment of the present invention, there is provided an insertion/extraction aid in combination with a printed circuit board (PCB) assembly comprises a faceplate adapted to be secured to a PCB and defining a catch, said aid comprising a lever adapted to be pivotally mounted to one of said PCB and said faceplate for movement relative thereto between an insertion position and an extraction position, a latch mounted to said lever for engagement with said catch of said faceplate in order to releasably latch the lever in the insertion position thereof, said latch being displaceable relative to said lever between a latched position and a released position wherein said latch disengages from said catch.
In accordance with a further general aspect of the present invention, there is provided an insertion/extraction aid for use with a printed circuit board (PCB), comprising a lever adapted to be pivotally mounted to a PCB for movement relative thereto between an insertion position and an extraction position, a catch adapted to be mounted to the PCB, a latch mounted to the lever for engagement with the catch in order to releasably latch the lever in the insertion position thereof, the latch being displaceable relative to the lever between a latched position and a released position wherein the latch disengages from the catch, and a switch for detecting a state of the latch relative to the catch.

Insertion and extraction aid for printed circuit card