In exemplary embodiments, a diffraction grating is placed in the beam path of the generated light source. The grating expands the beam's field of view by distributing the transmitted radiation into plural sub-fields. Sub-fields associated with distant objects are set to a greater intensity to ensure reflection of the sub-fields back to the receiver. Sub-fields directed to closer objects have a lesser intensity to avoid detection of false objects.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems and methods for detecting objects, and more particularly, to systems and methods for detecting objects to control a vehicle.
2. State of the Art
Systems have been developed which use a low power diode laser at near infrared wavelengths for vehicle (e.g., automobile) control. An exemplary system is described in "Design Method for an Automotive Laser Radar System and Future Prospects for Laser Radar" by Sekine et al. in Proceedings of the Intelligent Vehicles '92 Symposium, Jun. 29-Jul. 1, 1992, Detroit, Mich., pp. 120-125.
Several problems commonly arise when these systems are used for detecting objects such as retro-reflector markers located along a path over which a vehicle is to be guided. For example, to ensure the detection of the objects, a beam must be generated with a relatively large field of view (i.e., wide beam path). The field of view of a beam is typically widened by changing the focus of a transmitter lens or by splitting the beam into a plurality of lower intensity beams. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,902,126 (Koechner) discloses an obstacle avoidance system where a field of view is increased by splitting a laser beam into a plurality of beams of lower power.
A problem with the foregoing approach is that achieving wider fields of view by splitting the original beam or by defocusing the beam typically results in an undesirable decrease in the radiation received by an object in the field. Thus, although the field of view may be expanded by increasing the "blur spot" (e.g., beam that is 40% wider and taller at the expected location of an object), the intensity of the field decreases and the reflections become difficult to detect. For example, detection using slower CCD technology with prolonged integration time would be susceptible to noise (e.g., sunlight).
An alternate solution reduces the need for a wide field of view by aligning the system to operate in a set configuration whereby the field of view is relatively fixed with respect to an expected location of a retro-reflector. However, a system configuration is rarely fixed. For example, a change in vehicle (e.g., automobile) load by adding or subtracting passengers to the back seat, or otherwise changing the weight in the vehicle, causes the angle of the transmitted beam to change relative to the expected location of an object such that a marker formerly within the beam's field of view may no longer be in the field of view.
When the intensity of the beam is increased to accommodate an increased field of view (i.e., so that distant objects in the field can still be detected), problem arise with detecting objects close to the beam source (i.e., near field signals). The increased intensity of a signal at close distances from the vehicle may be so substantial that locations along a vehicle path where no reflector is present can cause a false return. A false return can adversely affect the vehicle guidance control, causing the vehicle to stray from the desired vehicle path.
One solution to this problem, as described in the Sekine et al. article, reduces the signal by turning down the gain for the signal during the early time (i.e., fast time) of the return. This method however, is only effective for a system which has a fast time response. In a system which measures azimuth angles to guide a vehicle there may be no way to inhibit the early return signals.

Systems and methods for object detection using beam widening optics


A process and an apparatus for the storage and the conversion of energy hng a H.sub.2 /O.sub.2 /H.sub.2 O system by switching the mode of operation electrolytic/fuel cell reaction, with a cell being utilized which is composed of an anode compartment, a cathode compartment and an ion exchange membrane as the electrolyte. Bifunctional oxidation electrodes are utilized as electrodes in the anode compartment so that during electrolytic operation oxygen is formed and during fuel cell operation hydrogen is oxidized and with a bifunctional reduction electrode also being utilized in the cathode compartment so that during electrolytic operation hydrogen is formed and during fuel cell operation oxygen is reduced.

The present invention relates to a process for the storage and conversion of energy by means of a cell having an anode compartment, a cathode compartment and an ion exchange membrane as the electrolyte and to an apparatus for carrying out the same.
Electrolytic cells of this type are known. By way of illustration, a cell having a special ion exchange membrane as the electrolyte is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,175,165 (Adlhart). Other cells of this type are described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,779,8Il (Bushnell et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 3,297,484 (Niedrach) and U.S. Pat. No. 4,529,670.
All the cells described in these patents have an anode compartment, a cathode compartment and an ion exchange membrane as the electrolyte; however, they are of greatly varying design and construction.
The cells known from these patents are employed in particular as fuel cells. These are galvanic cells that continuously convert the chemical change in energy in a fuel oxidation reaction into electric energy, with a differentiation being made between "hot" and "cold" combustion.
In "hot" combustion in an oven, the electron transition from the fuel molecule (usually hydrogen), which serves as the electron donor, to the oxidation molecule (usually oxygen), which serves as the electron acceptor, is usually irreversible in the short circuit due to the direct contact of the two reactants, with heat being generated.
In "cold" combustion in a fuel cell, however, this electron transition is largely reversible at two separate points: at the negative electrode (anode), the fuel molecules strip the electrons with positive fuel ions being formed in the surrounding electrolyte, and at the cathode (positive electrode), the oxidant molecules picking up electrons form negative oxidant ions in the electrolyte. If the anode and the cathode are connected via an electric user, the oxidation reaction proceeds to the extent as the user consumes, e.g., "demands" current. In cold combustion in the fuel cell, most of the reaction heat becomes available in the user as high-quality electric energy. Fuel and oxidant ions migrate in the electrolyte and unite there to form a reaction product, by way of illustration in the case of hydrogen/oxygen to form water, with the electric circuit being closed.
As previously explained, the individual reactions in a fuel cell, by way of illustration in a hydrogen/oxygen fuel cell, are reversible so that they can run inversely.
If the mode of operation of a cell having an anode compartment, a cathode compartment and an ion exchange membrane as the electrolyte is reversed, the apparatus no longer operates as a fuel cell, but rather as an electrolyzer (hereinafter referred to as electrolytic cell) which generates the electrolytic gases hydrogen and oxygen against a certain overpressure.
For this reason, it has been numerously proposed to utilize a cell having an anode compartment, a cathode compartment and an ion exchange membrane as the electrolyte for the conversion and the storage of energy in order to store electric energy, in particular, over long periods of time, e.g. a year, in this manner. Long storage periods of this kind are, e.g., required for the economic exploitation of solar energy. The use of secondary elements for storing solar energy over a long period of time is not only very expensive, but also not very efficient due to the high degree of self-discharging over longer periods of time.
The attempts at developing a fuel cell that may be utilized for both the conversion and the storage of energy hitherto described in the literature (e.g., Hydrogen/Oxygen (Society of Plastics Engineers) electrochemical devices for Zero-G applications. Proceedings of the European Space Power Conference; Madrid, Spain, October 2-6, 1989) are always based on a bifunctional oxygen electrode and a bifunctional hydrogen electrode. In other words, during electrolytic operation at the one electrode, oxygen is formed and during fuel cell operation, oxygen is reduced. At the other electrode during electrolytic operation, hydrogen is formed, and during fuel cell, operation hydrogen is oxidized.
However, the following problems crop up in cells of this type having a cation exchange membrane as the electrolyte.
Due to the selection of the catalyst for the oxygen electrode, a loss in efficiency must be accepted as platinum, which is required for the reduction of oxygen, is not the best electrocatalyst for the formation of oxygen and, therefore, diminishes the effectivity of the electrolysis.
In order for the oxygen reduction to take place in the fuel cells with cation exchange membranes, moreover, in order to remove the reaction and transfer water, a hydrophobic layer, e.g. in the form of hydrophobic graphite paper, is required at the electrocatalyst. During electrolysis, however, this hydrophobic graphite paper dissolves due to the anodic oxidation resulting from the high anodic potential of the oxygen formation.
An object of the present invention is to provide a process for the conversion and the storage of energy that operates with an electrolytic cell which has an ion exchange membrane as the electrolyte that possesses a high degree of effectivity both in storing electric energy over a long period of time (e.g., a year) or short periods and at the same time permits converting energy.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a process that operates with a H.sub.2 /O.sub.2 /H.sub.2 O-system.
Furthermore, an object of the present invention is to provide an apparatus for carrying out the aforementioned process.
These and other objectives are achieved by the present invention which provides a process for the storage and the conversion of energy by a cell having an anode compartment, a cathode compartment and an ion exchange membrane as the electrolyte. The cell is operated as a fuel cell for converting energy, and as an electrolytic cell for storing energy. In the anode compartment, a bifunctional oxidation electrode is used; while in the cathode compartment, a bifunctional reduction electrode is used.
In the process of the present invention, a fuel cell having an ion exchange membrane as the electrolyte is employed. The electrode arrangement in the anode compartment is a bifunctional oxidation electrode so that during electrolytic operation, by way of illustration, oxygen is formed and during fuel cell operation, by way of illustration, hydrogen is oxidized. A bifunctional reduction electrode is also utilized in the cathode compartment so that (e.g.) hydrogen is formed during electrolytic operation and oxygen is reduced during fuel cell operation.
Therefore, contrary to the state of the art, oxygen is not formed at an electrode, e.g. during electrolytic operation and oxygen is not reduced during fuel cell operation. Rather, when the mode of operation is switched from electrolysis to fuel reaction or vice versa, the type of gas switches between oxygen and hydrogen in the anode compartment and the cathode compartment. In other words, at one electrode, oxygen is formed during electrolytic operation and hydrogen is oxidized during fuel cell operation; while at the other electrode, hydrogen is formed during electrolytic operation and oxygen is reduced during fuel cell operation.
Therefore, an element of the present invention is that the process utilizes such bifunctional oxidation and reduction electrodes. Employing these bifunctional electrodes permits attaining improved storage effectivity due to the ability to select a more suitable catalyst for both reactions of a bifunctional electrode. Thus, e.g., rhodium oxide or iridium oxide, which is a much better catalyst for oxygen formation than platinum, may be employed as the oxidation electrode. On the other hand, there appears to be no negative effects using rhodium oxide or iridium oxide as the electrocatalyst for hydrogen oxidation in comparison with platinum. Moreover, the hydrophobic graphite paper required for oxygen reduction is not destroyed by anodic oxidation. In this manner, the use of such bifunctional oxidation and reduction electrodes permits avoiding the two major difficulties in constructing an electrochemical cell having a cation exchange membrane as the electrolyte and possibly alternating use as a hydro-electrolyzer and a H.sub.2 /O.sub.2 fuel cell.
Advantageously, a cell of this type having bifunctional oxidation, or reduction, electrodes described above is operated in such a way that during electrolytic operation water is conducted through the anode compartment and the resulting oxygen and hydrogen is stored in the corresponding storage means.
Subsequently, the cell is operated as a fuel cell as required. The hydrogen and oxygen therefor is drawn from a storage means, with the hydrogen being conducted through the anode compartment and the oxygen through the cathode compartment.
The respective electrolysis cycles, or fuel cycles, may be repeated as often as desired. The duration of the cycles depends on the respective requirements and the layout of the cell. In the area of exploitation of regenerable energy, it is quite possible to store up to a year and then commence the fuel cell cycle. On the other hand, cycles ranging from minutes to hours can also be conducted for respective needs.
A feature of the present invention is that the hydrogen, or the oxygen, is not initially generated by electrolysis in the first step of the process, but rather that the hydrogen and the oxygen are drawn from an external gas storage means, e.g. natural gas deposits. The hydrogen/oxygen is conducted to the cell and the cell is subsequently operated as a fuel cell, i.e. hydrogen is conducted through the anode compartment and oxygen through the cathode compartment. Thereupon, the cell is operated as the electrolytic cell, with the hydrogen being conducted through the anode compartment as previously described above and the resulting oxygen and hydrogen being stored. Thereupon, the fuel cell and the electrolytic cycles can again follow.
Advantageously during the electrolytic cycle, this distilled water is conducted cyclically from the water container through the anode compartment. It is provided that, if need be, water from an external source can be conducted into the water container, which may be the case if there is a loss of water due to evaporation.
In another advantageous embodiment, it is provided that during the electrolytic cycle the oxygen formed in the anode compartment is carried along by the water circulating in the cycle, separated from the water in a gas separator, which is connected thereafter, and subsequently conducted to the oxygen storage means.
In a further advantageous embodiment, the oxygen is conducted via a gas dryer, which is connected before the oxygen storage means. In this way, it is ensured that the oxygen storage means contains only dried gas so that it can again be immediately conducted into the next cycle.
Moreover, another feature of the present invention is that the transfer water, i.e. water which is transported through the ion exchange membrane by the protons evolved during the electrolytic cycle, is removed from the system by a water separator, which is connected after the cell. The resulting hydrogen is then conducted into a hydrogen storage means. In the case of hydrogen, an advantageous embodiment of the present invention provides that the hydrogen is conducted into the hydrogen storage means via a gas dryer in which is connected before the storage means.
In accordance with the present invention, the operational gases are conducted cyclically through the corresponding cathode, or anode, compartments during the fuel cell process. Subsequently, the oxygen is conducted cyclically from the oxygen storage means out through the cathode compartment and hydrogen is conducted cyclically from the hydrogen storage means through the anode compartment. In an advantageous embodiment the oxygen, or hydrogen, is conducted through a wetting agent/condenser prior to being introduced into the cell.
Another feature of the present invention is that the cell is scavenged with a stream of inert gas, e.g. nitrogen, when the mode of operation is switched, i.e., between the individual electrolytic, respectively fuel cell, cycles. This ensures that no residual gases from a previous cycle are in the cell.
The cell employed in the process of the present invention has specially designed bifunctional oxidation, or reduction, electrodes and an ion exchange membrane as the electrolyte, a hydrophobic structure, a material distribution system and current collectors.
The bifunctional electrodes are constructed in such a manner that they include a catalyst layer which is applied to the membrane and/or to a porous carrier as a stable unit between the material distribution system and the membrane, or the hydrophobic structure and the membrane and/or the material distribution system, or the hydrophobic structure. The amount of catalyst may lie between 0.1 and 10 mg/cm.sup.2. For both sides, the catalyst may be platinum, rhodium, ruthenium, palladium, osmium, rhenium and/or alloys thereof and/or oxides. Preferably, rhodium and iridium are utilized.
As hydrophobic structures, carriers such as graphite, carbon tissue, metal structures of titanium, niobium, tantalum or zirconium may be employed which have become hydrophobic due to treatment with perflourinated synthetic material.
The other material distribution systems utilized in accordance with the present invention are, by way of example, porous sintered bodies made of titanium, niobium, tantalum or zirconium having a mean pore size from 1-200 .mu.m and a thickness of 0.5-2 mm. Fine wire mesh made of titanium, niobium, tantalum, zirconium or platinum may also be employed.
The used collectors are provided with coarse structures made of titanium, niobium, tantalum or zirconium which possess the mechanical stability for pressing the cells together, make the water and gas transport to the material distribution structures possible and permit drawing the current.
Advantageously, the cells have an ion exchange membrane as the electrolyte. Best suited for this has proven to be a cation exchange membrane, as e.g. the commercially available NAFION.RTM. 117, semipermeable membrane of poly(perflouroalkylen)-sulfonsaure manufactured by DuPont de Nemours.
The apparatus of the present invention has a cell which is operated in accordance with the present invention in such a manner that during electrolysis oxygen is formed at one electrode and during fuel cell operation hydrogen is oxidized. At the other electrode, hydrogen is formed during electrolysis and oxygen is reduced during fuel cell operation.
In order to be able to supply this bifunctional oxidation, or reduction electrode with the corresponding gasses, or with H.sub.2 O, the cell is constructed in such a manner in accordance with the present invention that both the anode compartment and the cathode compartment have suitable inlets, or outlets. Especially advantageous is if the inlets, or outlets, are connected to control devices, e.g., multiway valves. In this way, it can be ensured that the gas can be switched by simply turning such a multiway valve if there is a corresponding gasline for conducting gas to and from the water reservoir and the gas storage means.
Other objects, advantages and novel features of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description of the invention when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.

Apparatus for the storage and conversion of energy

Fraunhofer Gesellschaft zur Forderung der angewandten Forschund e.v.


A multi-chip socket includes a first cavity having a first support surface to support a first component including a first chip, the first support surface arranged to contact and support the first chip. A second cavity has a second support surface to support a second component including a second chip, the second support surface arranged to contact and support the second chip. The first support surface is in a first plane, and the second support surface is in a second plane, where the first plane is angled with respect to the second plane.

Computing devices may utilize multiple components arranged on a substrate, such as a printed circuit board (PCB), to perform various functions. The various components may have different shapes, sizes, and may be coupled to components on the same PCB or other PCBs. In various examples, chip sockets may be used to couple various ones of these components to the PCBs. In other examples, the components may be directly coupled to the PCBs.

Hewlett Packard Enterprise Development LP


Systems, methods, and apparatus for securing nasal tubes are disclosed. An exemplary system includes a bridle, a magnetic portion connected to the bridle, a delivery probe, a retrieval probe, and a clamp. The delivery probe includes an elongated member having proximal and distal ends, the distal end configured to deliver the magnetic portion, and a bridle lock configured to release the bridle upon actuation of an actuator. The retrieval probe includes an elongated member having proximal and distal ends, the distal end including a magnetic portion configured to magnetically couple with the other magnetic portion, and a magnetic coupling indicator configured to provide an indication in response to a magnetic coupling. The clamp includes a channel portion with an inside diameter larger than an outside diameter of a nasal tube. The clamp is configured to secure the nasal tube following placement of the bridle by the delivery and retrieval probes.

The use of nasal tubes is commonly required in a medical setting, and many methods of securing nasal tubes that have been placed are known in the art. Generally, a nasal tube which has been inserted into a nostril may extend into a patient's stomach, intestinal tract, or lungs. Typically, once the nasal tube is in place, it is important to secure the tube. It should be appreciated that failing to properly secure a nasal tube can result in a dangerous situation for a patient, as well as increasing the cost of care, for example, by requiring repositioning of the nasal tube and re-securing the nasal tube. There are various existing systems and methods for securing a nasal tube. For example, a nasal tube may be secured using a bridle being placed around the vomer bone. A clinician may place the bridle using a long flexible member, such as a tube, including the bridle and a magnet at the distal end, which is held together by the clinician's grasp. The long flexible member is inserted into one nostril, into the naval cavity towards the rear of the vomer bone. A probe with a magnet at the distal end is inserted into the other nostril to allow the magnets to contact each other around the vomer bone. Once the magnets have made contact, the clinician lets go of the bridle to allow the long flexible member to enter the nostril, and the probe is pulled outward, which pulls the long flexible member including the bridle around the vomer bone. With the bridle looped around the vomer bone and extending from both nostrils, the bridle may be secured with a clamp, which may have a channel to accept the nasal tube to secure the nasal tube. For example, the channel has a smaller inside diameter than the outside diameter of the nasal tube, which provides for a tight fit of the nasal tube in the channel and allows the nasal tube to not fall out of the clamp prior to closing the clamp. The clinician may bring the clamp as close to the nostril as possible and press the tube into the tight channel in the clamp, place the bridle into the clamp, and close the clamp to secure the nasal tube to the bridle. However, the current systems and methods employed in the prior art for placing a bridle and securing a nasal tube may be improved upon as presently disclosed.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Bridle delivery system, method, and apparatus for securing nasal tubes


The invention relates to a chiral iridium aqua complex of formula (1):

As a production method of an optically active hydroxy compound from a carbonyl compound by asymmetric transfer hydrogenation using an iridium complex, J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2004, 126, 3020-3021 discloses a method using an iridium aqua complex represented by

In addition, Eur. J. Inorg. Chem. 2001, 1361-1369 discloses a chiral iridium aqua complex having perchlorate ion.

Chiral iridium aqua complex and method for producing optically active hydroxy compound by using the same

Abstract: wherein R1 and R2 are the same or different and each is an aryl group optionally having at least one substituent selected from the group consisting of a halogen atom, an alkyl group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, an alkoxy group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, a haloalkoxy group having 1 to 6 carbon atoms, a nitro group, a carboxyl group and a cyano group, or the like; and wherein R3 and R4 are the same or different and each is an alkyl group or the like, as well as the use of such a chiral iridium aqua complex for asymmetric transfer hydrogenation.


User enters information of a melody or other musical material and, when necessary, desired parameters. The input information and parameters are transmitted to a server via a network or other communication media. On the basis of the received musical material and parameters, the server creates content by imparting the musical material with an additional value corresponding to the parameters. For example, in the case where the musical material is a melody of a music piece, the server creates, as the content, harmony information, backing information, accompaniment information, musical score picture information, or the like. There may also be created test-listening or test-viewing sample content corresponding to the regular content. The user receives the sample content from the server, and purchases the regular content when the sample content has been found to be satisfactory as a result of the test listening or test viewing.

The present invention relates to an improved content generation service system, method and storage medium for converting and delivering musical content between a client terminal and a server via a communication network or other information communication media.
There have been known apparatus which are designed to generate an additional-value-imparted musical data by performing various processes on melody data input by a user, such as processes for imparting harmonies, chords and accompaniment to the user-input melody data. If a user's information processing terminal is equipped with such a function of generating additional-value-imparted musical data, then the information processing terminal would unavoidably become complicated in construction. Particularly, if the user's information processing terminal is in the form of a small-size apparatus such as a portable communication terminal, it is likely that the processing terminal can not be even equipped with the musical data generating function due to limits of hardware and storage capacity allocatable to necessary processing programs.

Apparatus and method for converting and delivering musical content over a communication network or other information communication media


A straightening system is provided to perform straightening in conformity with a shape pattern of a the material. The straightening system includes a cooling device configured to spray a cooling fluid in a predetermined pattern with respect to a plurality of regions of the material, divided in a width direction, to cool the material that is heated in a heating furnace and then passes through a rolling mill. The straightening system also includes a straightening device configured to straighten the material passed through the cooling device. The straightening system further includes a flatness measuring system configured to measure flatness of the material passed through the cooling device and a controller configured to receive data of the flatness of the material from the flatness measuring system and to control the cooling device in response to the data to enhance the flatness of the material.

FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram illustrating a general thick plate processing line. Referring to FIG. 1, a material is discharged from a heating furnace 10 in a high-temperature state, is passed through a rolling mill 20, is preliminarily straightened by a reserve straightener 30 and, then, is acceleratedly cooled by a cooling device 40. The accelerated cooled material is passed through a hot straightener 50, a shape of the material is straightened and, then, the material is cooled by a cooling bed 60. In addition, the material is air-cooled by the cooling bed 60 and, then, flatness of the material is measured by inspection equipment 70 to determine whether an additional straightening process such as cold straightening is required in a subsequent process.
The straightener 50 performs a process of enhancing a shape in online and, in this case, an operation condition is determined before material rolling is terminated, depending on a steel grade, a thickness and width of a material, and a predicted temperature. However, a parameter such as a temperature change in a material before a straightening process is performed after rolling is performed, a material shape after rolling, and a material shape after accelerated cooling is not considered and, thus, there is a problem in that an accurate straightening operation may not be performed.
In a processing line for producing a material with a length of up to 55 m, as a material length is increased, a material shape is not constant and is different at a fore-end portion, a middle-end portion, and a tail-end portion thereof. Due to such a condition of a material prior to straightening, when a straightening process is performed once in the same straightening condition in a longitudinal direction, there is a limit in ensuring excellent flatness.
Furthermore, to ensure excellent flatness, there is a need to significantly reduce a temperature deviation of a material in a width direction to prevent the material from being deformed in a cooling process prior to a straightening process.
FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a conventional cooling device applied to a thick plate processing line.
Referring to FIG. 2, the conventional cooling device is configured to spray a predetermined amount of cooling fluid in a width direction of a material. However, when a predetermined amount of cooling fluid is sprayed in the width direction of the material, a central portion of the material has a small contact area with a cooling fluid, based on a material volume to have a degraded cooling effect and an edge portion of the material has a large contact area with a cooling fluid to have an enhanced cooling effect and, thus, there is a problem in a temperature deviation of an overall material.

Straightening system and straightening method


The invention comprises a structural member formed from iron alloyed with 0.15% to 0.20% carbon, 1.00% to 1.80% manganese, 1.00% to 1.60% silicon, 1.50% to 2.50% chromium, 2.50% to 3.50% nickel, 0.40% to 0.70% molybdenum and 0.0025% to 0.0005% boron, all by weight. Preferably, alloy is subjected to a two-level thermal processing to confer a bainitic structure to the steel. Also preferably, the structural member is a frog for a railway track switch.

Steel is a high strength material having versatile fabrication capabilities. A wide variety of alloys and processing conditions also allow the properties of steel materials to be optimized for its intended application. These characteristics make steel an excellent choice for a numerous structural applications.
For example, railways and tramways make extensive use of steel materials in the rail systems. Although many advantages are realized by using steel rails, these structures are subjected to significant stresses and failure can result. Further, as ever increasing weights are being freighted at higher speeds and greater frequency, there is an ongoing demand for steel materials having improved properties.
One structural member that experiences particularly high, repetitive stress is the frog, the intersecting point of a railway switch that allows the flanges of wheels moving along one of the rails to pass across the other. The frog supports the wheels over the missing tread surface between the frog throat and the frog point and provides flangeways for aligning the wheels when passing over the switch so that maximum bearing area is preserved. As can be appreciated, these structures are subject to high operational and axial loads and must be very reliable and resistant to failure. Thus, many attempts have been made to produce steel materials that increase the strength and reliability of frogs.
One steel conventionally used to cast frogs is a pearlitic steel, which is known under the tradename UIC 900A. This steel is iron alloyed with 0.60% to 0.80% carbon, up to 0.5% silicon, 0.80% to 1.3% manganese, up to 0.04% phosphor and up to 0.04% sulfur, all by weight. However, this material exhibits relatively low strength and wear resistance and suffers from a short service life. In particular, this steel is subject to the development of blanks, has low notch toughness and susceptible to fracture.
Another prior art material is an austenitic steel, which is known under the tradename 13Mn Super Special. This steel is iron alloyed with 0.60% to 0.80% carbon, 12.50% to 16.50% manganese, up to 0.6% silicon, up to 0.05% phosphor, up to 0.03% sulfur, and 1.80% to 2.20% molybdenum, all by weight. Although this steel offers increased strength, as compared to UIC 900A, its composition makes welding operations with high carbon steels very difficult.
Further, the protocols for ultrasound imaging fault analysis of this material differ from other steels. As a result, the maintenance costs associated with this material are significantly increased. Although improved, the wear resistance of 13Mn Super Special has not been found sufficient to justify the increased maintenance costs.
Yet another prior art steel is known under the tradename Lo8CrNiMo. This alloy comprises 0.11% to 0.15% carbon, 0.50% to 0.80% manganese, up to 0.50% silicon, 1.60% to 2.00% chromium, 2.60% to 3.00% nickel, 0.40% to 0.50% molybdenum, up to 0.003% boron, up to 0.045% aluminum, up to 0.13% vanadium, up to 0.05% titanium, up to 0.012% nitrogen, up to 0.015% phosphor, and up to 0.012% sulfur, all by weight. This steel has improved wear resistance, but is relatively low in strength, and thus is limited to situations where the average operational load is up to 22.5 MT per axle.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a structural member formed from steel alloy having improved strength, wear resistance, weldability and operational service life.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a chrome-nickel-molybdenum steel suitable for frogs.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide a bainitic steel for use with railway and tramway structural members.


The present invention relates to a golf ball.. The peripheral surface of the ball has dimples defining, at their intersections with this peripheral surface, circles of intersection distributed for the most part over the interior of twenty-four first elementary surfaces in the form of an irregular spherical quadrilateral, identical or constituting mutual mirror images, of eight second identical elementary surfaces in the form of spherical equilateral triangle and of twenty-four third elementary surfaces in the form of a spherical rectangular triangle, which are identical or constituting mutual mirror images, these elementary surfaces being defined by nine equatorial circles of the sphere defining the general shape of the peripheral surface of the ball. By a careful selection of the relative position of the equatorial circles, the distribution and diameters of the circles of intersection, one can render the orientation of the ball relatively indifferent with respect to the impact on the ball.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to a golf ball, of the type having a peripheral surface having the general shape of a sphere and a plurality of dimples or hollows provided in the peripheral surface and defining, through their intersections with the surface, circles of intersection distributed on the peripheral surface according to a repeating pattern, essentially within elementary surfaces defined by nine equatorial arcs of a circle of the sphere, by virtue of:
three equatorial circles constituting their respective intersections, with the sphere, of three secant equatorial planes two-by-two, at right angles along axes which are themselves secant two-by-two, at right angles to the center of the sphere; PA1 six equatorial circles distributed in three groups of which each is associated on the one hand with one, respectively, of the equatorial planes and on the other hand with one, respectively, of the axes, each group comprising two equatorial circles secant to the respectively correspondent axes, mutually symmetrical with respect to the corresponding respective equatorial plane and angularly offset, with respect thereto, by an angle .alpha. which is not zero and which is less than 90.degree. identical from one group to the other. PA1 24 first elementary surfaces, which are identical or which constitute mutual mirror images with respect to three equatorial planes, in the form of an irregular spherical quadrilateral having a right angle; PA1 8 second identical elementary surfaces, in the form of a spherical equilateral triangle; and PA1 24 third elementary surfaces which are identical or which constitute mutual mirror images with respect to three equatorial planes, in the form of a spherical right triangle.
II. Description of Background and General Information
A golf ball of aforementioned type is described in French application 88 15571 in the name of the Applicant, in a particular case according to which the angle .alpha. is equal to 45.degree., consequently with a particular construction of nine equatorial circles, beginning with a cube inscribed in a sphere.
Such a value of the angle .alpha. results in a subdivision of a peripheral surface of the ball into 48 identical elementary surfaces, in a form of a spherical rectangular triangle, in which the hollows are distributed, at least for the most part.
This method of subdividing the peripheral surface of the ball into an elementary surface provides progress with respect to other types of subdivision, previously known, utilizing a cube inscribed in the sphere corresponding to the peripheral surface of the ball, in that it is more precise and makes it thus possible to increase the homogeneity of the distribution of the hollows and to reduce the fields of the spherical periphery surface of the golf ball which exist between these dimples, which has as a consequence to provide a character which is as unvariable as possible with respect to the orientation of the ball with respect to the hit.


A compound electrode for organic electronic devices comprises a thin first layer of a first electrically conducting material and a second electrically conducting material disposed on the first layer. In one embodiment, the second electrically conducting material is formed into a plurality of elongated members. In another embodiment, the second material is formed into a second layer. The elongated members or the second layer has a thickness greater than that of the first layer. The second layer is separated from the first layer by a conducting material having conductivity less than at least the material of the first layer. The compound electrode is capable of mitigating adverse effects of defects, such as short circuits, in the construction of the organic electronic devices, and can be included in light-emitting or photovoltaic devices.

The present invention relates generally to electronic devices that have an active organic layer and at least an electrode having a structure that mitigates the adverse effects of defects resulting from the construction of such devices. In particular, the present invention relates to structures of at least an electrode, which structures mitigate effects of short circuits in such devices.
Organic electroluminescent devices ("OELDs"), which have been recently developed, can provide an attractive and more suitable alternative to inorganic electroluminescent devices in many applications, such as large-area illumination.
An OELD is typically a thin film structure formed on a substrate such as glass or transparent plastic. A light-emitting layer of an organic electroluminescent ("EL") material and optional adjacent organic semiconductor layers are sandwiched between a cathode and an anode. The organic semiconductor layers may be either hole (positive charge)-injecting or electron (negative charge)-injecting layers and also comprise organic materials. The material for the light-emitting layer may be selected from many organic EL materials that emit light having different wavelengths. The light emitting organic layer may itself consist of multiple sublayers, each comprising a different organic EL material. State-of-the-art organic EL materials can emit electromagnetic ("EM") radiation having narrow ranges of wavelengths in the visible spectrum. Unless specifically stated, the terms "EM radiation" and "light" are used interchangeably in this disclosure to mean generally radiation having wavelengths in the range from ultraviolet ("UV") to mid-infrared ("mid-IR") or, in other words, wavelengths in the range from about 300 nm to 10 micrometers. To obtain white light, prior-art devices have incorporated closely arranged OELDs emitting blue, green, and red light. These colors are mixed to produce white light. An alternate scheme to produce white light is set forth in U.S. Pat. No. 5,294,870; which describes an organic EL multicolor display device comprising an organic EL source emitting blue light with green- and red-emitting fluorescent materials applied to different subpixel areas. This device emits different colors from the different subpixel areas by color shifting with the green- and red-emitting fluorescent materials. However, the manufacture of such microdevices is complex and requires sophisticated technologies; and, thus, increases cost. Moreover, for general lighting purposes, large-area OELDs must be fabricated. The manufacture of defect-free large-area OELDs is a challenge. Typically, a defect in the fabrication, such as one that allows a short circuit, would render the whole device inoperative and darkened.
Therefore, it is very desirable to provide organic electronic devices, the operation of which is more tolerant to fabrication defects. It is also very desirable to provide organic electronic devices that remain operative even when there are microscopic short circuits in the originally made devices.

Electrodes mitigating effects of defects in organic electronic devices


A compact transportable electromagnetic pulse (EMP) generating system for generating and transmitting EMPs at a target vehicle to disrupt electronics controlling operation of the target vehicle. The system comprises a power conditioning unit for applying a high voltage signal to a pulse generator after safety and security interlocks have been satisfied and a user actuated command received by the conditioning unit from a system control unit. The system control unit also generates a fire control trigger pulse for actuating the pulse generator and a oscillator trigger unit. After a predetermined time delay the trigger unit actuates an oscillator primed by the output of the pulse generator to transmit a series of pulses to a radiating system via an impedance matching transmission line. The radiating system radiates the EMPs having characteristics which will disable electronics in a target vehicle.

This invention relates to systems for remotely controlling the operation of vehicles and more particularly to an improved, compact and transportable system for generating electromagnetic pulses for disabling target vehicles.
Virtually everyday, law enforcement personnel are faced with the dilemma of having to stop a moving vehicle whose occupants are trying to avoid apprehension. While many times, the occupants realize the futility of the chase and stop of their own volition, a significant number of such chases end in tragedy with the officer, suspect or innocent bystander being seriously injured or killed.
Prior systems have been proposed to combat such problems including the installation of special receivers in motor vehicles which when remotely energized from a chase vehicle will either disable or slow the fleeing vehicle enabling apprehension. Systems of this nature are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,878,050; 4,849,735; 4,619,231; and 3,112,004. Such systems require vehicle manufacturers to include extra remotely controllable electrical systems in the vehicles they manufacture or the voluntary addition of such accessories by vehicle owners. In practice, such requirements are not realistic and even if adopted could be readily circumvented. Accordingly, a need remains for compact, readily transportable systems, mountable in pursuit vehicle for directing signals to a fleeing vehicle which will of themselves disable the fleeing vehicle enabling apprehension of its occupants with minimal risk to bystanders, occupants and law enforcement officers.
Recently, reports have issued concerning the disablement of motor vehicles during electrical storms and in response to artificially generated electromagnetic signals. However, the means currently available for artificially generating such signals are extremely large, complicated and expensive and have been included only in stationary experimental research facilities where tests have been conducted on various consumer electronic items to determine their susceptibility to fast rise time electromagnic pulses (Emps). The report "Consumer Electronics Testing to Fast-Rise EMP (VEMPS II Development)"; HDL-TR-2149, June 1989, V. Ellis, U.S. Army Laboratory Command, Harry Diamond Laboratories, Adelphi, Md., contains the data from such tests.
To date, systems for generating electromagnetic pulses have not been developed in a compact transportable form capable of generating sufficient energy to disable electronic systems controlling vehicles and hence disabling a moving target vehicle. The present invention satisfies such continuing and important needs.

Science Applications International Corporation


A method for providing a product is described in which a selection of a product is received from a customer, a game is selected by the customer, the customer provides his credit card number, the customer plays the game and an outcome is determined. If the customer wins, the credit card is charged a game fee, if the customer loses, the credit card is charged the price of the product. In either case, the product is then provided to the customer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to systems for providing products to customers. More specifically, the present invention concerns a system to provide a product to a customer based on a game outcome.
2. Description of the Related Art
Retailers experiment with many types of systems designed to attract customers away from other retailers. Some of these systems attempt to attract customers by injecting excitement into a retail shopping experience.
Sweepstakes are one such system. A retailer conducts a sweepstakes by receiving entries from customers at a retail store, by selecting one or more entries from the received entries and by awarding predetermined prizes to customers from whom the selected entries were received. Accordingly, a sweepstakes is intended to motivate a customer to visit the retail store by presenting a possibility of winning a prize. However, the ability of a sweepstakes to influence a customer's choice of retail stores is limited because the predetermined prizes are often products in which the customer has little particular interest and because a probability of winning a desirable prize in a sweepstakes open to the public is often perceived to be extremely low. As a result, retailers often conclude that the limited ability of a sweepstakes to attract customers is outweighed by a cost of the awarded prizes.
Other systems which attempt to provide excitement, such as that described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,521 to Rossides, allow customers to gamble for products. According to U.S. Pat. No. 5,269,521, a customer desiring to obtain a commodity submits a wager to participate in a game of chance in which a winning outcome results in an award of the commodity to the customer and a losing outcome results in a loss of the wager. However, customers in a shopping environment are usually unwilling to risk losing the payment without receiving any benefit in return. Accordingly, gambling-based systems are limited in their attractiveness to retail customers. Moreover, these systems invoke gambling laws and regulations which present financial and administrative burdens that complicate a retailer's business to an extent outweighing any additional revenues resulting from the systems.
Therefore, what is needed is a system for injecting excitement into a shopping experience which is more attractive to customers than conventional systems, is not necessarily gambling, and which is also more profitable and less cumbersome to retailers.

Method and system to incorporate game play into product transactions


This application discloses A multi-lingual output device for output of transactional information for a given customer, the device that includes a data base for determining what transaction information needs to be outputted, the local language in which the information is to be outputted, and the preferred language of the customer in which the information is to be outputted; and, a local transaction subsystem in communication with said database, wherein said local transaction sub system includes input device receiving means for accepting an input device and output generating means for generating a signal to an output device.

This application relates generally to a device for providing an output of text such that it is presented in at least two languages. More specifically, this application relates to a device whereby text is provided to an output device such as a monitor or a printer such that the text is presented in both the language of the country of origin and the preferred language of the user.


A motor encoder is mounted on a motor shaft of a geared motor 1, and the origin position is detected by using a Z-phase signal. An absolute value encoder with a precision that allows the number of motor rotations to be determined is mounted on an output shaft 4 of a reduction gear, and the absolute rotational position thereof is detected. When the first Z-phase signal generated in conjunction with the rotation of the motor shaft 2a is obtained at startup and at other times, the mechanical starting point at which the motor shaft and output shaft are both positioned at the origin can be calculated based on the absolute rotational position of the reduction-gear output shaft obtained from the output-side absolute value encoder. Since the mechanical starting point is obtained by rotating the motor shaft a single rotation at most, the time required to calculate the mechanical starting point is short in comparison with conventional examples, and extraneous rotational movements can be avoided.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a geared motor, and more particularly to a geared motor that can rapidly and precisely detect the mechanical starting point of an output shaft of a reduction gear during motor startup and at other times.
2. Description of the Related Art
Geared motors are used that are configured to output the rotational output of a motor in the drive section of industrial robots, machine tools, and the like via a reduction gear having high transmission accuracy. Such drive sections require high positioning accuracy. As shown in FIG. 11, a geared motor 101 has a motor main body 102, a reduction gear 103 coaxially connected to a motor shaft 102a of the motor main body 102, and an output shaft 104 coaxially connected to the output side of the reduction gear 103. A wave gear drive, for example, is used as the reduction gear 103.
In a geared motor 101, the rotational angle of the output shaft 104 of the reduction gear 103 must be controlled with high precision for accurate positioning or the like. For this reason, a motor encoder 106 is mounted on the motor shaft 102a, and an origin sensor 107 is mounted on the output shaft 104.
In a signal processing circuit 108, based on the A-, B-, and Z-phase signals obtained from the motor encoder 106, and the origin signal S that generates a single pulse per single rotation and is obtained from the origin sensor 107, commands are sent to the motor driver 109 so that the output shaft 104 achieves a desired rotational angle. The motor driver 109 rotatably drives the motor shaft 102a in accordance with commands thus received.
In the geared motor 101, the rotational angle position of the output shaft 104 is controlled based on the mechanical starting point of the shaft. Therefore, at startup and at other times, the output shaft 104 must be returned to the mechanical starting point (origin position).
Nevertheless, there is a problem in a conventional geared motor in that a considerable amount of time is required in the origin return movements. More specifically, as shown in FIG. 12, in the origin return movements of the output shaft 104, it is necessary that the motor shaft 102a be rotated (first movement) until an origin signal is output from the origin sensor 107 mounted on the output shaft 104, the motor shaft 102a then be rotated in the opposite direction to return the output shaft 104 (second movement) to the rotational angle position at a point just before the origin signal S is output, and the motor shaft 102a be again rotated in the forward direction and stopped (third movement) in the rotational position at which the first Z-phase signal is output following the output of the origin signal.
In these movements, the motor shaft 102a must be rotated by an amount equal to the rotational angle that corresponds to the reduction gear ratio of the reduction gear at most. When the reduction gear ratio is 1:50, for example, the motor shaft 102a must be rotated 50 times, that is, 18,000 degrees (50×360°), and a considerable amount of time is required.


A method for improving the detection of low-contrast and narrow width vessels comprising combining matched-filter responses with that of directional filter bank. A given vessel is characterized by having an elongated structure with a specific width and direction. Matched filters are designed in the form of elliptical second-order Gaussian derivatives at various scales, catering for vessels of widely varying widths. On the other hand, the directional filter bank helps in identifying the orientation of the vessels. Thus, combining both in complementary manner results is an improved response for vessels with varying width and varying direction. Results comparing this hybrid approach to matched filter and directional filter bank alone show substantial improvements both qualitatively and quantitatively.

The present invention relates to the field of computer processing of medical images. More specifically the invention relates methods of detecting low-contrast and narrow width blood vessels in angiographic and retinal images.
Current methods of detecting low-contrast and narrow-width vessels, while avoiding false responses near pathologies and other non-vascular structures, are lacking and insufficient.
Reliable vessel extraction is a prerequisite for subsequent image analysis and processing, especially in the case of retinal and cardiac images. For certain medical diagnostic tasks, it is necessary to measure accurately the width of vessels and their abnormal branching. For example, tracing a vessel with varying width along the way may reveal the signs of stenosis, i.e., narrowing of the vessels. Grading of stenosis is important to diagnose the severity of vascular disease and subsequently determine the treatment therapy. See, for example, North American Symptomatic Carotid Endarterectomy Trial (NASCET), Steering Committee, North American symptomatic carotid endarterectomy trial, Stroke 22 (1991) 711{720}; and European Carotid Surgery Trialists Collaborative Group, Randomised Trial Of Endarterectomy For Recently Symptomatic Carotid Stenosis: Final Results of the MRC European Carotid Surgery (ECST), Lancet 351 (1999) 1379{87}.
Planning and performing neurosurgical procedures require an exact insight into the complete blood vessels tree structure. This can be achieved by tracing its variability in terms of width as well as direction.
The techniques published in the research literature in the field of vessel extraction have been based on matched filters, adaptive thresholds, mathematical morphology, and Hessian measures. Recent literature has been dominated by Hessian-based methods due to its successful use in characterizing elongated structure of vessels. One advantage of Hessian base methods is that vessels in a large range of diameters can be captured due to multi-scale analysis. In Hessian based methods, an input image is first convolved with the derivatives of a Gaussian at multiple scales and then the Hessian matrix is analyzed at each pixel in the resulting image to determine the local shape of the structures at that pixel. The ratio between the minimum and the maximum Hessian eigenvalues is small for line-like structures but is high for blob-like ones.
However, processing vessel images which are noisy and suffer from non-uniform illumination have the same limitations which Hessian-based filters suffer from in finding narrow and low-contrast vessels. The reason is that such processing uses the same Hessian eigenvalues to pre-select the vessel-candidate pixels at which the filter is applied. In order to reduce the noise sensitivity of the Hessian-based methods, has been proposed to use it within the framework of the directional filter bank. See P. T. H. Truc, M. A. U. Khan, Y K. Lee, S. Lee, T S. Kim, "Vessel Enhancement Filter Using Directional Filter Bank", Computer Vision and Image Understanding 113 (2009) 101-112. Specifically, the input image is first decomposed by a decimation-free directional filter bank (DDFB) into a set of directional images, each of which contains line-like features in a narrow directional range. The directional decomposition has two advantages. One advantage is that noise in each directional image will be significantly reduced compared to that in the input image due to its random directional nature. The other advantage is that because a directional image contains vessels with similar directions, the Hessian eigenvalue calculation in it is facilitated. Then, distinct appropriate enhancement filters are applied to enhance vessels in the respective directional images. Finally, the enhanced directional images are re-combined to generate the output image with enhanced vessels and suppressed noise. However, since eigen values determination is largely effected by non-uniform illumination patterns, combining directional images for maximizing the vessel extraction is a challenging task. See F. Zana and J.-C. Klein, "Segmentation of vessel-like patterns using mathematical morphology and curvature evaluation," IEEE Trans. Image Processing, vol. 10, no. 7, pp. 1010-1019, 2001.


An optical blind-mate connector can include a housing that holds a ferrule block, a carrier coupled to the housing, a reversibly retractable sleeve including a sleeve tab extending therefrom, to receive a force to transition the reversibly retractable sleeve from an extended position to a retracted position, and a door coupled to the reversibly retractable sleeve, the door having a closed position and an open position, wherein in the extended position the door is in the closed position to cover a portion of the ferrule block and in the retracted position the door is in the open position to uncover the portion of the ferrule block.

Optical input/output may be used to transmit data between system components. For some applications, optical input/output may provide greater bandwidth and/or lower electromagnetic interference than other types of input/outputs. Optical fibers may be employed for optical input/output. For some applications, optical fibers may be coupled, to other optical fibers and/or system components by an optical connector.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A check valve for use in a pump of a hydraulic cylinder includes a tubular member having a sheath member received therein. The pump includes a chamber provided in an output pipe thereof for receiving the check valve. The tubular member is constructed in the form of a hollow cylinder and includes a sealing sleeve fitted therearound. The tubular member includes an oil seal mounted on the front end thereof for the engagement with a hollow screw element in the chamber. The sheath member includes a hollow cap member, a first spring element, a ball, a hollow disc element, and a second spring element which are placed into the tubular member in turn. By using the hollow disc element and the second spring element, the tubular member may be fixed in the chamber, and by way of the screw element, the tubular member is enclosed in the chamber.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a check valve and, more particularly, to a check valve for use in a pump of a hydraulic cylinder that may prevent the hydraulic oil from leakage during the accelerated operation of the jack.
2. Description of the Prior Arts
The cylinder is an indispensable component provided in jacks due to its high bearing capacity, thus lifting objects easily. However, the conventional cylinder had some disadvantages, such as poor operating stability, slow raising speed and the like. To overcome such defects, an improved cylinder provided with an air operated pump therein had been developed and applied in the related field.
Such an improved air-operated pump utilizes an inputted air pressure to actuate a piston (including a spring element disposed therein and designed in an air venting and a position returning manner). A stem member of the piston is in communication with an oil route of the cylinder so as to cause a pump effect. Thus, the cylinder may generate larger fluid pressure during the operation of the air operated pump for enhancing the operating speed. Thereby, the lifting speed of the jack may be improved. However, such a lifting speed still can be accelerated.
The present invention has arisen to mitigate and/or obviate the afore-described disadvantages.

Check valve structure for use in pump of hydraulic cylinder


A hydraulic control system including a source (11) of fluid having a pressure responsive means (15) and an actuator. A main control valve (21) has ports (27,29) communicating with the actuator ports by means of first (41) and second (43) conduits, and means to generate a load pressure (45). A pressure spike suppression valve (51) has ports connected across the conduits, the valve including a spool (65) moveable between a first position blocking communication between the ports, and a second position permitting communication. The valve (51) defines a spring chamber (67) including a spring (69) biasing the spool toward the first position. The valve defines a load signal passage (83) to communicate the load pressure to a chamber also to bias the spool toward the first position. The valve defines a pressure chamber (81) in communication with the source, fluid pressure therein biasing the spool toward the second position.

The present invention relates to hydraulic control systems, and more particularly, to those control systems of the "load sensing" type, i.e., a hydraulic control system in which a load signal is generated which is representative of the hydraulic load on the circuit, with that load signal being utilized to control, or at least vary, the rate of fluid delivery of the source of pressurized fluid for the circuit.
Although the present invention may be utilized with hydraulic control circuits for a number of different applications, whether on a mobile vehicle, or on a stationary (or industrial) hydraulic system, the invention is especially advantageous when used in conjunction with a hydrostatic power steering system for a mobile vehicle, and will be described in connection therewith. Furthermore, the present invention is of special benefit when used as part of a hydrostatic power steering system to steer a vehicle, such as an articulated vehicle, in which the load on the steering actuator is quite substantial, or the steering "inertia" of the vehicle is very large.
A hydrostatic power steering system of the type which would utilize the present invention would typically include a pump (fixed or variable), a load sensing priority flow control valve ("LSPV") which apportions flow between a priority load circuit (in this case, the steering circuit) and an auxiliary load circuit (another vehicle hydraulic function) in response to variations in a load signal representative of the hydraulic load on the priority load circuit. Flow from the LSPV to the steering actuator (typically, one or more steering cylinders) is controlled by a steering valve such as the Orbitrol® steering control unit (SCU) sold commercially by the assignee of the present invention.
As is now well known to those skilled in the art, a conventional SCU, of the type used in a load sensing circuit, defines various flow control orifices which are closed when the SCU is in its neutral condition (no steering input) and the various flow control orifices begin to open as the operator rotates the steering wheel in either direction from the neutral condition, to select either a right turn or a left turn.
It has been observed that on vehicles such as large, articulated vehicles, if the vehicle operator suddenly stops the steering input to the SCU, or suddenly reverses steering direction, one result which is likely to occur is a substantial pressure spike in the conduits interconnecting the SCU and the steering actuator, which is likely to impose a severe "jerking" movement to the vehicle. These pressure spikes, which need to be relieved, are caused in part by the momentum of the steering actuator, and the fluid in the lines between the actuator and the SCU being trapped, because of the SCU control orifices closing. The resulting jerking movement can be extremely undesirable from the viewpoint of operator safety and comfort.
For years, those skilled in the hydraulics art have utilized valves of the type commonly referred to as "cushion valves" to deal with the problem of pressure spikes in hydraulic lines, especially in lines between a control valve and an actuator. Examples of such cushion valve arrangements are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,330,298 and 4,040,439, both of which are assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference. Although such cushion valve arrangements have been used successfully in various applications, such valves typically operate on the "pressure rise rate" principle, as is well known to those skilled in the cushion valve art, thus limiting their usefulness in hydraulic systems (and particularly in steering systems) subjected to the "sudden stop" or "sudden reversal" types of condition described above. Another deficiency of cushion valves is that during every steering motion flow from the SCU work ports is used to shift a valve spool of significant size, thus resulting in some lost motion. Such lost motion can lead to control difficulties at higher vehicle speeds. Furthermore, the typical cushion valve arrangement known in the prior art has been very complex and expensive, thus further limiting the commercial potential of such valves.


Provided is a horizontal rotary hook for a sewing machine including: an inner rotary hook including an attracted member made of metal in an outer lower surface portion; a permanent magnet that attracts the inner rotary hook; a magnet plate that accommodates the permanent magnet and is provided with a shaft hole for mounting at a center of a diameter thereof; a non-metallic outer rotary hook that accommodates the magnet plate and has a shaft hole at a center of a diameter of an inner bottom portion thereof; and a hook supporting shaft that is inserted through the shaft hole of the magnet plate and the shaft hole of the outer rotary hook, and that includes, at an upper end thereof, a flange for rotatably supporting the outer rotary hook and the magnet plate. A rotation stopper for the magnet plate is disposed to be positioned more inward than an outer circumference edge of the permanent magnet placed in the magnet plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a horizontal rotary hook of a sewing machine that can have an extremely simple configuration and includes a configuration in which a permanent magnet for disposing, in an outer rotary hook, an inner rotary hook having a metal plate in a bottom portion is fixed to a bottom portion of the outer rotary hook.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, sewing machines include a horizontal rotary hook device accommodating a bobbin. The horizontal hook device includes outer and inner rotary hooks. A gear shaft is integrally attached to a lower end surface of the outer rotary hook. A gear is fixedly mounted to a lower shaft and meshes with the gear shaft. Thus, the outer rotary hook rotates along with the rotation of the lower shaft. The inner rotary hook accommodated in the outer rotary hook might make random movement such as oscillation during a sewing operation. Such random movement of the inner rotary hook causes noise and affects sewing performance. Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-94905 discloses a specific configuration for addressing this problem. Specifically, the configuration is one of various configurations in which a magnet is used to prevent the inner rotary hook accommodated in the outer rotary hook from floating during the sewing operation.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-94905 can achieve a state where the inner rotary hook in the outer rotary hook is extremely stable, and thus can solve various problems attributable to the random movement of the inner rotary hook. The outer rotary hook may be made of a metal material as a magnetic material, so that the configuration where the inner rotary hook is magnetically attracted to be fixed is easily achieved. However, in recent years, the outer rotary hook has been made of a synthetic resin material as a non-magnetic material in many cases for the sake of cost and the like. Thus, the magnet is fixedly attached to the bottom surface of the outer rotary hook made of the synthetic resin with an adhesive, an adhesive tape, and the like.
When the adhesive or the adhesive tape is used for the fixing, contact surfaces of the inner rotary hook and the magnet need to be cleaned so that the magnet and the inner rotary hook favorably adhere to each other, the bottom surface of the outer rotary hook needs to be cleaned, and even a degreasing treatment is required to remove oil. The adhesiveness of the adhesive is low unless such treatments are sufficiently performed. Thus, the magnet is likely to be detached from the bottom surface of the outer rotary hook while the sewing machine is under operation. However, the cleaning of the bottom surface of the outer rotary hook and the removal of oil (degreasing treatment) require additional cumbersome operation steps which in turn complicate an assembling operation.
Thus, in the configuration of Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-94905, a yoke member formed of a magnetic body is mounted to a bottom portion of the outer rotary hook, and a magnet piece is fixedly attached to the yoke member. The yoke member has a form of a plate, and includes a circular circumferential wall. The circumferential wall is not continuously formed in the circumferential direction. The circumferential wall is partially notched at an equal interval to form a plurality of protrusions that engage with ribs of the outer rotary hook. Thus, the yoke member can be fixed in a stable state, without rotating without the outer rotary hook (see FIG. 4A).
Unfortunately, in this configuration, a needle thread n of the bobbin is likely to be caught by the notches in the circumferential wall, defined by the protrusions of the yoke member or an engaging portion between the protrusions and the ribs (see FIG. 4B), to hamper the sewing operation of the sewing machine (see FIG. 4). Furthermore, to form the protrusions and the like on the yoke member, steps for manufacturing the yoke member are increased and even a unit price of the yoke member might be increased.
Furthermore, forming the notches in the circumferential wall of the yoke member further rises the problem that strong magnetic force of a magnet piece disposed in the yoke member cannot be achieved. A technical goal (object) achieved by the present invention is to fix a fixing holder, for fixing the permanent magnet, stably to the outer rotary hook and prevent a thread extending from the bobbin from being caught in the hook, with an extremely simple configuration that does not use a plurality of protrusions as a rotation stopper.

Horizontal rotary hook of sewing machine


Provided is an agile, adaptive, globally deployable online network-centric autonomic supply chain management system that when triggered by a predictive/diagnostic condition management system, without user-maintainer intervention, autonomously authorizes a complete requisitioning cycle of supply chain assets to warfighters with unprecedented criticality of speed. A requisitioning cycle is comprised of: (1) asset issue authorization to a vehicle/requester (2) retrograde [return] of repairable to depot and (3) replenishment [resupply] of drawn inventory. It also autonomically provides global total asset visibility of the asset(s) of interest and a tempo surge-priority ranking with a calm-down functions. The system operates in either default autonomic mode or a user activated semi-autonomic mode. In either mode of operation a requisition cycle is accomplished autonomically by selection of the most affordable transportation that ensures delivery of an asset to a user in accordance with contractually specified time-definite delivery standards. The system's material delivery performance effectiveness percentage rate is archived for billing purposes and monitoring system performance metrics. The system almost eliminates SCM administration personpower requirements. It accelerates the entire logistics supply pipeline, resulting in:—higher annual inventory turn-rates thus permitting inventory levels to be reduced and smaller wartime pack up kits thereby lowering lifetime total operating costs. Smaller pack up kits reduces the logistics footprint and thus the number of cargo aircraft required to deploy a unit.

This autonomic supply chain management system transforms timely affordable delivery of assets/spares to warfighters. Today's current military and commercial automatic Supply Chain Management (SCM) systems are stovepiped, non-deployable, antiquated batched computer-processing systems. They are personpower labor intense requiring several handoffs between the user/requester and supply personnel at various storage sites, and take on average near 12-hours (some up to 24-hours) to process a requisition authorization for an asset(s)/spare(s). That is, to process the authorization to ship it or be advised it is not available in inventory—this does not include the time to perform the pick, pack and delivery transportation. Most SCM system designers would be happy for a future average of about two hours to process an automatic requisition to advise the user whether the asset(s) is available in inventory. And the two hours does not include processing the retrograde or replenishment transactions, versus this autonomic online/real-time processing system for all three requisition transactions.
Online processing immediately records the requisition transaction in the appropriate database(s) and provides real-time results. Whereas the antiquated batch processing collects inputs in a queue/file over time and enters them into the database at one time in a batch. Most of today's SCM systems were designed years ago as batched computer processing systems. That is, even though they may utilize mainframe computers they query another computer and must wait for a response, which could be 12 to 24-hours later. Years ago mainframe central processor unit time was expensive so they were implemented to do much of the processing in off-hours to reduce costs, thus the delay, especially SCM systems implemented in the 1980s, many of which are in use today. This is unacceptable for today's agile SCM high speed delivery requirements such as some Department of Defense (DoD) programs that require requisition authorization and delivery of some Continental United States (CONUS) spares/assets within 18-hours from requisition initiation.
For large military programs billions of dollars in reduced SCM personpower and reduced inventory can be saved by ASCMS during a vehicles lifetime of Operation and Service (O&S) period, and timelier asset deliveries are accomplished. A program's O&S period lifetime cost that typically costs 70% of a programs total can be expected to be reduced to 50% or below through use of an ASCMS, in part due to vastly reduced/eliminated SCM personpower needs, reduced size inventories as a result of the improved inventory turn rates, and faster delivery transportation. On a major DoD program now going through system development and demonstration phase a preliminary estimate of savings with this type autonomic system is a peacetime cost savings of $4.5 to $5 billion (in today dollars), and an O&S lifetime total operating cost savings including reduced inventory of over $100 billion dollars. But even more important than costs savings, is winning a conflict tempo surge by getting the right asset, to the right place, at the right time, in the right quantity.
It is projected an ASCMS versus today's automatic SCM systems can achieve improvement in time-definite delivery standards and every SCM metric, some of the more important improvements are as follows:                Annual inventory turn-rate improvement of better than 3.5 to 1;        Assets inventory reduction up to 70-percent;        Fill rate improvements of 25-percent;        On time Material Delivery Performance Effectiveness (MDPE) in excess of 99-percent;        Non-wartime transportation cost reduction of at least 12-percent.
ASCMS is designed to operate either with an intelligent agent "smart" Distributed Secure Information System (DSIS) or non-smart DSIS. It is envisioned in the not too distant future when atom/nano-computers are mainstream and capable of artificial intelligence, ASCMS will be able to operate over "brilliant" DSIS network-centric warfare networks capable of self-repair or rerouting around network outages, thus providing even greater SCM pipeline agility, efficiency, affordability and supportability to the warfighter.
Availability of spare assets is the backbone of logistics. Although there are 11-DoD logistics elements, if one were to ask a user/maintainer what the word logistics means to them, they most likely would respond with "spares."

Adaptive network-centric online autonomic supply chain management system


A work assignment system for assigning and composing a work formed from a plurality of work standards to a plurality of stations. A display displays the names of the plurality of work standards as composition targets. A composition condition is input. The plurality of work standards are divided in accordance with the composition condition and one group of the divided work standards is assigned to a station. The assignment result of the work standards of each station to a work assignment file is output.

Conventionally, in a field of designing/manufacturing a production line for mass production, in building a desired production line at an actual site of production or improving an existing production line, an operation of individually assigning necessary works to a plurality of processes of the production line is done before actually manufacturing or improving the production line.
To assembly a product from parts, an enormous number of parts are required. The larger the number of parts becomes, the more enormous and complex the works become.
Conventionally, an experienced chief of the workshop, who knows the enormous number of complex works well, manually arranges the works, calculates the manhour, and assigns operators in units of manhours.
However, it is hard even for the experienced workshop chief who knows various works well to examine exchange of an enormous number of works in consideration of the capability of each operator and the work capability of each station that is actually determined depending on the difficulty of a work, and to manually adjust the load balance of each station to a balanced state on the basis of the examination result.
In addition, this manual composing operation accompanies poor maintenance because it is not only time-consuming but also difficult to correct and can be understood only by the creator.

Work assignment system and method, distributed client/server system, and computer program storage


An adjustable form, for use in casting cementitious material on a preformed footing structure. The form having a frame, a pair of parallel-spaced vertical sidewalls, and at least one vertically disposed oblong aperture within one sidewall. The vertically disposed oblong aperture allows for placement of a connecting pin through the oblong aperture so as to connect one form with respect to a second form offset relative to the second form. Thus, accommodating variations in the preformed footing with one form being.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to adjustable concrete forms for use in casting concrete and, more particularly, to adjustable concrete forms having at least one oblong aperture extending vertically to facilitate the vertical adjustment of a concrete form relative to another concrete form.
2. Background and Summary of the Invention
In construction, the use of concrete as a support material is well known. In fact, concrete is employed in various residential and commercial applications to construct support structures, such as foundations, walls, and the like. To this end, concrete forms are commonly used to encapsulate a volume having an open top portion into which liquid concrete is poured and cured.
Concrete forms are traditionally held together by either a rod and cotter pin assembly or by clamps. These fastening means are typically separate from the concrete forms and, thus, increase the difficulty in assembling a plurality of concrete forms.
Further, conventional concrete forms which are held together by rod and cotter pins include round apertures along the sidewall of the panel for inserting the rod therethrough. However, this design increases the difficulty in assembling the panels since it does not allow for adjustment in the vertical direction. Vertical adjustment is preferable because the preformed footing or ground surface upon which the concrete structure is formed may not be level. As such, the round apertures in one panel are incorrectly positioned relative to an adjacent panel, and in turn increases the time and effort required to assemble the concrete forms, since time must be taken to level the foundation upon which the concrete forms come to rest.
It is therefore desirable to provide an improved concrete form which allows for vertical adjustment with respect to an adjacent form so as to accommodate variations in the footing or ground surface upon which the concrete is to be formed. It is also desirable to provide an improved concrete form having a selectively adjustable connecting member, permanently attached to the framework of the form to facilitate quick and convenient methods of assembly.
According to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, a concrete form is provided having a frame including a pair of parallel-spaced vertical sidewalls, and a panel attached to the frame wherein at least one of the side walls includes at least one vertically disposed oblong aperture which allows the form to be quickly and conveniently adjusted to accommodate variations in the footing or other ground surface upon which the concrete structure is to be formed.
Additionally, a preferred embodiment employs a selectively adjustable connecting member permanently attached to the frame of the concrete form which includes an elongated slot for receiving a wedge therein. Using this method, the connecting member or pin is quickly and conveniently inserted through the oblong, vertically disposed aperture of an adjacent panel to fasten the two adjacent panels together. The wedge itself provides an improvement over the art in that as the wedge is inserted through the slot in the pin, the panels are forced together.
Further areas of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description provided hereinafter. It should be understood however that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are intended for purposes of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.


A bias filtering module with at least two capacitive levels satisfies both a settle time requirement and a filtering requirement using a voltage dependent filter module whose capacitance is a function of a voltage potential on the filtering circuitry output terminal. The final capacitance level is approximately three times larger than the initial capacitance level. MOS capacitors having a voltage dependent charge capacity within the bias filtering module are coupled between a plurality of bias lines and circuit common. In an alternate embodiment, a selectable first group of capacitors are switched into connection within the bias filtering module as a second group of capacitors approximately reach a fully charged state within a specified settle time to provide improved filtering.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to wireless communication systems and more particularly to radio frequency integrated circuits used in such wireless communication systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Communication systems are known to support wireless and wire lined communications between wireless and/or wire lined communication devices. Such communication systems range from national and/or international cellular telephone systems to the Internet to point-to-point in-home wireless networks. Each type of communication system is constructed, and hence operates, in accordance with one or more communication standards. For instance, wireless communication systems may operate in accordance with one or more standards, including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, advanced mobile phone services (AMPS), digital AMPS, global system for mobile communications (GSM), code division multiple access (CDMA), local multi-point distribution systems (LMDS), multi-channel-multi-point distribution systems (MMDS), and/or variations thereof.
Depending on the type of wireless communication system, a wireless communication device, such as a cellular telephone, two-way radio, personal digital assistant (PDA), personal computer (PC), laptop computer, home entertainment equipment, etc., communicates directly or indirectly with other wireless communication devices. For direct communications (also known as point-to-point communications), the participating wireless communication devices tune their receivers and transmitters to the same channel or channels (e.g., one of a plurality of radio frequency (RF) carriers of the wireless communication system) and communicate over that channel(s). For indirect wireless communications, each wireless communication device communicates directly with an associated base station (e.g., for cellular services) and/or an associated access point (e.g., for an in-home or in-building wireless network) via an assigned channel. To complete a communication connection between the wireless communication devices, the associated base stations and/or associated access points communicate with each other directly, via a system controller, via a public switch telephone network (PSTN), via the Internet, and/or via some other wide area network.
For each wireless communication device to participate in wireless communications, it either includes a built-in radio transceiver (i.e., receiver and transmitter) or is coupled to an associated radio transceiver (e.g., a station for in-home and/or in-building wireless communication networks, RF modem, etc.). As is known, the transmitter includes a data modulation stage, one or more intermediate frequency (IF) stages, and a power amplifier. The data modulation stage converts raw data into baseband signals in accordance with a particular wireless communication standard. The one or more IF stages mix the baseband signals with one or more local oscillations to produce RF signals. The power amplifier amplifies the RF signals prior to transmission via an antenna.
As is also known, the receiver is coupled to the antenna and includes a low noise amplifier, one or more IF stages, a filtering stage, and a data recovery stage. The low noise amplifier receives inbound RF signals via the antenna and amplifies them. The one or more IF stages mix the amplified RF signals with one or more local oscillations to convert the amplified RF signal into baseband signals or IF signals. The filtering stage filters the baseband signals or the IF signals to attenuate unwanted out-of-band signals to produce filtered signals. The data recovery stage recovers raw data from the filtered signals in accordance with the particular wireless communication standard.
The need for wireless networking has been addressed by various standards bodies that promulgate inter-working standards. One such standards body promulgated the IEEE 802.11 standard that defines a wireless LAN. In a typical 802.11 wireless LAN, a wired backbone couples to one or more wireless access points (WAPs) that wirelessly connect to many computers or other electronic devices that contain wireless interfaces. IEEE 802.11 networks have achieved significant success in servicing wireless communication needs for portable computers, portable data terminals, and other wireless devices that transmit and receive data. However, IEEE 802.11 networks lack high data rate and Quality of Service (QOS) features to support multimedia communications.
Wireless personal area networks (WPANs) enable short-range "ad-hoc" connectivity among portable consumer electronics and communication devices but do not require the infrastructure needed for an 802.11 network. The WPAN™ Study Group (SG) was formed on Mar. 12, 1998 by the IEEE 802.11 Working Group to investigate the need for a supplemental wireless network standard specifically targeted to provide very low power consumption, low complexity, wireless connectivity among devices within or entering a Personal Operating Space (POS). This includes devices that are carried, worn, or located near the body. These activities have led to the development of 802.15, which is a WPAN standard.
Another known WPAN is Bluetooth. For both Bluetooth and 802.15 WPANs, the coverage area for a WPAN is generally within a 10-meter radius. In other words, a personal operating space (POS) is the space about a person that typically extends up to 10 meters in all directions and envelops the person whether stationary or in motion. It is within the POS that the portable device communicates with an access point. The Bluetooth radio system has emerged as the first technology addressing WPAN applications with its salient features of low power consumption, small package size, and low cost. Raw data rates for Bluetooth devices are limited to 1 Mbps, although the actual throughput is about half of the raw data rate. A Bluetooth communication link supports up to three voice channels with very limited additional bandwidth for bursty data traffic. However, Bluetooth communication links cannot support the data transfer requirements of portable consumer electronics devices that transmit and receive multimedia data, e.g., high quality video applications, audio applications, and multi-megabyte file transfers for music and image files.
Additional limitations placed upon such devices relate to their cost and power consumption. Many devices operating in an ad-hoc network are battery powered. Thus, the power consumption requirements placed on the device by the integrated circuitry servicing its communications should be minimal. Further, the communication circuitry contained therein desirably should be high in performance but low in cost. Operationally stable, high data rate communication circuitry, e.g., RF front end circuitry, frequency/phase reference circuitry, etc., are relatively high in cost in terms of IC real estate. Thus, components that are highly stable cannot always be employed. Thus, selected components in a circuit often suffer from RF carrier frequency drift, symbol clock frequency drift, and other synchronization related problems. In order to support high data rate communications, these operational problems must be overcome. Thus, there is a need in the art for wireless communication circuit components that support high data rate communications, that consume little power, and that are relatively inexpensive to produce and operate.
Each of the various stages of the radio receiver, whether its part of Bluetooth or an 802.15 WPAN, an 802.11 wireless local area network, or a cellular radio network, consume differing amounts of power but often operate on battery power. Because it is desirable to extend battery life to a maximum amount, many different communication devices provide for a sleep mode in which a radio is powered down until activated by the depression of a key or the like. Moreover, some of the standards provide for powering down a receiver for a specified period of time or mode of operation and then powering the receiver back up to enable it to engage in communications. The standards generally specify a settle time requirement wherein powered down elements must reach an operational steady state within the specified settle time. The frequent power down and power up cycles, among other operations, can generate high frequency noise (transients of short duration and relatively high amplitude), however, as the digital and analog elements change state in response to a power management commands. The high frequency noise can be coupled to the biasing lines that provide power to all elements in the circuit. The biasing lines, therefore, require filtering to bypass this high frequency noise to circuit common.
Accordingly, a need exists for a bias filtering method and circuit that meets the fast settle time requirements of the power management mode of operation and also meets the biasing lines filter requirement.

Bias filtering module including MOS capacitors


An integrated circuit configured for at-speed scan testing of memory arrays. The integrated circuit includes a scan chain having a plurality of serially coupled scan elements, wherein a subset of the plurality of scan elements are coupled to provide signals to a memory array. Each scan element of the subset of the plurality of scan elements includes a flip flop having a data input, and a data output coupled to a corresponding input of the memory array, and selection circuitry configured to, in an operational mode, couple a data path to the data input, and further configured to, in a scan mode, couple to the data input one of a scan input, the data output, and a complement of the data output. The scan elements of the subset support at-speed testing of a memory array coupled thereto.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to memory circuits, and more particularly, the testing of memory circuits.
2. Description of the Related Art
Memory arrays on integrated circuits may be tested using different test mechanisms. One such mechanism is a memory built-in self-test (MBIST). Memory testing using this mechanism is implemented with a controller that is coupled to the memory array (or arrays) to be tested. The controller may generate various types of test patterns in which data is written to and read from the memory, wherein the reading of data may be used to verify whether or not the memory passes a given test. The controller may convey signals to the memory over address lines, data lines, and control lines (e.g., read enable, write enable, bank enable), and may receive signals over data lines as well. Thus, the controller may test the functionality of the entire memory array, including address and control circuitry, as well as testing individual memory cells. The controller may also provide signals to devices external to the integrated circuit in which the memory array is implemented in order to indicate the results of a particular test.
Scan testing is another mechanism that may be used in memory testing. Scan chains may be formed around the inputs and outputs of the memory array. Test input data may be shifted into the scan chain. After the shifting of input data is complete, one or more capture cycles are conducted to allow data to be written into and read from the memory array. The data read from the memory array (test output data) may then be shifted, via the scan chain, from the integrated circuit in which the memory array is implemented. The test output data may then be analyzed by a test system to determine whether the particular test passed or failed. In many cases, the speed at which scan testing of memory arrays is conducted may be significantly lower than the speed at which the integrated circuit is intended to operate.