A method of making a food product from the leg of a bird wherein the leg has a thigh end, a foot end, an elongated bone extending generally from the thigh end to the foot end, and meat surrounding and attached to the bone. The method comprises the steps of severing at least a first portion of the meat from the bone proximate the thigh end while leaving a second portion of the meat distal from the thigh end attached to the bone. The first portion of the meat is moved toward the foot end to expose a portion of the bone at least proximate the thigh end. At least part of the exposed portion of the bone is severed and removed. The first portion of the meat is then moved toward the thigh end so that the first portion of the meat extends outwardly from the remaining part of the bone to provide a leg food product which is boneless at its thigh end and includes a bone at its foot end.

The present invention relates to a method of making a food product from the leg of a bird or other animal, as well as the food product produced thereby and, more particularly, to such a food product which is at least partially boneless.
The description of the present invention as set forth below relates primarily to a method for making a food product from a bird, including fowl, poultry, etc., specifically, the lower portion of the leg or drumstick of a bird. It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that although not discussed in significant detail below, the method of the present invention is also applicable to the preparation of a food product from the leg or limb of other animals utilizing substantially the same method steps.
Birds, such as poultry and fowl, are conventionally eviscerated and dressed and sold either as a whole or as severed parts, i.e., breasts, thighs, wings, etc. One of the parts which is often separately sold is the lower portion of the leg, generally referred to as the drumstick. Typically, drumsticks are sold with the skin in place and with the meat surrounding an elongated bone.
In recent years, there has been an increasing demand for meat products which require less time for preparation and are boneless or partially boneless, making such products easier to consume. Hence, products such as boneless chicken breasts, chicken tenders, etc., have enjoyed tremendous commercial success. Other bird parts, such as wings, have enjoyed an increase in popularity because of the development of new and different preparation methods and/or marketing techniques, i.e., "hot wings", "buffalo wings", etc. Until recently, some bird parts, such as thighs and drumsticks, have not been amenable to such enhanced commercial processing and/or preparation methods for a variety of reasons related primarily to the size of the parts, the type of meat (dark versus light), the size and location of the bone, etc.
The present invention comprises a method of efficiently and economically dressing or preparing the leg or drumstick of a bird by removing a portion of the centrally located bone in order to provide a meat product which is essentially boneless, at least on one end. A portion of the bone is retained in order to maintain stability of the meat product and to facilitate serving and holding the prepared food product during consumption. The present invention also comprises the semi-boneless drumstick product which is prepared in accordance with the present invention.

Method for making a food product from the leg of a bird or other animal and a food product resulting therefrom


A rotary valve actuator for fluid control valves having improved actuator linkage matching the torque requirements of most rotary shaft valves. A link member is pivotally interconnected to a linear movable actuating member and to a rotatable lever. The link member enables a high actuator torque to be developed and provided during the times when the valve requires a high torque, and a low actuator torque during other times when the valve only requires a lower torque. A high-low-high actuator torque is provided matching the high-low-high torque requirements of most rotary valves.

A variety of fluid flow control valves and corresponding valve actuators are utilized for on/off control or throttling the flow of fluid, such as in a gas or oil pipeline system, or in other process fluid systems. The fluid flow control valves are typically sliding stem control valves or rotary action control valves and are operated by a valve actuator such as a pneumatic piston or diaphragm actuator responding to the output of a valve positioner or valve controller instrument for accurate throttling control of the valve.
In the case of rotary action control valves, these units typically employ a flow control member in the form of a rotatable ball, rotatable ball segment, or a rotatable butterfly element. The rotation of the flow control element opens and closes the valve gate or plug.
Valve actuators for controlling such rotary action control valves typically employ a linearly movable member, such as a movable diaphragm connected to a rod at the diaphragm center. Moving the diaphragm displaces the rod linearly and thus requires a linear to rotary action translation. A rotational lever arm of a rotatable lever has one end fixed to the valve rotary shaft and the other lever arm end is coupled to the diaphragm rod. Linear movement of the diaphragm rod moves the lever arm, rotates the lever and thereby actuates a rotational movement in the valve shaft which is ultimately connected to the rotatable flow control element in the fluid control valve.
As noted previously, rotary actuators typically change linear motion to rotary motion using a ridged connection from the moving diaphragm rod to a rotational lever. Referring to FIG. 1(a) there is illustrated existing linkage in a rotary valve actuator wherein the lever arm 200 defined between the center of the rotatable lever 202 and the linkage point 204 with the actuator diaphragm rod 206 is at 45.degree. to the centerline of the actuator diaphragm rod 206. The resultant torque lever arm (shown as 0.7071 reference length) is defined between the center of the lever 202 and the centerline of the actuator diaphragm rod.
As the diaphragm rod 206 pushes on the lever arm 200 in response to linear actuating movement of a movable actuator member 208, the lever arm rotates the lever 202 through 90.degree. rotation. When the lever arm is again at 45.degree. to the linkage centerline, as in FIG. 1(c), the torque lever arm at a reference length of 0.7071 is 30% shorter than when the torque lever arm is a reference length of 1.0 at 90.degree. to the centerline as in FIG. 1(b).
Therefore, as the lever is rotated from the beginning of actuator travel as shown in FIG. 1(a), the actuator torque resulting from the torque lever arm and the driving linear actuator force is low. At the mid-travel position shown in FIG. 1(b), the actuator torque is high, and at the end of the travel position shown in FIG. 1(c), the actuator torque is again low. The typical rotary actuator therefore provides a low-high-low actuator torque output to the associated rotary valve during valve actuation.
However, during valve actuation most rotary valves require a high torque at the beginning of travel to rotate the valve disc, for instance, out of the valve seat. High torque also is required to seat the valve disc at the end of the travel. In other words a high-low-high actuator torque output is desired rather than the currently available low-high-low actuator torque output.

Rotary valve actuator with high-low-high torque linkage


A semiconductor array is described whose breakdown voltage has only a very low temperature coefficient or none at all and therefore there is little or no temperature-dependent voltage rise. The voltage limitation is achieved by a punch-through effect.

AC bridges (rectifiers) are used for rectification of three-phase or AC automotive generators (dynamos). Semiconductor diodes having a pn junction of silicon are generally used as rectifying elements. For example, six semiconductor diodes are wired together to form a B6 bridge in a three-phase generator. Diodes are occasionally also used in parallel circuits, using twelve diodes instead of six, for example. Suitably adapted diode bridges are also used in AC generators having a different number of phases.
These diodes are designed for operation at high currents or current densities of more than 500 A/cm2 and high temperatures or a maximum barrier layer temperature Tj of approximately 225° C. The voltage drop in the forward direction, i.e., forward voltage UF, typically amounts to about 1 volt at the high currents used. Generally only a very low reverse current IR flows during operation in the reverse direction below breakdown voltage UZ. The reverse current increases drastically beyond breakdown voltage UZ. A further increase in voltage is therefore prevented. Z diodes having reverse voltages of approximately 20-50 volts, depending on the vehicle electrical system voltage of the particular motor vehicle, are used in most cases. Z diodes are capable of carrying high currents briefly in a breakdown. They are therefore used to limit the overshooting generator voltage in load changes (load dump). Such diodes are generally packaged in sturdy press-fit diode housings such as those described in DE 195 49 202 B4, for example.
The forward voltage of pn diodes results in forward power losses and thus has a negative effect on the efficiency of the generator. On the average, two diodes are always connected in series in current output by the generator, so the average forward power losses with a 100 A generator amount to approximately 200 W. These losses result in heating of the diodes. The resulting heat must be dissipated to the ambient air or cooling air through complex cooling measures involving the rectifier, for example, using cooling elements and/or a fan.
German Published Patent Application No. 10 2004 056 663 describes the use of so-called high-efficiency Schottky diodes (HED) instead of pn diodes to reduce the forward power losses. High-efficiency Schottky diodes are diodes having a low forward voltage and a reverse current almost independent of the reverse voltage.
German Published Patent Application No. 10 2004 053 760 describes a trench MOS barrier Schottky diode, including an integrated pn diode, as one possible exemplary embodiment of an HED Schottky diode. Such a diode is also known as a TJBS-PN. In addition to the low forward voltage in the conducting state, this also limits the overshooting generator voltage, which may occur with sudden load changes, to uncritical values, typically to voltages of less than 30 V in 14 V systems.
Much lower forward voltages UF in the range of 0.5 V to 0.7 V are achievable using high-efficiency Schottky diodes. The efficiency and power output of the generator are increased due to the low forward power losses of these diodes. The expenditure for cooling may also be reduced substantially in comparison with the use of pn diodes due to the lower power losses.
Due to the breakdown voltage of an HED, the generator voltage, which rises when a load dump occurs, is limited. High electric powers are converted into heat on the diode for a short period of time, typically less than a few 100 milliseconds. In the case of a TJBS-PN, the integrated pn structures act as voltage-limiting Z diodes. The pn structures are operated in avalanche breakdown. The power drop at the diode corresponds to the product of the reverse voltage of the diode and the generator current. Due to the high power loss, the diode heats up to very high temperatures during this process. Barrier layer temperatures or junction temperatures Tj of more than 225° C. may occur. Since the avalanche breakdown voltage VZ increases with the temperature, the voltage actually occurring during the load dump is a few volts higher than reverse voltages VZ measured at low current densities and at room temperature. As a result, in the event of a breakdown, voltages of more than 30 volts may occur briefly in a 14 V vehicle electrical system. A simple drop in breakdown voltage VZ finds its limit in the voltage ripple of the generators (ripple). In modern vehicle electrical system architectures, there is a growing trend toward limiting the maximum occurring vehicle electrical system voltage to low levels, for example, to 27 V, in the event of a malfunction.

Semiconductor array having temperature-compensated breakdown voltage


There is disclosed a sensor system comprising a sensor for detecting and signaling the presence of a fluid in an enclosure. The sensor system can be installed or incorporated within electronics and communications enclosures that house fluid-sensitive components and is useful in the early detection and warning of fluid leaks into such enclosures. In addition to the sensor, the system includes a means for conducting fluids entering the enclosure to the sensor and absorbent material to absorb any entering fluid.

Briefly, fiber optic technology relates to the transmission of light through a light conducting material such as optical glass, fused silica, and certain plastics. The choice of a particular material depends on the intended use of the light transmission system, and takes into consideration the properties of the fiber including its refractive index, light transmittance, as well as thermal and chemical characteristics. The size (e.g., diameter and length) and configuration of the fiber optic device is also selected based on the intended use. Devices derived from light conducting materials having relatively large diameters are referred to as light pipes. In contrast, thin filaments having significantly smaller radii (e.g., from 100 to 3,000 micrometers, .mu.m) are commonly referred to as optical fibers.
Known systems are designed so that light travels through an optical fiber by total internal reflection. Light entering the optical fiber is retained by and guided through the fiber, ultimately exiting at the other end. Basically, as light is propagated through the fiber, rather than escaping from the fiber, light striking the surface of the fiber is reflected. The extent of light reflection at the fiber surface, and conversely the loss of light from the fiber due to refraction, is a function of the indices of refraction of the fiber and its surrounding medium. For example, light incident on a high-to-low refractive index boundary (such as the interface between an optical fiber and air) at any angle greater than the critical angle is 100% reflected at the interface. Typical refractive indices for optical fibers range from about 1.2 to about 1.8, whereas the refractive index of air is 1.0003. The critical angle is a property of the light conducting material and defined as the smallest angle with the normal to the boundary at which total internal reflection occurs. Thus, for light propagated through a high-index material and striking the walls at greater than the critical angle, no refractive loss of light from the fiber occurs and the light is channeled through the fiber by total internal reflection.
In practice, despite the highly efficient transmission of light by total internal reflection in optical fibers, some light loss from the fiber inevitably occurs. Light losses may include, for example, refractive loss resulting from incident light striking the fiber walls at less than the critical angle. Additional losses may also be attributed to optical impurities present within the fiber, which may scatter or absorb light traveling through the fiber.
In addition to the light losses noted above, the attenuation of light intensity through an optical fiber may result from engagement of a fiber with a medium having a refractive index approaching the index of the fiber. For example, when an optical fiber is engaged by a liquid having a relatively high refractive index, such as water (refractive index 1.33) or gasoline (refractive index 1.38), light loss from the fiber may occur.
Using these principles, the detection of liquid levels by fiber optic sensing is well known. Numerous fiber optic devices and methods exist for the measurement of fluid levels, such as fuel in a storage tank. Many of these devices and methods take advantage of the attenuation of light intensity through a light-conducting medium by refractive loss as a consequence of engaging the optical fiber with a refractive medium such as a liquid.
Relying on this operating principal, U.S. Pat. No. 4,187,025 to Harmer discloses a light guide having alternating curvatures (e.g., S- or W-shaped light guides) to produce a light signal corresponding to the refractive index of a liquid in contact with the guide. When immersed in a liquid, the alternating curvatures of the light guide provide refractive passage of an amount of light that is variable and depends on the refractive index of the liquid. For these curvatures, the ratio of radius of curvature to the radius of the cylindrical light guide core is preferably between 3 and 5. The alternating curvature configuration of the device provides for enhanced sensitivity compared to a curved section bent in a single direction, such as the U-shaped device disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,959 to Nakashima et al.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,427 to Scifres discloses several configurations of a fiber optical light guide useful for detecting liquids based on the various liquids' indices of refraction. The disclosed configurations include U-shaped and coiled light guides which, on immersion in a liquid, lose transmitted light as a function of the refractive index of the liquid.
A fiber optic detection system having a single fiber optic element in a U-shaped configuration and having a light variable loop section is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,362,971 to McMahon et al. Light transmitted through the light variable loop section escapes from the fiber when the loop section is contacted with a medium. For this system, the higher the index of refraction of the medium, the greater the amount of escaping light.
The devices noted above all share the characteristic of transmitting light through a smooth and continuous optical light guide. Optical guides having distinct reflective and refractive surfaces have also been employed to measure liquid levels. U.S. Pat. No. 3,995,169 to Odden discloses a U-shaped light pipe having planar internal reflecting surfaces positioned at both bends of the pipe. The planar surfaces act to reflect light from one arm of the pipe to the other arm without appreciable light loss when the refractive index of the surrounding medium is less than that of the light pipe. However, when the reflecting surfaces are immersed in a liquid, the planar surfaces become refractive surfaces and provide for the refraction of light from the light pipe to the surrounding liquid.
The use of reflective/refractive surfaces in optical devices to measure the presence of a liquid in contact with the surface, such as described above, is well known. Many of these optical devices include such surfaces present in conical configurations. In these optical devices, light is transmitted to the conical tip of the light guide where light is either: a) reflected across the tip and then returned via the light guide to a photodetector, when the conical tip of the guide is not in contact with a refracting medium such as a liquid; or b) refracted into the surrounding medium when the cone is immersed in a liquid. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,384,885 to Forbush, U.S. Pat. No. 3,535,933 to Pliml, U.S. Pat. No. 3,553,666 to Melone, U.S. Pat. No. 3,683,196 to Obenhaus, and U.S. Pat. No. 3,8321,235 to Bouton et al.
In addition to the use of refractive surfaces in cone-shaped optical devices, refractive surfaces have also been incorporated into fiber optic sensors. A fiber optic probe system sensor having a refracting surface is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,851,817 and 5,005,005 to Brossia et al. The disclosed optical fiber has a U-shaped configuration similar to those noted above for Scifres and McMahon. However, in contrast to the above-noted optical fibers, the optical fiber in Brossia provides a sensor portion having a rough, abraded refracting surface in the light path. The abraded refracting surface provides an opportunity for light to refract from the fiber and into the sensed medium. The more abraded the fiber, the more opportunities for energy passing through the fiber to interact with the sensed medium.
The devices noted above use refractive light loss from a light guide to sense the presence of a refractive medium in contact with the guide. However, in addition to light loss from an optical fiber through refraction, light loss from a fiber may also occur through evanescent wave losses.
As used herein, the term "evanescent wave" refers to electromagnetic radiation that results from the propagation of light through a light-conducting medium, and that is present outside of the light-conducting medium. When light is transmitted through a high index of refraction medium the evanescent wave (or field) is produced in the adjacent lower index of refraction material and has intensity only within a fractional wavelength distance from the interface between the two mediums. The intensity of the evanescent wave decreases exponentially with distance from the fiber core (i.e., E=E.sub.o e.sup.-.alpha.r where E is the intensity of the evanescent wave, E.sub.o is the light intensity in the optical fiber, and .alpha. relates to the differences in the index of refraction of the two mediums, and r is the distance from the fiber core). The presence in the field of a medium that absorbs light of the wavelength of the transmitted light will result in light loss from the fiber.
Just as for refractive light loss from optical fibers, sensors and related methods have been devised to exploit evanescent wave loss from optical fibers as a means for measuring or monitoring, for example, liquid levels in a tank or reservoir. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,287,427 to Scifres describes a liquid-level monitor including a fiber optic light guide having a fiber consisting of a core material surrounded by a cladding material. While most of the guided light is confined to the core, a small amount of light is present in the cladding. If the cladding is removed or is sufficiently thin, the evanescent wave in the thin cladding or, in the absence of cladding, near the outer edge of the core interacts with the surrounding medium. Several configurations of the fiber optic light guide are disclosed including partially and fully cladded, coiled and U-shaped fibers. For this device, evanescent wave loss from the fiber occurs primarily when the wavelength of the guided light matches the absorbance wavelengths of the surrounding medium.
A fiber optic evanescent wave sensor system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,291,032 to Vali et al. The sensor system includes a light source, detector, and a cladded optical fiber having a reflector at one end. In the system, infrared light matching the absorbance wavelengths of hydrocarbons, such as those present in fuels, is transmitted into the fiber. The cladding layer is sufficiently thin to permit evanescent wave light loss to the environment. When the fiber is immersed in an absorbing medium, evanescent wave loss occurs as a function of the length of the fiber immersed in the liquid. The amount of light returned to the detector by reflection from the end of the fiber is indicative of the depth of fiber immersion and amount of liquid present.
Accordingly, despite the number and variety of optical fiber sensors and methods for sensing various environmental parameters, there remains a need in the art for improved optical sensors that are highly sensitive, low cost, durable, compact, portable and suitable for field installation. The present invention seeks to fulfill these needs and provides further related advantages.


A partial response Class 4 detector in a recording and retrieval system and method of operating the detector for correcting the timing error of the detector. The detector includes a sequence table and comparison circuitry for comparing a sequence of data samples that includes previous and subsequent data samples with allowed sequences determined from the sequence table. When the sequence is an allowed sequence then there is high likelihood that data sample is correct, and the timing error for the data sample is determined in the phase error estimator and is corrected for. Otherwise, no correction is made for the timing error. In the preferred embodiment of the invention the coordinates of the sequence table correspond to the data samples, and the slope of the data stream at the data sample is stored in the sequence table. This reduces the size and increases the speed of the phase error estimator since the slope is now provided to it from the sequence table and it does not need determine the slope.

Increasing density of data transmitted or stored reduces the cost of transmitting and storing the data and the time it takes to transmit and store data. Therefore, it has been a long term goal of the electronics industry to increase the density of data transmitted or stored. Many systems use run-length limited (RLL) coding and peak detection (PD) to achieve high reliability and high densities. A further increase in density can be achieved using more advanced techniques such as partial response (PR) signaling and maximum-likelihood (ML) sequence detectors such as Viterbi detectors, or a combination of the two.
Partial response (PR) signaling is a technique that enforces spectral properties and allows a controlled amount of intersymbol interference. ML sequence estimation, and particularly the Viterbi algorithm, improves the detection of symbol sequences in the presence of intersymbol interference. ML sequence estimation allows most PR schemes to perform practically in a system with errors caused by intersymbol interference.
PR signaling also allows a better handling of intersymbol interference and a more efficient utilization of the bandwidth of a given channel. Because the intersymbol interference is known to be present, the receiver can take it into account. PR signaling in communications allows transmissions at the Nyquist rate, and provides a favorable trade-off between error probability and the available spectrum. The PR systems described by the polynomials 1+D, 1−D, and 1−D2 are called duobinary, dicode, and class-IV, respectively, where D represents one bit cell delay and D2 represents 2 bit cell delays. D=e−jωt, where ω is a frequency variable in radians per second and t is the sampling time interval in seconds. The PR4 magnitude response, 1−D2, emphasizes midband frequencies and results in a read channel with increased immunity to noise and distortion at both low and high frequencies.
Conventional disc drives are used to record and to retrieve information. As discs become more prevalent as the medium of choice for storing information in both computer and home entertainment equipment, disc drives likewise become more prevalent and important components of such electronic systems. PR and ML have been employed in communications signaling for many years, and have now been applied commercially within magnetic hard disk drives. PR4 is presently a preferred partial response system in disc drives, since there is a close correlation between the idealized PR4 spectrum, and the natural characteristics of a magnetic data write/read channel. Application of the Viterbi algorithm to PR4 data streams within a magnetic recording channel is known to improve detection of original symbol sequences in the presence of intersymbol interference and also to improve signal to noise ratio over comparable peak detection techniques.
EPR4 and EEPR4 are higher order PR detection schemes that further increase the density of data that can be stored and transmitted.
FIG. 1 shows a portion of a conventional detector 10, the detector 10 can be a PR4, EPR4, or an EEPR4 detector. The detector 10 has a slicer 20 that samples a data stream to obtain data samples x′(T).
The output of the slicer 20 is also connected to a phase error estimator 22, typically through an equalizer (not shown). The phase error estimator 22 is coupled to a D to A converter 24 whose output is provided to an oscillator 26, which generates the clock, clk(T), that clocks the slicer 20 to control the data sample rate. Each data sample x′(T) is passed to the phase error estimator 22 that determines the timing error for the sample x′(T) and outputs a signal that adjusts the clock frequency of the oscillator 26.
The output of the slicer 20 is also connected to a Viterbi detector. The slicer 20 outputs a sequence of data samples, which are input to the Viterbi detector 28 for analysis and detection to aid in obtaining the decoded data. The output of the Viterbi detector 28 provides the data stream to the system for further detection and analysis.
A problem with PR detectors 10 is that as the density increases or as the complexity of the detector increases the same amount of noise that was previously acceptable can cause false detection of the sample. A false detection can lead to a timing error that will cause the oscillator to adjust the clock frequency to an incorrect frequency. Clocking the slicer 20 at a frequency that does not match the data rate will cause the slicer 20 to sample the next data sample at the wrong time, which will lead to an incorrect data value and to an incorrect timing error for the next data sample, leading to the data value after that being sampled at the wrong time, and so on.

Timing recovery for data sampling of a detector


A method of simultaneously controlling East/West and North/South positioning and unloading momentum of a spacecraft while orbiting an object. The spacecraft has a thruster array and a momentum accumulator. The method entails moving said spacecraft towards a node of the orbit. At a predetermined position on the orbit, separate from the node, a thruster of the thruster array is fired so as to control the orbital position of the spacecraft. While the thruster is being fired, momentum is dumped from the momentum accumulator at the predetermined position so that any loss in control in the attitude of the spacecraft is reduced.

Currently, when a spacecraft, such as a satellite, is moving in an orbit about a planetary body, such as the Earth, the spacecraft encounters disturbances, such as solar wind. These disturbances, left unchecked, will create a series of impulses of momentum which will saturate the momentum accumulator which could cause a loss in attitude. The amount of deviation is directly related to the specific configuration of the spacecraft--the more symmetric a spacecraft is about its center of mass the amount of deviation is minimized. For example, the most severe configuration of satellite with a single reflector can result in the satellite encountering daily momentum accumulations in roll, pitch and yaw by amounts of 5, 10 and 5 Nms, respectively. In a more typical case of a satellite having two symmetrically mounted reflectors, momentum accumulation in roll, pitch and yaw can each amount to 5 Nms.
To counteract such accumulations of momentum, spacecraft employ momentum accumulators which store the momentum encountered by the spacecraft so that the effect of the momentum is minimized or reduced. Examples of well known momentum accumulators is a pyramid of reaction wheels or gimbaled momentum wheels.
These momentum accumulators, however, are unable to accumulate momentum without end. Eventually, the stored momentum needs to be dumped or unloaded during the orbit of the spacecraft. However, the manner in which a spacecraft performs thruster operations to remain in a desired orbit, known as stationkeeping, does have an effect on the momentum dumping capability of the spacecraft. Furthermore, in such stationkeeping, the dumping capability is maximized when the total daily burn time is maximum (maximum inclination delta-v) and when the burn time is distributed most symmetrically throughout the day (minimum eccentricity and longitudinal acceleration delta-v). The worst-case conditions for dumping capability are therefore the minimum-eccentricity control strategy with minimum north-south disturbance in the 17 year life cycle of a satellite and with maximum longitudinal acceleration.
Several stationkeeping methodologies are possible. For example, prior satellites have unloaded momentum simultaneous with North/South stationkeeping only by using thrusters mounted on the North face. Simultaneous control of East/West positioning is not contemplated with this method.
Another possible method of stationkeeping is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,443,231 to Anzel. That application describes a method of East/West and North/South stationkeeping which uses four gimballed ion thrusters in the same configuration as shown in FIG. 2 of the present application.
In a third example, gimballed ion thrusters are mounted on the North face and the South face of a satellite for momentum unloading during North/South stationkeeping, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,349,532 to Tilley et al. Again, East/West stationkeeping is not performed.
Furthermore, gimballed ion thrusters are used for North-South stationkeeping on the EUROSTAR Spacecraft. This spacecraft appears not to disclose momentum unloading nor the use of the system for East-West stationkeeping.
While the above-mentioned control systems are generally adequate for their intended purpose, there is room for improvement. For example, the fuel efficiency of the above-mentioned control systems is adversely affected because North/South and East/West stationkeeping and momentum dumping are not performed simultaneously. Furthermore, unloading of momentum is not done in an efficient manner by prioritizing which systems are activated to dump momentum.

Momentum unloading using gimbaled thrusters


A method and structure for producing an angled RF connection between a first element and a second element using a flexible substrate is provided. The method includes laminating a flexible substrate onto the first element; bending the flexible substrate such that a bonding pad on the flexible substrate is in a similar plane as a bonding pad on the second element; and creating the angled RF connection by wire bonding the bonding pad on the flexible substrate and the bonding pad on the second element. The structure includes a flexible substrate that is laminated onto a first element as an outer layer, flexible substrate having at least one bonding pad, and the flexible substrate able to bend in an angle that places the bonding pad in a same plane as a bonding pad on a second element.

1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure is directed to printed wiring boards and more particularly, to an angled RE connection using a flexible substrate.
2. Related Art
Many high-density, high performance electronic systems use a three-dimensional packaging architecture. Many current phased array architectures utilize this three dimensional packaging concept, where the modules are vertically oriented to allow proper lattice spacing for a given frequency. Each module, in general, includes a distribution network, a chip carrier, and a radiator.
High frequency RF signals from a vertically oriented chip set are connected to a horizontally oriented radiator board, also referred to as an Antenna Integrated Printed Wiring Board (AIPWB). Reduction of radiated power during transmit operation and an increase of noise during receive operation are directly proportional to losses caused by this connection. Traditional designs use manually formed wirebonds for connecting these vertical and horizontal assemblies.
Manual wire bonding is typically used because Commercial Off-the-Shelf (COTS) wirebonders cannot produce bonds having bonding pads in different, angled planes with limited access. This manual approach is tedious, consuming assembly time, often requiring manual repairs (touch-up) to produce an acceptable connection, and does not produce a consistently performing RF connection.
Therefore, a structure and method are needed that support an angled RF interconnection between two elements without expensive manual wire bonding, while preserving or enhancing design integrity.

Method and system for angled RF connection using a flexible substrate


A signal transmission circuit is formed by a transmitter, a receiver, a transmission line therebetween, and a bias circuit. The transmitter receives an input signal to transmit a signal corresponding to the input signal to the input of the transmission line. A voltage amplitude of the transmitted signal is smaller than a voltage amplitude defined by first and second power supply terminals. The receiver receives the transmitted signal, adjusts a voltage of the received signal in accordance with a bias voltage to generate a voltage adjusted signal, and wave-shapes the voltage adjusted signal to generate an output signal. The bias circuit differentially amplifies the output signal of the receiver and an inverted signal thereof to generate the bias voltage. The bias circuit includes a capacitor charged and discharged in accordance with the bias voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a signal transmission circuit used between data line (or signal line) driver circuits of a display apparatus such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in an LCD apparatus, a plurality of driver circuits such as data line driver circuits formed by large scale integrated (LSI) circuits are mounted on a glass substrate of an LCD panel by a chips-on-glass (COG) process or a system-on-glass (SOG) process. In this case, the data line driver circuits are arranged by a cascade connection method using aluminum connections therebetween. Therefore, since the aluminum connections have large resistances, high speed signal transmission circuits are required.
A first prior art signal transmission circuit is constructed by a transmitter formed by a CMOS inverter, a receiver formed by a CMOS inverter, and a transmission line therebetween. This will be explained later in detail.
In the above-described first prior art signal transmission circuit, however, the higher the frequency of a transmitted signal, the larger the power consumption.
A second prior art signal transmission circuit uses a reduced swing differential signaling (RSDS) method in conformity with the interface standard of National Semiconductor Corp. This also will be explained later in detail.
In the above-described second prior art signal transmission circuit, however, the power consumption is still large. Also, since each signal transmission circuit requires two transmission lines, the signal transmission circuit is complex and large in scale.
A third prior art signal transmission circuit is constructed by precharging circuits for precharging the input and output, respectively, of a transmission line, in order to decrease the power consumption (see: JP-A-2001-156180). This also will be explained later in detail.
In the above-described third prior art signal transmission circuit, although the power consumption can be decreased, the precharging circuits are required, which would complicate and increase the circuit configuration in size.

Simple signal transmission circuit capable of decreasing power consumption


A method of and system for directional drilling reduces the friction between the drill string and the well bore. A downhole drilling motor is connected to the surface by a drill string. The drilling motor is oriented at a selected tool face angle. The drill string is rotated at said surface location in a first direction until a first torque magnitude without changing the tool face angle. The drill string is then rotated in the opposite direction until a second torque magnitude is reached, again without changing the tool face angle. The drill string is rocked back and forth between the first and second torque magnitudes.

It is very expensive to drill bore holes in the earth such as those made in connection with oil and gas wells. Oil and gas bearing formations are typically located thousands of feet below the surface of the earth. Accordingly, thousands of feet of rock must be drilled through in order to reach the producing formations. Additionally, many wells are drilled directionally, wherein the target formations may be spaced laterally thousands of feet from the well's surface location. Thus, in directional drilling, not only must the depth but also the lateral distance of rock must be penetrated.
The cost of drilling a well is primarily time dependent. Accordingly, the faster the desired penetration location, both in terms of depth and lateral location, is achieved, the lower the cost in completing
While many operations are required to drill and complete a well, perhaps the most important is the actual drilling of the bore hole. In order to achieve the optimum time of completion of a well, it is necessary to drill at the optimum rate of penetration and to drill in the minimum practical distance to the target location. Rate of penetration depends on many factors, but a primary factor is weight on bit.
Directional drilling is typically performed using a bent sub mud motor drilling tool that is connected to the surface by a drill string. During sliding drilling, the drill string is not rotated; rather, the drilling fluid circulated through the drill string cause the bit of the mud motor drilling tool to rotate. The direction of drilling is determined by the azimuth or face angle of the drilling bit. Face angle information is measured downhole by a steering tool. Face angle information is typically conveyed from the steering tool to the surface using relatively low bandwidth mud pulse signaling. The driller attempts to maintain the proper face angle by applying torque or drill string angle corrections to the drill string.
Several problems in directional drilling are caused by the fact that a substantial length of the drill string is in frictional contact with and supported by the borehole. Since the drill string is not rotating, it is difficult to overcome the friction. The difficulty in overcoming the friction makes it difficult for the driller to apply sufficient weight to the bit to achieve an optimal rate of penetration. The drill string exhibits stick/slip friction such that when a sufficient amount of weight is applied to overcome the friction, the drill the weight on bit tends to overshoot the optimum magnitude.
Additionally, the reactive torque that would be transmitted from the bit to the surface through drill string, if the hole were straight, is absorbed by the friction between the drill string and the borehole. Thus, during drilling, there is substantially no reactive torque at the surface. Moreover, when the driller applies drill string angle corrections at the surface in an attempt to correct the bit face angle, a substantial amount of the angular change is absorbed by friction without changing the face angle in stick/slip fashion. When enough angular correction is applied to overcome the friction, the face angle may overshoot its target, thereby requiring the driller to apply a reverse angular correction.
It is known that the frictional engagement between the drill string and the borehole can be reduced by rocking the drill string back and forth between a first angle and a second angle. By rocking the string, the stick/slip friction is reduced, thereby making it easier for the driller to control the weight on bit and make appropriate face angle corrections.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for directional drilling


A competition avoidance control method for a data transmission-reception system, a data transmission-reception system and a terminal for a data transmission-reception system for reducing electricity consumption by the terminal in wait state to send a PS-POLL. Each terminal sends a PS-POLL to an access point after a designated time has passed. Therefore, the terminals hardly send the PS-POLLs simultaneously to the access point. Thus, the terminals can avoid wasteful standby state, thus consuming lower amount of electricity while waiting to send PS-POLL.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a competition avoidance control method for a data transmission-reception system in which a base station and a plurality of terminals are connected to prevent competition for priority over data reception among the terminals during the period from when the respective terminals receive an indication signal simultaneously until they receive an indication signal, a data transmission-reception system, and a terminal for a data transmission-reception system.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 is a sequence diagram to explain a conventional method for controlling a wireless LAN as a data transmission-reception system.
FIG. 1 shows an example of data reception sequence in stations or terminals (hereinafter referred to as STA) in the power save (hereinafter referred to as PS) mode of the infrastructure of a wireless LAN in which an access point (hereinafter referred to as AP) as a base station and a plurality of terminals are wirelessly connected.
In FIG. 1, the shaded portions of each of the STAs 1 and 2 show electricity consumption.
The AP cyclically sends an annunciation signal called Beacon to all the STAs. The beacon contains information about the presence or absence of data to each STA.
In FIG. 1, each STA consumes electricity to receive the beacons. The STA 1 learns that there is data to the STA 1 by the second beacon and sends a packet called PS-POLL to the AP. Having received the PS-POLL, the AP recognizes that the STA 1 is ready for data reception, thus sending data to the STA 1. After receiving this data, the STA 1 sends an acknowledgement packet ACK to the AP. The STA 1 consumes electricity in sending the PS-POLL, receiving the data, and sending the ACK.
The operation of the conventional data transmission-reception system for a plurality of STAs will be described referring to FIG. 2.
FIG. 2 is a sequence diagram to explain the conventional method for controlling a wireless LAN for a plurality of terminals.
When both the STA 1 and STA 2 have data to be received, each STA tries to send its PS-POLL to the AP after receiving a beacon. The STA which failed to acquire a priority to send the PS-POLL (STA 2 in FIG. 2) is in the wait state (standby mode) until the STA 1 finishes receiving the data. Because it is unclear when the STA 1 finishes receiving the data, the STA 2 always monitors electric wave condition and also is ready for transmission, and therefore consumes electricity all the while.
The case that there is data for one STA is shown in FIG. 1.
On receipt of a beacon indicating that the AP has data for the STA 1, the STAL sends a PS-POLL to the AP just after finishing beacon receiving process. The AP learns by receiving the PS-POLL that the STA 1 is ready for reception, and sends the data to the STA 1 in response to the PS-POLL.
The case that there are data for a plurality of STAs is shown in FIG. 2. On receipt of beacons indicating that the AP has data for both the STA 1 and STA 2, the respective STAs try to send a PS-POLL just after having received a beacon as in the case of FIG. 1.
However, to avoid radio collision, these two STAs are given priority on a first-come basis (competition).
In the following, a description will be given of the competition.
Normally, for power saving, the STAs switch to receiving mode at beacon intervals, and otherwise turn off the transmission-reception circuit to enter the mode consuming as little electricity as possible. In other words, when the AP simply sends data to the STA, the STA cannot receive the data because the reception circuit is off. Therefore, the AP sends a beacon to the STA and waits for a response, PS-POLL. When the AP has data to send to some STAs (the same or different data may be sent to the respective STAs), the AP sends the data to the STAs in order of receipt of their PS-POLLs. Incidentally, the STA arbitrarily sends data to the AP. The AP is always ready to send and receive data, and therefore, is capable of sending data immediately if the radio wave is available.
When sending a PS-POLL, the STA monitors the radio wave condition. If the radio wave is available, the STA sends the PS-POLL. Thus, the respective STAs send a PS-POLL on a first-come basis.
In FIG. 2, the STA 1 won the priority competition. Having failed to acquire the priority, the STA 2 waits for the STA 1 to finish data receiving process while monitoring the radio condition because the time which it takes for the STA 1 to complete the process is unclear. The STA 2 sends a PS-POLL to the AP immediately after the STA 1 has finished data receiving process to receive data. The STAs waste electricity after failing to acquire the priority until sending the PS-POLL.
Consequently, for example, the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. HEI 8-195754 has proposed a radio communication device intended to reduce electricity consumption.
However, according to the conventional technique mentioned above, because the standby time of a mobile station is set longer every time the beacon signal is received, there is a high possibility that an interrupt from another mobile station occurs during the standby time. On the other hand, because standby time is set short while the beacon signal is not received, there is a possibility that the mobile station wastefully consumes electricity. In addition, because the timer operation is stopped when the standby time is shorter than a designated length, there is also a possibility that the mobile station wastefully consumes electricity.

Competition avoidance control method for data transmission-reception system, data transmission-reception system, and terminal for data transmission-reception system


A magnetic pickup for musical instruments, more particularly, for stringed instruments such as an electric guitar. A plurality of individual pickups are housed in a plastic cover. Each pickup comprises a pole piece made of a ferromagnetic material which pole piece is substantially surrounded by a coil. Each coil is disposed inside a polarized permanent magnet cup and the pole pieces are arranged in a humbucking configuration. One end of each pole piece is physically connected to an alloy bar or strip wherein the bar is separated into two pieces by an air gap. The alloy bar at the top of the assembly is preferably exposed to the strings of the instrument via a slot in the top of the plastic cover.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic pickup for musical instruments, more particularly, for stringed instruments such as electric guitars.
2. Background Information
A magnetic pickup essentially converts, via induction, the mechanical vibrations of the strings of the instrument into an electrical signal so that the signal can be amplified and fed to a speaker where the signal is converted to sound. Magnetic pickups are typically mounted on the body of the instrument, such as guitar, beneath the strings and at one or more points between the bridge and the neck of the guitar. Generally, a pickup comprises a permanent magnet and a magnetic circuit adapted to generate magnetic flux lines, which flux lines pass longitudinally through portions of the strings. In a pickup, wire coil is generally wound around a permanent magnet in such a manner that the vibration of the strings causes a variation in the magnetic flux which then generates an electrical signal in the coil. The electrical signal can then be amplified and fed to a speaker.


A mounting structure including: an outer housing having a first locking portion; a ceiling including a lamp opening portion in a central portion thereof; an inner housing including: a first locking facing portion which is locked in the first locking portion of the outer housing; and a second locking portion on and directly attached to the inner housing; and a reinforcement having a second locking facing portion which is locked on the second locking portion of the inner housing. The ceiling is fixed between the outer housing and the inner housing by locking the first locking facing portion of the inner housing in the first locking portion of the outer housing via the lamp opening portion in the ceiling. A bracket portion shaped so as to follow a shape of an upper side of the ceiling is provided along an outer circumference of the inner housing.

Conventionally, a conventional mounting structure for use in mounting a room lamp in a ceiling of a passenger compartment has been known. In the conventional mounting structure, a head lining constituting a ceiling is installed onto an inner side of a roof panel, and an room lamp is installed in a lamp installation hole provided in the head lining from below (refer to Patent Documents 1 and 2).

Mounting structure for automotive room lamp


A method for configuring a first near-field communication device according to a modulation type transmitted by a second device, wherein: a decoder of the first device is configured to decode a type-A modulation; a signal received during a first time slot corresponding to the duration of a first type-A symbol is decoded; and the first device is configured according to the value of the decoded symbol to determine the modulation type.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments generally relate to electronic circuits and, more specifically, to near-field radio frequency communication devices.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
More and more radio frequency communication devices are capable of operating in near field with a fixed terminal or another mobile device. In particular, most mobile phone type telecommunication devices are now equipped with a near-field communication (NFC) router.
It is generally spoken of NFC devices operating in card mode (or emulating a card), as opposed to a second operating mode of such devices, which is to emulate a card reader to cooperate with another near-field device. The device then behaves as a terminal.
There are different near-field communication standards. The difference between such standards essentially is the modulation and coding type of data to be transmitted. Formerly, transponders were most often dedicated to one type of modulation. They are now designed to be able to operate according to different modulation types are can thus be configured to set this type on each new transaction with a terminal.
The modulation type is most often set by the terminal and the transponder-type device modifies the configuration of its NFC router to be able to communicate with this reader.
Usually, the router or the radio frequency front head capable of operating according to different modulations successively switches to these different modulations until it recognizes a request transmitted by a reader. This however takes time.
Further, some terminals are themselves capable of operating according to different modulation types to be able to adapt to transponders dedicated to a single type. In this case, the terminal successively sends requests according to the different types until it receives a response in one of the types. However, the terminal should leave enough time between two types (generally on the order of a few milliseconds) so that a configurable transponder also has time to scan the different modulation types until both configurations (terminal and transponder) match.
Such a configuration process is long and makes the device in card mode risk never to detect a request.

Configuration of a near-field communication router according to the modulation type


A high pressure fluid control device includes a valve body defining an inlet, an outlet, and a throat disposed between the inlet and the outlet. The valve body defines a longitudinal axis. A valve seat is disposed in the throat and includes a sloped surface. A seat support is disposed in the throat and is adjacent to the valve seat. The seat support includes a sloped surface adjacent to the sloped surface of the valve seat. A control element is disposed in the valve body and includes a stem and a seating surface. The control element is movable between an open position, in which the seating surface is spaced away from the valve seat, and a closed position, in which the seating surface engages the valve seat. The sloped surface of the seat support provides a rigid support to the valve seat to resist deformation of the valve seat.

Plants and factories utilize process control devices to control the flow of fluids in processes, wherein "fluids" may include liquids, gases, or any mixture that can flow through a pipe. Manufacturing processes that create consumer articles or goods such as fuel, food, and clothes require control valves to control and regulate fluid flow. Even a medium sized factory may utilize hundreds of control valves to control a process. Control valves have been utilized for over a century, during which time valve designers have continuously improved the operational performance of control valves.
FIG. 1 depicts one example of a conventional bi-directional control valve 10. More particularly, the bi-directional control valve 10 of FIG. 1 includes an air-operated bi-directional control valve 10 in that a pneumatic supply is used to control the control valve 10. The conventional bi-directional control valve 10 generally includes a valve body 12 and an actuator assembly 14. The actuator assembly 14 contains a control element 16 that is adapted for sliding displacement within the valve body 10 between a closed position, which is illustrated in FIG. 1, and an open position (not shown).
More specifically, the valve body 12 includes an inlet 18, an outlet 20, and a throat 22. The throat 22 carries a valve seat 24 for being engaged by the control element 16 to close the valve 10, as depicted. The actuator assembly 14, as mentioned, includes the control element 16. Additionally, the actuator assembly 14 includes a housing 26, a valve insert 28, and a spring 30. The control element 16 generally includes a stem portion 32 and a piston 34. The stem portion 32 extends through the throat 22 of the valve body 12 and includes a reduced diameter portion 32a defining a seating surface 36. The seating surface 36 engages the valve seat 24 when the control element 16 is in the closed position.
The spring 30 is disposed between the valve insert 28 and the piston 34 such as to bias the piston 34, and therefore the control element 16, upward relative to the orientation of the valve 10 of FIG. 1, and into the closed position. As depicted in FIG. 1, the piston 34 of the control element 16 is slidably disposed within a piston cavity 40 defined by the housing 26. The housing 26 additionally defines a threaded aperture 42 for threadably receiving a supply line (not shown) connected to a pneumatic supply, for example, a source of compressed shop-air supplied at a pressure of between approximately eighty (80) psig and approximately one-hundred and fifty (150) psig. The force required to move the piston 34 is a function of the surface area of the piston 34. In the disclosed conventional valve 10, the piston 34 includes a diameter of approximately one and three-hundred and seventy-five thousands of an inch (1.375″). This provides a surface area sufficient for the compressed shop-air to displace the piston 34 as required.
The position of the control element 16 within the control valve 10 can be controlled by introducing compressed air into the piston cavity 40. For example, in the absence of compressed air supplied to the cavity 40, the spring 30 biases the piston 34 into the position depicted in FIG. 1, which causes the seating surface 36 of the stem portion 32 to sealingly engage the valve seat 24 and close the valve 10. However, the introduction of compressed air into the cavity 40 increases the pressure in the cavity 40 above the piston 34, which then causes the piston 34 and the entire control element 16 to displace downward relative to the orientation of the valve depicted in FIG. 1. Accordingly, the seating surface 36 of the stem portion 32 disengages from the valve seat 24 and opens the valve 10 to allow fluid to flow therethrough.
In some conventional applications, when the valve 10 is closed, as depicted in FIG. 1, the fluid process is such that pressure remains built up within the system. As mentioned above, in the absence of compressed air being supplied to the piston cavity 40 of the housing 26, the spring 30 biases the control element 16 into the closed position, as depicted in FIG. 1, such that the seating surface 36 seats against the valve seat 24.


Communication data for an organization, such as call, email, and instant messaging activity data from different data sources is collected and analyzed together using a correlation and behavior analysis tool. A set of communication activity records and/or specific contact data information may be provided by the organization's data sources or by an external law enforcement entity. The organization data may be analyzed according to rules and policies of data analysis and correlation using the multiple data sources to identify and report related communication activity or contact data to the internal personnel or external law enforcement for continued investigation in tracking fraud rings and other illegal activities.

Financial institutions such as banks and a growing number of other businesses in today's fast-paced economy manage assets and funds for customers, and provide secure services and transactions to allow customers to quickly transfer or withdrawal their assets, and to retrieve and update confidential account information online, over the phone, via email, or using other remote communications supported by the business. However, the vast numbers of accounts, customers, and assets stored by financial institutions, along with the new technical features for quickly and remotely accessing account assets, data, and other confidential information have led to a robust banking fraud community. Financial institutions lose millions of dollars each year to fraud, and sophisticated criminals have become experts at fraudulently acquiring sensitive information, such as social security numbers, bank account numbers and PINs, credit card numbers, and online login credentials (i.e., usernames and passwords) for secure business applications. In fact, employees of financial institutions and other business are often recruited to assist with perpetrating a fraud or other illegal activities against the business by compromising the assets and confidential data of the customers or the business itself. Unfortunately, most security systems focus on the detection and prevention of unauthorized external access attempts against the customers' accounts, or external attempts to acquire other secure and confidential information from the business. Thus, fraud activities conducted internally or assisted by employees may elude detection by an internal or external investigation group for long periods of time, and may allow internal fraud rings to go undetected long enough to cause considerable damage to compromised accounts and to acquire many pieces of confidential information.
Previous attempts to investigate fraud and other illegal activities within an organization have included implementing an infrastructure within the organization for monitoring and reviewing internal-to-internal and internal-to-external communications, such as telephone dialed digit data and email transmission data. However, this data is typically only available as a dialed digit or email report at the end of predetermined time period, for example, every 30 or 60 days. Thus, the format and timing of current reports may frustrate efforts to conduct thorough and timely investigations. For example, if a bank employee is suspected of participating in a fraud ring, the bank might need to wait weeks or months before reviewing the employee's work phone records. Then, if a second employee is identified as another potential fraud ring member, the bank investigation personnel must endure another lengthy wait to retrieve the phone records of the second employee.
Additionally, in previous attempts to create a fraud investigation infrastructure within an organization, there was no way to perform an automatic data analysis for correlation rules, trends, and patterns including multiple data sources. For example, either phone data or email data could be analyzed, but they could not be analyzed together to search for patterns or communication sequences involving multiple types of communications. In view of these limitations, the role of this internal communication data in a fraud investigation conducted by an organization is often restricted to after-the-fact corroborative evidence that is often used only after the fraud ring has been identified and acted against. Accordingly, there remains a need for systems and methods for collection and analysis of multiple data sources of communication data for investigation of fraud and other illegal activities.

Collection and analysis of multiple data sources


A system and method for processing video information. Various aspects of the present invention may provide a decoder module that decodes block encoded video information. The system may, for example, include a first memory module, communicatively coupled to the decoder module, that stores video processing information utilized by the decoder module for decoding a current video block from a current video frame. The system may also, for example, include a second memory module, communicatively coupled to the decoder module, that stores reference video information from a previous video frame utilized by the decoder module for decoding the current video block. In a non-limiting exemplary scenario, the first memory module and the second memory module may be communicatively coupled to the decoder module with independent respective data and/or address buses.

Video communication systems may utilize any of a variety of video encoding techniques to efficiently utilize limited communication bandwidth. Such systems generally utilize relatively low amounts of communication bandwidth at the expense of relatively high amounts of data processing on the transmitting and receiving systems.
Many modern video communication systems utilize video compression (or encoding) based on motion compensation. Decoding video information that has been encoded with a motion compensation technique (e.g., particularly in real-time) may require a relative large amount of memory access bandwidth. For example and without limitation, accessing reference video information for motion compensation processing may require a relatively large amount of memory access bandwidth.
The general trend has been to provide relatively larger amounts of memory access bandwidth through the utilization of larger memory modules (e.g., providing more data per read) and memory types with multiple memory accesses per read cycle (e.g., dual data rate and quadruple data rate memory chips). For various types of memory accesses, however, increasing memory access bandwidth using the above solutions may increase video decoder performance by only a low amount relative to the cost.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such systems with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.

Reducing motion compensation memory bandwidth through memory utilization


Methods for generating a consumer profile. The method may include receiving a purchase authorization request including a card number from a consumer, generating, with a key module, a hash value of the card number and generating, at the server, a card identifier. The method may also include associating the generated card identifier with the generated hash value, storing, at a server database, the associated card identifier, and associating, with a processor, the card identifier with the consumer profile.

Vending systems are often used to dispense products and/or services to consumer in locations where it would be impractical or inefficient to staff human beings to provide the products/services. Vending systems may be equipped with magnetic card readers and wireless payment systems. The wireless payment systems may utilize mobile payment applications. Operators of vending machines often implement loyalty programs to promote consumer loyalty. Improved methods, systems and apparatus for implementing consumer loyalty programs associated with wireless payment systems are desirable.

Unattended retail systems, methods and devices for linking payments, loyalty, and rewards


Compounds of the formula (I)

Erectile dysfunction is the inability to obtain and maintain a penile erection sufficient for sexual intercourse or other sexual expression. A number of factors can place an individual at risk for this disorder, for example, trauma, pelvic surgery, hypercholesterolemia, ischemic heart disease, peripheral vascular disease, chronic renal failure, diabetes, the use of certain medicaments including some types of antihypertensive agents, digoxin, or the excessive use of narcotics, alcohol, tobacco, etc. Methods for treating erectile dysfunction include the use of vacuum devices and penile implants, as well as the administration of medicaments such as yohimbine, papaverine and apomorphine. Improved methods for treating this disorder are sought, however, as the aforementioned methods do not provide sufficient efficacy and/or are accompanied by drawbacks or side effects such as erosion, pain, priapism, or gastrointestinal discomfort.
A penile erection is dependent upon the presence of adequate levels of cyclic guanosine 3′,5′-monophosphate (cGMP), especially in corpora cavernosa tissue. Thus, administering an inhibitor of a cGMP phosphodiesterase (cGMP PDE), particularly a selective inhibitor of cGMP PDE Type 5 (PDE 5), provides a means for achieving and maintaining an erection and therefore, for treating erectile dysfunction. See Trigo-Rocha et al., "Nitric Oxide and cGMP: Mediators of Pelvic Nerve-Stimulated Erection in Dogs," Am. J. Physiol., Vol. 264 (February 1993); Bowman et al., "Cyclic GMP Mediates Neurogenic Relaxation in the Bovine Retractor Penis Muscle," Br. J. Pharmac., 81, 665-674 (1984); and Rajfer et al., "Nitric Oxide as a Mediator of Relaxation of the Corpus Cavernosum in Response to Nonadrenergic, Noncholinergic Neurotransmission," New England J. Med., 326, 2, 90-94 (January 1992). Sildenafil, for example, has been described as a PDE 5 inhibitor useful for treating erectile dysfunction. See Drugs of the Future, 22, 138-143 (1997).
Recent examples of other compounds claimed as PDE 5 inhibitors include fused pyridazine compounds (WO 96/05176 and U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/393,833), anthranilic acid derivatives (U.S. Pat. No. 5,716,993), fused pyridopyridazine compounds (U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/526,162), and quinazolinone compounds (U.S. Pat. No. 6,087,368). The present invention provides compounds that are potent and selective inhibitors of cGMP PDE 5. These compounds may be employed in treating erectile dysfunction. In view of their activity, these compounds can also be used in treating other disorders responding to the inhibition of cGMP PDE, such as various cardiovascular disorders.

Quinoline inhibitors of cGMP phosphodiesterase

Abstract: Compounds of the formula (I)

Abstract: are useful as inhibitors of cGMP PDE especially Type 5.


A sliding door for selectively opening and closing an opening is disclosed. The door is comprised of a door panel having a top, a bottom, a leading edge and a trailing edge. The door panel translates laterally relative to the opening between a closed position and an open position. The door has a guide, a guide follower, and a reset member. The guide is mounted to a mounting surface located between the upper and lower extent of the opening, and comprises a first end disposed proximate the opening and a second end opposite the first end. The guide follower is attached to the door panel and disposed in operable engagement with the guide. The reset member is disposed proximate the second end of the guide. The reset member has a surface that is angularly oriented to facilitate operable engagement and alignment of the guide follower with the guide.

Sliding doors have been used for many years to secure or isolate various enclosures, including those for cold storage facilities, manufacturing plants, warehouses, garages, and other industrial rooms. Unique to cold storage applications is the need for both door speed and sealing of the doors when closed. Also, unique to cold storage applications is the need for good insulating properties of the door panels themselves. To accommodate both the desirability of fast opening and closing, as well as good insulating properties, door panels can be constructed, for example, from light-weight foam.
Inherent to doors used in connection with cold-storage applications are problems associated with air pressure differentials across opposite faces of the door. These differentials can be caused by a large temperature differential between the cold storage area and the area outside of the cold storage area. These pressure differentials, and others caused for example, by ambient wind, tend to push the door panels inward or outward and away from the walls surrounding the door. Air pressure differentials can also be created by a rapidly actuated panel. Any of these causes can displace a door panel out of its intended plane of travel. This is especially true for relatively light weight panels. This displacement can result in improper positioning of the door when it reaches its closed position, thereby creating problems with proper sealing of the doorway. This can also result in wear and ultimately damage to the hardware associated with the door, including the overhead track.
Others have proposed devices for helping to keep a sliding door panel in proper alignment as it slides. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,330,763 issued to Kern et al discloses a ring tethered to a door panel, the ring being slidable along a rope attached to the wall. This rope and ring system is proposed to retain door panels in a position near a wall when sliding. However, it appears that the system proposed in Kern has several deficiencies including that the rope and ring tether (slide restraint and slide) would not, especially with flexible door panels, provide sufficient control over the entire panel except for a portion, such as the trailing edge of the panel, where the slide is tethered to the panel.
Another problem associated with industrial doors is that based upon productivity goals, doors are often hit by forklift trucks or the like which traverse the door opening while the door panels are still partially or completely in a closed position. Accordingly, systems have been proposed for permitting sliding doors to be displaced from their normal plane of travel to accommodate the impact force of the vehicle. Kern et al discloses making the slide of its system frangible. This would require keeping and inventory of spare parts (e.g. slide rings) and down time for the door and traffic while the slide was replaced by maintenance personnel. Kern also discloses the use of flexible tether or rope. This flexible material adds to the lack of control of the panel. It also appears inherent to such flexible ropes that they would work only for a finite distance of displacement upon impact.
The present invention is provided to solve the problems discussed above and other problems, and to provide advantages and aspects not provided by prior doors of this type.

Reset mechanism for a panel guide and impact separation system for a sliding door


A power plant capable of suppressing loss, and attaining downsizing and enhancement of mountability of the power plant. In the power plant T, the rotational speeds of third to first sun gears S3 to S1 and a carrier member 111 are in a collinear relationship with each other, and are sequentially aligned in the mentioned order in a collinear chart indicating the relationship between the rotational speeds. Further, the third sun gear S3 and the carrier member 111 are connected to first and second torque generators 113 and 114 capable of generating positive torque and negative torque, respectively, and the second and first sun gears S2 and S1 are connected to one and the other of two rotating shafts, respectively.

Conventionally, as a power plant of this kind, one disclosed in PTL 1 is known. This conventional power plant is applied to a four-wheel vehicle, and includes an internal combustion engine as a motive power source, a differential gear for distributing torque of the engine to left and right output shafts, a rotatable carrier member, a triple pinion gear rotatably supported by the carrier member, and hydraulic speed-increasing and speed-reducing clutches. The left and right output shafts are connected to left and right drive wheels, respectively. Further, the triple pinion gear comprises a first pinion gear, a second pinion gear, and a third pinion gear, which have pitch circles different from each other, and these first to three pinion gears are integrally formed with each other. The first pinion gear is in mesh with a first sun gear integrally formed with the right output shaft, and the second pinion gear is in mesh with a second sun gear integrally formed with the left output shaft. Further, the third pinion gear is in mesh with a rotatable third sun gear. Furthermore, the third sun gear and an immovable casing are connected to and disconnected from each other by the speed-increasing clutch, and the carrier member and the casing are connected to and disconnected from each other by the speed-reducing clutch.
In the conventional power plant constructed as above, during straight forward traveling thereof, the third sun gear and the casing are disconnected from each other by disengagement of the speed-increasing clutch, and the carrier member and the casing are disconnected from each other by disengagement of the speed-reducing clutch. Further, torque of the engine is distributed to the left and right output shafts via the differential gear. Accordingly, the carrier member, the third sun gear, and the speed-increasing and speed-reducing clutches idly rotate along with transmission of rotation from the engine. Further, during the left or right turning of the vehicle, by controlling the engagement forces of the speed-increasing and speed-reducing clutches, the distribution of torque to the left and right output shafts is controlled. Specifically, during the right turning of the vehicle, the third sun gear and the casing are disconnected from each other by disengagement of the speed-increasing clutch, and the carrier member and the casing are connected to each other by engaging the speed-reducing clutch, whereby the carrier member is decelerated. This causes part of torque of the right output shaft to be transmitted to the left output shaft via the first sun gear, the first pinion gear, the second pinion gear, and the second sun gear, so that torque distributed to the left output shaft is increased with respect to the right output shaft. In this case, by controlling the degree of the engagement of the speed-reducing clutch, the torque distributed to the left output shaft is controlled.
On the other hand, during the left turning of the vehicle, the carrier member and the casing are disconnected from each other by disengagement of the speed-reducing clutch, and the third sun gear and the casing are connected to each other by engagement of the speed-increasing clutch, whereby the carrier member is accelerated. This causes part of torque of the left output shaft to be transmitted to the right output shaft via the second sun gear, the second pinion gear, the first pinion gear, and the first sun gear, so that torque distributed to the right output shaft is increased with respect to the left output shaft. In this case, by controlling the degree of the engagement of the speed-increasing clutch, the torque distributed to the right output shaft is controlled.


A method, apparatus, device, and storage medium for determining a page theme are provided. The method may include: acquiring a current operating environment of a target page; determining a target theme that matches the current operating environment; searching for a target style resource link matching the target theme from a database in which style resource links corresponding to different themes are pre-stored; loading a CSS variable value in the target style resource link onto the target page, wherein the CSS variable value in the target style resource link is used to indicate, among styles of the target page, a style that is changed at the time of switching the themes.

With the spread of IOS13 (International Organization for Standardization 13) dark mode, the H5 (HTML5, HyperText Mark-up Language5) page is required to support a presentation of both theme of light and theme of dark. In the dark mode, the page needs to be correspondingly switched to the theme of dark. In the non-dark mode, the page needs to be correspondingly switched to the theme of light. Therefore, it is desirable to provide a method of determining a page theme to quickly switch themes corresponding to an operating environment.
In the related art, a plurality of sets of CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) style files are written and the page themes are switched by switching different CSS style files; alternatively, the page themes are switched by compiling the front-end page themes when the LES (Leaner Style Sheets) operates.

Method, apparatus, device and storage medium for determining page theme


The invention relates to a method for controlling the activity of an immunologically functional molecule, such as an antibody, a protein, a peptide or the like, an agent of promoting the activity of an immunologically functional molecule, and an immunologically functional molecule having the promoted activity.

Since antibodies have high binding activity, binding specificity and high stability in blood, their applications to the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of various human diseases have been attempted (Monoclonal Antibodies: Principles and Applications, Wiley-Liss, Inc., Chapter 2.1 (1995)). However, an antibody derived from an animal other than human, such as a mouse antibody, is recognized as a foreign material when administered to a human, which thereby induces a human antibody against the mouse antibody (human anti mouse antibody: hereinafter referred to as "HAMA") in the human body, and it is known that the HAMA causes side effects by reaction with the administered mouse antibody (J. Clin. Oncol., 2, 881 (1984); Blood, 65, 1349 (1985); J. Natl. Cancer Inst., 80, 932 (1988); Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 82, 1242 (1985)), promotes disappearance of the administered mouse antibody from blood (J. Nuc. Med. 26, 1011 (1985); Blood, 65, 1349 (1985); J. Natl. Cancer Inst., 80, 937 (1988)) and reduces diagnostic, preventive and therapeutic effects of the mouse antibody (J. Immunol., 135, 1530 (1985); Cancer Res., 46, 6489 (1936)).
For the purpose of solving these problems, attempts have been made to convert an antibody derived from an animal other than human into a humanized antibody, such as a human chimeric antibody or a human complementarity determining region (hereinafter referred to as "CDR")-grafted antibody, using gene recombination techniques. The human chimeric antibody is an antibody in which its antibody variable region (hereinafter referred to as "V region") is of an antibody of an animal other than human and its constant region (hereinafter referred to as "C region") is of a human antibody (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 81, 6851 (1984)). It has been reported that administration of such chimeric antibodies to humans eliminate serious side effects and the half-life in blood was prolonged about 6 times compared to a mouse antibody (Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. U.S.A., 86, 4220 (1989)). The human CDR-grafted antibody is an antibody in which CDR of a human antibody is replaced by CDR of an antibody other than human (Nature, 321, 522 (1986)). It has been reported that, in an experimentation using monkey, the immunogenicity of a human CDR-grafted antibody was reduced and its half-life in blood was prolonged 4 to 5 times compared to a mouse antibody (J. Immunol., 147, 1352 (1991)). These reports show that a humanized antibody is expected to have sufficient effects, as an antibody to be applied to the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of various human diseases, even though it is not a completely human antibody. Actually, clinical tests have been performed with anti-tumor antibodies, such as an anti-CD20 human chimeric antibody, Rituxan (IDEC, Inc.), and an anti-HER2/neu human CDR-grafted antibody, Herceptin (Genentech, Inc.). The safety and therapeutic effects of the anti-CD20 human chimeric antibody and of the anti-HER2/neu human CDR-grafted antibody, to a certain degree, have been confirmed in B lymphoma and breast cancer, respectively (J. Clin. Oncol., 16, 2825 (1998); J. National Cancer Institute, 90, 882 (1998)). Moreover, a fragment (Fab′) of an anti-GPIIb/IIIa human chimeric antibody, ReoPro (Centocor, Inc.), is commercially available in Europe and America as a secondary disease preventing drug after percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty. Currently, a large number of clinical tests are being conducted with other humanized antibodies. Most of these humanized antibodies have been prepared using gene recombination techniques and produced using appropriate animal cells.
It has been revealed that five classes of antibodies, i.e., IgM, IgD, IgG, IgA and IgE, are present in mammals. Antibodies of human IgG class are mainly used in the diagnosis, prevention and treatment of various human diseases because of their long half-life in blood and functional characteristics, such as various effector functions and the like (Monoclonal Antibodies: Principles and Applications, Wiley-Liss, Inc., Chapter 2.1 (1995)). The human IgG class antibody is further classified into the following 4 subclasses: IgG1, IgG2, IgG3 and IgG4. A large number of studies have so far been carried out for the antibody-dependent cellular cytotoxicity activity (hereinafter referred to as "ADCC activity") and complement-dependent cytotoxicity activity (hereinafter referred to as "CDC") as effector functions of the IgG class antibody, and it has been reported that antibodies of the IgG1 subclass have the greatest ADCC activity and CDC activity among the human IgG class antibodies (Chemical Immunology, 65, 88 (1997)). Therefore, most of the anti-tumor humanized antibodies which require a high effector function are antibodies of human IgG1 subclass, including the above Rituxan and Herceptin.
Expression of ADCC activity and CDC activity of human IgG1 subclass antibodies requires binding of the Fc region of antibody to an antibody receptor existing on the surface of an effector cell, such as a killer cell, a natural killer cell, an activated macrophage or the like (hereinafter referred to as "FcγR") and various complement components. It has been suggested that several amino acid residues in the second domain of the antibody hinge region and C region (hereinafter referred to as "Cγ2 domain") (Eur. J. Immunol., 23, 1098 (1993), Immunology, 86, 319 (1995), Chemical Immunology, 65, 88 (1997)) and a sugar chain linked to the Cγ2 domain are also important for this binding reaction (Chemical Immunology, 65, 88 (1997)). Regarding the sugar chain, Boyd et al. have examined effects of a sugar chain on the ADCC activity and CDC activity, by treating a human CDR-grafted antibody, CAMPATH-1H (human IgG1 subclass), produced using Chinese hamster ovary cell (CHO cell) or mouse myeloma NS0 cell with various sugar hydrolyzing enzymes, and reported that elimination of sialic acid of the non-reducing terminal does not have influence upon both activities. Further elimination of galactose residue however was reported to exert influence upon only the CDC activity, decreasing about 50% of its activity. Complete elimination of the sugar chain was reported to cause disappearance of both activities (Molecular Immunol., 32, 1311 (1995)). Moreover, Lifely et al. have analyzed the sugar chain of a human CDR-grafted antibody, CAMPATH-1H (human IgG1 subclass) which was produced using CHO cell, NS0 cell or rat myeloma YO cell, measured its ADCC activity and reported that the CAMPATH-1H derived from YO cell shows the greatest ADCC activity, suggesting that N-acetylglucosamine at the bisecting position is important for the activity (Glycobiology, 5, 813 (1995): WO 99/54342). These reports show that the structure of sugar chain plays an important role in the effector function of human IgG1 subclass antibodies, and that it may be possible to prepare an antibody having greater effector function by changing the sugar chain structure. Actually, however, structures of sugar chains are complex and vary greatly. There exists a need therefore to further study the structure in order to obtain greater effector function.

Method of modulating the activity of functional immune molecules to GM2


A mud flap assembly is arranged behind a wheel of a vehicle to block mud, water, and/or debris from being thrown into the air. The mud flap assembly includes a bracket and a mud flap. The bracket couples the mud flap assembly with the vehicle. The mud flap extends downwardly away from the bracket.

Mud flap assemblies are coupled with vehicles to block mud, water, and other debris from being thrown into the air. Such vehicles may include, for example, semi-trailers, van-type trailers, flatbed or platform type trailers, truck, cars, container chassis, and cargo containers. One or more components of mud flap assemblies may corrode and wear over time due in part to corrosive forces, including sand, gravel, gas, oil, rain and other liquid water, ice and snow, as well as the chemicals used to remove snow and ice. One or more components of mud flap assemblies may be damaged over time, for example, from road debris or contact with a wheel. Some existing systems have various shortcomings relative to certain applications. Accordingly, there remains a need for further contributions in this area of technology, including contributions that reduce complexity, cost, and weight of applications.


A reactive munition uses a housing made from a housing in a state that is three-dimensionally rigid. The housing can be made of metal, such as aluminum. A reactive filler, such as powdered polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE), fills the one or more cavities in the aluminum housing. A jacket encases the housing filled with the reactive filler.

By their very nature, reactive munitions use two or more reactive components that chemically react with one another upon initiation. The catalyst for such initiation can be a fusing system or target impact. In either case, the reactive components must be kept inert prior to initiation. For small munitions such as pre-formed fragments or bullets, pre-initiation "safing" of the reactive components is a difficult task as the small delivery package limits a munition designer's options in terms of incorporating safety mechanisms therein.

Reactive munition in a three-dimensionally rigid state

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Navy


A method to generate best matching search keywords is disclosed. After running an Internet search engine, a user selects links. From the links, common keywords are extracted and sorted based on the number of times that the common keywords appears in the contents of the links. The search engine runs searches based on a few of top ranked keywords, generates best matching search keywords, and provides the selected links as well as more links that relates to the best matching search keywords.

1. Fields of the Invention
The present invention relates to keyword searching. More particularly, the present invention relates to customizing search engine results.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Search engines have become the dominant way to access information on the Internet, providing ease of use and accurate results. Typically, search results generated from a search engine comprise a list of URLs (Uniform Resource Locator) of web sites. However, there are many occasions when the web sites that a user is interested in are scattered throughout the results. Often the results of interest do not appear on the first page but in subsequent result pages. This behavior may disappoint a user, if the user wishes to distribute the search results to other users (or perhaps store the search query string in a document). The Google™ Similar Pages feature serves only to find similar documents and does not provide accurate documents.
For example, when a user clicks on the "Similar Pages" link for a search result Google™ automatically bring web pages that are related to this result. The Similar Pages feature can be used for many purposes. If a user likes a particular site's content, but wish it had more, Similar Pages can find sites with similar content with which the user may be unfamiliar. If a user is looking for product information, Similar Pages can find competitive information so the user can make direct comparisons. If a user is interested in researching a particular field, Similar Pages can help the user find a large number of resources very quickly, without having to worry about selecting the right keywords.
However, the more specialized a page is, the fewer results the existing search engines can find for a user. For example, the Similar Pages feature of Google™ may not be able to find related pages for a personal home page, if it does not have enough information to associate other pages with it. Also, if companies use multiple URLs for their pages (such as company.com and www.company.com), Similar Pages may have little information on one URL, but lots on the other.
Therefore, it would be desirable to have a search engine and a method for providing more accurate search result documents.

System and method to customize search engine results by picking documents

International Business Machines Corporation


The apparatus includes a cylinder for holding molten material and a plurality of molds each having a plurality of cavities for receiving molten material. As the cylinder is rotated by a driving mechanism, the molten material is passed through a plurality of holes in a cylindrical wall which surrounds the holding area where the molten material is located, and into the cavities in the molds, which are transported in series beneath the cylinder as the cylinder rotates.

Aluminum nuggets are used in the steel making industry as a deoxidizing agent and to remove impurities. As is known, basic oxygen furnaces or electric arc furnaces are used to produce steel by removing the carbon content of the molten iron using oxygen lance. Iron oxide fumes are produced causing a weight loss in the steel produced and a waste disposal problem. When aluminum is added during the steel making, such as in the form of nuggets, it reacts with the iron oxide fumes to form an exothermic reaction generating large quantities of heat and deoxidizes the iron oxide fumes into molten iron while the aluminum is oxidized into aluminum oxide.
The forming of a molten aluminum layer over the iron and slag surface is important to maximize the reaction and obtain a higher yield. The aluminum layer floats on the top of the molten steel and blocks communication between the top of the molten steel and ambient air to tend to prevent undesired oxidation of the steel. Thus, aluminum bodies of relatively uniform weights and shapes (herein referred to as nuggets) are used for easy handling and to provide a relatively controlled amount of or generally uniform dispersion of molten aluminum needed during steel production.
A number of conventional machines have been used to produce aluminum shapes (nuggets) using a pouring mechanism that tilts a ladle by mechanical or hydraulic means to fill multiple cavities in each mold. Once the cavities are filled, the mechanism retracts to a non-pouring position and prepares to pour into the next mold. Another conventional approach has been to pour aluminum into cavities of special design molds using a tundish with bottom pouring orifices. Unfortunately, these mechanisms and the special configurations of the molds have impeded the capability to produce large quantities of aluminum shapes at reduced costs.
As an example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,512,575 discloses a method and apparatus by which the aluminum shapes are produced by using a ladle tilting mechanism to fill the mold cavities and which retracts after the cavities are filled. These motions are repeated with every mold that passes underneath the filling mechanism.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,964,542 discloses a method and apparatus by which the aluminum shapes are produced by pouring molten aluminum into cavities and using a tundish with bottom orifices. The molds are specially arranged to prevent metal from bridging over from cavity to cavity.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,199,598 discloses a method and apparatus by which the molds are filled using a supply pipe for liquid metals to a pouring wheel with a discharge orifice. Each orifice is advanced by the successive molds as the molds are advanced beyond the pouring station.
In view of the aforementioned shortcomings associated with conventional systems, there is a strong need in the art for a system for producing aluminum shapes having uniform weight and shape at a high production volume and at a reduced cost. Moreover, there is a strong need in the art for a system which prevents splashing of molten aluminum or bridging of metal between mold cavities.

Method and apparatus for continuous casting using a rotating cylinder