A system and method classifies packets with a programmably fixed network processor program and dynamically updated data structures. The network processor program selects predetermined packet field values of the packets transmitted across the network and classifies the packets by matching one or more packet field values with a data structure. New packet classifications are dynamically created by updating the data structure to associate one or more predetermined packet field values with the new packet classification. For instance, a parse tree program extracts packet header information and matches the packet header information to the data structure. A pattern tree data structure provides longest prefix matches and an ordered tree data structure provides combination matches so that classification of arbitrary Boolean combinations of extracted header fields can be formed.

Packet based computer networks transmit information in packets that are formatted with a sequence of well-known header fields that direct the packets through the network. For example, a TCP/IP packet on an Ethernet network consists of three parts, an Ethernet header, an IP header, and a TCP header. The Ethernet header in turn includes three well-known fields. The source address, the destination address and the "EtherType" field. From the EtherType field the format of subsequent data may be determined. For instance, if the EtherType field indicates the packet contains an IP datagram, packet field values for the IP datagram allow the determination of source address, destination address and protocol fields. The protocol field identifies the type of data that follows, such as TCP, UDP, etc. The packet header information is used by network computer devices to route data through the network.
Network computing devices perform routing and switching functions based upon computations performed on the packet field values. For instance, router software on a general purpose computer sends packets to different output network interfaces based upon computations performed from header packet field values. To improve network transmission speeds, special purpose devices are used to perform simple, well specified functions at high speeds that direct network traffic. For instance, network appliances such as routers, switches and firewalls perform fixed functions based on one or more fixed fields using hard wired instructions that process packets in a substantially more rapid manner than software functions. As an example, a router computes the output interface for a packet based on the packet's destination address in the IP header.
Although hard wired instructions, such as those defined in application specific integrated circuits (ASICs) provide for rapid processing of packets through a network, ASIC designs are typically inflexible since the hard wired instructions generally cannot be reprogrammed through software. Thus, for example, networks that rely on routers have difficulty implementing services which generally call for varying packet processing behaviors since router functions are generally hard wired into ASICs. For instance, internet service providers that provide customer access to the Internet over router based networks have difficulty deploying services that provide for individual handling of packets related to specific customers.
In order to aid in the deployment of services to packet based networks, programmable network processors have been developed for use in network appliances such as routers, switches and firewalls. Network processors run a software program that determines the processing of packets but handles packets in a rapid manner by performing certain functions specific to processing of network packets through hardware implementations. For example, network processors support table look-up operations with hard wired instructions allowing routing functions that rely on table look-ups to occur at rates much faster than available through general purpose processors. Network processors support programs that look at packet field values and perform table look-up operations to determine the processing for the packet. For example, a program on a network processor classifies a packet by using information from IP source and destination address field values. The fields examined and the combination of the fields are determined by the program loaded on the network processor.
One difficulty with network processors is that loading a program on a network processor takes several seconds and brings the network processor off line so that packets are either dropped or passed through the network processor without processing. Thus, as an example, a network processor used in a router will not route packets while a new program is loaded. In systems that use fixed combinations of fields to process packets, the programming limitation of network processors does not present a substantial difficulty since the program running on the network processor need not change very often. However, in order to provide services to packet based networks, such as with the programmable network nodes disclosed in U.S. patwnt application Ser. No. 09/928,771, filed Aug. 13, 2001, entitled "System and Method for Programming Network Nodes," which is incoporated herein by reference, the program running on the network processor may have to change more often.
Another difficulty with programming network processors is that newly added network processor programs must continue to process packets at line rates to avoid degrading network operations. For instance, if a program on a network processor fails to process packets at line rates, packets will be dropped and network performance severely degraded. The addition of new classifiers to a network processor program has an unpredictable effect on the speed at which the program operates on the network processor. Thus, especially in the case of complex packet processing behavior implementations, the reliability of new network processor programs is difficult to predict.

System and method for dynamically constructing packet classification rules


A garbage collection system that needs to meet real-time requirements utilizes a read barrier that is implemented in an optimizing compiler. The read barrier is implemented with a forwarding pointer positioned in a header of each object. The forwarding pointer points to the object unless the object has been moved. The barrier is optimized by breaking the barrier and applying barrier sinking to sink the read barrier to its point of use and by using sub-expression elimination. A null-check for the read barrier is combined with a null-check required by the real-time application. All objects are located and moved with the collector to minimize variations in mutator utilization.

With regard to computers, garbage collection refers to a process of identifying unused areas of main memory storage. In accordance with an object oriented computing language, the computer executing the program allocates memory for each of the objects. Memory is allocated to, and freed from, the heap in blocks of one of a number of predetermined sizes. Eventually, when the objects are no longer being referenced by the program, the memory allocated for the created objects is reclaimed through a garbage collection process. The garbage collection process clears the objects from memory whereby the once allocated memory is again available for use. More particularly, a garbage collection process involves automatically determining which blocks of memory can be freed, marking unused blocks as no longer needed by an application, collecting all of the unused blocks of memory at periodic intervals, returning the unused blocks to the heap and marking the blocks as free for use. Such a garbage collection process is often referred to as a mark-and-sweep since unused portions of memory are marked as garbage during a mark phase and then removed from allocated memory in a sweep phase. Although the process of garbage collection frees memory, it may be problematic in applications where its unpredictable consumption of processor time affects the running of the application.
Read barrier is a term of art that describes a special check performed each time application code fetches a value from a heap memory location. The read barrier serves to coordinate the application processing with the garbage collection. The read barrier checks each pointer reference to verify that the object accessed through the pointer is not being moved. Unfortunately, high software and processing overhead costs are typically associated with prior art read barriers and they are often considered inappropriate for real-time systems. In addition, the implementation of the read barrier introduces time consuming required null-checks. Therefore, what is needed is an improved read barrier that can be optimized to reduce its associated overhead and used with a real-time application.

Breaking read barrier to apply optimizations

International Business Machines Corporation


A process for producing soap which comprises blending soaps, water, and glycerin prepared from. a. the neutralization of at least one free fatty acid with a strong alkali to produce soap and water, and PA1 b. the saponification of at least one triglyceride with a strong alkali to produce soap and glycerin, the amount of glycerin from step b being sufficient to provide up to about 6 wt. % of glycerin to the finished soap product.. A process for producing soap from a mixed feedstock of at least one triglyceride and at least one free fatty acid which comprises contacting at least one triglyceride and at least one free fatty acid with strong alkali at an elevated temperature, the quantity of triglyceride present so that the glycerine produced from its saponification with strong alkali does not exceed about 6 wt. % of the finished soap product.

Soaps have been utilized for years to remove soil from surfaces. Various processes have been used to produce soap. Generally, the two most preferred starting materials are triglycerides which are saponified into soap and free-fatty acids which are neutralized into soaps. Saponification of the triglyceride is usually performed in an open kettle at a temperature of from about 215-220.degree. F. over a long period of time, several hours. Alternatively, the saponification is carried out in a continuous closed systems at super atmospheric pressure and a temperature of about 250.degree. F. Fatty acid neutralization is usually not carried out in an open kettle because of oxidation problems. It is usually performed in a closed system at atmospheric pressure and a temperature of about 195.degree. F.
The invention of this application allows for both saponification and neutralization to occur simultaneously at a temperature not generally achievable by saponification alone. This invention brings about significant cost savings, primarily realized from three avenues. Firstly, the price differential between the neutral oil or fat as opposed to the total use of fatty acids is substantial. Secondly, the in situ formation of glycerin negates the need to purchase glycerin and add such glycerin to soap made by neutralization alone. Thirdly, the mixed charge of triglyceride and fat allows the reaction to proceed at a lower temperature than is normally required for complete saponification of a total triglyceride feed charge. This provides for lower energy input as well as an additional cost advantage with respect to equipment purchase price since equipment rated for higher pressures and temperatures is not required.


A CD player has a magazine containing a plurality of trays, and a single tray. The magazine is provided to be loaded by hand, and the single tray is slidably mounted in the casing between a playback position and an ejected position. A lock device is provided for locking the magazine at a loading position. A disc cam is provided for operating the lock device and the single tray. A pin is mounted on the disc cam and operatively connected to the single tray so as to move the single tray between the playback position and the ejected position in rotating range of the cam. The cam is provided to be operatively connected to the lock device. The cam is arranged to operate the lock device so as to release the magazine when the cam is rotated in a range outside the rotating range.

The present invention relates to a loading and ejecting device of a disc player having a magazine and a single tray.
A disc player such as a CD player having a magazine and a single tray has been proposed.
FIG. 7 shows a conventional CD player having a casing 1 provided with an opening 2 on a front portion thereof. A magazine 3 is detachably inserted into the casing 1 through the opening 2. A single tray 4 is slidably mounted in the casing. The single tray 4 has a tray body 6 which is rotatable about a pivot A. The magazine 3 has a plurality of vertically layered trays each of which holds a compact disc. The trays are detachably housed in the magazine 3 for changing the CDs thereon. On the tray body 6 of the single tray 4, only one CD is mounted. A reproducing device (not shown) including a clamp device, a turntable, and a pickup is provided on a rear portion of the casing 1.
The player has an individual loading and ejecting device for the magazine 3 and for the single tray 4. A motor is provided in each of the loading and ejecting devices for operating the device.
When loading the magazine 3 in the player, the magazine 3 is pushed into the casing 1 by hand through the opening 2. The loading and ejecting device for the magazine 3 is operated to load the magazine on a predetermined position in the casing. When ejecting, the magazine is ejected from the casing with the loading and ejecting device by operating an ejection button for the magazine 3. Then, the magazine ejected from the opening 2 is pulled out by hand to release from the casing.
In order to load the signal tray 4 on the player, a loading button for the single tray provided on the player is operated. The loading and ejecting device of the single tray is operated to load the single tray 4 on a predetermined position in the player. When ejecting, an ejection button for the single tray is operated to operate the loading and ejecting device for the single tray. Thus, the single tray 4 is ejected from the opening 2.
When the playback of the CD in the magazine 3 is started, a selected tray is pushed out from the magazine 3 and moved to a playback position through a loading mechanism. Then the disc is removed from the tray and clamped on the turntable by the clamp device. The disc is thereafter rotated at a predetermined speed so that information written on the disc is read out by the pickup.
When the playing of the disc finishes, the disc is released from the turntable and put on the tray by the clamp device. Thereafter, the tray is returned to the magazine.
When the playback of the disc on the single tray 4 is started, the tray body 6 is rotated about the pivot A. The disc removed from the tray body 6 and clamped on the turntable is playbacked in the same manner. When the playing of the disc finishes, the disc is returned to the tray body 6.
A plurality of discs are continuously playbacked in this manner. Furthermore, since the single tray is provided, the disc is easily changed compared with a player having only magazines.
However, since the loading and ejecting devices are operated by the respective motors, and the other parts for driving the devices are necessary, the number of parts increases. Thus, a system for the loading and ejecting devices is complicated in construction and it is necessary to provide a space for the parts. Accordingly, the cost increases and the size of the player cannot by reduced.

Loading and ejecting device for a disk player


The invention refers to an apparatus for applying liquid media onto a web with an applicator roller carried in a machine frame and an impression roller which can be lifted thereoff and adjusted thereto, said impression roller forming a roller gap with the applicator roller, through which the web passes. For the solution of the problem to provide an apparatus with a simple and robust design, in which a desired gap between the impression roller and the applicator roller can be easily set, the impression roller is mounted between the one arms of two parallel two-armed levers being pivotably supported in the machine frame. At the ends of the other arms one end of a pressure piston cylinder unit pivoting the two-armed levers is coupled, the other end of which is mounted in the machine frame. Furthermore, at least one stopper is provided which is allocated to one of the lever arms, arranged in the machine frame, adjustable as to height, and by which the width of the roller gap is limited.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention refers to an apparatus for applying liquid media onto a web with an applicator roller carried in a machine frame and an impression roller which can be lifted thereoff and adjusted thereto, said impression roller forming a roller gap with the applicator roller, through which the web passes.
2. Description of Prior Art
Unpublished German patent application P 39 15 481.5 discloses an apparatus of this kind for adjusting and lifting a counterpressure cylinder to and off a form cylinder of a rotary printing machine. Corresponding to the different diameters of the used form cylinders, in this known rotary printing machine the counterpressure cylinder does not only have to widely travel along a relatively long path, when the form cylinder is changed, the counterpressure cylinder also has to be adjustable to the form cylinder in the manner that it meets the form cylinder from above in a vertical direction to thereby render possible the making of a constant printing image. For the realization of the long path of movement of the counterpressure cylinder and its vertical meeting of the impression cylinder in the known apparatus, the center axis thereof is moved in a vertical plane extending through the center axis of the form cylinder by high-precision adjustment spindles.
There are apparatus of the kind mentioned above in which not the same high requirements are to be made with respect to the lifting-off movement and the adjusting movement of an impression roller, as are demanded for a high-quality rotary printing machine.

Apparatus for applying liquid media onto a web


A device for organizing office paraphernalia which uses a PC monitor as a mounting surface. The device is comprised of a shroud mountable to a PC monitor groove, this groove being located behind the faceplate of most PC monitors. The shroud is preferably comprised of two adjustable shroud members coupled together by a spring tensioner. The shroud members have an inner edge, an outer edge, and a front face disposed between the inner and outer edges. A plurality of projections disposed upon the inner edge of the shroud members engage within the PC monitor groove, when the shroud is placed upon a PC monitor. Once in place, the shroud surrounds three sides of the PC monitor and remains tensioned against the monitor, in the proper upright position, through the combined action of the projections disposed within the monitor groove and the spring tensioner holding the shroud members tightly against the monitor. A plurality of accessories may be mounted on the outer edges of the shroud members for holding office paraphernalia such as documents, business cards, pens, mirrors, and diskettes, to name a few. Additionally, the front face serves as a surface for placing "post-it" notes, or other stick-on paraphernalia.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to devices for holding and displaying documents and other items in an office environment, and more specifically, to a system for mounting various office paraphernalia upon a personal computer monitor.
2. Description of the Background Art
The modern office environment rewards those who are most efficient in every respect. Efficient use of office space allows workers to be more productive, and thereby increase profits and worker happiness. The typical modern office space, whether in a corporate environment or a home office, now has a personal computer, or PC. The PC has become as indispensable as the phone, fax or file cabinet, in the modern office environment. A fill PC system typically is comprised of a PC monitor, a keyboard, a box or tower containing the computer, and a printer for receiving output from the computer.
A PC system can take up a considerable amount of desktop space and reduce the space available for laying paper, pads, diskette holders, and other items which compete for space in the office environment. Furthermore, in many large corporate environments, there has been a tendency to partition workers into cubicles having a minimal amount of space available for working effectively, in an effort to save costs and increase profits. Therefore, with space in each cubicle at a premium, new methods for increasing office space are always being investigated. One possible way for increasing space has been to use the various PC components as a platform for mounting office items in an effort to save space or increase office efficiency.
The market has produced many after-market or add-on accessories for these various computer components, which are designed to save space, increase visual appearance, or increase office efficiency. Of these components, the PC monitor has spawned the most add-on accessories due to its close proximity to the worker, namely directly within the worker's reach and line of sight.
An example of such an add-on accessory is seen in U.S. Pat. No. 5,082,235, issued to Crowther et al., which discloses a document holder for mounting to a PC monitor comprised of an adjustable clamp for attaching to a PC monitor, and a pair of outward-extending clipboards mounted to the sides of the adjustable clamp. This device allows for documents to be mounted to the clipboards for easy reading or copying.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,385,327, issued to Hegarty et al., discloses a universal document support PC monitor stand. This device is comprised of a horizontal monitor stand having at least one slotted side member coupled perpendicularly to the monitor stand, wherein the side member communicates with the sides of the PC monitor. A plurality of slots imparted into the side member at different heights allow for an armature to be mounted at varying heights, corresponding to a worker's eye level. At the end of the armature can be mounted a clipboard for holding documents.
While the previous devices have made an effort toward saving space by providing a means for mounting documents upon a PC monitor, these devices have fallen short of maximizing the concept of space saving. Specifically, none of these devices have considered mounting an entire office system upon a PC monitor which could not only hold documents, but hold pens, cards, calculators and other office paraphernalia, as well as mount photographs or a mirror, for allowing a worker to maintain a professional office appearance. Additionally, the previous devices have used a series of bulky clamps, or unattractive slotted members, to mount accessories. As a result, these previous devices do not possess a good aesthetic appearance, and in many respects add to the cluttered appearance of an office.
Therefore, a need exists for an entire system which utilizes a PC monitor as a mounting surface, and which allows a plurality of office paraphernalia to be mounted interchangeably thereon. This system would ideally result in a space savings, increase worker efficiency, and have an aesthetic appearance, all in one.
The foregoing patents and other information reflect the state of the art of which the inventor is aware and is tendered with a view toward discharging the inventor's acknowledged duty of candor in disclosing information which may be pertinent to the patentability of the present invention. It is respectfully stipulated, however, that the foregoing patent and other information does not teach or render obvious, singly or when considered in combination, the inventor's claimed invention.

Office system for mounting upon a PC monitor


A quick, field installed sump cover system for below ground sumps includes a support ring, a seal between the ring and sump upper lip, preferably two compression brackets each having two spaced regions extending under riser parts, at least one elongated member coupled between the support ring and compression brackets for selectively applying tension forces therebetween causing the bracket regions to engage the riser parts and the support ring to compresses the sealing member to form liquid-tight seal with the sump lip. The sump top can be closed by a dome-cover removably coupled to the support ring. The elongated members can include chain-like members with tensioning devices that, in field installations, can accommodate various sump sizes.

Underground fuel storage tanks are required by law to prevent liquid leaks below ground to avoid soil and groundwater contamination. To meet this requirement, tanks conventionally include a water tight sump shield assembly that collects any fuel leakage from pipes, valves, or other equipment at the upper part of the tank. Sensors and alarms are also provided as an alert to such condition. Water that enters the sump, for alarmed base sumps, is occasionally falsely sensed as a fuel leak, requiring immediate examination and corrective action.
It is known in the art that the covers for sump assemblies cannot remain properly sealed against rain and other water runoff. Such runoff seeks the lowest level and can enter the sump assembly. This water when mixed with the aforementioned fuel leakage also creates a contaminated condition that must be dealt with promptly. This condition wastes much time and effort, and, therefore, expense to deal with recurring contamination. More seriously, as described below, the cover sealing problem becomes worse over time to the point when the sump can fill completely with water run-off and fuel mixture. This can lead to an overflow of fuel-contaminated water that can contaminate surrounding soil often leading to fines, contamination clean-up, and the expense of digging up the concrete-imbedded leaking assembly and replacing it with a new sump assembly and concrete.
The principal cause of the above problems stems from the standard sump covers, which do not provide a seal strong or reliable enough to prevent water from entering the containment sump. Weak cover seals can result from poor design, poor installation, poor materials, and the like.
Many sumps are made of polyethylene or other plastics. Cover leakage also results from installed or migrating back fill or concrete, which initially or over time, compresses the sump into an egg-shape or other distortion. The plastic under constant pressure tends to flow and distort causing the distorted sump opening lip to breech the circular, metal cover seal.
Sump assembly manufacturers have tried to overcome these problems, such as providing a unit that seals on the inside surface of the sump by means of an expandable plug design. Unfortunately, each unit needs to be customized to fit a particular design criterion, such as size of the collar opening, etc. If the unit distorts in the field, then the operator must wait until a new plug is manufactured to the new dimensions, which may result in fines, shut-down, or contamination. Thus, customizing for each unit increases the costs of the product and requires complex and delayed supply practices.
Another commercial unit relies on epoxies or other adhesives to seal the cover to the collar lip. Bonding materials compatible with polyethylene have only recently been introduced to the market. But these materials are not compatible with fuel hydrocarbons and may themselves contaminate the fuel being pumped or stored.
Accordingly, there is a need for a fuel storage containment sump shield assembly that provides a watertight seal over a long period of time to prevent water from entering the containment sump assembly for underground fuel storage tanks.

Sump cover system for underground liquid storage tanks


A method of anchoring a connector element (10) in a receiving object (66) comprises inserting a distal end of the connector element (10) into a mounting hole in an insertion direction along an insertion axis; inserting a sleeve (36) comprising a thermoplastic material into the mounting hole, the sleeve (36) enclosing the connector element (10); and transferring energy to liquefy at least a portion of the thermoplastic material of the sleeve (36). A machine (500) configured for carrying out the method and a connector element anchoring kit comprising a connector element (10) and a sleeve (36) comprising thermoplastic material.

Screws are commonly used for connecting objects. Sometimes, one of the objects to be connected has a hole provided with an internal thread for receiving a screw. The thread may be machined directly in the body material of the object. In other situations, the body material of the object may, for various reasons, be less suited for machining a thread directly therein. For the purpose, a plethora of methods of anchoring a threaded metal insert in an object are known in the art. By way of example, FR2485119 discloses a method of anchoring a threaded insert in a chipboard. The threaded insert is inserted in a compressed state into a pre-drilled hole, and expanded into firm engagement with the chipboard when a screw is screwed into the threaded insert. In the design of such inserts, there is a trade-off between on one hand the strength of the engagement between the threaded insert and the object in which it is anchored, and on the other hand the risk of causing damage to the material of the object in which it is anchored, thereby weakening the area in which the threaded insert is anchored. Either way, the strength of the joint may be compromised.

Method of anchoring a connector element, a machine for carrying out the method and a connector element anchoring kit


A kinetic feed plug screw apparatus and process for creating the same, where organic raw material or feedstock is transported to a combustion or pyrolysis chamber, and a dynamic seal is concurrently and continuously created between the inlet and outlet to prevent immediate material blowback.

The present disclosure generally relates to an apparatus and/or process for creating a kinetic feed plug screw, used to feed organic raw material or feedstock to a combustion chamber, while concurrently creating a seal between the inlet and outlet to prevent material blowback and explosion.
Pyrolysis of organic waste materials is a generally high risk process, as in some applications, conditions of the outlet may reach pressures as high as 1900 psi (131 bar) and temperatures of 800 degrees Celsius. On the inlet side, the atmosphere may be either oxygen or air, or in some cases, more volatile gaseous elements. Oftentimes, if the inlet and outlet portions manage to mix together, across a screw feeder or any other bridging device, the mix will explode and cause substantial damage. The risk exists in applications where the inlet and outlet have a pressure difference, as well as in situations where an outlet may have a steam pressurized vessel containing dangerous chemicals, such as a cellulose fiber processing system.
In the past, plug screw feeders for organic material existed in the form a full housing length plug, i.e., a plug held in place by a full-length pack of the feedstock, a taper plug and screw such as a tapered housing over a matching taper screw. Notably, the plug in these systems were generally greater than 2 feet or more in length. In other words, these plug screw systems are comprised of a plug that coexists with the full taper of the screw, where the system requires that the screws be packed along the full length of the tapers.
Even with these type of lengthy plug screw feeders, the system was not reliable and was still capable of blowback release of dangerous chemicals, and or volatile gas mixtures (i.e., contact mixing). Further, the plug itself was not isolated to a particular section of the apparatus. As such, to lower the risk of contact mixing, the existing prior art plug screw feeders often implemented an additional mechanical check valve, a metal seal, or an outright metal flap-shut plate. However, mechanical valves are prone to obstruct particle flow, and may jam the valve device and prevent the various valve-shutoff features.
With the current existing screw plugs, an issue still existed when the plugs were used in conditions involving a relatively large pressure difference at the inlet and outlet. In these conditions, if the screw bridge was breached, and the plug was bypassed, the supply of plug forming material or feedstock would be immediately lost. The screw feeder would then be breached, initiating dangerous backflow from the screw feeder system outlet, where the backflow would travel through the screw channels, to the screw inlet.
Most importantly, in the current prior art, there is no plug or seal system that possesses real-time and perpetual blowback protection or check capability—in other words, additional time is required to react to feed upsets and blowback incidents. What is desired, therefore, is a kinetic feed plug screw apparatus and process that can be used to feed organic raw material or feedstock to a combustion or pyrolysis chamber, where a dynamic seal is concurrently and continuously created between the inlet and outlet to prevent immediate material blowback.

Apparatus and process for a kinetic feed plug screw


A camera pedestal has a cylinder with a tapering cross-section for providing a uniform counterbalancing force using a compressed gas. Telescoping column sections which make up a column assembly have inner relief channels and outer slots for hardened roller strips. A column drive system has a motor driving a gear engaged to a rack on the column, to automatically or remotely raise or lower the column. A column braking system locks the column assembly into any selected position and prevents extension or retraction of the column assembly if the load on the column is not counterbalanced by the compressed gas. The column assembly is eccentrically positioned on its base tank. The pedestal is engageable to a receptacle on a camera dolly with a telescoping steering drive tube interconnecting a steering assembly on the pedestal with a steering system in the dolly.

The field of the invention is telescoping columns.
Video, television, and motion picture cameras must often be positioned in a particular way for a video or film sequence. The camera must also often move or sweep in azimuth or elevation, and the entire camera may need to be translated or moved over the ground surface, e.g., to follow an action sequence or obtain a desired cinematographic effect. The camera may also have to be elevated or lowered at certain times.
Generally, all movement of the camera must be uniform and smooth without any bumping, rocking, tilting, vibration or other movement that will cause the recorded images to jump when viewed on a screen. For film sequences where the camera remains stationary, a simple support, e.g., a tripod may be sufficient. When the camera must be moved while operating, more sophisticated camera supports are required.
Ideally, the camera support should be lightweight and easily portable; capable of handling a wide range of loads; and support or move the camera with an absolute minimum of noise, vibration, rocking, tilting, jarring, etc. Depending on its specific application, the camera support may also need to be compact so that it may be used in cramped spaces.
Mobile and stationary camera pedestals are commonly used in television productions. These pedestals allow the camera to be raised and lowered and turned or swept (in azimuth). A tilt or elevation feature may also be included. These mobile units generally have three sets of paired wheels forming a three point support.
Within the pedestal, a mechanism for smoothly and quietly raising and lowering the camera platform is required. A purely manual system is generally insufficient since the weight of the camera may be substantial and the combination of inertia, friction and the application of the lifting or dropping force by hand will not ordinarily provide the necessary smooth, quiet and accurate positioning. Consequently, counterbalancing or compensation systems have been provided in camera pedestals to compensate for the weight of the camera and facilitate cinematographically acceptable changes in camera height or elevation. For example, Galione, U.S. Pat. No. 4,094,484 describes a pedestal having a self pumping action which provides a counterbalancing force by using compressed gas. Nakazawa et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,757,970, discloses a television camera pedestal using constant torque springs to compensate for the camera weight. While these and other camera pedestals may have met with varying degrees of technical or commercial success, various disadvantages remain. For example, no known camera pedestal has a compressed gas compensation system which provides a uniform counterbalancing force throughout the full extension of the pedestal column. In addition, mechanical or spring actuated counterbalancing or compensation systems in pedestals are relatively complex and may be noisy in operation and difficult to set for a particular camera weight. These known pedestals also typically generate perceptible noise, especially during quick movements. In addition, they ordinarily have a limited range of movement or may tend to drift or sink from a desired position.
It is advantageous in filming or shooting to be able to position the camera to a very low position. This requires relatively short column sections in telescoping type pedestals. On the other hand, to also have a sufficient maximum height, a relatively large number of column sections is required, heretofore making for a bulky pedestal.
Accordingly, it is an object of the invention to provide an improved camera pedestal which has uniform camera weight compensation throughout the full extension of the pedestal.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such a camera pedestal which is configured for ease of use and is compact yet offers exceptionally low camera positions while still having a large elevation range.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide such a camera pedestal which can be mounted in, and which has an exceptionally quiet steering assembly which can engage and operate a steering system of, a camera dolly. Other and further objects and advantages will appear hereinafter.


A hair restraint attachable to eyewear is provided so as to enable a person wearing long hair to maintain the hair in as natural a manner as possible while preventing the hair from falling forwardly when the person tilts his or her head forwardly and downwardly. The hair restraint provides a mounting bar releasably attachable to a temple of the eyewear and an arm that projects rearwardly and divergently from the temple to form a rearwardly opening notch that receives the long hair from the sides of the wearer's head and prevents such side hair from falling forwardly toward the front of the wearer's head particularly when the wearer's head is tilted forwardly and downwardly.

Wearing long hair is the custom for many people, both men and women. That is, the hair may be worn shoulder length, or even longer, whereby the hair hangs downwardly in long tresses from opposite sides of the person's head. Although a person may choose such a hair style, for fashion or other reasons, there are disadvantages to the hair hanging freely down, particularly at the sides of the head.
Each time a person with such long hair tilts his or her head forwardly and downwardly, the hair naturally falls forwardly in a sometimes annoying and perhaps an unsanitary or even a dangerous manner. For example, if while reading or studying, one thusly tilts the head, the side hair may fall onto the document being read, perhaps obscuring it or the reader's vision. Again, if the head is tilted forwardly while eating, the hair can fall onto the food. Even more significant for a person with who is operating equipment or machines, tilting of the head forwardly may cause falling hair to obscure the worker's vision or the hair may fall into the moving parts of the machine whereby it could be caught causing injury to the worker.
There are well known ways to hold long hair in place, but these are not always satisfactory. The hair can be worn in a ponytail or be fastened back with combs or a barrette, or a net or a scarf may be used. These devices, however, either change the natural shape of the hair or obscure it. Also, a comb or barrette may fall out of the hair and be lost.
Although not in common use, it is also known to provide a hair clip on eyeglasses, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,471,258 to Hsieh. The Hsieh clip is incorporated in non-standard eyeglasses especially made for the clip and includes a pair of arms pivoted to the temples of the glasses for movement between retracted positions recessed into the temples and the rims and extended positions projecting upwardly from the temples. Combs are attached to the arms that are placed in the hair in the extended positions of the arms. With the Hsieh clip, the temples must be worn outside of the hair, i.e., the hair must be captured between the temples and the wearer's head by the temples. Accordingly, the shape of falling locks of hair at the sides of one's head is considerably changed, the ears are always exposed, and the hair may cause the temples to place uncomfortable leveraging-type pressure on the wearer's ears or may even disturb the normal mounted stability and security of the glasses on the wearer's head.


An improved process for the homopolymerization and copolymerization of .alpha.-olefins utilizing highly dilute .alpha.-olefin feedstreams to effect high conversions and catalyst efficiencies in the production of non-ethylene copolymers. The instant invention is particularly adaptable to polymerizing the .alpha.-olefin content of commercially available refinery feedstreams such as Raffinate-2.

This invention relates to a continuous process for the polymerization of .alpha.-olefins with a metallocene catalyst system using a dilute .alpha.-olefin feed.
Olefin polymerizations, particularly, ethylene/.alpha.-olefin copolymerizations can be broadly differentiated as occurring in solution, suspension, or in the gas phase. Within the continuous solution polymerization category, operating conditions can vary quite broadly depending on such variables as the concentration of the reactants in the total feed, the nature of the catalyst system employed, the desired molecular weight of the polymer, and the desired monomer/comonomer ratio within the final polymer.
When concentrated ethylene and .alpha.-olefins, e.g., propylene, feeds are copolymerized with conventional Ziegler-Natta catalysts, it is known as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,912,698 and 3,637,616 to conduct such polymerizations continuously to obtain an ethylene copolymer, dissolved in the solvent, which is continuously removed and isolated by known means. Unreacted monomers leaving the reactor are recovered and recycled to the reactor along with fresh monomers to replace those polymerized.
It is also known, as in EPA 270,339, to conduct continuous ethylene/.alpha.-olefin copolymerization under highly dilute conditions at atmospheric pressure using conventional Ziegler-Natta catalysts. These processes suffer the drawback that the catalysts exhibit low productivities and produce polymer product exhibiting large molecular weight distributions, high ash content, and number average molecular weights too large to be useful as lubricant additives. Consequently, if low molecular weight polymers are desired either hydrogen must be used to keep the molecular weight of the product low, e.g. less than about 15,000 or the catalyst concentration has to be increased to extremely high levels to obtain low molecular weights. The hydrogen treatment at least partially saturates the terminal double bonds in the product, thereby significantly reducing or destroying the polymer's utility for most functionalization reactions, e.g., those used in the production of dispersants. Saturated polymers have limited applicability for use in subsequent functionalization techniques (e.g., by "ene" reaction with maleic anhydride) which rely on a high terminal double bond content to achieve functionalization.
In contrast, recent developments in the catalyst and .alpha.-olefin copolymer art disclose that metallocene catalyst systems yield low molecular weight polymers with high terminal ethenylidine (vinylidene) content directly, without hydrogenation, as well as other advantageous properties (see, EP Publication Nos. 129,368; 440,504; 440,505; 440,506; 440,507; 440,508; 441,548; PCT Publication Nos. WO 91/11488; WO 90/01503; and U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,017,299; 5,128,056; 5,151,204; 4,704,491; 4,668,834; 4,888,393; and 4,542,199).
More specifically, it is known in the art to employ high pressure/high temperature systems, as in U.S. Pat. No. 5,084,534 and EP Publication 260,999, which utilize pure or nearly pure feeds and metallocene catalyst at pressures up to 2,500 bar and temperatures up to 300.degree. C. Such systems are designed to produce high molecular weight polymers at high catalyst productivities (i.e. grams of polymer produced per gram of catalyst used). These systems suffer a number of drawbacks when applied to low molecular weight polymer production; most notably, expensive pure feeds and specialized equipment resulting in high fixed costs of production.
Also, such systems operate with a single phase to allow efficient mixing of the reactants and, therefore, homogeneity of the product.
A single phase system is achieved by operating at temperatures and pressures sufficiently high to compress the ethylene and make it dense enough to dissolve the polymer product therein. This produces a homogeneous phase of polymer in reactant. To achieve high temperature and reduce the size of the reaction zone the process is run adiabatically (heat is not removed), making temperature control difficult. Since the molecular weight of the product is directly related to temperature, failure to maintain constant temperature throughout the reaction process results in increased polydispersity M.sub.w /M.sub.n (or Molecular Weight Distribution, MWD). Temperature control becomes increasingly more difficult at higher conversions in an adiabatic system. Consequently, conversions in the high temperature/high pressure process are kept to a minimum, about 10%. For polymers having molecular weight of 100,000 or more, variations of +1,000 or so have little effect on MWD. For polymers on the order of 10,000 number average molecular weight, M.sub.n and below, however, such variations are extremely disadvantageous.
Moreover, the use of pure feeds is another limiting factor on the rate of conversion. As the conversion rate in a pure feed system is increased, the concentration of polymer in the reactor increases until it becomes extremely difficult or impossible to mix and pump the reactants efficiently. This problem is exacerbated at a low reaction temperature where the polymer viscosity increases further. The limitations on conversion induced by pure feeds applies to essentially all polymerization processes.
Others have attempted to prepare low molecular weight ethylene .alpha.-olefin copolymers (EAO) at low temperatures and pressures, with metallocene catalyst as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,704,491 to Mitsui Petrochemical Industries and U.S. Pat. No. 4,668,834 to Uniroyal. The process described in the Mitsui '491 patent operates with high catalyst concentrations, e.g., 10-2 moles/liter, pure undiluted vaporized feeds, at atmospheric pressure, extremely short reactant residence time (e.g., about 0.5 hours), with no recycle of unreacted reactants. The high catalyst concentrations are needed because the mass transfer of the reactants into solution is poor and, consequently, low concentrations of reactants appear in solution. Low conversions are the result. The Uniroyal '834 patent operates at super atmospheric pressure with a compressor driven cooling system and pure undiluted feeds.
Methods employing dilute reaction mixtures and utilizing batch processes are known in the art. Typically, dilution of the reaction mixture occurs as a result of employing a metallocene catalyst system in a diluent, usually toluene. However, the use of a dilute feed of .alpha.-olefin is not found in this art. Moreover, rapid introduction of reactants into solution is often accomplished by introducing the pure reactants directly into the vapor space of the reactor instead of the liquid phase, or by bubbling the reactants up through the reaction mixture at pressures too low to provide effective dissolution therein. Such processes are also conducted at very low monomer conversions.
KAMINSKY, et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,542,199, describes a batch process wherein pure ethylene and an .alpha.-olefin are introduced into a pressure vessel containing a metallocene catalyst system dissolved in toluene.
LUKER, U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,388 refers to a batch process, wherein the metallocene catalyst system is dissolved in diesel oil in the presence of large quantities of .alpha.-olefin and ethylene and hydrogen gas at 7 bar. The molecular weight distribution of the product is reported to be 2.8.
SLAUGH, et al., EP 366,212 published May 2, 1990, teaches continuous or batch processes, though the examples offered are all batch. The feeds used are pure and the reaction mixture is highly concentrated. The process produces polymer wherein 80 percent of the product has less than 20 carbon atoms per molecule.
TSUTSUI, et al., EP 447,035 published Sep. 18, 1991, refers to a series of batch processes, wherein ethylene is first polymerized or copolymerized with .alpha.-olefin in a first batch under concentrated or dilute conditions; the product is isolated; and then the product is introduced into a subsequent batch process with ethylene or an .alpha.-olefin. The process may be continued to a third round of batch processing. Reactants may be relatively concentrated in one batch, yet relatively dilute in the next or vice-versa.
Another approach, as described by HIROSE, et al., JP 2-173,110 disclosed Jul. 4, 1990, is to recycle massive amounts of ethylene and propylene gas through a solvent-containing reaction vessel. The feeds are pure and the quantity of reactants to solvent is very high. The ratio of ethylene to .alpha.-olefin is necessarily very low in order to prevent polyethylene formation. Polymers formed by this process have ethylene contents less than 10 percent by mole.
It is also known in the art to cool polymerization reactors by evaporation and removal of unreacted monomers from the vapor space, these monomers, being optionally cooled, and recycled to the reactor. Reactors cooled in this manner are referred to as evaporatively cooled reactors or boiling reactors. Polymer is recovered from the reaction mixture by withdrawing polymer solution from the reactor and separating unreacted monomers which are usually recycled to the reactor. Also, as a general proposition, as the concentration of the polymer in solution increases, and/or the molecular weight of the polymer increases, the viscosity of the reaction mixture increases. This in turn reduces the mass transfer of monomer from the gas into the liquid phase and reduces the heat transfer properties of the reaction mixture thereby making it more difficult to cool the reaction mixture. As indicated above, failure to maintain a stable reaction temperature leads to fluctuations in the molecular weight of the polymer and a broadening of the molecular weight distribution.
While evaporative cooling reactors improve heat transfer by removing the exothermic heat of reaction, and can maintain stable reaction temperatures, they have the disadvantage that monomer concentration in solution in the reactor is usually less than its equilibrium value. Thus, as a general proposition, in order to produce a copolymer containing a particular proportion of monomer in evaporatively cooled reactors, it is usually necessary to recycle a larger amount of monomer in the reactor off-gas (to obtain the cooling benefit) than would be the case if a sealed reactor were employed and the concentration of monomer in solution in the reactor achieved its equilibrium value. Economically, this increase in recycle volume means greater expense than would otherwise be the case. See U.S. Pat. No. 3,706,719. Moreover, if the reaction temperature is increased above the critical temperature of monomer, the monomer mass transfer problem becomes more acute since the solubility of monomer will be lower, thereby reducing gas/liquid phase mixing.
In addition to monomer imbalance in the vapor space and mass transfer problems, evaporatively cooled reactors also lead to the associated problem of reactor fouling and polymer segment formation. More specifically, because various .alpha.-olefins possess different reactivities, they co-polymerize at different rates. Moreover, because more volatile .alpha.-olefin homopolymerizes much faster than it copolymerizes with less volatile .alpha.-olefin, the copolymerization of more volatile .alpha.-olefin with other .alpha.-olefins can result in polymers having large crystalline polymer segments randomly interspersed with occasional other .alpha.-olefin moieties.
These phenomena not only make it difficult to control the composition in the polymer, reduce the solubility of the polymer in the reaction mixture, and consequently lead to reactor fouling, but also more importantly, they limit the utility of the polymer in applications extremely sensitive to crystallinity such as to make dispersants for lubricating oil compositions.
The conventional solution to controlling polymer content, when using Ziegler-Natta catalysts, has been to regulate the concentrations of .alpha.-olefins in the reaction mixture. For example, to obtain a copolymer of propylene and higher .alpha.-olefin having approximately 50 mole percent of each monomer in the copolymer, it has been considered that a large excess of higher .alpha.-olefin, e.g., greater than 10:1 mole ratio, is necessary in the catalyst-containing solution in the reactor. In contrast, a copolymerization conducted in a solution containing about equal amounts of propylene and higher .alpha.-olefin, produces a copolymer so high in propylene content, that under ordinary Ziegler-Natta polymerization conditions, e.g., about -20.degree. to about 80.degree. C., it would not be soluble in the saturated hydrocarbon solvents used as the polymerization medium. However, when propylene and higher .alpha.-olefin, for example, are polymerized in a reactor having both liquid and vapor phases, the mole or weight ratio of higher .alpha.-olefin to propylene in the vapor phase is typically far less than the corresponding ratio in the liquid phase because of the greater volatility of propylene. For example, if the higher .alpha.-olefin:propylene mole ratio in the liquid phase is about 10:1, the mole ratio in the vapor phase above it may be only about 1:1 to about 3:1.
Uniformity of monomer incorporation, known as "compositional distribution", is also a function of the mass transfer into the reaction zone, i.e., uniform mixing of the co-monomers. However, as discussed above, in those reactor designs which employ recycle of the vapor phase, e.g., using a reflux condenser, the reflux condensate returning to the reactor will typically have sufficiently high more volatile monomer concentration such that reactor agitation of fresh and recycled monomer alone will not suffice to prevent insoluble polymers having randomly high more volatile monomer content from forming and clogging up the system. Consequently, it has been conventional in the art to attempt to introduce process steps for reducing the more volatile monomer content in the recycled condensate, e.g., by removing more volatile monomer from the condensate before introduction into the polymerization reactor. See U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,706,719 (col. 5, line 68 et seq.); 3,637,616; and 3,912,698. Such steps are costly and inefficient.
Separate and distinct from the need to control monomer ratio in the recycle stream are the mass transfer problems associated with employing pure feeds, particularly mixed pure feeds, even when supplied to reaction zones employing a solvent which dilutes the pure feed as it is introduced into the reactor. For example, the introduction of pure feeds into liquid reaction mixtures necessarily creates a higher concentration gradient of monomer at its point of introduction relative to the remainder of the reactor. Thus a finite amount of time will be required to achieve uniform mixing of the monomer into the reaction mixture. As long as this higher concentration gradient exists, there will be a propensity to form higher molecular weight polymer species relative to the molecular weight of polymer species formed at monomer equilibrium concentrations, since molecular weight is a function of monomer concentration. Broadened MWD and non-uniform compositional distribution are a result.
In view of the above, there has been a continuing need to develop more cost efficient processes for preparing olefin copolymers with metallocene catalyst systems; the present invention was developed in response to this need.

Dilute process for the polymerization of non-ethylene .alpha.-olefin homopolymers and copolymers using metallocene catalyst systems


Ion mobility spectrometer with a non-radioactive electron source to generate ions inside a reaction chamber. The reaction chamber consists of two partial chambers, one of which is evacuated and comprises the electron source, and the other one is connected to the drift chamber of the IMS via a shutter grid. The partition wall between both partial chambers is transparent to electrons but impermeable for gas molecules. The electron source may comprise a thermoemitter or a photocathode, which is illuminated from outside through a window. In this way, any contact between analyte and electron source is avoided, thereby improving the measuring stability and enabling operation in positive and negative mode.

Ion mobility spectrometers (IMS) came into being in the early 1970's in order to analyze and detect organic vapors in air. An ion mobility spectrometer consists of a reaction chamber for the generation of ions of substances to be analyzed and a drift chamber for separation of the ions. In the reaction chamber, for ionization of the substance to be analyzed, usually radioactive materials such as, for example, tritium, .sup.53 Ni, .sup.241 Am etc. are used. The disadvantage of such IMS is that the use of a radioactive ionization source can be dangerous to the environment and to the health of maintenance personal.
In this context there were made numerous attempts to design IMS constructions with non-radioactive ionization sources in the reaction chamber such as, for example, photoemitter to generate electrons. However, in these designs one could not exclude the contact of analyzed gas molecules with the source surface. This is one of the reasons for instabilities of detector indications because such contacts can change the operating characteristics of a non-radioactive source.
The prior art IMS consist of a reaction chamber, a drift chamber, a non-radioactive electron source installed in said reaction chamber, an input connected to said reaction chamber for supplying an analyte and an output for withdrawing said analyte, as well as a collecting electrode mounted in said drift chamber (ref. e.g. Begley P., Carbin R., Fougler B. F., Sammonds P. G., J. Chromatogr. 88 (1991) p. 239).
The disadvantage of these prior art IMS is that the analyte directly contacts the surface of the non-radioactive ionization source which in its turn changes the operating characteristics of said ionization source and may be one of the reasons for the instability of detector indications. Another disadvantage is that one cannot obtain positive ions with the help of such an ionization source.
The purpose of this invention lies in the design of an IMS construction that eliminates the contact of the analyte with the ionization source and enables one to work with positive and negative ions.


An ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus which is capable of reducing generation of side lobes, and thereby, obtaining images of satisfactory quality even when performing sector scan of an area having a wide range. The ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus includes an ultrasonic probe having plural ultrasonic transducers, plural transmitting circuits for respectively generating plural drive signals to be supplied to the ultrasonic probe so as to transmit an ultrasonic beam, plural receiving circuits for respectively processing plural detection signals output from the ultrasonic probe which has received an ultrasonic echo, switching unit for selectively connecting a predetermined number of ultrasonic transducers in the plural ultrasonic transducers to the plural transmitting circuits and/or the plural receiving circuits, and control unit for controlling the switching unit to change a sparse pattern of the ultrasonic transducers which transmit and/or receive ultrasonic waves.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus and an ultrasonic transmitting and receiving method to be used for observing internal organs in a living body and the like by transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves.
2. Description of a Related Art
Conventionally, to obtain a three-dimensional image by transmitting and receiving ultrasonic waves, a one-dimensional sensor array with positional sensors has been used, and a two-dimensional image of a cross section in the depth direction is obtained by electrically steering the transmitting ultrasonic waves, and further, plural two-dimensional images obtained by mechanically shifting the one-dimensional sensor array are synthesized into a three-dimensional image. However, according to this technique, since there resides a time lag in the mechanical shift of the one-dimensional sensor array, plural two-dimensional images of different points of time are synthesized resulting in a blurred synthesized image. Accordingly, the technique is not suitable for imaging of objects having motion like a living body.
In order to eliminate the problem as described above, it is advantageous to obtain three-dimensional images by using a two-dimensional sensor array. However, since the number of ultrasonic detection elements included in the two-dimensional sensor array is extremely large compared to the one-dimensional sensor array, another problem arises. For example, when a two-dimensional sensor array of approximately 80×80 elements is used, it is ideal to receive ultrasonic waves by using all elements. However, when the number of the elements is large, such problem arises, that is, the wiring in manufacturing of the two-dimensional sensor array becomes complicated. Further, as to a number of channels of electrical circuits for processing detection signals obtained by detecting ultrasonic waves with the ultrasonic detection elements, since the same number of channels as a number of the ultrasonic detection elements are required, such another problem arises, that is, the electrical circuits become complicated.
Under such circumstances as described above, in order to reduce the number of channels of the electrical circuits for processing the detection signals, a "sparse array" is used, in which only partial ultrasonic detection elements in the two-dimensionally disposed plural ultrasonic detection elements are used.
For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,241,675 B1 discloses, in an ultrasonic measurement system for measuring velocity of tissue, a sparse array in which transducers are selectively connected. Also, an arrangement of a sparse array adapted so as to obtain a satisfactory acoustic field by reducing side lobes is disclosed by Richard E. Davidsen et al. "TWO-DIMENSIONAL RANDOM ARRAYS FOR REAL TIME VOLUMETRIC IMAGING", ULTRASONIC IMAGING 16 (1994), (Academic Press Inc.), pp. 143–163.
However, when performing sector scan of a wide range of area, sometimes side lobes are generated in a specific direction. According to the above conventional art, the wiring connection, which has been once set up, is fixed and the arrangement thereof is hardly changed, and therefore, even when side lobes are generated in a specific direction, the side lobes can not be reduced. The side lobes lead to generation of an artifact (virtual image) or the like on the images obtained by ultrasonic imaging, which accelerates deterioration of the image and reduces the quality of image.

Ultrasonic transmitting and receiving apparatus and ultrasonic transmitting and receiving method


Systems and methods are disclosed for automatically detecting a design element in a design document. One method comprises receiving a design document and generating an enhanced design document based on the received design document. The enhanced design document may be generated by augmenting additional information to the design document using machine learning techniques. In response to receiving a user input, one or more design elements in the enhanced design document may be determined, and additional information associated with the determined one or more design elements may be displayed to the user.

Creation, distribution, and management of information is at the core of modern day business. Different ways of presenting information have been developed, including word processing documents, spreadsheets, graphics, photographs, design drawings and plans, and so forth. This information content may be generated using a specific software application, and are generally referred to as electronic documents. An electronic document may contain texts or graphics, or both.
One of the significant advantages of working with electronic documents is the ability to search a large volume of information in a short period of time. With non-electronic or paper documents, searching for an item of information, even with the best of cataloging and other indexing tools, proved to be an arduous and painstaking process. In general, searching within electronic documents has been largely limited to text-based methods, where the user enters a simple word query and the locations where that queried word or words are found are identified via optical character characterization (OCR) or text-matching techniques, for example. Boolean and natural language searching techniques are also known, though typically utilized for searching across databases of documents, web pages on the World Wide Web, and so forth. Ultimately, however, these are text-based queries involving identification of a target word or target words in the electronic documents.
The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Unless otherwise indicated herein, the materials described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art, or suggestions of the prior art, by inclusion in this section.

Methods and systems for automatically detecting design elements in a two-dimensional design document


This invention encompasses a dual-purpose surfboard bag. The first function of the bag is to carry a surfboard in a manner that is convenient and protective. The second function of the bag is to provide a cushion for sleeping. In its preferred embodiment, the invention utilizes self-inflating air mattresses within a durable bag to perform both functions.

This invention relates to an improved surfboard bag used to store a surfboard of the type used in surfing of waves generally in close proximity to a beach. Surfboards are generally manufactured in a variety of sizes, such that an individual surfer's surfboard will match the surfer's style, weight, and height. A typical surfboard will be slightly bowed lengthwise, 4 to 7 feet in overall length, approximately 2 feet in width, approximately 2 to 3 inches thick, and have at least one fin which may or may not be detachable. Surfboards are usually made of a foam core covered in fiberglass. Accordingly, surfboards are fragile and susceptible to being damaged from external forces when stored in a surfboard bag for travel purposes.
Those who use and participate in the sport of surfing e.g. surfers, often find it necessary or desirable to travel to a suitable beach to obtain the best or different surfing conditions. Whether the travel is a long distance or shorter across town, surfers may transport their boards and, therefore, want to protect the surfboards during travel. Whether said travel is in a car or other personal transportation means, or using commercial transportation such as on an airplane, travel necessitates the packaging of the surfboard in a container. Said containers are known as surfboard bags. However, as will be seen, nothing in the prior art protects a surfboard in the manner of the present invention. In addition, the prior surfboard bags do not provide an additional dual purpose as a comfortable pad for sleeping.


An apparatus for bidirectional communication using one or more auxiliary bands in a wireless communication system is provided. A primary band transmitter transmits data over one or more primary bands in a frame. A primary band receiver receives data over the one or more primary bands in the frame. An auxiliary band transmitter transmits data over one or more first auxiliary bands in the frame. An auxiliary band receiver receives data over the one or more first auxiliary bands or over the one or more first auxiliary bands and one or more second auxiliary bands in the frame. Therefore, it is possible to facilitate a low-delay service and to cope with a rapid channel change due to high-speed movement.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a wireless communication system. More particularly, the present invention relates to an apparatus for bidirectional communication using one or more auxiliary bands in a wireless communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
For bidirectional communication, a wireless communication system uses a duplex scheme capable of discriminating between downlink (DL) transmission and uplink (UL) transmission. Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B, which illustrate conventional communication systems, the duplex scheme can be classified into a frequency division duplex (FDD) scheme (FIG. 1A) and a time division duplex (TDD) scheme (FIG. 1B). The FDD scheme discriminates between a DL 101 and a UL 103 by allocating different frequency bands to the DL 101 and the UL 103. The TDD scheme discriminates between a DL 105 and a UL 107 by allocating different transmission intervals to the DL 105 and the UL 107 while allocating the same frequency band thereto.
In the case of the FDD scheme, a guard band must be inserted between a DL band and a UL band in order to prevent DL-UL interference. Also, because a DL-UL ratio is fixed by the bandwidth, the FDD scheme is unsuited to accommodate a variable DL-UL asymmetric traffic. The FDD scheme is used in the 2G IS-95 system, the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) system, and most of the 3G systems, which provide voice-oriented services. However, the FDD scheme is unsuitable for wireless communication systems providing data-oriented services.
The TDD scheme can effectively cope with an asymmetric traffic by flexibly adjusting a DL-UL ratio. Also, because the DL and UL links use the same frequency band, the TDD scheme can reduce the overhead necessary for feedback information using channel reciprocity. Thus, the TDD scheme enables the effective use of technologies which increase frequency use efficiency, such as adaptive modulation and multiple antenna techniques.
However, the TDD scheme is more complex than the FDD scheme in terms of synchronization. Also, a guard interval corresponding to a propagation delay and a switching delay must be inserted into a DL-UL transition gap, which causes an overhead in transmission of user data.
Furthermore, the frame length must be increased in order to reduce the overhead due to the guard interval and frame-by-frame control signals such as sync signals. However, when the frame length is increased, an OFF interval of each of DL and UL and a delay of control signals such as channel information and feedback information for a retransmission request are increased. Therefore, in the case of user data requiring a small delay and user data of high-speed movement, the performance degradation occurs due to a delay of the control signal.

Apparatus for bidirectional communication using auxiliary band in wireless communication system


The present disclosure discloses an electromagnetic distributor and a toilet. The electromagnetic distributor comprises: a housing including a water inlet and at least two water outlets in communication with the water inlet; at least two solenoid valve cores, wherein the at least two solenoid valve cores correspond to the at least two water outlets; magnetic conducting part including at least two magnetic conducting chambers, wherein an electromagnetic loop is formed in each of the magnetic conducting chambers; wherein the at least two solenoid valve cores are respectively disposed in the at least two magnetic conducting chambers, and wherein each of the solenoid valve cores is configured to move away from or close to the corresponding water outlet under magnetic field generated by the corresponding electromagnetic loop, so as to independently control opening and closing of the corresponding water outlet. The toilet comprises the electromagnetic distributor according to any of the above.

In the water channel system of smart bathroom equipment, a water channel distributor is usually set to control the water channels so that the water outlet mode can meet the needs of users.
The water channel distributor usually uses a stator and a rotor to cooperate to realize the water channel control. Specifically, the stator is provided with a plurality of water inlets along the circumferential direction, and the rotor is provided with a water outlet, and the water outlet and the water inlets are on the same circumference. The rotor and the stator are relatively rotated. When the water outlet on the rotor coincides with one of the water inlets on the stator, one water channel is opened and other water channels are closed to realize the switching of different water channels. In the actual operation process, the applicant found that the above-mentioned electromagnetic distributor has the following shortcomings: firstly, the distributor uses a stepper motor to control the rotor to rotate in the circumferential direction to control the position of the water outlet to realize the switching of different water channels. The response time is relatively long and cannot meet the needs of rapid switching; secondly, the opening and closing of each water channel of the distributor cannot be independently controlled and only one water channel can be opened at the same time. The water outlet method is single, which cannot meet the diverse water outlet needs.


The disclosure involves the combination of a vehicle chassis such as that used on a construction machine, e.g., a loader/backhoe. The chassis has a channel and a holding tank, e.g., a hydraulic oil tank, supported on the channel by first and second tank mounting ears. In the improvement, the channel includes a panel having outer and inner surfaces and first and second mounting plates are against the inner surface. First and second mounting fasteners extend through the first and second tank mounting ears, respectively, through the chassis panel and into the first and second mounting plates, respectively. A new method for mounting a holding tank to a vehicle chassis is also disclosed.

Many vehicles use mounted tanks to contain liquids necessary for vehicle operation. Such liquids include hydraulic oil, gasoline and water, as examples. Although it is believed that federal regulations require that such tanks be mounted internally on vehicles designed for highway or on-road use, off-road vehicles such as those used in the farming or construction industry often employ (and are permitted to employ) externally-mounted tanks, i.e., tanks visible and accessible to the operator. Off-road vehicles are subjected to vibration, sometimes severe, as they travel over uneven terrain and as they are operated.
A known approach to mounting a hydraulic tank to a vehicle such as a loader/backhoe having a pair of box-like chassis channels uses short, cylindrical tapped bosses welded to the relatively-thick plate forming a side of a channel. At one tank side, the tank has mounting ears and threaded fasteners extend through the ears and thread into respective bosses. It might be said that the tank is cantilever-mounted in that the tank center of gravity is spaced outwardly away from the mounting ears. While this approach is generally satisfactory, it is not without problems.
One problem is known as "oil canning" and occurs during normal vehicle operation. Even though the plate to which the bosses are welded is relatively thick, such plate flexes along lines which represent "stress risers," i.e., lines of high localized metal stress. Over time, this causes tiny fatigue cracks to form in the plate and the chassis channel is thereby weakened and may even fracture. And plate flexing is not the only problem.
Vibration occurring during normal vehicle operation causes what is known as fatigue cracking of the welds securing the threaded bosses to the plate. In an extreme case, weld cracking becomes so severe that a particular boss separates from the channel plate to which it is mounted and becomes ineffective in supporting the considerable weight of the tank and its contents.
And normal vehicle operation is not the only factor which can causes oil-canning and weld cracking. In one known tank mounting arrangement, a step is mounted on the tank outer edge lateral to the tank mounting ears. Such step is used by the operator to gain access to the vehicle cab and when alighting from the vehicle. When the step is so mounted and used, the operator's weight as well as that of the tank and its contents are cantilever-supported by the welded bosses.
Chassis channel cracking and weld breakage often lead to vehicle "downtime." That is, the vehicle must be taken out of service and repaired--during time spent in repair, the vehicle owner does not get the economic benefit of the monetary investment in the machine.
An improved structure and method for mounting a liquid-holding tank to a vehicle chassis in a way which eliminates "oil canning," weld cracking and other forms of metal fatigue would be an important advance in the art.


Custom user help information distinctive of a customer's computing environment is made available to users of a software system through the system's help facility. Creators of the software system (110) include an uncompressed modifiable and user-accessible "custom information" user help file (113) in the software system, but leave the user help file empty, devoid of any custom information. For installation of the software system at a particular customer's site (101), a user or an administrator (115) of the site populates the user help file with the custom information distinctive of that site, and thereby makes the information a part of the software system. Users of the software executing at the site can then access the custom information in the user help file by selecting a pointer (114) to that user help file from a help menu (112) of the executing software system, just like any other user help information.

Software systems (i.e., computer programs) often include files of data that is of interest to users of the software systems, as opposed to the software systems themselves, which data is made accessible to the users. An illustrative example thereof are the "Help" files of the Windows.RTM. operating system and of Windows-based application programs. These data files are created and included in the software system by the creators of the software system.
Installation and setting up of a software system to execute on a customer's computer site is generally done either by an administrator or by a user of the site. The installation and set-up generally requires selection and programming of settings (e.g, parameter values) that are specific to that computing site, and this information is often important to the users of the software system as well as to the software system itself. Furthermore, there is often extraneous information that is important to the users of the software system, e.g., the telephone number of the computing site's help desk, or trouble-reporting procedures.
It is therefore desirable to distribute these types of information to the users of the software system, and to do so automatically and in some permanent association with the software system, so that the information will be available to the users of the software system and will not become separated from the software system and lost. However, by virtue of this information being particular to individual computing sites, this information cannot be provided and included in the software system by creators of a software system that is intended for sale to any interested customers (as opposed to creators of a custom software system developed for a particular known customer).


A nonvolatile memory cell, a memory device and a corresponding production method are disclosed. In one embodiment, a memory material region is in this case provided as memory element between a first electrode device and a second electrode device. The memory material region can be activated by means of at least one species. The memory material region is formed with or from a nanostructure.

In the further development of modern semiconductor memory technologies, in order to achieve a highest possible integration density whilst at the same time increasing or maintaining a high processing speed and sufficient functional integrity, novel memory concepts are also being investigated and developed further in addition to typical silicon technologies in the area of nonvolatile memory devices. In the case of so-called resistively switching memory cells, different conductivity states, which are assigned to different information states, can be formed in a memory material that inherently has poor electrical conductivity, e.g., in a solid electrolyte or in a chalcogenide material, by introducing one or more activating species in the context of an activation operation.
In known memory concepts of this type, what is critical for the operating time or cycle time between a storage operation and an erasure operation is that period of time which is required to form the conductivity state, e.g., via the formation of corresponding current paths, and also that period of time which is necessary to withdraw or erase a conductivity state, e.g., by removing or deconstructing an existing current path.
For these and other reasons there is a need for the present invention.

Memory cell, memory device and method for the production thereof


In a dump truck where a monitoring system prevents the raising of the cargo bed when the level of lateral tilt exceeds a safe limit, a keyed switch allows for presetting the maximum safe degree of tilt by simple left or right manipulation of the switch, and to switch the display from current level of left or right tilt to the value of the preset limit.

In signal monitoring and limit detection systems used in industrial settings, the presetting of safety limits is often accomplished by a variety of dials or thumbwheel switches that require time and a certain degree of manual dexterity not always available to workers that may be wearing gloves or other protective equipment. The instant invention results from an attempt to allow the operator of a dump truck to monitor the degree of lateral tilt in a vehicle and check it against a predetermined safe limit without having to manipulate complex or delicate switching and adjusting implements.


An improved quad fish hook having alternating planar bights and offset bights forming upturned hooks. The fish hook has an enlarged shank for greater hooking and holding strength, and an eyelet offset from the plane of each hook to equalize pressure on any hook point when a strike occurs.

The fish hook is one of the oldest tools used in fishing and various types of hooks are known in the art. Typically, fish hooks are comprised of at least one hook having a bight portion with a point and barb at one end. The bight portions of standard fish hooks are substantially planar; however, fish hooks having an offset bight portion are known. The offset feature of the bight portion can hinder the fish from expelling the hook once impaled. An example of an offset treble hook is U.S. Pat. No. 5,115,594 to the present inventor.
The prior art does not teach of a quad fish hook which utilizes both the standard planar hook and the offset hook. Thus, there is a need for a quad fish hook which gives the fisherman the choice of a standard planar hook and an offset hook on the same fish hook.


A method of fabricating a MOS field effect semiconductor device having an LDD structure is described in which an insulating film is formed on a gate electrode and a layer of polycrystalline silicon, oxide, high melting point metal or a silicide of a high melting point metal is formed on a wafer and etched away by anisotropic RIE, except a portion thereof on a sidewall of the gate. With the resulting structure, degradation of the transconductance of the device due to injection of hot carriers is prevented. Also, the size of the device can be minimized without unduly increasing the resistances of the drain/source region, the gate electrode, and the contacts of the device.

The present invention relates to a method of manufacturing a semiconductor device, particularly, an insulated gate (MOS) field effect semiconductor device having a lightly doped drain (referred to as LDD hereinafter) structure.
FIGS. 1A to 1C are cross sections showing main steps of a conventional manufacturing method of a semiconductor device of this type.
In FIGS. 1A to 1C, a gate insulating film 2 and a gate electrode 3 are formed on a p-type silicon substrate 1, and a low density n-type region 4 used to form a source and a drain is formed by the ion-injection of a low density n-type impurity (I) under a low acceleration voltage while using the gate electrode as a mask (FIG. 1A). The ion-injection may be performed after the insulating film 2, except a portion thereof beneath the gate electrode 3, is removed as shown in FIG. 1A. Then, as shown in FIG. 1B, an oxide film 9 is deposited using low pressure chemical vapor deposition (LPCVD). Thereafter, as shown in FIG. 1C, the oxide film 9 except a portion 10 thereof on a gate sidewall is removed by anisotropic reactive ion etching (RIE). Next a high density n-type region 5 is formed by ion injection of a high density n-type impurity (I) while using the gate electrode and the oxide portion as a mask. Thus, the LDD is formed.
In the conventional LDD structure, it is difficult to determine the time at which the anisotropic RIE should be terminated. That is, since the oxide portion 10 on the sidewall is used as a mask in subsequent steps, the width L of the oxide portion is very important. If its etching is not terminated properly, the width L of the oxide portion becomes variable, and sometimes even the source/drain region is etched away.
Further, if the low concentration n-type region 4 is formed by injecting, for example, phosphorous at 1.times.10.sup.14 ions/cm.sup.2 under 30 KeV, that region cannot be made amorphous. Therefore, a crystalline structure must be recovered by high temperature annealing; otherwise leakage currents may occur. Such annealing prevents the formation of shallow junctions, making minimization of the size of the device impossible.
Another problem encountered in the conventional LDD structure prepared using an oxide film portion on the gate sidewall is that hot carriers may be injected into the oxide film portion 10 during a MOSFET operation; whereupon the low concentration n-type region 4 is depleted, causing the resistance thereof to be increased, and resulting in degradation of the transconductance of the device. Further, if it is attempted to minimize the size of the device by making the junctions shallower, resistances of the drain/source region, gate electrode and contacts are increased.

Method of fabrication LDD semiconductor device with amorphous regions


A display device is disclosed. In one aspect, the display device includes a timing controller configured to receive an image signal and a control signal and output a mode signal and a gate pulse signal based on the image signal and the control signal, wherein the mode signal has a voltage level and wherein the gate pulse signal has a frequency. The display device further includes a clock generator configured to generate a gate clock signal based on the mode signal and the gate pulse signal, wherein the gate clock signal has a voltage level and wherein the clock generator is further configured to set the voltage level of the gate clock signal based at least in part on the mode signal. The display device includes gate lines and a gate driver configured to drive gate lines based at least in part on the gate clock signal.

Field
The described technology generally relates to a display device.
Description of the Related Technology
Display devices, such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs), include a display panel for displaying images and gate and data drivers for driving the display panel. A plurality of gate lines, a plurality of data lines, and a plurality of pixels are formed on the display panel. Each pixel of an LCD includes a switching transistor, a liquid crystal capacitor, and a storage capacitor. The data driver outputs data driving signals to the data lines and the gate driver outputs gate driving signals for driving the gate lines.
After applying a gate-on voltage to the gate electrode of a switching transistor connected to a gate line, the display device provides a data voltage to the source electrode of the switching transistor to display an image.

Display device configured to be driven in one of a plurality of modes


A chemical-mechanical polishing apparatus comprising at least a polishing platen, a polishing pad, a slurry supplying piping, a polishing pad conditioner, a chemical reagent supplying piping and a splitting piping is provided. The polishing platen has a plurality of slurry outlets disposed thereon and the polishing pad is disposed on the polishing platen. The slurry supplying piping is connected to the bottom of the polishing platen for delivering slurry to the surface of the polishing pad through the slurry outlets. The polishing pad conditioner is disposed over the polishing pad. The chemical reagent supplying piping is connected to the polishing pad conditioner for supplying the chemical reagent to the polishing conditioner. The splitting piping is connected between the slurry supplying piping and the chemical reagent supplying piping for providing chemical reagent to the surface of the polishing pad through the slurry supplying piping and the slurry outlets.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) apparatus. More particularly, the present invention relates to a chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) apparatus and a method of conditioning a polishing pad capable of improving the polishing effect.
2. Description of the Related Art
With the trend of minimized device dimensions, the resolution of photo-exposure needs to be correspondingly increased. Furthermore, as the depth of a photolithography-exposure reduces, the tolerance for any undulation in the surface profile of the chip is lower. Chemical-mechanical polishing is currently one of the techniques capable of providing global planarization to an ultra-large scale integrated (ULSI) circuit. Aside from planarizing the surface profile of a chip, the anisotropic polishing characteristic of the chemical-mechanical polishing process is applied to fabricate vertical and horizontal metallic interconnects through metal polishing operations, to fabricate shallow trench isolation structures in an front stage manufacturing process or advanced device, to planarize micro-electromechanical system or to fabricate flat panel display.
FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of a conventional chemical-mechanical polishing apparatus. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional chemical-mechanical polishing apparatus 100 comprises at least a polishing platen 110, a polishing pad 120, a slurry supplying piping 130, a polishing pad conditioner 150 and a chemical reagent supplying piping 160.
In FIG. 1, the surface of the polishing platen 110 further comprises a plurality of slurry outlets 112. The polishing pad 120 is disposed on the polishing platen 110. The polishing platen 110 drives the polishing pad 120 to spin through a carrier platform (not shown). With the delivery of slurry, a chemical-mechanical polishing process is carried out to planarize a chip or any structure requiring global planarization in a semiconductor fabrication process.
The slurry supplying piping 130 is connected to the bottom of the polishing platen 110. The slurry is delivered from a slurry supplying tank 140 through the slurry supplying piping 130 underneath the polishing platen 110 and the slurry outlet 112 to the surface of the polishing pad 120. Because the polishing agent is slurry, the slurry outlet 112 may be blocked if the concentration of the slurry is too high or some dregs are clogged up in the slurry outlet 112. As a result, a blocked slurry outlet 112 can not deliver slurry to the polishing pad 120 evenly. The non-uniform slurry distribution on the polishing pad may have some effects on the planarity in subsequent chemical-mechanical polishing process. In some cases, defects will be formed in the fabricated devices.
As shown in FIG. 1, the polishing pad conditioner 150 is disposed on the polishing pad 120. The chemical reagent supplying piping 160 is connected between the polishing pad conditioner 150 and a chemical reagent supplying tank 170. The chemical reagent in the chemical reagent supplying tank 170 is delivered to the polishing pad conditioner 150 through the chemical reagent supplying piping 160.
At the end of a polishing operation, slurry dregs sometimes are attached to the surface of the polishing pad 120. When this happens, the polishing pad conditioner 150 can adjust the condition on the polishing pad 120 by removing dregs from the surface of the polishing pad 120. However, the delivering of chemical reagent to the polishing pad conditioner 150 only has a limited conditioning effect on the polishing pad 120.

Chemical-mechanical polishing apparatus and method of conditioning polishing pad


A recording apparatus with a conveying mechanism and a blocking member are described. The blocking member reduces foreign substances from soiling a unit or member located adjacent to or below the conveying mechanism. The conveying mechanism may be moved to a position permitting access to remove paper jams while the blocking member is located to permit the conveying mechanism to move to the position while continuing to reduce foreign substances from soiling the unit or member.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a recording apparatus that records an image on a recording medium.
2. Description of Related Art
A conventional inkjet recording apparatus ejects ink to record an image onto a recording medium, e.g., a sheet of paper. When a sheet jam occurs in this inkjet recording apparatus, a jammed sheet is removed by shifting a sheet conveying mechanism (including a belt) away from a recording head.
The above-mentioned inkjet recording apparatus includes, in a housing thereof, a recording head, a sheet conveying mechanism, and a sheet cassette disposed in this order from the top. If foreign substances, e.g., ink and/or sheet powder, on a belt of the sheet conveying mechanism drop from the belt, the sheet cassette becomes soiled with the foreign substances. In order to prevent the soiling of the sheet cassette and other components, a plate may be provided directly below the sheet conveying mechanism to block the foreign substances. Such blocking plate, however, might interfere with the sheet conveying mechanism, if the sheet conveying mechanism is shifted down for removal of a jammed sheet.

Recording apparatus having a movable blocking plate for trapping foreign substances