A fluid is guided inside a spool in which an orifice and drain holes are formed. The spool is displaced according to a hydraulic fluid pressure difference across the orifice. An outflow port, which is always connected with the orifice, and a drain passage, which overlaps with the drain holes according to a displacement position of the spool, are formed in the casing housing the spool. A stopper that limits the spool displacement beyond a position at which the overlap between the drain holes and drain passage is maximized is further provided. In this way, drainage of a fluid via the drain holes and drain passage is maintained at a maximum level even when fluid flows into the spool at a flow rate exceeding a predetermined level, and sharp increases of fluid flow rate from the orifice are thereby suppressed. By limiting excessive displacement of the spool, hysteresis is also prevented from occurring in the flow rate characteristics.

Automatic transmissions that control the speed change operations of a vehicle normally perform gear shifts using a hydraulic pressure. This hydraulic pressure is generated by a hydraulic fluid discharged from an oil pump driven by the engine. A flow rate control valve is provided at a discharge port of the oil pump so as to supply the hydraulic fluid at a flow rate lying within fixed limits to the automatic transmission. This type of flow rate valve may also be applied for providing control pressure to a continuously variable transmission, which is, for example, disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,795.
Such a flow rate control valve has a structure that drains excess hydraulic fluid according to the displacement of a cylindrical spool in response to the pressure of the hydraulic fluid. The spool is housed in a casing, and is supported by a spring in a direction opposite to the direction in which the pressure of the hydraulic fluid acts.
The fluid discharged by the pump is led into a space formed in the spool, and then from an orifice formed at the end of the spool. The fluid flows to the automatic transmission via an outflow port formed in the casing.
Drain holes are pierced on the periphery of the spool, which are connected to the interior space of the spool, and drain ports are formed relative to these drain holes in the casing according to a slide position of the spool.
When the discharge pressure of the pump is low, the drain holes and the drain ports do not overlap, so effectively all of the hydraulic fluid is supplied from the orifice to the automatic transmission. As the discharge pressure increases and the spool slides inside the casing, the drain holes and drain ports start to overlap, so part of the hydraulic fluid flows out from the drain ports to the intake side of the oil pump. This outflow amount is larger the higher the discharge pressure, i.e., the higher the discharge flow rate.
The flow rate of hydraulic fluid supplied to the automatic transmission from the orifice is therefore maintained almost constant according to the increase of the drain flow rate as the pump discharge flow rate increases.
However, when the discharge flow rate of the oil pump rises to a high value, the spool displaces beyond the point at which the overlap between the drain holes and drain port is maximized. Beyond this point, the drain flow rate conversely starts to decrease with increase of spool displacement distance. This decrease of drain flow rate causes an increase of orifice flow rate, and the hydraulic fluid flow rate supplied by the flow control valve to the automatic transmission exceeds tolerance limits.
The equilibrium position of the spool is a position in which the spring load is balanced against the pressure difference across the orifice. However, when the effective cross-sectional area of the drain changes over at the point from increasing to decreasing relative to the spool position as described above, there will be two spool positions in which forces are balanced for the same pump discharge flow rate. As a result, even at the same pump discharge pressure, the spool balance position when the discharge pressure is increasing and the spool balance position when the discharge pressure is decreasing will not necessarily be the same, and this may lead to hysteresis of flow rate characteristics of the flow rate control valve.

Flow rate control valve and continuously variable automatic transmission provided with same


Embodiments relates to a refrigerator that makes it possible to improve water supply performance by disposing an air exhaust unit in a water supply channel connected to the output side of a pump supplying water from a water tank to an ice maker or a dispenser, and effectively return water remaining when the use of dispenser is finished, by using an opening/closing member in the water supply channel, and a water tank for a refrigerator.

In general, refrigerators are appliances that can keep food at low temperature in a storage space which is closed by doors. In detail, the refrigerators keep food fresh by producing cold air by means of heat transfer with a coolant at low temperature and low pressure through a refrigeration cycle and maintaining the storage space at low temperature by using the cold air.
Those refrigerators gradually increase in size and are provided with various functions with changes and increase in dietary life while refrigerators equipped with various structures and convenience devices have been put on the market.
Typical ones of the convenient devices are an ice maker that makes ices and a dispenser, which are provided in the refrigerators. The ice maker and the dispenser are for providing users with ices or drinking water and may be disposed in the compartments or the doors.
In general, the ice makes are manufactured in a type of directly filling an ice-making tray with water or a type of filling a water tank having capacity for one-time ice-making with water and mounting the water tank such that the water is supplied from the water tank to the ice-making tray.
The structures, however, can make only one-time ices, and when a large-capacity water tank is used, the water is frozen in the water tank due to properties about temperature of the freezing compartment and continuous ice-making becomes impossible.
Refrigerators that are provided with a water supply line directed connected with the waterworks to continuously operate the ice maker and a dispenser also connected with the water supply line to take out drinking water from the dispenser have been come up with in order to remove the problems.
Further, refrigerators having a structure that is equipped with a water tank where water for making ice is supplied in the compartments and supplying water to the ice maker and the dispenser by using a pump and a water supply channel have been developed.
In the refrigerators having the structure, air may be mixed and supplied through the water supply channel, when water is completely supplied from the water tank without remaining or with a small amount of water remaining in the water tank, or in an abnormal state.
As air is mixed and supplied, the amount of ices made by the ice maker and is not uniform and the water splashes when being taken out of the dispenser, thereby causing problems in supplying water. Further, if air is mixed in the pump when the pump is operated again after supplying water, large load is exerted in the pump.
Further, since the water remaining in the pipe of the dispenser drops down after the water is taken out of the dispenser by operation of the dispenser in the refrigerators of the related art, which makes users sensitively dissatisfied.


A method of implementing a change of format in a system for cutting sheets of corrugated board comprises the application of at least three first longitudinal cuts by a first group of longitudinal-cutter tool and at least three second longitudinal cuts by a second group of longitudinal-cutter tools. All the three longitudinal cuts overlap one another in the conveying direction. In this way, the corrugated board can be exploited more efficiently in the area of format change.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of format change of a system for cutting a continuous web of corrugated board, which is conveyed in a conveying direction and has two lateral margins, into several continuous sectional webs of corrugated board, having a first and a second group of longitudinal-cutter tools, the method comprising the following steps: producing two first external longitudinal cuts and an intermediate first internal longitudinal cut in a web of corrugated board by a first group of longitudinal-cutter tools; disengaging at least a part of the first group of longitudinal-cutter tools from the web of corrugated board; engaging at least a part of the second group of longitudinal-cutter tools with the web of corrugated board; producing two second external longitudinal cuts and an intermediate second internal longitudinal cut in the web of corrugated board by the second group of longitudinal-cutter tools; producing an internal connecting cut which connects the first internal longitudinal cut and the second internal longitudinal cut and extends crosswise of the conveying direction; producing two external connecting cuts which extend crosswise of the conveying direction and respectively connect a first external longitudinal cut and a second external longitudinal cut.
2. Background Art
EP 0 894 583 B1 teaches a method of format changeover in a slitter/scorer machine in a corrugating plant. Provision is made for a first series of slitting tools and a second series of slitting tools, each consisting of a row of rotating, individually disengageable knives. For format changeover, all the knives of the first series of slitting tools disengage from the web of corrugated board with the exception of a single knife. Only the knife that remains engaged with the web of corrugated board makes a longitudinal cut further into an area of format change. Then this knife disengages too. Simultaneously a single knife of the second series of slitting tools moves into an active position so that the cut that is produced and the cut that extends into the area of format change overlap at their respective ends in the conveying direction. Sequentially, all the other knives of the second series of slitting tools engage with the web of corrugated board. Subsequently, the two longitudinal cuts that project into the area of format changeover are connected with one another by a crosscut that extends vertically of the conveying direction so that two continuous sectional webs of corrugated board originate which then move via a switch on to two different levels. Drawbacks of the known method of format changeover reside in that the entire corrugated board of the area of format change cannot be exploited in the subsequent job of cutting the sheets of corrugated board to size, thus being scrap. Given high conveying rates of for instance 300 m/min, format changeover areas of considerable length may result. Removing the area of format change from the web of corrugated board poses an additional problem. In dependence on the type of format changeover, the one-piece reject frequently has a width of more than half the width of the web of corrugated board. However, webs of corrugated board of inferior width are stacked subsequently so that the rejects frequently lead to inaccuracies in the job of stacking the sheets of corrugated board.

BHS Corrugated Maschinen-und Anlagenbau GmbH


An apparatus and method for transferring hidden signals in a boundary scan test interface is disclosed, which defines an invalid state transition loop in a boundary scan test interface and initially monitors an input of state transition diagram of the boundary scan test interface so that an output of a first data is generated when a first predetermined input stream conforming to the invalid state transition loop is detected, and then an output of a second data is generated when a second predetermined input stream is detected, wherein the second predetermined input stream is different from the first one and also conforms to the invalid state transition loop.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technical field of boundary scan test interface and, more particularly, to an apparatus and method for transferring hidden signals in a boundary scan test interface.
2. Description of Related Art
Since chip packages and multi-level printed circuit boards (PCBs) have become complicated more and more, the conventional in-circuit test using a bed-of-nail is not satisfactory as it is difficult to accurately contact the nodes on a PCB. In addition, due to the advance of surface mount technology (SMT), most ICs are mounted directly on the surface of a circuit board, which causes a problem that internal signals of the ICs cannot be tested directly. To overcome this, boundary scan technique has been developed. For example, the Joint Test Action Group (JTAG) boundary scan, formally known as IEEE-Std-1149.1, and IEEE 1149.4 Digital Test Access Port interface, to define available boundary scan test interfaces for IC testing, which applies serial scan chain for testing the internal modules of an IC. FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a typical JTAG interface. In FIG. 1, the JTAG interface uses five signal pins (TDI, TDO, TMS, TCK and nTRST) in scan chain data operation, i.e., TDI pin as a serial data input, TDO pin as a serial data output, TMS pin as a mode selection input, TCK pin as a clock input and nTRST pin as a system reset. As shown in FIG. 1, the JTAG interface includes a test access port (TAP) controller 11, a test data register 12, an instruction register 13 and a decoder 14.
The test data register 12 includes a scan chain register 121 as a scan chain to store serial data received by the TDI pin, an ID code register 122 storing special numbers to output, a bypass register 123 to directly forward the serial data from the TDI pin to the TDO pin for output.
The instruction register 13 stores a serial instruction received by the TDI pin. The decoder 14 decodes the serial instruction to thus control operations of the TAP controller 11.
The TAP controller 11 performs state transition based on the TMS pin's input and operates with the data of the register 12 and the outcome of the decoder 14. FIG. 2 is a state transition diagram of the TAP controller 11, where state transition occurs in sampling TMS signals at rising edges of a TCK signal output. As shown in FIG. 2, initially, the TAP controller 11 is at Test-Logic Reset state. Next, the controller 11 can enter states of idle process 21, data register process 22 and instruction register process 23. As TMS=1, the Test-Logic Reset state is unchanged, and when TMS=0, the state is transited to Run-Test/Idle state of the idle process 21. Next, the Run-Test/Idle state is unchanged as TMS=0, and transited to Select-DR-Scan state of the data register process 22 as TMS=1. In the Select-DR-Scan state, as TMS=0, the state is transited to Capture-DR state for processing of the register 12, and conversely, as TMS=1, the state is transited to Select-IR-Scan state of the instruction register process 23. In the Select-IR-Scan state, as TMS=0, the state is transited to Capture-IR state for processing of the register 13, and conversely, as TMS=1, the state is transited to the initial Test-Logic Reset state.
The aforementioned JTAG can transfer control signals or access registers through TDI and TDO pins for data read and write. However, data read and write through TDI and TDO pins are in sequential and can easily be detected. Thus, such secret control signals cannot be protected. However, current processor development needs to protect equipment for development from steal by others. Therefore, it is desirable to provide an improved apparatus and method to mitigate and/or obviate the aforementioned problems.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for transferring hidden signals in a boundary scan test interface


A system and method for automatically removing by suction urine voided by a female. The system includes an integrated external catheter and suction regulator unit. The external catheter is applied at the female's urethra opening to receive urine voided by the female. The suction regulator is connected to a receptacle for collecting the urine and is operative to regulate suction applied to the canister from a hospitals' suction line to a regulated value which is applied the external female catheter, whereupon urine from the external female catheter is carried by the regulated suction through the suction regulator and into the receptacle. The external catheter includes an internal suction tube and an external removable and replaceable liquid permeable cover located on the internal suction tube. The external catheter is malleable so that it can be conformed to the anatomy of the female.

Various external catheters are available for non-invasive urine output management in female patients. The PUREWICK® female external catheter available from C.R. Bard, Inc. is an example of one such device. That external catheter is a soft member having a hollow flexible body including a side opening exposing soft absorbent gauze. The catheter is configured to be positioned so that soft gauze is disposed between the patient's separated gluteus and labia and in fluid communication with the urethral opening of the patient, whereupon urine voided by the patient is wicked into the gauze. The catheter is arranged to be attached via suction tubing to a suction canister, which should in turn be connected to either a suction regulator on a hospital wall or a portable suction pump, such as the DRYDOC™ vacuum suction station of C.R. Bard, Inc., whereupon the urine wicked into the external catheter is carried by the suction into the canister for collection. The Instructions for Use (IFU) of the PUREWICK® female external catheter indicates that the suction source should be set to a minimum of 40 mmHG continuous suction.
Sage Products, LLC, now a Stryker Corporation company, provides an external urine management system for females under the trademark PRIMAFIT. That system is in many respects similar to the PUREWICK® system. In particular, the PRIMAFIT system basically comprises an external catheter body having an end cap to fit in the woman's perineal area to secure the catheter in place. The catheter includes soft wicking fabric that absorbs and diverts urine away from the patient's skin. Urine is then absorbed into the system's core and suctioned into a collection canister.
The patent literature includes various systems and methods for collecting and transporting urine away from a person's body, such as: U.S. Pat. No. 4,610,675 (Triunfol); U.S. Pat. No. 4,747,166 (Kuntz); U.S. Pat. No. 5,678,564 (Lawrence et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 5,894,608 (Birbara); U.S. Pat. No. 6,849,065 (Schmidt et al.); U.S. Pat. No. 7,018,366 (Easter); U.S. Pat. No. 7,220,250 (Suzuki et al.); and U.S. Pat. No. 8,287,508 (Sanchez).
As will be appreciated by those skilled in the art, most hospital suction regulators provide insufficient flow at low vacuum pressures, like the 40 mmHg recommended for use with the PUREWICK® female external catheter. Therefore nurses or other care givers frequently increase the vacuum to get adequate urine flow. However, the use of higher vacuum pressure poses an increased risk to the patient, as the only opening in the circuit for air to relieve the pressure is adjacent the patient's genitalia. Accordingly, use of increased vacuum pressure to increase the flow rate of urine being withdrawn into the canister runs the risk of injury to the delicate tissue adjacent the urethral opening.
In our U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 62/829,731, filed on Apr. 5, 2019, entitled System Including Suction Regulator For Automatically Removing Urine From A Female Patient And Method Of Use Of The System, which is assigned to the same assignee as this invention, there is disclosed and claimed a disposable suction regulator configured for use between the female external catheter and a canister coupled to a source of higher suction, e.g., a regulator at the hospital's suction line. That external catheter suction regulator is designed in such a way that it allows far greater flow at low pressures than do the traditional wall regulators. As such, it provides an efficient means for removing urine from a patient using an external catheter, wherein the flow rate is sufficiently high for increased effectiveness, yet is produced by a suction level that is sufficiently low to minimize the danger of injury to the delicate tissue of the patient adjacent the patient's urethral opening.
All of the references as cited herein are specifically incorporated by reference
The subject invention improves upon the invention of our aforementioned earlier filed provisional application by providing an external female catheter and a suction regulator in an integral unit, which is simple in construction, low in cost, comfortable to use, and effective and safe in operation.

Method of use of external female catheter system with integrated suction regulator


A fuel tank assembly includes a fuel tank, and an airbag assembly connected to a fuel tank. The fuel tank includes a first portion facing in a first direction, a second portion facing a second direction which is opposite the first direction. The fuel tank includes a rear portion extending between the first portion and the second portion and facing in a rear direction transverse to the first and second directions. The airbag assembly is connected to the first portion, the second portion, and the rear portion of the fuel tank. During a vehicle impact, an inflatable member of the airbag assembly in an inflatable position may deflect impact debris away from the fuel tank and/or may prevent underbody components from coming contacting the fuel tank.

Vehicles are subject to a variety of standardized testing, such as the Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standards (FMVSS) regulated by the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA). One such standard that governs fuel system integrity is FMVSS 301. Specifically, FMVSS 301 defines the fuel spillage requirements for rear impacts up to 50 miles per hour. Some vehicles, for example police vehicles, may be tested at rear impacts up to 70 miles per hour.
Forces resulting from the rear impact may urge the vehicle to deform, including in areas around the fuel tank. Vehicles may be designed to include structural reinforcements and/or shields in order to absorb and/or deflect these forces away from the fuel tank. These additional components may disadvantageously add design and material cost, complexity, and weight to the vehicle. As such, there remains an opportunity to design a fuel tank assembly that satisfies testing such as the FMVSS 301 test while reducing the complexity and weight of structural reinforcements and/or shields in the area around the fuel tank assembly.
Additionally for some vehicles, such as the police cars and SUVs, extra reinforcements and structural barriers may be added to the vehicle in an effort to protect the fuel tank from damage or spillage, e.g., due to puncture, especially at higher speeds, e.g., speeds exceeding 70 mph. These reinforcements and structural barriers may result in more cost and weight. As such there is an opportunity to design a fuel tank to absorb such impacts while reducing additional structural reinforcements or shields and additional cost and weight associated therewith.

Fuel tank assembly including inflatable member


A light guide plate includes a light incident surface, a light facing surface facing the light incident surface, a connection surface connecting the light incident surface with the light facing surface, and a top surface connected with the light incident surface, the light facing surface, and the connection surface. The light incident surface receives light from a light source, the light facing surface reflects light, and the top surface outputs light toward a display panel. The connection surface includes at least two absorption surfaces parallel to a straight line linking a center of an arc with an end of the light incident surface and at least one reflective surface interposed the two adjacent absorption surfaces to reflect the light.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a light guide plate and a display apparatus including the light guide plate, and more particularly to a light guide plate capable of improving display quality and a display apparatus including the light guide plate.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
A liquid crystal display (LCD) includes a display panel to display an image and a backlight unit to supply light to the display panel.
The backlight unit includes a line light source or a point light source and a light guide plate to guide light emitted from the light source toward the display panel. The light guide plate converts light output from the line light source or the point light source into surface light and provides the surface light to the display panel.
To ensure low power consumption and a thin profile, there is a need for a display apparatus that may maintain uniform display quality over the whole display region with a relatively small number of lamps.

Light guide plate and display apparatus including the same


Novel sequences in the genome of a wild type isolate of chicken infectious anemia virus are described, The amino acid sequence of a polypeptide, VP1, encoded by a novel sequence is also disclosed. Additionally, disclosed are the unexpected properties of the isolate which are related to novel amino acids positioned in the amino acid sequence of this isolate's VP1, as compared to the sequence of VP1 found in cell culture-adapted strains; and use of the novel sequences and their respective polypeptides in strategies to control chicken infectious anemia such as by vaccination.

1.1 Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a particular strain (CIA-1) of chicken infectious anemia virus (CIAV) having a polypeptide comprising a novel amino acid sequence which can be used to vaccinate poultry against CIAV. More particularly, the invention relates to a novel, naturally occurring CIAV isolate which has not been adapted to cell culture; and which, due to the novel amino acid sequence of a major viral polypeptide, exhibits a difference in pathogenic potential and cell tropism as compared to cell culture-adapted strains.
1.2 Description of the Background and Related Art
Chicken infectious anemia virus (CIAV) was first isolated in Japan in 1979 during an investigation of a Marek's disease vaccination break (Yuasa et al., 1979, Avian Dis. 23: 366-385). Since that time, CIAV has been detected in commercial poultry in all major poultry producing countries (van Bulow et al., 1991, pp.690-699) in Diseases of Poultry, 9th edition, Iowa State University Press).
CIAV can cause clinical diseases, characterized by anemia, hemorrhages and immunosuppressive, in young susceptible chickens. Atrophy of the thymus and of the bone marrow are characteristic and consistent lesions of CIAV-infected chickens. Lymphocyte depletion in the thymus, and occasionally in the bursa of Fabricius, results in immunosuppressive and increased susceptibility to secondary viral, bacterial, or fungal infections which then complicate the course of the disease. The immunosuppressive may cause aggravated disease after infection with one or more of Marek's disease virus (MDV), infectious bursal disease virus, reticuloendotheliosis virus, adenovirus, or reovirus. It has been reported that pathogenesis of MDV is enhanced by CIAV (DeBoer et al., 1989, p. 28 In Proceedings of the 38th Western Poultry Diseases Conference, Tempe, Ariz.). Further, it has been reported that CIAV aggravates the signs of infectious bursal disease (Rosenberger et al., 1989, Avian Dis. 33: 707-713). Additionally, subclinical CIAV infection in older chickens is correlated with decreased performance in broiler flocks (McNulty et al., 1991, Avian Dis. 35: 26314 268). CIAV is highly resistant to environmental inactivation and some common disinfectants, characteristics that may potentiate disease transmission. The economic impact of CIAV infection on the poultry industry is reflected by mortality of 10% to 30% in disease outbreaks, a possible role in vaccine failures, and lower performance of infected flocks due to subclinical infection.
CIAV typically can be propagated in embryonated eggs and lymphoblastoid cell lines, such as the Marek's disease virus-transformed chicken lymphoblastoid cell line MDCC-MSB-1 (MSB-1; Akiyama et al., 1974, Biken J. 17: 105-116), but not in chicken embryo fibroblasts, chicken kidney cells, or other primary chicken cells. However, not all strains can be adapted to cell culture as evidenced by the CIA-1 strain (Lucio et al., 1990, Avian Dis. 34: 14614 153). Thus, biological differences may exist between strains.
CIAV is a small, non-enveloped icosahedral virus of 25 nm diameter, and contains a genome consisting of 2.3 kb circular, single-stranded DNA. Two polypeptides have been detected in purified virus preparations; a major polypeptide of about 50 kilodaltons (kDa) termed VP1, and a 24 kDa polypeptide termed VP2. These two polypeptides together form a major epitope for the production of virus-neutralizing antibodies. Genomic DNA sequences of several different isolates of CIAV have been reported. Isolate Cux-1 was sequenced by Noteborn et al. (1991, J. Virol. 65: 3131-3139; herein incorporated by reference) revealing 3 open reading frames (ORFS) that potentially encode polypeptides of 51.6 kDa, 24.0 kDa, and 13.6 kDa. There was only one promoter-enhancer region upstream of the ORFs, and a single polyadenylation signal downstream of the ORFs. A single unspliced mRNA of 2100 bases is transcribed from the Cux-1 genome (Noteborn et al., 1992, Gene 118: 267-271; herein incorporated by reference). Another group also sequenced the Cux-1 strain; however, differences were noted between their sequence data and those from Noteborn et al. (Meehan et al., 1992, Arch. Virol. 124: 301-319; herein incorporated by reference). The nucleotide sequence of strain 26P4, isolated in the U.S.A., also showed a number of nucleotide differences when compared with sequences of Cux-1 (Claessens et al., 1991, J. Gen. Virol. 72: 2003-2006; herein incorporated by reference). Despite the differences in nucleotide sequences found in various isolates from around the world, only minor differences in amino acid sequences have been noted. For these reasons, it has been assumed that CIAV is a highly conserved virus.
Exposing hens to CIAV may induce maternal antibody in chickens which may help protect against CIAV infections in their progeny. However, such vaccination with any of the CIAV strains has inherent problems including the potential of vertical (through the egg) transmission, and contamination of the environment. It is therefore desirable to develop a vaccine having as the immunogen a purified polypeptide(s) associated with CIAV.


A fluid pressure cylinder includes a cylinder tube, a piston and a solid piston rod. The piston rod includes a head-side passage defined by a head-side shaft hole extending in an axial direction, a head-side outer hole open on a part projecting from the cylinder tube and a head-side inner hole open to a head-side chamber and allowing communication between a head-side chamber and a fluid pressure source, and a bottom-side passage allowing communication between a bottom-side chamber and the fluid pressure source. The head-side shaft hole includes an opening end and a tip formed inside the piston rod. The opening end of the head-side shaft hole is sealed by a sealing member.

JP2003-166508A discloses a fluid pressure cylinder in which a head-side passage allowing communication between a head-side chamber and a working fluid pressure source and a bottom-side passage allowing communication between a bottom-side chamber and the working fluid pressure source are provided in a piston rod.
The head-side passage and the bottom-side passage are respectively defined by two shaft holes formed in the solid piston rod. These two shaft holes are formed by inserting cutting tools (drills) through a tip surface of the piston rod to be located in the bottom-side chamber.
The head-side passage is a passage allowing communication between the working fluid pressure source and the head-side chamber and needs to be sealed so as not to communicate with the bottom-side chamber. Thus, a sealing member such as a plug is embedded at an opening end of the shaft hole (head-side shaft hole) defining the head-side passage and open to the bottom-side chamber.

Fluid pressure cylinder and manufacturing method therefor


A device is disclosed herein which may comprise a droplet generator producing droplets of target material; a sensor providing an intercept time signal when a droplet reaches a preselected location; a delay circuit coupled with said sensor, the delay circuit generating a trigger signal delayed from the intercept time signal; a laser source responsive to a trigger signal to produce a laser pulse; and a system controlling said delay circuit to provide a trigger signal delayed from the intercept time by a first delay time to generate a light pulse that is focused on a droplet and a trigger signal delayed from the intercept time by a second delay time to generate a light pulse which is not focused on a droplet.

Extreme ultraviolet ("EUV") light, e.g., electromagnetic radiation having wavelengths of around 5-100 nm or less (also sometimes referred to as soft x-rays), and including light at a wavelength of about 13 nm, can be used in photolithography processes to produce extremely small features in substrates, e.g., silicon wafers.
Methods to produce EUV light include, but are not necessarily limited to, converting a material into a plasma state that has an element, e.g., xenon, lithium or tin, with an emission line in the EUV range. In one such method, often termed laser produced plasma ("LPP"), the required plasma can be produced by irradiating a target material, for example in the form of a droplet, stream or cluster of material, with a laser beam.
Heretofore, LPP systems have been disclosed in which droplets in a droplet stream are irradiated by laser pulses to form a plasma from each droplet at an irradiation site. Also, systems have been disclosed in which each droplet is sequentially illuminated by more than one light pulse. In some cases, each droplet may be exposed to a so-called "pre-pulse" to heat, expand, gasify, vaporize, ionize and/or generate a weak plasma and a so-called "main pulse" to convert most or all of the pre-pulse affected material into plasma and thereby produce an EUV light emission.
As indicated above, one technique to produce EUV light involves irradiating a target material. In this regard, CO2 lasers, e.g., outputting light at infra-red wavelengths, e.g., wavelengths in the range of about 9.2 μm to 10.6 μm, may present certain advantages as a drive laser irradiating a target material in an LPP process. This may be especially true for certain target materials, e.g., materials containing tin. For example, one advantage may include the ability to produce a relatively high conversion efficiency between the drive laser input power and the output EUV power.
In some cases, it may be desirable to employ an Oscillator-Amplifier arrangement to produce the relatively high power main pulses used in the LPP process. Generally, for an LPP light source, EUV output power scales with the drive laser power, and, as a consequence, a relatively large amplifier may be employed. For example, in some arrangements, a multi-chamber amplifier having a one-pass small signal gain on the order of 105 or more may be employed that is seeded with a pulsed oscillator output.
In addition to the amplifier, which may include dozens of mirrors to pass light through a gain media having a folded length of 16-20 meters or more, other optics such as lenses, mirrors, etc., may be employed to expand, steer, and/or focus the beam between the amplifier and the irradiation site. All of these optics are heated during exposure to the pulsed beam and this heat may cause each optic to expand and/or distort. On the other hand, during non-exposure periods, the optics may cool, and behave differently than they did at an elevated temperature. Changes in temperature can cause thermal transients that are difficult to correct due to timescale and/or magnitude, and uncorrected thermal transients can adversely affect beam quality and focusability. Although cooling systems may be employed to reduce the maximum temperature of an optic, they do not always reduce thermal transients associated with irradiation cycles in which an optic is exposed to a pulsed beam for a period of time, followed by a non-exposure period, followed by exposure, etc.
During operation, the output of an EUV light source may be used by a lithography exposure tool such as a stepper or scanner. These exposure tools may first homogenize the beam from the light source and then impart the beam with a pattern in the beam's cross-section, using, for example, a reflective mask. The patterned beam is then projected onto a portion of a resist-coated wafer. Once a first portion of the resist-coated wafer (often referred to as an exposure field) has been illuminated, the wafer, the mask or both may be moved to irradiate a second exposure field, and so on, until irradiation of the resist-coated wafer is complete. During this process, the scanner typically requires a so-called burst of pulses from the light source for each exposure field. For example, a typical burst may last for a period of about 0.5 seconds and include about 20,000 light pulses at a pulse repetition rate of about 40 kHz. In this process, sequential bursts may be temporally separated by an intervening time. During some intervening times, which may last for about a fraction of a second, the exposure tool prepares to irradiate the next exposure field and does not need light from the light source. Longer intervening times may occur when the exposure tool changes wafers or performs metrology, one or more maintenance functions, or some other process that does not require light from the light source.
With the above in mind, Applicants disclose an EUV Light Source with Subsystem(s) for Maintaining LPP Drive Laser Output During EUV Non-Output Periods.

EUV light source with subsystem(s) for maintaining LPP drive laser output during EUV non-output periods


The present invention relates to grommets. In particular, the present invention relates to grommets used within vehicle suspension systems. In preferred embodiments, the dome end of the grommet comprises an anular extension that engages a fastener or bolt extending through the grommet.

Independent vehicle suspension systems are used to absorb road shocks and other vibrations and provide a smoother, more comfortable automobile ride. In suspension systems of this type, a stabilizer bar is normally incorporated to increase roll resistance and improve the steering to stability of the vehicle. Typically, the stabilizer bar is a torsion rod that extends transversely of the vehicle. It has an integral crank arm provided at each end. The rod is rotatably supported from the vehicle chassis adjacent each crank arm, and each crank arm is coupled to a control arm by a connector link assembly.
When the vehicle is subject to forces which cause it to roll, the crank arms pivot relatively about the longitudinal axis of the rod, against the torsional resistance of the rod. Torsion forces which are exerted through the crank arms urge the control arms of the vehicle back toward their normal position. This type of stabilizer bar acts in a manner such that when paired left and right wheels differ in level from each other due to a cornering maneuver, for example, the vehicle body will be prevented from excessive rolling or leaning to either side by torsional resistance of the stabilizer bar.
The link assembly, which connects the crank arms of the torsion rod to the vehicle body and to the control arms, is generally a bolt-type assembly. Examples of such assemblies are described in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,944,523, 5,704,631, 6,402,171, 6,572,127, and U.S. Patent Application No. 2003/0226939; each herein incorporated by reference in their entireties. Generally, in a bolt-type assembly a suitably dimensioned bolt and washer are used to connect the stabilizer bar to the vehicle control arm. Grommets assembled on the bolt engage the exterior surfaces of the stabilizer bar arms and the vehicle control arms. A pair of similarly shaped grommets engage the interior surfaces of the respective vehicle elements and are in engagement with a pair of inner washers which are maintained at a predetermined spaced distance by a cylindrical sleeve mounted on the shaft of the bolt.
Prior art constructions have generally suffered from complexity and cost shortcomings. Such assemblies normally comprises at least four, and sometimes as many as six, different components. Furthermore, assembly is normally done on the vehicle assembly line from these many components.
Limitations with presently available suspension systems include link assemblies that expose the bolt to high levels of stress load during angulation of the control arm and/or stabilizer bar. What are needed are improved grommets that decrease the amount of stress load upon the bolts within suspension systems.


A calibration circuit measures the variation in a filter resistor within the analog domain of the envelope path of a polar transmitter and produces a digital value representative of that variation. A digital processor determines a digital control signal from the digital value that is used to compensate, in the digital domain of the envelope path, for the variation in the filter resistor in the analog domain.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to wireless communications and, more particularly, polar transmitters in wireless communication devices.
2. Related Art
Modern wireless radio frequency (RF) transmitters for applications, such as cellular, personal, and satellite communications, employ digital modulation schemes such as frequency shift keying (FSK) and phase shift keying (PSK), and variants thereof, often in combination with code division multiple access (CDMA) communication. Independent of the particular communications scheme employed, the RF transmitter output signal, sRF(t), can be represented mathematically assRF(t)=r(t)cos(2πfct+θ(t))  (1)where fc denotes the RF carrier frequency, and the signal components r(t) and θ(t) are referred to as the envelope (amplitude) and phase of sRF(t), respectively.
Some of the above mentioned communication schemes have constant envelope, i.e.,r(t)=R, and these are thus referred to as constant-envelope communications schemes. In these communications schemes, θ(t) constitutes all of the information bearing part of the transmitted signal. Other communication schemes have envelopes (amplitudes) that vary with time and these are thus referred to as variable-envelope communications schemes. In these communication schemes, both r(t) and θ(t) constitute information bearing parts of the transmitted signal.
A common transmitter used in variable-envelope communication schemes is the polar transmitter. In a typical polar transmitter architecture, digital baseband data enters a digital processor that performs the necessary pulse shaping and modulation to some intermediate frequency (IF) carrier fIF to generate digital amplitude-modulated and digital phase-modulated signals. The digital amplitude-modulated signal is input to a digital-to-analog converter (DAC), followed by a low pass filter (LPF), along an amplitude path, while the digital phase-modulated signal is input to another DAC, followed by another LPF, along a phase path. The output of the LPF on the amplitude path is an analog amplitude (envelope) signal, while the output of the LPF on the phase path is an analog phase signal. The analog phase signal is input to a phase-locked loop (PLL) to enable the phase of an RF output signal to track the phase of the analog phase signal. The RF output signal is modulated in a power amplifier (PA) by the analog amplitude signal. Thus, in polar transmitter architectures, the phase component of the RF signal is amplified through the PA while the amplitude modulation is performed at the output of the PA.
In practice, the power spectrum emitted from a polar transmitter will not be ideal due to various imperfections in the RF transmitter circuitry. For example, one component of the RF circuitry that significantly affects the performance of the transmitter is the design of the low pass filter along the envelope path. Although metal oxide semiconductor (MOS) capacitors are more stable over process variations than traditional metal capacitors in filter designs, the filter resistor may still exhibit performance variations due to process and temperature changes, thus producing an undesirable variable filter response that can significantly affect the quality of the envelope signal. Therefore, what is needed is a polar transmitter that is capable of compensating for variations in the envelope low pass filter.

Polar transmitter with digital and analog filtering of envelope


Storing and transporting meat products after marinating and before packaging causes a loss of marinade from the meat product. This loss of marinade is reduced by surrounding the marinated meat product in excess marinade during storage and by containing the marinated meat product in an enclosed conduit, surrounded by excess marinade, and pressurizing the marinade during transportation of the marinated meat product.

The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for storing and transporting marinated meat products after marinating and before packaging.
Producers of marinated meat products typically marinate their meat products at one site in a factory and package their marinated meat product at another site. The marinated meat product must be transported from the marinating site to the packaging site. This transportation causes a loss of marinade from the meat product. In some situations, the marinated meat product must be temporarily stored between the marinating site and the packaging site. This storage also causes a loss of marinade.
The loss of marinade during storage and transportation of a marinated meat product is caused by the internal pressure of the muscle tone of the meat product. Additionally, the weight of other meat products piled on top of the meat product during storage and the vibrational force on the meat product during transportation causes the loss of marinade. All of these factors tend to force the marinade out of the meat product especially when the marinated meat product is stored in a dry storage container and/or where the marinated meat product must be transported a large distance by a mechanical conveyor belt.
The loss of marinade from a marinated meat product is significant in two ways: first, a loss of marinade will reduce the spiciness and juiciness of the meat product; and second, the waste of marinade will increase the cost of the meat product. Both the reduction of quality and the increase in price will ultimately reduce the satisfaction of the consumer with the meat product.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide a novel method and apparatus which overcomes many of the known problems associated with the storage and transportation of marinated meat products.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel method and apparatus which reduces the loss of marinade from a marinated meat product during storage and transportation.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a novel method and apparatus which reduces the loss of marinade from a marinated meat product during storage and transportation by overcoming the internal pressure of the muscle tone of the meat product.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a novel method and apparatus which reduces the loss of marinade from a marinated meat product during storage.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a novel method and apparatus which reduces the loss of marinade from a marinated meat product during transportation.
These and many other objects and advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent to one skilled in the art to which the invention pertains from a perusal of the claims, the appended drawings, and the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments.

Method and apparatus for pumping marinated products


A plasma absorption wave limiter is disclosed. The plasma absorption wave limiter comprises a limiting layer and a trigger layer. The limiting layer is transmissive in a pass band of a sensor and capable of generating a reflective and absorptive free electron plasma that will propagate and dissipate therein. The trigger layer is located aft of and in contact with the limiting layer and is capable of residually absorbing incident radiation and initiating the thermal plasma wave in the limiting layer responsive to a threat.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to optical sensors, and, more particularly, to protection of optical detectors in an optical sensor from damage by radiation in the pass band and field of view of the sensor's detector.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical sensors are designed to receive and monitor relatively weak optical signals, whether those optical signals are natural or man-made. Thus the sensor's detectors are very sensitive and are therefore vulnerable to damage by high-level radiation, particularly if the radiation source is in the field of view and in the pass band of the sensor's focusing optics. For some applications, the optical detectors in a sensor must be protected from optical signals that are sufficiently strong to damage the detector. The most extreme example is found in military applications. Many military systems employ optical sensors for a variety of tasks. Enemy forces frequently employ counter-measures to incapacitate or damage the sensor with strong optical signals specifically designed to damage sensor(s). For instance, an enemy might illuminate an infrared imager with a high intensity laser capable of damaging the optical detector(s) in the imager. Sensors have been protected from in-band, in-view threats to some extent by mechanical shutters, reflective (notch filter) coatings, notch absorption materials, non-linear distortion and dispersion in a fluid cell, thermochromic elements, two-photon absorption materials and other techniques.
In the IR wavelengths, a thermoreflectance or thermochromic non-linear material ("NLM") like Vanadium Dioxide ("VO2") can be used to modulate radiation almost 100%. This concept has been extended to optical protection and limiting by subsequent research. For example, one protection approach coats the front surface of transmissive optical elements with VO2. In this approach, one of two NLM coated element is placed near a focal surface—typically a plane—through which the optical energy passes on its way to a sensor's detector(s). Below the "switching threshold," the thermochromic NLM is transmissive to optical energy in the pass band of the sensor, that is, it transmits the "normal" optical energy incident upon it. However, above this threshold of irradiance, the NLM becomes reflective; i.e., it is opaque to the potentially damaging optical irradiance.
In the case of VO2, this optical effect is due to a change in the crystal structure and optical characteristics of the material that occurs when the thin film is above a critical temperature. Since temperature is a function of, among other things, the intensity with which the incident energy impinges on the NLM, the coating acts to limit incident radiation transmitted to the sensor detector(s). This intensity is called the "switching intensity"; i.e., the intensity which produces the temperature at which the thermochromic NLM switches from high to low transmission of the incident energy.
In operation, the thermochromic NLM remains transmissive for the optical energy impinging upon it that is within the desired bandwidth and intensity for the optical elements associated therewith. The optical elements behind the NLM and the substrate are thereby able to receive the incident optical energy. When optical energy of dangerous intensity (e.g., a high-powered laser threat) is encountered, the NLM heats up and switches to its reflective state, whereupon the high intensity optical energy is primarily reflected. When the dangerous intensity ceases, the NLM cools down and returns to its transparent, transmissive state. Thus, by reflecting dangerous intensities of optical energy, the NLM protects downstream optical elements (e.g., sensitive detectors) from damage.
Such thermochromic NLM coatings are however also subject to damage from sufficiently intense radiation. If the incident energy is sufficiently intense and of sufficient duration, the energy can melt, vaporize, or delaminate the NLM from its substrate. This degree of intensity is called the "damage threshold." Thus, a NLM protected system whose optical detector(s) remain unharmed by the damaging intensity can still be degraded. To address this issue, a second NLM switch may then placed forward of the first to protect the first element from damage (although this results in some degradation of the sensitivity of the sensor).
One performance characteristic used to assess an optical protection apparatus is its "dynamic range." The dynamic range is the ratio of its switching threshold to its damage threshold. Ideally, the damage intensity should be very large relative to the switching intensity, and so a large dynamic range is desirable. The desire to improve dynamic range for these materials continues to spur efforts at improving the design of reflective limiters employing thermochromic NLMs.
The present invention is directed to resolving, or at least reducing, one or all of the problems mentioned above.


The invention provides an articulated bending mold for shaping heat softened substrates, e.g., glass sheets, into curved shapes. The bending mold has a central portion with at least one, and preferably two, pivoting end sections. A biasing assembly is mounted on the side of the mold between the end section pivot points, preferably outboard of the end section pivot points and in proximity to an outer side of the end section. The biasing assembly includes a weight arm with a linkage assembly mounted on one end of the weight arm and connected to the end section, preferably at or near an outer corner of the end section.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to the forming of glass sheets and, more particularly, to a bending mold having side mounted weight assemblies for shaping hot glass sheets into curved shapes.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the shaping of hot glass sheets, it is common practice to use a contoured, metal bending mold that supports a flat glass sheet and conveys it through a heating lehr, such as a tunnel lehr. An example of one such heating lehr is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,804,397 to Stas et al., which disclosure is herein incorporated by reference. As the temperature of the glass sheet increases and approaches its heat softening temperature, the sheet begins to sag under the force of gravity and conforms to the contours of the mold. The bending mold with the shaped glass sheet is then conveyed out of the lehr to cool.
Some conventional bending molds also include hinged or articulated end sections to help facilitate bending the sides of the glass sheet into sharp curvatures that could not normally be obtained through normal sag bending techniques. An example of one such articulated bending mold is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,687,501 to Reese, which disclosure is herein incorporated by reference. These articulated bending molds usually include a main frame having a central portion flanked by two pivoting end sections. Each end section is pivotally mounted on a pair of hinge blocks extending outwardly from the front and rear of the main frame. A pair of weight arms are connected to each end section inboard of the hinge blocks and extend along the front and rear of the central portion of the mold. The weight arms are configured to bias the end sections upwardly under the influence of gravity when the glass sheet reaches its softening temperature to shape the glass sheet.
While generally acceptable for bending and shaping glass sheets, such conventional articulated bending molds have limitations. For example, two weight arms are mounted on the leading edge of the mold as it moves through the lehr and are attached to the respective front ends of the end sections inboard of the front hinge blocks. Two additional weight arms are mounted on the trailing edge of the mold and are attached to the respective rear ends of the end sections inboard of the rear hinge blocks. These weight arms and hinge blocks typically extend several inches beyond the leading and trailing edges of the bending mold, increasing the overall length of the bending mold.
In a conventional bending process, overall productivity depends, among other things, upon the number of bending molds which can be processed through the lehr in a given period of time and thus the spacing between adjacent molds being conveyed through the lehr is a significant factor. Because of the leading edge and trailing edge mounted weight arms and hinge blocks of the prior art, adjacent bending molds must be spaced relatively far apart in a tunnel lehr thereby decreasing the number of bending molds which can be moved through the lehr in a given period of time.
Additionally, the conventional mounting of the hinge blocks and weight arms of the prior art results in four weight arms and hinge blocks located between the glass supporting portions of adjacent bending molds as the molds move through the lehr. This mass of metal absorbs and radiates heat differently than the glass sheets, adversely impacting the heating uniformity of the lehr.
Further, conventional weight arms typically have a relatively long attachment length between the weight and the hinge block and thus the weight arms flex, which can adversely impact upon the force being applied to the ends of the end sections, adversely impacting the final shape of the glass sheet and resulting in the rejection of the shaped glass.
As can now be appreciated, it would be advantageous to provide bending molds and methods of bending glass which do not have the drawbacks or limitations of the presently available bending molds and methods.

Bending mold having side mounted weight assemblies and method of use thereof


An enclosure for a room, patio, or the like is made of modular parts that hide from view all fasteners and other functional parts. The parts include upstanding regular posts, corner posts, open back posts, horizontal beams and chair rails, as well as door frames, door jambs, door sweeps, and other parts required for an enclosure construction. Aesthetic cover members are snap-fittingly engaged to the modular parts and confronting pairs of the cover members, in a first embodiment, are very closely spaced to one another to accommodate a screen between them. In second and third embodiments, the confronting cover members have larger spaces between them to accommodate opaque, translucent, or transparent panels of about one-half inch and three-quarter inches, respectively.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates, generally, to apparatus and methods for making enclosed structures of various types that include screens and/or panels of opaque, translucent, or transparent construction. More particularly, it relates to a construction technique that hides all of the unattractive parts of a screen, panel, or glass enclosure.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Screen, panel, and/or glass enclosures such as rooms, patios, porches, and the like are built by erecting frames that may include headers for attachment to an existing structure, posts, beams, door jambs, door sweeps, chair rails, and the like. Screens, opaque or translucent panels, and/or glass panels complete the structure. In a screen enclosure, various parts of the frame include channels formed therein that receive elongate rubber liners that are inserted, with a well-known hand tool that includes a roller, into the channels in overlying relation to the screen edges to secure the screens into position. Conventional construction techniques result in the liners being exposed to view, along with flanges, nuts, bolts, and other utilitarian but unsightly parts. In panel enclosures, whether of opaque, translucent, or glass panels, conventional construction techniques also leave bolts and the like in view.
What is needed, then, is a construction technique that hides from view not only the rubber liners that hold screens into place, but also the bolts and other such parts as well in screen and panel/glass enclosures.
However, in view of the art considered as a whole at the time the present invention was made, it was not obvious to those of ordinary skill in this art how such a construction method could be provided.

Aesthetic screen, panel, or glass enclosure construction


A carrier composition comprised of a core and thereover a linear polycarbonate polymer obtained from the curing of a cyclic polycarbonate oligomer with an M.sub.w of about 5,000 to about 300,000, and an M.sub.n of about 2,000 to about 150,000.

This invention is generally directed to developer compositions, and more specifically, the present invention relates to developer compositions with coated carrier components, or coated carrier particles that can be prepared by, for example, dry powder processes. More specifically, the present invention relates to compositions, especially carrier compositions comprised of a core and thereover certain polycarbonates, such as polycarbonate polymers formed by the thermal curing of cyclic polycarbonate oligomers and related oligomers with polar groups of, for example, tertiary amines or perfluorinated moieties incorporated to, for example, provide excellent acceptable charging characteristics for xerographic image development systems.
Advantages of the carriers of the present invention include in embodiments carrier coatings which are very robust, that is, they are substantially resistant to polymer fracture and subsequent chipping and delamination of the polymer from the core surface in, for example, high energy xerographic environments, that is, in which the energy imparted to the toner is about 0.5 W-hr per pound or higher, and which carriers additionally display a tribo charge of a positive value, for example from about a minus 35 to about a minus 40 microcoulombs per gram and a corresponding high negative tribo charge to the toner, excellent admix, for example, from about 1 to about 30 seconds as determined in a charge spectrograph, and the like. More specifically, the toner tribo can be, it is believed, from about a minus 5 to about a minus 50 microcoulombs per gram, from about a minus 25 to about a minus 45 microcoulombs per gram, or from about a minus 35 to about a minus 40 microcoulombs per gram, and more specifically, preferably, for example, about 15 to about 25, with corresponding positive tribo charges for the carrier. The tribo charges can be determined by a number of known methods, such as the use of a Faraday Cage.
Other advantages of the present invention include increased resistance of the carrier to mechanical aging in a xerographic environment and a decreased sensitivity of the carrier triboelectric value to the relative humidity of the environment. With respect to high toner tribo charge of a negative value, this property is important to xerographic, especially color applications, primarily because there is enabled development of toner particles into regions of the imaging member, such as a photoreceptor where strong fringe electrical fields exist, that is, at the borders of solids areas and lines. Developing toner particles through these fringe fields minimizes or eliminates the untoned part of the image which appears between two adjacent colors in an image.
The carrier particles of the present invention can be selected for a number of different xerographic copiers and printers, such as high speed color xerographic copies, printers, digital copiers, and more specifically, wherein colored copies with excellent and substantially no background deposits are achievable in copiers, printers, digital copiers, and the combination of xerographic copiers and digital systems. Developer compositions comprised of the carrier particles illustrated herein and prepared, for example, by a dry coating process are generally useful in electrostatographic or electrophotographic imaging systems, especially xerographic imaging and printing processes, and digital processes. Additionally, the invention developer compositions comprised of substantially conductive carrier particles are useful in imaging methods wherein relatively constant conductivity parameters are desired. Furthermore, in the aforementioned imaging processes the triboelectric charge on the carrier particles can be preselected depending on the polymer composition and dispersant component applied to the carrier core and the type and amount of the conductive component selected.


A dual parity hardware architecture that enables data to be read from each sector only once and performs both the P parity and Q parity from the single data source. The Q parity calculator provides parallel processing capabilities so that multiple parity operations are performed on the same sector simultaneously. The dual parity hardware architecture provides flexibility in restoring data, generating parity, and updating parity for differing data sector sizes.

With the accelerating growth of Internet and intranet communication, high-bandwidth applications (such as streaming video), and large information databases, the need for networked storage systems has increased dramatically. System performance, data protection, and cost have been some of the main concerns in designing networked storage systems. In the past, many systems have used fibre channel drives because of their speed and reliability. However, fibre channel drives are also very costly. Integrated drive electronics (IDE) drives are much cheaper in terms of dollars per gigabyte of storage; however, their reliability is inferior to that of fibre channel drives. Furthermore, IDE drives require cumbersome 40-pin cable connections and are not easily replaceable when a drive fails. Serial advanced technology attachment (ATA) drives that use the same receptor as their fibre channel counterparts are now available. These drives, therefore, have the speed required for acceptable system performance and are hot-swappable, meaning that failed drives are easily replaced with new ones. Furthermore, they provide more storage than fibre channel drives at a much lower cost. However, serial ATA drives still do not offer the same reliability as fibre channel drives. Thus, there is an industry push to develop high-capacity storage devices that are low cost and extremely reliable.
To improve data reliability, many computer systems implement a redundant array of independent disk (RAID) system, which is a disk system that includes a collection of multiple disk drives organized into a disk array and managed by a common array controller. The array controller presents the array to the user as one or more virtual disks. Disk arrays are the framework to which RAID functionality is added in functional levels to produce cost-effective, highly available, high-performance disk systems.
In RAID systems, the data is distributed over multiple disk drives to allow parallel operation, thereby enhancing disk access performance and providing fault tolerance against drive failures. Currently, a variety of RAID levels from RAID level 0 through RAID level 6 have been specified in the industry. RAID levels 1 through 5 provide a single drive fault tolerance. That is, these RAID levels allow reconstruction of the original data if any one of the disk drives fails. It is quite possible, however, that more than one serial ATA drive may fail in a RAID system. For example, dual drive failures are becoming more common as RAID systems incorporate an increasing number of less expensive disk drives.
To provide, in part, a dual fault tolerance to such failures, the industry has specified a RAID level 6. The RAID 6 architecture is similar to RAID 5, but RAID 6 can overcome the failure of any two disk drives by using an additional parity block for each row (for a storage loss of 2/N). The first parity block (P) is calculated by performing an exclusive OR (XOR) operation on a set of assigned data chunks. Likewise, the second parity block (Q) is generated by using the XOR function on a set of assigned data chunks. When a pair of disk drives fails, the conventional dual-fault tolerant RAID systems reconstruct the data of the failed drives using the parity sets. The RAID systems are well known in the art and are amply described, for example, in The RAIDbook, 6th Edition: A Storage System Technology Handbook, edited by Paul Massiglia (1997), which is incorporated herein by reference.
An examplary dual parity scheme performs an XOR operation on horizontal rows of drive sectors to generate P parity and then performs an XOR operation on diagonal patterns of sectors in order to create Q parity. In general, these systems require a prime number of drives and a prime number of sectors per drive in order to perform. For example, Table 1 (below) shows the sector used for performing the P and Q parity calculations for sector 1 in a 11+2 disk configuration. As illustrated, there are 11 data drives (A, B, C, D, E, F, G, H, I, and J) and 2 parity drives (K and L), each having 11 sectors (0, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10). The sectors used as data sources for the calculation of the P parity appear in bold, while the sectors used as data sources for the calculation of the Q parity are underlined.
TABLE 1P and Q parity calculationsParityData DrivesDrivesABCDEFGHIJKLSector 0A0Sector 1A1B1 C1D1E1F1G1H1I1J1P1Q1Sector 2J2Sector 3I3Sector 4H4Sector 5G5Sector 6F6Sector 7E7Sector 8D8Sector 9C9Sector 10B10
In Table 1, it can be seen that P parity is calculated as an XOR of sectors spanning a horizontal row across each of the data drives. For example, in sector 1, the P parity P1 is calculated as an XOR of sector 1 of each of the data drives, i.e., sectors A1, B1, C1, D1, E1, F1, G1, H1, I1, and J1. Table 1 also shows that the Q parity is calculated as an XOR spanning a diagonal of sectors from each of the data drives. For example, in sector 1, the Q parity Q1 is calculated as an XOR spanning the diagonal of sectors A0, B10, C9, D8, E7, F6, G5, H4, I3, and J2.
An examplary dual parity algorithm is found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,453,428, entitled, "Dual-drive fault tolerant method and system for assigning data chunks to column parity sets." The '428 patent describes a method and system for assigning data chunks to column parity sets in a dual-drive fault tolerant storage disk drive system having N disk drives, where N is a prime number. Each of the N disk drives is organized into N chunks such that the N disk drives are configured as one or more N×N array of chunks. The array has chunks arranged in N rows from row 1 to row N and in N columns from column 1 to column N. Each row includes a plurality of data chunks for storing data, a column parity chunk for storing a column parity set, and a row parity chunk for storing a row parity set. These data chunks are assigned in a predetermined order. The data chunks in each row are assigned to the row parity set. Each column parity set is associated with a set of data chunks in the array, wherein row m is associated with column parity set Qm, where m is an integer that ranges from 1 to N. For row 1 of a selected N×N array, a first data chunk is assigned to a column parity set Qi, wherein i is an integer determined by rounding down (N/2). For each of the remaining data chunks in row 1, each data chunk is assigned to a column parity set Qj, wherein j is an integer one less than the column parity set for the preceding data chunk and wherein j wraps to N when j is equal to 0. For each of the remaining rows 2 to N of the selected array, a first logical data chunk is assigned to a column parity set Qk, wherein k is one greater than the column parity set for the first logical data chunk in a preceding row and wherein k wraps to 1 when k is equal to (N+1). For each of the remaining data chunks in rows 2 to N, each data chunk is assigned to a column parity set Qn, wherein n is an integer one less than a column parity set for the preceding data chunk and wherein n wraps to N when n is equal to 0.
The algorithm described in the '428 patent safeguards against losing data in the event of a dual drive failure. However, performing the algorithm described uses excess processing cycles that may otherwise be utilized for performing system storage tasks. Hence, the '428 patent describes a suitable dual parity algorithm for calculating dual parity and for restoring data from a dual drive failure, yet it fails to provide an optimized hardware system capable of performing the dual parity algorithm without affecting system performance. When one data sector changes, multiple Q parity sectors also have to change. If the data chunk size is equal to one or more sectors, it leads to system inefficiencies for random writes. Since parity calculations operate on an entire sector of data, each sector is read into a buffer. As the calculations continue, it may be necessary to access the buffer several times to reacquire sector data, even if that data had been used previously in the parity generation hardware. There is, therefore, a need for an effective means of calculating parity such that the storage system is fault tolerant against a dual drive failure, provides optimal performance by improving buffer bandwidth, and is further capable of generating parity for differing data sector sizes.
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide optimal hardware that minimizes buffer bandwidth requirements for dual parity calculation.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a programmable dual parity generator with minimal design complexity.

System for improving parity generation and rebuild performance


The present invention relates to a method of dyeing a substrate with a reactive dyestuff in supercritical or near supercritical carbon dioxide, said substrate being selected from the group consisting of cellulose fibers; modified cellulose fibers; protein fibers; synthetic fibers and any combination thereof, wherein the method comprises dyeing said substrate by contacting the substrate with supercritical or near supercritical carbon dioxide containing a reactive dyestuff and one or more acids in a concentration of at least 0.05 mol. %, calculated on the molar amount of reactive dyestuff that is used in the dyeing method, said reactive dyestuff being a chromophore derivative containing a chromophoric residue and a reactive group, said reactive group comprising a cyclic or heterocyclic aromatic residue that will be protonated under the conditions employed during the contacting, such protonation resulting in enhanced reactivity of the reactive dyestuff towards the plurality of reactive groups contained in the substrate.

Dyeing by traditional water-based methods and subsequent washing processes produces large amounts of, usually strongly coloured, waste water. Furthermore, when dyeing, for instance, polyester fibers from an aqueous medium, the dyed fibers need to be subjected to a so called reduction clearing which causes additional effluent problems.
The aforementioned environmental drawbacks of water-based dyeing methods can be overcome by dyeing from supercritical carbon dioxide. Supercritical dyeing additionally offers the advantage that densities and viscosities in supercritical carbon dioxide are lower and diffusion more rapid than in liquids, shortening the process time.
The dyeing of substrate materials in liquid or supercritical carbon dioxide is well-known in the art. It is also known to employ reactive dyeing substances in supercritical dyeing methods that are capable of reacting with the substrate under the formation of a chemical bond. These reactive substances are usually derivatives of CO2-soluble disperse dyestuffs (chromophores) that contain a reactive group that is capable of reacting with specific residues in the substrate.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,620,211 describes a method for dyeing textile material with one or more fibre-reactive disperse dyestuffs in a supercritical or almost supercritical fluid, wherein the relative humidity of the fluid is in the range of 10-100% during dyeing. It is observed in the patent that maintaining the relative humidity of the fluid in the range from 10 to 100% during the dyeing process ensures that the textile material remains sufficiently moist and therefore sufficiently accessible for the uptake of the dyestuff. In the patent it is observed that the moistening agent may contain a reaction-accelerating auxiliary for accelerating the reaction between the reactive disperse dyestuff and the textile material. Examples of these auxiliaries are said to include pyridine and ammonium salts. It is said that these reaction accelerators often contain tertiary and quaternary ammonium groups.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,010,542 describes a method of dyeing a substrate in carbon dioxide comprising the steps of (a) providing a dye composition comprising carbon dioxide, a dye and a surfactant, the surfactant being included in an amount sufficient to solubilise, emulsify or disperse the dye in the carbon dioxide, and then (b) dyeing said substrate with said dye composition. According to the US patent the method enables the use of relatively large and less volatile dyes in carbon dioxide mediated dyeing systems. Furthermore, it is said that the method does not require high temperatures and pressures for sufficient dissolution of the dye. The patent provides a long list of additives that may be employed with the carbon dioxide, including carboxylic acids.
The results obtained with supercritical dyeing methods described in the prior art are not entirely satisfactory. In particular, the colour yields and wash-fastening properties of the dyed substrate are often disappointing.

Method of dyeing a substrate with a reactive dyestuff in supercritical or near supercritical carbon dioxide

Feyecon Development & Implementation B.V.


Methods for making active laser fibers include the production of an optical fiber with disturbed (or deviated) cylindrical symmetry on the glass surface of the fiber. The methods include a preform containing a central core made of glass. In one embodiment, the preform is circular and surrounded by additional glass rods and an outer glass jacket tube. In a first alternative embodiment, this preform is merged during fiber drawing. In a second alternative embodiment, the preform merged in a process forming a compact glass body with disturbed cylindrical symmetry. This compact preform is drawn into a fiber under conditions maintaining the disturbed cylindrical symmetry.

Active laser fibers are used to generate laser light. Such devices are also called fiber lasers. Laser fibers typically have a doped core that is the active medium that guides the laser light. An outer pump excitation fills the complete fiber diameter and interacts with the active fiber core. Due to the multiple reflections within the core along the length of the fiber, a large gain in the laser radiation, which is coupled out at the end of the fiber, is possible.
To achieve a high yield in conversion of pump energy to laser power, active fibers containing rare-earth elements are used. The active fibers are surrounded with a pump core which is characterized by a disturbed cylindrical symmetry or by mechanical tension applied by differences in refractive index within the pump core. Conventional methods for production of these pump cores include using a cylindrical preform and creating a symmetry disturbance by the grinding of segments. The resulting pump cores exhibit a D-structure or double-D-structure or a multiple W-structure. The grinding of the preform is a separate manufacturing process that consumes resources and time.
Conventional methods for more economical production of active laser fibers include the following:
U.S. Pat. No. 6,411,762 discloses a laser fiber optimising the mode mixing by implementing doped rods around the active core. For this purpose, a multimode preform is prepared by producing holes with an ultrasonic treatment to insert the doped rods in a subsequent process step.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,978,377 discloses a production method for polarization-maintaining fibers that combines different cladding segments by conservation of their symmetry. The ultrasonic grinding as well as the combining of cladding segments is typically quite costly and generally needs a high level of technological experience.
It remains desirable to have an efficient method for making active laser fibers.


A shield is disclosed for use in preventing water from splashing from a toilet bowl when using a plunger in attempting to unplug a clogged toilet or toilet drain. The shield is a resilient single piece construction having at the outer rim a flat portion providing a positioning surface against the upper rim of a toilet bowl; the central portion is dome shaped presenting a concave surface to the inside of a toilet bowl; intermediate the positioning surface and the dome is an annular rim extending downwardly from the positioning surface toward the toilet bowl interior and adjacent to the interior of the upper rim of the toilet bowl and thence upwardly to form the dome. An aperture is positioned generally centrally in the dome with the aperture accepting the handle of a toilet plunger; the aperture forming a frustrum or truncated conical passage way, for the toilet handle, extending downwardly from the dome. The positioning surface provides a foundation against the toilet rim and a sealing function against splashing water. The annular rim and dome shaped central portion direct splashing water toward the center of the dome and away from the rim. The downwardly extending frustrum complements the dome in reducing access passage ways for the escape of water from the toilet bowl when operating the toilet plunger. The operator may secure the apparatus in place with his or her foot while operating the plunger thus increasing the sealing effect of the positioning surface and stabilizing the apparatus while plunging.

Apparatus directed to the reduction of the splashing of liquids, including water, from toilet bowls during operation of a toilet plunger are known in the prior art including U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,669 to Edwards; U.S. Pat. No. 5,099,527 to Roose; U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,442 to Rotter and U.S. Pat. No. 5,600,856 to Kang. The patents referred to herein are provided herewith in an Information Disclosure Statement in accordance with 37 CFR 1.97.