A device includes a bolt, a nut, and a coupling. The bolt includes a head and a shaft, and the bolt has a first longitudinal axis that passes through a center of the head and the shaft. The shaft has a first set of threads that are disposed on a radially outer surface of the shaft, and the head has a substantially convex surface. The nut has a second set of threads that are disposed on a radially inner surface of the nut, and the second set of threads is structured to threadably engage the first set of threads. The coupling is structured to attach the bolt to an object, and the coupling and the nut are structured to maintain the substantially convex surface of the head in an abutting relationship with a substantially concave surface of the object.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates generally to lighting systems, components, and methods and more particularly to a device for securing a shade to a light fixture.
2. Description of the Related Art
FIGS. 1-5 are diagrams that illustrate the industry standard device for attaching a shade to a lighting fixture, in this case a lamp. Like reference numerals refer to like parts throughout. With reference to FIGS. 1-5, a base unit 2 of the lamp supports a switch/socket assembly 4 and a harp 8. A light bulb 6 may be inserted and removed from the switch/socket assembly 4 by screwing the base of the light bulb into the socket. A flattened portion at the top of the harp 8 supports a lamp washer 10 and a finial support 12.
The lamp washer 10 is typically crimped to the shaft of the harp 8 at two positions. Prior to crimping, a threaded end of the finial support 12 is inserted through a central hole in the middle of the lamp washer 10. The other end of the finial support 12 is flattened and keyed to engage the shaft of the harp 8. Consequently, when the lamp washer is crimped to the shaft of the harp 8, the threaded end of the finial support 12 is positioned perpendicularly to the shaft of the harp 8. The lamp washer 10 and the finial support 12 are rigidly connected. That is, a force applied to the finial support 12 causes the lamp washer 10 to move and vice versa. Additionally, the keyed end of the finial support 12 allows one to screw and unscrew a finial 14 (see FIG. 4) from the finial support 12 without causing the finial support 12 to rotate.
FIG. 3 illustrates a top, front, and side view of the harp 8, the lamp washer 10, and the finial support 12. The dotted lines in FIGS. 2 and 3 indicate that the lamp washer 10, and in turn the finial support 12, may rotate around the shaft of the harp 8 if enough rotational force is applied.
A rotational force is typically applied when there is a shade 16 attached to the lamp fixture by a finial 14, as shown in FIG. 4. Objects, pets, or people may physically contact the shade 16, thereby causing the shade 16, the finial 14, the finial support 12, and the lamp washer 10 to rotate around the axis of the harp 8, as illustrated in FIG. 5. Of course, if force is applied to the shade 16 in a direction parallel to the axis of the harp 8, rotation is prevented because the lamp washer 10 may only rotate in directions perpendicular to the harp axis. Thus, in these situations, the entire lamp tends to move.
Neither situation outlined above is desirable. In the first case, the shade 16 may stop in a position that is too close, or even touching, a hot light bulb 6. This is frequently the cause of many fires. In the second case, the shade 16, the harp 8, or the entire lamp may be damaged if the force applied to the shade is sufficient to overturn the lamp.
Furthermore, the more the shade 16 is jostled over time, the looser the connection between the lamp washer 10 and the harp 8 becomes. This is due to the fact that metal at the crimped portion of the lamp washer 10 is in direct contact with the harp 8. Thus, the metal will start to wear down with each rotation of the lamp washer 10, making the overall connection less stable.
Embodiments of the invention address these and other disadvantages of the conventional art.

Device for securing a shade to a light fixture


The disclosure describes an internal combustion engine and a method for operating an internal combustion engine, in which an electronic controller is programmed to determine whether the internal combustion engine is operating within a cylinder cutout enabling region and, when the engine operates in the cylinder cutout enabling region, to cutout one or more of the engine cylinders by causing the cutout cylinder's fuel injector to cease injecting fuel into cutout cylinder, and to also cause the still-active engine cylinders to operate with an additional amount of fuel such that a steady state engine torque output remains unchanged before and after the second cylinder is cutout.

Typical internal combustion engines include a reciprocating piston disposed within a cylinder having a closed end. A variable volume created between the piston, the cylinder, and the closed end encloses and compresses a fluid, which can include air, a mixture of air and exhaust gas, a combustible mixture, and other fluids. During operation, combustion of the fuel/air mixture creates hot and expanding exhaust gases, which push the piston along the cylinder. The piston is connected to a crankshaft, which includes an offset lobe connected to the piston via a connecting rod such that power generated during combustion pushes the piston, which in turn causes the crankshaft to rotate and produce useable power.
In turbocharged engines a performance tradeoff exists between turbo performance at rated power and boost available at no or low load conditions. For example, engine operation at rated power requires a large frame size turbine and compressor, which can effectively draw power from the engine's exhaust gas and use a portion of that power to compress air provided to the engine for combustion. At rated power, the engine will burn a large amount of fuel, which requires a large amount of air to maintain a desired air to fuel ratio. The relatively large turbocharger frame size can provide the appropriate air amount at a relatively low engine pumping loss, which increases engine efficiency. However, while engine operation at the rated power tends to require a large turbocharger frame size, as discussed above, low or no load engine performance, and also engine transient performance when the engine is accelerating, tends to require a smaller frame size. This is because the rotational inertia of the turbine and compressor wheel, and also the pressure that can be built up in the turbine and compressor, and also the rate at which pressure can be built up, will be improved from a smaller frame size turbocharger, which will also include smaller turbine and compressor wheels having a smaller rotational inertia permitting them to accelerate faster. The effect of a delay in engine power output increase because of the turbocharger is sometimes referred to as turbocharger or turbine lag or delay.
Thus, a tradeoff exists when sizing a turbocharger for an internal combustion engine. Typically, engines use a relatively larger frame size turbocharger to achieve desired operational characteristics at high engine loads, which compromises low end engine performance and can increase turbocharger lag. In an engine having a larger frame size turbocharger, at low or no engine load conditions such as idle, accelerating engine performance, snap torque increases and the like will be affected and limited by the amount of air that the turbocharger can provide if the engine is to maintain a desired air/fuel ratio.
Various solutions have been proposed in the past to address issues with turbocharger lag. For example, certain engines may use more than one turbocharger that operate in sequence or in parallel. In such engines, a large turbocharger may be used primarily for high load conditions while a second, smaller turbocharger may be used at low or no load conditions. These differently sized turbochargers, however, may still not address quick power increases of the engine output when the engine is operating at a mid-range condition. Other engines use two turbochargers in parallel, each of which is sized for a mid-engine range. These engines too, however, may not effectively and efficiently operate at rated power and no or low load conditions, and they may also increase engine pumping losses by the additional exhaust and fresh air conduits that are required to connect them to the engine.
An additional solution proposed in the past to in an attempt to decrease the effects of turbocharger lag in engine performance is to use a turbine having a variable frame. While a turbine of this type can simulate a smaller frame turbine, which can help in the low end of engine performance, the compressor is typically a fixed-frame compressor that is sized for the high end of engine performance, so the solution is only partly suited to address transient engine performance.


An ear tag having a first button with an aperture, and a pin having a head and a heel is attached to the first button via engagement of the heel in the aperture. A second button is provided having an aperture for engaging the head of the pin. At least one of the buttons has an additional frangible ring adjacent one of the apertures through which the pin is introduced and by which the pin engages the appropriate button. As force is applied to the buttons in opposite directions the additional ring breaks making the re-connection of the two buttons impossible.

In European Patent Specification No: 92,408 B1, there is described an ear tag comprising a first button having an aperture, a pin having a head and a heel and being attached to the first button via engagement of the heel in the aperture prior to application of the tag to an animal, and a second button which is separate from the pin prior to application of the tag, the second button having an aperture in which the head of the pin is engaged on application of the tag.
On the prior tag, the buttons are of flexible plastics material, whereas the pin is of rigid plastics material. These material choices enable the tag to be readily applied to an animal's ear, and yet enable the tag to resist snagging in fences, gates etc., as can happen with tags of all rigid material. However, the prior tag and indeed other prior tags can on occasion be torn apart for illicit retagging of animals with the wrong tags.


An endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus of the invention includes: a processing tank including an opening portion; an apparatus main body which performs processing on an endoscope arranged in the processing tank; a lid member which opens and closes the opening portion; an electric actuator which is connected to the lid member and which generates a pressing force for pressing the lid member toward the opening portion; and a control section connected to the apparatus main body and the electric actuator, the control section causing the electric actuator to continue to generate the pressing force for pressing the lid member toward the opening portion in a predetermined period during execution of the processing, and causing the electric actuator to stop generating the pressing force in a period other than the predetermined period.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus including a processing tank, a lid member of which is openable and closable with an electric actuator.
2. Description of the Related Art
Endoscopes used in medical fields are subjected to cleaning processing and disinfecting processing after being used. An endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus that automatically performs cleaning processing and disinfecting processing of an endoscope is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-20729, for example.
The endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-20729 is configured to allow an endoscope to be housed in a concave-shaped processing tank to perform cleaning processing and disinfecting processing of the endoscope in the processing tank with the use of liquid detergent and disinfectant solution. When the cleaning processing and the disinfecting processing are performed by using the endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-20729, the processing tank is sealed with a lid member. According to the endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2007-20729, opening and closing of the lid member is performed with an electric actuator.

Methods for driving an endoscope cleaning/disinfecting apparatus


Embodiments herein relate to a motor vehicle safety arrangement and method for positioning an occupant properly on a vehicle seat and restraining the occupant thus positioned in preparation of the vehicle potentially being subject to a rear-end collision. A safety belt is associated with the vehicle seat and an electric reversible safety belt retractor is associated with the safety belt. A rearward-looking detection system detects and classifies the collision risk for an approaching object. At least one sensor monitors one or more vehicle parameters. A control unit determines a driving state as critical or non-critical from the monitored vehicle parameters. The control unit controls the electric reversible safety belt retractor to apply a predetermined pullback force on the safety belt in response to the collision risk for an approaching object being classified as high within a predetermined time of an indicated critical driving state.

In motor vehicles, collision warning systems are becoming more widely used. Collision warning systems provide a vehicle operator knowledge and awareness of objects or vehicles within a close proximity, so as to prevent colliding with those objects. Current collision warning systems usually rely on a sensor located on the vehicle which, upon sensing an object generates an object detection signal, which is communicated to the operator of that vehicle as a warning of a potential collision.
One class of such collision warning system is a rear-end collision warning system. Rear-end collisions may cause so called whiplash injuries to occupants of the vehicle being rear-ended. Thus, there exist today systems for preventing or mitigating whiplash related injuries during rear-end collisions. Such systems usually rely on electric reversible seat-belt retractors or tensioners. One such system is known through WO2008002756, which relates to a control system for warning a following vehicle of a potential collision with a leading vehicle.
In WO2008002756 the leading vehicle is equipped with a rear collision warning system that can determine the range and range rate of the following vehicle using radar sensors or ultrasonic sensors. The control system employs an algorithm that detects the following vehicle and determines whether the potential exists for a collision with the leading vehicle. The algorithm compares a desired distance between the leading vehicle and the following vehicle based on the speed of the leading vehicle, and determines whether the difference between the desired distance and the actual distance is greater than a predetermined threshold. If the difference is greater than the threshold, the algorithm may provide one or more operations, such as flashing hazard lights to warn the following vehicle, or taking other courses of action in the event of an imminent collision, such as pre-tensioning seat belts.
However, it is a well-known fact that many vehicle drivers have a quite aggressive style of driving. Such aggressive driving increases the number of instances when a driver comes close to a rear-end collision. Known systems, as e.g., the system known through WO2008002756, may therefore falsely classify these instances as instances where a collision is imminent.
As a consequence thereof known systems equipped with electric reversible seat-belt retractors or tensioners therefore are often set to activate the retractors or tensioners at a very late instance prior to a rear-end collision, in order to avoid a too frequent activation thereof which may cause a disturbance and be perceived as annoying by vehicle occupants.
However, rear-end collisions between two moving vehicles often occur very rapidly, such that late activation may provide for an insufficient amount of time for such known systems to be able to fully accomplish appropriate positioning of a vehicle occupant in order to effect adequate protection against injuries, such as e.g., whiplash injuries.
Several attempts have been made to ensure that instances of non-threatening driving are not falsely classified as instances where a collision is imminent. One such attempt is illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 6,758,495, which relates to a method and system for restraining an occupant on a vehicle seat, the occupant being pulled into the vehicle seat is provided with a force by a belt tensioner when a critical driving state is detected and then held in a pulled-back position on the vehicle seat with a holding force. A forward-looking detection system for a dangerous driving state is provided, in which, when a dangerous driving state is detected, a belt tensioner is subjected to a force and the occupant is thereby pulled into the vehicle seat, and in which the occupant is held in a pulled-back position on the vehicle seat.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 6,758,495 a trigger criterion for belt tensioners can thus be derived by determining critical driving situations and/or with the aid of the forward-looking sensor system. The critical vehicle state is detected by monitoring the steering angle, distance from an object, relative velocity, vehicle deceleration, yaw angle, yaw rate, yawing acceleration, vehicle's own speed, steering angle, sharp changes in direction, jump in the road/tire friction coefficient, lateral acceleration, wheel speed and/or angle of inclination or any combination of these parameters. Using the distance from the object, the relative velocity, vehicle's own speed, vehicle deceleration or even the friction coefficient as parameters, for example, a time of collision is determined from this, i.e. the time the electrical reversible belt tensioner has to spare before the time of collision. All the data from detection devices and calculation units or any combination of these data are fed to a control unit, which then compares them with predetermined limiting values and triggers the reversible belt tensioner if these values are exceeded.
Although the method and system suggested by U.S. Pat. No. 6,758,495 may provide for improved classification of driving instances as non-threatening or threatening, there is no provision for ensuring an allowance of a sufficient amount of time to be able to fully accomplish appropriate positioning of a vehicle occupant in order to effect adequate protection against whiplash injuries.

Motor vehicle safety arrangement and method


An antihazing agent for noncrystalline cycloolefin resins which can inhibit the hazing of the resins due to fine cracking caused by environmental change, particularly, environmental change from high temperature and humidity atmosphere to ordinary temperature and humidity atmosphere without losing the characteristics inherent in the resins to keep the transparency of the resins and inhibit the light transmittance thereof from lowering; noncrystalline cycloolefin resin compositions containing the agent; and optical elements made from the compositions. A compound component containing a metal rosinate as the main component is used as the antihazing agent for noncrystalline cycloolefin resins. It is particularly preferable that the antihazing agent further contain one or more members selected from the group consisting of alkali metal salts, alkaline earth metal salts, and Group 12 metal salts.

Cycloolefin resins are resins having a cyclic olefin skeleton in their backbone and having properties including high transparency, low birefringence, high heat deformation temperature, light weight, dimensional stability, low water-absorbency, hydrolysis resistance, chemical resistance, low-dielectric constant, low-dielectric loss, freedom from materials which present environmental problems. Consequently, cycloolefin resins are used in various fields which require the aforementioned properties.
Among them, in view of properties such as high heat resistance, high transparency, and low birefringence, cycloolefin resins are used as materials for transparent molding-processed articles in optical devices such as lenses, light guide plates, and diffraction gratings, and industrial materials used in the fields of construction, lighting, and the like.
When cycloolefin resins are used for optical elements, whether or not the resin elements can endure the usage environment becomes the most important factor. That is, it is required that optical properties do not deteriorate by resin deterioration due to the usage environment. Various conditions of the usage environment are envisioned depending on the article in question. However, especially tough environment conditions are assumed to be about 95° C. in temperature and about 95 RH in humidity. Therefore, it is required that the optical properties can be maintained without deterioration of the resins even when the resins are exposed to such environments.
However, a molded article made of cycloolefin resins becomes cloudy depending on its usage environment, and the transparency and light transmittance, which are properties of the resins, deteriorate. This fact adversely affects the usage of the resins in fields which requires transparency, such as optics applications. Particularly, environmental changes going to a normal humidity and normal temperature atmosphere after exposure to a high humidity and high temperature atmosphere posed the problem of clouding due to microcrack generation which occurs in a molded article made of cycloolefin resins, which intrinsically have low water-absorbency, when water vapor trapped in the article under the high temperature and high humidity atmosphere condenses inside the article without exiting therefrom under normal temperature and normal humidity.
For the purpose of preventing such a deterioration in the transparency of cycloolefin resins, resin compositions including cycloolefin resins together with an amine compound or amide compound, which have hydrophilic groups and hydrophobic groups in the same molecule, at a specific ratio have been proposed (Patent Document 1).
Patent Document 1: Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. H09-176396

Antihazing agent for noncrystalline cycloolefin resins, resin compositions, and optical elements


An apparatus for manually uncoupling a V-belt drive from an active power source. The apparatus is mounted on the end of a pulley of the V-belt drive and is comprised of a tapered member connected to the output shaft of the power source for engaging in holding relationship the pulley of said V-belt drive; a retractor member attached to the pulley; and a toggle linkage for displacing the retractor member relative to the tapered member to disengage the pulley from the tapered member. The toggle linkage includes a first pair of diverging toggle links and a second pair of crossing toggle links having end portions pivotally connected to end portions of said first pair of toggle links. The second pair of toggle links is mounted in a sleeve for rotation about an axis having a fixed relationship to the tapered member.

V-belt drives are commonly used for transmitting the torque of an electric motor to a load. They provide numerous advantages over gear drives, including, low cost, reliability, overload protection, and lubricant free operation. Numerous safety couplings exist for automatically uncoupling drives from power sources during excessive loads, however, there is a lack of devices for manually coupling and uncoupling V-belt drives from active power sources. At various times needs arise for manually connecting and disconnecting V-belt drives from an active power sources such as an electric motor.


Embodiments of the subject technology provide for determining a region of a first acquired image based at least on a viewing mode and a set of respective positions of graphical elements to decrease the pre-processing time and perceived latency for the first image. One or more regions of text in the first image are detected, and a set of regions of text that overlap with the region of the image is determined and pre-processed. The subject technology may then pre-process an entirety of a subsequent image (e.g., to pick up missing text from the region of the first image). Thus, additional OCR results may be provided to the user by using the subsequent image(s) and merging subsequent results with previous results from the first image.

In computing, a recognition process may be provided for recognizing patterns or types of objects in input data, such as image data. One type of such a recognition process includes optical character recognition (OCR) that may be utilized to identify one or more characters of text in a given image.
With the introduction of more powerful and capable mobile computing devices (e.g., smartphones, phablets, tablet computing devices, etc.), applications that were traditionally found on desktop computing devices or servers are being implemented for running on mobile computing devices. For a given OCR implementation adapted for use on a mobile computing device, a set of challenges are presented as mobile computing devices are used in different physical environments and have a more limited set of resources that may require a more efficient OCR implementation to optimally run on a given mobile computing device.

Optimizing pre-processing times for faster response


A process for the synthesis of an N-(di-substituted phosphoryl)-trans-4-hydroxy-L-proline of the formula I: ##STR1## is disclosed, wherein R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 independently represent C.sub.1-18 alkyl, phenyl or phenyl-substituted C.sub.1-18 alkyl, or R.sup.1 and R.sup.2 are taken in combination to represent C.sub.2-4 alkylidene or phenyl. Trans-4-hydroxy-L-proline is reacted with a di-(substituted) phosphite of the formula III: ##STR2## in the presence of sodium hypochlorite and sodium hydroxide to produce a compound of formula I.

The present invention relates to a process of synthesizing compounds that are useful in the manufacture of carbapenem side chains. These carbapenem antibiotic compounds are effective in the treatment of infections caused by susceptible bacterial organisms.
In the past, the synthesis of appropriately substituted hydroxyprolines has been conducted in the presence of a mixture of carbon tetrachloride, an amine base, e. g., triethylamine, water and an inert organic cosolvent, e.g., ethanol. See, e.g., Synthesis, 1988: 444-448. This process is somewhat undesirable in that it uses excess amounts of reagents and it uses and generates chlorinated hydrocarbons. The present invention utilizes stoichiometric amounts of more economical reagents and generates little undesirable side products.

Process for synthesizing carbapenem side chain intermediates


An ink container, such as that used in an ink jet recording apparatus, is improved to effectively suppress permeation of ambient air into ink compartments through the container walls and to permit easy refilling with ink. The ink container includes a container body which has a plurality of liquid compartments defined therein by a plurality of partition plates to accommodate the ink, and inter-compartment communicating portions through which adjacent ink compartments communicate with each other, so that successive liquid compartments are emptied one after another as the liquid is progressively consumed. The container body also has a buffer compartment which covers at least the top walls of said liquid compartments. The ink container may have a discrete segments of a porous member which are disposed only in the inter-compartment communicating portions.

FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a liquid container for a liquid, particularly ink, used in a recording apparatus such as an ink jet recording apparatus, a copying machine or a facsimile apparatus. More particularly, the present invention is concerned with a liquid container which suppressES evaporation of the liquid.

Refillable, evaporation-suppressing liquid container


According to one embodiment, there is provided an optical film with a recording surface, the recording surface including: a computation element section in which a phase component of light from each reconstruction point of a reconstructed image is computed, the computation element section corresponding to each reconstruction point one by one; a phase angle recording area in which a phase angle computed based on the phase component is recorded; and a phase angle non-recording area in which the phase angle is not recorded, the phase angle computed based on the phase component being recorded in an overlapping area where the computation element section and the phase angle recording area overlap each other.

In recent years, there have been prior art documents relating to computer-synthesized holograms, as cited below, showing optical films controlled based on interference of light computed by a computing device.
The examples shown in the prior art documents are those used in securities, card media, and personal authentication media. For example, Non-Patent Literature 1 discloses a method of computing light interference effect using a computing device.
Information on interference fringes is information on the intensity of the amplitude of light. In the case of recording the intensity of the amplitude of light on an optical film, the intensity of light may be reduced at the time of reconstruction depending on the recording method. Also, Patent Literature 1 and Patent Literature 2 disclose that the intensity of the interference wave of a reference light and an object light is computed to create interference fringes.

Optical film with recording surface, and display body including optical film


A system receives images capturing a non-planar surface from different respective angles, where each of the images captures a section of an area on the non-planar surface, the area including textual or graphical information. The system stitches together the images to obtain a stitched image that captures an entirety of the area on the non-planar surface. The system processes the stitched image to extract the textual or graphical information from the area on the non-planar surface. The system then associates the extracted textual or graphical information with one or more information fields in a report template, and generates a report by populating the one or more information fields of the report template with corresponding associated information within the extracted textual or graphical information.

The present disclosure relates generally to data extraction systems and methods, and more particularly to systems and methods of extracting information from a non-planar surface.
Stand-alone fire extinguishers are commonly installed across building environments to provide a scalable, upgradeable, and flexible fire safety/suppression solution that requires minimal infrastructural changes. Routine regulatory, safety, and/or maintenance inspection of a fire extinguisher commonly involves a qualified service engineer manually reading the fire extinguisher label, identifying key information such as suppressant type, latest date of inspection, pressure reading, etc., and digitally recording such information to generate a report. However, routine inspection of fire extinguishers may incur a large, recurring cost. In particular, due to the large number of fire extinguishers required to sufficiently protect a large area, management of fire extinguishers in large buildings may be an expensive and time-consuming task. In addition to being costly and time-consuming, the possibility of human error may also lead to erroneous readings. Thus, improvements are desired in fire safety systems.

System and method for extracting information from a non-planar surface


Methods, devices, and systems for a universal pipe sleeve junction for an aspirated smoke detection system are described herein. In some examples, one or more embodiments include a sleeve body having an outer surface and an inner surface, the inner surface defining an opening through the sleeve body, wherein the sleeve body further includes a first end surface and a second end surface opposite the first end surface, and a nozzle having an outer surface and an inner surface, the inner surface of the nozzle defining an opening through the nozzle and extending through to the inner surface of the sleeve body, where the nozzle opening is configured to couple with a pipe sleeve attachment mechanism.

Facilities, such as commercial facilities, office buildings, hospitals, and the like, may have control systems that can be used during an emergency situation, such as, for instance, a fire, to manage the emergency situation in and/or around the facility. Such control systems may rely on detection systems to detect a fire, such as an aspirated smoke detection system. An aspirated smoke detection system can be a system having a detection unit which draws air through a network of pipes to detect smoke. For example, a facility may utilize a series of pipes located throughout the facility that can draw air from various spaces in the facility to the detection unit to detect smoke.
The aspirated smoke detection system may utilize such pipes in order to sample various locations in the facility for smoke. For example, the pipes may include sampling points located in the various locations in the facility through which air is drawn into the pipe system. Upon detection of smoke, other fire hardware devices may activate, such as audible alarms, visual alarms, pre-programmed messages on a display, etc.

Universal pipe sleeve junction for an aspirated smoke detection system


An oil pump is provided which includes a cam ring made of a material having a first line expansion coefficient, a pump element rotatably disposed in the cam ring and smaller in an axial length than the cam ring, a first housing member disposed on one of axially opposite sides of the cam ring and made of a material having a second line expansion coefficient larger than the first line expansion coefficient, and a second housing member disposed on the other of the axially opposite sides of the cam ring and made of a material having a third line expansion coefficient than the first line expansion coefficient.

The present invention relates to an oil pump, for example, for supplying lubrication oil to sliding sections of an automotive vehicle or for supplying pressurized oil to a power cylinder of a power steering system for assisting steering.
An oil pump, for example, for use in automotive vehicles has a pump housing and a housing cover that are made of an aluminum alloy of a small specific gravity. The oil pump further has a cam ring made of an iron-system material, which cam ring is required to have a large strength.
In case, as described above, the pump housing and the housing cover are made of a metal of a larger line expansion coefficient and the cam ring is made of a metal of a smaller line expansion coefficient, they make different displacements due to thermal expansion in accordance with a temperature rise of working oil in the pump, thus increasing side clearances between them.
As a result, there occurs leakage of working oil through the side clearances and therefore a decrease in the pump efficiency.
Thus, there has been proposed, as disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 58-183992, such an oil pump in which a spacer is disposed in a space surrounded by a housing and a housing cover, which spacer has a thermal expansion coefficient that compensates for an increase of a side clearance due to a difference in thermal expansion between a pump operating section and its surrounding section and which spacer has a sealing function to prevent leakage of working oil through the side clearance.

Oil pump adapted to prevent leakage without using sealing member


A system for and a method of curing a material is provided. A material, such as an underfill material, is rotated during a curing process. The curing system may include a chamber, a holder to support one or more workpieces, and a rotating mechanism. The rotating mechanism rotates the workpieces during the curing process. The chamber may include one or more heat sources and fans, and may further include a controller. The curing process may include varying the rotation speed, continuously rotating, periodically rotating, or the like.

In typical packaging processes, a first structure is attached to a second structure, and an underfill material is placed between the first structure and the second structure. For example, a semiconductor chip or die may be attached to a package substrate using solder balls to physically and electrically connect the semiconductor chip to the packaging substrate. Underfill, which typically comprises a resin with a silica filler, is placed between the semiconductor chip and the packaging substrate to provide structural support and protection from environmental factors.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


A lubricating oil composition including: a lubricant base oil; (A) a triazole metal deactivator in an amount of 0.005 to 0.03 mass % in terms of nitrogen on the basis of the total mass of the composition; and (B1) a succinimide compound represented by the following general formula (1) in an amount of 0.0005 to 0.02 mass % in terms of nitrogen on the basis of the total mass of the composition:

In recent years, electric vehicles which use an electric motor as a power source for running, and hybrid vehicles which use an electric motor and an internal combustion engine together as a power source for running are attracting interest in view of energy efficiency and environmental compatibility. While generating heat during operation thereof, electric motors include heat-sensitive components such as a coil and a magnet. Those vehicles using an electric motor as a power source for running are thus provided with means for cooling the electric motor. Known means for cooling the electric motor include air cooling, water cooling and oil cooling. Among them, oil cooling is to circulate oil in the electric motor, to directly make parts in the electric motor which generate heat (such as a coil, a core and a magnet) contact with a coolant (oil), which makes it possible to obtain a high cooling effect. In the electric motor using oil cooling, oil (lubricating oil) is circulated in the electric motor, to cool and lubricate the electric motor at the same time. Electrical insulation, and corrosion inhibition performance for copper used as a material of the electric motor are required of a lubricating oil (electric motor oil) of the electric motor.
The vehicle using the electric motor as a power source for running usually includes a transmission having a gear mechanism. Various additives are incorporated into a lubricating oil to lubricate the gear mechanism since anti-wear performance and anti-fatigue performance are required of the lubricating oil.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Abstract: wherein in the general formula (1), R1 and R2 each independently represent a hydrogen atom or a C1-36 linear or branched chain alkyl or alkenyl group, and at least one of R1 and R2 is a C8-36 linear or branched chain alkyl or alkenyl group, and n represents an integer of 1 to 10.


A merchandise display assembly includes a support member and a hook projecting from the support member for slideably suspending associated merchandise items. The hook includes a back end which is mounted to the support member and a front end having a retainer construction for preventing merchandise items from sliding off the hook. A resilient one piece label holder is mounted on the hook for providing product information concerning merchandise items suspended on the hook. The holder includes a mounting section by which the holder is mounted on a back end of the hook. The holder also includes an intermediate section extending from the mounting section. The intermediate section includes a plateau and a border region surrounding the plateau. The plateau is located out of a plane of the border region to add stiffness to the intermediate section. A display section, which extends forwardly from the intermediate section, is so positioned and located as to extend in front of a tip of the hook.

This invention relates to label holders and product identification tags for merchandise suspended from a horizontally extending support hook or the like. More particularly, the present invention relates to label holders which are easily attached to and removed from product support hooks without being subject to inadvertent removal.
Label holders or product identification tags are known in the art. They are conventionally formed from a plastic sheet which is die cut into the appropriate shape so as to display product information forwardly of items suspended from a horizontally extending hook. The hook can extend from a pegboard or the like. The holder includes a mounting portion arranged to be temporarily deformed while being attached to and removed from the hook at a location adjacent to the board, an intermediate portion which projects forwardly over the support hook, and the merchandise supported thereon, and a display portion which bends downwardly from the distal end of the intermediate portion in front of the hook so as to display the desired product identification and information data.
Many known label holders are prone to lateral bending or flexing of the holder along its intermediate portion as a result of customers contacting the holder. This results in the display portion of the holder being positioned beside the suspended merchandise and not in front of it. Thus, the label holder is out of view of customers. Such bending or flexing can occur when a merchandise item is being removed from an adjacent hook by a customer who accidentally brushes against the holder. In order to deal with this problem, one known product employs longitudinally extending ribs or longitudinal rows of perforations along the intermediate portion. These are meant to promote transverse flexure of the intermediate portion of the holder into a bowed configuration to reinforce the holder against longitudinal and lateral flexure. Another known product employs side wings which are integral with and extend downwardly from the side edges or margins of the intermediate portion to impart longitudinal stiffness to the intermediate portion. The side wings are folded downwardly from the intermediate portion along longitudinally extending preformed fold lines so that the wings are located substantially perpendicular to the plane of the intermediate portion and are co-extensive in length with the intermediate portion. Other manufacturers simply use thicker sheet material for the intermediate portion in order to provide more stability and resistance to lateral bending.
Still another known product uses scalloping on downwardly turned edges of the intermediate portion to stabilize the intermediate portion. This structure also prevents packages supported on the hook from sliding forward or backward along the hook. Another way of stabilizing the intermediate portion of the label holder on the hook, while at the same time preventing movement of articles on the hook, is by means of a tab which folds downwardly out of the intermediate portion and around the hook via at least one aperture in the tab to accommodate the hook.
It is also known to provide a slot near the distal end of the intermediate portion in order to accommodate a tip of the hook. This design is meant to prevent both a drooping of the intermediate portion and lateral movement of the label holder in relation to the hook.
All of these means for preventing longitudinal flexure of the intermediate portion and a drooping of the distal end of the intermediate portion have drawbacks.
Perforations or creases which promote transverse flexure of this strip into a bowed configuration when the strip is squeezed laterally necessitate a means for perforating or creasing the intermediate portion and an additional means for squeezing the strip laterally to produce the bowed configuration. Employing wings along the sides of the intermediate portion necessitates the use of additional material for the intermediate portion. It also necessitates a means for folding down the wings before use of the label holder so that the wings can perform their stiffening function. The provision of an aperture near the distal end of the intermediate portion to accommodate a tip of the hook does not prevent a lateral motion of the intermediate portion and only prevents further sagging of the intermediate portion.
Further, it is known to provide a hanger guard which has a series of spaced ribs extending along an intermediate portion of the guard at a location rearwardly of a bubble which enshrouds the top and sides of the tip. This guard is a one piece member molded of resiliently flexible plastic. However, such a design would need to be modified to be used as a label holder. In addition, the provision of multiple spaced ribs means that the part requires a complex mold to manufacture.
Accordingly, it has been considered desirable to develop a new and improved label holder which would overcome the foregoing difficulties and others while providing better and more advantageous overall results.


Novel vaccines for use against β-hemolytic Streptococcus colonization or infection are disclosed. The vaccines contain an immunogenic amount of a variant of streptococcal C5a peptidase (SCP). Also disclosed is a method of protecting a susceptible mammal against β-hemolytic Streptococcus colonization or infection by administering such a vaccine. Enzymatically inactive SCP, and polynucleotides encoding these SCP proteins are further disclosed.

There are several different β-hemolytic streptococcal species that have been identified. Streptococcus pyogenes, also called group A streptococci, is a common bacterial pathogen of humans. Primarily a disease of children, it causes a variety of infections including pharyngitis, impetigo and sepsis in humans. Subsequent to infection, autoimmune complications such as rheumatic fever and acute glomerulonephritis can occur in humans. This pathogen also causes severe acute diseases such as scarlet fever, necrotizing fasciitis and toxic shock.
Sore throat caused by group A streptococci, commonly called "strep throat," accounts for at least 16% of all office calls in a general medical practice, depending on the season. Hope-Simpson, E., "Streptococcus pyogenes in the throat: A study in a small population, 1962-1975," J. Hyg. Camb., 87:109-129 (1981). This species is also the cause of the recent resurgence in North America and four other continents of toxic shock associated with necrotizing fasciitis. Stevens, D. L., "Invasive group A streptococcus infections," Clin. Infect. Dis., 14:2-13 (1992). Also implicated in causing strep throat and occasionally in causing toxic shock are groups C and G streptococci. Hope-Simpson, E., "Streptococcus pyogenes in the throat: A study in a small population, 1962-1975," J. Hyg. Camb., 87:109-129 (1981).
Group B streptococci, also known as Streptococcus agalactiae, are responsible for neonatal sepsis and meningitis. T. R. Martin et al., "The effect of type-specific polysaccharide capsule on the clearance of group B streptococci from the lung of infant and adult rats", J. Infect Dis., 165:306-314 (1992). Although frequently a member of vaginal mucosal flora of adult females, from 0.1 to 0.5/1000 newborns develop serious disease following infection during delivery. In spite of the high mortality from group B streptococcal infections, mechanisms of the pathogenicity are poorly understood. Martin, T. R., et al., "The effect of type-specific polysaccharide capsule on the clearance of Group B streptococci from the lung of infant and adult rats," J. Infect. Dis., 165:306-314 (1992).
Streptococcal infections are currently treated by antibiotic therapy. However, 25-30% of those treated have recurrent disease and/or shed the organism in mucosal secretions. At present no means is available to prevent streptococcal infections. Historically, streptococcal vaccine development has focused on the bacterium's cell surface M protein. Bessen, D., et al., "Influence of intranasal immunization with synthetic peptides corresponding to conserved epitopes of M protein on mucosal colonization by group A streptococci," Infect. Immun., 56:2666-2672 (1988); Bronze, M. S., et al., "Protective immunity evoked by locally administered group A streptococcal vaccines in mice," Journal of Immunology, 141:2767-2770 (1988).
Two major problems will limit the use, marketing, and possibly FDA approval, of an M protein vaccine. First, more than 80 different M serotypes of S. pyogenes exist and new serotypes continually arise. Fischetti, V. A., "Streptococcal M protein: molecular design and biological behavior, Clin. Microbiol. Rev., 2:285-314 (1989). Thus, inoculation with one serotype-specific M protein will not likely be effective in protecting against other M serotypes. The second problem relates to the safety of an M protein vaccine. Several regions of the M protein contain antigenic epitopes which are immunologically cross-reactive with human tissue, particularly heart tissue. The N-termini of M proteins are highly variable in sequence and antigenic specificity. Inclusion of more than 80 different peptides, representing this variable sequence, in a vaccine would be required to achieve broad protection against group A streptococcal infection. New variant M proteins would still continue to arise, requiring ongoing surveillance of streptococcal disease and changes in the vaccine composition. In contrast, the carboxyl-termini of M proteins are conserved in sequence. This region of the M protein, however, contains an amino acid sequence which is immunologically cross-reactive with human heart tissue. This property of M protein is thought to account for heart valve damage associated with rheumatic fever. P. Fenderson et al., "Tropomyosinsharies immunologic epitopes with group A streptococcal M proteins, J. Immunol. 142:2475-2481 (1989). In an early trial, children who were vaccinated with M protein in 1979 had a ten fold higher incidence of rheumatic fever and associated heart valve damage. Massell, B. F., et al., "Rheumatic fever following streptococcal vaccination, JAMA, 207:1115-1119 (1969).
Other proteins under consideration for vaccine development are the erythrogenic toxins, streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin A and streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxin B. Lee, P. K., et al., "Quantification and toxicity of group A streptococcal pyrogenic exotoxins in an animal model of toxic shock syndrome-like illness," J. Clin. Microb., 27:1890-1892 (1989). Immunity to these proteins could prevent the deadly symptoms of toxic shock, but may not prevent colonization by streptococci.
Thus, there remains a continuing need for an effective means to prevent or ameliorate streptococcal infections. More specifically, a need exists to develop compositions useful in vaccines to prevent or ameliorate colonization of host tissues by streptococci, thereby reducing the incidence of strep throat and impetigo. Elimination of sequelae such as rheumatic fever, acute glomerulonephritis, sepsis, toxic shock and necrotizing fasciitis would be a direct consequence of reducing the incidence of acute infection and carriage of the organism. A need also exists to develop compositions useful in vaccines to prevent or ameliorate infections caused by all β-hemolytic streptococcal species, namely groups A, B, C and G.


Instances of router models and filter models respectively are populated with configuration data from routers and filters in a network. A route advertising graph is derived from the router model instances. The route advertising graph indicates propagation of routes between the ones of the real-world devices serving as routers according to routing protocols implemented by the ones of the real-world devices serving as routers. Consolidated routing data is determined for the ones of the real-world devices serving as routers. In this process, the propagation of routes indicated by the route advertising graph is iterated to stability. For a destination node in the network, a respective route graph indicating available paths to the destination node from each source node in the network is constructed from the consolidated routing data. Services between each source node and the destination node are classified based on a full traversal of the route advertising graph.

For any arbitrary pairing of source and destination across a computer network, whether the destination is reachable from the source depends on the states of the routing and filtering functional elements present in the network.
A routing functional element (herein generically referred to as a 'router') connects two or more logical subnets and serves to forward a packet received on one subnet to a destination on another subnet according to a locally-stored mapping between the packet final destination and the appropriate next subnet destination. The locally stored mapping (or 'route') is held in a routing table or routing information base, RIB (hereinafter, 'RIB' will be used generically to refer to the locally-stored mapping). The routes held in the RIB generally deal in groups of final destination addresses typically corresponding to one or more subnets. Where more than one route exists to a particular destination, the routes are generally given a preference weighting. If a destination is not in the RIB the router is unable to forward a packet intended for that destination. The RIB initially contains preset 'static' routes giving mappings to certain destinations; however, a router is also able to learn additional routes from its neighboring routers, this being achieved using one or more so-called 'routing protocols'. A routing protocol enables a router to advertise its routes to neighboring routers (subject to any policy restrictions) thereby enabling the latter to extend its own RIB. Routing protocols can be divided into two main types, namely:                Exterior Gateway Protocols, EGP, for exchanging routing information between routers in different autonomous systems, AS; an example is the BGP ('Border Gateway Protocol') which in practice is the predominant EGP.        Interior Gateway Protocols, IGP, for exchanging routing information between routers in the same routing domain (an AS may have one or several routing domains); an example is the OSPF ('Open Shortest Path First') protocol.
The operation of these routing protocols to extend the routes known to a router means that the contents of the router RIBs change dynamically whereby the fact that, at a particular point in time, a particular destination is not accessible from a particular source due to lack of routing information by one or more router, is no guarantee that the destination will remain unreachable.
A filtering functional element (herein generically referred to as a 'filter') serves to block/allow packets according to a set of rules typically expressed in terms of parameters such as the source/destination and/or the service specified in the packet (as used herein, 'service' means the combination of protocol and port number). A filter can be arranged to maintain context about active sessions ('state information'). In this case, if a packet does not match an existing connection, it will be evaluated according to a ruleset for new connections; however, if the packet matches an existing connection, it will be allowed to pass without further processing. This feature is sometimes referred to as "keep state".
From the foregoing description of routers and filters, it will be appreciated that there may be none, one or more paths through a network between a given pairing of source and destination for a given service and this may vary dynamically.
It should be noted that real-world devices embodying routing and filtering functionally (for example, switches and firewalls) may not necessarily be 'pure' in the sense of only incorporating one such functionality and not the other. For example, a switch may block certain services being sent out on a particular interface; in the present specification, such devices are considered as being a combination of the appropriate discrete routing and filtering functional elements. Where real-world devices are being referred to below, this will be stated explicitly; unqualified reference to a 'router' or 'filter' is, as already indicated, a reference to the corresponding functional element.
An example arrangement of routers and filters in a network is shown in FIG. 1 of the accompanying drawings. FIG. 1 shows a common network configuration for a managed service provider to provide data center space and management services for an enterprise customer with duplicate sites A and B (to provide redundancy and disaster recovery capabilities) interconnected on the customer side by primary and backup fiber links L1, L2. For each site, the network is broken into three parts—the customer compartment 10A/10B, an access compartment 11A/11B, which is shared between multiple customers, and a management and monitoring compartment 12A/12B (the compartments being interconnected by a VLAN L3).
For each site, the core of the customer installation 10A/10B is a pair of real-world layer-3 switches 13A/13B in a failover configuration. The switches 13A/13B are connected to the management and monitoring infrastructure of the service provider via a pair of real-world firewalls 14A/14B in an active/passive failover configuration.
Further real-world switches 16A/16B, 17A/17B, and 18A/18B are present in the customer access and management & monitoring compartments 11A/11B and 12A/12B. Further real-world firewalls 19A/19B are present in the customer access compartment 11A/11B.
Even in the relatively limited network of FIG. 1, errors in configuring the routers and filters can produce major problems and be difficult to track down. An example problem scenario for the FIG. 1 network is:                monitoring traffic from management host 200 is received at customer server 201 but response messages are not received back;        investigation shows that the monitoring traffic is reaching customer server 201 only via customer site B and the customer link L1 (that is, the traffic is coming via compartments 12B, 11B& 10B and not via 12A & 11A);        investigation also shows that the response messages from customer server 201 sent to switches 13A are being blocked at firewalls 14A.        it is found that the reason why the monitoring traffic from management host 200 reaches customer server 201 via customer site B is because the host 200 sends all its monitoring traffic through compartment 12B & 11B even if intended for customer site A;        the reason that the response messages are being blocked at the firewalls 14A is that these firewalls have the "keep state" feature and only allow through responses in respect of connections of which they already have a record—as the monitoring traffic for customer server 201 does not pass via the firewalls 14A, they have no record of a connection relevant to the response messages and so drop them.
The long-term solution to this asymmetric forward-return path problem is to have the monitoring traffic for site A sent via compartments 12A and 11A. However, for operational reasons, the quickest and most convenient way to implement a short term fix may well be to re-configure the customer server 200 to send its responses via customer site B rather than to re-configure the management host 200 that monitors multiple customer sites.
In a large enterprise network that is managed by geographically distributed teams of operations engineers, problems such as the above that result from mis-configuration of routers and filters can take anything from hours to weeks to diagnose and fix. Moreover, with hundreds or thousands of routers and filters, the potential interactions between configurations are numerous and the cost of manually determining all end-to-end flows is prohibitive.
It is therefore highly desirable to provide an efficient and reliable way of confirming that the routers and filters of a network are correctly configured to satisfy a set of end-to-end requirements (where an end-to-end access requirement is one specifying, for a given source-destination pair, which packet types must flow through and which must be denied).
Formally, an end-to-end access requirement is represented as:                <source, destination, service, permission, prioriy>where source and destination correspond to sets of IP_addresses, service contains the source and destination ports, and protocol, permission is either "allow" or "deny," and priority is a unique rank assigned to the requirement. A set of requirements is thus rank-ordered.
As already indicated, the routing information in the router RIBs is likely to provide for multiple paths between a source-destination pair. Now, certain packet types (specified by port and protocol) between the source and destination may be blocked by filter rules along some (or all) of these paths. For any packet, there are three outcomes: (i) all paths from source to destination are blocked, (ii) no path is blocked, or (iii) some paths are blocked while others are not.
However, an end-to-end access requirement implies that either every possible path must allow the packet to go through, or else no path must allow the packet to go through. In other words, satisfying an end-to-end requirement means that the third option (some paths permit the packet while others block it) must be ruled out even in the face of the dynamic nature of the routing information stored in the router RIBs. This type of deterministic behavior in networks is critical to the long term security and stability of the environment.
Experimentally determining whether a set of end-to-end requirements is met is not a practical proposition not only due to the scale of the task in any large network, but also because of the dynamic nature of the router RIBs.
As the configuration data (comprising filter rules, router connectivity and route advertisement policies) is generally readily available, it would be convenient to be able to determine from this data whether a given set of end-to-end access requirements is satisfied taking into account all potential paths from a source to a destination, over all possible states of the network RIBs.
The paper "On static reachability analysis of IP networks" (Geoffrey G. Xie, Jibin Zhan, David A. Maltz, Hui Zhang, Albert G. Greenberg, Gisli Hjálmýsson, and Jennifer Rexford. INFOCOM, pages 2170-2183. IEEE, 2005 describes an abstract framework to study the static reachability problem. The framework is based on the use of dynamic programming to compute all possible accesses, aggregated over all possible states.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A printing device which employs a platen frame mounted on a resin or plastic base frame with a pivoting joint and a rocker spring which biases the frames together which creates a floating platen frame. A main guide shaft is mounted on the base frame and supports a print head. A clearance member fixed to the platen frame extends toward the main guide shaft and is pressed against a clearance adjustment member attached to at least one end of the main guide shaft. The clearance adjustment member allows adjustment of the platen gap while the clearance member and bias spring automatically adjust the paten gap under various printing conditions. Using this gap fixing device, the platen gap can be maintained constant even if the frame expands due to heat, thus facilitating the use of resin frames. At the same time, by using a floating platen frame and positioning a feed motor and other components on the platen frame, noise and vibrations are decreased.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to printing devices used in conjunction with computerized apparatus such as word processors, data processing equipment, computer terminals, etc., and more particularly to a frame and support structure used in the construction of electronic printers. The invention further relates to a plastic, resin, or thin metal type of frame structure for use in electronic printers and a technique for controlling printer platen gap spacing.
2. Related Technological Art
A side view of a printer frame commonly used in the art is illustrated for comparison purposes in FIG. 7. An exemplary frame structure is shown in FIG. 7 specifically for a printing section of a computer controlled printer. Such a printing section, as illustrated, generally uses a main guide shaft 2 mounted on a base frame 1 and positioned to extend across, or between opposite sides of, the frame, which guides a print head 3 during movement across the frame adjacent to an output medium. Print head 3 moves along guide shaft 2 and prints a pattern or matrix of dots in response to "character" codes or signals received from an external device, such as a host computer. A platen frame 5 is also attached to, or formed as part of, base frame 1 and is positioned parallel to main guide shaft 2 opposite print head 3 with a print ribbon 4 being disposed in-between. The ribbon forms the desired dot matrix pattern being printed by print head 3 onto paper 6 or another medium positioned on platen frame 5, in response to a force exerted by pins in print head 3.
In the printing section of a printer configured in this manner, it is important that the platen gap, or gap between print head 3 and platen frame 5, here labeled W, be maintained at a constant separation distance to preserve image density or visual definition of printed characters, etc., on paper 6, and to ensure that paper 6 feeds smoothly to prevent jamming. That is, if gap W is too wide, then the force applied by print head 3 against ribbon 4 and, thus, against paper 6 in forming dot matrix patterns will not be sufficient, resulting in poor print image quality due to character or dot "drop-out" or even non-printing. If, on the other hand, gap W is too narrow, paper 6 feeding does not occur at a constant speed, which results in irregular character or print spacing, and if even narrower, the paper is more prone to jamming, making printed characters unreadable.
To prevent these kinds of problems in prior art printers, base frame 1 is formed from metal or other rigid material, and platen frame 5 is rigidly fixed to base frame 1 so that a constant platen gap W and other positional relationships are maintained. Further, in situations where paper 6 thickness varies, an attachment end 7, through which main guide shaft 2 is attached to base frame 1, is generally made eccentric with respect to main guide shaft 2. The eccentricity of attachment end 7 with respect to shaft 2, allows the relative position of print head 3, as it moves along guide shaft 2, in the base frame with respect to the platen to be adjusted by angular rotation of main guide shaft 2 and, as a result, gap W is also adjusted.
However, in recent years, computer related or electronic printers have found widespread use in offices and other locations in close proximity to equipment users and other people. The relative close proximity of these printers to people makes it necessary to take measures to prevent or at least greatly decrease noise and vibration otherwise produced by the regular use of such printers. In addition, there is an increasing demand among printer manufacturers for frames that can take on a variety of shapes to improve printer compactness and to allow easier incorporation into various electronic devices and housings. While the use of vibration and sound prevention devices with printers, such as sound absorbing covers and cabinets, has been considered as one response to these demands, the use of less noisy materials for frame construction, such as plastics or resins, has also been proposed.
Unfortunately, for resin based frames, the coefficient of thermal expansion for the resin is an order of magnitude greater than that of metal, etc., with respect to linear expansion. That is, when the temperature within the printer increases due to heat generated by the drive motor and other heat generating components mounted inside the printer, the platen gap varies due to a difference between the dimensions of thermal expansion of the base frame and any metal guide elements. The coefficient of thermal expansion for a material such as steel is on the order of 0.00118 cm/.degree.C. while that of polyacetal is 0.01 cm/.degree.C. and conventional engineering plastic is 0.003 to 0.008 cm/.degree.C.
When the platen gap varies as described above, it becomes impossible to obtain clear consistent print quality, and in some cases any printing at all. Furthermore, in resin material type frames which are formed by extrusion molding, slight deformations are impossible to avoid, and if these deformations are not corrected, high quality printing cannot be achieved. Therefore, even though it is clear that many advantages could be realized by using a resin or plastic type printer frame, such frames could not previously be actually used to achieve high quality printing because of the overriding disadvantages they presented.
Another aspect of noise control, relates to the use of thinner metallic materials for constructing printer frames in order to provide more flexible or compact, and less expensive, printer designs. Unfortunately, thinner metallic materials lack sufficient rigidity and create additional noise and vibration problems, especially when used for platen portions of the printer frame. Current printer designs cannot use thinner metal parts or materials for the platen support structure without increasing the noise generated by the printer.
Therefore, a new frame design is needed that can utilize plastic or resinous materials while maintaining a constant platen gap. A new technique is also desired that would bring similar improvements in acoustical or vibration dampening when using thinner metal frames.

Printing device having a floating platen


Method for the continuous up-dating of a bidimensional and tridimensional seismic image in depth in real time during the drilling of a well by using seismic velocity information comprising the initial definition of a velocity model and the subsequent re-iterative modification of this initial velocity model by integrating the geophysical data taken on the surface with the geological domain of the subsurface data obtained directly during the drilling of the well.

The present invention relates to a method for the continuous up-dating of a seisimic image in depth during the drilling of a well, by using seismic velocity information as it becomes available. According to this method, every new image taken, precisely calibrated to the results of the well obtained up to that moment, enables a better definition of the horizons below the rock bit and consequently an increasingly more accurate control of the subsequent drilling phases. The seismic image can be a "section" in the case of bidimensional data or a "volume" in the case of tridimensional data.

Method for continuous updating in real time of bidimensional and tridimensional seismic images of a subsurface section using drilling well data


A piping slider includes: a cavity in which a pipe-shaped part of an adherend is accommodatable; a slit that intercommunicates the cavity with an outside; a connector to which a belt is connected; a grip member in which the cavity and the slit are provided; a key member insertable into the slit; and a lock mechanism that restricts a displacement between the key member and the grip member when the key member is inserted into the slit, where an opening width of the slit is greater than a minimum width of the pipe-shaped part, and an opening width when the key member is inserted to the slit is smaller than the minimum width of the pipe-shaped part.

Fasteners of various shapes have been utilized for mechanically attaching a to-be-attached object (sometimes simply referred to "object" hereinafter) to an adherend. For instance, buckles and the like are often used for the purpose of frequent attachment and detachment (e.g. for connecting belts and closing a flap of a bag).
A piping slider has been known as a fastener used in an application requiring no attachment/detachment (see Patent Literature 1). The piping slider is adapted to alter the attachment position of the adherend (see Patent Literature 2).
Patent Literature 1 discloses a piping slider arrangement for attaching a loop-shaped member (an object to be attached) to an end of a tape (adherend).
The loop-shaped member is molded of a synthetic resin material integrally with a block-shaped body. The body is provided with a longitudinally extending grip including a cylindrical cavity (cylindrical groove) and a slit (flat groove) narrower than the diameter of the cavity. A pipe-shaped part made of synthetic resin is integrally molded at an end of the tape. The grip catches the pipe-shaped part so that the loop-shaped member is attached at the end of the tape. According to the arrangement of Patent Literature 1, the pipe-shaped part is slid in an axial direction (width direction of the tape) to be delivered into the cavity and simultaneously drawing out the tape through the slit, thereby attaching the pipe-shaped part to the tape.
Patent Literature 2 discloses an arrangement in which a grip is adapted to be attached to a desired position on a longer pipe-shaped member. According to the arrangement, the pipe-shaped part is defined by forming a bag portion on a periphery of a sheet member continuous with the adherend and inserting a rod member of synthetic resin into the bag portion. The grip includes an openable cavity and a slit. A restriction member is attached to an outside of the cavity and the slit to restrict the grip from opening, thereby attaching the grip to the pipe-shaped part. Accordingly, the grip can, while being opened, be attached to an intermediate portion of the pipe-shaped part, in other words, the grip can be attached to a desired position on the pipe-shaped part.
Incidentally, it is possible to attach a fixed grip (i.e. a grip in which the cavity and slit are not openable) as disclosed in Patent Literature 1 may be attached to an elongated pipe-shaped member as disclosed in Patent Literature 2. However, since the grip is not openable, the grip cannot be attached to and detached from an intermediate position of the pipe-shaped part. Thus, the grip has to be inserted from an end of the pipe-shaped part for attachment.


A multilaminar high density polyethylene (HDPE) film is provided having high biaxial orientation. The film includes a HDPE substrate, at least one outer layer of a propylene copolymer, and at least one layer of an adhesion promoter material positioned between the outer layer and the HDPE substrate, to efficiently mediate adhesion therebetween. The adhesion promoter is preferably a polyethylene material having a density lower than that of the HDPE base material. Preferred adhesion promoter materials include very low density polyethylene (VLDPE), high pressure low density polyethylene (HP-LDPE), linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE), and medium density polyethylene (MDPE). The film is high biaxially oriented, being, stretched in the machine direction to a degree of from about 5:1 to about 8:1, preferably from about 6:1 to about 7:1, and stretched in the transverse direction to a degree of from about 6:1 to about 15:1, preferably from about 9:1 to about 13:1.

The invention relates to methods for preparing polymer films. Specifically, the invention relates to methods of preparing high biaxially oriented high density polyethylene films and the films prepared according to such methods.
Generally, in the preparation of a film from granular or pelleted polymer resin, the polymer is first extruded to provide a stream of polymer melt, and then the extruded polymer is subjected to the film-making process. Film-making typically involves a number of discrete procedural stages, including melt film formation, quenching, and windup. For a general description of these and other processes associated with film-making, see K R Osborn and W A Jenkins, Plastic Films: Technology and Packaging Applications, Technomic Pub. Co., Inc., Lancaster, Pa. (1992).
Two substantially different processes are conventionally used to orient polymeric films: blowing as a tubular film, and casting as a flat film. The two processes provide films having substantially different physical characteristics. Generally, blown films tend to have greater stiffness, toughness and barrier properties. By contrast, cast films usually have the advantages of greater film clarity and uniformity of thickness and flatness, generally permitting use of a wider range of polymers and producing a higher quality film.
An optional part of the film-making process is a procedure known as "orientation." The "orientation" of a polymer is a reference to its molecular organization, i.e., the orientation of molecules relative to each other. Similarly, the process of "orienting" a film is the process by which directionality (orientation) is imposed upon the polymeric arrangements in the film. Orientation processes are employed to impart desirable properties to films, such as making cast films tougher (i.e., increasing tensile properties).
Orientation is accomplished by heating a polymer to a temperature at or above its glass-transition temperature (T.sub.g) but below its crystalline melting point (T.sub.m), and then stretching the film quickly. The stretching imposes intermolecular alignment on the polymer. Then, on cooling, this molecular alignment competes favorably with crystallization and the drawn polymer molecules condense into a crystalline network with the crystalline domains (crystallites) aligned in the direction of the drawing force. As a general rule, the degree of orientation introduced into the polymer is proportional to the amount of stretch applied to the film, but is inversely related to the temperature at which the stretching is performed. Moreover, higher orientation also generally correlates with a higher modulus, i.e., measurably higher stiffness and strength.
When a film has been stretched in a single direction (monoaxial orientation), the resulting film exhibits great strength and stiffness along the direction of stretch, but it is weak in the other direction, i.e., across the stretch, often splitting or tearing into fibers (fibrillating) when flexed or pulled. To overcome this limitation, two-way or biaxial orientation is employed to more evenly distribute the strength qualities of the film in two directions, in which the crystallites are sheetlike rather than fibrillar. These biaxially oriented films tend to be stiffer and stronger, and also exhibit much better resistance to flexing or folding forces, leading to their greater utility in packaging applications.
It is technically quite difficult to biaxially orient films by simultaneously stretching the film in two directions. Apparatus for this purpose is known, but tends to be expensive to employ. As a result, most biaxial orientation processes use apparatus that stretches the film sequentially, first in one direction and then in the other. Again for practical reasons, typical orienting apparatus stretches the film first in the direction of the film travel, i.e., in the longitudinal or "machine direction" (MD), and then in the direction perpendicular to the machine direction, i.e., the lateral or "transverse direction" (TD).
The degree to which a film can be oriented is dependent upon the polymer from which it is made. Polypropylene, polyethylene terephthalate (PET), and nylon are highly crystalline polymers that are readily heat stabilized to form dimensionally stable films. These films are well known to be capable of being biaxially stretched to many times the dimensions in which they are originally cast (e.g., 5.times. by 8.times. or more for polypropylene).
High density polyethylene (HDPE), however, exhibits even higher crystallinity (e.g., about 80-95%) relative to polypropylene (e.g., about 70%). As a result, HDPE films are generally more difficult to biaxially orient than polypropylene films. U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,870,122 and 4,916,025 describe imbalanced biaxially oriented HDPE-containing films that are MD oriented up to about two times, and TD oriented at least six times. This method produces a film that tears relatively easily in the transverse direction. Multi-layer films prepared according to this method are also disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,302,442, 5,500,283, and 5,527,608, which are incorporated herein by reference.
British Patent No. 1,287,527 describes high density polyethylene films that are biaxially oriented in a balanced fashion to a degree of greater than 6.5 times in both the longitudinal dimension (i.e., MD) and the lateral dimension (i.e., TD). This method requires a specific range of orientation temperatures. Also, tie layers for increasing adhesion of coatings are said to include condensation resins of an aldehyde with an interpolymer of acrylamide, a copolymer of ethylene such as ethylene vinyl acetate, or polyurethane.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,891,173 and 5,006,378 each disclose methods for preparing HDPE films that require cross-linking the film, with optional biaxial orientation of the cross-linked film. It is reported that the cross-linking process, which requires irradiation of the film, improves the film's physical properties. Other cross-linking processes, such as chemically-induced cross-linking, can have similar effects.
Lower crystallinity polyethylenes are typically easier to biaxially orient. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,680,207 describes imbalanced biaxially oriented films of linear low density polyethylene (LLDPE) oriented by being stretched up to 6-fold in the machine direction, and up to 3-fold in the transverse direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,030 describes biaxially oriented films of a blend of at least 75% of a linear ethylene/alpha-olefin copolymer, but no more than 25% HDPE. The film can be mono- or multi-layered, and can be biaxially oriented, i.e., stretched up to 8:1 in the machine direction, and up to 9:1 in the transverse direction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,302,327 describes an anti-fogging, heat-sealable polypropylene film. The film includes a polypropylene core and a heat sealable layer of HDPE or ethylene copolymer. These bilayer films can be machine stretched up to 7.times. MD, coated or corona-treated to improve wettability, and then stretched up to 10.times. TD.
Blown films of HDPE having a ethylene-vinyl acetate heat seal coating can be used for food packaging, but such films must have a thickness of at least about 2 mil to meet the water vapor transmission rate (WVTR) requirements for packaging suitable for dry foods such as cereals. Moreover, blown HDPE films do not exhibit the dead-fold properties desirable in food packages, particularly of the bag-in-box type.
In multilaminar films, it is conventional to modify the surface properties of a substrate material to improve the adhesion between layers (interlaminar adhesion). This can be accomplished by modifying the physical or chemical properties of the substrate material itself, or by providing an intermediate layer of a material having desirable properties. Conventional intermediate "tie" or "anchor" layers are typically made from materials such as ethylene vinyl acetates (EVA), ionomers, anhydride grafted polyolefins. These materials contain polar or ionic functional groups, enhancing adhesion between polyolefins and polar polymers such as nylons, polyesters, and ethylene vinyl alcohols (EVOH). For example, the coextrusion of nylon (polar) with polyethylene (nonpolar) requires an amphipathic tie layer such as EVA having both polar and nonpolar properties in the same molecule. W A Jenkins and J P Harrington, Packaging Foods with Plastics, Technomic Pub. Co., Inc., Lancaster, Pa. (1991).
U.S. Pat. No. 5,500,283 discloses biaxially oriented HDPE films coated with polyvinylidene chloride polymers, acrylic acid polymers, and polyvinyl alcohol polymers. The coating procedure can include a priming step, e.g., chlorination, chromic acid oxidation, hot air or steam treatment, flame treatment, or high voltage corona discharge. Alternatively, such priming methods can be supplemented by adding a coating of a priming material, such as a poly(ethylenimine) material.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,527,608 discloses a multilaminar film structure including a polyolefin homopolymer or block copolymer substrate, with a heat sealable layer on one side and an HDPE layer on the opposite side. In one embodiment a metallized film is produced by corona discharge- or flame-treating a surface of the extruded polymeric structure before depositing the metal on the surface.
In view of the above considerations, it is clear that existing methods for producing biaxially oriented HDPE films yield products that are deficient in desirable physical characteristics. Existing HDPE film-making methods generally require additional chemical components in the HDPE resin (e.g., cross-linking agents) and/or additional process steps (e.g., irradiation). Such limitations complicate production, and result in increased costs. Moreover, cross-linking tends to lower polymer crystallinity, resulting in higher WVTR and lower stiffness.
Accordingly, it is one of the purposes of this invention, among others, to overcome the above limitations in the production of biaxially oriented HDPE films, by providing an economical and relatively uncomplicated method of making biaxially oriented films that imparts superior characteristics to the films, without requirement for chemical additives such as cross-linking agents, and without requirement for supplemental processing steps such as irradiation of the film.

Multilaminar high density polyethylene film with high biaxial orientation


A thermoplastic composition includes particular amounts of a poly(arylene ether), a polystyrene, and glass fibers. The composition exhibits a highly desirable balance of stiffness, strength, and melt flow properties. Methods of preparing the composition are also described, as are articles prepared from the composition.

Poly(arylene ether) resin is a type of plastic known for its excellent water resistance, dimensional stability, and inherent flame retardancy. Properties such as strength, stiffness, chemical resistance, and heat resistance can be tailored by blending it with various other plastics in order to meet the requirements of a wide variety of consumer products, for example, plumbing fixtures, electrical boxes, automotive parts, and coated wire.
Blends of poly(arylene ether) and polystyrene are known to possess improved stiffness and tensile strength relative to either component resin alone. See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 3,383,435 to Cizek. However, known blends of poly(arylene ether) and polystyrene do not possess the properties required for certain product applications. For example, water meter pressure plates must be quite thin (typically about 1 to 2 millimeters thick) yet strong enough to withstand substantial pressure differentials and also very dimensionally stable. They can also have complex shapes that can only be molded with a high-flow composition. This combination of properties not exhibited by known poly(arylene ether)/polystyrene blends. Accordingly, there is a need for poly(arylene ether)/polystyrene blends that exhibit an improved balance of stiffness, tensile, and melt flow properties.

Poly(arylene ether) compositions, methods, and articles


An order execution server for stock trading includes a data collection unit configured to collect trading data on at least one item, a model generation unit configured to generate a reinforcement learning-based deep learning model including two or more actors which are neural networks that determine an action policy of a reinforcement learning agent and a critic which is a neural network that estimates an action value of the reinforcement learning agent and train the reinforcement learning-based deep learning model to derive an order execution strategy for the at least one item based on the trading data and an order execution unit configured to perform order execution for the at least one item during a current period of time by using order information including the order execution strategy.

A securities company is entrusted by institutional clients, such as asset management companies, to buy and trade stocks, often in large quantities, and receives a commission from the clients in return.
If the securities company sells or buys the a large sum of stocks as part of a block order, the stock price may sharply fall or rise in the stock market, making it difficult to trade stocks at a right price.
For this reason, securities companies often implement an algorithmic trading system that enables a large order for stocks to be executed in parts. However, conventional algorithmic trading systems execute orders in parts according to predetermined rules and, thus, often lack agility to respond appropriately to changes in a respective stock market. For example, a trading system using a time-weighted average price (TWAP) algorithm executes an order in equally divided parts as time passes, and thus necessarily has low market adaptability and low efficiency.


A method to determine valid input sequences for an unknown binary program is provided. The method includes obtaining multiple input sequences, which each include two or more different inputs, for an unknown binary program. The inputs for the input sequences may be valid inputs for the unknown binary program. The method may further include executing an instrumented version of the unknown binary program separately for each input sequence. For each execution of the instrumented version of the unknown binary program, a set of execution traces may be generated by recording execution traces generated by the execution of the instrumented version of the unknown binary program. The method may further include comparing the sets of execution traces and determining which of the input sequences the unknown binary program accepts as valid based on the comparison of the sets of execution traces.

Efficient testing of a binary program may be improved by knowledge of which inputs are valid for the binary program. The binary program may include code and routines that a human may interpret as text. However, the text included in the code and routines of the binary program are not human-readable. It is impossible for human testers of the binary program to determine valid inputs for the binary program by reviewing the code and routines of the binary program because the code and routines are not human readable. As a result, the human testers may review specifications, documentation or source code associated with the binary program in order to determine which inputs are valid for the binary program. These valid inputs may then be used to achieve more efficient testing of the binary program.

Determining valid inputs for an unknown binary program


A liquid ejecting head includes a passage-forming substrate provided with a pressure-generating chamber communicating with a nozzle orifice for ejecting a liquid and includes a piezoelectric element including a diaphragm disposed on the passage-forming substrate, a first electrode disposed on the diaphragm, a piezoelectric layer disposed on the first electrode, and second electrode disposed on the piezoelectric layer. The diaphragm includes a metal oxide layer of a metal oxide formed by a gas-phase method and a zirconium oxide layer of zirconium oxide formed by a liquid-phase method.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting head for ejecting a liquid from a nozzle orifice, a liquid ejecting apparatus, a piezoelectric element, an ultrasonic transducer, and an ultrasonic device.
2. Related Art
Piezoelectric elements that are applied to liquid ejecting heads or ultrasonic transducers each include a diaphragm disposed on a substrate, a first electrode disposed on the diaphragm, a piezoelectric layer made of a piezoelectric material having an electromechanical conversion function, such as a crystallized dielectric material, disposed on the first electrode, and a second electrode disposed on the piezoelectric layer.
Some of such piezoelectric elements have a zirconium oxide (ZrO2) layer as a part of the diaphragm. A method of forming the zirconium oxide layer included in a diaphragm by forming a zirconium layer by a gas-phase method such as sputtering and then thermally oxidizing the zirconium layer has been proposed (see, for example, JP-A-2005-176433).
However, the zirconium oxide layer formed by the gas-phase method has low adhesion with the film as its backing or with the film formed on the zirconium oxide layer, resulting in a reduction in reliability.
In addition, there is a risk of diffusion of components contained in a piezoelectric layer into a diaphragm and backing of the diaphragm to reduce the stiffness of the diaphragm and the backing.
Such a problem occurs not only in piezoelectric elements of ink jet recording heads and ultrasonic transducers but also in piezoelectric elements of other devices.

Liquid ejecting head, liquid ejecting apparatus, piezoelectric element, ultrasonic transducer, and ultrasonic device


There is provided an electrode material for electricity storage devices, which enables suppression of heat generation in charge and discharge at large currents. The electrode material for electricity storage devices comprises a first carbon material having a graphite structure wherein graphite is partially exfoliated, and a second carbon material different from the first carbon material, wherein the ratio A/B, where A represents a weight of the first carbon material and B represents a weight of the second carbon material, is within the range of 0.01 or higher and 100 or lower.

In recent years, there has been carried out actively research and development of electricity storage devices for applications to portable devices, hybrid cars, electric cars, household electricity storage and the like.
For example, the following Patent Literature 1 discloses, as one example of electricity storage devices, a nonaqueous electrolyte secondary battery having a positive electrode containing a positive electrode active material and an electroconductive agent. Patent Literature 1 discloses that as the electroconductive agent, combined use of a flake graphite and a carbon black can improve high-rate discharge characteristics.

Electrode material for electricity storage devices, electrode for electricity storage devices, and electricity storage device