The present disclosure relates to a particularly effective well configuration that can be used for SAGD and other steam based oil recovery methods. A central wellpad originates injector and/or producer wells, arranged in a radial pattern, and either or both provided with multilateral wells, thus effectively expanding the coverage.

Oil sands are a type of unconventional petroleum deposit that contain naturally occurring mixtures of sand, clay, water, and a dense and extremely viscous form of petroleum technically referred to as "bitumen," but which may also be called heavy oil or tar. Many countries have large deposits of oil sands, including the United States, Russia, and various countries in the Middle East, but the world's largest deposits occur in Canada and Venezuela.
Bitumen is a thick, sticky form of crude oil, so heavy and viscous that it will not flow unless heated or diluted with lighter hydrocarbons. At room temperature, bitumen is much like cold molasses. Often times, the viscosity can be in excess of 1,000,000 cP.
Due to their high viscosity, these heavy oils are hard to mobilize, and they generally must be made to flow in order to produce and transport them. One common way to heat bitumen is by injecting steam into the reservoir. The quality of the injected fluid is very important to transferring heat to the reservoir to allow bitumen to be mobilized. Quality in this case is defined as percentage of the injected fluid in the gas phase. The target fluid quality is near 100% vapor, however, injected fluid in parts of the well can have a quality below 50 percent (more than 50% liquid) due to heat loss along the wellbore.
Steam Assisted Gravity Drainage (SAGD) is the most extensively used technique for in situ recovery of bitumen resources in the McMurray Formation in the Alberta Oil Sands and other reservoirs containing viscous hydrocarbons. In a typical SAGD process, two horizontal wells are vertically spaced by 4 to 10 meters (m). The production well is located near the bottom of the pay and the steam injection well is located directly above and parallel to the production well. In SAGD, steam is injected continuously into the injection well, where it rises in the reservoir and forms a steam chamber.
With continuous steam injection, the steam chamber will continue to grow upward and laterally into the surrounding formation. At the interface between the steam chamber and cold oil, steam condenses and heat is transferred to the surrounding oil. This heated oil becomes mobile and drains, together with the condensed water from the steam, into the production well due to gravity segregation within the steam chamber.
This use of gravity gives SAGD an advantage over conventional steam injection methods. SAGD employs gravity as the driving force and the heated oil remains warm and movable when flowing toward the production well. In contrast, conventional steam injection displaces oil to a cold area where its viscosity increases and the oil mobility is again reduced.
Although quite successful, SAGD does require enormous amounts of water in order to generate a barrel of oil. Some estimates provide that 1 barrel of oil from the Athabasca oil sands requires on average 2 to 3 barrels of water, although with recycling the total amount can be reduced to 0.5 barrel. In addition to using a precious resource, additional costs are added to convert those barrels of water to high quality steam for downhole injection. Therefore, any technology that can reduce water or steam consumption has the potential to have significant positive environmental and cost impact.
One concept for reducing water consumption is the "multilateral" or "fishbone" well configuration idea. The concept of fishbone wells for non-thermal horizontal wells was developed by Petrozuata in Venezuela in 1999. That operation was a cold, viscous oil development in the Faja del Orinoco Heavy Oil Belt. The basic concept was to drill open-hole side lateral wells or "ribs" off the main spine of a producing well prior to running slotted liner into the spine of the well (FIG. 1).
A variety of multilateral well configurations are possible (see FIG. 2). Such ribs appear to significantly contribute to the productivity of the wells when compared to wells without the ribs in similar geology (FIG. 3).
The advantages of multilateral wells include:
1) Higher Production. In the cases where thin pools are targeted, vertical wells yield small contact with the reservoir, which causes lower production. Drilling several laterals in thin reservoirs and increasing contact improves recovery.
2) Decreased Water/Gas Coning. Coning is aggravated by pressure gradients that exceed the gravity forces that stabilize the fluid contacts (oil/water or gas/water). The position of the laterals within the producing formation provides enough distance to the water zone and to the gas zone to facilitate higher withdrawal rates and lower pressure gradients. Therefore, gas/water coning can be prevented or reduced.
3) Improved sweep efficiency. By using multilateral wells, the sweep efficiency may be improved and/or the recovery may be increased due to the area covered by the laterals.
4) Faster Recovery. The reservoir contact is higher in multilateral wells leading to increased production rates than that of single vertical or horizontal wells.
5) Decreased environmental impact. To the extent that the overall length of wells is reduced by sharing mother-bores, the volume of consumed drilling fluids and the generated cuttings during drilling multilateral wells can be reduced. Additionally, there may be a reduction of wellpad number. Therefore, the impact of the multilateral wells on the environment may be reduced.
6) Saving time and cost. Drilling several laterals in a single well will result in substantial time and cost saving in comparison with drilling several wells in the reservoir.
Lateral wells have been used for various methods in the patent literature. For example, EP2193251 discloses a method of drilling multiple short laterals that are of smaller diameter, and these multiple short laterals can be drilled at the same depth from the same main wellbore, so as to perform treatments in and from the small laterals to adapt or correct the performance of the main well, the formation properties, the formation fluids and the change of porosity and permeability of the formation. However, the short laterals do not address the issue where the prism or wedge between two adjacent SAGD well pairs is hard to produce/deplete.
US20110036576 discloses a method of injecting a treatment fluid through a lateral injection well such that the hydrocarbon can be treated by the treatment fluid before production. However, the addition of treatment fluid is known in the field and this well configuration does not increase the contact with the hydrocarbon reservoir.
Although a potential improvement, the multilateral well methods can have disadvantages too. One disadvantage is that fishbone wells are more complex to drill and clean up. Indeed, some estimate that multilaterals cost about 20% more to drill and complete than conventional slotted liner wells. Another disadvantage is increased risk of accident or damage, due to the complexity of the operations and tools. Sand control can also be difficult. In drilling multilateral wells, the mother well bore can be cased to control sand production, however, the legs branched off the mother well bore are typically open hole. Therefore, the sand control from the branches is not easy to perform. There is also increased difficulty in modeling and prediction due to the sophisticated architecture of multilateral wells.
Another area of uncertainty with the fishbone concept is whether the ribs will establish and maintain communication with the offset steam chambers, or will the open-hole ribs collapse early and block flow. One of the characteristics of the Athabasca Oil Sands is that they are unconsolidated sands that are bound by the million-plus centipoise bitumen. When heated to 50-80° C. the bitumen becomes slightly mobile. At this point the open-hole rib could collapse. If so, flow would slow to a trickle, temperature would drop, and the rib would be plugged. However, if the conduit remains open at least long enough that the bitumen in the near vicinity is swept away with the warm steam condensate before the sand grains collapse, then it may be possible that a very high permeability, high water saturation channel might remain even with the collapse of the rib. In this case, the desired conduit would still remain effective.
Another uncertainty with many ribs along a fishbone infill producer of this type is that one rib may tend to develop preferentially at the expense of all the other ribs leading to very poor conformance and poor results. This would imply that some form of inflow control may be warranted along the fishbone infill liner to encourage more uniform development of all the ribs.
Therefore, although beneficial, the multilateral well concept could be further developed to address some of these disadvantages or uncertainties.


An automatic battery power switch circuit which switches from n to n+m cells, where n and m are integers, in a battery. The circuit delivers a relatively constant voltage over a wide range of load current conditions. One embodiment switches based on load current. Another embodiment switches based on the output voltage of the circuit. The circuit provides a high speed automatic switch used in devices that require at least two power states, that can function as a voltage regulator, and that can significantly prolong functional battery life.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to an automatic battery switch which can be used in devices that require at least two power states. More particularly, the present invention is a device that switches from n to n+m cells, can function as a voltage regulator and can significantly prolong functional battery life.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Many battery powered devices, such as cellular telephones, etc., draw varying amounts of power depending on their immediate function. For example, a cell phone monitoring for an incoming call powers only the receiver and draws a small amount of current. When it is transmitting during a call, a considerably larger current is needed to power the transmitter. Thus, if a cell phone requires a minimum power supply (battery voltage) of 7.0 V to work and six NiCd cells (1.2 V each) are used, the total voltage will be 7.2 V. However, under high current load, the voltage will sag to a lower level and the cell phone may cease to work. If eight cells are used, the low current voltage will be 8.times.1.2 V, which is 9.6 V, which may be too much voltage for some of the circuitry.
A typical solution to this problem, is to add a voltage regulator. However, this solution can have many drawbacks. For example, if the electronic device has a very low standby current of 2-3 .mu.A (i.e., to keep a memory alive), the regulator's additional 8-9 .mu.A adds significantly to the quiescent power consumption (8-9 .mu.A is about as low a quiescent power consumption as any commercially available linear regulator attains). Further, the linear regulator has a "drop-out" voltage, which is defined as the difference between the input and output voltages. This is typically 1.0-1.2 V for most current loads. For some batteries that have flat discharge curves (such as the LiMnO.sub.2 battery), this additional 1.2 V reduces the useful battery life by as much as 50%. As previously mentioned, if the cell phone or other electronic device requires a minimum of 7.0 V to work, the battery must now produce 7.0+1.2=8.2 V. Some batteries still retain half of their overall capacity at this new voltage cutoff point.
Thus, there is a need to provide a high speed automatic switch circuit which can switch between at least two power states and functions as a voltage regulator.


A process device and system for measuring flow parameters in flowing gases is provided in which a device for flow-induced sound generation is in the area of the flow to be measured. A measurement of the frequency and/or the level of the sounds generated is made during the flow to be measured as acoustic parameters. A determination is made as to the flow parameters to be measured by processing the measured acoustic parameters. The process makes possible, in particular, the measurement of the volume flows during respiration near the patient.

To determine volume and mass flows in flowing gases, it is usual and meaningful to determine flow parameters at individual measuring points and to determine the overall flow from these measured values by extrapolation over time and/or space. Flow parameters are either measured for this purpose directly or derived from the measurement of other physical variables, which unambiguously depend on the flow parameters, by the use of various evaluation algorithms. The measurement method is selected, as a rule, depending on a great variety of requirements and boundary conditions. These include the space available, the necessary accuracy, the costs associated with the measurement, the presence of supply media, various requirements on handling and comfort and the applicability of suitable measuring means.
The fields of applications in which the boundary conditions must be taken into consideration include various flow measurements in connection with the performance of the artificial respiration of patients. The present invention will therefore be explained below largely in respect to medical applications, without wishing to explicitly limit the present application to this field of application.
To make it possible to obtain reliable information on the respiration status of a patient from flow measurements, distortions due to a possible elastic deformation of the pipeline system for guiding the gas must be avoided. Measuring points located as close to the patient as possible are therefore usually desirable. Furthermore, the measuring set-up is to be designed such that the flow resistance will be low in order to keep the load on the patient as low as possible. Design-related increases in the dead space are to be avoided especially in case the respiratory system is compromised or in case of small tidal volumes. Due to use near the patient in the field of clinical medicine, there must be, moreover, insensitivity to particles being carried within the gas flow and to sputum. Since flow balances are frequently to be established from the flow measurements, reliable information on the direction of flow is, moreover, usually desirable.
It is known that flow measurements can be carried out in the respiration system by the use of so-called hot wire anemometers (DE 10104462 A1). Hot wire anemometers are usually accommodated for this purpose in separate components, which ensure that the flow to be measured will become uniform, and possibly near the patient, i.e., usually between the Y-piece and the tube or directly at or after the Y-piece. Due to accommodation in a separate component, the dead space will become larger or arrangement at a relatively great distance from the patient will become necessary.
Another drawback of this process is its sensitivity to particles being carried in gas flows as well as contamination by sputum. Since it is an electric measurement method, supply lines to the measuring element proper are, moreover, always necessary, which may lead to disadvantages in clinical practice in terms of applicability and user friendliness.
DE 103 52 652.8 relates to carrying out flow measurements in respiration systems by ultrasound measurements. A defined measuring section, which is investigated with ultrasound, is usually preset for this by a separate component. By evaluating the received ultrasound, it is possible to obtain information on the velocity of flow and the direction of flow. One drawback of this process is likewise the usually inevitable enlargement of the dead space as well as the complicated electronic evaluating and supply system, which must be connected directly to the measuring element in this case as well.

Process and device for measuring flow parameters


Provided are examples of a detecting engine for determining in which pixels in a hyperspectral scene are materials of interest or targets present. A collection of spectral references, typically five to a few hundred, is used in look a through a million or more pixels per scene to identify detections. An example of the detecting engine identifies detections by calculating a kernel vector for each spectral reference in the collection. This calculation is quicker than the conventional Matched Filter kernel calculation which computes a kernel for each scene pixel. Another example of the detecting engine selects pixels with high detection filter scores and calculates coherence scores for these pixels. This calculation is more efficient than the conventional Adaptive Cosine/Coherence Estimator calculation that calculates a score for each scene pixel, most of which do not provide a detection.

This disclosure relates generally to the field of image processing, and more particularly to an approach for detecting materials in a hyperspectral scene containing a plurality of pixels.
In many conventional image processing scenarios comprising hyperspectral imaging (HSI) systems, hyperspectral sensors collect data of an image from one spatial line and disperse the spectrum across a perpendicular direction of the focal plane of the optics receiving the image Thus a focal plane pixel measures the intensity of a given spot on the ground in a specific waveband. A complete HSI cube scene is formed by scanning this spatial line across the scene that is imaged. The complete HSI cube may be analyzed as a measurement of the spectrum, the intensity in many wavebands, for a spatial pixel. This spatial pixel represents a given spot on the ground in a cross-scan direction for one of the lines at a given time in the scan direction. Spectral information, however, cannot be exploited by simply looking at the HSI datacube. Instead, each spatial pixel spectra (in D dimensions or wavebands) is typically compared with reference spectra.
Matched Filter (MF) and Adaptive Cosine/Coherence Estimator (ACE) are common hyperspectral filters that are used along with Reed-Xiaoli (RX) anomaly detectors to detect the presence of materials in pixels including in a hyperspectral scene (scene pixels).
MF and ACE match an a priori spectrum or "reference spectrum" representative of a material to be detected to a measured scene pixel. MF and ACE are typically provided with a library or collection of reference spectrums, each representative of a different material. As such, MF and ACE compare each reference spectrum to the spectrum of each pixel. For each comparison, MF and ACE each provide a score (viz., MF score and ACE score) indicative of the likelihood that a respective reference spectrum matches the spectrum of a respective scene pixel. The MF score or ACE score is compared against a threshold. In which pixel is the material present is determined based on the comparison. Provided immediately below are the equations for calculating MF and ACE scores as well as an RX score.
            M                                      F        =                                        (                          s              -                              μ                b                                      )                    T                                              ∑            b                          -              1                                                      (                          x              -                              μ                b                                      )                                                            (                          s              -                              μ                b                                      )                    T                                              ∑            b                          -              1                                                      (                          s              -                              μ                b                                      )                                          A                                      C                                      E        =                            [                                                    (                                  s                  -                                      μ                    b                                                  )                            T                                                                  ∑                b                                  -                  1                                                                          (                                  x                  -                                      μ                    b                                                  )                                              ]                2                                          (                          s              -                              μ                b                                      )                    T                                              ∑            b                          -              1                                                                    (                              s                -                                  μ                  b                                            )                                                                  (                                  x                  -                                      μ                    b                                                  )                            T                                                                  ∑                b                                  -                  1                                                                          (                                  x                  -                                      μ                    b                                                  )                                                                    R                                      X        =                            (                      x            -                          μ              b                                )                T                                    ∑          b                      -            1                                            (                      x            -                          μ              b                                )                    where:s=known target spectrum,x=pixel spectrum,μb=mean background, andΣb=covariance matrix


The present invention provides an improved semiconductor ridge waveguide laser structure having a plurality of layers including an N-InP buffer layer and an N-type InP substrate, a thin InGaAsP active layer 1100 Angstroms thickness, a P-InP graded layer, an optional etch stop layer, a P-InP cladding layer and a P+InGaAs. The ridge waveguide laser of the present invention demonstrates a very high reliability and the fabrication process therefor is high yield. The ridge waveguide laser of the present invention demonstrates very good high temperature behavior and the design suppresses higher order modes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to ridge waveguide semiconductor lasers, and more particularly to a multi-layer structure and fabrication process for a 1300nm ridge waveguide structure.
A ridge waveguide laser is a semiconductor light-emitting device which includes a ridge-shaped layer on a semiconductor wafer. It is one of the fundamentally simplest and most reliable laser devices available today.
One such laser and its fabrication process has been described in an article "High Power Ridge-Waveguide AlGaAs GRINSCH Laser Diode" by C. Harder et al. (published in Electronics Letters, Sep. 25, 1986, Vol. 22, No. 20, pp. 1081-1082).
In the past, most of the efforts made in designing semiconductor lasers were directed to GaAs-system devices operating at a wavelength of about 0.8 um. However, particularly for communications applications, lasers emitting beams of longer wavelength (in the order of 1. 3 um) are also in great demand since they better match the transmission characteristics of the optical fiber links often used. An extensive survey on: such structures, including ridge waveguide lasers, and their performance is given in chapter 5 of a book entitled "Long Wavelength Semiconductor Lasers" by G. P. Agrawal and N. K. Dutta (Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, N.Y.).
Semiconductor lasers operating in this region of the infrared usually comprise regions of indium phosphide (InP) and of quaternary materials indium gallium arsenide phosphides (In.sub.x Ga.sub.1-x As.sub.y P.sub.1-y). By suitable choices of x and y it is possible to lattice-match the various regions while varying the band gaps of the materials. (Band gaps can be determined experimentally by, for example, photoluminescence.) Additionally, both indium phosphide and the quaternary materials can be doped to be p- or n-type as desired.
Ridge waveguide lasers have also been previously described, for example, in the following publications of Kaminow and his coworkers: Electronics Letters, 1979, vol. 15, pp. 763-765; Electronics Letters, 1981, vol. 17, pp. 318-320; Electronics Letters, 1983, vol. 19, pp. 877-879.

Ridge waveguide semiconductor laser with thin active region

International Business Machines Corporation


A power supply system and corresponding methodology is provided for providing a self-protected power supply for use with electronic electricity meters. The self-protecting features are provided, in part, through the use of surface mounted resistive components corresponding to a resistor dropper portion of the power supply. The use of surface mount components also provides a general reduction in circuit board surface area requirements thereby providing a compact overall construction and provides economies with respect to reduction in manufacturing process steps. When the surface mount resistor divider is configured along with a half-wave rectifier, a low voltage DC supply is obtained from a direct connection to a much higher voltage AC mains source without requiring the use of coupling capacitors or transformers. Plural output voltages may be provided and capacitive filtering may be associated with the outputs. The use of a surface mount resistor divider in combination with surge protection elements helps to distribute any power surge over the power supply, which facilitates the use of less robust surge protection devices to achieve desired levels of protection.

The successful integration of electronics based meteorology into electric metering devices yields many practical advantages. Non-exhaustive, non-limiting examples of such advantages include the ability to perform complex calculations; collect, store and transmit data; and perform automatic self testing operations as well as make electrical measurements in the same manner as previous non-electronic electric meters. Such advances in electric meter meteorology have come at a price, however in their implementation. For example, with the introduction of electronics to the meteorology mix and especially with the introduction of solid state electronics and, in particular, integrated circuit technology, power supplies (or in some instances, power sources, such as batteries) have been required to furnish operating power for the electronic components.
In addition to the power supply requirements for the electronic metrology components, it has been recognized that the electronic metrology components must operate in an often hostile environment. Therefore, various forms of protection from such hostile environment are desired. One common danger for such electronic metrology arises from the occurrence of surges on or along power lines to which the metrology electronics may be coupled.
One example of the general state of the art is U.S. Pat. No. 6,229,295 B1 by Hemminger et al. entitled "Apparatus For Metering At Least One Type Of Electrical Power Over A Predetermined Range Of Service Voltages" that issued May 8, 2001. A surge protection element is represented as coupled to the input of a power supply 20, and an additional element is provided as intended protection from lightning strike surges. Another example of the known art is found in Patent Application Publication U.S. 2002/0080545 A1 by Slater et al. entitled "Excessive Surge Protection Method And Apparatus," published Jun. 27, 2002. Yet another example of the known art is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,901,028 by Hamard entitled "Electricity Meter Provided With A System For Protection Against Surges," issued May 4, 1999. Such '028 patent discloses varistors connected between each phase and neutral configured to dump any surge on a phase to neutral. U.S. Pat. No. 5,023,747 to Lindsay issued Jun. 11, 1991 and entitled "Meter Based Surge Suppression System" discloses an electricity meter with a surge suppression system mountable on a meter mounting panel. U.S. Pat. No. 5,956,223 to Banting issued Sep. 21, 1999 entitled "Surge Protection System Including Proper Operation Indication" discloses a meter extender surge suppression system that is designed to fit between a utility meter and a meter box to protect downstream equipment from power surges on the power line. U.S. Pat. No. 5,994,892 to Turino et al. issued Nov. 30, 1999 entitled "Integrated Circuit Design Automatic Meter Apparatus and Method" discloses an electronic electricity meter that includes the placement of metal oxide (MOV) surge suppressors as a portion of the power supply circuitry.
The disclosures of all of the foregoing United States patent documents are hereby fully incorporated into this application for all purposes by reference thereto. While various electronic metrology systems and power supply systems have been developed, no design has emerged that generally encompasses all of the desired characteristics as hereafter presented in accordance with the subject technology.

Resistor dropper power supply with surge protection


A branch prediction unit includes a cache-line based branch prediction storage having a branch prediction storage location assigned to each cache line of an instruction cache within the microprocessor employing the branch prediction unit. Although each branch prediction storage location is assigned to a particular cache line, the branch prediction storage location stores an alternate target indication indicating whether a branch prediction within the storage location corresponds to a branch instruction within the cache line to which the storage location is assigned or to a branch instruction within a different cache line. The different cache line has a predetermined relationship to the cache line to which the storage location is assigned. In various embodiments, the different cache line is at an index one less than the index of the storage location or is within a different way of the same index. The branch prediction unit described herein approximates having multiple branch predictions per cache line even though only one branch prediction storage location is assigned to the cache line. In cases in which a branch prediction would have been unused due to a lack of sufficient predicted-taken branch instructions within a cache line, the unused branch prediction may be used by a different cache line having a large number of branch instructions.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of microprocessors and, more particularly, to branch prediction within microprocessors.
2. Description of the Related Art
Superscalar microprocessors achieve high performance by executing multiple instructions per clock cycle and by choosing the shortest possible clock cycle consistent with the design. As used herein, the term "clock cycle" refers to an interval of time accorded to various stages of an instruction processing pipeline within the microprocessor. Storage devices (e.g. registers and arrays) capture their values according to the clock cycle. For example, a storage device may capture a value according to a rising or falling edge of a clock signal defining the clock cycle. The storage device then stores the value until the subsequent rising or falling edge of the clock signal, respectively. The term "instruction processing pipeline" is used herein to refer to the logic circuits employed to process instructions in a pipelined fashion. Although the pipeline may be divided into any number of stages at which portions of instruction processing are performed, instruction processing generally comprises fetching the instruction, decoding the instruction, executing the instruction, and storing the execution results in the destination identified by the instruction.
An important feature of a superscalar microprocessor (and a superpipelined microprocessor as well) is its branch prediction mechanism. The branch prediction mechanism indicates a predicted direction (taken or not-taken) for a branch instruction, allowing subsequent instruction fetching to continue within the predicted instruction stream indicated by the branch prediction. A branch instruction is an instruction which causes subsequent instructions to be fetched from one of at least two addresses: a sequential address identifying an instruction stream beginning with instructions which directly follow the branch instruction; and a target address identifying an instruction stream beginning at an arbitrary location in memory. Unconditional branch instructions always branch to the target address, while conditional branch instructions may select either the sequential or the target address based on the outcome of a prior instruction. Instructions from the predicted instruction stream may be speculatively executed prior to execution of the branch instruction, and in any case are placed into the instruction processing pipeline prior to execution of the branch instruction. If the predicted instruction stream is correct, then the number of instructions executed per clock cycle is advantageously increased. However, if the predicted instruction stream is incorrect (i.e. one or more branch instructions are predicted incorrectly), then the instructions from the incorrectly predicted instruction stream are discarded from the instruction processing pipeline and the number of instructions executed per clock cycle is decreased.
In order to be effective, the branch prediction mechanism must be highly accurate such that the predicted instruction stream is correct as often as possible. Typically, increasing the accuracy of the branch prediction mechanism is achieved by increasing the complexity of the branch prediction mechanism. For example, a cache-line based branch prediction scheme may be employed in which branch predictions are stored in association with a particular cache line of instruction bytes in an instruction cache. A cache line is a number of contiguous bytes which are treated as a unit for allocation and deallocation of storage space within the instruction cache. When instructions within the cache line are fetched by the microprocessor, the corresponding branch predictions are also fetched. Furthermore, when the particular cache line is discarded, the corresponding branch predictions are discarded as well. The cache line is aligned in memory.
A cache-line based branch prediction scheme may be made more accurate by storing a larger number of branch predictions for each cache line. A given cache line may include multiple branch instructions, each of which is represented by a different branch prediction. Therefore, more branch predictions allocated to a cache line allows for more branch instructions to be represented and predicted by the branch prediction mechanism. A branch instruction which cannot be represented within the branch prediction mechanism is not predicted, and subsequently a "misprediction" may be detected if the branch is found to be taken. As used herein, a "branch prediction" is a value which may be interpreted by the branch prediction mechanism as a prediction of whether or not a branch instruction is taken or not taken. Furthermore, a branch prediction may include the target address. For cache-line based branch prediction mechanisms, a prediction of a sequential line to the cache line being fetched is a branch prediction when no branch instructions are within the instructions being fetched from the cache line.
Unfortunately, increasing the number of branch predictions which may be stored for a given cache line increases the size of the branch prediction storage. The increased size occupies a larger area in the microprocessor, thereby leading to increased costs. Furthermore, the size increase may impact the frequency at which the microprocessor may operate.

Branch prediction unit which approximates a larger number of branch predictions using a smaller number of branch predictions and an alternate target indication


Disclosed are method and apparatus for SAR image recognition based on multi-scale features and broad learning. A region of interest of an original SAR image is extracted by centroid localization, the image is rotated and added with noise for enhancing the data volume, the image is downsampled, LBP features and PPQ features are extracted, an LBP feature vector XLBP and an LPQ feature vector XLPQ are cascaded to achieve dimension reduction by principal component analysis to obtain a fusion feature data Xm, the fusion feature data Xm is input to a broad learning network for image recognition and a recognition result is output. By fusing the LBP features and the LPQ features, complementary information is fully utilized and redundant information is reduced. The broad learning network is used to improve the training speed and reduce the time cost. As a result, the recognition effect is more stable, robust and reliable.

SAR is one of the important means of earth observation. Due to its all-weather capability and strong penetrating imaging capability, SAR has been widely used in battlefield reconnaissance, intelligence acquisition and other fields. However, SAR images are sensitive to imaging orientation, and there is a lot of environmental noise in target data. Traditional recognition and classification methods have achieved a certain level in classification accuracy, but there are still many defects, such as low SAR image feature extraction performance, slow matrix convergence speed, long training time, complex parameter estimation, and low efficiency.

Method and apparatus for SAR image recognition based on multi-scale features and broad learning


A printing system configured by connecting, over a network, a printing request instruction terminal for making a printing request including reference information that indicates a storage location of the paper original data, a server which accepts the printing request from the printing request instruction terminal, designates a printer as a printing destination according to the printing request and makes a printing instruction to that printer, and multiple printers which execute printing according to the printing instruction from the server, wherein the server comprises: an examination unit which, when receives the printing request from the printing request instruction terminal, examines whether or not the printer designated as the printing destination has a pull-printing function to execute printing by obtaining the paper original data according to the reference information; and a print control unit which obtains the paper original data according to the reference information when it is found as a result of the examination that the printer designated as the printing destination does not have the pull-printing function and sends the obtained paper original data together with the printing instruction to the printer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a printing system and a print control method, and more particularly to a printing system and a print control method which efficiently use a pull-printable printer even in a printing system, which makes distributed and divisional output, to efficiently transmit image data so to prevent a network from becoming busy.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a known printing system, there is a technology disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-271263. This system transmits image data which is read by a scanner to a local copy section of a management device before sending it to a printer.
Therefore, the system of the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-271263 transmits the image data two times, namely from the scanner to the management device and from the management device to the printer.
In other words, the system having such a transmission mode often makes a network busy and takes long time to start printing. Thus, the system cannot efficiently use respective devices.
In order to improve the above situation, printing devices having a function called "pull-print" are being provided in recent years.
The pull-printing function is to operate, when information indicating a location where data to be printed is stored on the network (hereinafter referred to as the "reference information"), e.g. a URL (Uniform Resource Locator), is input, to obtain data on the information according to the reference information and to perform printing according to the obtained data.
When this pull-printing function is used, a load on the network can be reduced because data to be printed is sent from its location to the printer only one time.
An example of the technology using a printing device having the above pull-printing function is disclosed as a pull-print printing device in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-184180.
The Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-184180 makes reference to the pull-print printing device but does not have a mechanism for scheduling multiple printing jobs of multiple printers and does not consider a printing system for performing distributed and divisional output.
As described above, the Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-184180 refers to the pull-print printing device but does not have a mechanism for scheduling multiple printing jobs of multiple printers. Thus, conventionally no reference has been made about a printing system for performing distributed and divisional output.

Printing system and method for network containing printers with pull-printing and printers without pull-printing


An information processing apparatus is provided which includes a storage unit to store reference parameter information made up of a plurality of pieces of parameter information and associated with each program, an acquisition unit to acquire the plurality of pieces of parameter information of current time, a specifying unit to specify a program associated with a reference parameter similar to the plurality of pieces of parameter information of current time, and a display control unit to create a startup menu screen containing a startup display of a program according to a specified result by the specifying unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing apparatus, an information processing method, a program and an information processing system.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is a trend to install various kinds of applications (programs) in an information processing apparatus such as a cellular phone or a portable game device widely used today. An information processing apparatus displays a menu screen containing startup displays of a plurality of applications and, upon user's selection of a particular application on the menu screen, starts up the selected application.
The information processing apparatus can dynamically switch startup displays of applications contained in the menu screen by the following methods, for example.
(1) Switching according to the frequency of recent use
Startup displays of recently used applications are preferentially contained in the menu screen.
(2) Switching according to the current position (cf. e.g. Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2003-345595)
A particular place and one or more than one application are registered in association with one another in the information processing apparatus, and if the particular place and the current position coincide, one or more than one application associated with the particular place is contained in the menu screen.

Information processing apparatus, information processing method, program and information processing system


A method for transmitting device-to-device (D2D) data in a wireless communication system is provided. A first terminal establishes a D2D link with a second terminal. The first terminal transmits a scheduling request (SR) for an uplink and an SR for the D2D link to a base station. The first terminal receives, from the base station, scheduling information on the D2D link determined on the basis of the SR for the D2D link. The first terminal transmits D2D data to the second terminal on the basis of the scheduling information

Field of the invention
The present invention relates to a wireless communication system, and more particularly, to a method of transmitting device-to-device (D2D) data and an apparatus using the method.
Related Art
Long term evolution (LTE) based on 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) technical specification (TS) release 8 is a promising next-generation mobile communication standard. Recently, LTE-advanced (LTE-A) based on 3GPP TS release 10 supporting multiple carriers is under standardization.
According to a downlink control information (DCI) format 1A-based physical downlink control channel (PDCCH) order of LTE and LTE-A systems, an eNodeB (eNB) allows a user equipment (UE) in an RRC_CONNECTED mode to transition from an out-of-synch mode to an in-sync mode by transmitting a command to transmit buffer data, and the UE in the in-sync mode performs physical random access channel (PRACH) transmission. This is similar to an operation in which the UE transmits buffer data by using an uplink PRACH or a scheduling request (SR). In other words, the PDCCH order implies that the eNB commands the UE to achieve a requirement of the eNB (i.e., eNB-to-UE data transmission using a downlink carrier).
The present invention proposes a method in which the eNB commands a designated UE pair to perform D2D communication through a PDCCH and instructs to exchange information between UEs through an uplink carrier/band. The information exchange between the UEs may be called UE-to-UE or device-to-device (D2D) communication, direct communication, point-to-point (P-to-P) communication, etc. The UE-to-UE communication may decrease a waste of a radio resource and a factor of causing an interference.

Method and device for transmitting D2D data in wireless communication system


An image forming apparatus and a printing medium feeding unit thereof are disclosed. The image forming apparatus includes a main body, a cassette removably mounted in the main body to load a printing medium therein, and a sensing unit provided in the main body to sense whether the cassette is mounted in the main body and whether the printing medium is in the cassette. The sensing unit includes a first actuator mounted in the main body to sense whether the printing medium is in the cassette, a second actuator mounted in the main body to sense whether the cassette is mounted in the main body, and a sensor having a sensing part to sense operation of the first actuator and the second actuator. Accordingly, the image forming apparatus can sense whether the cassette is properly mounted in the main body and whether the printing medium is in the cassette, with a simple constitution while minimizing the number of sensors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, and more particularly, to an image forming apparatus capable of determining whether the printing medium cassette is properly mounted in the image forming apparatus and whether the printing medium is present in the cassette.
2. Description of the Related Art
An image forming apparatus refers to an apparatus that prints an image on a printing medium according to an image signal. An image forming apparatus may generally be classified as a printer, a copying machine, a fax machine, a multi-function printer, which has multiple functions of printing, scanning, copying and faxing, or the like. In order to supply a printing medium (Hereinafter, referred to as "paper" for convenience. However, a printing medium is not limited to paper), an image forming apparatus comprises a paper feeding unit. A paper feeding unit generally includes a paper sensing device to sense the presence of the paper.
FIGS. 1a to 1c are views showing a conventional paper feeding unit having a paper sensing device. As shown in FIGS. 1a and 1b, a conventional paper feeding unit 1 includes a cassette 2 having a paper loading plate 2a, and a paper sensing device 3 to sense whether paper is present on the paper loading plate 2a.
The paper sensing device 3 includes an actuator 4, a sensor 5 and an operation hole 6. The actuator 4 has a pivot shaft 4a, and an operation arm 4b and a sensing arm 4c, which are connected to the pivot shaft 4a. The operation arm 4b extends toward the paper loading plate 2a, and the sensing arm 4c extends toward the sensor 5.
The operation arm 4b is provided with a paper contact part 7 at an end portion thereof, which contacts with paper P loaded on the paper loading plate 2a. The operation hole 6 is formed on the paper loading plate 2a, so as to receive the paper contact part 7 of the operation arm 4b. When no paper is on the paper loading plate 2a, the paper contact part 7 of the operation arm 4b is received in the operation hole 6.
When the paper P is on the paper loading plate 2a, as shown in FIG. 1a, the paper P interferes with the contact part 7, and accordingly the actuator 4 is pivoted upward, so that the sensing arm 4c is positioned away from the sensing region of the sensor 5. A control unit of the image forming apparatus determines that the paper is on the paper loading plate 2a, and performs printing operation according to a print command.
On the other hand, when no paper is on the paper loading plate 2a, as shown in FIG. 1b, the paper contact part 7 of the operation arm 4b is received in the operation hole 6, and an end portion of the sensing arm 4c is positioned in the sensing region of the sensor 5. If the sensor 5 senses the sensing arm 4c, the control unit of the image forming apparatus determines that no paper is on the paper loading plate 2a.
However, in the above conventional paper feeding unit, even when the cassette is not properly mounted in a main body, printing operation may be carried out, which may create a problem of improper paper supply or paper jam. For instance, as shown in FIG. 1c, even when a user inadvertently did not push the cassette 2 all the way in the main body into the proper cassette mounting position, the operation arm 4b is interfered with by the paper P loaded on the paper loading plate 2a, and accordingly the sensing arm 4c may be positioned away from the sensing region of the sensor 5. In such a case, notwithstanding the abnormal circumstances in which paper supply cannot be achieved correctly, the control unit of the image forming apparatus may determine that the apparatus is in a state capable of performing normal printing operation, and may attempt to perform a printing operation. Accordingly, a printing error may occur.
This problem may be solved by mounting an additional sensor capable of sensing proper mounting of the cassette. However, the installation of the additional sensor to the paper sensing device may make the internal structure of the image forming apparatus complicated, and may increase the manufacturing costs due to the increase in the number of components, thereby rendering the resulting product less competitive.
In addition, according to a recent trend of compactness of the apparatus, the main body may be formed smaller than the cassette. Typically, when mounting the cassette, a user puts the cassette in the main body until the front surface of the cassette is positioned on the same plane as the front surface of the main body. However, in a case where the main body has a smaller form factor than the cassette, though the cassette is perfectly mounted in the main body, a part of the cassette may protrude from the main body. Thus, a user cannot easily confirm visually whether the cassette is properly mounted in the main body, and thus is more likely to make the mistake of incorrectly mounting the cassette. In this regard, due to a current trend of compactness of the image forming apparatus, the impetus for providing a device capable of preventing a printing error by sensing whether the cassette is properly mounted may be especially high.

Image forming apparatus with cassette and paper sensing device


A safety interlock switch with coded interlocking to provide tamper resistance, the coded interlocking having two differently coded technologies 8,10; 16,18. In a preferred embodiment one technology is mechanical in the form of a coded-cam system operated by a coded-tongue 8, the other is electronic comprising a non-contact coded RFID sensor 16,18, and wherein the switch is only enabled when the two different codes have been correctly applied.

Actuator operated interlock switches require a tongue shaped actuator to be removed and inserted from a main switch housing. The switch is used to enable a power supply to machinery. The switch is generally mounted between a machine guard and a frame for the guard, with the tongue mounted to one of the guard and frame, and the main switch housing attached to the other of the guard and frame. The switch is designed such that the power supply cannot be enabled until the guard is closed and the tongue is thereby inserted in the main switch housing. In a switch with machine guard locking, the tongue cannot be removed from the switch housing and the guard opened until the machine has come to a stop or is in a safe condition for access thereto. In addition to the mechanical aspects of the switch, the switch additionally has several normally closed and normally opened safety contacts, the normally closed contacts enabling power when the guard is closed.
This type of switch has the disadvantage that personnel may override or bypass the safeguard provided by this switch by removing the tongue and inserting a foreign object into the switch to permanently bias it to its normal position where the contacts are closed and power is supplied. This is done to gain easier access to the machine, enabling the guard to be opened without the inconvenience of waiting for the machine to power down.


A connector for a flat cable having a plurality of cable lines laid on a common plane in side-by-side fashion with each other, which comprises a housing having a hollow defined therein and opening outwardly at a front face. Top and bottom walls are formed with respective pluralities of first and second guide grooves both defined therein in communication with the hollow, and terminal members of generally h-shaped configuration equal in number to the number of any one of the first and second guide grooves and arranged in side-by-side fashion in a direction parallel to the longitudinal axis of the housing. Each of the terminal members includes a contact finger having a contact protuberance formed integrally therewith, an anchoring finger extending generally parallel to the contact finger and connected at one end with one end of the contact finger remote from the contact protuberance, and a connecting finger. Each terminal member is accommodated within the housing with the contact and anchoring fingers firmly received within the respective first and second guide grooves while the contact protuberance protruding into the hollow. A lock-on insert is inserted into the hollow to allow the cable lines to be held in contact with the associated contact protuberances, after the flat cable has been inserted into the hollow.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to an electric connector for electrically connecting a flexible ribbon cable, or a so-called flat cable, having a plurality of bundled parallel cable lines, with a corresponding number of terminal elements in a generally plug-in fashion.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A flexible ribbon cable is known having a plurality of electric lead lines laid parallel to each other and bundled together into a generally ribbon-like configuration. Recent years have seen an increasing use of the ribbon cables in electric apparatuses and appliances. For end-to-end connection between one ribbon cable and the other ribbon cable, or for end-to-terminal connection between a ribbon cable and a terminal structure having a corresponding number of terminal elements, a generally flat connector is employed, having a row of juxtaposed contact elements with which cable lines of the ribbon cable are electrically connected by insertion of the ribbon cable into the connector. With the cable lines inserted into the connector so as to engage the corresponding contact elements, the ribbon cable is locked in position relative to the connector by means of a lock-on insert.
Some of the prior art connectors of the type referred to above will now be discussed in detail with particular reference to FIGS. 9 to 11, respectively.
Referring first to FIG. 9 showing the prior art ribbon cable connector in a partially sectioned, schematic perspective representation, the ribbon cable connector shown therein is disclosed in the Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Application No. 3-8886 published Jan. 28, 1991. This prior art connector comprises a plastic molded housing 1 of a generally rectangular configuration having top and bottom walls and a pair of side walls and also having a generally rectangular sectioned hollow 1b defined therein so as to extend across the depth of the housing 1 as measured in a direction parallel to the direction X of insertion of the ribbon cable (not shown). This hollow 1b is delimited by top and bottom interior surfaces and a pair of side surfaces. The top wall of the housing 1 has a plurality of juxtaposed terminal members 4 in side-by-side and equally spaced fashion in a direction widthwise of the housing 1.
Each of the terminal members 4 is of a configuration generally similar to the shape of a figure "4" including a contact finger 4a and an anchoring finger 4b, a bridge 4d connecting the contact and anchoring fingers 4a and 4b together and a connecting finger 4c extending outwardly in a direction counter to and in alignment with the contact finger 4b. The contact finger 4a is bent relative to the bridge 4d so as to approach the anchoring finger 4b. A free end of the anchoring finger 4b is so shaped as to represent a hook.
The top wall of the housing 1 has, for each terminal member 4, a slit 3 defined therein so as to extend from the rear and inwardly of the top wall 1a in a direction parallel to the direction of insertion X leaving a partition wall as indicated by 1a between it and the hollow 1b for receiving the anchoring finger 4b of the associated terminal member 4. On the other hand, the bottom wall of the housing 1 is formed with grooves 2 equal in number to the number of the terminal members 4, each of said grooves 2 opening into the hollow 1b so that, when the terminal members 4 are press-fitted into the housing 1 with the contact and anchoring fingers 4a and 4b guided along and into the grooves 2 and the slits 3, respectively, contact protuberances integral with the respective contact fingers 4a are exposed into the hollow 1b while protruding therein.
A flexible ribbon cable (not shown) is forcibly inserted into the hollow 1b to allow cable lines forming the flexible ribbon cable to be electrically connected with the respective contact protuberances of the contact fingers 4a and is then retained in a position trapped within the hollow 1b.
The prior art connector of the above described construction is generally considered as having a relatively small thickness T, for example, 2.5 mm, but the necessity of the slots 3 for the anchoring fingers 4b in addition to the grooves 2 for the contact fingers 4a, makes it difficult to manufacture a molding die used to make the housing 1. Even if it is possible to form slender molding pins necessary to form the anchoring slots 3, some of the slender molding pins may be bent or broken under the influence of a pressure of molten plastic during the molding. Therefore, the prior art connector has a problem in that not only is it difficult to form the anchoring slots 3 in the housing precisely, but the productivity tends to be adversely affected.
In addition, the presence of the partition wall 1a necessarily increases the spacing S between the contact fingers 4a and the anchoring fingers 4b and, hence, the thickness T, resulting in an increased size of the connector as a whole.
The Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Publication No. 60-188488 published Dec. 13, 1985, discloses another prior art connector for a flexible ribbon cable as shown in FIG. 10. The connector shown therein comprises a housing 1 having a terminal chamber 1c defined therein so as to open in one direction conforming to the direction of insertion X, and a plurality of juxtaposed resilient terminal members 4, one for each terminal chamber 1c. Each terminal member 4 is generally of a shape similar to the shape of a figure "S" and is so shaped and so configured as to have a generally U-shaped contact finger 4e having a gap 4f defined therein for receiving the flexible ribbon cable C and a lead-out finger, said contact finger 4e and said lead-out finger 4g being continuous to each other so as to depict the shape of a figure "S".
The connector shown in FIG. 10 also comprises a lock-on insert 5 of generally T-shaped cross-section including a generally rectangular closure 5a having a slit 5b defined therein in a direction parallel to a row of the terminal members 4, and a wedge-like member 5c perpendicular to the closure 5a and adapted to be inserted into the terminal chamber 1c. The slit 5b in the closure 5a of the lock-on insert 5 is adapted to pass the flexible ribbon cable S therethrough into the terminal chamber 1c.
To connect the cable lines electrically with the associated terminal members 4, particularly the contact fingers 4e, the lock-on insert 5 is mounted in the housing 1 with the wedge-like member 5c inserted generally halfway into the terminal chamber 1c as shown in FIG. 10 and, at this time, the lock-on insert 5 is retained in position by a resilient force exerted by the lead-out finger 4g and urging the wedge-like member 5c against the bottom wall of the housing 1. The flexible ribbon cable C is subsequently inserted through the slit 5b in the lock-on insert 5 and then into the terminal chamber 1c so as to be received within the gap 4f in the contact finger 4e. Thereafter, the lock-on insert 5a is completely inserted to allow the resilient force exerted by the contact and lead-out fingers 4e and 4g to be centered on the contact finger 4e to clamp the flexible ribbon cable C firmly.
According to the prior art connector shown in FIG. 10, since the slit 5b for the passage of the flexible ribbon cable C therethrough is very narrow, making it difficult to insert the flexible ribbon cable C therethrough into the terminal chamber 1c.
To avoid the difficulty encountered with the prior art connector shown in FIG. 10, the Japanese Laid-open Utility Model Publication No. 64-9377 published Jan. 19, 1989, suggests another connector which comprises a loose mounting of the lock-on insert on the housing as shown in FIG. 11 to broaden the mouth through which the flat cable C is inserted. Referring now to FIG. 1, the lock-on insert 5 is hingedly coupled with the housing 1 at a front end thereof when the lock-on insert 5 is in an inoperative position as shown therein, but can be slid towards the completely inserted position when, after the flat cable C has been inserted into the hollow 1b, the lock-on insert 5 is pushed.
However, with the connector of the type disclosed in FIG. 11, it may often occur that, depending on the environment in which the connector is used, no space may be available for accommodating the pivotal movement of the lock-on insert.

Electric connector for flexible ribbon cable


A composition of a superabsorbent polymer and a process for using the polymer to absorb an aqueous electrolyte solution are disclosed. The composition comprises repeating units derived from: (a) an ampholytic ion pair prepared from a polymerizable vinylic tertiary amine-containing monomer and an acid having an ethylenic moiety; (b) at least one comonomer selected from the group consisting of acrylamide, methacrylamide, acrylonitrile, acrylic acid, ethacrylic acid, alkali salts of acrylic acid, alkali salts of methacrylic acid, 2-methacryloyloxyethyltrimethylamine, 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid, alkali salts of 2-acrylamido-2-methylpropane sulfonic acid, 2-methacryloyloxyethane sulfonic acid, alkali salts of 2-methacrylamidopropyldimethylamine, styrene sulfonic acid, alkali salts of styrene sulfonic acid, and N-vinyl-2-pyrrolidone; and optionally, (c) at least one crosslinking agent which has at least two polymerizable olefinic functionalities wherein the olefinic functionalities are suitable for crosslinking.

Polymers for absorbing aqueous electrolyte solutions are used in numerous commercial and industrial applications. For example, polymers are used to improve the water absorbency of paper towels and disposable diapers.
Though known water absorbing polymers are highly absorbent to deionized water, they are dramatically less absorbent to aqueous electrolyte solutions such as salt water, brine, and urine. For example, hydrolyzed crosslinked polyacrylamide absorbs 1,024 grams of deionized water per gram of polymer, but only 25 grams of synthetic urine per gram of polymer. Crosslinked polyacrylate absorbs 423 grams of deionized water per gram of polymer, but only 10 grams of synthetic urine per gram of polymer. Hydrolyzed crosslinked polyacrylonitrile absorbs 352 grams of deionized water per gram of polymer, but only 25 grams of synthetic urine per gram of polymer. Analogous starch grafted copolymers generally have very poor absorbency to synthetic urine.
It would be a valuable contribution to the art to develop polymers with high absorbency to aqueous electrolyte solutions. The market for these types of copolymers is large and the uses are numerous. Therefore, seemingly small improvements in the absorbency translate into large savings in the quantity of polymer required to absorb these liquids and large savings to consumers.

Copolymers of amphytic ion pairs containing vinylic tertiary amine and process therewith


An apparatus and a method for synchronously moving first and second fitting or removal tools (300, 400) of a tire fitting or removing apparatus. When an operator moves the first fitting or removal tool (300) in a substantially radial direction with respect to a longitudinal axis (L) of a post (210) supporting the first and second fitting or removal tools (300, 400), a synchronization unit receives first and second input signals of first and second sensors (320, 420) coupled to the first and second fitting or removal tools (300, 400) and indicating a radial movement or position of the tools (300, 400). The synchronization unit generates, based on a comparison of the first and second input signals, an output signal causing an actuator (450) to move the second fitting or removal tool (400) synchronous to the first fitting or removal tool (300) in said substantially radial direction.

EP 2 110 270 A1 shows a method and an apparatus for fitting a tyre onto a vehicle wheel rim or removing a tyre from a vehicle wheel rim. At least one fitting or removal tool is moved parallel to the axis of the vehicle wheel, while the vehicle wheel is moved radially to the axis of the wheel by means of a drive device in order to bring the wheel into the right position with respect to the at least one fitting or removal tool.
The configuration shown in EP 2 110 270 A1 has the disadvantage that the mechanism for radial moving the vehicle wheel has to support the wheel receiving means and a driving means for rotating the wheel, and additionally has to bear strong forces applied to the wheel during tyre fitting or removing operations. This requires a robust and expensive mechanism for performing the radial movement of the wheel.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and an apparatus for a more simple, cost effective and convenient simultaneous positioning of at least two fitting or removal tools of a tire fitting or removing apparatus with respect to a vehicle wheel.
This object is achieved by an a apparatus according to claim 1 and a method according to claim 14 of the present invention.

Synchronization of tyre bead breaker tools


A technique for establishing automatic service connectivity in a network between multiple network elements is disclosed. Each network element utilizes routing and distribution protocols to discover its neighbors and establish a topology. Optical fibers connect the network elements. Each optical fiber carries multiple wavelengths of signals, wherein the network elements communicate with a server. The method comprises: storing information pertaining to each of the network elements at the server; registering network elements by collecting information about each network element; receiving a connectivity request from a first registered node for connection with a second registered node; determining compatibility of the first and second registered node; and instructing network elements upon verifying compatibility to search for an end-to-end wavelength path and establish a connection between the first registered node and the second registered node.

In the present state of the art, the development of a photonics network is in its infancy. Currently, service requests from peripheral nodes in a network are directed to the service administration of a network service provider. The establishment of service connectivity is therefore not automatic and is labor intensive and time consuming.
As a photonics cross-connect network element is being developed, the various concepts of utilizing such network elements in a photonics network are also being investigated. One approach that is currently being proposed to exploit the high bandwidths in such a network is to use an IP core router in the network such that any edge router can utilize the wavelength connectivity to establish a link between the routers. In effect, this approach is simply to use the network to transport IP traffic to the core router.
A problem with the above-described approach is that the initial connection may require human intervention. Another shortcoming is that other services rely on a core router for support. For example, a virtual private network can be established but is dependent on the core router for service availability and security. Indeed, the deployment of future services is dependent on the existence of a core router.
In view of the foregoing, it would be desirable to provide a technique for providing automatic service connectivity. More particularly, it would be desirable to provide a technique for efficiently providing service connectivity between network elements in an efficient and cost effective manner distributed through a client-server architecture.

Distributed photonic switch and optical UNI server


A low viscosity fluid for reducing fluid loss in a relatively low permeability formation has a viscosity of less that 10 CP and contains a low molecular weight viscosifying agent The aqueous medium may be fresh water, salt water, brine or slickwater. The invention has particular applicability when an ultra lightweight (ULW) proppant or sand control particulate is employed. The fluid may be used in reservoirs having a relative permeability less than 10 mD.

Hydraulic fracturing requires the use of well treating materials capable of enhancing the production of fluids and natural gas from low permeability formations. In a typical hydraulic fracturing treatment, fracturing treatment fluid containing a solid proppant is injected into the formation at a pressure sufficiently high enough to cause the formation or enlargement of fractures in the reservoir. The proppant is deposited in the fracture, where it remains after the treatment is completed. After deposition, the proppant serves to hold the fracture open, thereby enhancing the ability of fluids or natural gas to migrate from the formation to the wellbore through the fracture.
Many different materials have been used as proppants including sand, glass beads, walnut hulls, and metal shot as well as resin-coated sands, intermediate strength ceramics, and sintered bauxite; each employed for their ability to cost effectively withstand the respective reservoir closure stress environment. The relative strength of these various materials increases with their corresponding apparent specific gravity (ASG), typically ranging from 2.65 for sands to 3.4 for sintered bauxite. Unfortunately, increasing ASG leads directly to increasing degree of difficulty with proppant transport and reduced propped fracture volume, thereby reducing fracture conductivity.
Another common problem in fracturing operations is the loss of fracturing fluid into the porous matrix of the formation. The loss of fracturing fluid into the formation has an effect on the fracture size and geometry created during the operation. The efficiency of fracturing fluids containing conventional proppants is enhanced (or fluid loss is mitigated) by thickening of the fracturing fluid. Thickening of the fracturing fluid enables it to carry proppant into the fracture.
Bridging solids are typically used to increase the viscosity of the fracturing fluid. Bridging solids are typically either viscosifying polymers, such as insoluble starches, or sized particulate solids such as silica flour or calcium carbonate.
The viscosity of the fracturing fluid filtrate leaked into the rock matrix affects the rate of fluid loss since increased viscosity of the fluid flowing within the matrix creates resistance. In conventional polymer-based fracturing fluids, this effect is typically ignored since the bridging solids employed are too large to penetrate the rock matrix. Such solids are typically filtered at the rock face, thereby creating a relatively impermeable filter cake. This, in turn, limits the loss of filtrate to the formation. As such, the filtrate penetrating the matrix is non-viscosified brine (typically 2% KCl), having a viscosity similar to that of the formation fluid. No additional resistance to movement within the matrix is needed. Unfortunately, filter cakes are often damaging to the desired conductivity of the proppant pack; in some cases reducing the proppant pack conductivity by over 90%.
More recently, attention has been drawn to the use of ULW materials as proppant materials. ULW materials are often desirable since they reduce the fluid velocity required to maintain proppant transport within the fracture. This, in turn, provides for a greater amount of the created fracture area to be propped open. Such ULW proppants, like conventional heavier proppants, have the capability to effectively withstand reservoir closure stress environments while increasing fracture conductivity.
Utilization of ULW proppants in slickwater fluids has gained favor in reservoirs having permeabilities between 0.001 to 1.0 mD since bridging solids are not needed for viscosification or proppant transport and fluid loss in such tight formations is not significant. Slickwater fluids are basically fresh water or brine having sufficient friction reducing agent to minimize tubular friction pressures. Such fluids have viscosities generally only slightly higher than unadulterated fresh water or brine. Since such slickwater fluids do not contain bridging solids, they do not build a filtercake and thus are considered inherently non-damaging to the proppant pack.
It is desirable to expand the application of slickwater based fluids incorporating ULW proppants in reservoirs having permeabilities greater than 1.0 mD. The use of slickwater fluids containing ULW proppants in higher permeability reservoirs is highly desirable since slickwater is substantially non-damaging to the formation face. In such higher permeability reservoirs, however, it is important that fluid efficiency of slickwater fluids not become compromised since sufficient fluid must remain in the fracture to facilitate continued propagation of the fracture and maintain adequate width for proppant movement. Further, such fluids must be capable of viscosifying without the buildup of filter cake.

Method for reducing fluid loss during hydraulic fracturing or sand control treatment


A dilator device for performing a percutaneous tracheotomy which is inserted into a trachea opening and then actuated to enlarge the opening by single handed actuation.

The background of dilation inventions for percutaneous tracheotomy discussed here include a number of devices which are selected for use depending on physician preference and factors such as the physical characteristics of the patient.
Devices in medical use for tracheotomies or tracheostomies are preceded in use by identifying the area for the opening to be created puncturing the area, between sterna notch and cricoid (tracheal) cartilage rings, with a syringe and needle removing the syringe from the needle, which remains in place passing a 'flexible (j-wire) guide', through the needle
This 'flexible (j-wire) guide' remains in place for the duration of a′ typical percutaneous tracheotomy procedure.
Once this 'flexible (j-wire) guide' is in place in the opening,
a monolithic semi-rigid dilator is passed over the 'flexible (j-wire) guide' (threading the available end of the 'flexible (j-wire) guide' through the dilator) and used to begin increasing the size of opening between cartilage rings to be bigger than the syringe needle which was previously removed
passing another, larger dilator device, or series of progressively larger devices over the 'flexible (j-wire) guide', to create the final opening
A percutaneous tracheotomy is used for example, as the tracheal wall has anisotropic properties which illustrate the advantages and versatility of the dilator.
Griggs Forceps
Griggs forceps are a scissor-like tool which includes a partial passage created by recess channels on each of the mating surfaces of the grasping ends of the forceps. These partial passages form a complete passage when the forceps are closed, allowing the forceps to be guided by the 'flexible (j-wire) guide'. The closed forceps are passed into the opening created by the syringe/needle/dilator and then opened and closed, rotated, opened and closed, rotated, etc. . . . until such time as the opening created is of sufficient size and shape.
Drawbacks of the forceps are that they act in a single plane at any one time; they do not have a stop (limit of travel); and their orientation and range of motion is dependent on the strength and skill of the surgeon.
Blue Rhino Trach
The 'Blue Rhino Trach (BRT)' is a tapered plastic tool with an angled tip, which includes an internal passage to be guided by the 'flexible (j-wire) guide'. The 'BRT' is passed into the opening created by the syringe/needle/dilator and then pushed and released, pushed and released, pushed and released, etc. . . . until such time as the opening created is of sufficient size.
Drawbacks of the 'BRT' are that the lateral spread is achieved through a high insertion force, by the tapered outer diameter of the device; and this high insertion force and resultant deflection takes the tip of the device dangerously close the anterior (far) wall of the trachea, where damage which can lead to fatal infection can occur to the patient.
Blue Dolphin Trach
The 'Blue Dolphin Trach (BDT)' is an un-deployed reinforced plastic balloon in a delivery tube, which includes an internal passage to be guided by the 'flexible (j-wire) guide'. The 'BDT' is passed into the opening created by the syringe/needle/dilator and then inflated, to create an opening of sufficient size.
Drawbacks of the 'BDT' are the 'explosive force involved in deployment within the patient; the danger of certain accompanying equipment in the operating arena; and the risk of the balloon bursting or becoming loose inside the patient.
Percu-Twist
The 'Percu-Twist' is a screw-like tool which includes a partial passage to be guided by the 'flexible (j-wire) guide'. The Percu-Twist′ is passed into the opening created by the syringe/needle/dilator and then, rotated, rotated, rotated, rotated, etc. . . . until such time as the opening created is of sufficient size.
The chief drawback of the Percu-Twist′ is the excessive torsional load placed on the tissue of the patient's trachea during application of rotary motion, causing the tissue to 'wind up' around the tool during its use. It also takes as much time to remove as to deploy.
Trocar
A 'Trocar' can be an un-deployed reinforced stent in a delivery tube, which includes an internal passage to be guided by the 'flexible (j-wire) guide'. The 'Trocar' is 'shot' into the opening created by the syringe/needle/dilator whereupon it expands and stabilizes, to create an opening of sufficient size.
Drawbacks of the 'trocar' are the 'violent force involved in a deployment within the patient; the danger of range of motion in use; the risk of the non-deterministic and incorrect location in the patient. It is also subject to removal difficulties.
In the previous examples, some of the dilators will always retain the 'flexible (j-wire) guide', since they are effectively cylinders into which the flexible (j-wire) guide′ is threaded, during the first stage of dilation.
The Griggs Forceps can 'lose' the 'flexible (j-wire) guide' when they are opened. If, for some reason, it is desired to re-engage the 'flexible (j-wire) guide', the forceps may be removed from the orifice, closed, re-threaded, and re-inserted.
The background discussed here is limited to particular application of dilators in percutaneous tracheotomies and tracheostomies. Similar dilators are used to create other types of openings in other medical and veterinary applications, as well as industrial applications.
It is not meant for the invention described herein to be limited in its application to percutaneous tracheotomies and tracheostomies, based on the background information provided here.


A novel current limiting PTC polymer device and methods of making the same comprising a current limiting polymer composition with porous electrodes interfaced therewith such that a low contact resistance results using a combination of (1) extrusion attachment of the current limiting polymer composition to the porous electrodes, (2) careful selection of the electrode materials in view of the conductive filler and/or conductive metal particles in the current limiting polymer composition, and (3) plasma treatment of the attachment surfaces of the current limiting polymer composition preceding and/or during the extrusion attachment process. The invention provides for the selective treatment of portions of the surface of the current limiting polymer composition by at least one of plasma etching and metallizing to create attachment surfaces for extrusion attachment of porous electrodes resulting in a low contact resistance, mechanical stability and a reduced potential for arcing in the electrode/polymer interface. The electrical devices of the invention are particularly useful in circuit protection applications.

Current limiting polymer compositions which exhibit positive temperature coefficient of resistance (PTC) behavior, and electrical devices comprising current limiting polymer compositions have been widely used. The current limiting polymer compositions generally include conductive particles, such as carbon black, graphite or metal particles, dispersed in a polymer matrix, such as thermoplastic polymer, elastomeric polymer or thermosetting polymer. PTC behavior in a current limiting polymer composition is characterized by the material undergoing a sharp increase in resistivity as its temperature rises above a particular value otherwise known as the anomaly or switching temperature, T.sub.s. Materials exhibiting PTC behavior are useful in a number of applications including electrical circuit protection devices in which the current passing through a circuit is controlled by the temperature of a PTC element forming part of that circuit.
Particularly useful devices comprising current limiting polymer compositions are electrical circuit protection devices. Such circuit protection devices usually contain a current limiting polymer device comprised of two electrodes embedded in a current limiting polymer composition. When connected to a circuit, the circuit protection devices have a relatively low resistance under normal operating conditions of the circuit, but are tripped, that is, converted into a high resistance state when a fault condition, for example, excessive current or temperature, occurs. When the circuit protection device is tripped by excessive current, the current passing through the PTC device causes it to self-heat to its transition temperature or switching temperature, T.sub.s, at which a rapid increase in its resistance takes place, to transform it to a high resistance state.
Representative electrical circuit protection devices and current limiting polymer compositions for use in such devices are described, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,545,926 (Fouts, Jr., et al.); 4,647,894 (Ratell); 4,685,025 (Carlomagno); 4,724,417 (Au, et al.); 4,774,024 (Deep, et al.); 4,775,778 (van Konynenburg, et al.); 4,857,880 (Au, et al.); 4,910,389 (Sherman, et al.); 5,049,850 (Evans); and 5,195,013 (Jacobs, et al.).
In such devices a current limiting polymer composition is attached in some manner to a source of electrical power. This is generally provided by what is referred to in the art as an electrode which is in contact with the current limiting polymer composition and which is connected to a source of electrical power. The interface in these devices between the current limiting polymer composition and the electrode presents certain problems which limit the range of applications in which such devices can be reliably implemented commercially. For example, the avoidance of excessive current concentrations at any spot near the electrodes of the device presents problems, as does the provision of electrodes in a form which will reliably distribute the current over a suitable cross-sectional area of the current limiting polymer composition of the device and without variations of such distribution on repeated cycles of operation of the device. Furthermore, the use of electrodes may lead to some degree of electrical non-uniformity; if the surface of the electrode closest to the other electrode has any imperfections, this can lead to an electrical stress concentration which will cause poor performance. This problem is particularly serious when the current limiting polymer composition exhibits PTC behavior, since it can cause creation of a hot zone adjacent to the electrode; it also becomes increasingly serious as the distance between the electrodes gets smaller. Moreover, in a current limiting polymer device having a total contact resistance that exceeds 20% to 45% of the overall device resistance will, depending on the thermal transfer characteristics of the current limiting polymer composition, initially begin to undergo transition at the interface and will exhibit an increased potential for arcing across the interface. Such arcing may cause damage to the polymer composition and thereby limit the life of the device. Specifically, arcing may result in electrode delamination or a thermal/electrical break down in the electrode/polymer composition interface.
Notwithstanding, current limiting polymer compositions have found commercial application in circuit protection devices for telecommunications lines and for surge protection in small motors. Such devices, however, have been limited to use in systems with relatively low currents and voltages. These devices have been so limited due, in part, to the level of contact resistance associated with the interface between the current limiting polymer composition and the electrodes. It has been determined that the contact resistance in these devices can contribute up to 75% of the total device resistance. Accordingly, it would be desirable to have an interface between the current limiting polymer composition and the electrodes that results in a low contact resistance for the device.
The electrodes which have been used in such current limiting PTC polymer devices include solid and stranded wires, wire rovings, metal foils, expanded metal, perforated metal sheets, etc. A variety of methods have been developed for connecting the electrodes to the current limiting polymer composition. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,351,882 (Kohler, et al.); 4,272,471 (Walker); 4,426,633 (Taylor); 4,314,231 (Walty); 4,689,475 (Kleiner, et al. '475); 4,800,253 (Kleiner, et al. '253); and 4,924,074 (Fang, et al.).
Specifically, Walty describes a method for attaching planer electrodes to current limiting polymer compositions using an electrically conductive adhesive. Taylor discloses a method for laminating metal foil electrodes to the current limiting polymer composition through the use of pressure, heat and time. Taylor also discloses the optional use of an electrically conductive adhesive to help bind the electrode to the current limiting polymer composition. Finally, Kleiner, et al. '253 & '475 disclose the use of electrodes with microrough surfaces. Namely, Kleiner, et al., teaches the use of electrodes that have a roughened surface obtained by removal of material from the surface of a smooth electrode, e.g. by etching; by chemical reaction on the surface of a smooth electrode, e.g. by galvanic deposition; or by deposition of a microrough layer of the same or a different material on the surface of the electrode.
In order to obtain room temperature resistance levels in the 0.1-5 m.OMEGA. range, low bulk resistivity and low contact resistance are necessary. Current limiting polymer composition based electrical devices having a voltage rating of 500 V.sub.rms and a current rating of 63 A.sub.rms steady state for reducing let-through values in molded case circuit breakers are available. To achieve these high voltage and current ratings, however, the currently available devices require a large area parallel plate geometry with high spring pressure to connect the electrodes to the current limiting polymer composition. The high spring pressure connecting the electrodes to the current limiting polymer composition helps to reduce the contact resistance. As the pressure increases the area of real contact between the electrode and the current limiting polymer composition increases. Also the area of contact by the electrode with the conductive filler increases with increasing pressure. At these elevated pressures, the current limiting polymer composition plastically deforms to make intimate contact with the electrodes. A thin layer of polymer may cover a large percentage of the contact area between the electrodes and the current limiting polymer composition. This thin layer of polymer will prevent direct contact between the conductive filler particles in the current limiting polymer composition and the electrodes. This factor limits the decrease in device resistance obtainable through the application of pressure to connect electrodes to the current limiting polymer composition. Furthermore, the resulting device requires a large package and consequently has to be mounted externally to the circuit breaker. Therefore, it would be desirable to have a method for attaching electrodes to current limiting polymer compositions which would provide for a compact geometry and which would not require high spring pressure.
What is needed are current limiting PTC polymer devices which have a low contact resistance capable of use in high current/high voltage applications. Particularly what is needed is a method for attaching electrodes to a current limiting polymer composition and for preparing the current limiting polymer composition for such attachment which results in a low resistance electrical interface relative to the overall device resistance. A low contact resistance relative to the overall device resistance is desirable for two main reasons. First, the joule heating will occur in the bulk of the current limiting polymer composition thus inhibiting arcing at the electrode/polymer interface. Such arcing often results in electrode delamination or a thermal/electrical break down in the electrode/polymer interface. Second, the lower the overall device resistance the higher the steady state current ratings obtainable for the device.

Electrode attachment for high power current limiting polymer devices


The present invention provides a knitting method for knitting knitwear having raglan sleeves and knitwear thus formed, wherein a beautiful silhouette is gained when being put on, which knitwear is knitted in a seamless manner by using a flat knitting machine.

In general, as shown in FIG. 4 of the Patent Document 1, knitwear with the raglan sleeves are knitted with the front and back bodies in such a manner that the hem part and the side parts are knitted, together with the slant-line parts being formed while being inclined straight toward the neckline from the upper end part of the side parts. The sleeves are knitted in such a manner as to cover one's arms and shoulders when knitwear is put on, wherein the joining-line parts for joining the slant-line parts of the body to the sleeves are knitted and on the upper end part of the sleeves there is formed a part of the neckline.
In case of the sweater with the raglan sleeves, for instance, as shown in FIG. 14, front body 91, back body 92 and both sleeves 93 are each knitted in a tubular form, in respect of the part of the area A from the hem part of the front body 91 and the back body 92 to a little bit before gores 94 on the lower part of a armhole. Then, after knitting the gores 94 on the lower part of the armhole, in respect of the area B from the gores 94 through the slant-line part 95 to a little bit before the neckline of the front body, the front body 91, the back body 92 and the sleeves 93 are joined in order to make them tubular. As a neckline is made, so-called returning steps of making it in the shape of the letter C are made so that the front body 91, the back body 92 and the sleeves 93 are joined (referring to the region C). After the front body 91, the back body 92 and the sleeves 93 are joined, a neckline comprising the front body 91, the back body 92 and the upper end part of the sleeves 93 as continuous parts is made.
Patent Document 1: Public Gazette showing the Patent Publication No. Heisei 4-15301 (FIG. 4)

Method of knitting knitwear with raglan sleeves and knitwear with raglan sleeves

Abstract: It is a method of knitting knitwear with raglan sleeves formed by using a flat knitting machine, wherein the length of the back body is formed to be longer than the length of the front body. The sleeves and the front body are joined and then the sleeves and the back body are joined, while the bodies and the sleeves are knitted. After the sleeves and the front body are joined, the step 1 and step 2 are repeated. In the step 1, a boundary between the right and back parts of one side of the sleeve is placed between a pair of the front and back needle beds, and a neckline forming part of one side of the sleeve is knitted together with the back body, while a knitting width of the neckline forming part is narrowed by flechage knitting so that one side of the sleeve and the back body are joined. In the step 2, a boundary between the right and back parts of the other side of the sleeve is placed between a pair of the front and back needle beds, and the neckline forming part of the other side of the sleeve is knitted together with the back body, while a knitting width of the neckline forming part is narrowed by flechage knitting so that the other side of the sleeve and the back body are joined.