Fructose-1,6-diphosphate (FDP), a sugar-phosphate compound, can be useful in treating asthma, when administered as an inhalable drug, either by itself or as a component of a mixed formulation. On a cellular level, inhalable FDP appears to offer at least four beneficial effects for asthma sufferers: (1) it reduces histamine release by activated mast cells; (2) it suppresses production of oxygen free radicals by polymorphonuclear cells; (3) it helps suppress the activation and proliferation of T-lymphocytes; and, (4) it helps reduce the expression of interleukin compounds by T-lymphocytes. All four effects have been measured and shown to occur in animal and/or human tests, and these effects render FDP likely to help reduce and retard the progressive worsening of asthma that occurs in many sufferers. In addition, when tested in inhalable form on humans, FDP was shown to increase bronchial flow rates. All of these effects are beneficial, and can help asthma patients treated with FDP use asthma-control drugs which impose less stress on the user than more potent, aggressive asthma-control drugs.

This invention relates to pharmacology, and to medical treatments for bronchial asthma.
Bronchial asthma is a common disease that involves narrowing of the airways, in a manner which renders it difficult for a person to breathe. As used herein, all references to "asthma" refer to bronchial asthma, which is distinct from a different problem known to physicians as cardiac asthma.
Asthma is a widespread problem (estimated to affect up to 10 to 20% of the population, at varying levels of severity), and a huge amount of information is available in the scientific and medical literature and in the popular press, on the physiological and cellular events and mediators that are involved in asthma, and on drug treatments that have been studied in an effort to help control it. A partial listing of review articles published just in the first half of 1997 include Everard 1997, Floreani et al 1997, Nourshargh 1997, Higgs 1997, Saint-Remy 1997, Bentley et al 1997, Jacoby 1997, Spector 1997, Corrigan et al 1997, and Barnes et al 1997 (complete citations to books and articles are provided below, immediately before the claims). The following is a very brief overview of certain relevant interactions that contribute to asthma attacks; more information can be obtained from any of the above cited articles, and numerous other such articles.
In asthma sufferers, narrowing of the airways is caused by an inflammatory reaction within the bronchial walls, involving various types of blood cells (including mast cells, eosinophils, and lymphocytes), muscle cells and other connective tissue cells, mediators, and cytokines. Typically, various allergens derived from organic material (such as pollen, house dust, feathers, animal hair, fungal spores, etc.) enter the bronchi, carried by the air that a person breathes in. These allergens stimulate formation of antibodies, mainly of the IgE class.
On subsequent exposure to the allergen, allergen-antibody interactions trigger a sequence of events which cause various cells (such as mast cells) in the bronchial walls to release mediators such as histamine (in general, "mediators" are pharmacologically-active molecules which are released by one or more types of cells, and which react with receptors on the surfaces of other types of cells, causing the receptor-bearing cells to initiate one or more responses). The intercellular mediators interact with cells such as bronchial smooth muscle cells, causing various cellular reactions that lead to bronchial constriction.
The histamine-mediated interaction between mast cells and bronchial smooth muscle cells is only one of the contributing mechanisms involved in asthma, and other types of cells and mediators are also involved in various chronic aspects of asthma. For example, the late phase of the asthmatic response is associated with an increase of nonspecific bronchial responsiveness, and with infiltration and accumulation of neutrophils, eosinophils, and other leukocytes in bronchial tissue. In particular, eosinophils that become involved in the asthmatic inflammatory process are believed to release certain types of toxic mediators which can injure the bronchial epithelium, causing further inflammation.
In asthmatic attacks, eosinophil proliferation is believed to be largely controlled (or at least aggravated) by cytokines IL-3 and IL-5, which are produced and released by certain types of activated T-lymphocytes. Therefore, there has been considerable interest in the role of T-lymphocytes in asthma attacks, because they have been implicated in the regulation of IgE production.
In animal studies, after exposure to asthma-producing allergens and to various drugs that are used to simulate asthma in animals, activated T-cells have been identified by an increased expression of IL-2 receptors on the T-cell surfaces, and by increased production and release of the interleukin mediators IL-3, IL-4, and IL-5. Further evidence supporting the importance of the eosinophils and T-cells in the pathogenesis of asthma comes from histological studies performed before and after treatment with inhalable anti-inflammatory steroids. Following several weeks of treatment with inhaled steroids such as beclomethasone dipropionate, significant reductions in the number of eosinophils and activated T-cells in the airways of asthmatic patients have been observed.
Additional evidence which casts light on the role of T-lymphocytes in asthma is provided in articles such as Alexander et al 1992, Calderon et al 1992, Fukuda et al 1995, and Corrigan et al 1996, all of which discuss the ability of cyclosporine A to reduce asthmatic symptoms. Cyclosporine A is a highly specific inhibitor which reduces the activation and proliferation of T-type lymphocyte cells, which play a major role in the immune system; it is the compound that is administered to recipients of transplanted organs, to prevent their bodies from rejecting the foreign tissue. Alexander et al conducted a 6-month double blind placebo-controlled trial of cyclosporine A, which demonstrated a clear beneficial effect on spirometric measures in patients with chronic severe asthma.
In Fukuda et al 1995, patients with corticosteroid-dependent chronic severe asthma were treated with cylosporin A (5 mg/kg/day initially) for 12 weeks. This treatment significantly increased the peak expiratory flow, and it reduced the airway's hyper-responsiveness to acetylcholine challenge. Fukuda and coworkers observed a significant reduction in T-lymphocytes bearing Il-2 receptors (a marker of T-cell activation) in the peripheral blood of these patients during the treatment.
Since cyclosporine is a highly selective and suppresses only T-type lymphocyte cells, these findings indicated that inhibition of T-lymphocytes activation in asthmatic patients, by cyclosporin A, reduced hyper-responsiveness of the airways, thereby improving expiratory air flow. However, these results are not especially promising or practicable for most asthma patients, since cyclosporin is a potent immunosuppressive compound that severely reduces a person's ability to resist infections. In general, cyclosporin is only administered to people who are facing life-threatening situations (such as recipients of transplanted organs, who will quickly die if their body rejects the foreign organ). It is not a medication that can be used frequently and safely by asthma sufferers.
One of the important features of asthma is that in many patients, it grows progressively worse, over the course of years. This arises from the fact that asthma involves allergic reactions that trigger the patient's immune system. As is well known, the immune system generally escalates its responses when it repeatedly encounters the same allergen, time after time. In asthma sufferers, the same allergens (such as pollen, house dust, feathers, animal hair, fungal spores, etc.) which provoked an initial attack are encountered again, and again, and again, because these types of allergens are so endemic, widespread, and unavoidable.
Therefore, many asthma sufferers are forced to gradually escalate their treatment regimens. Typically, when most patients suffer a first asthma attack that requires medical treatment, they try out one or more relatively mild, unaggressive drugs, in the hope that such drugs can provide adequate relief without imposing too much disruption or stress on the fragile tissues inside the lungs. Even if such relatively mild drugs give adequate relief for a period of months or years, a large fraction of the population of asthma sufferers suffer from increasingly severe attacks, as their immune systems become more and more hyper-sensitized to one or more types of allergens. Such patients must subsequently escalate their treatment regimens, and must begin using other drugs that are more potent, aggressive, and harsh, and which inflict higher levels of disruption and stress on the various types of immune cells and lung tissues involved in asthma attacks.
Despite the enormous amount of research on asthma and on drugs to help control asthma attacks in sufferers, there is no adequate and satisfactory treatment for asthma. Most sufferers must struggle with a variety of drugs, none of which are completely effective, and if their symptoms gradually grow worse (as often happens), they must periodically escalate their treatments to more powerful drugs, which inflict progressively greater demands, stress, and damage on their lungs.
Accordingly, one object of this invention is to disclose that a pharmacological agent which has not been recognized previously as an asthma treatment is, in fact, a useful and effective treatment for asthma attacks.
Another object of this invention is to disclose that fructose-1,6-diphosphate, a sugar-phosphate compound which is present in all living cells, can be a harmless and highly useful component of asthma therapy, with the potential for both (1) helping to treat asthma attacks, and (2) helping to reduce and prevent the gradual worsening of asthma attacks that occur in many sufferers, thereby allowing those patients to continue using, for as long as possible, asthma-control drugs that are relatively mild and benign, rather than the harsher and more potent drugs that would be required if their asthma attacks grow more severe over the course of months or years.
Another object of this invention is to disclose that fructose-1,6-diphosphate can be included as a component in various types of inhalable drug treatments for asthma sufferers, or as a stand-alone inhalable treatment for asthma sufferers.
These and other objects of the invention will become more apparent through the following summary, description, and examples.

Treatment of asthma with fructose-1,6-diphosphate


A method and system for interleaving in a parallel turbo decoder enables the use of economical dual-port memory. According to the method, an incoming coding block is divided into a plurality of sub-blocks (step 1005). Each sub-block is divided into a plurality of windows (step 1010). An inter-window shuffle is then performed within each sub-block (step 1015). Each window is divided into two sub-windows (step 1020). Then an intra-window permutation is performed within each sub-window (step 1025).

Wireless data signals are frequently transmitted over hostile radio frequency (RF) interfaces that are susceptible to errors from interference. Thus many types of error correction coding techniques have been created to overcome such interference-induced signal errors. Error correction coding enables the recovery of an original clean signal from a corrupted signal. Turbo codes are advanced wireless error correction coding schemes that are included in many third generation wireless communication standards.
Turbo decoders perform soft-input, soft-output (SISO) operations that exchange information cooperatively to produce accurate estimates of transmitted data that is received over a noisy communication channel. The estimates are defined as probabilities and are interleaved and deinterleaved between SISO operations. Such interleaving scrambles the processing order of received data symbols so as to break up any neighborhoods of corrupted data.
The SISO operations of turbo decoders are executed using iterative decoding algorithms that increase the processing complexity of turbo decoders. To decode an input data stream at the same frequency at which data are arriving, a turbo decoder must process the data at a rate that is faster than the frequency of the arriving data by a factor at least equal to the number of iterations required by the decoder. Thus the speed of a decoder processor is very important to ensure a high quality of service (QoS) to an end user.
To increase processing speed turbo decoders generally divide an incoming block of data into sub-blocks. The sub-blocks are then processed in parallel using multiple sub-decoders. Each sub-decoder implements a Log Maximum-A-Posterior (MAP) algorithm that performs the SISO operations. The output of the Log MAP algorithms are named Log Likelihood Ratios (LLRs) and, concerning digital data, represent the probability that an originally transmitted data bit was either a "0" or a "1".
To perform efficiently, it is critical that the sub-decoders operating in parallel do not interfere with each other, both when reading input data and when storing output data. If the interleavers of a turbo decoder are not designed properly, two sub-decoders may attempt to access the same extrinsic memory bank during a given clock cycle—resulting in what is known as a collision or memory contention. Thus interleavers must be designed so that each sub-decoder will always access a distinct memory bank at any given instant.
Skilled artisans will appreciate that elements in the figures are illustrated for simplicity and clarity and have not necessarily been drawn to scale. For example, the dimensions of some of the elements in the figures may be exaggerated relative to other elements to help to improve understanding of embodiments of the present invention.

Method and system for interleaving in a parallel turbo decoder


An organic electroluminescent display device includes an array substrate, an organic EL element formed on the array substrate and having a transparent anode, a hole transporting layer, a light emitting layer, and a cathode, an epoxy resin layer so formed as to cover the organic EL element and containing 1 wt % or less of water, and a moisture-resistant layer formed on the epoxy resin layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic electroluminescent display device (organic EL display device) and, more particularly, to an organic EL display device having an improved organic EL element encapsulating structure.
2. Description of the Related Art
An organic EL element incorporated into an organic EL display device generally has a transparent anode formed on an array substrate, a lattice-like bank formed on this anode to define a plurality of pixel regions, hole transporting layers formed on the anode exposed to these pixel regions, light emitting layers formed on these hole transporting layers so as to be lower than the upper surface of the bank, and made of an organic compound, and a cathode formed on the bank including these light emitting layers.
When this organic EL element is left to stand in the atmosphere, the atmospheric water and oxygen degrade the light emitting layers and cathode, and this degrades the performance of the element. More specifically, a non-light-emitting region called a dark spot is formed, and this dark spot expands with time.
To prevent this, organic EL display devices having various encapsulating structures for protecting the organic EL element from the outside have been researched and developed.
Examples of known techniques are a technique by which an organic EL element is covered and encapsulated with a moisture-resistant layer which is a laminated film obtained by stacking silicon oxide on a polyethyleneterephthalate film, and a technique by which an organic EL element is covered and encapsulated with an organic insulating layer containing silicon oxide or silicon nitride.
Unfortunately, when the moisture-resistant layer made of a laminated film is used, it is difficult to effectively prevent organic EL element degradation caused by water.
Also, when an organic EL element is encapsulated only with the inorganic insulating layer, the productivity lowers or the wear resistance lowers in order to increase the thickness.
Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2002-056971 describes a method in which a glass, plastic, or metal encapsulating can is filled with a gas such as nitrogen containing barium oxide having a moisture absorbing effect, or with an inert liquid having little influence on an organic EL element, thereby forming an encapsulating layer. However, these encapsulating structures have problems that heat generated when the organic EL display device is driven cannot be well dissipated, i.e., the heat dissipation properties degrade, and the thickness of the organic EL display device itself increases.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an organic EL display device which improves the reliability and durability by suppressing deterioration of an organic EL element for long time periods by stopping external water penetration.

Method of manufacturing an organic electroluminescent display device


A method for the manufacture of a sterile intravenous or intramuscular formulation of artesunic acid and the formulation are the subject of this invention. First the artesunic acid powder is sterilized with ethylene oxide and placed into a sterile container. The contained sterilized powder is then dissolved in sterile sodium phosphate buffered solution to produce an injectable intravenous or intramuscular formulation. The sodium phosphate dissolves and dilutes the artesunic acid powder without caking or frothing resulting in an improved drug product. The invention also relates to the formulation and a method of treating a patient with either uncomplicated or severe and complicated malaria.

1. Field of the Invention
The methods of the present invention provide a unique and superior formulation of artesunic acid for parenteral injection and for the manufacture of the formulation under sterile conditions. The methods described herein provide a demonstrably sterile, non-pyrogenic product which dissolves rapidly with no frothing or caking, yielding a clear, conveniently prepared solution the attending physician may administer with confidence. The formulation that is prepared by the methods of the invention is especially suitable for the treatment of severe and complicated malaria.
2. Brief Description of Related Art
Although malaria affects about 250 million people and kills one to two million children each year, the pharmaceutical industry has shown little interest in developing new or manufacturing established antimalarial drugs not only because risks are significant, but the returns on investment are so low.
Currently, the most promising and most rapidly acting antimalarial drugs are derivatives of artemisinin (qinghaosu) obtained from qinghao or sweet wormwood (Artemesia annua); these drugs have been developed and manufactured in China. Three compounds of the qinghao family have been used: the parent artemisinin and two of its more-active derivatives: a water-soluble hemisuccinate, artesunate (AS), and an oil-soluble ether, artemether (AM). Both derivatives are metabolized to a common biologically active metabolite, dihydroartemisinin (DHA). Although this facile conversion (hydrolysis) to DHA contributes to the AS rapid antimalarial activity, it also limits the choices of practical AS dosage formulations.
Artesunic acid is also known to be effective in the treatment of severe (neuropathic) malaria, Artesunate versus quinine for treatment of severe falciparum malaria, a randomized trial, Dondorp, et al; Lancet, vol. 366, pages 717-725, Aug. 27, 2005, incorporated herein in its entirely by reference. However, Artesunic Acid is an intrinsically unstable compound, susceptible to decomposition by heat, radiation, and virtually any aqueous solution. Prior studies have confirmed the breakdown of artesunate in aqueous solutions.
AS has been used for injection with good results. However, there are drawbacks of the current commercially available AS dosage form. It is a two-component product consisting of a dry-fill powder of sterile artesunic acid in a vial and a sterile 5% sodium bicarbonate solution in an ampoule. This product, "Artesunate For Injection", is manufactured by Guilin Pharmaceutical Factory, Guangxi, China. This presently used formulation, when dissolved in the supplied bicarbonate buffer solution, results in fizzing and incomplete solution so that the concentration (dose) to be delivered may be uncertain.
The formulation of artesunic acid mentioned above is manufactured in China, and prepared by an undivulged method which results in a product of poor dissolution characteristics, and which froths and cakes upon introduction of the dissolution medium (5% bicarbonate). As the AS dissolves, carbon dioxide is evolved and trapped in the small volume of the closed vial. The formed gas bubbles carry un-dissolved AS particles throughout the vial, thereby reducing contact between these particles and the dissolution medium and lengthening the time needed to completely dissolve the AS. Moreover, this phenomenon reduces the investigator's ability to see if the solution is complete so the next preparation step, which is to dilute the AS/bicarbonate solution with 5 mL of sterile 5% glucose solution, can begin. These delays can unduly lengthen the overall solution preparation time, resulting in a shorter time period over which the prepared solution can be administered.
Further and most importantly, the product coming from China is not manufactured under the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP).
Therefore, it is an object of the present invention to provide an AS product and a method for preparing an AS product that dissolves quickly, thoroughly and does not cake or fizz upon dissolution.
It is another object of the present invention to prepare an AS product that does not require an additional step of diluting with glucose and is immediately usable upon dissolution.
Another object of the present invention is to develop a method for the production of an artesunic acid solution for the intravenous or intramuscular treatment of malaria that is sterile and manufactured under current Good Manufacturing Practice (cGMP) as required by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.
Another object of the present invention is to sterilize artesunic acid powder without decomposition.
Another object of the invention is to prepare an artesunic acid product that has a shelf life of two years.
These and other objects will become apparent upon further reading of this application.

Methods for the formulation and manufacture of artesunic acid for injection

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


An aircraft structure comprising: a spar; a primary cover attached to the spar and extending on a first side of the spar; and a secondary cover positioned on a second side of the spar and partially overlapping an internal surface of the primary cover. A bracket is attached to the spar, and a spacer is provided between the secondary cover and the bracket. The spacer is sized so that the primary and secondary covers together form a substantially continuous external aerodynamic surface. The structure provides an alternative to conventional butt-strap arrangements.

Conventional aircraft wings comprise a wing box with front and rear spars. Upper and lower wing covers are attached to the spars and extend between them to form the upper and lower boundaries of the wing box. Leading and trailing edge structures, such as panels or D-nose covers, are typically attached to the upper and lower covers with butt straps. FIGS. 1 and 2 illustrate conventional butt-strap arrangements.
An upper wing cover 1 is attached to a fixed leading edge structure 2 with a butt-strap 3, a pair of bolts 4, 5 and nuts 9, 10. The butt-strap 3 comprises upper and lower horizontal portions 6, 7 which are joined by a vertical portion 8. The lower portion 6 engages with the internal surface of the cover 1, while the upper portion 7 engages with the internal surface of the fixed leading edge structure 2.
To achieve a smooth aerodynamic surface, the external surface of the structure 2 and the external surface of the cover 1 must be aligned with each other within a strict tolerance range. To ensure that the alignment criteria are met, a packer 11 may be added between the internal surface of the structure 2 and the upper portion 7 of the butt-Strap, as shown in FIG. 1. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 2, a packer 12 may be added between the internal surface of the cover 1 and the lower portion 6 of the butt-strap. However, as the butt-straps 3 are typically fitted in various strips across the whole span of the wing, this process can be difficult and time consuming. It may also be necessary to hand fettle the structure 2 to match the cover 1 during assembly. This adds further complexity to the process. In addition, loads can only be channelled from the structure 2 into the spar (not shown) via the cover 1.


The apparatus has a holder having inner grip elements disposed at a periphery of the holder. A bearing assembly is rotatably attached to the holder so that it is co-axial with a first axis. A driving source is rotatable engaging the bearing assembly. A wheel is eccentrically mounted on the bearing assembly and the wheel has outer grip elements that cooperate with the inner grip elements. The wheel is rotatable about a second axis that is not co-axial with the first axis. A first knife member is attached to the wheel and coaxial therewith and a second knife member is eccentrically mounted on the wheel so that the second knife member is rotatable about the first axis.

The present invention relates of a combination device for disintegrating substances, such as vegetables, grass and meat.
When mowing a lawn it is sometimes necessary to discard debris, such as sticks and pine cones, that are scattered on the lawn. Lawnmower knives are often made dull or even damaged by debris because there is no convenient way of discarding and disintegrating the debris and it is tempting to rely on the lawnmower knives to disintegrate the debris. There is a need to conveniently discard and disintegrate debris on the lawn without damaging the rotating lawnmower knives.
The apparatus of the present invention may not only be used to mow a lawn but also may be used to disintegrate debris without damaging the lawnmower knives. One feature is that the knives rotate eccentrically so that a relatively short knife length may cover a large area and if the knife hits an object, the impact is not as great as with concentrically rotating knives. The apparatus may also include a gearing mechanism so that the driving member may rotate at a lower revolution per minute than the rotation of the knife.
More particularly, the apparatus of the present invention has a holder with inner grip elements disposed at a periphery of the holder. A bearing assembly is rotatably attached to the holder so that it is co-axial with a first axis. A driving source is rotatable engaging the bearing assembly. A wheel is eccentrically mounted on the bearing assembly and the wheel has outer grip elements that cooperate with the inner grip elements. The wheel is rotatable about a second axis that is not co-axial with the first axis. A first knife member is attached to the wheel and coaxial therewith and a second knife member is eccentrically mounted on the wheel so that the second knife member is rotatable about the first axis.


In a non-limiting and exemplary embodiment, a method is provided for adapting a device set of one or more radio devices providing detection estimates for the presence of a primary radio resource user. A first detection estimate for the presence of the user is determined on the basis of spectrum sensing. At least one other detection estimate for the presence of the user is received from the device set. A detection value is generated on the basis of the first detection estimate and the at least one other detection estimate, and the device set is adapted on the basis of the detection value.

Cognitive radio refers to a radio device which can intelligently detect which communication channels are in use by primary users and which are not, and move into vacant channels while avoiding occupied ones.
An important function of cognitive radios is spectrum sensing, generally referring to detecting unused spectrum. Cognitive radios attempt to sense "spectrum holes". A spectrum hole is a frequency range, where the absence of primary users has been determined. Primary users are for example TV stations, wireless microphones or cellular systems. By detecting particular spectrum holes and exploiting them rapidly, cognitive radios can significantly improve spectrum utilization. Detecting the absence of primary users is a difficult task and a single detector may make errors when determining whether the spectrum is primary free or not.
One sensing technique is so-called distributed or co-operative spectrum sensing, where sensing results from more than one secondary device are combined. The combination of sensing results enables better detection probability. In ideal case, a cognitive radio receives detection results from all nearby cognitive radios. In practice, this may be impractical due to large amount of signalling. Thus, there is a need for optimizing the use of resources for co-operative spectrum sensing.

Method and apparatus for spectrum sensing


The present invention relates to methods and starting materials for forming molecular-sized grids or nets, or other structures based on such grids and nets, by creating molecular links between elementary molecular modules constrained to move in only two directions on an interface or surface by adhesion or bonding to that interface or surface. In the methods of this invention, monomers are employed as the building blocks of grids and more complex structures. Monomers are introduced onto and allowed to adhere or bond to an interface. The connector groups of adjacent adhered monomers are then polymerized with each other to form a regular grid in two dimensions above the interface. Modules that are not bound or adhered to the interface are removed prior to reaction of the connector groups to avoid undesired three-dimensional cross-linking and the formation of non-grid structures. Grids formed by the methods of this invention are useful in a variety of applications, including among others, for separations technology, as masks for forming regular surface structures (i.e., metal deposition) and as templates for three-dimensional molecular-sized structures.

The general field of nanotechnology has long been a subject of speculation (Drexler, K. E. Nanosystems. Molecular Machinery, Manufacturing, and Computation; John Wiley & Sons, Inc.: New York, 1992) and much progress in the experimental design of two-and three-dimensionally networked three-dimensional crystal structures and supramolecular architecture has been reported. (Wang, X., Simard, M., Wuest, J. D., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1994, 116, 12119; Wu, Z., Lee, S., Zhang, J., Pesak, D. J., Ludwick, J. L., Moore, J. S., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1994, 116, 4227; Chen, J., Seeman, N. Nature 1991, 350, 631; Abrahams, B. F., Hoskins, B. F., Michail, D. M., Robson, R., Nature 1994, 369, 727; Fagan, P. J., Ward, M. D., Calabrese, J. C., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1989, 111, 1698; Stein, A., Keller, S. W., Mallouk, T. E., Science 1993, 259, 1558; Yaghi, O. M., Li, H., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1995, 117, 10401; MacGillivray, L. R., Subramanian, S., Zaworotko, M. J., J. Chem. Soc. Chem. Commun. 1994, 1325; Gardner, G. B., Venkataraman, D., Moore, J. S., Lee, S., Nature 1995, 374, 792; Bein, T.,Ed. Supramolecular Architecture: Synthetic Control in Thin Films and Solids, American Chemical Society: Washington, D.C., 1992; Michl, J., Ed. Modular Chemistry, Kluwer: Dordrecht, The Netherlands, in press; Kohnke, F. H., Mathias, J. P., Stoddart, J. F., Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. Engl. 1989, 28, 1103; Lehn, J.-M. Angew. Chem., Tnt. Ed. Engl. 1990, 29, 1304; Lehn, J.-M. Supramolecular Chemistry, VCH Publishers: Weinheim, 1995.) However, crystal engineering and self-assembly by weak interactions are only indirectly related to the methods of the present invention.
The ultimate goal of the methods of this invention is the construction or fabrication of molecular-sized structures (e.g., nets, grids or the like) by controlled combination of elementary modules (e.g., monomers) to form large structurally-defined molecules (e.g., polymers). The modules and methods employed for construction of such structures are reminiscent of children's "TINKERTOY" (Trademark, Playskool, Inc., Pawtucket, R.I.) construction kits. The elementary modules used in the methods of this invention preferably comprise molecular rods and connectors. The general use of such molecular elements for molecular construction has been described in the review article: J. Michl 1995 "The `Molecular Tinkertoy` Approach to Materials" in Proceedings of the NATO ARW Meeting: Applications of Organometallic Chemistry in Preparation and Processing of Advanced Materials Cap d'Agde, France, Sepptember 1994 (J. Harrod, ed.) Kluwer, Dordrecht, Netherlands, which is incorporated in its entirety by reference herein. U.S. Pat. No. 5,405,550 (J. Michl et al.), which is also incorporated by reference in its entirety herein, gives a general description of the molecular "Tinkertoy" construction system, various molecular structures that can be made using the system, exemplary connector and rod components of such systems, exemplary chemistry of coupling rods to connectors and specific examples of the use of 1.1.1!propellanes as rod components.

Method of assembly of molecular-sized nets and scaffolding

Board of Regents of The University of Colorado


A container for exposed film cartridges that permits swift, one-handed insertion of such cartridges while securely containing them after insertion is disclosed. A pouch with stiffened walls has a circular opening covered by overlapping flaps made of a flexible but resilient material through which cartridges may be inserted.

1. Area of the Art
This invention relates to the field of package and article carriers. In particular, this invention relates to portable containers for film cartridges.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Photographers have used various devices in the past for carrying cartridges or rolls of film after the film is exposed and before it is developed. Exposed film cartridges have been carried in the photographer's pants or coat pockets, pockets sewn into or onto a camera or photographer's bag, ditty bags, waist bags, and the like.
Professional photographers frequently expose many cartridges or rolls of film in a short period of time. For example, sports photographers may expose dozens of rolls or cartridges of film while covering a single sporting event. As a result, these photographers need a readily accessible container for carrying cartridges of exposed film. The professional photographer must be able to remove the exposed film cartridge from his or her camera, put it into the container, and load an unexposed cartridge in a short period of time. Professional photographers prefer to use a special container for storing the exposed film cartridges in order to keep separate the cartridges that are exposed from those that are not exposed. In addition, the exposed film container may be handed to a runner to be taken to a developing facility for immediate development of the exposed film. The exposed film container should therefore be readily accessible to the photographer's hands by being attachable to the photographer's equipment, vest or waist belt. It should be detachable so that it can be given to a runner.
In the past, professional photographers and some amateurs have used belt pouches or pockets as containers for exposed cartridges. These typically are bags made of cloth that are attachable to a belt or strap by means of sewn-on loops of cloth. These bags have zippers that permit access to the interior of the bags, openings with drawstring closures, or closure flaps secured by hook and loop fastening strips. Such pouches provide secure enclosures for the exposed film cartridges when their zippers, drawstrings or closure flaps are properly secured. This is important because the photographer may have to run to obtain a good position for taking photographs, especially in fast-moving sporting events such as football games. The pouches that have been used previously are not, however, easy to open or close with one hand and thus take some time to open and close.
What is needed, therefore, is a container or pouch for exposed film cartridges that allows quick, one-handed insertion of exposed film cartridges yet securely contains the exposed film cartridges even when the photographer is running or climbing. In addition, an exposed film container or pouch should have means for permitting it to be carried by the photographer at a convenient position with respect to the photographer's body so that the photographer may easily reach it in order to insert exposed film cartridges.

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A porous membrane comprising stacked layers of nanosheets, each nanosheet comprising one to three atomic layers of a 2D material comprising or consisting of one or more transition metal dichalcogenides is provided. The nanosheets have pores and the membrane comprises a network of water permeation pathways including through-pathways formed by the pores, horizontal pathways formed by gaps between the layers, and vertical pathways formed by gaps between adjacent nanosheets and stacking defects between the layers. Also provided is a method for making the membrane.

Increasing global need for potable water is a major challenge facing sustainable life on our planet. While water is available in ample quantities on earth, the vast majority (>98%) is in undrinkable form (e.g., seawater, brackish water, sewage water). Viable solutions to the water problem demand new materials and processes that can efficiently purify water from contaminated sources, which includes removal of debris, biological matter, organic and inorganic impurities, and various salts. The most challenging impurities are salts and small neutral organics, because their hydrodynamic size is most comparable to water molecules, complicating size-based separations. Thus, highly selective membranes with controlled morphology and chemical functionality that can efficiently reject ions as well as neutral species while allowing rapid water transport are in dire need (Refs. 1, 2).
Two-dimensional laminar membranes have shown promise in various areas such as water desalination and purification, solvent purification, gas separations, and energy storage. Molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) membranes have shown advantages over graphene-based membranes for water desalination due to their resistance to swelling in water, although challenges such as low ion rejection for high salinity water and low water flux have delayed their adoption.
Recently, advanced nanoscale materials have garnered interest for water purification purposes. For example, ultrathin, carbon-based two-dimensional (2D) materials such as graphene and graphene oxide (GO) are good membrane candidates due to their mechanical/thermal/chemical stability, controllable porosity, and controlled chemical functionality (Refs. 3-7). GO membranes also have low cost and good manufacturability (Refs. 6, 8, 9). Membranes based on GO are typically multi-layered, and transport occurs in between stacked GO flake laminates as well as through any pores or defects between the flakes. The interlayer spacing, which alters the performance of these membranes, is controlled by methods such as crosslinking (Ref 8), casting in epoxy (Ref 6), and pre-use immersion in various salts for several weeks (Ref 5). Several limitations of these membranes are: (1) membrane swelling in water, which lowers ion selectivity due to increased interlayer spacing (Refs. 6, 10); (2) low water transport due to friction-type interaction between water and functional groups on the graphene surface, which cover 40-60% of the GO surface (Ref 11) and results in only a partial utilization of the 2D channel geometry; and (3) reduced lifetime (the membranes typically being functional for a few hours before loss of efficacy and/or mechanical failure due to swelling or dissolution) (Refs. 12-14).
In addition to carbon-based materials, other 2D materials such as molybdenum disulfide (MoS2) have been explored for water desalination, revealing some distinct features such as zero-swelling in water (Refs. 13, 15) and improved water flux over their carbon-based analogues (Refs. 13, 16).
Although numerous strategies have been adopted to generate nanopores in 2D materials, among them being focused electron beam ablation (Ref 17), ion bombardment followed by chemical oxidation etching (Ref 18), UV-induced oxidative etching (Ref 19), and controlled electrochemical reaction (Ref 20), research efforts have been directed primarily at the control of inter-layer spacing (size exclusion mechanism) in 2D laminate membranes (LMs), which is unlikely to offer high selectivity for small ions (Ref 21).
There remains a need to develop robust, porous, semi-permeable membranes with high water permeance and high selectivity for water over water-born solutes such as salts and organic molecules that can be used for high efficiency, low cost water purification methods like reverse osmosis.

Porous membranes comprising nanosheets and fabrication thereof


An intake mounting system for an engine of either natural intake mode or supercharged intake mode. A first bracket is located on an end of a cylinder head of the engine. An air cleaner is mounted to the first bracket. A second bracket is connected to a head cover of the engine. A resonator used with a natural intake mode engine or an intercooler used with a supercharged intake mode engine can be mounted to the same second bracket. The air cleaner is also mounted to the second bracket. A third bracket is connected to the head cover of the engine. The resonator is also mounted to the third bracket.

Engines mounted in an engine compartment of a vehicle or the like include an engine of natural intake mode in which air is taken in due to a differential pressure between the inside and the outside of a combustion chamber, and an engine of supercharger mode in which air is fed under pressure into a combustion chamber by a supercharger.
Such engines, as described above, are provided with auxiliary equipment such as a water pump, an intake system structure such as an air cleaner, and an exhaust system structure such as an exhaust manifold. A radiator, a battery and the like are also mounted in the engine compartment. However, in recent vehicles, since additional apparatuses such as an air conditioner, a power steering unit and the like are mounted thereon, the space in all directions in the engine compartment is narrow. Further, in recent engines, the intake system structures tend to be large-sized in view of problems of output, fuel cost, emissions or the like.
In such an engine as described above, in the case where an intake system structure such as an air cleaner is mounted, interferes with the vehicle body when the latter is mounted in the engine compartment. Therefore, it is necessary to mount the intake system structure after the engine is mounted on the vehicle body, resulting in an inconvenient mounting or assembling process.
Further, in the case where the intake system structures are mounted on the engine after the latter has been mounted in the engine compartment, they cannot be mounted close to each other from a viewpoint of space relative to other auxiliary equipment and apparatuses, resulting in an inconvenience of lowering the external appearance of the engine.
Furthermore, on some engines or even the same engine, the intake system structures are changed into a natural intake mode or a supercharger mode. In such an engine, in order to mount the intake system structures that are different in mode, it is necessary to provide one mounting bracket for the natural intake mode and another mounting bracket for the supercharger mode, resulting in an inconvenience and increasing cost.

Intake system mounting construction of engine


A binder resin for a toner comprises a polyester component having a specific structure which is not soluble in tetrahydrofuran, and a polyester component having a specific branched structure which is soluble in tetrahydrofuran. The binder resin can provide a toner, which is superior in low-temperature fixation and offset resistance and can be used in high speed printing in response to the recent market demands owing to its specific structure.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a binder resin for a toner and a toner and in particular to a binder resin for a toner and a toner comprising a specific polyester resin. Also, the invention relates to a binder resin for a toner and a toner, used for electrophotography.
2. Background of the Related Art
With the progress of office automation, the demand for electrophotography-based copying machines and printers has increased rapidly and performance requirements for such equipment have become higher. There is a generally used method which comprises forming an electrostatic latent image on the photo-sensitive material, then developing the image using a toner, transferring the toner image onto a fixing sheet such paper or the like, and heat-pressing the transferred toner image using heat roll (a hot roll fixing method). In this heat roll fixing method, in order to achieve enhanced economical efficiency in power consumption and increased photography speed, and to prevent papers from being curled, a toner superior in fixing properties is needed, which can be fixed at a lower temperature.
In the conventional technique, there has been proposed a method to improve the molecular weight and molecular weight distribution of a binder resin represented by a styrene-acrylic resin or the like. Concretely, it has been tested to have a binder resin of a low-molecular weight and lower fixing temperature.
However, the melting point has been lowered owing to the lowered molecular weight whereas the cohesive force of a resin was also deteriorated simultaneously. Therefore, there has been a problem that an offset phenomenon occurs in the fixing roll.
In order to prevent such a problem, it has been attempted to use a binder resin with a wide molecular weight distribution by mixing a high molecular weight resin and a low-molecular weight resin, or, further to crosslink the high molecular weight portion of the binder resin or the like. With this method, however, it is difficult to satisfy the fixing properties owing to the increased viscosity of the resin.
Meanwhile, as copiers and printers have come to employ a higher speed, high performance requirements in electrified portion have increased. That is, a higher durability is required and a long-term stability is needed for a toner.
A toner using a polyester resin owing to higher density for a binder resin is often proposed, replacing the conventional styrene-acrylic resin. (e.g. publications of JP61-284771A, JP62-291668A JP07-101318B and JP08-3663B, and specification of U.S. Pat. No. 4,833,057, etc.) Most of the cases, main components are a bisphenol-A type derivative and terephthalic acid. A toner (JP08-5947B) using a polyester resin having large number of terephthalic acid and ethylene glycol or 1,4-butanediol derived units is proposed. However, the resulting toner does not solve the above problems.
In order to improve an offset phenomenon, there is a method to add paraffin wax, low-molecular weight polyolefin or the like as a mold release agent to a toner. In JP49-65232A, JP50-28840A, JP50-81342A or the like is disclosed a technique to use a binder resin containing a styrene-acrylic resin. However, the development properties and blocking resistance of toner particles have been deteriorated in some cases whereas an offset phenomenon has been improved. It is confirmed that the mold release agent has little effect when applied to a polyester resin and the developing agent is rapidly depleted when its amount is increased.
In addition to these problems, there are the problems in using a polyester resin as a binder resin for a toner as follows.                Difficult to grind owing to a high density        Easy to cause changes in performance of polyester by humidity due to its hygroscopicity        Easy to produce fine powder as time goes by        Insufficient durability
It is currently difficult to provide a toner satisfying performance in the low-temperature fixing properties and offset resistance, while in addition, maintaining other performance at a high level as well. In order to provide a toner with high resolution of copying images, it needs to give sufficient electrophotographic features to the toner. Many methods have been attempted heretofore in order to achieve high resolution and high image quality of copying images; however, no perfect methods could be achieved heretofore to fully solve the above problems.
Meanwhile, in recent years, an increase in population has increased the amount of energy used and has depleted resources. In connection therewith, resource saving, energy saving, recycling of resources, etc. have strongly been claimed. As to polyethyleneterephthalate (PET) bottles, individual municipalities have started a recycling activity, and PET bottles have come to be utilized as clothes or containers. In addition, development of newly recycled items is desired. Thus, a toner using a polyester resin has become a strong candidate.


The present invention provides a separator for fuel cell, which is a molded article including a resin and a conductive filler, wherein a contact angle of water on a surface of the separator for fuel cell is from 20 to 85°, and a process for producing the separator for fuel cell.

A stable supply of gases (e.g., oxygen gas or hydrogen gas) and a function of discharging water generated by a reaction between the gases are important characteristics of a separator for fuel cell. Particularly, rapid discharge of the generated water has much effect on characteristics of a fuel cell. One of important requirements for the smooth discharge of generated water is a hydrophilic property (wettability) of a surface of a rib of the separator for fuel cell.
A molded article containing a resin and a conductive filler is widely used for the separator for fuel cell, and the separator for fuel cell made from such a electroconductive resin readily repels water due to its high water repelling property. Water droplets deposited on a channel cause a reduction in circulation efficiency of the generated water to degrade the cell characteristics.
In order to improve the circulation of the generated water, various treatment for increasing hydrophilic property have heretofore been proposed. For example, a method of activating a surface by ozone treatment through UV irradiation has been known (see Reference 1). However, it is necessary to perform the UV irradiation for a considerable period of time in order to realize a sufficient hydrophilic property by the method, and the hydrophilic property achieved by the method changes largely with time to result in insufficient durability. Also, a method of forming a cured film by coating with a hydrophilic monomer has been known (Reference 2). However, flow of the cured film can cause a reduction in hydrophilic property, and an insulation property of the cured film can cause a reduction in electroconductivity. Further, a method of blending a hydrophilic resin such as a phenol resin and an epoxy resin as a binder has been known (Reference 3). However, hydrophilic property on a surface achieved by this method is insufficient. Furthermore, a blending of polymethacrylate as a hydrophilic agent has been proposed (Reference 4), but this method can cause a reduction in hot strength, an increase in creep, and a reduction in water resistance of the obtained separator for fuel cell.
Reference 1: JP 2000-243410 A
Reference 2: JP 2000-251903 A
Reference 3: JP 2000-311695 A
Reference 4: JP 2002-352813 A

Process for producing a fuel cell separator


A device for shrouding the spur of a fowl includes a spur cover having an outer surface. In the improvement, such outer surface is seam-free. The cover is made of molded material which is homogeneous between the wall of the spur-receiving cavity and the cover outer surface. A highly preferred device has a generally cylindrical cover and cylindrical spur-receiving cavity and the cover and attaching straps are integrally molded as a unitary structure.

While the legs of many species of birds are free of spurs or have only vestigial spurs, other bird species such as pheasants, turkeys and chickens have very pronounced spurs. And birds with spurs instinctively know how to use them in defense or aggression.
In the cases of mass-produced farm birds, e.g., chickens and turkeys, raised for human or animal food, injuries caused by other birds are of scant concern. And, of course, it is not possible to prevent birds in the wild from injuring (or perhaps even killing) one another with their spurs.
But in the matter of birds which are specially bred for show or in anticipation of a prize or recognition, injury is a greater (often much greater) concern. As an example, a specially-bred prize turkey may be worth several hundred dollars when the bird is free of injury and become essentially worthless if, say, it is blinded in one eye by the spur of another bird. And it should be appreciated that birds are relatively fragile--it takes very little by way of a scratch or blow from a spur to inflict injury, especially to the eye.
The matter of potential injury is aggravated by the fact that, often, two or more birds are kept in a single cage. And some breeds of birds tend to be more high-strung and "edgy" than others and have a propensity to fight when so caged.
Some breeders of birds remove substantially the entirety of both leg spurs and the bird is thereby said to have "slipped spurs." But a vestigial stump remains and birds instinctively use that part of the leg for defense or aggression. Therefore, covering the vestigial stumps can be important in preventing bird injury.
To help prevent spur-related injuries to birds, spur "muffs" have been available for many years. A popular muff has a generally spherical outer cover made of sewn vinyl or leather and having four seams spaced about 90.degree. apart. Such outer cover is stuffed with a padded fabric liner having a depression which receives the spur when the muff is fitted to the leg of the bird.
A strap made of vinyl or leather has an opening through which the cover fits and the stuffed cover and strap are sewn together at the cover-strap junction. One of the straps has an elastic band (i.e., a band comprised of both fabric and rubber) attached to it. To affix the muff, the cover is fitted over the spur, the strap ends are wrapped about the leg of the bird and the elastic band is wrapped and looped over the cover to hold the muff in place.
While such known muffs have been generally satisfactory for their intended purpose, they are not without disadvantages. For example, their manufacture is labor intensive and requires a good deal of hand fitting and sewing. But more to the point of injury prevention, each seam represents a slightly-raised discontinuity in the surface of the cover and to the human touch, such seams are perceptibly harder than the adjacent cover material and are themselves believed to be the cause of some injuries.
And hardness of seams is not the only concern. Muffs made of leather become noticeably harder as to the non-seamed portion when the muff is repeatedly wetted and then allowed to dry. Such hardness alone, absent any concerns relating to seams, can function to convert the muff from a protective cover to something of a weapon.
Whether or not the cover is made of sewn vinyl or leather, the thin outer cover becomes scuffed or "scabbed" in normal usage. This adverse change in surface texture can be a contributor to injury.
Yet another disadvantage of known spur muffs is that the surface of the strap which contacts the bird's leg is relatively smooth. As a consequence, such strap has little resistance to slipping on the leg.
Still another disadvantage of known muffs relates to the elastic band which is more-or-less permanently connected to one of the muff straps. Like most elastic products, the band tends to "go slack" over time and become less effective as a holding device. And when its effectiveness diminishes to an intolerable level, the band must be cut or pulled from the strap and a replacement effected.
A new spur shrouding device which addresses shortcoming of the prior art would be an important advance in the field of animal husbandry.


There is disclosed a method of cleaning a semiconductor wafer after lapping in the manufacture thereof comprising the steps of slicing a monocrystalline ingot into a semiconductor wafer, and chamfering, lapping, acid-etching, and then mirror-polishing the thus-obtained semiconductor wafer. The semiconductor wafer is cleaned in a strong-alkaline aqueous solution at a point of time after the lapping and before the acid-etching, such that the surface of the semiconductor wafer is dissolved in an amount in the range of 4-8 .mu.m. The cleaning method prevents generation of a protrusion on the outer circumferential end portion of the wafer in the subsequent acid-etching step.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improvement in a method of cleaning semiconductor wafers in a strong-alkaline aqueous solution at a point of time after lapping and before etching in the manufacture of semiconductor wafers of silicon, GaAs, GaP, InP, or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, the manufacture of semiconductor mirror-polished wafers is composed of the steps of slicing a monocrystalline ingot of silicon or the like into semiconductor wafers; and chamfering, lapping, acid-etching, and then mirror-polishing the thus-obtained semiconductor wafers.
In the manufacture of semiconductor mirror-polished wafers, various substances adhere to semiconductor wafers which have undergone lapping. Such adhering substances include heavy metal; lapping powder composed of aluminum oxide, silicon carbide, and the like; and a rust preventive contained generally in a lapping solution. In order to remove such adhering substances, lapped semiconductor wafers undergo cleaning before entering the subsequent acid-etching step. According to a conventionally employed cleaning method, before the acid-etching step, lapped semiconductor wafers are immersed in a strong-alkaline aqueous solution showing strong corrosion on wafers so as to slightly dissolve the surfaces of the wafers (amount of dissolution: approximately 1 .mu.m to 2 .mu.m) and to simultaneously remove adhering substances such as the lapping powder and rust preventive.
However, when a semiconductor wafer which has been cleaned in a strong-alkaline aqueous solution is acid-etched, as shown in FIG. 1, a protrusion 2 having a height of up to approximately 25 .mu.m is generated on the outer circumferential end portion 1 of the semiconductor wafer.
Before a semiconductor wafer undergoes lapping, the outer circumferential end portion thereof undergoes chamfering. The chamfered outer circumferential end portion suffers excessive mechanical damage (depth: approximately 5 .mu.m to 15 .mu.m) induced by chamfering. As a result, when the semiconductor wafer is cleaned in a strong-alkaline aqueous solution, the outer circumferential end portion is selectively dissolved, resulting in the formation of a number of pits. Consequently, the surface of the outer circumferential end portion becomes rough.
When a semiconductor wafer having the thus-roughened outer circumferential end portion is sent to the subsequent acid-etching step, the roughened outer circumferential end portion scrapes a basket for conveying or cleaning semiconductor wafers. As a result, thus-produced scrapings of the basket adhere to the pits and serve as masks that thereby prevent etching of the corresponding portions, resulting in the generation of a protrusion.
Further, foreign matter trapped in the pits remains as contaminants even after the completion of acid-etching.

Method of cleaning semiconductor wafers after lapping


Provided is an apparatus and method for controlling a washing/drying system including a washing machine and a dryer used in one pair. Since the washing machine can communicate with the dryer according to a wireless communication regulation, the dryer can operate more conveniently. According to the apparatus and method, convenience in using the washing machine and the dryer together is further enhanced.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to apparatus and method for controlling a washing/drying system, and more particularly, to apparatus and method for controlling a washing/drying system in which a dryer operates based on washing information performed in a washing machine. Further, the present invention relates to apparatus and method for controlling a washing/drying system in which when a washing machine and a dryer are adjacent to each other and are independently used, operation information used in operating the washing machine is used in operating the dryer, thereby more conveniently and simply manipulating and operating the dryer.
2. Description of the Related Art
A washing machine washes laundry received in a drum using rotation of the drum. The pulsator type washing machine, the agitator type washing machine, the drum type washing machine and the like have been well known to those skilled in the art. A dryer is used to completely remove moisture remaining in laundry that the dewatering cycle is completed, using hot air.
In detail, the dryer blows hot air generated by a heater into the drum to absorb moisture from laundry to be dried. The dryer can be classified into an exhaust type dryer and a condensed type dryer. The exhaust type dryer exhausts wet air discharged from the drum to an outside of the dryer, and the condensed type dryer condenses wet air discharged from the drum at a condenser to remove moisture from the wet air and convert the wet air into dry air and again blows the dry air to the drum to recycle the air.
Meanwhile, the conventional washing and drying cycles are continuously performed in once washing operation. In other words, laundry washed in the washing machine is directly received in the dryer to perform drying. Thus, to continuously perform the washing and the drying, the washing machine and the dryer are disposed adjacent to each other. In addition, information acquired or inputted while the washing machine operates is transmitted to the dyer through wiring communication to allow a user to operate the dryer more conveniently, which is well known to those skilled in the art.
However, the wiring communication causes many inconveniences for a user. For instance, the user has to connect a wiring cable and a separate space for installation of the cable is required. Also, displacement of the washing machine and the dryer is allowable only after the cable is separated, which makes inconvenient users.
Recently, as the inner space is getting narrow and narrow, the washing machine and the dryer are frequently used in stack structure. In such a stack structure, it is general that the washing machine having heavy weight due to use of much amount of water is disposed above the dryer having light weight.
However, when the washing machine and the dryer are used in the stack structure, a user feels inconvenience because the user's hand does not reach a manipulation panel disposed at an upper side of the dryer. Also, it can be considered that the manipulation panel is disposed at a lower portion of the dryer for the convenience of use, which makes convenient the user in the stack structure but makes inconvenient the user in a parallel structure where the washing machine and the dryer are disposed in parallel.

Apparatus and method for controlling washing/drying system


A fast OSPF inactive router detection technique is provided that detects the failure of a router and switches routing to an alternate router. The alternate router provides a message to the other routers in the Wide Area Network (LAN) that informs of the router failure.

The Open Shortest Path First (hereinafter "OSPF") protocol is a hierarchical Interior Gateway Protocol (hereinafter "IGP") for routing an internet protocol, using a link-state in the individual areas that make up the hierarchy. A computation based on Dijkstra's algorithm is used to calculate the shortest path tree inside each area.
A Link-State Database (hereinafter "LSDB") is constructed as a tree-image of the network topology, and identical copies of the LSDB are updated periodically on all routers and each OSPF-aware area. The OSPF-aware area is a region of the network included in the OSPF area type. By convention, area 0 represents the core, or the backbone region, of the OSPF-enabled network; and other OSPF area numbers may be designated to serve other reasons of an enterprise network. However, every additional OSPF area must have a direct or virtual connection to the backbone OSPF area.
OSPF is perhaps the most widely used IGP in large enterprise networks. Another protocol, IS-IS, is more common in large service providers networks. The most widely used Exterior Gateway Protocol (hereinafter "EGP") is Border Gateway Protocol (hereinafter "BGP"). The OSPF protocol can operate securely, optionally using a clear text password or using MD5 to authenticate peers before performing adjacencies, and before accepting Link-State Advertisements (hereinafter "LSA"). MD5 is message-digest algorithm 5. MD5 is a cryptography widely used in cryptographic hash function with a 128-bit hash value. MD5 is an internet standard RFC1321. MD5 has been employed in a wide variety of security applications and is also commonly used to check the integrity of files. An MD5 hash is typically expressed as a thirty-two (32) character hexadecimal number. A natural successor to the Routing Information Protocol, OSPF was classless—or able to use variable length subnet masking from its inception. Multicast extensions to OSPF, the multicast open shortest path first protocols, have been identified but these are not widely used at present.
Routers in the same broadcasting domain or at each end of a point-to-point telecommunications link formed adjacencies when they have detected each other. This detection occurs when a router "sees" itself in a hello packet (e.g., reads its own ID in the hello packet). This is called a two way state at its most basic relationship. The routers elect a designated router (hereinafter "DR") and a backup designator router (hereinafter "BDR") which act as a hub to reduce traffic between routers. OSPF uses both unicast and multicast to send "hello packets" and link-state updates. Multicast addresses 126.96.36.199 (all OSPF/link-state routers) and 184.108.40.206 (all designated routers) are reserved for OSPF. In contrast to the routing information protocol or the border gateway protocol, OSPF does not use TCP or UDP, but instead uses IP directly via IP protocol 89. OSPF handles its own error detection and correction. Therefore, OSPF does not need TCP or UDP functions.
An OSPF network is divided into areas, which have a 32-bit area identifiers commonly, but not always, written in the dotted decimal format of an IP address. Area identifiers are not IP addresses, and may duplicate, without conflict, any IP address.
OSPF uses path cost as its basic routing metric, which was defined by the standard not to equate to any standard values such as speed, so that the network designer could pick a metric important to the design. In practice, it is determined by the speed (e.g., bandwidth) of the interface addressing the given route, although that tends to do network specific scaling factors now that links faster than 100 MB per second are common.
However, metrics are only directly comparable when of the same type. There are four types of metrics, with the most preferred types listed in order below. An intra-area route is always preferred to an inter-area route regardless of the metric and so on for the other types.                1. Intra-area;        2. Inter-area;        3. External type 1, which includes both the external path cost and a sum of internal path costs to the autonomous system border routers (hereinafter "ASBR") that advertises the route; and        4. External type 2, the value which is solely that of the external path cost.
OSPF traffic engineering is an extension of OSPF, extending the idea of route preference to include traffic engineering as defined by RFC3630. Traffic engineering extensions to OSPF add dynamic properties to the route calculation algorithm. These properties include maximum reservable bandwidth, unreservable bandwidth, and available bandwidth. OSPF traffic engineering is commonly used within Multiprotocol Label Switching (hereinafter "MPLS") and generalized multiprotocol label switching networks, as a means to determine the topology over which MPLS paths can be established. MPLS then uses its own path setup and forwarding protocols, once it has the full IP routing map. OSPF has the following router types:                1. Area border router (hereinafter "ABR");        2. Autonomous system border router (hereinafter "ASBR");        3. Internal router (hereinafter "IR"); and        4. Backbone router (hereinafter "BR").
The routers are classified by a router type. The router types are attributes of an OSPF process. A given physical router may have one or more OSPF processes. For example, a router that is connected to more than one area, and which receives routes from a BGP process connected to another autonomous system is both an ABR and an ASBR.
An ABR is a router that connects one or more OSPF areas to the main backbone network. The ABR is considered a member of all areas to which it is connected. The ABR keeps multiple copies of the link-state database in memory, one for each area to which the router is connected. The ASBR is a router that is connected to one or more autonomous systems and that exchanges routing information with routers and other autonomous systems. ASBRs typically also run a non-IGP routing protocol (e.g., BGP), or use static routes, or both. The ASBR is used to distribute routes received from other autonomous systems throughout its own autonomous system. The IR router is a router that has only OSPF neighbor relationships with routers in the same area. The backbone router is a router that is part of the OSPF backbone. By definition, this includes all area border routers since those routers pass routing information between areas. However, a backbone router may also be a router that connects only to other backbone routers, and is therefore not part of any other area.
A designated router (hereinafter "DR") is a router interface selected among all routers on a particular multicast network segment, generally assumed to be broadcast multiaccess (i.e., data is made available simultaneously to multiple users or computers). Special techniques, often vendor dependent, may be needed to support the DR function on non broadcast multicasts (hereinafter "NBMA") media. The individual circuits of an NBMA subnet are usually configured as point-to-point lines.
A given physical router can have some interfaces that are designated, others that are backup designated (e.g., a BDR), and others that are non-designated. If no router is a DR or BDR on a given subnet, the BDR is first elected, and then the second election is held if there is more than one BDR. The router winning the second election becomes a DR, or if there is no other BDR, designates itself DR. The DR is elected on the following default criteria:                If the priority setting on an OSPF router is set to 0 that means it can never become a DR or BDR.        When a DR fails and the BDR takes over, there is another election to see who becomes the replacement BDR.        The router sending the hello packets with the highest priority wins the election.        If two or more routers tie with the highest priority setting, the router with the highest router ID wins. A RID is a highest logical IP address configured on the router, if no logical, i.e., loop back IP address, is set and the router uses the highest IP address configured on its active interfaces.        Usually the router with the second highest priority number becomes the BDR        The priority value ranges between 0 and 254, but the higher value increases its chances of becoming the BR or BDR.        If a higher priority OSPF router comes online after the election has taken place, it will not become the DR or BDR until after the DR or BDR fail.
If the current DR goes down the current BDR becomes the new DR and a new election takes place to find another BDR. The new DR then goes down and the original DR is now available, it becomes the DR again, but no change is made to the current BDR.
DRs reduce network traffic by providing a source for routing updates, the DR maintains a complete topology table of the network and sends the updates to other routers via multicast. This way all routers do not have to constantly update each other, and can rather get all their updates from a single source. The use of multicasting further reduces the network load. DRs and BDRs are always set up elected on broadcast networks (e.g., Ethernet LANs.). DRs can also be elected on NBMA (non broadcast multi access) networks such as frame, relay or ATM. DRs or BDRs are not elected on point-to-point links (such as a point-to-point LAN connection) because the two routers on either side of the link must become fully adjacent and the bandwidth between them cannot be further optimized.
A backup designator router BDR is a router that becomes a designated router if the current designated router has a problem or fails. The BDR is the OSPF router with the second highest priority at the time of the last election. Each router has a router identifier, customarily written in the dotted decimal format (e.g., 188.8.131.52) of an IP address. The way in which the router ID is determined is implementation specific. However, the router ID does not have to be a valid IP address, or any IP address, present in the routing domain, although it frequently will be advertised within the domain for trouble shooting purposes.
OSPF can be used on a wide area network (hereinafter "LAN" or "LANs"). LAN is a computer network that covers a broad area (i.e., any network whose communication links cross metropolitan, regional, or national boundaries). The LAN is a long haul connection that is a network that uses routers and public communication links. The internet is one form of LAN and is most notably, the largest.
LANs are used to connect local area networks (hereinafter "LANs" or "LAN") and other types of networks together, so that users and computers in one location communicate with users and computers in another location. Many LANs are built for one particular organization and are private. Others, built by internet service providers (hereinafter "ISPs"), provide connections from an organizations LAN to the internet. LANs are often built using leased lines at each end of the leased line, a router connect the LAN on one side and a hub within the LAN on the other. Leased lines can be very expensive. Instead of using leased lines, LANs can also be built using less costly circuit, switching, or packet switching methods. Network protocols including TCIP deliver transport and addressing functions. Protocols including packet over SONNET/SDH, MPLS, ATM and Frame rarely are used often by service providers to deliver the links that are used in the LAN.
Currently, using OSPF a DR router can not communicate through the LAN to other routers connected to the LAN. All routers send OSPF hello packets once every one second. This hello packet contains within the packet a list of the routers that the originating router can access in a network. If a router fails, then the routers in the network would discover that failure after four seconds. The other routers in the network would then cease to include the failed routers ID within their hello packets. The current OSPF standard specifies this process as establishing a minimum safe duration for "declaring a router" dead. Therefore, the minimum time for discovering a router failure and then rerouting around the failure can take at least four seconds. In some cases, faster timers (Hello timers) are used. For example, a Hello time of zero (0) can be used in certain proprietary systems. However, such systems require that all connected routers utilize the same Request For Comments standard. Typically, the router dead time would be 4 times whatever value is chosen as the Hello interval. However, using this minor departure from the Request For Comments (hereinafter "RFC") standard increases the load on the router. As a result, scalability of the system is limited. What is needed is a method and system to detect and switch around a failed router in less than four seconds in OSPF networks of various sizes.


An oil collector unit of a refrigerant recovery system includes a housing, an interior middle vertical wall disposed in the housing, an interior middle horizontal wall disposed in the housing and intersecting the interior vertical wall and defining left and right pairs of upper and lower chambers on opposite sides of the middle vertical wall having passageways between the upper and lower chambers at opposite ends of the middle horizontal wall which are spaced from the opposite ends of the housing, and a plurality of tubes connected in flow communication with selected ones of the chambers of the housing so as to define a circuitous flow path through the chambers of the housing permitting travel of a fluid mixture of refrigerant and oil therethrough and separation of oil from refrigerant therewithin.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to refrigerant recovery equipment and, more particularly, is concerned with an oil collector unit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Refrigerants such as "Freon", a well-known commercial brand of chlorinated fluorocarbons (CFC), are used as standard heat transfer media in refrigeration circuits for food refrigeration, air conditioners and similar appliances. Due to equipment malfunction, the refrigerant and oil can become contaminated, losing its effectiveness. Such CFC contamination can eventually cause compressor failure in the appliance due to its increased operating temperature triggered by the breakdown of CFCs after contamination.
Removal of the contaminated refrigerant from the appliance is thus necessitated. At one time the contaminated refrigerant was simply released into the atmosphere from the appliance or left to leak out from an abandoned appliance into the atmosphere. Now, however, increased environmental awareness has resulted in steps being taken to end such practices as their harmful effects on the ozone layer of the atmosphere have been widely known.
Additionally, cost considerations in recent years have stimulated efforts to develop efficient refrigerant recovery systems whereby a contaminated refrigerant can be removed from an appliance and purified of contaminants so as to be reusable in the particular appliance or to be stored appropriately for future use in other appliances. Representative examples of such systems are disclosed in Lower et al U.S. Pat. No. 4,441,330 and Lofland U.S. Pat. No. 4,856,289. Both of the systems disclosed address the problems of oil removal and refrigerant purification and recovery in a very comprehensive manner. However, each system is extremely complex in construction and thus costly to produce, providing a major drawback to their proliferation and utilization.
Consequently, a need exists for a recovery system wherein a major contaminant, such as oil, can be efficiently separated from the refrigerant fluid by simple and inexpensive means.


A printer has transportation paths for conveying media in two directions, including a first transportation path P1 and a second transportation path P2 (or third transportation path P3) perpendicular to the first transportation path P1. The printer is constructed and configured to provide a single compact unit that can be used for media processing by reading and printing the media, as well as for printing receipts and validation printing.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a versatile printing apparatus.
2. Description of Related Art
Payment systems using commercial bank checks ("checks") to transfer money are common particularly in Europe and North America. Payments and transfers of many kinds are accomplished by accepting checks. These checks are typically brought to a financial institution such as a bank for deposit in a bank account or for check cashing.
Numerous checks must therefore be processed in a short time at teller windows in every bank branch. The main tasks performed at the teller window involve a bank clerk verifying the check, confirming the date, and verifying the signature, and then depositing the funds or cashing the check. The received check is also endorsed and a receipt is issued as needed.
Some banks have started to electromagnetically read checks brought to the bank, and efforts to improve check processing efficiency in the future by connecting bank branches and different banks on-line are underway.
To this end, check processing machines having a magnetic ink character reader (MICR) for reading information written in magnetic ink on each check and an image scanner for capturing an image of each check are installed in many bank branches today. These processing machines are large-scale systems used for processing large volumes of checks at high speed, and cannot be located at the teller window. A large space used just for check processing must therefore normally be set aside in the bank, and all checks are processed there. After the checks are processed, checks collected from each branch are delivered by armored car, for example, to a specified central clearing house.
Electromagnetically reading checks at the teller window is also being tried, and small check processing devices that can be installed at the teller window have been proposed.
The check processing device referred to above has a check transportation mechanism, a magnetic ink character reader (MICR), scanner, and printer disposed along a check transportation path.
When the bank teller receiving a check from a customer passes the check through this check processing device, the check processing device reads the check using the MICR and scanner, and then endorses the check using the printer. This check processing device is taught in Japanese Pat. Appl. Pub. No. 2000-344428.
After reading a check with the MICR and scanner, and then printing the endorsement using this check processing machine, the bank teller verifies the information on the check, including the date and signature, using either the check itself or the scanned image of the check. Using the check image, however, requires providing a display to operate with this check processing machine.
If this check verification shows that there is no problem with the check, the check is paid or deposited. This requires data entry to a computer terminal separate from the above check processing machine, and printing a customer receipt and bank branch receipt using a printer that is also separate from this check processing machine. If the back of the check must be printed again, a printer separate from the check processing machine must be used for validation printing. Validation printing involves loading the check from the top and then ejecting the check from the top after printing. This task is performed repeatedly in the bank for endorsing checks and printing slips.
In other words, when a check is passed through a check processing machine as described above for processing, additional data must be inputted to a different system, and receipts and other forms must be printed using a separate printer.
Check handling is therefore complicated, and handling errors necessarily occur more easily. This procedure also requires additional time and checks cannot be processed quickly.
Furthermore, the need to install a separate printer in addition to the check processing machine puts additional pressure on the limited working space available at the teller window, and thus reduces job productivity. Being able to quickly and accurately process work in the confined space available at the teller window is a major problem for banks. This problem is not limited to banks, however, and is a problem common to any job of processing checks and other such documents in a confined space.
An object of the present invention is therefore to solve the above problem of the prior art and provide a processing and printing apparatus that by means of a single compact device can process and print slips such as checks and then print receipts, for example.

Printer for printing on sheet paper and orthogonally fed roll paper


A system and method processor testing using test pattern re-execution is presented. A processor re-executes test patterns using different timing scenarios in order to reduce test pattern build time and increase system test coverage. The invention described herein varies initial states of a processor's memory (cache, TLB, SLB, etc.) that, in turn, varies the timing scenarios when re-executing test patterns. By re-executing the test patterns instead of rebuilding new test patterns, verification quality is improved since more time is available for execution, verification and validation. In addition, since the test patterns result in the same final state, the invention described herein also simplifies error checking.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a system and method for re-executing test patterns in varying timing scenarios for processor design and verification. More particularly, the present invention relates to a system and method of re-executing test patterns at different initial cache line memory states, which creates different timing scenarios when the processor executes the test patterns.
2. Description of the Related Art
A processor test team typically employs test patterns in order to verify and validate a system design. Processor testing tools exist whose goal is to generate the most stressful test pattern for a processor. In theory, the generated test pattern should provide maximum test coverage and should be interesting enough to stress various timing scenarios on the processor. The whole technology of these tools sits in the logic of building these test patterns.
Verifying and validating a processor using test patterns typically includes three stages, which are 1) test pattern build stage, 2) test pattern execution stage, and 3) validation and verification stage. A challenge found is that the test pattern build stage is typically the most time consuming process in any verification process, which overshadows the actual time spent on test pattern execution. As a result, little time is left for test pattern execution and validation/verification stages.
What is needed, therefore, is a system and method that reduces test pattern build times in order to allocate more time for test pattern execution and validation/verification stages.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System and method of testing using test pattern re-execution in varying timing scenarios for processor design verification and validation

International Business Machines Corporation


A cross-platform web-based system for water testing capable of measuring, analyzing and maintaining the quality of water using a plurality of different test strip readers each configured to obtain a digital image of a reagent test strip, normalize and analyze color information in the digital image by colorimetric analysis, and to transmit a set of colorimetric values corresponding to said digital image to a cross-platform cloud-based system for analysis. The cloud-based server(s) receive the colorimetric values, calculate analyte parts-per-million (ppm), and return the calculated analyte ppm with consistant results no matter which reader is used.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to water testing systems, and more specifically, to a cross-platform web-based system for water testing capable of measuring, analyzing and maintaining the quality of water using a plurality of different test strip readers.
2. Description of the Background
Water quality is important in a variety of industries. For example, pool maintenance requires periodic regular testing of pool water and careful maintenance by chemical additives. Testing and balancing swimming pool water can be a difficult process for the owner. There are myriad test kits available with different capabilities. At minimum a suitable test kit will test for available chlorine, cyanuric acid, pH, total alkalinity, and calcium hardness. Depending on the test results the foregoing may need to be balanced. Both testing and balancing can be fraught with error and frustration.
Reagent test strips are the most common testing modality. Water test strips usually have a plurality of reagent test areas, each test area undergoing a color change in response to contact with a particular chemical constituent. The presence and concentrations of these constituents of interest can be determined by a colorimetric analysis of the color changes undergone by the test strip. Usually, this analysis involves a color comparison between the test area or test pad and a color standard or scale.
A variety of conventional test strip reading instruments exist which can determine the color change of a test strip. However, different readers employ different imagers, sample trays, differences in background lighting, different CCDs, lenses and the like, any or all of which can produce vastly different color information for the same test strip.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,614,530 to Duez et al. (Biophotonics S.A.) issued Sep. 2, 2003 shows a method for the colorimetric measurement of a defined region on an image using a color camera, and discloses color-correction of tristimulus (R, G, B) values by selection of an area within an image in order to correct the imperfection in the homogeneity of the sensor and of the illuminant.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,408,535 to Howard, III et al. (Miles, Inc.) issued Apr. 18, 1995 shows a video test strip reader for evaluating test strips that uses a video imager or camera. The reader is connectable to a computer which choreographs imaging at the proper times and calculates the test results, such as the concentration of the constituents of interest.
United States Patent Application 20120063652 to Chen et al. (Teco Diagnostics) published Mar. 15, 2012 shows a method and apparatus for color-based reaction testing of biological materials by capturing, in an uncalibrated environment, a digital image of an exposed test strip, together with an adjacently-located reference color chart or on-strip color chart. The image data specifically representing the individual test pads on the test strip, as well as the reference color blocks on the reference chart, are then located within the captured image, and compared to identify any color matches. The claims require capturing a digital image of an exposed test strip and a reference color chart in an uncalibrated environment.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,885,444 to Wang (Transpacific Systems, LLC) issued Feb. 8, 2011 shows a method for determining a response of each probe zone on a test strip by establishing a plurality of target scan lines through the pads and one "white" control line adjacent the pads, and using the white line as a reference for determining a color response of the target lines.
United States Patent Application 20100045789 by Fleming et al. published Feb. 25, 2010 shows an assay system for test strips which looks for "control" signal line(s) on the strips and conducts an assay evaluation based at least on the control signal lines.
United States Patent Application 20080034845 by Morris (Hach Co.) published Feb. 14, 2008 shows an electronic device for analyzing an aqueous solution with a housing configured to receive a test strip.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,285,454 to Douglas et al. (Mercury Diagnostics, Inc.) issued Sep. 4, 2001 shows an assay system that accurately docks a removable test strip with an optics system including an illumination LED and photodetector.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,142,722 to Morris et al. (Hach Co.) issued Mar. 27, 2012 shows a handheld portable electronic test strip tester.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,339,673 to Roman (Siemens Healthcare) issued Mar. 4, 2008 shows a miniature readhead for a photometric test strip reader.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,041,468 to Drucker et al. (TheraSense, Inc.) issued May 9, 2006 shows a blood glucose test strip receptacle for connection to a hand-held computer.
U.S. Pat. No. 8,145,431 to Kloepfer et al. (Advanced Medical Products GmbH) issued Mar. 27, 2012 shows a smart-phone-based body fluid test strip positioner. The test strip positioner positions a test strip in the FOV of the phone's camera lens to permit the camera to capture an image. A light source disposed within the positioner illuminates the analyte containing test strip to facilitate the capture of the image of the test strip. Software in the smart phone performs quantitative analysis.
United States Patent Application 20100254581 by Neeser et al. (Reveal Sciences) published Oct. 7, 2010 shows a method and apparatus for analyzing samples by obtaining an image using any mobile consumer device, storing and transmitting the image to a remote server, analyzing the image using an analysis software on a remote server, and sending the results of the analysis back to the consumer device.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,262,779 to Sones (Applied Vision Company, LLC) issued Aug. 28, 2007 shows a differential imaging colorimeter which utilizes a RGB color camera to provide accurate differential colorimetry.
United States Patent Application 20070242064 by Kuo (Asustek Computer Inc.) published Oct. 18, 2007 shows a camera used as a colorimeter and ambient light sensor.
United States Patent Application 20110275162 by Xie et al. (Alverix, Inc.) published Nov. 10, 2011 shows a low-cost assay test strip reader in which the strip is placed in a shuffle that moves it past a photodetector, which detects an optical signal at a single point. The movement of the test strip with respect to the detector allows it to scan a length of the test strip.
The foregoing references tend to rely on a fixed reference standard placed in the field of view of the camera for calibration. A fixed reference standard is not a workable solution for a cross-platform web-based system with multiple different test strip readers, all with different imaging characteristics. What is needed is a way to integrate and calibrate multiple different test strip reader types in a cross-platform cloud-based system for water testing capable of measuring, analyzing and maintaining the quality of water using any of the various test strip readers, and to obtain consistent results no matter the reader used.


According to a conventional continuous car washing machine in which one of the right and left side brushes is stationary, a roller conveyor which transports a vehicle to be washed is provided with wheel guides to maintain a spacing between a lateral surface of the vehicle and one side brush at a given value. Thus, there has been a problem that it is difficult to drive the vehicle to move itself onto the required position on the roller conveyor. The present invention which is intended to solve the problem provides a car washing machine comprising a stationary car washing machine body in which a pair of side brushes (8a, 8b) are disposed to be retractable in the transverse direction at a right angle with the direction of transport of a vehicle in order for washing at least the lateral surfaces of the vehicle (2), and a conveyor device (3) for transporting the vehicle (2) which is free of wheel guides and has a sufficient width to accommodate a plurality of different car widths.

A known washing machine, for example one shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,974, comprises a tunnel-shaped stationary type car washing machine body installed on a floor and having washing means for washing a vehicle, and a pair of roller conveyors for transporting said vehicle forwardly into said car washing machine body and rearwardly out of said car washing machine body.
An example of said washing means comprises a first side brush which, while being rotated, is moved longitudinally and transversely to wash the front and rear surfaces and one lateral surface of the vehicle, and a fixed type second side brush which is rotated, not moved, to wash the other lateral surface of the vehicle.
Since said second side brush is of the fixed type, it is necessary to maintain the distance between said other lateral surface of the vehicle and the second side brush at a constant value; to this end, the width of the roller conveyor associated with said other lateral surface of the vehicle is set at about the width of the wheels and a guide body for the wheel to guide the wheels associated with the other lateral surface of the vehicle.
According to the above arrangement, with the roller conveyor associated with the other lateral surface of the vehicle serving as a guide, the vehicle is carried onto the roller conveyor, whereupon the vehicle is transported by the roller conveyor into the car washing machine body, and washed by the washing means, such as said side brushes, while being transported by the roller conveyor, until the vehicle is transported out of the car washing machine body.
With the arrangement of said known car washing machine, however, since the width of the roller conveyor on one side is narrowed, there has been a problem that it is hard to drive the vehicle in carrying the latter onto the roller conveyor.