A multifunctional conveyance type conveyor chain is disclosed in which ball units and conveyance auxiliary units can be separately and easily attached and detached to a chain link. A multifunctional conveyance type conveyor chain (100) includes a number of chain links (110) which are each integrally molded of an article loading portion (111) on which an article is loaded and a plurality of hinge portions (112). The chain links (110) are connected to each other in a longitudinal direction of the chain through hinge pins (120). A ball unit (130) holds a free ball (131) which rolls in an exposed manner on both a surface and a back surface of the chain link (110). Conveyance auxiliary units 140 mountable in place of ball units (130) are respectively selectively inserted and mounted between every hinge portions (112, 112).

As a conveyor chain, which loads and conveys articles, there is a conveyor belt in which rotatable balls or rollers are provided on a plurality of belt modules and the articles are processed to be assorted during conveyance so that they are unloaded while being slid at a side of the conveyance line (see Patent Reference 1).
And such a conveyor belt comprises a first member and a second member formed by vertically laminated belt modules on which articles are loaded to be conveyed, and hinge portions respectively formed in the first and second members are connected to each other with hinge pins. And between these first member and second member are rotatably held balls for slide-discharging articles to a side of the conveying line.
Patent Reference 1 is Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2003-182829.

Multifunctional conveyance type conveyor chain


A superconductor magnet apparatus (2) includes a superconductor bulk magnet (9), a cryostat (7) and a ferromagnetic shielding body (11). The bulk magnet has a superconductor bore (10), an axis (z) of rotational symmetry, and a maximum outer diameter ODbm in a plane perpendicular to the z axis. The superconductor bore has a minimum cross-sectional area Sbo in a plane perpendicular to the z axis. The cryostat has a room temperature bore (8), the bulk magnet is arranged within the cryostat and the room temperature bore is arranged within the superconductor bore. The shielding body has a shielding bore (12), the bulk magnet is arranged within the shielding bore and the shielding body extends beyond the bulk magnet at each axial end by at least ODbm/3. For an average cross-sectional area Sfb of the shielding body, Sfb≥2.5*Sbo, and the shielding body is arranged within the cryostat.

The invention relates to a superconductor magnet apparatus, comprising
a superconductor bulk magnet with a superconductor bore, wherein the superconductor bulk magnet has an axis z of rotational symmetry, and a maximum outer diameter ODbm in a plane perpendicular to the axis z of rotational symmetry, and the superconductor bore has a minimum cross-sectional area Sbo in a plane perpendicular to the axis z of rotational symmetry,
a cryostat with a room temperature bore, wherein the superconductor bulk magnet is arranged within the cryostat, and the room temperature bore is arranged within the superconductor bore,
and a ferromagnetic shielding body with a shielding bore, wherein the superconductor bulk magnet is arranged within the shielding bore of the ferromagnetic shielding body and the ferromagnetic shielding body extends beyond the superconductor bulk magnet at each axial end with respect to the axis z of rotational symmetry by at least ODbm/3,
and further wherein for an average cross-sectional area Sfb of the ferromagnetic shielding body, defined as the average of the cross-sectional areas of the ferromagnetic shielding body in all the planes perpendicular to the axis z of rotational symmetry and intersecting the ferromagnetic shielding body, Sfb≥2.5*Sbo applies.
Such a superconductor magnet apparatus is known from U.S. Pat. No. 7,859,374 B2.
Superconductors carry an electric current at practically no ohmic losses. The superconducting state of a superconductor is only assumed below a critical temperature Tcrit, which is in the cryogenic range, and depends on the superconductor material used. Superconductors can be used to generate strong magnetic fields. The magnetic field is generated by an electric current running within the superconductor, typically wherein the superconductor forms a coil or ring for this purpose ("superconductor magnet"), and the magnetic field is obtained in a superconductor bore. In particular, the electric current can run in a closed superconducting electric circuit at a practically constant current strength, without a need for a connection to an electric current source once charged ("persistent mode").
Coil type superconductor magnet apparatus are typically charged with a directly connected electric current source, and when the charging is complete, a superconducting switch is closed to establish the persistent mode.
For superconductor bulk magnets, which are based on closed ring-shaped superconducting structures, no electric contacts are necessary. Superconductor bulk magnets may be charged by a procedure known as "field cooling", e.g. described in U.S. Pat. No. 7,859,374 B2. In this procedure, the superconductor bulk magnet located within a cryostat is placed in an electrical charger magnet. Initially, the temperature of the superconductor bulk magnet is kept above Tcrit, and the electrical charger magnet is ramped up until a desired magnetic field (or magnetic flux density) has been reached. Then the temperature within the cryostat is lowered below Tcrit, so that the superconductor bulk magnet becomes superconducting. Then the electrical charger magnet is ramped down. During this procedure, superconducting electric currents are induced within the superconductor bulk magnet, opposing the change of magnetic flux, and as a result trapping (or conserving) the magnetic field (or magnetic flux density) within a superconductor bore of the superconductor bulk magnet. Then the superconductor bulk magnet together with its cryostat may be removed from the electrical charger magnet. As long as the superconductor bulk magnet is kept sufficiently cold, and in particular below Tcrit, the magnetic field within the superconductor bore stays constant and can be used, for example for NMR measurements. For accessing the trapped magnetic field in an experiment, such as an NMR experiment, the cryostat should provide a room temperature bore, which in turn is arranged within the superconductor bore.
However, the superconductor bulk magnet not only generates (or conserves) a magnetic field in its superconductor bore, but also generates a magnetic field on its outer side ("stray field"). This outside stray field is in general not desired, since it may disturb electrical equipment nearby, and even may be dangerous to persons carrying for example a pacemaker.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,859,374 B2 proposes to place a shielding of steel sheets around the cryostat containing a superconductor bulk magnet after the electrical charger has been removed.
The shielding of the steel sheets will reduce the stray field, and thus minimize disturbances and dangers in the vicinity of the superconductor bulk magnet. However, many applications require a high homogeneity and stability of the magnet field (or magnetic flux density) within the superconductor bore. The shielding will influence the homogeneity, and even small inaccuracies in placing the shielding will significantly deteriorate the homogeneity within the superconductor bore. Moreover, the shielding body temperature is subject to temperature fluctuation of the environment, thus making it difficult to achieve stability of the magnetic field over time within the superconductor bore. Further, moving the shielding over the cryostat containing the charged superconductor bulk magnet will require to control large mechanical force, since the magnetic stray field of the superconductor bulk magnet will attract the iron shield, making this procedure cumbersome and time-consuming.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,183,766 B2 describe a superconducting magnetic field apparatus for a sputtering application. A ring shaped superconductor body is placed inside a thermal insulation vessel, together with ferromagnetic lower yoke below the superconductor body. In one embodiment, a ferromagnetic ring yoke located lateral of the superconductor body contributes in limiting the interior of thermal insulation vessel. On the top side of the thermal insulation vessel, the yoke ring extension with respect to the superconductor bulk is small so that a magnetic field spreads outside the thermal insulation vessel, making it possible to take part in sputtering applications. The ferromagnetic yokes are intended for shaping said magnetic field used in the sputtering application. The superconductor body is charged by a field cooling process.
Metal rings of different type have been proposed to be attached to superconductor bulk rings in order to address hoop stresses. The metal rings are not suited for magnetic shielding, in particular since they do not extend sufficiently in axial direction beyond the superconductor bulk, and/or since they are too thin, and/or made of non-magnetic or diamagnetic material:
T. Nakamura et al., Journal of Magnetic Resonance 259 (2015), 68-75, disclose a superconducting bulk magnet for NMR and MM applications, comprising six EuBa2Cu3Oy rings inserted in aluminium rings to resist hoop stress.
M. Tsuchimoto and M. Morita, Physics Procedia 81 (2016), 170-173, disclose a stress evaluation for ring bulk HTS during field cooling. The ring bulk HTS are arranged in iron rings to resist hoop stresses.
Metal rings of different type have also been proposed to be attached to superconductor bulk rings for shimming purposes. The metal rings again are not suited for magnetic shielding, in particular since they are too thin, and/or not positioned outside the superconductor magnet:
S. Kim et al, IEEE Transactions on applied superconductivity, Vol. 19, No. 3, June 2009, 2273-2276, describe trapped field characteristics of HTS bulk annuli with iron rings for ferromagnetic shimming, located inside the HTS bulk annuli.
S. Kim et al., IEEE Transactions on applied superconductivity, Vol. 28, No. 3, April 2018, 4301505, describe field-cooled stacked GdBCO bulk annuli, inserted in thin iron rings for field homogenisation.
Further it is known to use iron in the vicinity of a superconductor bulk magnet in order to augment the magnetization of the bulk magnet. The iron is often placed outside the cryostat, and/or the bulk magnets have no superconductor bore, and/or charging is done from within the cryostat:
H. Fujishiro et al., Supercond. Sci. Technol. 29 (2016), 084001, proposes a MgB2 bulk, with no bore, arranged in a cryostat, with the cryostat arranged between soft iron yokes.
B. Gony et al., IEEE/CSC superconductivity news forum (global edition) January 2015, ASC 2014 manuscript 3LPo2H-04, proposes an E-I type iron core about a superconductor bulk, with no bore, and with a charger coil also arranged within the I-E type iron core.
B. Gony et al., "Magnetization and demagnetization studies of a HTS bulk in a symmetrical iron core", conference paper, October 2015, downloadable at https://www.researchgate.net/publication/283056767 also describes an YBCO bulk, with no bore, surrounded by a magnetization coil, with the YBCO bulk and the magnetization coil surrounded by an iron core.
M. D. Ainslie et al, Supercond. Sci. Technol. 29 (2016), 074003, describes enhanced trapped field performance of bulk HTS, with HTS bulks, having no bore, arranged between iron yoke parts. The bulk HTS are placed in a cooled copper clamp sample holder.
JP H07 201 560 describes a magnetic field generating method and device, wherein and YBCO bulk superconductor, which has no bore, is placed below a ferromagnetic frame, and with an electromagnetic coil located engaging in the ferromagnetic frame. The YBCO superconductor bulk, the electromagnetic coil and the ferromagnetic frame are located within a cryogenic vessel. The device provides a strong magnetic field for magnetic levitation and the like.
There are also experiments investigating the blocking effect of combinations of superconductor cylinders arranged in ferromagnetic cylinders for keeping external magnetic fields out of the interior of the superconductor cylinder; in these experiments, no field cooling was applied, and/or the superconductor cylinders were too small for accessing a superconductor bore with a sample in a room temperature bore, and/or did not describe a room temperature bore or a cryostat at all:
M. Itoh et a., IEEE transactions on applied superconductivity, Vol. 3, No. 1, March 1993, 181-184 investigated the magnetic field within an YBCO cylinder of 5 mm inner diameter and 19 mm length within a soft iron cylinder of 75 mm length, and the magnetic field inside the YBCO cylinder was measured using a Hall device operated at 77 K.
M. Itoh et al., IEEE transactions on magnets, Vol. 32, No. 4, July 1996, 2605-2608, investigated the shielding effects of up to 6 layered 60 mm long ferromagnetic cylinders over 30 mm long BPSCCO cylinders with an inner diameter of 2.9 mm and a thickness of 2.6 mm.
G. P. Lousberg et al., IEEE transactions on applied superconductivity, Vol. 20, No. 1, February 2010, 33-41 report on finite element model calculations on the penetration of an external magnetic field into an arrangement of a cylinder-wall shaped HTS surrounded by a cylinder-wall shaped ferromagnetic cylinder of identical axial length.

Superconducting magnet apparatus and method for magnetizing a superconductor bulk magnet by field cooling through a ferromagnetic shield


An adjustable lifting apparatus preferably for applications in which a floor covering is to be removed and/or installed. The apparatus comprises multiple gear means which are capable of providing mechanical leverage while raising and/or lowering connecting means which attach the apparatus to the object to be lifted.

The present invention relates in general to lifting devices and pertains, more particularly to hand cranked vertical support systems utilizing gear means to provide mechanical advantage in lifting furniture systems (e.g., modular office systems that could include walls and furniture). The adjustable lifting apparatus of this invention provides an improvement over the conventional support systems used to raise office partitions.
The present invention is characterized by first gear means for converting rotary motion into linear motion, second gear means for transmitting motion and power between the first gear means and a shaft located at a right angle to the first gear means, enclosing means, supporting means, and connecting means including interchangeable fittings which are capable of being attached to an object to be lifted.
With the conventional support systems, which typically utilize a crowbar like tool, it is generally necessary to continually lift and then lower, and then move the tool and lift again when installing carpeting either by the yard or in tiles. The same drawback occurs when removing carpeting, tile, or other type or styles of flooring. As the size of the project increases a drawback associated with conventional methods and devices occurs due to the time it takes to complete the project.
Since existing methods and tools for installing flooring generally require the removal of a substantial amount of furniture, a business may have to either shut down during the project to have the furniture, partitions, file cabinets and the like moved twice, once to clear an area for removal and replacing and again to replace the furniture. Another drawback that occurs relates to the additional costs that are not related to the actual flooring project.
Known devices include a moveable fulcrum pin for adjusting the height of a lever supported by a stand or an upright frame supported on a base block, or a base member with outwardly extending wings, or a plurality of vertical standards supported by a base member. Prior devices are used in automobile jacks, window lifting devices, and lifting devices in general. The existing jacks and jacking devices also have a drawback in that they provide a jack that is not particularly suited or adaptable to uses other than those for which the jack is intended.


A substrate processing apparatus includes a container in which a heating plate, a discharge nozzle for discharging a vapor of organic solvent, and a discharge nozzle for supplying a process gas and a cooling gas are provided. A pump in communication with an exhaust outlet of the container exhausts an atmosphere from the container to reduce pressure in the container. Therefore, the substrate processing apparatus is capable of performing (1) the process of drying a substrate in a reduced-pressure atmosphere by the use of the vapor of organic solvent, and (2) the process of drying the substrate in the reduced-pressure atmosphere by heating, to thereby efficiently dry the substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a drying apparatus for drying substrates including a semiconductor substrate, a glass substrate for a liquid crystal display device, a glass substrate for a photomask, a substrate for an optical disc, and the like after a processing solution (or a rinsing solution) such as deionized water is used to rinse the substrates and thereafter is spun off the substrates by rotational motion, and to a substrate processing apparatus including the drying apparatus.
2. Description of the Background Art
A substrate processing apparatus performs successive surface preparation processes including a chemical process using various liquid chemicals, a rinsing process using a rinsing solution such as deionized water, and the like. After the final rinse using deionized water, a drying process is performed as the final process. One of the substrate drying processes conventionally known in the art is a spin dry process for rotating a substrate at high speeds to spin off water from the surface of the substrate by centrifugal force in a single-wafer type substrate processing apparatus for processing substrates one by one.
For improvement in drying efficiency, a drying technique in which a vapor of material which reduces the surface tension of water adhering to a substrate is brought into contact with the substrate prior to the spin dry process is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 05-243205 (1993) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-023946. Another drying technique in which an atmosphere in which a substrate is placed during the spin dry process is adjusted to a pressure lower than atmospheric pressure is disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 07-283126 (1995).
However, as patterns formed on a substrate become finer and more complicated, it is becoming difficult to reliably dry the substrate by removing water or moisture entering the inside of a microstructure, e.g. a space between lines of the patterns, the inside of a hole and the inside of a resist film, by the use of the disclosed drying techniques.

Substrate processing apparatus for drying substrate


In one embodiment, the present invention includes a processor having multiple cores to independently execute instructions, a first sensor to measure a first power consumption level of the processor based at least in part on events occurring on the cores, and a hybrid logic to combine the first power consumption level and a second power consumption level. Other embodiments are described and claimed.

Advances in semiconductor processing and logic design have permitted an increase in the amount of logic that may be present on integrated circuit devices. As a result, computer system configurations have evolved from a single or multiple integrated circuits in a system to multiple hardware threads, multiple cores, multiple devices, and/or complete systems on individual integrated circuits. Additionally, as the density of integrated circuits has grown, the power requirements for computing systems (from embedded systems to servers) have also escalated. Furthermore, software inefficiencies, and its requirements of hardware, have also caused an increase in computing device energy consumption. In fact, some studies indicate that computing devices consume a sizeable percentage of the entire electricity supply for a country, such as the United States of America. As a result, there is a vital need for energy efficiency and conservation associated with integrated circuits. These needs will increase as servers, desktop computers, notebooks, ultrabooks, tablets, mobile phones, processors, embedded systems, etc. become even more prevalent (from inclusion in the typical computer, automobiles, and televisions to biotechnology).
Power management for integrated circuits such as processors (used in both server and client systems) depends on accurate measurements of estimates of current processor power consumption. Various components of a processor may have their voltage and frequency modulated to stay within specified power limits. Since exceeding a power constraint is undesirable, processors are tuned to always stay under the power limit. Errors in power measurement are accounted for as a guardband, resulting in reduced power being available for processor performance.
Consider a processor that has a 100 watt (W) power limit, also referred to as a thermal design power (TDP), and a +/−5% error in power measurement. Since the processor must stay below its power limit, it caps power when a power consumption of 95 W is measured, making 5 W unavailable for use because it is reserved as a guardband. The size of this guardband is directly proportional to the amount of the error. These guardbands thus reduce available power. Further, inaccuracies of different types of power monitors can vary at low and high loads.

Dynamically measuring power consumption in a processor


Novel compounds are disclosed along with methods of inhibiting the TGFβ pathway and methods of treating Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis (IPF) using such compounds.

An aspect of the present invention relates generally to the field of compounds and treatment of diseases associated with an activated inflammatory pathway or idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF).
IPF is a progressive fibrotic disease characterized by massive neovascularization and deposition of extracellular matrix into the interstitium. IPF is the most common form of interstitial lung disease with a prevalence of 50 per 100,000 cases, and it almost exclusively affects patients older than 50. Despite its unknown etiology, the downstream effectors of IPF are well-characterized. Samples from IPF patients show increased levels of transforming growth factor beta (TGFβ) across all three isoforms (Annes et al., "Making sense of latent TGFβ activation," Journal of cell science, 116(Pt 2): 217-224 (2003)). TGFβ serves as a critical pro-inflammatory molecule via the induction of neutrophil chemotaxis, the activation of epithelial to mesenchymal transition, and the promotion of lung epithelial cell apoptosis (Kage et al., "EMT and interstitial lung disease: a mysterious relationship," Current opinion in pulmonary medicine, 18(5): 517-523 (2012)). The TGFβ signaling pathway proceeds in part through the mothers against decapentaplegic homolog (SMAD) protein family. SMAD proteins regulate a variety of cellular processes, such as differentiation, proliferation, tumorogenesis, and immune responses (Attisano et al., "SMADS as transcriptional co-modulators," Current opinion in cell biology, 12(2): 235-243 (2000); Yingling et al., "Development of TGF-beta signalling inhibitors for cancer therapy," Nature reviews Drug discovery, 3(12): 1011-1022 (2004); Bonniaud et al., "TGF-beta and Smad3 signaling link inflammation to chronic fibrogenesis," Journal of immunology, 175(8): 5390-5395 (2005)). The SMAD family is comprised of receptor-SMADs (R-SMAD), inhibitor SMADs (I-SMAD), and the common mediator SMAD (co-SMAD) (Derynck et al., "SMAD-dependent and SMAD-independent pathways in TGF-beta family signaling," Nature, 425(6958): 577-584 (2003)). Briefly, TGFβ signal transduction commences with the phosphorylation of R-SMADs, often SMAD2 or SMAD3, which form a trimeric structure with the co-SMAD, SMAD4, and translocate to the nucleus to bind to the SMAD binding element (SBE) in the JunB promoter to activate transcription (Jonk et al., "Identification and functional characterization of a SMAD binding element (SBE) in the JunB promoter that acts as a transforming growth factor-beta, activin, and bone morphogenetic protein-inducible enhancer," The Journal of biological chemistry, 273(33): 21145-21152 (1998)). Therefore, TGFβ is a major pro-fibrotic growth factor through the downstream SMAD signaling pathway (Wang et al., "Caveolin-1: a critical regulator of lung fibrosis in idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis," The Journal of experimental medicine, 203(13): 2895-2906 (2006); Hecker et al., "NADPH oxidase-4 mediates myofibroblast activation and fibrogenic responses to lung injury," Nature medicine, 15(9): 1077-1081 (2009)).
PIAS (protein inhibitor of activated STAT) proteins are a family of proteins that are known to negatively control and regulate gene transcription and inflammatory pathways in cells (Rytinki et al., "PIAS proteins: pleiotropic interactors associated with SUMO," Cell Mol Life Sci, 66(18): 3029-3041 (2009)). There are four characterized PIAS family members, PIAS1, PIASx (PIAS2), PIAS3, and PIASy (PIAS4), each with specificity toward different pathways (Gross et al., "Distinct effects of PIAS proteins on androgen-mediated gene activation in prostate cancer cells," Oncogene, 20(29): 3880-3887 (2001)). Specifically, PIAS4 has been shown to suppress TGFβ signaling (Long et al., "Repression of SMAD transcriptional activity by PIASy, an inhibitor of activated STAT," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 100(17): 9791-9796 (2003); Imoto et al., "Regulation of transforming growth factor-beta signaling by protein inhibitor of activated STAT, PIASy through Smad3," The Journal of biological chemistry, 278(36): 34253-34258 (2003)). First, TGFβ promotes PIAS4's interaction with SMAD3 and SMAD4 to form a ternary complex. PIAS4 is known to possess small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) E3 ligase activity within its RING-type domain (Imoto et al., "The RING domain of PIASy is involved in the suppression of bone morphogenetic protein-signaling pathway," Biochemical and biophysical research communications, 319(1): 275-282 (2004)), so it promotes the sumoylation of SMAD3, in turn stimulating its nuclear export and inhibiting SMAD3/4 driven transcription (Imoto et al., "Sumoylation of SMAD3 stimulates its nuclear export during PIASy-mediated suppression of TGF-beta signaling," Biochem Biophys Res Commun, 370(2): 359-365 (2008); Lee et al., "Sumoylation of SMAD4, the common Smad mediator of transforming growth factor-beta family signaling," The Journal of biological chemistry, 278(30): 27853-27863 (2003)). Furthermore, PIAS4 directly recruits and interacts with histone deacetylase 1 (HDAC1) to repress SMAD3 driven transcriptional activation. In all, PIAS4 is an important negative regulator of TGFβ signaling.
Protein ubiquitination is the major protein processing function in cells. Ubiquitin (Ub) flags a targeted protein for degradation through the 26s proteasome or lysosome (Tanaka et al., "c-Cb1-dependent monoubiquitination and lysosomal degradation of gp130," Mol Cell Biol, 28(15): 4805-4818 (2008)). Ubiquitin is conjugated to a target protein in a three-step process. First, an E1 ubiquitin-activating enzyme binds to ubiquitin via a thioester covalent bond. Then, the E1 transfers the ubiquitin to an E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme. Finally, the C-terminus of Ub is attached to the ε-amino lysine (K) residue of the substrate, mediated by a ubiquitin E3 ligase. There are several families of these ubiquitin E3 ligases that include over 1,000 proteins (Jin et al., "Dual E1 activation systems for ubiquitin differentially regulate E2 enzyme charging," Nature, 447(7148): 1135-1138 (2007); Hatakeyama et al., "U box proteins as a new family of ubiquitin-protein ligases," J Biol Chem, 276(35): 33111-33120 (2001)). Of these, the E6-AP Carboxyl Terminus (HECT) domain E3 ligase family remains poorly characterized (Rotin et al., "Physiological functions of the HECT family of ubiquitin ligases," Nature reviews Molecular cell biology, 10(6): 398-409 (2009)). There are ˜30 HECT E3 ligases in mammalian cells, and functional data is only available for a select few including E6AP, Smurf, and NEDD4. HECT E3 ligases possess a unique feature in which they accept ubiquitin from an E2 ubiquitin-conjugating enzyme in the form of a thioester bond and directly transfer the ubiquitin to the substrate. An active site within the C-terminal of the HECT domain containing a cysteine residue is required for ubiquitin-thiolester formation (Huibregtse et al., "A family of proteins structurally and functionally related to the E6-AP ubiquitin-protein ligase," Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 92(7): 2563-2567 (1995)). A recently identified member of the HECT E3 ligases, AREL1 encoded by the KIAA0317 gene, regulates the ubiquitination of the apoptosis proteins SMAC, HtrA2, and ARTS (Kim et al., "Identification of a novel anti-apoptotic E3 ubiquitin ligase that ubiquitinates antagonists of inhibitor of apoptosis proteins SMAC, HtrA2, and ARTS," J Biol Chem, 288(17): 12014-12021 (2013)).
Thus, there remains a need in the art to discover the role of the protein encoded by KIAA0317 in various signaling pathways. Furthermore, there remains a need in the art to develop new antagonists that exert potent anti-fibrotic activity for treating idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis (IPF). The present invention satisfies these needs.

Small molecule FIEL1 inhibitor in inflammatory and fibrotic lung injury

UNIVERSITY OF PITTSBURGH—OF THE COMMONWEALTH SYSTEM OF HIGHER EDUCATION


A method for sending and receiving videos (pre-recorded as well as live) from the home or office making full use of home entertainment electronic devices and using digital broadband switching and transmission networks, to interconnect the sending "up-stream" and the receiving "down-stream" of the television subscription service provider (TSSP). The video can also be sent from public kiosks set-up for that purpose.

Today, the video camera recorder (Camcorder) has revolutionized how people make home movies. Over the years people have evolved from the use of photo sensitive films developed for projection onto movie screens, to the use of electronic recordings shown on television sets. The television evening news regularly show scenes of floods, hurricanes and other such happenings that have been recorded by amateurs using video cameras. By means of a small and easy to use video camera anyone can replay on their video cassette recorder (VCR) and television set the most trivial to the most significant of events.
Videos are quickly becoming a very important medium of communications. Job applicants resort to submitting their curriculum vitea on videos. New songs on the Hit Parade list have their own promotional videos. "How to operate" videos are now provided with the purchase of home appliances for instance. Television feature documentaries promote the availability of their videos.
Today most North American households have VCR's. Nearly 20 percent have Camcorders. Videos, as a medium of communications have become a pervasive growth phenomena.
Surprisingly, and in spite of today's technology, these electronically recorded videos must be forwarded by mail and courier services if they are to be sent anywhere. There is no electronic communication service available to ferry these videos across the country and around the world.
There is a need to link all these households with an electronic highway for videos. It should be possible to access such an electronic highway through one's TSSP. Once on this highway, it should be possible to reach the desired recipient through the latter's TSSP.
Known telecommunication services were developed and tailormade for the written word (telegraph and telex), for pictures (facsimile) and for the spoken word (telephone). Today, there is a need for a telecommunication service which is tailormade for videos.
Existing public telecommunication services have failed to provide a convenient and economical solution.
Problems in the Art
1-1 Bandwidth
Although videos are often of shorter duration, they require the same standard 6 megahertz broadcast channel bandwidth as normal television programming seen on television. It follows that the inability to come up with a satisfactory videophone over the years is in part due to the large bandwidth required for the satisfactory transmission of video over the public telephone network.
In theory, existing analogue cable televison would have the necessary bandwidth for the transmission of videos. However, in practice, it does not have much spare channel capacity to either receive or send videos.
Although the direct-to-home satellite system (another TSSP) could allow for receiving videos, in practice it only has a normal telephone line as an up-stream link which would not make possible the sending of videos via the satellite system.
For its part, the microwave multipoint distribution systems (MMDS), the new 2.5 gigahertz analogue wireless cable television, has a very limited channel capacity for receiving videos but could be used to send videos from rural areas.
As for the proposed video dial tone networks (which would permit electronic delivery of movies from the video store) they could also be used to receive videos. However, the telephone companies (the creators of such services) are only planning on providing bandwidth in the receive direction. It could not therefore be used to send videos in its currently planned format.
1-2 Public broadband switching network
The necessary interconnecting network, to handle video traffic between TSSPs, does not exist. There is no countrywide public switched broadbband network (PSBN). Even the Internet will require a PSBN to adequately handle its own video requirements.
1-3 Video address
There exists a need to provide a unique address for forwarding videos to their destination and customers of TSSP for their part already have unique addresses within their network but the TSSP per se need unique addresses.
Known solutions
2-1 Bandwidth
Digital transmission providing better quality television signals is now a reality. This has allowed the introduction of digital video compression which can currently cram 8 to 10 video programs onto the standard 6 megahertz of bandwidth. Digital wireless cable, local multipoint communication systems (LMCS), will have the necessary bandwidth and channel capacity to receive and send videos once they become operational sometime in the future. It is anticipated that the cable television companies will begin at least a partial conversion to digital operation within the next 2 to 3 years, making them capable of receiving and sending videos.
The telephone companies can be expected to eventually upgrade their one way video-dial-tone type service to allow for the sending of videos as well.
2-2 Public switched broadband network
The telephone companies are now introducing new digital broadband networks which are based on the asynchronous transfer mode (ATM) for broadband integrated services digital network (B-ISDN).
Related patents
U.S. Pat. No. 5,309,248 to Polidori discloses a system for the simultaneous vision of video pictures reproduced by a transmitting video recorder and a receiving video recorder using a telephone line to extend all commands to the receiving video recorder, which is not a real time video transmission.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,057,932 to Lang discloses an audio/video transceiver apparatus including microwave transceiver means. This is an improved video recorder/transceiver with expanded functionality. It does not possess the communications capabilities which are needed.
Canadian patent # 2,087,434 to Press et al. discloses a companion to a facsimile machine that will transfer and receive data on a floppy disk, hard disk, magnetic tape or optical disk. The telephone line used by this apparatus is the same one the user normally has his facsimile machine connected to. This is strictly a narrowband system.
Canadian patent # 2,088,507 to Trent discloses a method and apparatus for image data processing for transmission along telephone lines. Again, this is strictly a narrowband application.


This invention provides a vision system that increases the field of view of an electronic binocular system without degrading image quality or requiring extremely large format sensors or displays. The vision system comprises an imaging device coupled with a viewing device. The imaging device comprises a compression lens and an image sensor. The viewing device comprises an image display and a decompression lens. The compression lens matches the optical distortion to the human visual acuity curve for field positions greater than an angle .theta.. Below angle .theta. there is substantially no distortion. The optimum angle .theta. depends on the application. For an average individual viewing a landscape the angle .theta. is about 10.degree.. For different viewing objects, the optimum angle .theta. varies from about 5.degree. to about 15.degree.. The image sensor can be infrared sensitive for infrared viewing. For low-light level viewing an image intensifier can be positioned between the compression lens and the image sensor. The imaging device can be connected to the viewing device in a unitary structure or the imaging device can be remote from the viewing device. The compression lens and the decompression lens are compound lenses, each comprising a plurality of component lenses. One or more surface of one or more component lens can be aspheric.

There are two applications where electronic binoculars are particularly useful: in low-light level viewing and infrared imaging systems. In the former case, the sensor uses an image intensifier that is imbedded in the design. In the latter case, the sensor detects wavelengths that lie outside the human spectral response.
Generally in electronic imaging systems there are a limited number of pixels in the sensor and the display, so one has to balance the image quality vs. the field of view (FOV). An example of this trade off is using a 600.times.600-pixel display and matching the display to the maximum resolution of the eye, which is 1 arc minute. In this configuration the maximum full field of view is about 20.degree..times.20.degree.. Conventionally if one wants to increase this field of view, the cost will come in the form of a decrease in image quality as limited pixels are distributed over a larger field of view. Alternatively, one can increase the number of pixels in the display, but with a cost penalty.
Recently researchers have begun to investigate the potential usefulness of variable addressibility systems. Much of this research has been in the areas of robot vision and virtual reality. In both cases there is a desire to increase the field of view, using the eye as a generic model. There are three primary methods used to obtain foveated information, log-polar mapping [F. L. Lim et al. (1996) Proceedings of the 13.sup.th International Conference on Pattern Recognition 1, 795-799; Konstantinos Daniilidis (1995) Computer Analysis of Images and Patterns, 6.sup.th International Conference, CAIP '95, 82-89], varying the size of CCD elements [G. Kreider and J. Van der Speigel (1990) Proceedings of the SPIE, Vol. 1242 Charge-Coupled Devices and Solid State Optical Sensors 133-140; I. Debusschere et al. (1990) Sensors and Actuators 456-460] and creating special high distortion lenses.
In the virtual reality community, generally the trend is going towards using four displays for each head mounted application [Eric Howlett (1992) Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 1669 Stereoscopic Displays and Applications III 193-203; Eric Howlett (1990) Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 1256 Stereoscopic Displays and Applications 210-222]. Two displays are used with a high distorting lens to give a large FOV while the other two are used for high-resolution inserts. Similar techniques are being tested for helmet mounted displays used in flight simulators [George Kelly et al. (1992) Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 1695 Helmet-Mounted Displays III 58-63; Paul Wetzel et al. (1990) Proceedings of SPIE, Vol. 1289, Cockpit Displays and Visual Simulation 163-167]. The drawback of this technique comes in the form of size, weight, cost and complexity.
In the robot vision research areas, special fish-eye lenses have been designed that vary the resolution as a function of field [Yoshikazu Suematsu and Toshiyuki Hayase (1990) 16.sup.th Annual Conference of IEEE Industrial Electronics Society 1343, 581-585; N. Alvertos and E. L. Hall (1984) Proceedings of the SPIE--The International Society for Optical Engineering 449, pt. 1, 230-239; Shishir Shah and J. K. Aggarwal (1996) Pattern Recognition 29, No. 11, 1775-1788]. A couple of studies have also attempted to match their distortion curves with the visual acuity curve of the human eye [Sohto Shimaizu et al. (1996) 22.sup.nd International Conference on Industrial Electronics, Control, and Instrumentation 1600-1605; Y. Kuniyoshi et al. (1995) Recent Developments in Computer Vision, Second Asian Conference on Computer Vision, ACCV '95 191-200]. None of these have been designed to interface with a human.
There has been one previous attempt to use the variable acuity concept to increase the FOV in a night vision goggle application [Wayne Schoenmakers and Benjamin Roland (1991) "Variable Acuity Optics Study," Summary Final Technical Report under Contract DAAB07-87-C-F059 to Hughes Corp.]. A prototype was developed, but the project eventually ended with several unsolved problems. The system was too heavy and bulky for their specific application. It also required several aspheric surfaces, which are expensive to fabricate. These problems were compounded with subjective human factor concerns. Testing personnel noted a disturbing visual effect when viewing through the system. Although the testers did not see any classical optical distortion (straight lines exhibiting the tendency to curve) they did have the feeling that something was amiss off-axis. The poor off-axis resolution distracted the viewer. This made it difficult to concentrate on viewing the on-axis image. There was no known basic engineering explanation for the perceived low resolution.


An electric system and method includes a flux regulated permanent magnet generator configured to provide power for an accessory electric system. The accessory electric system includes an engine accessory and a voltage regulator. The engine accessory includes an induction motor that receives power from the flux regulated permanent magnet generator. The voltage regulator is configured to control an output of the flux regulated permanent magnet generator to maintain a constant voltage-to-frequency ratio.

The present invention relates generally to more-electric engines (MEE) and particularly to an electric system architecture for a MEE.
Electrical system architecture for gas turbine engines, such as the one described in U.S. Pat. No. 8,237,416, have recently been developed to provide electrical power to loads associated with, for example, an aircraft carrying the gas turbine engine. These loads include, for example, motor driven fuel pumps and oil pumps. In order to achieve fault tolerant operation for flight critical functions, the electrical system architecture may include a dual direct current (DC) or alternating current (AC) bus that powers multiple dual-redundant motor controllers. These motor controllers drive permanent magnet motors with, for example, dual stator windings and may include switching mode power converters. In order to meet stringent conducted and radiated emissions requirements, electromagnetic interference (EMI) filters are often implemented to attenuate the noise created by these switching mode power converters. The weight and size of the motor controllers is aggravated by the need for these EMI filters. There is a need to improve electrical system architecture for gas turbine MEEs to reduce or eliminate the need for complex motor controllers in order to reduce the size and weight of the MEE electrical system.

Electric system architecture for more-electric engine accessories


The present invention provides a method of using a reflectance-reading device to determine an initiation time point for measuring the chemical reaction of an analyte from a biological liquid sample on a test surface. The initiation time point is determined by using a device to read a reflectance of a test surface at a plurality of time points, and calculating the K/S ratio of the test surface at each time point according to the Kubelka-Munk equation. As the device continues to calculate a K/S ratio for each time point, the device monitors the rate of change of the K/S ratio with respect to time. The device then determines the initiation time point to be when the rate of change of the K/S ratio is maximal. The present invention also provides a method of measuring the concentration of an analyte on a test surface. The concentration is measured by determining an initiation time point according to the method described above and then measuring the concentration of the analyte at a variable end point. The variable end point is essentially determined to be the time at which the rate of change of a concentration parameter is less than a threshold value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to automated methods of measuring chemical reactions. Specifically, the invention provides methods of using an automated reflectance-reading device to determine an initiation time point and a variable end point for measuring a chemical reaction.
2. Background Information
Patients with diabetes mellitus have an impaired ability to regulate glucose levels in their blood. As a result, diabetics can have abnormally high blood sugar levels known as hyperglycemia. Over time, chronic hyperglycemia may lead to long-term complications such as cardiovascular disease and degeneration of the kidneys, retinas, blood vessels and the nervous system. Studies indicate, however, that diabetics can substantially reduce such long-term complications by rigorously managing their blood sugar levels.
A significant part of diabetes management involves monitoring blood sugar levels. Depending on the nature and severity of an individual patient's disease, the patient's blood sugar levels can fluctuate throughout the day, so that some patients measure their blood sugar levels as often as seven times a day. Consequently, patients perform much of the monitoring themselves.
Several devices are available to allow diabetics to measure their blood sugar levels at home. To use such a device, a patient typically begins by inserting a test strip into the device. Some test strips have several layers, for example a top layer to receive a blood sample and filter red blood cells from the sample, an intermediate layer containing buffers to maintain the pH of the sample, and a bottom layer containing chemical reagents to react with the sample.
After inserting the test strip into the device, the patient then applies a blood sample to the strip. When a sample is applied to the top layer of a multilayer test strip, the sample must travel by wicking action through several layers before reaching the bottom layer where the chemical reaction can occur. The device monitors the chemical reaction occurring at the bottom of the test strip and subsequently displays a calculated measurement of the patient's blood sugar level. Because such critical measurements are often self-administered at home, the operation of the device must be easy-to-use, accurate and fast. Consequently, it is important that the device use a method for measuring a chemical reaction that is rapid without sacrificing accuracy.
Two important parameters of measurement methods used in home test devices are the initiation time point of the reaction and the end point of the reaction. The initiation time point is the time from which the device begins to measure the chemical reaction. The end point is the time at which the device determines that the chemical reaction is sufficiently complete to accurately calculate the patient's blood sugar measurement.
Some home test devices rely on essentially mechanical signals for determining the initiation time point. For example, one known device begins monitoring as soon as the test strip is inserted into the device. Another known device begins monitoring only after a door on the device is closed, enclosing the test strip within the device. Thus, how quickly a patient inserts the test strip or closes the device door after applying the blood sample can affect the initiation time point, and consequently affect the consistency and accuracy of the final measurement.
Other devices begin monitoring once they detect that the test strip has become wetted with the blood sample. With multilayer test strips, however, such a device may determine an initiation time point when it detects the wetting of the top layer, despite the delay between the wetting the top layer and when the sample reaches the bottom reagent layer to begin the chemical reaction. As a result, applying the initiation method of prior art devices to multilayer test strips may not accurately determine the actual starting time of the chemical reaction. Moreover, the starting time of the reaction may also be affected by the wicking properties of the individual layers, for example, variations in the thickness and porosity. Variations in the sample itself, for example, viscosity or sample volume can also affect wicking, resulting in inconsistent initiation time points.
Such home test devices also determine an end point of the chemical reaction based on a fixed time period after the initiation time point. Applying such methods to multilayer test strips may result in further variability: if the initiation time points are determined inconsistently, the fixed end points will also be determined inconsistently, resulting in potentially inaccurate blood sugar measurements.
Therefore, presently available methods for determining initiation and end points may yield inaccurate results when applied to multilayer test strips because they rely on signals or time periods unrelated to the behavior of the chemical reaction itself. Moreover, presently available methods can require an unduly prolonged time to provide a blood sugar measurement. While saving several seconds during each measurement may not appear significant at first, the time saved is substantial over several daily measurements for the entire course of a patient's diabetes management. Furthermore, an accurate device that saves a patient's time will encourage patients to monitor their blood sugar levels more regularly, thereby promoting compliance with their prescribed regimens for diabetes management.
The present invention satisfies the need for rapid and accurate determinations of initiation and end points for measuring a chemical reaction, and provides related advantages as well.

Methods of determining initiation and variable end points for measuring a chemical reaction


An A behavioral synthesis apparatus according to the present invention for performing a computer-automated synthesis of a circuit description of a register transfer level from a behavioral description describing a process operation of a circuit, wherein an output of a target computing unit is input to a plurality of subsequent computing units, and in the case when a valid cycle in which a result computed at each of the plurality of subsequent computing units is valid is different from each other, the behavioral synthesis apparatus including: a computing unit fixation section for inserting an input fixation unit between the target computing unit and at least one of the plurality of subsequent computing units, the input fixation unit fixing an input to the at least one subsequent computing unit during cycles other than the valid cycle in which a result computed at the at least one subsequent computing unit is valid.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to: a behavioral synthesis apparatus of a computer system for performing a computer-automated synthesis of a circuit description of a register transfer level (RTL) from a behavioral description (design specification of a circuit) having a circuit behavior described therein in order to support designing and manufacturing of a digital circuit; a behavioral synthesis method using the behavioral synthesis apparatus; a method for manufacturing the digital circuit using the behavioral synthesis apparatus; a behavioral synthesis control program for performing the behavioral synthesis method; and a computer-readable recording medium having the behavioral synthesis control program recorded thereon.
2. Description of the Related Art
For example, in designing a large scale integrated circuit (e.g., system LSI), a behavioral synthesis process is performed in order to automatically synthesize hardware of an RTL from a behavioral description of a circuit by using a computer system. This behavioral synthesis is also called a high-level synthesis.
A procedure of this behavioral synthesis process can be broadly classified into: data flow graph generation process; scheduling process; allocation process and the like.
The data flow graph generation process generates a data flow graph based on a behavioral description of a circuit, which only describes behaviors of the circuit but does not describe information regarding a structure of hardware. This data flow graph is also called "CDFG" (Control Data Flow Graph), where a flow of data is represented as a branch and each process (e.g., computation and communication) is represented as a node in a graph.
The scheduling process determines during which execution cycle each process (e.g., computation and communication) in the data flow graph should be executed.
The allocation process allocates a computation process to a circuit element (e.g., computing unit) and also allocates data being currently processed to a register for storage, for example.
Data path and a controller (control circuit) for controlling the data path are generated in accordance with the result of the scheduling process and the allocation process. As a result, hardware which behaves in the same manner as described by the behavioral description is obtained. In general, this obtained hardware is output as a circuit description of a register transfer level (RTL).
In a method for synthesizing hardware from the behavioral description, as one of conventional techniques for reducing power consumption of synthesized hardware, Reference 1 discloses the following. In this conventional technique, a circuit for controlling a clock is synthesized per blocks operating in parallel in hardware. The provision of the clock to the blocks in the circuit is stopped when the blocks are in a wait state in order to lower the power consumption of the hardware.
As another conventional technique for realizing low power consumption, Reference 2 is cited, which discloses "HIGH LEVEL SYNTHESIS METHOD AND APPARATUS". In this conventional technique, a timing of a clock to be input to a register during scheduling is shifted, thereby reducing the number of registers in order to reduce power consumption.
[Reference 1] Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-366596
[Reference 2] Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 2003-150657

Behavioral synthesis apparatus, behavioral synthesis method, method for manufacturing digital circuit, behavioral synthesis control program and computer-readable recording medium


A computer-implemented method includes generating code for displaying a two-dimensional media programming schedule grid, receiving a command to compress the grid at a first location along a first dimension, and generating code for displaying the grid with visible graphical fold marks defining a fold area near the first location along the first dimension.

Many display mechanisms present information in two-dimensional grids. For example, television program guides often show programming schedules as a grid of cells that each represent a particular program, where users can scroll through the grid up and down to view various channels, and can scroll right and left to view programs at different times. Various forms of information can also be displayed in spreadsheet grids, such as financial data and mathematical information.
Frequently, information displayed in these manners cannot be shown conveniently on a single display—particularly on small displays. And in such conditions, it may be distracting or even annoying to have to pan back and forth or up and down to locate other information that is relevant to a user. Some spreadsheets permit a user to hide certain rows or columns of a spreadsheet to make the remaining information fit more easily on a display screen or sheet of paper. In a similar manner, interactive electronic program guides may permit a user to define "favorite" channels, so that only those channels are displayed in a programming grid shown to the user.


A control method for a manual back-up electro-hydraulic braking system in which the rear service brakes of the vehicle are intentionally operated in a manual back-up mode under specified non-failure operating conditions to conserve electrical energy. The manual back-up mode for the rear service brakes is initiated if braking is commenced while the vehicle speed is below a near-zero threshold speed. If braking is commenced above the threshold speed, the manual back-up mode for the rear service brakes is initiated when the vehicle speed falls below the threshold and the pressure command for the rear brakes has been substantially constant for at least a predetermined time. In this case, the rear manual back-up mode is initiated by reducing the rear brake pressure command to the rear boost units at a controlled rate until the rear brake pressure reaches the manually developed pressure, and then entering the manual back-up mode. Once the rear manual back-up mode is initiated, it remains in effect until the driver releases the brake pedal.

In conventional automotive braking systems, a master cylinder converts driver exerted brake pedal force into a corresponding hydraulic pressure, which is proportioned among the front and rear brakes. In power assisted braking systems, a vacuum booster is interposed between the pedal and the master cylinder to amplify the force applied to the master cylinder by using engine vacuum to create a pressure differential across one or more diaphragms coupled to the master cylinder.
As an alternative to the above-described conventional braking system, it has been proposed to use electrically powered boost units to develop the amplified brake pressures. Such systems--referred to herein as electro-hydraulic, or EH, systems--can advantageously be used, for example, in electric vehicles where there is no convenient vacuum source. Even in vehicles powered by an internal combustion engine, EH braking systems can be used to advantage for integrating advanced braking controls such as anti-lock braking, traction control and collision avoidance.
One example of an EH braking system is disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 5,246,283 to Shaw et al., issued Sep. 21, 1993, and assigned to the assignee of the present invention. In that system, the master cylinder pressure is coupled through normally open solenoid operated fluid valves and electrically powered boost units to the individual service brakes. In normal braking, the solenoid operated valves are activated to isolate the master cylinder from the service brakes, and the electrically powered boost units are activated to develop brake pressures based on a desired brake effort determined by an electronic controller. In the event of an electrical failure, the solenoid operated valves return to their normally open state, re-coupling the master cylinder to the service brakes, allowing continued braking with the manually developed master cylinder pressure. A system of this type is referred to herein as a manual back-up EH system.
A drawback of EH braking systems in general is that electric power consumption by the boost units can be considerable during extended idling when a high level of braking force is not actually required. This can occur, for example, while waiting for a traffic light, particularly if the driver is exerting significant brake pedal force. In addition to the unnecessary power consumption, this condition causes unnecessary heat generation in the boost units and controller, possibly adversely affect their durability.

Rear manual brake control for an electro-hydraulic braking system


Bulk metallic glass sheets and parts fabricated from individual bulk metallic glass fibers and tows are provided. Bulk metallic glass fibers and tows are used to prepare complex weave designs having desired thickness and fiber orientation for a particular use of a BMG feedstock. Appropriately designed bulk metallic glass weaves can be thermoplastically heated to form sheets and feedstock for parts having desired wall thickness and area coverage.

Bulk-solidifying amorphous alloys, or bulk metallic glasses ("BMG"), are a fairly recently developed class of metallic materials. BMGs have distinctive properties of hardness and elasticity, for example, which make them preferable over other conventional metallic alloys. These alloys may be solidified and cooled at relatively slow rates, and they retain the amorphous, non-crystalline state, at room temperature. If the cooling rate is not sufficiently high, crystals may form inside the alloy, so that the benefits of the amorphous state are partially or completely lost.
In this light, BMGs are generally heated and then quenched from above a BMG's alloy melting temperature to an ambient temperature. To quench, the BMG must be cooled at a critical cooling rate to maintain an amorphous state, this rate being up to 1000° C./sec (although more typically in the 50-100° C./sec range). In order to obtain a cooling rate equal to or above the critical cooling rate, heat must be extracted from the BMG itself. As such, the thickness of a BMG material becomes a limiting dimension, referred to as a BMG's "critical thickness."
Until recently, the processability of an amorphous alloy was limited, having critical thicknesses of less than 0.1 mm. With the advent of BMG alloys having lower critical cooling rates and with the introduction of better quenching techniques, the critical thickness of BMG materials has increased, but not far beyond 0.1 mm. It is still problematic to produce BMG materials having a critical thickness beyond 0.1 mm, particularly due to the before mentioned crystal formation, i.e., BMG that is both thicker than 0.1 mm and substantially free of crystals. Alternative methods of preparing BMG sheets are therefore required to fabricate BMG parts of useful dimensions.
The present disclosure is provided to overcome one or more of the issues discussed above.

Bulk metallic glass sheets and parts made therefrom


Methods and apparatuses for creating blow-molded components are disclosed. More particularly, the present invention concerns methods and apparatuses for creating double-wall blow-molded components with one or more protuberances not abutting a parting line of a mold. Generally, the protuberances are created by a method comprising the steps of blowing blow-molding material against a molding surface with a cavity of a predetermined shape, so that the blow-molding material enters the cavity at a first end, and urging the blow-molding back toward the first end of the cavity by moving a piston of a predetermined shape. The invention also concerns apparatuses to employ such methods, and the resulting blow-molded objects.

The use of blow molding as a method for manufacturing various sorts of articles is generally well known. Typically, this process involves the use of a mold consisting of two separate halves or portions having cavities of particularly desired shapes and sizes. Usually, one extrudes a large-diameter, sealed tube of molten material (commonly referred to as a "parison" places the tube between the mold halves, and closes the mold around the tube. The mold halves are closed around the tube at what is referred to as the "parting line." Fluid pressure is then introduced into the tube, forcing the molten tube against the walls of the cavities, conforming the tube to the shape thereof. The pressure is maintained until the molten material cools and solidifies. The pressure is then released, the mold halves are pulled apart, and the hardened article is ejected therefrom.
It is well known to form various protuberances on blow-molded parts. Examples include hinge receptacles, handles, tabs to accept mounting screws, and snap bosses for joining blow-molded components. Certain prior art forms these protuberances by pushing and compressing the molten material of the blow mold parison during the mold close portion of the molding cycle. The pushing and compressing is accomplished by the closing of the two mold halves. It is therefore always in a plane generally perpendicular to the parting line of the mold, although incidental lateral transfer sometimes occurs when a shaping wedge of angled leading surface is part of one or both halves of the mold.
In particular, the use of integrally formed, permanent interference snap bosses is well known as an assembly method to join molded or fabricated plastic components into a finished article. This technique eliminates the need for additional attachment pieces, thereby saving time and materials cost in the assembly process. It also avoids the need for adhesives, which increase costs and potentially introduce appearance problems through smearing or misapplication of the adhesive. Blow-molded double-wall components lend themselves to this attachment method in that they are somewhat resilient, which facilitates assembly, and yet rigid by reason of the structural qualities of the double wall.
One disadvantage of current methods for creating snap bosses and other protuberances is that the blow molding process tends to limit the designer's freedom in placing the protuberance. Generally speaking, snap bosses need to be rigid (have a heavy wall) and deep (to cause significant interference) to provide permanent attachment if the attached components are subjected to even moderately heavy usage. Other protuberances also must be rigid and deep in order to serve their purposes and withstand use. To meet both of these requirements it has been necessary to locate snap bosses and other protuberances at a parting line of the double wall article of which they are a part, in particular a parting line with flash adjacent to it. When the molten material is blown into a narrow cavity along a parting line to form a protuberance, excess air is able to escape at a parting line, allowing the material to enter the appendage and be blown tightly against the wall. However, attempts to locate protuberances away from a parting line by similar methods result in thin-walled, shallow protuberances, because without the air escape provided at a parting line, the material is unable to fully extend into narrow cavities, and is not blown tightly against the walls of the mold. Also, there is sometimes insufficient flash to create a sufficiently rigid protuberance.
There are occasions when it is either not desirable or not possible to work with a design incorporating a snap boss or other protuberance at a parting line. Further, there are other instances where the amount of material available from normal "layflat" in the snap boss or other protuberance area is insufficient to achieve the necessary rigidity and depth.
Certain proposed techniques provide a blow-molding apparatus with an inwardly projecting hollow boss away from a parting line by retracting a piston extended through the mold into the parison during the blowing process. One disadvantage of such techniques is that it is unclear how they could be used to make a protruding boss away from the parting line, as opposed to an inwardly projecting hollow boss. A second disadvantage is that the resulting inward projection has a thinner wall than the rest of the blow-molded apparatus, as these techniques essentially stretch the wall of the apparatus to a greater distance without adding additional material. When forming the protuberance, however, it is desired that it have a sufficiently thick wall, that is, be sufficiently rigid. As explained, this is particularly important when the protuberance is a snap boss intended to permanently affix two blow-molded components.
Other proposed techniques form protruding bosses with an injection method through the use of a piston. Material is injected into the mold, and a piston is compressed while the material is still molten in order to force extra material to form a boss with a greater density than the rest of the component. Although these techniques can successfully form strong protuberances, injecting material into molds results in solid components. Although the protuberance itself might be solid, the purpose of blow molding is to form hollow components, and therefore techniques suited for injection methods are not suited for blow molding. The problem discussed above with respect to blow molding, whereby material is unable to form a protuberance away from a parting line because there is no air escape, does not arise with solid components. Aside from the fact that molds for use with injection methods do not necessarily have parting lines, narrow cavities can simply be filled by injecting more material into the mold. Therefore, these techniques are not suited to creating blow-molded components with protuberances away from the parting line, where blowing additional material will not solve the problems caused by the lack of an air escape or lack of sufficient flash.
What is desired, therefore, is a method and apparatus that facilitates the creation of double-wall blow-molded components with one or more protuberances that are sufficiently rigid and deep, but not abutting a parting line of the mold.

Methods and apparatuses for the formation of blow molded objects


A windshield wiper device, in particular for a motor vehicle, comprising a carrier (12) for fixing to a first part (52), especially to the body of the motor vehicle. A locking element (40) having a predetermined breaking point (41) is also provided in order to enable the carrier (12) to be fixed to the first part (52) by a rotational connection.

The invention relates to a windshield wiper device, in particular for a motor vehicle.
Numerous windshield wiper devices featuring a carrier, which is fixed to a first part, for example the body of a motor vehicle, are already known. Normally, the carrier has openings through which screws or rivets can be drawn so that the windshield wiper device can be screwed down to the body with the aid of several screws and various damping elements. This is relatively expensive and cost-intensive since bore holes provided with threads have to be attached to the body of the motor vehicle or holes have to be provided onto which a screw nut has to be welded.
In addition, the windshield wiper device is very solidly connected with the body of the vehicle and this means that a pedestrian can be easily injured in an impact with the engine hood of the motor vehicle by the wiper shafts projecting from the body, which bear the wiper arms and wiper blades.

Wiper device, especially for a motor vehicle


A valve element has a packing material, whose one side surface touches and leaves a valve seat as a sealing surface, and a support member, which is driven in opening and closing directions of a valve section by actuating an actuator. The support member includes a supporting surface, which is in contact with a side surface of the packing material opposite to the sealing surface of the packing material, and an engagement part, which supports a peripheral edge part of the packing material in a manner such that the engagement part is engaged with the peripheral edge part. A ring-shaped fluid flow passage is formed between the supporting surface of the support member and the packing material, and this fluid flow passage communicates with an upstream passage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a control valve and, more particularly to a control valve in which a flexible sealing member is used to seal off a valve section.
2. Description of the Related Art
An automotive air conditioner is generally configured such that it includes a compressor, a condenser, an evaporator, and so forth arranged in a refrigerant circulation passage. Various types of control valves are provided for the purpose of switching the refrigerant circulation passages according to the operation state in such a refrigeration cycle and regulating the flow rate of refrigerant. In most of such control valves, a flexible sealing member is fitted on a valve element for the purpose of improving the sealing property of the valve section (see Reference (1) in the following Related Art List, for instance). The sealing property is enhanced such that when the valve element seats on a valve seat, the sealing member adheres tightly to the valve seat as the sealing member elastically deforms. A packing material or member, which is used as the sealing member, is fitted into a recess formed on an end face of the valve element and then secured through a process of swaging.


Provided are a medium structure which allows track narrowing onto a three-dimensional pit selection type disc, and its corresponding optical disc device. Multiple data pit strings are formed between track guide grooves, and a phase-change recording film is formed only in the data pit strings. Thereby, a disc configuration is achieved. Reflectivity and a phase of each of a space portion and a mark portion are appropriately set. Thereby, normal resolution signal cancel is implemented to prevent deterioration in data crosstalk and a push-pull signal. An optical disc medium of the present invention is supported by an optical disc device having a configuration in which a signal is selected from a push-pull signal of a main beam and push-pull signals of sub-beams to read out wobble address information.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disc medium which forms a recording mark having a different physical characteristic from that of the other portion, on a recording medium to store information, and relates to an optical disc device which reads information from the medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
Optical disc media include various media, such as a CD-R/RW, a DVD-RAM, a DVD±R/RW, a Blu-ray Disc (hereinafter referred to as a BD), and a HD DVD. Such optical disc media including one with two data layers have been widely used. What is termed as a DVD super multi-drive, which is provided for writing/reading on/from CD-R/RW, DVD-RAM and DVD±R/RW, has widely available as the corresponding optical disc device. A high-performance drive, which is provided to a BD and a HD DVD, is considered to be widely available in the future.
Super resolution techniques and SIL (Solid Immersion Lens) for next-generation large-capacity optical discs are proposed, and one of the super resolution techniques is described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2006-107588. Specifically, a phase-change recording film, which changes its optical characteristics when it melts, is buried in pits to conduct super resolution reading. In addition, recording marks are spatially separated from each other to reduce thermal interference between the recording marks and fluctuation of a super resolution region. The aforementioned configuration makes it possible to improve linear density and track density at the same time. As a result, storage capacity of the optical disc can be largely increased. Furthermore, light transmittance of the region between data pits is increased to allow an increase in an average light transmittance of a data surface. Thus, efficiency in light utilization is high, and this is advantageous for a multi-layering process. This type of pit selection is hereinafter called as a three-dimensional pit selection type. As means for burying the recording film in the pits, it is possible to use a phase-change etching method (a method using a difference in etching speed between liquid crystal and amorphous) as described in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2005-100526, and a physical polishing method such as CMP (Chemical Mechanical Polishing).

Optical disc medium and optical disc device


Services accounts are managed by defining budget categories for the services accounts. Budgets are defined for the respective categories and rules are defined for the budget categories. Input on usage of the services is electronically received and the budgets are electronically adjusted based on the received input and the defined rules.

Many customers of service providers desire pay-per-use billing, at least for some services, and this desire may likely increase in the future due, in part, to a perception of better fairness in that pay-per-use allows a customer to pay only for what services are used. In this way, low-usage customers need not subsidize high-usage customers. Many customers may also desire to arrange their accounts into group accounts and/or bundled accounts. In the first case, a number of customers are gathered into one combined billing account (e.g., a cellphone family plan) and in the second case, a customer's multiple services (e.g., cellphone, music downloads, television, movie pay per view, local phone, long distance) are combined into one billing account. Although both types of combined accounts, and even combined accounts of other types, may be of convenience to a customer, these combined accounts may lack customer control and safety in that the accounts may not be fully compatible with a desire to budget expenditures (e.g., via a monthly budget for the family, business, etc.). Further, there appears to be a lack of functionality to adaptively re-budget among categories within a combined account. Given that a customer may desire to limit total expenditures in a given billing cycle to a particular amount, it may be desirable to manage the sub-accounts so that the billing cycle limit is not exceeded.

Methods, systems, and computer program products for managing services accounts through electronic budget adjustments based on defined rules


A power amplifier of a digital cassette tape reproducing device is set to a value suitable to amplify an amplitude level of an audio signal from an analog signal reproducing system thereof and, when a digital signal reproducing system is selected, an audio signal therefrom is supplied to the power amplifier circuit without attenuation while increasing an amount of negative feedback of the power amplifier circuit, hence reducing amplification thereof to match an output level of the power amplifier circuit with that of the analog signal reproducing system to thereby improve S/N ratio and maintain high tone quality of the digital source.

The present invention relates to a digital cassette tape reproducing device and, particularly, to an improvement of a digital compact cassette tape reproducing device having a digital signal reproducing function of reproducing a digital audio signal recorded on a magnetic tape and an analog signal reproducing function of reproducing an analog audio signal recorded on a magnetic tape. The invention further relates to such a compact cassette tape reproducing device having a function of recording a digital and an analog audio signal on magnetic tapes in addition to the reproducing functions, while improving tone quality of a reproduced audio signal.
A compact disc (CD) of 12 cm size has become popular as a recording medium for digital audio signals and, in order to reproduce such digital audio signals therefrom, a digital cassette tape reproducing device has been used in various audio devices such as, for example, a CD radio cassette recorder, a CD stereo component device and a car-mounted audio device.
On the other hand, in order to digitally record an audio signal on a magnetic tape and reproduce it therefrom, the so-called DAT standard has been proposed and used practically to some extent. However, a DAT recording/reproducing device has not become popular so far.
The so-called digital compact cassette tape recorder in which an audio signal is digitally recorded on a conventional cassette tape for analog recording has been proposed besides the above-mentioned techniques. Such a digital compact cassette tape recorder (referred to as a DCC player, hereinafter) functions to read a digital audio signal recorded on a cassette tape and to reproduce it as an audio signal, and to read an analog signal recorded according to a conventional standard and reproduce it as it is. In other words, the DCC player has both a digital signal reproducing function and an analog signal reproducing function with advantages of digital recording (for example, improved performance and function of hardware), and advantages of analog recording (for example, the ability of using a large volume of existing software).
FIG. 4 is a block circuit diagram of a conventional portable DCC player to be used with a headphone speaker connected thereto.
The portable DCC player in FIG. 4 comprises a head unit 1, an analog signal reproducing circuit 2, a digital signal reproducing circuit 3, a switch 5, a drive circuit 6, a headphone jack 8 and the headphone speaker 9 to be connected to the player in use.
The head unit 1 includes a magnetic head 1a for reproducing a digital signal and a magnetic head 1b for reproducing an analog signal. The head 1a functions to read an audio signal which is usually 8 to 10 bits long and recorded in a digital manner on a cassette tape (not shown) and to output a digital audio signal D. The head 1b functions to read an audio signal recorded on a cassette tape according to the conventional standard and to output it as an analog audio signal H.
The analog signal reproducing circuit 2 includes an equalizer circuit composed of an amplifier 2a and a feedback circuit EQ, etc., for correction of signal distortion which may result from variations of magnetic characteristics of a recording medium. The analog signal reproducing circuit 2 receives the analog signal H from the head 1b, produces an analog reproduced signal I by correction of its distortion and outputs it to the switch 5.
The digital signal reproducing circuit 3 includes a digital signal processing circuit 3b responsive to the digital signal D from the head 1a for producing a digital signal E, a digital-to-analog (D/A) converter portion 3a for converting the digital audio signal D into an analog audio signal F and an attenuator 4 for attenuating the analog audio signal F to obtain an analog audio signal G. The digital signal processing circuit 3b operates to demodulate the digital signal D to obtain an original digital value prior to recording, to digitally process the signal to correct errors etc., and to produce the digital signal E. The D/A converter portion 3a converts the digital signal E into an analog signal, removes noise caused by quantization by means of a low-pass filter and produces the analog reproduced signal F. The attenuator 4 produces the reproduced signal G by attenuating the amplitude level of the reproduced signal F. The attenuation is necessary to make an amplitude level of the output signal G of the digital signal reproducing circuit 3 correspond with an amplitude level of an output signal I of the analog signal reproducing circuit and, hence, an amplitude level of an input signal J from such as a tuner.
Although the switch 5 is shown in this example as a slide type switch, a switch of any other type may be used so long as it can select either the signal G or I, together with another signal, such as J, and output the selected one, G or I, to the drive circuit 6 as a reproduced signal K.
The drive circuit 6 includes a power amplifier 6a which amplifies the signal K to obtain a signal M which is supplied through a coupling capacitor 6c to the headphone jack 8 as a drive signal N by which the headphone speaker 9 connected to the headphone jack 8 is driven.
The conventional DCC player including the analog signal reproducing circuit 2 and the digital signal reproducing circuit 3 as mentioned above reproduces an audio signal recorded in an analog manner on any existing tape by means of the analog signal reproducing circuit, and reproduces a digital audio signal of high tone quality by the digital signal reproducing circuit. Since one of these signals is selected by the switch 5, the signal supplied to the headphone speaker is either an analog-recorded or a digital-recorded audio signal.
The function of the attenuator 4 of the digital signal reproducing circuit 3 in such a conventional DCC player was described briefly. In order for a better understanding of the present invention, the function of the attenuator 4 will be described in more detail. The amplitude level of the digital signal F obtained from a recorded audio signal having the usual level is usually higher than that of the analog signal I by about 17 dB and, therefore, the signal F is attenuated correspondingly so that either of the both signals to be supplied selectively to the headphone speaker has substantially the same signal level. With this scheme, the circuit portion following the drive circuit 6 can be used commonly by these signals, making the circuit construction compact.
It is clear that, by attenuating the signal F by about 17 dB, a portion of the signal F may be lost. That is, such a partial loss of signal causes the S/N ratio thereof to be degraded, which makes the high tone quality of audio signal reproduced from digital-recorded signal nonsense, and it is impossible to effectively utilize the merit of the digital recording system since a compact construction has a higher priority in a portable DCC player.

Digital cassette tape reproducing device including novel drive circuit


The present invention relates to a door operating system for controlling the movement of a door, the system having a motor with a motor shaft for providing rotational energy to the system and a gear chain assembly for receiving the rotational energy from the motor shaft and applying the received rotational energy to the door to move the door, comprising a sprocket rotatably mounted on the gear chain assembly for rotation around an axis of the gear chain assembly and fixedly coupled to the motor shaft for receiving and transmitting the rotational energy from the motor shaft; a drive pin fixedly disposed on the sprocket for rotational movement around the axis of the gear chain assembly as the sprocket rotates around the axis; a rotational energy receiving extension rotatably mounted on the gear chain assembly and drivingly coupled to the door for moving the door; a drive dog fixedly disposed on the energy receiving extension for rotational movement around the axis of the gear chain assembly as the energy receiving extension rotates around the axis; and the sprocket and the extension being disposed on the gear chain assembly such that rotational movement of the sprocket causes the drive pin to rotatably move into contact with the drive dog and apply rotational energy to the drive dog thereby transmitting rotational energy to the door when rotating in one direction and moving away from the drive dog when rotating in the other direction.

Hydraulic and pneumatic door closures for controlling closing characteristics of swing doors are well known and have been widely used. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,793,023, 4,414,703 and 4,378,612. Primarily hydraulically, pneumatically operated openers, or opening assist mechanisms are also known. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,948,000, 3,936,977, 4,955,194 and 4,429,490 teach such mechanisms. Additionally, a variety of electromechanical automatic door operators are known. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,910,290, 3,127,160, 4,045,914 and 4,220,051. Each type of door opener, hydraulic, pneumatic and electromechanical, has its own advantages and disadvantages.
It has also been known to combine these mechanisms in order to obtain some of the advantages of each. See, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,874,117, 3,129,936, 1,684,704, 2,256,613, and 4,438,835. This approach to making door controllers has sometimes included using an hydraulic mechanism merely as a speed controller rather than as an independently functioning unit. This approach is not entirely satisfactory due to a lack of attractiveness and additional space requirements adjacent to the door. Additionally, the expense of manufacture and operation is relatively high for some combinations. For example, when a clutch or other disengagement mechanism is required for operation, the resulting system can be too expensive for economical use. Furthermore, excessive control complexity may be required to achieve reliability and to meet door operating standards for some combinations.
Previous door operating systems required an individual to perform calibrations to monitor the movement and location of a door. Installation of such door systems were tedious, cumbersome and time consuming because most door system computers did not know the location of the door or were not able to continuously monitor the movement of the door. In addition, most door operating systems did not have any features that accommodated obstacles and the changing conditions of obstacles. For example, a carpet underneath a door operated by such a system can be flat, shaggy, etc. and can undergo numerous changes based on heat, moisture, etc. When wet, the carpet is flatter and movement of the door is easier. When dry and hot, the carpet material has a propensity to expand and movement of the door may be restricted. The prior art door systems could not self-adjust to these conditions.
In addition, most door operating systems are not able to function during power outages. Since most door operating system situated in public facilities such as hospitals, the loss of power renders these door systems paralyzed and useless. The present invention addresses these problems by providing an improved door operating system.


The present invention involves the use of nanoporous carbons derived from partially or fully demetalized metal carbides in personal protection equipment for the reversible absorption/adsorption of both broad and specific targeted gases. These materials have been specifically processed to provide enhanced effective loadings against specific harmful volatile organic compounds.

Current materials do not provide adequate ventilation protection against select chemical agents, toxic industrial compounds, toxic industrial materials, and other harmful volatile organic compounds. These chemicals have very low physical exposure limits yet are difficult to capture and retain in personal or collective filtration devices. This lack of performance leads to large, heavy respirator mask canisters that impede war fighter and emergency responder performance and field of view. Furthermore, the large mass and volume of current material required leads to a large pressure drop across the bed resulting in labored breathing in order to pull sufficient air through the mask tor respiration.
A need therefore exists for an improved adsorbent material in personal protection equipment to irreversibly adsorb targeted gases from the environment.

Superadsorbent material system for improved filtration applications

BAE Systems Information and Electronic Systems Integration Inc.


A tolerance compensation device includes a base device having a tubular fastening portion that includes an internal, right-hand thread for receiving a screw-like fastening element. A tubular connecting portion, for connecting to a compensation structure, has an outer jacket wall that includes an external thread for connecting to a compensation structure, and a compensation structure having a flange-like setting element. An inner jacket wall of the setting element includes a threading configured to correspond to the external thread, and a socket-like anti-rotation element is disposed in a through-opening of the setting element, and an outer jacket wall of the anti-rotation element is connected to an inner jacket wall of the tubular connecting portion in a non-rotatable manner. The compensation structure is configured for presetting a distance in axial direction between the base device and a contact wall of the compensation structure extending orthogonally to the axial direction.

EP 2 162 625 B1 discloses a fastening element receptacle or stopper. With this adjustable stopper, a position of a contact surface can be preset by means of a threaded section and an "anti-twisting section".
EP 3 653 823 A1 describes an adjustable stopper device for a vehicle door or hood. It includes a base part and an adjustment part, wherein the adjustment part is connected to the base part via a thread, as a result of which it is rotatable relative to the base part about a device axis. Also provided is a stopper part, which is configured to contact the vehicle door and provide an abutment surface for the vehicle door when the vehicle door is closed. The stopper part is connected to the adjustment part, wherein an axial position of the abutment surface can be adjusted by rotating the adjustment part relative to the base part about the device axis.
Anti-rotation safeguards for compensation elements are described in DE 10 2012 102 906 A1, for example.
DE 10 2008 062 894 B4 describes an anti-rotation safeguard. This is a drive sleeve made of plastic with an out-of-round outer surface and a correspondingly adapted countersurface on a lower part.
Tolerance elements or tolerance compensation devices are configured such that a gap created between body components on a vehicle is automatically compensated, as a result of which corresponding play between components is provided. However, this requires the use of a gauge in an assembly line to set the release value or the play. Tolerance compensation is usually carried out using an automatically readjusting tolerance element that is readjusted via a screw.
DE 10 2021 100 676 A1 provides a retaining element for fastening an attachment part or a tolerance compensation device. Further retaining elements are disclosed in DE 10 2018 10 88 29 and DE 10 2018 10 88 30. EP 0 840 021 A1, WO 2016/126284 A1, DE 10 2015 103 491 A1, DE 10 2019 114 008 A1 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,492,388 disclose further fastening or retaining devices.


A volumetric pump for administering intravenous fluids to a patient includes a first housing having an elongate cavity therein with an open and a closed end. A resilient sheet of material having a centrally-located aperture covers the open end, and a pump shaft is slidably disposed through the aperture to form a sphincter seal therebetween. An inlet conduit leading from a fluid source (an IV bag) passes through the housing into the cavity near the open end thereof, and an outlet conduit leading to a fluid sink (the patient) passes through the housing from the cavity near the closed end thereof. A drive shaft is attached to the pump shaft to drive it back and forth in reciprocating motion inwardly and outwardly of the cavity to produce, respectively, a positive pressure forcing fluid out of the outlet conduit to the fluid sink, and a negative pressure forcing fluid from the fluid source through the inlet conduit. A second housing encloses the first housing and pump shaft, and includes a seal formed about the drive shaft to seal the inside of the second housing from the outside.

This invention relates to a lightweight, inexpensive volumetric pump, suitable for a variety of uses including medical systems such as intravenous (IV) therapy systems and the like, and including an enclosure about the pump to maintain it free of contamination.
The intravenous administration of fluids to patients is a well-known medical procedure for, among other things, administering life sustaining nutrients to patients whose digestive tracts are unable to function normally due to illness or injury, administering antibiotics to treat a variety of serious infections, administering analgesic drugs to patients suffering from acute or chronic pain, administering chemotherapy drugs to treat patients suffering from cancer, etc.
The intravenous administration of drugs frequently requires the use of an IV pump connected or built into a so-called IV administration set including, for example, a bottle of fluid to be administered and typically positioned upside down, a sterile plastic tubing set, and a pump for pumping fluid from the bottle through the IV set to the patient. Other mechanisms may be included to manually stop the flow of fluid to the IV feeding tube and possibly some monitoring devices.
Current IV pumps generally are of two basic types: electronic pumps and disposable non-electronic pumps. Although the electronic pumps have been significantly miniaturized and do include some disposable components, they are nevertheless generally high in cost, require frequent maintenance with continued use, and may be difficult for a layman to operate if, for example, self treatment is desired.
A problem common to both type pumps is the susceptibility to external contamination or interference, a problem which is especially acute in medical applications such as an IV pump.