A method of wagering for games where there can be more than one player hand dealt and each player hand is compared to a Dealer hand. The method of wagering adds an option to wager that the Dealer hand will beat a particular player hand, a wager that the Dealer hand will push with or tie a particular player hand, or both additional wagers. The method of wagering may be supported by a special layout for wagers on the Dealer hand, and this layout may be able to move around the table or it may be stationary.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to wagering games. More particularly, the present invention relates to a group of games where there is one hand or value commonly called the "Dealer hand", at least one and possibly more than one hand or value commonly called the "player hand", and wagers are decided by comparing each player hand to the Dealer hand.
2. The Prior Art
Numerous wagering games are known in the prior art. Many of them involve the parties each being given a hand, which consists of a group of cards, tiles, or other gaming pieces. This invention involves games where one of these hands is designated the "Dealer" hand. In some cases, this hand is called the "Player/Dealer hand" or the "Bank Hand". In addition, a number of players can each have their own player hand. Players wager on their own player hand and the outcome of the wager is decided by comparing the player hand to the Dealer hand according to a criterion specified by the rules of the game.
The description of the invention discusses the Dealer and the players having "hands". While a "hand" is normally considered to consist of a collection of playing cards, the word "hand" is used for convenience, and is not intended to restrict the invention to games played with collections of playing cards. For the purposes of this invention, a "hand" can also be a collection of tiles or dominos, the outcome of throwing one or more dice, or any other way of assigning a value to a Dealer and players to decide wagers between them.
There are two major types of games involving a Dealer hand. In one group there is always one Dealer hand and one player hand. The best-known example of this is traditional baccarat. Games where only one player hand is allowed do not fall within the field of this invention.
The other type of game involving a Dealer hand allows more than one player hand. These games comprise the field of this invention. Some of the most common games involving a Dealer hand and multiple player hands are Blackjack, Pai Gow, Pai Gow Poker, EasyPoker, Pan 9, and Fast 9.
In jurisdictions where banking games are allowed, typically the casino or the establishment operating the game ("the house") funds the Dealer hand. A banking game is a game where the casino plays an active role in the games and makes a profit by collecting losing wagers from the players. The casino pays all winning wagers. The casino collects all losing wagers. And a casino employee makes all playing decisions involving the Dealer hand, typically according to a set of playing rules.
In jurisdictions where banking games are not allowed, players take turns acting as Dealer. In some other jurisdictions, one or more players may be agent(s) of the house, but other players may also take their turn to be Dealer. In all these cases, each time the game is played, a player is designated as "Player/Dealer", and puts up a wager, and receives a hand. All other players make a wager and receive a hand. They are trying to beat the hand of the Player/Dealer. If the player wins, the player is paid from the Player/Dealer's wager, if there is sufficient money to pay the Player. If the player loses, the player loses his/her wager to the Player/Dealer, if the Player/Dealer's wager was sufficient to cover the player's wager. Usually there are some circumstances that are defined as a "push", and when this occurs, no money changes hands.
When a wager on the Dealer hand is allowed, the wager is against all the player hands, if the wager is large enough to cover all the wagers on the player hands. If the wager on the Dealer hand is not large enough to cover all the player hands, it is a wager against one or more of the player hands, but it is not specifically against one player hand. A random event, such as the value of a card or the throw of one or more dice is used to decide the order of settling wagers. So if a player makes a wager on the Dealer hand that is not large enough to cover all of the bets on player hands, he does not know which player hand(s) he is wagering against, when he makes the wager.
There are many variations of how the Player/Dealer's wager is funded. Two or more parties may share equally in funding the wager. Two or more parties may make separate wagers, where the second or third wager only comes into play when wagers equal to the size of the first Player/Dealer wager have been settled. Also players wagering against the Player/Dealer may combine their funds to wager on a hand or make separate wagers on a hand.
In addition, there are different ways to fund wagers on the player hand. Usually, the player that makes the decision on a hand wagers on their own hand. However, in many casinos more than one player can wager on a particular player hand and a player can wager on more than one player hand.
For the purposes of this invention, the source of the funds and the makeup of the wagers are not significant. The key characteristic of these games is that all players are restricted to one or two types of wagers. In all jurisdictions, the player can wager that a particular player hand will rank higher than the Dealer's hand. In essence, they may bet that they can "beat the dealer".
And in jurisdictions where there is a Player/Dealer, the player may wager on the Dealer hand against all the player hands. If a player wagers on the Dealer hand, his money is used to settle wagers against one player hand after another.
None of these games, as currently played, offer the opportunity to wager that the Dealer hand will beat a particular player hand. You can wager that the player hand will beat the Dealer hand, but not the reverse wager. You can wager that the Dealer hand will generally beat player hands, but not a specific player hand.
In addition, none of the wagering methods used in these games allow you to wager that a particular hand will tie or push with the Dealer hand.
There are many variations of blackjack. Some common variations add jokers to the deck; change the method for deciding who wins, particularly when one or both parties go over 21; change what a "natural" is, and some even change the target number from 21 to 22 or some other value. The field of the invention includes all these variations.
Pai Gow is played with a set of tiles with markings. Each player makes a wager and then receives four tiles. In addition, another four-tile hand is given to the Dealer.
The player divides the four tiles into a pair of two-tile groups. The house or Player/Dealer tiles are also divided into a pair of two-tile groups. Each two-tile player group is compared to one of the two-tile house or Player/Dealer groups according to a ranking scheme for the pairs of tiles. The higher-ranked group is compared to the higher-ranked Dealer group, and the two lower-ranked groups are compared. If both the player's groups beat both the Dealer groups, the player wins an amount equal to his/her wager. If both of the Dealer groups are ranked higher than the player's groups, then the player loses his/her wager to the Dealer. If one is ranked higher and one is ranked lower, then it is a "push" and no money changes hands.
Pai Gow Poker is similar to Pai Gow, but it is played with a deck of conventional playing cards and each player receives seven playing cards. Each party divides his cards into a group of two cards and a group of five cards, and these groups are compared according to the traditional rankings of poker hands. Again, if both groups of either party have a higher ranking than the corresponding groups of the other player, that party wins the wager. Otherwise it is a push.
Pan 9 and variations such as Fast 9 are card games where players are trying to each get as close as possible to a target value of 9. The Dealer and other players are each dealt three cards, and each party has the option to add a fourth card to his/her hand. The values of the cards are added up with face cards counting zero, aces counting one, and all other cards counted at face value. Only the last digit of the hand value is used, so a value of 14 or 24 is counted as a value of four. Pan 9 and it's variations are played with decks of cards with the 7, 8, 9 and 10s removed.
All of these games share the same basic wagering method. You can bet that a particular player hand will beat the Dealer hand. And in some cases you can wager on the Dealer hand against all the player hands. However, you cannot wager that the Dealer hand will beat a particular player hand, and you cannot wager that the Dealer hand will push with or tie a particular player hand.
Traditional Baccarat provides these options. A player can bet on the Dealer hand (typically called the Bank Hand) or a player can wager on the player hand. In addition, the player can wager that the two hands will tie. However, in Baccarat, there is exactly one Dealer hand and exactly one player hand. In traditional Baccarat, there is never more than one player hand. As a result, this traditional form of Baccarat falls outside of the field of this invention.
There are variations of Baccarat where there can be more than one player hand, but the wagering method is the same as the other games in the field of this invention. A wager on a particular player hand is allowed. A wager on the Dealer hand against all player hands is involved. However, you cannot wager that the Dealer hand will beat a particular player hand, and you cannot wager that the Dealer hand will push with or tie a particular player hand. These variations would fall within the field of the invention.
In the field of the invention, when the game is played with a Player/Dealer, there is frequently an additional bet allowed called a "buy bet". This bet occurs when a player wants more action than the other players at the table are willing to provide. This player pays another player to make a wager and the person "buying" the wager takes the other side of the bet. Typically, the Player/Dealer pays another party to wager that a particular hand will beat the Player/Dealer hand. This allows the Player/Dealer to, in essence, make a wager that a particular hand will lose to the Dealer hand. The Player/Dealer must pay another player to make this wager. Players other than the Player/Dealer can also buy a wager on a hand and put up a wager on the Player/Dealer hand.


Mounting apparatus is described for locking an insertable stud cutter or slug cutter or fluid nozzle into a socket on a rotatable earth boring drill bit. The cutter may be readily removed and replaced without damaging either the cutter, nozzle or bit. Apparatus are shown for permitting or, alternatively, preventing rotation of the cutter or nozzle in its socket. The mounting apparatus is particularly applicable to cutters having a cutting disk of polycrystalline diamond or other superabrasive material mounted on a carbide supporting body, or carbide body nozzles or nozzles having a bore lined with such a material.

This invention relates to rotary drill bits for use in drilling and coring deep holes in subsurface formations. More particularly, the invention pertains to apparatus and methods for mounting stud cutters on the bodies of drag bits, and may have application to cutter inserts mounted to rock bit cones, as well as to the mounting of fluid nozzles to the bodies of both types of bits.
A rotary drill bit, of the kind to which the invention relates, comprises a bit body having a shank for connection of the bit to a drill string. Typically, the bit body contains an inner passageway for introducing drilling fluid to the face of the bit. The bit body is typically formed of steel or of a metal matrix including hard, wear-resistant particles such as tungsten carbide infiltrated with a hardenable liquid binder. Mounted in receptacles within a drag bit body is a plurality of insert stud cutters and/or slug cutters, together with nozzles for introducing drilling fluid to the cutters for cooling, lubrication and removing particles of drilled material. Similarly, cutter inserts are secured within apertures in the exteriors of the rotating cones of rock bits.
When compared with the earlier-developed conventional mill tooth rock bits, cutter inserts of tungsten carbide or diamond may have a tendency to become dislodged from their insert holes in a roller cone. Similarly, slug cutters and stud cutters may have a tendency to separate from a drag bit body. One reason for this is that the bit body or cone body cannot be hardened to the same high Rockwell hardness level as conventional mill tooth bits, because of the lower hardness required for drilling the cutter sockets or insert holes. As a result of the lower hardness of the bit body or cone body at the surface and particularly the subsurface portions thereof, erosion from the circulating mud may occur more rapidly, and eventually the cutter or insert may come loose. Thus, cutters or inserts which are conventionally brazed into sockets insert holes have a relatively high frequency of loss. The cutters and inserts fall out, leaving a clean hole in the bit or cone and eventually leading to bit failure as the uncut segment of the formation previously contacted by the now-missing cutter or insert disrupts the design cutting action of the bit.
Breakage of cutters is another common problem in rock drilling and necessitates removal and replacement of the defective cutter stud, cutter slug or insert from its socket. Such replacement is not always readily accomplished in the field with prior art insert affixation techniques, where the required specialized tools are often unavailable.
Finally, replaceable nozzles have been commercially available for many years, but state-of-the art nozzle affixation structures leave much to be desired in terms of ease of removal and placement of nozzles.

Mechanically locked drill bit components


A frosting dispenser apparatus including a rotatable platform is described. The frosting dispenser apparatus comprises a body having a base and a pedestal, a rotatable platform is connected with the base and configured to rotate a baked good. Further, a dispenser is connected with the pedestal. The dispenser is located above the rotatable platform. The frosting dispenser apparatus is formed to be easy to use for a child. Additionally, the present invention includes a frosting dispenser apparatus kit which includes a frosting dispenser apparatus, a frosting, a baking mix, a mixing container, a mixing utensil, and a baking container.

(1) Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a frosting dispenser apparatus and, more particularly, to a frosting dispenser apparatus with a rotatable platform.
(2) Description of Related Art
Dispensers for baked good coating materials, such as frosting, have long been known in the art. Most dispensers for frosting baked goods are handheld and require the user to have a certain amount of strength and coordination in order to dispense the contents of the dispenser properly onto the baked good. This introduces a dilemma if a child would like to help with the decorating process without an adult's assistance.
Thus, a continuing need exists for a frosting dispenser that would be easy for a child to use to frost a baked good, which does not require a high degree of skill.

Dispenser apparatus with a forward moving rotatable platform


A liquid ejecting apparatus includes a liquid ejecting unit which has an opening face to which nozzles are open; a wiping member which can wipe off the opening face; and a movement mechanism which relatively moves the liquid ejecting unit and the wiping member in a wiping direction, in which as a wiping operation in which wiping of the opening face is performed by relatively moving the liquid ejecting unit and the wiping member at a speed, and it is possible to execute a movement operation in which the liquid ejecting unit and the wiping member are caused to relatively move in a state in which the liquid ejecting unit and the wiping member do not come into contact with each other at a speed higher than the speed.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid ejecting apparatus such as an ink jet printer, and a maintenance method of the liquid ejecting apparatus.
2. Related Art
In the related art, as a type of a liquid ejecting apparatus, an ink jet printer which prints an image, or the like, by ejecting liquid onto a medium such as a sheet from nozzles of a liquid ejecting unit has been known. As a kind of such a printer, there is a printer which includes a wiper unit (wiping portion) for removing ink mist which is attached to an opening face of a liquid ejecting unit to which a nozzle is open in order to maintain liquid ejecting properties of the liquid ejecting unit (for example, International Publication No. WO 2011/99230).
With the wiper unit, an operation of wiping off ink mist which is attached to an opening face using an ink absorbing member is performed by moving a liquid ejecting unit in a state in which the ink absorbing member which is formed of cloth is pressed against the opening face of the liquid ejecting unit. In addition, a moving speed of the liquid ejecting unit is set low when it is assumed that an amount of ink deposit is large, since a wiping performance is improved when a wiping speed of ink is slow.
Meanwhile, when setting a relative moving speed between the liquid ejecting unit and the ink absorbing member at a time of wiping to a low level, there is a problem in that a time necessary for wiping becomes long. For this reason, it is necessary to efficiently perform wiping so that the time necessary for wiping does not become excessively long, while improving a wiping performance.
In addition, such a problem is not limited to wiping in which a liquid ejecting unit of a printer which performs printing by ejecting ink is wiped off using cloth, and is a common problem when wiping of a liquid ejecting unit is performed in a liquid ejecting apparatus.

Liquid ejecting apparatus and maintenance method


Aspects of the disclosure provide a method for remaining minimum system information (RMSI) reception. The method can include receiving a PBCH carrying a beam index (SBI) and indicating configuration information of a sequence of RMSI PDCCH monitoring occasions. The PBCH is carried in an SS block of an SS block burst set. The configuration information indicates an RMSI offset (D) between a timing reference and a slot carrying the RMSI PDCCH monitoring occasion at the beginning of the sequence of the RMSI PDCCH monitoring occasions, and an RMSI interval (T) between two RMSI PDCCH monitoring occasions in the sequence of RMSI PDCCH monitoring occasions. The method further includes determining a timing of a first RMSI PDCCII monitoring occasion in the sequence of RMSI PDCCH monitoring occasion according to the SBI and the configuration information.

The background description provided herein is for the purpose of generally presenting the context of the disclosure. Work of the presently named inventors, to the extent the work is described in this background section, as well as aspects of the description that may not otherwise qualify as prior art at the time of filing, are neither expressly nor impliedly admitted as prior art against the present disclosure.
High frequency bands (e.g., above 6 GHz) is used in 5th generation (5G) wireless communication systems to increase system capacity. Beamforming schemes can be employed to focus transmitted and/or received signal in a desired direction to compensate for unfavorable path loss of high frequency signals. For example, a base station may perform a beam sweeping to cover a serving area.

Remaining minimum system information reception in 5G wireless communication system


An oil heating system in a turbine engine such as an aircraft turbojet or turboprop main engines, or in an aircraft auxiliary power unit (APU). The turbine oil heating system includes a turbine engine oil circuit for conducting lubricating oil to the turbine engine, an electric starter generator oil circuit for conducting cooling oil from the electric starter generator, and an oil-to-oil heat exchanger connected with the engine oil circuit and connectable with the electric starter generator oil circuit, for transferring heat from the starter generator oil to the engine oil as to warm-up the engine oil during turbine engine motoring prior to actual starting sequence. A low cost and highly integrated system is therefore provided for reducing drag torque of a turbine engine prior to the starting phase.

Turbine engine starting systems are currently designed for worst scenario, that is, extreme cold conditions down to −40° C., when the effects of the oil viscosity and aerodynamics are very significant. During such cold weather conditions, the total engine starting drag torque is enlarged due to the following phenomena:                Oil viscosity: low ambient temperature significantly increases oil viscosity from engine turbomachinery and accessories within the gearbox and the bearings.        Aerodynamic drags: high ambient air densities tend to increase aerodynamic drags through the turbomachinery.
In order to overcome the effects of low temperature and minimize the additional drag caused by higher oil viscosity, turbomachines starting systems could eventually incorporate an oil heater, usually a thermostatically controlled electric resistor inserted at the gearbox oil reservoir and powered by the aircraft electrical system. The oil heater is used to increase oil temperature during cold conditions, and therefore to reduce oil viscosity and to reduce total engine starting drag torque.
Typically, the power range of an APU oil heater for a commercial aircraft may vary between 500 W and 1 kW so that, one of the drawback of oil heaters, is that they increase the weight and complexity of the engines while they are not used during the majority of the aircraft operating conditions.
Most of aircraft main engines rely on turbine starters to initiate engine rotation. More recently, electrical starting technologies have been introduced; like Starter Generator Systems. A Starter Generator System typically includes a synchronous electrical machine used as a motor to provide mechanical power (torque) for starting the turbine engine, and as a generator to generate electric power for supplying the aircraft electrical systems, once the turbine engine has been started. The engine starting drag torque becomes a critical issue in order not to oversize the electrical machine due to starting requirements,
Most of the duty cycle of the Starter Generator corresponds to the generation mode, whereas extremely low part of the duty cycle corresponds to the starting mode. Ideally, the electrical engine should be sized to its nominal operating point and not for one particular point. If the power level requirements for the starting mode are higher than the power requirements for generation, the Starter Generator Systems would end up being oversized for most of its duty cycle. This situation is not desirable, because Starter Generator oversize leads to a weight and volume increase of the electric machine and power converters.
On one hand, it is a known practice to connect oil and fuel circuits via heat exchangers to cool down oil used in turbine engines for lubricating components like rolling bearings, during the normal use of the turbine engine. The oil is cooled down by exchanging heat with the fuel flow (cooler than the oil) that is later on fed to injectors of the combustion chamber of a turbine engine.
For that purpose, a main oil-to-fuel heat exchanger is traditionally connected with the oil and fuel circuits downstream or upstream relative to an oil-to-air heat exchanger, mounted at the oil circuit for cooling the oil output from the turbine engine.
On the other hand, it has been detected the need in this technical field to optimize the sizing of the Starter Generator System (SGS), in order to reduce its weight and volume. Therefore, an oil heating system is proposed to reduce turbomachinery drag torque prior to the actual starting sequence, and consequently to reduce the electrical power required by the Starter Generator. The starting power requirements are then minimized, which will lead to a further optimization of both the electrical machine and power converters sizing.
For this other purpose, a heat transfer method is disclosed herein to transfer the rejected heat from the Starter Generator oil circuit to the turbomachinery oil circuit.

Oil heating system adapted for turbine engine to reduce starting torque


A double crystal analyzer linkage includes the fixed pivot point, a fixed pivot point shaft, and three sliding axis points constrained to allow only sliding motion along given linear, parallel paths. The three paths are arranged such that one path passes through the fixed pivot point shaft on a central path and the two remaining paths are on opposite sides and equidistant from the central path. Two diffracting devices (200, 200′) are mounted to axis points which traverse the outer paths (204, 204′). A right angle slide (210) constrains the two linear paths to only slide through a single axis point and constrains the two linear paths to be at right angles to each other. An inline slide constrains two paths to slide through a single axis point, and constrains the two paths to be parallel to each other. First (212) and second linkage (214) devices are connected to the right angle slide (210) and the two remaining axis points, and constrain the two diffracting devices (200, 200′) to remain parallel at all times.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to spectrometry and, more particularly, to a linkage design used in a double crystal analyzer system.
2. Background Description
An "analyzer" is a spectrometer capable of measuring a single energy which can be scanned through a wide energy range. As used herein, "analyzers" go beyond simple frequency bandpass selection to include conditioning for topography, x-ray or neutron interferometry, x-ray or neutron standing waves, and phase selection. Analyzers covering the energy range from a few kilovolts and higher generally use single crystals of silicon or germanium as energy dispersive elements. Previously, Golovchenko et al. described an X-ray monochomator system for use with synchotron radiation sources (J. A. Golovchenko et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 52(4) April 1981). The Golovchenko system includes two separate Bragg reflecting crystals constrained by a mechanical linkage system. The design enables it to tune continuously in x-ray energies, while maintaining an exit beam of constant offset and direction relative to the incident beam.
FIG. 1 illustrates the "rigid right angle" concept of Golovchenko. Crystal positions are at a and b or a and b′. The concept of Golovchenko requires that the apex of the right angle Y must always have a vertical height exactly halfway between the height of the beam incident on the analyzer and the desired output beam height, and that the bar YX must always pass through some fixed position a at the incident beam height. The apex Y and second crystal at b are constrained to translate along parallel lines. For any given position of the apex Y along the midline MN, the rigid right angle must rotate about its apex Y in order that the length of YX intercept the fixed point a at the beam height.
Golovchenko indicated that the analyzer design acted as mechanical analogue computer generating proper crystal angles and displacements for the double crystal analyzer. With reference to FIG. 2, it can be seen that, depending on the planar spacing and angle of incidence θ, an energy will be selected by Braggs Law and the beam will be deflected by 2θ at a. Different positions of the apex Y along MN will yield different values of the angle of incidence θ, thereby permitting the system to have a mechanism to scanning through different selected energies. Thus, regardless of the energy chosen (as dictated by the horizontal position Y), the beam reflected from a will always intercept the bar YZ at the desired beam height. That is, the reflected beam, the bar YZ and the line PQ will always intercept each other at one point. This is proven by extending the line ZY to intercept the incident beam height at point c. The equality of incidence and reflection angles from the first crystal coupled with the congruence of triangles Yax and Yab yields the desired result.
FIG. 3 provides a summary of motions required for operation of the Golovchenko linkage. In the x-ray analyzer system, bearing positions of low energy setting are drawn in solid (XYZ angle) and those for a higher energy setting are dashed (X′Y′Z′ angle). To change energy, the rigid bar YX must slide through and rotate about point a. The linear bearing through which YX slides must therefore be mounted on a rotary bearing whose axis is at a perpendicular to the plane of FIG. 3. The first crystal is mounted directly over the linear bearing at a and perpendicular to YX. Another compound linear slide and rotary motion allows the apex Y to translate along rigid rod MN which is halfway between the incident beam height and exit beam height. Another bearing package slides on PQ. The combination contains two linear slide bearings joined by a rotary bearing. The second crystal mounts above the slide through which YZ passes and is oriented parallel to YZ.
P. L. Cowan et al., Nuc. Inst. Meth. 208:349–353 (1983), describes application of the Golovchenko et al. system for use in an ultra high vacuum (UHV) environment. The assembly is referred to as a "boomerang", and similar to the Golvchenko et al. design, the cross roller slides forbid any relative rotation of the two crystals, and the Bragg angle of both crystals is changed by rotating the "boomerang". Further, the linkage is completed by fixing one crystal axis and constraining the apex pivot and the second crystal axis to move along two equally spaced lined parallel to the incident radiation.
G. Jones et al., Rev. Sci. Instrum. 66(2) February 1995, describes a "Cowan type" double crystal analyzer based on the boomerang design which is used with advanced light source (ALS) that has a beam line covering the 1–6 keV photon-energy range. The design eliminates all of the bearings, and movement is accomplished using dovetail slides made of aluminum/bronze that slide on stainless steel bases.


A backlight unit of a three-dimensional (3D) display has a plurality of cells and a 3D image is formed by adjusting directions of light emitted from the cells. The backlight unit includes an emission unit that adjusts an emission direction of light from a cell with respect to other cells. The backlight unit divides view areas to provide left-eye and right-eye images, thereby generating a 3D image.

1. Field
The following description relates to a backlight unit, a three-dimensional (3D) display having the same, and a method of forming a 3D image. More particularly, direction of light emitted by the backlight unit may be adjustable.
2. Description of the Related Art
Three-dimensional (3D) images can be formed according to the principle of stereo visualization in a viewer's eyes. An important factor in generating a stereoscopic sensation in 3D images is the binocular parallax which occurs due to the distance between two eyes of the viewer (i.e. about 65 mm). There are generally two different types of conventional three-dimensional (3D) image displays. A first type of 3D image display requires suitable glasses to see 3D images on the display, and a second type of 3D image display does not require glasses to view 3D images. In the second type of 3D image displays, 3D images can be generated by separating right images and left images without using glasses. Techniques for the 3D image displays without 3D glasses include a parallax barrier method and a lenticular method.
In the parallax barrier method, images to be observed by right and left eyes are alternately displayed, where each image has longitudinal patterns, and the images are observed using a very thin longitudinal lattice row, e.g., a barrier. In this way, a longitudinal pattern image for the left eye and a longitudinal pattern image for the right eye are separated by the barrier. The image for the left eye and the image for the right eye have different view points, and thus they are separately observed by the right and left eyes, respectively, to form a stereoscopic image.
In the lenticular method, images corresponding to right and left eyes are disposed on a focal plane of a lenticular lens, and the images are observed through the lenticular lens. The images corresponding to the right and left eyes are divided based on the characteristic of the lenticular lens, and thus they are separately observed by the right and left eyes, respectively, to form a stereoscopic image.
In both the parallax barrier method and the lenticular method, a stereoscopic image viewing area is fixed because a barrier or lens, a focal length, an emission direction, and the like are fixed. For example, a 3D image can be viewed only either in a landscape/horizontal mode or in a portrait/vertical mode of a display in the parallax barrier and lenticular methods. This is because the barrier and lenticular lens are arranged such that only a certain display direction and orientation provides images that the right and left eyes can properly observe in order to form a stereoscopic image.

Backlight unit, 3D display having the same, and method of forming 3D image


A method and apparatus for creating virtual topologies for a mobile ad hoc network comprising generating at least two nodes representing transmitters and/or receivers in the network; each of said at least two nodes having parameters (which may be for example, location, direction, velocity, receiving/transmitting capability); generating a bidirectional or unidirectional link between two nodes when appropriate; storing the specifications of the topology of the network in memory; whereby the stored topologies are adapted to be inputted into a test-bed system capable of emulating a mobile ad-hoc network. Optionally, the images of the nodes and links are displayed on a display and/or may be stored on a programmable storage medium.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to networked communications such as ad-hoc networks, and, more particularly to mobile ad-hoc networks (MANET).
2. Description of the Related Art
There are three different ways to conduct a MANET experiment: (1) actual field exercises, (2) simulation, and (3) emulation. An actual field exercise is the most expensive one in terms of time, effort, resources, and human power. Simulation provides a controllable, repeatable virtual environment in which theoretical concepts are implemented and evaluated. Emulation is between the two; it also provides a controllable and repeatable environment in which one can conduct and repeat experimentation in a physical test bed—not in a virtual environment as simulation does.
The invention is intended mainly to support emulation although its outputs can also be used to feed a simulation tool; e.g., the time-stamped positions or also known as mobility traces or traces or a mobility scenario or simply just scenario. Both simulation and emulation requires a scenario, which is a mobility scenario for the mobile ad-hoc network emulator (MANE) test bed or a set of topology definitions for an emulation test bed that uses a packet-filtering tool to create virtual topologies in a physical network such as the TEALab test bed. The invention is intended mainly to support the MANE and the TEALab test beds. The functionality of the two test beds are described in subsequent sections.
The present invention relates to providing high quality information assurance in a networking environment. Military tactical communications require network security precautions that are distinct from the commercial world. However, the underlying characteristic is the fluid nature of the environment, since network participants are mobile. Group make-up varies over time, since units join and leave on an ad hoc basis. Thus, communication links vary both quality and reach. Unit responsibilities also shift as mission requirements and battlefield circumstances dictate. There may be no fixed infrastructure that can be relied upon. In addition, equipment may be captured by adversaries who are highly motivated, extremely skilled, and well funded. Security in such an environment is vital to the network warfare operation.
The present invention relates to the emulation and simulation of wireless, mobile networks. As used herein, a network topology is a pattern of links connecting pairs of nodes of a network. A node is a device that is connected as part of a computer network, and a data link is the means of connecting. It can be appreciated that in the course of movement of wireless operators, the ability of the operators to communicate with one another is of paramount importance. Rather than carry out the network capability measurements during actual real world experimental work to determine the communication links created or destroyed as the operators move in predetermined areas, simulation programs and emulation test beds are used to predict the networking capabilities.
A more complete description of the characteristics of Mobile Ad Hoc Networks is found in RFC# 2501 (http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc2501.txt) entitled "Mobile Ad hoc Networking (MANET): Routing Protocol Performance Issues and Evaluation Considerations," by S. Corson of University of Maryland and J. Macker of Naval Research Laboratory, January 1999. As stated therein, a MANET consists of mobile platforms (e.g., a router with multiple hosts and wireless communications devices)—herein simply referred to as "nodes"—which are free to move about arbitrarily. The nodes may be located in or on airplanes, ships, trucks, cars, perhaps even on people or very small devices, and there may be multiple hosts per router. A MANET is an autonomous system of mobile nodes. The system may operate in isolation, or may have gateways to and interface with a fixed network. In the latter operational mode, it is typically envisioned to operate as a "stub" network connecting to a fixed internetwork. Stub networks carry traffic originating at and/or destined for internal nodes, but do not permit exogenous traffic to "transit" through the stub network. MANET nodes are equipped with wireless transmitters and receivers using antennas which may be omnidirectional (broadcast), highly-directional (point-to-point), possibly steerable, or some combination thereof. At a given point in time, depending on the nodes' positions and their transmitter and receiver coverage patterns, transmission power levels and co-channel interference levels, a wireless connectivity in the form of a random, multihop graph or "ad hoc" network exists between the nodes. This ad hoc topology may change with time as the nodes move or adjust their transmission and reception parameters.
The characteristics of MANETs include (1) Dynamic topologies due to arbitrary movement of nodes which arbitrarily changes network topology, which may consist of both bidirectional and unidirectional links, (2) Bandwidth-constrained, variable capacity links and the realized throughput of wireless communications when taking into consideration the effects of multiple access, fading, noise, interference conditions, etc. is often much less than a radio's maximum transmission rate; (3) Energy-constrained operation due to reliance at least in part on batteries or the like, requiring optimal energy conservation; (4) Limited physical security due to the increased possibility of eavesdropping, spoofing, and denial-of-service attack such that decentralized nature of network control in MANETs provides additional robustness against the single points of failure of more centralized approaches. In addition, MANETS may be tens or hundreds of nodes per routing area.
Simulation is a leading way to research solutions to difficult Mobile Ad Hoc Networks (MANETs), which are wireless mobile nodes that cooperatively form a network without reliance on an existing infrastructure. There is no coordination or configuration prior to setup of a MANET. Routing packets are used in an environment where the topology is changing frequently creating wireless communications issues, and resource issues such as limited power and storage.
There are several factors involved in conducting trustworthy simulation-based research. Generally, there are four areas of credibility in research. 1. Repeatable: A fellow researcher should be able to repeat the results for his/her own satisfaction, future reviews, or further development. 2. Unbiased: The results must not be specific to the scenario used in the experiment. 3. Rigorous: The scenarios and conditions used to test the experiment must truly exercise the aspect of MANETs being studied. 4. Statistically sound: The execution and analysis of the experiment must be based on mathematical principles.
Executing the simulation can require a lot of time and effort. Therefore, it is important to conduct the execution portion correctly and expediently. In a publication entitled "MANET Simulation Studies: The Incredibles," several common simulation pitfalls were enumerated. Simulation setup involves determining (a) type: terminating or steady-state), (b) model validation & verification, (c) PRNG Validation & Verification (PNRG is a package for maintaining and visualizing network data, particularly historical trend analysis of network resources), (d) variable definitions (hundreds of configurable variables may be used during an execution in order to meet general wired and wireless network simulator requirements), and (e) scenario development (using the correct parameters, including the number of nodes, the size of the simulation area, and the transmission range of nodes used in the simulations). Simulation execution involves: (a) setting the PRNG seed, (b) scenario initialization, and (c) metric collection. Output analysis requires (a) analysis of proper size of data sets, (b) statistical analysis and (c) confidence intervals.
The present invention is directed to a methodology of custom-designing network topology and creating time-stamped position data to drive, inter alia, the Mobile Ad-hoc Network Emulator (MANE) system consisting of hardware and software. Downloadable examples of the MANE software are presented at http://downloads.pf.itd.nrl.navy.mil/mane/, which are hereby incorporated by reference as though fully rewritten herein. The MANE emulator is a mobile ad hoc network emulator that provides the ability to emulate dynamic link connectivity between emulated mobile nodes in a laboratory test bed. MANE runs on a network of servers, each of which hosts a number of client test nodes (TNs) as shown in FIG. 1(A). The servers LAN approach support emulation scalability. It is based upon motion interface upon global positioning system (GPS) reference location data so that the same test tools, methods, and tracing tools can be used in the real world test with actual working GPS components.
MANE runs on a network of servers, each of which hosts a number of client test nodes (TNs). The servers LAN approach support emulation scalability (see FIG. 1A). Although MANE runs on a Linux operating system, the overall design accommodates heterogeneous operating systems among the TNs. Furthermore, MANE is protocol independent, and can support multiple protocols (e.g., IPv4, IPv6, ARP, etc.). The MANE connectivity model provides packet dropping based on the range between individual nodes, the transmission power, and packet size.
MANE components consists of:
(1) Forwarding Engine: This component runs on the MANE servers. It sniffs packets on the servers interfaces, and forwards them to the all other servers interfaces. The forwarding engine interconnects all the emulated mobile nodes (TNs).
(2) Range Model: This component runs on the MANE servers. It generates the connectivity matrix that determines which packets get dropped. The range model works in conjunction with the forwarding engine and creates a dynamic connectivity model on the servers.
(3) GPS Emulator: This component reads position information from scripts for each emulated mobile node and multicasts the positions out to the MANE forwarding engine/range model and to the individual emulated nodes. There is one GPS emulator in MANE, and it resides either on the test bed control node, or on one of the MANE servers.
(4) GPS Daemon: This component resides on each of the emulated mobile nodes. It listens to the GPS emulator multicasts and keeps track of the node position. It can supply GPS position information to applications that require it.
(5) TN Packet Treatment: This component resides on each of the emulated mobile nodes. It emulates the effects of a simple Media Access Control (MAC) scheme by limiting the total amount of inbound and outbound traffic at a test node. This module creates a virtual interface over which all MANET communications must take place. Each of the components obtains testbed configuration information from a common configuration file, which by default is located in /etc/mane.config.
The present invention is also directed to a methodology of creating an ordered list of textual topology definitions to drive, inter alia, the TEALab test bed. For a more thorough description of this test bed, see "TEALab: A Testbed for Ad hoc Networking Security Research," by Mike Little, Telcordia Technologies Inc., Piscataway, N.J. 08854 (formerly known as Bellcore, which had been part of Bell Labs before the breakup of AT&T). At Telcordia, the Tactical Environment Assurance Laboratory (TEALab) created an environment for studying network attacks and attack recognition in ad hoc networking environments. The TEALab environment consists of a collection of mobile ad hoc network (MANET) hosts interconnected via a common networking environment such as an Ethernet (wired or wireless). Each MANET host can be viewed as consisting of four distinct "layers": link layer communications, network-to-link layer filtering, network and transport layer communications, and applications. The link layer communications provides the physical and link layer protocols required to participate with the common networking environment. In a TEALab environment, this is an Ethernet protocol suite. The network-to-link layer filtering provides the functionality that controls whether one host will receive packets from another host. This is accomplished by the use of the netfilter/iptables system software. This software provides a set of hooks inside a Linux operating system that allow execution of software rules whenever network packets traverse the communications interface. The TEALab employs source filtering rules to restrict the in-flow of packets from hosts that are not considered to be next hop neighbors. As such, the environment can be viewed as one in which each host maintains a programmable switch between itself and the other hosts. The TEALab environment employs a Topology Scenario Management program to manipulate these filtering rules in real-time to emulate inter-nodal visibility. This program reads scenario scripts that define the network topology, changes it may undergo and when those changes occur. Thus both static and dynamic topologies can be defined. These topologies can be fully connected. For further details, see "TEALab: A Testbed for Ad hoc Networking Security Research."
Studies of MANET have been conducted using mobility-pattern data, which can be generated by a computer program implementing a mobility model. However, frequently the data is purely time-stamped positions, lacking information about the links among the nodes, and thus insufficiently describe a static or dynamic topology.
Having a desirable dynamic topology meeting a specific need is important in the research, development, test, and evaluation of ad-hoc networks. During early phases of development, having a controllable specific topology is highly desirable because a new technique, algorithm, or mechanism that is being developed may not be ready to operate in any topology. During the last phases of the development, having a different topology is also desirable because it can be used to test and evaluate a newly developed technology in order to corroborate its performance claims. Accordingly, there exists a need for visually designing, editing, manipulating, verifying, and animating desired network topologies and creating desired mobility-pattern data of a mobile ad-hoc network (MANET). A desired network topology of a MANET system is a time-dependent geometrical shape and size of the network that meets at least the following requirements of a research need:
The exact number of participating nodes
Their relative geographical positions
The number of communication links of each node
Desired mobility-pattern data are time-stamped mobility traces that define a specific mobility scenario meeting a specific research need.

System and method for visually creating, editing, manipulating, verifying, and/or animating desired topologies of a mobile ad hoc network and/or for generating mobility-pattern data

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


A leg device for height-adjustably supporting a supported object includes a leg shaft having a male thread portion, and an ascending/descending body supported on the leg shaft to be capable of ascending and descending. The ascending/descending body includes a base having a fixing part to be fixed to the supported object, a through hole for receiving the leg shaft therein, and an elastic piece, a lock body, and a release body. The lock body has an upper part pivotally assembled onto the base, and a female screw part engageable with the male thread portion. The lock body is pushed by the elastic piece toward the leg shaft inserted into the through hole. The release body has an operating part projecting outward from the base, and a striking part positioned inside the base. The release body can be operated to release the lock body.

This invention relates to an improvement of a leg device, which is attached to various kinds of supported objects to become a leg of these supported objects, and also has a function of supporting such supported objects to be capable of height adjustment.
As a leg device, comprising a male screw-shaped leg shaft having a ground part on the lower end part, and an ascending/descending body supported on this leg shaft to be capable of ascending and descending, and constituted such that:
this ascending/descending body is constituted by a base, which has a fixing part for a supported object and also has a pass-through/slip-out hole for the leg shaft, and
a lock body has the upper end part assembled onto this base to be capable of rotation and also has a female screw-shaped part which engages with the male screw part of the leg shaft on the front face side of the lower end part; and
an elastic piece contacts on the back face of this lock body so as to push the female screw-shaped part of the lock body against the outer perimeter surface of the leg shaft inserted through said pass-through/slip-out hole and is integrally formed on such base, there is one shown in Patent Document 1 which the present applicant has previously filed.
By such leg device, with three parts, which is said leg shaft, base, and lock body, a supported object can be supported to be capable of height adjustment.
Here, in such leg device, if the engagement between the leg shaft and the lock body could be made compulsorily releasable by external operation, the amount that the leg shaft sticks out from the underside of the supported object could be easily adjusted within a great range, and its convenience of use could be further improved.
Patent Document 1: Japanese Patent Application No. 2004-158867
The main features that this invention attempts to solve is to make it possible to easily adjust within a great range the amount that the leg shaft sticks out from the underside of a supported object, in a manner such that the engagement between the leg shaft and the lock body constituting this can be compulsorily released by external operation, without uselessly increasing the number of constituent parts of this kind of leg device.


A solid oxide fuel cell system includes at least one fuel cell and at least one gas flow channel to deliver a reactant mixture. The fuel cell comprises at least one chamber to house at least one anode, at least one cathode, and at least one electrolyte, and the fuel cell is adapted to receive a reactant mixture comprising reactants mixed prior to delivery to the fuel cell. The one or more gas flow channels for delivering the reactant mixture have characteristic dimensions that are less than a quench distance of the reactant mixture at an operating temperature within the solid oxide fuel cell system.

Solid oxide fuel cells (SOFCs) are designed to introduce reactant gases to two electrodes (i.e. an anode and a cathode) which are then brought into electrical contact via an electrolyte. Traditionally, the reactant gases are mixed within the fuel cell, with the oxidant, e.g. air, being first introduced at the cathodic portion of the fuel cell, and the fuel, e.g. hydrogen or hydrocarbon, being first introduced at the anodic portion. An external load is connected to the anode and cathode causing oxygen at the cathode to react with incoming electrons from the external circuit to form oxygen ions. The oxygen ions migrate to the anode through the electrolyte and oxidize the fuel at the anode, resulting in the liberation of electrons to the external circuit and causing a current flow that returns electrons to the cathode.
One development in SOFCs has been the use of a single chamber design to simplify the cell fabrication and subsequent system operation. The single chamber design requires the reactants to be mixed prior to delivery to the anode and cathode of the fuel cell. (See, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,248,941 to Louis et al.). Since SOFCs generally operate at or above 500° C., the potential for uncontrolled exothermic reactions is present in any single chamber design. Uncontrolled reactions can cause the consumption of the reactants before and during the delivery of the reactants to the operating cell resulting in reduced efficiency or potentially damaging explosions.

Methods of operating and making a solid oxide fuel cell system


A pulse width modulation (PWM) based Real-time clock (RTC) system includes a voltage regulator circuit, a capacitor, an RTC circuit and an on-off logic. The voltage regulator circuit is arranged to generate a regulated voltage to a connection node when enabled; the capacitor is coupled to the connection node; the RTC circuit is coupled to the connection node; and the on-off logic is coupled to the voltage regulator circuit and arranged to alternately enable and disable the voltage regulator circuit.

A real-time clock (RTC) is a computer clock that keeps track of the current time. Although the term often refers to the devices in personal computers, servers and embedded systems, RTCs are almost presented in electronic devices which need to keep accurate time. RTCs normally have an alternate source of power, such as a battery, so they can continue to keep time while the primary source of power is unavailable. The battery life is still limited by the size of the alternative battery. To extend battery life, an RTC system with higher power efficiency is required.

Pulse width modulation based real-time clock system and associated method


Methods of preparing a polymerization catalyst are provided that include contacting a support comprising alumina with a sulfating agent and with chromium. In an embodiment in which the chromium is provided from a chromium compound such as chromium oxide, the support may be calcined after loading the sulfating agent and the chromium on the support. Alternatively, the sulfating agent can be loaded on the support while calcining it. In another embodiment in which the chromium is provided from an organochromium compound, the support may be calcined after contacting it with the sulfating agent and before contacting it with the organochromium compound. Catalysts compositions formed by the foregoing method are provided. In an embodiment, catalyst compositions comprise chromium and a sulfate treated alumina support. The catalyst compositions have an activity for ethylene polymerization that is at least about 25% greater than an activity of the same catalyst without sulfate.

Supported chromium oxide catalysts are commonly employed to prepare polyolefins having desirable characteristics. Various supports for chromium oxide catalysts have been disclosed in the art. The particular support used for the chromium oxide strongly affects the properties of the polymer being formed. Silica supports have primarily been used due to their ability to form highly active polymerization catalysts. However, silica supports do not provide for the production of ultra high molecular weight polymers when hexavalent chromium is formed during the catalyst activation, which often occurs. Aluminum phosphate supports are similar to silica supports in that they form highly active catalysts. However like the silica supports, they also do not have the ability to produce very high molecular weight polymers. Further, the polymers produced using the aluminum phosphate supports tend to contain relatively high amounts of long chain branching, which is not always a desirable property during processing of the polymer.
While the possibility of using alumina supports for chromium oxide catalysts has been described in the art, such supports typically are not used. Alumina supports desirably have relatively high surface areas and are very porous; however, chromium oxide catalysts supported by alumina are not sufficiently active to be considered commercially viable. The activity of such catalysts can be improved by adding fluoride to the alumina support. It is believed that the fluoride replaces surface hydroxide groups, which are believed to interfere with polymerization. Unfortunately, the addition of too much fluoride tends to sinter the alumina, resulting in the deactivation of the catalysts. A need therefore exists to develop a method for increasing the activity of chromium catalysts supported by alumina without being concerned that the alumina might be sintered.

Methods of preparing active chromium/alumina catalysts via treatment with sulfate


Support is provided for multiple late binding objects with a same identifier, in an operating environment that only supports registration of a single late binding object with the same identifier. Each of a plurality of processes is associated with one of a plurality of late binding objects, such that at least two processes are each associated with a separate late binding object having the same identifier. Responsive to one of the plurality of processes attempting to access a late binding object by its identifier, a determination is made as to which late binding object is associated with the process. The associated late binding object is made available to the process.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates generally to late binding software objects, and specifically to supporting multiple late binding objects with a same identifier in an operating environment that only supports registration of a single late binding object for each identifier.
2. Background of Invention
Contemporary software development often utilizes late binding. In late binding, external code is associated with a program at run time rather than at compile time. Therefore, late binding allows software developers to change functionality associated with a computer program, without having to change or even have access to the source code.
For example, suppose an accounting software program includes calls to a capital gains object, which contains code to categorize capital gains, and to calculate capital gains tax. Without late binding, in order to change the capital gains object to take advantage of a more robust calculating algorithm, or to reflect changes in the tax law, the software developer would be required to edit the source code of the accounting program, recompile the source code, relink the object code, and distribute a new executable image to all users of the software.
This problem can be solved by making the capital gains object a late binding object, external to the accounting program itself. That way, the accounting software could be programmed such that all calls to the capital gains object will execute code to determine which late binding object is associated with the call, and then to access that object. Therefore, in order to update the capital gains functionality, the developer would need only to modify the capital gains object itself, and to make the new capital gains object available to users of the accounting software. This eliminates the need to edit and recompile the source code for the accounting program. All calls within the unmodified accounting program would then be automatically associated with the updated capital gains object.
One example of late binding is the use of Component Object Module (COM) objects in Microsoft Windows®. COM objects are late binding objects that are programmed according to a published Microsoft standard. The use of COM objects is very widespread within Windows programming. A developer can register a COM object having a specific identifier with the Windows operating system. Other Windows programs can then call the registered COM object through the operating system, by using the identifier. Both Microsoft and other providers of Windows software frequently use COM objects to provide late binding functionality.
One problem with COM objects is that Windows requires each identifier to be uniquely associated with a single COM object. As a result, multiple COM objects cannot be associated with the same identifier. In other words, there is no mechanism within the Windows operating system for associating different programs with different COM objects having the same identifier. All programs that call a COM object with a specific identifier must access the same COM object. If the COM object is updated, all programs will automatically access the updated version.
This can be problematic, because it is often desirable to have multiple versions of a software program installed on the same computer, and these multiple versions might need to access different versions of a given late binding object, such as a COM object. For example, suppose a new version of an accounting program is released, and it uses an updated capital gains object, having the same identifier as the older capital gains object in the previous version of the software. A user might wish to install the updated version of the accounting software on his computer, but at the same time keep the earlier version installed. This could be the case, for example, if the user wanted to test the new version before deleting the old version. Additionally, a user might need to utilize different versions of the accounting program for different purposes, such as personal, business, domestic and foreign accounting. However, because Windows only supports registration of a single COM object for each identifier, for all programs running under the operating system, different versions of the accounting software would not each be able to access separate capital gains objects with this same identifier. Instead, all versions would have to access the same capital gains object. This problem is not limited to Windows and COM objects, but exists wherever an operating system or other type of operating environment (e.g., a middleware environment such as CORBA or SOM) only supports the use of a single late binding object with the same identifier.
This could be prevented by using new late binding object identifiers in each version of the accounting software, but that would require that all calls to all late binding objects be changed in the source code, thereby eliminating the ability to update functionality without recompiling source code of the underlying application, which is a primary advantage of late binding.
Another option would be to make all versions of the software compatible with the same late binding objects, but this would severely limit the ability of developers to introduce varied functionality across software releases. Furthermore, such a requirement would make software testing difficult and expensive.
Another solution would be to require to no more than one version of a software program be installed on a user's machine at any one time, but this is unacceptable from a marketing standpoint to many software vendors.
What is needed is a method, a computer program product and a system that allow using multiple late binding objects with the same identifier in an operating environment that that only supports registration of a single late binding object with the same identifier.

Supporting multiple late binding objects with the same identifier


A penetration unit (10) for a concrete slab including a hollow housing (28) open at one end for receiving a service line or pipe (27), and provided at its other end with an enlarged opening surrounded by an annular flange (36) which enables connection of the housing (28) to formwork (37) defining the boundary the concrete slab. The housing (28) defines a hollow space (29) in which the service line or pipe terminates and may be connected to a further line or pipe such as an elbow (31). A puddle flange (32) may be located about the service line or pipe (27) and engage the housing (28). Intumescent material may be located in the hollow space surrounding the pipe or line (27).

It is common practice in the erection of high rise buildings to provide a means whereby concrete slabs, for example flooring slabs, can be penetrated by service lines or pipes. In high rise buildings particular requirements as regards fire safety and materials used are specified, however, the same fire rating level is not required in lower rise buildings. It is important, however, to ensure that the slabs of lower rise buildings are water sealed, for example, in bathroom areas.
A number of different methods have been proposed for penetrating slabs such as those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,694,847, 3,004,320, 2,234,784, 3,276,176 and 2,968,855. In the above patents a sleeve is secured to formwork where an aperture is to be provided and concrete applied about the sleeve which is then removed with the formwork leaving an aperture for the passage of service lines. In such arrangements it is necessary to fill the aperture about the service line which has been passed therethrough to ensure appropriate fire ratings are met. The underneath side of the aperture is often required to be patched with cement or the like which causes difficulties because proper support to the patch cannot be provided, so that in many cases paper, boards or other materials are used to close the aperture before pouring concrete from the top side. Often this results in the underside of the aperture having a jagged bottom edge making awkward the provision of an aesthetically pleasing patch. The above procedure also may result in poor water proofing and the loss of fire rating. Further in this method if jointing of the service line of say an elbow is required, such joints must be located externally of the formed slab.
Other forms of penetration units are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,261,598, 4,077,599, 3,933,336, 3,346,230, 4,619,471 , 4,159,099, 3,800,486, 4,623,170, 3,328,055 and 4,488,388. The units described in each of the above U.S. Patents have further disadvantages and are not suited to the present application. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,261,598 describes a coupling which enables the connection of pipes within a slab, however, such arrangements are not allowable in many situations. Similar comments apply to U.S. Pat. No. 3,328,055 wherein a threaded connector is embedded in concrete to penetrate a concrete slab and for enabling threaded interconnection within the slab to other pipe members. Other arrangement such as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,488,388 result in the placement of a pipe supporting clamp within a slab which serves to grip a pipe which is passed through the sleeve. Other penetration units described in the above U.S. Patents are not suited to use with relatively thin slabs and also do not enable easy coupling of a pipe or duct which is passed through the slab with other connection elements.
In high rise buildings where PVC pipe work is used for a service line or duct it is important to ensure that the pipes are closed off in the event of fire so that smoke, gases and flame cannot travel through the pipes between different floors of the building. At present, means used for penetrating slabs for the passage of service lines or pipes do not incorporate means for efficiently preventing the passage of gases and flames through the service lines or pipes between floors.

Concrete slab penetration unit for pipes

Lavel 15 Corporate Centre One Cnr Bundall R D2 Slayter Ave.


Disclosed is an image processing apparatus composed in a hierarchical architecture of a hardware resource, a first control program over the hardware resource, a second control program and an application program over the first control program. The first control program includes a first API for receiving a first request relating to image processing from the second control program and a second request relating to image processing from the application program, and controls, on receiving either of the first and second requests, the hardware resource to perform image processing based on the received request. The second control program includes a second API publicly released in advance for receiving a third request relating to image processing from an external source, converts the received third request to a command supported by the first API, and passes the command as the first request to the first control program.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing apparatus for receiving a request relating to image processing from an external source and executing the received request.
(2) Description of the Related Art
Recently, so-called digital multifunction peripherals (hereinafter, "MFPs") are in wide use in an office environment as well as in other environments. MFPs are peripherals having multifunction including: a scan job of scanning an image of a document; a copy job of printing out scanned image data of a document; a print job of printing out image data according to a print instruction given from an external terminal; and a FAX job of transmitting/receiving image data to/from an external FAX device.
Being capable of performing multifunction, MFPs are advantageous for users in that there is no need to have separate devices such as copiers and printers, and that reduced cost and improved usability are realized.
Turning now to MFP developers' view, it is required to develop a number of software programs (hereinafter, referred to as "applications") for carrying out a number of functions such as scanning. Naturally, it takes enormous amounts of time to provide all the software programs individually. To address this disadvantage, JP unexamined patent application publication No. 2002-84383, for example, discloses a technique to build a platform with a general-purpose operating system (hereinafter, "OS") and portions common to all the applications. Consequently, efficient development of applications is enabled because what need to be developed are portions other than the platform.
Although efficiency in development is realized, the above technique has a following problem. That is, after delivery of an MFP to a user, the user may request additional functionality that any applications existing in the MFP are not capable of (so-called a customizing request). Unfortunately, however, the MFP is not configured to meet the request easily. For example, when the user desires scanning to be performed in a mode not provided by an existing scan application, the existing application must be altered on the whole exclusively for that particular user, which requires time-consuming work and thus is not practical. As above, MFPs according to the conventional technique are extremely poor in the scalability of functionality.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Image processing apparatus for receiving a request relating to image processing from an external source and executing the received request


A display controller comprising: an image data input interface; a first image processing section for a first processing operation including at least a turning operation to turn an orientation of an image of the image data with a first turning angle or a mirror image reversing operation; a second image processing section for a second processing operation including at least a turning operation to turn an orientation of an image of the image data with a second turning angle or a mirror image reversing operation; an image data compressing section compressing the image data after the first processing operation; a memory for the compressed data where the image data, after the compressing operation, are stored; a host interface to/from which the imaged data stored in the memory are input and output; and a display driver interface outputting the image data, after the second processing operation, to the display driver.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a display controller, an electronic device, and a method of supplying image data.
2. Related Art
In recent years display panels such as a liquid crystal display (LCD) panel, as a representing one for example, are widely mounted on portable devices such as cellular phones and so on (electronic devices, in a wide sense). Such a display panel is driven by a display driver according to image data; which are sometimes those captured by a camera module for example, or what a host has created or processed. While receiving such image data as well as a display synch signal, the display driver carries out driving control of the display panel. Substituting for the host, a display controller performs supply of the image data and synch signal to make it possible to lighten an operation load of the host.
For the purpose of displaying an image, for example, captured through a camera module onto a display panel; a display controller outputs image data coming from the camera module to a display driver. Meanwhile, in order to store the image data of a still image or a motion picture captured through the camera module, it is possible to carry out a compressing operation for the image data.
By the way, the orientation of such an image captured through a camera module is mostly fixed. Therefore, the display controller conventionally turns the orientation of the image of the image data coming from the camera module to create the turned image data and supply the turned image data to the display driver, and/or compresses the image data for the purpose of storing the image data of still images and so on.
However, the orientation of the image to be displayed on the display panel and that of the image to be compressed are sometimes different each other. In such a case, it is impossible to turn the orientation of the image with different turn angles at the same time, and therefore conventionally, the turning operation for each frame is carried out separately for the purpose of displaying and compressing operations with each different turning angle. As a result, the frame of the image to be displayed on the display panel is different from the frame of the compressed image to be stored, and it causes a problem that images captured by continuous shootings of the camera module and/or data saved as a motion picture become different from those displayed on the display panel.
The present invention has been materialized, while paying attention to the technical problem described above; and the purpose of the present invention is to provide a display driver, an electronic device, and a method of supplying image data that enable displaying a display image, the frame of which is the same as that of the image for compressing operation, even under a condition where the orientation of the image for compressing operation is different from the orientation of the display image.

Display controller, electronic device, and method of supplying image data


A plate-like battery pack has: a plurality of single cell elements; a flat battery pack case composed of an insulating material and adapted to have a plurality of holes respectively housing the single cell elements; and a plurality of sealing plates adapted to hermetically seal the holes housing the single cell elements and connect adjacent ones of the single cell elements, and the sealing plates connect the single cell elements in series, parallel or series-parallel.

The present invention relates to a battery pack composed of assembled single-cell secondary batteries and a battery pack group in which the battery packs are connected in series, parallel or series-parallel.
Conventionally, there has been known a battery pack having a plurality of single cells connected in series, parallel or series-parallel in order to obtain a large capacity secondary battery. In addition, the significance of the battery pack is being rediscovered in recent years along with the popularization of electric vehicles and hybrid vehicles.
JP 2003-151526 A discloses an assembled battery which is constituted by combining a plurality of secondary battery single cells, which is produced by connecting the secondary battery single cells by bus bars and then processing the connected cells so as to be housed in an external case, and which improves resistance to vibrations and impacts from the outside while ensuring ease of productivity of the assembled battery and ease of workability in joining the bus bars and the like.
JP 2003-7345 A discloses a lithium secondary battery in which a flat case is constituted with a lightweight exterior material like a laminate film having a gas barrier layer and resin layers respectively provided on both faces of the gas barrier layer; and the flat case housing a battery element having positive and negative electrodes is hermetically closed.
JP 2012-178271 A discloses a technique to reduce the weight of a battery pack by shortening a terminal connecting member used to connect a positive terminal of one secondary battery to a negative terminal of the other secondary battery or by removing the terminal connecting member.

Plate-like battery pack and battery pack group composed of plural plate-like battery packs


Disclosed is a synchronization system in digital communication, which comprises a converter for receiving signals from a transmitter, and oversampling a single symbol interval into a plurality of subsamples; a signal processor for classifying each symbol oversampled by the converter into a subsample group according to a sample phase, and performing signal processing to adjust processing speeds; an integrator for removing noise from the signals output by the signal processor and performing integration during a predetermined time; and a timing selector for selecting an optimal symbol synchronization point from among values output by the integrator, generating a symbol timing signal and outputting it.

(a) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a synchronization system and method thereof in digital communication. More specifically, the present invention relates to a synchronization system and method thereof in digital communication for easy hardware implementation and reduction of effects caused by channels or noise, and thereby obtaining better synchronization performance.
(b) Description of the Related Art
In order to normally transmit and receive data between a transmitter and a receiver in a digital communication system, successful synchronizing is required. Synchronization transmission methods in digital communication systems are classified into frequency synchronization, symbol synchronization, and frame synchronization.
In particular, the symbol synchronization transmission method is divided into two methods according to symbol types. First, when a zero-crossing occurs in a single symbol period, the symbol synchronization transmission method that transmits clock timing signals through the symbol type uses the zero-crossing to adjust symbol synchronization.
In this symbol synchronization transmission method, a waveform is referred to as a return-to-zero (RZ), and it has poor frequency performance.
Next, the symbol synchronization transmission method using a non-return-to-zero (NRZ) waveform has good frequency performance since it does not directly load the timing signals on the symbols, but it requires an additional synchronization circuit.
A receiving end of the digital communication system performs the symbol synchronization through an early-late gate method that compares values output by an early integrator and a late integrator having a marginal time difference within a single symbol period to perform a symbol synchronization process.
Since the early-late gate method performs the symbol synchronization using closed loop control, it is difficult to select control parameters, and since the performance or stability of the loop depends upon the parameter values, it is difficult to implement the method.
To compensate for these problems, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,794,624 and 5,241,545 disclose methods for using an oversampling method instead of the closed loop control method.
First, the method for clock synchronization of a signal receiver of the U.S. Pat. No. 4,794,624 relates to a digital communication system's receiving end for obtaining the symbol synchronization for demodulating digital signals.
That is, the above-disclosed patent comprises an analog/digital converter, a symbol sign estimator, a subtractor, a square-law unit, an integrator, and a comparator. A receiving end receives band-limited signals from a transmitting end and oversamples a single symbol period into a plurality of subsamples, calculates distribution values at each sample point of the symbol, and the comparator then determines an optimized synchronization point.
In this case, since the symbol sign estimator estimates a symbol sign of a signal previously received for symbol synchronization, the performance of the system may be lowered because of noise.
Also, since a multiplier used for the square-law unit uses much time in the clock signal synchronization method of the signal receiver, it is not appropriate for use in a high-fast communication system.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,241,545, entitled "Apparatus and method for receiving a time-varying signal using multiple sampling points" relates to symbol synchronization acquisition and maintenance in a digital packet communication system.
For this, the patent comprises an analog/digital converter, a data buffer, and a correlator, and finds correlation values of as many as the number of those oversampled for each symbol interval between a receiving signal and a reference signal, and selects the maximum correlation value as the synchronization point.
The above-described apparatus and method periodically repeats the above process to maintain the synchronization in a single packet, but it has a problem in that its hardware becomes complex because of the buffer or the correlator, and the data transmission rate becomes lowered because of overloads at the point where time-varying of a channel is less.
Also, in order to find the correlation value, a random signal is to be used as a synchronization code, but since the random signal has bad fading channel characteristics, an initial correlation performance may be lowered.
Therefore, since the apparatus and method uses a specific synchronization code to find the correlation value, the apparatus and method lowers performance of the symbol synchronization in a frequency-selective fading channel.
Since the above US patents use a square-law unit, a subtractor, a buffer, or a correlator in a symbol synchronization block, its corresponding hardware configuration becomes complex, and since their processing speed is limited, they are not appropriate for high-speed data transmission.

Digital communication synchronization system and method thereof

Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute


A paper picking-up unit and an image forming apparatus having the same are provided. The paper picking-up unit includes a knock-up plate to stack paper thereon; a shaft disposed at a front end of the knock-up plate to rotate, a pick-up roller engaged with the shaft to rotate and pick-up the paper stacked on the knock-up plate, and a knock-up plate ascending and descending portion to raise and lower the knock-up plate according to the rotation of the pick-up roller. The pick-up roller includes a roller body engaged and rotatable with the shaft, and having a frictional layer to pick-up the paper by causing friction with the paper, a pair of roller housings to support opposite sides of the roller body such that the roller body does not move in a lengthwise direction of the shaft, and a damper disposed at an outer circumference of each roller housing to reduce noise caused by a collision of the roller housings and the knock-up plate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a paper picking-up unit and an image forming apparatus having the same, and more particularly, to a paper picking-up unit having an improved structure in which noise occurring during a paper picking-up operation is reduced, and an image forming apparatus having the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, an image forming apparatus, such as a printer or copier, includes a paper picking-up unit which receives a plurality of papers, picks up each of the plurality of received papers and supplies the picked-up paper into a main body of the image forming apparatus. FIGS. 1 and 2 are perspective views of an example of a conventional paper picking-up unit. FIG. 1 shows a state just before a paper is picked up, and FIG. 2 shows the instant the paper is picked up.
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a conventional paper picking-up unit 10 comprises a knock-up plate 12, which is coupled with a hinge 14 to a paper feeding cassette (not shown) mounted in a main body (not shown) of an image forming apparatus, and on which a paper P is stacked, a spring 18 which elastically biases the knock-up plate 12 in an upward direction, and a pick-up roller 20, which is disposed in the main body (not shown) of the image forming apparatus and positioned on the knock-up plate 12.
The pick-up roller 20 comprises a roller body 21, which is engaged with a shaft 28 for transferring a rotative power when rotated, has a generally semicircular shape and includes a frictional layer generally formed of rubber and disposed on an outer circumference of the roller body 21 so as to pick up the paper P, and a roller housing 25 which supports both sides of the roller body 21 so that the roller body 21 does not move in a lengthwise direction of the shaft 28.
A pair of cams 30 are engaged with both sides of the shaft 28 in the state where the pick-up roller 20 is placed between the pair of cams 30. The cams 30 press both sides of the knock-up plate 12 in a printing standby state and separate a front end of the paper P from the pick-up roller 20.
If a printing instruction is input into an image forming apparatus (not shown), the pick-up roller 20 and the cam 30 rotate in the direction of arrows shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 by rotation of the shaft 28, and as shown in FIG. 2, the knock-up plate 12 pressed by the cam 30 in a downward direction rotates around the hinge 14 by elasticity of the spring 18 when the cam 30 is removed, and the front end of the knock-up plate 12 apart from the hinge 14 rises. As such, the front end of the paper P stacked on the knock-up plate 12 contacts the roller body 21 of the rotating pick-up roller 20, is picked up by friction with the frictional layer disposed on the outer circumference of the roller body 21, and is fed into the main body (not shown) of the image forming apparatus.
However, the knock-up plate 12 collides with an outer circumference of the roller housing 25 when the knock-up plate 12 rises, resulting in noise. This noise continues until a printing operation is terminated when several papers are printed continuously, and is disturbing to a user.
In particular, if a small number of the papers P are stacked on the knock-up plate 12, shocks that occur when the knock-up plate 12 collides with the roller housing 25 are not reduced, and noise becomes more severe. In addition, due to the shocks, the paper P may be deviated from its registered position, and jam or skew of the paper P may occur.

Paper picking-up unit and image forming apparatus having the same


The present invention relates to a friction material comprising a fibrous base material primary layer of less fibrillated aramid fibers, synthetic graphite and at least one filler material, and a secondary layer of a mixture of carbon particles and at least one retention aid coated on at least one surface of the primary layer. In certain embodiments, the fibrous base material is impregnated with a phenolic or phenolic-based resin material, including, for example, a mixture of a phenolic resin and a silicone resin to form a friction material having high heat resistance and high friction durability characteristics.

New and advanced transmission systems and braking systems are being developed by the automotive industry. These new systems often involve high energy requirements. Therefore, the friction materials technology must be also developed to meet the increasing energy requirements of these advanced systems.
The friction material must be able to withstand high speeds wherein surface speeds are up to about 65 m/seconds. Also, the friction material must be able to withstand high facing lining pressures up to about 1500 psi. It is also important that the friction material be useful under limited lubrication conditions.
The friction material must be durable and have high heat resistance in order to be useful in the advanced transmission and braking systems. Not only must the friction material remain stable at high temperatures, it must also be able to rapidly dissipate the high heat that is being generated during operating conditions.
The high speeds generated during engagement and disengagement of the new transmission and braking systems mean that a friction material must be able to maintain a relatively constant friction throughout the engagement. It is important that the frictional engagement be relatively constant over a wide range of speeds and temperatures in order to minimize "shuddering" of materials during braking or the transmission system during power shift from one gear to another. In particular, the friction material must not shudder during the initial cycles or "break-in" period of operation.
Previously, asbestos fibers were included in the friction material for temperature stability. For example, the Arledter et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,270,846 patent describes phenolic and phenolic-modified resins used with asbestos. Now, however, due to health and environmental problems, asbestos is no longer being used. More recent friction materials have attempted to overcome the absence of the asbestos in the friction material by modifying impregnating paper or fiber materials with phenolic or phenolic-modified resins. These friction materials, however, do not rapidly dissipate the high heat generated, and do not have the necessary heat resistance and satisfactory high coefficient of friction performance now needed for use in the high speed systems currently being developed.
While phenolic resins have found use in friction materials for wet clutch applications, the phenolic resins have various limitations. The phenolic resin friction materials do not have the high heat resistance necessary for use with the new high energy transmission systems. In particular, the phenolic resins carbonize at a temperature of about 450.degree. to 500.degree. C. which is too low to be useful in high energy applications. In addition, phenolic resins are rigid materials and when the phenolic resins are used in a friction material, uneven lining wear and separator plate "hot spots" result.
Attempts to overcome the limitations and drawbacks of phenolic resin friction materials include the replacement of phenolic resins with other thermosetting resins. One attempt to produce friction materials involves the modification of a phenolic resin with various synthetic resins. One example, described in Takarada et al. U.S. Pat. No. 4,657,951, is a phenolic resin modified with an organopolysiloxane which is compression molded to form a friction material. The phenolic resin and organopolysiloxane are reacted together to effect a condensation reaction which is then distilled, solidified by cooling, and pulverized to obtain a powdered phenolic-modified resin. The powdered phenolic-modified resin was used in forming a compression molded friction material.
As far as is known, there is no disclosure of a friction material for use in transmission systems which includes a silicone material blended with a phenolic material and used to impregnate a friction paper.
While the Hartmann et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,911,045 reference discusses a silicone material blended with phenolic resins for use as a compression molding composition, there is no disclosure or suggestion that a silicone material could successfully be blended with a resin material and used to impregnate a friction lining material. On the contrary, previous attempts to use silicone resins in friction materials have been unacceptable. A friction lining that is impregnated or saturated with a silicone resin has, in the past, demonstrated poor shear strength and delamination resistance. Further, friction materials saturated with a silicone resin are usually too elastic and therefore tests with undesirable friction and wear characteristics resulting. It is not surprising that molded friction lining compositions formed entirely of a phenol-formaldehyde resin-polysiloxane resin have not been used even though they are known, since such molded compositions do not have the necessary constant coefficient of friction characteristics and such friction materials fail under high energy and high heat conditions.
The present invention is an improvement over the Seitz, U.S. Pat. No. 5,083,650 reference which involves a multi-step impregnating and curing process; i.e., a paper is impregnated with a coating composition, carbon particles are placed on the paper, the coating composition in the paper is partially cured, a second coating composition is applied to the partially cured paper, and finally both coating compositions are cured.
In order for friction materials to be useful in "wet" applications, the friction material must have a wide variety of acceptable characteristics.
The friction material must be resilient or elastic yet resistant to compression set, abrasion and stress; have high heat resistance and be able to dissipate heat quickly; and, have long lasting, stable and consistent frictional performance. If any of these characteristics are not met, optimum performance of the friction material is not met.
Thus, it is also important that the impregnating resin be used with a suitable friction lining or fibrous base material to form a high energy application friction material. The friction material must have good shear strength both when saturated with the wet resin during impregnation and when saturated with brake fluid or transmission oil during use.
It is also important, under certain applications, that the friction material have high porosity such that there is a high fluid permeation capacity during use. Thus, it is important that the friction material not only be porous, it must also be compressible. The fluids permeated into the friction material must be capable of being squeezed or released from the friction material quickly under the pressures applied during operation of the brake or transmission, yet the lining material must not collapse. It is also important that the friction material have high thermal conductivity to also help rapidly dissipate the heat generated during operation of the brake or transmission.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved friction material with reliable and improved properties compared to those of the prior art.
A further object of this invention is to provide friction materials with good anti-shudder performance, high speed and energy durability, high porosity and strength.
As a result of extensive research in view of the need for a better friction material, a friction material with improved characteristics has been developed by the inventors. The present friction material is especially useful in applications where the friction material is subjected to harsh "break-in" conditions during use.