A method for negotiations between various entities of a wireless local area network (WLAN) including negotiations between controlling nodes (CNs) and wireless access points (WAPs) and negotiations between WAPs is disclosed. These negotiations are used for the purpose of establishing the capabilities of the various entities, determining how such capabilities may be optimally divided among the negotiating entities and then dividing the capabilities among the entities based on this determination. The capabilities include those required for the operation, control and management of the WLAN entities and the encompassing WLAN. The disclosed method introduces means for flexibly accommodating the varying degrees of differences in capabilities among the WLAN entities between the WLAN entities including dynamic changes in WLAN topologies.

Wireless local area networks (WLANs) have invoked great interests from both consumers and the industry. The current most popular WLANs are based on the [Non Patent Document 1] standards. While these standards have helped the initial uptake of WLANs, in their current form, they are not suited for large-scale wireless network deployments. This is because the cost and control of WLAN entities become complex in large environments.
Currently, many WLAN equipment manufacturers have addressed large-scale deployments by introducing new split architecture. Here, control aspects of the [Non Patent Document 1] WLAN specifications are centralized at controller nodes (CNs) while other aspects are distributed to numerous wireless access points (WAPs). With the diversity of manufacturers and their implementations of the split architecture, there are incompatibilities between WLAN entities from different manufacturers.
There are currently some efforts to provide standardized means for managing large-scale WLANs in the Internet Engineering Task Forces (IETF) Control and Provisioning of Wireless Access Point (CAPWAP) working group. [Non Patent Document 2] describes the efforts of the CAPWAP working group. However these efforts do not consider the problems of accommodating WAPs with dissimilar functional capabilities within a single WLAN. As such these problems limit the development of the WLAN market.
Furthermore, it is expected that future deployments of WLANs will feature dynamic wireless networks. In such types of deployments, network topologies will change during the operational lifecycle of the WLAN to enable enhanced applications and services. WLAN elements in such networks will be provisioned with both wired and wireless connectivity to enable dynamic topologies. However current assumptions of WLANs (and also CAPWAP) only refer to static network topologies. So while current WLANs are capable of adjusting to the dynamic conditions of the wireless medium, they are unable to accommodate the effects of dynamic topology changes.
For example, current WLAN systems adjust to declines in the signal-to-interference ratio (SIR) of the wireless medium by increasing the signal transmission power. However such minor corrections are inadequate to accommodate the variances in latency and overhead introduced by changes in WLAN topology. Furthermore, these variances in latency and overhead impede the operation of the CAPWAP split architecture. This is because the split architecture is sensitive to delays due to the very nature of the distributed operations. The redundancies of WLAN and CAPWAP processing performed at intermediate wireless access points (WAP) of a dynamic CAPWAP topology together with the corresponding physical overheads are detrimental to the CAPWAP split operations.
Given such scenarios, WLAN entities currently available from various vendors are incapable of interoperation in a single WLAN and are also incapable of operation in a dynamic topology WLAN.
These problems refer to static differences between WLAN entities as they are results of differences in basic design. In addition to these, there are also problems related to dynamic differences between WLAN entities.
In particular, during the functioning of a WLAN, the processing load at a WAP can become substantially high even exceeding the processing capacity of the WAP. This could be due to increases in the number of associated mobile terminals (MTs) or due to increases in the volume of traffic from the associated MTs. These differences in processing load over time constitute a dynamic factor as they are dependent on the dynamics of the MTs.
These dynamic differences in processing load across the WAPs consisting of a WLAN have traditionally been addressed by affecting handovers of MTs from their associated WAPs where processing load is high, to re-associate the MTs with other WAPs where processing load is relatively low.
[Patent Document 1] discloses means for addressing dynamic differences in the levels of processing load at WAPs by means of proactive handovers of associated MTs. While [Patent Document 1] addresses the problem of dynamic differences in processing loads across WAPs, it does so by mandating that MTs associated with one WAP also be within the coverage areas of other WAPs so as to be able to perform handovers and re-associations. If a MT is not within the coverage area of one or more other assisting WAPs, it is then expected to physically displace to such a coverage area in order to relieve the first WAP of some processing load. These constraints are rigid and limit the efficacy of [Patent Document 1]. Such limitations are common to all handover-based methods.
[Patent Document 2] presents a method for WAPs to modify, based on prevailing processing load levels, the intervals between the beacon signals that they transmit in order to attract or dissuade MT associations. This method also involves the constraints of requiring a MT to be within the coverage areas of alternate WAPs where processing load is low or being agreeable to displace towards such areas.
[Patent Document 3] focuses on proactive MTs that make association decisions. However the method is also limited by the factors described earlier.
While such methods attempt to solve the problem of dynamic differences in processing load, they do so by introducing stringent prerequisites and thereby introduce more problems. Another shortcoming of [Patent Document 1], [Patent Document 2], [Patent Document 3] and other handover-based methods for dealing with dynamic differences in WAPs is related to the bulk shifting of communication sessions. In practice MTs maintain a number of communication sessions with the WAPs with which they are associated. As a result, it is very likely that the communication sessions of only one MT or a few MTs constitute a considerable amount of processing load at the WAP. If the WAP were to affect the said MTs to handover and re-associate with another WAP, the processing load at the first WAP would be reduced, however by adversely affecting the other WAP. The other WAP then becomes overloaded and reverses the handover to the first WAP. This may continue without delivering any net gains for the WLAN. This points out that the processing load is not finely distributed by methods of handovers. In other words, dynamic differences are not finely managed.
[Non Patent Document 1] Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers Standard 802.11-1999 (R2003)
[Non Patent Document 2] "CAPWAP Problem Statement", draft-ietf-capwap-problem-statement-02.txt
[Patent Document 1] "Method and apparatus for facilitating handoff in a wireless local area network", US 2003/0035464 A1
[Patent Document 2] "Dynamically configurable beacon intervals for wireless LAN access points", US 2003/0163579 A1
[Patent Document 3] "Method and apparatus for selecting an access point in a wireless network", U.S. Pat. No. 6,522,881 B1

System and method for negotiation of WLAN entity


A trowel handle is injection molded from two separate types of plastic. An inner core is molded together with a finger guard from a plastic providing a smooth surface of a first coefficient of friction with the user's hand. The finger guard covers the metal tang of the trowel and protects the user's forefinger and thumb during troweling. An outergrip is molded from a thermoplastic rubber providing a soft, rubber-like surface of a second coefficient of friction with the user's hand.

The present invention relates to a trowel handle and more particularly to a brick trowel handle which is injection molded from two separate types of plastic. A finger guard is integrally molded from a smooth surface thermoplastic resin which serves to protect the user's forefinger and thumb during troweling. An outer palm grip is molded from a thermoplastic rubber having a slightly soft, non-slip, rubber-like feel, surface which serves to provide favorable grippability to the handle and comfort to the user.
Present brick trowels include a flat trowel blade made of metal add have a metal post formed integrally with the blade. The post extends upward from the blade and extends horizontally to become a tang for connecting the handle. The handle is typically made of wood, but in recent years some are formed of plastic. The handle is typically cylindrical in shape.
When plastics such as cellulose acetate butyrate are used for the handle, the low coefficient of friction of the smooth outer surface of the handle allows slippage of the trowel in the user's hand, particularly where the hand becomes wetted from perspiration or mortar. A firm grip upon the handle of a trowel is advantageous to prevent the trowel from turning when troweling the mortar or when its edge is being used for splitting or chipping bricks.
In addition, when trowels are used to spread mortar, or in breaking and trimming bricks, the user tends to position his thumb and forefinger against the metal trowel shank to provide better control in manipulating the trowel. The user's hand is thus prone to become chapped and worn and may develop callouses on the finger and thumb. This is particularly true where the metal shank includes one or more angled surfaces. A major factor promoting callousing of the hand is the presence of mortar. Mortar serves as an irritant by its abrasiveness as well as its chemical effect on the skin.

Plastic molded trowel handle having fingerguard and palm grip


A combustor-heat exchanger system comprising a plurality of cans. Each can includes an inner cylinder and an outer cylinder forming an annular space in between, wherein the inner cylinder is configured to receive and combust a fuel and compressed oxidant to generate heat and a hot gas. The outer cylinder is configured to receive a portion of a gas lean in carbon dioxide from a turbine system and utilize the heat from the inner cylinder to generate a heated gas. The combustor-heat exchanger further includes an inlet volute along the surface of the inner cylinder configured to receive the portion of the gas lean in carbon dioxide and distribute the gas lean in carbon dioxide into an axial flow through the annular space of each can. The combustor-heat exchanger also includes an outlet volute along the surface of the outer cylinder configured to receive the heated gas from each can, a first manifold to distribute the gas lean in carbon dioxide stream into each inlet volute and a second manifold to receive the heated gas from each can and generate a hot discharge stream.

The invention relates generally to power generation and the efficient recovery of carbon dioxide. More particularly, the invention relates to the integration with carbon dioxide separation with efficient heat recovery and oxygen consumption.
Power generation systems that combust fuels containing carbon, for example fossil fuels, produce carbon dioxide (CO2) as a byproduct as carbon is converted to CO2 during the combustion process. Removal or recovery of the carbon dioxide (CO2) from power generation systems, such as from the exhaust of a gas turbine, is generally not economical due to low CO2 content and low (ambient) pressure of the exhaust. Therefore, unfortunately, the exhaust containing the CO2 is typically released to the atmosphere, and does not get captured and sequestered into oceans, mines, oil wells, geological saline reservoirs, and so on.
In any power generation cycle, once the oxidant is compressed for the combustion process, it is desirable to use all chemical energy of the compressed oxidant (that is the oxygen content). In conventional power plants, the exhaust released to the atmosphere typically contains a significant amount of oxygen. Even in power plants that separate CO2 before discharging the exhaust into the atmosphere, the exhaust still contains some amount of oxygen. The CO2 lean stream containing oxygen that is discharged into atmosphere after separation of CO2 is typically at a temperature and oxygen levels, which temperature and oxygen levels are too low for the stream to be used in a combustion process representative of an efficient gas turbine.
Therefore there is a need to effectively separate CO2 and simultaneously utilize the oxygen content in the discharge stream from a power plant to increase the efficiency of the power plant.

Integrated combustor-heat exchanger and systems for power generation using the same


An electrode material is provided for electrochemical sensors, particularly for sensors detecting combustible gases. For these types of applications, perovskite electrode materials are known which, however, by modification of their oxygen stoichiometry, have a considerable charge carrier mobility. These defects are the causes for an additional, catalytic activity with oxidation processes at electrodes. The measurement of hydrocarbons from combustible gases is thus distorted with electrode materials of this type. These disadvantages are overcome by making such electrode materials from mixed oxides with non-perovskite crystalline structures, which have chemical compositions of one or more of the following general formulas: (A/D).sub.3-y B.sub.x C.sub.5-x O.sub.12.+-..delta., D.sub.1-y B.sub.1-x C.sub.x O.sub.4.+-..delta., D.sub.2-y B.sub.8-x C.sub.x O.sub.16.+-..delta., D.sub.2-y B.sub.1+x C.sub.1-x O.sub.5.+-..delta., or D.sub.2-y B.sub.x C.sub.2-x O.sub.7.+-..delta., wherein A and D are respectively sub-stoichiometrically used cations of the lanthanide series and the alkaline earth metal group, A/D means a cation selected from A, D and mixture thereof, B is a multivalent ion, and C is a redox-stable ion.

The invention involves an electrode material for electrochemical sensors made of a mixed oxide.
The concentration of unburned combustibles in oxygen-containing gases can be determined by known means in situ in a combustion gas stream by sensors which have two electrodes on a solid electrolyte, e.g. yttrium-stabilized zirconium dioxide. The electrodes react to the measurement gas in different ways. The potential of one electrode is determined to a large extent by the equilibrium oxygen partial pressure of the gas, while the potential of the other electrode is determined predominantly by the partial pressure of the combustible gas, so that a voltage can be measured between the electrodes in the same gas, which voltage is a function of the hydrocarbon concentration. Preferably, gold and alloys of gold and platinum are used as CH.sub.x sensitive electrodes (See, for example, A. Vogel, G. Baier, V. Schuile, Sensors and Actuators 15-16, pages 147-150 (1993)).
It is disadvantageous in arrangements of this type, that gold electrodes are not stable over time in their morphology at the relatively high operating temperatures of the cells (.gtoreq.700 .degree. C.), and as a result the potential adjusting to that is subjected to temporal changes. Another disadvantage is that when the stoichiometric ratio (.lambda.=1) of air to fuel is exceeded, a potential jump is observed which is more or less significant with electrodes of this sort. Moreover, the potential of electrodes of this type is a function of the pretreatment in regard to gas composition and temperature, so that memory effects can be observed, which must be eliminated by subsequent calibration when they are used in sensors.
Furthermore, mixed oxides of the perovskite type are known as electrode materials, which are generally used as oxygen electrodes. Preferably, only oxygen is electrochemically converted at electrodes of this type.
Moreover, perovskite electrode materials are known which are sensitive to the combustible gases. However, these mixed oxides of the perovskite type exhibit the following disadvantages:
By incorporation (e.g., by doping) of allovalent cations into perovskite type compounds of the general formula ABO.sub.3 the oxygen stoichiometry often changes and vacancies in the oxygen sublattice occur, which exhibit considerable mobility. These defects are the cause for an additional, catalytic activity for oxidation processes. Solid electrolyte electrodes, which are constructed from this type of electrode material, convert hydrocarbons from combustible gases in a purely chemical manner using residual oxygen and thereby distort the measurement results.


A communication method includes generating a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) including a preamble, where the preamble includes a legacy physical layer preamble and a new physical layer preamble, wherein the new physical layer preamble includes a repeated field that has a preset out-of-order relationship with a preset field of the legacy physical layer preamble in frequency domain. The communication method further includes sending the PPDU.

The 802.11 series standards are defined by the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), and widely used for wireless local area networks (WLANs). Mainstream standards in the 802.11 series standards include 802.11a, 802.11n, 802.11ac, 802.11ax, and the like.
A next-generation 802.11 standard also supports working spectra, such as frequency bands of 2.4 gigahertz (GHz), 5 GHz, and 6 GHz, of the 802.11ax standard, in consideration of backward compatibility. Channel division is performed based on the free 6-GHz frequency band that is open recently, and a bandwidth that can be supported may exceed a maximum bandwidth of 160 megahertz (MHz) supported in the 5-GHz frequency band, for example, 240 MHz, 320 MHz, or 400 MHz. In addition to supporting an ultra-high bandwidth, the next-generation 802.11 standard can also support a combination of a plurality of frequency bands (2.4 GHz, 5 GHz, and 6 GHz) and more spatial streams, for example, increasing a quantity of spatial streams to 16, to increase a peak throughput.
In addition, in consideration of compatibility with a conventional WI-FI device in the next-generation 802.11 standard, a frame structure of a physical layer protocol data unit (PPDU) usually starts with a legacy physical layer preamble, and a new physical layer preamble immediately follows the legacy physical layer preamble. The new physical layer preamble may include a new function indication for implementing the next-generation 802.11 standard, for example, a bandwidth indication about an ultra-high bandwidth. A new physical layer preamble in each generation of the 802.11 standards, other than the 802.11a standard, carries information such that a receive end can determine, based on the new physical layer preamble, whether a frame structure of a received PPDU is a frame structure of a PPDU that is generated based on the corresponding generation of the standards. This is referred to as auto-detection. The auto-detection includes the following two meanings. In one aspect, the receive end correctly determines, as a PPDU that is generated based on a current-generation standard, a received PPDU that is generated based on the current-generation standard, but does not determine the received PPDU as a PPDU that is generated based on a non-current-generation standard. In the other aspect, the receive end does not determine, as a PPDU that is generated based on the current-generation standard, a received PPDU that is generated based on the non-current-generation standard. For example, if an 802.11n receive end receives an 802.11n PPDU, the 802.11n receive end correctly determines the received PPDU as an 802.11n PPDU, and if the receive end receives an 802.11a PPDU, the receive end does not determine the received PPDU as an 802.11n PPDU.
Therefore, an auto-detection problem still exists in a design of a physical layer preamble of a PPDU of the next-generation 802.11 standard.

Communication method, communication apparatus, and communication device


A fuel injection valve has a first groove cut in a peripheral surface of a needle valve and second grooves cut in a seat surface of a nozzle tip. The first groove is provided so that the needle valve is rotated by flow of the fuel in the first groove caused by a reciprocating motion of the needle valve, and upper and lower ends of the first groove are opened to the outside so that the fuel can be introduced into the groove. The second grooves are twisted or tilted in the same direction as the rotating direction of the needle valve and are cut along the circumferential direction of the nozzle tip. The second grooves have an edge part for scraping off solid matters into the second grooves in cooperation with the tip seat surface of the needle valve by the rotation of the needle valve.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a fuel injection valve such as a pilot fuel injection device in a gas engine, or a fuel injection device in a diesel engine, whereby the injection valve injects fuel supplied in a fuel pool surrounding a needle valve into an engine cylinder. The injection valve stops the fuel injection in a way such that a fuel flow channel between a tip of the needle valve and a valve seat of a nozzle tip is opened or closed by a reciprocating movement of the needle valve that is fitted slidably and guided in the nozzle tip.
2. Related Art
As is shown in patent reference 1 (JP2002-295342), a fuel injection valve applied to a pilot fuel injection device in a gas engine, a fuel injection device in a diesel engine, or the like, injects fuel supplied in a fuel pool surrounding a needle valve into an engine cylinder through at least one nozzle hole provided at a tip of a nozzle tip, and also stops the injection, using a fuel flow passage between a seat surface of the needle valve tip and a seat surface of the nozzle tip which is opened/closed by reciprocating movements of a needle valve fitted slidably in a borehole formed in the nozzle tip.
In a medium size or large size gas engine for generators and diesel engines which are provided with the fuel injection valve as mentioned above, diesel oil is frequently used as a fuel (in large marine-diesel engines, heavy fuel oil and/or heavy duty fuel is usually used).
The fuel used in the fuel injection valves for diesel fuel is apt to contain relatively large amounts of foreign substances, causing the foreign substances to often enter a sliding clearance around the needle valve. Moreover, impurities are sometimes introduced into fuel oil during engine maintenance, and the fuel oil introduces the impurities into the sliding clearance around the needle valve. The above-mentioned foreign substances or impurities on the sliding surfaces often cause a malfunction, wear or seizure of the needle valve.
When burnt, diesel oil generates more combustion residues than gas oil does; thus, in an injection valve of an engine that is operated with diesel oil, a considerable amount of combustion residue accumulates in the neighborhood of the valve-seat surfaces around the needle valve, which easily induces poor combustion caused by irregular injections because of the accumulated hard residues exfoliating from the surfaces and scratching the surfaces.
Patent reference 1 (JP2002-295342) discloses a needle valve that has a plurality of radial grooves around the outer periphery of the needle valve so as to improve a lubricating condition between the periphery of the needle valve and the nozzle tip.
Patent reference 2 (JP2005-533222) discloses a fuel injection valve that has a plurality of micro-depressions configured on the seat surfaces of the needle valve tip and/or the nozzle tip so as to improve the lubricating condition mentioned above using fuel held in the depressions as a lubricant.
As mentioned above, in fuel injection valves which use a fuel such as diesel oil containing a relatively large amount of foreign substances, the foreign substances or impurities introduced by the fuel oil itself or through engine maintenance work often enter the sliding clearance around the needle valve. Moreover, the diesel oil yields a considerable amount of combustion residue which is apt to damage the seat surfaces of the needle valve tip and/or the nozzle tip.
FIG. 11 shows an example of foreign substance distribution in a diesel oil sample and a gas oil sample. The data shows that the distribution quantity of the foreign substances in the diesel oil is 10 to 100 times higher than that in the gas oil when a particle size of the foreign substances is 5 to 15 μm.
In the disclosure of patent reference 1, even though the needle valve is provided with a plurality of radial grooves around the outer periphery of the needle valve for a purpose of improving a lubricating condition between the periphery of the needle valve and the nozzle tip, the purpose of the grooves is mainly to improve lubrication by means of retaining fuel oil in the grooves. Thus, each groove is not open to the outside, so foreign substances and/or impurities that are brought therein are apt to enter the sliding clearance around the needle valve through the reciprocating movements of the needle valve. Therefore, even with the technology disclosed in the patent reference 1, intrusion of foreign substances and/or impurities into the sliding clearance around the needle valve still easily occurs, and the problems of malfunctions, wear or seizure of the needle valve periphery remain unsolved.
Further, in the disclosure of patent reference 2, a plurality of micro-depressions are configured on the seat surfaces of the needle valve tip and/or the nozzle tip so as to improve the lubricating condition by the fuel oil remaining in the depressions as a lubricant. However, the seat surface of the needle valve tip comes in contact with the seat surface of the nozzle tip so that the areas of contacting surfaces are kept substantially unchanged. Thus, when combustion residues, foreign substances, impurities, and so on, intrude into the seat areas, those solid foreign-matters are not removed from the micro-depressions, even if the depressions improve the lubrication. Consequently, there arise problems such as irregular fuel injections and resulting poor combustion, in response to the damage of the solid foreign matters on the seat surfaces.


A direct contact water heater having a hybrid heat source, and its method of operation is described. The water heater is comprised of an elongated vertical tubular housing having a water spray nozzle in an upper end thereof for spraying water substantially uniformly over a top packing of heat exchange bodies. An intermediate space is provided below the packing where external hot recovery gases are admitted into the housing. A burner chamber is provided at the bottom of the housing above a reservoir to provide a primary heat source. Heat from the primary heat source mixes with the hot recovery gases below the packing, and is in counter-current flow with the water percolating through the housing from the packing located at the top of the housing. Two packings of heat exchange bodies may be provided in the tubular housing spaced from one another with the hot recovery gases fed between the two packings and the primary hot gas from the heat source being generated below a lower one of the packings.

Direct contact water heaters are known, such as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,574,775 issued on Mar. 11, 1986 and comprised of a vertically oriented cylindrical column having a packing adjacent an upper end thereof. Water to be heated is sprayed on top of the packing so that the water is heated by the packing and also by hot gases passing through the cylindrical column. The hot gases are usually provided by a fossil fuel burner which is installed at the bottom of the column to produce hot flue gases which are directed upwardly in counter-current flow to water droplets falling from the packing. The energy of the flue gas is absorbed by the down-coming water droplets and these droplets are further heated when entering into direct contact with the flame. Hot water is stored at the bottom of the column from where it is pumped to supply external devices.
Direct contact flue gas stack economizers operate substantially as direct contact water heaters with the exception that the hot flue gases are generated from other sources. Flue gases from those other sources are admitted into the column below the packing and the energy of the flue gases is absorbed by the down-coming water. Although these stack economizers are considered to be an efficient way of recovering lost heat, they have two main disadvantages, one being that the maximum outlet temperature of the column is approximately the dew point temperature of the flue gases entering the column. Also, the maximum amount of energy which can be transferred to the water depends, and is limited by, the actual flue gas flow and temperature available from existing external apparatus, and this can vary at different time intervals. Therefore, an additional amount of heat may be needed in order to supplement the recovered heat to meet the process demand. This additional amount of heat may be added by a direct contact water heater or by other means. It must be kept in mind, however, that the disadvantages of direct contact stack economizers are compensated by the big advantage of free energy from the existing flue gas recovered from other sources which was previously lost to the atmosphere.
The direct contact water heaters do not have the same outlet water temperature limitation as does the direct contact stack economizer, and can heat water well above the dew point of the combustion gases. Also, the direct contact water heater can be sized for any amount of energy required, as it has its own burner. However, one of the disadvantages of the conventional direct contact water heater is that it heats water at a very high efficiency level with fossil fuel, but this fossil fuel is costly as compared to free energy being recovered by direct contact economizers. Also, the temperature of the flue gases being exhausted by the direct contact water heater is equal or slightly higher than the incoming water. In the case of water being preheated by a direct contact stack economizer, and where a direct contact water heater would be subsequently utilized to add the additional energy required, the flue gases exhausting from the heater would still be hot enough that it would be economical to channel them into the direct contact stack economizer for further cooling down of the exhaust gases. Accordingly, there is a waste of energy.
There is therefore a need to provide an ideal water heater arrangement wherein cold water is introduced at the top of a direct contact stack economizer and is preheated by hot flue gases. Preheated water at the bottom of the direct contact stack economizer would then be transferred to the top of a direct contact water heater to be further heated. Flue gas exhausting from the direct contact water heater would then be directed to the direct contact stack economizer to be cooled down as much as possible. These flue gases would combine with flue gases of other apparatus. However, the main disadvantage of this arrangement would be the cost of fabricating and interconnecting two separate pieces of equipment, namely a direct contact stack economizer and a direct contact water heater.

Direct contact water heater with hybrid heat source


Seat belts of a transport system are provided with anti-submarining seat-belt assemblies. A lap-belt portion of each assembly, restraining the lower part of the body of a belted passenger, is subdivided into two anti-submarining belt portions, which properly restrain the thighs when plug-in connecting at least one anti-submarining latch-plate to one of the anti-submarining buckle assemblies, all of which, equipped with energy absorbers, are arranged in a seat cushion. As a result, the energy-absorbing, anti-submarining seat-belt assembly substantially lowers great belt force in an accident, reduces the elongation of the seat belt and prevents submarining.

1. Field of the Invention
It is an object of the present invention to prevent a restrained passenger of a transport system (motor vehicle, ship, train or aeroplane) from submarining in the event of any accident (front-, side-, rear-end collision and/or rollover or pile up/mass collision) or during in-flight turbulence.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
It is known in the prior art to provide for a passenger of a transport system an anti-submarining device in order to prevent severe/fatal injury in an accident.
In order to formulate in single terminology a generalized definition is presented for the proper term:
Definition:Proper Term:"Stiff first transport-systemFloor 6 of the transport system adjacent tomember"a first seat-side SR (FIG. 1) or seat-cushion frame at the first seat-side or mid-tunnel (not drawn) of the motor vehicleadjacent to the first seat-side."Stiff second transport-systemFloor 6 of the transport system adjacent tomember"a second seat-side SL or seat-cushionframe at the second seat-side or postsection (not drawn) of the motor vehicleadjacent to the second seat-side or side railof the motor vehicle adjacent to the secondseat-side"Seat frame"Seat-cushion frame or seat-backrest frame
In order to prevent whiplash front seats of SAAB 9-5 cars are equipped with active head restraints (rests) that, activated by the mass inertia forces of the upper body-parts (torsos) in rear-end collisions, move up and closer to heads of front-seated occupants. See shortcomings, undermentioned.
In collaboration with Autoliv Corp., the biggest car-supplier in the world, Volvo Corp. has developed WHIPS (Whiplash Injury Prevention System), installed in the front seats of Volvo S80s. Under load of mass inertia forces of a passenger's torso in a rear-end collision the hinge of the seat backrest yields and partially rotates backwards and downwards to facilitate the head rest to intercept the head and the seat backrest, filled with pads, to absorb forces. When a car crashes into the rear section of a S80 and both catch fire, the front-seated passengers and their seat backrests, rotated backwards and downwards, impede the evacuation of the back-seated passengers, who may be severely injured. The front-seated passengers must sit up in order to take further action. Taken as given, the rotated seat backrests cannot be returned to the home position precious time elapses to step out of the car. This raises the question of how the unscathed passengers and/or unscathed back-seated children, exposed to explosion, burn and/or toxic smoke, can evacuate themselves out of the car and/or how rescue workers can evacuate all the severely injured back-seated passengers.
Due to lack of space, in which the SAAB and Volvo protective devices should be installed, heads of rear-seated passengers are unprotected, hence, subjected to whiplash and severe/fatal injury resulting from submarining. For sure, both protective devices remain ineffective in a multi-crash when the front-seated passengers, being submarining underneath their respective lap belt portions, is crushed into death by the airbags, deployed in the front-end crash or falsely deployed in the rear-end crash.
Exemplified in DE 43 36 351 A1 (U.S. Ser. No. 979,938), a pan, moveable along a pair of rails beneath the seat cushion, is activated in a rear-end collision and moved out therefrom to intercept a submarining passenger when falling down therefrom. Ref. to EP 0 403 072 A2 (U.S. Ser. No. 364,765) a pair of U-shaped ramps is built in a rear seat. Each ramp comprises two longitudinal members, both fastened to the vehicle floor, and a lateral member, which, arranged along the front portion of the rear seat, intercepts a submarining passenger in a rear-end collision.
Both anti-submarining devices can never prevent severe/fatal injuries linked to great belt force, deployed or falsely deployed airbags, different weights and/or different body proportions.
When a Ford Mondeo, swerving on a road outside the city Idstein, crashes twice into a barrier and finally into a bus, the face of an obese female driver, submarining, is fractured and crushed by the airbag into her skull. In a real-world accident at far higher speed and strong yaw-acceleration great rotatory- and longitudinal-acceleration dependant forces (FIGS. 4, 5) enormously elongate the lap belt portion underneath which the belted passenger submarines in the direction "ZE" due to the limitation of the belt pretensioner which can only retract the seat belt up to 30 cm. This accident report is incorporated herein.
Any belted passenger, lying in a sleeping position ref. to DE 37 41 831 C2 (FIG. 7), submarines when being loaded by great mass inertia force "Sy" in the direction "ZE" in the event of accident.
In view of foregoing shortcomings and deficiencies, there is a need to ensure the restraint of any passenger as well as the operation of the anti-submarining devices in any accident.

Abstract: A separately operated release button, when depressed, frees the passenger from the anti-submarining protection.

Abstract: Ease of use is ensured by one-click operation of a master release-button, which, when depressed, releases all latch-plates.

Abstract: Detachable anti-submarining latch plates, when not in use, are stored in a storage box. When needed they are attached to the lap-belt portion.


A portable auxiliary illumination device is provided, which consists of an elongated power cord and a plug at one end of the power cord for engagement with an outlet to receive electrical current therefrom. A plurality of sockets are located in series along the length of the power cord. A plurality of suction cups are each connected to one of the sockets, sot hat the sockets can be removably attached to a flat surface of a mirror. A plurality of light bulbs are each removably disposed within each socket to produce additional light for dimly lit areas adjacent the mirror.

The instant invention relates generally to lamps and more specifically it relates to a portable auxiliary illumination device, which provides additional light for dimly lit areas by attachment with suction cups to a mirror surface.
There are available various conventional lamps which do not provide the novel improvements of the invention herein disclosed.


A grid strip (10) for a fuel rod support grid of a nuclear fuel assembly is cold-formed from a flat annealed plate having length, height, and width dimensions. A plurality of slots (12,14) extend along the height dimension at regular intervals along the length dimension, thereby defining successive cell walls (16,18,20) between successive slots along the length dimension. Each cell wall has upper, central, and lower regions (28,30,32) along the height dimension, each region including a substantially flat base area (34,36,38) and fuel rod support structure (22,24,26) projecting integrally from the base area along the width dimension of the strip. The support structure in each of the upper and lower regions includes a relatively stiff, arched stop (22,26) which projects in a first direction and the support structure in the central region includes a relatively soft, arched spring (24) which projects in a second direction opposite the first direction. The spring includes spaced apart pedestals 40,42 formed in the base area of the central region and projecting in the second direction, and a resilient beam 44 extending between and rigidly supported by the pedestals, so as to project in the second direction beyond the projection of the pedestals.

The present invention relates to nuclear fuel assemblies, and more particularly, to grid strips which form an egg crate type fuel rod support grid in a pressurized water nuclear fuel assembly.
Conventionally, pressurized water nuclear reactors have a core of nuclear fuel assemblies, in which the fuel rods are supported and spaced relative to each other, by spacer grids. Each cell of the grid utilizes a system of fuel rod support features including low stiffness springs and opposing high stiffness arches to contact, locate, and stabilize the fuel rod. At the time of fabrication of the fuel assembly, the geometry of each grid and associated cell is intended to provide lateral forces between the fuel rod and the support features. This type of fuel rod support is represented by U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,803,043, 4,879,090 and 5,188,797. Typically, the separation distance in the as built grid, between each spring and its opposing arches, is less than the outside diameter of a new fuel rod. Thus, when a rod is inserted into a grid cell, the spring is compressed and the rod is held between the support features with a preload force. Since these support or contact features project into the flow stream that passes through the cell during operation in the reactor, the rod support structure should present a low cross section to minimize pressure drop losses.
The effect of the reactor environment on the initial grid/rod interface is to cause the preload force to diminish through a combination of short-term and long-term mechanisms, followed by gap formation in cases where the force drops to zero. Short-term mechanisms include the effects of initial heatup of the fuel (partial relaxation of forming stresses in the grid strip and possible yielding of the grid strip due to reduced yield strength at higher temperatures) and initial pressurization of the reactor (spring compression is reduced because the fuel rod diameter decreases due to differential pressure). Long-term mechanisms include spring stress relaxation due to temperature and neutron flux, fuel rod cladding diametral creepdown, and, in the case of spacer grids made of Zircaloy, radiation growth of the grid cell.
Full scale flow tests have shown that inadequate rod support by the grid results in excessive rod vibration, leading to wear and possibly rod failure. These tests have shown that the key to limiting rod wear is the prevention of significant gaps between the grid contact features and the rod. Based on the mechanisms described above there are two general ways to minimize gaps. One can lessen the creepdown of the fuel rod cladding or improve the short-term and long-term responses of the grid features to reactor operating conditions. It is the latter approach which is used in the present invention.


A system, method, and processor readable medium including processor readable code embodied therein are provided that enable a user to refine a search query using a graphical user interface. A user may be presented with a graphical user interface (GUI). The GUI may enable the user to input parameters into a first search query. The first search query may be run in a database. The system may determine whether any documents stored in the database satisfy the first search query. If the system determines that one or more documents satisfy the first search query, the system may retrieve a search results that includes the one or more documents. The system may then determine what type of information is included in the search result. Based on the type of information determination, the system may identify a search refinement option that may enable the user to limit the search result. The user may select a search refinement option to limit the search. The search refinement option may be applied to only those documents found in the search result. In this manner, the search query that includes the search refinement option does not need to be run against all of the objects in the database again.

Data search and retrieval systems for searching data collections are known. Generally, these collections are stored in one or more databases. Databases typically store records containing one or more fields. The data search and retrieval systems typically provide a graphical user interface in which a user may formulate a search query. The search query may limit a search based on the one or more fields provided in the records. These systems may be difficult to use because the systems are designed for general purpose searching of text strings. Little or no knowledge of the data collection being searched is provided.
Generally, a user inputs a search query that includes one or more search terms into the graphical user interface for searching a collection of data. The system retrieves a set of records that match the search query and presents a list of the records to the user. Depending on a number of records presented, the user may desire to further limit the search query. The user may edit and re-run the search query in an attempt to reduce the number of records retrieved. The system reprocesses the search query, including any additional search terms provided by the user, and presents a new search result to the user. This is inefficient.
Some systems provide refinement options for limiting a search query based on particular object types known to the system. Such systems, however, still provide broad search results that must be further refined by a user. This is typically accomplished by a user specifying additional search terms in a search query and restarting a search.
These and other drawbacks exist.

Search refinement graphical user interface

International Business Machines Corporation


A cold cathode type flat panel display which is an image display device includes a vacuum panel container composed of a cathode substrate in which plural cold cathode type electron sources are arranged, an anode substrate, plural spacers for supporting the cathode substrate and the anode substrate, and a glass frame. Plural electrical lines extend in a line direction and a row direction across an interlayer insulator on the cathode substrate. Parts of lines positioned in an upper layer of the plural electrical lines are made into scan lines and lines positioned in a lower layer are made into data lines. Further, parts of the electrical lines positioned in the upper layer are made into spacer lines for giving to the spacers a voltage lower than an acceleration voltage which is applied to an accelerating electrode.

The present invention relates to a cold cathode type flat panel display, in particular, a spontaneously emitting type flat panel display using cold cathode electron sources.
As known well, a cold cathode type flat panel display is a display that comprises a phosphor film which is formed on a flat panel and emits by electron excitation and very small cold cathode electron sources arranged in a two-dimensional matrix form so as to be opposed to the phosphor film, and that has a function of irradiating the phosphor film with electron rays emitted from the electron sources to display an image on the panel. Displays using such very small cold cathode electron sources which can be integrated are generically named field emission displays (FEDs).
Cold cathode electron sources are roughly classified to field emission type electron sources and hot electron type electron sources. Examples of the former include a spindt type electron source, a surface conduction type electron source, and a carbon nano-tube type electron source. Examples of the latter include a metal-insulator-metal (MIM) type electron source, wherein a metal, an insulator and a metal are laminated, and a metal-insulator-semiconductor (MIS) type electron source, wherein a metal, an insulator and a semiconductor are laminated.
The MIM type electron source is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-101965 (Patent Document 1) and Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open 2000-208076 (Patent Document 2). A structure of the MIM electron source and the operation principle thereof are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2.
FIG. 1 is a sectional structural view of an MIM type electron emitting element. In FIG. 1, bottom electrodes 11, made of, e.g., Al or Al alloy, are formed on an insulating cathode substrate 10 made of glass or the like so as to have a thickness of, e.g., 300 nm and be in a stripe form in the direction perpendicular to the surface of the drawing paper.
An interlayer insulator 14 (film thickness: e.g., 140 nm) for preventing the concentration of an electric field at edges of the bottom electrodes 11 and limiting or laying down an electron emission area, and a tunneling insulator 12 (film thickness: e.g., 10 nm) are formed.
Contact electrodes 15 and top electrode bus lines 16 are formed in a stripe form in the direction perpendicular to the bottom electrodes 11 (i.e., the right and left direction in the drawing paper), so as to avoid the electron emission area E. The electron emission area E corresponds to top electrodes 13 on the tunneling insulator 12. The top electrodes will be described in detail later.
The contact electrodes 15 are made of a metal film having a strong adhesive force to the cathode substrate 10 or the interlayer insulator 14, for example, a high melting point metal such as W (tungsten) or Mo (molybdenum) or a silicon compound thereof (silicide), so as to have a film thickness of, e.g., about 10 nm.
The top electrode bus lines 16 are bus lines which can be connected to the top electrodes 13, which will be detailed later, at a low resistance and are made of an Al—Nd alloy film, so as to have a thickness of 200 nm. In order to prevent the snapping of the top electrodes 13, which will be detailed later, it is desired that a metal film as an underlying layer 15A for the contact electrodes is made as thin as possible.
On the top electrode bus lines 16, the interlayer insulator 14 and the cathode substrate 10 except the electron emission area E, a surface protection film 17 is formed, which is an insulator film made of, for example, intrinsic silicone, SiO2, glass (such as phosphor doped glass or boron doped glass), Si3N4 (nitride), Al2O3 (alumina) or polyimide. For reference, in the case of using Si3N4, the film thickness thereof is from 0.1 to 1 μm.
The tunneling insulator 12 is covered with top electrodes 13. The top electrodes 13 have a three-layer structure composed of a lower layer made of Ir (iridium), which is good in heat resistance, an intermediate layer made of Pt (platinum) and an upper layer made of Au (gold), which is good in electron emitting efficiency, and are applied onto the tunneling insulator 12 in a thin film forming step using, for example, sputtering.
In this thin film forming step, the layer of the top electrodes 13 is simultaneously deposited on the surface of the surface protection film 17. As shown in FIG. 1, however, the layer of the top electrode bus lines 16 retreats inwards from end faces of the surface protection film 17 so that the surface protection film 17 is made into the form of eaves. Consequently, a metal film 13′ on the surface protection film 17 is electrically insulated from the top electrodes 13 on the tunneling insulator 12.
When a voltage Vd is applied between the bottom electrodes 11 and the top electrodes 13 of the MIM type electron emitting element having a structure as described above in vacuum, electrons, in the bottom electrodes 11, having an energy level near the Fermi level penetrate through a potential barrier by tunneling phenomena, so as to be injected into the conduction band of the tunneling insulator 12 and the top electrodes 13. As a result, hot electrons are generated. Among these electrons, electron having a kinetic energy equal to or more than the work function φ of the top electrodes 13 are emitted into the vacuum.
A document related to such a technique is Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2001-83907 (Patent Document 3).
FIG. 46 is a sectional view illustrating an outline of a display panel in the prior art. As illustrated in this figure, in order to use the above-mentioned MIM type electron sources to construct a display device, the cathode electrode 10 wherein the electron sources having the structure illustrated in FIG. 1 are arranged in a matrix form and an anode substrate 110 wherein phosphor film pieces 111 are arranged in a matrix form so as to correspond to the electron source elements of the cathode substrate 10 are adhered through a glass frame member 116 made of glass or the like by junction based on frit glass 115, thereby making an inner space 118 into vacuum. In this way, a display panel (flat panel display) 120 is yielded. As will be described in more detail later, the anode substrate 110 is made of a light-transmitting flat panel, and the whole of a single surface of the anode substrate 110, including the surfaces of the phosphor film pieces 111, is covered with a conductive film (called a metal back) 114.
When the diagonal size of the display panel 120 is more than 5 inches in this case, it is necessary to insert spacers 30 made of an insulator material, as reinforcing materials, at intervals of several centimeters into the inner space (vacuum atmosphere) of the panel in order to keep the atmospheric pressure.
A part of electrons emitted from the electron source elements collides with these spacers 30, so that the spacers 30 are charged up. Near the charged spacers, the orbit of the electrons is curved so as to cause a phenomenon that an image is distorted. In order to prevent this phenomenon, a slight conductivity is given to the surface of the spacers 30 by means of a high-resistance film made of tin oxide, a mixed crystal thin film made of tin oxide and indium oxide, a metal film, a semiconductor film or some other film. In this way, the electrification of the spacer surfaces is removed.
It is therefore necessary to connect the spacers 30 electrically to the metal back 114 on the side of the anode substrate 110 and the top electrodes 13′ on the surface protection film 17 on the side of the cathode substrate 10. The top electrodes 13′ for giving grounding voltage on the side of the cathode substrate 10 have a thickness of 10 nm or less and further have a weak adhesive force to the surface protection film 17; therefore, when pressure from the spacers is applied to the top electrodes 13′, the snapping or breaking down thereof is easily caused. In order to prevent this, it is necessary to set third bus lines independently of the data lines (the top electrode bus lines 16 and the scan lines (the bottom electrodes 11), as ground lines 18 for the spacers 30, on the surface protection film 17.
However, in the case of adopting the three-layer line structure wherein the data lines 16, the scan lines 11 and the third bus lines independently thereof are set on the side of the cathode substrate 10 as described above, the production process thereof unavoidably becomes longer than the production process including the formation of two-layer bus lines. As a result, problems of a drop in the yield or an increase in the production costs are caused.


An apparatus and method for transmitting a broadcast program selection control signal, and controlling selective viewing of a broadcast program for a video appliance in which a viewing-restriction grade is set for a broadcast program and viewing of the broadcast program is restricted in accordance with the set viewing-restriction grade. According to the apparatus, the viewing-restriction grade of the broadcast program is determined and a control signal corresponding to the determined viewing-restriction grade is transmitted along with the broadcast program signal. In a television receiver, whether to admit the viewing of the received broadcast program is discriminated by comparing the viewing-restriction grade corresponding to the control signal with that predetermined by a user.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an apparatus and method of transmitting a broadcast program selection control signal, and controlling selective viewing of a broadcast program for a video appliance such as a television receiver, whereby viewing-restriction grades are set for broadcast programs and the programs are selectively viewed in accordance with the set viewing-restriction grades.
2. Description of the Related Art
Diverse broadcast programs are produced and infiltrate into modern civilization with the popularity of information and communication. Such broadcast programs are aired for viewing by everyone regardless of their viewing classes.
Particularly, unsound programs pertaining to violence and sexuality, or all kinds of advertising programs harming the viewers--mental health are aired without restriction. Thus, anyone can view those programs through the video appliances under unrestricted conditions.
Currently, no systematic or technical measures are available to prevent children or juveniles from viewing such programs containing unsound contents without restriction. This tends to decay social culture and harm mental health of the children and juveniles.
It is an object of the present invention to solve the above problems, and to provide an apparatus and method for transmitting a broadcast program selection control signal for a video appliance whereby viewing-restriction grades are net for a broadcast program and a control signal for controlling selective viewing of the broadcast program is transmitted along with the broadcast signal, thereby restricting the viewing of the broadcast program in dependence upon the set viewing-restriction grades.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an apparatus for controlling selective viewing of a broadcast program for a video appliance, whereby the broadcast program can be selectively viewed in accordance with the viewing-restriction qrades determined by a broadcast program selection control signal which is received along with the broadcast signal.
To achieve the above objects, in one aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for transmitting a broadcast program selection control signal for a video appliance, comprising:
a programming and editing section for producing and editing a program to be broadcasted by a broadcasting station; PA1 a program control section for appending the broadcast program selection control signal to the broadcast program produced and edited by the programming and editing section in accordance with predetermined viewing-restriction grades; PA1 a signal synthesizing and modulating section for synthesizing and modulating the broadcast program signal and the control signal outputted from the program control section to be suitable for being transmitted; and PA1 a transmitting section for transmitting the modulated broadcast program signal and control signal outputted from the signal synthesizing and modulating section through a transmitting antenna. PA1 programming and editing a broadcast program; PA1 appending the broadcast program selection control signal to the broadcast program in accordance with predetermined viewing-restriction grades; PA1 synthesizing and modulating the broadcast program signal and the control signal so an to be suited for transmission; and PA1 transmitting the modulated broadcast program signal and control signal. PA1 a receiving section for receiving a modulated broadcast program signal through a receiving antenna; PA1 a control signal receiving section for receiving a broadcast program selection control signal simultaneously transmitted with the modulated broadcast program signal; PA1 a determining section for determining viewing-restriction grades, the determining section including a coding section for qualifying a particular person to determine the viewing-restriction grades, and a viewing grade determining and releasing section for the particular person's determining and releasing of the viewing-restriction grades; PA1 a discriminating section for discriminating the viewing-restriction grade of the received broadcast program by comparing the viewing-restriction grade of the received broadcast program with that determined by the determining section; PA1 a control section for determining whether to admit the viewing of the received broadcast program in accordance with a discrimination result from the discriminating section; and PA1 a video/audio output section for outputting the video and audio signals of the broadcast program under the control of the control section.
In another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of transmitting a broadcast program selection control signal for a video appliance, comprising the steps of:
In still another aspect of the present invention, there is provided an apparatus for controlling selective viewing of a broadcast program for a video appliance, comprising:

Apparatus and method of transmitting broadcast program selection control signal and controlling selective viewing of broadcast program for video appliance


The disclosure relates to human and mechanical stress induced genes, in particular gene 608, and functional equivalents, probes therefor, tests to identify such genes, polypeptide expression products of such genes, antibodies to the polypeptides, uses for such genes, expression products and antibodies, e.g., in diagnosis (for instance risk determination), treatment, prevention, or control, of osteoporosis or fractures; and to diagnostic, treatment, prevention, or control methods or processes, as well as compositions therefor and methods or processes for making and using such compositions, and receptors therefor and methods or processes for obtaining and using such receptors.

Bone is composed of a collagen-rich organic matrix impregnated with mineral, largely calcium and phosphate. Two major forms of bone exist, compact cortical bone forms the external envelopes of the skeleton and trabecular or medullary bone forms plates that traverse the internal cavities of the skeleton. The responses of these two forms to metabolic influences and their susceptibility to fracture differ.
Bone undergoes continuous remodeling (turnover, renewal) throughout life. Mechanical and electrical forces, hormones and local regulatory factors influence remodeling. Bone is renewed by two opposing activities that are coupled in time and space. Parfitt (1979) Calcif. Tis. Int. 28:1-5. These activities, resorption and formation, are contained within a temporary anatomic structure known as a bone-remodeling unit. Parfitt (1981) Res. Staff Physic. Dec.:60-72. Within a given bone-remodeling unit, old bone is resorbed by osteoclasts. The resorbed cavity created by osteoclasts is subsequently filled with new bone by osteoblasts, synthesizing bone organic matrix.
Peak bone mass is mainly genetically determined, though dietary factors and physical activity can have positive effects. Peak bone mass is attained at the point when skeletal growth ceases, after which time bone loss starts.
In contrast to the positive balance that occurs during growth, in osteoporosis, the resorbed cavity is not completely refilled by bone. Parfitt (1988), Osteoporosis: Etiology, Diagnosis, and Management (Riggs and Melton, eds.) Raven Press, New York, pp. 74-93. Osteoporosis, or porous bone, is a progressive and chronic disease characterized by low bone mass and structural deterioration of bone tissue, leading to bone fragility and an increased susceptibility to fractures of the hip, spine, and wrist (diminishing bone strength).
Bone loss occurs without symptoms. The Consensus Development Conference ((1993) Am. J. Med. 94:646-650) defined osteoporosis as "a systemic skeletal disease characterized by low bone mass and microarchitectural deterioration of bone tissue, with a consequent increase in bone fragility and susceptibility to fracture."
Common types of osteoporosis include postmenopausal osteoporosis; and senile osteoporosis, which generally occurs in later life, e.g., 70+ years. See, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 5,691,153. Osteoporosis is estimated to affect more than 25 million people in the United States (Rosen (1997) Calcif. Tis. Int. 60:225-228); and, at least one estimate asserts that osteoporosis affects 1 in 3 women. Keen et al. (1997) Drugs Aging 11:333-337. Moreover, life expectancy has increased, and in the western world, 17% of women are now over 50 years of age: a woman can expect to live one third of her life after menopause. Thus, some estimate that 1 out of every 2 women and 1 out of 5 men will eventually develop osteoporosis; and, that 75 million people in the U.S., Japan and Europe have osteoporosis. The World Summit of Osteoporosis Societies estimates that more than 200 million people worldwide are afflicted with the disease. The actual incidence of the disease is difficult to estimate since the condition is often asymptomatic until a bone fracture occurs. It is believed that there are over 1.5 million osteoporosis-associated bone fractures per year in the U.S. Of these, 300,000 are hip fractures that usually require hospitalization and surgery and may result in lengthy or permanent disability or even death. See a minireview by Spangler et al. "The Genetic Component of Osteoporosis" (1997) Cambridge Scientific Abstracts".
Osteoporosis is also a major health problem in virtually all societies. Eisman (1996); Wark (1996) Maturitas 23:193-207; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,834,200. There is a 20-30% mortality rate related to hip fractures in elderly women (U.S. Pat. No. 5,691,153); and, such a patient with a hip fracture has a 10-15% greater chance of dying than others of the same age. Further, although men suffer fewer hip injuries than women, men are 25% more likely than women to die within one year of the injury. See Spangler et al., supra. Also, about 20% of the patients who lived inependently before a hip fracture remain confined in a long-term health care facility one year later. The treatment of osteoporosis and related fractures costs over $10 billion annually.
Osteoporosis treatment helps stop further bone loss and fractures. Common therapeutics include HRT (hormone replacement therapy), bisphosphonates, e.g., alendronate (Fosamax), estrogen and estrogen receptor modulators, progestin, calcitonin, and vitamin D. While there may be numerous factors that determine whether any particular person will develop osteoporosis, a step towards prevention, control or treatment of osteoporosis is determining whether one is at risk for osteoporosis. Genetic factors also play an important role in the pathogenesis of osteoporosis. Ralston (1997); see also Keen et al. (1997); Eisman (1996); Rosen (1997); Cole (1998); Johnston et al. (1995) Bone 17(2 Suppl)19S-22S; Gong et al. (1996) Am. J. Hum. Genet. 59:146-151; and Wasnich (1996) Bone 18(3 Suppl):179S-183S. Some attribute 50-60% of total bone variation (bone mineral density: "BMD"), depending upon the bone area, to genetic effects. Livshits et al. (1996) Hum. Biol. 68:540-554. However, up to 85%-90% of the variance in bone mineral density may be genetically determined.
Studies have shown from family histories, twin studies, and racial factors, that there may be a predisposition for osteoporosis. Jouanny et al. (1995) Arthritis Rheum. 38:61-67; Garnero et al. (1996) J. Clin. Endrocrinol. Metab. 81:140-146;Cummings (1996) Bone 18(3 Suppl):165S-167S; and Lonzer et al. (1996) Clin. Pediatr. 35:185-189. Several candidate genes may be involved in this, most probably multigenic, process.
Cytokines are powerful regulators of bone resorption and formation under control of estrogen/testosterone, parathyroid hormone and 1,25(OH)2D3. Some cytokines primarily enhance osteoclastic bone resorption e.g. IL-1 (interleukin-1), TNF (tumor necrosis factor) and IL-6 (interleukin-6); while others primarily stimulate bone formation e.g. TGF-β (transforming growth factor-β), IGF (insulin-like growth factor) and PDGF (platelet derived growth factor).
There is need for clinical and epidemiological research for the prevention and treatment of osteoporosis for gaining greater knowledge of factors controlling bone cell activity and regulation of bone mineral and matrix formation and remodeling.
Bone develops via a number of processes. Mesenchymal cells can differentiate directly into bone, as occurs in the flat bones of the craniofacial skeleton; this process is termed intramembranous ossification. Alternatively, cartilage provides a template for bone morphogenesis, as occurs in the majority of human bones. The cartilage template is replaced by bone in a process known as endochondral ossification. Reddi (1981) Collagen Rel. Res. 1:209-226. Bone is also continuously modeled during growth and development and remodeled throughout the life of the organism in response to physical and chemical signals. Development and maintenance of cartilage and bone tissue during embryogenesis and throughout the lifetime of vertebrates is very complex. It is widely accepted that a multitude of factors, from systemic hormones to local regulatory factors such as the members of the TGF-β superfamily, cytokines and prostaglandins, act in concert to regulate the continuous processes of bone formation and bone resorption. Disturbance of the balance between osteoblastic bone deposition and osteoclastic bone resorption is responsible for many skeletal diseases.
Diseases of bone loss are a major public health problem especially for women in all Western communities. The most common cause of osteopenia is osteoporosis; other causes include osteomalacia and bone disease related to hyperparathyroidism. Osteopenia has been defined as the appearance of decreased bone mineral content on radiography, but the term more appropriately refers to a phase in the continuum from decreased bone mass to fractures and infirmity.
It is estimated that 30 million Americans are at risk for osteoporosis, the most common among these diseases, and there are probably 100 million people similarly at risk worldwide. Melton (1995) Bone Min. Res. 10:175. These numbers are growing as the proportion of the elderly in the world population increases. Despite recent successes with drugs that inhibit bone resorption, there is a clear need for specific anabolic agents that will considerably increase bone formation in people who have already suffered substantial bone loss. There are no such drugs currently approved.
Mechanical stimulation induces new bone formation in vivo and increases osteoblastic differentiation and metabolic activity in culture. Mechanotransduction in bone tissue involves several steps: 1) mechanochemical transduction of the signal; 2) cell-to-cell signaling; and 3) increased number and activity of osteoblasts. Cell-to-cell signaling after mechanical stimulus involves prostaglandins, especially those produced by COX-2, and nitric oxide. Prostaglandins induce new bone formation by promoting both proliferation and differentiation of osteoprogenitor cells.

Genes associated with mechanical stress, expression products therefrom, and uses thereof


A developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus, have transport members with screw and shaft portions, transporting developer within the device in a longitudinal direction of a circulation path. A supply supplies new carrier to the device. A discharge aperture in a transport path wall of one transport member discharges developer outside the circulation path, when a surface of the developer transported by the one transport member exceeds a predetermined height. A bias path aperture in the transport path wall upstream of the discharge aperture has a bottom at a higher level than a bottom of the discharge aperture, and diverts developer at a level higher than the bottom of the discharge aperture to another transport member. An area in the longitudinal direction of the one transport member has no screw portion, and the discharge aperture is disposed opposite the area and has a length smaller than the area.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus using the electrophotographic method for, such as a photocopier, printer, facsimile machine, or a multi-function machine, and the developing device and process cartridge installed therein. More particularly the present invention relates to a premixed developing system developing device in which new carrier is supplied to the developing device as appropriate, a process cartridge, and an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, in image forming apparatus such as multi-purpose machines, printers, and the like, technology (referred to as the premixed developing system) for supplying new carrier to a developing device that contains two part developing agent made from toner and carrier (including the case where additives or the like are added) is disclosed in, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-183893 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-112238, and elsewhere.
In a developing device using two component developing agent, as toner is consumed within the developing device, toner is replenished as appropriate into the developing device through a toner replenishing aperture provided in a part of the developing device. The supplied toner is agitated and mixed with the developing agent within the developing device by a transport member (agitation member) such as a screw or the like. A part of the agitated and mixed developing agent is supplied to a developing roller. The developing agent on the developing roller is controlled to an appropriate amount by a doctor blade. Then at the position in opposition to the photosensitive drum, the toner in the two part developing agent adheres to the latent image on the photosensitive drum.
In this way, in the normal developing process the carrier in the two part developing agent housed in the developing device is not consumed but remains within the developing device, so the carrier becomes degraded with the passage of time. In more detail, as a result of agitation and mixing of the carrier within the developing device over a long period of time, a "film depletion phenomenon" occurs, in which the coating layer of the carrier becomes worn or peels off, which reduces the carrier charging capacity, or a "spent phenomenon" occurs in which components of toner or additives adhere to the surface of the carrier, which reduces the carrier charging capacity.
The premixed developing system is a system to prevent the reduction in image quality of the images output as a result of this degradation of the carrier with time. In other words, by supplying new carrier (or new two part developing agent) as appropriate to the developing device, and discharging a part of the two part developing agent housed within the developing device outside the developing device as appropriate, the degraded carrier within the developing device is reduced, and it is possible to maintain the quantity of carrier housed within the developing device and its charging capacity.
Compared with image forming apparatus for which it is necessary to change the developing device or carrier with new product every time degradation of the carrier with time occurs, the quality of the images output from an image forming apparatus that uses the premixed developing system as described above is more stable with time.
In Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-183893 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-112238, image forming apparatus using the premixed developing system are disclosed in which an overflow system is used as discharge means for discharging the developing agent outside the developing device. In detail, a discharge aperture (hole) is provided in the wall of the developing device, and when the surface of the developing agent transported to this position exceeds a predetermined level, the developing agent (the developing agent that has become excess as a result of replenishing with carrier) is discharged to the outside from the discharge aperture.
Also, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-112238, in order to reduce the quantity of developing agent discharged from the discharge aperture (developing agent discharge aperture) technology is disclosed in which the screw of the transport member (agitation and transport member) in opposition to the discharge aperture is removed (or reduced in diameter).
In the premixed developing system developing device according to Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2001-183893, in addition to the developing agent that was intended to be discharged, the necessary developing agent was also discharged from the discharge aperture. As a result, the developing agent within the developing device was excessively discharged, and the developing agent became insufficient. Specifically, although only developing agent whose surface height exceeded a predetermined height was intended to be discharged, developing agent that was thrown up by the transport member was also discharged from the discharge aperture.
When the amount of developing agent within the developing device becomes insufficient in this way, the state of degradation of the developing agent becomes unstable, the amount of charge on the toner is reduced, the image density of the images output is reduced, and other problems occur.
In order to solve this problem, in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2000-112238, the screw is eliminated (or reduced in diameter) from the transport member opposite the discharge aperture. However, as a result of the researches by the inventors of the present application, it was found that by eliminating the screw from the transport member opposite the discharge aperture alone, it was not possible to sufficiently reduce the discharge from the discharge aperture of the developing agent thrown up by the transport member.

Developing device, process cartridge, and image forming apparatus that house a developing agent for forming an image


A support assembly for use with truck bed comprises first mounting frame 5, second mounting frame 6, first horizontal arm portion 11, first vertical arm portion 12, first arm mounting holes 13, second horizontal arm portion 21, second vertical arm portion 22, first mounting end 24 of second vertical arm portion, distal, open end 25 of second horizontal arm portion, first support bracket 30, first vertical sleeve 40, second support bracket 50, second vertical sleeve 60, first brace 70, second brace 90, outer sleeve 100, first hitch pin assembly 110, and second hitch pin assembly 120.

The present invention relates generally to truck bed storage systems and specifically to racks that facilitate storage and transport of lengthy articles.
Pickup trucks are known as is the general structure of typical truck beds. They commonly have protrusions on both sides of the interior of the bed section near the rear of the vehicle. The trucks are helpful for the storage and transport of many items. Of particular interest are items that are lengthy and oftentimes extend beyond the rear gate of the truck. Storing and transporting such items is problematic because the operation of the rear gate of the truck is impeded because the lengthy articles are resting thereon. As a result, the lowering of the gate causes the articles to shift unnecessarily. Moreover, access to other, smaller items is often made difficult because the longer items shift when the gate is lowered.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to have a support assembly that allows lengthy articles to remain un-shifted as the rear gate of the bed is lowered. Such a system allows a user to more fully access the inside of the truck bed. The present invention accomplishes this as well as provides other objects and advantages that will be apparent to those of skill in the art.


A low fluid indicator for a fluid injection system of the type having a sealed pressurized canister, and a valve responsive to a control signal to release fluid from the canister includes a counter that maintains a count. A pulse generating circuit increments the count by a first increment and a second increment in response to the control signal. The first increment is insensitive to the duration of the control signal above a threshold duration and is selected in accordance with a fill volume of the injection system. The second increment varies with duration of the control signal above the threshold duration and has a count rate selected in accordance with an injection flow rate of the injection system. A low fluid indicator lamp is responsive to the counter to indicator a low fluid condition when in the canister when the count exceeds a selected value.

This invention relates to an apparatus for indicating a low fluid level in a pressurized canister, such as a pressurized starting fluid canister used in a starting fluid injection system for an internal combustion engine, or a disinfectant or deodorant canister used in an injection system for a forced air ventilation system.
One widely used type of fluid injection system includes a sealed, pressurized canister containing the fluid to be injected. This canister is connected to an injection nozzle by a conduit and an electromagnetic valve. On command, the valve is opened, thereby allowing pressurized fluid to escape from the canister for injection via the nozzle. Such systems are used, for example, to inject starting fluid into the intake manifold of an internal combustion engine as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,309. Similarly, such systems have been proposed for use in introducing a disinfectant or deodorant into a forced air ventilation system, as described in my previous U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/499,053.
One recurrent problem with such systems is that the user typically is not provided with any indication or warning that the canister is low on fluid. It would be advantageous if the user were provided with a warning indicating a low fluid condition in the canister. Of course, such a system should be reliable and low in cost if it is to achieve widespread acceptance.
In order to meet this need, my above identified U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07,499,053 described a low-fluid indicator useful in such systems. The disclosed low fluid indicator counts the total time the dispensing valve is commanded open and uses this count to calculate whether or not the treatment liquid supply in the sealed canister is near exhaustion. This calculation was based on the fact that the treatment liquid is discharged at a relatively constant flow rate through the injector nozzle, and this flow rate does not vary significantly as the level of liquid decreases in the canister. By multiplying the constant flow rate value by the total number of seconds the dispensing valve has been commanded open, the total amount of liquid dispensed from the canister is calculated. This amount is then compared with the known liquid capacity of the canister to determine if the fluid level in the canister is sufficiently low to require warning to the user. If the level of treatment liquid is determined to be excessively low, then an output indicator is activated to provide a suitable warning to the user.
The disclosed low fluid indicator functions well with systems in which the rate at which fluid is dispensed is substantially constant. The present invention is directed to an improved low fluid indicator that takes into account the variable flow rate through the valve under commonly encountered operating conditions. In this way, a more accurate and more reliable low fluid indicator can be provided.

Low fluid indicator for pressurized canister


The present invention is directed to audio processing including IP telephony audio processing. Voice-over-IP terminals used in phone terminal applications benefit from a low-power implementation suitable for the limited chassis area of these devices. According to an example embodiment of the present invention, a programmable audio processor chip is adapted to process voice data for IP communications. The chip includes a DSP voice compression device adapted to compress voice data, and audio processing circuitry programmed with an audio processing software application adapted to process the compressed voice data. The chip further includes an IP network stack adapted to store and process IP data. The IP data includes protocols for processing the compressed voice data via an IP network. A communication stack is also included in the chip and is adapted to store and process communications data. The communications data includes audio processing protocols for processing the compressed voice data. In a more particular example implementation, the chip is used in a complete IP phone system for processing data ranging from audio samples to compressed TCP/IP packetized network signals, and is implemented with 2 Mbits of on-chip RAM. In this manner, voice and data networks are effectively fused in a way that facilitates user control for the integration of applications including computer telephony applications.

The electronics industry continues to rely upon advances in technology to realize higher-functioning devices at cost-effective prices. For many communication applications, realizing higher-functioning devices in a cost-effective manner requires the creative use of communications channels. Many technologies have been developed that have enhanced communications. Examples include the Internet, facsimile applications, public switched telephone networks (PSTN), wireless telephones, voicemail systems, email systems, paging systems, conferencing systems, electronic calendars and appointment books, electronic address books, and video-image processing systems that communicate video data simultaneously with voice data over a telephones and the Internet. As the popularity of these technologies increases, so does the need to merge and coordinate these technologies in a manner that is convenient and cost-effective for the user.
The growing availability and applicability of the Internet has spawned a growth in the use of communication systems and services offering Internet protocol (IP) telephony. However, widespread acceptance and usage of such communication systems and services are largely a function of cost and user convenience. Therefore, for these technologies to continue to grow, they must be readily available and easy to use.
One challenge to the development and improvement of IP telephony devices is the need for low-power, low-cost, compact devices for providing such communications. Telephones, computers, and other communications devices are more portable and user-friendly when they are small, lightweight, and have low power consumption. In addition, typical telephony communication devices are being used for more and more applications, such as for voicemail, email, and Internet connections. As the amount of telephony and other communications data increases, processing the data becomes more complex.
Many common IP telephony devices typically utilize a multiple-chip combination of microcontroller and DSP functions to implement software application layers, TCP/IP network stack, communication stacks, and DSP voice compression functions required by the VoIP telephony device. The application, network, and communication software is usually implemented on the microcontroller and the voice compression (including codecs, acoustic echo cancellation, DTMF detection, FAX/modem relay, etc.) is implemented on one or more DSPs, usually in software coded in assembly language. These separate components can add to the complexity, size and power consumption of such devices.
For both unsophisticated and sophisticated users of such communication systems and services, the coordination of various communications methods and systems would be beneficial. In addition, it is important to provide scalable, cost-effective, user-friendly control over the communications networks and over the devices that interface with and configure the networks.


A pneumotach gas flow transducer having strain gauge pressure transducers disposed therein for disposition in a selected element or component of a ventilatory circuit. A differential pressure is communicated from the upstream and downstream sides of a flow restrictor in the element's passageway to the transducers via a barrier medium which fills holes in the element and contacts the transducer elements.

1. Field of the Invention
The subject invention relates generally to medical devices and, more particularly, to an improved endotracheal tube connector incorporating a pneumotach transducer.
2. Description of Related Art
U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,459 discloses an endotracheal tube connector for use, for example, in interconnecting a respirator Y piece to an endotracheal tube. One embodiment of the endotracheal tube connector of the U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,459 patent employs a flow restrictor located in a conduit or lumen through the connector. Two passageways, one on either side of the flow restrictor, connect to respective tubes which may then be connected to a differential pressure transducer external to the connector.
The function of a pneumotach is based on measuring the pressure differential across a flow restrictor. The flow restrictor may be anything that reduces the cross-sectional area for flow of fluid through a conduit on axis with the flow. Provided that the flow through the restrictor and, for some length on both sides of the restrictor, is laminar, the pressure drop across the restrictor is linearly proportional to flow. Most pneumotachs suffer from some sort of nonlinearity at low and high flows due to turbulent flow, transducer resolution, and linearity limits, although that nonlinearity may be compensated for in the measuring instrument.
Ventilatory flow measurements are useful for calculating airway resistance (flow versus pressure). The flow measurement is often integrated, yielding inspiratory and expiratory volumes. Volume measurements are useful to calculate ventilatory compliance (volume versus pressure), a critical measurement of lung expandability. Real time volume measurements, coupled with real time gas composition measurements, yield whole body oxygen uptake, carbon dioxide excretion, and anesthetic uptake/excretion information. Cardiac output may be derived from uptake/excretion data and with central blood gas content measurements. Cardiac output and blood pressure measurements yield stroke volume, pulmonary vascular resistance, and systemic vascular resistance. Clearly, a convenient and accurate ventilatory flow measurement can form the basis for obtaining a large number of critical physiologic measurements. The flow measurement technique is relatively noninvasive, as are most of the other measurements.
As discussed above, U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,459 discloses that it is advantageous to incorporate a pneumotach flow restrictor in the lumen of an endotracheal tube connector. According to the embodiment disclosed in the U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,459 patent, such a flow restrictor may be in the form of a reduction of the inner diameter of the lumen over a predetermined length of the lumen. Several advantages of this construction have become evident:
1. The need to connect a separate pneumotach elsewhere in the ventilator circuit is eliminated, reducing ventilatory dead space and the risk of disconnection by eliminating additional in-line adapters and fittings.
2. The size of the flow restrictor may be tailored to give linear output over the expected range of flow for a given size connector. There is a correlation between the size of the patient, size of the endotracheal tube, corresponding size of the endotracheal tube connector, and ventilatory flows.
3. Conventional pneumotachs are clumsy devices usually requiring special connections, and add considerable weight to the ventilatory circuit. Some devices utilize an electrically heated screen restrictor to prevent water from condensing on the screen restrictor, thereby affecting the sensitivity of the flow measurement. The design of the endotracheal tube connector flow restrictor adds no additional device to the ventilator circuit (an endotracheal tube connector is needed regardless of the need for a flow measurement). The design of the in-line flow restrictor with generous remaining internal diameter has been shown to maintain calibration in the presence of water without heating.
While providing considerable improvement, the incorporation of a flow restrictor into an endotracheal tube connector according to the U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,459 patent still leaves certain drawbacks. In particular, the U.S. Pat. No. 4,815,459 embodiment, like other prior art pneumotach transducers, employs interconnection to an external differential pressure transducer through flexible pressure tubing.
In clinical application of these transducers, gas flows containing water or water vapor lead to condensation and/or collection of liquid water in the pressure tubes. The water or water vapor may be intentionally introduced into the gas stream from heated humidification or nebulization therapy. Alternately, the water may originate passively from humidity in the patient's expired air. Accumulation of liquid water in the tubes dampens the pressure measurement through the tube. Unequal water accumulation in both tubes creates unequal dampening of the pressure wave transmitted through the tube to the differential pressure transducer. The pressure sensed by the differential pressure transducer is, in turn, affected not only in magnitude, but also in the phase relationship between the pressure wave transmitted down each tube, in turn creating an error in the flow measurement. The magnitude of the flow measurement error depends on the amount, location, and viscosity of the water present in each tube, length and diameter of the pressure tubes, ventilatory rate, and displacement volumes of the pressure tubes and the pressure transducer.
Routine use of prior art pneumotachs in the clinical setting is difficult. Methods have been employed to periodically backflush the accumulated water back to the breathing circuit by application of positive pressure to both tubes exceeding the breathing circuit's pressure. The backflushing method requires user's interaction to assure that all water is purged within a limited purge time period and that minimal water is allowed to reform between purges.
The pressure tubing may also become disconnected either at the pneumotach or at the measuring instrument, causing leaks in the ventilator circuit. The tubes and pneumotach add to the bulk of material at the connection to the endotracheal tube that may cause disconnection of the endotracheal tube connector from the ventilator circuit or accidental extubation of the patient. The heated screen pneumotach adds the bulk of the heater lead wires and the additional temperature controller to the instrumentation system. The heated screen system may also inadvertently burn the patient or overheat the patient's inspired air.

Endotracheal tube connector with integral pneumotach transducer