A steering apparatus assembly, having a steering axis, about which the steering apparatus assembly can rotate in is disclosed. The steering apparatus assembly comprises a first element and a second element. The two elements are connected to one another by a first and second joints. The first joint comprises a resilient locking element, which is deflectable in a direction transverse to the steering axis to disengage the first joint. The second joint is deflectable by an axial load acting on the assembly elements away from one another. A wedge is provided having a wedge length transverse to the steering axis and a variable wedge height in the direction of the steering axis. The wedge length and length and a wedge inclination angle are matched to one another such that both the first joint and the second joint can be undone by a linear movement of the wedge in the longitudinal direction.

Conventional steering apparatus assemblies of motor vehicles usually comprise a rotatable steering apparatus, and more specifically, a steering wheel, as well as an airbag module fastened in a hub region of the steering apparatus. The airbag module may include airbag module rigid catch hooks for locking with the steering apparatus. The airbag module is mounted, for example, by means of two locking mechanisms which fulfil different tasks. More specifically, the rigid catch hooks lock with a resilient locking element pre-mounted on the steering apparatus (first locking mechanism) and, moreover, engage in foam pockets of the steering apparatus with which they equally lock (second locking mechanism). The first locking mechanism prevents against the airbag module detaching from the steering apparatus even with high axial forces, and thus to remain reliably connected to the steering apparatus. During normal driving operation, i.e., prior to activation of the airbag module, the resilient locking element, for example in the form of a spring wire, may be spaced apart from the rigid catch hooks. The fine positioning of the airbag module during normal driving operation is guaranteed by the second locking mechanism.
During disassembly of the airbag module, the two locking joints must be disengaged so that the airbag module can be removed from the steering apparatus. For this purpose, in conventional steering apparatus assemblies, usually specific tools are required. Moreover, the disassembly is quite difficult and requires expenditure of time and energy for an assembler.
What is needed is a steering apparatus assembly in which a first assembly element in the form of an airbag module, for example, can be mounted in a quick, accurately fitting and robust manner on a second assembly element in the form of a steering apparatus, for example, but can also be quickly disassembled again from the second assembly element with little effort.

Steering apparatus assembly for a motor vehicle


A system comprises a computer and a memory. The memory stores instructions to determine that a vehicle communication channel busy ratio exceeds a threshold, and then, based upon determining that the channel busy ratio exceeds the threshold, to classify a traffic condition for a road segment within a coverage area of an infrastructure element based on at least one of a traffic density and a status of a traffic light. The memory further includes instructions to determine a broadcast policy for the road segment based on the channel busy ratio exceeding the threshold and the classified traffic condition, wherein the broadcast policy is selected from a set of policies that includes (1) a periodic broadcast of messages and (2) a broadcast limited to specified messages.

A vehicle can transmit messages, e.g., including data about an environment or area around the vehicle, to one or more other vehicles, infrastructure elements, etc., via one or more wireless communication networks and/or protocols, e.g., providing what can be referred to as vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communications. Data shared via V2X communications from a host vehicle can include data about a speed of a host vehicle or a detected speed or speeds of other vehicles, a lane change, speed change, a hard brake, a vehicle malfunction, etc., planned, executed, and/or experienced by the host vehicle, etc. However, V2X communication networks, i.e., available bandwidth for radio frequency (RF) communications, may become congested or diminished due to a number of vehicles broadcasting data and/or an amount of information each vehicle broadcasts. Such congestion can prevent a vehicle from transmitting important information to other vehicles and/or infrastructure, and/or cause packet errors.


A magnetic suspension bearing located between the spindle and stator of a rotational device includes stator magnetic units mounted on the top side and bottom side of the stator and spindle magnetic units, which are mounted on two ends of the spindle. One end of the spindle has a loading section to support the spindle. The stator magnetic units and the spindle magnetic units generate a repulsive magnetic force to separate the spindle and stator from one another at a selected distance to avoid vibration and noise caused by obliquity and to increase the service life of products.

In recent years rapid innovations and developments have occurred with electronic products. With the continuous advance of semiconductor manufacturing technologies, electronic products have become more powerful and their prices have dropped. They are now widely accepted by the general public. Nowadays there are a wide variety of electronic products on the market. For the driving motor bearings used in information storage devices, there are oil impregnated bearings, ball bearings, and the like. The oil impregnated bearing has a lower price and thus cost advantage. However, its service life is shorter. The ball bearing has a longer service life, but it is more expensive and has a lower capability to withstand impact. These two types of bearings have their spindles in contact with the inner walls of the bearings. As a result, the motor tends to generate vibration and noise, and its service life becomes lower. On the other hand, dynamic bearings also are frequently used in the industry. The dynamic bearing is more precise and has a longer service life. It has become the mainstream in the market. However, it has starting friction and wearing problem that has yet to be overcome. Moreover, its production cost is higher, and production yield still does not reach the level desired. These issues remain to be resolved.
It is well known that magnets of the same polarity repel each other. This property can be used to reduce wear when the spindle rotates. This has gradually become an important research and development direction in the industry. Some techniques are known in the art. For instance, FIG. 5 discloses the conventional magnetic suspension bearing. It has magnetic portion 700 installed on the stator 800, and a spindle 500 has a permeance ring 600. However, this conventional magnetic suspension bearing has only one magnetic portion 700 and the permeance ring 600 to generates suspension, so its C.M. 900 (center of mass) is unstable and vibration and obliquity is easily occurred. FIG. 6 shows another conventional magnetic suspension bearing. It has magnetic portion 210 (made of permanent magnet) installed on the stator 200. An upper-inner permeance ring 310 (made of magnetic material), lower-inner permeance ring 320 (made of magnetic material) located respectively on the top side and the bottom side of the spindle 300. A ball bearing 400 (or a self-lubricated sleeve) is located between two ends of the spindle. However, the conventional magnetic suspension bearing has some drawback. First, for avoiding the magnetic portion and stator generates magnetic linkage, the contacting area of upper-inner permeance ring and lower-inner permeance ring must be restricted. Thus the restriction of operating environment is very critical. Second, A ball bearing and a self-lubricated sleeve are located between two ends of the spindle, which further complicates the structure. U.S. Pat. No. 5,783,886 discloses a technique in which a spindle motor has a magnetic bearing. It has magnetic elements installed respectively on the spindle and the stator. The repulsive magnetic force enables the spindle to generate radial magnetic suspension against the stator to thereby avoid generating friction contact and wear. While it is easy to assemble and the axial magnetization is easy for mass production, the assembly positions of the spindle and the stator must be controlled accurately. A slight vibration from an external force will create obliquity. In other words, it adopts a magnetic suspension bearing design concept that is operable only in very precise conditions. U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,260 discloses another technique that has oblique magnetic elements installed on the stator and the spindle. It uses the property of repulsive magnetic force of the same magnetic polarity to enable the spindle and the rotator to generate suspension. It has a greater resistance against external impact and can prevent skewing, and magnetization is easier. U.S. Pat. No. 6,664,687 discloses a technique that applying a magnetic flux to the shaft. It has a shaft with a diminishing conical taper, and a sleeve arranged opposite the shaft has a conical concavity. The clearance between the shaft and the sleeve is filled with magnetic oil. The shaft 11 has the permanent magnet inside, and the sleeve is made of a magnetic material. When the shaft is tiled, the shaft with conical taper and the magnetic attraction between the shaft and the sleeve can help maintain the stable attitude of rotary section. However, above techniques are difficult to assemble, and the cost is higher.
In short, there are still many problems in the conventional techniques that need to be overcome.
Moreover, U.S. Pat. No. 5,506,459 discloses a technique in which a magnetically spining apparatus is balanced by circumscribing magnets is disclosed. It has a shaft with magnets, and a frame with support magnets. Particularly, the magnetic polarity dividing line of the magnets of the shaft are slightly higher than the magnetic polarity dividing line of the support magnets of the shaft for levitating the shaft to minimize friction at the pivot point. However, decreasing the friction of the shaft results the rotational devies (i.e. electric fan, hard disk, compact disk player, and so on.) rotate unstable.

Industrial Technology Reserach Institute


To avoid an increase of the number of steps for assembling a coil spring and seat members and a reduction in mechanical strength of the coil spring or the like, a coil spring assembly 20 is provided with the coil spring 25 and the seat members 26. Each seat member 26 has receivers 27 for contacting both ends of the coil spring 25 and projections 28 extending into the coil spring 25 from the receivers 27. Ribs 29 are formed on an outer circumferential surface of the projections 28 for engagement with the coil spring 25.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a coil spring assembly and a damper mechanism having coil springs for absorbing vibrations in a clutch disc assembly of a frictional clutch mechanism or the like, and more particularly to a structure in which seat members are disposed at end portions of the coil springs.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a clutch disc assembly of an automotive frictional clutch mechanism, an input member and an output member are connected to each other in a clutch rotational direction by a damper mechanism. In one such damper mechanism, there is a coil spring assembly having several coil springs. Each end of each coil spring is provided with a seat member.
During a clutch disc assembling process for such a coil spring assembly, the seat members are mounted to the coil springs prior to assembly of the clutch disc assembly. The coil spring assembly is assembled along with other parts of the clutch disc as a single coil spring assembly. With such an arrangement, in the clutch disc assembling process, it is easy to handle each coil spring assembly to thereby simplify the assembling work.
However, in most assembling processes, the seat members are mounted onto the ends of the coil springs by temporary bonding in advance. Namely, the seat members are fixed to the coil springs by a weak adhesive so that the seat members are not separated from the coil springs during the assembling of the clutch disc.
In this case, in the work for mounting the seat members to the coil springs, the process for applying the adhesives to the seat members is required as an independent process, which leads to the increase of the steps. Also, there is a fear that the hardened adhesives might subsequently fly or otherwise be separated from the seat members and the coil spring during the operation of the clutch. The stiffened adhesives would adhere to the respective parts of the clutch and adversely affect the operation or the mechanical strength of the respective parts of the clutch such as coil springs.

Coil spring assembly and damper mechanism


The invention concerns a vehicle vibration device for a vehicle seat or a vehicle cab with a lower part and an upper part sprung mounted in relation to the lower part by at least one damper device, wherein the upper part is mounted suspended on the lower part so that on occurrence of vibrations between the upper part and lower part, the upper part can swivel about a fictitious or real axis arranged below the upper part and extending in the vehicle width direction or vehicle length direction.

Vehicle vibration devices, in particular for vehicle seats, are formed such that they constitute an oscillating, sprung mounting between an upper part and a lower part, in this case between a vehicle seat part and a lower part of the vehicle seat subframe. For example a vehicle seat with a seat part can be connected to a lower part, that is attached to the vehicle cab floor or body of the vehicle, by means of scissor arms, wherein between the upper part and the lower part additional springing devices and/or damping devices are arranged in order to absorb by springing a vertically directed vibration introduced from outside into the vehicle seat system.
There are also horizontal vibration devices which serve to spring or damp out vibrations introduced into the vehicle seat system in the horizontal direction. For this the upper part of the vehicle seat is sprung mounted in the horizontal direction in relation to the lower part of the vehicle seat and can absorb by springing vibrations introduced in the horizontal or transverse direction.
Horizontal vibrations introduced into the system of the sprung vehicle seat or sprung vehicle cab frequently occur if a truck in which the vehicle seat or cab is arranged passes with its front wheels through a hollow or over a bump, and as a result the vehicle seat or vehicle cab briefly undergoes a braking or acceleration in the vehicle length direction in relation to the remainder of the vehicle. This is because, inter alia, the driver's weight is moved with a certain inertia, with a time delay or accelerated relative to the movement of the vehicle. A purely horizontal excitation occurs preferably for example in the case of a rigid subframe (unsprung vehicle) and a horizontal thrust, for example of a trailer e.g. by the overrun brake. Travelling over hollows and rocks with the front wheel preferably leads at least partly to a rotation movement about the contact point of the rear wheel with distance r (corresponds to the distance from the contact point to the seat surface). If the rear wheel then rolls over the unevenness, this also leads to a rotational movement about the contact surface or contact point of the front wheel. This thrust is preferably largely absorbed by vertical springing as this is virtually above the excitation point or contact surface of the rear wheel.
Frequently in such horizontally aligned vehicle vibration devices, the problem arises that the vibrations introduced into the system of a vehicle seat or vehicle cab can only be absorbed by springing in the direction parallel to the vehicle floor on which the vehicle seat is arranged. However a vehicle which for example with its front axle passes over a bump or raised road surface unevenness, in particular one or more stones, branches or similar, or through a hollow, does not exclusively undergo a brief change in its speed only in the horizontal direction. Rather, a type of tipping movement of the entire vehicle occurs, possibly associated with a slight deflection about an axis extending in the vehicle width direction.
On such a tipping movement or pitching, previous vehicle seats have the facility to absorb the vibrations introduced by springing as follows:
For the first degree of freedom of vibrations in the vertical direction (Z axis), a vehicle vibration device extending vertically in relation to the vehicle floor is provided between the vehicle seat upper part and the vehicle seat lower part. In addition damping devices can be installed in the vertical direction. For the vibrations introduced in the longitudinal horizontal direction in relation to the vehicle floor, according to the second degree of freedom (X axis) in the vehicle longitudinal axis direction, so-called horizontal vehicle vibration devices are present. For the third degree of freedom (Y axis) in the vehicle width direction, vehicle vibration devices acting in the horizontal direction can be present.
Thus previously three separate vehicle vibration devices have been provided for a total of three degrees of freedom along the X, Y and Z axes of a vehicle. The spring travels required to damp the vibrations introduced are always guided in the direction of the vehicle plane axes. Conventionally such spring travels are limited to around 100 mm extension in the vertical direction. The longitudinal and lateral horizontal spring travels depend on the design and safety requirements of the environment, and may be restricted by access to controls and scissor element settings. Such horizontally acting spring travels are usually limited to +/−25 mm in both the X axis and Y axis directions. A tipping or pitching movement of the vehicle cannot or can only be inadequately compensated by such separately arranged vehicle vibration devices in their spring travels because of the established degrees of freedom of the individual vehicle vibration devices.

Vehicle vibration device for vehicle seats or vehicle cabs


Semiconductor devices and methods for making semiconductor devices are disclosed herein. A method configured in accordance with a particular embodiment includes forming a stack of semiconductor materials from an epitaxial substrate, where the stack of semiconductor materials defines a heterojunction, and where the stack of semiconductor materials and the epitaxial substrate further define a bulk region that includes a portion of the semiconductor stack adjacent the epitaxial substrate. The method further includes attaching the stack of semiconductor materials to a carrier, where the carrier is configured to provide a signal path to the heterojunction. The method also includes exposing the bulk region by removing the epitaxial substrate.

High electron mobility transistors (HEMTs) employ a heterojunction defined by semiconductor materials having different bandgap energy levels. A gate provides an applied electric field to the heterojunction, which causes a conductive channel to be formed between the source and drain of the HEMT. Another electrical field applied across the source and drain causes an electrical current to flow through the conductive channel. When the applied field of the gate is removed, the electrical current between the source and drain will cease flowing, even when the applied field between the source and drain is not removed.
High voltage HEMTs are used in applications where the applied voltages are much higher than portable semiconductor devices. These transistors are employed in a variety of devices and applications, including power supplies, electric cars, solar cells, and large solid state transistors, to name a few. The breakdown voltage of a high voltage device is proportional to the amount of parasitic electrical current that leaks away from the current flowing between the source and the drain. When a voltage larger than the breakdown voltage is applied, parasitic current will flow regardless of whether there is an applied field provided by the gate (i.e., when the device is in an off state). This parasitic current limits device performance, including the maximum operational voltage.

Devices, systems, and methods related to removing parasitic conduction in semiconductor devices


A pest control dispersal spray system for a building preferably includes a reservoir having a cavity housing a pest control agent. The reservoir has a discharge mechanism selectively expelling the existing pest control agent outwardly and away from the reservoir while the reservoir remains at a stationary position. A discharge nozzle may be attached to the reservoir and may be in fluid communication with the cavity. A plurality of interconnected tubes may be located exterior of the reservoir and may be in fluid communication with the discharge nozzle. In this manner, activation of the discharge mechanism causes the existing pest control agent to flow through the cavity, egress the reservoir via the discharge nozzle, and thereafter travel along the interconnected tubes such that the existing pest control agent is dispersed outwardly from the interconnected tubes while the reservoir remains stationary.

1. Technical Field
This invention relates to pest control systems and, more particularly, to a pest dispersal spray system for providing users with a means to kill, prevent or ward off unwanted pests from underneath and around trailers, mobile homes and crawl spaces of homes.
2. Prior Art
Rodents are both a nuisance and a health hazard to humans. According to the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC), rodents such as rats can spread diseases such as typhus, meningitis, and fever. Rodents are widely credited as a primary carrier of the bubonic plague through Europe in the 14th century. While modern medicine has advanced in recent years, the culling and control of the rodent population has been pivotal in preventing widespread disease. This control is achieved in large part through the use of pest control products.
Mechanical sprayers are a common form of pest control solutions. Hydraulic sprayers usually consist of a tank, a pump, a lance (for single nozzles) or boom, and a nozzle (or multiple nozzles). Sprayers convert a pesticide formulation, often containing a mixture of water (or another liquid chemical carrier) and chemical, into droplets, which can be large rain-type drops or tiny almost-invisible particles. This conversion is accomplished by forcing the spray mixture through a spray nozzle under pressure. Current pest control solutions of this nature require a user to actively direct the spray nozzles onto the pests. In situations where pests need to be exterminated or ran off immediately, a user must confront and direct the spray manually at the rodent. This is both inconvenient and cumbersome to the user as the pest may be in an unreachable place such as underneath trailers, mobile homes and crawl spaces of homes.
Accordingly, a need remains for a system in order to overcome the above-noted shortcomings. The present invention satisfies such a need by providing a pest dispersal spray system that is convenient and easy to use, lightweight yet durable in design, versatile in its applications, and designed for providing a user with a means to kill, prevent or ward off unwanted pests from underneath and around trailers, mobile homes and crawl spaces of homes.

Dispenser system for pest/rodents and associated method


A high-speed dubbing unit 10 for dubbing digital data from an optical disk 15 to a hard disk 16 at a high speed is connected via a public telephone line to a payment imposing unit 20. A control unit 13 is provided for generating in its basic data generator 13B basic data for imposing the payment from at least data indicative of the user identification and data indicative of the speed for recording the data read out from the optical disk 15 into the hard disk 16 and transmitting the basic data to the payment imposing unit 20. The payment imposing unit 20 performs the imposing of the payment according to the basic data received from the control unit 13 and transmits data indicative of the completion of imposing the payment to the control unit 13. In response to the data indicative of the completion of the payment, the control unit 13 directs the high-speed dubbing unit 10 to start recording the data read out from the optical disk 15 into the hard disk 16.

It is known in respect of protecting a copyright that copying digital data such as music software recorded on a given recording medium to another recording medium (referred to as "copying" or "dubbing" hereinafter) is permitted only one time or for one generation. Home audio systems are commonly designed capable of copying a group of digital data, e.g. of music play by a player, from an optical disk to a recording medium such as another optical disk, a magnetic disk, or a magnetic tape without change. However, such home audio systems permit no more copying of the digital data from the copied medium or source such as an optical disk, a magnetic disk, or a magnetic tape to a further recording medium.
The copying of such digital data may be dubbing at a common speed but not fast dubbing at a double or triple speed. In this application, the common speed is referred to as a recording speed or a recording and/or playback action where a group of data stored on an optical disk rotating at a standard speed specified by applicable standards is read out and played back with the use of a head and its playback data is recorded onto another optical disk rotating at the same speed. The double speed and triple speed are referred to as recording speeds or a recording and/or playback action where a group of data stored on an optical disk rotating at a speed two or three times faster than the standard speed is read out and played back with the use of a head and its playback data is recorded at two or three times faster clock onto another optical disk rotating at the speed two or three times faster than the standard speed. More particularly, such fast dubbing is technically feasible that the digital music data is read and copied from its optical disk rotating at the double or triple speed to a recording medium such as another optical disk, a magnetic disk, or a magnetic tape. For example, high-speed disk drives capable of playing back optical disks at eight or twelve times faster speed are now commercially available. There is a drawback that the copyright may be infringed if such high speed dubbing is permitted without rules.
For protecting the copyright, each action for high-speed dubbing of digital data is subjected to payment by the user. More specifically, infringement of the copyright is avoided when the high-speed dubbing of digital data is allowed only to the user who has fulfilled its payment. Practical means and arrangements for carrying out such payment for the high-speed dubbing have rarely been proposed so far.
It is thus an object of the present invention, in view of the foregoing aspects, to provide a record/playback apparatus and a record/playback method capable of permitting the high-speed dubbing of digital data on condition that a corresponding payment action has been done, hence preventing infringement of the copyright.

Recording/reproducing device and recording/reproducing method


A method for removing chlorinated organic pollutants from an aqueous composition by electrocatalysis, including electrolyzing the aqueous composition, in a capillary reactor, with an applied potential of 1-5 kV, in which, during the electrolyzing, the aqueous composition is in contact with porous silica supported-sol-gel coated platinum and titanium catalysts and the electrolyzing forms hydrogen and hydrogen chloride.

1. Field of the Disclosure
The present invention relates to a method for removal of organic pollutants (OPs) by electrocatalysis.
2. Description of Related Art
In recent years, anti-pollution electrocatalysis and electrical-catalyzed membrane-separation for water treatment has been developed. Techniques to solve fundamental problems such as energy, resource and environment problems have been investigated.
U.S. 2012/0090988 A1 is related to anti-pollution electrocatalysis composite membrane and membrane reactor. The electrocatalytic composite membrane consists of a substrate and catalytic coating and the membrane reactor provides a trans-membrane pressure as the membrane separation power generated by a pump. The electrocatalytic composite membrane as anode and an auxiliary electrode as cathode are connected to a direct current regulated power supply separately by conducting wires so that an electrolysis apparatus is formed to degrade the pollutant attached on the surface and in the pores of the membrane by electrocatalytic oxidation. The direct current regulated power supply provides 0-30 V of supply voltage and 0-10 A of current.
CN101104537A relates to electrocatalysis using a separation film for a water treatment device. The separation membrane divides internal space of shell into dope space and filtration space. The dope space has raw water inlet and dope outlet and a net-like conductor. The separation membrane and net-like conductor are separately connected with constant current power supply to form electron emission area and electron receiving area. The current adjusting scope of the constant current power supply is between 0 and 50 A, the input pressure voltage is 220 V, and the output voltage is 24 or 12 V. This approach only requires low voltages.
Development of a more effective means of cleaning water by removing organic pollutants by electrocatalysis is essential. Therefore, the present invention applies porous silica supported sol-gel coated platinum and titanium catalysts in which the porous support silica are synthesized from a rice husk material. Due to employment of a glass capillary microreactor, catalytic activity is enhanced by electrokinetic mobility of the target analytes which does not require physical pumps and shortens the time required for removal. The use of rice husk as support for platinum (RHA-Pt) and titanium (RHA-Ti) catalysts for removal of organic pollutants in a glass capillary microreactor has not been previously reported.

Method to remove organic pollutants by electrocatalysis

King Fahd University of Petroleum and Minerals


A dental mirror including means for providing suction and rinsing service to the mouth cavity and the like including a substantially annular inlet port formed at the edge of the mirror housing interconnecting longitudinal passages formed in the dental mirror handle and a self-locking swivel coupling connecting the proximal end of the dental mirror handle and a hose or tube connected to a liquid or air and vacuum remotely mounted source. In one embodiment the area of the inlet port progressively increases and in another embodiment the upper and lower plates of the mirror housing are supported by aerodynamically clean struts and the mirror may form the upper plate.

While there a number of prior art dental mirrors having means for sucking up the mucous, blood, water, particulate, saliva and the like, as well as means for rinsing the mouth area, these prior art devices are either expensive, inefficient and/or are cumbersome to operate. Examples of these types of dental mirrors are disclosed in Warriner U.S. Pat. No. 3,102,338, Hannson U.S. Pat. No. 3,928,916, Katz U.S. Pat. No. 2,861,342 and Berlin U.S. Pat. No. 4,925,391. The Berlin patent, supra, for example, discloses a shaft and mirror combination that includes internal passages extending from the edge of the mirror to the top end of the shaft which includes coupling means for connecting the mirror/shaft combination to a suction source. The edge of the housing of the dental mirror that supports the mirror itself contains a plurality of apertures that are in communication with the interior of the mouth. One of the problems associated with this construction is that these passages are subject to closure if a particle of material, such as metal filling, used by the dentist clogs the aperture or if the dentist allows the edge to touch the walls of the mouth cavity, gums, teeth and the like.
Another class of prior art dental mirrors is concerned with including a light at the mirror itself and the passage means in the handle of the dental mirror for carrying fiber optics or the like from the source of energy to the distal end of the mirror. A number of these prior art devices also include means for conducting fluid to the mirror through the handle for defogging and cleaning the mirror surface. Examples of this class of dental mirrors are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,279,594 granted to Rigutto and 4,629,425 granted to Detsch.
This invention is primarily concerned with the efficiency of the aspirator means in the dental mirror and the construction thereof by including a generally substantially annularly shaped aperture at the edge of the mirror support that communicates with internal passage formed in the mirror handle. In one embodiment the cross sectional area of the annular aperture that forms the inlet port is varied to provide effectual suction capabilities notwithstanding the situation where a portion of the annular aperture may be blocked by an occasional touching of the interior of the mouth. In another embodiment it is contemplated that this invention will incorporate aerodynamically clean vanes or struts for supporting the back plate to the front plate of the mirror support.
Also, this invention contemplates a simplified and economical construction of the dental mirror.

Dental mirror with aspirating and rinsing means


A vehicle periphery display control system displays peripheral images of a vehicle which are captured by a plurality of cameras mounted on the vehicle in respective different positions thereon. A storage medium stores road configuration information of a road. A positioning unit identifies the present position of the vehicle on the road. A image switching decision unit selects either one of images captured by the cameras based on specific road configuration information of a peripheral area around the vehicle, which includes the present position identified by the present position identifying unit, of the road configuration information stored in the storage medium. The image switching decision unit controls a display unit to display the image selected by the selecting unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a vehicle periphery display control system for displaying images of the periphery of a vehicle which are captured by cameras mounted on the vehicle.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have heretofore been available systems for displaying vehicle periphery images captured by cameras mounted on a vehicle for the vehicle driver to see while driving the vehicle. One known such system is disclosed as a vehicle periphery monitoring device in Japanese laid-open patent publication No. 2003-81014, for example. According to the disclosed vehicle periphery monitoring device that is installed on a vehicle, when a driver's action to operate the turn indicator for indicating a left turn or a right turn is detected, the image displayed by the vehicle periphery monitoring device switches to an image captured on the left-hand side of the vehicle or an image captured on the right-hand side of the vehicle.
The above conventional vehicle periphery monitoring device changes displayed images only when the driver operates the turn indicator. Therefore, the conventional vehicle periphery monitoring device is unable to change displayed images depending on the running state of the vehicle that is not related to the operation of the turn indicator.

Vehicle periphery display control system


The invention relates to phosphoric esters of the general formula I where X is 1 or 2; n is from 2 to 18; m and o are each from 2 to 100; k is from 2 to 4; R″ is H or a linear or branched alkyl radical; and R′ is an alkyl, alkaryl, alkenyl, or sulfopropyl radical, and to there use as dispersants for pigments and fillers in aqueous or organic media.

For the dispersion of fillers and pigments in liquid media it is common to operate with the aid of dispersants in order to reduce the mechanical shear forces required for effective dispersion of the solids and at the same time to obtain very high degrees of filling.
The dispersants support the disruption of agglomerates, wet and/or cover, as surface-active materials, the surface of the particles to be dispersed, and stabilize the particles against unwanted reagglomeration.
Dispersants have become indispensable for the preparation, for example, of highly concentrated color pastes for the paints and coatings industry, for the preparation of pigment concentrates (masterbatches) for the coloring of articles made of plastic, and for the processing of unsaturated polyester resins (UP resins) which comprise large amounts of calcium carbonate or aluminum hydroxide (ATH) as fillers.
The combination of very high degrees of filling in association with a very low viscosity is of particular interest for the producers and users of these products on primarily economic grounds. In the case of the fillers, these commonly constitute the least expensive formulating component; pigment concentrates are intended by the plastics processor to be used for coloring in very highly concentrated form—that is, as far as possible without additional carrier materials.
Phosphoric esters and their use as dispersants are known and can be found in the prior art. For instance, U.S. Pat. No. 4,720,514 describes phosphoric esters of a range of alkylphenol ethoxylates, which can be used with advantage to formulate aqueous pigment dispersions. Phosphoric esters for similar use are described in EP-A-0,256,427, U.S. Pat. No. 5,130,463 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,151,218 report phosphoric esters based on hydroxy-terminated polyaddition products and polycondensation products, which are used for the preparation of highly filled polyester molding compounds, especially for SMC and BMC formulations (SMC=sheet molding compounds; BMC=bulk molding compounds). Bifunctional phosphoric esters prepared by the Mannich-Moedritzer reaction, and their adsorption characteristics on calcium carbonate, are described in J. Appl. Polym. Sci. 65, 2545 (1997).
The known phosphoric esters, however, have the disadvantage that in general they are not universally applicable since there is in many cases a lack of adequate compatibility between the dispersing additive and binder or between the dispersing additive and the surrounding medium (aqueous or solvent-containing formulations). The chemical composition of the phosphoric esters also has a large part to play: in aqueous formulations it is preferred to use only those phosphoric esters whose molecule carries no additional hydrolyzable functional groups, such as ester or urethane groups. Frequently, high levels of dispersing additives are required in order to suppress the incidence of agglomerates; the degrees of filling which can be achieved are unsatisfactorily low, the stability of the dispersions and thus the permanence of the viscosity is often inadequate, and flocculation and aggregation cannot always be avoided, possibly resulting in visible separation and in flow defects and surface defects.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A capped wheel nut formed of a cap and a nut insert which, when engaged, rotate together such as for removably engaging a wheel to a threaded stud of a hub of a vehicle. The capped wheel nut is rotated by a standard tool which applies a rotational force to the cap. Should the cap become disengaged from the nut insert, then the nut insert may be rotated by a standard tool which applies a rotational force to the nut insert in the absence of the cap.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is related to the field of fastening devices preferably for securing a wheel to a vehicle and, more particularly, to a composite nut and decorative cap for fastening a wheel to a threaded stud of a vehicle hub.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the development of functional hub caps and wheel fasteners for vehicles, a decorative art has emerged. Wheel covers of various shapes designs, and compositions (alloys) are now readily available and are popular options on various vehicles to accentuate appearance.
In addition to distinctive wheel covers, decorative nut caps have been designed to complement the wheel covers. The nut caps cover the nuts which nuts are frequently called nut inserts. The nut and cap combination fasten the wheel to the threaded studs of a vehicle hub. In addition to a decorative effect, the nut caps protect the nut inserts from adverse effects of the weather, such as rusting, etc.
In the prior art fasteners, nut caps have been variously top welded (U.S. Pat. No. 4,123,961), crimped (U.S. Pat. No. 3,364,806) flange welded (U.S. Pat. No. 4,775,272) and glued onto the nut inserts such that the cap will provide the decorative and protective functions. The exterior sides of the nut cap are provided with wrenching surfaces referred to as wrench flats. A nut-rotating wrench is then applied to the wrench flats of the cap to rotate the combination nut cap and nut insert to tighten or loosen the wheel to the vehicle hub. The cap and nut insert rotate together to provide the desired mechanical function. Each of the foregoing patents is incorporated by reference.
Despite the many creative ways for fastening the nut insert and the nut cap together, the nut cap sometimes becomes separated from the nut insert. The tensile and shear strength of the adhesive may be too low and give way; salt and/or water may work between the nut cap and the nut and cause rusting which can cause separation of the nut cap and the nut insert in response to the stress of repetitive loosening or tightening the nut on the stud; and a small percentage of these fasteners may separate despite manufacturing precautions. Irrespective of the cause of the separation, its effect upon the user of the capped wheel nut is significant. Although the nut cap is designed to fit a standard size nut-rotating wrench, when the nut cap disengages from the nut insert, it is difficult, if not impossible to rotate the nut insert because the nut insert, which is positioned inside the cap, is "undersized", i.e., smaller than the standard nut-rotating wrench. This unexpected dilemma can be both frustrating and dangerous for a stranded vehicle operator who is unable to change a flat tire on the vehicle once a nut cap has been dislodged from the nut insert because the standard wrench does not properly engage the "undersized" nut insert.
It is an object of this invention to provide a simple but effective way of addressing the problem of providing a decorative and functional cap and wheel nut insert combination, yet in the case of the cap being separated from the wheel nut insert, to provide a suitable remedy for enabling rotation (and thus tightening or loosening) of the non-capped wheel nut insert.


A method for positioning a semifinished product, has the steps of: providing a semifinished product having at least one position mark aligned with the center of contraction or expansion, and providing a machining device for machining and finishing the semifinished product, which is positioned, preferably reproducibly positioned, in the machining device via fastening means and the position mark.

It is known that numerically controlled milling machines operate in principle with a coordinate system, in which they spatially move and are oriented. The corresponding coordinate system is composed of a plurality of axes, for example five movement axes in the form of three linear axes and two rotation axes. For the orientation of the numerically controlled milling machine with respect to the corresponding semifinished product, absolute or incremental path tracking is used. In order to be able to machine the semifinished product in the machine in a collision-free manner, spatial conditions must be known with high precision. For this reason, it is of great importance that the semifinished product in this coordinate system be accurately defined so as to be able to carry out exact machining on the semifinished product. In this respect, the semifinished product must be oriented for all axes in a defined orientation with respect to the coordinate system of the machine. Depending on the material and the associated physical and chemical properties, dimensional changes may occur during the production of a semifinished product that require a complicated geometric analysis for subsequent finishing on a numerically controlled machine in order to orient them in the coordinate system of the numerical machine. For example, if the semifinished product were to be taken out of the milling machine to perform, for example, measurement checks, further processing or finishing of the semifinished product would be possible only with significant outlay, for example for finishing of reference marks. All the more critical is the reproducible positioning within a milling machine in the case of semifinished products which must be used as freeform bodies in complex geometric conditions, such as for example a dental blank or a tooth.
An attempt is made here to address such occurring dimensional changes by way of zero-point clamping systems. However, this known system has the disadvantage that reference marks are applied subsequently in part to the semifinished product only after the measurement change has taken place. With this subsequent provision of marks on a semifinished product, the geometric conditions on the semifinished product must be exact and accurately known, in order to determine a reference to the position of the zero-point clamping system. A marking of this type is disclosed for example by DE 20 2012 100 359 U1. The marks provided on the semifinished product, however, merely suffice as a "protection against rotation" and are not suitable for exact reproducible positioning, in particular for further processing by machine, especially since these marks are provided by way of subsequent milling only after the production of the semifinished product. These blanks also do not exhibit any complex forms or structures that need to be taken into consideration during further processing.

Method for positioning a semifinished product, method for producing a semifinished product for reproducible positioning, and suitable semifinished product and corresponding use thereof


A method and apparatus for heating a portion of a subsea structure is provided. The method includes pumping a fluid through a length of tubing such that the temperature of the fluid increases. The temperature increase of the fluid is created by friction in the tubing, and may be also be created by at least one pressure reducing device such as an orifice, pressure reducing valve, or relief valve. A subsea structure may be heated by transferring heat from fluid circulating in a closed loop configuration or by direct application of fluid to the subsea structure using a nozzle. A remotely operated vehicle may be utilized to transport some or all of the equipment necessary, including pumps, tubing, heat exchangers, nozzles and tanks. The remotely operated vehicle provides power to the pumps used for circulating fluid through the tubing.

The present invention relates generally to an apparatus and method for providing heat to a subsea pipeline or other structure, and more particularly relates to a hydraulic friction fluid heater for providing heat to a subsea pipeline or other structure.
There often arises a need for heat to be supplied in a subsea environment. This frequently comes up in the offshore oil and gas industry. It is well known in the oil and gas industry that under certain pressure and temperature conditions the gases in a typical oil or gas well may form a solid hydrate or a solid wax within a pipeline. A hydrate is basically methane- or hydrocarbon-type ice. A wax is basically a paraffin-based solid formation. Hydrates and waxes are more likely to form under conditions of high pressures and low temperatures. Although hydrates and waxes may form at any water depth, hydrate and wax formation occurs more commonly in deep water. For example, at about 1000 feet and below, the water temperature remains relatively constant—just slightly above freezing in the vast majority of the world's oceans. The pressure, however, dramatically increases with depth, which affects hydrate and wax formation. In general, the deeper the water the more critical a problem hydrates and waxes become for oil company operators. Typically, hydrate and wax formation becomes an issue at approximately 500 meters (1500 feet), and below approximately 1000 meters (3000 feet) presents serious problems for oil companies.
The solid hydrate or wax forms a blockage inside a pipeline and reduces or completely blocks the product flow of oil and/or gas. Hydrate formations also occur at other locations, for example, externally on a subsea well head. Hydrates have also formed externally on the connector between a subsea wellhead and the lower marine riser package ("LMRP") resulting in frozen latches that prevent the connector from releasing.
Some companies have attempted to address the hydrate issue by installing hydrate traps in their pipelines. The hydrate trap is basically a loop inside the pipeline that is specific to hydrate remediation. The installed hydrate trap is intended to generate the heat to remediate the hydrate plugs or ice. However, hydrate formation is a problem for existing subsea pipelines having no hydrate traps as well as for subsea well heads and associated equipment mounted thereon.
Typically, when working in the subsea environment at significant depths, remotely operated vehicle ("ROV") systems are used. ROV systems are typically hydraulic-operated. In the past, attempts have been made at subsea hydrate and wax remediation with the use of electric heaters powered by an ROV system, however, typical ROV systems do not have sufficient electrical power to generate the heat necessary to effectively remediate such formations.
What is needed is a method and apparatus for performing subsea hydrate and wax remediation using heat. It is also desirable to have an apparatus and process for performing subsea hydrate and wax remediation using heat produced hydraulically. It is further desirable to have an apparatus and process for performing subsea hydrate and wax remediation using heat produced subsea. Additionally, it is desirable to have an apparatus and process to produce heat subsea using existing remotely operated vehicle ("ROV") systems.

Hydraulic friction fluid heater and method of using same


A technique for the automatic alignment and tuning of the front end of a vehicle radio. A tuning voltage is applied to a multiplying digital-to-analog converter before being applied to a front end tuning circuitry of the radio. A tuning voltage antenna number is applied to the tuning voltage at the converter to scale the tuning voltage, and adjust the center frequency tuning of the front end. During alignment, the tuning voltage antenna number is used to modulate the tuning voltage around a mean by reprogramming the tuning voltage antenna number a few values higher and lower in sequence. This modulation of the antenna tuning voltage creates an AC modulation component on the signal strength indicator signal passing through the front end. The signal strength indicator signal is measured and compared to its value before the tuning voltage antenna number was changed. If the signal strength indicator signal is higher for a higher tuning voltage antenna number, the front end is misaligned to the low side of the desired alignment point. Likewise, if the signal strength indicator signal is lower for an increasing tuning voltage antenna number, the front end is misaligned to the high side. If there is no change in the signal strength indicator signal for both increases and decreases in the tuning voltage antenna number, the front end is optimally aligned.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a technique for performing automatic alignment and tuning of a radio receiver and, more particularly, to a technique using a software algorithm in connection with a test/alignment station on a production line of vehicle radios to digitally and automatically align and tune the various tuning circuits and components in the radios.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
As is well understood in the art, radio receivers are responsive to radio frequency (RF) signals broadcast from a transmission antenna to convert the signals into a desirable format, such as speech or music. An antenna associated with the receiver captures the electromagnetic energy of the RF signals from the surroundings, and converts this energy into electrical currents that are subsequently processed. Typically, a radio receiver will be separated into an amplitude modulation (AM) portion and a frequency modulation (FM) portion. In the United States, the AM portion is tunable to RF signals in the frequency band from 530 to 1710 kHz, and the FM portion is tunable to RF signals in the frequency band from 88 to 108 MHz.
In order to tune the received RF signals to a desired station for broadcast, the receiver will include a variety of tuned circuits. FIG. 1 shows a schematic block diagram of a known FM receiver section 10 of a radio receiver that is responsive to RF signals, and can be tuned in the FM radio frequency bandwidths. The FM receiver section 10 is intended to represent various types of electronically tuned, superheterodyne FM receivers known in the art, and is especially intended to represent such a receiver for use in a vehicle. Electromagnetic energy in the form of RF signals is received by a radio frequency antenna 12, and is applied to a tunable bandpass filter circuit, particularly a tunable tank circuit 14, that is tuned to establish a bandwidth having a particular center frequency. The tank circuit 14 will be tuned to a particular center frequency for a radio station, and its bandwidth will cover several adjacent stations. When the tank circuit 14 is tuned to a particular frequency in the FM frequency bandwidth, the RF signals received from the antenna 12 and applied to the tank circuit 14 at the tuned frequency are passed by the tank circuit 14, and frequencies outside of this bandwidth are rejected. The tank circuit 14 provides RF selectivity, and is tunable to about a 2 MHz bandwidth, and thus limits the bandwidth so that frequencies entering the FM receiving section 10 are not outside the FM spectrum. Typically there will be one to three of these types of RF selective filters to provide this function.
The tank circuit 14 includes a pair of back-to-back varactor diodes 16 and a coil 18 making up an LC circuit that establishes the resonant frequency of the circuit 14. Other capacitive components would also be included in the tank circuit 14 to establish the resonant frequency. A tuning voltage potential applied between the varactor diodes 16 acts to adjust the center frequency output of the tank circuit 14, and thus acts to tune the receiver section 10 to a particular FM center frequency usually the frequency of a station being tuned. The coil 18 would generally include a ferrite core that is selectively positionable within the coil 18 to set or tune the frequency of the tank circuit 14.
The output of the tank circuit 14 is the RF signal received by the antenna 12 that is bandpass filtered by the tank circuit 14. This selected RF signal is applied to a low noise RF amplifier 20 to be amplified. The amplifier 20 is a preamplifier that gives gain sensitivity and a higher signal-to-noise ratio. The amplified output from the amplifier 20 is then applied to a mixer 22 that mixes the selected and amplified RF signal with an RF signal from a local oscillator 24, also a tuned tank circuit, to establish an intermediate frequency, for example 10.7 MHz, that is suitable for subsequent processing by the components of the receiver section 10. The combination of the antenna 12, the tank circuit 14, the amplifier 20 and the mixer 22 is typically referred to as the "front end" of the receiver section 10. The input to the mixer 22 from the local oscillator 24 is selected so that no matter what frequency the tank circuit 14 is tuned to, the intermediate frequency will always be the same. By establishing a common intermediate frequency in this manner, inexpensive, highly repeatable components can be used in the receiver section 10 having suitable tolerances without the need for providing expensive, high tolerance components, as is well understood in the art.
The receiver section 10 is tuned to a particular FM station by controls on a front panel (not shown) of the radio. The controls on the front panel are connected as inputs to a microprocessor 26. The microprocessor 26 determines the desired FM channel frequency and sends a serial data string to a frequency synthesizer 28. The frequency synthesizer 28 includes a phase locked loop (PLL) (not shown) and other suitable components to generate a tuning voltage output, in a manner that is well understood in the art. The tuning voltage output of the frequency synthesizer 28 is used to apply a voltage to the varactor diode 16 in the tank circuit 14 and the varactor diode in the local oscillator 24 so as to adjust the tuning frequency of the circuits.
The intermediate frequency signal from the mixer 22 is applied to an intermediate frequency filter circuit 32. The filter circuit 32 provides the selectivity which isolates the desired station within the selected FM frequency spectrum from the tank circuit 14. The filtered intermediate frequency from the filter circuit 32 is applied to an intermediate frequency amplifier 34 to amplify the intermediate frequency for subsequent processing. The filter circuit 32 selects the desired FM station by employing narrow band filtering.
The amplifier 34 amplifies the intermediate frequency signal to a level high enough to drive an FM detector 36. The FM detector 36 extracts the transmitted information on the RF signal through a frequency-to-voltage conversion. The FM detector 36 can be any suitable detector for the purposes described herein, such as a quadrature circuit. The detected RF signal from the detector 36 is applied to a stereo decoder 38 that separates the signal into left-right and left -Eright channels. The separated signals from the stereo decoder 38 are applied to a matrix and audio processor 40 that converts the left+right and left-right signals into left and right audio signals. The left and right FM audio signals from the processor 40 are then applied to subsequent processing circuitry (not shown), and then to the system speakers (not shown).
The tank circuit 14 is tuned to the frequency of a desired station and the local oscillator 24 is tuned relative to the frequency of the desired station so that the output of the mixer 22 is set at the intermediate frequency, here 10.7 MHz. In operation, the mixer 22 passes the difference between the selected frequency from the tank circuit 14 and the tuned frequency of the local oscillator 24. However, the operation of the mixer 22 also passes the addition of the selected frequency from the tank circuit 14 and the tuned frequency of the local oscillator 24. In order to prevent this image frequency from being passed by the mixer 22, the range of the tank circuit 14 is limited to a somewhat narrow bandwidth. The selectivity of the tank circuit 14 is usually limited to be narrower than 20 MHz to provide significant attenuation more than 20 MHz away from the desired frequency. Thus, the primary purpose of the tuned tank circuit 14 is to provide selectivity in the front end of the receiver section 10 before the mixer 22 to attenuate the image frequency so that it doesn't pass through the filter circuit 32. Even though the tank circuit 14 is tuned to a particular station, there is a number of other stations, for example about five stations, along the FM bandwidth selected by the tuned tank circuit 14. However, the center frequency of the tank circuit 14 has to be tuned to the desired station as the receiver section 10 is tuned to different radio stations.
Because modern radios are electronically tuned, using the varactor diodes, a problem exists in that there is not perfect tracking between the adjustments of the center frequency of the tank circuit 14 and the local oscillator 24 from receiver to receiver. As discussed above, the RF selectivity of the tank circuit 14 is centered at the desired FM frequency, and the local oscillator 24 is tuned to the value of the intermediate frequency (10.7 MHz) above the center frequency of the tank circuit 14. Because the LC components in the tank circuit 14 and the local oscillator 24 are not identical, even if the same tuning voltage is given to both circuits, the same center frequency would not be achieved. The center frequencies of the tank circuit 14 and the local oscillator 24 would not change the same amount for both filters for the same change in tuning voltage, and therefore tuning sensitivity would be lost because the RF selectivity of the tank circuit 14 would be attenuating the desired signal as it would not be centered relative to the local oscillator center frequency. Stated another way, by plotting out the center frequency of the local oscillator 24 on the X axis and the center frequency of the tank circuit 14 on the Y axis, it would be desirable to see a 45.sub.-- line shifted up by 10.7 MHz, or shifted down the direction being tuned. Therefore, for each radio receiver, the center frequencies of the local oscillator 24 and the tank circuit 14 must be adjusted relative to each other to get proper tuning.
In the prior art, in order to properly adjust the cores of the inductors, a signal generator is connected to the receiver section 10 at the antenna 12. The receiver section 10 and the signal generator are programmed to give a frequency at a particular location in the FM frequency band. The inductors in the tank circuit 14 and the local oscillator 24 are then adjusted by mechanically moving their ferrite cores so that the magnitude of the intermediate frequency signal is maximized, as provided by an automatic gain control plot. By adjusting the position of the cores of the inductors in the tank circuits 14 and 24, the center frequencies of the antenna circuit 14 and the local oscillator 24 will equal the output frequency of the frequency synthesizer 28 minus the intermediate frequency. This frequency would be the desired FM station frequency.
The mechanical adjustment of the components in the filter circuits, as discussed above, is a relatively time consuming and labor intensive process. Therefore, new techniques have been developed in the art to provide computer assisted mechanical alignment. One of those improvements is an automatic alignment technique as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,829 issued Jun. 27, 1995, titled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR TUNING AND ALIGNING AN FM RECEIVER, assigned to the assignee of this application, and herein incorporated by reference.
In the FM receiver section 10, there is a DC voltage, typically referred to as the signal strength indicator (SSI), that can be taken from the amplifier 34, or the circuit components, and is proportional to the signal strength of the RF signal received by the antenna 12, or applied to the antenna 12 by a generator during alignment. In order to get an indication of whether the center frequency of the tank circuit 14 is aligned to the desired tuning alignment point, the voltage of the SSI signal can be monitored. In order to accomplish this, a known RF signal is applied to the antenna 12 by a generator, and the DC value of the SSI signal is measured. By modulating the tuning voltage applied to the varactor 16, the center frequency of the tank circuit 14 will be modulated back and forth. This modulation gets propagated all the way through the receiver section 10, and shows up as a square wave on the SSI voltage signal. Thus, a square wave is superimposed on the SSI voltage signal and is either in-phase or out-of-phase with the original modulating signal. Therefore, by looking at the SSI voltage signal as the tuning voltage is modulated, it is possible to tell if the tank circuit 14 is tuned to the desired alignment point.
Referring back to FIG. 1, for the technique disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,829, the local oscillator tuning voltage from the frequency synthesizer 28 is applied to a tuning voltage (TV) scaling and modulation circuit 42 prior to being applied to the varactor diode 16 of the tank circuit 14. The circuit 42 scales the local oscillator tuning voltage to get a derivative of the tuning voltage that is applied to the varactor diode 16 in the tank circuit 14. The scaling is provided by a digital word tuning voltage (TV) antenna number that is used to set the center frequency of the tank circuit 14 for different stations during the operation of the receiver 10.
FIG. 2 shows a schematic block diagram of the components of the TV scaling and modulation circuit 42. The tuning voltage from the frequency synthesizer 28 is applied to the plus terminal of an amplifier 44 that acts as a buffer. The output of the amplifier 44 is connected to resistors R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 which act as a voltage divider in series with a diode 46. The divided voltage between the resistors R.sub.1 and R.sub.2 is applied to a positive terminal of an amplifier 48 which applies gain to the output of the amplifier 44, and also acts as a buffer. The output of the amplifier 48 is applied to a multiplying digital-to-analog converter (MDAC) 50.
The MDAC 50 acts as a programmable voltage divider controlled by the microprocessor 26 which provides the TV antenna number represented as a digital word. What the MDAC 50 does is takes an analog input, and multiplies it by a digital word to scale the analog input. In other words, the analog input from the amplifier 48 is divided by the digital TV antenna number to provide a divided analog output from the MDAC 50. For example, if an 8-bit digital word representing a gain of 1 is applied as the TV antenna number, the analog voltage signal applied from the amplifier 48 passes straight through the MDAC 50. If an 8-bit digital word representing a gain of 0.5 is applied as a TV antenna number to the MDAC 50, then the analog output of the MDAC 50 would be one-half the analog input from the amplifier 48 at the input to the MDAC 50. The analog output of the MDAC 50 is applied to the non-inverting terminal of an amplifier 52. The amplifier 52 is DC referenced to the voltage drop across the diode 46.
A modulation source and synchronous detector 54 is provided that includes a synchronous detector to determine whether the square wave superimposed on the SSI voltage signal is in-phase or out-of-phase with the modulating signal, or whether there is a square wave at all. This information is applied to the microprocessor 26. The detector 54 also generates the modulating signal that is applied to a summing junction 56 within the TV scaling modulation circuit 42. In one embodiment, the rate of modulation signal is 1 kHz. The modulating signal modulates the antenna voltage from the amplifier 52.
FIGS. 3(A)-3(C) show three graphs with voltage on the vertical axis and frequency on the horizontal axis. Each of the graphs gives a desired alignment point of the alignment between the center frequency of the tank circuit 14 and the local oscillator 24. The solid graph line represents the frequency bandwidth of the tank circuit 14 as tuned with the current tuning voltage antenna number. The dotted graph line represents the center frequency bandwidth of the tank circuit 14 for a subsequent higher tuning voltage antenna number as established by the microprocessor 26. As shown in FIG. 3A, an increase in the tuning voltage antenna number causes the center frequency of the tank circuit 14 to move away from the desired alignment point, and thus causes the SSI voltage signal to decrease because the designed alignment point is on the positive slope portion of the bandwidth curve of the tank circuit 14. This is a misalignment to the high side of the desired alignment point. FIG. 3B shows the situation where an increase in the tuning voltage antenna number causes the center frequency of the tank circuit 14 to move closer to the desired alignment point, and thus provides an increase in the SSI voltage signal because the desired alignment point is on the negative slope portion of the bandwidth curve of the tank circuit 14. FIG. 3C is the case where the tank circuit 14 is basically tuned to the desired alignment point with the current TV antenna number, where an increase in the tuning voltage antenna number does not cause the SSI voltage signal to significantly change. This is because the alignment point is at the top, flat portion of the tuning curve.
When the receiver section 10 is tuned by an operator, the microprocessor 26 programs the frequency synthesizer 28 to the proper frequency in the conventional manner. For each channel frequency, the microprocessor 26 provides the TV antenna number applied to the MDAC 50. This generates the proper tuning voltage to set the center frequency of the tank circuit 14 to the correct channel. To align the tank circuit 14, generally three alignment points are determined, as discussed above, and the microprocessor 26 interpolates between the alignment point to tune the receiver section 10 to intermediate channels.
The above described tuning procedure as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,428,829 requires the circuitry as described to generate a modulating signal, a tuning voltage modulator, and a synchronous detector to detect when the SSI voltage is "ain" or "out" of phase with the tuning voltage modulating signal. This circuitry is used once initially to tune the tank circuit 14 during production of the radio, and is not used again after the radio is tuned. Therefore, improvements can be made for tuning an electronically tunable radio that eliminates these circuits, and their associated cost. It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an automatic alignment and tuning technique for a radio that includes these advantages.

Low cost digital automatic alignment method and apparatus


An electromechanical locking system (8) comprises a lock (12) and a key (14). The lock includes a cylinder (16), an electronic control unit (18) which is housed within the cylinder, a tailpiece (20), and an electrically-operable clutch mechanism (22) which is housed within the cylinder (16). The cylinder (16) is rotatably mounted to a first component to be locked and the tailpiece includes an adapter (24) which is operable to interfere with the movement of a second component to be locked to the first component. The control unit (18) draws power from the key and is operable to generate an actuation signal for actuating the clutch mechanism (22) which releasably connects the cylinder and the tailpiece when actuated, thereby causing them to become rotatably coupled.

The wide deployment of electromechanical locking devices is in part hampered by the power requirements and size of the actuation mechanisms needed to effect unlocking of such electromechanical locking devices. In order to unlock an electromechanical locking device, the locking device requires an actuator which is operable to move a mechanism within the locking device in response to an electrical signal being received from the locking device's electronic control unit. This electrical signal typically causes the actuator to either release a blocking pin which enables a user to turn or slide a mechanism in order to extract a bolt or it may exert sufficient power to extract the bolt without mechanical assistance from a user's hand. In the latter case, the locking device would typically have to be supplied with external power from a mains power supply which restricts the field of application of such locking devices.
An electromechanical locking device which relies upon the strength of a human hand to extract the lock bolt consumes much less power and can be operated by battery-powered sources thereby widening the field of application of such devices. However, existing electromechanical locking devices typically include a locking mechanism in the form of a blocking device which prevents the mechanical component to which a user has access from moving unless an actuator has received an actuation signal from the control unit of the locking device to release the blocking mechanism. As the blocking mechanism is vulnerable to brute force attack in which sufficient strength may be applied to the lock causing the blocking mechanism to fail, such blocking mechanisms are designed to withstand large external forces and as a result are relatively large and heavy. Consequently, the strength requirements of such blocking mechanisms imposes a burden upon the actuators which are required to release such blocking mechanisms, thereby increasing the actuator size and power consumption. This limits the practicality of using battery powered sources for lock actuation. A further problem with such electromechanical locking devices is related to the time it takes to perform lock actuation. Typically, a user should be able to insert a key and open a lock without perceptible delay. To accomplish this, the actuator needs to be relatively fast in its operation. The actuator must also not stick in the event that the user begins to exert a force against the lock before the actuator has had time to release the lock. Such speed and absence of sticking are difficult to accomplish with a relatively heavy blocking device.
It is an object of the present invention to ameliorate the above-mentioned limitations of electromechanical locking devices.

Lock and an electromechanical locking system


A process of making a vegetative and tuber growth regulator. The vegetative and tuber growth regulator is made by growing potato plants in a recirculating hydroponic system for a sufficient time to produce the growth regulator. Also, the use of the vegetative and growth regulator on solanaceous plants, tuber forming plants and ornamental seedlings by contacting the roots or shoots of the plant with a sufficient amount of the growth regulator to regulate the growth of the plant and one more of canopy size, plant height, stem length, internode number and presence of tubers in fresh mass. Finally, a method for regulating the growth of potato plants using a recirculating hydroponic system is described.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a process for the production of a regulator of vegetative growth and tuber development and a method of using same. More particularly, the present invention uses the growth of potato plants in a recirculating hydroponic system to produce a regulator of vegetative growth and tuber development.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Plant growth regulating substances are used commercially to regulate natural processes in plants in order to improve profitability management. These applications include, but are not limited to, accelerating the ripening of the fruit, synchronization of fruit ripening, fruit abscission and vegetative growth reduction.
Growth retardants are one of the most widely used classes of growth regulators in the horticultural industry. The primary applications include the reduction of turf height along highway, railroad and powerline right-of-ways, golf courses and sports facilities. Growth retardants are also used extensively in the greenhouse floriculture industry to develop a more compact and marketable plant and in the fruit industry to maintain small tree sizes.
In space exploration applications naturally occurring bioregulatory compounds that reduce plant size have a role in optimizing the volume utilization efficiency of a bioregenerative life support system (BLSS). By reducing the height of a plant, the number of plants per given area can be doubled or tripled, an increase that will directly improve the operational efficiency of a bioregenerative life support system in space conditions.
Plant growth regulators are also used to reduce the amount of vegetative biomass, reduce the amount of economic inputs applied to grow non-economically important components of biomass such as leaves and stems, reduce the time to maturity of the economic component of the plant and increase the uniformity of the final product. In addition to these primary benefits, a reduction in shoot growth can reduce harvest time by eliminating time requirements associated with removing excess plant material from machinery, pruning of final product and disposal of non-marketable vegetation.
Over the years, a number of different chemical compounds have been used to reduce the growth of plants. These compounds include amcymidol, amidochlore, mefluidide, maleic hydrazide, paclobutrazol, fluprimidol, femarimol and uniconazol. Of these, paclobutrazol and maleic hydrazide are the only compounds currently cleared for legal use in the United States for application as growth retardants on potatoes.
There are no commercially available compounds which are used for accelerating the induction of potato tubers. At the experimental level, the most pronounced effects on promotion of tuber formation are associated with gibberellin antagonists, such as pacloputrazol.
A compound related to jasmonic acid and tuberonic acid (12-OH-jasmonic acid) has been shown to be antagonistic to gibberellin and promote potato tuberization in tissue culture systems. Jasmonic acid and some derivatives have been isolated from a number of plant species, but are unstable in aqueous solutions. A stabilized jasmonic acid derivative (2-methyl jasmonic acid) is commercially available for the promotion of sugar accumulation in grapes.
With the exception of jasmonic acid, all of the compounds which are commercially available for the reduction of plant height and promotion of tuber formation are synthetic chemicals. Natural occurring jasmonic acid is chemically unstable, and must undergo stabilization prior to use.
Therefore, it is the object of the present invention to provide a natural organic product which is stable, and can be used to repartition the growth of plants in order to obtain a more marketable product. In particular, it is the object of the invention to provide a natural organic product which can be used for vegetative growth regulation and tuber induction.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a process for the production of a vegetative and tuber growth regulator which requires no toxic inputs and produces marketable products other than the vegetative and tuber growth regulator.

Process for producing vegetative and tuber growth regulator


Method for manufacturing a measuring apparatus for determining and/or monitoring at least one process variable. At least one sensor element is inserted into an at least partially pot-shaped mold, and the mold is at least partially filled with a casting material composed at least of a first component and a second component. The mold is filled with the casting material, at least partially, with at least the following steps at least one predeterminable amount of the first component of the casting material is charged into the mold; at least one predeterminable amount of the second component of the casting material is charged into the mold; and the mold is vibrated and/or caused to oscillate with a predeterminable frequency. Furthermore, a method for filling an at least partially pot-shaped mold is disclosed.

In the manufacture of temperature measuring devices, there is, for example, the long-used technology, wherein temperature sensors, especially platinum resistance sensors in thin film embodiment, are encapsulated, or embedded, in, given cases, pure ceramic powders (MgO,Al2O3).In such cases, most often a number of goals are pursued: on the one hand, the, in general, scarcely rugged sensor elements should be secured. On the other hand, the connection wires of the sensor elements should be electrically insulated relative to one another, and also from a metal housing, for example a thermometer jacket, for service at high temperatures of 600° C. or more. Furthermore, impurities and/or chemical changes of the sensor element ( especially temperature-sensitive, platinum, thin film sensors) should be excluded for as long a time as possible. The achievement of these goals is most often limited in practice.
Better results achieved when, instead of a more or less compressed ceramic powder, a ceramic casting which hardens by curing is used, and the sensor element is securely embedded and encapsulated in a compact, comparatively fixed, ceramic block. As a mold, into which the ceramic casting and the sensor element are inserted and cured, options include either small, fitted, ceramic parts (e.g. small tubes) or even a steel tip, or casing of the measuring device, or of the thermometer itself, into which the sensor element to is installed. In such a case, the volume of casting material to be charged is comparatively small, e.g. only a few 100 mm3.
Most often for such ceramic castings, greater amounts of fine powder is mixed separately with water or other liquid in a fixed mass ratio and then charged into the mold, where setting and hardening slowly occur. However, a batch of ceramic castings, after mixing, is, like plaster for example, capable of being cast and dispensed for only a relatively short time (a few minutes). Thereafter, solidification sets in, so that this casting material is scarcely still conveyable and can no longer be metered with established methods. This is the more so true, when small fill volumes are involved. A casting apparatus applied for this casting would be continually complex to clean, and a large part of the mixed ceramic casting material would be unusable.

Method for manufacturing a measuring apparatus and method for casting in a mold


A cantilever beam structure where stress is matched and a method of manufacturing the same are provided. An example method may comprise depositing a first sub-layer of a first material with a first deposition menu and depositing a second sub-layer of the first material with a second deposition menu different from the first deposition menu. The first sub-layer and the second sub-layer can be disposed adjacent to each other to form a first layer. The method may further comprise depositing a second layer of a second material different from the first material. The first layer and the second layer can be disposed adjacent to each other. The method may further comprise matching stress between the first layer and the second layer by adjusting at least one of thicknesses of the respective sub-layers of the first layer and a thickness of the second layer.

With development of the Micro-Electro-Mechanical System (MEMS) technology, bi-material microcantilever beam structures are finding more and more applications, such as biosensors, arrays of micro-mirrors, capacitive infrared detectors, thermo-mechanical infrared detectors, and the like. These applications are based on a principle that a physical factor to be sensed is applied to the bi-material cantilever beam structure to cause deformation thereof. The deformation has a magnitude reflecting a strength of the factor to be sensed, and thus can be detected electrically or optically so as to read out the factor to be sensed.
However, practically manufacture processes tend to cause residual stress in the bi-material cantilever beam structure, the bi-material cantilever beam structure suffers an initial deformation after being released due to the mismatch of residual stress in two material films. Thus, a resultant device will have a decreased sensitivity or even fail. Therefore, in order for the device to function effectively, it is desirable to adjust the residual stress in the two material films to achieve stress matching.
There are mainly four types of techniques to adjust the film stress as reported. A first one is to adjust particular process parameter(s) in a film deposition apparatus for film stress adjustment, so as to achieve stress matching between the two material films. This method is applicable to the stress adjustment in various films, but it is complicated to operate and is time-consuming to develop because there are so many process parameters. A second one is to perform ion implantation and annealing in a deposited film for stress adjustment in the film. However, this method usually needs to perform the ion implantation with a high energy at a high dose to achieve stress matching, which may destroy a lattice structure of the film. Further, implanted ions may cause variations of original characteristics of the film. Such disadvantages limit applications of the method. Also, the incorporated additional processes caused an increased development cost and cycle. A third one is to introduce a stress gradient in a film by varying process parameters in depositing the film so as to achieve stress matching with a different film. This method is widely applicable. However, it is complicated to operate and is time-consuming to develop because there are so many process parameters. A fourth one is to release stress from a double-material beam by thermal cycling for stress adjustment. This method incorporates an additional process, resulting in an increased development cycle. Also, the thermal cycling generally means a high temperature, and thus limits applications of the method in some devices with temperature sensitive structures.
In view of the above, the existing techniques for matching the stress in the double-material film are not good enough to meet current trends of fables design and manufacture of MEMS devices.

Cantilever beam structure where stress is matched and method of manufacturing the same

Institute of Microelectronics, Chinese Academy of Sciences


A back brace includes a first brace member having a first connector, and a second brace member having a second connector and a coupler at two opposite sides thereof. The coupler is detachably connectable to the first connector. A first adjustment holder is affixed to one end of the first brace member and holds therein a first rod member. A second adjustment holder is affixed to one end of the second brace member and holds therein a second rod member. Two pull cords are inserted through the first adjustment holder and the second adjustment holder and run alternately back and forth over the first rod member and the second rod member to adjustably and abuttably hold the first and second brace members side by side. Two fastening members are fastened to distal ends of the pull cords and detachably connectable to the first and second connectors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a back brace for supporting the back of a person and more particularly to a back brace having pull cords for size adjustment.
2. Description of the Related Art
A regular back brace is generally formed of a soft elastic belt for wearing around the waist or abdomen of a person and a tape of hook member and a tape of loop member of a hook and loop fastener respectively provided at two opposite sides of the soft elastic belt for securing the soft elastic belt to the body of a person. When the user wants to adjust the tightness of the soft elastic belt subject to the desired tension, the user must separate the tape of hook member and the tape of loop member, and then pull the soft elastic belt to the desired tightness, and then fasten the tape of hook member and the tape of loop member together. Directly pulling the soft elastic belt to the desired tightness requires much effort. This adjustment operation is somewhat difficult to an old person, woman or patient who does not have great strength.
To eliminate the aforesaid effort adjustment problem, back braces with electronic tension control means are developed. U.S. Pat. No. 5,346.461 discloses a similar design entitled "Electromechanical Back Brace Apparatus". According to this patent, the back brace apparatus has electromechanical means for tightening a brace around the trunk of a patient to a desired tension. The electromechanical means is controllable by the patient to effect predetermined tension settings. Further, a cable and pulley arrangement tightened by a motor provides a mechanical advantage so that the brace may be tightened by a small motor. A microprocessor controls the motor to obtain the desired repeatable tension settings. This design allows the user to adjust the back brace subject to the desired tension conveniently without much effort. However, the electromechanical means uses expensive electronic component parts, and has a complicated structure. Because of high sale price, this design of back brace apparatus cannot be popularly accepted.

Back brace having pull cord for size adjustment


The specification describes interconnection layouts for chip-on-chip packages using solder bump interchip connections as vias between a single level metal interconnection pattern on the lower support IC chip and another single level interconnection pattern on the upper IC chip. This arrangement allows for the formation of air isolated crossovers of features on either chip.

For many years the trend in semiconductor device and package design was toward ever higher levels of integration, which in memory technology takes the form of integrating memory and logic on the same chip. Power modules and driver circuits are conventionally part of DRAM and SRAM devices, and many memory device designs have application specific logic embedded with the memory arrays on a common chip. However, while logic and memory semiconductor elements share many common features, there are differences. For example, a critical feature of a DRAM memory element is the storage capacitor. This element must be made optimally small, and essentially without defects or leakage. Logic devices have no comparable element, and are more forgiving in many device aspects. Consequently a wafer fabrication process that is tailored for memory device optimization is not usually optimum for logic devices. Thus, compromises are made in order to have different device species on the same semiconductor chip.
An alternative development to "integration or embedding" is the concept of "disintegration", where memory devices consist mainly of memory cells and their necessary support circuits are kept in one chip while the "application" logic and other transistors are put on another chip. These chips can be processed optimally for the size and nature of their components. In this technology, the "integration" is performed at the package level, and the key to its success is a packaging technology that produces a final product that is superior to a chip integrated system in performance and cost, and at least comparable in size.
A leading candidate for this packaging technology is flip chip bonding and assembly. Flip chip bonding is a well developed technology and is characterized by bonding bare silicon IC die upside down on an interconnect substrate such as a printed wiring board. Several bonding techniques have been developed, e.g. ball bonding, ball grid array (BGA--a form of ball bonding), and solder bump bonding. These techniques lead to relaxed I/O pitch through smaller contact surfaces, and area arrays rather than perimeter arrays for chip interconnection sites. Moreover, electrical performance is enhanced because lead lengths are reduced. Typically, the bonding method in these techniques is solder bonding.
Initial implementations of these developments were multi-chip modules in which two or more active device chips are bonded to a common interconnection substrate. The interconnection substrate is a standard printed wiring board, or in more sophisticated packaging designs, a silicon wafer. Most of the circuitry that provides intra chip interconnections, i.e. connections between chips, is formed on the interconnection substrate. The chips themselves contain inter chip interconnections in the form of circuits (metallization) within the chips.
The metallization terminates in arrays of I/O bonding sites which are the interconnection sites for intra chip interconnections. With state of the art logic and memory chips having dozens or hundreds of I/O sites to interconnect, the intra chip interconnections on the interconnection substrate become very complex. In current designs, this circuitry requires many crossover interconnects. To provide crossovers in the intra chip interconnections, a second level of printed circuits is typically provided. Multi-level printed circuit boards, and multi-level silicon interconnection substrates are well known and widely used, but are still more expensive, and provide less versatility, than single level interconnection arrangements.
A more recent advance in multi-chip module technology is the chip-on-chip approach where an active chip is flip-chip bonded to another active chip rather than to an interconnection substrate. When the relative sizes of the chips allows, two or more small chips can be bonded to a larger chip. Logic chips, e.g. digital signal processors, are quite large with a footprint sufficient to contain at least two standard memory chips. The logic chip, i.e. the support chip, is packaged in a lead frame package thus eliminating the board or interconnection substrate of more conventional MCM packages. The intra chip interconnection circuitry in the chip-on-chip package is typically constructed on the surface of the support chip. However, the same limitations arise as discussed above, i.e. crossover connections are frequently required, and the support chip must then be provided with two levels of interconnections.
Multi-level interconnection assemblies are well known and widely used, but are still more expensive, and provide less versatility, than single level interconnection arrangements.


Provided is a linear actuator including a movable element, a stationary element, a magnetic drive mechanism configured to linearly move the movable element in a first direction with respect to the stationary element, and damper member arranged between the movable element and the stationary element. The magnetic drive mechanism includes a coil holder arranged on the stationary element, a coil supported by a coil supporting unit of the coil holder, a first yoke arranged on the movable element, and a first permanent magnet held by the first yoke. The damper member is arranged in a portion where the first yoke and the coil holder face each other in the second direction. As a result, the damper member can be arranged between the stationary element and the movable element without using a case.

A linear actuator including a movable element having a permanent magnet and a stationary element having a coil facing the permanent magnet has been proposed as a device configured to notify information by vibration. The stationary element includes a case configured to house the movable element (see Patent Document 1). Further, in the linear actuator described in Patent Document 1, in order to suppress resonance of the movable element, an air damper is configured between the case and the movable element.