A USB-to-Ethernet controller with a USB hub may be integrated into a single integrated circuit (IC) USB-Ethernet Combination (UEC) device. The UEC may provide the end user with an Ethernet port, multiple downstream USB ports, and an upstream USB port for connecting to a USB host controller. One or more of the USB hub ports may be brought off the IC, enabling an end user to connect them to any arbitrary USB device(s). The third hub port may be an internal downstream port without a physical layer, and may be configured to connect to an Ethernet controller, which may comprise a USB device controller. The Ethernet controller may connect to the internal downstream port via a digital interface such as UTMI. The UEC device may appear to the host computer as two separate devices, an Ethernet controller and a USB hub. The Ethernet controller may appear as a permanently attached device on the internal downstream port.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer networking and, more particularly, to the design of a combination USB (Universal Serial Bus)/Ethernet controller device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various interface standards for connecting computers and external peripherals are in wide use today, each aiming to provide simple connectivity at high speeds. Examples of such standards include the IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) 1394 standard also referred to as FireWire, and the Universal Serial Bus (USB), both high-speed serial bus protocols. The most widely used networking standard for connecting computers in both Local Area Networks (LANs) and Wide Area Networks (WANs) has been the Ethernet protocol. More specifically, Ethernet is the IEEE 802.3 series standard, originally based on the Carrier Sense Multiple Access with Collision Detection (CSMA/CD) method that provided a means for two or more computer stations to share a common cabling system. CSMA/CD has formed the basis for Ethernet systems that reached transfer speeds in the megabit range, that is the Mbit/sec range. Recent switched based and/or router based Ethernet systems are capable of supporting transfer rates in the Gbit/sec range. Ethernet generally makes efficient use of shared resources, is typically easy to reconfigure and maintain, and provides compatibility across many manufacturers and systems, while keeping the cost low.
The Ethernet defines a number of wiring and signaling standards for the physical layer (PHY), through means of network access at the Media Access Control (MAC)/Data Link Layer, and through a common addressing format. Above the PHY, Ethernet enabled devices typically communicate by transmitting data packets, which comprise blocks of data that are individually sent and delivered. As with other IEEE 802 LANs, each Ethernet station is given a single 48-bit MAC address, which is used both to specify the destination and the source of each data packet. The MAC data communication protocol sub-layer is a sub-layer of the data link layer specified in the seven-layer OSI (Open System Interconnect) model (layer 2), and acts as an interface between the Logical Link Control (LLC) sub-layer and the network's physical layer. It emulates a full-duplex logical communication channel in a multipoint network to provide addressing and channel access control mechanisms that make it possible for several terminals or network nodes to communicate within a multipoint network, typically a LAN or a WAN.
The Universal Serial Bus (USB) was developed to offer PC users an enhanced and easy-to-use interface for connecting an incredibly diverse range of peripherals to their computers. The development of the USB was initially driven by considerations for laptop computers, which greatly benefit from a small profile peripheral connector. Among the many benefits of the USB is a reduction in the proliferation of cables that can affect even the smallest computer installations. In general, USB has become the interface of choice for PCs because it offers users simple connectivity. USB eliminates the need to have different connectors for printers, keyboards, mice, and other peripherals, and supports a wide variety of data types, from slow mouse inputs to digitized audio and compressed video. In addition, USB devices are hot pluggable, i.e. they can be connected to or disconnected from a PC without requiring the PC to be powered off.
The USB specification has seen various revisions, with the USB 2.0 standard challenging the IEEE 1394 interface ("Firewire") as the interface of choice for high-speed digital video, among others. With the proliferating design of increasingly smarter, faster, and smaller peripherals, the On-The-Go (OTG) Supplement to the USB 2.0 Specification was developed to address the growing popularity of the portable electronic devices market. Some of the advantages of the USB and OTG include the built-in support in form of more than 1.4 billion USB enabled PCs and peripherals shipped worldwide, smooth and trouble-free experience for the user through a compliance and logo program operated by the USB-IF, a wide variety of USB solutions such as intellectual property (IP) blocks, system-on-chip (SOC) parts, discrete chips, software drivers and systems offered by a large group of industry vendors, and design flexibility based on system needs.
OTG devices typically do not require a PC host, and can communicate directly with each other. For example, a PDA may act as a USB host with the capability to print directly to a USB printer, while also acting as a USB peripheral to communicate with a PC. In general, designers are facing increasing pressure to design smaller and faster products in less time and at lower cost. Concurrently, the introduction of smaller deep sub-micron processes present new challenges, such as integrating the physical layer (PHY—transceiver) analog circuitry required by technologies such as USB and OTG, leading to increased man-hours, fiscal and time investment, and silicon revisions. One way to increase time-to-market while keeping costs low is to provide the PHY in a separate chip. In such a case the designer can typically integrate most of the USB digital logic into the application specific integrated circuit (ASIC) in a small amount of time, and connect to a proven external PHY already available on the market.
Following the release of the USB 2.0 specification, Intel released the USB 2.0 Transceiver Macrocell Interface (UTMI) specification. UTMI defined an interface between two IP blocks, the USB Transceiver Macrocell (IP) and the USB Link layer (SIE). For example, the UTMI can be used to interface between a USB Link and a USB PHY. The signals for a UTMI interface with an 8-bit bi-directional data bus. Typically a minimum of 22 signals is required between the Link and the PHY for a device.
Subsequently, an extension of the original UTMI specification the UTMI+ specification was developed to meet the emerging need of building embedded host and OTG capabilities into USB devices. While the original UTMI specified an interface not meant to couple discrete ICs, the UTMI+ in essence introduced host and On-The-Go capabilities to USB systems. Using UTMI as a starting point, UTMI+ incrementally adds new functionality and interface signals to the Link and PHY. The additional signals total 33 for a full OTG UTMI+ interface. Designers can reuse all blocks from their original UTMI IP, and need only add the new circuits required for host or OTG support. This approach works well for UTMI+, as USB peripherals need only a subset of host and OTG functionality. UTMI+ introduced four levels of functionality, each higher level increasing the complexity required in both hardware and software while remaining completely backward compatible with lower levels.
A Low Pin Interface (LPI) UTMI+ specification, referred to as ULPI, was developed by USB industry leaders in order to provide low-cost USB and OTG PHYs by way of a low-pin, low-cost, small form-factor transceiver interface that may be used by any USB application. Pre-existing specifications, including UTMI and UTMI+ were developed primarily for Macrocell development, and were thus not optimized for use as an external PHY. Building upon the existing UTMI+ specification, the ULPI reduces the number of interface signals to 12 pins, with an optional implementation of 8 pins. As a result, the package size of PHY and Link IC's has generally been reduced, not only lowering the cost of Link and PHY IC's, but also reducing the required size of the associated printed circuit boards (PCBs). Central to the ULPI specification is the LPI, which is in effect a generic bus that defines a clock, three control signals, a bi-directional data bus, and bus arbitration. Typically, a ULPI link will configure the ULPI PHY using register writes on a bi-directional shared data bus. The ULPI PHY is the arbitrator of the 8-bit data bus between the link and the PHY.
Many consumer electronic devices have a USB port. In many instances, however, no Ethernet port is provided on the device, even though the end user may desire such functionality. This is prevalent for products such as game consoles and ultra thin laptops. In such cases, the end user typically has to attach an USB-to-Ethernet controller to one of the available USB ports in order to provide Ethernet functionality to the device. When Ethernet functionality for such devices is desired, it would be more practical to provide Ethernet functionality without having to use up one of a limited number of USB ports. Many solutions to this problem today include an integrated USB hub IC (integrated circuit) and Ethernet controller IC on a single device. Most such solutions are not cost effective and consume considerable power. There is therefore a need for a smaller form factor device, which would consume less power, would be more compact, and would be more convenient for the end user.
Other corresponding issues related to the prior art will become apparent to one skilled in the art after comparing such prior art with the present invention as described herein.

USB and ethernet controller combination device


A parallel multiplication circuit includes a plurality of Booth's decoders, a plurality of partial product generation circuits, and a plurality of full adders. Each Booth's decoder is constructed in accordance with the following decode signal generating logic: EQU T.sub.w =Y.sub.i .sym.Y.sub.i-1 EQU P.sub.u =Y.sub.i+1 EQU Z=Y.sub.i+1 .sym.Y.sub.i .multidot.Y.sub.i .sym.Y.sub.i-1. Each partial product generation circuit is constructed in accordance with the following partial product generating logic: EQU PP=(T.sub.w .multidot.X.sub.i +T.sub.w .multidot.X.sub.i-1).sym.P.sub.u +Z

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a parallel multiplication circuit, and more specifically to a high speed multiplication circuit using a second-order Booth's decode algorithm.
2. Description of related art
In the prior art, this type of parallel multiplication circuits have been constructed to use a Booth's decode circuit so as to generate three control signals from data of three continuous bits of an inputted multiplier. The three control signals are indicative of (1) whether the data is single or double, (2) whether the data is positive or negative, and (3) whether or not the data is zero (0), respectively.
For example, one typical Booth's decoder incorporated in the conventional parallel multiplication circuit has been constituted to include a first exclusive-NOR gate having a pair of inputs connected to receive a first input "a" and a third input "c", respectively and an output for generating a first output ".alpha.", a second exclusive-NOR gate having a pair of inputs connected to receive a second input "b" and the third input "c", respectively, an OR gate having a pair of inputs connected to the outputs of the first and second exclusive-NOR gates, respectively, a NAND gate having a pair of inputs connected to an output of the OR gate and the third input "c", respectively and an output for generating a second output ".beta.", and an inverter having an input connected to the output of the OR gate and an output for generating a third output ".gamma.".
Here, assuming that three bits of data of a multiplier inputted to the Booth's decode circuit are called "a", "b" and "c" in the order from its least significant bit towards its most significant bit, a control signal .alpha. indicating that the data is double is generated by a logical equation expressed as follows: EQU .alpha.=(a.sym.c).multidot.(b.sym.c)
Similarly, a control signal .beta. indicating that the data is positive is generated by a logical equation expressed as follows: EQU .beta.={(a.sym.c)+(b.sym.c)}.multidot.c
In addition, a control signal .gamma. indicating that the data is zero (0) is generated by a logical equation expressed as follows: EQU .gamma.=(a.sym.c)+(b.sym.c)
The following TABLE I shows the truth values of the above mentioned logical equations.
TABLE I ______________________________________ a b c Actual Value .alpha. .beta. .gamma. ______________________________________ 0 0 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 1 0 1 0 1 0 1 1 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 1 -2 1 0 0 1 0 1 -1 0 0 0 0 1 1 -1 0 0 0 1 1 1 0 0 1 1 ______________________________________
For example, assuming that "1, 0, 1" is inputted to the inputs "a", "b" and "c" of the above mentioned Booth's decoder, an actual value is "-1", and "0, 0, 0" is outputted from the outputs ".alpha.", ".beta." and ".gamma.".
By using the above mentioned Booth's decoder and a partial product generation circuit, the conventional parallel multiplication circuits have been constructed.
However, the parallel multiplication circuits using the above mentioned Booth's decoder have been complicated in construction and large in circuit scale, because the Booth's decoder is configured to generate the output signals accurately indicating that (1) whether the data is single or double, (2) whether the data is positive or negative, and (3) whether or not the data is zero (0), respectively. In addition, the number of required series-connected gate stages is large in the conventional parallel multiplication circuits, and therefore, the operation speed of the multiplication circuits is low.

High speed parallel multiplication circuit having a reduced number of gate stages


Arrangements and procedures for arranging peer-to-peer communications sessions between applications are described. In one implementation, a first application executing at a first device utilizes online presence information of an instant messaging service to select a second application with which to engage in the peer-to-peer session. The second application is associated with a second device and registered with the instant messaging service as being peer-to-peer session invite capable. The first application arranges the peer-to-peer session via components of the instant messaging service. The arranged peer-to-peer session is functionally independent of the instant messaging service.

A peer-to-peer network is a type of network in which each workstation has substantially equivalent capabilities and responsibilities. This differs from client/server architectures, in which some computers are dedicated to serving the others. A peer-to-peer session consists of two or more of users or applications connected to one-another over a network. A peer-to-peer session can be established in a number of conventional ways including, for example, by hardwiring specific communication details (e.g., network addresses and protocols) into clients and/or adding complex specialized lobby support code into a client to obtain necessary communication implementation details from a proprietary third party server. Thus, direct peer-to-peer session establishment generally requires each session client to be specifically designed to communicate with the other session client(s) based on each respective client's specific communication implementation details.
Such rigid design requirements typically result in applications that are not very robust or easily ported across platforms or implementations. For instance, hardwiring a particular network address into an application is not a very robust technique to communicate with another device since the network address used to access the device may change if the device is moved to a domain using a Network Address Translators (NATs) that multiplexes a single IP address across multiple machines.
To avoid hardwiring communication specifics such as network addresses and protocols into applications, conventional peer-to-peer session arrangement techniques allow a client to arrange a peer-to-peer session with another client using "lobby support". Lobby support's primary purpose is to enable users to meet and exchange network connection information to establish peer-to-peer sessions. Unfortunately, enabling application lobby support is substantially burdensome for application developers that desire to use lobby support to arrange peer-to-peer sessions because a considerable amount of dedicated lobby support code (e.g., the DirectPlay®, ActiveX® libraries, and/or the like) must be implemented in each application. Such implementation requirements are time consuming and typically result in an undesirable increase in code size and code complexity.
Moreover, lobby support implementations are substantially burdensome because application developers or a third party are/is also required to implement a lobby support infrastructure. The lobby support infrastructure includes a non-generic lobby server to interface with specialized lobby support client code to communicate device communication specifics. Additionally, another specialized client based piece code must be developed, loaded, and installed on each client device to communicate with the lobby server—using whatever protocols are appropriate. Each of these respective tasks is substantially daunting in itself.
Accordingly, conventional techniques to arrange peer-to-peer sessions are considerably problematic in that they either involve rigid design requirements that hardwire communication specifics into application code, or require considerable specialized lobby support code in an application along with 3rd party development efforts to generate a server communication infrastructure.
These and other limitations of traditional systems and procedures to establish peer-to-peer communication sessions between various applications are addressed by the following described arrangements and procedures.

Instant messaging session invite for arranging peer-to-peer communication between applications


A prefetching technique referred to as future execution (FE) dynamically creates a prefetching thread for each active thread in a processor by simply sending a copy of all committed, register-writing instructions in a primary thread to an otherwise idle processor. On the way to the second processor, a value predictor replaces each predictable instruction with a load immediate instruction, where the immediate is the predicted result that the instruction is likely to produce during its nth next dynamic execution. Executing this modified instruction stream (i.e., the prefetching thread) in another processor allows computation of the future results of the instructions that are not directly predictable. This causes the issuance of prefetches into the shared memory hierarchy, thereby reducing the primary thread's memory access time and speeding up the primary thread's execution.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to a prefetching technique referred to as future execution (FE) and associated architecture for accelerating execution of program threads running on microprocessors, particularly those of the multicore variety. Important data for each program thread is prefetched through concurrent execution of a modified version of the same thread, preferably using an available idle processor core that operates independently of the active core on which the original program thread is being executed.
2. Description of the Background Art
The cores of modern high-end microprocessors deliver only a fraction of their theoretical peak performance. One of the main reasons for this inefficiency is the long latency of memory accesses during execution of a program thread. As the processor core executes instructions, the data required by the instructions must be accessed from memory, which is a time consuming process. To speed up this process, smaller, fast access memory caches that may be resident on the processor chip itself are employed where the data required by the program thread can be prestored. Among other instructions, program threads include load instructions, which specify that data at a certain location in memory be loaded into a register. Often, these load instructions stall the CPU, especially during cache misses, because the data takes so long to arrive that the processor runs out of independent instructions to execute. As a consequence, the number of instructions executed per unit time is much lower than what the CPU is capable of handling.
Prefetching techniques have been instrumental in addressing this problem. Prefetchers attempt to guess what data the program will need in the future and fetch them in advance of the actual program references. Correct prefetches can thus reduce the negative effects of long memory latencies. While existing prediction-based prefetching methods have proven effective for regular applications, prefetching techniques developed for irregular codes typically require complicated hardware that limits the practicality of such schemes.
Hardware prefetching techniques based on outcome prediction typically use various kinds of value predictors and/or pattern predictors to dynamically predict which memory references should be prefetched. The advantage of prefetching schemes based on outcome prediction is the ability to implement the schemes in the cache controller so that other parts of the microprocessor do not need to be modified. This way the implementation of the prefetching scheme can be decoupled from the design of the execution core, significantly lowering the complexity and the verification cost. The downside of such prefetching schemes is their limited coverage and ability to capture misses that exhibit irregular behavior.
Execution-based prefetching techniques typically use additional execution pipelines or idle thread contexts in a multithreaded processor to execute helper threads that perform dynamic prefetching for the main thread. Helper threads can be constructed dynamically by specialized hardware structures or statically. If a static approach is used, the prefetching threads are constructed manually or are generated by the compiler.
Static software helper threads (SHTs) and other (compiler) optimizations only accelerate newly compiled programs but not legacy code and may bloat the code size and thus decrease the instruction-cache efficiency. They may also require ISA or executable format changes, the extra instructions to set up and launch the helper threads may compete for resources with the main thread, and the overhead (e.g., copying of context) associated with the often frequent starting and stopping of SHTs may be significant.
If helper threads are constructed dynamically, a specialized hardware analyzer extracts execution slices from the dynamic instruction stream at run-time, identifies trigger instructions to spawn the helper threads and stores the extracted threads in a special table. Examples of this approach include slice-processors and dynamic speculative precomputation.
Many thread-based software and hardware techniques propose to use the register results produced by the speculative helper threads. Examples include the multiscalar architecture, threaded multiple path execution, thread-level data speculation, speculative data-driven multithreading, and slipstream processors. Even though the idea to reuse already computed results sounds appealing, it introduces additional hardware complexity and increases the design and verification cost.
Runahead execution is another form of prefetching based on speculative execution. In runahead processors, the processor state is checkpointed when a long-latency load stalls the processor, the load is allowed to retire and the processor continues to execute speculatively. When the data is finally received from memory, the processor rolls back and restarts execution from the load.
Another technique for dealing with memory latency issues is to use multiple processor cores. All major high-performance microprocessor manufacturers have announced or are already selling chips that employ a performance increasing technology called Chip Multiprocessing (CMP) in which the entire processor core with almost all of its subsystems is duplicated or multiplied. Typically, a CMP processor contains two to eight cores. Future generations of these processors will undoubtedly include more cores. The minimal dual-core speculative multi-threading architecture (SpMT) and the dual-core execution paradigm (DCE) utilize idle cores of a CMP to speed up single-threaded programs. SpMT and DCE attempt to spawn speculative threads on the idle cores by copying the architectural state to the speculative cores and starting execution from a certain speculation point in the original program. Speculative threads prefetch important data and thus speed up the execution of a non-speculative thread. These techniques need mechanisms to control the execution of the speculative threads by checking the speculative results and/or tracking the violation of memory dependences. In addition, both SpMT and DCE require non-speculative core to change the operation mode upon reaching the speculation point.

Future execution prefetching technique and architecture


A method for forming individual letters provided with envelopes from printed same-size sheets, includes pre-printed envelope forms for forming the envelopes, and in the immediate vicinity of each envelope form one or more letter forms for forming a letter or letters and inserting them in the envelope. The envelope form is led as such to envelope formation; the letter forms are cut at least on one side into letters which are smaller than the letter forms; the letters are brought to contact with the envelope form; the envelope form is folded in two around the letters and glued at the side edges to form an open envelope; and the open flap of the envelope is glued and folded so that a sealed letter provided with an envelope is formed.

The known technology in the field of the invention has been disclosed in publications EP 0297843, EP 0447183, U.S. Pat. No. 6,266,944, US 2004/0016210, US 2003/0222127 and EP 1693185.
The first three publications describe methods and apparatuses for producing sealed envelopes, wherein the envelope and the inserted letters are produced separately and from different source webs and then folded in a suitable manner and sealed mechanically inside the envelopes.
The fourth publication describes a method for cutting, folding and gluing identical envelopes from a paper web.
The fifth publication describes a method which is the closest to the invention, wherein an envelope form and the letters, coupons and the like to be inserted in the envelope are printed on the same paper web.
The problem with the publication representing the closest prior art is that a specific field has been assigned for the printouts in the paper web in such manner that the envelope form and the letter forms should cover at least half of that field. Consequently, in printing individual mail pieces which vary in size, the size of the field must be adapted to the space required by the largest possible mail piece. Therefore, in almost each mail piece, a considerable portion of the paper web must be cut off to be recycled, or if one wishes to avoid wasting paper, one can only produce one-size mail pieces which must also be so designed that the field assigned for a single printout becomes completely filled. However, such economy measures restrict the efficient use of the method to a considerable degree, so the average paper waste of 20-30% must only be accepted.
The sixth publication describes a method in which mail pieces of different sizes are made from the same paper web by cutting different-size envelopes of the web according to need. The greatest problems with this application are the complexity of the method, many oblique cuts in different directions and turns of the envelopes and the letters, many flaps and their gluing and folding, etc. This makes the entire method slow and susceptible to malfunctions and not suitable for efficient processing of large mass deliveries.

Method for forming individual letters provided with envelopes


The ear protection apparatus is provided as ear protection with various means of attachment to existing eyeglasses and also as ear protection including eyeglasses. Various embodiments provide multiple means for multiply adjustable positioning of the ear protection. Multiple plane adjustments are provided, with flex tubes with memory comprising a part of those adjustments. Refined earplug design provides for relaxed fit to a variety of ear sizes and shapes.

Safety equipment for eyes and ears has become more important daily in countless situations and especially in work environments. Governmental and insurance regulations have reinforced that importance. Safety glasses and earplugs are therefore well known. More recently, devices combining safety glasses and earplugs have been proposed. These combinations can do away with the clumsy separate eye and ear protection devices which are less than user friendly. Problems with these proposed devices remain, though, and include means for attachment to glasses, poor ear fit, difficult ear plug alignment, excessive temple and ear tension, lack of component memory, and limited adjustability. All of these problems easily result in a lack of use of eye and ear protection. The present apparatus successfully solves these problems and more.


A power conservation system for use in a computer system. The power system has an activity monitor and a plurality of modes of operation. The activity monitor can place the computer system in a reduced power consumption state during periods of low activity without waiting for a period of complete inactivity. By controlling the power mode in response to the activity of the computer system, the power consumption of the computer system can be controlled.

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains material which is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has no objection to the facsimile reproduction by anyone of the patent document or the patent disclosure, as it appears in the Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwise reserves all copyright rights whatsoever.
The present invention relates to computers and particularly to methods and apparatus for power management in computers, particularly in battery-powered computers.
The major parts of computers include a central processing unit (CPU), input/output (I/O) devices such as display screens, keyboards, modems, printers, disk drives and the like, and storage (memory).
The CPU communicates with the I/O devices, with the storage and otherwise operates with addresses defined within the computer address range. Typically, addresses for I/O devices are within an I/O address range. Addresses for execution of programs without I/O reference typically are within a memory address range. Similarly, that portion of memory allocated for display is within a video memory address range.
Computers function to execute application programs such as word processing, spreadsheet and data base management programs. Typically, the computer and the application programs are under the control of a software operating system that manages the different system parts and resources including some I/O devices. For example, during the execution of an application program when the CPU wishes to check to determine if any key has been depressed on the keyboard, the CPU through a subroutine call to the operating system requests the operating system through execution of a subroutine to perform a key-actuation detection task. Since the operating system performs many such tasks, the operating system has a detailed knowledge of many activities within the computer. However, under some circumstances, application programs bypass the operating system and directly address I/O devices. Typically, each I/O device is assigned an I/O address within an I/O address range. For application programs which directly address I/O devices without operating system calls, the operating system is not immediately aware of I/O activity. With such complex operation in computers, the task of power conservation is difficult.
The need for power conservation is well known in battery-powered computers and must be performed in a manner that does not interfere with the operation of the computer or impede users from interacting with the computer during the execution of application programs.
Conservation of power has been utilized for some parts of battery-powered computers but has been ignored for other parts of such computers. In general, power consumption is distributed in battery-powered computers among the major parts of those computers. One part with significant power consumption is the central processing unit (CPU). Another part is the input/output (I/O) devices such as display screens, keyboards, modems, printers, disk drives and the like. Still another part with significant power consumption is storage (memory).
Prior art attempts at conserving power have employed screen blanking which reduces the power to the display screen when the screen has not been used for some period of time. Typically, a timeout circuit senses changes in screen information and, if no change has occurred for a predetermined timeout period, the backlight to the screen is turned off for power reduction. While screen blanking is effective in reducing power for the display screen, no reduction results in power to the driver circuitry for the display, to the CPU, or to other parts of the computer. Furthermore, when the screen is blanked, the computer cannot be used until reset.
Other prior art attempts at conserving power consumption have focused on disk drives because the power consumption of rotating magnetic disks is high. Disk drive manufacturers have employed various schemes for reducing the power consumption of the disk drive. While such power consumption schemes are effective for the disk drive, no reduction results in power to the CPU or other parts of the computer. Computers without disk drives, such as small "notebook" computers, have no need, of course, for the conservation of power in a disk drive.
In order to extend the battery life of portable computers and to manage power in computers, there is a need for improved power management methods and apparatus in computers, particularly for power management that can be extended to many different parts and conditions of the computer.

Computer activity monitor providing idle thread and other event sensitive clock and power control


The hydrokinetic torque converter between the prime mover and the transmission in the power train of a motor vehicle is designed to promote and/or otherwise regulate the flow of hydraulic fluid therethrough. The fluid is circulated between the friction linings on the laminations of the bypass clutch in the housing of the torque converter. In a first embodiment of the method, the flow of fluid in certain parts of the torque converter is opposed or interfered with in such a way that a larger quantity of fluid flows between the laminations of the bypass clutch. In a second embodiment, the resistance to fluid flow through the bypass clutch of the torque converter is reduced. It is also possible to resort to both solutions in one and the same torque converter.

The invention relates to improvements in hydrokinetic torque converters, especially for use in the power trains of motor vehicles, and to improvements in methods of operating such torque converters.
A hydrokinetic torque converter which is utilized in the power train of a motor vehicle forms part of an operative connection between the prime mover (such as an internal combustion engine or a hybrid drive) and the change-speed transmission. Reference may be had, for example, to commonly owned U.S. Pat. No. 5,782,327 granted Jul. 21, 1998 to Otto et al. for "HYDROKINETIC TORQUE CONVERTER AND LOCKUP CLUTCH THEREFOR", as well as to the publications which are discussed in the specification of this patent. The efficiency of the torque converter can be enhanced by resorting to a so-called bypass or lockup clutch which, as a rule, becomes engaged when the ratio of the RPM of the turbine to the RPM of the pump in the housing of the torque converter is between about 0.8 and 0.85. The efficiency of the torque converter rises to or approximates 100% as soon as the bypass clutch is engaged. Proper operation of the torque converter is ensured if its housing is at least substantially filled with a suitable hydraulic fluid (such as oil) at all times. Furthermore, and since the hydraulic fluid is likely to be heated and contaminated, it is desirable to ensure continuous circulation and simultaneous cooling and/or cleaning of such fluid.
Certain torque converters are designed in such a way that the fluid stream serves to operate and lubricate the bypass clutch. The arrangement can be such that the stream of fluid which issues between the turbine and the pump of the torque converter bears upon an axially movable disc which forms part of the bypass clutch, which is concentric with the turbine and which is provided with a friction lining. When the pressure of the fluid stream increases, the disc is caused to urge its friction lining against the adjacent portion of the internal surface of the rotating torque converter housing, i.e., the bypass clutch is engaged and transmits torque from the housing (which is driven by the rotary output element of the prime mover) to the rotary input element (e.g., a shaft) of the change-speed transmission. The bypass clutch can become disengaged when the pressure of the fluid stream decreases or when the direction of fluid flow is reversed, depending upon the design of the torque converter and of its bypass clutch.
It is also known to design a torque converter for use in the power train of a motor vehicle in such a way that its bypass clutch is engaged in response to admission of hydraulic fluid into a so-called third channel or passage. If the pressure of fluid in the third channel decreases, the circulating fluid stream (which is supplied by a first and a second channel) disengages the bypass clutch. A torque converter which is provided with a third channel normally employs a bypass clutch having a package of several laminations or discs with friction linings thereon, i.e., the engagement of such bypass clutch involves the transmission of torque by the entire package of such laminations.
In order to avoid or reduce fluctuations of torque in the power train of a motor vehicle, the torque converter in the power train can be operated in such a way that it becomes disengaged in a certain manner when subjected to load. Thus, the bypass clutch is caused to generate (at least in a certain portion of the power train) oscillations which oppose normal fluctuations of torque in the power train, i.e., the normal fluctuations of torque become less pronounced with attendant reduction of their adverse influence upon the power train.
That stage of operation of a clutch when the surfaces of linings, laminations and analogous torque transmitting parts are in sliding contact with each other and/or with the friction generating parts is known as operation with slip. Such mode of operation invariably entails the generation of heat irrespective of the nature of the substances(such as metal, special friction lining material or the like) of which the laminations are made or which are utilized as coatings for metallic or other laminations. The thus heated discs exchange heat with the hydraulic fluid in the housing of the torque converter overheating of the discs entails damage thereto, especially if the discs are not lubricated in a required manner. Furthermore, overheating can result in at least partial decomposition of the hydraulic fluid. The thus decomposed hydraulic fluid and/or broken-off particles of metallic laminations, friction linings and torque converter housing can affect the operation and hence the reliability of the torque converter and/or its bypass clutch and/or of the power train.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method of operating hydrokinetic torque converters in the power trains of motor vehicles and torque converter for the practice of the method

Luk Lamellen und Kupplungsbau Beteiligungs KG


Apparatus for more efficiently pre-cooking and peeling cold water shrimp such as the species Pandalus borealis is disclosed. The apparatus includes a conveyor for moving the shell-on or unpeeled shrimp up and out of a feeder tank. A perforated horizontal conveyor then carries the shrimp over a steam manifold with a multiplicity of apertures such that steam escapes from the manifold and rises through the perforated belt and surrounds the shrimp.. A cooking chamber which completely encloses the horizontal conveyor except at the bottom, contains the lighter-than-air steam such that the raw shell-on shrimp are at least partially cooked by the surrounding steam. Since the lighter-than-air steam excludes all air from the cooking chamber, less oxidation of fats occurs and consequently a higher quality product is obtained. The shrimp are then immediately deposited by the perforated conveyor at the entry point of an automatic shrimp peeling machine, such that the shrimp have their shell removed or are peeled while still hot.

Peeling of cold water shrimp such as Pandalus Borealus has remained essentially the same since effective peeling of this type shrimp was made possible by the "Shrimp Peeling and Cooking Apparatus" invented by J. M. Lapeyre and described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,383,734 dated May 21, 1968 and reissued as U.S. Pat. No. Re. 26,971. According to that patent, a cooking hood is suspended over an inclined conveyor belt which moves unpeeled shrimp from a "feeder tank" to the entry point of an automatic shrimp peeling machine. Perforated steam pipes are located above and in close proximity to the shrimp such that escaping steam is forced under pressure from the steam pipes down onto the shrimp so as to cook the shrimp prior to the shrimp encountering the machine peeler.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,744,406 also issued to Lapeyre on July 10, 1973 provides a pivotally mounted support frame which allows cooking apparatus of the type described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,383,34 to be moved out of the way of the feeder tank for cleaning, maintenance, repair, etc.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,581,652 issued to J. A. Chauvin on June 1, 1971 disclose apparatus for preventing peeled shrimp from curling as they are cooked. More specifically, this apparatus includes upper and lower conveyor belts which move synchronously under a steam hood. The already peeled and flexible shrimp are placed on the lower conveyor belt so they are straight and noncurled. The lower conveyor belt then moves the straight or uncurled shrimp under the upper conveyor belt which contacts the shrimp from the top side such that the peeled, uncurled shrimp are maintained and held between the top and bottom belts in a straight and uncurled condition. The shrimp are then steam cooked and prevented from curling as they are moved through a cooking zone by the two upper and lower conveyor belts.
Thus, although al of the above mentioned patents are at least partially related to apparatus for cooking shrimp, the Chauvin patent is only concerned with maintaining large already peeled shrimp (Gulf or warm water shrimp are peeled more effectively before cooking) substantially straight and uncurled while being cooked. The two Lapeyre patents are related in that they are concerned with precooking cold water shrimp such as Pandalus Borealis prior to peeling. These Lapeyre patents represent the state of the art as it is and has been since about 1971. However, the present application includes improvements which result in a final product having improved quality in that it is more evenly cooked even when the size of the shrimp varies widely.
It is an object of the present invention, therefore, to provide apparatus and methods for more effectively peeling certain species of shrimp by regulating and controlling the pre-peeling cooking process.
It is another object of the present invention to provide apparatus for consistently cooking of certain northern water shrimp regardless of size.
It is yet another object of the invention to provide cooking apparatus which requires less steam for proper cooking of shrimp than previous cooking apparatuses.

Apparatus for controlling pre-cooking and machine peeling shrimp


This document discloses a solution for providing channel usage information. In an embodiment, an apparatus managing a wireless network and being in an unassociated state towards an access node managing another wireless network is provided with the channel usage information. The channel usage information is provided together with a further information element enabling the apparatus to verify that the channel usage information originates from a trusted source.

Nowadays, multiple wireless networks may be present on a common frequency band. In particular, unlicensed frequency bands may be operated by separate wireless networks and, although the available frequency spectrum is wide, two networks may choose to operate on overlapping frequency bands. This may degrade the performance of the networks.

Indicating channel usage in wireless network


There is provided a mounting structure of an automobile, wherein a belt line outer weather strip and a center pillar garnish are mounted on a door panel via an end cap mechanism. The center pillar garnish comprises a concave groove in a lower end portion thereof. The concave groove opens in a down ward direction. The end cap mechanism comprises a roughly U-shaped gripping groove in an upper portion thereof and a clip portion in a lower portion thereof. The gripping groove of the end cap mechanism holds a cut upper end portion of the belt line outer weather strip and an upper concave groove portion of the center pillar garnish as well as an upper pass hole portion of the center pillar portion. The clip portion is inserted into a mounting hole of the door panel.

This invention relates to a mounting structure of a center pillar garnish, sash molding and belt line outer weather strip, mounted on a door body of an automobile.
A prior art will be described referring to FIGS. 1 and 2. Conventionally, there is provided an end cap 41 on a rear end of a belt line outer weather strip 42, which is installed to a front door panel 40 of an automobile, in consideration of an outlook.
In such conventional prior art, there is a problem in a close portion of the end cap 41, that is, a contacting portion between the belt line outer weather strip 42 and a center pillar garnish 43 installed to a center pillar portion 40a of a door panel 40 tends to move with each other because of a shrinkage and an expansion of resin materials which form those members, thus, deteriorating an outlook of the structure. Such problem arises because each member is molded individually, and after completion of installation, each member makes only a resilient contact with the other member while each member is unsecured to the door panel 40 (see FIG. 2).
Further, there has been a conventional structure wherein a lower end of a center pillar garnish (sash cover) is installed to a door panel with a clip. However, since the lower end of the sash cover is merely placed on the clip, there arises a displacement between them because of a shrinkage and an expansion of resin materials caused by a temperature variation. Further, there is another problem in this conventional structure that it cannot coordinate with any displacement developed in a mounting structure. (See, for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. 11-291762.)
This invention is made in the light of above mentioned problems which the conventional structure has. It is therefore the first object of this invention to provide a mounting structure of an automobile door, particularly a mounting structure formed in a lower end of a center pillar portion, comprising a rear end of a belt line outer weather strip and a lower end of a center pillar garnish both installed to a door panel, whose appearance is not deteriorated by a shrinkage and an expansion of resin materials forming those members by a temperature variation, and which is able to cooperate with a displacement of structure if such a structure is developed.
Another prior art will be described referring to FIG. 10. There is provided an end cap 41 on both a rear end of a sash molding 141 installed to a roof side of an automobile door body 101 and a rear end of a belt line outer weather strip 42 in consideration of an appearance.
There is also anther prior art in which three members, a sash molding 141, a center pillar garnish 43 and a belt line outer weather strip 42, are integrally formed.
However, according to the former prior art in which the end cap 41 is applied, the end cap 41 is formed individually and is installed individually, so that a production cost increases and a mounting operation becomes troublesome.
According to the latter prior art wherein three members are integrally formed, it is required to operate a molding operation using a large sized injection machine, so that the production cost increases. Further, since three members are integrally molded, the degree of freedom in an entire shape of the combined structure is restricted, thus a change of design is difficult to accomplish. Moreover, when a molding member made of such as stainless is to be mounted to increase its appearance, such an extra mounting operation is required as a succeeding operation, so that the production cost further increases.
This invention is made in the light of those problems, and therefore, it is the second object of this invention to provide a mounting structure of an automobile door formed with a sash molding and a center pillar garnish, as well as a sash molding, a center pillar garnish and a belt line outer weather strip, which are inexpensive in a production cost.


Disclosed is an electrolyte for an electrochemical device. The electrolyte includes a composite of a plastic crystal matrix electrolyte doped with an ionic salt and a crosslinked polymer structure. The electrolyte has high ionic conductivity comparable to that of a liquid electrolyte due to the use of the plastic crystal, and high mechanical strength comparable to that of a solid electrolyte due to the introduction of the crosslinked polymer structure. Further disclosed is a method for preparing the electrolyte. The method does not essentially require the use of a solvent. Therefore, the electrolyte can be prepared in a simple manner by the method. The electrolyte is suitable for use in a cable-type battery whose shape is easy to change due to its high ionic conductivity and high mechanical strength.

Secondary batteries, being the most representative of the electrochemical devices, are devices which convert external electrical energy to chemical energy, store the electrical energy and generate electricity from the chemical energy when necessary. Secondary batteries, or "rechargeable batteries", are designed to be recharged and used multiple times. Lead-acid batteries, nickel cadmium (NiCd) batteries, nickel hydrogen (NiMH) batteries, lithium ion batteries and lithium ion polymer batteries are frequently used as secondary batteries. Secondary batteries have lower costs of use and environmental impact than disposable primary batteries.
Secondary batteries are currently used in places where low power is needed, for example, devices for assisting the start up of car engines, portable devices, instruments and uninterrupted power supply systems. The recent developments in wireless communication technologies have led to the popularization of portable devices and have brought about a tendency for devices to connect to wireless networks. As a result, the demand for secondary batteries is growing explosively. In addition, hybrid vehicles and electric vehicles have been put into practical use to prevent environmental pollution, and by using secondary batteries in these next-generation vehicles, they reduce the weight and cost and extend battery life for long-term use.
Generally, most secondary batteries are cylindrical, prismatic or pouch type in shape because of their fabrication process. That is, a secondary battery is typically fabricated by inserting an electrode assembly composed of an anode, a cathode and a separator into a cylindrical or prismatic metal can or a pouch type case made of an aluminum laminate sheet, and injecting an electrolyte into the electrode assembly. Accordingly, the cylindrical, prismatic or pouch type secondary battery essentially requires a certain space for assembly, which is an obstacle to the development of various types of portable devices. Thus, there is a need for a novel type of secondary battery whose shape is easy to change, and particularly, an electrolyte that has high ionic conductivity without any risk of leakage.
Ionically conductive organic electrolytes predominantly used for conventional electrochemical devices based on electrochemical reactions are in the form of liquids in which salts are dissolved in non-aqueous organic solvents. However, the use of such electrolytes in the form of liquids causes degradation of electrode materials, increases the possibility of evaporation of organic solvents, and poses safety problems, such as fire and explosion resulting from high surrounding temperatures and increased battery temperatures. A risk of leakage and difficulty in realizing various types of electrochemical devices are additional safety problems. In attempts to overcome the safety problems of such liquid electrolytes, polymer electrolytes, such as gel polymer electrolytes and solid polymer electrolytes have been proposed. It is generally known that the safety of electrochemical devices increases in the order of liquid electrolytes, gel polymer electrolytes and solid polymer electrolytes, but the performance thereof decreases in the same order. It is known that electrochemical devices employing solid polymer electrolytes are not yet commercialized due to these inferior performances. Gel polymer electrolytes have low ionic conductivity, suffer from the risk of leakage and possess poor mechanical properties compared to liquid electrolytes.
Korean Unexamined Patent Publication No. 2008-33421 discloses an electrolyte using a plastic crystal matrix instead of using a liquid organic solvent. The electrolyte exhibits ionic conductivity comparable to that of a liquid electrolyte. However, the electrolyte exhibits very poor mechanical properties due to its flowability similar to that of liquid. In actuality, a separator is required to prevent short circuits in a battery using the electrolyte. In some cases, the introduction of linear polymer matrices, such as polyethylene oxide, is considered to improve the mechanical strength of plastic crystal matrix electrolytes. However, even in these cases, the electrolytes do not possess mechanical properties sufficient enough to replace the use of separators and because solvents are used, there exists a problem of having to add an additional drying process.
Thus, there is an urgent need to develop a solid electrolyte using a plastic crystal matrix electrolyte that has improved mechanical properties while maintaining high ionic conductivity of the plastic crystal matrix electrolyte.

Electrolyte for electrochemical device, method for preparing the electrolyte and electrochemical device including the electrolyte


A moon gear assembly is provided that includes a moon arm assembly having a driving moon gear. A pivot pin is connected to the moon arm assembly, and an adjustment arm is connected to the moon arm assembly. The moon arm assembly may also include a body that defines a chamber, a worm gear disposed in the chamber and arranged to interact with the driving moon gear, and a motor disposed in the chamber and couple to the worm gear.

1. Field of the Invention
The present application relates to the field of transmission systems. More particularly, embodiments within the scope of the application and claims relate to methods, systems, sub-systems, assemblies, and components for providing constant engagement during power transmission, and during changes of gear ratios in very small, and possibly infinitely small, increments.
2. Related Technology
From nearly the beginning of mechanical engines, the purpose and design of an engine has been focused, to at least some degree, on allowing a small engine to move a large load. As engines evolved and technology became more sophisticated, engines were developed having transmissions with multiple ratios to allow the engine to start moving the load with a low ratio and to incrementally step up to higher ratios as the load began moving. In this manner, a transmission can make more effective use of the engine's torque and keep the engine operating near an appropriate speed. Moreover, an engine can operate within a narrow range of speeds while providing a wider range of output speeds.
To effect an incremental change in gear ratio, a manual transmission uses various separate driven gears of different sizes in connection with one or more drive gears. As a gear ratio change is made, a drive gear disengages from the driven gear and re-engages with a different gear. For example, a clutch may disengage a drive gear from a driven gear and then re-engage the same or a different drive gear with a second driven gear having a different radius. As the newly engaged gears have different radii—or levers—the gear ratio is changed. To effect this gear ratio change, however, the drive gear must be temporarily disconnected from all driven gears, such that the power source is also temporarily disconnected from the load while the gear ratio change is made.
Automatic transmissions also make incremental changes in gear ratio by disconnecting the engine from the load. To do so, automatic transmissions typically use one or more planetary gear sets which are used in connection with a series of clutches and bands that are driven by hydraulic system. To change between gear ratios, valves within the hydraulic system are used to control hydraulic pressure which activates various clutches and bands so as to connect and disconnect the carriers and various gears of the automatic transmission from the engine. Based on the specific clutches and bands that engage and disengage, the transmission achieves a predetermined gear ratio change.
When the power source is disconnected or disengaged from the load, the engine coasts until the power source is reconnected to the load. As the engine coasts, however, a moving load begins to lose momentum. For instance, a semi-tractor trailer or other moving vehicle may be moving uphill when a gear change is required. By pushing in the clutch or otherwise disconnecting the power source from the load, the engine RPMs are decreased, turbos may be dumped, and torque can be lost. As a result, the driver often must shift two or three gears down because re-engaging the power source will not occur fast enough to maintain the engine RPMs at a drop of only one or two gears down. This results in an inefficient use of the engine horsepower and fuel.
Similarly, where a tractor is pulling a load such as a plow, disconnecting the engine from the load reduces the momentum of the tractor and the plow. While the tractor may be able to coast, the plow is less likely to coast. For example, when the plow loses momentum it may catch on the ground being plowed and thereby drag against and stop the tractor from coasting. The plow may catch and stop with a sudden movement that can damage the tractor and potentially injure the operator. Therefore, to avoid damage and injury, the tractor operator may drive the tractor and plow in a low gear to avoid the need to shift gears although a higher gear would allow the tractor to more quickly plow the field, consume fuel more efficiently, and make use of the momentum to obtain a draft of the plow.
In addition, many other applications have previously been unable to take advantage of the benefits of a variable speed transmission because disconnection of the power source from the load makes the application unsafe or impractical. For example, an elevator could benefit from gear ratio changes to change the speed of its ascent or descent. However, disconnecting the power source during ascent or descent would cause the elevator carriage to coast and could make the variable speed transmission unsafe for the elevator passengers.
A conveyor system such as those used in manufacturing or mining operations could also benefit from variable speeds. For example, as the system starts up, the conveyor belt could be started at a slow speed and the speed then increased for full operation. Many conveyor belts are, however, loaded with material and/or are miles long, thereby creating a large load that must be moved. If a gear ratio change is made by even temporarily disconnecting the power source, the material and conveyor belt lose momentum and can prevent an efficient gear ratio change. As a consequence, materials often have to be removed from the belt just to get the conveyor moving and/or the conveyor system must be operated at a constant speed.
While variable speed transmissions provide numerous benefits, the problems of the disconnection of the power source from the load has caused engine and transmission designers to search for methods and systems that minimize the time the power source is disconnected and a drive gear is disengaged. To at least some degree, automatic transmissions have improved this time by automating the shifting between gears and changing gear ratios, but the change has not been fundamental, although such automatic transmissions have at least reduced the time between disconnecting and reconnecting the power supply. However, even automatic transmissions disconnect the engine from the drive gears, thereby causing a loss in torque for a time and failing to make an efficient use of the horsepower. Moreover, by operating with only a small group of discrete gear ratios—each having only one or a very few speeds at which the engine operates at optimum efficiency—the engine operates mostly in an inefficient range. Consequently, the engine must be capable of providing more horsepower, and must thus be larger, than would otherwise be required if an engine was more frequently running at an efficient speed. The inefficient use of these engines, in turn, burns more fuel than would an engine run at more efficient speeds.
In low torque applications, the problems associated with disconnecting the power source from the load have been reduced, to some extent, by continuously variable transmissions (CVT). A CVT typically uses two pulleys which are connected by a belt. The pulleys can include two oppositely oriented cones that face each other and which can be pulled together or pushed further apart by hydraulic pressure, centrifugal force, or spring tension. As one pulley is moved to position the belt over a larger radius portion, the other pulley is moved to position the belt over a smaller radius to keep the belt tight. As the position of the belt changes to engage portions of pulleys with differing widths, various gear ratios can be created. A similar concept that may also be considered a CVT also makes use of similar, complementary pulleys and cones. Instead of a belt, however, the CVT uses a rolling member that is sandwiched between the cones.
Regardless of whether a belt or a rolling member is used, however, the CVT system generally relies on friction to facilitate adjustment of gear ratios and provide power output. Friction introduces heat into the system, however, and as a result the wrapping member and rolling members heat up and are susceptible to wear damage, thereby requiring that the user repair or replace the parts. To reduce the frequency of repair, the frictional wrapping or rolling members can be toughened, such as through the use of a thicker belt or impregnation of the belt with metals or other tougher materials. However, as the belt strength is increased, the part costs increase. Moreover, sufficiently tough materials can cause the cones or pulleys within the transmission to wear and fail.
Moreover, because these systems are friction-based, they are typically only suitable for low torque applications, as high torque applications could cause excessive heating within the transmission, thereby causing even greater wear and failure of the transmission components. As a result, CVT transmissions are not considered scalable for a wide variety of low and high torque applications. In fact, the application of torque to a CVT in a high torque or high horsepower system may cause near immediate failure as the rolling member or wrapping member can melt or otherwise deteriorate due to the friction-induced heat.
Because the CVT systems have been seen as unacceptable alternatives in high-torque applications, additional efforts have been made within high-torque applications in an attempt provide little to no time gap between disconnection and reconnection of the power source and load. For example, John Deere produces tractors with a PowerShift transmission that uses a complex design to automatically do the clutching and disconnect a clutch and reconnect the clutch at the same time such that there is no real time gap and little to no torque loss. The transmission is, however, much larger than a standard transmission, and can house a large number of hydraulic lines inside the transmission. As a result, maintenance of the lines may be difficult, and the size of the engine further increases the size of the equipment and the weight or load that must be carried. Moreover, because of the complexity and size of the transmission, it can be cost prohibitive for certain applications, and it is not scalable for low torque or smaller applications.
Accordingly, a need exists for an improved transmission which is scalable and which can move between multiple gear ratios without disconnecting the power source from the load.


An integral workpiece which has a duct located within a region which extends, for example in an annular manner, and formed about an axis of the workpiece. The workpiece has a form-fitting connection by which, when viewed in a cross section extending through the axis, the duct is closed. The form-fitting connection enables, in comparison with known manufacturing methods, particularly simple manufacturing of the workpiece. In particular, no welding or screwing is required for closing the duct.

Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an integral workpiece having a duct, which is located within a region which extends, for example in an annular manner, about an axis of the workpiece, wherein the duct is formed by forming. The invention further relates to a manufacturing method for such a workpiece.
Related Technology
Such a workpiece having a corresponding duct can be manufactured from steel or aluminum by casting, the duct being created by a lost core. In the case of a steel part, manufacturing may alternatively take place by forging, the duct being formed by hot metal spinning. These manufacturing methods are associated with significant cost. Manufacturing the duct by means of soldering, welding or adhesive bonding is also comparatively costly.

Integral workpiece having a duct, and manufacturing method for same


A computer implemented method for incorporating multiple objectives in a ranked list of search results includes receiving a search query from a client device, accessing a set of stored listings for goods or services and probabilities of serving the listings, defining a serving vector as a probability distribution over the set of listings, providing a serving vector as input to a multi-objective function, decomposing the multi-objective function into one or more objective functions, generating a ranked list of the listings based at least in part on the serving vector that maximizes the decomposed multi-objective function, and providing the listings to the client device according to the order of the ranked list. Each objective function addresses a different goal in an overall diversity optimization.

Online computer systems have begun to offer experiences for reservation. Experiences are real-world excursions or other activities designed and led by hosts which have a limited number of seats (slots) available for guests to book. Existing online computer systems that provide experiences rank listings according to a single objective. Typically, the single objective is to maximize the total expected number of bookings. While the exact ranking mechanism varies, these systems fail to consider business needs (e.g., inventory balancing) and social goals (e.g., diversity, community inclusiveness, family-friendliness, etc.).
This can result in inventory balancing problems. For example, a host typically wants to avoid a situation where only a small percentage of seats in the experience are booked. A small percentage may be any percentage that fails to recoup the host's expenses for carrying out the experience, or any other minimum threshold level of booking that the host would consider as not being worthwhile to carry out the experience. In these situations, the host is likely to earn minimally and suffer a large opportunity cost.
Diversity in search results is another problem related to ranking experiences for booking. For example, multiple experiences of the same category are displayed consecutively, which provides little diversity to a user of the online computer system who is looking for experiences to book.
Thus, an improved online computer system for ranking experiences is desired.

Recommendation ranking algorithms that optimize beyond booking


A rim cavity seal arrangement for a gas turbine engine, where the rim cavity is formed between two rotor disk stages with a stator vane assembly positioned between the rotor disks and extending into the rim cavity. A cover plate secured onto a side of the rotor disk includes a plurality of cooling air injectors directed to discharge cooling air into an annular groove formed on the underside of the vane endwall adjacent to the rotor disk to form an air cushion that seals the rim cavity from hot gas ingestion. The cover plate forms a cooling air supply passage with the rotor disk side to supply the injectors, and the cover plate includes at least one metering hole to meter the pressurized air into the injectors.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to a gas turbine engine, and more specifically to a rim cavity sealing apparatus and process for the gas turbine engine.
2. Description of the Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
A gas turbine engine, such as an industrial gas turbine (IGT) engine, includes a turbine section with multiple rows of stator vanes and rotor blades in which the stages of rotor blades rotate together around the stationary guide vane rows. The stator vanes extend into a rim cavity formed between two stages of the rotor blades as seen in FIG. 1. Seals are formed between the inner shrouds of the rotor blades and the stator vanes, and between the inner vane U-ring and the two rotor disk rim extensions. The hot gas flow pressure is higher on the forward side of the stator vanes than on the aft side, and thus a pressure differential exists within the rim cavity.
In the prior art, the U-ring attached to the bottom of the vane assembly is used in the IGT engine design for the control of leakage flow across the row of vanes. A single knife edge seal is used on the blade cover plate to produce a seal against the hot gas ingestion into the rim cavity. Hot gas ingestion into the rim cavity is prevented as much as possible because the rotor disks are made of relatively low temperature material than the airfoils. The high stresses operating on the rotor disks along with exposure to high temperatures will thermally weaken the rotor disk and shorten the life thereof. Purge cooling air discharge from the U-ring cavity has been used in the cooling of the U-ring seal as well as to purge the rim cavity of the hot gas flow ingestion. However, very little progress has been made in the control of rim cavity leakage flow distribution for the reduction of the total purge air demand, especially for a large IGT engine design application. Due to the large pressure differential between the front rim cavity and the of rim cavity, the front rim cavity requires a higher purge air pressure than the aft rim cavity to prevent the hot gas ingestion into the forward rim cavity. Cooling air for both the forward and aft sections of the rim cavity is provided from the same pressure source which is typically through the U-ring. An open gap in-between the U-ring and the rotor disk will result in a purge air mal-distribution. A majority of the purge air will pass through the sealing gap and exit from the aft section of the rim cavity. In some cases, hot gas ingestion into the front or forward section of the rim cavity will result in the purge air mal-distribution effect.


In order to cool food in a display compartment, a cold air stream is generated by refrigeration means, preferably a fan, an evaporator and a condenser, and is passed through the display compartment from its inlet to its outlet. The air temperatures at the inlet and outlet may be sensed by sensors in which case control means are responsive to a signal from the output of both the sensors and control the operation of the refrigeration means to maintain the air temperature in the display compartment within a narrow predetermined range.

This invention relates to apparatus for displaying food or other material under refrigerated conditions.
The installations currently used for the refrigerated display of food, for example in a self-service display, tend to suffer from uneven temperature distribution in the display compartment, leading to food in some areas of the display compartment being at undesirably high temperatures and food in other areas being at undesirably low temperatures.
An aim of the present invention is to minimize this drawback.

Apparatus for displaying material under refrigerated conditions


The present invention relates to antibodies including human antibodies and antigen-binding portions thereof that specifically bind to MAdCAM, preferably human MAdCAM and that function to inhibit MAdCAM. The invention also relates to human anti-MAdCAM antibodies and antigen-binding portions thereof. The invention also relates to antibodies that are chimeric, bispecific, derivatized, single chain antibodies or portions of fusion proteins. The invention also relates to isolated heavy and light chain immunoglobulins derived from human anti-MAdCAM antibodies and nucleic acid molecules encoding such immunoglobulins. The present invention also relates to methods of making human anti-MAdCAM antibodies, compositions comprising these antibodies and methods of using the antibodies and compositions for diagnosis and treatment. The invention also provides gene therapy methods using nucleic acid molecules encoding the heavy and/or light immunoglobulin molecules that comprise the human anti-MAdCAM antibodies. The invention also relates to transgenic animals or plants comprising nucleic acid molecules of the invention.

Mucosal addressin cell adhesion molecule (MAdCAM) is a member of the immunoglobulin superfamily of cell adhesion receptors. The selectivity of lymphocyte homing to specialized lymphoid tissue and mucosal sites of the gastrointestinal tract is determined by the endothelial expression of MAdCAM (Berlin, C. et al., Cell, 80:413-422(1994); Berlin, C., et al., Cell, 74:185-195 (1993); and Erle, D. J., et al., J. Immunol., 153: 517-528 (1994)). MAdCAM is uniquely expressed on the cell surface of high endothelial venules of organized intestinal lymphoid tissue, such as Peyer's patches and mesenteric lymph nodes (Streeter et al., Nature, 331:41-6 (1988); Nakache et al., Nature, 337:179-81 (1989); Briskin et al., Am. J. Pathol. 151-97-110 (1997)), but also in other lymphoid organs, such as pancreas, gall bladder and splenic venules and marginal sinus of the splenic white pulp (Briskin et al(1997), supra; Kraal et al., Am. J. Path., 147: 763-771 (1995)).
While MAdCAM plays a physiological role in gut immune surveillance, it appears to facilitate excessive lymphocyte extravasation in inflammatory bowel disease under conditions of chronic gastrointestinal tract inflammation. TNFα and other pro-inflammatory cytokines increase endothelial MAdCAM expression and, in biopsy specimens taken from patients with Crohn's disease and ulcerative colitis, there is an approximate 2-3 fold focal increase in MAdCAM expression at sites of inflammation (Briskin et al. (1997), Souza et al., Gut, 45:856-63 (1999); Arihiro et al., Pathol Int., 52:367-74 (2002)). Similar patterns of elevated expression have been observed in experimental models of colitis (Hesterberg et al., Gastroenterology, 111: 1373-1380 (1997); Picarella et al., J. Immunol., 158: 2099-2106 (1997); Connor et al., J Leukoc Biol., 65:349-55 (1999); Kato et al., J Pharmacol Exp Ther., 295:183-9(2000); Hokari et al. , Clin Exp Immunol., 26:259-65 (2001); Shigematsu et al., Am J Physiol Gastrointest Liver Physiol., 281:G1309-15 (2001)). In other pre-clinical models for inflammatory conditions, such as insulin-dependent diabetes (Yang et al. Diabetes, 46:1542-7 (1997); Hänninen et al., J Immunol., 160:6018-25 (1998)), graft versus host disease (Fujisaki et al., Scand J Gastroenterol., 38:437-42 (2003), Murai et al. , Nat Immunol., 4:154-60 (2003)), chronic liver disease (Hillan et al., Liver, 19:509-18 (1999); Grant et al., Hepatology, 33:1065-72 (2001)), inflammatory encephalopathy (Stalder et al., Am J Pathol., 153:767-83 (1998); Kanawar et al., Immunol Cell Biol., 78:641-5 (2000)), and gastritis (Barrett et al., J Leukoc Biol., 67:169-73 (2000); Hatanaka et al., Clin Exp Immunol., 130:183-9 (2002)), there is also reawakening of fetal MAdCAM expression and participation of activated α4β7+ lymphocytes in disease pathogenesis. In these inflammatory models as well as hapten-mediated (e.g., TNBS, DSS, etc.) or adoptive transfer (CD4+ CD45Rbhigh) mouse colitic models, the rat anti-mouse MAdCAM monoclonal antibody (mAb), MECA-367, which blocks the binding of α4β7+ lymphocytes to MAdCAM, reduces the lymphocyte recruitment, tissue extravasation, inflammation and disease severity. Mouse monoclonal antibodies (mAbs) against human MAdCAM also have been reported (see, e.g., WO 96/24673 and WO 99/58573).
Given the role of MAdCAM in inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) and other inflammatory diseases associated with the gastrointestinal tract or other tissues, a means for inhibiting α4β7 binding and MAdCAM-mediated leukocyte recruitment is desirable. It further would be desirable to have such therapeutic means with advantageous properties including but not limited to the absence of unwanted interactions with other medications in patients and favorable physico-chemical properties such as pK/pD values in humans, solubility, stability, shelf-life and in vivo half-life. A therapeutic protein, such as an antibody, would advantageously be free of unwanted post-translational modifications or aggregate formation. Accordingly, there is a critical need for therapeutic anti-MAdCAM antibodies.


A catheter designed to be anchored in an internal cavity of a patient such as a drainage catheter employs a novel hub design. The hub has a slide member slidably coupled to the hub and a latch that latches the hub and the slide member together when the slide member slidably moves relative to the hub. Preferably, latching takes place when the slide member moves relative to the hub in an axial direction of the hub. A manually operable release member is provided on the hub such that the latch is disabled from unlatching unless the release member is manually operated. This feature advantageously limits a person's ability to accidentally unlatch the hub.

There are several types of prior art catheters designed for insertion into a body cavity of a patient. These typically employ an anchoring device in the end of the catheter intended to reduce the risk of accidentally pulling the catheter out of the cavity. One type of such catheter employs a suture that is accessible from outside of the patient, passes through a connector on the catheter into internal opening (or lumen) of the shaft of the catheter. It then exits through the tip and reenters the lumen at a more proximal location where it can be secured inside of the lumen or on the connector. A medical professional inserting the catheter then pulls on the suture causing the distance between where the suture exits the catheter and where it reenters the catheter to be reduced. This effectively causes the distal section of the catheter to form an anchoring shape. The suture is then secured holding the distal end of the catheter in this anchoring shape. If the catheter is pulled, its distal end in the anchoring shape is pulled against the wall of the cavity, resisting the pulling force, thereby preventing the catheter from being pulled out of the patient.
The catheter may also be manufactured with a pre-formed curl at its distal end, to facilitating curling once in the body cavity. To insert this type of catheter, a stiffening rod is placed through the lumen of the catheter causing it to straighten out. The catheter and rod are then inserted into the body cavity. Once inserted, the stiffening rod is removed causing the shaft of the catheter to curl to its original pre-curved shape. The pre-curved shape interacts with the internal surface of the cavity to resist removal of the catheter once inside a body cavity.
Alternatively, a guide wire is inserted using accepted medical procedures into the body cavity. A dilator may be used to open the insertion site before sliding the catheter over the guide wire and into the body cavity.
A suture is used to hold the catheter in its position after the catheter returns to its original pre-formed shape. The suture also provides increased retention capabilities to the catheter.
Since these catheters are inserted into a patient who is typically under local anesthesia, the patient is awake and uncomfortable. The patient may also be moving or fidgeting during the procedure while the physician is trying to secure the suture. The physician also has to secure the suture when wearing protective gloves. In addition, the flow of bodily fluids typically infected and unpleasant may be flowing from the catheter.
If a physician improperly inserts, or improperly operates one of these devices, substantial complications may arise that are described in detail later. These catheters should be designed such that they are intuitive to operate requiring little or no instruction. Such a device would minimize risk of improper insertion, and the time spent in 'guesswork' during a procedure in which the physician 'learns' the device.
Several devices are currently in use to secure the suture after the catheter has been placed. One prior art design employs a catheter shaft connected to a stopcock at the proximal end. The stopcock has an internal barrel that rotates in a cylindrical housing. The barrel has a center hole passing through it that may be aligned with the lumen of the catheter by rotating the barrel using a key attached to the catheter by a string or suture. A suture passes from the distal end of the catheter, through the shaft of the lumen, through the center hole in the barrel, and out of a proximal end of the stopcock. As the stopcock barrel is rotated the center hole is no longer aligned with the catheter lumen and seals off the lumen. As the barrel rotates, it also pinches the suture between the sidewall of the barrel and the stopcock housing on both sides of the barrel. The pinching of the suture secures it in place.
That design has disadvantages of not being intuitive to operate, not being as comfortable as other designs, compromising the integrity of the suture, requiring a separate key, and not providing a tactile or audible signal that the catheter is in the locked position as discussed in detail below.
The stopcock housing is marked with a lock and unlock position. If in the locked position, a medical professional intending to drain fluids from inside of the patient may mistakenly rotate the barrel from lock to unlock. This action will also release the suture allowing the catheter to be pulled out of the patient. Therefore, it is not very intuitive to operate.
Since this design employs a stopcock and barrel, the size of the connector is larger than most other designs. The larger size coupled with the fact that it does not have a soft covering, causes considerable discomfort to the patient. The catheter may be implanted in awkward locations and remain in place for extended periods of time, causing additional discomfort to the patient.
When the stopcock barrel is turned to secure the suture between the center opening walls in the barrel and the stopcock body, the contact is localized to two small pinch points. These pinch points flatten the suture causing weakened points in the suture. These weakened points are more prone to breakage than undamaged portions of the suture. Once the suture breaks, the distal end of the catheter is no longer locked in place, increasing the risk of catheter dislodgement.
Another problem is that even though there is a visual indication that the catheter is in the locked position, there is no positive tactile or audible feedback, (such as a snap) to the physician indicating when the connector has been placed in the locked position. This is a useful feature that is lacking in this design.
Another prior art catheter device is a c-clip design that employs a hub with a circumferential inset, connected to the proximal end of a catheter. A suture runs from the distal end of the catheter, through the lumen of the catheter, to an exit point through the sidewall of the hub. To lock, the suture is wrapped around the circumferential inset. A c-clip is provided that is intended to fit around the periphery of the hub, and clipped into the inset over the suture, thereby securing the suture.
The c-clip design is difficult to operate, even under optimum conditions. The c-clip is small and difficult to align in the inset. It will not snap into place unless properly aligned.
In addition to being difficult to lock, it is fairly easy to unlock. A patient, without the aid of tools, can pop the c-clip out of the inset, thereby causing the catheter to become unlocked. Therefore, it is not very tamper-resistant.
This design also does not make use of a smooth protective covering, thereby having the additional disadvantage of being uncomfortable to the patient.
There is another design on the market that employs a simple side hole in a catheter hub connected to the proximal end of a catheter. A suture extends from the distal end of the catheter, through the lumen, and passes from the lumen to outside of the hub through the side hole. A conical flexible strain relief portion surrounding the catheter shaft is designed to be pulled up over the hub and side hole, both sealing the hole and securing the suture.
Even though this design is very intuitive to use, employs a soft protective cover to aid in patient comfort, it does not properly secure the suture in place. If a moderate amount of pulling force is exerted on the catheter, the suture will slip causing the catheter to become unanchored, and increase the risk that the catheter will move out of position or become dislodged. The catheter is difficult to lock since tension must be maintained on the suture during the locking procedure to keep it from unraveling.
Even if the suture does not slip on its own, a patient may easily unlock this design by simply pulling the strain relief portion off of the hub. Therefore, this design is not very tamper-resistant.
One additional problem is that, due to the nature of the design, when the strain relief is not placed over the hub, the side hole opening leaks fluids that are in the catheter lumen.
Like the stopcock design above, it provides visual indication that it has been placed in the locked position, however it lacks positive tactile or audible feedback to the physician indicating that it has been placed in the locked position.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,508,789 assigned to Merit Medical Systems, Inc. of South Jordan, Utah ('789 patent) describes another prior art drainage catheter having a pre-formed curl and a suture that pulls on the distal end of the drainage catheter as described above. The '789 patent further describes a 2-part (proximal and distal) hub that interacts with the suture to pull in the suture and lock the suture in place. A plurality of fingers on the proximal hub forces the suture into a corresponding plurality of channels of the distal hub that mate with the fingers. This effectively pulls in, and shortens the suture. A device according to the '789 patent functions to cause the distal end of the catheter to curl toward the proximal end that locks into position.
A drawback with that device is that it is only capable of pulling in a fixed length of suture into the hub, and cannot be adjusted to pull more, or less than this fixed length of suture into the hub, as needed.
A second disadvantage is that the use of the fingers in channels, as opposed to the medical professional manually pulling on the suture, causes a loss of tactile feedback. The medical professional uses tactile feedback to determine if the tip of the catheter is moving freely or if it is trapped, caught or tangled when anchoring the catheter.
A third disadvantage is that since there is no tactile feedback, if the device is trapped, caught or tangled, and the medical professional 'forces' the device to lock, the increased friction of the suture as it passes through each of the plurality of fingers and channels may cause breakage of the suture, making the device unusable.
The design in the '789 patent is also not very intuitive to operate. The physician pushes the proximal hub into the distal hub thereby pulling in a length of the suture into the hub. Therefore, it is not very intuitive to 'push' to 'pull' in the suture.
One additional drawback with that design is that there are a series of internal crevices within the fluid path that cannot be flushed and cleaned. As specified above, these types of catheters are typically used to remove infected bodily fluids. The fluids, if allowed to remain in the hub of the Sinnot design could cause considerable infection.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,399,165 assigned to Cook, Inc. ('165 patent) describes a drainage catheter employing a similar distal curl and suture arrangement. The '165 patent describes the use of a lever on the catheter hub that actuates a cam causing pressure to be placed on the suture, at a specific point, thereby locking the suture in place.
This design results in a large, bulky catheter connector that is uncomfortable for the patient. The design is also not very tamper resistant since the patient, without the use of tools, can flip the lever to unlock the suture, allowing the catheter to become unanchored, causing increased risk that the catheter will move out of position or become dislodged.
This design also suffers from the problem that there is an open hole to the inside of the lumen when it is in the unlocked position (when the lever is up), thereby allowing leakage.
One of the greatest shortcomings of this design is that it employs a single localized point of contact with the suture. Therefore, it does not positively secure the suture, and allows the suture to slip.
Moreover, the localized pressure on the suture where the cam presses against the suture, employed to secure the suture, causes a weakening of the suture at that point. If the suture breaks, there is the possibility that the catheter will reposition itself so that it does not function as well as intended, or potentially can become dislodged. This may require a medical procedure to be performed to insert a replacement catheter.
Therefore, there is a need for a catheter designed to be secured in a body cavity that: a) is simple to operate, b) is intuitive to operate without requiring much instruction, c) is comfortable to the patient, d) is small and not bulky, e) positively secures the suture, f) minimizes damage to the suture, g) provides audible, or tactile feedback when locked, h) is sufficiently tamper-resistant, i) can be completely flushed and cleaned, j) does not leak when in either the locked or unlocked positions, and k) does not loosen when attached to, or detached from other equipment.


A computer executes a process including dividing a data set into a plurality of data sets, determining hash functions for the data sets, producing hash coefficient value information for specifying the hash functions and correspondence information between the hash coefficient values and the data sets, and producing hash information for the data sets. In the hash function determination, a hash value is calculated using a candidate hash function based on keys of the data of the data set, and the candidate hash function is determined as the hash function of the data set with regard to which it is decided that all data can be stored into a first address based on the hash value or a second address contiguous to the first address. In the hash information production, the hash information for the data set is produced by storing the data and keys into the first or second address.

Conventionally, as one of data retrieval methods, a data retrieval method that uses a hash table is available.
Here, the hash table is one kind of a table type data structure that uses a hash function as measures for determining a position of a table into which data is to be stored or measures for determining a position of the table from which data is to be acquired.
A data retrieval method that uses a hash table is advantageous in that the data retrieval efficiency is high, namely, the time required to retrieve retrieval target data or to decide that no retrieval target data exists is short in comparison with other data retrieval methods (for example, a binary tree search method).
On the other hand, the data retrieval method that uses a hash table uses a hash table produced by storing data into a storage position specified based on a hash value calculated by a hash function. The hash value calculated by the hash function may be equal between different data, and, in this case, the data retrieval efficiency degrades depending upon in what manner the data are stored into a hash table and retrieved.
On the other hand, it seems a possible idea to use a perfect hash function that guarantees that hash values do not overlap with each other among all data stored in the hash table. When a hash table produced using a perfect hash function is used, since storage positions do not overlap with each other among different data, a storage position can be specified uniquely upon data retrieval, and the data retrieval efficiency is the highest in theory and the highest data retrieval efficiency is guaranteed.
However, it is not easy to determine a perfect hash function for a given data set. Specifically, it is not easy to determine a perfect hash function for a large-scale data set. For example, the calculation cost when a perfect hash function is calculated by a brute force method increases exponentially with respect to increase of the number of data.
On the other hand, as a method for suppressing the calculation cost when a perfect hash function is calculated, a CHD algorithm is available wherein a large-scale data set is divided into a plurality of small-scale data sets and an individual perfect hash function is calculated for each of the plurality of small-scale data sets.

Data retrieval apparatus, data storage method and data retrieval method