A disposable tube set apparatus is provided for delivering a precise volume of a fluid to containers which comprise a reservoir for a fluid, an inlet conduit to the said reservoir, at least one first outlet conduits from the reservoir, a sight tube connected to each of the at least one outlet conduit, each of the sight outlet tubes having an interior wall tapered away from a central vertical axis of each of the sight outlet tubes, a return conduit connecting each of the sight outlet tubes to the reservoir, and a second outlet conduit connected to each of the sight tubes.

The present invention relates to fluid dispensing apparatuses, and more particularly to a volumetric fluid dispensing apparatus having no moving parts in contact with the fluid and which can deliver a wide range of volume of fluids.
Numerous types of fluid dispensing apparatuses exist for filling bottles. One type of fluid dispensing apparatus which is in widespread use is positive displacement fillers. Positive displacement fillers typically include moving parts which contact and displace the fluid being dispensed. For example, one type of positive displacement filler uses a piston and cylinder arrangement. In this type of positive displacement filler, the backward movement of the piston draws fluid into the cylinder through an inlet port and the forward movement of the piston expels the fluid through an outlet port. Another type of positive displacement filler uses a rotary pump to move the fluid.
Positive displacement pumps have gained widespread use in the United States for two reasons. First, positive displacement pump can operate at relatively high speeds, filling as many as six hundred bottles per minute. Additionally, positive displacement pumps are accurate up to about ±0.5%.
Despite the widespread use of positive displacement fillers, they nevertheless have several disadvantages. One disadvantage with positive displacement fillers is that the fluid comes into contact with moving parts. As the moving parts wear, particulate matter enters the fluid causing particulate contamination. If severe enough, particulate contamination can render the product unusable. Another disadvantage with positive displacement fillers involves the difficulty in cleaning and sterilizing the moving parts in contact with the fluid. In positive displacement pumps, the critical tolerances between pads, such as the piston and cylinder, preclude effective cleaning in place. Thus, the user must disassemble the apparatus for cleaning and sterilization. This process is not only time consuming, but may result in biological contamination of the pads when they are handled by the mechanic during reassembly.
It has been proposed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,480,063 and 5,680,960 to provide volumetric fluid dispensing apparatus which utilizes gravity rather than apparatus having moving parts in contact with the fluid being dispensed such a pump. A closed fluid chamber is provided in which the fluid level therein is sensed and maintained at a constant level. A fill tube in fluid communication with the fluid chamber for containing a desired volume of fluid is provided. Sensing apparatus which control valve apparatus is provided for filling the fill tube with a desired volume of fluid from the fluid chamber and subsequently dispensing the desired volume of fluid into a container such as a vial. In these apparatus, the top surface of the fluid being dispensed from the fill tube must be lower than the top surface of the fluid in the fluid chamber in order to effect dispensing of the desired fluid volume. Since the fill tubes disclosed in these patents have a constant inner diameter along their length, it has been found necessary to utilize a plurality of fill tubes of varying inner diameters in order to effect dispensing of a desired range of fluid volumes, e.g., 0.5 ml–20 ml. The use of a plurality of fill tubes in a single dispensing apparatus or a plurality of dispensing apparatus, each having a fill tube with a given constant diameter since such an arrangement is either needlessly complicated or needlessly expensive.
In the current system, the dispense volume repeatability is critical. This repeatability is expressed as a percent error of the fill volume. The error in the dispense volume is affected by the sight tube diameter at the sensor locations. The larger the inner diameter, the more volume/height of the tube. Since the sensors detect the level of the liquid and the inherent error in detecting the liquid level at the same location for consecutive dispenses results in different dispense volumes, it is preferred to have the inner diameter of the sight tube be small so that the volume/height ratio is small. This approach will result in the most repeatable fill volumes. As an example, having a sight tube with a 0.5 inch inner diameter the volume for every 0.001 inch of height is 0.0032 cc whereas a sight tube of 0.25 inch inner diameter will have a volume of 0.0008 cc for every 0.001 inch of height. For this reason one would want to have a small inner diameter sight tube for low volume dispense volumes. Likewise it will be beneficial to have larger inner diameter sight tubes for larger volumes for capacity and speed while the error may be larger in absolute volume but it will be small as a percentage of the fill. The tapered sight tube of this invention allows the filling of a wide range of volumes while maintaining the required repeatability since the sensors will be located at the preferred inner diameter for the required dispense volume.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a fluid dispensing apparatus capable of accurately dispensing fluid over a wide volume range without the need for a plurality of fill tubes (with various inner diameters). Such an apparatus would simplify dispensing of fluids.


A glass that is down-drawable and ion exchangeable. The glass has a temperature T35kp which the viscosity is 35 kilopoise. T35kp is less than the breakdown temperature Tbreakdown of zircon.

Ion-exchangeable glasses can be manufactured in several forms by a variety of processes. In particular, such glasses can be drawn into thin sheets via either slot-draw or fusion-draw processes.
Current fusion-draw designs require zircon refractory lining and hardware for isopipes. Most ion-exchangeable glasses react with the zircon, breaking it down into silica, which dissolves in the glass, and zirconia, which forms solid inclusions that are entrained by flow into the molten glass and ends up in the final product. The attack of zircon by the molten glass continues over time and the level or concentration of zirconia inclusions in the glass increases. Because these inclusions are concentrated on the fusion line, they are also located at the point of maximum central tension after ion exchange, potentially compromising the strength of the ion-exchanged glass part. Moreover, in applications, such as in hand-held electronic devices such as PDAs, mobile phones, etc., in which small pixels of light are to be directed through the glass sheet, the high refractive index of the zirconia inclusions can block pixels. In very thin (e.g., ≦1mm thick) glass sheets, the zirconia inclusions are visible to the human eye, and constitute cosmetic defects that, in some instances, result in rejection of the part.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A preferential oxidation reactor (PrOx) is provided including a plurality of substrates defining a plurality of channels, through which a reformate stream flows. A CO-sorption layer and a CO-catalyst layer coat a surface of each substrate support member. The PrOx operates in a first mode, generally at a temperature below 100 ° C., whereby the CO-sorption material adsorbs CO from the reformate stream. After operation in the first mode, the PrOx operates in a second mode, generally at a temperature above 100° C., whereby the CO-catalyst material enables a preferential oxidation reaction of CO in the reformate stream with a supply of oxygen and desorption of the CO previously absorbed by the CO-sorption layer for an overall reduction in the CO content of the reformate stream.

Fuel cells have been proposed for many applications that include electrical vehicular power plants to replace internal combustion engines. In a particular type of fuel cell, namely a proton exchange membrane (PEM) fuel cell, hydrogen is used as the fuel and is supplied to an anode of the fuel cell and oxygen (such as air) is the oxidant and is supplied to a cathode of the fuel cell. A typical fuel cell is described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,316,871 to Swathirajan, et al.
The hydrogen (H2) used in the fuel cell can be extracted from the reformation of methanol or other organics (e.g. hydrocarbons). Unfortunately, the resulting reformate includes undesirably high concentrations of carbon monoxide (CO) which can quickly poison the catalyst of the PEM anode, and therefore, must be removed. For example, in gasoline autothermal reforming steam (H2O), air (O2) and gasoline are reacted in a fuel processor that contains two reaction types. An inlet section promotes a partial oxidation (POX) reaction, which provides the thermal conditions required to promote steam reforming (SR) in an exit section.
These reactions are accomplished heterogeneously within a chemical reactor that provides the necessary thermal energy throughout a catalyst mass and yields a reformate gas comprising H2, carbon dioxide (CO2), CO and H2O. Because the CO (about 5-10%) contained in the H2-containing reformate stream exiting the reformer poisons the PEM anode, the CO must be removed or reduced to a non-toxic concentration.
It is known that the CO level of the reformate can be reduced by utilizing a water-gas shift (WGS) reaction. To achieve this, a WGS reactor is provided, within which H2O (as steam) is added to the reformate exiting the reformer, in the presence of a suitable catalyst, to lower its temperature and increase the steam to carbon ratio therein. A lower temperature and higher steam to carbon ratio serve to lower the carbon monoxide content of the reformate according the following ideal shift reaction: CO+H2O→CO2+H2.
However, some CO still survives the WGS reaction. Depending upon the reformate flow rate and the steam injection rate, the CO content of the gas exiting the shift reactor can be as low as 0.5 mole %. Hence, the shift reactor reformate comprises H2, CO2, H2O and some CO. As a result, the WGS reaction does not sufficiently reduce the carbon monoxide content of the reformate to stack grade (i.e. to below about 20 ppm).
Therefore, it is necessary to further remove carbon monoxide from the hydrogen-containing reformate stream exiting the shift reactor, and prior to supplying it to the fuel cell. It is known to further reduce the CO content of H2-containing reformate exiting the WGS reactor by a so-called preferential oxidation (PrOx) reaction effected in a suitable PrOx reactor. The PrOx reactor comprises a catalyst bed operated at a temperature that promotes the preferential oxidation of the CO by air, in the presence of the O2 but without consuming substantial quantities of the H2. The PrOx reaction is: CO+½O2→CO2.
Often, the O2 required for the PrOx reaction will be about two times the stoichiometric amount required to react the CO in the reformate. If the amount of O2 is excessive, then excessive consumption of H2 results. On the other hand, if the amount of O2 is not more than the stoichiometric amount needed, insufficient CO oxidation will occur. The PrOx process is described in a paper entitled, "Methanol Fuel Processing For Low Temperature Fuel Cells" published in the Program and Abstracts of the 1988 Fuel Cell Seminar, Oct. 23-26, 1988, Long Beach, Calif. and in U.S. Pat. No. 5,271,916 to Vanderbourgh and U.S. Pat. No. 5,637,415 to Mester, iner alia. U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,637,415 and 5,316,871, which are each incorporated herein by reference.
One particular area of concern for WGS and PrOx reactors is start-up, or light-off, during which an unacceptably high amount of CO makes it through the WGS and PrOx reactors to the fuel cell stack. This is due to the fact that during this initial time period, the WGS and PrOx reactors have not achieved an operating temperature (approximately >100° C.), whereby the catalyst material is active for catalyzing the CO oxidation reaction.
Therefore, it is desirable in the industry to provide improved WGS and PrOx reactors for reducing CO concentration within a fuel reformate. The PrOx reactor should enable quicker light-off during start-up to limit unacceptable levels of CO being released from the PrOx to the fuel cell stack.


A reactive burning rate accelerator is provided that is configured to be at least partially embedded in a solid energetic material and comprises at least one metallic component and at least one non-metallic component. The reactive burning rate accelerator is configured to ignite and combust to increase the mass burning rate of the solid energetic material. Also provided are solid energetic materials comprising the reactive burning accelerator and methods of manufacturing and using the same.

The present invention generally relates to solid propellants energetic materials and reactive burning rate accelerators for use therewith. The invention particularly relates to solid energetic materials comprising reactive burning rate accelerators, methods for their manufacture, and methods for their use.
Solid propellants commonly used in rockets and aircraft are used in forms referred to as propellant charge (grains) made up of a fuel and an oxidizer that causes the fuel to burn or otherwise decompose to produce a propellant gas. There are numerous factors which affect propellant performance, such as the propellant composition, its linear burning rate, its ambient temperature, combustion chamber pressure, and the like. A particularly important parameter that affects thrust of propellant grains, which are loaded into and burned directly in the combustion chamber of a rocket motor or engine, is the burning surface area, which greatly affects the mass rate of gas generation. The rate of generation of propulsive gases, other factors being equal, is proportional to the product of the propellant burning rate and the burning surface area. Tailoring solid propellant burning rates is a perpetual goal of solid propellant designers. Traditional approaches to tailoring propellant burning rates include modifying the particle size of the oxidizer and adding catalysts to the propellant. However, these methods only increase the propellant burning rate up to a certain point and can diminish propellant performance.
The addition of burning rate accelerators (or simply accelerators) to propellants has been used to improve and tailor burning rates. For example, inert metallic staples, whiskers, foils, and wires have been cast into the grain of propellants in order to increase propellant thermal conductivity and provide a low-resistance thermal path for heat flow from the flame into the propellant. Metallic accelerators have been used in various thicknesses, lengths, and shapes. Relatively short staples, whiskers, fibers, and the like are commonly randomly distributed throughout solid propellant grains. Wires are typically distributed as long strands embedded axially in solid propellant grains. Wired propellants in particular have been used in thousands of fielded sounding rockets and tactical missiles.
Inert metallic accelerators cause local preheating that results in locally increased burning rates and changes the burning surface profile to cause increased overall mass burning rate. However, inert metallic accelerators, and wires in particular, can sometimes act as heat sinks and decrease propellant burning rate and performance. As such, inert metallic accelerators generally increase burning rate only if the volume and weight fractions are adequately low. Consequently, such accelerators provide only a limited range of burning rate augmentation.
When a propellant grain includes inert metallic wires as an accelerator, the embedded wires cause an increase in surface area as the burning surface transforms from a nominally flat surface to a cone-like surface. Generally, the cone-like burning surface forms when multiple burning rates are present, and the fastest burning rate dominates the process. At steady-state, the constant thrust profile of an end-burner motor may be retained but the mass burning rate of the propellant will likely be higher. Commonly used inert wires include copper, silver, silver alloys, steel, tungsten, aluminum, magnesium, nickel, molybdenum, brass, platinum, and relatively low melting point metals plated with higher melting point metals.
The degree of burning rate enhancement from embedded wire accelerators depends on wire thermal diffusivity and melting temperature. For long wires, burning rate generally increases with increasing wire diameter up to a certain point, after which it decreases as thermal sink losses become more significant. Cross-sectional shape of wire accelerators has been reported to weakly affect burning rate as long as the length-to-diameter ratio is relatively high.
Despite the advantages of inert metallic burning rate accelerators, several factors limit their performance. For example, embedded wires may cause an overall performance decrease if the wire acts as a heat sink to the propellant. In addition, casting long, straight axial wires can be difficult, and non-uniform wire spacing may cause unintended thrust profiles as the propellants regress. In regards to fibers, whiskers, staples, etc., poor bonding between the accelerators and the propellant may cause grain cracking, and thermal cycling may cause de-bonding between the grain and fibers.
Non-metallic burning rate accelerators have also been attempted. For example, propellant grains comprising embedded optical fibers have been used in laser-assisted combustion, and Kevlar® fibers have been observed to act as flame holders and can affect the burning rate.
Self-alloying systems such as nickel/aluminum foils or aluminum-palladium core-shell wires (commercially available under the trademark Pyrofuze® from Pyrofuze Corp.) have been proposed for use in propellant grains. Self-alloying wires may increase a propellant's burning rate; however, self-alloying wires may decrease the specific impulse of the propellant considerably compared to propellant grains with aluminum as an accelerator, and even slightly compared to propellants without an accelerator. Specific impulse is the total impulse (or change in momentum) delivered per unit of propellant consumed and is dimensionally equivalent to the generated thrust divided by the propellant flow rate.
Therefore, other approaches are needed to tailor burning rates of propellants over a wider range than conventionally possible in order to enable the design of currently unattainable rocket solid propellant grain configurations.

Reactive burning rate accelerators, solid energetic materials comprising the same, and methods of using the same


A bracket positioned on one side of a membrane or surface is adjustable from the other side of the surface to permit the position of an item supported by the bracket to be readily adjusted relatively to the surface. The bracket has a base to which an arm is movably attached. The arm moves between an open and a closed position to permit the item to be received by the bracket. In the closed position the item is clamped between the base and the arm. A finger is mounted on the base and is movable into and out of engagement with a contact surface on the arm. When the finger engages the contact surface it secures the arm in the closed position and effects the clamping action which holds the item in position. The finger and arm are readily accessible to permit adjustment.

It is often desirable to have the ability to adjust the position of an item mounted on a support by a bracket. It is advantageous if the adjustability is possible along three mutually perpendicular axes simultaneously. While the prior art discloses brackets having various degrees of adjustability, they are limited in their usefulness when a membrane or surface comes between part of the item and the bracket which supports it and limits access to the bracket; i.e., when the bracket to be adjusted is obscured behind the surface and the item projects outwardly from the surface and is accessible on the side opposite to the bracket. One example of such a situation is a ceiling mounted fire suppression sprinkler used to protect a room. The sprinkler is attached to a reducer, and the reducer is connected to a branch line of the fire suppression piping network using a flexible hose. The reducer is mounted to a support using a bracket. The support and bracket are hidden behind the ceiling surface and the sprinkler extends into the room through an opening in the ceiling. When the ceiling is drywall construction it is advantageous to be able to adjust the position of the sprinkler to align with the opening in the ceiling. Furthermore, the vertical position of the sprinkler relative to the ceiling surface must be fixed according to various codes governing such construction. Access to the bracket for adjustment is limited to the relatively small opening in the ceiling unless one wishes to enlarge the opening and later repair it, which is costly and time consuming and therefore to be avoided. Brackets according to the prior art fail to take into account the problem of limited access inhibiting adjustment when they are positioned on the inaccessible side of a membrane or surface. There is clearly a need for a bracket which affords easy adjustment to the item which its holds when access to the bracket is limited.


A hybrid cable having a core and a wrap; the core made from a carbon fiber yarn or bundle of carbon fiber strands or yarns; and the wrap made of a plurality of metal wires helically wrapped around the core, the plurality of metal wires laid side by side without crossing each other. The fibers, yarns, or core may be treated with polymeric sizing, adhesive, or binder. The wire may be steel and may have a coating such as brass or zinc plating, or a polymeric coating or treatment. The hybrid cable is useful for reinforcing composite articles such as belts, track, or hose.

This invention relates generally to multi-component cable useful for reinforcement of polymeric articles, more particularly to steel-wire and carbon-fiber, hybrid cable for reinforcing elastomeric or plastic products such as reinforced thermoplastic-elastomer or rubber articles, including reinforced articles such as belts, hose and track.
U.S. Pat. No. 7,814,740 B2 discloses a cord for rubber reinforcement.
U.S. Pat. Publ. No. 2015/0233027 A1 discloses a hybrid cord for tire.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,334,293 B1 discloses a steel cord with polymer core.

Hybrid cable for reinforcing polymeric articles and reinforced articles


The present invention is an optical clock signal extraction device, comprising first conversion means and second conversion means for enabling to extract an optical clock signal without depending on the polarization direction of an input optical signal. The first conversion means comprises a first optical converter and a continuous wave light source of which wavelength is λ2, where an input optical signal of which wavelength is λ1 and continuous wave light of which wavelength is λ2 are input to the first optical converter, and an intermediate optical signal of which wavelength is λ2 is generated and output without depending on the polarization direction of the input optical signal. The second conversion means has a second optical converter, where the intermediate optical signal is input to the second optical converter, and an optical clock signal of which wavelength is λ3 is generated and output by the passive mode locking operation of the second optical converter. The input optical signal is input from the end face L1 of the first optical converter, and the continuous wave light of which wavelength is λ2 is input to the first optical converter from the other end face of the first optical converter. The intermediate optical signal is output from the end face of the first optical converter and input to the end face of the second optical converter. The optical clock signal is output from the other end face of the second optical converter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical clock signal extraction device to be used for an optical repeater of a long distance large capacity optical fiber communication system, and more particularly to a device for extracting high-speed optical clock signals which exceed the upper limit operation speed of an electronic device.
2. Description of Related Art
In an optical communication network, the transmission distance is constantly becoming longer with larger capacities. With the distance of transmission becoming longer, deterioration of the quality of optical signals becomes a problem, due to the optical loss in optical transmission lines, a drop in the S/N ratio by the user of optical amplifiers in multiple steps, and waveform distortion by group velocity dispersion, nonlinear optical effect, and their combined effect in optical fibers. The generation of waveform distortion in the frequency domain and the waveform distortion in the time domain become more conspicuous problems as transmission capacity increases.
Because of this, repeaters are installed in the middle of an optical transmission line with an interval of several tens to several hundred kilometers, and optical signals are regenerated, that is, the waveforms in the frequency domain and the waveforms in the time domain of the optical signals are restored to the original forms by the repeater. One major role of the repeater is clock signal extraction. Clock signal extraction is generating a pulse output (or sine wave output) signal corresponding to the bit rate from the optical signal formed by the optical pulses in which the waveform in the time domain is distorted, that is an optical signals of which quality deteriorated.
A clock signal is extracted either as an electric signal or an optical signal, depending on the case, and in the following description, a clock signal may be referred to as an electric clock signal and optical clock signal only when necessary to clarify which form the clock signal is extracted. Frequency corresponding to the bit rate of the optical signal indicates the frequency f when the bit rate of the optical signal is f. For example, if the bit rate of the optical signal is fGbits/s, the frequency corresponding to the bit rate of the optical signals is assumed to be fGHz. Hereafter the frequency corresponding to the bit rate of the optical signal may be called the "bit rate frequency". In this example, the bit rate is denoted in Gbit/s and frequency is denoted in GHz, but in the following description, the unit is not limited to this. Therefore in the following description, unless necessary, the unit notation may be omitted.
One general method conventionally known as a clock signal extraction method is a method of extracting only the frequency components corresponding to the bit rate of an input optical signal by inputting an optical signal, of which quality deteriorated, into a photodiode performing photo-electric conversion and filtering the output electric signal from the photodiode by a band pass filter. Hereafter an optical signal, to be the target of extracting the clock signals including optical signals of which quality deteriorated is called an input optical signal.
An optical pulse string is generated by generating an electric clock signal using a photodiode and band pass filter, and operating an optical pulse laser device, such as a laser diode using the electric clock signal. This optical pulse string is a string of optical pulses lined up on a time axis at a cycle of repeat frequency which corresponds to the bit rate frequency of the input optical signal. In the following description, an optical signal refers to an optical signal generated as an RZ (Return to Zero) signal, which is a binary digital signal. This optical signal is a signal generated by performing optical modulation on a string of optical pulses which regularly line up at a predetermined periodic interval on a time axis. The expression "optical pulse string" is assumed to be all the optical pulses which regularly line up at a predetermined periodic interval on a time axis.
Generally the photoelectric conversion characteristic of a photodiode does not depend so much on polarization thereof, so even if a time-based fluctuation exists on the plane of polarization of the input optical signal, a clock signal can be stably extracted by using a photodiode.
On the other hand, as a technology to increase the transmission capacity of an optical communication network, a multiplexing transmission technology, such as optical time division multiplexing, is under research. A bit rate of the multiplexed signal is a bit rate per multiplexed channel, multiplied by the number of channels, so it is a very high bit rate. Hereafter the bit rate of a multiplexed signal may be referred to as the "transmission rate", and the bit rate per channel as the "base rate".
If the bit rate of the multiplexed signal exceeds 40 Gbit/s, it is difficult to extract a clock signal in the electronic device. This is because a photodiode which operates even at 40 Gbit/s or higher bit rate optical signals and an electric narrow band filter which operates even at 40 GHz or higher electric signals have not been developed.
In order to extract a clock signal from a high-speed optical signal, a method of extracting the optical clock signal directly without performing photoelectric conversion is used. Hereafter this method of extracting optical clock signals directly without performing photoelectric conversion may be called the "all-optical clock signal extraction method".
As the all optical clock signal extraction method, a method of using a mode-locked laser has been reported (e.g. see T. Ono, T. Shimizu, Y. Yano and H. Yokoyama: "Optical clock extraction from 10-Gbit/s data pluses by using monolithic mode-locked laser diodes" OFC '95, Technical Digest, ThL4). Also a method of using a self-excited pulse generation laser, such as a self pulsation laser, has been reported (e.g. see M. Jinno and T. Matsumoto: "All-optical timing extraction using a 1.5 μm self pulsating multi-electrode DFB LD", Electron. Lett., Vol. 24, No. 23, pp. 1426-1427, September 1988).
In any of these methods, the input optical signal is input to the mode-locked laser or self pulsation laser which generation optical pulses at a repeat frequency close to the bit rate of the input optical signal, and extracts optical clock signals by synchronizing the output optical pulses from the mode-locked laser of self pulsation laser with the bit rate of the input optical signal.
One advantage of these methods is that a high-speed clock signal can be extracted as an optical clock signal, which is impossible with an electronic device, as mentioned above. For example, a reported example is that the extraction of an optical clock signal from 160 Gbit/s optical signal succeeded (e.g. see S. Arahira, S. Sasaki, K. Tachibana and Y. Ogawa: "All-optical 160 Gb/s clock extraction with a mode-locked laser diode module", IEEE Photon. Technol. Lett. Vol. 16, No. 6, pp. 1558-1560, June 2004).
However the above mentioned conventional all-optical clock signal extraction method has the following problem. That is, the operation for optical clock signal extraction depends on the polarization direction of the input optical signal. In order to extract the optical clock signal by a mode-locked laser and self pulsation laser, the polarization direction of the input optical signal and polarization direction of the oscillation light of the laser must be matched.
Therefore if the polarization direction of the input optical signal changes for any reason, the optical clock signal cannot be extracted stably. Generally, the input optical signal propagates through a single mode optical fiber where maintaining the polarization direction is not guaranteed, and is input to an optical repeater, for example. Therefore a method which can extract an optical clock signal stably even if the polarization direction changes must be considered based on the assumption that the polarization direction of an input optical signal to be input to the optical repeater changes along with time.
With the foregoing in view, it is an object of the present invention to provide an optical clock signal extraction device which can extract an optical clock signal without depending on the polarization direction of the input optical signal.

Optical clock signal extraction device and optical clock signal extraction method


A toy water gun having a water supply tank which can be filled with water, and a water pump located on the housing for pumping water from the supply tank to at least one water pressure chamber. The water pressure chamber includes at least one fixed wall, and a moveable wall which substantially sealingly engages the at least one fixed wall and is slidable away from a first end wall as water is pumped into the water pressure chamber and toward the first end wall as water is discharged. An air pressure chamber located on an opposite side of the moveable wall from the water pressure chamber and is pressurizable with compressed air to bias the moveable wall toward the first end wall. An air pump is connected to the air pressure chamber for pressurizing the air pressure chamber with a user desired air pressure. Upon actuation of the release valve, the air pressure acts on the moveable wall to force water under pressure from the water pressure chamber so that a stream of water is ejected from the nozzle.

The present invention is directed to a water gun and more particularly, to a water gun having a pressure chamber into which water is pumped and held under pressure for release from the water gun.
Toy water guns are known which utilize pressurized air or a pressurized bladder as the motive force for discharging water from the gun upon release of a nozzle valve. U.S. Pat. No. 4,135,559 describes a water toy and fill valve combination. The water toy includes a resiliently expandable tubular bladder which serves as the pressurized water reservoir and the motive member for discharging water from the gun. Pressurized water is loaded into the bladder via the fill valve combination such that the bladder expands due to water pressure of the water from the fill valve. A trigger is provided which is connected to a release valve is provided for allowing water to be ejected from the toy water gun.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,799,827 discloses a similar water gun having a tubular bladder arranged in a tubular holding member. A separate water tank is located on the gun which holds water at ambient pressure. A pump located on the gun is utilized to transfer water from the ambient pressure water tank into the bladder, expanding the bladder. Upon release of a nozzle valve, water is ejected from the toy gun.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,878,914 discloses a similar toy water gun utilizing a water tank with water at ambient pressure, a pump and a balloon-shaped bladder located in a bladder chamber. Specialized valving means are provided to allow air drawn in to the pump from the water reservoir to be pumped back into the reservoir instead of the bladder. An alternate type of pressure chamber is also described in which the pressure chamber is formed by a spring-loaded wall which can be compressed within a chamber.
A drawback with these types of arrangements is that it is difficult and costly to produce a tubular or balloon-shaped bladder economically and with the desired characteristics to provide for fluid discharge with a relatively constant pressure during the entire discharge operation. Additionally, the elastic constant for the bladder material slowly degrades with age and use so that the bladder loses some elasticity over time. In the case of a spring-loaded wall type pressure chamber, the spring relaxes over time and therefore performance drops.
Additionally, it is difficult to provide a single elastic constant for the bladder or spring constant for a sprung -walled chamber that allows for ease of use for both younger children, who have less strength to overcome the spring or elastic force to charge the pressure chamber, as well as higher performance for older children and teens who can apply more pumping force.

Water gun with adjustable force pressure chamber


A method for communication over a communication channel includes processing input data, which is accepted at a first variable bit rate, so as to produce output data that is encoded with a Forward Error Correction (FEC) code and has a second bit rate that matches an available bit rate of the communication channel. The output data is transmitted over the communication channel at the available bit rate. The output data is received from the communication channel and decoded so as to reconstruct the input data.

A communication system typically accepts data from a data source and transmits the data over a communication channel. A communication channel can be characterized by its capacity, i.e., the information bandwidth that the channel is able to transfer. In some applications, the data source produces data at a variable bit rate, whereas the channel bit rate is substantially constant. For example, some video compression techniques produce compressed video at a variable bit rate, which depends on the amount of scene activity.


The present invention relates to a fire shelter storage system which comprises an emergency fire shelter constructed of a heat and fire resistant material, an outer protective pouch and a handle, whereby the emergency fire shelter is removed from the pouch by applying a force to the handle to release the releasable fastener and extract the fire shelter unit from the pouch.

An emergency fire shelter is a compact, tent-like structure providing emergency protection to a firefighter trapped by a rapidly advancing forest fire. The fire shelter is constructed of materials that are resistant to radiant and convective heat. An example of such a material is a heat-reflecting foil bonded to the outside of a fiberglass cloth. A combination of flexible materials allows the fire shelter to be accordion folded into a compact brick that can be carried with the firefighter at all times. Thus, the selection of materials for use in the construction of an emergency fire shelter is critical to its effectiveness.
Several layered materials are designed to provide a shield from a variety of environmental hazards including heat and fire. However, there is a need for an improved light, flexible, and strong material which provides protection from radiant and convective heat. Such a material would not only be used in construction of emergency fire shelters, but could also be used as a shield against fire and heat in other settings including, for instance, fire barriers, heat shields, fire proof curtains and the like.
Emergency fire shelters in use today share the same form as a pup tent, triangular in shape. Such a design is illustrated by U.S. Pat. No. 5,921,388 to Petrilli et al. A problem with emergency fire shelters currently used is that they have flat, triangular ends that are perpendicular to the ground and reflect radiant energy. Reflection of this energy to the ground immediately adjacent to the fire shelter increases the likelihood that fire will start adjacent to the shelter, thus allowing damage to the fire shelter prior to the arrival of the flame front. Accordingly, there is a need for an emergency fire shelter design that minimizes such heat transfer. More information on prior art fire shelters and their use is contained in "Your Fire Shelter" and "Your Fire Shelter, Beyond the Basics" published by the United States Department of Agriculture, Forest Service, Technology and Development Program, under Codes NFES 1750 and 2179, hereby incorporated by reference.
An emergency fire shelter is inevitably deployed under emergency situations and time is frequently of the essence. Ideal deployment is in an area removed from large amounts of combustible material. For this reason, the initial stages of deployment may occur while the firefighter is running to a safe deployment area. When using many of the prior art fire shelters, the removal of the fire shelter from its carrying case may be hampered by the firefighter's dropping of his or her backpack to obtain greater mobility and to jettison dangerous combustible materials such as fusees.
Accordingly, it is desirable to provide an emergency fire shelter that is easier and faster to deploy. Such a shelter would require ease of transport by fire fighters and protection during prolonged periods of storage.

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


The disclosure provides a method of determining an actual input value of an input variable for a control unit of a microlithography imaging device. The actual input value is assigned to a first location of the microlithography optical imaging device. The method includes: a) detecting, at a second location of the microlithography optical imaging device, an actual detection value of a detection variable of a detection device of the microlithography optical imaging device; b) using a second relation to computationally ascertain an actual computational value of the detection variable at the second location; c) comparing the actual computational value of the detection variable with the actual detection value of the detection variable to provide a result; and d) based on the result in c), using a relationship between a first predefinable relation and the second relation to correct the predefinable first relation.

The actual invention relates to a method for determining an actual input value of an input variable for a control unit of an optical imaging device and to a method for driving an active component of the imaging device as a function of the actual input value. The invention can be used in connection with the microlithography used in the production of microelectronic circuits. It furthermore relates to an optical imaging method which can be carried out, inter alia, via an optical imaging device according to the invention.
Particularly in the field of microlithography, besides using components embodied with the highest possible precision, it is necessary, inter alia, to keep the position and geometry of the components of the imaging device, that is to say for example the optical elements such as lens elements, mirrors or gratings, as far as possible unchanged during operation, in order to achieve a correspondingly high imaging quality. The high accuracy requirements, which are in the microscopic range of the order of magnitude of a few nanometers or less, are in this case not least a consequence of the constant need to increase the resolution of the optical systems used in the production of microelectronic circuits, in order to advance the miniaturization of the microelectronic circuits to be produced.
In order to achieve an increased resolution, either the wavelength of the light used can be reduced, as is the case for systems which operate in the extreme UV range (EUV) with operating wavelengths in the range of 13 nm, or the numerical aperture of the projection system can be increased. One possibility for appreciably increasing the numerical aperture above the value of one is realized via so-called immersion systems, wherein an immersion medium having a refractive index of greater than one is situated between the last optical element of the projection system and the substrate that is intended to be exposed. A further increase in the numerical aperture is possible with optical elements having a particularly high refractive index.
Both with the reduction of the operating wavelength and with the increase in the numerical aperture, there is an increase not just in the requirements made regarding the positioning accuracy and dimensional stability of the optical elements used throughout the course of operation. There is also an increase, of course, in the requirements with regard to minimizing the imaging errors of the entire optical arrangement.
What is of particular importance in this case, is, of course, the temperature distribution within the components used, in particular within the optical elements, and the possibly resultant deformation of the relevant components, for example of an optical element, and a possible temperature-dictated variation of the refractive index of the relevant optical element.
For an EUV system, it is known from EP 1 477 853 A2 (Sakamoto; the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference) to actively counteract the heating of a mirror exclusively usable in such systems, the heating resulting from the incident light, and to actively keep a temperature detected at a specific location in the mirror within specific predefined limits. This is done via a temperature adjustment device which is arranged centrally on the rear side of the mirror and which comprises Peltier elements or the like. This solution has the disadvantage firstly that it is not suitable for use with refractive optical elements, such as are used in particular in the case of the immersion systems mentioned, since the central temperature adjustment device would cover the optically used region. Secondly, only the temperature of a single location in the mirror is reliably controlled taking account of the light energy absorbed by the mirror in a more or less stationary state. Further thermal environmental influences, in particular non-stationary and/or locally varying thermal influences, such as can be introduced by an immersion medium and which can cause dynamic or local fluctuations in the temperature distribution in the mirror, are disregarded.
Proceeding from these problems, WO 2007/128835 A1 (Gellrich et al.; the disclosure of which is incorporated by reference herein) proposes, inter alia, using thermal models of the relevant optical elements. In this regard, by way of example, via such a thermal model of an optical element, depending on the actual values of a wide variety of influencing variables (such as, for example, the light power actually used, etc.) and/or detection variables (such as, for example, temperatures measured at specific points in the region of the optical element), it is possible to estimate the actual temperature distribution in the optical element. The insights thus gained regarding the temperature distribution in the optical element can then be used as input variables for a control of the imaging device, which drives active components (for example heating elements and/or cooling elements) as a function of the input variables, in order to achieve a desired temperature distribution in the relevant optical element.
What is problematic here is that, firstly, specific influencing variables that influence the temperature distribution, such as, for example, the actual local light power, can be specified only with limited accuracy, while thermal disturbances often cannot be detected at all. This can have the effect that the estimation of the temperature distribution obtained via the model and the actual temperature distribution in the optical element deviate from one another to a greater or lesser extent, and possibly even drift further and further apart over time, with the result that it is no longer possible to control the temperature distribution as required.
This circumstance could eventually be counteracted via a corresponding refinement of the model, in particular taking into account further influencing variables and/or a larger number of detection points (at which detection variables, such as the temperature, for example, are ascertained). In this case, however, firstly the complexity for creating the thermal model would increase considerably. Furthermore, the calculation effort for ascertaining the input variables of the control and thus the expenditure of time for the driving of the active components would also increase as a result, such that the high dynamic range of the control, especially required in the field of microlithography, may possibly no longer be guaranteed.

Model-based control of an optical imaging device


A method for manufacturing a bonded wafer comprises the steps of; mirror-polishing a surface of first and second substrates, bringing the mirror-polished surfaces of the substrates contact with each other to join them, and subjecting the substrates to a heat treatment to firmly bond them. One of the surfaces of the first and second substrates prior to bonding, or one surface of the bonded wafer is subjected to a polishing treatment for exerting little influence by irregularities on a rear surface of the one substrate or by a figure of a surface of a polishing plate which is in contact with the rear surface of the one substrate.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a technique for bonding two pieces of substrates to each other, for example, to a technique to realize a bonded wafer having an SOI (silicon on insulator) structure, in which two pieces of silicon mirror wafers are joined through an oxide film without an adhesive and thereafter one of the bonded wafer pieces is thinned, to a technique for directly bonding semiconductor substrates to each other through no oxide film, and the like.
2. Description of Related Art
Particularly, in a technique for a semiconductor substrate having an SOI structure, one manufactured by the so-called SIMOX (separation by implanted oxygen) method in which oxygen ions are heavily implanted into a silicon single crystal and thereafter a heat treatment is carried out to form an oxide film, has been watched as a superior SOI wafer and researches therefor have been prosecuted. The SIMOX method is excellent in uniformity of the thickness of the thin SOI layer because the thickness of the SOI layer to form an active region for a device can be determined by the accelerating voltage at the time of the implantation of oxygen ions. However, in the method, there are a lot of problems, for example, about the reliability of the oxide film, the necessity of a heat treatment at a temperature not less than 1,300.degree. C. in order to recover the crystallinity of a silicon layer which was changed to an amorphous state, and the like.
A type of bonded wafer manufactured by bonding two pieces of silicon wafers with mirror finished surfaces to each other has been watched as another wafer having an SOI structure. The method therefor will be explained as follows.
When the mirror surfaces of the two pieces of silicon wafers are brought contactwith each other under a clean condition, after forming an oxide film on the mirror surface of at least one of the two pieces of silicon wafers, these wafer pieces are joined to each other through the oxide film without an adhesive (hereinafter, this state may be referred to as the "joining"). Because such a joining state is not a perfect one, a heat treatment is then carried out to the joined wafer pieces to firmly bonded with each other (hereinafter, this state may be referred to as the "bonding"). Thereafter, the one (hereinafter, the surface thereof may be referred to as the "main surfacer") of the bonded wafer pieces in the side in which an active region for a device will be formed is thinned by wet etching or by grinding, and then the thinned surface is polished. Thus, a bonded wafer with a thinned SOI layer is obtained. In this case, it is required that the silicon layer in the side to be thinned comprises a single crystal.
Because such a bonded wafer requires no interposition of foreign material such as an adhesive between the wafer pieces, the bonded wafer provides the advantages that subsequent high temperature heat treatments or various types of chemical treatments can be freely performed and a dielectric layer can be easily buried therein. Recently, in cooperation with improvement of thin film technology, e.g., improvement of flatness, cleanliness or the like, the technique for manufacturing a bonded wafer has come to attract special attention.
The SOI layer of a bonded wafer tends to become the thinner by the requirement of larger scale integration and of higher speed of semiconductor devices. Recently, a bonded wafer having an extremely thin SOI layer, e.g., of not more than 1 .mu.m, has been required. In such a bonded wafer, uniformity of the thickness of the thinned SOI layer or processing accuracy thereof is a problem.
For example, in order to achieve the thickness of the SOI layer which is equal to or less than that of SIMOX, for a future complementary MOS substrate, it is required to realize an average thickness of the SOI layer not larger than 0.1 .mu.m and a processing accuracy of thickness being within at least .+-.0.01 .mu.m. It is preferable that the SOI layer thickness distribution after thinning has a standard deviation not larger than 2 nm, when comparing it with that of the SOI layer of the existing SIMOX wafer. However, a conventional bonded wafer has a limit of the processing accuracy of the SOI layer thickness, which is about .+-.0.03 .mu.m for an average thickness of SOI layer of 1 .mu.m. Herein, the processing accuracy of thickness is considered to correspond to three times the standard deviation value.
Recently, a method in which the layer thicknesses of an SOI wafer are measured at a plurality of points and the SOI layer can be thinned to about 0.1 .mu.m on the basis of the obtained layer thickness distribution, has been developed. However, according to the method, it is considerably difficult to stably obtain a satisfactory processing accuracy of thickness, for example, an SOI layer thickness distribution having a standard deviation not larger than 2 nm.
The present inventors have studied and examined various measures to overcome the limit. As a result, it has been found that the limit is due to the finish processing accuracy of the mirror surfaces of a wafer prior to bonding and due to the processing accuracy in the previous step prior to the step for working the SOI layer to have a thickness of 0.1 .mu.m.
That is, it has been found that the thickness distribution of the SOI layer of the bonded wafer which was thinned to 0.1 .mu.m by a method with a conventional processing accuracy, is very similar to the distribution of small irregularities (hereinafter, referred to as the "peels") which is detected in an observation of a general mirror wafer surface through a magic mirror (an evaluation of a mirror surface by light reflection). It is said that the peels are created by the irregularities on the rear surface of a wafer or the figure of the surface of a polishing plate which is in contact with the rear surface of the wafer, being transferred onto the front surface of the wafer during polishing the wafer. From this matter, it is considered that the thickness irregularity of the thinned layer of the bonded wafer is caused due to being not able to completely remove the peels of the wafer which were created during a polishing step, e.g., the wax-mounting polishing method which is generally used, or the like, and therefore, the thickness distribution of the thinned layer is dependent on the peel distribution of the wafer.
Because the peels are wave-like irregularities having small heights or shallow depths in the range of 0.01-0.1 .mu.m in peak-to-valley value, and a large period in the range of 1-20 mm, such peels cannot be detected by a general measurement device for measuring an LTV (local thickness variation) or a surface roughness. Therefore, in conventional manufacturing processes of an SOI wafer having an SOI layer with a thickness of not less than 1 .mu.m, the existence of the peels did not become an issue because the conventional processing accuracy of the layer thickness was out of the range of .+-.0.3 .mu.m.
Such peels can be observed by using a magic mirror and the size thereof can be measured by a contact probe roughness measurement apparatus.
On the other hand, recently, a measure to counter generation of particles and dust comes to be important in manufacturing processes of semiconductor devices. Therefore, it has been required to suppress generation of dust by polishing the rear surface of the silicon mirror wafer which was not an issue in the past.

Method for manufacturing bonded wafer and bonded wafer manufactured thereby


A tooth cleaning device for the specific cleaning of crevices between teeth and gingival pockets having a curved carrier body in the shape of a jaw and a resilient, curable dental impression material, which is applied on both sides of the carrier body. The impression material is applied at a low height such that, during use, only the occlusal surfaces of teeth submerge into the dental impression material, while the crevices between teeth are largely free from the dental impression material. The carrier body has at least one, preferably a plurality of centering projections, which ensure that the tooth cleaning device is inserted in a centric position of the jaw. The device forms a barrier between the actual oral cavity (cavum oris proprium) and the oral vestibule, that is, the space between the lips/cheeks and row of teeth (vestibulum oris). In view of this barrier, the crevices between teeth present the only passage through which a cleaning fluid can be pressed by moving the tongue and/or cheek muscle.

DE 10040565 A1 describes a tooth cleaning device having a resilient molded body, which contains a rinsing fluid in its interior and has at least one hole. If a user bites onto the molded body, it is compressed and the rinsing fluid also reaches the crevices between teeth and the gingival pockets. When disengaging, this molded body expands again and, in this instance, suctions back the rinsing fluid.
DE 10029174 A1 describes a tooth cleaning device having a pressure-suction device for a cleaning fluid, including an end piece for attachment to the teeth and including a conduit which is connected to the end piece and the pressure-suction device. In this way, in particular crevices between teeth are to be irrigated in the manner of an oral irrigator.
DE 10153245 A1 describes an oral irrigator including an oral irrigator tray and an oral irrigator cast for insertion into the oral irrigator tray, the oral irrigator tray being a curved trough in the shape of a jaw, and the oral irrigator cast being the imprint of a series of teeth having perforations, the oral irrigator, when in the state applied to the jaw of a user, forming a closed chamber, which has channels and connectors for the inflowing and outflowing of liquids, and to which a vacuum can be applied.
DE 2009008362U1 describes a tooth cleaning device having a dental impression tray for the upper and lower jaw and a flexible, curable dental impression material, the dental impression tray being connected to an actuating device, which induces mechanical vibrations in the oral irrigator tray. In this instance, the dental impression material is to cover all teeth up to the gums to the greatest possible extent.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,896,519 B2 shows a tooth cleaning device having a carrier body which, seen from a top view, is shaped in the form of a human jaw and has an upper side and a bottom side which are coated by a resilient, plastically deformable dental impression material for taking an impression of occlusal surfaces of the teeth. The carrier body has a bulge in its central region, having an aperture, through which a cleaning fluid may be supplied from an external reservoir. If the user bites onto this thickening, the fluid stream through this aperture can be stopped. The dental impression material is applied in such low height to the upper side and the bottom side of the carrier body, that when using the device, only the occlusal surfaces of teeth submerge into the dental impression material, while the crevices between teeth largely remain free of the dental impression material.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,237,574 A shows a tooth cleaning device including a U-shaped rail, which has such dimensions that it covers a row of teeth of the upper or lower jaw at a distance, having a plurality of jets which spray cleaning fluid onto the sides and onto the occlusal surfaces of the teeth. A plurality of vertical projections extend from one side of the device, which serve as a stop for the occlusal surfaces of teeth.
Known aids, for example, tooth brushes, dental floss or inter-dental brushes, may not or only insufficiently remove or clean bacteria and food particles from crevices between teeth and, in particular, from gingival pockets. In particular, so-called plaque, which is responsible for cavities and periodontosis, forms in crevices between teeth and gingival pockets. Also, the devices described above enable a cleaning of the crevices between teeth either only to a limited extent or the devices are complex and partially require the supply of electric power for operation.


Contemplated diagnostic test containers and methods include an adapter configured to sealingly receive and retain a positive displacement pipette tip to so form a fluid-tight seal for the container during at least part of the diagnostic test. Most preferably, the entire container is flexible and the container and adapter are single-use disposable and are usable with known commercially available positive displacement pipette tips.

Fluid containers and especially flexible fluid containers for medical test systems often have problems associated with backflow of fluids that were previously introduced into the container. In one known way to avoid backflow, the container is held in a fixed position after fluid introduction to avoid reverse fluid flow. However, maintaining a fixed position is often problematic where the containers must be moved or otherwise manipulated, and/or where the container is flexible. In such case, undesired introduction of air may further complicate the process.
In another known way to avoid backflow, check valves can be used at the point of fluid introduction, and examples of known check valves are shown in Prior Art FIGS. 1-3. However, check valves often add substantial expense to the cost of the container and impose additional production steps in manufacture. Still further, most known commercially available check valves have a relatively large diameter, which typically interferes with tight packing or rolling of the containers, thus negating at least some of the advantages provided by flexible and flat test containers. To overcome some of these difficulties with known check valves, luer lock unidirectional duck bill valves can be used as described in WO07/120816. This and all other extrinsic materials discussed herein are incorporated by reference in their entirety, and it is noted that where a definition or use of a term in an incorporated reference is inconsistent or contrary to the definition of that term provided herein, the definition of that term provided herein applies and the definition of that term in the reference does not apply. While such duck bill valves tend to reduce the space requirements, they generally necessitate relatively large sample volumes as the luer lock of the valve matingly engages with a syringe and so creates a relatively large dead space.
Alternatively, dedicated custom made filling devices may be implemented to reduce problems associated with backflow. However, such filling devices tend to be expensive, and require at least in some cases maintenance and/or trained personnel. Furthermore, such filling devices typically require special fixturing and/or tooling for sample fluid introduction and the retention of fluids in the sample compartment.
In addition to backflow problems associated with currently known filling devices and structures, additional problems arise, especially where the container is flexible and/or where the fluid volume to be introduced is relatively small (e.g., less than 1000 μl). Among other problems, flexible containers are often subject to compression and thus at risk of valve failure. Moreover, the internal dead space of most of the currently known filling devices can be as large or even larger than the sample volume that is to be introduced, which renders sample application inaccurate at best.
Therefore, even though numerous containers with filling devices are known in the art, all or almost all of them suffer from one or more disadvantages. Consequently, there is still a need for containers with filling devices through which fluid can be introduced in a relatively small volume while eliminating backflow and leakage.

Sample injection port for laminated devices


A metallized film capacitor includes first and second winding cores disposed along a center axis, and a capacitor element wound about the center axis around the first and the second winding cores. The second winding core is apart from the first winding core. The first and second winding cores have a thermal conductivity larger than that of the dielectric film of the capacitor element. Length Ld of the capacitor element in a direction of the center axis, length L1 of the first winding core inside the capacitor element in the direction of the center axis, and length L2 of the second winding core inside the capacitor element in the direction of the center axis satisfy the relations of L1>L2, L1+L2<Ld, L1≧Ld/2, and L2≧(Ld−L1)/2. The metallized film capacitor provides the capacitor element with improved heat dissipation performance.

In recent years, from the viewpoint of environmental protection, various electric devices have generally been controlled by inverter circuits for promoting energy saving and highly efficient operation. Particularly, in car industries, since hybrid electric vehicles (hereinafter, referred to as HEVs) that run with an electric motor and an engine appeared on the market, car manufacturers have been promoting environment-friendly technology development focused on energy saving and high efficiency.
Since an electric motor for HEVs operates in a high service voltage range, such as several hundred volts, manufacturers focus on a capacitor having preferable electric characteristics, such as high withstand voltage and low loss, as being suitable for the HEV motor. Besides, in response to demands of the market on maintenance-free components, the use of the metallized film capacitor is increasing because of its extremely long life.
A metallized film capacitor used for HEVs is used for smoothing an AC component of DC power supply. In that case, an AC ripple current flowing in a DC power supply increases heat generated in the capacitor, so that heating margins of the capacitor decreases. Therefore, a metallized film capacitor with high heat-dissipation performance has been demanded.
FIGS. 4A to 4C are schematic views of metallized film capacitor 1. Metallized film capacitor 1 includes winding cores 2 and 3 made of aluminum and capacitor element 4 including a metallized film wound around winding cores 2 and 3. Winding cores 2 and 3 are apart from each other at the center of the capacitor to obtain electrical isolation between positive and negative electrodes of winding cores 2 and 3. Outer ends of winding cores 2 and 3 are connected to sprayed-metal electrode 5 (the positive electrode) and sprayed-metal electrode 6 (the negative electrode), respectively. Sprayed-metal electrodes 5 and 6 are connected to a bus bar to be drawn to the outside. Winding cores 2 and 3 are made of aluminum and therefore provide relatively high heat conduction. Generated heat is transferred to the bus bar via sprayed-metal electrodes 5 and 6 and further led to the outside, so that heat generation in capacitor element 4 is suppressed.
Patent literature 1 describes a conventional capacitor similar to metallized film capacitor 1.
In metallized film capacitor 1, heat generated in capacitor element 4 cannot be dissipated sufficiently through winding cores 2 and 3.

PANASONIC INTELLECTUAL PROPERTY MANAGEMENT CO., LTD.


A management method includes executing an acquisition process, estimation process, comparison process, and output process. The acquisition process acquires; an actual measurement value of the first traffic, and accesses a memory storing a model for estimation of second traffic in accordance with the first traffic. The estimation process includes obtaining, for each of the plurality of communication apparatuses, an estimation value of the second traffic by inputting the actual measurement value of the first traffic per unit time into the model. The comparison process includes comparing, for each of the communication apparatuses, an estimation value of the second traffic and a given value with each other. The output process includes outputting an alert in accordance with a result of the comparison process.

Traffic that flows through a communication network is diversifying in terms of both the quantity and the quality. For example, in addition to business traffic by coupling between companies' bases and so forth, non-user-derived traffic and so forth by cloud services, collection and analysis of big data, and internet of things (IoT) are increasing. Further, also a communication network itself is increased in scale and is complicated in that it includes many layers and passes through a plurality of domains of different management entities or the like. Therefore, also operation management of a communication network is increasing in difficulty.
Monitoring of traffic that flows through a communication network is carried out by such a method that, as an example, traffic of a transmission data amount, a reception data amount and so forth per unit time period at a transmission port or a reception port of a communication apparatus is monitored periodically and, in the case where the traffic reaches a given threshold value, a notification of an analog is issued to a network operator. This threshold value is set, as an example, based on experience or the like by the network operator.
However, there is one aspect that, if a fixed threshold value is used for comparison with traffic, it is difficult to set a threshold value appropriate for traffic that varies complexly together with complication in scale or configuration of the communication network.
From this, a traffic amount prediction apparatus has been proposed in which a traffic amount and a date of the traffic are learned in an associated relationship with each other using a neural network to predict an upper limit value to the variation of the traffic amount.
Examples of the related art include Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 2007-221699 and Japanese Laid-open Patent Publication No. 07-64944.

Management apparatus, management method and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing management program


A wind power installation having at least one cable passage means for passing through a hauling cable from a winch and a method of fitting/removing components of a wind power installation comprising laying a hauling cable from the winch to at least one deflection roller and further to the component to be fitted/removed, attaching the hauling cable to the component, and releasing and letting down or pulling up and fixing the component.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention concerns a wind power installation and a system and method of fitting/removing components of a wind power installation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Wind power installations have long been known. The considerable dimensions and weights of modern installations means that on the one hand components frequently have to be transported individually to the building site. There the components are then fitted together. In that respect in the meantime loads of 50 tons and more certainly have to be lifted.
On the other hand loads also have to be lifted to a considerable height of over 100 meters. Admittedly winches are known in wind power installations, but those winches are mostly disposed in the rear part of the pod of the wind power installation.
In addition a load-lifting apparatus on a wind power installation is known from WO 96/10130. In that known load-lifting apparatus, a winch is arranged on a machine frame. A hauling cable passes from the winch by way of a pivotable linkage. Such a load-lifting apparatus is provided on any wind power installation. In that respect the size of the load-lifting apparatus provided on any wind power installation is dependent on the required carrying capacity and therefore increases with the size of the wind power installation or with the weight of the components thereof.
Alternatively, as will be appreciated, lifting operations are possible using appropriately large cranes with a suitable load-bearing capacity, which once again can only be provided at a high level of complication and expenditure. As the expenditure involved in operating such a crane, that is to say dismantling it, operating it and again setting it up, is considerable, the crane generally remains on a wind power installation until the erection of the installation has progressed to such a degree that the crane is no longer required there. It is only then that the crane is transported to the next building site. In that respect the distance between those building sites represents a secondary consideration for the working operations required for relocating a crane always have to be carried out, irrespective of whether it is relocated only by some hundred meters or by some hundred kilometers.
It will be appreciated that the replacement of components of a wind power installation such as for example the rotor blades also requires a crane which has to be transported, with attendant expenditure.

Method for assembling/dismounting components of a wind power plant


Flexible edge sealing membranes cooperate with the heating surface of a vacuum preheater and a web moving over the surface (1) to minimize air loss in the portions of the heating surface not covered by the web, (2) to prevent differential heating of the edges of the web induced by unrestricted air flow, and (3) to provide reduced friction contact with the edge portions of the web.

The present invention relates to applying heat to a moving web of material and, in particular, to an apparatus and method for preheating a paper web to precondition the same, as for combination in a corrugated paperboard web.
In the manufacture of corrugated paperboard, the various component paper webs are usually preheated prior to the application of an adhesive and the joining of one web to another. A common preheating device in a corrugator comprises a rotating steam-heated roll around which the moving paper web is partially wrapped and heated before it is transferred to downstream processing equipment, such as a single facer or a double backer.
More recently, it has been found that web preheating devices may be substantially simplified and the heat transfer to the web provided more efficiently by utilizing a heated stationary plate over which the web travels. It has also been found to be effective to apply a vacuum holddown force to such hot plates by providing vacuum openings in the heating surface to which a vacuum is applied from the underside of the surface. Although such vacuum hot plates are much simpler in construction than rotary preheating rolls, other processing problems have arisen.
Because a vacuum hot plate must be wide enough to process the widest conventional webs (e.g. 96" or about 2400 mm), when narrower paper webs are being processed, the lateral edges of the hot plate are exposed resulting in heat loss and the requirement for increased vacuum flow. In addition, the vacuum induced air flow around the edges of the web tends to provide a cooling effect resulting in uneven heating of the web.


A method for the transmission and use of a power amplifier and transmission circuit of a radio network is provided that includes a power amplifier, which is connectable to an antenna, a counter whose output is connected to a control input of the power amplifier to output a count value to control the amplification of the power amplifier, a register for storing a register value, a comparator whose inputs are connected to the output of the counter and the register for comparing the register value with the count value, and a control circuit whose input is connected to the comparator and whose output is connected to the counter to control a counting process depending on the comparison result of the comparator.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a transmission circuit of a radio network, to a method for transmitting a signal, and to a use.
2. Description of the Background Art
Transmission circuits of radio networks enable the transmission of data via an antenna of a radio network node. The transmission power of the node can be adjusted to set the transmission range. Examples of radio networks are described, for example, in the industry standards IEEE 802.11, IEEE 802.15.1, or IEEE 802.15.4.

Transmission circuit, transmission method, and use


A method for evaluating a virtual machine, the method includes: monitoring, using an out of band monitor, information exchanged between the virtual machine and a hypervisor; and evaluating a state of the virtual machine by applying a statistical classification process to at least a portion of the monitored information.

Computer hardware can be virtualized by inserting a controlling mechanism (termed hypervisor or virtual machine monitor) between the physical hardware and the operating system (OS). Such virtualization can be used for server consolidation, OS and application testing and debugging, reliability and survivability. Virtualization systems for PC-class hardware are becoming increasingly common.
A major challenge arising in virtualized environments is management, especially in the field of consolidation. In such settings, dozens or hundreds of virtualized machines (also termed guests) could be running under a single physical machine. Any one of the virtual machines could be failing or exhibiting degraded performance.
In some cases, the virtual machines, and especially guest operating systems, can not be modified to include a virtual machine.
There is a need to provide efficient methods, computer program products and a system for evaluating a virtual machine.

System, method and computer program product for evaluating a virtual machine

International Business Machines Corporation


A process for the preparation of a polyisobutyl hydroxyaromatic compound which comprises alkylating a hydroxyaromatic compound in the presence of an acidic alkylation catalyst with a polyisobutene having a number average molecular weight in the range of about 300 to 5,000 and wherein the polyisobutene contains at least about 70% of a methylvinylidene isomer.

This invention relates to a process for the preparation of polyisobutyl hydroxyaromatics. More particularly, this invention relates to a process for the preparation of polyisobutyl hydroxyaromatics which comprises alkylating a hydroxyaromatic compound with a polyisobutene having a methylvinylidene isomer content of at least about 70%.
Alkylation of hydroxyaromatic compounds with polymeric olefins using acidic catalysts to generate alkylphenols is well known in the art. However, use of the acidic catalysts required for the alkylation reaction gives rise to concurrent polymer degradation and fragmentation of the polymeric alkyl substituent on the hydroxyaromatic compound. Known acidic alkylation catalysts have various fragmenting effects depending on the size of the alkylating agent. Most catalysts have little effect on olefin alkylating agents of up to about 20 carbon atoms, that is, having a number average molecular weight of up to about 280, but severe fragmentation occurs where alkylating agents of higher molecular weights are used. Polymeric alkylating agents are usually derived from propylene or butene and those comprised primarily of polybutene are the most susceptible to fragmentation during the alkylation reaction. When polybutenes having a number average molecular weight of 300 or greater are used, molecular weight degradation of either the olefin polymer or the substituted alkyl group occurs.
British Patent No. 1,159,368 disclosed that fragmentation of both the alkylating agent and alkyl substituent can be reduced but not eliminated by the use of certain specified reaction conditions. These conditions include the use of boron trifluoride-phenolate as the acidic catalyst and a temperature range of 0.degree. C. to 65.degree. C., with 0.1 to 1.1 moles of boron trifluoride and 1 to 4 moles of phenol per mole of mono-olefinic polymeric alkylating agent having a molecular weight of 700 to 300,000. Under these conditions, the fragmentation of polybutene can still only be restricted at best to a level of about a 10% reduction of average molecular weight.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,238,628 to Cahill et al. discloses a process to reduce the molecular weight degradation during the alkylation of benzene, phenol and naphthol which comprises alkylating the aromatic compound in the presence of a boron trifluoride catalyst with a C.sub.3 or higher olefin polymer having terminal ethylene units.
According to the Cahill et al. process, the olefin polymer, preferably polybutene, is first reacted with ethylene to provide a polymer having terminal ethylene units. The polymer having such terminal ethylene units is then reacted with the aromatic compound under alkylating conditions. Cahill et al. teach that the olefin structure of the starting polybutene is predominantly the trisubstituted type with only minor amounts of vinylidene and terminal vinyl structures present.
Cahill et al. further teach that polyalkylphenols prepared with the use of polybutene without terminal ethylene units undergo molecular weight degradation due to the concurrent depolymerization reaction. Although the process disclosed in Cahill et al. results in a reduction in polymer degradation, the yield of the desired alkylaromatic product is not enhanced. In fact, the yield of alkylphenol reported by Cahill et al. ranged from about 44% to 64%.
Accordingly, there exists a need in the art for a hydroxyaromatic alkylation process which minimizes or eliminates molecular weight degradation while maintaining a high yield of the desired alkylaromatic product.

Process for the preparation of polyisobutyl hydroxyaromatics


A receiving device includes a first sampling circuit extracting first binary data from a first signal based on a first edge timing of a first clock signal. The receiving device includes a second sampling circuit extracting second binary data from the first signal based on the first edge timing, and further extracting third binary data from the first signal based on a second edge timing of a second clock signal having a phase delayed from a phase of the first clock signal. The receiving device includes a circuit outputting a second signal indicating a phase shift direction of a third clock signal. The receiving device includes a circuit outputting waveform data based on the first binary data and the second binary data or the third binary data. The second sampling circuit selects either the second binary data or the third binary data based on the second signal.

In general, a receiving device is configured to receive a transmitted data signal. The receiving device processes the received data signal with a data sampler circuit and an eye monitor sampler circuit. This processing includes monitoring an eye pattern. Waveform shaping of the received data signal is executed by this processing. A memory system can include such a receiving device and store data based on a waveform-shaped data signal. Such a memory system controls the processing by the receiving device.

Receiving device, memory system, and method


A positioning device and positioning method in which a first wireless signal is transmitted along a first signal path having a first signal path angle that changes relative to time; second wireless signal data representing a response of a wireless station to the first wireless signal is received; a third wireless signal is transmitted along a second signal path; and an assumption that an obstruction is between the wireless communication device and the wireless station is generated if the wireless communication device receives a response from the wireless station to the first wireless signal but does not receive a response from the wireless station to the third wireless signal; wherein the second signal path is a linear path.

As fifth generation cellular network technology ("5G") becomes a reality, many new uses of 5G have been proposed in the context of vehicle-to-vehicle, vehicle-to-infrastructure, and vehicle-to-pedestrian ("V2X") communications. Because 5G may rely on mmWave signals for communication, the various characteristics and behaviors of mmWaves are of particular importance. One characteristic of mmWaves is that they allow line-of-sight ("LOS") communication at very high rates (i.e., <2 ms for 2-way exchange) and high-density. These vary high communication rates may be of particular use in peer-to-peer communication tasks such as lane changing (in combination with cameras and LiDAR).
Another emerging technology is frequency-diverse array (FDA) technology. Although FDA technology will be described in greater detail herein, FDA may generally be understood as the sending and receiving radio signals along a curved path. An emitter can prorogate a signal along a predictable curve, and the receiving device can respond along a similar curve.

Station detection using frequency-diverse array signals


Disclosed are compositions comprising caramel that have anti-plant pathogen activity. Methods of treatment of higher plants with the compositions to inhibit both the infection of plants by pathogens and the multiplication of pathogens in infected plants are also provided. Compositions according to the present invention are particularly suited for use against plant viruses such as cucumber mosaic virus.

The present invention relates generally to anti-plant pathogen materials and methods of use, and ore particularly, to anti-plant virus compositions and methods for their use.
Plant fungal and viral disease losses worldwide have been estimated to be as high as sixty billion dollars per year. Examples of plant viruses that contribute to significant losses in crop productivity are cucumber mosaic virus, tobacco mosaic virus and zucchini mosaic virus. The economic importance and control of plant viruses is discussed in Matthews, Plant Viruses, Chapter 16, Academic Press, Inc., San Diego (1991).
Considerable effort has been expended by the agricultural industry and by academic researchers in developing materials and methods for inhibiting infection by and/or reducing deleterious effects of plant pathogens. Kopp et al., Plant Physiol., 90, 208-216 (1989) describe a glucan preparation obtained from a fungus which serves as an inducer of resistance in tobacco to viruses (tobacco mosaic virus, tomato black ring virus and alfalfa mosaic virus) from three taxonomic groups. Pearce et al., Science, 253, 895-898 (1991) describe a native peptide, "systemin," that stimulates production of proteinase inhibitors (defensive proteins made in plants in response to wounding, for example, by insects) in tomatoes. Patent Cooperation Treaty (PCT) published application number WO 91/18984 describes methods for identifying and purifying plant proteins with anti-pathogenic (and particularly anti-fungal) activity.
Criteria determining the potential success of an anti-pathogenic composition in preventing or controlling plant diseases, especially viral diseases, include: whether the composition damages the plant; whether the composition affords systemic protection to the plant; whether the composition retains its activity for a reasonable length of time; whether the composition may be produced on a large scale at an economic price; and whether the composition would pass, or not be subject to, food and drug environmental protection regulations. So far there have been no commercially available antiviral chemicals that satisfy the foregoing criteria and there thus continues to exist a need in the art for new anti-plant pathogen compositions.

Anti-plant pathogen materials and methods


An image forming apparatus includes a case formed with a front face and a top face, a first accommodating portion formed in the case, an imaging unit that forms an image on a recording medium; the imaging unit being accommodated in the first accommodating portion detachably, and a front cover provided at the front face, the front cover being movable between a first position to open the accommodating portion and a second position to close the accommodating portion, the imaging unit being attached to and removed from the accommodating portion when the front cover is at the first position. The front cover is formed with a round portion.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, an image forming apparatus having a cover that is opened and closed for attaching/detaching a process unit is known.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,612,763 discloses an image forming apparatus having a cover on a front face thereof.


An editing system that allows a user, when browsing the web, to select a web page, which is currently being viewed, to be edited. When a user navigates to a web page that the user can edit, the editing system displays an appropriate indication that the page can be edited. When the user selects to edit the currently displayed web page, the editing system enters an editing mode that allows the user to edit the web page within a browsing context. When in editing mode, the editing system may enable various toolbars and buttons within the window of the browser to facilitate the editing. When the user has completed the editing of the web page, the editing system automatically updates the web page at the web site.

Today's computer networking environments, such as the Internet, offer mechanisms for delivering documents between heterogeneous computer systems. One such network, the World Wide Web network, which comprises a subset of Internet sites, supports a standard protocol for requesting and receiving documents known as web pages. This protocol is known as the Hypertext Transfer Protocol ("HTTP"). HTTP defines a high-level message passing protocol for sending and receiving packets of information between diverse applications. Details of HTTP can be found in various documents, including T. Berners-Lee et al., Hypertext Transfer Protocol—HTTP 1.0, Request for Comments (RFC) 1945, MIT/LCS, May 1996. Each HTTP message follows a specific layout that includes, among other information, a header that contains information specific to the request or response. Further, each HTTP request message contains a universal resource identifier ("URI") that specifies to which network resource the request is to be applied. A URI is either a Uniform Resource Locator ("URL") or a Uniform Resource Name ("URN") or any other formatted string that identifies a network resource. The URI contained in a request message, in effect, identifies the destination machine for a message. URLs, as an example of URIs, are discussed in detail in T. Berners-Lee et al., Uniforn Resource Locators (URL), RVC 1738, CERN, Xerox PARC, Univ. of Minn., December 1994.
A browser application enables users to navigate among web servers on the web network by requesting and receiving web pages. For the purposes of this discussion, a web page is any type of document that can be served by a web server. These documents can be in various formats such as an HTML format, an XHTML format, a word processing format (e.g., Microsoft Word), a spreadsheet format (e.g., Microsoft Excel), a presentation format (e.g., Microsoft PowerPoint), a portable document format (e.g., Adobe PDF), and so on. The HTML format is a document markup language, defined by the Hypertext Markup Language ("HTML") specification. HTML defines tags for specifying how to interpret the text and images stored in an HTML document. For example, there are HTML tags for defining paragraph formats and for emboldening and underlining text. In addition, the HTML format defines tags for adding images to documents and for formatting and aligning text with respect to images. HTML tags appear between angle brackets, for example, <HTML>. Further details of HTML are discussed in T. Berners-Lee and D. Connolly, Hypertext Markup Language-2.0, RFC 1866, MIT/W3C, November 1995.
A web browser application executes on a client computer, which communicates with a web server by sending and receiving HTTP messages. The web browser "navigates" to new locations on the network to browse (display) what is available at these locations. (A collection of web pages at a location (e.g., hosted by the same web server) is referred to as a "web site.") In particular, when the web browser "navigates" to a new location, it requests a new document from the new location (e.g., the web server) by sending an HTTP request message using any well-known underlying communications protocol. The HTTP request message follows the specific layout discussed above, including a header and a URI field that specifies the network location to which to apply the request. When the web server specified by URI receives the HTTP request message, it interprets the message and sends a return message to the source location that originated the message in the form of an HTTP response message. In addition to the standard features of an HTTP message such as the header, the HTTP response message contains the requested HTML document. When the HTTP response message reaches the client computer, the web browser application extracts the HTML document from the message and parses and interprets (executes) the HTML code in the document to display the document on a display screen of the client computer as specified by the HTML tags.
The creation and maintenance of web pages can be a time-consuming task. Many tools are available to assist in the creation of web pages, which are defined by HTML documents. Web site administrators use these tools to define the layout of a web page, the content to be dynamically added to a web page, links to other web pages, and so on. When an administrator wants to modify a web page, the administrator may use the same tools to generate a revised HTML document.
Some web sites create all their HTML documents dynamically, based on content stored in a database. For example, a news web site may store all its articles in a database along with information describing the layout of each web page. When the news web site is accessed, the page layout description along with its content is retrieved from the database and an HTML document is created. These web sites may use a content management system to manage the layout description and content. Some content management systems provide special-purpose editors to assist users in managing the information stored in the database.
Although these tools for creating and maintaining web pages generally operate on offline copies of an entire web site, some of these tools allow users to browse to a live web page and select to edit that web page. Such tools are referred to as "online" editors. One browser provides an online editor that is launched in a separate window for modifying the definition of the web page currently been viewed. That editor provides a what-you-see-is-what-you-get ("WYSIWYG") metaphor that allows images from the remote computer system to be added to the definition of the web page. When editing of the web page is complete, a user can select a publish button and enter appropriate publication information for updating the definition of the web page at the web site. The publication information may include the URL of the web page, user name and password, title of web page, and so on.
Current tools for creating and maintaining web pages have several disadvantages. First, these tools often do not provide any indication of whether a web page that is currently being displayed by a browser can be edited by the user. Thus, to find out whether a web page is editable, a user may try to edit the web page. If the web page is not editable, the user finds out when an error message is displayed. Second, these tools typically perform the editing process in a window that is separate from the window used for browsing. As such, the user is forced to shift to an editing context, rather than simply editing in a browsing context. Third, after the editing of the web page is complete, a user typically publishes the web page so that the edited web page is stored at the web site. To publish the edited web page, a user may need to use a separate tool from the browser and editor to identify which URLs are linked to which directories at the web site. Alternatively, some tools may allow a web site administrator to provide a file to a user that maps URLs to directories. After using that tool, the user enters the destination directory into a publication window of the editor so that the edited web page can be uploaded and stored at the appropriate location of the web site. It would be desirable to have a technique for editing web pages that would overcome these disadvantages.

Method and system for retrieving information using an authentication web page

The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois


A reference pass code is received from a first user. Location information of a vehicle of the first user is received from a first computer. A pass code is received from a second user. Location information of a vehicle of the second user is received from a second computer. One or more computer processors verify that the pass code received from the second user matches the reference pass code. Based on verification of the pass code received from the second user, the location information of the vehicle of the first user is transmitted to the second computer and the location information of the vehicle of the second user is transmitted to the first computer.

Navigation systems have become more and more sophisticated over the last few years. Prior to the technology boom, it was normal to draw out your desired route on a paper map and keep the map open in the car for reference. However, now GPS (global positioning system) navigation systems are able to determine directions, display your location on a digital display and even suggest alternate routes in case of traffic or an emergency. This has simplified the driving experience and helped drivers stay on course with ease. In addition, some unique navigation systems monitor the locations of their subscribers and, in some cases, even publicize the locations of their subscribers for all other subscribers to see.

Using pass code verification to organize a vehicle caravan