In a fire control system for an elevator, the time for the fire and smoke to reach the elevator hall of each floor of a building during fire is pre-calculated as the evacuation time of the floor. When the evacuation time of a floor is longer than the time for making a car respond to a rescue call from the evacuation floor, the floor is judged as a rescue floor, and when shorter, the floor is judged as a non-rescue floor. Furthermore, the order in which the rescue is carried out among the rescue floors is determined. Accordingly, it is possible to rescue remainders on a rescue floor using an elevator as an evacuation means. Moreover, since rescue operation by the elevator is performed with the order of rescue determined, rescue operation suitable for the conditions of the fire can be realized.

A conventional fire control system for elevators for rescuing the people remaining in a building is disclosed in, for example, Japanese non-examined laid-open patent publication No. Hei 5-8954. According to this document, when a fire occurs in a building wherein the service floors are divided into a plurality of zones, the elevator system carries out fire control operation by giving the first priority to the elevator group in service to the zone including the floor on which the fire occurred, and the next priority to the group in service to the zone right above the zone to which the floor where the fire occurred belongs.
Furthermore, in Japanese non-examined laid-open patent publication No. Hei 10-182029, there is disclosed an elevator system wherein the passengers inside the car are evacuated in the event of fire by leading the car to a floor other than the floor on which the fire occurred.
Since the floors of buildings are partitioned into fire-prevention divisions in prescribed floor area units, fire does not spread from one division to another. The elevator hoistway is also a fire-prevention division, and is separated from the floors.
When a fire occurs, on the one hand damage may spread, on the other the damage may not be so serious due to activation of a sprinkler. Furthermore, the number of remainders varies widely according to the type and floor of the building.
As aforementioned, since there is a diversity in fires of buildings, there is the problem that uniform setting of elevator service in case of fire is not suitable to the actual conditions of building fires.
The present invention was devised to solve the above-mentioned problems, and has as its object the rescue of the remainders inside the building by operating the elevator according to the conditions of the building and the fire in case of a fire.


A pressure vessel of the present invention is such that at least part thereof comprises a metallic composite material 40 comprising alight metal 41, which is turned into a matrix, and a plateshaped iron-basedmember 42, which is buried in the light metal 41, whose major component is iron, and which is provided with a large number of through holes penetrating the front and rear surfaces. By means of this construction, it is possible to provide a pressure vessel having a novel construction whose pressure resistance is enhanced without being accompanied by thickening, and a compressor being provided with a housing comprising the pressure vessel.

A pressure vessel is used as a housing, and the like, for a compressor, such as an air conditioner, which is carried by an automobile, for instance, and has been required to reduce the weight recently. Accordingly, for housings of compressors in which pressure resistance is said to be required, light metals, such as aluminum and magnesium, whose densities are small, have been employed.
However, in a simple light-metal cast product, it is difficult to obtain the strength which is required for housings of compressors (the tensile strength is 200 MPa approximately in aluminum cast products), and the strength under high-temperature environment degrades further (it degrades by 30% or more of that at ordinary temperature in a high-temperature region of 200° C. or more in aluminum cast products). Therefore, in order to obtain a strength to such an extent that satisfies the required pressure resistance, thickening becomes necessary, however, there is a problem that the larger the thickness becomes the more likely it is that cast cavities occur.
In a cylinder block, a constituent member for a housing, a cast-iron liner has been press-fitted into a block body, and so on, which is made of light metal, in order to improve the rigidity of sliding portions and sliding characteristics, such as wear resistance, in order to improve the strength of compressor's housing without being accompanied by thickening. For example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 59-074,353, an aluminum liner, which is formed by means of drawing process, is cast-wrapped in a cylinder bore, and a flame-sprayed layer is formed on the inner peripheral surface of the liner. Meanwhile, from the viewpoint of the issue of the adhesiveness between block body and cast-iron liner, a liner-less cylinder block, from which a cast-iron liner is abbreviated, has been developed. However, in the liner-less structure, since the rigidity of the sliding surface is low, it might be deformed depending on the extent of heat or internal pressure.
Moreover, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (KOKAI) No. 10-318,038, a silicon-enriched layer, in which primary-crystal silicon is agglomerated, is formed on the inner wall surface of a cylinder bore, using a filtering material which comprises a fine wire material.

Pressure vessel, compressor and process for casting cylinder block

Abstract: Moreover, a casting process of the present invention is a casting process, which is suitable for producing cylinder blocks, and is characterized in that, in a casting mold 80 being provided with hollow portions (86, 87) forming a molding cavity surface 84, and a pouring passage 85 which is communicated with the hollow portions, a substantially cylindrical iron-based member 42 having cut-offs 45 at the opened end portions is allocated so that the opened end portions are brought into contact with the molding cavity surface 84 and spaces 86, 87 are provided on the front- and rear-surface sides of the iron-based member 42, and a light-metal molten metal 41′ is filled into the entire hollow portions through the pouring passage 85 via the cut-offs 45, thereby casting the light metal 41 around the iron-based-member 42.


Method for tracking an object recorded within a selected frame of a sequence of frames of video data, using a plurality of layers, where at least one object layer of the plurality of layers represents the object includes initializing layer ownership probabilities for pixels of the selected frame using a non-parametric motion model, estimating a set of motion parameters of the plurality of layers for the selected frame using a parametric maximization algorithm and tracking the object. The non-parametric motion model is optical flow and includes warping the mixing probabilities, the appearances of the plurality of layers, and the observed pixel data from the pixels of the preceding frame to the pixels of the selected frame to initialize the layer ownership probabilities for the pixels of the selected frame.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the field of video processing and more particularly concerns a layer-based tracking method for tracking objects within and across video images. This method may also allow improved instantiation of objects and tracking through occlusions.
2. Description of the Related Art
Video representations in terms of dynamic layers and associated algorithms have emerged as powerful tools for motion analysis and object tracking. In this form, the image is represented as a superposition of multiple independently moving regions, also referred to as layers. The decomposition into layers provides a natural way to estimate motion of independently moving objects. For object tracking applications, a layer is represented by three entities: appearance; shape; and motion models. Since, a priori, the decomposition of image/video into layers is unknown, layer-based tracking algorithms jointly estimate the layer decomposition, appearance, shape, and motion over time.
Layer-based methods use parametric motion models to match the appearance and shape model parameters of the existing layers to the new observation of a new frame, and thereby update the motion, appearance and shape models. The underlying assumption of such a procedure is that the layer is rigid (up to a parametric transformation, such as affine). Thus, these methods are unable to handle complex non-rigid motions of layers, unless these motions are explicitly modeled by using separate layers for each of the articulations of an object.
A key problem in layer-based trackers is that of estimating the motion parameters for the layers given their appearance and shape representations. Some existing layer-based methods, use an iterative Expectation Maximization (EM) algorithm to estimate the motion parameters. In the Expectation step (E), a parametric motion estimate is used to warp the appearance and shape models from time t−1 to the current time t. These parametrically warped appearance and shape models are then matched with the new observations to compute the layer ownerships. In the Maximization (M) step, these computed ownerships are used to refine the motion estimates. It should be noted that parametric motion constraints are used to estimate the layer ownerships. With such an E step it is desirable for either the object motion to strictly conform to the parametric motion model employed, or for the object motion to vary slowly enough from the parametric motion model that the resulting ownership estimates remain a sufficiently accurate approximation to allow correct assignment of pixels among various layers. Even if the object motion is rigid, estimating ownerships in this manner uses a pixel-by-pixel match between the parametrically warped appearance models and the observations. In such a match it is desirable for the selected appearance model to be capable of accounting for rapid within-object shade or texture variations. An example of such potential appearance variation occurs when a car that is being tracked moves through the shadow of a leafless tree. The texture of shadow on the car appears to move in the opposite direction to that of the car. Both non-rigid motion and rapid intra-object appearance variations can lead to a poor approximation for ownership estimates, which may cause the EM algorithm to undesirably lock on to local maxima and may result in tracking drift and/or tracking loss.
Some template trackers use parametric motion (affine/similarity etc.) to update both the motion and the shape of the template. However, drift may still occur in these models because there is no explicit updating of template ownership. The appearance model can also be chosen to be the previous frame, but is susceptible to drift near occlusions,
Some methods use global statistics such as color histograms, instead of templates. Because these methods do not enforce pixel-wise appearance, they are robust to rapid shape and appearance changes. However, histograms are relatively weak appearance representations. Therefore, the tracking of objects can drift near occlusions or when nearby regions have similar statistics to the object being tracked.
The motion model used within each layer is often modeled as a single two dimensional affine model. Such methods may model rigid objects reasonably well, but often have difficulties with non-rigid objects. For non-rigid objects, such as people, proposals include a further decomposition of a tracked non-rigid object into multiple layers (arms, legs and torso) to account for the independently moving body parts. However, the complexity of the problem increases linearly with the number of layers.
As none of these approaches fully address the problems of providing an accurate tracking system that remains robust even in cases such as partial or complete occlusion, including objects passing one another, and the tracking of non-rigid objects, there is a need for a method and video processing techniques for same. Additionally, difficulties remain in the instantiation of layers, particularly dealing with issues such as shadow removal and distinguishing overlapping objects. Another area in which improvement is desirable is the tracking of objects between multiple cameras, including the identification of objects in multiple simultaneous images taken from differing viewpoints.

Flexible layer tracking with weak online appearance model


A method, computer program product, and system includes a processor(s) of a host obtaining, from a client, via a communication connection over a network, a request to commit a modified version of program source code to a repository administered by the host. The processor(s) identify formatting in the modified version implemented by an editor executing on the client and remove the formatting. The processor(s) transform the modified version into a first storage structure that includes content of the modified version without the identified formatting. The processor(s) identify one or more differences between the first storage structure representing the modified version and a second storage structure (an unmodified version of the program source code stored in the repository). The processor(s) store the one or more differences in the repository.

The invention relates to bi-directional formatting of program source code for development, debugging and executing in computing environments. The perceived proper style and formatting of program source code is a subject of debate among software developers. Traditionally the intention of laying code out in a particular style has been to maximize readability, allowing the logic, content, and progression of the code to be quickly understood by a developer reviewing the text. Unfortunately, what constitutes readability can be a subjective measure. Inconsistencies in formatting, as implemented in accordance with various developers collaborating on one or more programs, potentially mask the discovery of real logic problems in the code.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Lossless bi-directional formatting of program source code

International Business Machines Corporation


A lottery device has a turntable 12 with a plurality of ball pockets 13 and balls 2 each to be dropped onto the turntable 12, rolls on the turntable 12 and eventually falls into one of the ball pockets 13 to determine a winner ball pocket 13. The lottery device includes sets of sensors 24 and 25 combined with the ball pockets 13, respectively, to detect the ball that has fallen into the corresponding ball pocket 13, light-emitting rings 23 combined with the ball pockets 13, respectively, a ball identifying mechanism 41 for identifying the balls by type, and a computer 100 including a storage unit storing control programs and controlling lottery operations according to the control programs. The computer 100 executes a control procedure including the steps of: determining a color, indicating the type of the ball identified by the ball identifying mechanism 41, in which the light-emitting ring 23 emits light according to a control program, receiving detection signals provided by the sensors 24 and 25 combined with the ball pocket 13 into which the ball 2 has fallen, and causing the light-emitting ring 23 combined with the ball pocket 13 into which the ball has fallen to emit light in the predetermined color. The lottery device engrosses the players by effectively making the light-emitting rings 23 emit light according to the state of the lottery game to appeal the functions of the ball pockets 13 to the players.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a lottery device having a table provided with a plurality of openings to determine winners by receiving balls in the openings.
2. Description of the Related Art
Lottery devices of this type include roulette game devise and bingo game devices. A known bingo game device is disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 7-30044.
The bingo game device disclosed in Japanese Utility Model Publication No. 7-30044 includes a turntable including a rotating disk provided with a plurality of ball pockets for receiving a ball, and a plurality of balls of different colors. The plurality of ball pockets of the rotating disk are numbered randomly by serial numbers, respectively.
The ball pockets of the rotating disk are simple round openings and do not appeal their functions to the players. Thus, the ball pockets do not have attractive effects that engross the players in the game.
The present invention has been made in view of such circumstances and it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a lottery device including a table provided with openings and light-emitting means disposed near the openings, and capable of engrossing players in a lottery game by most effectively causing the light-emitting means to emit light according to the state of the lottery game to appeal the functions of the openings in the lottery game to the players.


A internet access server for isolating the internal network from the external network and a process method thereof, the server is used to isolate the user computer from internet. The computer server universal-based includes a graphics terminal service module, a graphics terminal network transmission module, a internal network transmission control module, a document transmission control module, a system configuration and user management module, and a internet access transmission module. By using the invention, the isolation and security of the internal network and the external network are realized by the special access mode and transmission control. All the authorized computer in the internal network could access the internet via the internet access server which includes a image terminal.

The most common practice in the existing network structure implemented by companies and agencies is to establish a local area network, which is connected to the external internet through the firewall or NAT (an internal network address translation protocol) so that computers within the internal network can access internet through the firewall, whereas a connection attempt from outside can not succeed prior to going through the firewall's conformance verification.
To track and control the computers within the local area network accessing internet, most enterprises will set up a proxy server. All computers within the local area network can only access internet through it.
FIG. 1 illustrates a typical topology used for a local area network connected with a wide area network, which includes a local area network composed of a number of computers (1), converter (2) and router (3), firewall (4) and internet (5).
The concept of isolation is developed to protect high-security network environment. Isolation products have experienced continuous integration of theory with practice on five generations of isolation technologies before swarming into market.
1st Generation—Absolute Isolation
This method makes the network an isolated information island by an absolute physical isolation. It requires at least two sets of network and system, on top of which is the inconvenience of information exchange and increased cost, and therefore complicates both operation and maintenance.
2nd Generation—Isolation Card
This method adds a hardware card on client-side. The hard disc and other storage devices on client-side must connect to the card before being connected to the main board. Thereby, the disc and other storage devices on client-side are being controlled. While different discs are chosen, different network interfaces are chosen too to connect to different networks. However, some of the cards still require 2-wire network wiring structure, in which great potential of security danger exists.
3rd Generation—Data Relay
Isolation is achieved by data relay system copying files in a time-sharing manner, which takes a very long time and even needs manual operation. It slows down the access speed, and supports none of the frequently used network applications, leaving network usage senseless.
4th Generation—Air-Gap Switch
The internal and external network access the tentative cache at different times using a single-pole double-throw switch, by which data exchange is achieved. There are many problems with this method in both security and performance.
5th Generation—Security Channel Isolation
With this technology, isolation between the internal and external networks and data exchange is achieved by such security mechanisms as dedicated session hardware and security protocol etc. This method solves the problems with the previous technologies, isolates the internal and external networks effectively, achieves secure data exchange between the internal and external networks efficiently, and supports multiple network applications in a transparent way, therefore leading the development of current isolation technology.
However, security and convenience is believed to be what the 5th generation isolation technology needs to tackle.
The most common approaches to accessing internet include web, mail and FTP etc, which are all flexible and robust. The immense resources on the internet provide great help and convenience to the interaction between our business and the outside world.
Interaction with internet includes both obtaining information from the internet and sharing our own information or uploading it onto the internet for sharing with others. Internet technology provides us hundreds and thousands of means to share or upload our own information, which provides convenience to organizations and agencies, but carries great danger of information leakage.
To technically avoid these dangers, most organizations and agencies implement two methods, i.e. protecting the confidential documents by encryption and isolating the network containing these documents from the internet.
As the first method, protecting the confidential documents by encryption brings inconvenience to users in that it controls the access to these documents by using password and all the documents need passwords, the method of centralized key control is developed. However, here comes another problem. Since the confidential documents are of different types, reading them requires different file readers, which again brings inconvenience for password control.
The second method is also used widely. In many practices, network is divided into two physically, to which two computers are connected respectively. Along with that emerge a large amount of related technologies, among which are physical isolation card and network gap. Physical isolation card requires modification to one computer so as to achieve physical isolation of two hard disks in it and allow for switch between two different networks. Network gap is designed to isolate the internal and external networks, while allowing for necessary transmission between the two networks.
However, both methods incur increased operating cost and inconvenience. Logic means allow for multiple connections to internet, but absolute logic isolation is next to impossible. The invention described herein is intended to get us out of the dilemma.

Internet access server for isolating the internal network from the external network and a process method thereof


A disposable, adhesive air filter for use with hand held hair dryers. The filter is used in connection with the air vent openings of the hair dryer and may be applied retroactively onto such dryers. The filter may come in a roll or sheet and may be cut by the user to fit the size of his/her hair dryer. The filter should have adhesive on both sides and will be provided with a removable layer, e.g. a peel off layer, in order for the consumer to attach the filter to air vent holes on the hair dryer.

The invention relates to the field of hair dryers and in particular, to an air filter designed to be used in connection with the hair dryer. The filter is designed to be sold as an off shelf item that the consumer can purchase and then attach to the hair dryer in order to increase the life of the hair dryer.
Most such hair dryers sold nowadays have a series of vent holes in the dryer. For purposes of convenience we refer to such arrangement as a "vent". Such vents may be found in some models on one or both sides, and, on other models, at one end, of the dryer. These vents serve to draw air through the dryer when the blower inside the dryer operates. As air rushes through the dryer all the time it is in operation, such vents are likely to pick up all sorts of particles, especially those in the air, such as lint, dust, etc. In a bathroom, there is even more likelihood of this as there is often hair spray in the air or simply more moisture in the air.
It is believed that the use of such adhesive filter in connection with the vent or the dryer will serve to collect dust, dirt, hair and other particles that would otherwise collect inside the hair dryer. It is believed that as such particles get inside the dryer they serve to decrease the life of the dryer. The use of an adhesive layer on the outside of the dryer and in connection with the air vent will provide a convenient gathering point at which to collect this hair, dirt, etc. before it gets into the inside of the dryer. With such method, it is thought that the usable lifetime of such a hair dryer could be extended 5 times the typical lifetime or longer.

Method of protecting hair dryers having vents


Device for carrying out rotablation, comprising a rotablation catheter, an OCT sensor, an IVUS sensor, position sensors and also an image processing unit, which is embodied for the creation of combined 2D or 3D images based on the data of the sensors.

Diseases of the vascular vessels are among the most frequent diseases with fatal outcomes. In particular these include coronary infarction caused by diseases of the coronary vessels. If arteriosclerotic plaque causes an occlusion of coronary vessels, these symptoms are generally treated using Percutaneous Transluminal Coronary Angioplasty (PCTA). The constricted points of the coronary vessels are expanded in such cases with a balloon catheter. However clinical studies have shown that with very many patients a restenosis occurs, in some cases these types of restenosis have occurred in 50% of the patients. High-frequency rotablation angioplasty has been known as an alternative method for a number of years, which can be used advantageously, especially for fibrotic or calcified or extensive stenoses.
To reduce the danger of the formation of restenoses, coronary rotablation is used in order to achieve a recanalization of stenosized coronary arteries through "debulking". Conventional rotablation catheters consist of a diamond-tipped olive-shaped drill head which is rotated at very high speed and selectively grinds away and removes calcified and fibrotic plaque, while the stochastic vessel wall is pushed away from the drill head and accordingly not damaged. This method has become known as "differential cutting". The microparticles removed are flushed away into the periphery. Such a rotablation catheter is now seen as a valuable instrument for serious vertical lesions which cannot be removed by simple balloon angioplasty. By contrast with balloon angioplasty the restenosis is not widened. At a typical speed of rotation of 150,000 rpm the ground-off microparticles are so small that they are filtered by organs such as liver, lungs and spleen without causing damage in the body.
A device for transluminal microdissection is known from EP 0 229 620 B1. This document describes a rotablation catheter consisting of a drilling head with a diameter of around 1 to 3 mm, which is connected via a highly-flexible shaft to a pneumatically-driven turbine. The turbine is driven by compressed air and controlled from an operating device. The flexible drive shaft consists of a drive cable and is surrounded by a shell through which a flushing fluid is supplied under pressure. The flushing fluid prevents the drive cable heating up and washes out the microparticles to distal locations. This therapy is conducted under x-ray control after provision of contrast means with an angiography device. The disadvantage is however that the parts of the body to be examined, such as coronary vessels, are only shown in two dimensions as a silhouette. Thus no information can be provided about the structure of the deposit, its thickness or inflammatory processes. The medical personnel can barely distinguish between plaque and vessel wall during the intervention, since assessing the severity of the calcification and especially the position of the calcium in the plaque is difficult on the basis of the angiographic image. Accordingly the risk arises of either too little plaque being removed and the desired blood flow not being re-established, or that the risk of a restenosis remains, in extreme cases too much tissue can be removed, resulting in a perforation of the vessel.
In DE 10 2004 008 368 A1 a rotablation catheter with an IVUS sensor for use in blood vessels has been proposed. The image display in the remote area of the restenosis is improved with this catheter.
In DE 10 2004 008 370 A1 a rotablation catheter with an integrated OCT sensor for use in blood vessels has been proposed, through which the image display in the local area of the restenosis is improved.
A medical examination and treatment system has been proposed by US 2005/0101859 A1 which combines the OCT and IVUS imaging methods in one device. This enables overlaid 2D image recordings to be created, with the OCT image element being used for the local area and the IVUS image element for the remote area.
A medical examination and/or treatment system is known from US 2005/0113685 A1, in which the imaging methods OCT and IVUS are combined in one catheter, which is also provided with a position sensor. 3D images can be created by means of the information recorded by the position sensor.
The factor common to all known solutions however is that they only resolve individual problems in each case, it has not however been possible thus far to integrate the conventional catheter in an optimum way into the medical workflow.


Disclosed herein is a rapid genetics-free method for eliciting and detecting cryptic metabolites using an imaging mass spectrometry-based approach. An organism of choice is challenged with elicitors from a small molecule library. The molecules elicited are then imaged by mass spec, which allows for rapid identification of cryptic metabolites. These are then isolated and characterized. Employing the disclosed approach activated production of cryptic glycopeptides from an actinomycete bacterium. The molecules that result, the keratinimicins and keratinicyclins, are metabolites with important structural features. At least two of these, keratinimicins B and C, are highly bioactive against several pathogenic strains. This approach will allow for rapid activation and identification of cryptic metabolites from diverse microorganisms in the future.

Modern medicine is unimaginable without natural products. Predominantly isolated from microorganisms and plants, these molecules, also referred to as secondary metabolites, form the basis of >70% of antibiotics, >50% of anticancer agents, and overall, more than half of the drugs approved in the United States in the past 35 years. After nearly a century of mining for secondary metabolites, microorganisms appeared to have become an exhausted resource. However, the recent explosion in microbial genome sequences points to a massive, untapped trove of new metabolites. Specifically, members of several bacterial phyla typically harbor 25 or more biosynthetic gene clusters (BGCs)—sets of genes that direct the biosynthesis of a natural product—that are not actively, or only weakly, expressed under standard laboratory conditions. These so-called "silent" or "cryptic" BGCs outnumber the constitutively active ones by a factor of 5-10. As such, finding new methods that access their products could significantly enhance our repertoire of novel natural products and thereby accelerate and aid drug discovery.
The importance of inducing silent BGCs has been recognized by the research community and several approaches have been developed to identify and characterize their small molecule products, including expression of BGCs in a heterologous host, co-culture screening, ribosome engineering, insertion of constitutive or inducible promoters, reporter-guided mutant selection, and endogenous overexpression of regulatory proteins. While these approaches have collectively begun to illuminate the hidden secondary metabolomes of bacteria, they all necessitate challenging culturing, molecular biology and/or genetic procedures, which significantly slow down the pace and throughput of natural products discovery. A definitive method for accessing cryptic metabolites in varied microorganisms has yet to be developed.
Thus, an inexpensive, reliable system for accurately detecting number of occupants in a given location is desirable.

Cryptic metabolites and method for activating silent biosynthetic gene clusters in diverse microorganisms


In an image forming apparatus including a fixing device for heating and fixing a toner image on a recording material, a temperature detector for detecting the temperature of the surface of a fixing roller is provided substantially outside a passing region of the recording material on the fixing roller. The temperature at a central portion of the surface of the fixing roller is always maintained at a fixing temperature which is most suitable, irrespective of the width size of the recording material to be fixed. Furthermore, when sheets of recording material are continuously fed and fixed, the temperature at an end portion of the fixing roller, provided with the temperature detector is changed in accordance with the number of sheets to maintain the central portion of the fixing roller always at a temperature which is most suitable. Thus, it is possible always to perform image formation having an excellent quality.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an image forming apparatus including a fixing device for fixing, by heating, a toner image on a recording material.
2. Description of the Related Art
Heretofore, temperature detection means in a fixing device has been situated at a central portion in the longitudinal direction of the surface of a fixing roller heated by a heating source. In this case, toner may adhere on the surface of the temperature detection means or a flaw may be produced in the roller when the temperature detection means contacts the roller, and black stripes may therefore be produced in an image. In order to solve these problems, there has been known a device in which temperature detection means is disposed at an end portion of a fixing roller (Japanese Utility Model Public Disclosure (Chalk) No. 59-147168 (1984)).
However, even if temperature detection means is disposed at an end portion of a heating (fixing) roller to detect the temperature at the end portion, exact temperature control of a fixing roller cannot be performed without taking into consideration the temperature of a central portion of the roller where a recording material passes, causing failure in fixing.
More specifically, images are typically formed using three kinds of recording materials A, B and C (A>B>C in width) having different widths (the length in the axial direction of the fixing roller). As shown in FIG. 5, if temperature control means is controlled so as to maintain a temperature which is most suitable at a position where a temperature detector is disposed, the surface temperature at a central portion of the fixing roller has variations. It is therefore impossible to maintain a temperature which is most suitable for fixing. This is because the temperature at the central portion decreases to cause failure in fixing in the case of the recording material C having the smallest size, and the temperature at the central portion becomes too high so as to produce high-temperature offset in the case of the recording material A having the largest size when a temperature has previously been set in accordance with the recording material C.

Fixing apparatus having temperature controller which controls temperature according to width size and number of recording sheets


The invention provides an apparatus for winding material. The apparatus includes first and second roll carriages that are each configured to support a roll shaft. At least one of the first and second roll carriages is configured to be rotated by a drive member. The apparatus also includes an engagement roller displaceable from a first engagement roller position where the traveling roller is free of a web to a second, different engagement roller position where the traveling roller is configured to engage the periphery of a roll of web material that is at least partially wound about the roll, a traveling roller displaceable from a first traveling roller position to a second traveling roller position and a cutter where the cutter is configured to cut through the web after the first roll carriage moves from a first roll carriage position to a second roll carriage position.

Such material webs, which for example could be air-laid fibre webs, are generally produced continually in plants arranged in such a way that it is not possible to change the production rate of the plant during the winding-up process.
This fact is causing some problems in connection with roll shifting where the web is cut and a new winding-up operation is started on an empty roll shaft while the web at the same time continuously is supplied to the winding-up apparatus.
Problems also are arising at rupture of the web or when starting a new production of web as the supply of the web from the web producing plant to the winding-up apparatus in these cases does not take place in accordance with the usual winding-up cycles.
Many attempts have during the years been made for solving these problems. In these cases, the web roll being wound up is normally conveyed from a start position to a finish position for thereby making room for a new, empty roll shaft brought in position for winding-up a new web roll.
The best result is obtained when the winding-up of the web roll is carried out by means of a center drive, directly rotating the roll shaft, in combination with a periphery drive, acting on the periphery of the web roll.
In a known winding-up apparatus, the winding-up operation is started with a center drive which, when the web roll has reached a suitable size, is taken over or is supplemented by a periphery drive in form of a belt drive placed below the roll.
In another known winding-up apparatus the center drive is taken over or is supplemented by a periphery drive in form of a drive roll acting on the periphery of the web roll.
These known winding-up apparatus suffer, however, of the drawback that it, at e.g. rupture of the web or starting of a new web production, is difficult and complicated to start the winding-up on a new, empty roll shaft as the apparatuses in such situations are not able to impart the necessary web tension to the web to cause the new roll shaft to catch the web. Neither is it possible manually to wrap the web around the old web roll for continuing the winding-up of the web on this roll.

Apparatus for winding up a web in rolls and a method for cutting off a length of the web


An inflatable active bolster for a vehicle occupant, the active bolster comprising a front wall and a rear wall, the front and rear walls being interconnected to form a hollow chamber. The front wall has deformable features that permit the hollow chamber to volumetrically expand upon inflation of the hollow chamber by an inflator. The active bolster further includes a reaction plate for attachment of the active bolster to a suitable vehicle mount structure. The hollow chamber is attached to the reaction plate through a releasable engagement mechanism. The active bolster provides for snap-in installation, and easier detachment for servicing.

Several types of devices have been proposed for protecting vehicle occupants during a crash event. Such devices can be categorized as being either passive devices or active devices.
Passive safety devices deform to absorb energy during a crash event. Passive devices, however, remain in a fixed position during a crash event. Accordingly, there may be a relatively large distance over which the vehicle occupant may travel during a crash event before encountering a passive device.
Active safety devices are those that deploy during a crash event so that they are positioned relatively close to the vehicle occupants to cushion them. By reducing the distance between the occupant and the safety device, the occupant has less time to travel before encountering the safety device, and more time to decelerate on engaging the safety device, and therefore is likely to sustain less injury. A typical active safety device incorporates an air bag that inflates during a crash event. The air bag is typically a fabric bag that is folded and held in a housing until it is deployed. Air bag devices, however, add complexity and cost to the vehicular subassemblies to which they are added.
For some applications, inflatable active bolsters have been developed to enhance vehicle occupant protection in the event of a vehicle crash. Such bolsters are mounted within a vehicle compartment and include a metal or polymeric hollow chamber and an inflator for injecting a fluid into the hollow chamber. In order to reduce the potential for injuries from impacting the vehicle interior, the inflator is activated upon detection of such an event, and the bolster is inflated to form a cushion.
Inflatable active bolsters are largely comprised of non-moving parts, and are generally quite rugged in construction. Nevertheless, there may be occasions when it becomes necessary to service certain active bolster components, for example the inflator, the electrical harness and/or associated electrical connectors. In general, active bolsters are constructed in a way that does not permit for easy access to the internal components once the active bolster is installed in the vehicle. In fact, active bolster systems have necessitated a more robust mounting methodology as compared to passive bolster systems. While passive bolster systems have generally been installed through the use of suitable clips, the attachment force provided by such clips are insufficient to withstand the deployment loads experienced with active bolsters. As such, inflatable active bolster systems are generally installed in the instrument panel using robust fasteners, for example threaded fasteners. In many instances, active bolster installation is performed on the instrument panel outside the vehicle. Subsequent removal of the active bolster is a tedious and time consuming process as access to the front of the instrument panel is limited.
As such, there exists the need for an alternate active bolster configuration that permits for easier in-vehicle assembly, as well as flexibility and accessibility with respect to periodic servicing.


This electronic notch filter is able to receive an input signal and deliver a filtered signal having an amplitude, at a cut-off frequency, that is attenuated with respect to that of the input signal.

A notch filter of the above-mentioned type, also called a band-stop filter or band-reject filter, is known, with such a filter aiming to prevent the passage of a range of signal frequencies, typically around a predefined frequency, called the cut-off frequency.
An electronic band-pass filtering device of the type mentioned above, also called a band-pass filter, is also known, with such a filter aiming to keep only a band of signal frequencies around a target frequency, and to prevent the passage of the signal outside this frequency band.
U.S. Pat. No. 9,407,482 B2 and the paper "Tunable N-Path RF Front-end Filter with an Adaptive Integrated Notch for FDD/Co-Existence" by Hasan, IEEE 2012, presents a selective i.e. high rejection band-pass filter architecture via a combination of a band-pass filter and a band-stop filter, to achieve better selectivity. The band-pass and band-stop filters used are switched-capacitor filters, also called N-path filters, where N is the number of switches in parallel.
Such an architecture with the combination of these two filters enables improved rejection of the filter in a precise frequency, close to the band-pass filter frequency.
The paper "Widely Tunable 4th Order Switched Gm-C Band-Pass Filter Based on N-Path Filters" by Darvishi, IEEE 2012, also presents a high rejection band-pass filter architecture via the combination of two frequency-shifted, second-order band-pass filters, to obtain a fourth-order band-pass filter. The band-pass filters used are also N-path filters.
However, N-path filters have drawbacks that limit their performance in terms of clock generation with a limitation in the frequency of the clocks used to subdivide the period of the signal to be detected, and the need for the clocks to be non-overlapping so as not to degrade selectivity, gain and linearity, which further reduces their period of activity and increases the complexity, inaccuracy and mismatch, thus degrading the performance of such a filter. This performance limitation also translates into insertion losses, as the resistance of the switches limits out-of-band rejection.
This resistance can be reduced by increasing the number N of switches in parallel, but this is done at the expense of an increase in power consumption and a reduction in the maximum operating frequency. These performance limitations also relate to the selectivity linked to the filtering capacity, on the one hand, which must be increased, and linked to the order of the filter on the other hand, which is intrinsically limited to the order 2.
To increase the order of the filter, and thus its selectivity, it is necessary to cascade multiple N-path filters, for example, as described in Darvishi's paper, but this also leads to an increase in power consumption and a limitation of the frequency of use.
In addition, these band-pass filter architectures require the integration of an input splitter, to direct the input signal to the two filters used in combination, and also an output combiner, to combine the filtered signals from each of the filters. These separators and combiners further limit the performance of the band-pass filter, and also generate additional power consumption.

Notch filter with successive windowed integrations, related band-pass filtering device, frequency detection system and processing method

Abstract: It comprises a module for integrating the input signal during several successive time windows, each time window starting at a respective initial time instant and having a duration substantially equal to the inverse of the cut-off frequency, the initial temporal time instants of at least two distinct windows being separated by a temporal shift of a value greater than or equal to a predefined reference duration, each integration of the input signal during a respective temporal window resulting in a respective intermediate signal; and a module for summing the intermediate signals coming from the integration module; the filtered signal depending on the sum of said intermediate signals.

Commissariat a l'energie atomique et aux energies alternatives


Both the stator core and the rotor core of a switching pattern AC induction motor are fabricated by soft magnetic material laminations or ferrite material, etc., both of which have corresponding frequency characteristic. The rotor is a squirrel cage rotor. Switching pattern excitation is adopted in the stator pole, of which the excitation voltage is sine wave pulse width modulated or sine wave pulse amplitude modulated within the frequency range of voice and ultrasonic. Under the condition of the same power output, the present motor reduces its size and mass to a fraction of or tenth of that of an ordinary one. Meanwhile, it reduces the cost of manufacture. It realizes stepless speed regulating from zero to several thousand rpm while keeping well mechanical characteristic performance.

Existing AC induction motor, which is mainly squirrel cage type AC asynchronous induction motor, has the advantages of simple structure, low cost and larger output torque as compared with brush DC motor. Such a motor is typically excited with continuous two phases of sine wave voltages with a phase difference of 90° or three phases of sine wave voltages with a phase difference of 120°. A continuous sine wave rotating magnetic field is generated in the air gap between the stator and the rotor, which causes the squirrel cage type rotor rotating. The rotating speed of the motor can be approximately calculated by the rotating speed formula for the rotating magnetic field: n=60*f1/p, where p is the number of pole pairs of the stator in the motor, f1 is the frequency of the excitation AC. It can be seen that, with the structure of the motor fixed, the rotating speed is mainly determined by the frequency f1. Thus, an effective way to control the rotating speed is to vary the excitation AC frequency f1. For example, supposing the number of pole pairs in the motor is p=2, the rotating speed per minute is n=1500 r/min when the excitation AC frequency f1=50 Hertz; the rotating speed is n=1200 r/min when f1=40 Hertz, and so on. For this reason, a plurality of methods of controlling the speed have been developed, such as frequency-converting speed regulating and vector-controlling speed regulating, etc. However, since the actually required operating speed is typically much lower than the rotating speed of the motor, and because of the resistance characteristic of the excitation windings and the torque requirement of the motor, such as the torque of the AC asynchronous motor is somewhat low during low-speed running, sometimes a lower rotating speed can not be obtained by decreasing the excitation AC frequency f1 without limitation. Therefore, it is often required to em example, mechanical gears to vary speed, so as to meet various requirements in actual usage. In this way, the cost, size and weight of the apparatus are undoubtedly increased, and the effect is not satisfying.
In the recent twenty to thirty years, permanent magnetic brushless DC motor, step motor and switching reluctance motor, which can be generally referred to as electronic electromotor or electronic motor, are invented and widely used. Mostly, their running principle is to rotate the rotor by alternatively using the attraction force or repulsion force generated between the poles with the different polarity by control technology. This kind of motor has apparent improvement in aspects of speed regulating, the size and the weight, but the cost of manufacture, the speed regulating range and the output torque still do not meet the increasing requirements for higher performance.


An approach is provided that collects data from a multi-function adapter that is used by multiple functions. In the approach, a master function is dynamically selected from the group of functions. The approach further allows the master function to perform a disruptive adapter data collection while inhibiting performance of disruptive adapter data collection processes by the other (non-master) functions.

Modern networks adapters (e.g., Converged Network Adapters (CNAs), etc.) include multiple protocols and are represented by multiple Peripheral Component Interconnect (PCI) functions while being mapped to a single physical device (the actual adapter). From the operating system perspective, each function appears as a stand alone device, however at the device driver level, each of the functions needs to be able to communicate with each other for proper management and serialization of concurrent and redundant adapter and function firmware (FW), such as in performing FW dumps. FW dumps can have a multitude of scopes and impacts to be taken into account in order to preserve granular availability and serviceability. For example, network interface controller (NIC) functions may share a firmware image while Fibre Channel or Remote Direct Memory Access (RDMA) functions might not share an image. An RDMA functions firmware dump may include NIC function firmware and can also be a disruptive operation. Any of the functions firmware dump may be disruptive across the entire adapter. Lastly, functions are fully dynamic, in traditional systems, it is difficult or impossible to identify which function running at the adapter will perform a disruptive firmware dump.

Dynamic data collection communication between adapter functions


A computing system having attached display devices comprising a primary display area controlled by a corresponding attached display device; a running software application coupled to the primary display area, the software application being actively manipulated by a user and the corresponding primary display area being actively perceived by the user; a plurality of software measurement mechanisms, each coupled to hidden internal states of the running software application; data mapping functions each coupled to a plurality of software measurement mechanisms; one or more secondary display areas each controlled by a corresponding attached display device, where each secondary display area does not occlude or obscure the primary display area; one or more display algorithms, each which couples secondary display areas to one or more data mapping functions, in which the secondary display area shows representations of the hidden internal states via the software measurement mechanisms, data mapping functions, and display algorithms.

Viruses, malicious code, and other computer threats are rapidly evolving and are becoming more and more difficult to detect. Automated mechanisms to ensure safety area also evolving, but existing methods commonly detect what has already happened. Anti-virus detects the post-mortem infection of a system. An intrusion detection system identifies events which have already occurred. Such systems are also generally unable to prevent situations which rely on human culpability. Often the first and last defenses are decisions made by the computer user. However, sophisticated ruses are used to fool users into making precisely the decisions necessary for the exploitation to occur. Even though threats to computing systems have become progressively more adept at exploiting human users, little work has been performed in providing human users with better information for decision making regarding computer security. Much of this threat is reliant on the user lacking sufficient information regarding system state. To cure these failings the last two decades has provided little more than icons denoting software certification and a plethora of dialog decision boxes.
Within conventional human-machine interfaces of computing displays we rely almost exclusively on primary attentional information streams. The peripheral is used, but generally limited to event notification in the form of binary indicators of interesting information (time and date, weather, etc.) or the need for user action or response (e.g. emblems on application icons, notifiers in the status-bar of active processes). Peripheral information displays have been shown to increase a user's awareness of supplemental knowledge. Nonetheless, only a handful of iconic and graphical display elements are seen within modern computer interfaces providing peripheral information. These are akin to road signs within physical environments which convey meaning in a direct fashion. The ambient activity monitor as conceived within this invention conveys meaning indirectly via correlation of the display with the state and interactions with a computing display. To use a similar analogy, this is akin to road, engine, and tire noise providing peripheral cues as to the state of an automobile as it races around a sharp corner, engine revving and tires chirping.
When a user interacts with a computing device the underlying state of the machine is generally hidden and only the intended output of a set of active computing tasks is visible. This differs significantly from traversal of a physical environment (e.g. walking down a sidewalk) where the rich environmental milieu provides constant and myriad peripheral cues to the active state of the local environment (e.g. footsteps of other pedestrians, automobile noises, sounds of children playing). These environmental cues, while peripheral to the task at hand (e.g. walking to a particular destination), are often necessary for doing so safely (e.g. avoiding a speeding car, or a child on a skateboard). We know that threat avoidance in real environments relies on peripheral information. Further, the peripheral information is not a measurement or abstraction of the threat itself, but information which can be used to predict potential threats (whether real or imagined).
Indicators of emerging or current threats to a computing environment are currently provided to a user in several ways.                a) Indicators may be provided early, prior to an event which warns us to specific threats (as in an alert or dialog box).        b) Indicators may be provided late, after an event (as in the output of an intrusion detection system).        c) Indicators may also be provided in the form of a near real-time measurement of network connection, process, or other machine states (such as a process monitor).
In some cases, real-time measurements (such as memory and CPU-time of a running process) may provide subtle hints that something may be awry in much the same way as peripheral cues in natural environments. However, the conventional approach for process monitoring is generally limited for several reasons:
non-peripheral, demanding a user's full attention
represent intended cues and as such reflect an abstraction and judgment of underlying machine state rather than simply a representation of the machine state itself.
significantly simplify and aggregate the representation of the machine state for the purposes of exposing particular measurement semantics (i.e. CPU usage percentage, counts of disk reads/writes).
generally do not correlate precisely with the activities of the user or underlying system state, often being delayed by seconds for purposes of decreasing the process monitor's resource demands.
There also exist unintended peripheral cues within modern computing system (such as unexpected slowdown of a software application, the erratic behavior of running processes, disk drive noises, fan noises). However, it is the intent of good software design to eliminate these unintended effects. The computing environment is designed to be sterile in respect to unintended effects. These effects represent bugs or other software deficiencies.
It is important to note that neither the intended or unintended peripheral cues have a rich semantics to tie them to particular user or system activities. If a software application hangs due to internal defect or system malfunction, the only peripheral cue to the user may be that the software appears unresponsive. When a software application is infected by malicious code there are often no peripheral cues until long after data has been destroyed or stolen. And while existing software and system instrumentation mechanisms can expose these (and other) system defects and security problems in a direct fashion, use of such instrumentation mechanisms completely disrupts the user's primary purpose for using the computing system. While some users may be willing to direct their attention to a process monitor and examine the memory usage of a particular software application, unless the user is using sophisticated debuggers and software instrumentation, they do not get any deeper knowledge as to why the memory usage is at a particular level or what the software is doing internally. If a user did wish to understand the reason for the software problem they would no longer be using the computing system as originally intended, spending all of their time addressing the nuances of the underlying software and system states. The system activity and software instrumentation mechanism would become the user's primary task.

Ambient activity monitors for hidden computing system and process metadata

THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AS REPRESENTED BY THE SECRETARY OF THE NAVY


A fluid-filled bladder is disclosed that may be incorporated into footwear or other products. The bladder includes a sealed outer barrier, a foam tensile member, and a fluid. The tensile member is located within the barrier and bonded to opposite sides of the barrier. The fluid is also located within the barrier, and the fluid is pressurized to place an outward force upon the barrier and induce tension in the tensile member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to fluid-filled bladders that may be incorporated into footwear or a variety of other products. The fluid-filled bladders may include, for example, a barrier that encloses a foam tensile member.
2. Description of Background Art
A conventional article of athletic footwear includes two primary elements, an upper and a sole structure. The upper provides a covering for the foot that securely receives and positions the foot with respect to the sole structure. In addition, the upper may have a configuration that protects the foot and provides ventilation, thereby cooling the foot and removing perspiration. The sole structure is secured to a lower surface of the upper and is generally positioned between the foot and the ground. In addition to attenuating ground reaction forces and absorbing energy (i.e., imparting cushioning), the sole structure may provide traction and control potentially harmful foot motion, such as over pronation. Accordingly, the upper and the sole structure operate cooperatively to provide a comfortable structure that is suited for a wide variety of ambulatory activities, such as walking and running. The general features and configuration of the upper and the sole structure are discussed in greater detail below.
The sole structure of athletic footwear generally exhibits a layered structure that includes a comfort-enhancing insole, a resilient midsole formed from a polymer foam, and a ground-contacting outsole that provides both abrasion-resistance and traction. Suitable polymer foam materials for the midsole include ethylvinylacetate or polyurethane that compress resiliently under an applied load to attenuate ground reaction forces and absorb energy. Conventional foam materials are resiliently compressible, in part, due to the inclusion of a plurality of open or closed cells that define an inner volume substantially displaced by gas. That is, the foam includes bubbles formed in the material that enclose the gas. Following repeated compressions, however, the cell structure may deteriorate, thereby resulting in decreased compressibility of the foam. Thus, the force attenuation and energy absorption characteristics of the midsole may decrease over the lifespan of the footwear.
One way to overcome the drawbacks of utilizing conventional foam materials is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,183,156 to Rudy, hereby incorporated by reference, in which cushioning is provided by inflatable inserts formed of elastomeric materials. The inserts include a plurality of tubular chambers that extend substantially longitudinally throughout the length of the footwear. The chambers are in fluid communication with each other and jointly extend across the width of the footwear. U.S. Pat. No. 4,219,945 to Rudy, hereby incorporated by reference, discloses an inflated insert encapsulated in a foam material. The combination of the insert and the encapsulating material functions as a midsole. An upper is attached to the upper surface of the encapsulating material and an outsole or tread member is affixed to the lower surface.
Such bladders are generally formed of an elastomeric material and are structured to have an upper or lower surface that encloses one or more chambers therebetween. The chambers are pressurized above ambient pressure by inserting a nozzle or needle connected to a fluid pressure source into a fill inlet formed in the bladder. After the chambers are pressurized, the fill inlet is sealed, for example, by welding, and the nozzle is removed.
Bladders of this type have been manufactured by a two-film technique, in which two separate sheets of elastomeric film are formed to exhibit the overall peripheral shape of the bladder. The sheets are then welded together along their respective peripheries to form a sealed structure, and the sheets are also welded together at predetermined interior areas to give the bladder a desired configuration. That is, the interior welds provide the bladder with chambers having a predetermined shape and size at desired locations. Such bladders have also been manufactured by a blow-molding technique, wherein a liquefied elastomeric material is placed in a mold having the desired overall shape and configuration of the bladder. The mold has an opening at one location through which pressurized air is provided. The pressurized air forces the liquefied elastomeric material against the inner surfaces of the mold and causes the material to harden in the mold, thereby forming a bladder with the desired shape and configuration.
Another type of prior art bladder suitable for footwear applications is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,906,502 and 5,083,361, both to Rudy, and both hereby incorporated by reference. This type of bladder is formed as a fluid pressurized and inflated structure that comprises a hermetically sealed outer barrier layer which is securely fused substantially over the entire outer surfaces of a tensile member having the configuration of a double-walled fabric core. The tensile member is comprised of first and second outer fabric layers that are normally spaced apart from one another at a predetermined distance. Connecting or drop yarns, potentially in the form of multi-filament yarns having many individual fibers, extend internally between the proximal or facing surfaces of the respective fabric layers. The filaments of the drop yarns form tensile restraining means and are anchored to the respective fabric layers. A suitable method of manufacturing the double walled fabric structure is double needle bar raschel knitting.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,993,585 and 6,119,371, both issued to Goodwin et al., and both hereby incorporated by reference, disclose a bladder utilizing a tensile member, but without a peripheral seam located midway between the upper and lower surfaces of the bladder. Instead, the seam is located adjacent to the upper surface of the bladder. Advantages in this design include removal of the seam from the area of maximum sidewall flexing and increased visibility of the interior of the bladder, including the connecting yarns. The process utilized to form a bladder of this type involves the formation of a shell, which includes a lower surface and a sidewall, with a mold. A tensile member is placed on top of a covering sheet, and the shell, following removal from the mold, is placed over the covering sheet and tensile member. The assembled shell, covering sheet, and tensile member are then moved to a lamination station where radio frequency energy fuses opposite sides of the tensile member to the shell and covering sheet and fuses a periphery of the shell to the covering sheet. The bladder is then pressurized by inserting a fluid so as to place the connecting yarns in tension.
While the cushioning benefits of bladders in articles of footwear are well documented, the prior art methods of producing bladders utilizing a double-walled fabric core have made them costly and time consuming to manufacture. For example, the double-walled fabric core is typically secured within the bladder by attaching a layer of thermally activated fusing agent to the outer surfaces of the core, and then heating the bladder components to cause the fusing agent to melt, thereby securing the core the outer layers of the bladder. In practice, it is time consuming to add the fusing agent to the outer surfaces of the core and requires additional manufacturing steps, thereby increasing overall cost. Accordingly, the art requires a simple, more cost-effective bladder with a tensile member. In addition to other benefits that will become apparent from the following disclosure, the present invention fulfills this need.

Fluid-filled bladder incorporating a foam tensile member


Pipette tip grids with holes for holding pipette tips and packages for the grids are provided. A pipette tip grid package comprises a grid, a base for supporting the grid, and a lock mechanism coupled to the grid and configured to externally engage with a sidewall of the base. The sidewall of the base also supports the grid. The package also can have a detachable cover for the grid, and, the lock mechanism can be external to the cover as well as the base. In some embodiments, the grids are stackable and the cover engages the topmost grid of the stack. Together, the cover, the base, and the sidewalls of the one or more stacked pipette tip grids form a protective case around pipette tips in the one or more grids.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to the field of laboratory equipment, and more particularly to arrays of disposable pipette tips for pipetting systems.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In chemical, biological, pharmaceutical, and similar fields, laboratory handling of very small quantities of fluids is commonly performed with pipettes. In many instances, automated pipetting systems allow multiple fluid samples to be handled rapidly and in parallel while maintaining a very high degree of precision over the sample quantities. Often, such automated pipetting systems employ disposable pipette tips to prevent contamination from one sample to the next. Typically, pipette tips are provided to an automated pipetting system in a pipette tip rack or grid. In the pipette tip grid, the tips are typically arranged in rows where the number of tips in a row is equal to the number of parallel pipettes in the automated pipetting system. Accordingly, the automated pipetting system can readily pick up a row or multiple rows of tips from the grid.
It will be appreciated that disposable pipette tips need to be kept free of contamination to be acceptable for most applications. Accordingly, grids are packaged for shipping, handling, and storage. FIG. 1 illustrates a prior art pipette tip grid 100 supported within a protective box 102. The box 102 includes a hinged lid 104 that pivots to open and close. As can be seen from FIG. 2, locking tabs 106 attached to the grid 100 secure the grid 100 within the box 102. To release the grid 100 from the box 102, the locking tabs 106 are depressed and then the grid 100 can be removed. As shown in FIG. 3, when the lid 104 is closed the locking tabs 106 are also covered. Accordingly, to take the grid 100 out of the case 102 requires opening the lid 104 which exposes tops of pipette tips 108 to contamination.
As can be seen from FIG. 4, the grids 100 of the prior art can be stacked. When stacked, the pipette tips 108 in one grid 100 nest in the pipette tips 108 of the grid 100 beneath. Unfortunately, the lid 104 will not close over a stack of grids 100, and therefore the lid 104 is preferably removed, as shown. It can be seen that the tops of the pipette tips 108 are exposed, as are the sides of the pipette tips 108.
Accordingly, what is needed is improved packaging for pipette tips.


A method for producing a laminated tile is disclosed which comprises providing a sheet of natural stone having opposed first and second major surfaces and providing a plurality of ceramic substrates, each having opposed first and second major surfaces. An adhesive material is provided on at least one of the first and second major surface of the sheet of natural stone and the first major surface of each of the plurality of ceramic substrates. The plurality of ceramic substrates and the sheet of natural stone are assembled to form a laminated assembly such that the first surface of each of a portion of the plurality of ceramic substrates faces the first major surface of the sheet of natural stone with adhesive material therebetween, and the remainder of the ceramic substrates face the second major surface of the sheet of natural stone with adhesive material therebetween. The sheet of natural stone having the ceramic substrates adhered thereto is cut along a plane substantially parallel to the first and second major surfaces of the sheet of natural stone to form two laminates, each having an exposed layer of natural stone and ceramic substrates adhered thereto. Then the exposed layer of natural stone of each of the two laminates is polished. The laminated tiles produced by the method are also disclosed.

It is desirable to provide a tile product having the appearance of solid natural stone such as marble, but without the disadvantages of solid stone. Natural stone such as marble is often used as a floor or wall covering tile. A single piece or slab of natural stone such as marble is generally cut and finished to form a tile of desired size and shape. However, due to the high density of natural stones such as marble, tiles of acceptable thickness are very heavy. Thinner tiles, on the other hand, have limited strength and tend to shatter or break.
Conventional natural stone tile, e.g., marble, is very difficult to install, and installation is generally accomplished by an experienced "marble man," i.e., installation of marble is generally not thought of as a "do-it-yourself" project.
One of the most difficult aspects of natural stone, e.g., marble, installation is the selection of an appropriate mortar mix to adhere the stone to the, e.g., wall or floor. Marble mortar mix is fundamentally composed of mortar and sand. However, different pieces of natural stone require different mixes. The mix is chosen primarily based on the density of the stone which "marble men" learn to judge by feel, touch, sound, sight and even taste. "Marble men" routinely exchange information regarding techniques and variations for mixing mortar, sand and other components to make various mortar mixes. The selection and mixing of mortar mixes can be thought of more as an art than a science. Additives are mixed with mortar and sand, such as perlite which adds body to the mix to give it more "stand-up" ability. The additives are also chosen for their sound insulation qualities. As a consequence of the knowledge required to lay natural stone tiles, the installation costs on a square foot basis are high and, further, there is a limited supply of skilled masons who are available to install natural stone tiles.
Conventional natural stone tiles must be installed by "floating" the tiles on the mortar mix; that is, the back surface of the tile is not brought into contact with the surface on which it is being installed. Thus, a further difficulty in installing conventional natural stone tiles resides in the need to use a mortar mix having the correct thickness and viscosity to float the stone tiles so that the upper surfaces of all the installed tiles are level. Thickness variations within each tile and between a plurality of tiles further complicate installation. These thickness variations are due to the fact that the major surfaces of the stone slabs which are ground and polished to form tiles are not flat. Thus, there is no flat surface to serve as a datum plane during the grinding and polishing operations.
The problem of selection and mixing of appropriate adhesives is particularly acute when the installation design requires use of multiple colors of stone, multiple types of stone or both multiple colors and multiple types of stone. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, an installation design may require use of more than one type of natural stone tile. For example, two types of natural stone tile designated A and B may be required. The types A and B may differ in color or may differ in the type of natural stone, e.g., type A may be marble and type B may be slate. Using conventional natural stone tiles, a different mortar mix may preferably be used for type A than would be used for type B. Differences in density even among type A tiles or among type B tiles may require selection and use of different mortar mixes. These factors contribute to the difficulty of installing conventional natural stone tiles.
The installation of ceramic tiles is conventionally accomplished with mastics which are purchased in premixed containers. The mastic has a standard viscosity which is easily worked with tools designed for ceramic tile installation. Furthermore, the ceramic tiles typically have protrusions to establish a uniform adhesive thickness and height with respect to the surface on which the ceramic tile is being installed. Unlike the installation of natural stone with mortar mixes, the installation of ceramic tile may be performed with less skilled labor including substantial installation on a "do-it-yourself" basis.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,878,030 to Cook states that the prior art has suggested solving some of the problems associated with natural stone, particularly with marble, by bonding a plurality of small pieces having the desired texture and thickness to an underlying piece of the same material. The underlying piece is then chosen from stone strata which does not have the desired texture and which is therefor less expensive. In this manner, the more expensive desirable pieces can be cut thin so as to increase their economic utilization and are bonded to a generally thicker layer of less valuable stone. However, it is disclosed that the bonding of stone to stone still produces a relatively thick and quite heavy structure. It is also disclosed that such stone-to-stone structures are brittle and require considerable care in finishing, handling, storage and installation. Cook proposes providing a piece of wood product, such as a fiberboard, as an underlayment, then applying a bonding material, preferably a two-part curable cement, to the underlayment and/or to one surface of a plurality of discrete pieces of relatively thin stone. The stone pieces are then placed on the top of the underlayment and the cement is allowed to cure to firmly bond the pieces to the underlayment. Thereafter, the bonded-together structure is subjected to a finishing operation including a grinding operation while being subjected to a water bath and then to a polishing operation such as the use of a felt polishing wheel in connection with a tin oxide slurry or powder.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,097,080 to Weir discloses an artificial stone facing plaque which comprises essentially a thin body with a decorative upper or forward face, and composed of a settable synthetic organic plastic material in which are embedded, at least partially, a plurality of pieces of relatively coarse aggregate. If desired, the plastic plaque may be bonded to a suitable backing strip which may be formed of any suitable material such as, for example, asbestos cement board. It is often desirable to have the top portion of the individual aggregate partially ground off to form the polished surfaces. In some instances, it is also desirable to have the exposed forward or top decorative face of the plaque smooth and polished. In such instances, the protruding portions of the aggregate and also a portion of the plastic face or surface are ground away so that the final exposed surface of the plaque is slightly below that of the original forward surface of the plastic body.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,621,001 to Bard discloses a tile-shaped composite element in which a ceramic tile serving as the visible tile is glued to a further ceramic tile serving as the base tile. Each tile is provided on the back with a nesting structure and glued together with this nesting structure back-to-back. Since the wall thickness of such a composite element may correspond to the usual wall thickness of shingles of conventional ceramic tiles, extremely thin tiles may be used as the base tile and the visible tile placed thereupon.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,640,850 to Marocco discloses a composite facing slab which comprises a sheet of natural stone, such as marble, and a protective layer constituted by a sheet of transparent glass. The latter is fixed to the face of the stone sheet intended to remain visible with the interpositioning of an interlayer of transparent thermoplastic material which can adhere to both the sheets and fills the surface defects of the stone sheet.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,664,955 to Clen discloses a composite laminate for use in paneling of walls, ceilings and other surfaces such as furniture and the like. The composite laminate comprises a polymeric sheet-like core having a pair of surfaces to which are bonded a metal foil so as to form a sandwich-type structure and wherein a lamina of natural facing stone is uniformly bonded to at least one of the pair of metal foils.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,036,929 to Gould discloses a method of forming decorative inserts in granite and the like. A cavity is cut or sandblasted in the stone to produce a decorative design. An epoxy resin base is inserted into the cavity and permitted to set. Decorative glass chips are arranged in a mosaic-like pattern in a resin of similar properties to the base and the mortar, and a bond is formed between the base resin, the mortar resin and the decorative chips to provide a pattern on the stone.
A product known as "GL Marble" manufactured by Technomaiera, S.p.A, is a natural marble sliced into thin sheets 1/4" thick, reinforced with a coating of epoxy and glass fibers, and cut into standard sizes 1.times.2, 2.times.2 and 2.times.4. Marble Technics, Ltd., of New York, a distributor of this product, describes "ISO Marble" as an extension of the GL Marble technology wherein full size sheets of GL Marble are laminated as a facing of a sandwich panel whose core is a non-combustible vermiculite board with a backing of 1 mm bonderized steel. These types of products have the disadvantage that the thermal expansion coefficients of the marble and fiberglass backing are not matched.
Therefore, it is still desired to provide a tile product the appearance of which is equivalent to ordinary marble slab, but is lighter in weight and higher in strength than ordinary marble and presently available marble products.
It is also desired to provide an efficient method of manufacturing such a tile product.

Method for producing a laminated tile product


Provided is an iron-based soft magnetic powder for dust core having a less coercive force, which is obtained by specifying the amount of inclusions in the iron-based powder for dust core, and at the same time, capable of decreasing the coercive force of a dust core produced using the iron-based soft magnetic powder. The iron-based soft magnetic powder for dust core is characterized by that when the cross-section of the iron-based soft magnetic powder particle is observed with a scanning electron microscope, the number of inclusions having an equivalent circle diameter from 0.1 to 3 μm is 1×104 pieces/mm2 or less and the number of inclusions having an equivalent circle diameter exceeding 3 μm is 10 pieces/mm2 or less.

As a magnetic core (core material) for electromagnetic parts (such as motors) to be used with an alternating current, a stack of electrical steel sheets (electromagnetic steel plate) such as electromagnetic soft iron or silicon steel plate were used conventionally. However, they have recently been replaced by a dust core produced by compacting an iron-based soft magnetic powder and then subjecting the resulting green compact to stress relief annealing. Compaction molding of an iron-based powder increases the degree of freedom for designing the shape of a dust core, thereby facilitating production of a core having even a three-dimensional shape. It therefore enables miniaturization or weight reduction of cores compared with those obtained by stacking electromagnetic steel sheets.
Compared with a stacked core obtained by stacking electromagnetic steel sheets, a dust core produced by compacting an iron-based powder has a low iron loss, for example, at a high frequency bandwidth of 1 kHz or more, but is likely to have a more iron loss than that of a stacked core under driving conditions under which a motor is in operation (for example, at a drive frequency of a few 10 Hz to 1 kHz and a flux density of 1 T (Tesla) or more). This iron loss (that is, an energy loss upon magnetic conversion) is known to be expressed by the sum of a hysteresis loss and an eddy current loss, provided that the range is where changes in magnetic flux inside the material are not accompanied by relaxation phenomena (magnetic resonance, etc.) (refer to, for example, SEI TECHNICAL REVIEW NO. 166, published by Sumitomo Electric Industries, March, pp. 1-6(2005) (Non-patent Document 1)).
The hysteresis loss is thought to correspond to the area of a B-H (flux density—magnetic field) curve. Factors having an influence on the shape of this B-H curve and governing the hysteresis loss include, for example, a coercive force of a dust core (loop width of the B-H curve) and the maximum flux density. Since the hysteresis loss is proportionate to a coercive force, it is only necessary to decrease the coercive force in order to decrease the hysteresis loss.
The eddy current loss is, on the other hand, the Joule loss of an induced current accompanying the electromotive force produced due to electromagnetic induction in response to changes in the magnetic field. This eddy current loss is thought to be proportionate to the speed of an electromagnetic field change, that is, the square of the frequency. The smaller the electrical resistance of a dust core or the greater the area where an eddy current flows, the greater the eddy current loss. This eddy current can be roughly classified into an in-particle eddy current flowing inside individual iron-based powder particles and an inter-particle eddy current flowing between ion-based powder particles. If the individual iron-based powder particles are completely insulated therebetween, no inter-particle eddy current is produced and an eddy current consists only of in-particle eddy current, leading to a decrease in an eddy current loss.
In the iron loss, the hysteresis loss is usually dominant to the eddy current loss at a low frequency bandwidth (for example, from a few 10 Hz to 1 kHz) at which a motor is in operation so that a decrease in hysteresis loss is required. Stress relief annealing performed typically after compaction releases strain introduced upon compaction, leading to a decrease in iron loss, particularly, a hysteresis loss. But, stress relief annealing cannot reduce the hysteresis loss without limitation so that a further device for decreasing the hysteresis loss is required.
The Non-patent Document 1 discloses a technology for providing a magnetic powder with low coercive force by enhancing purity and decreasing in-particle strain as a technology for further decreasing the hysteresis loss of a dust core. This Non-Patent Document 1 also discloses improvement in properties, paying attention to effects produced by the improvement of an insulating film for providing a green compact with an increased density, increased electrical resistance, and improved heat resistance. This technology does not however include a consideration on the form of impurities in an iron-based powder. In addition, this technology lacks versatility, because it is necessary to use a high-purity iron-based powder obtained by reducing the impurity content inevitably contained therein and commercially available iron-based powders are not suited for use.
In Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2010-10673, disclosed is, as a controlling technology of the form of impurities in the iron-based powder, that is, an inclusion/precipitate, a technology of controlling the composition and dimension of the precipitate, enlarging the precipitate, and thereby improving the magnetic properties. Described specifically, the magnetic properties are improved by precipitating particles composed mainly of oxygen and at least one element selected from the group consisting of Nb, Ta, Ti, Zr, and V and having an average particle size of 0.02 μm or more but not more than 0.5 μm, taking out gas impurities such as O, C, and N from a parent phase of a Fe powder, and thereby cleaning the iron-based powder. This technology has a limit in improving the magnetic properties because it is a technology of producing a precipitate/inclusion that deteriorates magnetic properties.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 139739/1999 proposes a technology of providing a dust core having improved magnetic properties when used under DC magnetization conditions by specifying the chemical component composition of pure iron and an area ratio of non-metallic inclusions. In this technology, the area ratio (dA+dB+dC) of non-metallic inclusions, which is specified in JIS-G0555, is defined as 0.1% or less. This document refers only to the control of an area ratio of inclusions but not to the influence of the dimension of inclusion particles, which is not sufficient for decreasing an iron loss. In addition, use of a dust core only under DC magnetization conditions is assumed in this document so that the above-described improving technology cannot be applied to a dust core used under AC magnetization conditions.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2007-92162, on the other hand, proposes a technology of providing a dust core having improved magnetic properties by controlling an impurity content in iron powder, the number of crystal grains, hardness, and the like. It is disclosed in this technology that a dust core can have improved magnetic properties by controlling the number of Si-containing inclusions having a size of 50 nm or more to 70% or more of the total number of Si-containing inclusions. In this technology, the dust core having improved properties can be obtained by controlling the size and composition of the inclusions. Existence of inclusions however limits the improvement of magnetic properties. Moreover, when the number of inclusions is great, the above-described technology is presumed to fail to produce an improving effect of magnetic properties.
Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication (Translation of PCT Application) No. 2007-505216 discloses a technology of providing a dust core having a low iron loss by specifying an impurity content, an oxygen content, and a specific surface area, as measured by a BET method, of annealed iron powders. This technology proposes an annealing treatment for reducing the oxygen content of the iron powder, but no consideration is given to inclusions. It is therefore presumed that this technology fails to have an improving effect of magnetic properties due to the influence of inclusions.

Iron-based soft magnetic powder for dust core, preparation process thereof, and dust core