The present invention provides a touch-sensitive apparatus and a method for determining a coordinate position in response to a proximity detection for the touch-sensitive apparatus. The method comprises the steps of: evaluating a plurality of designed measurement modes by measuring noise over a plurality of measurement cycles when a proximity event on the touch-sensitive apparatus has been detected; selecting an optimal measurement mode from the plurality of designed measurement modes; assigning the optimal measurement mode to be a working measurement mode; performing the proximity detection for the touch-sensitive apparatus in use of the working measurement mode; and calculating the coordinates of the touched position based on results obtained with the working measurement mode.

A touch-sensitive screen enables the users to interact directly with what is displayed, and it becomes a popular user interface and is used widely in a variety of applications including automotive, aviation, marine, and consumer electronic applications, e.g. smartphone, tablet PC etc. There are a variety of touchscreen technologies that have different methods of sensing touch, including but not limited to, resistive type, surface capacitive type, projected capacitive type, infrared type, surface acoustic wave, and so on.
General speaking, mostly the methods of sensing touch are more or less susceptible to outside electromagnetic interference except the sensing touch methods of infrared and surface acoustic wave. While the present invention will be described in conjunction with a capacitive touch-sensitive apparatus, it will be understood that the descriptions are not intended to limit the present invention to this kind of touch sensing apparatus. On the contrary, a touch-sensitive apparatus using other types of touch sensing may apply the spirit of the present invention.
The sensing principle of projected capacitive touch apparatus are operated by measuring tiny changes in capacitance on an electrode due to a proximity or a touch (hereinafter called "proximity") upon a touch apparatus caused by a human fingers or other objects. While electronic products are increasingly used in modern life, the effect of electromagnetic noise radiated by those electronic products is of growing concern. The interference voltages are coupled capacitively from electromagnetic noise sources that are both internal and external to the projective capacitive touch device. These interference voltages cause charge movement within the projected capacitive touch apparatus, which may be confused with the measured charge movement due to proximity upon the touch apparatus by a human fingers or other objects. The probability of identifying false touches by a touch control system of a projective capacitive touch screen will increase especially when the operating frequency of the projected capacitive touch apparatus is quite close to that of undesired electromagnetic noise.
FIG. 1 is a sinusoidal waveform diagram illustrating external electromagnetic waves in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 1, there are two example waveforms 110 and 102 which are sinusoidal noise with distinct frequency and amplitude. The interference voltages are coupled capacitively from electromagnetic noise sources 110 and/or 102 to a projective capacitive touch device during a proximity event caused by a user. For the projective capacitive touch device, the electromagnetic noise sources 110 and/or 102 are unknown. In other words, it is difficult to anticipate for the touch control system of the projective capacitive touch about the measured charge variation how much amount coupled from electromagnetic noise sources 110 and/or 102.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art about a proximity detection method, a touch-sensitive control device, and a touch sensitive apparatus against external electromagnetic interference, especially sinusoidal noise, to improve accuracy of proximity detection operation.

Handling of electromagnetic interference in an electronic apparatus


An information providing system for vehicles includes: a first information center; a second information center; and an on-vehicle apparatus. The first information center includes a voice line to be used by an operator, an information search device that executes a search for facility information from a telephone directory data recording device, and a data transmission device that transmits the facility information obtained through the search executed by the information search device. The second information center includes a position search device that executes a search for position data corresponding to the facility information transmitted from the first information center, from a position data recording device, and a data line. The on-vehicle apparatus includes a communication device that obtains the facility information provided as a voice message from the first information center via the voice line and obtains the position data from the second information center via the data line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information providing system that provides information to a vehicle via a communication network
2. Description of the Related Art
There is an information providing system in the known art through which a mobile station such as a vehicle obtains useful information from an information center operating as an information provider by engaging in communication with the information center (see Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. H 11-160077). In the information providing system disclosed in Japanese Laid Open Patent Publication No. H 11-160077, an information acquisition apparatus installed in the vehicle obtains information provided by the information center via a portable telephone.


According to the present invention, a first circuit is used to detect a positive voltage transition on a signal line. A second circuit is used to detect a negative voltage transition on the signal line. Upon detecting a transition, the first circuit will drive the signal line high. The second circuit pulls the line to ground after sensing a negative voltage transition. A delay circuit determines the time period in which the first or second circuit is connected to the signal line.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to integrated circuit devices, and more specifically to enhancing a signal on a long line or distributed line within the integrated circuit.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In the drive to increase miniaturization on integrated circuits, signal lines are made longer and thinner. This change in signal line geometry has increased the resistance and capacitance on these signal lines. This increase in resistance and capacitance results in the slowing down and degradation of signals sent on the lines. Consequently, sending a signal from one end of the chip to the other has become a limitation on the performance of the circuits.
To improve the signals sent on long or distributed lines in an integrated circuit, a series of inverters are typically added at the midpoint of the line. These series of inverters are known in the art as repeaters. The use of repeaters generally results in reducing the degradation of a signal sent on a long or a distributed line. The repeaters, however, also have the undesirable affect of significantly delaying the signal.
Therefore, it would be desirable to provide a method for eliminating the degradation of a signal sent on a long or a distributed line, without significantly delaying the signal.

Signal line pulse enhancing circuit for integrated circuits


A process for producing an activated carbon fiber molding is disclosed which comprises spinning an isotropic pitch to thereby obtain pitch fibers, infusibilizing the pitch fibers to thereby obtain infusibilized fibers, heating the infusibilized fibers under a mechanical load to thereby obtain a molding and activating the molding. In this process, the infusibilized fibers and/or infusibilized fibers molding may be heated in an inert atmosphere so as to effect a light carbonization thereof and thereafter subjected to the subsequent step of the process. The pitch-based porous activated carbon fiber molding obtained by this process has a strikingly high bulk density and can sufficiently exhibit the specific properties of the activated carbon fiber, e.g. a large specific surface area, to thereby have a high adsorption efficiency.

Granular activated carbons and activated carbon fibers are known as exhibiting adsorptivity and desorptivity for various substances. In particular, the activated carbon fiber is fibrous and utilized as it is or molded into appropriate form before use. The activated carbon fiber is widely used in various adsorptive materials such as an adsorbent, a water purifier, a deodorant and a deodorizing filter, a catalyst carrier, etc.
The known activated carbon fibers include not only organic activated carbon fibers prepared from rayon, polyacrylonitrile, phenolic resin and the like as starting materials but also pitch-based activated carbon fibers obtained by spinning pitch, for example, an optically isotropic pitch to thereby obtain pitch fibers, infusibilizing the pitch fibers and carbonizing/activating the infusibilized fibers.
It is believed that the pore structure, pore size, pore density and/or pore distribution of the activated carbon fiber is a factor of utmost importance for causing the activated carbon fiber to possess such a large specific surface area that the adsorptive and desorptive functions of the activated carbon fiber are fully exerted. Accordingly, with respect to the production of the activated carbon fiber from an optically isotropic pitch, various proposals have been made regarding the regulation of conditions in the production of the optically isotropic pitch, in the spinning and infusibilization of the pitch fiber in the carbonization and activation. In this connection, reference is made to Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 61(1986)-295218, 5(1993)-209322, 6(1994)-17321, 6(1994)-272117, 6(1994)-272118, 6(1994)-306710 and 7(1995)-145516.
However, the conventional activated carbon fiber has the problem that its bulk density is too low to make total amount of adsorbed substances sufficiently high even if its adsorbing amount of substances per weight is high with the result that the adsorptive capacity of the activated carbon fiber cannot be fully utilized.
Thus, molding of the activated carbon fibers with the use of a binder or the like has been tried for improving the packing density of the activated carbon fibers. However, the resultant molded article of activated carbon fibers suffer from deterioration of the adsorptivity of the activated carbon fibers per se because of, for example, the clogging of pores of the activated carbon fibers by the binder or the like, so that a high adsorptivity cannot be attained.
The inventors have made extensive and intensive studies in these current circumstances. As a result, it has been found that, in the process for producing the activated carbon fibers from the optically isotropic pitch, the desired activated carbon fiber molding of high bulk density can be provided by shaping the infusibilized fibers under a load and activating the shaped fibers. The present invention has been completed on the basis of the above finding.

Process for producing activated carbon fiber molding and activated carbon fiber molding


A power transmission device including a planetary gear, a differential gear and a differential case. The planetary gear includes a carrier, and pinion gears supported by pinion shafts. The differential gear includes a pair of bevel gears supported by a bevel gear shaft, and side gears engaged with the bevel gears. The carrier defines pinion shaft insertion holes in which pinion shafts are respectively inserted. The differential case defines bevel gear shaft insertion holes in which the bevel gear shaft is inserted. A straight line that penetrates the bevel gear shaft insertion holes overlaps with the pinion shaft insertion holes in a circumferential direction, and the bevel gear shaft passes through a center of a circle that connects the pinion shaft insertion holes. When viewed along an axial direction, the pinion shafts do not overlap the side gears, with the side gears being arranged radially inwardly than the pinion shafts.

In Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2013-221566, Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2016-89860, and Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2018-103676, disclosed is a power transmission device.
The power transmission device of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2013-221566 has three rotation axes that are involved in rotation transmission aligned in parallel, and the size easily increases in the vertical direction (gravity direction) (hereafter called the "3-axis type").
In the power transmission device of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2016-89860, a rotor of a motor is a hollow shaft, and a drive shaft penetrates the interior of this hollow shaft. For that reason, compared to the 3-axis type, it is possible to reduce the size in the vertical direction, but due to placement of a large counter gear, it ends up increasing in size in the vertical direction (hereafter called the "2-axis type").
In the power transmission device of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2018-103676, rather than the counter gear, a planetary reduction gear having a stepped pinion is used, and compared to the 2-axis type, it is possible to reduce the size in the vertical direction (hereafter called the "1-axis type").
The output element of the planetary reduction gear of the 1-axis type of Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 2018-103676 is a ring gear, but it is also possible to have the output element be a carrier.


A system for prevention of hydrate formation has a manifold, a production piping communicating with the manifold, a chemical injection line positioned in heat exchange relationship along the production piping, and a fluid delivery system connected to the chemical injection line for passing a heated fluid through at least a portion of the chemical injection line. The chemical injection line has a first portion affixed to a surface of the production piping and a second portion extending outwardly therefrom. The fluid delivery system is in communication with the second portion of the chemical injection line. The chemical injection line extends in a U-shaped pattern or in a spiral pattern around an outer surface of the production piping.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to subsea hydrocarbon production. More particularly, the present invention relates to chemical injection piping as used in such subsea applications. Additionally, the present invention relates to a system for routing the chemical injection piping for the purpose of preventing hydrate formation in such chemical injection lines.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 37 CFR 1.98
In the art and science of recovering hydrocarbons for reservoirs beneath water, such as offshore drilling platforms and other subsea operations, it is necessary to inject chemicals into the well, wellbore, and manifolds associated therewith. Such treatment chemicals may include, but are not necessarily limited to, corrosion inhibitors, scale inhibitors, paraffin inhibitors, hydrate inhibitors, demulsifiers, and mixtures thereof. Chemical injection piping is also used in such offshore subsea applications to deliver a specific chemical to piping in subsea trees, manifolds and/or jumpers. Periodically, this chemical injection piping experiences blockages that prohibit the operator from delivering the specific chemicals. These blockages occur when produced hydrocarbons contaminate the chemical injection piping and create hydrates and/or precipitate blockages.
Whenever such blockages occur, extensive remediation efforts are required. In certain circumstances, heating elements are applied around such chemical injection piping so as to elevate the temperature of the hydrate so as to remove the blockages. The application of heat in these areas is a time consuming and difficult operation. In other circumstances, these heating techniques are ineffective in removing the blockages.
Importantly, most of the chemical injection piping extends away from the production piping associated with the manifold in such offshore subsea applications. The extension of such chemical injection piping through the cold temperature of the water associated with such offshore subsea applications will create further difficulties with hydrate formation. Often, the chemicals will need to be pumped at an elevated rate in order to avoid hydrate formation. This pressure may be in excess of the requirements necessary for effectively operating the system.
In other circumstances, the chemical injection piping will need to be removed and replaced in order to effectively remove the blockages. Under such circumstances, the production of hydrocarbons is stopped so that the repair operations can occur. This is a very costly problem for the operator of the well. As such, a need has developed so as to effectively prevent hydrate formation and blockages in chemical injection piping associated with the offshore subsea applications.
In the past, various patents have been issued relating to chemical injection piping. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,901,968, issued on Jun. 7, 2005 to F. H. Thomson, teaches a fluid conduit for use in the transportation of chemicals in such subsea offshore applications. The conduit comprises a flexible fluid hose encapsulated by at least one metallized layer which is formed and arranged to minimize permeation of a fluid being transported in the fluid hose. The fluid hoses have differing levels of encapsulation and, thereby permeation, along a given length according to the operational requirements of the fluid conduit/umbilical.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,663,361, issued on Dec. 16, 2003 to Kohl et al., teaches a chemical injection pump for injecting chemicals into a subsea system at depths up to 10,000 feet. The pump generates low pressures and low fluid volumes.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,979,296, issued on Dec. 25, 1990 to Langner et al., shows a flowline bundle that is twisted or braided into a permanent rope-like helical configuration. The helical flowline bundle includes a pipe twist head and a series of pipe tumblers alternating with intermediate pipe supports. The apparatus rotates and translates part of a flowline bundle while simply translating the other part.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,458,691, issued on Oct. 17, 1995 to C. K. Daniels, shows a method and apparatus for flushing fluid through the interstices of subsea umbilicals. A housing is installed in an opened end of the core with the flushing fluid introduced therein, the core elements pass through the housing. In a free-flooding umbilical installation, the flushing fluid may be gravity drained from the top of the umbilical. In other applications, the flushing fluid may be introduced under pressure.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,745,838, issued on Jun. 8, 2004 R. R. Watson, shows a chemical injection system and method for multiple wells so as to control the distribution of chemical fluid from a supply conduit into an individual petroleum well at an adjustable rate. The system includes a remotely operated two position control valve connected to the supply conduit. A cylinder having a cylinder bore with first input-output port, and a second input-output port is also provided. A fluid barrier is located within the cylinder bore such that chemical fluid flows from the supply conduit through the control valve to one end of the cylinder bore and forces the barrier to displace a fixed volume of fluid. Each operation of the directional control valve reverses travel direction of the barrier within the cylinder bore and injects another fixed quantity of fluid into the well.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a system for preventing hydrate formation in chemical injection piping.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system that is simple to manufacture and easy to install.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a system which effectively traps unwanted hydrocarbons by creating high and low points in the chemical injection piping.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a system that can effectively remediate the effects of any blockages that occur in the chemical injection piping
These and other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from a reading of the attached specification and appended claims.

System for preventing hydrate formation in chemical injection piping for subsea hydrocarbon production


The invention concerns the antistatic processing of photographic products. The process of the invention comprises applying an antistatic composition to the edge of a film reel. The antistatic composition may comprise an aqueous solution of an polymeric aluminosilicate. The invention has application to the improvement of antistatic characteristics during the photographic processing and printing of cinematographic films.

Typically, a silver halide photographic element, after exposure, is developed, fixed, washed and dried. In the development step, the latent image formed by the exposure of the photosensitive silver halides is converted into a visible image. In the fixing step the undeveloped silver halides are washed out. In the case of an element for color photography, the exposed element is color developed and the processing also comprises a bleaching step in which the developed silver is eliminated, so that the processed element contains no more than a dye image. The bleaching and fixing steps can be combined in a single bleaching/fixing step. In practice, the element to be processed is in the form of a strip of film which, from a feed reel, is transported successively by means of conveying rollers through processing tanks containing respectively developing, bleaching, fixing, stabilizing, stop and washing solutions.
In the case of the printing and photographic processing of motion picture films, it is necessary to circulate at speeds which are sometimes high (several thousands of meters per hour), hundred of meters of film delivered by storage or feed reels or "coils"having a diameter ranging up to 50 cm or more. These large quantities, large-diameter coils and high feed rates give rise to tensions and friction which are themselves responsible for the formation of static electricity. The accumulation of the static charges is responsible for the attraction and accumulation of dust on the surface of the film. This is prejudicial to the quality of the surface state of the film when the latter is subjected to mechanical stresses during reprinting and copying. In addition, when handling the coils, this accumulation of charges can cause an electrical discharge, and produce a spark causing fog on the exposed film, if this incident occurs before development.
This phenomenon of the accumulation of charges, known as electrostatic charging, is well known in photography. A very large number of antistatic substances have been tried for reducing electrostatic charging and its effects. Such substances are described in Research Disclosure, September 1994, Photographic Silver Halide Emulsions, Preparations, Addenda, Systems and Processing, IX-C, page 520.
In photography, antistatic substances must obviously help to reduce the electrostatic charges, including in a dry atmosphere. On the other hand, they must not interfere with the other constituents of the photographic material or with the substances acting during photographic processing. Different antistatic agents are known and can be used during the manufacture of a photographic film. However, at the time of development and use of the developed film, protection by the antistatic agents initially incorporated during the manufacturing of the film has become insufficient in the majority of cases and, in particular, in the case of motion picture films.
The object of the present invention is a method for solving these problems by providing improved antistatic protection for a photographic film at the time of its processing.

Method for the antistatic processing of a photographic film


The present invention provides an electronic cigarette box including a box body. The box body dispose cigarette slot for accommodating an electronic cigarette and an ejecting device to eject the electronic cigarette. The ejecting device includes an ejecting mechanism and a lever mechanism. The ejecting device is disposed at a lower end of the cigarette slot along an in-and-out direction of the electronic cigarette and resists between the electronic cigarette and the box body. The lever mechanism and the ejecting mechanism are correspondingly and engagingly disposed. The electronic cigarette is capable of being inserted into the cigarette slot for storage or ejected out from the cigarette slot for use repeatedly.

Generally, the existing electronic cigarette box is composed of two components, a box body and a cover body. Inside the box body disposes a cigarette slot, and electronic cigarettes are placed in the cigarette slot. When users need to smoke, open the cover body firstly, then take out electronic cigarette. Because a nozzle of the electronic cigarette is usually located at an opening of the cigarette slot, users need to directly clamp the nozzle by finger to take out electronic cigarette, causing the nozzle pollution and unsanitary use. In addition, since the arrangement space between the electronic cigarettes is very small, it makes the electronic cigarette not easy to be removed, and the extraction of the electronic cigarette is not convenient.

HUIZHOU KIMREE TECHNOLOGY CO., LTD., SHENZHEN BRANCH


Missing intensity values for color values for a color component array derived from a color filter array are predicted using the system and method of the present invention. The method uses predictor sets for each missing intensity value to select a best value for each missing intensity value. The predictor sets include a luminance predictor set, a first chrominance predictor set and a second chrominance predictor set. The member predictors of the luminance predictor set are selected in response to a comparison between a variance between neighboring luminance values and a predetermined threshold. The first chrominance set is used to predict chrominance values of a color type at locations where a chrominance value of another color type was originally stored. The second chrominance set is used to predict chrominance values of a color type at locations where a luminance value was originally stored. Preferably, the member elements of the predictor sets are ranked and the median values selected as the missing intensity value.

In many high-end digital cameras, a light beam is partitioned by a beam splitter into three component single color beams. Each component beam strikes a light sensor array such as a charge-coupled device (light sensor array) or Complementary Metal Oxide Semi-conductor (CMOS) sensor. These light sensors are typically comprised of hundreds of thousands of photo sensitive sensor elements. Each sensor element senses the intensity of the colored light striking it. The greater the intensity of the incoming light, the greater the resulting charge on that sensor element. These individual charges are converted into electrical signals which are further converted and encoded into digital data. The digital data is combined such that each pixel location of the resulting image includes a red, green and blue value.
Lower-end digital cameras use a single light sensor-array in conjunction with a color filter array (CFA). The image light passes through conventional optics and is directed onto a CFA, which can be a coating on the light sensor array or separate from the light sensor array. The CFA comprises an array of discrete color filter elements, each corresponding to a sensor element of the light sensor array. Each discrete color filter element filters all light except one color. Each filter element for a typical CFA normally allows one of three colors through. The most common CFA systems are red-green-blue ("RGB") and magenta-green-cyan-yellow ("Mg-G-Cy-Y"). Thus, a light sensor array sensor element aligned to receive light filtered by a red color filter element of the CFA, generates an intensity signal proportional to the red light in the polychromatic light incident on the filter element. Traditionally, a CFA includes more luminance filter elements (e.g., green in an RGB system) than chrominance filter elements (e.g. red or blue in an RGB system). Luminance is sampled at a greater frequency as the human eye is more sensitive to luminance than chrominance information.
The data collected by a single light sensor array system is sparsely sampled because each sensor element only senses one color wavelength and not all three. The data collected by a single light sensor array system can be thought of as three partially populated component color arrays, each array including all information received for a single color by the light sensor array. To generate a complete color image, a value for each location in each color component array is required.
Known interpolation methods (e.g., bilinear or cubic spline) exist that may be used to complete component color arrays for a color image. An improvement over the bilinear method is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,976 to Hibbard (the "'976 Patent"). That patent is directed to the interpolation of array elements for a high frequency color component array. As is well known, the green color components of an RGB color component system, which are sometimes referred to as the luminance components, are thought to be the color component to which the human eye is most sensitive. This sensitivity means that the human eye discerns most of the detail in an image from the green color component or luminance of an image. So that a light sensor array captures detail to which the human eye responds, most CFAs include at least twice as many green or luminance color filter elements as other color filter elements.
The interpolation technique of the '976 Patent generates green or luminance intensity values for those array elements in the green component array which did not receive a green intensity value. The technique of that patent uses gradients to select the existing luminance values in the vicinity of array elements for which a value is to be interpolated. The selected luminance values are then used to generate a luminance value for the missing array element. The completed luminance array and the existing chrominance values in the other color component arrays are used to interpolate array element intensity values for the color components other than green.
While the technique disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,976 improves the image quality over those derived using the bilinear interpolation method alone, artifacts still result in images generated from this method. In particular, color artifacts arise when use of a gradient results in an interpolated value for a green array element which is lower than it should be to accurately represent the image and the corresponding red or blue component improperly dominates the composite color image. This may be particularly noticeable at edges where an array element should be included in a horizontal or vertical edge but the bilinear interpolations for the elements of the chroma color component array includes intensities in both the horizontal and vertical directions.
Other variations of the bilinear method are used to predict missing pixel intensity values. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,630,307 to Cok (the "'678 Patent") discloses a method of interpolation in which a median of four neighboring values is used if the value is located at an edge. Otherwise, the missing array element is interpolated using a median of those values and a clip function. The values used for the clip function depend upon the particular pattern to which the missing pixel location belongs. While this method improves pixel interpolation for some array elements, especially those located at some edges, the resulting images are still subject to color artifacts.
What is needed is a method and apparatus for predicting values to complete partially populated single color arrays without generating numerous color artifacts.

Method and system for color filter array multifactor interpolation


An oven comprises a housing or structure presenting a plurality of inner walls and outer walls, the inner walls defining an oven cavity in which means are provided for cooking foods, the means comprising a grill for browning the foods, the oven also comprising a door for closing the cavity. At least one aperture is present in at least one of the walls of the oven cavity, or in the door, for selective connection to the environment external to the oven, such as to interceptably introduce fresh ambient air into the cavity, controllable interceptor means being provided at the aperture to enable this selectivity in introducing the ambient air into the cavity.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an oven in accordance with the introduction to the main claim.
The heating elements positioned in the oven cavity tend to heat both the cavity walls and each item positioned therein by heat transfer by natural convection, by forced convection using a cooking fan, or by irradiation. Heat convection is by heat transfer from the heating elements and from the heated physical parts of the oven to the air present within the oven cavity, and optionally by the operation of a cooking fan. Heat irradiation is by the infrared radiation emitted by the heating surfaces and heated surfaces towards the cooler surfaces, for example those of the food.
The cabinet in which the oven is installed is cooled by a cabinet cooling fan, external to the cavity.
That heat portion transferred by irradiation is more effective for food browning or grilling than that due to convection. In particular, irradiation enables the heat to penetrate less into the food than the heat transmitted by convection, but facilitates surface browning of the food relative to its degree of internal cooking.
2. Description of the Related Art
A drawback of known cooking methods is that a food placed in the oven cavity can exceed the point of optimum internal cooking, reached on termination of the cooking process, if it remains in the closed cavity after deactivation of the heating elements present therein.
Moreover, after removal of the food from the oven cavity, this latter remains hot for a considerable time period. This condition prevents rapid cleaning of the oven by the user. The condition also delays use of the oven for preparing another food if this requires cooking temperatures less than those used in the previous cooking/cleaning process.
There is also the problem that if the oven has been switched off but its cavity and closure door are still hot, persons, in particular children, can suffer burns if they come into contact with it even several minutes after switch-off.
The state of the art also comprises ovens in which a condensate exit stack is present, connected between the cavity and the cabinet cooling system (in particular, the ventilation channel), this stack conveying the now heated cooling air to the outside of the oven. A movable closure device is provided on this stack. Such ovens do not enable fresh air to be withdrawn and fed into the oven, i.e. taken directly from the environment outside the oven, as the air flow flows only towards the outside of the cavity (normally entrained by the venturi effect); this flow is in the form of air which is not fresh as it has already been used to cool the cabinet.

Oven provided with aperture for air entry into its cavity


The present invention encompasses methods of using fexinidazole to treat and eliminate and/or cure L. infantum infections in canines.

Leishmania is a genus of Trypanosomatid protozoa, and is the parasite responsible for the disease leishmaniosis which is a major and severe parasitic disease that affects humans, canines, and to a lesser degree, felines. Leishmania species are spread through sandflies of the genus Phlebotomus in the Old World and of the genus Lutzomyia in the New World. In humans, there are several forms of the disease named by their clinical presentation including cutaneous, mucocutaneous or visceral leishmaniosis caused by a variety of species of Leishmania. The predominant cause of canine leishmaniosis is L. infantum (sometimes referred to as L. chagasi in New World) which causes both visceral and cutaneous forms in dogs and the clinical distinction of the form of disease is less important. L. infantum is a cause for all forms of disease in humans and dogs serve as the primary reservoir for human infections caused by this species (Baneth G et al). L. infantum is widely distributed in temperate and subtropical countries of Southern Europe, Africa, Asia, South America and Central America, and the incidence of L. infantum is expanding geographically (Dantas-Torres F et al., 2012, Baneth G et al., Peterson CA et a/.2009, Ready PD et al., Miro G et al. 2010).
Canine leishmaniosis is a slowly progressive disease that can take years to become clinically apparent (McConkey S E et al., 2002). Signs are frequently non-specific and diagnosis in non-endemic regions is often overlooked. Some dogs appear naturally resistant to this parasite and can act as asymptomatic reservoir hosts (Grosjean N L et al., 2003). Approximately 10% of dogs residing in endemic areas actually develop clinical disease (Lindsay D S et al., 2002). Some of the more frequently reported clinical signs of leishmaniosis include skin lesions, listlessness, fatigue and exercise intolerance coupled with anorexia and weight loss that eventually culminate as wasting disease with chronic renal failure as the main cause of mortality (McConkey S E et al.; Solano-Gallego L et al). These signs may or may not be accompanied by fever, local or generalized lymphadenopathy, and hepatosplenomegaly (Grosjean N L et al., 2003; Lindsay D S et al., McConkey S E et al.; Martinez-Subiela S et al., 2002). Articular involvement is also fairly common and may present as lameness with swollen joints or simply as a stiff gait. Less common findings include ocular lesions (<5%), chronic diarrhea (30%) and long, deformed brittle nails (20%) referred to as onychogryphosis (Lindsay D S et al., Slappendel R J et al.).
Currently there are three drugs specifically approved for the treatment of canine leishmaniosis in Europe: N-methyl-glucamine (meglumine) antimoniate (GLUCANTIME®, Merial), miltefosine (MILTEFORAN®, Virbac), and domperidone (LEISHGUARD®, Esteve, Spain). The most commonly recommended treatment protocols for dogs with clinical leishmaniosis by European veterinary groups are meglumine antimoniate or miltefosine in combination with allopurinol, a xanthine oxidase inhibitor with anti-leishmania properties (Oliva G et al., Solano-Gallego L et al.). Domperidone is an antidopaminergic compound that has been demonstrated to enhance the cell mediated immune response to leishmania infection in dogs. Even in combination with allopurinol, both meglumine antimoniate and miltefosine do not result in a parasitologic cure 100% of the time, and relapse of disease is common (Mana L et al., Mateo M. et al., Solano-Gallego L et al., Oliva G et al.) Domperidone is indicated for the prevention or treatment of mild to moderate cases of canine leishmaniosis and its use in combination therapies is under investigation (Solano-Gallego L et al.). In addition to the inability to produce a parasitologic cure, all of the recommended treatment protocols are associated with significant side effects: meglumine antimoniate is associated with nephrotoxicity and cellulitis at the injection site, miltefosine is associated with vomiting and diarrhea, and allopurinol can induce xanthine urolithiasis (Solano-Gallego L et al.).
Mass detection of seropositive dogs followed by culling and/or drug treatment or the mass application of deltamethrin-impregnated collars were shown to have an impact in reducing human and canine leishmaniosis prevalence in endemic areas of Southern Europe, Africa, and Asia (Maroli et al., 2001; Mazloumi Gavgani A. S. et al., 2002), although the efficacy of eliminating seropositive canines has been debated (Dietze R et al., 1997; Moreira Jr. et al., 2004). These control measures are either considered unacceptable, expensive or not effective (Gradoni L. et al., 2005). Encouragingly, Susan Wyllie (Sci Transl. Med 4, 119, 2012) recently reported fexinidazole was able to suppress infection due to L. donovani infection (leishmania species affecting humans). However, it is not known whether the drug will work against the predominantly canine leishmania strain, L. infantum, nor is it known whether complete elimination (also referred to herein as "curing") of canine leishmaniosis infection is possible. "Elimination" or "curing" is deemed to be "substantially complete" if the leishmaniosis clinical symptoms do not return after drug treatment (post-drug treatment re-exposure to the parasites notwithstanding). Moreover, the mouse model does not faithfully recapitulate canine Leishmania infection. For example, mice show no clinical signs and do not die from parasite, whereas dogs do. Thus, a skilled person cannot, with any certainty, expect that a treatment method capable of reducing the number of L. donovani parasites in mice, will also prevent clinical signs and death—caused by L. infantum—in a dog. Adding to the uncertainty is that Leishmania parasites are notoriously resistant to drug treatment, and many drugs useful in combating other diseases (including diseases caused by related protozoans) are not efficacious against Leishmania. For example, Leishmania parasites are well-known to reduce drug concentration by both decreasing drug uptake and by increasing drug efflux/sequestration (Haldar, 2011). Finally, anti-leishmaniosis drugs are extremely toxic, and thus poorly tolerated by humans and non-human animals alike.
Thus, there remains a need for effective and efficient methods of eradicating or curing leishmania infections.

Method for treating and curing leishmaniosis using fexinidazole


A method for carrying out the continuous polymerization of a monomer in a carbon dioxide reaction medium comprises the steps of: (a) providing an apparatus including a continuous reaction vessel and a separator; (b) carrying out a polymerization reaction in the reaction vessel by combining a monomer and a carbon dioxide reaction medium therein (and preferably by also combining an initiator therein), wherein the reaction medium is a liquid or supercritical fluid, and wherein the reaction produces a solid polymer product in the reaction vessel; then (c) withdrawing a continuous effluent stream from the reaction vessel during the polymerization reaction, wherein the effluent stream is maintained as a liquid or supercritical fluid; then (d) passing the continuous effluent stream through the separator and separating the solid polymer therefrom while maintaining at least a portion of the effluent stream as a liquid or supercritical fluid; and then (e) returning at least a portion of the continuous effluent stream to the reaction vessel while maintaining the effluent stream as a liquid or supercritical fluid. The need for significant recompression of the continuous effluent stream prior to return to the reaction vessel is thereby minimized. Apparatus for carrying out such methods is also disclosed.

Increased environmental concerns and regulations over the use of volatile organic compounds (VOCs) since the late 1980s (e.g. Montreal Protocol in 1987 and the Clean Air Act amendments in 1990) have caused considerable effort being put into finding environmentally benign solvents for industrial use (McHugh, M. A. and V. J. Krukonis, Supercritical Fluid Extraction: Principles and Practice. Second ed, ed. H. Brenner. 1994, Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann). DeSimone et al. at the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill have shown that supercritical carbon dioxide (scCO2) is a viable and promising alternative solvent (Tc=31.8° C., Pc=76 bar) to perform free-radical, cationic and step-growth polymerizations using batch reactors (DeSimone, J. M., Z. Guan, and C.S. Elsbernd, Synthesis of Fluoropolymers in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide. Science, 1992. 257: p. 945-947). This work has been summarized in several recent reviews (Kendall, J. L., et al., Polymerizations in Supercritical Carbon Dioxide. Chem.Rev., 1999. 99(2): p. 543-563; Canelas, D. A. and J. M. DeSimone, Advs. Polym. Sci., 1997. 133: p. 103-140; Shaffer, K. A. and J. M. DeSimone, Chain Polymerizations in Inert Near and Supercritical Fluids. Trends in Polymer Science, 1995. 3(5): p. 146-153). Indeed, CO2 technology is intended to be commercially implemented by 2006 for the manufacture of Teflon™ by DuPont (McCoy, M., DuPont, UNC R&D effort yields results, in Chemical & Engineering News. 1999. p. 10). The reasons for the intense industrial interest are that CO2 is cheap ($100-200/ton), of low toxicity, non-flammable, and environmentally and chemically benign. In comparison to existing technologies for making polymers, CO2 technology has several significant advantages as it will allow for the elimination of: a) expensive polymer drying steps; (b) expensive wastewater treatment and disposal steps where significant amounts of monomer, surfactants and emulsifiers are generated (Baker, R. T. and W. Tumas, Toward Greener Chemistry. Science, 1999. 284: p. 1477-1478); (c) disposal of "spent" organic solvents; (d) handling, storage and shipping of toxic organic solvent; and (e) chain transfer to solvent, i.e., a reaction that may limit the achievable molecular weight of the polymer.
As industrial interest in using scCO2 as a polymerization medium has grown, several disadvantages of batch reactors have been recognized, including: (1) large reactors which are costly at the high pressures of scCO2; and (2) difficulty in recycling the CO2 and the unreacted monomer. Accordingly, there is a need for new ways to carry out the continuous polymerization of monomers in carbon dioxide, particularly liquid and supercritical carbon dioxide.

Apparatus for continuous production of polymers in carbon dioxide


An information processing device, for executing content reproduction processing from an information recording medium, includes a security information processing unit for determining output messages based on security check information in a content reproduction sequence, and outputting a message output command accompanied by selection information of the output message to a user interface processing unit, and a user information processing unit for obtaining message information based on the selection information input from said security information processing unit and outputting to a display unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an information processing device, an information recording medium, an information processing method, and a computer program. More specifically, the present invention relates to an information processing device, an information recording medium, an information processing method, and a computer program, wherein unauthorized content usage is eliminated by data transformation processing performed on various contents regarding which content usage management is requested, thereby realizing strict content usage management, and further enabling displaying of messages such as the usage suspension state of contents, and user confirmation.
2. Description of the Related Art
Various types of software data, such as audio data like music and so forth, image data like movies and so forth, game programs, various types of application programs and so forth (hereafter referred to as "content") can be stored as digital data in recording media, for example, Blu-ray disks which employ blue laser, or DVD (Digital Versatile Disc), MD (Mini Disc), and CD (Compact Disc). In particular, Blu-ray disks which employ blue laser are high-density recording-capable disks, and can record massive amounts of picture contents and the like as high-image-quality data.
Digital content is stored in such various types of information recording mediums (recording media) so as to be provided to users. Users reproduce and use the content on a reproduction device such as a PC (Personal Computer), disk player, etc., owned by the user.
Generally, the distribution right and so forth of many contents such as music data, image data, and so forth, is held by the creator or vendor thereof. Accordingly, at the time of distribution of content, an arrangement is normally implemented wherein certain restrictions on usage are laid down, i.e., usage of content is permitted only for authorized users, and unauthorized reproduction and the like is prevented.
With digital recording devices and recording media, recording and reproduction can be repeated without deterioration in image or audio for example, and problems are occurring such as distribution of illegally copied contents over the Internet, distribution of so-called bootleg edition disks of contents copied onto CD-Rs or the like, usage of copied contents stored on hard disks of PCs and the like, in proliferation.
Large-capacity recording media such as DVDs, recording media using blue laser which have been developed in recent years, and so forth, are capable of recording great amounts of data, e.g., one to several movies, as digital information on a single disk. The ability to record picture information and the like as digital information makes preventing unauthorized copies to protect copyright holders an even more important issue. Various techniques have been implemented as of recent for preventing unauthorized copying to digital recording devices and recording media, in order to prevent such unauthorized copying of digital data.
For example, with DVD players, the Content Scramble System is employed. With the content scramble system, in a configuration wherein video data, audio data, etc., is recorded in a DVD-ROM (Read Only Memory) for example, in an encrypted form, the content can be reproduced by descrambling the scrambling.
Descrambling processing requires processing to be executed which applies particular data such as a key provided to a licensed DVD player, or the like. Licenses are provided to DVD players designed so as to follow predetermined operating rules, such as not making unauthorized copies, and so forth. Accordingly, with a licensed DVD player, descrambling the data recorded in the DVD-ROM using the particular data such as a key provided thereto enables the images and audio to be reproduced from the DVD-ROM.
On the other hand, unlicensed DVD players do not have the particular data such as a key to be applied to descrambling of the data which has been subjected to scrambling processing, and accordingly cannot reproduce the data recorded in the DVD-ROM. Thus, with the content scramble system configuration, DVD players which do not satisfy conditions required at the time of licensing cannot reproduce DVD-ROMs storing digital data, thereby preventing unauthorized copying.

Information processing device, information recording medium, information processing method, and computer program


Disclosed is a device for treating high-concentration organic wastewater by catalyst hydrothermal gasification, including a CHG reactor, a temporary wastewater storage tank and a condensing heat exchanger which are sequentially in loop connection. The CHG reactor includes a shell, a thermocouple, a water distribution device, and a packing support. The device of the present disclosure can quickly convert the high-concentration organic wastewater into clean energy or harmless gas at a low temperature under the action of a catalyst, so that the energy consumption of a treatment process is greatly reduced, and the treatment efficiency is improved. The device has potential application prospect.

Industrial production has become an important part for driving economic development, but the "three wastes" generated in an industrial production process will also cause extremely serious environmental problems. Industrial organic wastewater, especially high-concentration organic wastewater that is difficult to biodegrade, has become a recognized problem in the environmental field. Especially in recent years, with the development of large-scale and integrated industrial production, the types and emissions of produced wastewater have been increasing, and the pollution to water bodies has become increasingly widespread and severe, which seriously threatens human health. Therefore, it is of great significance to develop novel high-concentration organic wastewater treatment technologies and corresponding treatment devices.
A catalytic hydrothermal gasification technology is a technology integrating a hydrothermal gasification technology and a catalytic oxidation technology. It uses the special nature of water in a high temperature and high pressure state and a catalyst to reduce the activation energy and the specific selectivity to fast and selectively decompose, at a low temperature, organic matters into gaseous clean energy or harmless gas. This technology which has the advantages of high efficiency, energy conservation, recyclability and the like, is advantageous in a high-concentration organic wastewater treatment process, and is gradually attracting the attention of scholars and entrepreneurs at home and abroad. However, there is no report on the device for treating the high-concentration organic wastewater by catalytic hydrothermal gasification technology. Therefore, in response to a market demand for treatment of high-concentration organic wastewater and the treatment advantages of the catalytic hydrothermal gasification technology, a novel device for treating high-concentration organic wastewater by catalytic hydrothermal gasification plays an important role of promoting recycling application of high-concentration organic wastewater resources.

Device for treating high-concentration organic wastewater by catalytic hydrothermal gasification

Nanjing University-International Research Institute of Environmental Industries


A fluid control valve, which allows selective change of the flow rate of fluid through the valve in the face of high temperatures and high pressures without undue wear to the integral downstream sealing seat, includes a body, having a passageway which consists of a first section and a second section, and a ball disposed in the second section of the passageway. The ball is rotatable around a central axis and has a first through hole of one diameter and a second through hole having a minimum diameter which is smaller than the first diameter. A sacrificial annular upstream seat is disposed upstream from the ball and has an internal diameter smaller than both the diameter of the first through hole and the diameter of the first section of the passageway through the body. As a result of the difference in size between the diameter of the first section and the internal diameter of the sacrificial annular seat, a pressure differential is created, causing a reduction in turbulence and detrimental forces on the downstream seat, thereby protecting the downstream seat, which is an integral part of an end cap or end housing, and has an internal diameter larger than the internal diameter of the sacrificial annular upstream seat, from premature wear, erosion and other damage when the flow rate is varied.

This invention relates to fluid control valves, and more particularly, to ball valves used to control the flow rate of fluids, such as high pressure steam. The use of ball valves to control the flow of fluid is well known in the art. The ball component of the valve may have one or more through holes allowing fluid to pass through the ball at one or more rates. Ball valve members are typically confined between two annular sealing seats, one located upstream with respect to the ball and one located downstream. In most applications, the body which houses the ball is composed of two halves which are sealingly joined at approximately the midpoint of the ball.
Under conditions involving high temperatures and high pressures, ball valves have not been successfully used as fluid control valves because of several problems. First, the sealing seats are typically made of tetrafluoroethylene or other sealing materials which usually cannot withstand high temperatures and pressures. Additionally, when a ball valve is in a partially open position to allow for a desired minimum flow rate, because of the high pressure differential across the valve, the sealing surfaces of the sealing seats erode and cause leakage in the closed position. Additionally, in valves where the body is split at approximately the midpoint of the ball, leakage around the stem of the ball and at the interface between the two halves of the body occurs due to the turbulent forces acting at the interface between the two halves of the body.
In some high temperature and high pressure applications, mitered valves have been used, which feature the use of a globe valve or a series of discs upstream of a ball valve to regulate flow. However, mitered valves are likewise subject to erosion and leakage in high temperature and high pressure applications.
This invention overcomes the above-noted and other deficiencies of the related art, by providing a method and apparatus for allowing the selective control of the rate of fluid flow through a valve between a minimum and maximum rate, while at the same time protecting a downstream sealing seat, which is an integral part of an end cap or end housing, from damage. The ball valve of this invention is able to withstand high temperature and high pressure conditions, which other fluid control valves known in the art cannot withstand.
The invention features a valve which is capable of allowing selection between a maximum or minimum flow rate and flow rates in between. Through the use of a sacrificial annular upstream sealing seat, erosion of the integral downstream sealing seat is minimized. The invention features the use of ball, body, end cap or end housing, and sealing components made of materials able to withstand high temperatures and pressures. In another feature of the invention, the use of a body and end cap in a conformation superior to the existing art minimizes erosion and leakage around the ball. The invention eliminates the undesirable feature common to existing valves wherein they are unable to withstand high temperature and pressure conditions without leakage. The invention further eliminates the undesirable feature of accelerated damage to the downstream integral sealing seat when a ball valve is partially opened to achieve a desired minimum flow rate, or when the position of the ball valve is adjusted to change the flow rate.
The invention also features the use of two through holes of different diameters, allowing selection between a maximum flow rate, a minimum flow rate, or incremental flow rates lying between the two extremes. By providing a second through hole to allow for a minimum flow rate, the high turbulence which results when a single hole valve is placed in a partially open position to achieve a desired, minimum flow rate is avoided. The invention is thereby capable of performing precise fluid flow control, under high temperature and pressure conditions. This invention is the first ball valve which achieves the dual results of allowing a controlled variation or selection of the rate of fluid flow under high temperature and pressure conditions, while simultaneously protecting the downstream seat from damage.
The above features of the invention are accomplished by providing a ball valve disposed in a body having an end cap or end housing. Two through holes are provided through the ball of the ball valve. The first through hole is of one diameter, allowing for a maximum flow rate. The second through hole is disposed at an angle to the first through hole, and is of a smaller diameter allowing for a minimum desired flow rate. The ball of the valve is rotatable through the use of an operator around a central axis which is perpendicular to the passageway through the body in which the ball is disposed. A sacrificial annular upstream seat, having an internal diameter smaller than the diameter of the first passageway, is disposed upstream from the ball. An annular downstream sealing seat is integral to and forms part of the end cap or end housing. The downstream seat has an internal diameter which exceeds the internal diameter of the upstream seat.
Because of the pressure differential created when fluid flows past the sacrificial upstream seat, there is a reduction in the destructive forces acting on the ball and on the integral downstream seat. This sparing effect is most beneficial when the valve is in a partially open position, as it is when changing from the maximum flow rate to the minimum flow rate, or vice versa. The sparing effect of the sacrificial seat on the downstream seat is also seen when the valve is set at the maximum flow rate. When the valve is set at the minimum flow rate position, the ball itself protects the downstream seat from damage. Thus, at maximum or minimum flow rates, or rates in between, the downstream seat has greater protection than in the prior art from turbulent flow. Because the position of the through holes can be varied by rotating the ball through the use of an operator, precise flow rate can be selected at either the maximum or minimum flow rate, or at flow rates between the two extremes, under high temperature and pressure conditions, while simultaneously protecting the integral downstream seat from wear.


Disclosed are compounds of formulae (I) and (II) and salts, hydrates, or solvates thereof, where R1, R2, R3, R5, and R6 are defined herein, compositions containing these compounds, methods of preparing these compounds, and methods of using these compounds in a variety of applications, such as a surfactant or additive in personal care products.

1. Field of the Invention
This disclosure relates to compounds and compositions suitable for use in surfactants. In particular, the disclosure relates to alkyl pyroglutamic acid compounds.
2. Description of Related Art
The large shift towards environmentally friendly surfactants has resulted in the need for the industry to provide readily biodegradable and non-toxic surfactants and additives. Surfactants and additives with renewable content can be preferable to their synthetic counterparts with demand being driven by life sustainability initiatives, preferred buying programs and consumer trends.
Alcohol ethoxy sulfates (AES) is a class of anionic surfactant commonly used in personal care shampoo formulation. The trace byproduct from the manufacturing processes of AES (alkoxylation and sulfation), and the skin irritancy associated with AES are not desirable in personal care applications. An ethylene oxide-free (EO-free) and sulfate-free surfactant that is non-irritating is much more preferable in personal care.
Common EO-free and sulfate-free surfactant personal care surfactants are fatty acid soaps, betaines, alpha olefin sulfonates, sulfosuccinates, esters, alkyl polyglucosides, fatty acyl amino acids, fatty amine oxides, and quaternaries. Two common commercially available amino acid surfactants are acyl glutamate and acyl sarcosinate. Acyl glutamate is derived from natural fatty acids and natural glutamic acid, while acyl sarcosinate is derived from natural fatty acids and synthetic glycine. In either case, these amino acid surfactants are commonly accepted as non-toxic and mild. They are used mainly in personal care applications, but not as widely used as alkyl polyglucosides (APG) due, at least in part, to the use of fatty acid chlorides as intermediates in amide formation with the amino acid of choice.
The preparation and use of corrosive acid chlorides imparts cost to the amide-based amino acid surfactants and generation of a full equivalent of waste from the chlorinating reagent. Additionally, the isolation of the desired fatty acid amide from salt byproduct and water also adds cost relative to other surfactants.

Process for preparing alkyl pyroglutamic acids


A privacy securing film comprises a louver film consisting of transparent layers and opaque layers arranged alternately, wherein the opaque layer is made of light-absorbing beads having a mean diameter of 0.2 to 20 micrometers and binder bonding said beads each other and adjacent transparent layers, and being characterized in a micro-roughness formed at the interface between the transparent layer and the opaque layer due to the presence of said beads. The privacy securing film of the present invention has a simplified structure, excellent appearance with a simple manufacturing process as well as reduces the creation of a ghost image significantly, as compared with conventional ones.

A privacy securing film is also referred to as a light control film or the like. The demand for the privacy securing film has increased according to a tendency in taking serious view on each individual private life. Accordingly, many studies on the privacy securing film have been made, mainly for application to a window blind and the like. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,053,175 to E. Astima discloses a method of manufacturing a louver film by alternately laminating transparent materials and opaque materials and cutting the laminate vertically. In addition, U.S. Pat. No. 2,689,387 to Carr, W. P. et al. discloses a plastic blind, which is manufactured by alternately arranging transparent films and optical shielding films, bonding them to each other and then cutting the laminate vertically. Further, U.S. Pat. No. 3,524,789 to Olsen, F. O. et al. discloses a method of manufacturing a privacy securing film by slicing a stacked billet. Recently, with the development of display devices such as LCDs, an optically securing film for protecting individual privacy, i.e., for not showing the contents displayed on a display device to others at a certain angle besides, has been increasingly demanded. However, a conventional louver film like disclosed in afore-mentioned articles produces a ghost image, due to a variation in the refraction index of a plastic part at the interface between a transparent portion and an opaque portion, thereby causing a fatigue or tiredness to users giving their attention to a display. Therefore, recent researches on privacy securing films have been focused on reduction in the creation of a ghost image. To reduce the creation of the ghost image, International Publication No. WO 92/11549 discloses a light control film employing a multi-layered louver that comprises high optical absorption layers containing a relatively high content of carbon black and low optical absorption layers containing a relatively low content of carbon black. However, the privacy securing films in the aforementioned documents employ complicated louver structures, which lead to complicated manufacturing processes and high production costs.
In order to overcome the problems of the conventional privacy securing films including above mentioned inventions, we had invented and granted to a Korean patent No. 10-500477 regarding a privacy securing film having a louver film, wherein the louver film is manufactured through a process including the steps of i) alternately laminating and thermo-compressing transparent film layers and opaque adhesive ink layers, and ii) cutting the thermo-compressed, laminated film perpendicularly to or at a certain angle with respect to the surface thereof such that the thickness of the louver film is in a range of 2 to 30 times the thickness of the transparent film, which can be manufactured through a simplified and economically efficient process, while reducing eyestrain through a decrease in surface reflection and also minimizing the creation of a ghost image. The resin contained in the opaque adhesive ink is diffused into some of the adjacent transparent film layers during thermo compression to combine the opaque adhesive ink layers with the transparent film layers, which also allows a part of the pigment of high light absorptivity to be diffused into the transparent film layers along with the resin. As for the reason of the reduction in the creation of a ghost image, the inventor presumed that some part of the opaque adhesive ink is transferred into the transparent film layers during the thermo-compression, and thus, changes in physical and chemical properties such as morphology and reflectivity are caused at the interface between the transparent film layer and the opaque adhesive ink layer, thereby reducing the creation of the ghost image in the privacy securing film.


Technology for policies with reduced associated costs is disclosed. A policy may include an ordered rule set. When evaluated, the highest priority rule in the order that does not skip may control the policy outcome. Rules within a policy may have associated costs, such as data fetch and evaluation costs. In some contexts, it may be less important to evaluate every rule than to evaluate the policy quickly. Reduced policies that have one or more rules removed or that skip evaluation of some rules may be created for these contexts. When a rule of a policy is skipped, it may result in a possibility of a false allow or false deny. In some cases, rules may be duplicative. Removal or skipping of duplicative rules does not increase the possibility of a false allow or false deny. By using reduced policies in identified contexts, policy evaluation costs may be reduced.

As the Internet becomes integrated into almost every aspect of people's lives, the amount of content available is growing at an exponential rate. It is common for web providers to operate databases with petabytes of data, while leading content providers are already looking toward technology to handle exabyte implementations.
In addition, the tools used to access this vast resource are growing ever more sophisticated. Although users may believe that they are simply logging into a website, sophisticated server software may search through vast stores of data to gather information relating to the users, for example based on their browsing history, preferences, data access permissions, relationships, location, demographics, etc. Simultaneously, the server may build a custom interface for users, e.g., using server-side languages. Building this interface may include selecting hundreds of content items, such as images, video clips, animation, applets, and scripts. In some cases, these content items may be selected from among a vast array of potential content items based on various policies, e.g., data access policies, privacy policies, optimization policies, etc. (collectively, "policies"). Some of these policies are implemented by software developers whereas other data can be provided by users.
These policies can be useful in social networking websites, e.g., to determine what personal, advertising, or other content to display to users, to determine what actions users can take, etc. Analysis of all of the relevant policies to determine what subset of data to analyze and present can take considerable time. However, unless this process occurs with no perceptible delays, users may lose patience and simply navigate to a different website. Therefore, efficiently determining what content will be gathered and how it may be presented is desirable to reduce website delays caused by analyzing policies.


Embodiments provide an Internet of Things transmission optimization method. The method includes: generating, by a receiver side device, first indication information when the receiver side device receives a last PDU sent by a transmitter side device, where the first indication information is indicates whether the receiver side device is to send a status report; and sending, by the receiver side device, the first indication information to the transmitter side device.

Mobile communication has profoundly changed people's life, but people never stop pursuing higher-performance mobile communication. A 5th Generation (5G) mobile communications system emerges, so as to respond to an explosive growth of mobile data traffic, massive device connections, and various new emerging services and application scenarios in the future. As an important part of 5G, the Internet of Things (IoT) witnesses a rapid growth in market demand. Currently, the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) is studying how to carry an Internet of Things service based on a cellular network by designing a new air interface and making full use of a characteristic of a narrowband technology. This type of IoT is referred to as NB-IoT. In comparison with the conventional cellular network, in an NB-IoT network, a service and a terminal device are characterized by the following requirements: a low service rate, a long period, massive connections, low costs, low power consumption, and the like.
In a Long Term Evolution (LTE) system, as a supplement to a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) of a Media Access Control (MAC) layer, an automatic repeat request (ARQ) of a Radio Link Control (RLC) layer is used to trigger RLC layer retransmission using a status report, to further ensure communication reliability. In addition, a status report in LTE is finally sent in a form of a MAC PDU. Therefore, additional signaling overheads caused by a resource request, scheduling, a transmission feedback, and the like are required in addition to transmission of the status report. In LTE, sending and reception at the RLC layer are performed in a window with a length of 512. There are a plurality of status report triggering mechanisms, and each status report can be fed back for a plurality of RLC PDUs.
However, a service feature of NB-IoT decides that a small quantity of protocol data units (PDU), usually only several protocol data units, at the RLC layer are transmitted once in NB-IoT. If an ARQ transmission solution in the LTE system is directly applied to the NB-IoT network, a status report can be fed back only for several RLC PDUs, and therefore efficiency is low. In addition, in the NB-IoT network, to respond to requirements and characteristics of the network, a service, and a terminal, an physical uplink control channel (PUCCH) is deleted, so that a network design is simpler. Therefore, when an uplink status report needs to be sent in an ARQ transmission solution in the NB-IoT network, a PUCCH cannot be used to apply for an uplink resource, and only a random access manner can be used. Consequently, system signaling overheads of the NB-IoT network are further increased.

Internet of things transmission optimization method and apparatus, and device


A two-in-one candle holder toy surprise having a candle holder portion with a bottom surface affixable to a toy surprise portion. The candle holder toy surprise has a candle holder mode when in its upright position and a toy mode in its inverted position. The candle holder portion functions as a base for the toy surprise when in the toy surprise mode. The toy surprise portion has a flat extending longitudinal surface and acts as an anchor for the candle holder portion when in the candle holding mode.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to candle holders for candles, for example, festive candles such as birthday candles, and more particularly to a device having a candle holder facing in one direction and having a figure such as a toy, a message or other item, facing the opposite direction. The device is thus adapted to function as a candle holder in a birthday cake or the like, and can also function as a surprise toy for children or adults.
2. Description of Prior Art
Toy figures have been known in the art for a very long time. However, none of the existing figure toys can be used to secure birthday candles in a birthday cake or the like. Candle holders for birthday cakes have also been known in the art for a long time. However these type of holders usually use a cylindrical straight pin or a cylindrical shaft to secure the candle holders to the cake. The pin or shaft of traditional candle holders needs to be significantly long to provide sufficient anchoring of the candle holder. This leaves a deep round hole in the cake when the candle holders are removed. These deep round holes are also left in the cake when a candle holder is not used and the candle is placed into the cake without a candle holder.
Combination candle holder and cake inserts are known. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 2,696,097 discloses a candlestick designed for a double use. The first use is to allow the candlestick to stand alone on a flat surface, while the second use is for allowing the candlestick to be inserted into a cake. This is accomplished by providing a cup-like insert for the candle that has a recess on the bottom surface of the cup. A stand is provided that has a pointed end and a large rounded flat end. The rounded flat end includes a pointed piece inside a larger cup-like opening adapted to receive the recess of the cup-like insert. The insert can be connected to the pointed end while the round end can be placed on a flat surface. The insert can also be placed in the point inside the large round end and the pointed end placed in a cake. This device cannot act as a toy surprise.
Further, animated figurines, as cake inserts are known. U.S. Pat. No. 2,697,042 discloses a novelty cake and stand. The stands are designed to accept a decorative figure. The cake has a central opening for receiving the stand. The stand could be inserted into a cake not having a hole in the center but this would destroy the cake and frosting. The figurine is too large to act as a toy surprise for inserting into a cake. Further, it could not act as a candle holder.
It is known to combine toys with holders for holding food such as ice cream. U.S. Pat. No. 2,834,685 discloses a combination confection holder toy boat. The confection holder is designed to hold frozen ice or ice cream on the stick. The bottom piece is designed as a toy boat and a collector for melted ice or ice cream. The convection holders can support small masts after the ice or ice cream is consumed. This patent shows an ice cream holder having an aesthetic and functional bottom piece. The reference does not show a candle holder with an aesthetic holding portion. Additionally, the toy portion would be inappropriate for inserting into a cake.
None of the candle holders currently known in the art have a dual function, where they are used to hold birthday candles in a cake and act as a surprise toy for children.

9051-C Siempre Viva Rd., Suite MX-37-143


A fluid delivery system includes a plurality of nozzles having an outer surface and a bore. A hydrophobic layer is applied to a portion of the outer surface of the nozzle and extends into the nozzle bore a determined distance.

Ink jet printers operate by ejecting tiny drops of ink from a printhead onto a printing medium, such as paper. The printhead normally includes a nozzle plate having a plurality of nozzles through which tiny ink droplets are ejected onto the paper to collectively create an image. To deliver ink to the nozzles, the printhead includes a plurality of ink firing chambers, each fluidically connected to an associated nozzle through a bore. Within each firing chamber is a heat-generating resistor that is selectively excited to heat the ink in the chamber, which creates a bubble. As the bubble expands, some of the ink is forced through the bore out of the nozzle onto the paper. A plurality of ink drops collectively form a desired image on the paper.
The quality of the resulting image depends in part on the trajectory of the ink drops as they are ejected from the printhead nozzles. Poor ink drop trajectory and velocity are sometimes caused by ink puddles that form at the nozzle exit. In some cases, ink puddles are the result of poor control over the ink drop as the ink enters the bore and is ejected from the nozzle. In other cases, ink puddles are the result of ink overshooting, ink drop breaks, and hydrophilic (water attracting) nozzle surfaces. Excessive ink puddling can not only distort the trajectory of the ink drop, but it can also cause intermittent nozzle shutdown preventing any ink from ejecting onto the paper therefrom.
Prior attempts to prevent ink from puddling at the nozzle exit include using ink formulations that incorporate additives to inhibit puddling. Unfortunately, such additives can negatively affect the ink and are not chemically compatible with all printing systems and can cause damage to some internal components of the printhead.
Another previously attempted solution includes applying a non-wetting, hydrophobic coating to the outer surface of the nozzle plate to inhibit the ink from adhering to the outer surface of the nozzle exit. However, providing a hydrophobic coating only to the exterior surface of the nozzle exit does not provide control over the position of the ink drop in the bore of the nozzle. As a result, excess ink remains in the bore after a drop has been ejected, causing additional puddling at the nozzle exit. The embodiments described hereinafter were developed in light of these and other drawbacks.

Hydrophobic nozzle exit with improved micro fluid ejection dynamics

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A media guide for assisting in threading the head end of a rolled, radiation sensitive media through an imaging station in an imaging device. The media guide has a longitudinally extending arcuate input media guide and a parallel longitudinally extending arcuate output media guide with the open arcuate surfaces thereof facing in the same direction. A longitudinally extending imaging aperture slot is positioned between and parallel to the arcuate input and output media guides. The input side of the imaging aperture slot is located above the output side of the aperture to prevent the media from catching in the aperture slot.

The present invention relates to imaging devices in general and, more particularly, to a media guide for assisting in the threading of rolled media through the imaging station of the imaging device.
Imaging devices utilizing a film supply cassette and a take up cassette are well known in the art. Such devices typically employ drive rolls to pull the media out from the supply cassette and through an imaging station at which the film is imaged and then to the take up cassette. Initially, the film must be pulled from the supply cassette and threaded through the imaging station until the film can be engaged by the drive rolls. The threading procedure can be awkward and difficult.

Apparatus for media guidance in an imaging device


A vehicle power transmission device equipped with a crank type transmission unit is provided in which since a first sprocket provided on an input shaft upstream portion and a second sprocket provided on an output shaft downstream portion are connected by an endless chain, and a dog clutch is disposed between the input shaft main body portion and the input shaft upstream portion, when the input shaft main body portion is seized and becomes non-rotatable, the dog clutch is disengaged so as to detach the input shaft upstream portion from the input shaft main body portion, and the driving force of an engine is transmitted to the output shaft downstream portion via the input shaft upstream portion, the first sprocket, the endless chain and the second sprocket, thereby enabling the vehicle to travel in the minimum necessary way.

A vehicle power transmission device that includes a plurality of crank type transmission units that convert rotation of an input shaft connected to an engine into back and forth movement of a connecting rod and convert back and forth movement of the connecting rod into rotation of an output shaft by means of a one-way clutch is known from Patent Document 1 below.


The present invention provides a method of and apparatus for associating a retail performance metric with individual entries within a transaction and/or time type categories. The retail performance metric is determined by recording the time the system waited for and received an input. The retail performance metric type is determined as a function of the input received by the system. A retail performance metric is recorded as a function of the time the system waited for and received an input and includes a reference to the specific event causing the RPM and/or the time type category of the input.

Retail store managers continually monitor individual point of sale (POS) terminal and POS terminal operator or clerk performance for areas of improvement and error or problem detection and identification. Poor performance by either terminal or clerk impacts the overall profitability of the store. One method of monitoring is to record timing information about the clerk and POS terminal during job performance. Several approaches are available to record timing information, such as 1) software or hardware based automated time recording or 2) direct or videotaped observation and human factors engineering and analysis.
Under the first approach identified above, i.e., automated time recording, the POS terminal software records timing information about the clerk and events occurring at the terminal. However, typical retail POS terminal software retains only a small set of the overall timing information as described in copending application entitled "Method and Apparatus for Determining the Retail Performance Metric of Entry Identification Time."
Any and all recorded occurrences at the POS terminal are categorized into one of six time type categories, such as ring time, tender time, secure time, non-sales time, idle time, and no time. Categories may be added, subtracted or modified as necessary or as dictated by the store configuration. As a result of this type of time measurement, only a portion of the time spent in each of the time type categories is under direct control of the POS terminal operator. For example, the operator controls how quickly items are scanned and tenders are inputted but has no control over other actions that contribute to these time measurements. Such additional factors contributing to the time measurements include the bar code quality in the product mix presented to the operator, the types of error warning levels configured in the store, the POS terminal scanner quality, and the various tender validation requirements active at the store. For example, a store may have a policy requiring all checks being presented to be accompanied by at least two pieces of identification, or the bar code on certain products may not be of the same quality as other products and may require multiple scan attempts or keyed input for entry of the product. The additional time required is not separable from the category times nor viewable or able to be independently analyzed from the defined time type categories. Thus, there is a need in the art to enable tracking of individual occurrences within the defined time type categories.
Another problem identified in prior art systems is that the granularity of the timing information is very broad, i.e., typically the timing information is written to the transaction log (TLOG) as a single record with summarized totals for an entire transaction. Each transaction in the transaction log records the interaction of the operator and/or POS terminal with a customer and includes transaction entries recording events indicative of occurrences during the transaction. The transaction events include "scan" indicating a product bar code scan, "key" indicating a product identification using an input device, usually a keyboard, and "tender" indicating a customer providing payment. There are additional types of transaction events known in the art. Typically, a transaction entry in the transaction log includes a terminal identifier, an operator identifier, an event type, and an indication of the items purchased by the customer, if applicable. However, timing information, if recorded, is stored in the summarized time type category totals.
For example, if the operator spends three periods of time in ring time and two periods of time in secure time during a transaction, the transaction log will only reflect the total for each of the periods of time spent by the operator in secure time and ring time, but not the individual amount of time spent in each of the secure time or ring time periods for each entry or event during a transaction. In other words, if the three periods of ring time include a ten second period, a twelve second period, and a fifteen minute period, the transaction log will indicate a ring time of fifteen minutes and twenty-two seconds, possibly indicating an operator with a high ring time. In fact, the fifteen minute period may be due to operator or system errors, but is less likely to be discovered using prior approaches. Thus, to provide more accurate indications of efficiencies, and conversely, inefficiencies, there is a need in the art to enable logging of individual time period occurrences within the defined categories and/or individual transactions.
As retailers become more concerned with increasing overall system performance, increasing profits and lowering costs, it is more important to separate the high-level time measurements or time summaries of the time type categories into the individual components making up the summaries. An important portion of this time occurs during the time period when the operator is commanding the POS terminal to do something such as add a product to a customer's purchase order, otherwise known as the "entry identification" time. As used in this specification, entry identification time is the time period during which the POS terminal waits for operator input and the operator inputs a particular entry into the POS terminal or tells the POS terminal to do something. The entry identification time is the time period over which the operator has the greatest amount of control and the one that most correctly measures their performance. Thus, there is a need in the art to track a performance metric known as entry identification time.
As identified above, the second approach to solving these problems is to apply industrial or human factors engineering methods to obtain and analyze operator and POS terminal performance. These methods include time-and-motion analysis, video task analysis, and stop-watch measurements. Human factors engineering companies offer services to retailers, such as performing video data collection and task analysis on front-end check out operations. The data collected aids human factors engineers to quantify the productivity of the operator and POS terminal, identify bottlenecks, and make recommendations for POS terminal or check stand design, process changes, and technology to improve productivity. Because the human factors engineering methodology provides detailed, accurate, and quantifiable data, cost-benefit calculations can be made to demonstrate the financial impact of implementing a recommendation.
However, industrial engineering approaches and human factors engineering analysis techniques have a number of limitations. For instance, the techniques are labor intensive and costly for retailers. In order to obtain statistically valid results, a large data sample is required necessitating many hours of costly observation and analysis.
Due to the cost, typically only a small sample of data (ranging from approximately a few hours to one week's worth) is collected resulting in insufficient sample sizes which negatively affects statistical validity, interpretation of the data and quality of the results. Continuous data collection over months or years, desirable for longitudinal studies (e.g., long-term trend analysis) is cost prohibitive. The potential for human error is inherent in this type of data collection and analysis.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for a method to provide automatic, continuous, consistent, and detailed data capture of entry identification times. Any solution must capture timing information for each individual action of interest and should be linked with the transaction in which the action occurred and/or should be linked with the appropriate time type category.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for tracking retail performance metrics during a transaction at a point of sale station


This disclosure relates to a process for regenerating a catalyst composition to improve the aging rate in subsequent cycles.

Molecular sieves are used in numerous commercial processes for hydrocarbon conversion and/or separation, particularly the conversion and/or separation of aromatic hydrocarbons, such as transalkylation, disproportionation, isomerization, adsorptive separation, and the like. Very often the goal is to produce more xylenes from one or more of benzene, toluene, and aromatic hydrocarbons having 9 carbons or more (C9+ aromatic hydrocarbons or more simply "A9+"). For example, the production of xylenes via transalkylation of A9+ with C6 and/or C7 aromatics to produce xylenes may use a molecular sieve based catalyst such as at least one of Mordenite, ZSM-12, MCM-22 family material, and combinations thereof. Certain molecular sieves are useful to purify one or more of the feed streams upstream of the transalkylation reaction and certain molecular sieves may also be useful in separation and/or isomerization of the xylene product downstream of the transalkylation reaction.
Typically molecular sieves lose performance, such as activity, selectivity, and capacity, through various deactivation mechanisms. As the molecular sieve catalyst or adsorbent ages with increasing time on stream, more severe conditions, such as higher temperature and/or low through-put, are normally required to maintain comparable activity and/or selectivity. When the maximum reactor temperature and/or minimum acceptable through-put is reached, the molecular sieve catalyst or adsorbent needs to be replaced or regenerated/rejuvenated. The spent catalyst, at the end of its useful life, may contain a significant amount of coke, often exceeding 35 wt %, and sometimes even as high as 50 wt %. Various techniques, sometimes called regenerative or rejuvenative, are known that remove the deposited coke, in whole or in part, and allow the molecular sieve to be reused. These techniques may be performed in situ and/or ex situ, depending on the technique and other factors.
One common regeneration technique is to burn the coke from the molecular sieve in an oxidative environment, such as air or oxygen. It had been thought that the oxidative calcination process normally needed to be controlled with dry air to prevent steam damage to the molecular sieve framework, for example, steam dealumination of zeolite, which causes severe damage to the molecular sieve. Recently it was discovered that the controlled addition of water during the regeneration, combined with a staged controlled temperature burn, can successfully regenerate a heavily coked catalyst with minimal steam damage of the molecular sieve structure. See U.S. application Ser. No. 12/738,057.
Another less common regeneration technique is to rejuvenate a spent catalyst in a reductive environment, such as hydrogen. However, if the catalyst is not regenerated properly, aging rates during the second cycle can be very high resulting in a second cycle length as short as less than 10% of the first cycle length.
Other regeneration techniques include the use of steam or other solutions in combination with heating or calcining. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,093,293 discloses the use of steam for removing coke and other contaminants from Zeolite L, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,139,433 discloses that a hydrocracking catalyst containing a Group VIII metal is regenerated by treating the spent catalyst with an ammonium hydroxide solution followed by calcination. Still other techniques are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,975,399 and 4,550,009. There are no doubt a plethora of additional techniques and the aforementioned citations are intended merely to be representative thereof.
In typical commercial operations molecular sieve catalysts usually have a finite cycle time, which is the length of time over which the process is operated. The cycle time is usually determined by when the temperature required to maintain constant conversion to offset the declining activity exceeds the physical limitations of the equipment, or it may be determined by some other indicia of efficiency, such as through-put. As the catalyst approaches a certain temperature, the aging rate exponentially increases such that it is no longer efficient (e.g., viable and/or economical) to maintain operations.
The present inventors have noted that this correlates with the amount of coke on the catalyst; the more coke on the catalyst, the closer the catalyst is to reaching the defined cycle length. In addition, the present inventors have noted that this also correlates with the extent to which the coke is graphitic in nature, e.g., coke having a relatively low H/C ratio. The catalyst then needs to be regenerated or replaced. Given the cost of a new catalyst load, the preferred method of choice to regain catalyst activity is to regenerate/rejuvenate the catalyst, either in-situ or ex-situ, to remove the coke that has built up on the catalyst.
The present inventors have further discovered that the end-of-cycle condition of the molecular sieve catalyst with respect to wt % coke and/or the graphitic nature of the coke, as measure by H/C ratio, is an important factor in determining subsequent cycle performance after regeneration, and thus a better indicia of the appropriate cycle time, rather than indicia used in the prior art.