The output buffer includes first and second N channel FETs serially connected between a ground terminal and a voltage supply terminal and having a common terminal connected to an output terminal. Third and fourth N channel FETs are serially connected between the ground terminal and the voltage supply terminal and have a common terminal connected to the output terminal. A first logic circuit responds to data input (DIN) signals and an operation enable bar (OEB) signal for applying a conductive bias voltage to the third N channel FET, and a second logic circuit responds to the DIN signals and the OEB signal for applying a conductive bias voltage to the fourth N channel FET. A first P channel FET couples the conductive bias voltage on the third N channel FET to the first N channel FET, and a second P channel FET couples the conductive bias on the fourth N channel FET to the second N channel FET. The P channel transistors are mask programmable weak conductors thus limiting the rate of conductive bias applied to the first N channel FET and to the second N channel FET. Fifth and sixth N channel FETs are connected between the gate terminals of the first and second FETs and circuit ground for preventing conduction of the first and second FETs when the fifth and sixth FETs are conductive.

This invention relates generally to output buffer circuits as used in integrated circuits such as programmable logic devices, and more particularly the invention relates to an output buffer which has reduced noise when switching states of an output.
The output pins and associated capacitances of integrated circuits are often connected to external ground leads and external voltage leads through pull-down and pull-up transistors, respectively, which are controlled by data signals generated within the integrated circuit. The leads have inductance associated therewith, and a voltage given by the inductance, L, multiplied by the time rate of change of current, di/dt, develops across the leads during voltage transitions. When multiple outputs connected to the leads switch, the time rate of change of current, di/dt, can be high thereby causing noise voltages to be developed across the leads. Consequently, the internal ground reference network can be at a different potential than the external ground thereby resulting in device inputs and outputs behaving differently than expected with consequential erroneous circuit operation.
Many buffer circuits have been proposed for reducing noise on output terminals by limiting the rate at which the output pin capacitance can charge and discharge, thus reducing the time rate of change of current. U.S. Pat. No. 4,789,796 discloses an output buffer having a sequentially switched output; U.S. Pat. No. 4,771,195 utilizes a plurality of subtransistors in the charging/discharging paths; U.S. Pat. No. 4,638,187 includes a pull-up circuit having parallel P channel and N channel FETs and a pull-down circuit having a pair of N channel FETs with a delay resistance between their gates; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,961,010 utilizes primary and secondary pull-up and pull-down transistors with delay resistance to delay turn on of the primary transistors.


A cascode connection circuit includes a first field effect transistor (FET) which has a source terminal and a drain terminal, the source terminal being connected to ground; a second FET which has a source terminal and a gate terminal, the source terminal being connected to the drain terminal of the first FET; and a first resistor and a first capacitor connected in series between the source terminal of the first FET and the gate terminal of the second FET. The first FET and the second FET are cascode-connected to each other. The product of the resistance of the first resistor and the capacitance of the first capacitor does not exceed 0.1 times the period of an operating frequency of the circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cascode connection circuit used mainly in a high frequency band of 800 MHz or more.
2. Background Art
Cascode connection circuit having two field effect transistors (hereinafter referred to as a "FET") cascode-connected to each other is used in a high frequency amplifier circuit used mainly in a high frequency band of 800 MHz or more.
FIG. 14 is a circuit diagram showing a conventional cascode connection circuit. As shown in FIG. 14, the conventional cascode connection circuit comprises FET1 having a source terminal connected to the ground, FET2 having a source terminal connected to a drain terminal of FET1, a capacitor 3 connected between the source terminal of FET1 and a gate terminal of FET2, a resistor 4 connected between a drain terminal of FET2 and the gate terminal of FET2, and a resistor 5 connected in parallel to the capacitor 3, between the source terminal of FET1 and the gate terminal of FET2 (refer to Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2005-33650, for example).
However, when capacitance C1 of the capacitor 3 is determined so that drain/source voltage Vds of FET1 and that of FET2 have the same phase and amplitude of alternate current, then a frequency region having a negative resistance emerges in the output side impedance of the cascode connection circuit. Thus, an oscillation tends to occur, causing a problem.


The radio control section 205 notifies a transmission rate that can be currently set up out of the radio channel transmission rates to the transmission rate decision section 207. The buffer monitoring section 208 monitors an amount of media data stored in the media reception buffer 209 and when the amount of media data stored exceeds a threshold, the buffer monitoring section 208 notifies it to the transmission rate decision section 207. When information on the radio channel transmission rate from the radio control section 205 shows that the radio channel transmission rate is well within the capacity and when monitoring information from the buffer monitoring section 208 shows that the amount of data stored in the media reception buffer 209 does not exceed a threshold, the transmission rate decision section 207 outputs a request for increasing the transmission rate of the media data to the control signal transmission/reception section 206. Thus, even if the maximum rate of the radio channel transmission rate that can be set up decreases due to deterioration of a communication environment, it is possible to prevent data play back from being interrupted.

Conventionally, there is a technology called "streaming" for distributing images like moving images and packet data like speech from a media server on the Internet and receiving and playing back the data at a mobile station apparatus. According to this streaming technology, through a radio network connected to the Internet and a base station apparatus connected to the radio network, data such as moving images distributed from a media server is received by a mobile station apparatus from the base station apparatus and the moving images, etc., are played back. The mobile station apparatus that has received packet data such as moving images plays back the data such as the moving images received from the media server.
In such a streaming technology, a phenomenon called "jitter" occurs in which a delay in data reception increases or decreases according to the network condition. When a delay occurs in data reception due to jitter, the data reception rate becomes lower than the data play back rate. In this case, if the received data is continued to be played back, it comes to a point at which there is no more data to be played back and the play back is no longer possible, and therefore the mobile station apparatus is provided with a buffer, the received data is temporarily stored in this buffer, the data is read from the buffer and played back. In this way, even if some delay occurs in received data, the data stored in the buffer is played back and it is thereby possible to prevent play back of data from being stopped due to the delay of the received data. When play back of data is started for the first time, an operation called "buffering" is performed first whereby a predetermined amount of data is stored in the buffer before the data is played back and the received data is stored in the buffer even after play back of data is started and the data to be played back is read from the buffer and played back. The rate at which data is stored in the buffer needs to be set equal to or higher than the rate at which data is read from the buffer to prevent data to be played back from running short during play back.
However, a conventional radio apparatus has a problem that due to deterioration of a communication environment, a maximum transmission rate that can be set up for a communication channel decreases, the data reception rate falls below the rate at which data is read from the buffer making it impossible to play back the data.

Data reception device and data distribution system

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


An authentication device includes a last session information storage portion that stores data of a first registered person successfully authenticated in the last session, an input unit to which information of a second registered person successfully authenticated by another authentication device is input, an information acquisition unit that acquires identification information of a user via an information sensor, a registered person information storage portion that stores registered person information in which a plurality of registered persons including the first and second registered persons are associated with their registration identification information, an authentication order information storage portion that stores information about an authentication order of the registered persons, and an authentication unit that authenticates the user by comparing the identification information acquired from the information acquisition unit with the registration identification information stored in the registered person information storage portion according to the stored authentication order.

A vehicle anti-theft device is known which is provided with a handheld device authentication means that authenticates a handheld device based on identification information received from the handheld device, a driver authentication means that acquires driver identification information unique to a driver and authenticates the driver as a preliminarily registered driver based on comparison with pre-registered driver identification information, an information input means receiving an input of setting information that is information set by the registered driver, and an authentication control means that selects either authentication using the driver authentication means or authentication based on the setting information input by the registered driver and controls start of a vehicle based on an authentication result from the selected authentication and an authentication result provided by the handheld device authentication means (see, e.g., Patent Literature 1).

Authentication device, authentication method, and authentication system

KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOKAI RIKA DENKI SEISAKUSHO


A ground terminal mountable to a peripheral portion of a printed board, which includes a ground terminal body having a pick-up portion picked up by a mounter and a first end edge portion formed with a semicircular notch, and which includes a connection portion formed in, for example, a second end edge portion of the ground terminal body. To mount the ground terminal to a printed board having a first side edge portion formed with a mounting hole having a function of a positioning hole, the printed board is positioned at a part mounting position with its first and second side edge portions individually engaged with first and second guide rails, and the mounter is operated to place the ground terminal on the printed board, with the notch directed to the first guide rail and aligned with the mounting hole.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a ground terminal, a printed board mounted with a ground terminal, and a method for mounting a ground terminal to a printed board.
2. Description of the Related Art
Electronic or electrical equipment is comprised of electronic and/or electrical parts (hereinafter referred to as electronic parts) that are mounted to one or more printed boards received in a chassis. In a case where a mounter is used to mount electronic parts on a printed board, the printed board must be positioned at a predetermined part mounting position with respect to the mounter. To this end, a positioning unit for instance is employed that has a positioning pin adapted removably fitted into a positioning hole formed in the printed board. Specifically, the printed board is transported toward the mounter along guide rails of the positioning unit. When the printed board is transported to or near the predetermined part mounting position, the positioning pin is fitted into the positioning hole, whereby the printed board is positioned at the part mounting position.
A further explanation will be given with reference to FIG. 12. Reference numeral 3 denotes one of a pair of guide rails of the positioning unit. A guide groove 3a is formed in an inner side face of the guide rail 3, into which a side edge portion 2a of the printed board 2 is fitted. Reference numeral 2b denotes the positioning hole formed in the printed board 2, into which the positioning pin 4 is removably fitted. The printed board 2 is positioned at the part mounting position by inserting the positioning pin 4 into the positioning hole 2b, and electronic parts are mounted to the printed board 2 by means of the mounter.
As explained above, the printed board 2 is mounted with electronic parts in a condition that both the side edge portions 2a of the printed board 2 are covered by the guide rails 3. Thus, the side edge portions 2a of the printed board 2 constitute a dead space where no electronic parts can be mounted. To widen the part mounting area of the printed board 2, the dead space, i.e., the side edge portions 2a of the printed board 2 are made as narrow as possible. From a similar point of view, the positioning hole 2a is formed near one side edge portion 2a of the printed board 2.
The printed board is mounted with a ground terminal, which is a sort of electronic part, so as to electrically connect the printed board to the chassis through the ground terminal. Such a ground terminal is disclosed in Japanese patent publication no. 2863981, which comprises, as shown in FIG. 11, a plurality of connection portions 1a used for establishing connection between the ground terminal 1 and the printed board, and a fixture portion 1b used for screw-fastening between the ground terminal 1 and the chassis. The fixture portion 1b is formed with a screw insertion hole 1c permitting a screw to extend therethrough.
When the ground terminal 1 shown in FIG. 11 is mounted to the printed board, the ground terminal 1 is placed on the printed board in a condition that the connection portions 1a are aligned with solder portions formed in the printed board and the screw insertion hole 1c is aligned with a screw insertion hole formed in the printed board and with a tapped hole formed in the chassis. Next, the connection portions 1a of the ground terminal 1 are soldered to the solder portions of the printed board. Further, the screw inserted into the screw insertion hole of the ground terminal 1 and that of the printed board is threadedly engaged with the tapped hole of the chassis and is then fastened, to thereby secure both the ground terminal 1 and the printed board to the chassis, whereby the ground terminal 1 is electrically connected through the screw to the chassis, and the printed board is grounded to the chassis through the ground terminal 1.
As mentioned above with reference to FIG. 2, it is preferable that the part mounting area of the printed board 2 be widened. As a measure to increase the part mounting area of the printed board, the screw insertion hole of the printed board may be arranged to have a function of the positioning hole (shown at 2b in FIG. 2) in addition to its primary function of permitting the screw to extending therethrough. In this case, when the ground terminal is mounted to the printed board, the screw insertion hole (shown at 1c in FIG. 11) of the ground terminal must be aligned with the screw-insertion/positioning hole (corresponding to the hole 2b in FIG. 12) of the printed board.
In this regard, the ground terminal 1 shown in FIG. 11 has its fixture portion 1b which is large in size, and therefore, its distal end interferes with the guide rail 3 when an attempt is made to align the screw insertion hole 1c with the positioning hole 2b of the printed board 2. In other words, the ground terminal 1 cannot be mounted to the side edge portion 2a of the printed board 2 around the positioning hole 2 (more generally, to a peripheral portion of the printed board 2). In order to make the ground terminal 1 mountable to the printed board 2, on the other hand, it is essentially required to form the positioning hole 2b at a location away from the side edge portion 2a of the printed board 2, and hence the part mounting area of the printed board 2 decreases accordingly.

Ground terminal and method for mounting a ground terminal to a printed board


Recesses or openings (4) are arranged in a wall of an elongated tubular covering (3) made of resinous plastics that are resistant to temperature stresses and/or aggressive media; these openings are covered from the outside by a microporous layer (5) made of a fluoropolymer that is resistant to high temperatures.

This invention relates to elongated coverings made of resinous plastics that are resistant to temperature stresses and/or aggressive media.
As new fields of application continue to be found for products already on the market, the characteristics of these products must be adapted to meet market requirements. Thus, to an increasing extent, materials that are resistant to high temperatures, generally based on fluoropolymers, are being used to insulate or cover electrical cable and wiring, e.g. in what is known as heating cable, as well as in the field of sensor technology, where temperatures in excess of 300.degree. C. must be reckoned with. In the automobile industry, for example, this applies to lead wiring for lambda probes, which, in combination with regulated catalytic converters, ensure that exhaust emission values are maintained at a low levels.
Other applications, such as taking samples in the chemicals industry, use small, media-conducting pipes that are exposed to elevated temperatures, but it is especially important that their functionality not be affected by ambient aggressive media. Therefore, for all these applications, it has long been known that fluoropolymers, which cannot be worked from a melt, may be used as insulation/covering for electrical cable and wiring, and that tube walls can be manufactured using such materials. It has proven particularly advantageous in this regard to use the fluoropolymer in strip form for the purposes specified above; the material of the strip may be sintered or unsintered (Swiss patent CH-PS 562 098; German patent DE-PS 32 14 447).
However, there are occasions, as in sensor technology, when it is important to have access to comparative values from the outside, at a measuring point, in order to regulate an operating system after comparing desired and actual values. This is the case, for example, with the lambda probe mentioned above, with which, essentially, a suitably responsive electrode extends into a flow of exhaust gas exiting from an engine block; one end of the electrode being exposed to the flow of exhaust gas, while the other end is in contact with outside air. This type of regulating system must be protected from dirt accumulation and splashed water, or one disadvantage is that it becomes increasingly difficult to make sufficient oxygen, for comparison, available to the regulating system from ambient air. In some cases, efforts to use open gusset space of the electrical conductors in the supply leads to this end have resulted in an introduction of splashed water, which has had a negative impact on the regulating process.
If an elongated tubular covering itself is used as a measurement probe or sensor, such as for monitoring electrical equipment, for pipelines and similar devices, e.g. to detect liquids or gases seeping from or penetrating into the system, and to report locations of entry or exit to a central monitoring station, an important thing is often to select a medium to perform this monitoring function so that false alerts are avoided.

Elongated tubular housing for monitoring systems


A method and apparatus for performing high speed chemical treatment of v type cylinder blocks. First the cylinder bores of one bank are treated. Then those of the other bank are treated. This permits a simple but compact treating plant.

This invention relates to a method and device for surface treatment and more particularly to a method and apparatus for surface treating cylinder blocks of reciprocating machines having angularly disposed cylinder banks.
There have been proposed very effective methods and apparatus for surface treating the cylinder bores of a cylinder block. The cylinder bores may be surface treated for a variety of purposes, the main of which is to plate a hardened coating on the base cylinder block material. By plating cylinder blocks in this method, it is possible to use light alloy-based blocks and still have the desired cylinder wall surface and surface properties.
Such a plating technique has been found useful in permitting lighter weight cylinder blocks than possible when utilizing pressed or cast-in cylinder liners, as was the previous practice. Although plating has been an alternative to the use of pressed or cast-in liners, conventional plating processes are not particularly adapted for use with cylinder blocks. There are a number of reasons for this.
The first of these reasons has to do with the fact that in conventional plating processes, the entire article to be plated is submersed in the electrolytic solution. Thus, if it is desired only to plate the cylinder bores, then some form of stopping off for the other surfaces of the cylinder block must be employed.
In addition to this disadvantage, conventional dip-type plating has a number of other generally objectionable characteristics. That is, the plating baths are quite environmentally unfriendly, and the handling of the plating fluids, subsequent washing, cooling, and drying presents significant problems.
Therefore, there has been proposed a plating method wherein the surface to be plated is hydraulically sealed and a plating electrolyte fluid is passed through the area across the surface to be plated. An electrical potential is generated, and the plating of the desired surface can be accomplished quickly and in a generally environmentally safe manner.
When plating cylinder bores, it is possible, for example, to place the cylinder block with one end of the cylinder bore in sealing relationship with a supporting base. A hollow electrode is then passed through the cylinder bore, and the other end of the cylinder bore is sealed. The plating fluid is then passed through the narrow area between the outer surface of the electrode and the inner surface of the cylinder bore at a high velocity.
With this type of system, a very good plating layer can be accomplished in a very quick time and in a generally environmentally safe manner. In addition, the washing and other environmental protection required with dip-type plating are significantly improved. In fact, this type of plating method and apparatus can be utilized on a production line where other machining and finishing operations are performed on the cylinder block.
However, the type of method and apparatus previously utilized for this purpose has generally been limited to arrangements wherein the cylinder block has in-line cylinders. If in-line cylinders are employed, several cylinders may be plated at the same time. In addition, the other surface treatments required for the plating process can also be performed in a similar manner.
However, the previously proposed methods and apparatus have not lent themselves to practice with engines having their cylinder bores aligned in an angular relationship to each other. Said another and more simple way, these previously proposed methods and apparatus have not lent themselves to utilization with V-type cylinder blocks.
It is, therefore, a principal object of this invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for surface treating the cylinder bores of engines having angularly disposed cylinder banks and cylinder bores.
It is a further object of this invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for plating cylinder blocks having angularly disposed cylinder bores wherein the plating process can be accomplished with conventional type equipment utilized for in line cylinders.
As should be apparent from the foregoing description, the presently proposed plating and surface treatment apparatus and methods for cylinder blocks has been generally limited to the use of application to in line cylinder blocks. This is generally because of the fact that a seal must be established at each end of each cylinder bore. Where the cylinder bores are angularly disposed, then a problem arises in conjunction with the simultaneous sealing of a plurality of nonaligned cylinder bores.
It is, therefore, a still further object of this invention to provide an improved method and apparatus for surface treating the cylinder bores of cylinder blocks having angularly disposed relationship.
In accordance with a feature of the invention, as will be described later under the heading entitled "Summary of the Invention", the plating or surface treatment of cylinder blocks having angularly disposed cylinder bores is facilitated by first surface treating all cylinder bores that are aligned in one plane and then surface treating those cylinder bores that are aligned in another plane. Obviously, this requires manipulation of the cylinder block, and also may significantly increase the space required for the surface-treating mechanism.
It is, therefore, a still further object of this invention to provide an improved plating apparatus and method wherein cylinder blocks having angularly disposed cylinder bores may be surface treated and wherein the apparatus and method is such that the actual space required on an assembly or production line is minimized.


A locking member is mounted to the housing to be able to move in the outer diameter direction by a tapered portion of the tubular body, when the tubular body is inserted. The housing is equipped with slits formed to pass a curved portion bent in the inner diameter direction disposed at a leading-end side of the locking member and to lock with the engagement portion of the tubular body mounted on the housing. A gap is disposed between the curved portion, and the end portion of the slit positioned at a side in an opposite direction to the leading-end side of the locking member, so that there is no contact while at least the locking member is moving.

Conventionally, a pipe connector is known that is capable of pipe insertion or release by a wire pulling upward, and the wire moving in an outer diameter direction, when inserting a pipe, or when releasing a pipe. Specifically, the wire includes a curved portion that passes through a slit in the connector to project inside a connector.


The invention relates to a method for producing high-molecular polyester such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polynaphthalene terephthalate (PEN), polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) and/or polyester of other dicarboxylic acids and diols, including the copolymers of the same. The invention also relates to a device for carrying out said method, the device being a single-stage tower reactor by which means a method involving only two reactors is carried out for the entire process.

The invention relates to a method for producing high-molecular weight polyesters, such as e.g. polyethylene terephthalate (PET), polybutylene terephthalate (PBT), polynaphthalene terephthalate (PEN), polytrimethylene terephthalate (PTT) and/or polyesters of other dicarboxylic acids and diols including copolymers thereof. The invention likewise relates to a device for implementation of this method. This concerns a single-stage tower reactor with which a method, comprising only two reactors, is made available for the total process.
Methods for continuous production of polyesters are known from the state of the art, in which multiple-stage reactor systems are used which comprise three to five different reaction vessels which are connected to each other. In the case of these methods, the polyester formation is implemented in a plurality of reaction steps which are generally configured as stirred vessels, which steps proceed spatially separately from each other: esterification, transesterification, precondensation, polycondensation and polyesterification. The reaction conditions for the esterification are thereby at temperatures between 200 and 280° C. and pressures between 0 and 4 bar, whilst the conditions for the transesterification are normally at atmospheric pressures and at temperatures between 150 and 240° C., dependent upon the initial substances, especially upon the diols. Low temperatures and low pressures are desirable for the methods in order to avoid undesired secondary reactions.
A method for continuous production of high-molecular weight polybutylene terephthalate is known therefore from DE 35 44 551 A1, in which the method is implemented at atmospheric pressure.
It is important with all the methods known from the state of the art to fulfil the following conditions:    I) Suitable process control and configuration of the devices in order to avoid undesired secondary reactions.    II) As rapid as possible removal of the byproducts, such as e.g. water, methanol, THF and acetaldehyde, as a result of which the reaction equilibrium is moved to the right and the main reaction consequently proceeds with precedence.    III) Sparing treatment, i.e. short dwell time with a minimum reaction temperature.    IV) Optimally coordinated pressure reduction and/or respectively temperature increase in order to achieve the greatest possible progress of the esterification/transesterification and also of the polycondensation/polyesterification.    V) High surface formation for improving the reaction kinetics.
These objects can be fulfilled only unsatisfactorily by means of a plurality of successively connected stirred vessels which are normally used according to the state of the art for these processes. Consequently, e.g. the quality of the product or the quantity of undesired byproducts and also the yield can be affected negatively, as a result of which, in addition to further disadvantages, such as energy consumption, maintenance requirements and investment costs, the economic efficiency of these methods is greatly impaired.
Starting from these disadvantages of the state of the art, it was the object of the present invention to provide a method for producing high-molecular weight polyesters using a single, integrated reactor which fulfils the requirements (I) to (V).
This object is achieved by the generic method with the characterising features of claim 1 and also by the generic device with the characterising features of claim 18. The further dependent claims reveal advantageous developments.
According to the invention, a method for continuous production of high-molecular weight polyester is provided, based on the esterification of dicarboxylic acids and/or transesterification of dicarboxylic acid esters with diols in the presence of catalysts with simultaneous formation of a prepolymer and polycondensation thereof into high-molecular weight polyester. The following steps thereby characterise the course of the method:    a1) A paste and/or a suspension of the dicarboxylic acids and of the diol is produced, a molar ratio of diol to dicarboxylic acid of 0.8 to 1.8 being maintained. At the same time, the temperature is maintained between 20 and 90° C. and the pressure between 0.1 and 1 bar.    a2) Alternatively to a1), a dicarboxylic acid ester can be melted and mixed with the diol in a molar ratio of diol to dicarboxylic acid ester of 1.2 to 1.8 at a temperature of 145 to 165° C.    b) The products from a1) and/or a2) are supplied continuously to a tower reactor. In the tower reactor, the esterification or respectively transesterification is then effected continuously, simultaneously and without interruption until precondensation, the following reaction conditions being maintained:    b1) The products from a1) and/or a2) are subjected to a temperature treatment at 170 to 270° C. and pressures of 0.3 to 3 bar without mechanical stirring. At the same time, a partial quantity of the catalyst and/or catalysts is supplied, whilst the reaction vapours are removed in situ from the reaction mixture.    b2) The product obtained from b1) is transferred continuously into a pipe stretch and the pressure is thereby maintained between 1 and 10 bar, the temperature between 200 and 280° C. In this reaction step, at the same time 0.03 to 0.3 mol diol are supplied.    b3) The product from b2) is transferred continuously into a third zone, a reduced pressure of 0.1 to 2 bar and a temperature between 230 and 280° C. being maintained 0.02 to 0.2 mol diol and a partial quantity of the catalyst and/or catalysts are supplied in this third step.    b4) The product from b3) is subjected to further reaction, the pressure being maintained between 0.01 and 0.1 bar and the temperature between 240 to 280° C.    b5) The reaction product water from the esterification or respectively methanol from the transesterification, the byproducts and also excess diol from the reaction steps b1) and b3) to b5) are removed and the diol is supplied back to the individual process steps after removal of low boilers.    c1) The prepolymer obtained from b4) is further processed in a normal polycondensation apparatus at temperatures between 240 and 290° C. and at pressures between 0.0002 to 0.003 bar continuously to obtain a polymer.    c2) Alternatively to c1) it is also possible to solidify the obtained prepolymer, to process it into pellets and to subject it to subsequent polycondensation in solid phase at temperatures between 160 and 230° C. under inert gas.
The new method allows the parallel, uninterrupted sequence of transesterification/esterification and precondensation of dicarboxylic acids and esters thereof with diols in a single tower reactor. As a result, the mechanical and process-technological integration of a plurality of process steps is made possible for the first time for the polyester synthesis. Preferably, the gaseous byproducts produced in step b1) and the excess diol are separated by means of a hydrocyclone in "statu nascendi" from the reaction mass. In addition, an inert gas and/or a process gas can be directed through the base to assist this separation. There is great significance in the rapid separation of low boiling reaction gases with respect to minimising the formation of byproducts by auto- and acid catalysis. The content of byproducts in the reaction material is determined, on the basis of the partial pressures of these products, by the occurring reaction pressure and the static product levels present: the higher is the total pressure, the higher is the formation of byproducts. The configuration as hydrocyclone with externally situated heat exchanger is therefore decisive for a short dwell time of the byproducts in the reaction material in the case of increasing static product level because of the auto-adjusting thermosiphon circulation, causing an immediate effective degassing in the hydrocyclone and in the heat exchanger.
During implementation of an esterification, preferably a temperature between 200 and 270° C. and a pressure between 0.3 and 3 bar is maintained in step b1). If in contrast a transesterification is implemented, then step b1) is implemented at a temperature between 170 and 200° C. and at a pressure between 0.3 to 1 bar.
In step b2), during implementation of an esterification, the pressure is maintained preferably between 2 and 6 bar, the dwell time between 1 and 5 min and the temperature preferably between 220 and 280° C. and particularly preferably between 230 to 250° C. If in contrast a transesterification is implemented, the pressure in step b2) is maintained preferably in the range between 2 and 5 bar, the dwell time between 1 and 4 min and the temperature in the range between 200 and 240° C., particularly preferably between 210 and 230° C.
In an advantageous development of the method, in step b3), the reaction product supplied continuously from step b2) is directed over a downflow cascade, the pressure falling by 20 to 60 mbar and the temperature increasing by 5 to 20° C. per reaction tray. During the esterification, a prepolycondensate is thereby produced with 5 to 20 repeat units with a conversion between 97 and 99.5%. During the transesterification, the conversion is however between 98.5 and 99.8%.
Preferably, in addition to the normal process gas, a dry inert gas and/or superheated process gas is directed into at least the first tray below the reaction material surfaces. As a result, the separation of the byproducts is assisted by "entrainment effect", i.e. saturation of the gases. At the same time, the internal intermixing of the reaction material is achieved. The dwell time in the individual trays is preferably in a range between 5 and 15 min.
In a further advantageous development of the method, the supply of product is effected centrally in the trays. The product thereby discharges at the outer periphery of the trays distributed uniformly over the outer wall, which serves for accelerated degassing, and subsequently is directed together again centrally.
The step b4) is configured as a falling-film zone with initial pressure reduction and is implemented preferably at a temperature between 245 and 270° C. and a dwell time between 4 and 30 min, and at a pressure between 0.01 and 0.05 bar. A prepolycondensate is thereby produced with 10 to 40 repeat units with a conversion of 99.8%.
The reaction product is directed together after leaving one or more falling-film zone(s) preferably through a heated cone, a gas-liquid separation being undertaken in its central region by means of a spoiler-shaped outlet.
Preferably, 1,2-ethanediol, 1,3-propanediol or 1,4-butanediol is used as diol. The method is also suitable for cyclohexane dimethanol. Terephthalic acid is used preferably as dicarboxylic acid. During transesterification, preferably dimethyl terephthalate (DMT) is used as dicarboxylic acid ester. There are used as catalysts preferably the known tin, antimony, germanium, manganese, calcium and/or titanium metals etc., in particular as organic compounds thereof. The catalysts can also be accommodated in a porous carrier substance in order to achieve a specific closing effect.
According to the invention, likewise a device for implementing the described method according to the invention is provided, which has at least one stirring vessel for slurry preparation, reaction zones for the simultaneous esterification or transesterification and precondensation as well as at least one polycondensation reactor for the solid and/or liquid phase. The individual reaction zones are thereby combined into one tower reactor and connected at least to one reactor for the polycondensation.
The tower reactor is thereby constructed in the following manner: in the lower portion, the tower reactor is configured in the form of a hydrocyclone with an attached heat exchanger and has a supply line for the paste, the suspension and/or the liquid raw material mixture. The hydrocyclone is connected via a pressure pipe to the top side of the tower reactor. The top side of the tower reactor is thereby configured in the form of a downflow cascade. This cascade is connected via a suitable inlet pipe to the central part of the tower reactor which is configured in the form of a single- or multiple-stage falling-film zone with initial pressure reduction.
Preferably, the hydrocyclone has a vapour connection piece and is connected in the lower part of the tower reactor to a heat exchanger. As a result, it is made possible to direct the product in a natural or enforced circulation via the heat exchanger into the hydrocyclone.
In an advantageous embodiment, the heat exchanger has a separate gas chimney which leads into an upper part of the cyclone.
Preferably, the cascade has at least two, particularly preferred four trays. A stirring assembly can thereby be integrated in at least one cascade region in order to assist the input of diol or additives.
The pressure pipe is configured preferably as a double-walled jacket pipe which continues in the interior of the first top tray as a heating coil. The pressure pipe can thereby be equipped with a volume feed pump and static mixing elements or a mixing pump.
Preferably, the hydrocyclone has an inert gas inlet with a suitable gas distributor in its conical region.
In an advantageous embodiment, one of the top trays in the vapour region likewise has an inert gas inlet. The reaction gases and/or foreign gases are preferably directed from reaction zone to reaction zone through the reaction liquid in parallel flow by means of immersed supply tubes.
Preferably, the preliminary pressure reduction zone for the falling-film zone has likewise the form of a hydrocyclone which supports the flash effect and ensures suitable separation of the liquid/gas phases.
The supply of the product from the initial pressure reduction zone to the falling-film zone is effected by suitable configuration of the discharge therefrom in the concentric outer region of the falling-film zones and the product is distributed uniformly in the pipe field via channels.
It is likewise preferred that the falling-film zone has at least one pipe field. An inlet cylinder is thereby assigned to each pipe of the pipe field, which inlet cylinder ensures a uniform wetting of the inside of the pipe, the latter being equipped with overlapping, non-axial slots on the circumference, a constant filling level above the pipe series being produced because of the slot pressure loss and having a maximum overflow with an indented crown, the slots being configured such that viscosity differences cause only negligible changes in the filling level, but in fact a proportional change of filling level to liquid throughput.
It is likewise preferred that the length of the falling-film pipes is dimensioned such that total wetting is effected.
Preferably, the diameter of the falling-film pipes is selected to be larger than the largest occurring reaction vapour bubble. The reaction vapours are thereby directed in parallel flow with the downwardly flowing product.
The falling-film pipe field can preferably be used also for heat transference.
Preferably, the entire tower reactor is equipped with a jacket for heating with organic heating media in vapour form.
In a further advantageous embodiment, all the heat exchanger surfaces are equipped in the individual zones for liquid heat carriers for process-relevant temperature and heat quantity distribution.
The subject according to the invention is intended to be explained in more detail by means of the following figures and the example, without restricting the latter to these embodiments.
FIG. 1 shows the schematic structure of a tower reactor (1). A suspension of the dicarboxylic acid with the diol or the molten dicarboxylic acid ester and the diol are injected under pressure into the reaction fluid in the lower region of a heat exchanger (5) suspended on the tower reactor, the result being, due to suitable configuration of the injection connection piece (3), an optimal intermixing with the boiling reaction product in the lower part. Also a catalyst, which is advantageous for some polyester reactions, can be fed in here. The heat exchanger ensures the heating of the mixture to the boiling temperature of the reaction. The boiling reaction mixture passes via a short connection pipe which discharges tangentially into a hydrocyclone (2) for further reaction. For rapid reaction gas discharge from the reaction material, the main part of these gases is directed via a separate pipe, a vapour chimney (6), out of the heat exchanger into the gas chamber of the cyclone.
A further degassing during continuation of the reaction takes place in the hydrocyclone (2). The reacted product passes via a short connection pipe at the foot of the cyclone back into the heat exchanger (5) so that a natural circulation is produced. The entire reaction gas is withdrawn above the reaction fluid from the vapour chamber of the hydrocyclone (2).
In the case of particularly sensitive products, such as e.g. in the production of PBT, undesired tetrahydrofurane (THF) is produced by cyclisation of butanediol. The formation is increased by the presence of water which is produced for example during esterification. Advantageously, a preheated, unsaturated entrainment gas or superheated process vapour can be introduced in this case in the lower region of the cyclone, as a result of which the removal of, in particular water, methanol, acetaldehyde or tetrahydrofuran from the reaction material is accelerated.
A partial stream of the degassed reaction product is removed from the lower connection pipe and pumped by means of a pressure-increasing volume conveyor into a heated pressure pipe (4). The pressure pipe (4) is equipped at the pump outlet with a metering pipe for diol which is mixed intimately with the reaction material via static mixing elements. According to the product, a pressure here of up to 10 bar can be set via a pressure maintaining valve. Alternatively, the intermixing and the pressure can also be produced by a special mixing pump.
By introducing the diol under pressure, a spontaneous conversion with the carboxyl- or methoxy groups is initiated, which proceeds in the time range of 1 to 5 minutes and is ended after pressure reduction to atmospheric or sub-atmospheric pressure. The reaction time is adjusted in that a part of the pressure pipe is designed in the form of a heating coil in the uppermost reaction zone of the tower reactor. The double-walled jacket ensures that the reaction material cooled by pressure reduction is brought again to reaction temperature.
The pressure-reduced reaction fluid is now conducted through a downflow cascade (7) which comprises at least 2 preferably 4 to 5 reaction trays fitted with heating coils, into which the product flows centrally and dipped under the surface. The reaction gas is in contrast conducted separately out of the tray situated respectively thereabove by means of likewise dipped pipes through the reaction fluid. A differential pressure, which acts preferably as a pressure reduction from tray to tray from top to bottom is produced herefrom.
The product from the second to xth tray flows down on the outer wall, which acts as an additional evaporation surface, to each next tray in a conically shaped collector, the discharge of which is located centrally at the deepest point of the cone. In the collector, there are also located the dip pipes which introduce the reaction gas into the next tray. The trays are preferably designed for a dwell time of 5 to 10 min in order to achieve the desired reaction progress. In order to maintain the required reaction temperature, preferably a gentle increase by 2 to 10° C. per tray, each tray is equipped with heating coils and respective controls.
It results from the arrangement that the reaction gas is directed in parallel flow with the product stream, the gas bubbling through the reaction material and, on the one hand, ensuring there an optimum intermixing, on the other hand, not achieving its saturation limit because of the pressure drop with simultaneous temperature increase and consequently remaining absorbent for newly forming reaction gas (entrainment effect). A further important effect of the described downflow cascade is that the low-boiling, short-chained oligomers of the product, which are initially still available, are directed back into the reaction fluid by the reaction gas and there take part further in the reaction. Due to the introduction of the gas into the reaction fluid, by additional surface formation and contact with the gaseous diol, the bubble formation further promotes the speed of the reaction.
This is not possible for example in the case of stirred cascades and as a result the yield is reduced and interferences are caused in the subsequent condensers and vacuum devices.
Insofar as it is required for mixing additional additives or diol, an inclined stirrer (10) can be placed in the last tray, which stirring assists intermixing due to vapour bubbles.
The reaction material is brought subsequently by a suitable supply line for renewed pressure reduction into an arrangement configured similarly to a hydrocyclone, which arrangement is equipped like the previous trays with heating coils for temperature control. The gas/liquid separation is effected on the surface, being ensured by suitable baffles that the reaction fluid discharges uniformly over the indented outer edge of the tray, unaffected by forming reaction gas bubbles. The reaction fluid discharging at the periphery is collected on a pipe base plate—likewise on the periphery thereof—and is distributed on the base plate uniformly with the assistance of so-called "channels".
The pipe base is part of a straight pipe bundle (field) (9) which serves simultaneously for film formation on the inner pipe surfaces and for heat exchange. An inlet cylinder (11) is assigned to each pipe in the bundle. Said inlet cylinder is configured with a series of non-axial, overlapping slots with a particularly designed geometry at its periphery. The geometry is established such that                a minimum level for all pipes is maintained for uniform liquid distribution,        only small level differences occur for a specific viscosity spectrum,        throughput changes effect a proportional level change only and the inner pipe surface is wetted uniformly over the entire pipe length,        the upper edge of the inlet cylinder (11) serves as an emergency overflow and is equipped with an indented crown.
The pipe diameter is chosen such that it is greater than the largest possible occurring reaction gas bubble. The reaction vapour is directed in parallel flow with the downwardly running product film. The ratio of pipe length to pipe diameter should be between 10 and 25 and the surface of the falling-film pipes must be adapted to the wettability of the product. The product emerges as a film and/or strands on the underside of the falling-film pipes, is directed together by conical collector sheets which allow the gas flow to pass through and is supplied to a second falling-film reaction zone on the periphery. The latter is in principle configured identically to the first zone but takes into account the increased viscosities by means of corresponding measures on the inlet cylinders (11), distribution of the pipes and length of the module.
Below the module, a device is located for directing together the melt which contains in the centre a central pipe for the guidance of the reaction gases and the product. The product discharging on the device, preferably on the wall, is separated from the gas flow by a spoiler device (12), which gas flow is deflected and discharged into the gas chamber of the integrated prepolymer collector. The collected prepolymer is removed from the collector after a resting and secondary reaction time of 5 to 15 minutes via a central pipe and can now be subjected to a further treatment, e.g. granulation with subsequent solid phase or a melt phase high (post)condensation. For specific products, the possibility is provided of directing back a partial flow of the prepolymer into the lower falling-film module and of mixing it with the preproduct from the upper falling-film module so that the reaction time can be advantageously increased in a simple manner. As such, extended chain lengths can be obtained.
The outer covering of the reactor is a heating jacket which is provided preferably with a synthetic heat transfer vapour as active insulation for the heating. The temperature profile required for the reaction is produced essentially with a heat transfer oil in zones by means of the inner heating faces. The reaction gases from the different zones are discharged by normal devices, such as condensers, columns and vacuum systems, the diol being essentially directed back with small proportions of oligomer into the process.
FIG. 2 shows a further variant of the tower reactor (1) which has the essential elements as in FIG. 1.
However, in this variant of the tower reactor, a special mixing pump is used instead of the pressure maintaining valve and the static mixing elements.
Likewise in this variant, the use of an inclined stirrer for mixing additional additives and diols is dispensed.

Method for the continuous production of high-molecular polyester and device for carrying out the method


An off-axis rotary joint (20) for selectively enabling communication of a signal (i.e., electrical and/or optical) between a housing (21) mounted for rotation about an axis (y-y) relative to a hollow shaft assembly (22) at all permissible relative angular displacements (e.g., 0°, 180°, 360°, 540°, 720°, etc.) between the housing and shaft assembly, broadly includes: a first conductor (23) having an first end mounted on the second member and having a second end mounted on the first member, the first conductor being adapted to convey a signal between its ends; a first motor (24) operatively arranged to selectively rotate the first conductor first end through a desired angular displacement relative to the second member; a second conductor (25) having an first end mounted on the second member and having a second end mounted on the first member, the second conductor being adapted to convey a signal between its ends; a second motor (26) operatively arranged to selectively rotate the second conductor second end through a desired angular displacement relative to the first second member; an encoder (28) for monitoring the angular displacement of the first member relative to the second member; a first divider/combiner (29) communicating with the second end of each of the conductors; a second divider/combiner (30); a first connector (31) mounted on the first member for selectively communicating the first and second divider/combiners through the first conductor; a second connector (32) mounted on the first member for selectively communicating the first and second divider/combiners through the second conductor; and a controller (33) for selectively operating the first and second motors and the first and second connectors; whereby a signal may be conveyed though the joint at all permissible angular displacements of the housing relative to the shaft assembly.

The use of fiber optic transmission techniques is now well accepted in telephone and data transmission arts. Optical multiplexing to enable each fiber to carry a great multitude of data and voice channels is also well understood. Several applications require the passage of power or communication signals (e.g., voice, video, data streams, etc.) across an interface between a rotating reference frame and a non-rotating or stationary reference frame.
One such application is a turret for a Floating Production, Storage and Offloading System ("FPSO"), a moored ship-shaped facility capable of producing oil from subsea wells and for loading and offloading the oil into shuttle tankers, a common scheme when pipeline infrastructure is not available. A critical part of the FPSO is the turret transfer system that provides the ability for an FPSO to weathervane (i.e., allowing the ship to take the position of least resistance relative to the wind, waves and currents) around the mooring, thus minimizing the loading imposed by the environment. The most common solution is a swivel system with the ship attached to, but free to rotate continuously about, a vertically-disposed mooring that is anchored to the seabed. The swivel includes electrical slip rings to power submerged pumps and other equipment and for transmission of low data rate signals, along with fluid rotary unions for passing certain chemicals used in the oil and gas recovery process, as well as for the pumping the product itself from the subsea wells.
As data transmission rate requirements have increased, to take advantage of multiplexing technologies and to link multiple oil rigs to the FPSO possibly over distances, it has become desirable to include fiber optic communications through the turret system, requiring a fiber optic rotary joint. Multiple fibers are required to tie into separate fields, for redundancy, and to separate various vital and non-vital signals. Passive solutions without regeneration through electrical and electro-optic means are desired for safety, maintenance and reliability reasons. Current FPSO systems commonly require from ten to twenty optical fibers, typically all singlemode, with a desired throughbore diameter of 30 cm or more for fluid passage.
A conventional multiple-fiber optic rotary joint is provided by Focal Technologies of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, Canada, which allows fifteen or more optical fibers to be feed into and out of the joint (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 4,725,116). Other multiple-channel fiber optic rotary joint have been proposed. A number of these use derotating prisms (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,109,997 and 5,157,745), but, like the Focal design, all are on-axis designs with optical and mechanical elements occupying the central region proximate the axis of rotation. In many rotating applications, it is desirable to use the central region for other equipment or media. Hence, the hollow-bore requirement, and the need for an off-axis rotary joint.
A number of off-axis fiber optic rotary joints are reported (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,027,945, 4,525,025, 4,943,137, 4,934,783, 5,297,225 and 6,104,849), but none are suited to the FPSO turret requirement. All display high optical losses that require active regeneration of signals, and are impractical for a multiplicity of singlemode optical fibers.
Another solution for some rotary coupling requirements includes limited rotation schemes; that is, solutions that can only turn in one direction for a limited number of rotations before reversal of direction is required. One example is U.S. Pat. No. 5,078,466, wherein a ribbon containing many optical fibers is allowed to coil and uncoil like a clock spring. A variety of other cable spooling mechanisms are reported (see, e.g., U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,822,834 and 5,921,497) that offer a limited number of turns for winch applications and the like. These are not suited to the intended FPSO application as they would need to be rewound with the intervention of a tugboat or other means to break and reset the connection through manual intervention.
Accordingly, there is a need for an improved off-axis rotary joint that will be less expensive to manufacture, that will be capable of operating in an automatic and unattended manner, and that is particularly suited for use in FPSO applications.


A crutch has a standing unit, an armpit rest and a grip unit. The standing unit has a top, a foot and multiple positioning holes defined between the top and the foot. The armpit rest is mounted on the top of the standing unit. The grip unit transversally attached to the standing unit has a grip, two positioning bases and two pins. The grip has two ends each having a recess, a pin hole and a limiting portion. Each positioning base has two insertions each having a limiting notch and a hook. When the positioning base engages the recess, the limiting notches combine with the limiting portions and the pin inserts into one corresponding positioning hole. When the positioning base is released from the recess, the limiting notches disengage from the limiting portions, the pin disengages from the positioning hole, and the hook combines with the limiting portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a crutch and more particularly to a crutch that has an easy-operated grip unit.
2. Description of Related Art
As shown in FIG. 1, a grip unit 1 of one conventional crutch comprises a grip 11, a positioning base 12 and a pin 13. Wherein the grip 11 has two round distal end each having two sides, two limiting portions 111, 112 defined on each side of each round distal end, and a pin hole 113 defined transversally in each round distal end between the two sides. The positioning base 12 has two foot each having a hook 121 to operationally combine one of the two limiting portions 111, 112. When foot of the positioning base 12 insert into the grip 11, the hook 121 engages one (inner) limiting portion 111 and meanwhile the pin 13 inserts the pin hole 113 to fix the height of the grip unit 1. When the hook 121 of the positioning base 12 move outward slightly inside the grip 11, the hook 121 engages another (outer) limiting portion 112 and meanwhile the pin 13 disengages from the pin hole 113 so that the user enables to adjust height of the grip unit 1. However, the hook 121 and the corresponding two limiting portions 111, 112 conventional grip unit 1 are operationally engaged with small contacting area so that the hook 121 easily disengage from the limiting portion 112 when the user over forces and thus the positioning base 12 completely disengages from the grip 11. Therefore, the conventional grip unit 1 is inconvenient in use.
As shown in FIG. 2, a grip unit 2 of another conventional crutch comprises a grip 21, a positioning base 22 and a pin 23. Wherein the grip 21 has two round distal end each having recess 211 to provide combination with a hook 221 of the positioning base 22. However, when user wants to adjust height of the grip unit 2 by releasing the positioning base 22, the hook 221 completely disengages from the recess 211 so that the positioning base 22 also completely is separated from the grip 21. Therefore, the user has to hold the grip 21 with one hand and take the positioning base 22 with the other hand so that this conventional crutch unit is inconvenient in use.


A system and method for signing, sorting, and authenticating electronic documents using public key cryptography. The system comprises a document service computer cluster connected to user computers, document owner server computers, and registration computers via a network such as for example, the internet or the world wide web. Document owners and system users can store electronic documents in an encrypted database located on the document service computer cluster, or on a document safe connected to the document owner server. Users can sign documents by identifying the document to be signed and sending a signing request to the document service computer cluster. The document service computer cluster retrieves the user's private key, which is located securely in a database on the cluster, and signs the identified document. No dedicated signing software need be installed on the user computer prior to accessing the document service computer cluster.

Commerce on the internet is hindered by the inconvenience of creating, viewing, and signing agreements and contracts over the world wide web ("the web"). Many agreements and contracts are too large or too complex to be executed on the web using more commonly used methods such as, for example, exchanging credit card information between parties to a contract. These contracts can include multiple clauses, or may require that parties extensively modify standard contract forms by entering information into the forms and defining the scope of the executed contract. Certain clauses may need to be initialed signifying that each party has read and agrees to the initialed clause. Also, there can be several parties to a contract, requiring all parties to sign the contract document.
Technology for signing and authenticating electronic documents is available. One technology is public key cryptography. Using this technology, a prospective signer obtains a public key and an associated private key. A document encrypted with a signer's public key is relatively difficult to decrypt without knowledge of the associated private key. Decrypting an encrypted document or a digital signature with a signer's public key verifies, with a degree of certainty, that the document or signature was encrypted by a person having access to the associated private key. A digital signature can be created by encrypting a one way hash of a document with a private key. The hash is a condensed and unique form of the document, and any changes to the document after signing results in an altered hash. Thus, the digital signature is unique to the document and to the signer's private key. A recipient of the digitally signed document can verify that the document was signed by a particular person, and that the document was unaltered after signing, by decrypting the digital signature using the signer's public key, and confirming that the resulting decrypted hash is identical to a newly produced hash of the received document. Typically, public keys are used to encrypt message or to verify signed documents, and private key are kept secret, and are used to decrypt messages or to sign document.
The recipient of the signed document can authenticate the digital signature by having a trusted third party independently confirm the identity of the person owning the private/public key pair. Certificates are instrumental in authentication. The signer's certificate is a document that is encrypted using a trusted third party's private key, that identifies the owner of the public key, and that contains the signer's public key. The certificate confirms that the trusted third party knows the owner of the attached public key to be the person listed in the certificate. The trusted third party can be a certification authority. To authenticate the signature, the recipient decrypts the certificate using the certification authority's widely available and trusted public key, and uses the enclosed signer's public key to verify the signature appended to the originally received document.
However, methods currently available for deploying this technology are cumbersome to use. For example, an individual browsing the web using a commonly available browser such as Netscape Navigator or Internet Explorer might want to enter into a contract with a supplier on the web. The individual goes to the supplier's web site and views a sample contract. To sign the contract, the individual downloads the document and opens encryption enabled program capable of reading, amending and signing the downloaded document. The encryption enabled program must be installed on the individual's computer in addition to the browser. After adding relevant information to the document, the individual digitally signs the document using a private key that must be securely kept by the individual. The individual then emails the document to the supplier. On receiving the digitally signed document, the supplier must verify the digital signature using the individual's public key, and authenticate the individual's certificate using a trusted certification authority's public key.
This method of transacting business over the web has not been widely adopted. Many web users are unfamiliar with the intricacies of digitally signing documents, and are therefore reluctant to familiarize themselves with the technology and to purchase the necessary hardware and software required to use these methods. Transacting parties frequently resort to completing transactions by executing contracts on paper.
In addition to the inconvenience of current digital signing methods, widespread use of public key cryptography can be problematic for security reasons. With current technology, each signer must maintain the confidentiality of his or her private key. The security of current digital signing methods depends on how securely signers keep their private keys. Frequently, signers are unfamiliar with computer technology and potential threats to the confidentiality of their private keys. Private keys may be stored unsecured or weakly secured in a signer's computer and may be vulnerable to hacking. Businesses having customers with a broad range of computing sophistication may be reluctant to transact business with customers using these digital signing and authenticating methods in light of the described drawbacks.
Therefore, a need exists for a more secure and convenient method of digitally signing and authenticating electronic documents on the web.

Method and system for signing and authenticating electronic documents


An exposure apparatus exposes a substrate by irradiating exposure light onto the substrate via a projection optical system and a liquid. The exposure apparatus has a stage which includes a substrate holder for holding the substrate, a detachable member detachably disposed on the stage so that its upper surface contacts an immersion region, and a sensor having a light transmissive member. The detachable member, on which an opening is formed in the upper surface, is disposed on the stage so that the light transmissive member is arranged within the opening.

Semiconductor devices and liquid crystal display devices are produced by means of the so-called photolithography technique in which a pattern formed on a mask is transferred onto a photosensitive substrate. The exposure apparatus, which is used in the photolithography step, includes a mask stage for supporting the mask and a substrate stage for supporting the substrate. The pattern on the mask is transferred onto the substrate via a projection optical system while successively moving the mask stage and the substrate stage. In recent years, it is demanded to realize the higher resolution of the projection optical system in order to respond to the further advance of the higher integration of the device pattern. As the exposure wavelength to be used is shorter, the resolution of the projection optical system becomes higher. As the numerical aperture of the projection optical system is larger, the resolution of the projection optical system becomes higher. Therefore, the exposure wavelength, which is used for the exposure apparatus, is shortened year by year, and the numerical aperture of the projection optical system is increased as well. The exposure wavelength, which is dominantly used at present, is 248 nm of the KrF excimer laser. However, the exposure wavelength of 193 nm of the ArF excimer laser, which is shorter than the above, is also practically used in some situations. When the exposure is performed, the depth of focus (DOF) is also important in the same manner as the resolution. The resolution R and the depth of focus δ are represented by the following expressions respectively.R=k1·λ/NA  (1)δ=±k2λ/NA2  (2)
In the expressions, λ represents the exposure wavelength, NA represents the numerical aperture of the projection optical system, and k1 and k2 represent the process coefficients. According to the expressions (1) and (2), the following fact is appreciated. That is, when the exposure wavelength λ is shortened and the numerical aperture NA is increased in order to enhance the resolution R, then the depth of focus δ is narrowed.
If the depth of focus δ is too narrowed, it is difficult to match the substrate surface with respect to the image plane of the projection optical system. It is feared that the margin is insufficient during the exposure operation. Further, the optical part material, which is usable for the exposure light beam that has the increasingly shortened wavelength, is restricted. From the viewpoints as described above, the liquid immersion method has been suggested, which is disclosed, for example, in International Publication No. 99/49504 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 10-303114 as a method for substantially shortening the wavelength of the exposure light beam after passing via the projection optical system and widening the depth of focus. In this liquid immersion method, the space between the lower surface of the projection optical system and the substrate surface is filled with a liquid such as water or any organic solvent to form a liquid immersion area so that the resolution is improved and the depth of focus is magnified about n times by utilizing the fact that the wavelength of the exposure light beam in the liquid is 1/n as compared with that in the air (n represents the refractive index of the liquid, which is about 1.2 to 1.6 in ordinary cases).
As schematically shown in FIG. 18, an edge area E of a substrate P is sometimes subjected to the exposure as well in the case of the exposure apparatus which adopts the liquid immersion method. In such a situation, a portion of the projection area 100 protrudes to the outside of the substrate P, and the exposure light beam is also radiated onto a substrate table 120 for holding the substrate P. In the case of the liquid immersion exposure, the liquid immersion area of the liquid is formed so that the projection area 100 is covered therewith. However, when the edge area E is subjected to the exposure, then a part of the liquid immersion area of the liquid protrudes to the outside of the substrate P, and the liquid immersion area is also formed on the substrate table 120. When various measuring members and/or measuring sensors are arranged around the substrate P on the substrate table 120, the liquid immersion area is also formed on the substrate table 120 in some cases in order to use the measuring members and/or the measuring sensors. When a portion of the liquid immersion area is formed on the substrate table 120, then the liquid may remain on the substrate table 120 highly possibly, and the following possibility arises. That is, for example, the environment (temperature, humidity), in which the substrate P is placed, may be varied as a result of the vaporization of the remained liquid, the substrate table 120 may be thermally deformed, the environment of the optical paths for various measuring light beams to measure, for example, the position information about the substrate P may be varied, and the exposure accuracy may be lowered. Further, the following possibility arises as well. That is, the water mark (trace of water) may remain after the vaporization of the remained liquid, which may result in the factor of the pollution of, for example, the substrate P and the liquid, and which may result in the factor of the error concerning various types of measurements.

Exposure apparatus, exposure method, method for producing device, and optical part


An ESD protection circuit includes a pair of NPN lateral transistors electrically connected in series with the emitter of one of the transistors electrically connected to the collector of the other transistor. The bases of the two transistors are electrically connected together and are floating. The two transistors may be provided by two MOS transistors having N-type source and drains and P-type channel regions. The channels regions are connected together and are floating.

One type of integrated circuit which has been recently developed comprises a thin layer of single crystalline silicon extending over and insulated from the surface of a silicon substrate. This type of integrated circuit is called a "SIMOX" device. Circuit are formed in the thin layer of silicon by forming various electrical components, such as transistors, in the thin layer. One method of making a SIMOX device is to implant oxygen ions into the surface of a substrate of single crystalline silicon so that the oxygen ions are spaced from the surface of the substrate. The substrate is then heated so that the oxygen ions react with the silicon and form a thin layer of silicon dioxide beneath the surface of the substrate with a thin layer of the silicon extending over the oxide layer.
CMOS circuits formed in a SIMOX device which has fully depleted NMOS and PMOS transistors having relatively low breakdown voltages when the transistors are operated in the "floating body" mode. Connecting the body to the source of the transistors substantially increased the breakdown voltage. When an NMOS transistor is used as an ESD protection structure, it is normal to connect the gate of the NMOS to the source. This is often referred to as a grounded-gate NMOS, or ggNMOS. The structure actually providing the ESD protection is the parasitic bipolar NPN transistor inherently formed by the NMOS transistor. The gate of the NMOS transistor merely serves to determine the emitter-collector spacing, and to a small extent, to control the trigger voltage. Once impact ionization occurs at the base-collector junction, avalanche multiplication results in the sudden reduction in collector-emitter voltage to a substantially lower level than the initial breakdown voltage. This phenomenon is sometimes referred to as snap-back.
Premature failure of a protection structure can occur in devices with large differences between the trigger and snap-back voltages if one section (of a multi-section) of the protection structure turns on first. This is because the voltage across the terminals drops to the snap-back holding voltage, and the "on" segment passes all of the current, preventing the voltage across the other sections reaching the required snap-back trigger voltage. It is common practice to add resistance in series with each segment, so that if one section "fires" the voltage drop across an "on" segment, plus the voltage across the series resistor, will allow the other segments to achieve the required trigger voltage. However, if the difference between the trigger and snap-back voltages is large, this approach requires an undesirably high series resistance. The ideal ESD protection structure would have virtually no leakage current prior to the trigger voltage, and almost no difference between the trigger and snap-back voltages.
During the development of a 0.35 micron SIMOX ESD protection device, it was found that ggNMOS devices with a floating body had virtually identical trigger and snap-back voltages, but relatively high leakages. Also, process spreads sometimes resulted in the snap-back holding voltage being below the maximum supply voltage used during burn-in of the product. Clearly, this was an undesirable situation. Connecting the body of the device to the source and gate eliminated the leakage problem, but doubled the trigger voltage while not affecting the snap-back voltage. A longer gate length (wider NPN base) did not substantially alter the device characteristics. Therefore, a modification of the structure was necessary to achieve the desired ESD protection characteristics.

Electrostatic protection structure for MOS circuits


A bottling plant with a machine enclosure, which machine enclosure comprises resilient seals to permit cleaning fluid from inside the machine enclosure to exit through the resilient seals, and a resilient seal structure. The abstract of the disclosure is submitted herewith as required by 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b). As stated in 37 C.F.R. §1.72(b): A brief abstract of the technical disclosure in the specification must commence on a separate sheet, preferably following the claims, under the heading “Abstract of the Disclosure.” The purpose of the abstract is to enable the Patent and Trademark Office and the public generally to determine quickly from a cursory inspection the nature and gist of the technical disclosure. The abstract shall not be used for interpreting the scope of the claims. Therefore, any statements made relating to the abstract are not intended to limit the claims in any manner and should not be interpreted as limiting the claims in any manner.

1. Technical Field
The present application relates to a bottling plant with a machine enclosure, which machine enclosure comprises resilient seals to permit cleaning fluid from inside the machine enclosure to exit through the resilient seals, and a resilient seal structure.
2. Background Information
Background information is for informational purposes only and does not necessarily admit that subsequently mentioned information and publications are prior art.
There are a series of applications in which it is possible to provide machines with a so-called enclosure. This can be possible for different reasons, for instance for sound insulation, for protecting against splashing when liquids are used and to provide a barrier in order to prevent, restrict, and/or minimize anyone inadvertently approaching the correspondingly enclosed machines or to prevent, restrict, and/or minimize anyone approaching them without authorization.
When foodstuffs are packaged, hygiene reasons already make it necessary and/or desired to have such an enclosure. In this case this is a border or barrier around the machines or respectively to protect corresponding transport sections within a production, filling and packing installation, not least on account of environmental protection and safety at work.
Machines that process foodstuffs, may be intensively cleaned, e.g. using high-pressure cleaners. This not only refers to the machines but also to the enclosures.
If the claddings or enclosures of the machines are realized as rigid structural parts, problems can arise during cleaning, for example, in the transition regions from one wall element to another wall element, as the wall elements, may have assembly frames that can themselves act as dirt traps during the cleaning process so that these corners and edges or transition regions, require and/or desire intensive cleaning.

Sealing device for sealing a vertical gap between adjacent wall panels, such as glass panes, which form part of a machine enclosure


A continuous playing apparatus for a disc player the apparatus includes a horizontal moving means and a lifting/lowering means. The horizontal moving means moves cartridges alternately and horizontally, and the lifting/lowering means loads and unloads discs to and from a turn table. The turn table is installed together with a pick-up unit on a deck. According to the present invention, continuous playings can be performed without discontinuity.

In the conventional apparatuses, there are some which make it possible to play a plurality of discs continuously, and one of these apparatuses is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. Sho-63-102062. That is, in this apparatus, a plurality of information recording media such as compact discs and the like are loaded in parallel in a playing apparatus, in such a manner that continuous regenerations should be possible. This apparatus includes a plurality of disc driving means installed in parallel on the upper portion of the apparatus in such a manner as to drive a plurality of information recording media, and an optical pick-up section for sequentially regenerating the recorded signals of the information recording media by moving between plurality of the disc driving means to continuously regenerate the contents of the discs.
Another of such apparatuses is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. Sho-64-35560. In this apparatus, two discs are loaded on a turn table, and then, one of the discs is selectively detached to make it unplayable, so that the other disc can be played. This apparatus includes a turn table for setting one of two discs to be playable, a tray for withdrawing one of the discs upwardly to keep the withdrawn disc in an unplayable condition, and an optical pick-up installed to be freely slidable toward the playing disc, so as to continuously play discs.
However, in the above described conventional disc players, a disc can not be replaced during the play of a disc, and a continuous play is impossible during the replacement of a disc. Further, their structures are very complicated, with the result that manufacturing becomes difficult and expensive.
Further, their complicated structures result in loss of accuracy after time, so that even a slight impact or vibration can cause a problem.

Continuous playing apparatus for use in disc player


Example methods manage data that relates a user to a player slot and to a game controller. One example method operates in a multi-user computer environment that includes a game console and a game controller. The method may establish a first mapping and a second mapping for a game running on the console. The first mapping relates a generic player position to a user profile and the second mapping relates the user profile with a game controller. The mappings rely on mapping data provided to the game through a user interface available during the game. The method controls the game, as a function of the first mapping and the second mapping, to manage controller pairings to attribute actions performed at a controller with a currently mapped user profile and then to a player slot. Controller pairings may be managed while the game is in progress without interrupting a game experience.

Conventionally, a game had a concept of generic players or player slots. These slots may have been referred to generically as "player1" and "player2." Generic player1 got mapped to one controller when the game started and generic player2 got mapped to another controller when the game started. The mappings were done once at startup and were fixed for the duration of the game. The mappings may have been controlled by users. Changing the mappings required stopping the game experience, terminating a computer process running the game, and starting over. Once the game had started, and the generic player to controller relationship had been established, the game could then ask player1 questions like, "who are you," "is there a profile you would like to use," or "are you happy being generic player1?" Only then would the game establish a relationship between generic player1 and a user profile. The user profile could be used to customize the game experience, address billing issues, and facilitate other actions. If a human wanted to use a different controller than the one initially mapped, then the game had to be stopped, exited, and re-launched and a new fixed player-controller relationship established.
FIG. 1 illustrates how conventional systems map a player slot to a controller using a game table 100. FIG. 1 also illustrates how conventional systems map a player slot to a user profile using a user table 110. Both mappings involved the player slot. Both mappings were static and could not be changed without disrupting the gaming experience and terminating a process running the game. Both mappings were done once at game start up.
This conventional one-to-one approach arose because game consoles typically had a concept of a controller and a concept of a player slot and the only way to connect the player slot to the controller was through a sign-in procedure. All actions performed from a controller were associated with the user who entered their information from that controller and the only actions the user could perform were those associated with the controller on which the user signed in.
But computer systems, including game systems, have developed and may allow multiple users to access, sign in, or otherwise interact with the system at the same time with different types of controllers. For example, a single game console may have several controllers that are operably connected to the console, some wired and some wirelessly. Additionally, the game console may allow different players to have different games active at different times and even to come and go from a game. Thus the traditional, fixed, one-to-one relationship between a user and a controller may limit the game experience. This limiting of the experience may extend beyond games and game consoles to other multi-user systems that have multiple input devices.


Systems and techniques for identifying a common change window for one or more services implemented on one or more hosts include querying time series performance data for each host of a service to identify time slots of low resource consumption on the host, annotating the time slots with service tags, where the service tags identify host information and service information, creating groups of time slots using the service tags, using dynamic clustering to create clusters of hosts using the groups of time slots, and generating at least one common change window by eliminating duplicate hosts from the clusters of the hosts.

A service is a set of interconnected applications, components, and hosts, which are configured to offer a service, for example, to an organization such as a corporation. A service can be internal, like an organization email system, or a service can be customer-facing, like an organization website. In some instances, a service can be both internal and external.
During the lifecycle of a service, the service may need updating. For example, the applications, components, and/or the hosts that constitute the service may require updates and/or other maintenance to maintain the quality and performance of the service. The updates may include patches, changes, and other types of updates. To update and/or perform maintenance on the service, a change window is identified. A change window is a period of time during which the updates and/or maintenance is performed on the service. The change window is the period of time during which the service is taken offline and the service is unavailable and/or the service's functionality is significantly reduced.
In conventional systems, a change window may be chosen without any knowledge of the service's historical behavior, including the historical behavior of the application, components, and hosts that constitute the service. For example, in a conventional system, a change window from 5:00 PM on Saturday for 5 hours or 4:00 AM on Sunday for 10 hours may be randomly selected and based only on the simple assumption that on weekends the service is not accessed and bringing the service down during one of these randomly selected times during the weekend will have less impact on customers. However, a more suitable change window may exist at 4 PM Wednesday for 3 hours because of low activity on the service. Upgrading the service during the 4 PM on Wednesday time window will minimize impact on customers of the service, including internal and/or external customers.
Identifying a change window for a service that has a minimum impact on customers is tremendously difficult, especially when the multiple services use one or more of the same resources such as the same applications, components, and/or hosts. Said another way, an application, component, and/or host may be a common or shared resource among multiple services. Thus, an update and/or maintenance performed on one service may not only affect the customers of that service, but also may affect the customers of other services that share the common resource. Additionally, an administrator may have limited visibility into a service and its applications, components, and hosts and may have access to only a portion of the application, components, and hosts. The administrator may not have access to other services that use the same applications, components, and hosts.
This problem is compounded when a single component (like a database server) is used to support multiple services. Understanding the utilization of each component in a microservice based architecture, where components are frequently shared is almost impossible. A technical problem exists when applications, components, and/or hosts support multiple services. For example, an enterprise Kubernetes cluster may be a component that supports multiple (e.g., twenty five or more) different services. Determining when to take the Kubernetes cluster offline to perform an update to a supported service at a time when it has the least impact across all the different services is a task that cannot be accomplished in the human mind or with a pen and paper. It is desirable to find a technical solution to programmatically determine the optimum change window to perform updates and/or maintenance on the service when the change window has the least impact across all services.

Identifying change windows for performing maintenance on a service


A technique can consistently achieve thicknesses of ≤50 μm for corneal tissue for Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK). Grafts with thicknesses of ≤50 μm are also known as nanothin DSAEK (NT-DSAEK) grafts. Evidence shows that using thinner DSAEK grafts, particularly NT-DSAEK grafts, can significantly improve visual outcomes. According to an example embodiment, a method for producing a corneal graft includes drying a donor cornea to cause a pre-cut thickness of the donor cornea to decrease. The method includes, concurrently with drying the donor cornea, determining pre-cut thickness measurements for the donor cornea. The method includes, in response to the pre-cut thickness measurements indicating the pre-cut thickness of the donor cornea has decreased to a predetermined value, cutting the donor cornea to a post-cut thickness of ≤100 μm, or more particularly ≤50 μm, to produce a corneal graft.

Endothelial keratoplasty (EK) involves selectively replacing dysfunctional or diseased conical endothelium with donor endothelial grafts. EK procedures, such as Descemet membrane endothelial keratoplasty (DMEK) and Descemet stripping automated endothelial keratoplasty (DSAEK), have become the preferred treatment for endothelial dysfunction or disease. DMEK has grown in popularity because it provides true anatomic replacement of recipient diseased Descemet membrane and endothelium. Because DMEK does not involve any transfer of stromal tissue, however, tissue handling and graft unscrolling make it more technically challenging and potentially more unpredictable than DSAEK. As a result, DSAEK remains the most popular endothelial keratoplasty technique in the United States. However, overall visual acuity and rejection rates for DSAEK have been shown to be inferior when compared with DMEK.

Systems and methods for preparing corneal tissue for implant


Tartrate salts of the compound of structure (I),

AXL is a cell surface receptor tyrosine kinase of the TAM family. The AXL receptor binds growth factors like vitamin K-dependent protein growth-arrest-specific gene 6 (GAS6) and transduces signals from the extracellular matrix into the cytoplasm. It is reported that AXL is an inhibitor of the innate immune response and may play a role in multiple cellular processes relating to cell growth and development.
AXL is found to be involved in various aspects of tumor growth, including cancer cell proliferation, invasiveness and migration, as well as sternness, angiogenesis, and immune modulation. As such, AXL becomes a promising cancer treatment target.

AXL kinase inhibitors and use of the same

Abstract: crystalline forms thereof, and therapeutic applications thereof for treating solid tumors (e.g., advanced solid tumor) or hematopoietic cancers. Also provided herein are methods for synthesizing the tartrate salts and the crystalline forms thereof.

Sumitomo Dainippon Pharma Oncology, Inc.


An acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive tape including an acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive layer, wherein a 180° peel adhesive force of the acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive tape to a glass plate is 10 N/20 mm or more and a 180° peel adhesive force of the acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive tape to an acrylic plate is 10 N/20 mm or more. The acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive layer contains an acrylic polymer (A), has a gel fraction of 65% or more, and has a 300% tensile residual stress of from 7 to 16 N/cm2.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive tape.
2. Background Art
Recently, display devices such as liquid crystal displays (LCDs) or input devices, such as a touch panel, which is used by combining the display device has been widely used in various fields. In manufacturing the display devices or the input devices, a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape (pressure-sensitive adhesive sheet) is used for laminating optical members. For example, a transparent pressure-sensitive adhesive tape is used for laminating a touch panel to various display device or optical member (protective plate or the like) (see, for example, Patent Documents 1 to 3).
With the spread of an embodiment for use of the foregoing display device or input device, a pressure-sensitive adhesive tape to be used for such a device is required to exhibit high adhesive reliability under, in addition to a normal state, a variety of environments. Specifically, the pressure-sensitive adhesive tape is required to exhibit high adhesive reliability even under a high-temperature environment.    Patent Document 1: JP-A-2003-238915    Patent Document 2: JP-A-2003-342542    Patent Document 3: JP-A-2004-231723

Acrylic pressure-sensitive adhesive tape