An apparatus and method for applying a cap member to a receptacle or container. The apparatus and method are particularly suitable for use in placing the cap member, including a bail, snugly onto the end of a receptacle adapted to contain a pharmaceutical agent.

The present invention pertains generally to an apparatus and method for placing a cap on an end of a receptacle or container. More particularly, the invention relates to the apparatus and method for applying a cap member, supporting a bail, to an end of a receptacle of the type widely used in hospitals. The receptacle is particularly suited to contain a pharmaceutical agent, with the receptacle in use being inverted and suspended by the bail during administration of a pharmaceutical product to a patient.
A hospital intravenous (I.V.) bottle is commonly provided with a bail, or hanger, so that the bottle can be suspended upside down during fluid dispensing. The bail must be secured to the base of the bottle. One method previously used for the placement of bail members, commonly made of plastic, on the bottom of I.V. bottles was manual. A person would pick up a bottle individually and force the bottle into a bail supporting cap resting on a table top or other flat surface. This procedure was tedious and time consuming. Consequently, the manual bail placement method was automated using machinery. However, the mechanized method in principle functioned in much the same manner as the manual version, that is, forcing a bottle into a cap supported on a flat surface.
In an effort to overcome the deficiencies of prior bail applying devices and methods, the present apparatus and method was devised. The present inventive device and method is compact and efficient and employs the principle of rotary motion and an inclined surface. A rotating platform or starwheel is used to move a receptacle into contact with a bail supporting cap member located on the inclined surface. The rotary starwheel, having chamfered pockets to apply both lateral and downward force to the receptacle, moves both the receptacle and cap causing the cap to move up the inclined surface and become seated on the receptacle.


A method for selecting an access network in a terminal of a mobile communication system according to one embodiment of the present specification comprises the steps of: if traffic is generated in the terminal, selecting an access network according to the characteristics of the generated traffic and network selection policy information; and transmitting and receiving the generated traffic via the selected access network. According to the embodiment, the present invention adjusts priorities of accesses given to users and applications in a wireless communication system including heterogenerous networks, thereby reducing processes for reselecting an access network of a user terminal, and reducing the cases of unnecessarily accessing a network having a low priority or requiring high costs for a long time. Therefore, the present invention can enhance user convenience and improve communication efficiency.

In general, a mobile communication system has been developed to provide a voice service while guaranteeing activity of a user. However, the mobile communication system has gradually extended its field to the data providing service beyond the voice providing service and has now developed to such a level at which the mobile communication system can provide a high speed data service. However, since resources are lacking and users demand higher speed services in the mobile communication system currently providing a service, a more improved mobile communication system is needed.
To meet the demand, standardization of Long Term Evolution (LTE) is being progressed by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) as one of the next generation mobile communication systems that are being developed. The LTE is a technology of implementing high speed packet based communication with a transmission rate of up to about 100 Mbps. To this end, several methods are being discussed, including a method of reducing the number of nodes located on a communication channel by simplifying a network architecture, a method of making wireless protocols closely access a wireless channel to the maximum, and the like.
In such a mobile communication system, a UE can simultaneously use a plurality of heterogeneous networks. In this case, which kind of mobile communication system is used by a user to transmit specific traffic is determined by a predetermined policy.
An operator can provide a wireless access service to users through various network configurations. For example, an operator can install a 3G/4G access network, additionally install a non-3GPP access network in an area where there are a large number of users, and rent a non-3GPP network in a partial area by concluding an agreement with another operator.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a network according to the related art.
Referring to FIG. 1, an operator Access Point (AP) 120 which is directly installed by an operator and a partner AP 130 which is installed by a partner who concludes an agreement with the operator may be located within an LTE coverage 110. At this time, costs actually required for providing a service to a user may be varied according to each access network. For example, costs of a 3G/4G service including an LTE network are most expensive due to 3G/4G frequency costs, costs of a non-3GPP network including the partner AP 130, rented from another operator, are second most expensive due to a rental expense, and costs of a non-3GPP network including the operator AP 120, installed directly by the operator itself, are cheapest. Thus, the operator should be able to control a use rate by differentially applying a priority according to each access network when selecting an access network to be used by users.

Method and apparatus for effective wireless LAN selection


A dual mode quadrature detector (15) uses the same components for both narrow band and wide band operation and provides an output amplitude which is independent of the mode of operation selected. A multiplier (32) provides a demodulated output signal (16) which is responsive to the phase difference between a signal (14) at one input (32A) and a phase shifted version of the signal at the other input (32B). A capacitor (30) and a phase shifting circuit (31) provide the phase shifted version of the signal. The phase shifting circuit (31) is responsive to a mode control signal (24) for determining the phase shift which is provided. The phase shift at the maximum frequency deviation of the narrow band signal is the same as the phase shaft at the maximum deviation of the wide band signal so that the output amplitude from the detector (15) is the same for both narrow band and wide band operation. The phase shift provided is controlled by varying the quality factor (Q) of the phase shifting circuit (31). This is achieved by controlling the amount of resistance placed in parallel with a tuned circuit (33, 34) in the phase shifting circuit (31). A higher Q is obtained by using a higher resistance, and a lower Q is obtained by using a lower resistance.

The cellular mobile telephone system uses two different modes of FM operation: a wide band FM modulation mode; and a narrow band FM modulation mode. Wide band modulation provides greater noise immunity but narrow band modulation provides a greater number of channels per a given band of frequencies. In order to be usable regardless of the operation mode a cellular mobile telephone needs to be able to accommodate both modes of operation. The received FM signal, whether wide band or narrow band, and whether being acted upon by a cellular mobile telephone or by a base station of a mobile switching center (MSC), is typically first converted to an intermediate frequency (IF) signal and then demodulated to recover the audio signal represented by the received FM signal. An FM quadrature detector is commonly used to demodulate the FM IF signal and provide a demodulated output signal. However, a quadrature detector configured to optimally detect wide band signals will provide a very low demodulated output signal when the received signal is a narrow band signal. Furthermore, a quadrature detector configured to optimally detect narrow band signals will provide a distorted or unusable demodulated output signal when the received signal is a wide band signal. Therefore, the detector is typically configured for wideband operation and, for narrowband operation, the gain of a subsequent amplifier stage is increased or an additional amplifier is switched into the signal path. However, this has the disadvantage in that the desired signal is narrow band, but noise is wideband and may be present at frequencies which give a greater output voltage than the desired signal, so noise immunity is compromised. Also, two separate detectors may be used, one for demodulating wide band signals and one for demodulating narrow band signals. However, the above methods suffer from one or more of the following disadvantages: duplication of parts; extra space for the circuitry; increased costs; and increased power consumption. Therefore, there is a need for an FM quadrature detector which will optimally respond to both narrow band and wide band FM signals.

Matsushita Communication Industrial Corporation of America


A lever device includes a single shaft for mounting a lever section to a housing. The lever section includes a shaft mounting section having an insertion hole. The lever support section of the shaft is disposed within the insertion hole and supports the lever section so that the lever section can move in the first direction and the second direction. A contact section is provided either to the housing and/or the lever section, or between the housing and the lever section. The contact section includes a curved surface which allows the lever section to move in the first direction and the second direction while the housing and the lever section are in contact with each other.

Patent document 1 describes an example of a lever device that is included in a vehicle and operated when changing shift positions. The lever device described in patent document 1 includes an operation lever that is operable, for example, in two directions namely, a shift direction that extends in the front-rear direction of the vehicle body and a select direction that is orthogonal to the shift direction. A lever device of a so-called shift-by-wire type sends an electric signal corresponding to the position of the operation lever (hereafter, referred to as the shift position) to a gear change device to change operation states of the gear change device.

KABUSHIKI KAISHA TOKAI RIKA DENKI SEISAKUSHO


Provided are systems and methods for detecting blood alcohol level. The system for detecting blood alcohol level comprises a receiver configurable to receive an input video of an eye of a user and a processor configurable to: stabilize the input video; analyze the input video; based on the analysis, detect a horizontal gaze nystagmus level; and based on the horizontal gaze nystagmus level, determine an equivalent blood alcohol level of the user. The system outputs data associated with the equivalent blood alcohol level via an interface. Additionally, the system comprises a screen configurable to display a moving object. The input video captures eye movements of the user following the moving object. To illuminate the eye of the user, the system may generate red light.

An involuntary jerking or bouncing of an eyeball may be noticed under the influence of alcohol or certain other central nervous system depressants. Such involuntary movements, called nystagmus, may be a result of alcohol caused hindering of the ability of the brain to correctly control eye muscles. Horizontal gaze nystagmus (HGN) refers to a lateral or horizontal jerking when the eye gazes to the side. With an increase of blood alcohol level, the degree of hindering becomes greater; thus the jerking becomes more noticeable. The degree of HGN may be assessed to detect blood alcohol level.
Conventional horizontal and/or vertical gaze nystagmus tests are part of field sobriety tests used by law enforcers and medics to assess alcohol impairment of a person. However, accuracy and reliability of conventional HGN tests are subject to challenge. Device-assisted tests may be influenced by hand and/or head shaking and other factors.
Moreover, conventional methods are intended for policemen and medics, rather than users willing to assess own blood alcohol level.

Systems and methods for detecting blood alcohol level


An axial setting device for loading the friction plates of a coupling or for fixing the viscous plates of a coupling having two parts which are co-axially supported on a fixed housing and which are rotatable relative to one another. A pump assembly has housing parts that are connected to the one of the coupling parts and whose conveying elements are connected to the other one of the coupling parts in such a way that, when the parts rotate relative to one another, fluid is conveyed in the pump assembly. A reservoir is provided for fluid with a variable volume and a pressure chamber is delimited by an axial piston. A fluid connection is made from the reservoir to the chamber via the pump assembly and a fluid connection is made from the chamber to the reservoir via a bypass line with a solenoid valve.

The invention relates to an axial setting device especially for loading the friction plates of a friction coupling or for fixing the shear plates of a viscous coupling. Two coupling parts are co-axially supported in a housing and which are rotatable relative to one another. A pump assembly has housing parts that are connected to the one of the coupling parts and whose conveying elements are connected to the other one of the coupling parts in such a way that, when the parts rotate relative to one another, fluid is conveyed in the pump assembly. A reservoir for fluid has a variable volume and a pressure chamber is delimited by an axial piston. A fluid connection is made from the reservoir to the pressure chamber via the pump assembly and a pressure line and a fluid connection is made from the pressure chamber to the reservoir via a bypass line with a solenoid valve.
Axial setting devices of this type are used, for example, for actuating friction couplings with alternately arranged first and second friction plates, wherein first friction plates of the friction coupling are connected in a rotationally fast way to the first one of the coupling parts and wherein second friction plates of the friction coupling are connected in a rotationally fast way to the second one of the coupling parts. The friction plates, in their entirety, at one end, are axially supported on one of the coupling parts. The friction plates, in their entirety, are loaded at their other end by the axial piston of the axial setting device. Axial setting devices of this type are also used in viscous couplings with alternately arranged first and second shear plates wherein first shear plates of the viscous coupling are connected in a rotationally fast way to the first one of the coupling parts, and wherein second shear plates of the viscous coupling are arranged so as to be freely rotatable relative to the two coupling parts. Clamping rings with a thickness greater than that of the first shear plates are arranged between the second shear plates and connected to the second one of the parts in a rotationally fast way, wherein the second shear plates and the clamping rings, in their entirety can be axially supported at one end on one of the coupling parts, with the second shear plates and the clamping rings, in their entirety, being loadable at their other end by the axial piston of the axial setting device.
Coupling assemblies of this type are used in the drivelines of motor vehicles with one permanently driven axle, with the other axle being driven when required, and are arranged in such a way that they connect the optionally driven axle as a function of the differential speed. This means that if a slip occurs at the permanently driven axle, which slip leads to a speed differential between the two axles, the multi-plate coupling is closed so that the further axle is also driven. A device of this type is known from DE 198 60 532 A1.
It has already been proposed in connection with such a device that fluid conveyed by the pump assembly can be conveyed from the pressure chamber back into the reservoir by a controlled bypass line. However, this only serves to control any excess pressure via an excess pressure valve. An example of such a device is found in DE 195 05 800 A1.
Furthermore, it is known, in principle, that these devices require an externally controllable disconnecting function to be compatible with ABS systems (brake anti-blocking system) or ESP systems (vehicle electronic stability program). Magnetically controllable, mechanical unlocking devices suitable for this purpose are described in DE 39 11 122 C1, for example.
According to the state of the art, disconnection of coupling assemblies of this type in the driveline, as required for ABS and ESP systems, is normally effected by an axial setting device arranged in a stationary housing, which housing is supported against a rotating part of the coupling by means of an axial bearing under load. The disadvantage of such an assembly is that the differential speed of an axial bearing loaded in this way is identical to the speed of the coupling, as a result of which the service life of the entire coupling unit is limited. One example of such an embodiment is the so-called Flaldex Limited Slip Coupling. Another example of the so-called Powr-Lok(copyright) coupling.
It is the object of the invention to provide an axial setting device which achieves the external disconnecting function by simple means. The objective is achieved in that in the fixed housing there is arranged a primary coil which can be excited by external control means, that in one of the parts, there is arranged a secondary coil which can be excited by the primary coil in a contact-free way and that the solenoid valve can be controlled in the opening sense by the secondary coil when excited by the primary coil. The pump assembly can be provided in the form of a gear pump or of a shear pump (Visco Lok(copyright) system) or in the form of an axial piston pump. In an extremely advantageous way, the assembly for actuating the solenoid valve in the bypass line leading to the pump assembly is completely free from friction and, with the exception of the solenoid valve, it is completely free from wear.
In order to ensure that the assembly functions, even in those cases where the parts of the axial setting device and thus, as a rule, also the parts of the coupling assembly, do not rotate, it is necessary to provide the primary coil with an alternating field. If it is assumed that the necessary action is only necessary in the case of a driving speed, it is sufficient to excite the primary coil with DC voltage.
It can be assumed that, normally, the solenoid valve is controlled only in accordance with an opening and closing function. However, without departing from the concept of the invention, it is also conceivable to provide a control valve whose opening cross-section is increased as a function of a differential-speed-dependent control voltage.
The particular advantage of the inventive setting device consists in its extremely spontaneous reaction, which permits a return of the setting in times of less than 20 msec.


A method and apparatus for warning drivers as to the presence of a concealed hazard. A first step involves providing a sign capable of changing from an inactive mode to a warning mode upon receiving a signal. A second step involves providing a transmitter compatible with the signs receiver. A third step involves positioning the sign at a location along a highway that is visible a sufficient distance from the concealed hazard to provide warning to drivers of approaching vehicles. Where the concealed hazard is a concealed school bus stopping location, it is preferred that the transmitter be positioned in a school bus so as to enable a driver of the school bus to remotely change the sign from the inactive mode to the warning mode as the school bus approaches the concealed stopping location.

School buses stop at pick-up/drop-off locations to allow child(ren) to be picked up and dropped off. Drivers of motor vehicles and other road users must be prepared to stop in good time to ensure the safety of the child(ren) in the vicinity of the stopped bus and other road users. Every school bus has warning lights that are visible at a distance to warn drivers of the presence of the bus and allow the drivers a reasonable opportunity to slow down. It is vital that drivers receive the warning in a timely fashion, as it takes a considerable distance for a motor vehicle to come to a complete stop when it is travelling at highway speeds such as 100 kilometers per hour. Unfortunately, some pick-up and drop-off locations on school bus routes are unavoidably positioned such that the school bus is concealed from view due to an obstruction such as tall vegetation, walls, buildings, billboards, a hill or a bend in the highway. At such locations there is a risk of a tragic accident occurring, for by the time the school bus is visible to the driver of an oncoming motor vehicle there is insufficient time for the driver to bring his motor vehicle to a stop.

Method and apparatus for warning drivers as to the presence of concealed hazards


A timing generator circuit includes a pair of multitap cascaded delay lines of like construction. Each delay line includes a plurality of sections each of which are constructed to provide the same increment of delay at each tap. A capacitive element connects between predetermined taps of the two delay lines to form a compensation network including a predetermined section of each delay line. The compensation network which operates to cancel out the effects of any mismatch resulting from connecting the delay lines in series.

Field of Use
This invention relates to timing circuits and, more particularly, to timing circuits constructed from delay lines.
Generally, in digital computer systems, the subsystems and/or digital logic circuits are interconnected through transmission line buses such as coaxial cable, microstrip transmission lines or the line. Each of the subsystems include separate timing circuits which establish the overall timing for the subsystem and are used to generate the necessary control signals for gaining access to the bus.
An example of such a subsystem is disclosed in the copending patent application entitled "A Dynamic Memory System which Includes Apparatus for Performing Refresh Operations in Parallel with Normal Memory Operations" bearing Ser. No. 926,480, filed on July 20, 1978 and now U.S. Pat. No. 4,185,323 and assigned to the same assignee as named herein. In order to provide the desired sequences of signals for operation of the memory subsystem, it is necessary to connect a pair of delay line circuits in series.
It has been found that while the delay lines are constructed to provide equal increments of delay and the same characteristic impedance, cascading or connecting them in series gives rise to a mismatch condition which tends to make the operation of the timing generator circuit less reliable. One approach is not to cascade the delay lines but to include additional driver buffer circuits to eliminate any mismatch. This results in added circuit complexity and cost in addition to altering the delay time of the lines.
Accordingly, it is a primary object of the present invention to provide an improved timing circuit.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide a delay line timing circuit which includes a minimum number of additional circuits for ensuring reliable operation.


An exemplary system for wrapping an intellectual property core (IP) bus master(s), can include, for example, a plurality of IP cores associated with the IP core bus master(s), and a wrapper module connected to a serial input of the IP core bus master(s) and a serial output of the IP core bus master(s), where the wrapper module can be configured to capture and shift a plurality of values of a system bus for a plurality of bus transfers associated with the IP core bus master(s) and the IP cores. The wrapper module can be further configured to modify a wrapper control logic and a wrapper boundary register of the IP core bus master(s). A plurality of terminals can be included, which can be coupled to the IP core bus master(s), and a plurality of wrapper cells can be included, which can be associated with the plurality of terminals.

Embedded systems can be common in consumer electronics (see, e.g., References 1-4), automotive and industrial control systems (see, e.g., References 5-7), and sensor networks. (See, e.g., Reference 8). The hardware of an embedded system can be a low-cost system-on-chip (SoC) that can use intellectual property ("IP") cores such as processors, input/output ("I/O") peripherals, memory components, and system-specific IP such as sensors (see, e.g., Reference 4), Wi-Fi (see, e.g., Reference 8), Bluetooth (see, e.g., Reference 6), etc. A system bus can integrate the IP cores for communication. However, the system bus can expose the embedded system to two classes of attacks.
Hijacking (see, e.g., Reference 9): the bus can be used to write to the restricted memory to take control of the system. Previous disclosures describe how the Universal Serial Bus ("USB") port of a learning thermostat can be used to load arbitrary code to local random access memory ("RAM") via the shared system bus. (See, e.g., Reference 1). In such example, an external device was connected to the Universal Asynchronous Receiver Transmitter ("UART") port of a mobile router. (See, e.g., Reference 3). The device automatically was granted write access to system memory over the bus. An attacker can leverage this access to control the wireless network.
Extraction (see, e.g., Reference 9): here the attacker can use the bus to read restricted memory, and leak sensitive data from the system. Malicious firmware can be embedded in systems for cars, and can use the bus leak data such as private conversations and geolocation. (See, e.g., References 6 and 10). Malicious firmware in medical devices can be used to access the bus to leak boot loader code from the read only memory ("ROM"), exposing sensitive data such as secret keys. (See, e.g., Reference 11).
One way to thwart hijacking and extraction attacks can be with a security countermeasure that can define and enforce the embedded system's memory access control policy. (See, e.g., References 10 and 11). For each IP that accesses memory (e.g., bus master), the embedded system engineer can specify its read and write access rights to each memory segment (e.g., bus slave). A software or hardware mechanism can monitor memory accesses to enforce the policy.
Countermeasures Against Hijacking and Extraction
Segmentation and paging can be commonly used to enforce memory access control policies in desktops, laptops, smartphones, and tablets. (See, e.g., Reference 12). In these approaches, Memory Management Unit ("MMU") and I/O-MMU can be used to enforce the defined policy. The MMU can incur area and power overheads that may not be acceptable in low-cost embedded systems. (See, e.g., Reference 13).
The Memory Protection Unit ("MPU") can be a lightweight MMU for advanced RISC Machine ("ARM") processors used in embedded systems. (See, e.g., Reference 14). The MPU may only detect attacks by the processor, and may not be able to monitor other bus masters that have Direct Memory Access ("DMA"). The MPU can be used to monitor all bus masters of the SoC. (See, e.g., Reference 15). This MPU design can incur about a 25% area overhead for a MicroBlaze processor (see, e.g., Reference 16), and thus cannot scale to embedded systems.
ARM TrustZone is a software-hardware architecture for memory protection in embedded systems. (See, e.g., Reference 17). To be compatible with ARM TrustZone, the IP cores should be enhanced with security features only available in ARM cores. This can limit which IP vendors the embedded system engineer can use.
The bus decoder can be augmented with registers to define restricted memory ranges. (See, e.g., References 18). When a bus master makes a memory access, the decoder can verify the address against the restricted range to detect an attack. This approach can decrease the maximum bus frequency by about 26%; a significant performance overhead compared to execution without the modified decoder.
Approaches that provide isolated software execution on embedded systems (see, e.g., References 19-21) can also enforce the memory access control policy. These mechanisms can be limited to the processor, but may not be able to detect attacks by DMA-capable bus masters. Moreover, they can make modifications to the internal logic of the processor. This needs re-validation of the modified IP cores, which the delays time-to-market of the system. Software countermeasures can add run-time checks to firmware code to monitor memory accesses. (See, e.g., References 22 and 23). Such approaches need the embedded system to host a real-time operating system ("RTOS") to process the checks against the memory access control policy.
Thus, it may be beneficial to provide exemplary system, method, and computer-accessible medium for low-overhead security wrapper for memory access control of embedded systems, which can overcome at least some of the deficiencies described herein above.

System, method and computer-accessible medium for low-overhead security wrapper for memory access control of embedded systems


A pole stabilizing device for making a field repair on a pole includes a main vertical plate and left and right vertical brackets which are secured to each other to clamp against the pole and which are secured to the foundation of the pole.

The present invention relates to a device for stabilizing a pole such as a lighting pole. More particularly, it relates to a device for stabilizing a variety of shapes of poles, including round, tapered, or multisided poles wherein the main shaft has been damaged by corrosion or by fatigue weld cracking, or wherein the anchor bolts securing the pole to the base have been damaged by corrosion or bending.
It is not uncommon that approximately 1 lighting pole of every 10 professionally inspected in large parking lots (such as those found in big box stores) will show signs of distress, primarily due to corrosion or fatigue weld cracking at the bottom few inches of the pole itself or corrosion of the anchor rods, which could lead to the pole falling down. There is a need for an economical, expedient, and effective device for temporarily stabilizing these damaged poles until they can be replaced in a programmed manner.


An improved method for controlling an electrical distribution system of the type having a plurality of electrical sources, a load, a DC link coupling the electrical sources to the load and a control means for controlling the output of at least one of the plurality of electrical sources so that the plurality of sources deliver to the load an amount of power appropriate to the load. The improvement comprises an adaptation in respect of the load that provides for the DC link voltage to vary; and an adaptation of the control means resulting in the output being controlled as a direct function of the DC link voltage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical distribution system and a method for controlling an electrical distribution system.
2. Prior Art
It is a common practice to design a PV installation with an array-to-inverter ratio above 100%. That means that in high irradiance and/or low temperature conditions the array is able to produce more power that the inverter is able to handle. This is done because most of the time the array will operate below the maximum theoretical power, and therefore, if the ratio is selected at 100%, most of the time the plant will be producing less power than it is rated for.
Due to the rating of the inverter or because of limits in the interconnection agreement, the inverter commonly should not convert more power than a design value Pgrmax. Consequently, when the array is capable of operating at a power above Pgrmax, the inverter will limit or "clip" the power. In addition, there is the trend to establish dynamic limits to power produced by PV power plants so that a central utility controller can limit the power being injected to the grid depending on the balance between generation from conventional plants and load fluctuations. In this case, Pgrmax would be changed usually in steps by an external command to the inverter and the inverter should "clip" the generated power to this variable limit.
In conventional applications, the clipping is executed by the inverter. The way the inverter clips the power is by reducing the current drawn from the PV array so that the operation point goes away from the maximum power point and a power below the maximum is injected to the grid. In a distributed PV system with DC/DC converters transferring power between groups of PV modules and a common DC-link like the one in FIG. 1, the maximum power point tracking (MPPT) algorithm is executed by the DC/DC converters but the interconnection with the grid is executed by the inverter. The power from the generators has to be clipped by the DC/DC converters and not by the inverter. To achieve the power clipping in a distributed system using DC/DC converters in a simple way, each DC/DC converter is provided with a pre-established maximum power setting.
This method does not maximize the power production from the complete installation. This is because some DC/DC converters may unnecessarily be clipping the power. This case is explained in FIG. 2 where a maximum power of 30 kW can be produced by an installation with 3 DC/DC converters such that a 10 kW clipping is set on each of the converters. At some instant, the array connected to CNV1 may be capable of producing power 12 kW while the array connected to CNV2 is shaded and only able to produce 6 kW, and the array connected to CNV3 is able to produce 10 kW. CNV1 would then clip its power to 10 kW but then the complete installation would produce 26 kW instead of the maximum 30 kW specified. Due to the shading of CNV2, it would be acceptable to operate CNV1 at 12 kW without exceeding the total power limit for the installation but CNV1 has a power clipping limit that does not take in account the power produced by the other converters. Another limitation of this simple method is that the maximum power cannot be easily changed after the system is commissioned so that the dynamic power limit is not possible.
A known method to overcome this weakness is to use a communication network to actively clamp the power from each converter based on the power measured by the inverter. In this method, the inverter appropriately controls each converter when power clipping is required via the communication network. This strategy can be complex, slow in response and costly to implement since a reliable communication link between the inverter and the DC/DC converters is needed.


A drive-by wire steering system is provided. The steering system comprises a steering shaft and a stop mechanism. The steering shaft is configured for a first angular displacement about a first axis. The steering shaft comprises a first geared portion and a first end. The first end is connectable to a vehicle""s steering wheel. The stop mechanism comprises a stop portion and a second geared portion. The stop portion defines a first position and a second position. The first geared portion and the second geared portion are operatively engaged such that angular displacement of the steering shaft imparts a second angular displacement about a second axis to the stop mechanism. The first angular displacement is limited when the second angular displacement is such that the steering shaft abuts the stop portion at either the first position or the second position.

This disclosure relates generally to drive-by-wire steering systems. More specifically, this disclosure relates to drive-by-wire steering systems having a stop mechanism.
Vehicles require a steering system to control the direction of travel. Previously, mechanical steering systems have been used. Mechanical steering systems typically include a mechanical linkage or a mechanical connection between the steering wheel and the vehicle""s road wheels. Thus, movement of the steering wheel causes a corresponding movement of the road wheels. Movement of such mechanical systems is often power assisted through the use of hydraulic assists or electric motors.
Mechanical steering systems are being replaced and/or supplemented by electrically driven steering systems, commonly known as xe2x80x9csteer-by-wirexe2x80x9d systems. Such steer-by-wire systems to varying extents replace, for example, the mechanical linkage between the steering wheel and the vehicle wheels with an electrically assisted actuator.
This migration to steer-by-wire systems is being made to improve fuel economy, increase vehicle modularity, reduce load on the engine of the vehicle, reduce vehicle weight, and provide four-wheel-steering. For example, the use of steer-by-wire systems eliminates the need for hydraulic fluids, provides a tighter turning radius, and reduces the weight of the vehicle.
Additionally, steer-by-wire systems eliminate various undesirable problems present in mechanical systems. For example in steer-by-wire systems, the steering wheel is mechanically isolated from the road wheels. Thus, excessive deleterious feed back to the steering wheel in the form of shudders, and steering wheel kickback from the road wheels is eliminated.
Unfortunately, mechanically isolating the steering wheel from the road wheel also eliminates desired feed back. For example, during the use of mechanical steering systems, the rotation of the steering wheel is mechanically limited by the travel of the road wheels of the vehicle. Unfortunately, the mechanical isolation provided by drive-by-wire steering systems eliminates this desired feedback.
A drive-by wire steering system is provided. The steering system comprises a steering shaft and a stop mechanism. The steering shaft is configured for a first angular displacement about a first axis. The steering shaft comprises a first geared portion and a first end. The first end is connectable to a vehicle""s steering wheel. The stop mechanism comprises a stop portion and a second geared portion. The stop portion defines a first position and a second position. The first geared portion and the second geared portion are operatively engaged such that angular displacement of the steering shaft imparts a second angular displacement about a second axis to the stop mechanism. The first angular displacement is limited when the second angular displacement is such that the steering shaft abuts the stop portion at either the first position or the second position.
A method is provided for protecting a sensor in a drive-by wire steering system where the sensor has a predetermined displacement range. The method includes connecting the sensor to a steering shaft, engaging a stop mechanism to the steering shaft, and abutting the stop mechanism and the steering shaft at a first position and a second position to limit the angular displacement of the steering shaft such that the sensor is maintained within the predetermined displacement range. The steering shaft is configured for a first angular displacement about a first axis. The stop mechanism is engaged to the steering shaft such that the first angular displacement imparts a second angular displacement about a second axis to the stop mechanism. The first angular displacement is greater than the second angular displacement.
A method is provided for improving the driveability of a drive-by wire steering system. The method includes engaging a stop mechanism and a steering shaft such that a first angular displacement of the steering shaft about a first axis imparts a second angular displacement about a second axis to the stop mechanism. The first angular displacement is greater than the second angular displacement. The method also includes limiting the first angular displacement by an interference of the stop mechanism with the steering shaft at a first position and a second position such that a range of motion is provided to the drive-by wire steering system that mimics a mechanically linked steering system range of motion.

Drive-by wire steering systems having a stop mechanism


This invention concerns a process of mixing a dispersion comprising a substantially crystalline, image receptive polyacetylenic compound in an aqueous non-solvating binder solutions with an effective ripening amount of an organic liquid boiling above 30.degree. C. which is completely miscible with water at least in a proportion of 1:2 part per parts and in which said polyacetylene is soluble for a time and at an elevated temperature sufficient to effect crystalline growth and improved sensitivity to imaging by exposure to a source of radiation.

Various photosensitive polyacetylenic compounds their dispersions in binder and methods of exposure have been disclosed in several patents including U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,066,676; 4,581,315; 3,501,302; 3,772,027 and 3,954,816. All of these imaging systems require the use of radiation sensitive polyacetylenic crystals uniformly and fixedly dispersed in an aqueous binder which forms a layer on a film substrate. The recording of image information on many polyacetylenic films has presented several problems and shortcomings, such as an inadequate degree of resolution, limitations related to certain sources of radiation for adequate exposure, inferior image color density and color instability. Other deficiencies include a relatively slow development of the image and, in certain cases, the need for imaging at extremely low temperatures in order to maintain receptivity of the polyacetylenic compound. Among the more sensitive polyacetylenic compounds which respond to development on exposure to radiation from many sources are the conjugated diacetylenes containing a hydrophilic group which promotes hydrogen bonding so that polyacetylene in adjacent molecules can be properly aligned for polymeriation.
It has been found however that, even among these species, the degree of sensitivity varies widely so that some have a relatively low radiation sensitivity which is best imaged in the short wavelength portion of the spectrum. Others exhibit a higher sensitivity toward the desired longer wavelength portions. Regardless of the species selected for imaging, it is always desirable to maximize sensitivity so as to achieve one or more benefits which include increasing the speed of response to exposure, the ability to employ lower dosages and expanding the wavelength sensitivity of polyacetylenic films.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to achieve the above benefits by an economical and commercially feasible process.
Another object is to provide a product which has markedly improved image receptivity.
Still another object is to provide a new and unique polyacetylenic crystalline composition disposed in a suitable binder.
These and other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description and disclosure.

Process for sensitizing polyacetylenic films


This invention relates to an electrically operated fuel injection apparatus comprising a fuel inletting device (110), a fuel pumping device (112) and a fuel injecting device (113). Fuel from the said fuel inletting device (110) is pumped by the said fuel pumping device (112) and then is injected out by the said fuel injecting device, wherein the said fuel pumping device (112) includes an operating coil (13), a returning coil (12) and a driven device (114) driven by the magnetic fields of these two coils; the magnetic loop induced by the said operating coil (13) excites the said driven device 9114) so as to inject the fuel by the said fuel injecting device (113), and the magnetic loop induced by the said returning coil (12) excites the said driven device to return back to its original position.

Two types of electrically operated fuel injection apparatus have been known. In one of the two types, the electronic system is just for controlling the opening and closing of the fuel injector, and the injection pressure is totally supplied by another system, which could be a mechanical system or an electrical fuel pump. The other type is a system in which a plunger pump is driven periodically by electromagnetic force, controlled by an electronic system, to generate an injection pressure so as to realize pulse injection. As examples of the first type, one may cite the electronic fuel injection (EFI) system adopted in four-stroke gasoline engine and the electrically controlled high-pressure common trail fuel injection system used in high-speed diesel engine (cf. Chapter VI, Internal Combustion Engine, compiled by Zhou Baolong, published by the Press of Engineering Industry in 1998, Beijing). As an example of the second type, one may cite the fuel injection system, developed by the Ficht Inc. of Germany, which is operating with the principle of solid energy storage (cf. U.S. Pat. No. 5,469,828 published in 1995 and CN patent application No. 9,619,481,5.9 published in 1998). The main drawbacks of the first type include its complexity and high cost. Consequently, it is difficult to apply on engines where the cost is limited, such as for motorcycle. The second type is simple in construction and low in cost, however, conventionally, single electromagnetic coil is used to drive the follower in forward direction, and the return of the follower relies on spring force. Consequently, a part of the forward electromagnetic driving force has to overcome the resistance of the spring, and the motion characteristics of the follower depends greatly on the stiffness and pretightening force of the spring. Therefore, the maximum operating frequency of the fuel injection system is limited and injection pressure is relatively low. Thus, it is difficult to use such injection system on high-speed engine such as the engine of motorcycles etc.

Electrically operated fuel injection apparatus


A sanitary article having a multi-layered absorbent member includes a panel stacked in two layers each having a plurality of openings extending through this member in its thickness direction and a plurality of fibrous assembly regions extending between each pair of the adjacent openings, the openings in the upper layer of the panel are out of alignment with the corresponding openings in the lower layer of the panel and each of the openings in the upper layer of the panel is divided in two or more sections by the fibrous assembly regions in the lower layer of the panel.

This invention relates to a sanitary article such as a disposable diaper, a sanitary napkin or a body fluid absorbent pad for incontinence which includes a multi-layered absorbent member.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 1997-253259A describes a disposable diaper comprising a liquid-pervious topsheet, a liquid-impervious backsheet and upper and lower liquid-absorbent panels both disposed between the topsheet and the backsheet. The upper liquid-absorbent panel is formed with a plurality of openings extending through this panel in a direction of its thickness. This diaper is described as being capable of preventing any amount of excretion discharged thereon from staying on the topsheet by receiving the entire amount of excretion in the respective openings formed on the liquid-pervious topsheet and then transferring this into the upper and lower liquid-absorbent panels.
With the diaper disclosed in the publication, excretion discharged thereon merely spreads within the respective panels as widely as possible in the course being absorbed by these panels. In other words, the extent over which excretion is absorbed by the panels is disadvantageously limited to the position at which excretion has been discharged on the diaper. Depending on a capacity of the diaper, excretion discharge focussed or localized may cause a certain amount of excretion to stay on the topsheet or in a limited zone, particularly in some of the openings of the panels. In this case, the amount of excretion once received in the openings may flow back toward the topsheet as the panels are compressed under a wearer""s body weight.
An object of this invention is to provide a sanitary article having a multi-layered absorbent member designed so that excretion discharged thereon may rapidly spread as widely as possible to prevent any amount of excretion from staying on a topsheet or in the limited zone of the article and thereby to prevent excretion once absorbed in the article from flowing back toward the topsheet.
According to this invention, there is provided a sanitary napkin having multi-layered absorbent member comprising, a panel made of a fibrous web having a compressive recovery elasticity, a plurality of openings extending through the panel in a thickness direction thereof and spaced one from another in a direction orthogonal to the thickness direction and a plurality of fibrous assembly regions extending between each pair of adjacent the openings.
The article further comprises the panel including two or more individual panels stacked one on another in the thickness direction each having a plurality of openings out of alignment with the corresponding openings in the individual panel immediately underlying the precedent individual panel and each of the openings in the precedent individual panel being divided in two or more sections by the fibrous assembly regions.
The multi-layered absorbent member according to this invention makes it possible to deflect the flowing direction of excretion by the fibrous assembly ribs (fibrous assembly regions) while the flow of excretion is successively absorbed by the respective panels so that excretion may spread as widely as possible from the top panel toward the bottom panel. In this way, the entire volume of the absorbent member can be efficiently utilized. Even if excretion is discharged onto a limited spot of the absorbent member, it is not apprehended that a certain amount of excretion might stay in or on this spot of the absorbent member since the discharged amount of excretion can rapidly spread within the absorbent member and is uniformly absorbed therein.
The absorbent member in which the total opening area of the openings progressively increases from the top panel toward the bottom panel can effectively avoid undesirable back flow of excretion even when the absorbent member is compressed in the direction of its thickness. This is because the total opening area of the openings progressively decreases from the bottom panel toward the top panel and the density of the fibrous assembly ribs in the respective panels correspondingly increases in this direction.
The absorbent member in which the fiber density progressively decreases from the top panel toward the bottom panel is effective particularly for high viscosity excretion such as loose passage or menstrual discharge since the absorption capacity for such high viscosity excretion progressively increases from the top panel toward the bottom panel so that the flow of excretion may be rapidly moved downward in the absorbent member.
The absorbent member being able to utilize the entire volume thereof is suitable particularly as the important component of the sanitary article such as the liquid-absorbent pad for incontinence control.

Sanitary article having multi-layered absorbent member


An electronic product testing system includes: a retrieving module configured to access an electronic file, the electronic file containing data generated based on a testing of a first product, the testing of the first product performed based at least in part on a first set of digits; and a testing device having a processing unit configured to perform testing of a second product based on the data in the electronic file, and also based on a second set of digits different from the first set of digits, the second product having at least one feature that is different from the first product, wherein the testing device is configured to perform the testing of the second product by submitting the second set of digits for processing by a repository.

Many products require product testing. Supplier of products generally require products be tested before they can be made available to customers. Testing of products can be a lengthy and complicated process. There may be many different technical features in the product that need to be tested under different testing parameters. Many product suppliers may not have in-house product testers. These product suppliers will need to outsource product testing to outside product testers. However, finding the right product testers who can adequately perform the product testing project can itself be a time-consuming process, and can be challenging. If the product supplier needs fast turn-around time for the product testing for its product, such out-sourcing technique may not be suitable.
Furthermore, a product provided by a product supplier may include an online payment feature that allows a user to submit payment using credit card. When performing product testing on such online payment feature, legacy approaches use dummy credit card number generators and/or gift cards as substitutes for actual real credit cards during product testing. Use of the dummy credit cards has been favored over real credit cards for the obvious reasons that product suppliers generally do not prefer to make a real word payment transaction (e.g., to buy an item or to pay for a service) while testing the online payment feature of its product. However, dummy credit card generators may not work in production systems. Also, dummy credit card is not processed as real word transaction, and so it may not allow detection of problems that may otherwise occur if actual credit card is used in the online payment feature of the product. Gift cards are often blocked by companies.
In addition, gift cards, including reloadable cards, can be costly and don't work like real credit cards do. This is because payment processor of many companies may detect gift cards, and may opt to block such gift cards from being used. In addition, gift cards are processed differently from credit cards. Thus, use of gift cards may prevent the online payment feature to be fully tested.
In some cases, corporate cards may be proposed for product testing. However, the amount of overhead and manual work necessary to setup corporate cards to be used for product testing may be overwhelming.


An improved currency validator having an electrical signal generating sensor for scanning an area of a bank note and generating a sequence of electrical signals in response to the currency identifying characteristics detected by the sensor in the area scanned is described. Circuitry is provided for measuring the intervals between the generated signals, classifying each of the measured intervals into one of a plurality of sets and determining the difference between the number of intervals in one of said sets and the number of intervals in another of said sets. By comparing the above difference with a constant, information concerning the validity or denomination of the bank note is obtained. Additional circuitry is described for normalizing measured intervals and set bounds to take into effect variations in the speed of transport of banknotes which are to be discriminated.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and apparatus for validating paper currency, particularly United States one, two and five dollar bills, and more particularly to such a method and apparatus in which the authenticity and denomination of paper currency is identified by sensing the characteristics of a piece of currency along a predetermined scan line.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A number of devices have been proposed which identify and distinguish between various denominations of U.S. paper currency or "bills", but none of these devices has been completely satisfactory.
Genuine U.S. paper currency contains a variety of printed indicia which may be used to identify the currency as authentic, and also to distinguish between authentic currency of various denominations.
One indication of authenticity is the fact that certain areas on a U.S. bill are printed with ink with magnetic properties. For example, the portrait which appears in the center of every U.S. bill is, in a genuine bill, printed entirely with magnetic ink. The fanciful engraving which forms the printed border of each U.S. bill is likewise composed entirely of magnetic ink, as are the large capital letters or large numerals which appear to the right of the portrait and which identify the denomination of the bill (i.e., "ONE", "TWO", "FIVE", etc.). In contrast, the green Treasury Department seal which underlies the denomination identifying letters or numerals to the right of the portrait, as well as the black Federal Reserve Bank seal which appears to the left of the portrait, are both printed in non-magnetic ink.
Each denomination U.S. bill is likewise characterized by the distance between the grid lines which comprise the background of the portrait field. In one dollar bills, for example, the space between vertical grid lines is equal to 0.008 inches. For two and five dollar bills, the grid line space is equal to 0.010 inches and 0.011 inches, respectively.
Prior art currency validators have been proposed which identify authentic U.S. bills and distinguish between bills of various denominations by measuring the average spacing between the vertical grid lines in the portrait areas of the bills. One such device is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,349,111 to Shah et al.
Identification of bills based on average grid line spacing is likely to lead to failures to distinguish between bills having relatively small differences in grid spacing. For example, certain commercial bill validators utilizing the average spacing technique cannot be used with both two dollar and five dollar bills, because the average grid line spacings are too similar.
Another problem with various prior art validators is that they may accept high denomination bills as valid lower denomination bills.
Many prior art currency validators require that the tested bill be inserted into the validator in a specific orientation (e.g., Federal Reserve seal first). Such devices result in authentic bills being rejected merely because of improper orientation. It is therefore desirable to provide a currency validator which is operationally insensitive to bill orientation.
Many of the prior art currency validators require careful regulation of the speed at which the bill is scanned for information. In such validators, even a slight variation in scanning speed, such as that resulting from an instantaneous drop in power line voltage, can cause authentic bills to be rejected and produce inaccuracies in the identification of bill denomination. It is therefore desirable to provide a currency validator which is insensitive to the speed at which a bill is scanned.
In order to avoid some of the problems of speed regulation, some prior art validators, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,464,787 to Fish et al, employ detectors at fixed positions to positively identify the position of the bill and thereby ascertain the bill area being tested. These validators, however, generally require a testing channel at least as long as the bill being tested.

Method and apparatus for currency validation


A no-integrity management method and system for managing logical volumes of a computer system. The no-integrity refers to the fact that the availability status of each partition within the mirrored logical volumes is not written to a direct access storage device but instead stored within a volatile memory. When the computer system is shutdown the availability status information is discarded, and the availability status of each partition is marked as active upon first open of a partition after startup of the computer system.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to computer disk storage management and more particularly to a no-integrity management method and system for a logical volume of a computer system.
2. Related Art
Direct access storage devices (DASD) are widely used in mainframe computer systems to store data. In order to manage these direct access storage devices, several disk management techniques are available. One useful and popular technique is logical volume management. Instead of interfacing directly with a physical partition on the direct access storage device, a logical volume manager (LVM) divides the disk space on the drive into logical partitions. A logical partition may include several direct access storage devices but is transparent to a user, which means that the logical partition appears to the user as a single storage device.
At the lowest level of logical volume management is the physical direct access storage device itself. Each individual direct access storage device is formatted into a physical volume (PV) for use by the LVM. Each physical volume has a name and belongs to a volume group (VG). A volume group is a collection of direct access storage devices under the management of the LVM that are treated as a single large storage area. All physical volumes within a volume group are divided into physical partitions (PPs) of a certain size. These physical partitions are allocatable units of disk space, typically on the order of 2 megabytes or 4 megabytes. The total number of physical partitions on each direct access storage device varies and depends on the total capacity of the direct access storage device.
Each volume group defines one or more logical volumes (LVs). Logical volumes are groups of information located on physical volumes. Although data on a physical volume can be discontinuous, the data on a logical volume appears to the user as contiguous. This arrangement permits file systems, paging space and other logical volumes to be resized or relocated, span multiple physical volumes and have their contents replicated for greater flexibility and availability in data storage. Each logical volume includes one or more logical partitions (LPs), with each logical partition corresponding to at least one physical partition.
Mirroring of a logical volume is a technique that provides copies of the logical volume and prevents data loss due to disk failures, thereby offering greater data reliability. If mirroring is specified for a logical volume, the LVM allocates additional physical partitions to store the additional copies of each logical partition. Although the logical partitions are numbered consecutively, the underlying physical partitions are not necessarily consecutive or contiguous. The LVM marks each partition of the mirrored copies of the logical volume with an availability status that can be either stale or active. Only partitions that are marked as active can be read and written.
In general, the LVM changes the availability status of a partition from stale to active by using a swap space (also called a paging space). The swap space allows information to be swapped between random access memory (RAM) and the direct access storage device. By way of example, to change the availability status of a partition from stale to active the LVM uses the swap space to copy information from an active mirrored partition to a stale mirrored partition. The LVM keeps track of the availability status of each partition by writing the availability status information to the direct access storage device. Thus, at any point in time the availability status of each partition is stored in the direct access storage device and retained even if the computer system is shutdown. When the computer system is restarted, the availability status of each partition read from the direct access storage device and each partition is marked as either stale or active.
One problem with this type of logical volume management is that keeping track of the availability status of each partition on the direct access storage device uses a great deal of computer system resources. In particular, resources must be used to continually write and store partition availability status to the direct access storage device. Storing the availability status of each partition to the direct access storage device, remembering the status after system shutdown and marking each partition""s availability status after system restart utilizes a tremendous amount of computer system resources and overhead. This overhead decreases performance of the computer system because the processor is busy writing and reading to the swap spaces and direct access storage device instead of processing other requests.
Accordingly, what is needed is a method for managing logical volumes (especially mirrored logical volumes) that does not keep track of the availability status of each logical volume partition on the direct access storage device. Instead, what is needed is a method that keeps track of the availability status in such a way that computer system resources are not heavily taxed. What is further needed is a method of logical volume management that saves computer system resources by not having to mark the availability status of each partition as either stale or active upon restart of the computer system.
To overcome the limitations in the prior art as described above and other limitations that will become apparent upon reading and understanding the present specification, the present invention includes a no-integrity management method and system for managing logical volumes of a computer system. The no-integrity management of the present invention keeps track of an availability status of each logical volume partition in volatile memory, such that the information is lost after computer system shutdown. Moreover, upon computer system restart the availability status of each partition is set to active.
The present invention conserves valuable computer system resources by eliminating the need to read and write availability status information to a direct access storage device. By keeping track of availability status information and any changes to that information in volatile memory, the present invention reduces overhead and permits system resources to be used for other tasks, thereby increasing system performance. Moreover, the present invention does not retain prior availability status information after system shutdown, thereby eliminating the need and overhead involved in storing and redesignating the availability status for each partition.
Other aspects and advantages of the present invention as well as a more complete understanding thereof will become apparent from the following detailed description, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, illustrating by way of example the principles of the invention. Moreover, it is intended that the scope of the invention be limited by the claims and not by the preceding summary or the following detailed description.

No-integrity logical volume management method and system

International Business Machines Corporation


The present invention relates to a Tryptophan-producing E. coli mutant strain CJ285 (KCCM-10534) containing single or multi mutant genes related with Tryptophan biosynthesis and production method of Tryptophan using the same. More particularly, DNA base sequences and amino acid sequences aroF, aroG, trpR, and tyrR originated from tryptophan producing E. coli mutant strain CJ285 (KCCM-10534) and related with Tryptophan biosynthesis, are disclosed, and E. coli CJ285 containing at least one of the mutant genes is cultivated directly in a glucose-containing fermentation medium, whereby L-tryptophan can be accumulated in the culture medium.

Tryptophan is one of essential amino acids, and has been broadly used in diverse fields including feed additives, medical substances such as sleeping draught or tranquilizer or Ringer's solution, and health food substances. Typical production methods of Tryptophan are chemical synthesis, enzyme reaction, and fermentation using microorganisms. In case of the chemical synthesis, the production takes place in a high temperature and high pressure space, and because D-tryptophan and L-tryptophan are produced together an additional refining process is required to obtain desired tryptophan. In case of the enzyme reaction such as the Japanese patent to Matsui Doatsui (Korean Patent Publication No. 90-005773), indole and serine used as substrates for the reaction are very expensive and the enzyme itself is not safe.
On the other hand, the fermentation using microorganisms involve auxotrophic strains and regulatory mutant strains of diverse microorganisms such as E. coli and Corynebacterium. Rapid technical advances in gene recombination in 1980's have provided much information on metabolism and control mechanism thereof. Many researchers had remarkable successes to develop superior recombinant strains through gene manipulation, and to improve productivity (Matsui et al, 1988). Also, in Korea, a number of Tryptophan production techniques related with the direct fermentation were disclosed either by using Tryptophan-resistant or auxotrophic mutant strains (Korean Patent Publication Nos. 87-1813, 90-8251, and 92-7405) or recombined strains (Korean Patent Publication Nos. 90-5772 and 91-5627). Mainly these Tryptophan analog resistant strains were to overcome feedback inhibition of enzymes during the Tryptophan biosynthesis, and the recombinant strains were also used for cloning enzymes during the Tryptophan biosynthesis. In fact, the studies have made a remarkable success. For instance, the biggest merit of the traditional L-tryptophan production using an artificial mutant of E. coli was that inexpensive cultivation substrates were used to product the L-tryptophan. However, the productivity or the Tryptophan yield was extremely low. Therefore, to maximize the Tryptophan yield through the gene recombination, there exists a need to secure an artificial mutant which is excellent as a parent strain and obtain genes whose regulations are released.
Therefore, the present invention has been made in view of the above problems, and it is an object of the present invention to identify base sequences and amino acid sequences of a mutant gene for encoding aroF and aroG, which are enzymes for use in the synthesis of 3-deoxyarabionohep-tulosonate 7-phosphate (hereinafter it will be referred to as DAHP), the first precursor of aromatic amino acids during the biosynthesis of Tryptophan originated from an E. coli mutant strain CJ285, out of phosphoenolpyruvate and Erythorse 4-phosphate, and trpR and tyrR for regulation transcription of genes related with the Tryptophan synthesis.
It is another object of the present invention to provide an L-tryptophan producing E. coli mutant strain that contains single or multi mutant genes described above.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a production method of L-tryptophan with high concentration and high yield by cultivating the mutant directly in a fermentation medium containing glucose.


The present invention provides methods of monitoring the injection of a fluid into a subterranean formation. The present invention also provides a method of fracturing a subterranean formation. All methods feature the use of a wavelet transform of data generated by the subterranean injection process.

The present invention relates generally to subterranean treatment operations, and more particularly to using wavelet analysis in subterranean treatment operations.
Subterranean formations penetrated by well bores are often treated to increase the production therefrom. Common treatment methods include water-flooding, carbon dioxide (CO2) flooding, conformance applications, and fracture stimulation, among others. When a fluid is injected into a subterranean formation, certain changes occurring downhole during such injection process (such as the creation or extension of a fracture therein or the contacting of a subterranean boundary by the injected fluid, for example) send different pressure frequency spectra and wave intensities to the surface. Pressure waves generated and reflected during fluid injection are conventionally captured and evaluated so as to monitor changes in the downhole environment during the time period in which the fluid is injected.
Monitoring and analysis techniques used in conventional water-flooding and/or CO2-flooding operations often encounter difficulty in recognizing certain subterranean conditions such as boundaries or heterogeneities (e.g., regions of high permeability into which the injected fluid may flow readily, thereby creating undesirable "fingering") within the subterranean formation. This difficulty is problematic, because it prevents operators from prompt execution of a remediative step, such as adjusting the viscosity of the injected fluid.
Monitoring and analysis techniques conventionally used in conformance applications are also problematic. As referred to herein, the term "conformance applications" will be understood to mean applications comprising the injection of a first fluid into a portion of a subterranean formation so as to alter the flow profile of a second fluid injected into, or produced from, a subterranean formation. For example, a conformance application may involve the injection of a sealant into a subterranean formation so as to minimize entry into a well bore of an unwanted fluid. Monitoring and analysis techniques used in conventional conformance applications often encounter difficulty in recognizing certain subterranean conditions. An example of such a condition is the presence of boundaries within the formation. This difficulty is problematic, because it prevents operators from prompt execution of a remediative step, such as adjusting the pressure of the injected fluid, for example.
Fracture stimulation is another application where conventional monitoring and analysis techniques are problematic. Fracture stimulation comprises the intentional fracturing of the subterranean formation by pumping a fracturing fluid into a well bore and against a selected surface of a subterranean formation intersected by the well bore. The fracturing fluid is pumped at a pressure sufficient that the earthen material in the subterranean formation breaks or separates to initiate a fracture in the formation.
A fracture typically has a narrow opening that extends laterally from the well. To prevent such opening from closing completely when the fracturing pressure is relieved, the fracturing fluid typically carries a granular or particulate material, referred to as "proppant," into the opening of the fracture. This material remains in the fracture after the fracturing process is finished. Ideally, the proppant in the fracture holds apart the separated earthen walls of the formation to keep the fracture open and to provide flow paths through which hydrocarbons from the formation can flow into the well bore at increased rates relative to the flow rates through the unfractured formation. Fracturing processes are intended to enhance hydrocarbon production from the fractured formation. In some circumstances, however, the fracturing process may terminate prematurely, for a variety of reasons. For example, the "pad" portion of the fracturing fluid, which is intended to advance ahead of the proppant as the fracture progresses, may undesirably "leak off" into smaller fractures in the formation, which may cause the proppant to reach the fracture tip and create an undesirable "screenout" condition. Thus, properly analyzing fracture behavior is a very important aspect of the fracturing process.
In connection with analyzing fracture behavior, various physical parameters of the subterranean formation are commonly monitored. Physical parameters such as pressure and temperature are commonly converted into electronic signals with downhole transducers. Conventional fracturing operations typically begin with a determination of the "closure pressure" of the subterranean formation, which determination is often accomplished by performing reduced-scale fracturing, e.g., a "mini-frac" or a "micro-frac," before commencing full-scale fracturing of the formation. For example, in one embodiment of a micro-frac test, a small volume of clear fluid containing no proppant may be pumped into a well bore at a low flowrate (typically less than 10 gallons per minute). This may generate a fracture extending up to about 15 feet into the subterranean formation, and generate acoustic noise in the form of a pressure wave or signal received by a sensing device within the well bore. In one embodiment of a mini-frac test, the formation is fractured using a formulation of the fracturing fluid that will be used in the full-scale fracturing operation. The scale of the mini-frac may be generally about 10–15% of the full-scale fracturing operation, but the fluid used in the mini-frac will generally not contain a significant amount of proppant. Among other benefits, the mini-frac test enables an operator to determine the formation's closure pressure, along with the formation's leakoff coefficient, both of which parameters are useful in designing and analyzing the full-scale fracturing treatment. To determine the closure pressure, an operator may often plot the pressure signal versus the square root of time, and determine the closure pressure by constructing two tangent lines on the plot, and extending them so that they intersect. Typically, one tangent line will be constructed at a point on the graph representing a time immediately after the cessation of injection of the fracturing fluid; the other tangent line will typically be constructed at a point on the graph immediately after a "knee" in the pressure signal. Conventionally, the first tangent line is thought to represent a region of fluid leak-off into the face of an open subterranean fracture, while the second tangent line is thought to represent a region of slower fluid leak-off through a closed subterranean fracture. The two tangent lines are arbitrarily constructed based upon a particular operator's interpretation of a suitable tangent line. Once the two tangent lines have been drawn, their intersection is conventionally identified as the closure pressure of the formation. The method is highly subjective.
Conventionally, full-scale fracturing operations begin once the closure pressure has been determined, and are conventionally analyzed through the use of a log-log plot of a "net-pressure" signal. Upon the initiation of fracturing of the well bore, a pressure signal is received. An operator will typically subtract the pre-determined closure pressure from the pressure signal, to calculate a "net pressure." This net pressure is then plotted versus time on a log-log plot. Conventionally, the slope of the net pressure curve is analyzed with consideration given to certain guidelines. For example, where the slope of the net pressure curve is between about 0.2 and about 0.3, the fracture is thought to be continuing to propagate. However, where the net pressure curve has a slope of about 1.0, the fracture propagation is thought to have stopped, and adverse fracture behaviors such as the onset of sand-out are thought to begin.
Conventional fracturing analysis using the log-log plot of a net pressure curve is problematic. Because of the nature of the log-log plot, a lengthy amount of time is often required before the unit slope straight line becomes well-developed and apparent. Accordingly, an operator may encounter difficulty in interpreting the net pressure curve so as to distinguish, normal, continued fracture propagation from the cessation of propagation. This difficulty may cause operators to continue to inject proppant-laden fracturing fluid into the well bore, despite the fact that the fracture is no longer capable of accepting the proppant; in such scenarios, proppant accumulates within the well bore and must be laboriously removed once the fracturing operation stops. This difficulty in distinguishing between normal fracturing and the cessation of propagation often prevents operators from timely performance of a remediative step. Such a remediative step could comprise injecting a clear fluid into the well bore so as to sweep any last amounts of proppant out of the well bore and into the formation, for example.
An operator using conventional fracture monitoring techniques such as the log-log plot of a net pressure curve may also encounter difficulty in distinguishing a pressure increase caused by actual closure of the fracture from a temporary pressure increase caused by the occurrence in the well bore of an event unrelated to the behavior of the fracture. Such temporary event is often referred to as a "tool event." The occurrence of a temporary tool event appears quite similar on a log-log plot to the occurrence of a formation event such as closure of the fracture. This may lead to the operator misinterpreting the tool event as fracture closure, and thus halting the fracturing operation prematurely. To avoid premature stoppage of the fracture operation, the operator typically must wait, and refrain from taking any action, until a sufficient number of subsequent data points departing from the unit slope have been plotted on the net pressure curve before discounting the tool event as a spurious event not indicative of fracture closure with sufficient confidence; in some scenarios, this may require waiting several tens of minutes. Alternatively, an operator using conventional fracturing analysis techniques and encountering actual fracture closure may misinterpret it as a temporary tool event, and continue to inject proppant into the well bore, while waiting for subsequent data points to depart from the unit slope on the net pressure curve. Such misinterpretation of actual fracture closure as a temporary tool event may result in the well bore becoming loaded with proppant that never reaches the fracture, and that must be laboriously and expensively removed before the well bore may be returned to production.

Methods and systems for using wavelet analysis in subterranean applications