The invention relates to a maintaining and contacting device for a round cell battery and to the use of said type of maintaining and contacting device in remote control devices in order to lock and unlock motor vehicles. According to said type of devices, the battery area must be separated as much as possible from other electronic components in order to prevent destructive contact. Spring clips, which are connected to the electronic system by means of a cable and soldered connections, are used in order to make contact with the upper and lower side of the round cell battery. Leaf-spring like contact elements, which are connected to the battery area forming a non-positive fit connection with an electronic module which is to be supplied, are used in order to prevent a complex construction and in order to enable the battery area to be accessed in an easy manner.

The present invention relates to a holding and contact-making apparatus for a button cell, in particular to the use of a holding and contact-making apparatus such as this in remote-control apparatuses for locking/unlocking of motor vehicles, with the contact-making apparatus being used to supply electrical power to the electronics of a remote-control device such as this.
Known electronic keys generally have button cells in order to supply power to the electronics section with its transmitter and receiver modules, and these button cells are in some cases held directly by means of holding apparatuses on boards for the electronic elements. Because of the problem that the operator can damage the electronics that are exposed after disassembly of the key accidentally when replacing a battery, for example by a mechanical influence or electrostatic influence, the electronic areas are shielded by means of battery holders in the form of housings. When replacing a button cell, the operator has access only to the battery housing.
Button cells have an upper face and a lower face which are also used to transmit power, with each face representing one specific pole. In addition, the projecting faces can be used to make contact with a pole.
A half-open housing such as this is known from DE 34 19 333. Contact is made by means of electrical contacts which are passed through the bottom of the housing to the electrical component. The electrical contact are in this case inserted from the open face of the housing, and are soldered to the board.
This form of assembly is complex and expensive for the mass production of electronic keys for motor vehicles.

Holding and contact-making apparatus for a button cell, and method for its production


A field-installable and removable moisture and/or acid test kit and method is used for a vapor compression system. A moisture and/or acid indicator is provided in the test kit which is installed at a single point location upstream or downstream of the system compressor in a region where the system working fluid is in a substantially vapor phase. The test kit can be connected to the system by a threaded connection or a quick disconnect fitting. The moisture/acid indicator in the test kit detects the presence of moisture and/or acid by a diffusion of moisture or acid to the indicator via diffusion. Some magnification is provided in the test kit because the lower transport rates from the vapor diffusion mechanism requires a smaller mass of indicator material than has been used in conventional flowing liquid systems.

The present invention relates to a simple field installable/removable moisture and/or acid indicator or test kit, and more particularly, to a moisture and/or acid test indicator or test kit used in a vapor compression system and the like which can be attached to the system via an existing Schrader-type service valve making the indicator easily installed and/or replaced in the field, without the need to isolate a section of the system, recover the trapped refrigerant, install the indicator into the system, and recharge the section previously isolated and evacuated. The indicating material substance or formulation of the present invention is held in a transparent fixture which when tightened on the service valve, automatically depresses the Schrader valve core allowing refrigerant to contact the indicator material. This indicator can also be configured to magnify the section of the device which contains the indicator material. This allows technicians in the field to easily, simply, quickly and inexpensively attach a moisture or test kit, or change the test kit, on a fully charged and operating system without the need to interrupt operation of the system.
The presence of moisture in the refrigerant of vapor compression refrigerators, heat pumps, and air conditioners (generally referred to as, the system) can lead to the formation of ice crystals in the throttling device, thereby restricting the flow of refrigerant and decreasing capacity. The presence of water in such a system also accelerates the formation of acids in the system which severely shorten the life of both the compressor and the refrigerant.
All systems typically have service valves with valve core depressors (often referred to as Schrader-valves). These valves, like automobile tire-valves, are opened when a valve core is depressed, usually by the device being attached to the valve. For refrigeration systems, these types of service valves with valve core depressors are used in several standard sizes, with xc2xcxe2x80x3 being the most common and xe2x85x9cxe2x80x3, xc2xdxe2x80x3, and and ⅝xe2x80x3 also used.
Checking the system for moisture is a common maintenance procedure. Due to cost cutting measures, however, many systems do not contain a traditional moisture indicator in the system. When such a moisture indicator is inherent in the system it is typically located in the liquid line or in the liquid receiver as part of a liquid sight glass. Such indicators are configured for liquid refrigerant to flow through the device. Alternatively, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,923,806 and 5,071,768, disclose a device which attaches to the service valve and allows refrigerant to flow through the device and into the ambient surroundings, indicating both moisture and acid as the refrigerant is vented to the environment. In addition to the obvious disadvantage of venting refrigerant into the environment, this device can not be installed for extended periods due to the constant flow of refrigerant being vented.
Visual sensors or indicators for use in detecting the moisture of a refrigerant in a vapor compression system are known, as seen for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,061 as well as in commercial products. A permanently installed sensor has a sight glass or window through which moisture content is determined by viewing a color-change indicator. Cobaltous chloride and cobaltous bromide are well known in the art as a moisture indicating chemicals, with the former changing from blue to pink when wet and the latter changing from green to yellow when wet.
Visual sensors or indicators for use in detecting the corrosive state of a fluid in a heat exchanger system are known as seen, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 5,127,433. A permanently installed sensor has a sight glass or window through which corrosiveness or moisture content is determined by viewing a flap or ball displaying a color indicating either the need to change the fluid or to add corrosion inhibitors. Alternatively, corrosiveness can be indicated by a ruptured or broken diaphragm located between the sight glass and the fluid.
Humidity and corrosion indicators for packaged goods in which a thin cobaltous chloride film is used as the sensing element are discussed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,084,658. An elastomeric grommet sealed by a transparent disk is inserted into an opening in a package wall. A disk impregnated with the cobaltous chloride is secured beneath a window and can be replaced.
With respect to closed refrigeration systems, other types of indicator systems are known for testing the presence and concentration of contaminants in a refrigerant. For example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,923,806 and 5,071,768 show apparatus for testing liquid or vapor contaminants in a closed system regardless of whether or not the apparatus is operating. A disposable testing tube made of transparent material is used at the end of a compressor discharge line or elsewhere in the system. One section of the tube is provided with water removal and moisture indicating chemicals, such as cobaltous chloride and another section is provided with acid indicating chemicals such as a solution of bromophenol blue, ethanol and glycerol. This known construction is relatively complicated and requires a separate, specially configured flow restrictor in addition to a tube holder, and an expensive testing tube in which the multiple contaminant testing chemicals and filter screens are permanently located. U.S. Pat. No. 4,018,061 describes a moisture-indicating device in contact with flowing liquid refrigerant. This device is an integral part of the refrigeration system, and as such, the system must be shut down in order to install the device.
Likewise, U.S. Pat. No. 5,377,496 shows an acid contamination indicator for closed loop vapor compression refrigeration systems in which the indicator is permanently or removably installed in the bypass line around the system compressor where the refrigerant is always in the gaseous phase. A casing has a visual indicator bed of bromophenol blue as the acid indicating medium which is contacted by the refrigerant after flowing through a filter and a flow restrictor orifice. Porous retainer disks are held against the bed by springs. Moreover, the indicator, which changes color when exposed to acids or bases, are solid, and they must be exposed to the test stream in some fashion. Accordingly, this solid indicator must be mixed with an inert substance to provide some porosity, contact surface area, and increased volume and then packaged in a clear tube. The vapor refrigerant is then passed through the porous mixture arranged in a bypass loop between the suction and discharge ends of a compressor or in the main refrigerant flow path between the compressor discharge and a heat exchanger to observe a color change. Again, we have recognized that this is an unduly complicated construction which requires a substantial outlay for production and installation. A bypass of refrigerant from the compressor discharge to the compressor suction reduces the capacity and performance of the vapor compression system as well as increases the compressor operating temperature since hot discharge vapor is reintroduced into the compressor suction.
Pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/423,211, filed Apr. 17, 1995, assigned to Mainstream Engineering Corporation of Rockledge, Fla. discloses yet another way of detecting the presence of acid in a refrigeration system, with an indicating device configured to temporally flow refrigerant through it and vent this refrigerant to the environment. The disclosure of that application is incorporated by reference herein.
Yet another type of contaminant detector is marketed by Refrigeration Technologies of Fullerton, Calif. under the trademark xe2x80x9cCHECKMATExe2x80x9d. A specific volume of gas passes through a detection tube at a predetermined termination pressure. However, a sealed Pyrex detection tube containing a color-changing chemical and having ends which are pierced when fully assembled can only be used once even when the test is negative, and thus this approach entails considerable expense regardless of its technical merits.
It should be pointed out that all the prior art for moisture or other contamination measuring devices, whether permanent or temporary, have one thing in common, namely an inlet and outlet so that refrigeration passes through the device. The refrigerant which passes through is (a) vented to ambient air or (b) by-passed to another portion of the system, or (c) the device is permanently placed in the refrigerant system""s normal flow path. We realized that due to cost saving measures, many air conditioning systems do not have a moisture indicator in the system, and it is expensive and disruptive to the unit""s operation, to retrofit such an indicator in the field.
In a vapor-compression system, refrigerant flows from the condenser to the expansion valve, where it flashes into a two-phase mixture and then enters the evaporator. Superheated refrigerant vapor, with some entrained oil, leaves the evaporator and is compressed in the compressor, before being condensed in the condenser to complete the cycle. The presence of water in the system, which is a very real possibility, can result in the formation of ice crystals as the refrigerant is throttled in the expansion device. Because the expansion device is a significant flow restriction, ice formed there can clog the flow path completely stopping the flow of refrigerant or severely reducing capacity. In addition to reducing system capacity, the ice formation can result in excessive pressures and system shut down. If this were to occur, the ice blockage would typically melt, allowing the system to restart and operate normally until the ice again formed. This overall result would be an on-off cycling of the device. Moisture can also accelerate the formation of corrosive acids in the system.
While we have looked at a temporary flow through indication device for moisture, the problem is compounded by the fact that the moisture levels attempting to be measured (at about 100 PPM or less) are significantly lower than the moisture level in ambient air. The costs associated with manufacturing a moisture indicator in this relatively wet environment and the false reading associated with exposing the indicator to ambient air before using, have led us to recognize a different solution to the problem. That is, a field installable temporary test kit device is used which does not begin as a dry indicator but rather begins at equilibrium with moisture in the air and therefore indicates wet conditions when first installed but after exposure to the refrigeration system reaches an equilibrium moisture concentration thereby indicating the level of moisture in the system.
Rather than constructing a device with an inlet and outlet that must be plumbed into the system (at a considerable cost), or one that must by-pass refrigeration in the system (thereby reducing performance and increasing compressor suction-side refrigerant temperature), however, we have configured a removable test kit with a single connection point which temporarily connects to the existing system service port (with only the tightening of a wrench in the case of a threaded service port, or by pushing it on, in the case of a quick disconnect type of service port.
Our device does not degrade system performance and can be quickly and easily installed. The action of attaching the indicator of the present invention to the service valve depresses the service valve""s Schrader valve, thereby allowing vapor refrigerant of the system to contact the indicator chemical. This is a particularly advantageous element of the present invention, because it affords the user with the benefits of a permanent moisture indicator, namely, sufficient time for the indicator to reach equilibrium moisture conditions (regardless of the starting moisture level), as well as the benefits of a low cost field-test device. That is, it can be used on an operating system without opening the system or disturbing its operation in any way.
The indicator housing of the present invention mechanism has a mechanism for depressing the Schrader valve core and a structure for holding an indicator material. The indicator formulation can be impregnated on a paper or porous plastic sheet or can be a paint applied to the interior surface of the cap. The moisture indicator material is prepared from an aqueous or solvent solution of finely divided particles of the indicator chemical and optionally polymers, and optionally other hygroscopic compounds. The paint is characterized by one color when in the absence of significant amounts of water and by a gradual color change to a second color with the presence of increasing quantities of water. The indicator housing is constructed of a clear material (or a material with a window), and can incorporate a magnifying glass (either manufactured into the clear material or into the window) so that the color change can be easily seen without a large quantity of the indicator material. This magnification is needed because the lower transport rates resulting from a vapor diffusion process require a smaller mass of indicator material compared with a flowing liquid system of the types described above to reach equilibrium moisture conditions in a practical time period.
Other known moisture indicators with an inlet and outlet, either temporary or permanent, have the moisture indicating material in the liquid stream of refrigerant, whereas the indicator of the present invention is located in a service valve fitting so that refrigerant (mostly vapor) does not flow through the device. Consequently, moisture must diffuse through the relatively stagnant area between the refrigerant flow path and the location of the indicator material. The smaller the mass of indicator material, the smaller the quantity of moisture that must diffuse before a complete reaction is achieved.
Because the mechanism of the moisture transport in the present invention is diffusion instead of flowing the refrigerant past the indicator material, an experiment was performed to verify that the diffusion of moisture from refrigerant into the adsorbent material could be accomplished in a reasonably short time. The experiment determined if diffusion of the moisture through static refrigerant would be rapid enough to be practical. Refrigerant samples were formulated with increasing quantities of moisture (ranging from 3 PPM water to 900 PPM in the liquid refrigerant). These samples were then exposed to moisture laden (pink) cobalt chloride-containing indicator materials, and moisture indicator observations were continued on a regular basis with time and indicator color recorded. Once the indicators had stabilized (remained the same color for a period greater than two days), the vapor and liquid were both tested for moisture by using a Karl Fisher coulometric titrator.
Although there is no generally accepted maximum permissible moisture limit on operating systems, a level of 125 ppm is an approximate upper limit for moisture concentrations in refrigerants found in systems (centrifugal chillers down to small unitary systems) operating for 10 years or more. We have also found through Karl Fisher titration that for refrigerants HFC-134a and HCFC-22 the percent by weight of water in the vapor phase relative to that in the liquid phase at equilibrium ranges from about 0.25-1, and is a function of temperature and the total concentration of moisture in the vapor/liquid system. This ratio is a thermodynamic property of the refrigerant and water system and can be very different for other refrigerants.
Results from this experiment indicate that the diffusion rates are sufficient, even in static conditions, to invoke a color change within a reasonable period of time (one day or less). To notice any color change in systems containing less than 100 PPM (parts per million) moisture in the liquid refrigerant, about one hour was required. After about fifteen hours, the color change was observed to be essentially complete (greater than 90% complete) for all moisture levels tested. Since the color change approaches an equilibrium in an exponential manner, a substantial (at least ⅔ color change) change can be seen within 8 hours. This degree of color change is clearly significant enough for a refrigeration technician to accurately diagnose a moisture contamination problem.
We have discovered that a device can be configured, either from a clear material or with a window, to contain a connection to the service valve, to depress the service valve, to hold the moisture indicating material, to magnify the moisture indication material so that a color change can be seen with a smaller mass of material, and a simple connection to an existing service port on the system so that the device can be attached without disturbing the system in any way. This temporary device can be easily removed when normal access to the service port is needed and can be easily changed when excessive moisture levels have made it no longer usable.
The device according to the present invention allows for testing with the system on or off. In addition, it does not have to be installed in a line but rather is temporarily or permanently connected to existing service connections, for example, to a Schrader-valve which is not directly in the flow path of the refrigerant. This is a surprising discovery because indicators are traditionally located in the liquid flow path or if connected to a vapor service valve vent to ambient or to another part of the system so as to have refrigerant flow through the device.
Specifically our invention currently contemplates use of an indicator chemical such as cobaltous chloride (CoCl2) or cobaltous bromide (CoBr2). CoCl2 will hydrate with six water molecules changing from blue color to pink color. CoBr2 will hydrate with six water molecules changing from green color to yellow color. There are also other chemicals which change color upon hydration including copper sulfate and other cobalt compounds. Certain alkali metal ozonides also change color. Acid-base reactions can also be used in conjunction with proper indicators in the presence of water.
Thus, the present invention takes advantage of the difficulty of normally attaching a permanent indicator into the plumbing of a existing (working) system and the cost and inconvenience of using a temporary indicator which vents or by-passes refrigerant to achieve the necessary flow through the indicator.
While many commercial moisture indicator chemicals are available, the preferred embodiment of this invention will use CoCl2 as the moisture indicator chemical. If the moisture concentration is not enough to turn the indicator completely pink, however, an intermediate color, between blue and pink (pale, almost while) will be observed. Therefore, the intensity of the change depends on what percentage of the indicator has been transformed (reacted) to the wet form. If the CoBr2 indicator is used a wet environment will produce a yellow color, where as in a dry environment the indicator chemical will appear green. If the moisture concentration is not enough to turn the indicator completely yellow, however, an intermediate color, between green and yellow (that is some yellowish shade of green) will be observed. Therefore, the intensity of the color change depends on what percentage of the indicator has been transformed (reacted) to the wet form.
Hygroscopic modifiers can also be added to the moisture sensing formulation in order to increase or decrease the sensitivity of the device to moisture present in the refrigeration system working fluid. These materials can include hygroscopic compounds such as copper sulfate, zinc chloride, calcium chloride, and silica gel or polymers which absorbs certain levels of moisture such as cellulose acetate, cellulose acetate butyrate, polyvinyl alcohol, and polyamide polymers.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an accurate, yet simple and inexpensive, test device which can indicate the refrigerant""s moisture and/or acid level by contact with refrigerant vapor from existing system service valves, without the need to flow the refrigerant through the device, to provide an indication of the condition of the refrigerant and therefore the condition of the system.
The present invention advantageously uses a readily available, inexpensive indicator held in a transparent cap-like fixture to monitor the moisture and/or acid level. The indicator chemical reaction is essentially a function of moisture and/or acid level because the indicator material is kept in place until equilibrium conditions are reached. The present invention attaches to a standard refrigeration service valve with or without a valve-core depressor (Schrader-valve).
For automotive air conditioning applications, moisture and/or acid problems also exist. In fact, because of the frequent refrigerant recharging of automobile systems, the moisture problems are even worse. The present invention can also be used in those applications; however, the service port on newer automobiles is not threaded but rather uses a quick disconnect which by EPA Clean Air Act regulations is different for each refrigerant being used in an automobile application. The high-side and low-side ports are also different to avoid confusion by the technician or equipment owner. The indicator device of the present invention can be configured to securely attach to these different fittings (reference Fitting Sizes for Motor Vehicle Refrigerants June 1997, EPA-430-F-97-067).

Removable test kit and method of use for vapor compression systems


A novel perfluoropolyether containing 0.1 to 10% by weight of halogen atoms as bonded in the molecule is obtained by reacting tetrafluoroethylene with oxygen in a fluorinated solvent or a chlorofluorinated solvent under ultraviolet irradiation in the presence of a halogenated hydrocarbon chain transfer agent having a chain transfer coefficient with respect to methyl methacrylate of at least 5.times.10.sup.-4.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to novel perfluoropolyether and a process for producing the same, and particularly to novel perfluoropolyether obtained by reaction of tetrafluoroethylene with oxygen in a fluorinated solvent or chlorofluorinated solvent under ultraviolet irradiation and a process for producing the same.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is well-known to produce perfluoropolyether by reaction of tetrafluoroethylene with oxygen in a fluorinated solvent or chlorofluorinated solvent under ultraviolet irradiation (see, for example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-50052, etc.).
The thus obtained perfluoropolyether has active fluorine and active oxygen bonds and a broad range of controllable viscosity, and thus is useful as an intermediate for synthesis of a cross-linking agent, a polymeric surfactant, etc.
Neutral perfluoropolyether whose active groups are decreased by heat treatment, fluorine treatment, etc. of the said perfluoropolyether has a wide range of industrial applications as base oil for high performance grease, vacuum pump oil, a special lubricant for magnetic disks, a lubricant for rockets, etc. owing to higher chemical and physical stabilities originating from its structure.
In these applications, the molecular weight of perfluoropolyether is an important problem. The said Japanese Patent Publication No. 55-50052 discloses that the molecular weight depends upon the dosage of ultraviolet irradiation and the feed rate of the monomer for the reaction, and that the molecular weight is lowered with increasing dosage of ultraviolet irradiation and increased with increasing feed rate of the monomer.
This relationship means that, in order to obtain a product of, for example, lower molecular weight, an ultraviolet irradiation apparatus of larger capacity must be used, when viewed from the apparatus design, whereas, in order to lower the feed rate, very disadvantageous conditions must be selected, when viewed from the production cost and reaction efficiency.
As a result of extensive studies of a process for producing perfluoropolyether having a low molecular weight, free from these problems, the present inventors have found that these problems can be effectively solved and perfluoropolyether having a desired range of molecular weight can be obtained according to a telomerization procedure using a halogenated hydrocarbon chain transfer agent as a telogen, and have found at the same time that the thus obtained perfluoropolyether has an active halogen bond originating from the employed halogenated hydrocarbon chain transfer agent in the molecule, and thus can be used as a novel intermediate.

Novel perfluoropolyether and process for producing the same


A method for computing cost information associated with a port of a switch in a network of switches. Cost information is computed as a port load factor: a ratio of port latency over available throughput. Port latency is determined as the depth of a queue associated with the port divided by the speed of the port. Available throughput is determined as the speed of the slowest port on a given path associated with the port in question. Preferably, the queue depth is measured in bits and the port speed and available throughput are measured in bits per second. Further, in the preferred embodiment, port latency is computed as a weighted average as ((15xc3x97previous latency)+current latency)/16. A higher value for the port load factor indicates a port which is more heavily loaded. The load factor is therefore useful in load balancing among the ports of switches and paths associated therewith.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to communication networks and more specifically to network switches and associated switch to switch protocols which provide improved bandwidth utilization and load balancing in data processing communication networks having redundant paths between network devices.
2. Discussion of Related Art
It is common in present computing environments to connect a plurality of computing systems and devices through a communication medium often referred to as a network. Such networks among communicating devices permit devices (or users of devices) to easily exchange and share information among the various devices. The Internet is a presently popular example of such networking on a global scale. Individual users attach their computers to the Internet, thereby enabling sharing of vast quantities of data on other computers geographically dispersed throughout the world.
Networked computing systems may be configured and graphically depicted in a wide variety of common topologies. In other words, the particular configurations of network communication links (also referred to as paths) and devices between a particular pair of devices wishing to exchange information may be widely varied. Any particular connection between two computers attached to a network may be direct or may pass through a large number of intermediate devices in the network. In addition, there may be a plurality of alternative paths through the network connecting any two network devices. Present day computing networks are therefore complex and vary in their configurations and topologies.
Most present network communication media and protocols are referred to as packet oriented. A protocol or communication medium may be said to be packet oriented in that information to be exchanged over the network is broken into discrete sized packets of information. A block of information to be transferred over the network is decomposed into one or more packets for purposes of transmission over the network. At the receiving end of the network transmission, the packets are re-assembled into the original block of data.
In general, each packet includes embedded control and addressing information that identifies the source device which originated the transmission of the packet and which identifies the destination device to which the packet is transmitted. Identification of source and destination devices is by means of an address associated with each device. An address is an identifier which is unique within the particular computing network to identify each device associated with the network. Such addresses may be unique to only a particular network environment (i.e., a network used to interconnect a single, self-contained computing environment) or may be generated and assigned to devices so as to be globally unique in co-operation with networking standards organizations.
At the lowest level of network communication, such addresses are often referred to as MAC address (Media ACcess address). Network protocols operable above this lowest level of communication may use other addresses for other purposes in the higher level communication techniques. But in most network low level communication levels, operable on the physical link medium, an address is referred to as a MAC address.
In many present commercially available network environments, the network communication medium is in essence a bus commonly attached to a plurality of devices over which the devices exchange. In a simple networking topology, all devices may be attached to a such a bus structured common network medium. Any particular single network medium has a maximum data exchange bandwidth associated therewith. The maximum data exchange bandwidth of a medium is determined by a number of electrical and physical properties of the medium and protocols used to communicate over that medium. For example, a popular family of related network media and protocols are collectively referred to as Ethernet. Ethernet defines a standard protocol for the exchange of messages over the communication medium. A variety of communication media are also defined as part of the Ethernet family. The communication bandwidth of the Ethernet family of standards range from approximately 10 Mbit (million bits of information) per second to 1 Gbit per second. Therefore, a single (slow) Ethernet connection, for example, has a maximum data exchange bandwidth of approximately 10 Mbit per second.
In present network computing environments, a number of devices are used in addition to interconnected computing systems to efficiently transfer data over the network. Routers and switches are in general network devices which segregate information flows over various segments of a computer network. A segment, as used herein, is any subset of the network computing environment including devices and their respective interconnecting communication links. As noted above, a single computer network communication link has a maximum data transfer bandwidth parameter defining the maximum rate of information exchange over that network. Where all devices on a computer network share a common network medium, the maximum bandwidth of the computer network may be rapidly reached. The overall performance of the networked computing environment may be thereby reduced because information exchange requests may have to await completion of earlier information exchange requests presently utilizing the communication link.
It is often the case, however, that particular subsets of devices attached to the network have requirements for voluminous communication among members of the same subset but less of a requirement for information exchange with other devices outside their own subset. Though standard switch features generally do not include identifying such logical groupings of devices, some enhanced switching features do permit such logic to be performed within a switch device. For example, some enhanced switch features include the concept of defining and routing information based on virtual LAN (VLAN) definitions. In a VLAN, a group of devices may be defined as logically being isolated on a separate network although physically they are connected to a larger network of devices. VLAN features of enhanced switches are capable of recognizing such VLAN information and can route information appropriately so that devices in a particular VLAN are logically segregated from devices outside the VLAN.
For example, the financial department of a large corporation may have significant information exchange requirements within the financial department but comparatively insignificant needs for data exchange with other departments. Likewise, an engineering group may have significant needs for data exchange within members (computing systems and devices) of the same engineering group but not outside the engineering group. There may in fact be multiple of such subsets of devices in a typical computing network. It is therefore desirable to segregate such subsets of devices from one another so as to reduce the volume of information exchange applied to the various segments of the computer network.
In particular, a switch device is a device that filters out packets on the network destined for devices outside a defined subset (segment) and forwards information directed between computing devices on different segments of a networked computing environment. The filtering and forwarding of such information is based on configuration information within the switch that describes the data packets to be filtered and forwarded in terms of source and/or destination address information (once address locations are xe2x80x9clearnedxe2x80x9d by the switch(es)).
Network switch devices and protocols associated therewith are also used to manage redundant paths between network devices. Where there is but a single path connecting two network devices, that single path, including all intermediate devices between the source and destination devices, represent a single point of failure in network communications between that source and destination device. It is therefore common in network computing environments to utilize a plurality of redundant paths to enhance reliability of the network. Multiple paths between two devices enhances reliability of network communication between the devices by allowing for a redundant (backup) network path to be used between two devices when a primary path fails.
FIG. 1 shows an exemplary, simple networked computing environment in which multiple paths exist for communication between devices A 100, B 102, and C 104. These exemplary network devices are each attached to one of a plurality of switches (S1106, S2108, S3110, and S4112). Each device has multiple possible paths to each of the other two devices. For example, device A 100 may exchange information with device C 104 through any of three possible paths (via switches S1106 and S4112, respectively). The first exemplary path is a direct path connecting device A 100 directly to device C 104 through a port on switch S1106 and a port on switch S4112. A second path is through switch S1106 to switch S3110 and then through switch S4112. A third path is via switch S1106, switch S2108, and switch S4114. These three paths may be used as redundant communication paths connecting the two devices A 100 and C 104. Where a first path fails, the second path or third may be activated to assume responsibility for exchange of information between devices A and C. In like manner, there are three paths for communication between devices A 100 and B 102 and between devices B 102 and C 104.
Where redundant paths are available in such network computing environments, it remains a problem to effectively utilize the full available bandwidth. It would be desirable to utilize all redundant paths in parallel so as to increase the available communication bandwidth between two communicating devices. Where only a single path is used, the maximum bandwidth for exchange of information is limited to that of a single communication link. Where, on the other hand, all redundant links are used in parallel, the maximum communication bandwidth is increased by the number of links used in parallel. For example, as shown in FIG. 1, the communication bandwidth between any of the devices could, in theory, be increased by up to a factor of three.
However, as presently practiced in the art, protocols used among switch devices (e.g., S1106 through S4112) render such parallel communication paths unusable. Switches 105 through 112 as presently practiced in the art often use a protocol commonly referred to as xe2x80x9cspanning treexe2x80x9d to discover the existence of redundant communication paths as known to a network of switches. The spanning tree protocol is described in detail in a proposed IEEE standard P802.1p entitled Standard for Local and Metropolitan Area Networks Supplement to Media Access Control (MAC) Bridges. Traffic Class Expediting and Dynamic Multicast Filtering.
The spanning tree protocol as implemented in switches broadcasts (more precisely multicasts) information from the switch out to all devices that recognize the selected multicast address connected to paths from the switch. A multicast message is one which is directed to all devices rather than to a particular destination address on the network. The information in the multicast message describes the address forwarding information known to that switch. From such information shared among all the switches, each switch can derive the various paths in the network. Each switch device so attached to the multicasting device receives the information and forwards (multicasts) the message to each device attached to it (except the path from which it directly received the message), and so on. If such a multicast message returns on a path to the originating device, a loop must exist among the paths connecting the various switches. To reduce the number of messages generated on the network by virtue of such multicast messages, the spanning tree protocol requires that redundant paths so discovered be disabled. In a large network without spanning tree protocol to disable redundant paths, received multicast messages can xe2x80x9ccascadexe2x80x9d from each receiving switch to all other attached switches. The volume of such cascading messages may grow rapidly or even exponentially. Such multicast messages exchanged among the switched may in fact require a substantial portion of the available communication bandwidth of the network. Such conditions are often referred to as xe2x80x9cbroadcast storms.xe2x80x9d
The spanning tree protocol therefore requires the disabling of redundant paths to avoid broadcast storms. Only when a path is known to have failed will a redundant path be enabled and used for the exchange of data. The spanning tree protocol therefore precludes aggregation of the available bandwidth to improve communication bandwidth by using multiple redundant paths in parallel. FIG. 2 is a block diagram of the same exemplary network of FIG. 1 where three communication links 114 between the switches have been disabled to prevent loops in the network and the resultant broadcast storm otherwise inherent in the spanning tree protocol.
Another problem with the spanning tree protocol arises from the fact that a preferred path may be unavailable due to the need to disable paths that cause loops among the switches. For example, as shown in FIG. 2, the preferred path between switches S1106 and S4112 may be the direct one which is disabled. To leave this direct communication link enabled would permit loops in the paths among the switches. Rather, a more circuitous route through switches S1, 106, S3110 and S4112 must be used to exchange information between switches S1106 and S4112. The spanning tree protocol does not assure that the best path between two switches will be left enabled. Rather, it merely attempts to assure that some path between switches is available, specifically, a relatively minimal path connecting all switchesxe2x80x94a spanning tree.
The spanning tree protocol therefore precludes maximizing use of available bandwidth in a network of switches.
Some switches have provided a partial solution to this problem by using a technique known as xe2x80x9ctrunking.xe2x80x9d Where there are multiple paths directly between two switches, the multiple paths serve as redundant communication paths but are trunked by the switches and treated logically as though they were a single path with higher maximum bandwidth. FIG. 3 is a block diagram of the same exemplary network environment of FIG. 2 wherein a plurality of communication paths between switch S1106 and S3110 are trunked. The communication path between switches S1106 and S3110 is therefore capable of using the trunked paths between them as though they were a single connection in terms of the spanning tree protocols. Since the redundant paths are treated as a single path for purposes of the spanning tree protocols, they need not be shut down to preclude broadcast storms.
However, trunking does not address the bandwidth issue in a broad sense. Rather, the trunking technique is only applicable where the multiple paths are between a particular pair of switches. The bandwidth limit is merely shifted from that of a single communication link to that of the number of communication links supported by a single switch.
It is a further problem that by precluding use of redundant links between switches, the spanning tree protocol also precludes the ability to balance communication loads among the redundant paths between switches. Where such multiple paths are allowed to simultaneously operate, it would be desirable for the switches to distribute the packet exchange communication among them over such multiple paths. Such distribution, often referred to as load balancing, further enhances the ability of the network to optimize the utilization of available throughput in the network of switches. Underutilized paths may be used to offload packet communication on overloaded paths.
It is therefore a problem in present networks of switches to simultaneously operate redundant paths between switches of the network to thereby maximize utilization of available bandwidth and to thereby communicate among the switches to balance communication loads over redundant paths.
In order to balance the loads over redundant paths, it is desirable to propagate cost information among switches of a network. A switch may, for example, detect that a particular path through the network of switches is heavily loaded with packets to be switched. Where the network topology and protocols permit, it would be desirable in such a case to redirect portions of the packet traffic handled by the overloaded switch to alternate paths less heavily loaded. Large network systems often have multiple alternate routes available for use to transmit packets from one switch to another.
It is generally known to use estimated costs associated with paths among the switches. However, as presently practiced in the art, such estimates represent poor models of actual performance of the path. Rather, estimated cost calculations as presently practiced are often fixed values. The estimated costs therefore do not respond to changes in the network traffic through the ports of the switches.
It is a particular problem to efficiently compute a meaningful cost value representative of the actual cost of passing a packet through a particular switch or more generally over a particular path. Further it is a problem to compute and estimate simply such that it may rapidly adapt to bursts in the switch path usage. It is evident from the above that a need exists for improved cost calculations to estimate the performance of paths in a switch network.
The present invention solves the above and other problems, thereby advancing the state of useful arts, by providing network switch devices and associated switch to switch protocols which permit the operation of multiple links throughout the network involving multiple switches, and which provide for improved utilization of the aggregate bandwidth of all paths in the network. Further, the present invention provides a technique for computing cost values for port/link performance which is at once simple and effective.
By permitting parallel use of all communication paths and switches in the network, the present invention improves scalability of network communication bandwidth as compared prior techniques. The aggregate bandwidth capability within the entire network may be increased by simply adding additional communication paths and associated switches.
In particular, the present invention includes a method for calculating a cost value associated with each path in the network. The cost calculation methods of the present invention are simple yet accurate in their modeling of performance factors in the path""s communication performance. The cost calculation methods of the present invention include two components: a latency component and a throughput component. The latency component provides an accurate estimate of the processing time required by a switch to process a received packet for purposes of forwarding it to its destination. The throughput component is a measure of the data transfer capability of the communication links along a path of the switch network.
The latency component computes a present latency value for an outbound port of a switch as the depth of the queue of outbound packets divided by the port speed. The weighted average is then computed from the present latency value and a number of previous latency values. The present latency and hence the weighted average are computed periodically within each switch. This outbound latency is then adjusted by a multiplication factor when the switch queue for the port is full and therefore packets are rejected or otherwise dropped by the switch. The latency component for an inbound port is computed in like manner except that the port speed used for the latency computation is that of the fastest port of the switch which returns to the originating switch of a packet. The queue depth used in computing outbound port latency is that of the port on which the packet was received. In computing the inbound port latency, the queue depth of the port on which the packet will be forwarded is used. In the preferred embodiment, the switch polls each of its ports to compute the updated latency therefore once per second.
The throughput component of a given path is computed as the speed of the slowest port (communication link) along the path.
The two components are combined into a port load factor as the ratio and throughput. The port load factor (a cost value) is propagated throughout the network of switches so as to inform all switches of the costs associated with transmissions on each port of each switch of the network. The port load factor (PLF) is then useful in each switch for selecting a preferred port for forwarding of a packet through a switch to an ultimate destination. The switch selects a port which will forward the packet toward the intended destination and which has the xe2x80x9cbestxe2x80x9d PLF value associated therewith. Where the PLF values are identical for multiple choices available to a switch, any of several xe2x80x9ctie breakingxe2x80x9d selection techniques may be employed. Preferably all switches employ the same tie breaking selection technique so as to minimize the potential for causing a packet to loop through the network switches.
In addition, the inbound link costs associated with a switch is added to all outbound costs propagated from that switch. This technique permits the cost estimation to rapidly adapt to overutilization of particular network paths due to bursty traffic.
Still further, the statistical estimation model used by the present invention is simple to compute as compared to prior techniques. The switch CPU can therefore re-compute the cost information estimates more frequently. The higher frequency calculation improves the accuracy of the estimates to more closely follow actual link performance including bursts of message traffic. Yet another advantage of the techniques of the present invention arise in computing the costs associated with a group port (i.e., trunked lines). The statistical model of the present invention simplifies modeling of the performance of the group port (i.e., trunked lines as a group) as well as the individual paths which comprise the group.
The above, and other features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following descriptions and attached drawings.

Cost calculation in load balancing switch protocols

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A pressure-compensated rupture disk assembly and method for subsea protection of a pressure vessel. The assembly and method incorporate a piston device, a dynamic piston seal configured to move the piston device when a predetermined pressure is reached; and a rupture disk adjacent the piston device, the rupture disk having a first pressure on a piston side and a second pressure on a second side, the rupture disk being configured to open when a predetermined pressure is exceeded.

The present disclosure relates generally to rupture disks and, more particularly, to a pressure-compensated rupture disk.
Some existing pressure vessels are pressure-compensated, such as those that actively create pressure. One example is where pressure vessels are used for hydrogen generation using hydride. For such pressure vessels, it may be desirable to relieve pressure at comparatively large volume flow rates in order to prevent pressure vessel overpressure due to blockage or exceedingly high gas generation.
Because certain exothermic reactions, such as with hydrides, increase their rates with temperature, thermal runaway can result in exceedingly high flow rates which would quickly (on the order of seconds) exceed pressure limits due to line backpressure. Additionally, line blockage due to reactants entering the exit line, relief valve failure or other blockages are a real possibility and would result in a similar failure.
It is desirable to prevent catastrophic failure of the pressure vessel, such as through a rupture disk which is sometimes also known as a burst disc, a pressure safety disk, or a burst diaphragm. Overpressure may occur when a hydride reaction exceeds safe flow limits and reactants enters the exit line. The resulting rupture from the rupture disk may save the vessel from damage.
However, using a rupture disk may prove challenging. Ambient factors such as density, corrosion, and fouling may render the rupture disk unpredictable for long term storage. In the case of deep operation, where a snorkel of gas to the surface or where hoses carry the gas over long distances, a rupture disk that lacks pressure compensation would either rupture due to backpressure in the line, or rupture before the relief valve would open due to ambient pressure against that valve. Thus, a pressure-compensated disk is desirable.
There is a need for a rupture disk assembly with three key constraints. First, there is a need for a rupture disk assembly that provides protection of the rupture disk from corrosive environments or fouling. Second, there is a need for a rupture disk assembly that provides a predictable pressure to the back side of the rupture disk. Finally, there is a need for a rupture disk assembly that compensates for depth so that the vessel under normal operating parameters would not cause the disk to burst prematurely.

Pressure-compensated rupture disk assembly for subsea protection of a pressure vessel

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


An image recording apparatus for recording an image on a recording medium, includes an: image recording device for recording an image on a recording medium, a conveying device for conveying the recording medium, and a cutter for cutting the recording medium. A detecting device is provided for detecting an amount of movement of the cutter, a control circuit is included for causing a leading edge of the recording medium to be retracted from a cutting position by a predetermined amount in response to the detection by the detecting device after the recording medium has been cut.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image recording apparatus having a sheet cutting function for cutting a sheet.
The image recording apparatus according to the present invention is applicable to, for example, facsimile systems, copying machines, word processors, electronic typewriters, printing apparatus and the like.
2. Related Background Art
An example of a conventional image recording apparatus having a sheet cutting function will now be described in connection with a facsimile system.
In a conventional facsimile apparatus in which a recording sheet in a roll form is cut at a predetermined position, the recording sheet on which an image is printed or recorded is conveyed by a conveying roller into the cutting position, and then the recording sheet is cut by a movable cutter blade. Then, after it is detected that the movable cutter blade has been returned to a home position, the recording sheet extending from the roll is pulled back in such a manner that a leading edge of the recording sheet is returned to a printing position.
In the above-mentioned conventional recording apparatus, after the recording sheet is cut, the leading edge of the recording sheet still remains in the cutting position until the movable cutter blade returns to the home position. And, the recording sheet is retracted after the movable cutter blade has been returned to the home position. Accordingly, there occurs a waste of time for the movable cutter blade to return to the home position after completion of cutting, thus taking a long time to renew pages of the original.
Further, if a swing cutter blade is used as the movable cutter blade, since the leading edge of the cut recording sheet enters a path through which the cutter blade is returned to the home position, there is a drawback that the recording sheet may be damaged or bent, which causes jamming of the sheet when a receiving operation follows sequently. That is because the bent end of the sheet is obstructed by the cutter blade, any guide member or the like.
Such a condition will now be explained with reference to FIGS. 7A and 7B. FIGS. 7A and 7B each shows a side view of the cutting section of the conventional image recording apparatus.
In the conventional image recording apparatus shown in FIGS. 7A and 7B, the recording sheet 9a conveyed by a platen roller 10a is cut by swinging the movable cutter blade 17a. After the movable cutter blade 17a has reached its upper limited position as shown by a solid line in FIG. 7B, then rotates reversely to return to the home position as shown by a phantom line in FIG. 7B. In this case, as shown in FIG. 7A, the recording sheet 9a is cut while being lifted upward by the movable cutter blade 17a. Thereafter, when the recording sheet 9a is dropped to a side of a lower guide plate 20a by gravity, the leading edge 91a of the recording sheet will enter the path through which the movable cutter blade 17a is returned. Accordingly, as stated above, if the movable cutter blade 17a is is returned to its home position with the leading edge of the sheet entering the return path of the cutter blade, the leading edge 91a of the recording sheet is bent or damaged by the cutter blade being returned, thus causing the danger of a jam during the further operation of the apparatus.

Image recording apparatus with control of cutter blades and retraction of recording medium web in response to detection of a cut sheet


Provided are a pressure sensor device and a method of manufacturing the same. The pressure sensor device includes a housing including an air inlet and a fluid inlet provided in different directions, a substrate provided in an inner space of the housing and including a through-hole through which the air passes, and a pressure sensor chip mounted on the substrate to cover the through-hole in such a manner that a pressure of a fluid flowing in from the fluid inlet is applied to a top surface thereof and a bottom surface thereof is exposed to the air through the through-hole, in order to measure the pressure of the fluid relative to a pressure of the air, wherein the inner space is divided into an upper region and a lower region with respect to the substrate, and wherein the upper region is divided into a first inner region in which the pressure sensor chip is provided and a second inner region through which the air passes.

In general, a washing machine is a device for cleaning laundry by washing, rinsing, and spin-drying clothes using a detergent and water supplied into a tub. The washing machine includes a pressure sensor capable of properly controlling water supply based on a water level preset in a controller or manually set by a user.
The pressure sensor has a structure in which a metal coil and a magnetic bar move based on a variation in air pressure due to a variation in the water level of a target device, and operates due to frequency oscillation based on a variation in inductance.
Since steam washing machines are currently commercialized, research is being actively conducted on a pressure sensor capable of precisely detecting a water level. However, a pressure sensor may detect an output frequency variation of several kHz, and may not precisely detect a water level because an output value varies in the form of a non-linear quadratic curve. Furthermore, an excessively high pressure may be applied to the pressure sensor due to excessive steam or the pressure of continuously supplied water and, in a worse case, the pressure sensor may be damaged or broken.

Pressure sensor device and manufacturing method thereof


The present invention relates to the use of sterols derived from a plant or algae extract as the active principle of a cosmetic composition for combating adiposity. Said sterols are, for example, at least one of the three following sterols: campesterol, beta-sitosterol or stigmasterol.

This application claims foreign priority of French application 00/15549, filed Nov. 30, 2000.
The present invention relates to a use of sterols as active principle in a cosmetic composition to combat adiposity and thus refine the silhouette.
Sterols are known for their use as active substance in anti-inflammatory medications in which they act as inhibitors of lipoxygenase. One may refer to the patent document FR-A-2 705 030 which shows such an activity.
They are also known for cosmetic compositions for treatment of the skin in which they act as emollients by presenting good properties of moisturizing and barrier. Document U.S. Pat. No. 4,604,281 shows such a use.
Concerning cosmetic compositions to combat adiposity, one is acquainted with those of which the active principles used present a lipolytic activity by which they stimulate the degradation (or lysis) of the fats stored in the human adipocytes, in particular in the form of triglycerides, and promote the elimination of the products of that degradation, in particular fatty acids and glycerols. For example, theophylline and isoproterenol are known to stimulate the lipolysis of triglycerides, in particular triglycerides of human adipocytes.
Moreover, in the French patent document No. 98 02152, the active principle used to stimulate lypolysis is a pyrone group which has the effect of activating the phosphorylation of a lipase enzyme for the degradation of the triglycerides in fatty acids. This pyrone group is, for example, mangosteen extracted from a tree of the Garcinia mangostana species.
One is also acquainted with cosmetic compositions the active principle of which is not to stimulate the lipolysis of triglycerides of human adipocytes but to inhibit the lipogenesis of these triglycerides.
It is to be recalled here that, in the adipocytes, lipolysis is in competition with lipogenesis which consists in the formation of fats, in particular triglycerides, and which brings into play an entire series of biochemical reactions bringing about the action of proteins with enzymatic activity such as Acyl-CoA synthetase and fatty acid synthetase, which are also known under the name FAS (fatty acid synthase).
Cerulenine is a compound which is known to inhibit lipogenesis by inhibition of the FAS synthetase.
In a previous patent application, it was also shown that the same is true with eicosapentanoic acid (EPA).
It has now been discovered that sterols which come from a plant or algae extract have, on the one hand, an inhibitory activity for lipogenesis of triglycerides produced by human adipocytes and, on the other hand, an activity stimulating the lipolysis of the same substances.
The invention therefore has as object the use of sterols from a plant or algae extract as active substance in a cosmetic composition to combat adiposity.
It is thought that the sterols that are contained in the said extract are responsible for an inhibitory effect on the action of an enzyme that plays a part in lipogenesis, in particular the synthesis of fatty acids by fatty acid synthetase FAS. Thus, by using a cosmetic composition that contains sterols as active principle, the lipogenesis of these fatty acids is inhibited or at the very least limited and their concentration in the adipocytes is thus reduced.
We were able to show below that most particularly campesterol and beta-sitosterol, generally present in plants or algae, have this inhibitory action.
It is to be understood that the cosmetic compositions that are planned to inhibit this lipogenesis make it possible to avoid the instantaneous recovery of the fat lost after lipolysis.
It is also thought that the sterols have a direct effect on the lipolysis of the triglycerides of human adipocytes by stimulating it.
We were able to show below that this is particularly true concerning the stigmasterol derived from a plant or algae extract.
It is to be understood that the cosmetic compositions that are planned to stimulate lipolysis have a direct curative effect by reducing excess fat.
It is also thought that sterols have an inhibitory effect on the differentiation of adipocytes. In fact, it has been demonstrated that steroid hormones (estrogens and androgens) regulate the differentiation of adipocytes, that is to say the maturation of dermic cells (fibroblasts) into cells capable of accumulating fat in the form of triglycerides.
Moreover, androgens such as testosterone, dihydrotestosterone (DHT), dehydroepiandrosterone (DHEA), androstanediol and androstenediol have an inhibitory effect on the differentiation of adipocytes, in particular by the inhibition of the activity of the enzyme glucose-6 phosphate dehydrogenase, while the action of the estrogens like beta-estradiol is expressed by a modulation of the expression of receptors like that of IGF1 (insulin growth factor 1).
During differentiation, the size of the cells and the fat content increase greatly, and xe2x80x9cmarkersxe2x80x9d also appear, such as, for example, an increase in expression of enzymes like lipoprotein lipase (LPL), a decrease in enzymatic activity like that of glycerol 3-phosphate dehydrogenase, an increase in the expression of membrane proteins like the fatty acid transporter (FAT), an increase in the expression of transcription factors of the genes of lipogenesis like the peroxisome proliferator-activated receptors (PPARs) or the CCAAT/enhancer-binding proteins (C/EBPs), and an increase in the quantity of intracellular proteins like p18 (INK4c), p21 (Waf1) or aP2 (adipocyte fatty acid binding protein or FABP).
It may therefore be thought that the effect of phytosterols is expressed by an effect on the differentiation of pre-adipocytes into adipocytes (anti-adipogenic effect), in addition to the inhibitory effect on lipogenesis and the lipolytic effect.
The cosmetic compositions that are planned for inhibiting the differentiation of adipocytes will have a preventive effect by preventing the development of excesses of fat.
According to the present invention, the extract containing at least one sterol is an oily extract obtained from seeds of Polygonum fagopyrum.
The present invention also relates to a preparation process of a substance that contains as active principle a lipidic extract of plants or algae containing sterols.
We will now describe the procedure of the experiments that were conducted to prove the effect of sterols derived from an extract of plants or algae on lipids.
In these experiments, adipocytes were isolated from abdominal restorative surgeries sampled in women. The experiment took place the day of the sampling. Fragments of adipose tissues were incubated for 30 minutes at 37xc2x0 C. in the presence of collagenase, then the isolated adipocytes were washed and taken up in medium MEM buffered with bicarbonate, in the presence of antibiotics (penicillin/streptomycin), glutamine (2 mM), and delipidated bovine serum albumin (0.5%).
The tests concerning the effect on lipogenesis were then conducted in the following manner.
Adipocytes (90 xcexcl of xc2xc diluted suspension) were incubated for 1 hour, either with a control medium (4 hours), with molecules known to inhibit the neosynthesis of fatty acids (EPA), as for example insulin, or with previously diluted extracts (added under 100 xcexcl).
As to the sterols and to the lipidic extracts of plants or algae, they were diluted in mineral oil which has been verified to not inhibit incorporation or extraction of adipocyte lipids. Then, 10 xcexcl of [214C]-acetate, 50 xcexcCi/ml, were added, and the samples were either cultivated at 37xc2x0 C. in the presence of 5% CO2 for 4 additional hours, or immediately frozen at xe2x88x9280xc2x0 C. (control t0).
Each experiment was carried out in duplicate insofar as the test proved to be reproducible and with low standard deviations.
At the times indicated, the samples were frozen at xe2x88x9280xc2x0 C. The lipids were then extracted according to the method of Bligh and Dyer (extraction methanol/chloroform/water), then dried under nitrogen. The radioactivity incorporated was then counted by liquid scintillation.
As to the tests concerning the effect on lipolysis, they were conducted in the following manner. Adipocytes (540 xcexcl of suspension) were incubated for 2 hours in a water bath at 37xc2x0 C., with agitation, in the presence of 60 xcexcl of different sterols. The experiments were carried out in triplicate.
Then, the non-esterified fatty acids (AGNE) released by the adipocytes were determined in the sub-adipocyte media. The values obtained were treated by an analysis of variance (ANOVA) by means of the multiple comparison test of Dunnett. The values were considered as significant when the probability p was less than the threshold of significance 0.05.

Use of sterols as active ingredient in a cosmetic composition against adiposity


A scale usable as a life line includes a metal wire 5 of high tensile strength with graduation 6 in a longitudinal direction thereof, a drum 2 for winding the metal wire 5 thereonto, a casing 1 accommodating the drum 2 while permitting the same to rotate, and a magnifying glass 7 for allowing the graduation 6 to be read, wherein the metal wire 5 of high tensile strength is formed of a strand comprised of a plurality of steel wires of a fine grained composition each having a diameter of 10 to 100 .mu.m and a coat of a synthetic resin covering the strand.

Heretofore, there has been known a tape measure, or a convex scale wherein a tape of textile or thin steel sheet which is graduated on either side thereof is windably accommodated within a casing for winding.
On the other hand, there has been known a life line wherein a rope-unwinding device with a braking mechanism is provided in a casing which is securely anchored to a window of a building, and a rope (or Seil) of about 10 mm in diameter which is partially wound around the drum of the rewinding device is secured at each end thereof to a belt for holding the body of a person. This life line is arranged so that when one person is saved using the belt at one end of the rope, the other belt at the other end would be raised for saving another person.
It should be noted that conventionally the aforesaid tape measure and life line have been manufactured and used completely independently of each other.
The conventional tape measure can measure a distance of at most about 20 m. If a longer measuring tape is accommodated in the casing, the casing would be made extremely large in size. There has also been known a small scale of the type which is convenient to be carried but can measure a distance of only about 2 to about 3 m.
The aforesaid life line is installed in a building and, hence, one who is about to escape from the building must reach the window equipped with such a life line.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a scale usable as a life line which is convenient to be carried and capable of measuring a long distance substantially equal to or longer than the distance that can be measured by the conventional scale, while, in case of emergency, being utilizable as a private-use life: line which permits a person to escape from any window of a building.


Apportioning energy costs among units by sensing a heat exchange for at least one heat exchanger in each unit. In response to this sensing, a value corresponding to an amount of heat provided by the heat exchanger is determined for each unit. Each value is transmitted to a central location, and they are processed to apportion energy cost for each unit as a function of the respective value. Total values for each heat exchanger can be summed to provide a summation value corresponding to a total amount of heat provided to the unit over time, and energy costs can be apportioned as a function of this summation value for each unit. A probe that includes a probe body and an electrical heat sensing element mounted in the probe body. A tamper detecting mechanism responds to forces applied to the probe and interacts with a conductive lead of the probe to provide an electrical tampering indication. The probe may be attached by an adhesive to a radiator, and it can include a structural weakness, which can cause breakage of the lead.

A microcomputer system has been proposed to permit individuals to control and calculate their share of heating costs. In this proposed prior art system, which is described in "Dispositif de Comptage Individuel et d'Autoregulation de Chauffage Collectif," French Pat. No. 2,548,766 of Pierre Mumbach, published on Jan. 11, 1985, each apartment has its own microcomputer with a keyboard and display. Each microcomputer is connected to an ambient temperature sensor within the apartment, to probes located on the radiators in the apartment, and to a central computer housed in a common area that contains the building's heating installation. The central computer is also connected to an exterior temperature sensor and to a heating control circuit. This proposed system is said to permit display in each apartment of the temperature, of the daily price of heat consumption, and of the costs of heat consumption for the season, while permitting the user to regulate the heating in the apartment.
Retrofitting a metering system to accurately measure the actual cost of energy consumed in each unit of a commonly heated building, however, can be quite expensive, and may present significant difficulties.


An air handling system and an apparatus and method for removing snow from the intake air for the air handling system. The apparatus includes a sequence of snow fence panels which each have alternating filter areas and open flow areas. The locations of the filter areas and open flow areas in each succeeding panel alternate so that a filter area in one panel is positioned in front of an open area in the next panel. During an extreme snow event, if the snow clogs the filter elements, the air continues to flow through the alternating open flow areas, which creates low pressure zones behind the clogged filter elements. The snow separates from the air flow in the low pressure zones and is retained in the low pressure zones by horizontal collection pans.

The large heating, ventilation and air conditioning (HVAC) systems used in health care facilities, schools, clean room facilities, laboratories, public buildings, and other facilities cannot afford to shut down during snow events. Accumulation of snow in a building's air intake plenums can interfere with the proper functioning of the HVAC system and cause operational disruptions, corrosion, and other costly problems.
A need exists for an improved apparatus and method which are highly effective for removing snow from the air intake of HVAC systems and other air handling units (AHUs), even during major or extreme snow events.

Snow removal assembly, apparatus and method for air handling units


In one embodiment, the present invention is directed to a system for providing user access to a public network that includes (a) a service modification agent 154 operable to (i) determine that public network resources are available for use; (ii) determine that a first class of users will be offered an upgrade in a Quality of Service (QoS) of communications over the public network; and (iii) determine that a first user in the first class of users may intend to use the public network resources and a service reporting agent 166 operable to provide the user with the higher QoS when the first user accesses the public network.

Public Wide Area Networks are growing rapidly in popularity. A "public network" is a network operated by common carriers or telecommunications administrations for the provision of circuit switched, packet switched, and leased-line circuits in the public. The Internet and World Wide Web are common examples of public networks. In contrast, a "private network" refers to a network owned by an end user organization and/or a network comprising dedicated circuits leased by an end user organization from one or more public carriers. An enterprise network is a common example of a private network.
Each year more users use the Internet for a variety of purposes, including electronic commerce, interpersonal communications, information acquisition, and the like. An integral part of this rise in Internet popularity is the Internet Service Provider or ISP. The ISP is a vendor that provides access for customers, whether companies or private individuals, to the Internet and World Wide Web. The ISP also typically provides a core group of Internet utilities and services, like E-mail, News Group Readers, and, sometimes, weather reports and local restaurant reviews. The user typically reaches his ISP by either dialing-up with their own computer, modem and phone line, or over a dedicated line, such as a Digital Subscriber Line or DSL, installed by a telephone company. An ISP is also called a TSP, for Telecommunications Service Provider, and an ITSP for Internet Telephony Service Provider.
Typically the ISP provides different types of services (e.g., gold, silver and bronze) to enterprise customers with an expense charging model. The enterprise network administrator generally administers a policy server and/or Access Control Lists (ACL) (a set of rules for filtering traffic based on packet header variables such as IP address, transport protocol, and port number) on the enterprise edge egress router or uses traffic shaping devices, such as the Packet Shaper™ by Packeteer™ and QoSWorks™ by Sitara Networks™ to comply with the various Service Level Agreements (SLA's) between the ISP and its various customers. "Traffic shaping" refers to congestion and management procedures in which data traffic is regulated to conform to a specified, desirable behavior pattern, such as reduction or elimination of excessive traffic bursts.
An SLA is an agreement between a user and a service provider, defining the nature of the service to be provided and establishing a set of metrics or measurements to be used to measure the level of service provided measured against the agreed level of service. Such service levels might include provisioning, average availability, restoration times for outages, availability, average and maximum periods of outage, average and maximum response times, minimum bandwidth level, minimum Quality of Service or QoS parameters, delivery rates (e.g., average through minimum throughput, etc.). Residential users having only modem connections rather than DSL connections typically do not have an SLA.
The ISP may use Policy-Based Routing (PBR) (which routes packets pursuant to nontechnical policy considerations, such as permissions and reciprocal business contacts between and among backbone carriers, ISP's, and Internet Access Providers) and/or Constraints-Based Routing (CBR) (which routes packets based on technical considerations, such as selecting a route complying with Quality of Service or QoS requirements (e.g., packet delay, jitter, and/or packet loss)). The routing protocol is often associated with label switching protocols, such as Frame Relay, Asynchronous Transfer Mode or ATM, or MultiProtocol Label Switching or MPLS (which uses packet labeling to expedite routing), and uses the IP packet header Type of Service or TOS byte, to provision the network for different types of services.
Notwithstanding the relatively high level of sophistication of ISP's, the increased usage of the Internet has caused increased levels of congestion of scarce Internet resources and has required the implementation of protocols to provide circuit-switched-like QoS levels to Internet users for certain demanding applications. An example is the Resource ReSerVation Protocol or RSVP. RSVP supports resource reservations through networks of varying topologies and media. Through RSVP, a user's QoS requests are propagated to all routers along the path, allowing the network to reconfigure itself (at all network levels) to meet the desired level of service. The RSVP protocol engages network resources by establishing flows throughout the network. A "flow" is a network path associated with one or more senders, one or more receivers, and a certain QoS. A sending host wishing to send data that requires a certain QoS will send Unicast "path" messages toward the intended recipients. The path messages, which describe the bandwidth requirements and relevant parameters of the data to be sent, are propagated to all intermediate routers along the path. A receiving host, interested in the particular data, will confirm the flow (and the network path) by sending "reserve" messages through the network, describing the bandwidth characteristics of data it wishes to receive from the sender. As these reserve messages propagate back toward the sender, intermediate routers, based on bandwidth capacity, decide whether or not to accept the proposed reservation and commit resources. If an affirmative decision is made, the resources are committed and reserve messages are propagated to the next hop on the path from source to destination. For a premium price, RSVP enables certain traffic, such as a videoconference, to be delivered before e-mail. This is contrary to the historic configuration of the Internet in which all traffic moves on a first-come-first-served basis and is charged at a flat rate. RSVP, however, is not scalable, and it is not practical to enable RSVP on all of the routers end-to-end.
Currently, the Internet does not provide small business and residential users with the opportunity to use the high-speed network links in the ISP network dynamically for their applications. Such users do not generally have, or can afford to have, policy servers, edge routers, or traffic shapers so they commonly cannot make use of or afford the different QoS service levels provided by the ISP. ISP's do not provide (push) the network occupancy/availability of varying levels of bandwidth/QoS available in their network to the end users when they logon. Therefore, such users cannot avail themselves of higher speeds even when the ISP network is not loaded (off peak). In contrast to the overuse of resources when peak Internet traffic levels are experienced, this incapability of ISP's causes under use (or wastage) of resources when off-peak Internet traffic levels are experienced.

Dynamic feedback from an internet service provider about network occupancy/availability


A control apparatus in an automaton that operates in cooperation with a peripheral device, includes: an operating time accumulator regarding the output time of a control signal to the peripheral device or the output time of an operating signal from the peripheral device as operating time and determining cumulative operating time by adding up the operating times; a time-at-inspection recorder recording the cumulative operating time when inspection is performed as the cumulative operating time at inspection; a cumulative operating time comparator comparing the difference between the current cumulative operating time and the cumulative operating time at inspection, the cumulative operating time from the latest inspection, or the cumulative operating time after inspection, with a preset inspection interval; and, a maintenance request output unit outputting a maintenance request to the outside when the cumulative operating time after inspection obtained as a result of the comparison exceeds the preset inspection interval.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a robot control apparatus, in particular, relating to a control apparatus provided with a function for giving notification of maintenance and inspection times of peripheral devices that operate in cooperation with an automaton such as a robot, machine tool or the like.
2. Description of the Related Art
Recently, in order to reduce unexpected downtime, functions which urge the user to perform periodical maintenance of a robot have been developed and applied. A robot operates as a system, and in most automated systems, automatons such as robots, machine tools and the like control their peripheral devices by DO (digital output) signals, etc., so as to perform operations in cooperation therewith. Accordingly, for the automated system to operate normally, it is necessary to maintain and inspect correctly not only the robot or machine tool but also their peripheral devices. However, the intervals of maintenance and inspection are not the same so it is difficult for the user to know the timings of maintenance and inspection for different devices.
There have been known inspection timing notifying apparatuses for industrial robots which calculate cumulative times of actual operation for components of the industrial robot and gives notification of the times of inspection when the cumulative operating time of each component reaches a predetermined time (e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. S58-223594, which will be referred to hereinbelow as "Patent Document 1"). In what is assumed to be the usual method, whereby maintenance and inspection is performed at constant intervals, it is not possible to check individual components at the optimum timing for each of them. In other words, there is a risk or possibility that some components have already reached the end of their service life while others unnecessarily undergo maintenance and inspection. In the apparatus described in Patent Document 1, the optimal maintenance and inspection timings for individual components can be determined.
There has been a known numerically controlled apparatus that, at each time of inspection, determines the next timing of inspection based on the variation of state quantity from the previous inspection, and notifies the timings of inspection for components of a machine tool (e.g., Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication (Kokai) No. 2014-174680). In this apparatus, the interval of inspection is set to be long while the variation of state quantity is small, whereas the interval of inspection is set to be short while the variation of state quantity is large, whereby it is possible to perform inspection at the optimal timing for each component.
Applying such functions or combinations thereof to a robot, machine tool or the like which constitute the automated system makes it possible to properly perform maintenance and inspection thereon. However, the components that constitute an automated system are not always controlled by a controller including a processor and storage as in the robot or machine tool, but there are many peripheral devices that operate in accordance with the signals from the control apparatus of the robot or machine tool. In order for each of these peripheral devices to add up the actual time of operation and measure and record the state quantity, it is necessary to provide an additional device, hence such functions are not easy to implement.

Control apparatus for giving notification of maintenance and inspection times of signal-controlled peripheral devices


To encrypt and distribute a message, a processor of a sender device may determine a public key associated with a recipient identifier. The processor may request confirmation of a the recipient identifier from a central authority server. The processor may receive the confirmation of the recipient identifier from the central authority server. The processor may encrypt the message using the public key to form an encrypted message. The processor may distribute the encrypted message. The encrypted message may be decipherable using a private key associated with the recipient identifier and used by a recipient device to securely interact with the distributed blockchain.

Computing devices often exchange messages with one another over publicly-accessible networks. To keep the messages secure, a sending computer can encrypt a message using a key, and, if a receiving computer also has a key, the receiving computer can decrypt the message.
Encryption may be applied to data other than messages between computing devices. For example, data may be stored in distributed ledgers such as blockchains, where each block in a distributed blockchain includes an immutable and mutually agreed upon record of a transaction. At least a portion of data in one or more blocks can be secured using a public/private key combination.

Message encryption using public keychains


An automatically locking slider for slide fasteners includes a locking member having a locking pawl and a pivot portion, and a resilient member urging the locking member so as to cause the locking pawl to normally project into a slide fastener guide channel. The pivot portion lies substantially flat on a slider body, with its tip end loosely received in a socket carried by the slider body. Upward movement of the pivot portion is restricted, through one end portion of the resilient member, by a plug carried by a yoke attached to the slider body.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an automatically locking slider for slide fasteners.
2. Description of the Prior Art
U.S. Pat. No. 2,502,055, issued to Davis Marinsky on Mar. 28, 1950, discloses an automatically locking slider for slide fasteners. The slider essentially includes a slider body constituted by upper and lower wings connected at one end to define therebetween a generally Y-shaped guide channel, a yoke attached to the upper wing, a locking spring having its one end normally projecting into the guide channel and its other end supported on the upper wing by a socket portion of the yoke, and a pull tab operatively connected to the locking spring for retracting the one end of the locking spring away from the guide channel. The other end of the locking spring and the socket portion of the yoke are in contact with each other without any medium therebetween, and for this reason, in the case where the yoke is made of a plastic material, the socket portion of the yoke tends to be scored or otherwise worn on repeated pivotal movement of the locking spring, of which material is usually metallic. As a result, it would become difficult to effect stable locking operation of the slider fastener.

Automatically locking slider for slide fastener


A reversible rotary indexing mechanism capable of generating large indexing angles including those exceeding one revolution. A constant velocity rotary input is connected to a rotary output by an eccentric accelerating-decelerating drive means which, by reason of a shifting mechanism, is selectively disengageable with the output at a maximum velocity, zero acceleration condition, while at the same time a constant velocity drive from the input is connected to the output. Conversely, the constant velocity drive is disconnected at the same time that the accelerating-decelerating drive means is reconnected to accomplish deceleration. An output lock is also provided and actuators including composite cams can be utilized to accomplish the action of the shifting mechanism.. In addition, the mechanism can be used with higher harmonic components to increase the design flexibility with greater inherent dwell capabilities and significantly longer constant velocity ranges.

In my existing U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,789,676; 3,857,292; and 4,075,911, it was shown how cycloidal motions, with or without the addition of higher harmonic components, would be generated with simple gear or chain type mechanisms. A common characteristic of all the various mechanisms shown was that the output stroke was equal to the pitch circumference of a gear or sprocket. In the case of linear output systems, the linear output stroke was equal to the pitch circumference of the indexing gear or sprocket; in the case of rotary output systems, the output index angle was equal to the angle subtended by an arc on the output gear or sprocket whose length was equal to the pitch circumference of the eccentric index gear or sprockets. While these systems have been usefully employed in many applications, they are handicapped in generating long strokes by requiring indexing gears or sprockets which become impractically large.
It is one object of the present invention to provide an indexing system which is capable of generating an accelerated-decelerated index stroke during multiple revolutions of the index gear; accordingly, a proportionally smaller gear can be employed.
In such a multiple revolution gear index system, the natural dwell between the index strokes will become smaller as related to the input angle than is that same natural dwell for a single revolution index system.
It is another object of this invention to provide an indexing system in which the dwell between index strokes can be significantly extended and thereby to provide ample time for stoppage or reversal of the driving motor.
In a conventional cycloidal indexing system, the peak velocity reached at or near midstroke is approximately two times the average velocity during the stroke.
It is another object of this invention to provide an indexing system in which the peak velocity reached during the stroke is significantly less than two times the average velocity reached during the stroke.
Other objects and features of the invention will be apparent in the following description and claims in which the principles of the invention are set forth together with details of the structure which will enable a machine builder to utilize the invention, all in connection with the best modes presently contemplated for the practice of the invention.

Apparatus for cycloidal acceleration and deceleration with partial constant velocity


There is provided a vehicular door structure that can enhance the effect of noise insulation for a noise gaining entrance from an end portion of a weather strip while ensuring the drainability by the weather strip. The vehicular door structure is provided with a weather strip body that is arranged along a lower edge portion of a door body, that has a hollow interior, that has communication holes communicating with a drainage hole at the lower edge portion of the door body, and that serves as a drainage channel. This weather strip body is provided with partition walls that partition the hollow interior, at a plurality of locations from an end portion of the weather strip body to the communication holes. The partition walls are provided with drainage portions that penetrate the partition walls to enable drainage, respectively.

The Patent Document 1 shown below discloses a drainage structure for an automobile door in which a hollow weather strip is provided along a lower edge portion of a side door body of a vehicle body. With this drainage structure, a drainage hole that is provided at the lower edge portion of the side door body and a communication hole that is provided at an upper portion of the weather strip communicate with each other, and both ends of the weather strip are open.
According to the aforementioned configuration, the rainwater that has entered the side door body flows through the drainage hole and the communication hole together with dust, grime and dust-proof wax, while the interior of the weather strip serves as a drainage channel. This rainwater and the like are drained from openings at both the ends of the weather strip in a longitudinal direction thereof. Besides, with the aforementioned drainage structure, a noise entering the interior from a lateral portion of the side door body can be suppressed by the weather strip.