The present application describes a system and method for converting a natural language query to a standard query using a sequence-to-sequence neural network. As described herein, when a natural language query is receive, the natural language query is converted to a standard query using a sequence-to-sequence model. In some cases, the sequence-to-sequence model is associated with an attention layer. A search using the standard query is performed and various documents may be returned. The documents that result from the search are scored based, at least in part, on a determined conditional entropy of the document. The conditional entropy is determined using the natural language query and the document.

Understanding and processing information contained in natural language queries expressing user intent is a major challenge in document selection. User queries in the form of natural language are usually fuzzy and implicit, which makes it hard to be processed by existing information retrieval systems, often requiring multiple user interactions for further clarification.
For example, when a natural language query is received in current information retrieval systems, the natural language queries are simplified by removing certain stop words (e.g., words such as "how" and "to"). As a result, only key terms within the natural language query remain and documents containing these key words are retrieved and returned to the user. However, such an approach may not capture the intent of the natural language query. As a result, any searches executed on the remaining terms may not produce results that are in line or otherwise correspond to the intent of the individual that submitted the natural language query.

Query rewriting and interactive inquiry framework


Provided is a formulation for oral teeth, which includes a plurality of calcium ion carriers and a plurality of calcium-containing particulates. The particulates are carried by the calcium ion carriers, such that the formulation can prevent or rapidly treat dentin-associated symptoms or diseases, while providing a prolonged prophylactic or therapeutic effect.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a formulation for use in oral teeth, and more particularly relates to a formulation for propylaxising and treating dentin-associated diseases or symptoms.
2. Description of Associated Art
Dentin, which is also known as "dentine," is a tissue constituting the tooth matrix, and located between dental enamel and dental pulp. Dentin is composed of 70% of inorganic substance, 20% of organic substance and 10% of water. The hardness of dentin is lower than that of dental enamel, but higher than that of cementum. Dentinal tubules throughout the dentin are arranged radially from the surface of the dental pulp towards the dental enamel. The dentinal tubules are wider at the ends near the dental pulp. The closer toward the surface the dentinal tubules with branches therebetween are, the narrower they are.
Common dentin-associated diseases or symptoms which cause pain, includes dental caries, tooth wearing, enamel loss and dentin hypersensitivity etc.
Dentin hypersensitivity is sometimes referred to as "tooth hypersensitivity" and "hypersensitive dentine." Currently, various types of products or methods for relieving dentin hypersensitivity have been developed. However, up to now, none of the products or methods can provide rapid and long-term relieving effect.
Generally, the clinical methods for treating dentin hypersensitivity can fall into the following two categories: (1) chemical desensitizing method; and (2) physical desensitizing method.
As to the chemical desensitizing methods, corticosteroids were used in the early years to suppress inflammation. However, such methods are ineffective. Further, protein precipitation, which is also categorized as a chemical desensitizing method, utilizes a chemical agent to coagulate and denature the proteins in the dentinal tubule. For example, a formulation containing silver nitrate, phenol, formaldehyde or strontium chloride is used to denature collagen, and then forms precipitates which block the openings of the dentinal tubules. However, such formulation stimulates dental pulp and gingival, and the relapse rate is extremely high. Further, silver nitrate dyes teeth black permanently.
Moreover, chemical desensitizing methods also include a treating method for paralyzing pulp nerves. For example, some commercially available desensitizing toothpastes use potassium nitrate to suppress the excitation of pulp nerves. However, the clinical cases have shown that the pain on a patient cannot be relieved until the desensitizing toothpaste is persistently used for two weeks, and the therapeutic effect can last for only several months. That is to say, the methods for paralyzing pulp nerves cannot provide rapid and long-term therapeutic effects. Also, the long-term use of potassium nitrate leads to disorders associated to the paralysis of pulp nerves.
On the other hand, as to the physical desensitizing methods, for example, a sealant for dentinal tubules is used to directly seal the openings of dentinal tubules. The sealant includes, for example, resins, glass ionomer cements and or the like. For example, Jensen et al. ("A comparative study of two clinical techniques for treatment of root surface hypersensitivity," Gen. Dent. 35:128-132.) proposed a method for directly sealing the openings of dentinal tubules using a resin-type dentin bonding agent. Although this method can immediately relive the pain caused by dentin hypersensitivity, it cannot provide long-term therapeutic effects. More specifically, the clinical cases have shown that, after a 6-months treatment, the resin-type bonding agent detaches significantly from the surfaces of teeth. As to the glass ionomer cements, Low et al. ("The treatment of hypersensitive cervical abrasion cavities using ASAP cement," J. Oral Rehabil. 8(1):81-9) used glass ionomer cements to treat dentin hypersensitivity in 1981. Although glass ionomer cements can provide therapeutic effects, this type of material will be removed by constantly brushing the tooth. Further, Hansen et al. ("Dentin hypersensitivity treated with a fluoride-containing varnish or a light-curd glass ionomer liner," Scand. J. Dent. Res. 100(6):305-9) used resin-enhanced glass ionomer cements to treat dentin hypersensitivity, but still no long-term therapeutic effects were achieved.
Accordingly, it is an urgent and important issue to provide rapid and prolonged effects to relieve dentin-associated symptoms and diseases.

Composition for preventing or treating dentin-associated symptoms or diseases, and method using the same


Techniques for capturing and deploying the operating system of a computing device are disclosed. An example method includes creating a file that contains settings of an operating system of a source computer and storing the file in storage on the source computer. The method also includes copying an image of the operating system and the file containing the settings of the operating system and deploying the image to one or more target computers.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to computing devices, and more particularly, to capturing and deploying an operating system in a computing environment.
Related Art
As technology has become integrated with the workplace, corporations and other enterprises have developed a need to create computing environments that supply the members of the enterprise with computers and related equipment. Commonly, enterprises attempt to standardize the configurations and/or systems of the computers within the computing environment. The primary rationale for such standardization is that it simplifies maintenance, support and/or management of the computers and related equipment. Computers utilized in a typical computing environment may include client computers, such as thin clients, fat clients, ultra-thin clients, or hybrid clients, etc., terminal computers, or other networked or non-networked computers now or later developed. Related systems may include peripheral equipment such as servers, printers, etc.
Standardization of computer configurations within a computing environment has traditionally occurred in several different manners. In one conventional technique, an information technology (IT) professional manually configures each computer within the environment. This technique may be both time consuming and costly for the enterprise.
A more common method is for an IT professional to manually configure a master or source computer. Such a configuration, often referred to as a master disk image, is thereafter used to configure other computers in the computing environment. In addition to ensuring the master or source computer is properly configured, the IT professional must then utilize complicated software, along with additional equipment peripheral to the master computer, such as servers and databases, to deploy the master disk image to other computers within the computing environment. This method may also be both costly and time consuming for the enterprise to obtain the complicated software necessary for the deployment, as well as to obtain and/or develop an IT professional qualified to utilize such hardware and software.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Capturing and deploying an operation system in a computer environment

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A photochemical method of making a tactile design comprises the steps of exposing to light a selected portion of photo-sensitive layer-supported by a substrate; applying a decorative coating to the photo-sensitive layer; applying a photo-sensitive emulsion over the decorative coating; exposing to light the same selected portion of the photo-sensitive emulsion; and removing the photo-sensitive emulsion, the decorative coating, and the photo-sensitive layer from the non-selected portions. The tactile design comprises a layer of photo-sensitive material fixedly attached to a selected portion of a substrate wherein the layer has been exposed to light and the layer projects away from the surface of the substrate a sufficient distance to be sensitive to the touch. At least one decorative coating is fixedly attached to the photo-sensitive layer.

The various embodiments of the present invention relate to a photochemical method of making decorative designs, including tactile designs. The tactile design of the present invention is capable of being perceived by the human touch.
The Federal Americans With Disabilities Act (ADA) mandates, inter alia, that public signs incorporate a raised or tactile design capable of being perceived by the touch of visually impaired people.
Conventional processes for making tactile designs typically require a great deal of time and expensive equipment, are limited in color spectrum, can not place one color touching another, are limited in ability to reproduce fine detail, can not easily do multiple colors on one sign (if at all), and are extremely limited in creative latitude. Existing processes are so complex and sensitive to failure that they are impractical and prohibitive for use by the small sign shop. Some examples of conventional processes which can be used to produce signs having a raised or tactile design are engraving (routing), hot stamping, and embossing.
Hot stamping requires expensive and bulky equipment capable of exerting several tons of pressure on the substrate to generate the desired design. Generally, this process is only suitable for operations which can exploit high production rates. Furthermore, there is a high failure rate in producing commercially acceptable product. It is difficult and extremely costly to do more than one color with hot stamping methods. The color spectrum is limited and one color can never touch another color.
Embossing requires expensive male and female dyes which are combined and then applied to the substrate under several tons of pressure. Similarly, expensive and bulky machinery is required so that, in general, this process is restricted to high volume operations. The embossing method also carries a high failure rate in producing commercially acceptable product. Further, adding secondary colors is difficult and expensive and any added colors are limited and can never touch one another.
Engraving or routing requires the removal of substrate material outside of the desired image area. The equipment is relatively expensive and the process offers limited color treatment to the image area. Engraving or routing an average sign requires an inordinate amount of machine time (wear and tear). The process also produces sharp-edged raised designs which are uncomfortable to the reader and, therefore, are undesirable.
Another conventional process is silk screening; it may be used to top-coat a tactile design feature. This process requires expensive screens and copious amounts of ink. Excess ink is needed to be certain that it penetrates the screen mesh. There is a large failure rate in achieving a commercially acceptable product. Adding second, third, etc. colors is difficult and expensive. One color can not touch another color. Additionally, the silk screen process involves extensive equipment clean-up using large quantities of chemicals which may require containment and disposal.
Another conventional process for creating a raised design is the chemical etching of metal plates such as copper, brass, zinc, and magnesium. This process requires the use of costly equipment and large quantities of extremely hazardous chemicals. The chemicals used typically mandate containment and disposal procedures.
It is apparent that presently available processes for the application of a tactile design to a substrate surface requires expensive and bulky machinery, are limited in creative concepts and applications, and produce excessive quantities of unusable/unsalable product. The equipment for these conventional processes must be connected to sources of heat and pressure. Accordingly, the process machinery and ancillary equipment require a large physical plant and capital investment which thereby dictate a high output to achieve an adequate economic return. Generally, small custom design jobs are rendered uneconomical.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an inexpensive and less time-consuming process for producing tactile designs on substrate surfaces. In particular, an economical method is needed for satisfying custom design jobs.

Photochemical method of making decorative designs


An earring insert is provided for a pierced earlobe and other pierced parts of the anatomy having an orifice therethrough. The insert consists of a first sleeve that is inserted into the orifice of the pierced earlobe and other pierced parts of the anatomy. A first flange extends about an outer end of the first sleeve. A second sleeve is inserted into the first sleeve. A second flange extends about an outer end of the second sleeve. A friction post and ear wire of a pierced earring can extend through the second sleeve to eliminate chaffing of the orifice, while at the same time prevent the orifice from closing, when the pierced earring is removed for a long period of time.

1. Field of the Invention
The instant invention relates generally to pierced earrings and more specifically it relates to an earring insert for a pierced earlobe and other pierced parts of the anatomy.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Numerous pierced earrings have been provided in prior art that are each adapted to be placed through an orifice in an earlobe. The insertion of and removal from the orifice of the friction post or ear wire many times can cause irritation and pain in the earlobe. While these units may be suitable for the particular purpose to which they address, they would not be as suitable for the purposes of the present invention as heretofore described.

Earring insert for a pierced earlobe and other pierced parts of the anatomy


An improved mechanism for providing channel state feedback from a user equipment (UE) 800, to a base station 900 is provided, applying radio bearer specific channel state feedback reporting trigger criteria at the UE. In the UE it is initially determined (502) whether at least one channel state feedback reporting trigger criteria is valid or not, comprising the step of determining whether one or more channel state feedback reporting trigger is applied to one or more specific radio bearers. If this is the case, a channel state feedback report of a specified type is generated (510) and transmitted (511) to the base station. Such a mechanism provides for a more efficient control signaling of channel state feedback information between a base station and a UE.

Recent increase of mobile data usage and emergence of new applications such as gaming, mobile TV and streaming content have motivated the 3rd Generation Partnership Project (3GPP) to work on the Long-Term Evolution (LTE) in order to ensure 3GPP's competitive edge over other, competitive cellular technologies.
LTE has been set aggressive performance requirements which rely on physical layer technologies, such as e.g. Orthogonal Frequency Division Multiplexing (OFDM) and Multiple-Input Multiple-Output (MIMO) systems to achieve these targets. Some main objectives of LTE are to minimize the system and User Equipment (UE) complexities, to allow flexible spectrum deployment in existing or new frequency spectrum and to enable co-existence with other 3GPP Radio Access Technologies (RATS).
The LTE uplink is based on single-carrier modulation and uses frequency and time division multiple access principles (FDMA and TDMA), The LTE uplink consists of physical uplink control channels and data channels that are orthogonally frequency multiplexed. The single-carrier property of the LTE uplink makes it impossible for a UE to transmit on a physical control channel and a physical data channel in the same transmission-time-interval (TTI). Hence, if a UE is transmitting data on a physical data channel, the control information that has to be sent in the same TTI must also be sent on the physical data channel. The UE will use the physical control channel to transmit control signaling only in the case when the UE has no data transmission, and hence is not using the physical data channel.
In the LTE concept defined in the ongoing 3GPP work on standardization, the downlink will support fast channel dependent scheduling in both the time and frequency domains. A conventional downlink scheduling concept according to the prior art, can be described with stages 1:1-1:4, as illustrated in FIG. 1. A base station 100, which is referred to as an eNodeB in LTE, communicating with a UE 101, transmits reference signals to UE 101 in a first stage 1:1. The reference signals can be used by UE 101 to determine the present downlink channel quality. LTE uses feedback from the UE to the eNodeB of the instantaneous channel conditions. After having determined the downlink channel quality on the basis of the received reference signals, UE 101 therefore sends one or more channel state feedback reports, which in this context typically are referred to as Channel Quality Indication (CQI) reports, back to eNodeB 100 in a second stage 1:2. In eNodeB 100, the content of the one or more CQI reports can be retrieved and used by a scheduler (not shown). The scheduler uses the information retrieved from the CQI reports to perform resource allocation. UE 101 is informed of the resource allocation in a next stage 1:3. A resource allocation typically results in a transmission of downlink data over the allocated resource, as indicated with a final stage 1:4.
More on this issue can be found in "3G Evolution: HSPD and LTE for Mobile Broadband" E. Dahlman, S. Parkvall, J. Sköld, P, Beming, Academic Press, 2007.
According to one proposal for LTE, UEs will be capable of transmitting different types of CQI reports, such as full CQI reports, partial CQI reports, and/or differential CQI reports. In this context, full CQI reports are defined to cover the whole downlink transmission bandwidth scheduled for a UE, but may have different frequency resolution. This type of CQI reports may be filtered and processed in different ways. In addition, different full CQI reports may be encoded in different ways. Partial CQI reports on the other hand may be set to cover only a part of a specified downlink transmission bandwidth. The part covered by a partial CQI report may be a set of contiguous, or a set of distributed resource blocks. Finally, a differential CQI report may contain an encoded version of the update vector relative to a previous CQI report.
A CQI reporting mechanism which is based on different types of CQI reports, such as e.g. the ones described above, may be introduced by way of, for each CQI report type, defining a set of rules that triggers the transmission of a report of the respective CQI report type from a respective UE. Each UE has a configured CQI reporting trigger set (CRTS), wherein the CRTS consists of one or more CQI reporting triggers (CRT), specifying under which criteria a specific type of CQI report shall be transmitted. Each CRT is associated with a specific type of CQI report in such a way that when a triggering criteria is fulfilled, the respective UE transmits a CQI report of the associated type to the respective eNodeB.
A CRT is typically expressed in terms of a logical expression which may involve one of, or a combination of timers, events, and conditions, consisting of logical statements, such as AND, OR, NOT, WHEN, and/or IF. A simple periodic CQI reporting trigger may just consist of a periodic timer and a rule that a certain CQI report shall be transmitted every time the timer expires. A simple event based CQI reporting trigger may state that a certain type of CQI report shall be transmitted every time the triggering event, such as e.g. a handover event, occurs. A condition that could be included in the decision to transmit a certain CQI report or not, is e.g. if the downlink activity is above a specified threshold. In addition to configuring rules, defining when and how CQI reports are to be transmitted, the eNodeB may also have the option to explicitly request for CQI reports on demand, typically by using RRC signaling.
FIG. 2 illustrates a table of a CQI trigger configuration of a UE, as described above. The table comprises a plurality of CQI reporting triggers, CRT 1-n, configured for the UE. Each CRT is associated with one CQI report type, CQI A-X. When for example the trigger criteria specified by CRT 1 is true, a report type, defined by CQI A will be transmitted from the UE to an eNodeB, as indicated in the table. What types of CQI reports a UE shall use, and what criteria that will trigger them, are typically set-up by higher layer, RRC signaling.
CQI reports may occur at known time instances and may use a format known to the eNodeB, or the occurrence and format may be more dynamic. In the latter case the MAC header typically needs to include information about how the CQI report was transmitted, or else the eNodeB may have to perform blind detection on the CQI transmission format.
Furthermore, for CQI reports used together with different antenna configurations, such as SISO (Single-Input Single-Output), MISO (Multiple-Input Single-Output), SIMO (Single-Input Multiple-Output), or MIMO (Multiple-Input Multiple-Output), transmission could also be different. In case of a MIMO configuration, a CQI report may include information, such as e.g. pre-coding weights or other feedback parameters, to be used by the eNodeB multiple antenna transmission scheme. The amount of resources needed to be reserved for a certain UE will also depend on the MIMO scheme configured for that UE, potentially adding further complication to the configuration of the reserved resources.
From an overhead perspective, it is desirable to keep the number of bits in the CQI reports to a minimum. At the same time, the larger the number of bits in the CQI report, the higher amount of information can be provided to the scheduler of the eNodeB, allowing for the possibility of higher downlink throughput. Therefore, a trade-off between the two is required. The amount of bits that can be spent on CQI reporting may depend on a number of different criteria, such as: downlink transmission mode, e.g. SISO or MIMO; type of downlink traffic, e.g. VoIP or Web; downlink radio characteristics, e.g. coherence time and/or coherence bandwidth; current uplink load and/or current downlink activity.
CQI reports can be transmitted in two ways. A CQI report can be transmitted on a dedicated control channel resource when no data is transmitted simultaneously, or on a scheduled resource on a shared channel when uplink data and control signaling is transmitted simultaneously. A drawback with such a scheme is that resources must be reserved for control signaling; resources that will be unused when the UE is transmitting data simultaneously with control signaling. This further adds to the importance of keeping the CQI reporting overhead at a minimum.
Every UE normally have access to a number of radio bearers. To each radio bearer there is a QoS label specified, characterizing QoS requirements and traffic characteristics of the respective radio bearer. Some of these radio bearers are classified as Guaranteed Bit Rate (GBR) bearers, typically to be used for e.g. voice telephony or streaming video, while other radio bearers are classified as Non Guaranteed Bit Rate bearers.
In order to fully support all possible CQI reporting schemes in all possible scenarios one would have to allocate an unreasonable amount of physical resources for the physical control signaling.
Even with a limited number of schemes applied, new feedback schemes are difficult to introduce, especially if they require that the uplink physical control channels need to be re-designed.


In a field-access magnetic bubble memory X and Y coils encircle the chip for providing the rotating XY magnetic drive field when conventional drive signals are applied thereto. At least one of the coils is non-uniformly wound to provide a first predetermined magnitude of the drive field in first predetermined chip areas and a second lesser predetermined magnitude of the drive field in a second chip area. In the embodiment disclosed the chip has a dual-block replicate architecture with gates and bubble detectors requiring a relatively high drive field located in peripheral edge areas at the bottom and top of the chip. A plurality of data storage loops requiring a relatively low drive field are located in the medial portion of the chip. The outer layer of the Y coil is non-uniformly wound to provide a gap in registration with the medial area of the chip. As a result, the magnitude of the drive field is higher in the peripheral edge areas than in the medial storage area, making possible a reduction in coil power consumption.

The present invention relates to magnetic bubble memories, and more particularly, to a magnetic bubble memory with reduced coil power consumption due to non-uniform winding of its Y drive field coil.
Information storage and retrieval in the conventional magnetic bubble memory devices is accomplished and measured by the presence or absence of magnetic bubble domains which are propagated and manipulated on a chip. Typically, the chip includes a plurality of spaced apart permalloy propagation elements which overlie a thin film of garnet. The maintenance and propagation of the magnetic bubble domain along the paths of the propagation elements is accomplished through the utilization of an in-plane rotating magnetic drive field (XY drive field) in the presence of a bias magnetic field (Z bias field). As the drive field rotates, the bubbles jump between adjacent propagation elements crossing the gap which exists therebetween.
The bubble memory chip is typically sandwiched between upper and lower permanent magnets which supply the Z bias field. The XY in-plane drive field can be supplied by several geometries of coils. The most popular arrangement is shown and described in an article entitled "Bubble Memories Come to the Boil" by Peter K. George and George Reyling, Jr., published in the Aug. 2, 1979 edition of ELECTRONICS magazine starting at page 99. As shown therein, it is conventional to mount the bubble chip in the center leg of a E-shaped chip carrier to facilitate assembly of the orthogonal XY drive field coils. Drive field circuitry provides the electrical current to the XY coils which is required to generate the necessary rotating field. Though it has been demonstrated that the bubbles themselves are capable of 500-kilohertz operation, a practical upper limit is probably 200-kilohertz. This limit is set by the power dissipation in the drive field coils due to both skin-effect losses in the coil windings and eddy-current losses in the metal package components. Because of this, various current-access approaches that would eliminate the coils have been proposed. However, these have yet to be proven.
In constructing XY coils to drive bubble memory chips, designers have strived for field uniformity over the entire chip area. One explanation for this is that drive field uniformity will insure uniform, predictable bubble propagation at every chip location when the permalloy propagation elements have a preselected configuration and positioning. A perfectly uniform drive field cannot be obtained due to practical construction limitations. However, it can be approached by precisely winding the XY coils and by centrally positioning the upper surface of the bubble chip precisely in the middle of the coils.
In the uniform field approach the X and Y coils generally extend over the entire surface area of the bubble chip and overlap its edges somewhat. Neither the X nor the Y coil has a gap therein, i.e. successive turns of each coil are immediately adjacent and each turn abuts against a preceding turn.
Conventional bubble memories which include uniformly wound XY drive field coils typically dissipate approximately 0.75 to approximately 1.0 watts in such coils during operation. This power is dissipated in the form of heat which raises the temperature of the environment in which the bubble memory must operate. If the temperature of the bubble memory rises too high, spurious bubbles will be generated and the memory will not operate properly. Assume, for example, that the proper maintenance and propagation of bubbles can occur so long as the temperature of the garnet film is between approximately 0.degree.-100.degree. C. The packaging which surrounds the bubble chip, the coil, and the permanent magnet tends to retain the heat generated by power dissipation. This causes the temperature of the bubble chip to increase. If the temperature of the ambient air is approximately 40.degree. C., then the maximum temperature rise within the package that can be tolerated would be 70.degree. C. It would therefore be desirable to reduce the amount of power dissipated in the drive field coils in order to lessen the amount of heat generated thereby and thus permit the bubble memory to operate in higher ambient temperature environments.
Another important design rule to consider is that if the power requirement of the drive field coils can be reduced, cost savings in the drive field circuitry can be achieved. Integrated drive circuitry is preferable over drive circuitry incorporating discrete components. This is because the former is cheaper to manufacture on a large scale and requires less space.
Presently in most bubble memory chip architectures that have been considered for manufacture, data is stored in a plurality of data storage loops located in the central or medial area of the chip. The active components of the chip, including the transfer gates, replicate gates, and bubble detectors, are located in peripheral edge areas of the chip. Typically, the active components require a drive field magnitude in order to operate which is considerably greater than that required for the storage loops. For example, the active components in a bubble memory typically require a drive field strength of approximately 45-50 Oersteds while the storage loops only require approximately 35 Oersteds. It is conventional to provide a uniform drive field, i.e. one having the same magnitude at all locations on the chip, which is strong enough to drive the active components. Thus the bubbles in the storage loops are "over driven" and power wastage results.

Bubble memory having non-uniformly wound Y drive field coil


Wet scrubbing gases containing undesirable constituents by passing the gases at a temperature above 500K. in contact with the melt of an inorganic substance to remove the undesirable constituents. The melt together with a portion of the purified gas as a propellant is introduced into a binary nozzle to atomize the melt into fine particles which contact the gases to be purified.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a method for wet scrubbing gases containing undesirable constituents at elevated temperature, above 500K, wlth melts of inorganic substances to remove the undesirable constituents from the gases.
2. Background of the Invention
It is known to use wet scrubbers for scrubbing gases containing impurities, especially gases which have no oxidizing properties, at which elevated temperatures above 300.degree. C. must be maintained, to remove impurities from the gases. Metal melts and in particular melts of tin or tin alloys, for instance, have been suggested as scrubbing liquids. It has also been proposed to use inorganic salt melts for this purpose. Since effectiveness of separation depends on the droplet size of the scrubbing fluid, it has been proposed in German Published Prosecuted Application DT-AS No. 26 05 249 to use the known venturi scrubber for scrubbing the gas with such melts. It has now been found that the required fineness of the droplets is difficult to achieve because the density of the melt is high as compared to water and because of the different surface tension conditions.

Method for wet scrubbing gases with melts


An article of tableware has a container portion defining a well, and a base portion coupled to the container portion. The base portion includes a foot portion and a hinge portion. The hinge portion includes a first hinge line and a second hinge line, and the foot portion is coupled to the hinge portion at the first hinge line. The hinge portion is pivotable about the first and second hinge lines such that the foot portion is movable between an extended position and a retracted position to adjust a height of the tableware article.

It can be desirable to place a tableware article, such as a plate or a bowl, in a bath of hot water in order to heat the contents of the tableware article. However, many plates and bowls do not have a base with sufficient height to allow them to be stably set in even shallow water. Moreover, setting a plate or a bowl in water often traps air beneath it, further destabilizing the plate or bowl. Accordingly, there is a need for improvements to tableware.


A modular seat unit to be incorporated into the perimeter wall of a swimming pool is provided. The modular seat is devised to afford a purchaser the option of incorporating the unit into a swimming pool by removing one or more modular wall panels which forming the perimeter of the swimming pool and substituting therefor and securing the seat unit into position in place of the omitted vertical wall panel or panels thereby integrating the seat into the perimeter of the swimming pool. The seat unit is provided with a console accessible to the seat occupant to locate controls such as for water flow from the swimming pool supply into the seat recess. The seating area is devised to include hydrotherapy air jets to produce therapeutic water turbulence. An adapter to hold the pole of an umbrella to shelter the seat occupant from the sun's rays and to function as a safety guard is also provided in the horizontal surface of the seat module. The construction provides a seat for an occupant to rest in the pool. The seating does not protrude above the level of the deck or beyond the plane of the vertical wall and presents no protruding obstruction within the pool. The seat module minimizes the inventory of components which a swimming pool supplier of modular pools maintains for the expeditious construction of a pool with various attractive features.

The availability of a means to permit a swimmer to rest in a comfortable sitting position in a swimming pool has frequently been sought. While it is of course possible to lower a chair or stool into the swimming pool as a seating means, this is awkward and generally uncomfortable and unsatisfactory and, sometimes, even hazardous. Also, while various schemes devised to afford arrangements adjacent to the pool that include a therapy unit (which may include a seating arrangement) have been proposed such as: placing a therapy pool contiguous or within a swimming pool, including attaching the therapy pool to the wall of the swimming pool with a transition section as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,001,899; or depositing a removable partition comprising a therapy pool within the swimming pool as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,240,165; a need exists for a more simplified, economical, very practical and aesthetically improved combination of swimming pool and conveniently comfortable seating means as provided by the present invention.

Combination swimming pool with wall seat module


An HVAC controller for an equipment enclosure or machine room employs ambient air exchange and compressor driven cooling appliances for maintaining an operating temperature of a telecommunications machine room within acceptable levels. Coordinated engagement of the ambient air exchange and a plurality of lead/lag cooling appliances provides staged engagement of the cooling appliances to correspond to a cooling demand. Designation of lead and lag cooling appliances is alternated according to a designation interval to avoid disproportionate use of individual cooling appliances for promoting longevity. Multiple cooling appliances alternate the lead/lag designation to equalize equipment wear, and alternation of the lead/lag designation follows an normal operational satisfaction of the cooling demand, to minimize a frequency of equipment engagement (power up) cycles which contribute to wear.

Computing resources are widely distributed throughout the telecommunications industry. Proliferation of personal electronic devices continues to increase the need for both wireless and wired network connectivity. Modern network deployment requires connectivity hardware, such as cell towers and antennas, in addition to more substantial data centers, to be located throughout a region supported by the network. Each of these locations requires an environmentally controlled enclosure to operate effectively. Further, since the equipment enclosures are typically unstaffed, reliability and longevity of cooling appliances and other HVAC (Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning) apparatus is paramount. HVAC demands of these small, specialized machine rooms are particularly specialized and intense due to the small conditioned space and significant heat generation capability of the equipment stored therein.

Ventilation controller for equipment enclosure

Schroff Technologies International, Inc.


A method for polymerizing or copolymerizing .alpha.-olefin in a vapor phase condition by supplying to a reactor a catalyst composed of a solid catalyst component containing at least titanium and/or vanadium as well as magnesium and an organic aluminum compound wherein the current due to the electric charge transferred from polymer particles electrified to an electrode disposed at a position where sheet-like polymers will be produced in a reactor, as a result of contact of the polymer particles in the reactor with the electrode is determined, and the polymerization or copolymerization is carried out under such condition where the mean value of current is zero or a positive value. As a result, it becomes possible to prevent production of sheet-like polymers and to stably continue the reaction for polymerization.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an operating method polymerizing .alpha.-olefin by vapor phase polymerization, and more particularly to an operating method by which production of a sheet-like polymer in an area close to the inner wall of its reactor in the case when .alpha.-olefin is polymerized or copolymerized by the use of a vapor phase fluidized bed may be reduced, and unstable reaction of such polymerization may be prevented from occurring.
(2) Description of the Related Art
It has been disclosed, for example, in EP-A No. 224479 that an absolute value of electrostatic potential during a polymerization reaction has to be maintained in zero condition, in other words, a polarity of existing voltage has to be kept neutral in order to prevent production of sheet-like polymers in an area close to the inner wall of its reactor.
In the event of polymerizing .alpha.-olefin by using a vapor phase fluidized bed, there is such a case where sheet-like polymers are produced in an area close to the inner wall of its reactor especially at the beginning of the polymerization, and then a port for drawing out polymer and the downstream piping therefor are clogged with such sheet-like polymers so that the polymerization reaction cannot substantially be continued anymore. Such production of sheet-like polymers is frequently observed within a period after a solid catalyst component and an organic aluminum compound are supplied into a reactor in a state where substantially no polymerization occurs, then, the polymerization is initiated, and before about twenty times higher volume of a polymer than that of a reacting zone of its fluidized bed are produced. Thereafter, production of sheet-like polymers decreases comparatively after a condition of the reaction transfers to its steady state.
If the polyolefin particles in a reactor are electrified, it is known that such electrified particles adhere to another substance by electrostatic forces. Accordingly, it is supposed that there is a relationship between the electrified polyolefin particles in the reactor and production of sheet-like polymers in an area close to the inner wall of the reactor.
In this connection, first, behavior of electrified polyolefin particles in a vapor phase fluidized bed as well as production of sheet-like polymers will be described in detail hereinbelow.
In a vapor phase fluidized bed reactor, electric charge arises due to contact and/or friction between polymer particles as well as between polymer particles and the inner wall of the reactor so that these polymer particles are electrified, respectively. When these particles possess a high amount of electric charge and the number of particles electrified increases, such electrified polymer particles come to adhere to the inner wall of the reactor due to Coulomb forces. The velocity of the gas stream becomes slow in an area close to the inside wall of the vapor phase fluidized bed reactor so electrified polymer particles adhere much more easily to the inside wall of the reactor.
However, such adhering of electrified polymer particles to the inner wall of a reactor does not directly relate to production of sheet-like polymers. Even if polymer particles have adhered to the inside wall of a reactor, when a temperature in a layer of such adhered polymer particles does not exceed a melting point of the resulting polymer, no sheet-like polymer is produced. This result as described above is obtained in such a case where a concentration of catalyst used is low in a relevant area, in other words, an amount of reaction is small in the area and as a consequence, associated heat of polymerization can be removed.
On the other hand, when electrified polymer particles adhere to the inside wall of a reactor due to Coulomb forces and a concentration of the catalyst used in a layer of the adhered polymer particles is high, a polymerization reaction proceeds, and as a result it becomes difficult to remove the heat of the polymerization. Consequently, the temperature in the layer of adhered polymer particles rises. Finally, such temperature reaches one which exceeds the melting point of the polymer, and the polyolefin particles fuse together to form a sheet-like polymer. While the expression "concentration of catalyst" has been used herein, in reality, when a catalyst is supplied into a reactor, polymerization begins promptly to form polymer particles in the presence of the catalyst, and these particles continue further polymerization. More specifically, even if a concentration of catalyst supplied is low in a relevant area, production of sheet-like polymers is observed after all in the case where a concentration of polyolefin particles having polymerizing activity is high in the area. For this reason, a more pertinent expression might be "concentration of active sites for polymerization" or "amount of reaction per unit volume", but not "concentration of catalyst". In any event, the concentration in this case means the concentration of solid catalyst component which have been supplied to a reactor as well as the concentration of the resulting polyolefin particles having polymerizing activity. In this respect, the term "concentration of catalyst" does not mean simply hereunder that of the catalyst, but also includes a concentration of polyolefin particles having polymerizing activity.
It is, however, to be noted that while such polymerization as described above proceeds under these circumstances, production of sheet-like polymers requires further accumulation of heat of polymerization, in other words, it is required for the production of sheet-like polymers that such polyolefin particles adhere to the inside wall of a reactor in the form of a layer with a certain degree or more of thickness. Accordingly, there is no production of sheetlike polymers with such thickness of a thin layer of the adhered polyolefin particles after all.
With respect to such adherence of polyolefin particles in the form of a layer with a certain degree of thickness, to be noted is coexistence of particles which have been electrified positively and other particles which have been electrified negatively in the electrified polymer particle group in a reactor.
For the following explanation, polyolefin particles which have been merely electrified either positively or negatively as a group will be assumed herein. As a matter of course, such particles may adhere onto the inner wall of a reactor to form the first layer thereof due to Coulomb forces. However, even if other electrified polymer particles approach the first layer, further adherence never occurs as a result of action of repulsion force due to Coulomb forces because these particles have the same polarity of electric charge. Thus, the polymer particles adhere to the reactor inside wall with merely a thickness of a single layer in the case where all the existing particles are ones which have been electrified in only the same polarity. From the above description, it will be appreciated that coexistence of particles which have been electrified positively and ones which have been electrified negatively as a group of polyolefin particles is a requirement for adherence of such polymer particles in a reactor on the inside wall of a reactor with a layer having a certain degree of thickness. In addition, it is to be noted that since polymer is an insulating material, it is hard to occur the transfer electric charge in the polymer and its surface. However, when such polyolefin particles are in contact with a conductive material such as an electrode which will be described later, at least a part of the electric charge at the site being in the contact state transfers immediately to the electrode. Accordingly, there may be such a case where one polymer particle includes a plural number of electric charges. In this case, the plural number of electric charges may be different from one another in their signs (polarities). More specifically, there is a case where a positive and negative electric charge coexist within one polymer particle.
From the fact that production of sheet-like polymers is observed in an actual vapor phase polymerization of polyolefin, it is considered that an electrified state of the polyolefin particles in vapor phase polymerization is also a complicated electrified state in that both a positive and a negative electric coexist in one polymer particle as described above.
Therefore, it is important to have a good grasp of an electrified state of polymer particles such as coexistence of positive and negative electric charges in view of a countermeasure on how to cope with adherence of polymer particles to the inner wall of a reactor which might lead to production of sheet-like polymers.
Heretofore, there have been two methods for measuring an electrified state of particles and both of them are each for measuring electrostatic potential One method is a (non-contact way) method for measuring electrostatic potential of particles without being in contact with the particles which are the object to be measured. The other is a (contact way) method for measuring electrostatic potential with contacting of the particles to be measured. The term "electrostatic potential" used herein means one which is due to particles electrified and in this case, potential of the earth is considered to be zero as the reference potential. This may be also called by the term "electrostatic voltage", and which is hereinafter referred to simply as "potential".
In the event where a disaster due to discharge of static electricity of particles are prevented from occurring, potential of the particles is a very important factor. This is because discharge of electricity is established to lead a cause for disaster, when potential of electrified particles exceeds electric breakdown voltage between particles and the earth. In other words, electric field strength of the electrified particles exceeds electric breakdown strength between particles and the earth. In such a case, a conventional method for measuring potential is optimum as a method for measuring a state of electrified particles.
However, the conventional method for measuring potential is not suitable for one for measuring a state of polymer particles electrified in a complicated situation. This will be amplified hereinbelow by exemplifying the conventional measuring method.
As a non-contact measuring method, there is, for example, a manner wherein electric field due to electric charge of an object to be measured which has been electrified is measured by using an electrostatic field meter, and potential of the object to be measured is determined by the electrostatic field measured and a distance extending therefrom to the object to be measured. The above described method will be described further by referring to FIG. 1, wherein +q designates an amount of electric charge in a charged particle 1. In this connection, FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a non-contact way potential measuring method. In general, since an electrostatic field meter 2 is connected to the earth ground 3, when strength of electric field and a distance extending therefrom to an object to be measured are expressed by E [V/m] and d [m], respectively, an electric potential difference, i.e. potential V [V] is determined as follows: EQU V=E.times.d
However, in the case where an electrified state of polymer particles (group) is measured in accordance with a noncontact way potential measuring method, there is such a problem that measurements may be significantly out of order if the polymer particles being the object to be measured come to be in contact with a measuring section of the electrostatic field meter even though the meter is non-contact type. A cause for the problem is electric charge transferred or produced as a result of the contact between the polymer particles and the measuring section of the electrostatic field meter used. For this reason, such noncontact type meter is not generally used for measuring potential of particles.
On the other hand, a conventional contact way measuring method is one wherein an electrometer is connected with an electrode which is in contact with the polymer particles being the object to be measured to determine potential as described in, for example, the above-mentioned EP-A No. 224479. Such contact way measuring method is one for measuring potential of the electrode to which has been transferred electric charge from the polymer particles. FIG. 2 illustrates a contact way potential measuring method. As shown in FIG. 2, an electrometer 6 is connected to an electrode 5 which is inserted into a reactor 4. Further, the electrometer 6 is also connected to earth ground 3. The charged particles fluidized in a reactor (not shown) are brought into contact with an electrode.
In this method, the electric charge which has been transferred from polymer particles to an electrode accumulates in the electrostatic capacitor which is formed between the earth ground and a measuring system composed of electrodes, an electrometer, wirings for the electrodes and electrometer, and the like components so that potential in the measuring system changes. When the potential of an electrode changes, an amount of electric charge transferred from polymer particles changes in even the case where such polymer particles having the same amount of electric charge comes in contact with the electrode. In addition, frequency of contact of polymer particles with the electrode varies under the influence of Coulomb force. Furthermore, an amount of electric charge leaking from the measuring system varies also in accordance with changes in potential of the measuring system. Finally, potential of the electrode in the case when equilibrium is established by both the amount of electric charge transferred from the polymer particles to the electrode and the amount of electric charge leaking from the measuring system is obtained as a measured value.
It is, however, necessary for paying attention to the fact that the measured value of potential thus obtained is such potential of an electrode in the event where equilibrium is established by both the amount of electric charge transferred from the polymer particles to the electrode and the amount of electric charge leaking from the measuring system, but it is never the potential of polymer particles (group) existing nearby the electrode after all.
Such measured potential value of polymer particles (group) is affected by electrostatic capacity between the polymer particles (group) and ground. More specifically, even if polymer particles (group) have the same amount of electrification, when the electrostatic capacity appearing with respect to ground changes (electrostatic capacity varies also due to a shape, volume and a correlative relationship in position of a reactor), measured potential value of the polymer particles (group) changes accordingly.
Now, what is meant by measurements in the present method will be described in conjunction with the circuit diagram shown in FIG. 3 wherein C [F] designates electrostatic capacity of a capacitor formed between the measuring system and earth ground, and R [.OMEGA.] designates insulation resistance of the measuring system. The circuit diagram shown in FIG. 3 is electrically equivalent to the diagram of FIG. 2. In this case, each polymer particle has a constant amount of positive electric charge, and it is assumed that the initial potential of an electrode is zero.
With accumulation of electric charge as a result of transferring of the same from polymer particles to the capacitor formed between the measuring system and earth ground, potential of the electrode increases. When an amount of electric charge accumulated in the capacitor is designated by q [C], potential V [V] of the electrode is expressed by V=q/C.
With increase of the potential of the electrode, the repulsive force acting between the electrode and the polymer particles increases so that the polymer particles become difficult to be in contact with the electrode. In addition, such amount of electric charge which transfers to the electrode in the case when the polymer particles are in contact therewith decreases also. For this reason, an amount of electric charge transferring to the electrode per unit time, i.e. current I.sub.in derived from the electrode varies dependent on the potential V of the electrode. This may be expressed by I.sub.in =f(V) in accordance with a function f(V).
Leakage current I.sub.out from the measuring system may also be a function of the potential of the electrode, and this is expressed by I.sub.out =V/R in accordance with Ohm's law. Finally, a measured value of potential becomes the potential V of the electrode in the case where I.sub.in -I.sub.out =0, i.e. EQU f(V)=V/R (I)
is valid.
In this case, the function f(V) expressing transfer of electric charge from polymer particles to an electrode having potential V is fixed dependent upon the electrode used for the measurement, types of polymer, an electrified state of the polymer particles.
In the case where Equation I is in such a form which includes no variable other than the function f(V) and the potential V, when the electrode and a type of the polymer are fixed, the measured value V is determined uniquely with respect to an electrified state of polymer particles. However, Equation I includes an insulation resistance R of the measuring system other than the function f(V). This means that the measured value, i.e. the potential V of electrode which satisfies Equation I is affected by an insulation resistance of the measuring system. Namely, this means that when the insulation resistance of the measuring system is not kept constant, the measured value V is not uniquely determined with respect to the electrified state of polymer particles even if the electrode and the types of polymer are fixed.
In other words, it may be concluded that measured values cannot be directly compared with each other in such a contact way method for measuring potential as mentioned above so far as its measuring system is specified, and its condition is kept constant. Accordingly, it may be said that direct comparison of the resulting measured values is extremely difficult in the contact way method for measuring potential described in the aforesaid EP-A No. 224479 from the theoretical point of view.
In either measuring method of contact or non-contact way as described above, measurements are obtained in the form of potential or voltage. Such measurements of potential are, however, based on a difference between positive and negative electric charge as its polymer particle group. Accordingly, it may be concluded that these methods are not suitable for one for measuring a complicated electrified state of a polymer particle group in which there is coexistence of positive and negative electric charge. Besides balance between positive and negative electric charge is important with respect to adherence of the polymer particles to the inside wall of a reactor.
In this connection, when, for example, such polymer particle groups composed of coexisting electrically equivalent numbers of polymer particle groups each of which is positively and negatively electrified are imagined and these polymer particle groups are measured by a method for measuring potential, the resulting measured value is theoretically zero as potential. This is because a difference between positive and negative electric charge is zero irrespective of the aforesaid contact and non-contact way methods.
According to the aforesaid EP-A No. 224479, prevention of producing sheet-like polymers is attained by keeping its electrostatic potential neutral. Accordingly, it may be considered that there is no sheet-like polymer produced in the case as described above where electrically equivalent number of polymer particle groups coexist so that its electrostatic potential is neutral. However, since such polymer particles each of which is positively and negatively electrified coexist, it is highly possible that thick adherence of polymer particles onto the inside wall of a reactor as mentioned above will occur in this case.
As described above, it is uncertain and difficult to accomplish prevention of producing a sheet-like polymer in the case of vapor phase polymerization of .alpha.-olefin in accordance with measurement of potential.
Meanwhile a mechanism for generating static electricity has not yet been elucidated in general, and there is the same tendency as to vapor phase polymerization of polyolefin.
Accordingly, fundamental elucidation of a mechanism for generating static electricity and countermeasures for preventing generation of static electricity based on such elucidation are inevitably insufficient and incomplete. Consequently, we must study a manner for dealing with and solving the problem of generating static electricity on the premise that polymer particles are electrified.
On the other hand, there is such a case where minute current flowing through an electrode is measured for determining an amount of electric charge in a field relating to electrostatic phenomena. This is because it may also be considered that current is differential of an amount of electric charge transferred with respect to time. Therefore, minute current is measured, and the measured value is integrated with time, whereby a minute amount of electric charge transferred can be calculated. In case of measuring an amount of electric charge, generally a direction along which current flows, i.e. a direction along which electric charge transfers and measurements of current do not change in a short period of time.
On the contrary, in the case where a direction along which electric charge transfers and a value of current itself vary remarkably in a short period of time, it is difficult to obtain an effective value as an amount of electric charge even if a determined current value is integrated with time. Thus, heretofore utilization of a method for measuring current has been limited to such a case where a direction along which electric charge transfers and measurements of current vary slightly within a short period of time.
We noted this measuring method by which transfer of minute electric charge can be determined, and studied applying the measuring method to measurement of an electrified state of polymer particles.
In case of electricity served for daily use, mutual conversion of current and voltage is easy as is apparent from the fact that a typical voltmeter is composed of an ammeter and a resistor having a high resistance value. This is because a relationship between voltage and current has been formulated through the mediation of resistance (impedance).
In general, however, mutual conversion of current measurement values according to the method used in the present invention to those of conventional potential and electrostatic voltage is impossible. This is because these respective measurements are simply in the form of current or voltage as a manner for expressing an electrified state of polymer particles, and their measuring principles are quite different from one another.

Method for vapor phase polymerization of alpha-olefin


The retreat completion position of the screw in the charging step in actual production is controlled based on the result in pilot production as follows. In pilot production, the measurement value Ts of the screw driving torque is integrated with respect to the screw position P from the forward limit to the retreat completion position Ps. When conforming item is produced in the pilot production, the value xcexa3Tsxc2x7dP obtained as a result of the integration is stored as a reference value. After actual production begins, the measurement value Tx of the screw driving torque is integrated in real time with respect to the screw position P from the forward limit to the screw position at each time. The obtained value xcexa3Txxc2x7dP is monitored. When this value xcexa3Txxc2x7dP coincides with the reference value xcexa3Tsxc2x7dP, it is determined that the charging step has been completed, and the retreat operation of the screw is stopped.

This application is based upon and claims the benefit of priority from the prior Japanese Patent Application No. 2000-078312, filed Mar. 21, 2000, the entire contents of which are incorporated herein by reference.
The present invention relates to a method for injection molding, and more particularly to a method for melting a molding material and storing a constant amount of molten material in a barrel of an injection unit.
An injection unit of an injection molding machine in general has the barrel containing therein a screw for melting a constant amount of molding material and injecting the melted material to a mold. Generally, the molding material is resin formed as pellets, which are stored in a hopper connected to a rear end portion of the barrel. When the screw is rotated in a forward direction within the barrel, the resin is introduced into the barrel from the hopper. The introduced resin is heated and melted. It is supplied to a front end portion of the screw while it is being kneaded, and then successively stored in a top end portion of the barrel. Accordingly, the screw is retreated by the pressure of the molten resin in the top end portion, and the molten resin of an amount substantially corresponding to the retreated distance is stored in the top end portion of the barrel (this step is called a charging step). Then, the molten resin is injected into the mold by moving the screw forward (this step is called an injection step). After the resin is hardened in the mold, the mold is opened and a molded product is taken out.
The amount of the molten resin finally injected into the mold is determined by the position of the screw when the charging step is completed (retreat completion position). Further, the amount of the molten resin varies depending on conditions, such as the temperature in the barrel and the number of revolutions of the screw at a time of introducing the resin in the barrel, and the pressure in the barrel at that time (the back pressure of the screw).
Therefore, to keep the amount of molten resin injected into the mold constant, the temperature in the barrel, the number of revolutions of the screw and the back pressure of the screw are regulated. However, of these conditions, the retreat completion position of the screw is generally fixed for each kind of the molded product.
After the resin in the barrel is completely melted, the properties and the amount of the molten resin injected into the mold are influenced by not only the above conditions but also the manufacturing lot of material resin, the mixture ratio of a recycled material to the material resin, the condition of the screw surface, the condition of internal surface of the barrel and the driving conditions of the screw at the time of injecting the molten resin into the mold. However, since the retreat completion position of the screw is fixed as described above, the amount of the molten resin injected into the mold is varied.
As a conventional technique, a method is known in which the screw retreat speed is controlled to be constant, so that the amount of the molten resin finally injected into the mold may be less varied. However, in this method, since the number of revolutions of the screw is changed to keep the screw retreat speed constant, the back pressure of the screw is varied. Since the number of revolutions of the screw and the back pressure of the screw greatly influence the properties of the molten resin, this method influences the quality of the molded product and therefore is not considered to be preferable. In particular, in the case of injection molding of polyvinyl chloride, decomposition of resin is greatly influenced by the number of revolutions of the screw. Therefore, change in number of revolutions of the screw may cause a serious problem in quality of the molded product.
The present invention was made in consideration of the above problems in the conventional method for controlling the amount of resin introduced and melted in the barrel in an injection molding machine. An object of the present invention is to provide a method for injection molding which can keep the amount and properties of the molten resin finally injected in a mold.
According to the present invention, there is provided a method for injection molding for introducing and melting molding material in a barrel containing a screw, and thereafter injecting the molten material into a mold, the method comprising the steps of:
carrying out pilot production to collect data showing a relationship between a screw retreat distance from a forward limit and screw driving torque when introducing and melting the molding material in the barrel, and integrating the screw driving torque with respect to the screw retreat distance from the forward limit to a retreat completion position of the screw, thereby obtaining a first integral value;
storing as a reference value the first integral value obtained when a conforming item is produced in the pilot production;
carrying out actual production to measure screw driving torque when introducing and melting the molding material, and integrating in real time the screw driving torque with respect to the screw retreat distance from the forward limit to a screw position at each time, thereby obtaining a second integral value; and
monitoring the second integral value, when the second integral value coincides with the reference value, determining that the step of introducing the molding material is completed, and stopping a rotation of the screw.
The present inventors discovered the following matters through their researches. When a molding material is melted in a barrel while it is being introduced therein (i.e., in a charging step), if the temperature in the barrel, the number of revolutions of the screw, the back pressure of the screw, the screw geometry, and the other conditions are constant, the rate of increase in amount of the molten resin stored in a top end portion of the barrel is proportional to the screw driving torque at that time. The present invention is based on this discovery. FIG. 1 shows the relationship between the screw driving torque and the amount of the molten resin stored in a unit time in the top end portion of the barrel.
Owing to the above relationship, the amount of the molding material stored in the barrel can be constant at the charging step completion time, if the value (integral value) obtained by integrating the screw driving torque with respect to the retreat distance of the screw is monitored and the retreat complete position of the screw is controlled using the integral value. As a result, the amount of the molding material finally injected into the mold from the barrel is kept constant.
With the method for injection molding of the present invention, it is unnecessary to change the set values of the number of revolutions of the screw and the back pressure of the screw as control parameters. Therefore, if the temperature in the barrel is set to be constant, the properties of the molding material (i.e., the molten resin) finally injected into the mold from the barrel can be kept constant.
In the case of an electric injection molding machine, the screw driving torque is proportional to the current value of an electric motor. In the case of a hydraulic injection molding machine, it is proportional to the driving hydraulic pressure of a hydraulic motor. Therefore, in the above method, the measurement value of the current or the driving hydraulic pressure can be used instead of the screw driving torque.
Immediately after the screw starts retreating, the relationship between the screw driving torque and the rate of increase in amount of the molten resin stored in the top end portion of the barrel is not necessarily stable. Therefore, it is preferable that the calculation of the aforementioned integral value be started not from the forward limit of the screw but from a reference position preset near the forward limit where the screw is retreated from the forward limit by a predetermined distance.
Preferably, when the molding material introduced and melted in the barrel is injected into the mold, the position where the screw advance speed is changed is shifted at each shot with reference to the retreat completion position in the step of introducing the molding material.
In the above method for injection molding, the screw driving torque may be integrated with respect to the elapsed time from the beginning of the retreat of the screw instead of the retreat distance of the screw.
Additional objects and advantages of the invention will be set forth in the description which follows, and in part will be obvious from the description, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and obtained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out hereinafter.


A non-refillable valve in a compressed gas cylinder to prevent the refilling of the cylinder after depletion of compressed gas initially in the cylinder. The non-refillable valve comprises a valve housing defining a valve chamber, with the valve chamber having a proximal end and a distal end. A valve core including a valve pin is coupled to the valve housing in the valve chamber. A detent formed in the valve housing extends into the valve chamber. A check ball is positioned in the valve chamber with the check ball movable from a first position past the detent to a second position, wherein the check ball is disposed against the ball seat at the distal end of the valve chamber forming a seal that prevents refilling of the cylinder.

The present invention relates to a valve mechanism for compressed gas cylinders and, more particularly, to a non-refillable valve for a compressed gas cylinder.
Compressed gas cylinders such as the type used on camping stoves, camping lanterns or torches used in the plumbing industry typically utilize a compressed gas in the cylinder such as propane, propylene, butane or methyl acetylene propadiene stabilized (MAPP(copyright)). The gas is charged into the cylinder under pressure which maintains the gas in a liquid state.
Existing valves for compressed gas cylinders typically utilize a valve assembly that has a spring biased pin which seals the gas in the cylinder. During a filling operation, the filling appliance that is attached to the gas cylinder pushes against and depresses the pin to open the valve to allow the fluid to enter the cylinder and squirt a measured amount of the fluid into the cylinder. When the appliance is retracted, the fill valve spring closes the valve and retains the gas in the cylinder. During the use of the cylinder, the separate application appliance that typically has an external valve assembly again depresses the interior valve stem which opens the cylinder to allow the fluid to expel into the externally valved appliance such as a camping stove or a torch, etc.
Recent legislation, particularly in the European community, is requiring that certain types of compressed gas cylinders be permitted to fill only once, i.e., be non-refillable.
Thus there is a need for a compressed gas cylinder valve that will allow the initial filling of the cylinder with the fluid such as compressed gas in a liquid state, allow such fluid to be extracted from the cylinder in the ordinary use of such compressed gas cylinder and then prevent the cylinder from being refilled with the fluid. There is a further need for a container, for fluids or solids, having a non-refillable valve.
The present invention provides a non-refillable valve in a compressed gas cylinder to prevent the refilling of the cylinder after depletion of compressed gas initially in the cylinder. The non-refillable valve comprises a valve housing defining a valve chamber, with the valve chamber having a proximal end and a distal end. A valve core including a valve pin is coupled to the valve housing in the valve chamber. A detent formed in the valve housing extends into the valve chamber. A check ball is positioned in the valve chamber with the check ball movable from a first position past the detent to a second position, wherein the check ball is disposed against the ball seat at the distal end of the valve chamber forming a seal that prevents refilling of the cylinder. Another embodiment of the non-refillable valve includes a detent that is arcuate and segmented. The detent can also be two or more dimples formed in the valve housing and extending into the valve chamber.
There is also provided a method for preventing the refilling of a compressed gas cylinder with the cylinder having a valve housing defining a valve chamber and a valve core with the valve pin positioned in the valve chamber. The method comprises the steps of forming a detent in the valve housing, with the detent extending into the valve chamber. Placing a check ball in the valve chamber between the valve pin and the detent. Then charging the cylinder with compressed gas, with the check ball in a first position which allows the compressed gas to flow past the check ball into the cylinder. Then extending the valve pin to push the check ball past the detent to a second position in the valve chamber, wherein an attempt to refill the cylinder will dispose the check ball against the ball seat forming a seal that prevents compressed gas from entering the cylinder.
There is also provided a compressed gas cylinder. The gas cylinder comprises a vessel having a wall and defining a cylinder opening in the wall. A relief valve is mounted in the wall a spaced distance from the cylinder opening. A valve housing defining a valve chamber is mounted in the cylinder opening. The valve chamber has a proximal end and a distal end. A valve core including a valve pin is coupled to the valve housing in the valve chamber. A detent is formed in the valve housing and extends into the valve chamber. A check ball is positioned in the valve chamber with the check ball configured to move from a first position past the detent to a second position. Upon moving from the first position to the second position, the check ball is disposed against a ball seat at the distal end of the valve chamber forming a seal that prevents refilling of the compressed gas cylinder.
There is additionally, provided a non-refillable valve for a compressed gas cylinder to prevent the refilling of the cylinder after depletion of compressed gas initially in the cylinder. The non-refillable valve comprises a means for containing defining a void, with the void having a proximal end and a distal end. A means for metering including a means for actuating is coupled to the means for containing in the void. A means for retarding is formed in the means for containing and extending into the void. A means for sealing is positioned in the void with the means for sealing configured to move from a first position past the means for retarding to a second position. When the means for sealing moves from the first position to the second position, the means for sealing is disposed against a means for seating at the distal end of the void forming a seal that prevents refilling of the cylinder.
There is also provided a non-refillable valve for container to prevent the refilling of the container after depletion of material initially in the container. The non-refillable valve comprises a valve housing defining a valve chamber, with the valve chamber having a proximal end distal end. A valve core including a valve pin is coupled to the valve housing in the valve chamber. A detent is formed in the valve housing and extends into the valve chamber. A check ball positioned in the valve chamber with the check ball configured to move from a first position past the detent to a second position. When the check ball moves from the first position to the second position it is disposed against the ball seat at the distal end of the valve chamber forming the seal that prevents refilling of the container.
There is additionally provided a container comprising a vessel having a wall and defining a container opening in the wall. The valve housing defining a valve chamber is mounted in the container opening with the valve chamber having a proximal end and a distal end. A valve core is coupled to the valve housing in the valve chamber, with the valve core including a valve pin. A detent is formed in the valve housing and extends into the valve chamber. A check ball is positioned in the valve chamber. The check ball is configured to move from a first position past the detent to a second position. When the check ball is in the second position, it is disposed against the ball seat at the distal end of the valve chamber forming a seal that prevents refilling of the container.


An embodiment comprises: a voltage generation unit for providing a direct current signal for driving a light emitting unit; a sensing resistor; and a dimming unit which is connected between the light emitting unit and the sensing resistor and controls a current flowing in the sensing resistor and the light emitting unit, wherein the dimming unit adjusts the level of the direct current signal on the basis of a first sensing voltage as a result of sensing the voltage of a first node where a switch is connected to the light emitting unit, and a second sensing voltage as a result of sensing the voltage of a second node where the switch is connected to the sensing resistor.

Recently, an LED light having high luminance, comparable to that of a lighting device such as an incandescent lamp, while being driven with low power has attracted increasing attention. Particularly, light driving devices for driving the LED light by controlling uniform current to flow through the LED light are actively researched and developed.
Such a light driving device has various lighting functions and, particularly, can enable lighting in various forms by changing dimming levels of LED elements arranged in serial/parallel connection.
In general, a light driving device can include a rectification circuit for rectifying full waves output from an AC power supply, a transformation circuit for transforming the voltage output from the rectification circuit and outputting the transformed voltage, a power factor correction circuit for correcting a power factor of power output from the AC power supply by controlling the output voltage of the transformation circuit, a smoothing circuit for smoothing the voltage output from the transformation circuit to output a stable DC voltage and supplying the output voltage to an LED module, a constant current driving circuit for controlling LED current such that uniform driving current flows through the LED module, and a dimming control circuit for controlling current flow in the LED module by controlling the constant current driving circuit according to PWM (Pulse Width Modulation), thereby controlling dimming.

Device for driving light emitting element


A new system and method allow a Manager in a network to control, monitor and receive accounting from its Agents. The system and method comprise the unique provision and use of an accounting file which is used by each Agent for maintaining the accounting information database for the Manager. The agent collects the accounting data specified by the Manager and stores it in the accounting data file. The Agent further maintains a status record based upon the status of the accounting data collection activity. If the Agent has completed collecting the accounting data as specified by the Manager, the status record indicates that the file is in a full state, or COMPLETE. Alternatively, if the Agent is still in the process of collecting and storing the accounting data, the status record will indicate that the accounting file is in an active state, or ACTIVE. In operation, the Manager first issues a command to each of its Agents to begin collecting and storing a particular type and amount of accounting data. Periodically, the Manager polls its Agents to determine which of them has completed the collecting and storing of the accounting data as indicated by a COMPLETE status record. The Manager then issues a request for receiving the accounting data file, using a file transfer protocol (FTP), from those Agents which have complete accounting files.

I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to network management and, more particularly, to a system and method for controlling, monitoring and retrieving accounting data by a network manager from its managed network components.
II. Background and Prior Art
Data communication has become a fundamental part of computing. World-wide networks gather data about such diverse subjects as atmospheric conditions, crop production, and airline traffic. These network have evolved as independent entities without the ability, or, until recently, the need, to interconnect with one another. New technologies, generically named "internetworking", have emerged making it possible to interconnect many disparate physical networks and make them function as a coordinated unit. Using internetworking technologies, a host, for example, on one network, may traverse multiple networks and communicate with another host on a different network.
The size of an "internet", Or group of interconnected networks, can vary quite significantly. For instance, the resulting network may be enormously large, such as the nation-wide DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency)/NSF (National Science Foundation) Internet which connects most major research institutions, including universities, corporate and government labs. Conversely, the network may be relatively small, comprising only a single corporation's individual local area networks (LANs).
No matter the size of the network, it is clear that the task of effectively managing the resulting interconnected network is quite important and has been given a great deal of attention in the networking community. In managing an interconnected network, a network manager must keep track of the devices on the network, monitor the network's performance and load, and diagnose and correct any problems.
The network manager is charged with, among other things, monitoring network performance and status, controlling operational parameters, and reporting, analyzing and isolating faults in its managed domain. Furthermore, the manager must keep an accounting of the activity in its managed domain for customer billing, performance analysis, capacity planning and problem determination. In order to effectively accomplish these functions, the manager requires precise and timely accounting data regarding the network activity from the nodes in the network.
Using presently available network management protocols such as SNMP (Simple Network Management Protocol) and CMIP (Common Management Information Protocol), network administrators (via "Managers") can address queries and commands to managed network nodes and devices (via "Agents") in order to retrieve this accounting data.
FIG. 1 illustrates a simplified network having four interconnected nodes, Node 1, Node 2, Node 3 and Node 4. The nodes are logically interconnected by transmission groups (TGs). As can be seen, Node 1 is connected to Node 2 by TG A, Node 1 to Node 4 by TG E, and so forth. Each node is a managed network device and has an Agent (agent1, agent2, agent3, agent4) for collecting management data and for responding to the Manager, which is logically connected to each Agent. The management data includes accounting data for different categories of data traffic.
Using present accounting monitoring and retrieval systems and methods, the Manager gathers the accounting data and storing the data in accounting files (e.g., Agent1's File1 and File2) from its Agents in a rather straight forward manner. After the Agent begins collecting the accounting data, the Manager explicitly retrieves the collected data through a request/response sequence or the data is automatically sent to the Manager (without being requested or solicited).
FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate these traditional accounting retrieval methods, respectively. In particular, FIG. 2A illustrates the flow of messages exchanged between a Manager and an Agent where the Manager is requesting that the Agent collect some particular accounting data and retrieves it data object-by-data object. The messages are illustrated as arrows pointing in the direction of the message flow, the message indicator being positioned directly above its corresponding arrow.
Initially, as discussed above, the Manager requests that the Agent begin collecting some particular accounting data, such as, for example, data regarding the traffic for a specific network protocol. After some period of time, the Manager issues a request for the first data object (Data Object 1). This is accomplished by the Manager using the specific management protocol commands. For example, using the SNMP protocol, the Manager Would issue a GetNextRequest PDU (Protocol Data Unit) without specifying any instance of the data object. The Agent then responds with the first data object using the corresponding protocol command, i.e. , GetResponse in the SNMP protocol. In the present example, the Agent responds with the first data object (Data Object 1), if it has already collected it. The Manager follows with a request for the data object after Data Object 1 and the Agent replies with Data Object 2. The Manager then requests the data object after Data Object 2. Because the Agent has not yet collected this data object, it responds to the Manager with a "No Such Data Object" response, indicating to the Manager that it has not yet collected that data object. After a period of time, the Manager again requests the data object after Data Object 2. Again, the Agent has not yet collected that object. Some time later, the Manager retries to retrieve the data object after Data Object 2. By this time, the Agent has collected the data object and sends it to the Manager. This example has been described as the Manager requesting and receiving the accounting data on an object-by-object basis. Alternatively, however, the Manager may request and receive the data on a record-by-record basis where a record contains a predetermined number of objects.
Clearly, this is a cumbersome and inefficient process for both the Manager and the Agent. Using this prior art technique, both the Manager and Agent are responsible for dedicating a large percentage of processing time to accommodate the retrieval of accounting data. This interferes with the primary functions of both the Manager and the Agent.
FIG. 2B illustrates another prior art method of collecting, monitoring and retrieving accounting data. Using this technique and system, the .Manager initially requests that the Agent begin collecting the particular accounting data. The Agent, as it collects this accounting data, sends the data objects to the Manager in an asynchronous manner such as by using interrupts. As with the example above, the data may be sent to the Manager in an object-by-object basis or in a record-by-record basis.
As with the previous method, the Manager initially requests that the Agent begin the collection of accounting data. After the Agent has collected the first data object (Data Object 1), it sends the data object to the Manager using a type of interrupt. In a similar manner, the Agent sends the remaining data objects as they are collected (Data Object 2, Data Object 3 . . . Data Object n, where n is the total number of records that the Manager wants the Agent to collect). Also, as with the previous technique, the Agent may send a predetermined number of data objects rather than one at a time.
This prior art technique also has many disadvantages. First, the Manager may be interrupted in its primary function or other tasks having higher priority than the receipt of accounting data, and the sporadic receipt of that data from the Agent may interfere with the performance of those tasks. Further, such sporadic bursts of network activity may impact the performance of the network. Finally, such accounting data may be lost in transit with little or no error control. This strategy is deemed unacceptable from a reliability perspective as the interrupt and the data may never reach the Manager--and/or cannot be controlled by the Manager.
Presently, there is no mechanism for allowing the Manager to effectively control, monitor, and receive accounting data from its Agents.

System and method for controlling, monitoring and retrieving accounting data

International Business Machines Corporation


A color measurement instrument with improved sample targeting or positioning. The system includes an integrating sphere, a beam splitter, a video camera, and a spectrograph. The beam splitter is aligned with the viewing port of the spectrophotometer to deliver the light reflected from the sample to both the video camera and the spectrograph. The video camera provides an image of the position of the sample with respect to the viewing port of the sphere, enabling the visual observation and evaluation of the sample position prior to use of the spectrophotometer.

The present invention relates to spectrophotometers, and more particularly to benchtop spectrophotometers.
Spectrophotometers are instruments used to determine the color of a sample. A spectrophotometer typically includes a source of illumination to illuminate the sample, a color measurement engine for detecting light reflected from the sample, and signal processing circuitry connected to the light measurement engine to compute curves or numerical values indicative of the color of the sample. The general principles of construction and use of spectrophotometers are well known to those skilled in the color measurement art.
One type of spectrophotometer uses an integrating sphere in which the light illuminating the sample is integrated to provide diffuse, uniform illumination over an exposed measurement area of the sample. Examples of such spectrophotometers are illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,061,140 issued May 9, 2000, entitled xe2x80x9cSpectrophotometer With Selectable Measurement Areaxe2x80x9d; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,369,481, issued Nov. 29, 1994, entitled xe2x80x9cPortable Spectrophotometer.xe2x80x9d Both disclosed spectrophotometers are xe2x80x9cportablexe2x80x9d or xe2x80x9chand-heldxe2x80x9d units, in which the instrument is placed against the sample.
Other spectrophotometers are xe2x80x9cbenchtopxe2x80x9d units providing ultra-high levels of precision in determining color. As the name implies, benchtop units are stationary, and the samples to be measured are placed in or on the units for analysis. A significant challenge with benchtop units is the accurate positioning of the sample within the sample port, so that the desired area of the sample is measured. Accurate positioning of the sample is critical to accurate measurement.
Prior artisans have taken two approaches in providing visual evaluation of the position of a sample within the sample port of a spectrophotometer. One instrument includes an optical port aligned with the sample port. A user may look through the port to visually observe the position of the sample within the sample port. However, use of the optical port can be physically awkward as the operator positions her eye and head to look into the sphere interior. Another instrument includes a split integrating sphere that can be opened to permit direct observation of the sample within the sample port. This procedure is awkward and exposes the sphere interior to possible dirt, smudges, and physical damage.
The aforementioned problems are overcome in the present invention in which a video camera is used to monitor the position of the sample within the sample port prior to color measurement.
As disclosed, the system includes an integrating sphere, a beam splitter, a video camera, and a color measurement system. The beam splitter is aligned with the viewing port of the sphere so that light reflected from the sample is directed both to the video camera and to the color measurement system. The image acquired by the video camera can be observed to evaluate position of the sample within the sample port. If the position is not as desired, the sample is manually repositioned and rechecked until it is as desired. After the sample position is confirmed as accurate, the color measurement is taken.
Accordingly, the present invention permits the visual, real-time confirmation of proper sample position with respect to a color measurement before the color measurement is taken.

Benchtop spectrophotometer with improved targeting