When recording and/or reproducing data on a disk formatted in a constant linear velocity (CLV) system while the disk is rotated and a head is movable for scanning radially successive circular tracks thereon, and a recording and/or reproducing circuit is operable in response to a data transfer clock for causing the head to record and/or reproduce data in the tracks scanned thereby: the disk is virtually divided into a plurality of virtual zones each comprised of a respective plurality of the tracks; the frequency of the data transfer clock is determined in dependence on the one of the virtual zones in which the tracks being scanned are situated at least during the initiation of a recording or reproducing operation, with the frequency determined at the initiation of a recording or reproducing operation being increased step wise for each successive zone considered in the radially outward direction and being maintained substantially constant at least so long as the tracks being scanned are in the one of the zones at which the recording or reproducing operation was initiated; and the angular velocity at which the disk is rotated during the recording or reproducing of data in the tracks within any one of the virtual zones is decreased as successive tracks, considered in the radially outward direction, are scanned during the recording or reproducing operation in which the frequency of the data transfer clock is maintained substantially constant.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a method and apparatus for recording and/or reproducing data on a disk formatted in accordance with a constant linear velocity (CLV) system, and more particularly is directed to such method and apparatus suitable for use with a write once optical disk drive.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to employ disks formatted in accordance with constant angular velocity (CAV), constant linear velocity (CLV) and modified constant angular velocity (MCAV) systems for the recording and reproducing of data in sectors arranged on the disk while suitably controlling the speed of rotation of the disk by a spindle motor, for example, as shown in detail in U.S. Pat. No. 4,660,189, which has a common assignee herewith.
As generally illustrated in FIG. 4, in such known apparatus for controlling the rotation of a disk 1 coupled to a spindle motor 2 through a rotary shaft 3 while a recording and reproducing head (not shown) is moved in a radial direction R relative to the disk 1, the rotary shaft 3 of the motor 2 is further connected with a rotation sensor 4, such as, a frequency generator or the like, that provides a pulsed signal with a frequency corresponding to the rotational speed of the disk 1. Such pulsed signal is applied to a rotational speed detector circuit 5 which, in response thereto, provides a rotational speed signal S1 having a value or level corresponding to the rotational speed of the disk. The rotational speed signal S1 is supplied to one input terminal of a comparator circuit 6 which, at another input terminal, receives a predetermined reference signal S2 from a terminal 7. The comparator circuit 6 compares the received rotational speed signal S1 with the reference signal S2 and provides a corresponding difference signal S3 which is supplied to a motor drive circuit 8. The motor drive circuit 8 drives the motor 2 in response to the difference signal S3 so as to vary the rotational speed of the motor 2, and hence of the disk 1, in the direction for reducing the difference signal S3 to 0, that is, in the direction for equating the rotational speed signal S1 with the reference speed signal S2. Thus, the control circuit illustrated in FIG. 4 constitutes a so-called servo loop. Although, in practice, such servo loop desirably includes a phase control loop and a velocity control loop as well as a phase compensating circuit for increasing the servo accuracy, such additional circuits are not shown in FIG. 4 for the sake of simplicity.
When recording and reproducing signals on the disk 1 in accordance with the CAV system, the rotational speed of the disk 1 is maintained constant, that is, the reference signal S2 applied to the comparator circuit 6 has a constant value, and, as a result thereof, a relatively short access time is attainable even when moving the head a relatively large radial distance on the disk. As shown in FIG. 5A which represents the format of the disk 1 when recorded according to the CAV system, the hatched areas 10 and 11 needed to record unit sectors in respective tracks adjacent the inner and outer peripheries, respectively, of the recordable area of the disk have different peripheral lengths. More specifically, the length in the peripheral direction along each track that is required to record a unit sector is progressively increased from track to track from the inner periphery to the outer periphery of the area of the disk available for recording of data. By reason of the foregoing, when using the CAV system, the recording density is progressively lowered from track to track in the radial direction from the inner periphery to the outer periphery of the recordable area of the disk 1 so that, when considered in the aggregate, the recording capacity is relatively small.
In the case of the CLV system, the rotational speed at which the disk 1 is rotated during recording and reproducing data thereon is changed from track to track in inverse proportion to the radius of the track on the disk then being scanned for the recording or reproducing of data thereon. As a result of the foregoing, when the disk 1 is recorded according to the CLV system, the format thereof illustrated on FIG. 5B is characterized by areas of equal peripheral lengths required for the recording of unit sectors in tracks adjacent the inner and outer peripheral areas of the recordable area of the disk, as indicated by the shaded or hatched areas 12 and 13, respectively. Accordingly, the same recording density is obtained on each of the tracks comprising the recordable area of the disk with the result that a theoretically maximum recording capacity is achieved. Such recording capacity attainable through the use of the CLV system is about 1.5 times the recording capacity attained when using the CAV system.
However, when using the CLV system, in order to maintain the linear velocity at a constant value, the rotational speed or angular velocity of the spindle motor 2 must be changed in accordance with changes in the position of the recording and reproducing head in the radial direction R of the disk 1. In other words, the value of the reference signal S2 supplied to the comparator circuit 6 (FIG. 4) must be varied as a function of the number of the track being scanned by the recording and reproducing head, which number is counted in the radially outward direction. Thus, when using the CLV system, the rotational speed of the disk must be changed in accordance with access movements of the recording and reproducing head. The need to change the rotational speed of the disk with changes in the position of the track being scanned by the recording and reproducing head requires a substantial increase in the access time when the recording and reproducing head is moved a relatively large radial distance, for example, from a track near the inner periphery to a track near the outer periphery of the recordable area of the disk. The increased access time is required to permit the necessary substantial change in the rotational speed of the disk which is opposed by the inertial tendency of the disk to continue rotation at its original speed.
In both the CAV system and the CLV system, the number of sectors recorded and reproduced per unit time is the same when the head scans any of the tracks within the recordable area of the disk. Therefore, in the case of the CAV system and in the case of the CLV system, the frequency of the clock employed for the recording and reproducing operation performed anywhere within the recordable area of the disk is unchanged.
The MCAV system seeks to effectively utilize the advantages of the CAV system, that is, the relatively short access time of the CAV system, while increasing the recording capacity relative to the latter. As shown in FIG. 5C which illustrates the format of a disk 1 recorded by the MCAV system, it will be seen that, in such case, the recordable area of the disk is divided into a plurality of physically predetermined zones 16a, 16b, 16c, arranged successively in the radially outward direction and each comprised of a respective plurality of circular tracks, and the recording and reproducing is carried out in accordance with the CAV system in each of the zones 16a, 16b, 16c. When the recording and reproducing head moves from one zone to the next, the frequency of the recording and reproducing clock is changed to the maximum clock frequency that can be utilized within the newly encountered zone for effecting the recording and reproducing operations therein. As a result of the foregoing, the hatched areas 17a, 17b and 17c required for the recording of unit sectors in the radially innermost tracks of the zones 16a, 16b, 16c, respectively, are of the same lengths. Therefore, the recording density is the same in each of the tracks, and the number of sectors recorded in each track is increased from zone to zone in the radially outward direction. Since the frequency of the recording and reproducing clock is changed from zone to zone in the MCAV system, the data transfer rate is similarly changed from zone to zone in such system.
Referring now to FIG. 6 for a graphic comparison of the recording capacities of disks recorded according to the CAV, CLV and MCAV systems, respectively, it will be seen that the abscissa represents the radius of the disk from the radius r.sub.0 of the track at the inner periphery of the recordable area of the disk to the radius r.sub.max of the track at the outermost periphery of the recordable area, while the ordinate represents the number of sectors in each of the tracks having a radius between r.sub.0 and r.sub.max. The horizontal dashed line on FIG. 6 represents the number of sectors in each of the tracks between the radii r.sub.o and the r.sub.max on a disk recorded according to the CAV system; the upwardly inclined solid line represents the numbers of sectors in the tracks between the radii r.sub.o and the r.sub.max on a disk recorded according to the CLV system; and the upwardly stepped dot-dash line represents the numbers of sectors in the tracks between the radii r.sub.o and r.sub.max on a disk recorded according to the MCAV system. Therefore, the rectangular area under the dashed horizontal line on FIG. 6 represents the recording capacity of a disk recorded according to the CAV system, the trapezoidal area under the inclined solid line on FIG. 6 represents the recording capacity of a disk recorded according to the CLV system, and the area under the stepped dot-dash line on FIG. 6 represents the recording capacity of a disk recorded according to the MCAV systems. From the foregoing, it is apparent that the CLV system affords the maximum recording capacity which is theoretically 1.5 times the recording capacity attainable by the CAV system and only slightly larger than the recording capacity attainable by the MCAV system.
Although the CAV, CLV and MCAV systems have certain respective desirable characteristics, each of these known systems is burdened with a respective disadvantage. Thus, for example, although the CAV system has a short access time, as described above, the recording density measured in the peripheral direction along each track is decreased from track to track in the radially outer direction with the result that the overall recording capacity is relatively small.
Although the CLV system provides a relatively large recording capacity which, as noted above, is theoretically 1.5 times the recording capacity attainable with the CAV system, the rotational speed of the disk being recorded or reproduced must be changed from track to track, that is, in accordance with the radial position of the recording and reproducing head, so as to achieve the desired constant linear velocity and, as a result of the need to effect such changes in the rotational speed, the access time is undesirably increased.
Although the MCAV system can obtain a recording capacity substantially equal to that of the CLV system while employing a constant rotational speed so that the access time is desirably short, the frequency of the recording and reproducing clock is changed as the head moves radially from one to another of the physically predetermined zones into which the recordable area of the disk is divided so that it is necessary to constantly effect accurate control of the absolute address or radial position of the recording and reproducing head. Furthermore, since the data transfer rate is changed upon each change in the frequency of the recording and reproducing clock at the inner and outer peripheries of each zone while the rotational speed of the disk remains constant, effecting the desired control becomes complicated.

Method and apparatus for recording and/or reproducing data on a disk formatted in accordance with a constant linear velocity (CLV) system


Embodiments of an alloy that can be resistant to cracking. In some embodiments, the alloy can be advantageous for use as a hardfacing alloys, in both a diluted and undiluted state. Certain microstructural, thermodynamic, and performance criteria can be met by embodiments of the alloys that may make them advantageous for hardfacing.

Field
The disclosure generally relates to hardfacing weld overlays used to protect components subject to abrasion
Description of the Related Art
Hardfacing and/or weld overlays are commonly used in a variety of applications to protect components from excessive material loss in abrasive environments. In certain applications it can be desirable for the hardfacing overlay to remain crack free after the welding process is complete. This is not typical of hardfacing alloys as many stress relieve crack during or immediately after welding due to the inherent low toughness of the alloy. Hardfacing alloys are typically very hard, in excess of 50 HRC, and it is well known by those skilled in the art of metallurgy that hardness is generally inversely related to toughness. In certain applications, it is further desirable to weld over the original worn down layer of the hardfacing, and to do so without generating cracks in the original or secondary weld overlay. In such applications it is often desirable to continuously weld over worn layers again and again as wear occurs on the existing hardfacing to continuously repair and re-build the hardfacing layer. In the process of re-building hardfacing layers in this manner, it is commonplace to weld a hardfacing alloy of one type over a hardfacing layer of a second different type. It is generally desirable to do be able to do so without introducing any loss in performance.
Two types of cracks are known to commonly occur in hardfacing. The first, stress cracks, are very common and easy to detect. These cracks occur due to the weld bead contracting as it cools, resulting in thermal stresses being built up in the weld to a level which creates cracks in the weld. The second, hot tears, are less common, and less detectable as they do not create loud crack 'ping's during the welding process. Hot tears occur when the alloy solidifies over a larger temperature, and the edges of the bead begin to solidify and contract while the center of the bead has not yet fully solidified. The contraction of the outer bead pulls the liquid phase at the center of the bead apart. This mechanism is also known to those skilled in the art of metallurgy.
An example of a specific application where the problems of stress cracking and hot tearing commonly occur is hardbanding. Hardbanding is the process of protecting the drill pipe, generally in the form of two or more weld beads deposited onto the tool joint. It is common and also desirable to deposit additional overlays onto worn hardbands to rebuild the wear resistant surface. As drill pipe is commonly rented out to various drilling sites, and it is also common to apply one type of hardbanding alloy over a second hardbanding alloy of a different type. The current available selection of hardbanding alloys is relatively diverse; many form wear resistance through the carbide formation, and many others through boride formation. Welding a carbide forming alloy over a boride forming alloy creates conditions where the re-building layer is very likely to either stress crack or hot tear.
One example of an alloy which is highly resistant to hot tearing, but is subject to stress cracking is presented in U.S. Pat. No. 8,647,449: Fe: bal, Cr: 5, Nb: 4, V: 0.5, C: 0.8, B: 0.9, Mo: 3.5, Ti: 0.2, Si: 0.5, Mn: 1, hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. This alloy can be welded as a single layer, but is increasingly likely to stress crack with subsequent re-building layers. The general class of materials which exhibit this type of behavior can form either primary carbides or borides, and also form eutectic carbides or borides in excess of 15 volume %. This classification is based upon extensive research conducted within this study. An example of such an alloy is shown in FIG. 1 (left), where the both carbides [101] and borides [102] exist in a ferritic matrix [103], but the eutectic borides are present at about 20 volume %.
One example of an alloy which is highly resistant to stress cracking, but subject to hot tearing is that presented in WO 2014/127062 (which claims priority to U.S. 61/889,548, filed Nov. 4, 2013): Fe: bal, C: 1, Cr: 5, Mn: 1.1, Mo: 0.75, Ni: 0.1, Si: 0.77, Ti: 3; WO 2014/127062 and U.S. 61/889,548 are hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety. This alloy can be re-built over worn layers of a similar type indefinitely without stress cracking or hot tearing. However, when this alloy is welded over a worn hardbanding layer containing B, it will hot tear. The general class of materials which exhibit this type of behavior form either primary carbides or borides (carbides or borides which precipitate from the liquid prior to the austenite matrix phase), but do not form both carbide and boride. An example of an alloy susceptible to hot tearing is shown in FIG. 1 (right), where primary carbides [104] are embedded in a martensitic matrix [105]; the lack of any eutectic carbides or borides, and the lack of borides in the microstructure create increased likelihood for hot tearing.
The current state of the art for hardfacing materials possess alloys which fall into either of these two general categories. Thus, there is a need for a class of hardfacing materials which are resistant to both of these forms of failure: stress cracking and hot tearing.


It is described a network attack detection method. A topology analysis on network is conducted to obtain a probing path set containing at least one probing path. A first probing path contained in the probing path set is probed by using a probing pattern to obtain a performance metric of the first probing path. It is determined whether the first probing path is subjected to network attack according to the performance metric and a control performance metric.

Recent research discovered a new class of Target Link Flooding Attack (LFA) in the DDoS (Distributed Denial of Service) that can effectively cut off the Internet connections of a target area (or guard area) without being detected. More precisely, an attacker first selects persistent links that connect the target area to the Internet and have high flow density, and then instructs bots to generate legitimate traffic between themselves and public servers for congesting those links. If the paths among bots cover the target area, an attacker can also send traffic among themselves to clog the network.
It is difficult to detect LFA because (1) the target links are selected by an attacker. Since the target links may be located in an AS different from that containing the target area and the attack traffic will not reach the target area, the victim may not even know he/she is under attack; (2) each bot sends low-rate protocol-conforming traffic to public servers, thus rendering signature-based detection systems useless; (3) bots can change their traffic patterns to evade the detection based on abnormal traffic patterns. Although a few router-based approaches have been proposed to defend against such attacks, their effectiveness may be limited because they cannot be widely deployed to the Internet immediately.

Tencent Technology (Shenzhen) Company Limited


A roller chain conveyor having wire cross flights and attachments for releasably mounting said cross flights on the chain to provide a conveying surface. The attachment has at least one groove therein to receive an extended portion of the cross flight. The attachments may also be used in conveyors having multiple roller chains therein.

The present invention relates to roller chain conveyors of the type having wire or rod cross flights to support transported articles, and more particularly to a conveyor chain attachment to which wire or rod flights can be releasably attached without the use of special tools.
Roller chain conveyors are widely used to transport articles in various industrial applications. In many applications it is desirable to use cross flights made of wire or rod to support the conveyed articles. Cross flights of this type exhibit the advantage of providing support for the articles while contacting only a minimum surface area of the article being conveyed. This is particularly useful in heating, cooling, washing, drying and similar operations where it is desirable to expose a maximum amount of the surface area of the conveyed article.
There exist, in the prior art, numerous roller chain conveyors having wire or rod cross flights. The cross flights are attached to the conveyor chain in several ways, as shown by those disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,094,206 issued on June 18, 1963 to Stewart, et al.; 3,252,564 issued on May 24, 1966 to Stewart et al.; 3,363,744, issued on Jan. 16, 1968, to Green, et al.; 3,653,493 issued on Apr. 4, 1972 to Kerr; 3,708,059, issued on Jan. 2, 1973 to Ackermann; 3,910,406 issued on Oct. 7, 1975 to Pulver, et al. and 4,128,165, issued on Dec. 5, 1978 to Euverard.
Those conveyor chains having wire cross flights directly attached to the chain are undesirable because replacement of a particular cross flight requires that a portion of the chain itself be disassembled and/or replaced, often requiring the use of special tools. The difficulty encountered in maintaining and mounting the cross flights results in excessive downtime in a system employing conveyor chain of this type.
Known conveyor chains employing a chain attachment to which the cross flights are, in turn, connected, such as the two-part clip disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,910,406 are undesirable because the cross flights may tend to work themselves loose during operation resulting in the cross flights or entire attachment falling off the chain.
Accordingly, it is one object of the present invention to provide a snap-on attachment for an articulated roller chain which releasably, holds a wire or rod cross flight for conveying articles.
Another object of the present invention is to provide an articulated roller chain conveyor having wire or rod cross flights in which the cross flights are easily mounted on and removed from the chain without the use of special tools.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reading the entire disclosure with reference to the accompanying drawings.

Snap-on attachment for roller chain conveyors


To provide high intensity, uniform and specular illumination over a relatively large area, the present invention provides a specially configured reflector and a radiation source so positioned within the reflector that an apparent source is produced comprising the true source plus a spherical array of virtual images of the source.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a reflector arrangement for use with a radiation source to provide high intensity, uniform and specular illumination of an exposure plane. The term "specular" as used herein means "collimated" or "substantially collimated", i.e. comprised of radiation in which the rays have a small angle of divergence.
2. Description Relative to the Prior Art
The present invention is concerned with the difficult problem of uniformly illuminating a relatively large area exposure plane with high intensity, specular radiation. More specifically, the present invention relates to a reflector arrangement which, when used with a radiation source positioned as taught by the present invention, provides illumination of a type that is useful in the photographic replication of a video record device, such as a video disc, by means of optical contact printing. In order to appreciate the problems involved in providing such illumination, it is useful to examine the photographic replication of video discs in more detail.
In theory, replicate video discs can be mass produced from a master video disc by (1) placing the master and replicate discs in intimate contact and (2) exposing the replicate disc through the master disc with actinic radiation. In actual practice, however, this seemingly simple contact printing process has not yet found widespread application among prospective video disc manufacturers. Instead, a more complex replication process involving sophisticated embossing techniques is generally used wherein a master die (which contains the video information in the form of billions of micron sized bumps) is prepared and pressed into contact with deformable plastic material which becomes the replicate disc. There appear to be at least three reasons why the simpler contact printing process is not used:
(1) There is a problem in finding a photographic replicate medium in which billions of closely spaced micron sized data bits can be photographically recorded. PA0 (2) Even if such a photographic replicate medium were available, it is difficult to maintain intimate contact, between master and replicate, over the relatively large area involved (the standard video disc is 30 cm in diameter). PA0 (3) Lastly, it is difficult to illuminate such a large area with radiation of sufficient intensity, uniformity and specularity to make the contact printing operation successful.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 715,017 filed Aug. 16, 1977 of common assignee concerns the first two problems. (U.S. application Ser. No. 715,017 was refiled as Continuation Application Ser. No. 891,865 on March 30, 1978, now abandoned.) Briefly, that application discloses a photographic replicate medium having certain properties which enable the billions of closely packed, micron sized data bits to be recorded with excellent quality, even if intimate contact is not achieved between the master and replicate devices during the contact printing process. The third problem, i.e., providing proper illumination of the master disc during contact printing, remains, however, and has posed serious obstacles to a commercially acceptable contact printing replication process for video discs. This problem is further complicated by the fact that at least one of the materials disclosed in U.S. Ser. No. 715,017 has been found to release nitrogen gas upon exposure to actinic radiation. The nitrogen gas is released in such quantities that if one attempts to replicate in such materials by optical contact printing, the master and replicate devices are forced apart during the exposure. It may be that if the exposure duration can be made sufficiently short, the exposure can take place before the nitrogen gas forces the sandwiched master and replicate devices out of contact. All other factors constant, decreasing the exposure time means that the intensity of the exposing sources must be increased. It has been found, however, that--due to the relatively slow photographic speed of the replicating material--even a high intensity xenon flashlamp is not sufficient, by itself, to provide illumination of sufficient intensity to make such short exposure times feasible.
It is known to use certain types of reflectors as a means of altering the intensity distribution of a radiation source (such as a xenon flashlamp). For example, one such reflector theoretically produces parallel rays of light from a light source located at the focal point of a parabolic reflector. In actual practice, the light source is of finite extent so most parts of the source are not precisely located at the focal point, and divergence of rays from a common optical axis is produced. Further, light emitted from the source in a direction away from the parabolic reflector (and away from the target area) is lost. This unused radiation can amount to a substantial, even major, portion of the total light energy.
Another form of reflector is an elliptical reflector with a light source positioned at the near focal point. The elliptical reflector focuses the light from the source into the far focal point of the "ellipse". The finite extent of the source prevents perfect focusing, the result being that the light rays are concentrated in a small but finite area about the far focal point. Elliptical reflectors are, therefore, generally used to provide high intensity illumination of small areas. This type of reflector is inherently unsuitable for optical contact printing of video discs because of the relatively large disc areas which must be illuminated.
Both of the above types of reflectors, and all other reflectors having a curved reflective surface, use optical power to accomplish focusing of light rays emitted from a source. The optical power is provided in the curved reflective surfaces. The illumination pattern of such a reflector is very sensitive to the uniformity and positioning of the source, as well as to the precise shape of its curved surface. The result is an effect, sometimes referred to as "zoning", wherein shadows, hot spots, or other types of uneven illumination occur in the exposure plane. With preferred video disc replication materials, non-uniformities of illumination can cause loss of video information or a reduction in the signal-to-noise ratio. Thus, the above discussed zoning problems make curved-surface reflectors generally unattractive for use in replicating video discs by optical contact printing.
In an effort to avoid these problems, it has been suggested that a multi-faceted reflector could be used which contains no curved surfaces. (Proceedings of the Microelectronics Seminar, San Diego, Calif., 1974, Oct. 21-22, Lenses And Optical Systems Used In Microelectronics by Robert E. Hopkins, Tropel, Inc., p. 37). As taught in that paper, a light source is positioned inside a pyramidal reflector to provide a light source for a projector. The source is positioned within the reflector such that the reflective facets produce an apparent source comprised of an annular array of virtual images of the true light source. As stated in the paper, "[t]he ring of light has to be treated carefully for it is exactly the shape of image that the optical system doesn't want as far as resolution is concerned . . . [I]t would be necessary to introduce some scattering to throw light into the center of the aperture to avoid the doughnut-shaped image of light that it forms." While these comments are directed to the use of such a reflector in a projection optical system, they apply as well to optical contact printing, i.e., use of the pyramidal reflector as taught in the above paper would still produce a doughnut-shaped angular distribution of illuminance, and the annular array of source images would decrease the specularity of illumination, thereby lowering the resolution of the contact printing process.
Thus, while some type of reflector appears necessary to provide high intensity, uniform and specular illumination for the contact printing replication of video discs, both curved surface reflectors and multi-faceted reflectors, such as the pyramidal reflector described above, are unsuitable because of inherent non-uniformities in illumination and/or decreases in the specular quality of illumination.

Reflector arrangement for providing high intensity, uniform and specular illumination of a relatively large exposure area


This disclosure is directed to techniques for providing comparing first and second XML files to one another. According to these techniques, a computing device (e.g., a version control service executing on the computing device), may be configured generate at least two edit transcripts that each include one or more operational changes that may be applied to data elements of the first XML file to arrive at data elements of the second XML file (or vice versa). The computing device may select at least one optimal edit transcript based on which of the number of operational changes of the at least two edit transcripts.

The relatively recent advent of large scale computing networks, such as the Internet, have lead to a variety of new mechanisms for providing network-based services. One mechanism is a web service. A web service refers to software executing on one or more servers that is used specifically to provide a network-accessible interface to data, functions or other form of network resource. That is the web service uses standards-compliant interfaces to expose network resources which may be utilized by other software applications. The web service is referred to as a "web" service since it typically provides an application programming interface (API) that may be invoked by the messaging protocols executing over the hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP), which is typically associated with the "World Wide Web." However, instead of being accessed by a user via a web browser, other software applications invoke the web service so as to make use of the functionality provided by the web services. For example, software applications may issue extensible markup language (XML)-based messages using the Simple Object Access Protocol (SOAP) using hypertext transfer protocol (HTTP) or hypertext transfer protocol secure (HTTPS) to invoke a web service.
As one example, an enterprise may utilize web services to provide access to internal systems and to allow the systems to exchange information. For example, an enterprise may deploy a web service to provide access functions to an inventory management system. Similarly, the enterprise may deploy web services to expose access to an accounting system that maintains accounts receivable information and a sales force management system that maintains customer account information. The various enterprise software systems may utilize the web services so as to directly access and exchange data with each other. In many cases, an intermediate web service may invoke one or more other web services, which may in turn utilize other web services. In this way, complex networking environments may utilize numerous web services configured to communicate with one another to exchange information, either on the same domain, or different domains.
Recently, software frameworks have been developed so as to standardize mechanisms by which web services communicate with each other and exchange data. One type of framework, referred to as a system oriented architecture (SOA) system provides an architecture for creating and using business processes packaged as interoperable web services. Utilizing the SOA framework, the independent web services exchange information via a defined enterprise services bus (ESB), which provides an abstraction layer on top of an enterprise messaging system. Moreover, the SOA system defines a context in which web services of the SOA system may be invoked. For example, services of the SOA system typically include an associated XML format file or files that web service developers may use to specify how a particular web service is invoked, e.g., available inputs and outputs, their format, and/or how to use them. An XML file that defines an interface for a web service may be referred to as a web services descriptive language (WSDL) file, where WSDL is an XML-based language that defines a model for describing the web service. Rather than defining an application programming interface for web application itself (as with a distributed or modular computing architecture as described above), an SOA system may, via a WSDL file, define the interface in terms of protocols and functionality. Additional details regarding SOA and WSDL may be found in Josuttis, N. SOA in Practice: The Art of Distributed System Design. O'Reilly. 2007, J. Farrell, H. Lausen, "Semantic Annotations for WSDL and XML Schema" W3C Recommendation, August 2007; http://www.w3.org/TR/sawsdl/, and Haas, Hugo. WSDL 2.0: What's new? XML 2004 Proceedings, each of which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Web services have become ubiquitous in nature in large-scale private and public networks due to the ease in which they may be interconnected so as to expose and utilize functionality of underlying network resources. However, the cost associated with maintaining and supporting web services by an enterprise or other entity can be significant, especially as the web services become increasingly interconnected.

Identifying and representing changes between extensible markup language (XML) files using symbols with data element indication and direction indication


To make it easier to collect litter which is captured and deposited in a mesh member of a beach cleaner which scrapes up the litter along with sand and captures and deposits the churned up litter and sand in the mesh member. In a second beach cleaner which captures and deposits in a mesh member litter scattered around in the sand by churning up the litter along with sand while traveling by being towed by a towing vehicle, the mesh member has an encircling member open on at least one side and is attached to the frame such that the mesh member is pivotable with respect to the frame.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a beach cleaner for collecting various kinds of litter scattered in sand ground such as bathing beach.
2. Description of Background Art
A beach cleaner is known that includes a frame, a scraper, and a mesh member. The frame includes a plurality of longitudinal members each extending along a direction of traveling and a plurality of transverse members each extending in a transverse direction or substantially perpendicularly to the longitudinal members. The scraper is disposed in a front portion of the frame, and the mesh member is disposed in a rear portion of the frame. While the beach cleaner is traveling over a surface of sand ground by being towed by a towing vehicle with the scraper being partially sunk in the sand, litter of relatively small size is churned up along with sand so that the litter and sand churned up are captured and deposited in the mesh member. See, for example, JP-A No. 2002-356827.
The beach cleaner is constructed such that the mesh member is attachable to and removable from the frame. Thus, when the litter deposited in the mesh member is collected, the mesh member is removed from the frame.
This construction for a beach cleaner suffers from with respect to a difficulty in collecting the deposited litter due to the involvement concerning the handling of the mesh member which is of a relatively large size.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


An image sensor includes a pixel array having a Bayer pattern structure including a first pixel row in which first pixels and second pixels are alternately provided and a second pixel row in which additional ones of the second pixels and third pixels are alternately provided, a first element to control light of a first wavelength band to travel in directions toward left and right sides of the first element and to control light of a second wavelength band of the incident light to travel in a direction directly under the first element, and a second element to control light of a third wavelength band to travel in the directions toward the left and right sides of the second element and to control the light of the second wavelength band to travel in a direction directly under the second element.

1. Field
The exemplary embodiments relate to an image sensor including a color separation element and an image pickup apparatus including the image sensor, and more particularly, to an image sensor having an improved light use efficiency by using a color separation element, and an image pickup apparatus including the image sensor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Color display devices or color image sensors usually display an image of various colors or detect a color of incident light by using a color filter. An RGB color filter method, in which, for example, a green filter is arranged at two pixels of four pixels and a blue filter and a red filter are arranged in the other two pixels, is most widely employed by a currently used color display device or color image sensor. In addition to the RGB color filter method, a CYGM color filter method may be employed in which color filters of cyan, yellow, green, and magenta, which are complementary colors, are respectively arranged at four pixels.
However, a color filter may have a low light use efficiency because the color filter absorbs light of colors other than a color corresponding to the color filter. For example, when an RGB color filter is in use, only ⅓ of the incident light is transmitted and the other portion, that is, ⅔, of the incident light is absorbed. Accordingly, the light use efficiency may be about 33%. Accordingly, for the color display device or a color image sensor, most of a light loss is generated in the color filter.
Recently, to improve the light use efficiency of the color display device or color image sensor, a color separation element is being used instead of the color filter. The color separation element may separate the color of an incident light by using the diffraction or refraction characteristics of light that vary according to a wavelength of the light. The colors separated by the color separation element may be provided to pixels corresponding to the colors, respectively.

Image sensor including color separation element and image pickup apparatus including the image sensor


A cap assembly for enclosing an end portion of a bolt fastener includes a first cap member which includes a bore and a surface positioned within the bore which defines first threads and the first cap member also includes an external surface which defines second threads. A second cap member includes a sidewall which defines a receptacle with an opening which provides access to an interior of the receptacle and the sidewall includes an interior surface which defines third threads compatibly configured to engage the second threads. The third threads are positioned along the interior surface of the receptacle extending along a length of the receptacle a first distance and the second threads are positioned along the external surface of the first cap member extending along a length of the external surface a second distance wherein the first distance is greater than the second distance.

Electrically insulated sealant and containment caps have been used to cover an end portion of a metallic bolt assembly which typically includes one or more washer(s), a nut and a threaded end portion of a bolt shaft which extends beyond the nut. The sealant caps electrically insulate the end portion of the metallic bolt assembly so as electrically isolate and contain the end portion from important vicinities surrounding the end portion of the metallic bolt assembly such as a fuel tank within an aircraft. Electrically isolating and containing the end portion of the metallic bolt assembly prevents unwanted sparks or electrical current transmissions entering such important vicinities upon an EME/lightning event.
The insulation and containment caps are made from sealant material such as for example a thermoset plastic. The caps are also filled with a liquid form of sealant material. Once the cap is filled with liquid sealant the cap is positioned over the end portion of the metallic bolt assembly enclosing the end portion of the metallic bolt assembly within the cap and a surface from which the end portion of the metallic bolt assembly extends. The liquid sealant that is expelled from the cap from placing the cap over the end portion of the metallic bolt assembly requires fairing. The cap also requires being held in place for a time period to maintain the cap's position so as to prevent occurrence of the cap experiencing slumping or lifting off of the surface and the end portion of the metallic bolt assembly during the curing of the sealant. The quality standards for fairing these caps are high which makes installation time consuming and places the installation at high risk of failing quality checks resulting in increased rework.
Other sealant insulating and containment caps have been used such as a single piece cap with an internal threading portion to engage the exposed threads of the threaded portion of the threaded shaft of the metallic bolt assembly which extends beyond the nut of the end portion of the metallic bolt assembly. The single piece cap has limited ability to accommodate properly engaging the threaded bolt shaft and the cap being able to extend to the surface in order to enclose the end portion of the metallic bolt assembly. With the threads of the cap needing to engage one up to and including three threads of the threaded bolt shaft positioned beyond the nut to be properly engage, the distance from the engaged threads of the bolt shaft to the surface varies based on how far, for example, the threaded shaft of the metallic bolt assembly extends from the surface. This distance can also vary based on the size of the nut and/or number of washers positioned on the threaded shaft of the bolt. Thus, with a fixed length of sealant cap, many variations in lengths of these sealant caps would be needed in assembling a complex structure such as an aircraft which would present varying lengths of end portions of the metallic bolt assemblies extending from the surface from which the end portions originate. These variations in lengths of the sealant caps would be needed to enclose and electrically isolate the end portions of the metallic bolt assemblies from sensitive areas within the aircraft.
There is a need for a cap that is not dependent on liquid sealant which drives high installation costs with the high standards placed on fairing for these installations. There is also a need for a sealant cap that can accommodate varying distances from the engagement of the threads of the shaft of the metallic bolt assembly to the surface from which the end portion of the metallic bolt assembly extends. Accommodating these varying distances are needed to properly electrically isolate the end portion of the metallic bolt assemblies but at the same time not driving up cost of installation with needing a large number of different lengths of caps on hand.

Rapid installation thermoplastic EME protection cap


An organic light emitting display is divided into a light emitting region and a non-light emitting region, the non-light emitting region of the organic light emitting display including: a first substrate; a first passivation layer and a second passivation layer sequentially arranged on the first substrate and having a step in an undercut shape; and an auxiliary electrode layer, an El common layer, and a second layer sequentially arranged throughout the non-light emitting region including the first and second passivation layers, the auxiliary electrode layer being shorted to the second layer in the step at the slope of the second passivation layer or shorted to the first passivation layer in the undercut shape arranged under the second passivation layer.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an organic light emitting display and its method of fabrication, and more particularly, the present invention relates to a top-emission organic light emitting display in which a cathode electrode has a reduced resistance and its method of fabrication.
2. Description of the Related Art
Generally, a light emitting display is a self-luminous display which emits light by electrically exciting fluorescent compounds. The light emitting display has characteristics of low voltage driving, facilitation of slimness, a wide viewing angle, and a fast response speed, which are less favorable in a liquid crystal display, so that it has been spotlighted as a next generation display.
The light emitting display may be divided into inorganic light emitting displays and organic light emitting displays according to whether materials forming a light emitting layer are inorganic matter or organic matter.
An organic light emitting display includes an organic layer with a predetermined pattern formed on a glass substrate or other transparent insulating substrate and anode and cathode electrode layers formed on the upper and lower faces of the organic layer. The organic layer is formed of organic compounds including a light emitting layer.
In the organic light emitting display formed as above, holes injected from the anode electrode supplied with a positive voltage move to the light emitting layer via a hole transportation layer, and electrons are injected from the cathode electrode supplied with a negative voltage via an electron transportation layer into the light emitting layer, when positive and negative voltages are supplied to the anode and cathode electrodes, respectively. Thus, the electrons and the holes are recombined in the light emitting layer to generate exitons, which are changed to a ground state from an excited state. Accordingly, images are formed by fluorescent molecules in the light emitting layer emitting light.
The organic light emitting display may be divided into top-emission and bottom-emission types according to a light emitting direction. Recently, the top-emission type of organic light emitting display has been preferably adopted for large flat displays.
In the case of the top-emission type of organic light emitting display, the anode electrode is formed on the lower portion of the organic layer and the cathode electrode is formed on the upper portion of the organic layer where light is transmitted.
Also, the anode electrode, which is a reflection electrode, is formed of a metal having a high reflectivity, such as Ag, Al, etc. and uses a resonance structure to achieve color reproducibility through high purity color implementation and high efficiency by resonance of light. In the resonance structure, the cathode electrode uses a semi-transparent layer. In the of the top-emission type of light emitting scheme, the cathode electrode having a low work function and semi-transmitting characteristic is needed.
In order to achieve the semi-transmitting characteristic, the cathode electrode needs to be formed thinly. In this case, it is a disadvantage since it results in the cathode electrode having a high resistance.
When operating the organic light emitting display with a current drive, a voltage drop (IR drop) occurs due to the resistance of a line and/or electrode. In particular, in the case of a top-emission type of organic light emitting display having a thin cathode electrode, a voltage drop problem becomes serious due to the high resistance of the cathode electrode, so that the display cannot perform well. In other words, when the cathode electrode has a high resistance, non-uniformity of luminance is severe inside a panel.

Organic light emitting display and its method of fabrication


A conditional substitution instruction is provided in an instruction set of a computer system to correct exceptions occurring during run-time. The conditional substitution instruction can be executed concurrently in a pipelined computer system with a potentially excepting instruction, or simultaneously in a wide computer system. The conditional substitution instruction substitutes a default value for the result of the potentially excepting instruction if the potentially excepting instruction produces one or more specified exceptions.

Most instructions executed by a computer perform some type of arithmetic or logic operation on one or more data operands and produce resulting data. Typically, the instruction specifies one or more registers where the data operands are stored and a register where the result of the operation is to be stored. Some of these instructions can also generate side-effects or exceptions as a result of their operations, which are usually not reflected in the stored result. The occurrence of such exceptions is typically indicated by storing a status word containing a plurality of bits or flags in a status register.
Exemplary of instructions that may generate exceptions are floating-point operation instructions. Typical exceptions that can result from a floating point operation instruction are divide by zero, inexact, invalid, overflow, and underflow. Overflow and underflow exceptions, for example, are produced when a floating point add, subtract, multiply, or divide instruction results in a number beyond the finite range of representable floating point numbers. Divide by zero, inexact, and invalid exceptions are produced when a floating point operation instruction such as division by a zero operand results in an undefined number.
Usually, when an exception is generated as a result of an instruction it is not possible to continue program execution without taking corrective action. For example, when a floating point divide instruction produces a divide by zero exception, the result of the instruction is an undefined number. Subsequently executed instructions that use the floating point divide instruction result would produce erroneous or nonsensical data.
A variety of mechanisms have therefore been used to respond to the occurrence of exceptions. The simplest but most drastic response is a hardware mechanism that simply ends or aborts program execution when an exception occurs. This type of hardware mechanism prevents the result of the excepting instruction from being used to generate erroneous data since program execution is discontinued. However, the data produced by the program up to the occurrence of the exception is typically lost. When program execution is aborted, it may also be difficult to identify which instruction and which exception caused program execution to abort.
In most cases, though, exceptions can be handled by taking some corrective action so that program execution can continue or be halted without losing data. Typical corrective actions include displaying an error message, allowing the user to enter different input data before repeating a computation, or gracefully halting program execution while retaining data and identifying why the program was halted.
In some cases, it is also possible to continue program execution after an excepting instruction while avoiding producing erroneous results with subsequent instructions by substituting a default result for the result of the excepting instruction. For example, in some computations involving a floating point division operation, a result is defined for division by a zero operand. As a specific example, the function, sin(x)/x, when calculated in a computer involves dividing the value of sin(x) by the value of x with a floating point divide instruction. When x is zero, the floating point divide instruction will generate a divide by zero exception and an undefined floating point number result. However, this function is known to equal one for x equal to zero. By substituting one for the undefined result of the floating point divide instruction, the program can continue and subsequent instructions which use the substituted result will produce accurate data. In mathematical terms, this type of exception is known as a removable singularity. The corrective action of substituting a default result can be used for other exceptions produced by floating point operation and non-floating point operation instructions.
Corrective actions are generally carried out in software routines known as exception handlers. The exception handlers consist of instructions which display an error message, gracefully exit the program, substitute a default result, or take other corrective action. In general, exception handlers are specific to a particular exception and to a particular instruction in a program.
There are two common mechanisms for invoking an exception handler to take corrective action in response to exceptions. The mechanisms can be termed "tests and branches" and "traps." Tests and branches are a pure software mechanism which involves inserting instructions prior to a potentially excepting instruction to both test the values of the instruction's operands and branch to an appropriate exception handler if the values of the operands would cause an exception. For example, test and branch instructions can be inserted prior to a floating point divide instruction to test the divisor operand and branch to an exception handler if the divisor operand is zero. The exception handler can then take appropriate corrective action such as substituting a default result if such result is defined, and resuming program execution after the floating point divide instruction. The approach of placing test and branch instructions is particularly useful in computers which provide no hardware mechanism for handling exceptions or which simply end program execution when an exception is generated.
A trap is a hardware mechanism that is similar in some ways to externally generated interrupts. In computers with a trap mechanism, a set of locations in memory is set aside or dedicated for the purpose of storing the starting addresses of exception handlers. These stored starting addresses are termed trap vectors. Generally, there is one trap vector for each type of exception that can be produced by the computer. When an exception occurs, the trap mechanism temporarily suspends program execution and forcibly transfers execution from the program to the exception handler at the corresponding trap vector for the exception. The computer then executes the exception handler to take corrective action. Information concerning program execution (the program context) such as the address where program execution was interrupted and the current contents of the computer's registers is typically stored in a stack memory when the trap is generated. Storing the program context permits resumption of program execution after execution of the exception handler is complete. This type of program interrupt which permits resumption of the program at a particular point is known as a precise interrupt.
Both test and branch and trap mechanisms have the disadvantage of adding to software complexity and slowing program execution. With test and branch mechanisms, the programmer must insert several instructions before each potentially excepting instruction to test for various data that could produce an exception and to branch to appropriate exception handlers. Inserting the test and branch instructions complicates the programming task and adds to the size of the program. If the possibly excepting instruction is in a loop or other repeated routine, the added test and branch instructions impose a speed penalty on each iteration of the loop which severely affects the speed of program execution.
With trap mechanisms, a speed penalty is imposed only when an exception is actually produced by the excepting instruction. However, the speed penalty can still be significant since precise interrupts cause a time delay. Programming the exception handler may also be more complex, especially when the corrective action is simply to substitute a default result. Since the excepting instruction's result is usually stored in a register and register contents are stored along with the program's context in the stack memory, substituting the default result may require storing the substitute result in the correct location of the stack memory. This may require a number of push and pop operations to properly manipulate the stack memory.
Both of these mechanisms also pose problems in pipelined and vectorized computers which achieve faster program execution by overlapping or concurrent instruction execution. In a pipelined computer, instructions are executed in an assembly line fashion. Each instruction is executed in a series of stages, and several instructions at various stages of execution are executed concurrently. Some pipelined computers, for example, use three main stages: read, execute, and write. Each stage may also have a number of sub-stages. In the read stage, the instruction and its operands are read by the computer from memory or registers. In the execute stage, an operation for the instruction is performed on the operands. In the write stage, the result of the operation is formatted and transferred to register or memory storage. As the execute stage of one instruction is performed, a previous instruction is generally in its write stage and a next instruction is in its read stage. Since more than one instruction can be executed concurrently in a pipelined computer, a program generally runs much faster than in a non-pipelined computer.
In a pipelined computer, not all instructions of a program can be executed concurrently. Usually this is because there is some data dependency between instructions. For example, a situation known as a read after write hazard is created when the result of a first instruction is used as an operand of a subsequent instruction. Since the result is not available to be read until after it is written, the subsequent instruction cannot be executed concurrently with the first instruction. The read stage of the subsequent instruction must follow the write stage of the first instruction. Data dependencies can be avoided by shifting the order of instructions if possible or inserting null instructions between data dependent instructions during compiling of a program. Hardware which checks for data dependencies and inserts null instructions between data dependent instructions at run time also can be used.
Test and branch mechanisms are disadvantageous in a pipelined computer because they inherently obstruct concurrent instruction execution. Each time concurrence is inhibited, program execution is slowed. Until a branch instruction is executed, it is not known which of two instructions--the next instruction in sequence or a remote instruction--is to be executed next. Concurrence of instruction execution is therefore not possible. This disadvantage can be partially offset by hardware which attempts to predict which of the two instructions will follow the conditional branch instruction and begins executing the predicted instruction concurrently. However, the prediction is not always accurate. When the prediction proves inaccurate, the hardware must undo execution of the inaccurately predicted instruction and begin executing the other instruction. Thus, a speed penalty is still imposed when a branch is not accurately predicted. Such added hardware functionality adds to the cost and complexity of the pipelined computer.
Trap mechanisms also have the disadvantage of interrupting concurrence and adding to the complexity and cost of the hardware in a pipelined computer. To successfully return to program execution after transferring execution to an exception handler, a trap mechanism must perform a "precise interrupt" in which the state of program execution up to the excepting instruction is retained to permit resumption of program execution at the point of interruption. Since multiple instructions execute concurrently in a pipelined computer, some of the instructions following the excepting instruction will be in varying stages of execution. Some may have already altered the data in the computer's registers or the status bits in the exception register. To halt program execution at the excepting instruction, the trap mechanism must be able to "drain" the pipeline of other concurrently executing instructions. Draining the pipeline may require recalling what other instructions subsequent to the excepting instruction have done and undoing their effects. Such hardware which can precisely interrupt pipelined instructions is more complex and expensive because it must be able to remember and undo multiple concurrent instructions.
Some pipelined computers simplify the trap mechanism by requiring that a barrier operation instruction be inserted after a potentially excepting instruction. The barrier operation instruction inhibits concurrence by preventing subsequent instructions from executing concurrently with the potentially excepting instruction. This, in effect, drains the instruction pipeline to permit trapping or branching to an exception handler. The drawback to barrier operation instruction mechanisms is that concurrence is inhibited every time an instruction that could generate an exception is executed.
The present invention provides a method and apparatus for recovery from exceptions that overcomes these and other drawbacks of the prior art. According to the invention, the instruction set of a computer (which can be a pipelined computer) is enhanced by including one or more "fix-up" instructions that effect a simple corrective action such as substituting a default value in response to an instruction producing one or more specified exceptions.
In one embodiment of the invention, for example, a conditional substitution instruction is included in a pipelined computer's instruction set. The conditional substitution instruction specifies a set of one or more possible exceptions, a default value, and a result register. The conditional substitution instruction is inserted in a program after a potentially excepting instruction for which substituting the default result will permit continued program execution. If the potentially excepting instruction produced the specified exception when executed, then the conditional substitution instruction substitutes the default value for the excepting instruction's result stored at the result register.
The fix-up instructions can be executed in a pipelined manner with potentially excepting and other instructions. Whether an exception was produced by a potentially excepting instruction is indicated by status bits stored in a exception register as a result of executing the instruction. Potentially excepting instructions store the status bits in the exception register during their write stage. The conditional substitution instruction acts based upon the status bits stored in the exception register during its write stage to store the specified default value in the result register if the status bits indicate one or more of the specified exceptions occurred. This permits the conditional substitution instruction which corrects the exception to follow immediately behind the excepting instruction in a pipelined computer without creating a read after write hazard.
In an alternative embodiment of the invention, a conditional substitution instruction loads a storage table with a default value which is to be substituted for the result of an instruction that produces one or more specified exceptions. This conditional substitution instruction is placed before any potentially excepting instructions it is meant to correct. Results of instructions performed by a functional unit are routed through the storage table before being stored in memory or registers. If the instruction produces one or more of the specified exceptions, the stored default value is substituted for the instruction result in its path to memory or register storage. If no specified exception was produced as a result of the instruction's execution, the instruction result continues on its path to memory or register storage.
The conditional substitution instruction according to this alternative embodiment has the advantage that it can be performed only once for any number of subsequent instructions which require the substitution of the same default value for the same specified exceptions. For example, this conditional substitution instruction can be performed once to set up the substitution of a default value for a potentially excepting instruction which is executed repetitively in a "loop" routine.
Additional features and advantages of the invention will be made apparent from the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment which proceeds with reference to the accompanying drawings.

System for exception recovery using a conditional substitution instruction which inserts a replacement result in the destination of the excepting instruction


The presence of geothermal aquifers can be detected while drilling in geothermal formations by maintaining a chemical log of the ratio of the concentrations of calcium to carbonate and bicarbonate ions in the return drilling fluid. A continuous increase in the ratio of the concentrations of calcium to carbonate and bicarbonate ions is indicative of the existence of a warm or hot geothermal aquifer at some increased depth.

This invention relates to a method of chemical logging of wells drilled in geothermal formations. More specifically, this invention relates to a method of maintaining and monitoring a chemical log during a well drilling operation to detect the presence of geothermal aquifers before the aquifer is penetrated by the drill.
Growing concern over shortages of fossil fuel has led to increased emphasis on finding and developing new sources of thermal energy such as that which is available in certain geological formations throughout the world. These formations, called geothermal reservoirs, contain usable quantities of warm or hot water in underground aquifers reasonably near enough to the earth's surface to be recoverable. These geothermal aquifers can provide energy for driving electrical generators, for space heating and for performing other energy functions. The growth of the geothermal industry has created a need for techniques which can be used, during drilling operations, to assist in the determination of well depth, casing location and well development.
When drilling wells in geothermal formations, it is usually desirable to be able to detect the presence of a warm or hot water aquifers before the aquifer has been penetrated by the drill bit for several reasons. It permits the setting of well casing in place in the borehole in time to prevent possible contamination of any fresh water aquifers already penetrated by the drill string with upwelling geothermal water which often contains undesirable minerals such as large quantities of sodium chloride or low levels of fluorine on sulfur. Wells are drilled using either a mud or water, as a drilling fluid. Mud is preferred since it reduces the amount of water which must otherwise be used, seals off porous areas in the earth to prevent loss of water, lubricates the drill bit and flushes rock cuttings from the borehole better than water. However, penetration of a potentially productive geothermal aquifer by the drill bit while using mud as the drilling fluid could result in the aquifer being wholly or partially sealed by contact of the mud on the warm porous rock formation. This could result in the loss of the aquifer as source of geothermal energy. Thus, knowledge of the existence of an aquifer in time to permit discontinuance of the use of mud, could prevent loss of a productive aquifer.
A chemical log of a well is a profile of the concentration of chemical elements found in the various geological formation fluids relative to the depth at which they were found. This profile may include elements such as Cl.sup.31 , F.sup.-, Na.sup.+, Ca.sup.++, and SiO.sub.2 in addition to conductivity and pH of the water. The log is prepared by analyzing the drill return fluid at predetermined depths, for example every 10 to 20 meters, and plotting the concentrations of the various analyzed chemical species relative to the drill depth at which the concentrations were present. The log is useful for obtaining information as to what type of aquifer the drill bit has penetrated, the relative temperature of the aquifer and the composition of the aquifer water. However, up until now, the log has not been useful for determining the existence of a geothermal aquifer before it has been penetrated by the drill bit.

The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy


A well which is to produce from a heavy oil or tar sands reservoir is thermally stimulated from another well located on the order of 10 to 50 feet away. This adjacent thermal stimulation well can be considered expendable. This thermal stimulation is continued for a number of days, until the hot zone produced extends beyond the location of the production well. Thereafter, the adjacent thermal stimulation well preferably is closed off during the course of the frontal thermal drive or the like from remote injection wells. However, such stimulation may be repeated later of if the oil or tar becomes too viscous in the pay zone near the production well.

General methods of completion of production wells in heavy oil or tar sand reservoirs, as practiced until a few years ago, are generally not pertinent to more recent work, including the invention disclosed below. A reference which appears to be of other than general significance is the L. E. Elkins U.S. Pat. No. 3,504,745. This patent teaches minimizing vertical passage of fluids outside a well by injecting into the path (which would otherwise be followed by such fluids) a foaming agent which can, for example, be an aqueous solution of any of a number of cited soaps, at a concentration in the order of 1 to 2%.
The T. S. Buxton, et al. U.S. Pat. No. 3,399,722 teaches creating separate upper and lower sets of perforations into a reservoir in a tar sand or heavy oil region. First, a zone of high permeability is created by combustion through the perforations at the lower part of the zone. After this has been carried on for several days, the zone is killed and the upper zone created by perforating. Production of heated material from the reservoir occurs through the upper zone. Accordingly, only one of these two zones (upper and lower zones of the reservoir) is used at one time. Our process intentionally uses flow of quite dissimilar fluids for different purposes into each of the two zones (upper and lower) simultaneously, in order to condition the production well for use in our invention.
R. M. Jorda shows a production well assembly for in situ combustion operations in U.S. Pat. No. 3,160,208. A number of perforations extend through the walls of two casing strings into a formation to be produced. Production resulting from in situ combustion enters these conduits and can be pumped from the well. Hot produced gases can flow out of the well through the annulus between a production string and the inner casing string. However, the inventor does not discuss means of conditioning the well prior to its use for ordinary production.
B. G. Harnsberger in U.S. Pat. No. 4,066,127, teaches circulating hot fluids out into the formation through a set of upper perforations into a reservoir and back through a set of lower perforations to form a void in the tar sands. This is followed by gravel packing the void, and injecting further hot fluids through the upper perforations to flow heated organic material from the reservoir through the gravel pack and a sand screen. This involves several disadvantageous procedures compared with ours. We provide for only outflow through the lower perforations, and never create a void in the reservoir by a melting process. This creates too many problems of sand movement through and near the void--and sand control is vital in production of tar sands and heavy oil from the usual unconsolidated reservoirs. There are other differences, but this is sufficient to show that these are quite different processes.
Finally, R. B. Needham in U.S. Pat. No. 4,068,717, provides a method for tar sands reservoir production using the difficult practice of employing steam to fracture from an injection to a production well in the reservoir. These steps do not otherwise condition the production well (which is the object of our invention). He uses the injection of steam, accompanied by a surface-active agent, to produce the reservoir, rather than a frontal thermal drive as employed by us.
It is thus apparent that these literature references considered alone or together, do not teach or suggest the essence of our invention, as summarized below.

Indirect thermal stimulation of production wells


A shelf assembly includes a pair of shelf adapter brackets each defined by first and second shelf bracket members, one of which includes vertically disposed opposing slideways into which open a plurality of vertically spaced slots and the other of which includes a plurality of supporting projections which move in the slideways and seat in the slots to effect selectively vertical adjustment of an associated shelf. The shelf may include shelf brackets having hooks for engaging in slots of one of the bracket members or can be integrally formed to define one of the first and second bracket members. Another embodiment includes a shelf having an injection molded rim with hooks at rear corners thereof for engaging one of the shelf support members. Each shelf assembly prevents inadvertent/accidental disengagement of an associated shelf from the adapter brackets.

This invention relates to shelving particularly for refrigerators, but is equally adapted for utilization in a variety of different environments, such as furniture shelves, cabinet shelves, point-of-sale displays, and the like.
A conventional refrigerator shelf typically includes a substantially planar shelf member, and a pair of metal shelf brackets connected to the shelf member, preferably by an injection molded resinous peripheral encapsulation, rim or border. The support brackets typically include a pair of hooks which are received in pairs of slots carried by vertical shelf supports, channels or tracks secured to or forming an integral portion of a rear wall of a refrigerator compartment. The shelves can be step-adjusted along the vertical supports in a convention manner by hooking and unhooking the shelf brackets relative to the vertical supports or tracks. The latter is readily accomplished when the shelf is devoid of any products/articles. However, if relatively heavy products are supported upon the planar shelf member of the shelf, it is not uncommon for the weight and imbalance of the products to cause the shelf and the products thereon to dislodge and/or drop with attendant damage (breakage, spillage, etc.). At times a cantilevered shelf with articles/products thereon is partially unhooked from the vertical support rails of the refrigerator compartment and tilts or cants which causes the articles/products to slide off the shelf with resultant damage even though the shelf itself does not drop. Therefore, cantilevered shelves which are designed to be step-adjusted relative to shelf tracks or channels provided on the rear wall of a refrigerator are susceptible to damage during adjustment, along with the products/articles supported thereon.

Refrigerator compartment housing vertically adjustable shelves


An image forming apparatus that includes a plurality of image bearing members, a plurality of drive sources each including a drive gear, a plurality of driven gears, a visible image forming unit, an endless traveling member, a transfer unit, an image detection unit, and a controller. The controller controls rotation of the plurality of image bearing members according to a velocity fluctuation pattern of each surface of the image bearing members based on a detection time interval between predetermined visible detection images formed on the surface of the image bearing member and transferred therefrom to the endless traveling member detected by the image detection unit. Each of the plurality of driven gears includes a gear portion and an engaging portion integrated therewith. The gear portion includes a geared circumference and the engaging portion engages the image bearing member.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In an image forming apparatus such as a copier, a facsimile machine, or a printer, visible images are formed, for example, on each of a plurality of rotating image bearing members such as photosensitive elements and transferred at transfer positions to an endless traveling member such as an intermediate transfer belt or a recording medium held on the endless traveling member, such that the visible images are superimposed one atop another. In this type of the image forming apparatus, each of the visible images may be displaced from each other in a sub-scanning direction, i.e., the direction of rotation of the image bearing member, during transfer due to, for example, an eccentricity of a driven gear that rotates coaxially with the image bearing member and transmits a rotary drive force to the image bearing member. Specifically, a driven gear that has an eccentricity causes fluctuation in the velocity of the image bearing member. The velocity varies in sine wave form with a cycle of a rotation lap of the image bearing member. This is because, when a driven gear having an eccentricity is meshed with a drive gear of a drive motor, the linear velocity of the surface of an image bearing member engaging the driven gear is slowest at the point where the radius of the driven gear is greatest, and fastest at the point where the radius of the driven gear is shortest, and both points are 180 degrees apart from each other with respect to the rotation shaft of the driven gear and the image bearing member.
A dot formed on an image bearing member that rotates at a faster velocity arrives at the transfer position earlier than usual. By contrast, a dot formed on an image bearing member that rotates at a slower velocity arrives at the transfer position later than usual. Accordingly, for example, a transferred sooner-than-usual dot is overlapped onto a transferred later-than-usual dot from a different image bearing member, or a transferred later-than-usual dot is overlapped onto a transferred sooner-than-usual dot. This causes dot displacement, resulting in image displacement in the sub-scanning direction.
There is known an image forming apparatus that can rotate an image bearing member based on a drive velocity pattern that cancels the velocity fluctuation pattern thereof that causes such image displacement. The mechanism involves: Forming detection toner images arranged on the surface of a drum-like image bearing member with a particular interval in the surface moving direction thereof; transferring the images to a transfer belt; detecting each detection toner image on the transfer belt by a photosensor; detecting the velocity fluctuation pattern per rotation lap of the image bearing member based on the detected intervals between the detection toner images; determining the drive velocity pattern that cancels the velocity fluctuation of the image bearing member; and driving the image bearing member based on the drive velocity pattern when an image is formed using image information sent from a personal computer, etc. When an image forming apparatus has multiple image bearing members, the drive velocity pattern is determined for each of the image bearing members.
There is known another image forming apparatus that can prevent image displacement caused by velocity fluctuation of photosensitive elements by relatively synchronizing phases of the velocity fluctuation patterns thereof. Similar to the above-described image forming apparatus, the velocity fluctuation pattern per rotation lap of the photosensitive element is detected based on detected intervals between detection toner images. At the same time, a reference mark provided to the driven gear that rotates coaxially with the photosensitive element is detected by another photosensor to detect when rotation of the photosensitive element arrives at a particular angle. The relation between such detected rotation timing and the phase of the velocity fluctuation pattern is determined for each photosensitive element, on the basis of which the phase difference between the velocity fluctuation patterns of the photosensitive elements is adjusted by temporarily changing the driving velocity of drive motors that drive the respective photosensitive elements. By this temporary change, images arriving at the transfer positions sooner than usual, or images arriving at the transfer positions later than usual, can be synchronized with each other. Thus, image displacement can be prevented.
When photosensitive elements are arranged in an image forming apparatus at an interval that is an integral multiple of the circumference of the photosensitive element, each photosensitive element rotates integral times while a toner image on, for example, a recording medium is moved from one transfer position to the transfer position of the next toner image. Therefore, by adjusting the phase difference between the velocity fluctuation patterns of the photosensitive elements to zero, the images are appropriately overlapped at each transfer position. When the photosensitive elements are not arranged at an interval that is an integral multiple of the circumference of the photosensitive element, dots are appropriately overlapped at each transfer position by providing a phase difference with a particular period of time to the velocity fluctuation pattern of each photosensitive element.
However, there are some cases in which driving each photosensitive element according to the drive velocity pattern or adjusting the phase of the velocity fluctuation pattern of each photosensitive element is not sufficient to prevent image displacement. The reason for this is as follows.
A typical photosensitive element is structured to be easily attached to and detached from an image forming apparatus to improve maintenance efficiency. By comparison, a driven gear that rotates coaxially with the photosensitive element and transmits a rotary drive force to the photosensitive element is rotatably fixed to the image forming apparatus. When the photosensitive element is installed in the image forming apparatus, one end of the rotation shaft of the photosensitive element engages the driven gear. The driven gear in the image forming apparatus having the above-described configuration includes a tubular engagement portion and a disk-like gear portion. The engagement portion is fitted into and protrudes from the center of the gear portion along the axial direction.
FIG. 1 is a perspective view illustrating a photosensitive element 3 and a photosensitive element gear 133 included in a typical image forming apparatus. The photosensitive element 3 is included in a process unit, not shown, that is detachably installed in the image forming apparatus. The rotation shaft of the photosensitive element 3 protrudes from both sides in the axial direction of the drum portion of the photosensitive element 3. At one end of the rotation shaft, a coupling 3b is formed to engage an engaging portion 133b included in the photosensitive element gear 133.
The photosensitive element gear 133 is rotatably fixed to the image forming apparatus and includes a disk-like gear portion 133a having a geared circumference, not shown, and the engaging portion 133b that engages the coupling 3b of the photosensitive element 3. The engaging portion 133b has a size in the rotating axial direction to engage the coupling 3b, which slides in the rotating axial direction when the process unit is assembled. Therefore, the photosensitive element gear 133 is configured such that the engaging portion 133b significantly protrudes in the axial direction from the center of the disk-like gear portion 133a.
FIG. 2 illustrates the photosensitive element gear 133 included in a typical image forming apparatus. In FIG. 2, an insertion hole 133c that receives the base side of the engaging portion 133b is formed at the center of the disk-like gear portion 133a. Around the insertion hole 133c, a pin groove 133d is formed to receive a pin.
The engaging portion 133b is fixed to the gear portion 133a when the base side of the engaging portion 133b is inserted into the insertion hole 133c of the gear portion 133a. Also, a pin protruding from the circumference surface on the base side of the engaging portion 133b is inserted into the pin groove 133d of the gear portion 133a to prevent idling of the engaging portion 133b in the insertion hole 133c.
In the image forming apparatus having the above-described configuration, a slight rattling movement may be produced between the gear portion 133a and the engaging portion 133b inserted thereto due to an error in the dimensional accuracy of the gear portion 133a or the engaging portion 133b. Due to this rattling, the velocity fluctuation pattern of the photosensitive element gear 133 per rotation slightly varies from rotation to rotation. As a result, the drive velocity pattern detected based on the predetermined detection toner images as described above does not match the actual velocity fluctuation pattern during image formation, which makes prevention of image displacement difficult.


The topside trolling reel is an adapter that attaches a trolling reel to the bottom side of a spin casting reel. The trolling reel is further defined with a cage, a spool, a tensioner, a handle, and a trolling reel foot. The cage is further defined with a first end disk, a second end disk, and a plurality of cage bars. The topside trolling reel comprises a trolling reel and a spinning rod adapter. The spinning rod adapter attaches the cage of the trolling reel to the traditional bottom mount of a spin casting reel rod. In the first potential embodiment of the disclosure, the spinning rod adapter is attached to the cage of the trolling reel using four readily and commercially available screws. The spinning rod adapter is then attached normally to a reel seat provisioned spin casting reel rod.

The present invention relates to the field of agricultural and animal husbandry, more specifically, a trolling reel configured for use in angling.
A trolling reel is a device used in angling. The trolling reel is also commonly referred to as a level wind reel, a bait casting reel, a line counter reel, a two speed level reel, a casting reel, and a lever drag reel. A common alternative to the selection of a trolling reel is a spin casting reel. The primary differences between the trolling reel and the spin casting reel is: 1) a trolling reel is superior in laying out and managing a fishing line when trolling for fish; however, 2) a spin casting reel is superior in catching large and strong fish. The reason that the spin casting reel is superior with large and strong fish is that the spin casting reel is more stable than a trolling reel. Specifically, the trolling reel tends to twist in response to the strong pressures generated by fish trying to evade capture. This is because of the traditional top mounting of the trolling reel. The reason for this twist is that a fish that applies pressure on the fishing rod will cause the fishing rod to curve such that the bottom side of the fishing rod will form a concave surface. When the fishing rod is arranged such the fishing line runs along the top of the fishing rod (a common arrangement for trolling reels), when the fishing rod bends, the amount of fishing line paid out through the guides will be less than the circumference formed by the fishing rod. This causes the fishing line to put pressure against the fishing guides which will cause the fishing rod to move in a random and unstable manner. By running the fishing line along the bottom of the fishing rod, the amount of fishing line paid out through the guides will be greater than the circumference formed by the fishing rod thereby avoiding this problem.
Clearly a device that eliminates this source of instability for a trolling reel would be of benefit for the angling community.


An automatic parameter adjustment device capable of quantitatively determine the degree of importance of a processing time and a processing accuracy, and effectively adjusting a parameter in accordance with a processing condition. The adjustment device includes: a parameter changing part which changes a control parameter; a test program executing part which transmits a test program to a numerical controller for executing the test program; an execution result obtaining part which obtains an execution result of the test program; a storing part which stores the execution result and the parameter corresponding thereto; a weighting part which determines weighting coefficients of the processing time and processing accuracy as evaluation criteria based on input or setting by an operator; and a parameter extracting part which evaluates the execution result based on the weighted evaluation criteria, and extracts an optimum parameter from the storing part based on the evaluated execution result.

1. Field of the Invention
The preset invention relates to an automatic parameter adjustment device having a function for adjusting a parameter corresponding to a processing condition of a machine tool.
2. Description of the Related Art
In the prior art, when controlling a machine tool, an automatic parameter adjustment device may be used for automatically adjusting a control gain or an acceleration/deceleration parameter. For example, JP H07-319506 A discloses an auto-tuning controller having a means for automatically adjusting a control parameter so that a measured cycle time is equal to a desired time. Further, JP H07-319506 A describes that the controller may have a rough adjustment mode and a fine adjustment mode, and the optimum mode may be selected depending on a status of an object to be controlled, etc.
In a machine tool, it is necessary to appropriately adjust the parameter of the acceleration/deceleration or the control gain of each drive axis of the machine tool, depending on the application or the shape of a workpiece to be processed. For example, the optimum value for each parameter is different, between when a cycle time (or a processing time) is more important than processing accuracy, and when the processing accuracy is more important than the cycle time to the contrary. In the conventional automatic parameter adjustment device, it is possible to adjust the control gain up to a limit gain so as to not generate an oscillation phenomenon or it is possible to determine the acceleration/deceleration parameter in which the processing time is minimized, whereas it is difficult to adjust the parameter in accordance with an actual processing condition.
For example, when an acceleration/deceleration time constant is increased in order to reduce the processing time, overshoot may occur at an inversion portion of the drive axis of the machine tool (i.e., a curved portion or a discontinuous portion on a program path), whereby the processing accuracy may be deteriorated. On the other hand, if the acceleration/deceleration time constant is sufficiently large, followability to a command may be improved at the inversion portion of the drive axis, whereby the processing accuracy can be improved. However, the processing time is extended in this case. As such, it is difficult to balance the processing time and the processing accuracy, and it is desirable to automatically adjust the parameter suitable for each processing condition.
In the auto-tuning controller disclosed in JP H07-319506 A, the rough adjustment mode and the fine adjustment mode can be alternatively used. However, it is difficult to equally weight the processing time and the processing accuracy, or quantitatively determine the degree of importance (for example, the processing time may be negligible, or the processing accuracy may be slightly more important than the processing time, etc.) when either the processing time or the processing accuracy is more important than the other.

Automatic parameter adjustment device for adjusting parameter corresponding to processing condition