The present invention comprises an apparatus and method for detecting a loss of oil from an oil-immersed transformer, based on fitting a transformer top-oil temperature model to online measurements in an iterative optimization process that yields fitted values for a first model parameter representing the top-oil temperature rise over ambient temperature and a second model parameter representing the oil time constant. Among the several advantages seen in the contemplated apparatus and method is the reduction in required instrumentation, whereby transformer oil leaks are indirectly detected without requiring pressure sensors or mechanical floats, although the presence of such sensors is not excluded by the teachings herein.

Electrical transformers operate in the magnetic domain, using electromagnetic induction to transform voltage or current at one level into another level. Significant heat may be generated during transformer operation, as a consequence of copper losses, eddy losses and other stray losses. Transformer cooling thus represents a critical design element, particularly in the higher-power transformer applications seen in electrical generation, transmission and distribution.
Oil-based cooling, where the transformer windings and core are immersed in mineral oil, for example, represents a well-established technique for dissipating the heat generated during transformer operation. A number of references provide detailed thermal models of oil-immersed transformers, which may be used to predict operational temperatures for a given transformer, e.g., given winding current values and ambient temperature values. These mathematical representations of the thermal behavior of such transformers are seen, for example, in the following references: "Power Transformers—Loading Guide for Oil-Immersed Power Transformers," IEC 60076-7, first edition, 2005; "IEEE Guide for Loading Mineral-Oil-Immersed Transformer," IEEE Standard C57.91-1995, June 1995; D. Susa et al., "Dynamic thermal modelling of power transformers," IEEE Trans. Power Delivery, vol. 25, no. 1, pp. 197-204, January 2005.
Given the criticality of electrical power generation, transmission and distribution systems, and given the equipment expenses and safety and environmental issues implicated in the operation of oil-immersed transformers, there are a number of robust and highly sophisticated systems available for monitoring virtually every aspect of transformer health and operation. Consider, for example, the so-called "TEC" system offered by ABB. TEC is an electronic control, monitoring, and diagnostic device. The device is configured using a "fingerprint" of the transformer and it provides a single interface to the entire transformer with current and historical status data and the potential to predict loads. A minimum number of extra sensors is needed for TEC implementations, although with its modular nature, TEC provides support for richly instrumented and sophisticated transformer health monitoring and diagnostics.
Whether in the context of TEC-based monitoring, or transformer monitoring in a more general sense, it is known to monitor the operational status of transformer cooling systems, such as by monitoring the electrical current through the motors driving the involved cooling devices, which may be fans or pumps, or both. For example, a given oil-immersed transformer may be equipped with pumps to circulate its cooling oil through some type of heat exchanger. It is also known to monitor for oil leakage using a corresponding complement of sensors, such as pressure and temperature sensors, or using a low-density mobile mechanical device that floats within the transformer oil bath.
While these approaches offer valuable and detailed monitoring and diagnostic information, they can require significant amounts of transformer instrumentation, e.g., pressure sensors, current sensors, multiple temperature sensors, such as top oil and bottom oil temperature sensors, mechanical floats, etc. In certain installations, the costs and complexity of such instrumentation may be easily justified. Similarly, in the context of transformer manufacturing, it may not necessarily be a complicated or expensive proposition to build in a full complement of instrumentation sensors. However, it is recognized herein that there remains a range of applications where fully instrumenting transformers for diagnostic and health monitoring is not economic, such as where a system operator has hundreds or thousands of field-installed transformers that lack a full complement of instrumentation sensors.

Method and apparatus for leakage monitoring for oil-immersed electrical transformers


In an approach for adjusting a web application to comply with user interface capabilities of a device type, a processor monitors usage patterns of a web application by a user, including monitoring device type. The processor monitors input and output network communication data of a resource of a web application. The processor converts the monitored network data to Extensible Markup Language Schema (XSD), and updates documentation of the resource of the web application with the converted data. The processor further receives user interface capabilities of a device type and analyzes a web application for compatibility with the user interface capabilities of the device type. Based on the compatibility analysis, at least one user interface element is be modified within presentation of the web application on the device type. A processor generates a version of the web application compatible with the user interface capabilities of the device type.

Web analytics is the measurement, collection, analysis and reporting of web data for purposes of understanding and optimizing web usage. Web analytics can be used as a tool to assess and improve the effectiveness of a web site. Web analytics may be off-site, on-site, or a combination of the two. Off-site web analytics refers to web measurement and analysis regardless of whether a person owns a website, and includes the measurement of a website's potential audience, webpage loading time, data accessed, type of device used to access the site by a user, and potentially other information. On-site web analytics can be used by the owner of a website to measure a visitor's behavior on the website. On-site web analytics can include UI widget element accesses, user inaction, user interactions on a webpage, inaction on a webpage (e.g., hovering a mouse), mouse clicks on a webpage, and potentially other information.
The mobile web refers to access to the Internet from a handheld mobile device, such as a smartphone connected to a mobile network or other wireless network. Mobile devices can include smartphones, netbooks, tablets, e-books, and other devices with a variety of screen sizes and input capabilities (e.g., touchscreen, mouse, keyboard, etc.).
Self-documenting is a common descriptor for source code and user interfaces that follow certain loosely defined conventions for naming and structure. These conventions are intended to enable developers, users, and maintainers of a system to use it effectively without requiring previous knowledge of its specification, design, or behavior.
Representational state transfer (REST) is a set of principles that define how web standards, such as Hypertext Transfer Protocol (HTTP) and uniform resource identifier (URI), are supposed to be used. REST is intended to evoke an image of how a well-designed web application behaves: presented with a network of webpages, a user progresses through an application by selecting links, or state transitions, resulting in the next page being transferred to the user and rendered for their use. RESTful applications maximize the use of existing, well-defined interfaces and other built-in capabilities provided by the chosen network protocol, and minimize the addition of new application-specific features.
JavaScript™ Object Notation (JSON) is a lightweight data-interchange format. Java and all Java-based trademarks and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates. JSON is easy for humans to read and write, and for machines to parse and generate. JSON is an open standard format that uses human-readable text to transmit data objects consisting of attribute-value pairs. JSON is used primarily to transmit data between a server and web application, as an alternative to Extensible Markup Language (XML).
Web Application Description Language (WADL) is a resource-centric description language which has been designed to facilitate the modeling, description, and testing of RESTful web applications. WADL models the resources provided by a service and the relationships between them. WADL is intended to simplify the reuse of web services that are based on the existing HTTP architecture of the Web.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

International Business Machines Corporation


A toner for developing a latent electrostatic image to a visible toner image, which is suitable for use in an image formation method in which a toner recycle system is adopted, is proposed. The toner is such a toner that a tetrahydro-furan-soluble component contained therein exhibits a sub-peak within a weight-average molecular weight range of 100,000 to 10,000,000 in a molecular weight distribution measured by gel permeation chromatography, and the toner has a water content of 5000 ppm or less when the toner has been allowed to stand at 30.degree. C., 60%RH for 24 hours. An image formation method using this toner is also proposed.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a toner for use in an image formation method, using electrophotography, electrostatic recording, electrostatic printing or the like, in which a toner recycle system is adopted. The present invention also relates to a binder resin for use in the above toner and to an image formation method using the toner, in which a toner recycle system is adopted.
2. Discussion of Background
Generally, in electrophotography, a latent electrostatic image is formed on a latent electrostatic image bearing member provided with a photoconductive layer comprising a photoconductive material through the processes of electrostatic charging and exposure. The latent electrostatic image bearing member is also referred to as "photoconductor".
The latent electrostatic image is developed to a toner image with toner composed of colored particles. The developed toner image is then usually transferred to an image recording material such as a sheet of paper, and fixed thereto, whereby a copy image is formed.
Conventionally, varieties of image fixing methods for fixing the toner image to the image recording material have been known, and a heat roller image fixing method is particularly widely used, since the heat roller image fixing method is capable of attaining high heat transfer efficiency and performing high speed image fixing.
The toner for use in the heat roller image fixing method is basically required to have the following performances: (1) excellent low-temperature image fixing performance by which image fixing can be securely performed at low temperatures, and (2) excellent anti-hot-offset performance by which a fused toner is made it difficult to be transferred to the heat roller at the time of image fixing.
Further, in order to form a clear copy image, the toner is required to have excellent preservation stability in such a way that the toner can be maintained in the form of powder in a stable manner without aggregation, either while in use or while in store.
Furthermore, in order to form high quality images free of fogging a number of times in a stable manner, the toner is required to have properties of being difficult to be crushed even when mechanical shocks, pressure and the like are applied to the toner in a development unit.
Recently, in order to use the toner economically, attention is paid to an image formation method using a toner recycle system, in which a used toner is recovered in the course of a cleaning process for the photoconductor, returned to the development unit, and reused. However, when a conventional toner is used in the above-mentioned image formation method in which the toner recycle system is adopted, there occur problems such as the reduction in image density, the smearing of the background of copy paper, the fogging of images, and the deposition of the toner on a carrier, as the number of copies made is increased. These problems are caused by the toner being deformed or broken by shearing force applied thereto in the course of the recycling process, whereby the toner is finely divided to form finely-divided toner particles. When this takes place, the toner loses its proper chargeable performance, and the finely-divided toner particles reduces the carrier's charge-imparting performance.
As the toners for use in such a recycle system, there are known several toners in which a cross-linked polyester resin is used as a binder resin as disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Applications 59-14144, 58-14147, 60-176049, 60-176054, 62-127748 and 62-127749. These toner, however, are so vulnerable to mechanical force that when mechanical force is frequently applied to the toners within the development unit in the course of the recycling process, the toners are broken into finely-divided toner particles. The thus formed finely-divided toner particles contaminate the carrier particles to reduce the charge-imparting performance of the carrier, resultantly causing insufficient charging of the toner, and lowering the developing performance of a developer transporting member and other units which are adversely affected by the insufficiently charged toner.
Such recycle systems have been studied not only with respect to the toner therefor, but also with respect to an image formation method. Recycle systems have been in fact developed and various inventions and improvements have been made in an image formation apparatus to be used with a recycle system as well. For instance, in an electrostatic image formation process, an attempt has been made to sue a residual toner remaining on an image bearing member after toner images have been transferred therefrom to an image receiving member.
Conventionally such a residual toner is collected and filled in recovery bottles which are exclusively used for this purpose and is discarded or processed as an industrial waste. Discarding such an industrial waste will, of course, cause environmental pollution problems and constitute wasting of resources. In order to avoid the discarding of such a used toner, various toner recycle systems have been studied.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 63-246780 discloses a system in which a toner transport passage is provided for transporting a recovered toner from the cleaning unit to the development unit, and the recovered toner is used as part of toner to be supplied to the development unit.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 1-118774 discloses a system of recovering the residual toner after in the development unit, without any cleaning unit being provided.
Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 6-51672 discloses a system in which a bias-voltage applicable rotary member for recovering toner is provided, and toner is electrostatically recovered when an area corresponding to a sheet-passing portion of an image bearing member passes, and toner is deposited on the image bearing member when an area corresponding to a non-sheet-passing portion of the image bearing member passes.
These systems, however, have their own shortcomings and are not satisfactory for use in practice. In the system disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 63-246780, the toner transport passage such as a pipe is required, and furthermore, toner transport means such as a screw or a belt is indispensable, so that the system itself tends to become oversized an include complicated mechanisms. In the system disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Application 1-118774, it is difficult to recover the residual toner in the development unit once the toner is deposited as the residual toner on an image bearing member, since the residual toner is apt to be firmly fixed to the image bearing member, so that the background of the image and the image itself tend to be frequently smeared with the toner. Further, this system cannot easily cope with abnormal operations such as paper jamming, and the recovering operation frequently has adverse effects on the processes after the image bearing member is smeared. The shortcomings of these systems are not limited to the above. In any event, the above conventional systems are not yet satisfactory.

Toner for developing latent electrostatic images, binder resin for use in the toner, and image formation method using the toner


A kneeling dolly with ramp brake and method of use. Each kneeling dolly with ramp brake comprises a body having a ramp adjacent a wheel well, two front wheels swivellably and retractably attached to the body, and at least one rear wheel. Devices for extending and retracting the front wheels are provided. The instant kneeling dolly with ramp brake may be used singly, in pairs, or in whatever grouping(s) desired. In operation, a vehicle is rolled onto kneeling dollies with ramp brake, until one vehicle wheel is disposed on a respective kneeling dolly with ramp brake. Due to the swivellable attachment of the front and rear wheels, each kneeling dolly with ramp brake is free to travel in any desired direction, and thus the vehicle supported by the kneeling dollies with ramp brake may be pushed in any direction. This flexibility in movement helps relieve congestion and maximize floor space in garages, hangars, etc.

Dollies have long been used to transport heavy vehicles. They are especially useful where a vehicle such as a car or an aircraft must be translated sideways in a restricted space such as a garage or hangar. In such cases, the vehicle's wheels are placed upon dollies having swiveling castors, and the vehicle may then be pushed in any direction.


The size of polygons for composing an object in computer graphics is compared with a predetermined threshold value. Each polygon not exceeding the threshold value is directly converted into pixels. On the other hand, each polygon having a size which exceeds the threshold value is divided, and the resultant polygons are compared again. This ensures efficient processing of the polygons without causing an expansion of the circuit configuration or a significant increase in cost. The processing of the polygons will never be affected by the size of the polygons.

The present invention relates to an image processing method for generating, from three-dimensional image information, two-dimensional image information to be drawn on a two-dimensional screen, such as on a television monitor device, and also relates to a device used therefor, a recording medium having recorded thereon an image processing program, and such image processing program.
There are accelerating trends in higher integration and faster processing speed of processors and memories in recent television game consoles and personal computers, so that an image processing device composed of such a game console or personal computer can generate, from a three-dimensional image, a fine two-dimensional image with real presence in a real-time manner and can display it on two-dimensional monitor screens.
Most current image processing systems generate two-dimensional images according to draw processing on a polygon basis. Reasons why the current image processing systems employ polygon-based draw processing in the generation of two-dimensional images are that polygon data which are expressed on the basis of apexes of polygons are easy to control; that conversion of polygon data to pixel data can be achieved by linear interpolation of apexes onto a draw screen and thus memory access and operations can have locality which is enough to raise the processing speed; and that most of the operations can simply be done by addition if the linear interpolation is performed by using a DDA (digital differential analyzer) so that a sufficiently effective level of real-time drawing can be achieved even with a circuit scale currently available.
Generation processing of two-dimensional images as viewed from the aspect of data type transition is as follows.
First, polygon data on the world coordinate system are subjected to geometry calculations including coordinate conversion, clipping and lighting processing. The polygon data obtained after such geometry calculations are then subjected to projection conversion to be converted into polygon data on screen coordinates. The polygon data on the screen coordinates are subjected to rendering to be converted into pixel data (pixel conversion) on the screen. The pixel data are further converted into screen data to be displayed on a two-dimensional screen. The screen data are sent to a television monitor device and displayed as a two-dimensional image on the two-dimensional screen.
It should now be noted that polygon data have an apex basis, and on the other hand, pixel data have a pixel basis. That is, these two sets of data differ in their units of processing. As a result, conversion of the polygon data into pixel data often causes a delay in the data processing and inefficient operation of calculation circuits. More specifically, rendering is a process directly affected by the area of the polygons, so that pixel conversion for a larger polygon will take a longer process time, and for a smaller polygon a shorter process time. On the contrary, geometry calculation and projection conversion are calculation processes on the apex basis irrespective of the polygon area, so that these calculations take almost the same length of time both for larger polygons and smaller polygons. This means that, for an example in which a larger polygon is drawn first and a smaller polygon comes next, geometry calculation and projection conversion for the smaller polygon are forcibly halted until pixel conversion for the larger polygon by rendering is finished.
The recent mainstream of calculation circuits for rendering is such that a plurality of polygons are generated per one process cycle for a single polygon, where the number of such pixels is fixed depending on the hardware. On the other hand, smaller polygons often come short of the fixed number of pixels even after rendering. An increase in the number of small polygons coming short of the fixed number of pixels will lower the process efficiency of the calculation circuit, and thus decrease the pixel fill rate.
According to these matters, the size of polygons that an image processing system can process on a draw screen in the most efficient manner is almost uniquely decided by the circuit constitution that is used for geometry calculation, setup processing, and rendering processing (pixel conversion), the performance ratio (performance difference) thereof, etc. Conventional image processing systems are configured to draw relatively larger polygons effectively. In other words, conventional image processing systems cannot process polygons effectively other than polygons which have a size for effective processing.
On the other hand, it is supposed that drawing models will become very complicated and that rendering processing will have more variety in the future. If drawing models become very complicated and rendering processing has more variety, it can be predicted that polygons will inevitably become smaller; that the number of small polygons will increase remarkably; and that the number of parameters for the apex of a polygon will increase. Further, according to these results, it can be predicted that the image processing system should lower the pixel fill rate greatly.
As mentioned above, in order to process a large number of small polygons effectively, the image processing system should fix pixel conversion processing and raise throughput of polygons. Further, in order to raise pixel fill rate, the image processing system should draw larger polygons simultaneously. However, it is difficult for conventional image processing systems to perform both high-speed processing for a large number of small polygons and raising of the pixel fill rate at the same time, in order to satisfy the two demands mentioned above. Efforts to satisfy the two demands will make an image processing system have a large number of expensive and large DDAs, which is unpractical in view of cost and circuit scale.


A power combiner system for use in a single-mode waveguide includes an input waveguide, an output waveguide, at least one power amplifier module that includes a plurality of amplifiers, and at least one input dipole antenna extending into the input waveguide. Each input dipole antenna includes two input dipole antenna arms, and each input dipole antenna arm is coupled to an input of a corresponding one of the plurality of amplifiers. The system further includes at least one output dipole antenna extending into the output waveguide. Each output dipole antenna includes two output dipole antenna arms, and each output dipole antenna arm is coupled to an output of a corresponding one of the plurality of amplifiers. Each power amplifier module is disposed in a plane that runs parallel with the direction of propagation.

Terrestrial satellite transmitter systems are used to uplink signal transmissions in satellite communications networks. Typically, a satellite transmitter system includes a power amplifier to increase the power of the signal to levels adequate to reach a distant satellite with sufficient strength. Because the output power of a single amplifying element is often not strong enough, the outputs of many amplifying elements must be combined. Additionally, as the frequency of the transmitted signal becomes higher, the cross-section of the waveguides used to convey the signals must become smaller. As a result, different methods of power combining must be employed, often using one or more printed circuit boards (PCB) to manage these higher frequency wave signals. For example, conventional waveguide designers have employed many different techniques to combine the power of a higher frequency wave signal, such as using finline antennas, slotline antennas, or waveguide probes and transitions, often launching the waves into oversized waveguides. Generally these combiners propagate the amplified wave into a waveguide and eventually radiated to a desired satellite.
For instance, one conventional power combining technique includes using solid state amplifiers with tapered finline antennas printed on a single dielectric substrate (i.e., PCB) card in the center of an oversized waveguide. Despite the use of multiple finline antennas on a single substrate card to facilitate power combining, this conventional single substrate card technique limits the scale of power combining because only a finite number of finline antennas may be printed on a single substrate card. Moreover, because an oversized waveguide is often utilized in this single card technique, the possibility of spurious resonances increases because overmoding is more likely to occur (i.e., more than one mode propagation may occur at higher frequencies). Furthermore, this technique often directly connects each amplifier to adjacent amplifiers. This direct DC couple between amplifiers increases the possibility of low frequency oscillation problems in addition to other stability problems.
Another conventional technique utilizes multiple dielectric substrate cards that include tapered slotline or probe-like antennas that only have a single-end (i.e., only one single arm of the probe antenna) coupled to a single amplifier in conjunction with an oversized waveguide. Detrimentally, this conventional single-ended configuration often requires the use of a balanced-to-unbalanced (i.e., balun) transformer or other structure to assist with converting between a balanced signal and an unbalanced signal. As a result of incorporating a balun structure in the configuration, the bandwidth may be limited and undesired reactance may be introduced into the system leading to less favorable signal quality. Moreover, a single-ended configuration cannot sufficiently suppress harmonic interference as well a differential configuration, and again, overmoding issues are prevalent for applications utilizing oversized waveguides.
Other conventional power combining techniques include using a spatial waveguide power combiner that includes multiple trays of tapered slotline antennas, with wirebond transitions from the antenna to a microstrip on a dielectric PCB card. Not only do wirebond transitions complicate the manufacturing process, but they reduce the possible bandwidth usage of the wave signal. Moreover, because this configuration requires a more gradual taper in the slotline antenna to achieve a sufficient impedance matching over a substantial bandwidth, the entire slotline module that amplifies the power must be physically longer in length which adds weight and bulk to the power amplifying module.
Yet another conventional power combining technique includes implementing a tapered slotline-to-microstrip structure in which the differentially driven microstrips couple to an amplifier for eventually combining power into an output wave signal. However, this conventional technique suffers similar problems as other conventional techniques such as requiring an increased length of the device because, as described above, the gradual tapering of the slotline helps the system to achieve sufficient matching. Furthermore, despite the amplifiers being differentially driven, the amplifiers are coupled at DC with other adjacent amplifiers which may lead to low frequency oscillations and stability problems.

Systems and methods for differential dipole-based waveguide power combining


In a hydraulic device including at least two actuators both adapted to be operated by a single pump, one of the actuators having priority over the other actuator, a control valve for the one actuator including a load hold check valve adapted to assign a variable priority function to the one actuator over the other actuator, the load hold check valve including a valve body provided with a pair of ports respectively communicating with the actuators and a parallel fluid passage communicating with the pump, the parallel fluid passage also communicating with a selected actuator port in an opened state thereof, a poppet disposed in the valve body and adapted to fully open the parallel fluid passage at a full stroke thereof and partially opening the parallel fluid passage at a limited stroke thereof, and a pressure setting spring adapted to always urge the poppet toward the initial position for closing the parallel fluid passage.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to control valves for a variety of hydraulic devices, and more particularly to a control valve having a variable priority construction integrally equipped in its load hold check valve.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Where at least two actuators are being operated in a combined manner by oil delivered from a single pump, a "priority" is established to control the actuators such that one of the actuators is supplied with a larger amount of oil than the other actuator. For example, excavators have a priority of the swing actuator over the arm actuator and a priority of the boom over the bucket. The reason why such priorities are given is because in most cases, the amount of oil required for a swing operation is larger than the amount of oil required for an arm operation, and the amount of oil required for a boom operation is larger than the amount of oil required for a bucket operation. As oil is supplied in different amounts depending on the kind of operation in accordance with the priorities, it is possible to prevent unnecessary loss of pressure and achieve a smooth operation.
Conventionally, means for providing such a priority function is installed as a separately in a hydraulic circuit or integrally equipped in a control valve.
Referring to FIG. 1, there is shown a conventional priority device installed separately in a hydraulic circuit. As shown in FIG. 1, the priority device includes an orifice 201 disposed in a parallel fluid line 203. The orifice 201 serves to limit the amount of oil supplied to actuator A associated therewith and thereby increasing amount of oil supplied to the swing motor using the limited amount of oil. By such a function of the orifice 201, actuator B has priority over actuator A.
Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown another conventional priority device which is integrally equipped in a control valve. As shown in FIG. 2, the priority device includes an orifice fluid passage 305 formed in a load hold check valve 303 of a control valve unit 301. The orifice fluid passage 305 has a diameter considerably smaller than those of other fluid passages provided at the control valve unit 301. In the control valve unit 301, oil in the parallel fluid passage 307 flows through the orifice fluid passage 305 to the left actuator port 309a or the right actuator port 309b while urging the load hold check valve 303 in a downward direction. When the oil passes through the orifice fluid passage 305 communicating with one of the actuators, a reduction in oil amount is generated because the orifice fluid passage 305 has a diameter considerably smaller than those of other fluid passages provided at the control valve unit 301. As a result, the amount of oil corresponding to the reduced amount of oil is additionally supplied to the other actuator via the parallel fluid passage 307. Thus, the priority function is achieved.
Where two actuators are operated in a combined manner, the above-mentioned conventional priority devices provide a desirable effect by establishing a priority of one actuator over the other actuator. Where only the actuator communicating with the orifice installed in the parallel fluid line or the orifice fluid passage formed in the control valve is operated, however, there are problems of unnecessary loss of pressure and a decrease in the actuating speed of the actuator because the amount of oil supplied to the actuator is always limited.
In order to solve these problems, there has been proposed a variable priority device. Where such a variable priority device is used to obtain a priority of the swing actuator over the arm actuator, it serves to supply a sufficient amount of oil to the arm cylinder by releasing an orifice function when the arm actuator operates alone and to decrease the amount of oil supplied to the arm actuator and relatively increases the amount of oil supplied to the swing actuator by the orifice function, thereby enabling the swing actuator to have priority over the arm actuator. Generally, such a variable priority device includes a variable orifice which is disposed in a parallel fluid line and switched between an orifice state and an orifice release state in response to a given pressure signal.
However, this variable priority device has a drawback that its hydraulic circuit should have complex additional elements such as the variable orifice and a pressure signal generating circuit for switching the variable orifice.

Control valve with variable priority function


An LBA correspondence table creating unit creates an LBA correspondence table to convert address information on a floppy disk which is a copy source into address information on an SD memory card, in relation to an FD image area. If an access to the floppy disk to be emulated is requested, an FD access control unit alternately executes access to the SD memory card on the basis of the LBA correspondence table. An FD exchange emulating unit monitors updating and deletion in an FD image SD area by an HD access control unit. If the access is made, the FD exchange emulating unit executes emulation as if the floppy disk was exchanged.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an emulation technique capable of imaginarily constructing an environment which allows access to, for example, an SD (Secure Digital) memory card(R) to be executed in steps of access to a floppy disk(R).
2. Description of the Related Art
In recent years, a semiconductor memory mounted on, for example, a PDA (Personal Digital Assistant), a digital camera and the like has been made smaller in size and larger in capacity in accordance with the progress of the semiconductor manufacturing technology. For example, an SD memory card(R) has a storage capacity of tens to hundreds of megabytes in a size with sides 2 to 3 centimeters long. For this reason, personal computers having slots for loading of semi-conductor memories as represented by the SD memory cards(R) instead of floppy disks(R) as standard equipment, have also been increased.
On the other hand, a request to continuously use the operation environment constructed on the floppy disk(R) has been strong. Thus, so-called emulating functions to handle a part or an entire body of a storage area of a storage medium as a different kind of storage medium have been variously proposed (for example, Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 5-289854 and Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-290606).
With this kind of emulating function, the area for floppy disk(R) is reserved in, for example, the SD memory card(R) and the contents of the desired floppy disk(R) are copied in the area. Therefore, even if the personal computer is not equipped with a slot for floppy disk(R), the operation environment constructed on the floppy disk(R) can be continuously used with the only slot for SD memory card(R).
Incidentally, according to any conventional emulating function as disclosed in Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 5-289854 or Jpn. Pat. Appln. KOKAI Publication No. 2001-290606, the area for the emulated storage medium is fixed in an area to which an upper-level system such as an operating system or the like cannot access. This certainly prevents the contents of the emulated storage medium from being rewritten due to carelessness. However, it is difficult for the personal computer user to intentionally rewrite the contents. Therefore, if the floppy disk(R) is emulated in a part of the storage area of, for example, the SD memory card(R), exchanging the floppy disk(R) is very difficult.
In addition, since the SD memory card(R) is subjected to specific processing that may exceed the file system standard, such as reserving the area for floppy disk(R) by operating the partition table of, for example, the SD memory card(R), the SD memory card(R) may not be subjected to general use in a device such as a digital camera, a mobile telephone or the like.

Emulation system and emulation method for multiple recording media tupes


In a method of producing liquid pig iron or liquid steel pre-products from iron-oxide-containing material, fine-particulate iron-oxide-containing material is reduced to fine-particulate sponge iron by the fluidized bed method by passing a reducing gas through at least one fluidized bed reduction stage (7, 8), and lumpy ore is reduced to lumpy sponge iron in a fixed bed reduction stage (28). The sponge iron is charged into a melting-gasifying zone (11) and is molten there under a supply of carbon carriers and oxygen-containing gas, in which a CO-- and H.sub.2 -containing reducing gas is generated for reducing the iron-oxide-containing material. To avoid treating the fine-particulate sponge iron separately from the lumpy sponge iron, the fine-particulate sponge is charged directly to the melting-gasifying zone (11) in an untreated condition and in fine-particulate form, and there, is melted together with the lumpy sponge iron.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of producing liquid pig iron or liquid steel pre-products from iron-oxide-containing material, wherein fine-particulate iron-oxide-containing material is reduced to fine-particulate sponge iron by the fluidized bed method by means of a reducing gas in at least one fluidized bed reduction stage and wherein, furthermore, lumpy ore is reduced to lumpy sponge iron in a fixed bed reduction stage which is structurally separated from the fluidized bed reduction stage, and the sponge iron is charged into a melting-gasifying zone and is molten there under supply of carbon carriers and oxygen-containing gas, wherein a CO-- and H.sub.2 -containing reducing gas is generated for reducing the iron-oxide-containing material, and to a plant for carrying out the method.
2. Description of the Related Art
A method of this kind, by which it is feasible not only to process lumpy ore but also fine ore and which enables great possibilities of varying the amounts of lumpy ore and fine ore being charged in relation to the total amount of ore being charged, is known from WO-A-96/12045. In this method, the fine-particulate sponge iron produced from fine ore is briquetted for greater ease of handling and is further processed in a compact steelworks provided, for instance, with electric furnaces and converters. If necessary, the briquetted sponge iron may also be melted down in the melting-gasifying zone, particularly if surplus energy is available in the melting-gasifying zone.
A disadvantage associated with this method is the briquetting of the fine-particulate sponge iron formed from iron ore, but this is accepted in the method of WO-A-96112045, since the charging into the melting-gasifying zone of fine-particulate sponge iron constitutes a special case that is only put into practice if surplus energy is available in the melting-gasifying zone. Generally, WO-A-96/12045 requires forming briquettes from the fine-particulate sponge iron, which will then be particularly easy to handle for shipment to a compact steelworks.

Method and plant for producing iron from lumpy and fine-particulate sponge iron


The invention relates to a device for determining the granulometric composition of a mixture of particles by diffraction of light. The light flux received on the diffraction pattern is measured in a number of diffraction areas (AI,AJ) each of which is in the shape of an angular sector of circular rings which are concentric with the pattern, these integration areas forming two successions in each of which the inner and outer radii form geometrical progressions with common ratio of two, the ratio between the outer radius and the inner radius of an integration area being chosen in the interval between two and the square root of two, the radii within one succession (AJ) being equal to those within the other (AI) multiplied by the square root of two. Application to studying powder mixtures.

The device makes it possible to determine, in a mixture of particles or grains of various sizes, the percentage of particles whose sizes are contained between predetermined succesive ranges. The mixture is preferably in powder form and it is then transformed into a suspension of particles in a gaseous, or, more often, liquid fluid.
The suspension must be sufficiently diluted and formed as a sufficiently thin layer to enable light to pass through it and be partially diffracted by the particles.
However, the mixture can assume other forms, e.g. a biological preparation fixed on a transparent plate.
The device in accordance with the invention uses the known method of illuminating the mixture with a parallel beam of monochromatic light, forming a diffraction pattern, examining the pattern, which has circular symmetry about a centre to determine the distribution of the light flux as a function of radius (distance from the centre) and mathematically processing the signals supplied by the examination to deduce therefrom data concerning the granulometric composition. It is assumed here that the particles are spherical. Actually, they may have other shapes which can be observed beforehand by microscope examination. However, the person skilled in the art can then experimentally establish an at least approximate equivalence between each diameter of a spherical particle and a value of a characteristic size of a particle of known non-spherical shape.
For example, uses of this method are known through: French patent application No. 71 30 802 filed on Aug. 25, 1971; the corresponding to U.S. Pat. No. 3,807,864; the first French certificate of addition no. 77 27 308 to the above French patent application; an article by J. Cornillault entitled "Particle Size Analyzer" (Applied Optics Vol. 11, No. 2, February 1972, p. 265-268) and articles by Wertheimer et al. entitled "Light scattering measurements of particle distributions" (Applied Optics, vol. 15, p. 1616, June, 1976); and "Light scattering instrumentation for particulate measurements in processes" (SPIE, vol 129., Effective utilization of Optics in quality assurance, 1977).
These documents describe known methods of measuring not the illumination of the diffraction pattern for each value of the radius, but the total value of the light flux received on several "integration areas" which are each constituted, for example, by an opening formed in a screen and followed by a light detector which supplies a detection signal proportional to the flux. Such a disposition makes it possible for each light detector to receive a light flux which is sufficient for it to be measured easily and accurately. Above all, it allows an improvement in the quality of the final results, subject to a suitable choice of the shapes and dimensions of the integration areas. This is explained as follows: consider the light flux received on a very thin circular ring which is concentric to the pattern and has an inner or outer radius d, the flux is divided by the very small difference between the inner radius and the outer radius of the ring. The result of the division is a function of the radius d. This function will here be called f(d). The same function f(d ) can be more precisely defined as the derivative of another function of d, here called F(d) which represents the flux received inside the circle of radius d.
Each integration area extends between an inner circle of radius d1 (inner radius) and an outer circle of radius d2 (outer radius). For each value of the radius d lying between d1 and d2, the integration area, as seen from the centre of the diffraction pattern, has an angular extent A (angle at the centre) which may be constant but which may alternatively vary when the radius d changes. The angular extent can therefore be considered as a function A(d). The total flux Fk received in an integration area Sk is then equal, to within a constant, to the integral of the product A(d).F(d), with respect to the variable d, between the limits d1k and d2k, representing the values of d1 and d2 for the integration area. The values of d1k and d2k and possibly the law of variation of the angular extent 1, can be chosen at will so as to obtain from each integration area a detection signal which makes it possible to obtain final results which are as useful as possible, taking into account the aims to be achieved.
These aims can be diverse, but it is often required to obtain a histogram (or a continuous granulometric curve which contains the same data as a histogram), i.e. there is defined a continuous sequence of ranges of values of the diameter a of the particles from the smallest possible diameter to the greatest, e.g. in a geometrical progression and the percentage of the number of the particles whose diameters are contained in each of these successive ranges is to be found. There result two conflicting requirements. One is fineness of measurement, i.e. the number of ranges must be as great as possible, each of the ranges being as narrow as possible. The other requirement in independence of measurement, i.e. the percentage measured for a range must be altered as little as possible by the presence of particles whose diameters are included in the other ranges. In accordance with known dispositions, unfortunately, these two requirements cannot be achieved simultaneously, since if an increased number of narrower ranges is chosen, the percentage measured for a range will be more greatly affected by the presence of particles which correspond to several neighbouring ranges. This can be explained considering the distribution of light sent to the diffraction pattern by particles of a given diameter a, the greater part of said light being distributed from the centre of the spot up to a distance d from the centre. The smaller the diameter a, the greater the distance d. Therefore, to estimate the percentage of particles in a range with a diameter of about a in a mixture, it is necessary to measure the light flux in a zone of the diffraction pattern (integration area) which is sufficiently far from the centre so as not be hindered by light diffraction by the particles whose diameters come within the higher ranges and said zone must be sufficiently near to gather a significant fraction of light diffracted by the particles sought. However, light diffracted by the particles of greater diameter and especially light diffracted by particles of smaller diameter does cause slight disturbance but does not make it impossible to estimate the percentage of the particles in the range of diameters considered, since the influence of the other particles can also be taken into account when the received signals are mathematically processed, but it results in inaccurate estimation and the greater the proportion of hindering light, i.e. light diffracted in the zone in question by these other particles, the greater the inaccuracy. It is well known in metrology that such inaccuracy is observed each time an estimation is made by subtraction of two measurements which are themselves erroneous and cannot be corrected and that this inaccuracy is increased when these two measurements are close to each other.
Referring again to measurement of granulometry by diffraction of monochromatic light, there are three possibilities for keeping accuracy within acceptable limits, i.e. for keeping the estimation of the percentage of particles in one range of diameters sufficiently independent from the percentages of the other particles. A first possibility consists of choosing sufficiently large values for both the relative width of the diameter ranges (i.e. in practice the ratio between the largest and the smallest diameters in the range) and the radial extent of the areas of integration (i.e. the ratio between the greatest and smallest radius of the area). This makes it possible simultaneously to collect a large fraction of the light diffracted by the particles in the diameter range in question and to collect only a relatively smaller fraction of the light diffracted by the other particles. However, this possibility is limited by the fact that the width of the ranges becomes excessive when using the results. In practice, it is possible to continue in this way up to a relative width equivalent to 2; then the user requires a width whose value is at least that of the square root of 2, i.e. about 1.4.
A second possibility, which can be used in equipment found in trade, consists in disregarding the finest particles which cause the greatest hindrance. In practice, this is equivalent to either studying mixtures which do not include particles with a diameter of less than about one micrometer or, if the mixture includes such particles, not measuring their concentration and, what is worse, neglecting their influence, i.e. finally accepting erroneous estimations for the concentrations of particles of diameters greater than one micrometer.
A third possibility takes into consideration the fact that the hindrance due to the finest particles is connected not directly to the diameters thereof, but to the ratio between their diameters and the wavelength of the light used. This possibility consists in using light with a shortened wavelength. In practice, helium-neon laser light is used at present, its wavelength being 0.63 micrometers. This would lead to using a clearly shorter wavelength, e.g. twice as short. This would be both complex and expensive.
The present invention aims to produce a device for determining the granulometric composition of a mixture of particles by light-diffraction to make it possible in particular to obtain simply and accurately a granulometric histogram with sufficiently narrow ranges, even when the mixture studied includes particles of diameters close to the wavelength of the light used.

Device for determining the granulometric composition of a mixture of particles by diffraction of light


A controller for a rotary machine includes a processor and a memory coupled to the processor. The memory is configured to store operating modes of the controller. The operating modes include a normal operating mode and a fault tolerant operating mode. The controller is configured to receive a signal from at least one sensor and determine an operating state of the rotary machine based on the signal. The controller is also configured to switch the operating modes based on the determined operating state of the rotary machine and regulate at least one electromagnetic bearing and at least one flow control device. The controller is further configured to adjust at least one of the at least one electromagnetic bearing and the at least one flow control device in the fault tolerant operating mode.

The field of the invention relates generally to rotary machines, and more particularly, to rotary machines including active magnetic bearing (AMB) systems.
Active magnetic bearing systems are used in rotary machines for providing non-contact support of a rotating piece, i.e., a rotor. Sometimes the rotor experiences loads that are greater than the capacity of the active magnetic bearing system. Accordingly, rotary machines include auxiliary mechanical bearings, i.e., landing bearings, to receive the rotor when the loads on the rotor exceed the capacity of the active magnetic bearing system. However, the loads on the rotor that exceed the capacity of the active magnetic bearing system result in contact between the landing bearings and the rotor, i.e., rotor landings.
Sometimes, the rotary machines experience conditions that may introduce loads approaching, and potentially exceeding, the design capacity of the active magnetic bearing system and increase a potential for rotor landings. At least some known rotary machines include a localized controller to account for high dynamic loads. However, the localized controllers are inefficient in accounting for some load variations. In addition, the localized controllers do not account for high static loads such as those introduced by, e.g., near choke area or high volume flow area conditions associated with a compressor. Moreover, at least some known controllers operate within long-term operating parameters that limit the performance and efficiency of the rotary machine.

Rotary machine including active magnetic bearing


A pipe inspection device includes a housing (1) fixed to a semi-rigid rod (2) and having a longitudinal axis (3) and inside the housing a camera (4) having a forward-looking field of view and a camera (5) rotatable around said longitudinal axis (3) and having a field of view directed to permit closer inspection of an inner surface of the pipe, and means (17-24) for rotating the rotatable camera (5) to direct its field of view against an area of the inner surface of the pipe to be inspected more closely. To make it possible to inspect the inner surface of a pipe faster than with prior art devices, the inspection device has at least two cameras (5-7) in addition to the camera (4) having a forward-looking field. Said at least two cameras (5-7) are rotatable as an assembly around the longitudinal axis and have a field of view directed to permit closer inspection of an inner surface of the pipe. Further, the housing (1) has a fixed rear part (10) and a front part (11) that is carried by the rear part (10) and rotatable around said longitudinal axis (3), all of the cameras (4-7) being fixed in the rotatable front part (11) of the housing (1).

Devices for inspecting the inner side of a pipe generally comprise a casing, inside which is mounted a camera having a forward-looking view and a separate light source. The device is fixed to one end of a semi-rigid rod, which is pushed down a pipe to be inspected. The rod encloses wires for supply of electrical power to the device from a supply outside the pipe and at the same time image signals from the camera to a monitor outside the pipe. On pushing the camera along the pipe, the casing with the camera tends to rotate about its longitudinal axis, so that the image displayed on the monitor is similarly rotated, which makes it difficult to determine the orientation of an image.
To maintain the attitude of the camera it is suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 6,611,661 B1 (Buck) and US 2005/0275725 A1 (Olsson et al.) to make the camera self-leveling by using a leveling weight and mount the camera and the weight freely rotatable within the housing, such that gravitational forces maintain the rotational orientation (attitude) of the camera independent of the housing. None of these two documents discloses the use of a second camera directed to permit closer inspection of an inner surface of the pipe.
A pipe inspection device having two cameras, one for looking forward and one for looking sideways to inspect the inner wall of the pipe fore closely is disclosed in GB 2 342 419 A (Pearpoint Ltd.). The two cameras form an assembly that is rotatable around the longitudinal axis inside the housing, and the sideways looking camera is directed strictly sideways, at a right angle to the longitudinal axis of the housing, and to make it possible for the camera to see the pipe wall, the housing has a circumferential window. The rotation is accomplished by a motor provided inside the casing and, if desired, a sensor may be provided for driving the motor in response to changes in the attitude of the device.
To protect this circumferential window from getting scratched or mechanically damaged in some other way during use of the inspection device, the outer diameter of the window is recessed in comparison with the outer diameter of adjacent portions of the housing. However, to form such a recess, the diameter of adjacent portions of the housing have to be increased, which is a drawback, since it is desirable to make the diameter of the housing as small as possible. Further, such a recess will increase the risk of the inspection device getting stuck in the pipe during inspection thereof, and the recess will also be exposed to accumulation of dirt therein, and irrespective of any rotation of the camera, the rotatable camera cannot inspect pipe surface areas hidden behind the accumulated dirt on the window.
In addition, the camera assembly may require a rotation of up to 180° from a normal top position in order to inspect an area at the bottom of the pipe, and every rotation is time-consuming, even if the rotation is smaller than 180°. To cover an entire pipe a full rotation of 360° may be required.
In addition, the camera assembly may require a rotation of up to 180° from a normal top position in order to inspect an area at the bottom of the pipe, and every rotation is time-consuming, even if the rotation is smaller than 180°.


A semiconductor package and a method of fabrication are provided. The package includes multiple semiconductor dice contained in a housing, and mounted on edge to a substrate. Each die includes a polymer interconnect which attaches to a face of the die, and wraps around an end (or side) of the die. The polymer interconnect includes a flexible polymer tape with patterns of conductors. The conductors include microbumps for bonding to the die bond pads, and edge contacts for electrical connection to mating contacts on the substrate. The package also includes a force applying mechanism for biasing the dice against the substrate. In alternate embodiments, the polymer interconnect includes resilient edge contacts, cantilevered edge contacts, or multi level edge contacts.

Semiconductor packages can include multiple semiconductor dice in a stacked configuration. One type of package, known as a "connector", has parallel spaced cavities wherein the dice are mounted. The package can be mounted to a supporting substrate, such as a printed circuit board, to form multi chip modules and other electronic assemblies. For example, memory modules can include multiple memory devices, such as DRAMs, housed in the same package.
With some packages, direct electrical connections can be made between the bond pads on the dice, and mating contacts on the supporting substrate. Alternately, the packages can include electrical members for contacting the dice and supporting substrate. One feature of most prior art semiconductor packages is that the electrical connections between the dice and packages, or between the dice and supporting substrates, are permanent connections. For example, the connections are typically bonded connections, such as reflowed solder, or a cured conductive adhesive material.
The permanent electrical connections make assembly and disassembly of the packages difficult. In particular, the permanent electrical connections permit the packages to be assembled and disassembled only by semiconductor and electronics manufacturers having specialized equipment. It would be advantageous for packages to be constructed to allow disassembly and re-assembly by other users of the packages, such as consumers. This would permit the dice in the packages to be removed and replaced as required. For example, packages used for computer memory modules could be upgraded by consumers using the latest memory devices to replace the original dice in the packages.
Another problem with conventional semiconductor packages is stress generated by thermal cycling. In particular, the coefficient of thermal expansion (CTE) for the dice is typically different than the CTE of the packages and supporting substrates. Accordingly, the dice can expand by a different amount, stressing the electrical connections. Solder electrical connections are particularly susceptible to cracking and separation. It would be advantageous to provide packages with non-bonded electrical connections. This would permit movement of the dice to absorb thermal stresses.
Another aspect of semiconductor packages is that dice are being manufactured with large numbers of bond pads (e.g., 50 or more) which provide increased input/output paths to the integrated circuits contained on the dice. This requires a large number of electrical connections and associated electrical paths to be made to the dice. Optimally, a semiconductor package is constructed to accommodate large numbers of device bond pads.
The present invention is directed to an improved semiconductor package which can be easily disassembled and re-assembled without special equipment. In addition, the package includes resilient non-bonded electrical connections, which facilitate disassembly and re-assembly, and which absorb thermal stresses. Still further, the package can accommodate dice having large numbers of bond pads.

High density semiconductor package and method of fabrication


A styrene derivative carrying N-acethylchito-oligosaccharide chains, a polystyrene derivative carrying N-acetylchito-oligosaccharide chains on the side chains as well as a method for preparing these compounds are herein disclosed. The method for preparing the styrene derivative comprises reacting N-acetylchito-oligosaccharide lactone with vinylbenzylamine or a derivative thereof while the method for preparing the polystyrene derivative comprises polymerizing the styrene derivative. These derivatives can be employed as biomedical materials, in particular as materials for cell culture.

The present invention relates to styrene derivatives and polystyrene derivatives used as biomedical substances, in particular materials for cell culture as well as a method for preparing these derivatives.
Owing to the progress in cell culture techniques, considerable progress has been made in studies on the mechanisms of proliferation, differentiation, aging, oncogenesis or the like of cells. In addition, biologically active substances such as vaccins, hormones and interferons have correspondingly been produced. Moreover, it is expected that the production of biological artificial organs such as artificial livers, blood vessels and skin could be developed on the basis of experimental results on culture of various cells such as liver cells, blood vessel wall cells and fibroblast cells of the skin. It is very important to cultivate cells for the purpose of allowing cells to develop a variety of their functions in vitro for a long period of time.
Liver cells by way of an example is specifically explained in more detail to make this point clear. The liver is the greatest glanderous organ of vertebrate animals and is a metabolic center which performs most part of metabolism and regulation thereof. The liver cells originally have long life time over several years and potential ability of proliferation so that they can actively proliferate when a part thereof is accidentally removed. However, if they are cultured in vitro, the life time thereof is greatly shortened, they show almost no proliferation ability and their metabolic activity is rapidly reduced. In general, the culture of cells requires the use of a solid surface to which the cells are adhered when they are cultivated. The liver cells hardly adhere to the surface of usually employed culture dishes of glass or polystyrene which have been surface-treated. Therefore, it has long been desired to develop biomedical materials which make it possible to cause adhesion and proliferation of these cells while maintaining the functions thereof.
Recently, as the mechanisms of cell adhesion, of information transmission through a cell membrane or the like are elucidated at molecular level, it has become clear that sugar chains which exist on the surface of cell membranes in the forms of glycoproteins or glycolipids play an important role in recognizing ability of the cells.
The inventors of this invention already synthesized polystyrenes having monosaccharide or oligosaccharide residues such as glycose, maltose, lactose and maltotriose residues on the side chains and tried to adhere rat liver cells to the surface of a culture dish to which a film of such a polystyrene had been applied. As a result, it is found that the polystyrene film having lactose residues on the side chains, among others, substantially increases the ability of the liver cells to adhere to the surface of a culture dish irrespective of the presence of serum. Thus, these polymers show excellent properties as hybrid type biomedical materials (see "Japanese Journal of Polymer Science and Technology", 1985, Vol. 42, No. 11, pp. 719-724).
As explained above, these polystyrenes having monosaccharide or oligosaccharide residues on the side chains show excellent cell-recognizing ability. As a result, they make it possible to cause good adhesion and proliferation of specific cells such as liver cells. However, they do not serve to adhere and proliferate other cells. For this reason, it has been desired to develop various biomedical materials which exhibit ability of adhering and proliferating other cells and hence have wide variety of applications.

Styrene derivatives having N-acetylchito-oligosaccharide chains and method for the same


Disclosed embodiments provide an outdoor umbrella mount comprising a hollow tubular portion. Multiple access mounting holes are disposed within the tubular portion. A base screw is configured and disposed to traverse a mounting hole and an opposite mounting hole to serve as the base for an umbrella, allowing an umbrella to be securely mounted without the need for a large base on the floor/ground surface, thereby creating more legroom area for users.

Outdoor umbrellas are often used on patios, decks, in gardens, and other recreation and work areas for providing shade and/or shelter from sun and in some cases rain. These umbrellas enable enhanced enjoyment of these spaces by increasing comfort as well as protecting users from the sun's harmful rays. It is therefore desirable to have improvements in umbrella stands.


A physical property evaluation method for optical fiber coating which is easy in producing a sample and high in accuracy and which is capable of measuring the shear modulus or tensile modulus with high accuracy, and a coated optical fiber with good lateral pressure characteristics using this evaluation method. The method comprises a step of producing a sample with the both end faces being parallel by cutting a coated optical fiber by a plane normal to the direction of the center axis of an optically transparent member, a step of holding the sample by securing the second coating layer, a step of pushing only the optically transparent member to impose a load thereon, thereby giving displacement to the optically transparent member and causing shear elastic deformation to the first coating layer, and a step of calculating the shear modulus or tensile modulus of a material forming the first coating layer, based on an amount of the displacement of the optically transparent member and a value of the load imposed thereon.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a physical property evaluation method for optical fiber coating used in evaluation of a coating material in a coated optical fiber for optical transmission or in product inspection of coated optical fibers produced, and to the coated optical fiber.
2. Related Background Art
A coating of the coated optical fiber affects optical transmission characteristics or lateral pressure characteristics. Therefore, it is necessary to control physical properties, particularly, those of the first coating layer (primary layer).
A well known example of a method for evaluating the shear modulus of elasticity or the tensile modulus of elasticity of the first coating in the coated optical fiber is the one described in International Wire & Cable Symposium Proceedings 1993, p. 864. This evaluation method includes removing a part of the coating in the coated optical fiber, thereby producing a sample with only an optically transparent member or glass portion projecting, imposing a tensile load on the optically transparent member while securing the peripheral portion of the coated optical fiber, thereby causing shear elastic deformation to a material forming the first coating layer, thus measuring a shear modulus of elasticity of the material, and then converting it into a tensile modulus of elasticity.

Physical property evaluation method for optical fiber coating, and coated optical fiber


A communication device (alternatively, device) includes a processor configured to support communications with other communication device(s) and to generate and process signals for such communications. In some examples, the device includes a communication interface and a processor, among other possible circuitries, components, elements, etc. to support communications with other communication device(s) and to generate and process signals for such communications. In some examples, a device encodes information using a low density parity check (LDPC) code to generate an LDPC coded signal and transmits the LDPC coded signal to another communication device. in other examples, a device receives an LDPC coded signal from another communication device and decodes the LDPC coded signal using an LDPC matrix. The LDPC matrix includes a left hand side matrix and a right hand side matrix (e.g., having CSI (Cyclic Shifted Identity) sub-matrices on a main diagonal and another diagonal adjacently located to the main diagonal).

Technical Field
The present disclosure relates generally to communication systems; and, more particularly, to communication devices operative and operable within such communication systems.
Description of Related Art
Data communication systems have been under continual development for many years. The primary goal within such communication systems is to transmit information successfully between devices. Unfortunately, many things can deleteriously affect signals transmitted within such systems resulting in degradation of or even complete failure of communication. Examples of adverse effects include interference and noise that may be caused by various sources including other communications, low-quality links, degraded or corrupted interfaces and connectors, etc.
Some communication systems use forward error correction (FEC) coding and/or error checking and correction (ECC) coding to increase the reliability and the amount of information that may be transmitted between devices. When a signal incurs one or more errors during transmission, a receiver device can employ the FEC or ECC coding to try to correct those one or more errors.
A continual and primary directive in this area of development has been to try continually to lower the signal to noise ratio (SNR) required to achieve a given bit error ratio (BER) or symbol error ratio (SER) within a communication system. The Shannon limit is the theoretical bound for channel capacity for a given modulation and code rate. The ideal goal has been to try to reach Shannon's channel capacity limit in a communication channel. Shannon's limit may be viewed as being the maximum data rate per unit of bandwidth (i.e., spectral efficiency) to be used in a communication channel, having a particular SNR, where transmission through the communication channel with arbitrarily low BER or SER is achievable.
In addition, communication systems may be configured to support wireless and wire lined communications between wireless and/or wire lined communication devices. The systems can range from national and/or international cellular telephone systems, to the Internet, to point-to-point in-home wireless networks and can operate in accordance with one or more communication standards. For example, wireless communication systems may operate in accordance with one or more standards including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.11x (where x may be various extensions such as a, b, n, g, etc.), Bluetooth, advanced mobile phone services (AMPS), digital AMPS, global system for mobile communications (GSM), etc., and/or variations thereof.
In some instances, wireless communication is made between a transmitter (TX) and receiver (RX) using single-input-single-output (SISO) communication. Another type of wireless communication is single-input-multiple-output (SIMO) in which a single TX processes data into radio frequency (RF) signals that are transmitted to a RX that includes two or more antennae and two or more RX paths.
Yet an alternative type of wireless communication is multiple-input-single-output (MISO) in which a TX includes two or more transmission paths that each respectively converts a corresponding portion of baseband signals into RF signals, which are transmitted via corresponding antennae to a RX. Another type of wireless communication is multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) in which a TX and RX each respectively includes multiple paths such that a TX parallel processes data using a spatial and time encoding function to produce two or more streams of data and a RX receives the multiple RF signals via multiple RX paths that recapture the streams of data utilizing a spatial and time decoding function.
There continues to be significant room in the art for improvement of increasing performance along these lines including increasing throughput, performance, etc. within such communication devices and systems.

Low density parity check (LDPC) codes for communication devices and systems

AVAGO TECHNOLOGIES INTERNATIONAL SALES PTE. LIMITED


A hands-free device includes upper and lower earphones; a hands-free main body having opened top and bottom surfaces; a control unit mounted in the hands-free main body and configured to apply an operation signal; and an earphone protruding unit formed in the hands-free main body and configured to protrude the upper earphone through a rear surface of the hands-free main body in response to a protrusion operation signal of the control unit; and an earphone drawing unit formed in the hands-free main body and configured to draw one or more of the upper and lower earphones through one or more of the top and bottom surfaces of the hands-free main body in response to a draw operation signal of the control unit.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a hands-free device, and more particularly, to a hands-free device which may be applied in various manners depending on use environments.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a hands-free device is wired or wirelessly connected to an electronic device, and serves to transmit data such as user's voice signals to the electronic device and receive data such as voice signals transmitted from the electronic device, without a direct manipulation on the electronic device.
The hands-free device generally includes an output unit such as a circuit and earphone to reproduce received voice signals and an input unit such as a mike and circuit to receive and process voice signals and transmit the processed voiced signals.
In general, the hands-free device is formed in such a manner that the output unit such as an earphone is placed on a user's ear and the input unit such as a mike is positioned adjacent to a user's mouth.
The above-described hands-free device has a standardized basic structure for performing basic input and output functions.
Recently, with the development of electronic and communication technology, the portability of electronic devices has been considered to be important. However, the conventional hands-free device has a functional limit in which it must cover a user's ears and mouth. Therefore, the portability of the hands-free device inevitably decreases due to the standardized structure. Furthermore, the conventional hands-free device has difficulties in connecting with a variety of portable electronic devices launched on the market.
Accordingly, there is an urgent demand for a hands-free device which may be easily connected with various portable electronic devices while strengthening convenience and portability, and may be used for multipurpose in response to various situations.


A position-related multi-media presentation system for a vehicle. A position determining system generates position information of a vehicle. The position information is transferred to a multi-media system. The multi-media system presents information related to the position of the vehicle to an occupant of the vehicle. In one embodiment, video information is displayed on a display unit located on the back of a seat of an aircraft. The video information provides views related to features over which the aircraft is flying.

Position determining systems typically provide geographic position information such as latitude, longitude, and altitude. Unfortunately, for many non-navigational applications, this geographic information is not, by itself, of interest to a user. For example, a passenger in an automobile would probably have little use for knowledge of his or her current latitude, longitude, and altitude. Rather than being provided with geographic position information in terms of latitude, longitude, and altitude, a user often may prefer that additional information be made available.
In an attempt to deliver geographic position information in a more "user-friendly" manner, some position determining systems include in-vehicle navigation systems. The in-vehicle navigation system converts the geographic position information of the vehicle to a more familiar format such as, for example, a street address or a distance to a desired destination.
Although the use of an in-vehicle navigation system provides an added degree of "user-friendliness", many users still find such geographic position information to be of little interest.
Consequently, the need has arisen for a system which uses geographic position information to provide a variety of non-navigational functions which are useful and interesting to ordinary consumers.

Position-related multi-media presentation system


Methods are disclosed utilizing optically pure (+) cetirizine for the treatment of urticaria in humans while avoiding the concomitant liability of adverse effects associated with the racemic mixture of cetirizine.

This invention relates to novel compositions of matter containing optically pure (+) cetirizine. These compositions possess potent activity in treating seasonal and perennial allergic rhinitis, the symptoms of allergic asthma, chronic idiopathic urticaria, some types of physical urticaria, and other disorders including those that would benefit from an inhibitory action on eosinophil function. (+) Cetirizine inhibits eosinophil chemotaxis and function and the generation of cytotoxic mediators by blood platelets, providing therapy in immunologically-induced asthma with particular utility in the late phase of the disease episode. Optically pure (+) cetirizine provides this treatment while avoiding adverse effects, including, but not limited to, sedation and somnolence, headache, gastrointestinal disturbance, anticholinergic effects, dizziness, cardiac arrhythmias and other cardiovascular effects which are associated with the administration of the racemic mixture of cetirizine. Also disclosed are methods for treating the above described conditions in a human while avoiding the adverse effects that are associated with the racemic mixture of cetirizine by administering the (+) isomer of cetirizine to said human.
The active compound of these compositions and methods is an optical isomer of cetirizine, the preparation of which is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,525,358 (Baltes et al.). The medicinal chemistry of cetirizine is described by Campoli-Richards et al., [Drugs 40, 762-781 (1990)], Snyder and Snowman [Allergy 59 II, 4-8 (1987)], and Rihoux and Dupont [pu Annals of Allergy 59, 235-238 (1987)]. Chemically, the active compound is the (+) isomer of 2-[4-[(4-chlorophenyl)phenylmethyl]-1-piperazinyl) ethoxyacetic acid, hereinafter referred to as cetirizine.
(+) Cetirizine, which is the subject of the present invention, is not presently commercially available; only the 1:1 racemic mixture is commercially available as its dihydrochloride salt.
Many organic compounds exist in optically active forms, i.e.. they have the ability to rotate the plane of plane-polarized light. In describing an optically active compound, the prefixes D and L or R and S are used to denote the absolute configuration of the molecule about its chiral center(s). The prefixes d and 1 or (+) and (-) are employed to designate the sign of rotation of plane-polarized light by the compound, with (-) or 1 meaning that the compound is levorotatory. A compound prefixed with (+) or d is dextrorotatory. There is no correlation between nomenclature for the absolute stereochemistry and for the rotation of an enantiomer. Thus, D-lactic acid is the same as (-) lactic acid, and L-lactic acid is (+). For a given chemical structure, these chiral compounds exist as a pair of enantiomers which are identical except that they are non-superimposable mirror images of one another. A specific stereoisomer may also be referred to as an enantiomer, and a mixture of such isomers is often called an enantiomeric or racemic mixture.
Stereochemical purity is of importance in the field of pharmaceuticals, where 12 of the 20 most prescribed drugs exhibit chirality. A case in point is provided by the L-form of the beta-adrenergic blocking agent, propranolol, which is known to be 100 times more potent than the D-enantiomer.
Furthermore, optical purity is important since certain isomers may actually be deleterious rather than simply inert. For example, it has been suggested that the D-enantiomer of thalidomide was a safe and effective sedative when prescribed for the control of morning sickness during pregnancy, while the corresponding L-enantiomer has been believed to be a potent teratogen. The synthesis of (+) cetirizine and (-) cetirizine are described in British application 2,225,321, but no pharmacology of individual enantiomers is reported.
The racemic mixture of cetirizine is presently used primarily in seasonal and perennial allergic rhinitis. The symptomatology of immediate-type allergic diseases, including allergic rhinitis, presumably results from the antigen-induced release of various pharmacologically active substances from mast cells, and from basophilic leukocytes. The substances thus released from these cells, and possibly others as well, are referred to as primary mediators of anaphylaxis and include, among others, histamine. The acute seasonal form of allergic rhinitis, hay fever, and perennial allergic rhinitis are characterized by sneezing, rhinorrhea, nasal congestion, pruritus, conjunctivitis and pharyngitis. In acute seasonal rhinitis, the nose, roof of the mouth, eyes and pharynx often itch, and lacrimation, sneezing and clear, watery nasal discharge follow the pruritus. Additionally, frontal headaches, irritability, anorexia, depression and insomnia may occur. In perennial rhinitis, chronic nasal obstruction is often prominent and may extend to eustachian tube obstruction. For most patients, topical corticosteriods, some aerosol vasoconstrictor agents, and long acting antihistamine agents provide significant relief of symptoms. The action of cetirizine on non-immunologically (non IgE) mediated hypersensitivity reactions has been less clear although there are some suggestions of activity in the treatment of exercise induced asthma, cold urticaria, and non-specific bronchial hyperreactivity.
Racemic cetirizine dihydrocholoride is an orally active, potent, long acting peripheral histamine H.sub.1 receptor antagonist. The compound is one of the second generation of H.sub.1 histamine receptor antagonists which generally offer some significant advantages beyond the first generation compounds. The advantages include (1) less sedation, (2) little anticholinergic activity and (3) longer duration, which improves patient compliance. In addition to being competitive inhibitors of histamine at the end organ site, second generation H.sub.1 histamine inhibitors appear to have other anti-allergic pharmacologic mechanisms which have led to their use in bronchial asthma, as well as in seasonal and perennial rhinitis and the chronic urticarias.
Experiments ex vivo suggest that racemic cetirizine does not significantly penetrate the blood brain barrier. It has been suggested therefore that cetirizine's ability to provide a reduced incidence of sedative side effects may result in part from its receptor selectivity and in part from its relative exclusion from the CNS. Other experiments have suggested that cetirizine does not inhibit mast cell activation but rather that it antagonizes the action of histamine once released from the mast cell following antigen or chemical stimulation. There are also reports that racemic cetirizine inhibits the degranulation of human basophils induced by anti IgE. Cetirizine has been shown to inhibit the chemotaxis of eosinophils to the tissues where they would otherwise contribute to the pathogenesis of asthma.
Cetirizine is rapidly absorbed upon oral administration and although food may slightly reduce the rate of absorption, the extent is not affected. The compound is bound to plasma proteins and peak cetirizine concentrations in the brain are less than 10% that of the plasma concentration. Cetirizine is excreted in the urine largely as unchanged drug and the elimination half-life is roughly 7 to 10 hours.
The racemic mixture of cetirizine may be useful in treating other disorders such as allergic pulmonary disease and particularly in treating the symptoms of allergic bronchial asthma. Patients who suffer from allergic bronchial asthma develop such clinical symptoms as wheezing and dyspnea after exposure to allergens, environmental irritants, viral infections, cold air and exercise. Many of the symptoms result from smooth muscle contraction and vascular dilatation, which, in turn, result from mediator release when the antigen reacts with the IgE antibody on the surface of a mast cell or basophil. This serves as a basis for the use of histamine H.sub.1 antagonists.
In addition, racemic cetirizine may be useful for treating chronic idiopathic urticaria and some types of physical urticaria. Urticaria is characterized by local wheals and erythema in the dermis; acute urticaria is essentially an anaphylaxis that is limited to the skin and subcutaneous tissues. The condition may arise from food allergy, drug allergy, insect sting, or the like, and is distinct from chronic or idiopathic urticaria which may last for several weeks and can only rarely be associated with a specific cause. Because these urticarias appear in many cases to be IgE antibody mediated, many of the symptoms may be treated with a histamine H.sub.1 receptor antagonist such as cetirizine. The direct inhibition of eosinophil chemotaxis by cetirizine may also provide therapy to the late phase of allergic episodes in disorders such as allergic asthma, allergic rhinitis, and in other conditions characterized by eosinophilia.
Many of the second generation histamine H.sub.1 receptor antagonists offer advantages over the first generation of histamine antagonists in that there is reduced sedation and anticholinergic activity. Nonetheless, some adverse effects remain, including, but not limited to, some incidence of sedation and somnolence; cardiovascular effects including arrhythmias; headache; gastrointestinal disturbances; dizziness and nausea. The racemic mixture of cetirizine has been found to cause many of these adverse effects, including sedation and somnolence. Thus, it would be particularly desirable to find a compound with the advantages of the racemic mixture of cetirizine which would not have the aforementioned disadvantages.

Methods for treating urticaria using optically pure (+) cetirizine


An organic electroluminescence (EL) element including an anode, a cathode opposing the anode, a light-emitting layer between the anode and the cathode, a hole transport layer in contact with the light-emitting layer, between the light-emitting layer and the anode, and an electron transport layer in contact with the light-emitting layer, between the light-emitting layer and the cathode. A difference between a lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) level of an organic material included in the light-emitting layer and a LUMO level of an organic material included in the electron transport layer is greater than a difference between a highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) level of an organic material included in the hole transport layer and a HOMO level of the organic material included in the light-emitting layer.

(1) Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to energy band structure of organic materials in organic electroluminescence (EL) elements.
(2) Description of Related Art
In recent years, use of organic EL elements in display devices has become popular.
An organic EL element has a structure in which at least a light-emitting layer is sandwiched between an anode and a cathode. Organic EL elements also typically have a hole transport layer for supplying holes to the light-emitting layer, between the anode and the light-emitting layer, and an electron transport layer for supplying electrons to the light-emitting layer, between the light-emitting layer and the cathode.
When a voltage is applied between the anode and the cathode, electrons are injected from the electron transport layer into the lowest unoccupied molecular orbital (LUMO) of the light-emitting layer and holes are injected from the hole transport layer into the highest occupied molecular orbital (HOMO) of the light-emitting layer.
Further, in the light-emitting layer, an electric field is generated by the voltage applied between the anode and the cathode. Electrons injected to the LUMO of the light-emitting layer are influenced by the electric field and move, within the light-emitting layer, towards the anode. On the other hand, holes injected to the HOMO of the light-emitting layer are influenced by the electric field and move, within the light-emitting layer, towards the cathode.
In this way, the electrons and holes that move in the light-emitting layer recombine to generate excitons. The excitons generate light when returning to a ground state from an excited state (JP 2004-514257).
Various factors affect the lifespan of an organic EL element. Such factors include deterioration of organic material that forms the light-emitting layer. Deterioration of organic material is known to be facilitated by light emission.
Further, it is known that distribution of light emission intensity in a thickness direction of the light-emitting layer can have a sharp peak (hereinafter, unless specified otherwise, "distribution" indicates distribution in the thickness direction). A sharp peak in the distribution of light emission intensity means that degradation of the organic material is particularly facilitated at a position indicated by the peak.
Such localized degradation of the organic material is thought to limit the lifespan of the light-emitting layer, and therefore a sharp peak in distribution of light emission intensity, i.e., a sharp peak in distribution of recombination, is a technical problem that is a factor inhibiting increasing lifespan of organic EL elements.


A stainless steel having a two-phase structure of austenite and ferrite, the steel consisting essentially of in weight-% not more than 0.03% C, not more than 0.03% N, the total amount of C+N not being more than 0.05%, 1.5-2.5% Si, 0.5-2% Mn, not more than 0.03% P, not more than 0.010% S, 22-26% Cr, 8-11% Ni, 2-3% Mo, 0.35-0.55% Ti, % Cr+3.3.times.% Mo being at least 29.0, balance iron and impurities, said steel having been subjected to a heat treatment consisting of solution annealing in the temperature range 1100.degree.-1250.degree. C. and water quenching followed by aging in a temperature range 500.degree.-600.degree. C. for at least 30 min, wherein precipitates consisting essentially of Ni.sub.16 Ti.sub.6 Si.sub.7, so called G-phase, are precipitated in the form of particles evenly distibuted in the ferrite, said particles typically having a size of 10-50 .ANG., imparting the material an improved yield srength in the annealed and aged condition, said yield strength amounting to at least 800 MPa in combination with a Charpy V impact strength of at least 25 J, a critical pitting temperature (CPT) higher than about 50.degree. C. in 3% NaCl-solution at 200 mV SCE, and a pitting potential Ep in 0.1N-NaCl-solution, 80.degree. C., of at least about 300 mV SCE.

A feature which usually is aimed at when developing duplex stainless steels is the combination of good corrosion resistance and strength in quenched and annealed condition. For example, this feature was aimed at in the development of the ferritic-austenitic stainless steel which is disclosed in WO 88/02032. In applications, such as propeller and pump shafts, fans and highly loaded components, however, even higher mechanical strength in combination with excellent corrosion properties, particularly a high pitting corrosion resistance, is desirable to improve process efficiency, service life or weight of constructions.
There exist several ways to improve mechanical strength of stainless steels: cold deformation, nitrogen alloying or precipitation hardening (PH). The cold deformation technique has several limitations; particularly that it is useful only for products in rather small cross sections and which shall not be further deformed by bending or the like subsequent to the cold working operation. As far as the method of improving mechanical strength by nitrogen alloying is concerned, it does not give the desired increase in strength for duplex steels as nitrogen favours the softer phase in the structure, the austenite.


A mobile device for setting a signal strength value for the mobile device to receive needed radio signals. The mobile device includes a signal strength value configuring system and a radio signal receiving unit. The signal strength value configuring system is operable to set the signal strength value for the mobile device to receive needed radio signals, utilizing a number of radio station channels detected by the radio signal receiving unit of the mobile device.

1. Technical Field
Embodiments of the present disclosure generally relate to techniques of setting signal strength values, and more particularly to a system and method for setting a signal strength value for a mobile device to receive radio signals.
2. Description of Related Art
A mobile device, such as a mobile phone or a radio receiver, for example, may be configured with a default signal strength value to receive radio signals. Each radio signal may correspond to a radio station channel, and the signal strength of each radio signal may be measured in microvolts.
However, a radio station channel of a radio station may be detected by the mobile device when the radio station sends a corresponding radio signal with a certain signal strength value that is stronger than or equals to the default signal strength value. If the default signal strength value is too weak, the mobile device may detect out too much unneeded radio station channels. Conversely, if the default signal strength value is too strong, the mobile device may not detect out enough needed radio station channels.

System and method for setting a signal strength value for a mobile device


A method for determining a connectivity of at least one fracture to other fractures in an earth formation includes: obtaining connectivity information for each fracture of interest in the earth formation where the connectivity information for each fracture of interest includes connections with other fractures. The method further includes converting the connectivity information for each fracture of interest into a conjunctive normal form and determining the connectivity of the at least one fracture to other fractures by solving the connectivity information for each fracture of interest in the conjunctive normal form using a Boolean Satisfiability problem solver.

In the quest for production of hydrocarbons, a discrete fracture network (DFN) provides information about the fractures in an earth formation that may have a reservoir of hydrocarbons. With the DFN information, a petro-analyst can estimate an amount of hydrocarbons that a well may be able to produce. From the hydrocarbon production estimates, the petro-analyst can then make decisions concerning production such as to enable efficient use of production resources. Hence, methods to quickly, accurately and efficiently process DFN information would be well received by the hydrocarbon production industry.

Boolean satisfiability problem for discrete fracture network connectivity