Provided is an image processing apparatus including: a wide dynamic range (WDR) image sensor configured to output image frames by photographing a subject with different shutter times; and at least one processor to implement: a wide image synthesis unit configured to synthesize a WDR image based on n subchannels included in each of the image frames; a knee curve generating unit configured to generate an integral histogram of luminance levels of m×n subchannels included m image frames among the image frames, and generate a knee curve based on the integral histogram, where m and n each is an integer greater than zero; and a dynamic range transforming unit configured to reduce a dynamic range of the WDR image based on the generated knee curve.

Methods and apparatuses consistent with exemplary embodiments relate to an image processing apparatus, and more particularly, to an apparatus and a method for generating an image having a wide dynamic range (WDR) from a WDR image sensor.
Information disclosed in this Background section has already been known to the inventors before achieving the disclosure of the present application or is technical information acquired in the process of achieving the disclosure. Therefore, it may contain information that does not form the prior art that is already known to the public.
A solid-state image pickup device such as a charge-coupled device (CCD) image sensor or a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) image sensor used in a video camera, a digital camera, or the like performs photoelectric conversion by accumulating charges corresponding to the amount of incident light and outputting an electric signal corresponding to the accumulated charges. However, there is an upper limit in a charge accumulation amount of a photoelectric conversion device, so when a light amount of a predetermined level or more is received such that the accumulated charge amount reaches a saturation level, so-called white noise phenomenon occurs in which a subject area with more than a certain brightness level is set to a saturated luminance level.
In order to prevent such a phenomenon, an exposure time may be shortened by dividing a shutter at a high speed for a bright subject to shorten a charge accumulation period of the photoelectric conversion device, and an electric signal is output before the accumulated charge amount reaches the saturation level. By this processing, it is possible to output an image in which a gradation corresponding to a subject is accurately reproduced. However, in the case of photographing a subject with a mixture of light and dark areas, if the shutter is divided at the high speed, a sufficient exposure time cannot be obtained in the dark area, deteriorating a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and an image quality.
In order to accurately reproduce a luminance level of the bright area and the dark area in the photographed image of a subject in which both the light area and the dark area are mixed, a different approach is required so that a high SNR can be obtained in a pixel with small incident light by applying a long exposure time while avoiding saturation in a pixel with large incident light.
Such approach may be implemented by photographing and synthesizing a plurality of images having different exposure times. According to a wide dynamic range (WDR) technology, an image is synthesized using a short-time exposure image and a long-time exposure image. The short-time exposure image is used for the bright image area, and the long-time exposure image is used for the dark area.
A wide dynamic range (WDR) image may be acquired in various photographing environments by the WDR technology. For example, when photographing in a room where a backlight is provided by a window, when photographing a night view where light areas and a dark areas are mixed, or when photographing at a sporting event where sunlight and shade create light and dark areas.
FIG. 1 illustrates an example of a general WDR frame generation technology.
Here, one WDR frame (i.e., WDR image) is synthesized using four subchannels in an image sensor supporting 120 frames per second (fps). Even though an original subchannel supports 120 fps, since four subchannels are synchronized into one WDR frame, only up to 30 fps is actually allowed. In this case, four subchannels are photographed at different shutter times (exposure times) of very long (VL), long (L), short (S), and very short (VS), respectively. As described above, four subchannels have different luminance due to the different shutter times.
However, since such a WDR frame has a wider dynamic range than each subchannel, it is necessary to reduce (i.e., compress) the dynamic range for output from a display device (e.g., a display device, an image display terminal, etc.) having a limited dynamic range.
For example, assuming that a dynamic range of each subchannel is 12 bits and a dynamic range of the display device is also 12 bits, the dynamic range of the WDR frame acquired by synthesizing four subchannels significantly increases to 23 to 24 bits according to a gain and an overlap range of each subchannel. Thus, it is necessary to compress the increased dynamic range back to 12 bits.
When a fixed knee curve is used for the subchannels in the dynamic range compression, unique characteristics of each subchannel may not be correctly reflected in the WDR frame. On the contrary, even if the knee curve is generated based on scene analysis, image artifacts may arise when compression transformation is performed sensitively according to a change of a scene.
Therefore, in a multi-channel-based WDR frame technology, it is necessary to compress the dynamic range on the basis of the scene but correctly reflect characteristics of each subchannel.

Image processing apparatus and method for compressing dynamic range of WDR image


A method of manufacturing an OLED device, a semi-finished product, and a OLED are described herein. In one embodiment, the method comprises providing an electrically conductive carrier substrate with a first carrier surface and a second carrier surface, assembling at least the first carrier surface a patterned layer of insulating material over an integral area, the layer of insulating material being patterned by a plurality of holes such that an electric access to the first carrier surface is possible, assembling a patterned conductive coating on the insulating material such that the conductive coating enters the holes and covers the insulating material, whereby the conductive coating is patterned such that a number of discrete first electrode areas are formed in the conductive coating, applying an organic light-emitting layer above at least one first electrode area, applying a second electrode layer above the organic light emitting layer.

OLED devices on the one hand and inorganic electroluminescent devices on the other hand, i.e. organic electroluminescent films on the one hand and inorganic electroluminescent films on the other hand, are based on the effect that a light-emitting layer between two electrode layers is electrically stimulated by the electrode layers to emit light. In inorganic electroluminescent films the two electrodes are electrically insulated from each other and function as the two halves of a capacitor. When applying an alternating voltage to this capacitor it emits an electric field which stimulates the light-emitting layer to emit light. In contrast, in OLED devices, i.e. organic electroluminescent films, a direct current flows from one electrode to the other, thereby passing through the light-emitting layer which then, again, emits light.
The construction of OLED devices is generally a time-consuming process which needs a high precision of application steps of different functional layers such as the two electrodes (anode and cathode) and the organic light-emitting layer. The OLED device must be properly sealed against outside influences in order to achieve a sufficient lifetime and it must be assembled on a carrier which is sufficiently moisture-resistant and stable. Preferably, this carrier is flexible in order to provide for an overall flexible OLED device. This firstly has the advantage that the OLED device is considerably thin so that it can be applied in all such environments in which larger thicknesses of lighting solutions must be avoided. Secondly, a flexible OLED device can also be applied in such circumstances in which the OLED device is not arranged along a purely even plane, but rather along a curved plane or the like.
One possible solution to realize a flexible carrier substrate would be to use a metal film or foil as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 6,911,666 B2. However, this has a major drawback which needs to be circumvented for operational reasons of the OLED: metal films or foils can generally be characterized as conductive substrates which means that their own conductivity may dangerously interfere with other functional layers of the OLED device such as the ones named above. In essence, the electrical conductivity of such conductive carrier substrate may lead to short circuits. As both the anode and the cathode need to be electrically contacted via contact pads on the carrier substrate, one needs to realize a contact pad for one of the electrodes which is galvanically insulated from the other electrode.
This can either be realized by applying a non-conductive coating to the top of the conductive carrier substrate over the complete surface of the carrier substrate plus separated conductive coatings on top of the non-conductive coating or by locally depositing an insulating material in the area of one electrode contact pad. In the first case, the current can only be drawn across the non-conductive coating layer—in other words the conductivity of the carrier substrate is not used for transporting current. This solution also limits the choice of materials and leads to rather thick layer structures for large area OLED devices. In the second case, an inorganic material needs to be deposited as the contact pad on the insulating material needs to be in contact with the inner electrode of the OLED device and with an external power supply—which means the contact pad crosses the encapsulation of the OLED device. A patterned deposition of such an insulating layer or a post patterning process is also costly and rather ineffective. Organic insulators cannot be used as the cannot act as a moisture barrier which thus would lead to operational defects of the OLED device rather quickly.
Therefore, it is an object of the invention to provide for a possibility of more effectively providing an OLED device with a conductive carrier substrate, in particular for producing it with less elaborate coating steps than previously necessary.


A system for cooling a cylinder head includes a cylinder head, a cylinder block, and a waste heat recovery system. The cylinder head includes a first water jacket and a second water jacket. The cylinder block is coupled to the cylinder head. The cylinder block includes a third water jacket. The first water jacket is coupled to a first cooling circuit. The second water jacket is coupled to a second cooling circuit. The third water jacket is coupled to a third cooling circuit. The waste heat recovery system is coupled to at least one of the first cooling circuit, the second cooling circuit, and the third cooling circuit.

Internal combustion engines typically include cooling systems that route coolant through a cylinder head of the internal combustion engine. In some applications, the coolant is routed near fuel injectors in the cylinder head. A cylinder head configuration (i.e., the cylinder head and cooling system combination) may be designed to minimize stresses that result on the cylinder head from externally applied loads such as loads that occur during assembly as well as loads from pressure that occur during operation of the internal combustion engine. The cylinder head configuration also typically takes into account temperature on a combustion face of the cylinder head. Temperatures on the combustion face may be associated with stresses on the cylinder head that result from thermal growth.
Conventionally, cooling systems include a single cooling circuit that provides cooling to both the cylinder head and the cylinder block. As a result, conventional cooling systems are unable to optimally meet cooling requirements of the cylinder head and the cylinder block. This is of particular importance when the internal combustion engine includes a waste heat recovery system. Because the conventional cooling systems cannot optimally meet the cooling requirements of the internal combustion engine, the waste heat recovery system cannot efficiently harvest energy from the cooling system.

Systems and methods for avoiding structural failure resulting from hot high cycles using a cylinder head cooling arrangement


Electrification affected on a surface of a sample which is caused by irradiation of a primary charged particle beam is prevented when plural frames are integrated to obtain an image of a predetermined area of the sample in a charged particle beam apparatus. The predetermined area of the sample is scanned with a primary electron beam from an electron gun, and plural frames are generated and integrated while detecting generated secondary electrons with a detector to obtain the image of the predetermined area. If it is determined by a detection signal of the detector that an electrification amount at the predetermined area becomes a specified value when generating plural frames, an electricity removal voltage is applied to a boosting electrode to remove or reduce the electrification, prior to generation of the next frame. Accordingly, the signal-to-noise ratio of the image obtained by integrating plural frames can be improved.

The present invention relates to a charged particle beam apparatus, and particularly to an electrification prevention technique for a wafer in an apparatus for inspecting and measuring the size and shape of a pattern formed on a sample.
Inspection and measurement of the conditions of a circuit pattern formed on a semiconductor wafer during a process of manufacturing a semiconductor device is a technique that plays an important role in improving a yield and establishing reliability. The inspection and measurement is realized by an apparatus using lights or an apparatus using charged particle beams. Particularly, along with miniaturization of a recent semiconductor device, inspection and review using charged particle beams represented by electron beams in a critical dimension scanning electron microscope (CD-SEM) becomes important. However, since a surface of the semiconductor wafer during the manufacturing process is configured by an insulating film made of silicon oxide, silicon nitride, an organic material, a high-dielectric material or the like, when the charged particle beam is irradiated onto the surface of the wafer, the surface of the wafer is electrically charged, and accordingly the orbits of signal particles generated from the surface are changed, resulting in deterioration of a scanned image to be obtained.
Various causes of the image deterioration are conceivable. One of them is an image distortion caused by electrification on the surface of a sample such as a wafer, as shown in FIG. 1. Specifically, an area whose image is already obtained is positively-charged by emission of secondary electrons, and when a scanned image for another area adjacent the area is to be obtained, the orbits of primary electron beams are affected by positive charges of the adjacent area, and the scanned image to be generated is distorted by the detected secondary electrons, resulting in local magnification variation.
As shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, due to the electrification of the surface of the sample, a focus electric field of the primary electron beam by an objective lens is affected, so that the primary electron beam is changed from a focus state (FIG. 2A) to a defocus state (FIG. 2B), thus deteriorating the resolution of a scanned image to be obtained.
Further, as shown in FIG. 3, the secondary electrons generated from the sample by the positive electrification of the surface of the wafer are attracted by the positive electrification of the surface of the wafer to return to the wafer. Accordingly, efficiency of detecting the secondary electrons varies, resulting in darkness of an entire scanned image to be obtained or local reduction in brightness.
In order to avoid the affect of the electrification on the sample, for example, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 2005-345272 proposes electrification reduction by a boosting method. In the boosting method, a voltage (boosting voltage) applied to a booster (boosting) electrode incorporated into an objective lens of an SEM is set in accordance with a pattern shape and a material of a sample to be observed, so as to change the electric field intensity of the surface of the sample.


The present invention eliminates the need for an anti-aliasing filter in a receiver that employs an analog-to-digital converter. By maintaining a predetermined relationship between a local oscillator frequency and the sampling frequency of the analog-to-digital converter, aliasing that would normally occur in the desired pass band is avoided. More specifically, the frequency of the periodic signal provided to the mixer is an integer multiple of half the sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter. In a preferred, non-limiting example embodiment, the sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter FADC and the frequency of the local oscillator FLO are related by the following: FLO=n*FADC/2, where n is any positive integer.

Analog-to-digital converters (ADCs) are often found in signal receiving applications such as radio receivers. In a radio receiver, a radio frequency (RF) analog signal is frequency down-converted by a mixer. The mixer uses a local oscillator (LO) signal from a local oscillator source to convert the received signal into a frequency range suitable for sampling by an analog-to-digital converter. Another oscillator controls the sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter. A filter is required between the mixer and the analog-to-digital converter in order to minimize spurious signals caused by the mixing and the sampling processes.
The filter is sometimes referred to as "anti-aliasing" filter because it suppresses the spectral components that are outside the Nyquist band. In other words, it prevents out-of-band frequency components caused by the mixing and sampling, (i.e., the aliased signals), from contaminating the analog-to-digital converter output. Absent such a filter, part of the frequency spectrum outside the desired frequency band will be aliased into the desired frequency band producing undesired spurious signals. This aliasing effect may also occur even when such a filter is used, if it is not sufficiently accurately designed or manufactured.
An example of this aliasing effect is now described in conjunction with the frequency spectrums shown in FIGS. 1A-1G. FIG. 1A illustrates the location of the desired received signal frequency band, Aoo, and its negative counterpart aoo. FIG. 1B shows the frequency spectrum for the local oscillator (LO) signal used by the mixer to frequency down-convert the received RF signal into the intermediate frequency (IF) band, baseband, or other frequency band suitable for analog-to-digital conversion. The local oscillator signal has a fundamental frequency at ±L, a second harmonic at ±2L, a third harmonic at ±3L, a fourth harmonic at ±4L, a fifth harmonic at ±5L, and so on. Typically, only the odd harmonics are problematic because the even harmonics are generally very small in magnitude.
FIG. 1C illustrates the result of mixing of the local oscillator frequency fundamental frequency L (shown in FIG. 1B) and the receive band of the desired signal shown in FIG. 1A. The desired signal and its negative image have been shifted to lower frequency bands A0, a0 and to higher frequency bands A1, a1, (which are outside the frequency band of interest) with first order harmonics of FLO(±L). FIG. 1D illustrates the result of mixing the third order harmonic of the local oscillator signal (±3L) and the receive band, resulting in the spectrum components B0, b0 and A2, a2. Similarly, FIG. 1E shows the result of mixing the fifth order harmonics of the local oscillator signal (±5L) and the receive band, resulting in the spectrum components B1, b1. Again, only the odd-order harmonics of the local oscillator are of practical concern.
FIG. 1F shows the spectral result of the output of the mixer when the fundamental and the odd harmonics of the local oscillator are mixed with the desired signal in the receive band. A filter characteristic, represented as the thick-line trapezoid, can remove those unwanted spectral components shown in dotted lines, leaving only the desired signal at a0, A0 along with those undesired spectral components that were not filtered, e.g., b0, B0. Unfortunately, these in-band, third or higher order harmonics cause undesired aliasing in the analog-to-digital conversion.
FIG. 1G shows a sampled mixer output from an analog-to-digital converter, when a non-optimal filter, such as that shown in FIG. 1F, is used to filter the mixer output. The undesired, aliased signals are shown as "dotted" spectrums, and the desired signals are shown as "hatched" spectrums. The sampling frequency of the analog-to-digital converter and its harmonics are shown as thick black vertical lines centered for each spectral copy and are indicated as FADC. The aliasing problem is particularly troublesome when the analog-to-digital converter sampling rate is relatively high or higher than the local oscillator frequency. Although the sampling frequency satisfies the Nyquist sampling theorem and is more than twice the highest frequency of the receive band for the desired signal a0, A0, the sampling frequency is not more than twice the highest frequency of the mixer products b0, B0. As a result, those sampled, third harmonic signals b0, B0 are aliased into the frequency range of the desired signals. Being in the desired frequency band, the aliased signals cannot be readily removed by a filter, (e.g., a digital filter).
Thus, it is clear that the mixer output filter performs an important function in the receiver. However, such filters, (assuming they can perform the required filtering function), have their disadvantages. First, they must be very accurately designed and constructed in order to eliminate the aliasing effect. To do this, the filter must be usually of a high order so that it has a sharp cutoff and a low ripple in the pass band in order to remove all signals except a0, A0 in FIG. 1F. Second, such filters are typically expensive, and even then, have certain variances and losses in the pass band that require compensation. Third, the filter must be matched to both source and load impedance in order to function properly. The mixer "source" impedance is typically low, and the analog-to-digital converter "load" impedance is typically high and slightly capacitive. Because high performance analog-to-digital converters usually suffer from decreasing linearity as the voltage swing over their input increases, it is beneficial to keep the load impedance as low as possible. Impedance matching is difficult because of the non-linear input impedance of the analog-to-digital converter, which means there is no fixed impedance value to use as a reference when calculating the filter impedance level. This non-linear impedance results in an anti-aliasing filter whose transfer function depends on the input signal's amplitude and frequency. As a result, the filter's bandwidth, insertion loss, and ripple will not match specifications for a fixed load impedance. Thus, there are several reasons why it is undesirable to use a filter or impedance transformer between the mixer and the analog-to-digital converter. Still, there is a need to avoid spurious signals in the pass band caused by aliasing.
The present invention solves the above problems and meets certain desirable objectives by providing a method and apparatus that eliminates the need for such an anti-aliasing filter while, at the same time, ensuring that aliasing in the pass band does not occur as a result of the mixing and sampling processes. In particular, the present invention relates the mixer's local oscillator frequency with the frequency of the analog-to-digital converter sampling rate in such a way so as to avoid aliasing in the desired receive band. In particular, the frequency of the local oscillator signal is an integer multiple of half of a sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter. When the integer is one, the frequency of the local oscillator signal is one half of the sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter. In a preferred, non-limiting, example embodiment, the sampling rate of the analog-to-digital converter and the frequency of the local oscillator are related by the following: FLO=n*FADC/2, where n is any positive integer.
A common oscillator is preferably (though not necessarily) used to generate a periodic signal that is then used to generate both the local oscillator signal and the sampling rate signal. A frequency changer, receiving the periodic signal from the common oscillator, provides the local oscillator signal to the mixer and a sampling signal to the analog-to-digital converter. The frequency changer includes a first frequency divider for dividing the periodic signal in half to generate the local oscillator signal and for dividing the periodic signal by a positive integer to generate the sampling signal of the analog-to-digital converter.
The present invention may be used in a receiver without an anti-aliasing filter between the mixer and the analog-to-digital converter. Thus, the expense of such filter is avoided. In addition, the low impedance output of the mixer can be directly coupled to the analog-to-digital converter without an impedance matching network. Alternatively, a simplified, less expensive filter may used between the mixer and the analog-to-digital converter.

Method and apparatus for analog-to-digital conversion


An image processing apparatus capable of contracting or enlarging an original image includes a variable scale magnification processing unit for magnifying the original image in accordance with a magnification m, and a digital filter for correcting an image quality. Since weighting matrixes h1-h5 of the digital filter are varied depending on magnification m, a deterioration in image quality can be prevented irrespectively of magnifications.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to image processing apparatuses for carrying out a variable scale magnification processing to contract or enlarge an original image and a filtering processing to maintain an image quality of the original image and, more particularly, to an image processing apparatus capable of preventing a deterioration in image quality irrespectively of variable scale magnifications.
2. Description of the Related Art
A digital copier is comprised of a scanning system for reading an original (original image) by fractionizing the same into pixels, an image processing apparatus for subjecting the read image to various image processings, and a printer apparatus for forming a copied image in accordance with image data subjected to the image processings.
An original is scanned normally by shifting a one-dimensional image sensor in a main scanning direction to a subscanning direction.
Major image processings are a tone processing for converting multi-valued data into binary data by a dither method or the like in order to reproduce a half tone, a gamma processing for correcting densities in accordance with visual characteristics, a processing for an image edition such as color changing, a variable scale magnification processing for enlarging and contracting an original image depending on a copying magnification, and the like.
In the variable scale magnification processing, when the original image is contracted, pixel data (which are, strictly speaking, information indicating the shade or the tone of pixels and hereinafter referred to as pixels) are skipped. When the original image is enlarged, pixels are increased. More specifically, in a variable scale magnification processing with the direction of variable scale magnification being a main scanning direction, if a variable scale magnification is, for example, "0.5", every other pixels arranged in the main scanning direction are skipped. If variable scale magnification is, for example, "3", the respective pixels are increased so that the same pixels are arranged three by three in the main scanning direction.
In a series of image reproducing steps such as a scanning of an original image, an image processing and a copying (image formation), an image quality deteriorates due to various factors in accordance with transmission of image information. For example, there occur image blurring due to aberration of an optical lens, Moire fringe (a striped design) due to an interference with a dither pattern, and the like.
Thus, in addition to the foregoing processings, an image quality correction processing for maintaining the image quality of the original image has conventionally been carried in an image processing apparatus. The image quality correction processing can be divided into an input-side correction for restoring an image quality which is already deteriorated at the time when an image (image data) is input to the image processing apparatus, to the one before deteriorated and an output-side correction for adjusting an image quality in advance in view of the deterioration thereof after output from the image processing apparatus.
Normally, a so-called image quality emphasizing processing for intentionally adjusting the image quality in accordance with a subjective preference with respect to a copied image, e.g., an edge emphasis processing and a soft focus processing are carried out along with the image quality correction processing.
In the specification, processings other than the image quality correction processing which are made by the image processing apparatus are called "other processings."
In general, the image quality correction processing is carried out by employing a so-called discrete convolution operation (filter processing) using a digital filter of a predetermined matrix size in which an appropriate weighting matrix is determined for each pixel.
At that time, the input-side correction and the output-side correction can separately be carried out before and after other processings; however, in that case, two digital filters are necessary, so that a circuit configuration of the image processing apparatus becomes complicated. Also, a filter processing accompanied by data delay is carried out twice, so that an output of image data is delayed.
Accordingly, conventionally, a single digital filter in which a weighting matrix is elected is provided at a preceding stage or a succeeding stage of other processings so as to carry out both the input-side correction and the output-side correction at the same time, whereby an image quality correction is made by a single filter processing.
Conventionally, the weighting matrix of a digital filter is elected so that the image quality of an original image may be obtained upon, for example, equal scale magnification copying (variable scale magnification is 1), and its value is set to a fixed value.
Thus, there was a problem that the image quality deteriorates as the value of the variable scale magnification becomes distant from 1 in variable scale magnification copying.
That is to say, when an image quality correction processing is carried out before a variable scale magnification processing, if the weighting matrix of a digital filter is fixed to a value provided at the time of equal scale magnification, then the input-side correction becomes appropriate independently of variable scale magnification, however, the output-side correction becomes inappropriate at the time of variable scale magnification. Conversely, when the image quality correction processing is carried out after the variable scale magnification processing, if the weighting matrix is fixed to a value provided at the time of equal scale magnification, then the input-side correction becomes inappropriate at the time of variable scale magnification.

Image processing apparatus capable of preventing deterioration in image quality


A reclosure system comprising a bottle and a reversible lid. The bottle comprises a bottle neck having an axial extension and a mouth providing access to the interior of the bottle. The bottle neck comprises a circumferential wall portion being provided with a first locking means. A first side of the reversible lid comprises a collar comprising a second locking means configured to selectively allow the reversible lid to sealingly close off the mouth of the bottle neck by the second locking means engaging the first locking means of the bottle neck. A second side of the reversible lid, opposite the first side, comprises a third locking means configured to selectively engage the bottle neck, to define a through-going venting hole in an interface between the reversible lid and the bottle neck, said through-going venting hole allowing a communication between the interior and exterior of the bottle.

A bottle is typically made of a plastics material and is provided with a threaded cap to allow easy opening and re-filling. The same principle is also known to other types of bottles using a threaded lid.
It is important that the bottle and the lid is washed between uses. Also, to avoid bad taste and smell by any liquid being stuck inside the bottle after washing or between uses it is important that the bottle is properly dried before re-mounting the lid. During drying it is easily happened that the lid is moved and lost, e.g. when emptying the dish drainer. Also, in case of the bottle being a sports bottle, many sports bottles are used at the same time whereby the user must find out which cap matches which bottle.
In many cases there is also a risk of bad smell being developed after washing and drying if the bottle is stored with the lid mounted thereto. Residues or plasticizers may cause this.
The most common solution to these problems is to instead store the bottle and the lid as separate items. This however increases the risk of the lid being lost. One measure to keep track of the lid is to have the same connected to the bottle by a string or tongue. This does however change the center of mass of an open and empty bottle, thereby risking tipping over and causing a domino-effect when storing in e.g. a cupboard together with other empty bottles. Also, when storing in racks, which is common when using sports bottles in team sports, such connected lids will interfere with the available space in the rack.
The problems mentioned above are not restricted to sports bottles but do also apply to other types of containers, such as preserving jars, lunch boxes and containers in general. The problems apply not only for containers for food and beverages but also for other applications such as medical or laboratory vessels.
There is accordingly a need for a solution that allows the bottle and its closure means to be handled as one single unit when not in use.

Reclosure system and the use of such reclosure system


An adapter for use in an extrusion device can use sausage skin packaged sealant-type extrudable materials. A sausage skin package is inserted into the adapter which is, in turn, inserted into an extrusion device, such as a caulking gun. The adapter has four pieces, a cylindrical tube, a plunger, a removable nozzle base, and a removable nozzle tip. The adapter can be designed to be reversible where a sausage is inserted between the plunger and the nozzle base, force is applied to the plunger by the extrusion device forcing the sealant-type material from the sausage package and after the material is expelled, a wad of package skin is removed, a new sausage package is inserted into the open end of the tube and the removable nozzle base is attached to the tube and the dispensing operation can be continued.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a device for dispensing sealant.
2. Background Information
The use of sealing materials to fill voids in various kinds of constructions is widely known, especially in building construction. These sealing materials, also known as sealants, are used to keep undesirable environments in there proper place, such as rain, wind, or heat on the outside of buildings. These sealants are applied in a variety of forms and from a variety of apparatuses. The apparatuses used by large building construction companies or users of sealants, such as in the manufacture of appliances or automobiles, to dispense sealant materials into voids, may be very sophisticated and expensive. For many applicators of sealants, the use of a simple caulking gun to dispense sealants is the method of choice. As the use of sealants increased, the packaging for these materials changed and over several years, cartridges were the primary way to package sealant. The cartridges were most often designed with a nozzle through which a sealant composition could be extruded into a void or location requiring sealing. These cartridges were adapted to be loaded into devices equipped with mechanisms to push the sealant composition out of the cartridge package. Such devices are commonly called caulking guns or dispensing guns. These cartridges, depending on the kind of storage required for the sealant composition, were made from paper, foiled lined paper, plastic, and various kinds of molded and laminated constructions. A conventional sealant cartridge for sealants which cure by exposure to moisture, thus requiring protection from moisture during storage, is a single integrally molded cylindrical body having a nozzle which is used as an exit orifice and a plunger is disposed within the cylindrical body. Sealant composition is contained in a cavity defined by the face of the plunger in the discharge direction and the inner wall of the molded cartridge. The sealant composition is discharged through the exit orifice upon application of a force to the plunger by an extrusion device employing mechanical or pneumatic means. After as much of the sealant composition as possible is discharged from cartridge, it is discarded. These cartridges are discarded in landfills which is environmentally undesirable because the volume of the cartridge is large. To reduce the amount of waste caused by the disposal of the cartridges, the manufacturers of the sealant compositions and packages developed so called "sausage packages" for the sealant compositions. These sausage packages use much less material for the package, produce low amounts of solid waste, and can be made air and moisture impermeable, so that they can contain sealant composition which is sensitive to moisture. These sealant containing sausage packages can be inserted into some kinds of dispensing cartridges or caulking gun barrels which permits discharge of sealant composition. The waste created by the spent sausage skin is considerably lower than that created by the discard of the cartridges. However, although the amount of package waste may be reduced, the dispensing devices need to be cleaned each time a different color sealant is used or before it is set aside until required for the next use, such as overnight.
Sealant dispensers which are adapted for use with the sausage package comprise a gun barrel with a nozzle assembly forming an integral part of the barrel, or releasably attached to the barrel with suitable securing means, a piston disposed within the barrel and mechanical or pneumatic means for actuating the piston located at the opposite end of the barrel which is operated using a trigger mechanism.
Salmon in French Patent No. 930,316, granted Aug. 4, 1947 and published Jan. 22, 1948, to Expandite Products, Limited teaches a process and device for applying a composition in a seam or in a fissure. A caulking compound is hermetically sealed in a cylindrical section of a package. The material for the package is preferably a transparent sheet of cellulose acetate. One end of the package is cut by scissors so as to allow the caulking compound to be forced by a plunger of a caulking pistol through an orifice. The end of the package may be cut either before or after introducing the package charge into the pistol barrel. After forcing the charge of the pistol through the open end of the package while at the same time leaving the package in the barrel, the packaging is removed from the barrel by removing a cap and destroying it and introducing a new charge. The pistol nozzle is attached to a cap concave on the inside which covers the end of the barrel and the end of the pistol plunger is convex so as to have a surface complimentary to the concave surface of the cap so as to assure integral expulsion of the packaging composition. The device described by Salmon would be difficult to change kinds of sealants without substantial effort to clean the pistol barrel and nozzle when different kinds of sealant composition are used sequentially.
Seng in French Patent No. 1,127,069, granted on Aug. 6, 1956, and published on Dec. 7, 1956, teaches a distributor for viscous products such as greases and plastic products which can be polymerized cold before their polymerization. The distributor includes a cylindrical body sealed by a threaded cover and by a threaded piece to which the distribution adjustment is attached. Inside a body, a piston is mounted which is one piece with a rod equipped with a handle and this piston moves in this body under the effect of a spring. The piston can be kept in place when it encounters the effect of a spring by means of a jam lever which may penetrate into a cover through an opening which acts on the point of articulation and which is equipped with a drilled hole through which the rod passes with a lever being jammed obliquely onto this rod by means of the spring. The piston rod has an extension which projects from the outer side of the piston and against which a collar equipped with bosses can be kept by means of a screw. A sealing piece is also equipped with an external cylindrical throat which causes there to be a cylindrical recess with the internal wall of the body. A sack containing viscous product is placed into a cavity of the distributor and jerking movement is supplied by means of the jamming device which acts against the piston rod and which releases this rod under the effect of the operator's hand. The viscous material is contained in a casing in the form of a sack placed into the distributor body after removing the distribution adjustment and which is open after this installation. The piston is then one piece with a prominent collar equipped with vents which communicate with the back of the piston by means of holes made in this latter and which rests on the bottom of this casing. This distributor is a complicated device and not suitable for multiple kinds of product without extensive clean up.
A sealant dispensing cartridge on the market which employs sealant sausage packages comprises a self supporting cylindrical sleeve, an end cap and a plunger disposed within the sleeve, the plunger, inner wall of the sleeve and the end cap provide a cavity for the sealant sausage package. The sleeve is adapted at one end to releasably receive the end cap. The main body of the plunger comprises a cylindrical surface in sliding contact with the inner wall of the sleeve and faces, one of which is substantially flat against which force is brought to bear from a gun mechanism, the other face, in the discharge direction provides attachment means for fixing thereto a pressure relief spring which comprises a disc with diametrically opposed tongues, slightly larger in diameter than the main body of the plunger and is in frictional engagement with the inner wall of the sleeve. A plurality of holes run through the main body of plunger and the pressure release disc thus creating a pressure equalizing effect as the plunger is driven along the sleeve.
Extrusion devices employing such a cartridge generally comprise a framework in which the cartridge is supported and means for supplying a force to the plunger such as a piston which is actuated by mechanical means using a trigger mechanism, for example a skeleton gun.
Segatz in U.S. Pat. No. 4,840,293, issued Jun. 20, 1989, assigned to ARA-Werk Kramer GmbH & Co. describes an apparatus for discharging a bead or strand of pasty material from a deformable tubular container such as a tubular bag having a bag-loadable cylinder with a front face pointing in a discharge direction, the front face having a central opening aligned with a nozzle connection of the tubular bag. A substantially piston-like pressure member is axially displaceable against the tubular bag in the cylinder. In order to avoid drooling and dribbling of material through the nozzle after interruption of the discharge process and also to prevent jamming of the edges of the tubular bag, the pressure member has a pressure relief spring supported on the wall of the cylinder and cooperating therewith, the spring having spring tongues directed obliquely forward around the deformable bag. The apparatus is used to extrude sealant material encapsulated in a sausage package and comprises the cylinder adapted to receive the sausage package and a plunger which is provided with a pressure release spring attached to one face. The specification states that where pneumatic means are provided for moving the plunger, an elastic closure having a diameter slightly larger than the diameter of the main body of the plunger should be provided to seal the plunger against the inner surface of the cylinder. The elastic closure is attached to a face of the plunger opposing the face connecting the pressure release spring. While this apparatus is satisfactory in many respects, it is unsuitable for use in both mechanically operated and pneumatic extrusion devices without necessary modification of the plunger. Such modification requires the dismantling and reassembly of the apparatus, a time consuming process which is an inconvenience to an operator.

Adapter for dispensing material from a sausage type package


A materials handling vehicle includes a mast, a load handling structure supported on the mast, one or more operator controls, and a lifting structure having a chain structure for performing a lifting and lowering of the load handling structure. The materials handling vehicle further includes a height sensor for generating a height signal corresponding to vertical movement of the load handling structure relative to the mast, and a vehicle control module for processing the height signal received from the height sensor and an operator control signal received from the one or more operator controls. The vehicle control module evaluates the height signal and the operator control signal and disables one or more vehicle functions if the height signal does not correspond to the operator control signal.

Many types of materials handling vehicles, such as forklift trucks, have been developed wherein material handling devices, typically forks, are elevated to extreme heights to store and retrieve materials at upper levels within a warehouse. Such high lift vehicles commonly use a variety of mast arrangements wherein the forks, and oftentimes also the operator of the vehicle, are elevated high above the floor of the warehouse to perform picking and/or storage operations. In a typical multi-stage mast construction, a movable carriage comprising forks is supported for vertical movement relative to at least one mast section by a chain, where a first end of the chain is attached to the movable carriage and a second end of the chain is anchored to a relatively stationary location. An actuating member includes a vertically movable element, such as the ram of a cylinder assembly, acting on a midsection of the chain, between the first and second ends, to tension the chain and cause the movable carriage to move upward, wherein a controlled tension is maintained on the chain during a downward actuation of the actuating member to lower the movable carriage.
During a typical materials handling vehicle operation, the vehicle is operated to position the movable carriage via horizontal as well as vertical movement. As a result of horizontal movement of the movable carriage toward shelving or a rack for storing products, the forks may be positioned in an overlapping relationship over a shelf or rack. If the movable carriage is then actuated vertically in downward movement, the forks may engage and become caught on the shelf or rack, causing the chain to become slack between the first and second chain ends as the actuating member continues the downward movement. Subsequently, horizontal movement of the movable carriage, moving the forks out of engagement with the shelf or rack could result in the movable carriage dropping or free-falling until chain tension is re-established.
In a known system for detecting chain slack, a compression spring is located at a chain anchor/tensioner for biasing the end of a lift chain relative to a switch. When a chain slack event occurs during a lowering operation, the compression spring pushes the chain anchor/tensioner, and the switch can detect this movement and send a signal to stop the lowering operation. This type of chain slack detection system and similar systems typically require additional hardware with associated expense for implementation.


A bed for use with two adjacent seats separated from each other so that a gap is defined therebetween, which may include adjacent seats within or outside of a vehicle. The bed comprises a body comprising a first end disposed on one of the passenger seats and a second end disposed on the other seat. The body bridges the gap defined between the seats. The bed may further include means for securing the body into a position relative to the seats, and/or means for securing the body about the back of at least one seat.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to portable beds for use outside the home, and in particular, relates to a bed operating as a bridge between two adjacent seats having a gap therebetween, such as the seats in the driving cab of a semi-tractor trailer or adjacently placed seats in a non-vehicle environment.
2. Description of the Related Art
There have been many attempts to provide alternative means to achieve comfortable and quality sleep in less than ideal circumstances. Commercial truck drivers, especially those that operate day-cab trucks, semi-tractor trailers, straight trucks or box trucks, among others, may need to maximize space utilization by sleeping along the adjacently spaced seats in the driving cab. For instance, day-cabs lack sleeping accommodations. However, the driver may have one or more passengers accompanying the driver, thus, the need to obviate crowding and/or sleeping issues may arise. In the other trucks mentioned, there is no space devoted to sleeping, thus the driver must improvise in order to avoid paying for a costly boarding for the evening.
Among the many relevant and related inventions drawn to providing sleeping apparatuses or devices for automobiles, the inventions disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,524,673, 3,910,626 and 5,170,521 are considered typical of bed units that resemble cots or hammocks that are minimized for storage and sufficiently sturdy for use. Of particular relevance are U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,668,397 and 6,711,762, each issued to Olenick et al., which disclose the methods and apparatuses of various embodiments of truck cab bridge-beds. In particular, the references disclose a bed having a body with rods placed within a flexible platform having two layers. The rods reinforce the body during use. The bed includes a cushioning pad.
Other references considered related, but of lesser relevance, include apparatuses and devices that may be portable and/or compressible, but that operate in a less than satisfactory manner or are cumbersome to assemble or disassemble. Such apparatuses and devices include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,620,346; 3,353,194; 4,005,898; 4,232,413; 4,679,840; and 6,470,517.
Additional references considered related include apparatuses and devices that operate as conversions of automobile components, and generally concern converting seats or storage apparatuses into a sleeping bunk. Included in this group of references are: U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,910,626; 4,443,034; 4,487,451; 5,029,929 5,505,513; 5,787,522 6,557,190; 6,837,531; and 6,929,306.
Although the list of inventions and references devoted to this general field of endeavor is significant, the aforementioned references suffer from several general deficiencies that are specifically overcome by the present invention. In particular, the aforementioned references fail to disclose the elements and features of the present invention, including the utilization of means for securing the body of the bed into a particular position relative to the seats, including the use of a nose extending from the body, arms, bands, legs, or the combination thereof, to inhibit displacement of the bed during use. Therefore, the present invention is patentably distinct over the prior art referenced in this application.


An LED package including a collimator body adapted to collect and/or reflect and/or focus light. An upper plane provided by the collimator body defines a mainly horizontal plane. At least one reflection surface is provided by the collimator body and is at least partially angled to the horizontal plane. The collimator body includes a recess for receiving a lighting element including a light emitting front face such that the reflection surface extends at least partially below the level of the front face in an assembled state. Due to the angle of the reflection surface with respect to the horizontal plane of the collimator body, a small light source and a high luminous flux at the same time are provided so that the luminance and the brightness of the LED package are increased.

From US 2004/0041222 A1 a LED package is known, which comprises a collimator for collecting light emitted by a lighting element illuminated by a LED. The collimator surrounds the lighting element so that the collimator is able to collect light emitted via side faces of the lighting element. The collimator comprises reflection surfaces angled by 45° to a horizontal plane of the LED package so that the light emitted via the side faces is reflected by the reflection surfaces from a horizontal direction into a vertical direction.
It is a disadvantage of such kind of a collimator that the brightness of the LED package comprising such kind of a collimator is low in comparison to the collectable luminous flux.

Gerardus Henricus Franciscus Willebrordus


A ruggedized, snap-together, module securely retains a pair of mutually abutting fiber optic interconnect MT ferrules, that have been joined together by a ferrule aligning pin clamp structure. The module includes a generally rectangular base member having a ferrule retention cavity that is configured to retain a pair of MT ferrules and an associated pin clamp assembly therefor. A cover is configured to engage the base in such a manner that the two MT ferrules are firmly held in their intended face-to-face abutting condition as captured between the base and the cover. A bias compression spring is captured between the cover and the base in a manner that facilitates removal of the cover when it is desired to open the module and gain access to the two MT ferrules.

FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic perspective view of an arrangement for joining, in end-to-end abutting relationship, a pair of multi optical fiber terminations configured as MT ferrules 10L and 10R. As shown therein, and further in the side view of FIG. 2 and the top view of FIG. 3, each MT ferrule terminates a plurality (e.g., eight to twelve, as a non-limiting example) of optical fibers that are contained in a section of fiber optic ribbon cable 20. Within each MT ferrule proper, the optical fibers extend to and are terminated flush with a front or end face 11, as shown at 21.
In order to join the two MT ferrules together, so that the optical fibers in the two ferrules may directly abut one another, each ferrule contains a pair of parallel longitudinal bores 12, 13 which extend all the way through each ferrule from a rear face 14 to the front face 11. These longitudinal bores are sized to receive alignment pins, shown at 31 and 32, which extend from a pin clamp assembly 30.
In particular, the pin clamp assembly 30 is typically configured of a pair of interlocking members that fit around a fiber ribbon grommet through which the ribbon cable extends from the MT ferrule, and contain respective alignment pins 31, 32 extending therefrom. When the two halves of the pin clamp assembly are joined together, their respective alignment pins 31, 32 are parallel with one another, so that they may be readily insertable all the way through the bores 12 and 13 of one of the ferrules and project from the front face 11 of that ferrule (the leftmost ferrule 10L as viewed in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3) a prescribed distance. This projection of the alignment pins from the one MT ferrule enables the pins to be readily accommodated by the bores 12, 13 of the other ferrule (the rightmost ferrule 10R as viewed in FIGS. 1, 2 and 3).
FIG. 4 is a diagrammatic plan view showing the two MT ferrules joined together by the use of such a pin clamp assembly, wherein the alignment pins 31 and 32 of pin clamp assembly 30 extend through the entire bores 12 and 13 of the leftmost ferrule 10L and protrude part way into the bores 12 and 13 of the rightmost ferrule 10R. When mutually aligned and joined together in this manner, the two MT ferrules provide flush contact and alignment of the optical fibers that terminate at their abutting front faces 11. What is needed is a structure having a reasonably sized form factor that will securely and robustly retain the two MT ferrules in this aligned position, yet will allow the two ferrules to be disengaged from one another when a prescribed disconnection technique is employed.

Ruggedized module for securely retaining multi-optical fiber interconnect ferrules


Methods, apparatus and computer program products for allocating a number of workers to a worker pool in a multiprogrammable computer are provided, to thereby tune server multiprogramming level. The method includes the steps of monitoring throughput in relation to a workload concurrency level and dynamically tuning a multiprogramming level based upon the monitoring. The dynamic tuning includes adjusting with a first adjustment for a first interval and with a second adjustment for a second interval, wherein the second adjustment utilizes data stored from the first adjustment.

Servers are used in a variety of software environments. Each server-based application has its own workload characteristics. As a result, a server must be configured to achieve the best performance possible for a specific workload on specific hardware. One of the many configuration parameters that servers have is their multiprogramming level (MPL). The MPL is the concurrency level of the server. The concurrency level of the server is measured by how many server requests are handled concurrently.
Setting the MPL too high or too low can have an adverse effect on performance. A high MPL setting might cause increased contention on shared resources (e.g., "thrashing") while a low MPL might limit the beneficial concurrency level of the server, thus needlessly reducing the amount of work a server can perform.
Current approaches to tuning server MPL do not adequately handle different types of situations. For example, server throughput may consistently increase as the MPL setting is increased, then appear to peak at a particular level. Traditional. MPL tuning algorithms would stay at that level, and assume that a peak allocation had been achieved. Real-life applications however, may have multiple peaks, and the point selected by a traditional tuning algorithm may not be the best level. In addition, because they typically take small, incremental steps, traditional algorithms may not reach an optimal level quickly.
Thus, what is needed are improved systems and methods for selecting a MPL level that addresses the challenges noted above.

Adjusting a server multiprogramming level based on collected throughput values


An interleaving process in which data is interleaved or interleaved data is de-interleaved. Input data units are distributed over a plurality of output groups of data units. In GSM telephony, input bits are distributed over nineteen transmission bursts. Incoming data units are written to a contiguous RAM and output groups are read from said RAM. Addressing circuitry controls the writing and reading to the RAM, such that data units are stored until required for an output group. After data has been read, these read locations are re-used for the storage of new input data, such that the duration over which a particular memory location stores a data unit depends upon the interleaving process delay for that particular data unit. The addressing circuitry includes modulo counters, each arranged to generate addressing signals for a respective set of memory locations within the RAM. Look-up tables are used to select modulo counts so as to provide conventional addresses to the RAM. In another embodiment block de-interleaving is performed during the writing of received bits to memory locations. However, said bits are written sequentially to said locations thereby allowing the remaining space to be used for other purposes. In particular, said space may be used for de-interleaving fast associated control channels etc. Bit position de-interleaving is then effected when the data is read from the memory locations or when read from intermediate frame buffer.

Radio transmission is subject to short term amplitude variations when transmitting and receiving antennas are not within direct sight of each other. In this situation, the received signal is the sum of a number of reflected copies of the transmitted signal, each having a different phase. The sum of such randomly phased-shifted signals may vary with time, due to movement of reflecting objects or movement of the transmitting and/or receiving antennas. The resulting amplitude variations are known as Rayleigh fading.
A further source of interference, particularly in a cellular radio telephony network, results from a large number of users operating on a small number of frequencies which are re-used in different geographical areas known as cells. When a large number of users of such a network are operating simultaneously, it is possible for interference to result from calls made on the same frequency in another cell. Interference with radio transmissions may additionally be caused by atmospheric conditions and random electro-magnetic interference caused by certain types of electrical equipment.
When transmitting data using a radio communication link, it is necessary to provide a degree of immunity to such interference, so that for an expected level of interference, errors in data transmission may be correctable at the receiver without undue interruption of data communication.
Data coding consists of adding redundant information to source data in such a way that errors in a received encoded data stream may be identified and corrected. The degree of redundancy that is added determines the number of errors in the received signal that may be corrected, before an uncorrectable level of data interference occurs. Typical coding techniques identify and correct individual bit errors in data streams, however, these techniques do not provide resistance to errors that occur in bursts. In order to overcome this difficulty the coded data may be interleaved, such that consecutive data bits are spread out in time and interleaved with other data bits that have been delayed from previous parts of the same data signal.
Thus a continuous burst error imposed upon this type of interleaved data signal does not affect contiguous bits from the original data stream, and after de-interleaving the received coded data will have bit errors that are spread out over time and which are correctable using the redundant data that was added at the data coding stage.
Interleaving may be performed to a depth according to the needs of the data signal being sent. Thus data signals that can tolerate an occasional bit error may be interleaved over shorter periods of time than data signals that have a lower error tolerance. Generally, in a digital radio telephony network, speech signals transmitted as data can tolerate occasional losses, whereas data transmitted from a computer over the same radio link, which may be used to convey important information, such as financial data, etc., should be transmitted with the fewest number of possible errors.
In the case of data being transmitted over a radio telephony network from a computer, a greater depth of interleaving may be used. A greater depth of interleaving implies a longer delay time for certain parts of the original data signal before it is actually transmitted. The delayed data must be stored in a memory or buffer, and the amount of memory used for the process of data interleaving may be great enough to significantly affect the price and power consumption of the equipment in which the interleaving process is to take place. This constraint is particularly applicable to mobile battery powered systems, such as hand-held GSM (Global system for module communication) telephones.
In known systems, interleaving and de-interleaving are achieved by providing a sufficient data memory to store any data bit over the maximum length of time imposed by the interleaving process. However this is wasteful, as the data supplied to the interleaving process is delayed by different times according to its eventual position in the interleaved bit stream output which is eventually transmitted. Thus known systems for interleaving and de-interleaving do not provide the full degree of efficiency that is theoretically implied by the variable timing characteristic of the interleaving or de-interleaving process.

Interleaving and de-interleaving of data in telecommunications


A clutch mechanism (88) for a ground-driven top dresser (10) is actuated by an electric actuator (139) pivotally mounted to a U-shaped bracket (104). The shaft (141) of the actuator (139) is connected to flanges (135) radially extending from a rotatable tube (132) through a lost motion means in the form of elongated slots (145) formed in the flanges (135) and which slideably receive a pin (143) carried by the actuator shaft (141). A cam (134) is removably attached to flanges (133) radially extending from the rotatable tube (132) opposite to the actuator flanges (135). The cam (134) has first and second portions (136a,b) for engaging the pivotal arm (110) which engages and disengages the clutch mechanism (88). The spring (96) biasing the jaw members (90, 92) of the clutch mechanism (88) together allows the cam (134) to circumvent the constant velocity extension of the actuator (139) due to the lost motion connection to quickly engage the clutch mechanism (88) when the cam (134) moves to an over-center position from the second portion (136b) to the first portion (136a) of the cam (134).

The present invention generally relates to an apparatus for dispensing or spreading material, particularly to an apparatus for top dressing terrain, and specifically in a most preferred form to an improved clutch mechanism which can be utilized in ground-driven top dressers.
Various apparatus exist for applying top dressing to the turf of golf courses, lawns, football, baseball and soccer fields, parks, recreational areas, and the like, for applying calcined clay on baseball diamonds, for sanding icy sidewalks and driveways, and for like applications of a ribbon of material at a preselected rate. An example of one of such apparatus is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,873 which has been widely and very successfully marketed under the trademark TURFCO METE-R-MATIC. With the increasing awareness of the importance of top dressing in turf management, an increasing need exists for improved dispensers to allow the effective, efficient application of material with increased ease of operation.
In this regard, the clutch mechanism of U.S. Pat. No. 4,438,873 required the operator to pull a rope to either engage or to disengage the jaw members. As the clutch mechanism is engaged at the start of each pass and disengaged at the completion of each pass, many operators were bothered by sore shoulders at the end of their work day from pulling on the rope so many times. Thus, a need exists for a clutch mechanism allowing ease of actuation with reduced manual exertion.
Further, it was necessary for the operator to look back at a rod member located on the top dresser to determine whether the clutch mechanism was engaged or disengaged. This required the operator to momentarily divert attention from watching the forward movement of the pulling vehicle. Thus, a need exists for a clutch mechanism providing the operator with immediate instructions of the condition of the clutch mechanism without requiring the operator to turn to look back at the top dresser.
Additionally, due to success of marketing of such top dressers including rope-actuated clutch mechanisms, a need exists to allow conversion of such clutch mechanisms from the prior rope actuation to electric actuation, with such conversion being simple to make and economical.
Further, a need exists for an improved clutch mechanism having fewer number of parts and which is easier to manufacture and maintain.

Ground-driven top dresser utilizing easily actuated clutch mechanism


A fender support structure includes a base member that rotates in accordance with a steering of a front wheel, a cover member that is relatively rotatable with respect to the base member and that supports a front wheel fender covering the front wheel, a holding mechanism that is accommodated in the base member and the cover member and that generates a holding force to hold a relative rotational position of the cover member relative to the base member at a predetermined initial position, and a regulating mechanism that regulates a rotation of the cover member in accordance with a steering of the front wheel against the holding force when a steering angle of the front wheel becomes a predetermined value or more in a left direction and a right direction.

Conventionally, a technique of a fender support structure that supports a fender covering a front wheel is known. For example, the technique is as described in Patent Literature 1.
In the technique described in Patent Literature 1, a technique of fixing a fender covering a front wheel through a stay or the like to an interlocking member interlocking with a steering operation (steering) of a front wheel is disclosed. According to such a configuration, since the fender also rotates in accordance with the steering of the front wheel, it is possible to prevent mud splashes caused by the front wheel even when the front wheel is steered.
However, as in the technique described in Patent Literature 1, if the fender is rotated in accordance with the steering of the front wheel, the fender may interfere with a vehicle body (for example, a hood or the like).

Fender support structure and work vehicle including same


A process for the preparation of bichromal spheres comprising (I) preparing monochromal spheres by the aggregation and coalescence of an emulsion resin with a first colorant and inorganic salt; (ii) contacting the resulting monchromal spheres with an oxidizing agent, followed by a polymerization with a vinyl monomer and a free radical initiator; (iii) forming a of the resulting monochromal spheres on a substrate; and (iv) subjecting the resulting monochromal spheres to a vapor thermal deposition with a second colorant dissimilar than the first colorant to thereby coat one hemisphere of each of said monochromal spheres thereby resulting in bichromal spheres with dissimilar colors.

This invention generally relates to the preparation, or fabrication of small spheres, for example, from about 2 to about 50 microns in volume average diameter as measured by the Coulter Counter, with hemispheres of contrasting, or different colors and dissimilar zeta potentials and more specifically opposite surface charges, reference copending application U.S. Ser. No. 035,518, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference, and filed concurrently herewith, and which spheres can be selected for use in electric paper display sheets. The present invention is generally directed to an electric paper display device, also known as a rotary, twisted ball or Gyricon display device, comprised of bichromal spheres or balls in which one hemispherical, that is about one half, or about 50 percent, of the surface of the ball is of one color, for example colored white and the other hemisphere is of a second dissimilar color, for example colored black as disclosed, for example, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,126,854, the disclosure of which is totally incorporated herein by reference, and wherein the bichromal spheres are suspended in a liquid cavity within an elastomer or polymer sheet, sandwiched between for example, a glass or plastic membrane. Under the action of an external electric field, the bichromal spheres rotate in accordance with their electrical anisotropy, or dipole, to provide an image. More specifically, the present invention is directed to a method for the preparation of bichromal spheres, and wherein each of the spheres are of small size, such as from about 2 to about 50 microns in diameter and preferably from about 5 to about 25 microns in diameter. The bichromal spheres can be fabricated by a process which comprises: (i) preparing monochromal spheres by the aggregation and coalescence of an emulsion resin with a first colorant, such as a pigment, usually a white pigment such as titanium dioxide or zinc oxide and to enable the desired particle size of for example, from about 2 to about 50 microns in diameter and more preferably of from about 5 to about 25 microns in diameter; (ii) subjecting the monchromal spheres formed to a seed polymerization process with for example a monomer, such as a vinyl monomer like styrene, alkyl acrylate, alkyl methacylate, fluoroalkylacrylates, or vinyl pyridine, and a free radical initiator to induce and direct a surface charge on the spheres; (iii) forming a monolayer of the monochromal spheres on a substrates, for example, by dip coating a substrate in an aqueous suspension of the monochromal spheres; (iv) followed by subjecting the monochromal spheres to a vapour deposition with a colorant such as black, cyan, red, or yellow resulting in the coating of the selected colorant into one hemisphere of the monochromal balls. The uncoated hemisphere remains as the second color.


There is disclosed a liquid developer composition for electrostatic photography, which comprises, in a nonaqueous solvent having an electric resistance of 10.sup.9 .OMEGA..cm or over and a dielectric constant of 3.5 or over, a toner particle, a charge-controlling agent or resin, and an acid group containing polymer soluble in said nonaqueous solvent and/or a quaternary ammonium salt.

Generally, a liquid developer for electrostatic photography comprises a carrier liquid having a high electric resistance (10.sup.9 to 10.sup.15 .OMEGA..cm), positively or negatively charged toner particles, a fixing resin for giving fixability to the toner particles, a dispersant for dispersing stably the toner particles, a charge-controlling agent for charging the toner particles positively or negatively, and various additives. A charge-controlling agent gives positive or negative distinct charge polarity to toner particles; it also controls the charged amount, and is an essential component for liquid developers.
Since the charge of toner particles greatly influences the image obtained after the development processing, strong efforts are made to control the charge stably. To adjust the charge, roughly classified, two methods are known. The first method comprises covering the surface of toner particles with a material that can be ionized or that can adsorb ions. As the material used for this purpose, oils and fats, such as linseed oil and soybean oil, alkyd resins, halogenated polymers, aromatic carboxylic acids disclosed in JP-B ("JP-B" means examined Japanese patent publication) No. 5944/1976, acid group-containing water-soluble dyes disclosed in JP-B No. 12869/1981, and oxidized condensates of aromatic polyamines disclosed in JP-A ("JP-A" means unexamined published Japanese patent application) No. 120629/1975 are known. Further, for example, pigment/polymer compositions (e.g., grafted carbon) which are obtained by polymerizing a polar monomer in the presence of a pigment and are disclosed in JP-B Nos. 6157/1971, 6151/1971, and 13584/1976, and a polymer electrolyte disclosed in JP-B No. 6354/1978, are known. In this method, since the toner particles themselves have polar groups, the amount of the ion component contained in the carrier liquid can be reduced to produce a developer good in image quality, but there are such problems as that it is difficult to adjust the charged amount finely and that a change of the charged amount with the lapse of the time is conspicuous in some cases of substances used.
The second method allows a substance to be present which dissolves in a carrier liquid and can transfer ions to or from toner particles. As examples of such a substance, a metal naphthenate, such as nickel naphthenate and cobalt naphthenate; a metal soap, such as cobalt 2-ethylhexanoate; a metal sulfonate, such as calcium dodecylbenzenesulfonate, a petroleum-type metal sulfonate, and a metal salt of a sulfosuccinate; a lecithin; a polyvinylpyrrolidone resin; a polyamide resin; a sulfonic acid-containing resin described in JP-B No. 24944/1981; and a hydroxybenzoic acid derivative described in JP-A No. 139753/1982, are known. Quaternary ammonium soluble copolymers described in JP-A Nos. 31739/1979, 137960/1984, and 39059/1986; a metal salt such as a nickel salt of an amino acid derivative, described in JP-A No. 50951/1986; a semialkylamide compound of a diisobutylene/maleic acid copolymer described in JP-B No. 26596/1974: and itaconic anhydride derivatives and hemi-maleic acid amides described in JP-A Nos. 173558/1985, 179750/1985, and 182447/1985, are also known.
Although the second method is generally used, since the charged amount is easily controlled by a charge-controlling substance, the electric resistance of the liquid developer is apt to be lowered because the added charge-controlling substance is generally liable to be ionized. As a result, the optimum amount of charge-controlling substance to be added is restricted extremely, and when the added amount exceeds the optimum amount, such adverse effects as a decrease of the image density and flow-out of the image occur. On the other hand, if the amount of the charge-controlling substance to be added is small, there arises the problem that collapse of shadow details of dots and fringes surrounding the image (leading to the occurrence of doublets) occur. In this case, it becomes an important technique for the charged amount to be increased without increasing the amount to be added. Further, when many sheets are developed, the concentration of the charge-controlling agent changes or the definition of the image changes. Furthermore, after the liquid developer is prepared, in some cases, the magnitude of the charge changes with time, to adversely affect the image quality or to increase the settling of the toner particles. Further, there are even some substances that denature due to oxidation or the like during storage and lose charge-controllability.
Generally, toner particles contain a colorant, such as a pigment and a dye, in order to make the image visible. It is known that the charge of the toner particles is noticeably influenced by some kinds of these colorants, and also that the charging ability of the colorant is used to charge toner particles. On the other hand, in an application wherein only ink adhesion is required, such as for printing plates, or when the toner image section is used as a resist and the non-image area is dissolved out to produce a printing plate, a colorant is not necessarily required, and it is rather desirable not to contain a colorant because a colorant soils a printed product or lowers the resist property. Toner particles not containing a colorant, that is, toner particles mainly consisting of a polymer, are difficult to be charged and, for example, polar groups are generally introduced to the polymer particles. In this case, the polymer particles are attended with the same problems as those of the first method.

Liquid developer for electrostatic photography


Single crystal silicon carbide epitaxial layer on an off-axis substrate are manufactured by placing the substrate in an epitaxial growth reactor, growing a first layer of epitaxial silicon carbide on the substrate, interrupting the growth of the first layer of epitaxial silicon carbide, etching the first layer of epitaxial silicon carbide to reduce the thickness of the first layer, and regrowing a second layer of epitaxial silicon carbide on the first layer of epitaxial silicon carbide. Carrot defects may be terminated by the process of interrupting the epitaxial growth process, etching the grown layer and regrowing a second layer of epitaxial silicon carbide. The growth interruption/etching/regrowth may be repeated multiple times. A silicon carbide epitaxial layer has at least one carrot defect that is terminated within the epitaxial layer. A semiconductor structure includes an epitaxial layer of silicon carbide on an off-axis silicon carbide substrate, and a carrot defect having a nucleation point in the vicinity of an interface between the substrate and the epitaxial layer and is terminated within the epitaxial layer.

Deposition systems and methods are commonly used to form layers of semiconductor materials, such as thin epitaxial films, on substrates. For example, a chemical vapor deposition (CVD) reactor system and process may be used to form a layer of semiconductor material such as silicon carbide (SiC) on a substrate. CVD processes may be particularly effective for forming layers with controlled properties, thicknesses, and/or arrangements such as epitaxial layers. Typically, in a deposition system, such as a CVD system, the substrate is placed in a reaction chamber within a susceptor and one or more process gases including reagents or reactants to be deposited on the substrate are introduced into the chamber adjacent the substrate. The process gases may be flowed through the reaction chamber in order to provide a uniform or controlled concentration of the reagents or reactants to the substrate.
A deposition system, such as a CVD reactor, may be used to form epitaxial layers of silicon carbide on a single crystal silicon carbide substrate having a predetermined polytype such as 2H, 4H, 6H, 15R, 3C and the like. The term "polytype" refers to the ordering and arrangement of layers of atoms within a crystal structure. Thus, although the different polytypes of silicon carbide are stoichiometrically identical, they possess different crystal structures and consequently have different material properties such as carrier mobility and breakdown field strength. The letters H, R and C refer to the general crystal structure of the polytype, namely, hexagonal, rhombohedral and cubic, respectively. The numbers in the polytype designations refer to the repetition period of layer arrangements. Thus, a 4H crystal has a hexagonal crystal structure in which the arrangement of atoms in a crystal repeats every four bi-layers.
FIG. 9 illustrates a hexagonal unit cell of a hypothetical crystal. The unit cell 60 includes a pair of opposing hexagonal faces 61A, 61B. The hexagonal faces are normal to the c-axis, which runs along the [0001] direction as defined by the Miller-Bravais indexing system for designating directions in a hexagonal crystal. Accordingly the hexagonal faces are sometimes called the c-faces which define the c-planes or basal planes of the crystal. Planes which are perpendicular to the c-plane are referred to as prismatic planes.
Silicon carbide possesses a number of advantageous physical and electronic characteristics for semiconductor performance and devices. These include a wide bandgap, high thermal conductivity, high saturated electron drift velocity, high electron mobility, superior mechanical strength, and radiation hardness. However, the presence of crystalline defects in silicon carbide films may limit the performance of electronic devices fabricated in the films, depending on the type, location, and density of the defects. Accordingly, significant research has focused on reducing defects in silicon carbide films. Certain defects, such as micropipes, are known to severely limit and even prevent device performance. Other defects, such as threading defects, are not considered to be electrically active, and therefore may not be detrimental to device performance, at densities normally found in epitaxial films.
For applications where a high voltage blocking capability is required (for example power switching applications), silicon carbide films are usually grown "off-axis." That is, the substrate crystal is sliced at an angle that is slightly oblique to the normal crystal axis (called the c-axis). Taking for example a hexagonal polytype such as 4H or 6H, the oblique angle of the cut may be made in one of the standard crystallographic directions illustrated in FIG. 10, namely the [11 20] direction (towards a point of the hexagonal unit cell) or [10 10] direction (towards the center of a flat side of the hexagonal unit cell), or along a different direction.
Thus when an epitaxial layer is grown on the substrate, the deposited atoms bond to atoms at the exposed edges of the crystal layer steps, which causes the steps to grow laterally in so-called step-flow fashion. Step-flow growth is illustrated in FIG. 11. Each layer or step grows in the direction in which the crystal was originally cut off-axis (the [11 20] direction in the case illustrated in FIG. 11).
Surface morphological defects, i.e. defects in the shape of the surface of an epitaxial film, have been observed in silicon carbide epitaxial layers using conventional imaging techniques such as Transmission Electron Microscopy (TEM) and Nomarski microscopy. Surface morphological defects are generally considered to be caused by crystallographic defects in the material. Accordingly, research into the cause of surface morphological defects generally focuses on the physics of crystal growth.
Surface morphological defects are generally classified in accordance with their physical appearance. Thus, such defects have been classified as "comet", "carrot" and "triangular" defects based on their appearance under a microscope. Carrot defects are roughly carrot-shaped features in the surface of the silicon carbide film. The features are aligned along the step flow direction of the film, and are characteristically longer than the depth of the layer in which they are formed. For example, a film having a thickness of 40 μm may contain carrot defects having a length of around 250 μm depending on the off-axis angle. The mechanism by which carrot defects form is currently unknown. Wahab et al. speculate that carrot defects are caused by perfect screw dislocations which are pinned to the surface of the substrate during growth, and that the dislocation dissociates into partials that propagate in the basal plane and form partial ledges in the film. Wahab et al., "Influence of epitaxial growth and substrate induced defects on the breakdown of 4H—SiC Schottky diodes," Appl. Phys. Let. Vol. 76 no. 19, pp. 2725–2727 (2000). While Wahab et al. reported that carrot defects were not harmful to the absolute breakdown voltage of Schottky diodes, reverse leakage current was increased by the presence of carrot defects. Carrot defects may have deleterious effects on other device properties as well, particularly when the defect is located at a sensitive location, such as under the edge of a Schottky contact.
Thus, it would be desirable to reduce or minimize the concentration of carrot defects found in epitaxial films of silicon carbide.

Reduction of carrot defects in silicon carbide epitaxy


In this invention, chemical synthesis method has been used to improve the structure of memory-enhancing peptide. The animal experiments demonstrated that this kind of chemicals shows remarkable physiological activities, which may be helpful in ameliorating mental impediment in adults and promoting the intelligence development in adolescent, even can be a clinical medicine for the patient of Alzheimer's disease.

It has been reported that arginine-vasopressin (AVP) have effect on the memory of animals but not show obvious influence on the learning process. Since AVP is a kind of hormone in vivo and its main function is in anti-diuretic process and to enhance blood pressure, it's not appropriate for the clinical therapy in enhancing memory. Therefore, on the basis of patent "memory-enhancing peptide and its application" (Chinese Patent No. ZL 93112493.X), we go on with work about the structural improvement and perform a series of pharmacological experiments, aiming to modify the defect in the existing patent and search for new memory-enhancing peptides which have simpler structure, stronger pharmacological activity, easy to produce, and have clinically curative effect on promoting the intelligence development in adolescent, ameliorating mental impediment in adults, accelerating the memory.

Memory-enhancing peptides and the use thereof


The present invention relates to Mucoriopsis ellipsoidus fungus. The invention also provides methods of extracting chitin from Mucoriopsis ellipsoidus and the chitin produced by this process.

Chitin is the second most abundant natural biopolymer in the world, next only to cellulose, and the most abundant naturally occurring polysaccharide that contains amino sugars. Chitin is found as a component of crustacean shells, insect exoskeletons, fungal cell walls, microfauna, and plankton. The various sources of chitin differ somewhat in their structure and percent chitin content. Chitin naturally occurs in association with proteins and minerals such as calcium carbonate.
Chitin is a polymer formed primarily of repeating units of beta(1-4) 2-acetamido-2-deoxy-D-glucose (or N-acetylglucosamine or GlcNAc). Approximately 16% of the naturally occurring chitin polysaccharide units are deacetylated.
Most commercial applications involving chitin make use of its deacetylated derivative, called chitosan. Chitosan is a polysaccharide formed primarily of repeating units of beta(1-4) 2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucose (or D-glucosamine). Unlike most polysaccharides, chitosan has a positive charge. This charge is the result of the amino groups contained in chitosan taking on hydrogen ions at low pH. Generally, about 80% of the chitosan polysaccharide units are deacetylated and 20% remain acetylated. These values vary according to the chitin sources and methods by which the polysaccharide is processed. Chitosan is produced by hydrolyzing the N-acetyl linkage in chitin with concentrated alkali and then rinsing away the alkali by slurrying the material with water.
The vast commercial potential for applications using chitin and chitosan biopolymers has only recently been realized. Commercial uses for chitin and chitosan include pharmaceuticals and other aspects of health care such as wound care products, and medical implants, as well as applications in agriculture, cosmetics, food additives and separations, textiles, and water and waste water treatment.
Applications which take advantage of the biocompatibility and bioactivity of chitin and chitosan exemplify the numerous useful applications of these biopolymers. For example, by inhibiting the formation of fibrin strands in wounds, chitosan inhibits the formation of scar tissue. Because of this property, chitosan, along with chitin, can be used to form sutures, dressings, and other healing agents with properties not found in competing products. Additionally, since lysozyme present in wounds breaks down chitin, sutures and wound dressing can be made that will break down instead of needing to be removed. The bioactivity properties of chitin and chitosan is also important in nonmedical applications. For example, chitin stimulates soil microorganisms to produce enzymes that break down chitin. These enzymes attack pesticidal organisms such as soil nematodes that contain chitin as part of their structure. Additionally, chitin has been found to stimulate the growth of bacteria in the gut, a property that could have application for food, feed and cell culture.
Chitin also has potential applications in the textile industry. Recently, a novel chitin fabric called "Biochitin" has been developed. Biochitin, is a highly breathable fabric consisting of chemically treated chitin applied to a porous polyurethane resin coated on a nylon sheet. The chitin layer serves to absorb perspiration, and has over twice the water-absorbing capacity of conventional materials.
The current commercial source of chitin and chitosan is shellfish waste. Fungi also provide a potential major source of chitin which can be derived from fermentation wastes or grown specifically for chitin/chitosan manufacture. Methods have been developed for extracting chitin from fungus, although this process has not been implemented on a commercial scale.
Extraction of chitin from fungi provides a more controllable route to get a purer and more consistent chitin than obtained from shellfish waste. Furthermore, chitin extracted from fungi is less likely to include allergenic contaminants than seafood derived chitin and is therefore more suitable for use in textile, food and pharmaceutical applications. There is therefore a great need for identifying fungal sources which produce quantities of chitin sufficient to justify commercial scale up, and to harvest the chitin produced by these fungal sources.
There are presently twenty-two described genera in the Mucoraceae family. Members of this family are characterized as follows;
reproduction asexually by aplanospores (nonmotile sporangiospores), asexual spores are not conidia; saprobic, not mycorrhiza, many spored sporangia present, sporangial wall not splitting into 2 halves, sporangia globose, sporangia wall thin, sporangia with a distinct columella, without sporangiola (Ainsworth, G. C., F. K. Spparow, A. S. Sussman, 1973, "The Fungi, An Advanced Treatise. Volume 4B, A Taxonomic Review with Keys: Basidiomycetes and Lower Fungi", Academic Press, Inc. London).


An electrochemical cell includes a can having a first end and a second end and a first element provided within the can and including an electrode. The cell also includes a first terminal integrally formed as a part of the can and extending from one of the first or second ends. The cell further includes a terminal assembly directly coupled to the first element and including a stud configured to act as a second terminal. The first end includes a boss that defines an aperture through which the stud extends, wherein the boss at least partially surrounds the stud and a bushing coupled to the stud.

The present disclosure relates to the field of batteries and battery systems. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to batteries or cells (e.g., lithium-ion batteries).
It is known to provide batteries or cells for use in vehicles such as automobiles. For example, lead-acid batteries have been used in starting, lighting, and ignition applications. More recently, hybrid electric vehicles are being developed which utilize a battery (e.g., a lithium-ion or nickel-metal-hydride battery) in combination with other systems (e.g., an internal combustion engine) to provide power for the vehicle.
It is known that a battery generally includes multiple terminals (e.g., a positive terminal and a negative terminal, etc.) through which the battery is electrically connected to other batteries or other components. A battery may have terminals that protrude from the battery surface. These terminals are provided as separate elements that are coupled to other battery components (e.g., by welding to a battery cover). This adds to the manufacturing process, as well as increases cost. The integrity of such coupling mechanisms may also present issues over the life of the battery.
It is known to provide a battery that generally includes a jellyroll connected to the terminals by intermediate members (e.g., terminal tabs). Connecting the terminals in this fashion adds to the manufacturing process, as well as increases costs. Terminal tabs also increase current resistance. It would be advantageous to eliminate the need for such terminal tabs to remove the additional components and manufacturing costs and time associated with such components (e.g., to reduce the number of parts in the battery and to eliminate the need to handle and assemble the components during manufacturing), to reduce resistance, and generally improve the conductive connection between the jellyroll and the terminals.
It is known to weld various battery components utilizing conventional welding techniques. However, such welds are not highly resistant to vibration, or environmentally friendly. Such welds can also make it difficult to introduce electrolyte into a battery cell. Certain welds also require the use of additional materials such as metallic plating. It would be advantageous to eliminate the use of such conventional welds in favor of non-conventional welds (e.g. sonic welds) to obtain a superior connection, superior pull-out strength, higher resistance to vibration and an efficient and repeatable process that is environmentally friendly. Such non-conventional welds also leave fill paths between electrode layers to allow electrolyte to be more easily introduced into the battery cell, and eliminate the need for intermediate material such as metallic plating.
Accordingly, it would be advantageous to provide a battery cell that includes one or more terminals that are integrally formed with the body or cover of the battery. It would also be advantageous to directly conductively couple the terminals to the jellyroll utilizing non-conventional welds such as sonic welds.

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