A spindle motor comprising a bracket, a hub which is rotational relative to the bracket, and bearing means disposed between the bracket and the hub, wherein the hub has a hub main body made of aluminum or an aluminum alloy, and a holder formed from a magnetic material, and wherein a rotor magnet is mounted on the inner surface of the holder. A ring-shaped recess is provided on the inner surface of the bracket, and the hub and a part of the rotor magnet extend into the ring-shaped recess. Improvements having been made on a disk clamp mechanism for mounting a recording disk on the hub of the spindle motor.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a spindle motor for rotating recording disks and to a disk clamp mechanism used in the spindle motor.
2. Description of the Related Art
Spindle motors comprise a bracket mounted on a frame of a driving apparatus, a hub which is rotational relative to the bracket, and bearing means disposed between the bracket and the hub. A rotor magnet is mounted on the inner surface of the hub, and a stator is disposed facing the rotor magnet. Recording members, such as magnetic disks, are mounted on the hub.
In the spindle motor of the prior art, the entire hub is formed of an aluminum or iron material, which is the cause of the following problems. When a hub is formed of, for example, an aluminum material, a magnetic material (e.g., yoke member) must be disposed between the rotor magnet and the hub in order to prevent magnetic fluxes from leaking from the magnetic circuit to the motor. It is therefore difficult to miniaturize the motor. When the hub member is formed of an iron material, machining it is difficult, particularly machining the surface on which recording disks are placed.
This type of spindle motor has the drawbacks described below. One of the ends of the rotor magnet is positioned in the upper section of the inner surface of the bracket. The height of the components including the rotor magnet and the bracket is slightly greater than the sum of the height of both the rotor magnet and the bracket (that is, greater by at least as much as the gap between them). Therefore, the over-all height of the motor becomes greater, thereby making it difficult to make the motor thinner. To make a motor thinner, such things as making the thickness of the bracket thinner, or making the height of the rotor magnet less, can be considered. However, when the bracket is made thinner, its strength is decreased; hence a new problem, such as vibrations, arises. When the height of the rotor magnet is reduced, a problem arises in that the torque of the motor is decreased. To prevent the vibration of the motor, the magnetic center of the stator has to be substantially matched with that of the rotor magnet. In the prior art, the magnetic center is adjusted by regulating the number of pieces of core plates. Therefore, it is difficult to accurately make the magnetic centers coincide with each other. Depending upon the construction of the motor, it is fairly difficult to make the magnetic centers of the stator and the rotor magnet coincide.
A clamp mechanism used in this type of spindle motor includes a disk placement surface provided on a hub, and a clamp member mounted on this hub. A flat placement surface is provided on the hub, and a flat pressing surface is provided in the clamp member in correspondence with the placement surface. However, it is difficult to machine the placement surface and the pressing surface flat and with a high degree of accuracy. Therefore, it is difficult to support recording disks in such a manner that the surfaces thereof are substantially perpendicular to the axis of the rotation center of the hub. In particular, when there is only one recording disk, it is likely to change its shape according to the shapes of the placement and pressing surfaces. A problem arises when the recording disks are clamped, they change their shape if the placement surface and/or the pressing surface is not fairly flat.

Spindle motor and disk clamp mechanism used therein


Methods and a system for managing database usage. The methods and system include receiving a request to create a table, determining the table is an empty table, and storing a pseudo-table in a data store in response to determining the table is empty. The pseudo-table may be a database view. Metadata related to a table may be stored in the pseudo-table to describe characteristics of the table. The pseudo-table occupies less space than a corresponding empty table. The system may implement the methods in middleware transparent to the applications.

1. Field of the Invention
The embodiments of the invention relate to database management. Specifically, the embodiments of the invention relate to using middleware to conserve resources for maintaining a database.
2. Background
Many applications, operating systems, middleware (e.g. an application server runtime environment) and other programs utilize persistent data and data structures. This persistent data is stored in a persistent storage device such as a hard drive to be retrieved at a later time. This persistent data is often maintained in a database. Relational databases are organized into a set of tables and schemas. Each application, operating system, middleware or other program relies on and maintains its own set of tables.
At the time that an application, operating system or middleware is installed in a system, many of the tables that these programs utilize to store and retrieve data are initialized or created. These tables are generated and stored even if no data is ready to be stored in the table. Empty tables are created to service accesses, queries or similar operations that require the data of these tables. The empty tables include basic data structure data, definitions or metadata needed to maintain the table. These empty tables may occupy extensive physical space on a persistent storage device such as a hard drive. An empty table, i.e., a table with no data stored in the table, may occupy 32 kilobytes to 128 kilobytes or more in the persistent storage device. These numbers may greatly vary depending on the architecture of the relational database system.
A server often executes or supports multiple applications. Each application requiring its own set of tables to be maintained. Each application, individually, often requires a large number of empty tables at start up and during run-time. A large number of these tables remain empty for long periods of time. In aggregate, a server and database system maintain thousands, hundreds of thousands or more of empty tables. These empty tables occupy a large amount of space in the persistent storage devices of the server. The space occupied by these empty tables may occupy up to 10 gigabytes or more of hard drive or similar persistent storage device space.
In addition, the empty tables consume other system resources including processor time. Each table must intermittently have its data structure checked and its metadata updated. Even though these processes are infrequent, if a large number of tables are present in the system the impact on processor availability can be significant.

Emulation of empty database tables using database views


An integrated circuit package. The package includes a substrate which has a first surface, a second opposite surface and four corners. Each corner has a conductive plane and at least one via. The vias connect the conductive planes of the first surface with corresponding conductive planes located on the second surface of the substrate. An integrated circuit is mounted to the first surface of the substrate and enclosed by plastic. Solder balls are attached to the conductive planes and a number of individual solder pads located on the second surface of the package. The contacts are connected to a printed circuit board. A lid is attached to the conductive planes at the four corners of the substrate. Some of the heat generated by the integrated circuit conducts through the substrate and into the printed circuit board. Some of the heat within the substrate conducts into the lid through the conductive planes located at the corners of the package. The present invention thus provides two thermal paths, the printed circuit board and the lid, from the substrate of a plastic integrated circuit package.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an integrated circuit package.
2. Description of Related Art
Integrated circuits are typically assembled into a package that is mounted to a printed circuit board. There are a number of different types of packages including quad flat pack (QFP), pin grid array (PGA) and ball grid array (BGA). BGA packages include a number of solder balls that are soldered to corresponding solder pads located on the bottom surface of a substrate. The solder balls are reflowed to attach the substrate to a printed circuit board.
An integrated circuit is mounted to a top surface of the substrate. The integrated circuit is connected to bond pads located on the top surface of the substrate by wire bonds. The bond pads are connected to the solder pads on the second surface by a number of vias and routing traces formed within the substrate. The integrated circuit is enclosed by a molded plastic material.
The heat generated by the integrated circuit conducts into the printed circuit board through the vias, the routing traces and the solder balls. The vias and routing traces have a relatively high thermal impedance. The high thermal impedance creates an undesirable temperature differential between the circuit board and the integrated circuit. The high temperature differential may create junction temperatures which exceed the recommended operating limits of the integrated circuit. Some packages incorporate heat slugs which remove heat from the top surface of the integrated circuit die. Heat slugs add to the complexity and cost of mass producing the package. It would be desirable to provide an integrated circuit package that provides an alternate thermal path for heat to flow from the substrate to reduce the overall thermal impedance of the package.

Custom corner attach heat sink design for a plastic ball grid array integrated circuit package


A memory configuration (20) which includes a first and second bank (B0, B1). Both bank arrays comprises a plurality of wordlines (WLs) and bitlines (BLs). The memory configuration further includes a plurality of column decoder circuits (CDEC0-CDEC7), and a plurality of y-select conductors (C0-C15) generally parallel to the plurality of bitlines of the first bank array. Each of the plurality of y-select conductors is operable to be selected by one of the plurality of column decoder circuits in response to a column address. The memory configuration further includes a plurality of column factor conductors (F0.sub.I, F1.sub.I, F2.sub.I) formed in a direct periphery area existing between the first and second bank arrays. Still further, the memory configuration includes a power conductor (PDD.sub.I) formed between the first and second bank arrays, and aligned generally parallel to the plurality of wordlines of the first and second bank arrays. Lastly, the memory configuration includes a plurality of programmable conductors (PC0-PC7) disposed between and generally parallel to the plurality of y-select conductors. The programmable conductors are formed such that a first portion of each of the plurality of programmable conductors overlies the first bank array and a second portion of each of the plurality of programmable conductors extends toward the direct periphery. Each of the plurality of programmable conductors may be selected for connecting to a corresponding one of the plurality of column factor conductors or to the power conductor.

The present embodiments relate to digital memory circuits, and are more particularly directed to a multiple bank memory with over-the-array conductors that are programmable to provide connections for either column factor lines or y-decoder power lines.
The technology of many modern circuit applications continues to advance at a rapid pace, with memory circuits continually being improved and refined to meet performance and economic requirements. For such memories, consideration is given to all aspects of design, including increasing performance and minimizing costs. These considerations may be further evaluated based on the integrated circuit device in which the memory is formed, where such circuits may be implemented either as stand-alone products, or as part of a larger circuit such as a microprocessor. While performance factors of the digital memory such as overall circuit speed are important, an often equally or even more critical factor is the cost of the device. This cost is often reflected in the overall size of the memory array. Thus, a desirable memory reduces device size while providing acceptable functionality and speed.
In the current art, memory size may be affected by various factors. In one prior art approach, as detailed later, this size is affected not merely by the storage cell area, but further by the power and row and column factor conductors which are involved in address decoding for accessing the storage cells in the storage area. By way of background, some prior art systems have been developed which space various conductors in certain manners to reduce overall device size. For example in one approach, row decoding factor conductors are sometimes placed parallel to wordlines (i.e., in the x-dimension) for locally decoding the component of the address which pertains to the device wordlines. As another example, some architectures have included fixed power conductors which are parallel to the memory bank y-select columns and indeed overlie the memory banks. These approaches, however, have provided limited solutions to only certain architectures, and do not singly address the problems described below which arise from the use of power and column factor conductors extending from the main wordline decoding area of the device. Thus, these problems are detailed below as is the preferred embodiment which overcomes the prior art drawbacks and thus provides a more efficient and desirable memory configuration.

Multiple bank memory with over-the-array conductors programmable for providing either column factor or y-decoder power connectivity


A machine which can automatically make a lengthwise cut in each of the opposite sides of leg shells along the center line in the direction of thickness of the crab legs irrespective of their size, thickness, shape, curve, etc. The machine comprises an upper conveyor belt and a lower conveyor belt, said belts carrying crab legs by holding them therebetween, the lower portion of the upper conveyor belt and the upper portion of the lower conveyor belt being adapted to move vertically symmetrically according to the vertical thickness of crab legs, a pair of circular saws being disposed horizontally movably on the opposite sides of said conveyor belts so that each of said circular saws is at equal distances from the lower portion of said upper conveyor belt and from the upper portion of said lower conveyor belt, each of said circular saws being always given a tendency to move inward.

(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a machine for automatically cutting the shells of legs of crabs such as red rock crabs, dungeness crabs and hair crabs. More particularly the invention relates to a machine for automatically making a lengthwise cut in each of the opposite sides of leg shells.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Crab legs vary in size, thickness, shape, curve, etc. There have been no machines so far which can automatically make a lengthwise cut in each of the opposite sides of leg shells along the center line in the direction of thickness of the crab legs irrespective of their size, thickness, shape, curve, etc.

Machine for automatically cutting shells of crab legs


Systems and methods disclosed herein relate to reducing the losses associated with processing payments using credit card payment processing gateways. Payment processing gateways have different deposit success rates due to the gateways' varying arrangements with acquiring banks and the ability to process certain types of payments. A payment request related to a user may be received, wherein the request specifies a particular type of credit card, a transaction currency, and an amount. A payment application then routes, via a payment agent, the payment request to an adaptive gateway switching system (AGSS) in an attempt to complete a payment transaction. If in learning mode, the AGSS may randomly choose a payment processing gateway. Or the AGSS may choose the gateway based upon a learned gateway status based upon results learned through reinforcement learning. Upon receiving the result of a transaction attempt from the gateway, the agent reports the result to the AGSS. The result is used to update a reward function to inform future attempts to process payments. If the transaction attempt was unsuccessful, the AGSS provides an alternative gateway option for the agent to contact and attempt the transaction. This may continue until one of the following occurs: success; all gateways have been attempted; a predetermined number of gateways has been attempted; a predetermined penalty threshold has been exceeded; or another relevant criterion has been satisfied.

Modern website operators often provide and/or require options for customers and users to pay for various goods and services using various types of credit cards, such as Visa, Mastercard, Discovery, American Express and others. Such payments may be, for example, for services performed by another user. In such situations, the website operator may allow one user to fund an account for paying another user via credit card. In other situations, the website operator may allow a user to pay for the website services or goods offered for sale upon the website or another website using a credit card.
Website operators allowing this type of payment will often provide a payment processing module that may be implemented using software. To ensure that business operations go uninterrupted, a significant goal (and sometimes a primary goal) of many website operators that allow credit card payments is the goal of ensuring that the website users can use their credit cards to make payments, deposit money, or otherwise transact business using the credit card. This is often accomplished by working with a credit card payment or processing gateway and/or acquiring banks.
Such gateways are primarily e-commerce application service providers that authorize credit card payments for e-businesses, online retailers, and other businesses. These gateways include companies and services such as Global Collect (GC), WorldPay (WP), National Australia Bank (NAB), Adyen, Alipay, PayPal, and many others. Acquiring banks are banks or financial institutions that process credit or debit card payments on behalf of a merchant. To simplify the discussion within this application, the terms "gateway" and "processing gateway" may be interchanged with the term acquiring bank in most instances and may be considered to represent either type of company or service. Different gateways may have different success rates with various types of transactions based on their acquiring bank agreements, national laws, and other factors. A particular gateway may or may not be able to successfully process certain types of transactions. For example, one gateway may be unable to process transactions of a U.S. dollars Mastercard issued in the Netherlands, while others may be able to process such transactions. And another gateway may be unable to process transactions of a Euro Visa card issued in France, while others may be able to process such transactions. However, regardless of whether the gateway can process the requested transaction, most gateways will charge a fixed fee for attempting a transaction. If the transaction is unsuccessful, the website operator must still pay this fee to the gateway and then determine whether to attempt the transaction on another gateway.
For example, a gateway may charge a fixed fee of 30 cents for a transaction plus a variable fee of 1.5% of the amount of the transaction. So a $30 transaction would end up costing $0.75 (i.e., 30 cents fixed plus 45 cents variable) if successful. If unsuccessful, the same transaction would still cost $0.30 (i.e., 30 cents fixed plus 0 cents variable) to the website operator. And after an unsuccessful transaction attempt, the website operator would still need to attempt at least one other gateway to process the transaction. Otherwise the website operator would lose the entire value of the user transaction while remaining obligated to pay the $0.30 fixed transaction fee. In a situation where a website operator charges the user a fee of 5 percent of the transaction value, a failed transaction of the type described would expend 1 percent of the $30 transaction and leave the website operator with 4 percent of the total transaction as potential profit. Thus, five failed transactions that each cost 1 percent of the transaction value would result in the elimination of any potential profit for the website operator, while the website operator must still incur further fees to even obtain the 5 percent fee charged for a successful transaction. In such a situation, assuming that each gateway charges an identical fee, it can be seen that the website operator can only tolerate up to two failed transactions (costing a combined total of $0.60) followed by a successful transaction (costing $0.75) to obtain any positive income flow from the 5 percent (i.e., $1.50) fee based on the $30 attempted transaction. Thus, it can be seen that it is desirable to eliminate as many unsuccessful transactions attempts as possible and reduce the overall number of transaction attempts to as close to one as possible, taking transaction costs into account.
In the real world, however, different gateways often charge different fees. So it may not always be desirable to reduce the number of transaction attempts to one. For example, if a first gateway charges $1.00 per transaction attempt and a second gateway charges only $0.20 for the same transaction attempt, while a third gateway charges $0.30 for the same transaction attempt, it may not always be desirable to attempt the transaction using the first gateway and incur the $1.00 charge, even if the probability of a successful transaction with that gateway is 100%. Rather, it may be desirable to attempt the transaction with either the second gateway, the third gateway, or a combination of the second and third gateway, even if the success rate with such gateways is less than 100%. If the success rate with the second gateway is 50%, the expected cost of a transaction using that gateway may be around $0.40 (i.e., two attempts at 50% success rate and $0.20 cost for each successful transaction attempt), while the expected cost of a transaction attempt with the first gateway will be $1.00 (i.e., one attempt with 100% success rate and $1.00 cost for each transaction attempt). Thus, if a website operator is attempting to maximize revenue, the website operator may need to make decisions that are not entirely weighted towards reducing the number of transaction attempts. Known systems and methods that allow website operators to process payments through payment gateways do not adequately account for the gateway fees and rates at which transactions fail.
In view of these circumstances and in attempts to increase the success rate of such transaction attempts, website operators will often integrate with multiple gateways so that various transactions may be attempted on various gateways. Sometimes such transaction attempts will be at the same cost and sometimes at various or varying cost. By integrating with multiple credit card gateway processors, it may also be possible to increase the number of types of different currencies that may be accepted in transactions on the website. And it may also be possible to increase the transaction success rate by making it possible to process different types of currency or card transactions with different gateways. For example, a transaction processed in British pounds may have a high likelihood of success with a first gateway and a low likelihood of success with a second gateway, while a transaction processed in Australian dollars may have a low likelihood of success with the first gateway and a high likelihood of success with the second gateway. And such differences in success rates may be dependent on a number of additional factors, including, for example, the identity of the bank that issued the credit card, the relationship between the gateway and the issuing bank, the ability of the gateway to accept a particular currency, the ability of the gateway to process a particular type of transaction, etc. Thus, by integrating with multiple gateways, a website operator may be able to increase the transaction success rate by switching gateways after a failed transaction.
Although such switching may be an effective way to increase the transaction success rate, it has several shortcomings. Examples of those shortcomings are listed herein. First, switching based on success or failure does not take into account the gateway fees. Thus, the selection and/or ordering of attempts to process transactions with various gateways may not be cost effective. Second, such a method of switching requires constant monitoring. Specifically, if a particular gateway starts declining transactions of certain types (e.g., cards with certain currencies, certain types of cards, cards from certain issuing banks, etc.), the problem causing the declined transactions must be detected. Then, the relevant transaction traffic to that gateway should be adjusted to take into account the declined transactions. However, known methods for switching transactions across multiple gateways do not detect or account for such transactions in a meaningful fashion. Third, known methods for switching transactions across multiple gateways do not take into account a gateway's success rate for different types of transactions. Rather, the methods rely upon switching transaction attempts to different gateways instead of attempting to account for the reason or reasons that a particular transaction failed.
Additionally, it is almost always desirable to quickly process transactions. Often, if a user is required to wait more than a few seconds, e.g., 10 or 15 seconds, while a website operator attempts to process a credit card transaction, the user will lose patience. This may result in the user cancelling the transaction or attempting to refresh, reload, or re-submit the transaction webpage, any of which may cause problems including multiple undesired transactions. Thus, traditional methods of determining transactions to attempt by using the human mind are insufficient for the types of transactions at issue. It will take a human being an excessively long time to retrieve a transaction request, submit the request to a payment gateway, receive a single result, and report the result back to the user. In fact, in the time that it may take a human being to even type a phone number or transaction details, the ten to fifteen seconds for the transaction may have elapsed, causing the user to lose patience as noted above. Thus, it is not possible to attempt transactions in the desired manner without the use of specialized computers and communication equipment.
Moreover, website operators must often process many rapid transactions. In typical circumstances, a website operator offering the ability to conduct online credit card transactions will need to process thousands, tens of thousands, or more transactions on a typical day. Thus, the use of humans to process the transactions would be excessively costly, excessively slow, or both.
For the avoidance of doubt, the above-described contextual background shall not be considered limiting on any of the below-described embodiments, as described in more detail below.


A system that supports multiple contact centers includes a communications network that is coupled between a private network (e.g. MPLS network) and a remote computing environment (e.g. cloud environment). A server system in the remote computing environment monitors health of different network segments (e.g. bandwidth of the connection between the communications network and the remote computing environment, bandwidth of a link used by a tenant to access the private network, etc.). When it is determined that quality of service for voice conversations for one or more contact centers is at risk due to a health status parameter of a network segment reaching a threshold, an appropriate system reaction is triggered. The system reaction may be to offload future calls to a peer remote computing environment to service future calls. The system reaction may also be to cancel outbound campaigns, provide pre-determined “sorry” messages, and the like.

Public wide area networks like the Internet are operated by hundreds of Internet Service Providers, each responsible for a segment of the network. No single entity in this public environment is responsible for how packets are routed from beginning to end. Thus, packets traversing the Internet often encounter congestion, significant jitter, and even loss. For some communications more than others, such as, for example, voice over IP (VoIP) communications or other real time media communications, it is important to provide preferential delivery service to avoid the uncertainties of traversing the Internet. However, the public Internet generally does not provide end-to-end QoS guarantees desired for VoIP communications. It is typical to overcome the limitations of the public Internet with moving the Voice communications to private networks, such as MPLS, where Quality of service (QoS) guarantees help provide such preferential delivery service by ensuring sufficient bandwidth, controlling latency and jitter, and reducing data loss.
Unexpected call bursts may also affect call quality of existing and future calls. With respect to customer contact centers, existing solutions attempt to manage such unexpected call bursts. Such solutions may monitor available contact center resources such as, for example, servers, agents, and media ports. If shortage or failure of a particular resource is detected, a particular action is triggered. For example, the action may be to keep a calling party on hold if shortage of agents are detected, switch to a backup server if failure of a current server is detected, or monitor a number of active calls and alert a systems administrator or refuse establishing conversations for new calls once a threshold is reached. Although such solutions may be acceptable to situations where a single contact center (referred to as a tenant) utilizes system resources and where such resources are predetermined and pre-allocated, it may not be acceptable in situations where multiple tenants are supported and resources are shared. In addition, such existing solutions do not take into account the quality of established voice conversations in efforts to provide a particular level of quality for the established voice conversations. Furthermore, existing solutions generally do not allow a buffer for gracious and gradual degradation of service. For example, existing contact center systems may abruptly start refusing new conversations when a particular threshold is reached, which may result in negative end user experience and loss of customers for the contact center.
Accordingly, what is desired is a system and method for managing voice and other media traffic associated with contact centers when such system supports multiple tenants that share resources.

System and method for managing traffic bursts on a per tenant basis

GENESYS TELECOMMUNICATIONS LABORATORIES, INC.


A combined programming wand and PSA for physician programmers. A programmer/PSA wand can be connected to known programmers and PSA application software can be installed on the programmer to provide a system with the functionality of a PSA and a programmer in a single piece of clinical equipment. The programmer/PSA wand includes electronics to sense, pace, and shock to facilitate evaluation of indwelling leads during implantation of the implantable device and leads to facilitate programming of the device. The system includes one or more displays and control inputs that can provide information to a clinician at a single point that is typically provided with separate programmer and PSA equipment. The system provides increased efficiency, reduced opportunities for errors and/or equipment malfunction, and integrated data collection.

Implantable cardiac stimulation devices, such as pacemakers and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), typically include a pulse generator that includes circuitry for detecting cardiac arrhythmias and automatically generating and delivering therapeutic electrical stimulations to the patient's heart via one or more indwelling leads. The leads include one or more electrodes that are positioned and secured adjacent to excitable heart cells and an insulated electrical conductor that allows stimulation pulses from the pulse generator to be passed to the electrode(s) and thus to the heart tissue.
The implantation procedure for implantable cardiac stimulation devices involves placement of one or more of the leads in an operating room (O.R.) or electrophysiology (EP) catheter lab. In particular, the lead(s) are positioned and secured in contact with the patient's heart both to sense cardiac activity for detection of possible arrhythmic conditions indicating therapeutic stimulation as well as to provide a circuit for delivery of indicated stimulation pulses. The implantation procedure involves confirmation of the proper placement of the lead(s) as well as the electrical conductivity of the lead circuit(s) and the integrity of the insulation surrounding the conductive elements.
The implantation procedure also includes establishing a variety of electrical characteristics of the circuit between the pulse generator and the cardiac tissue. The electrical characteristics of the circuit(s) between the pulse generator and the heart as well as the characteristics of the heart tissue itself affect sensing of cardiac signals and delivery of electrical stimulation provided by the pulse generator and thus, the signal sensing quality, and the threshold stimulation that must be provided to effectively induce depolarization of the heart. These characteristics include the electrical conductivity of the conductor between the pulse generator and the electrode; the conductivity, surface area, and configuration of the electrode; and the contact between the electrode and the excitable heart tissue.
It is generally desirable to stimulate the heart, when indicated, with a stimulation pulse minimally in excess of a minimum required to effect depolarization. However as effective detection and stimulation are required after implant and, as individual characteristics and requirements vary, many operating parameters of the implantable device relating to arrhythmia detection and stimulation delivery are programmable to provide individually tailored device performance. The determined sensing and stimulation values are used to program operating parameters of the implantable device.
A device often used in the implantation process to test and evaluate the lead integrity, sensing, and stimulation is referred to as a pacing system analyzer (PSA). The PSA is typically only used during an implantation procedure and operates as a pulse generator whose operational parameters are variable. The PSA functions as a surrogate for the implantable device to evaluate the performance of the lead(s) themselves, sensing, and pacing. The characteristics of the sensing and stimulation determined with the aid of the PSA then helps determine the programming of the implantable device.
The initial implantation as well as ongoing clinical care provided to patients with implantable cardiac device systems also generally includes the use of physician programmers. A programmer is a device that enables a clinician to telemetrically communicate with and control an implantable cardiac device such as a pacemaker or ICD. Implantable devices are generally capable of receiving telemetric signals from a programmer to induce the device to set or change a variety of operational parameters of the device related to the therapy provided by the device as well as to select among the physiological parameters that the device monitors and records. As mentioned, these parameters are typically programmed into the device specifically for an individual patient. Data determined following fixation of the lead(s) and with use of a PSA generally is used to determine appropriate programming for the individual patient.
As patient condition can vary over time and improved operating algorithms become available, the parameters are also often desirably changed following the initial implantation to adjust the therapy provided and/or the physiological parameters monitored in order to provide the attending clinician with different information or to adapt the therapy to a more efficacious regimen. It is highly desirable to set these parameters without the expense and health risks to the patient of additional invasive procedures and programmers enable the attending clinician to perform these tasks in a non-invasive, telemetric manner after implantation with the insight of information provided from internal measurements provided by the device itself.
Implantable devices generally monitor and record a variety of internal physiological parameters of the patient and are often provided with a telemetry system to telemetrically transmit those measured and recorded parameters outside the patient's body to a programmer. The implantable devices can also transmit to the programmer data related to present device status, such as programmed operational parameters, battery capacity state, therapy provided and cardiac conditions observed, etc. A clinician can then review the data via the programmer and make any indicated changes in the patient's therapy.
Accordingly, programmers typically include a display to visually present alphanumeric and graphical information relating to device performance and patient condition as well as user input devices to facilitate data entry and control inputs to be provided by a clinician to control device operation telemetrically. As implantable devices are typically battery powered, thus having limited electrical power capacity and, as telemetric communication can be a relatively major source of battery depletion, programmers often include a movable wand with an antenna that is placed on the patient overlying the implanted device to facilitate reception and transmission of signals to/from the implantable device. The wand is placed over the implanted device to be proximate the device to thereby reduce the power required for transceiving and to limit RF interference with or by other nearby devices.
Programmers are particularly useful during the implantation process as the telemetric feedback from the device to the programmer can confirm integrity of the connections of leads to the implantable device after the leads are attached or, conversely, indicate faulty connections thereof. The implantable device can also telemetrically indicate its operational status to the programmer and it will be understood by one of skill in the art that correct device operation is preferably confirmed before closure of surgical incisions.
Both the programmers and PSAs previously described are typically used during an implantation procedure. The combination of these and other medical equipment as well as the number of attending personnel used in a typical implantation procedure can result in a surgery room that is relatively crowded with equipment that is often inconvenient to use due to the crowding and limited space.
From the foregoing, it will be appreciated that there is a need for medical devices offering the functionality of both current PSAs and programmers, but with increased convenience of use. It would be advantageous to provide this functionality while reducing the number of separate pieces of equipment.

Combined programming wand and PSA for pacemaker and ICD programmer system


An automotive shaft assembly is provided including a first barshaft having a first connection end and a second barshaft having a second connection end. A connection tube rotationally engages the first connection to the second connection end and includes a shear diameter configured to experience shear failure in the presence of an overload torque such that the first connection end is rotationally disengaged the said second connection end.

Connection shafts and drive units are common components in vehicles. The drive unit typically has an output shaft or an input shaft for receiving a joint. Typically, the drive unit is an axle, transfer case, transmission, power take-off unit or other torque device, all of which are common components in automotive vehicles. Typically, one or more joints are assembled to the shaft to form a propeller or drive shaft assembly. It is the propeller shaft assembly which is connected, for instance, at one end to the output shaft of a transmission and, at the other end, to the input shaft of a differential. The shaft is solid or tubular with ends adapted to attach the shaft to an inner race of the joint thereby allowing an outer race connection to a drive unit. The inner race of the joint is typically press-fit, splined, or pinned to the shaft making the outer race of the joint available to be bolted or press-fit to a hub connector, flange or stubshaft of the particular drive unit. At the other end of the propeller shaft, the same typical or traditional connection is made to a second drive unit when connecting the shaft between the two drive units. Optionally, the joint may be coupled to a shaft for torque transfer utilizing a direct torque flow connection.
In many off road vehicle environments considerable torque is applied through both the various shafts as well as their respective joints. All Terrain Vehicles and Utility Vehicles often have drivelines that are subject to unusually high torque values during unusual or extreme events. These events often arise when the vehicle lands after jumping off irregular terrain. The impact upon landing generates considerable torque in the drivelines. This torque is typically subsequently imparted into the individual components of the constant velocity joint. When the torque imparted into the CV joint components exceeds design considerations, the components can experience failure. A common design response to these extreme conditions has been to increase the size of the CV joint components in order to increase their maximum torque weathering capacity.
In addition to the extreme conditions, designers are utilizing higher capacity engines in vehicle designs. These higher capacity engines increase the power passed through the drivelines and therefore increase the overload torques experienced during extreme conditions. Existing methods of compensation require continued upsizing of the drivelines in order to accommodate the increased power and resulting increased overload torques. Continued upsizing, however, results in increases in mass of the driveline components with subsequent mass increases to the vehicle itself. Upsizing, therefore, poses undesirable restrictions on vehicle designers.
It would be advantageous to have a torque overload protection feature incorporated into the driveline such that component upsizing, and its negative consequences, could be avoided or minimized.


Methods and apparatuses for determining a position of a mobile satellite positioning system (SPS) receiver which is coupled to a communication receiver or transceiver. In one exemplary method, a change in a communication signal received by the communication receiver is determined. A parameter, based on the change, is determined, and SPS signals from SPS satellites are processed according to the parameter. According to further details of this method, the change involves the fluctuation of the level of the communication signal and the parameter is a motion information which specifies a frequency range for searching for SPS signals in the process of acquiring the SPS signals from SPS satellites. In an alternative embodiment the change in the communication signal is a change in the transmitted signal in response to power control commands. Apparatuses, such as a mobile communication system which includes an SPS receiver and a communication receiver, are also described.

It is known that the motion of mobile satellite position system (SPS) receivers (e.g. a Global Positioning System receiver), particularly while attempting to acquire SPS signals from an SPS satellite, will effect the position determination function of the SPS receiver. The faster the velocity of the mobile SPS receiver, the more time consuming is the acquisition/search process. Tracking (after acquisition) of SPS signals is also effected by faster velocities of the mobile SPS receiver. These problems are caused by Doppler effects from the motion of the SPS receiver, which are compounded by the motion of the orbiting SPS satellites which are moving at high velocities. Several techniques are known in the art for predicting the Doppler effects due to the motion of the SPS satellites. These techniques are particularly useful for stationary SPS receivers (which may be capable of moving). Such techniques are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,445,118 and 5,841,396; and PCT Publication No. WO 98/25157. These techniques usually assume that the SPS receiver is essentially stationary (e.g. fixed on the surface of the earth or moving slowly, such as the speed of a person walking). When the SPS receiver is moving in a car, the effective Doppler effect due to the rapid movement of the SPS receiver, may be considerably different than an estimated Doppler for a stationary SPS receiver. Thus, the techniques in the prior art, while normally helpful for many situations, may not be advantageous when the SPS receiver is moving at high velocities.

Method for determining a change in a communication signal and using this information to improve SPS signal reception and processing


A system for joining the end of a web of material (4) running off a first winding roll (17) with the beginning of a web on a new winding roll (1) interchanged with the first winding roll (17) on an unwinding machine comprising devices for cutting through the web (4) being wound off, for holding the end of the web so produced, and for pressing the end of the web against the periphery of an interchanged new winding roll (1), in order to produce an adhesive bond, has a splice element (6) which can be placed on the web being wound off (4), moved beyond the region of a full winding roll (1) and pressed against its periphery. The splice element (6) contains a web cutting element (15) and a holding element (16) which, when placed in contact with the web being wound off (4), is located behind the web-cutting element (15) in the direction of motion of the web.

In unwinding machines for winding rolls of webs of material, e.g. paper or cardboard webs, splice devices are known which join the end of a web of material running off towards a processing machine with the web beginning of a new roll. If the machine comprises stationary fastening devices for the winding rolls, then in stationary processing machines the roll remnant is cut off, the separated end of the running off web is held tight and, after the roll remnant has been removed and a new winding roll has been inserted, it is fastened, e.g. glued, to the new roll.
For the automation of the splice process, the German Pat. No. 14 40 107 proposes a generic device comprising a storage device for storing the material of the running web of material, a cutting device for the separation of the running web and between the cutting device and the storage device a driven suction roller which receives a part of the stored supply of web material bringing it in pressure contact with the outer circumference of a new roll, in order to achieve an adhesive bond with the initial portion of the new roll provided with an adhesive strip.
The suction roller is mounted on a swivel arm whose fulcrum is located above the maximum outer diameter of the new roll and which extends substantially horizontally when in the rest position. The construction of the therein described device is expensive because for the clamping of the running web, the movements of the storage device, the rotating and swinging motions of the suction roller, for the cutting device and for turning on the suction air, separate drives are required for each of these operations. Besides, the cutting blade has to be separately removable from its cutting position, since it is in the path of the running web during its unwinding. These necessary drives require an expensive control unit. Furthermore, this device is less suitable for use in drum-type unwinding machines arranged immediately upstream of roll-cutting and winding machines.


Provided is a multimedia data generation method which includes allocating one or more pieces of image object information to each of a plurality of nodes, generating a scene tree by linking nodes according to correlation between the object information allocated to each node, and adding an event execution level attribute to each node, wherein the event execution level attribute determines whether to execute an event by using the image object information allocated to each node, thereby generating multimedia data in which the added event execution level attribute is represented with a scene description language and recorded on an area of a scene descriptor.

1. Field of the Invention
Apparatuses and methods consistent with the present invention relate to generating multimedia data and reconstructing multimedia data, and more particularly, to generating multimedia data by differentially adding a level to an object according to a calculation processing capacity of a terminal required so as to execute an event of the object constructing an image, and reconstructing the multimedia data by determining whether to execute an event according to an object level.
2. Description of the Related Art
Since an object-based encoding/decoding method such as Moving Picture Experts Group 4 (MPEG 4) encodes objects such as images, sounds, and the like which are classified accordingly, it is possible to increase transmittance of various multimedia data, and to compress/reconstruct various forms of multimedia data with a low bit rate. Also, the object-based encoding/decoding method has substance-based bidirection by which information including the objects such as image, sounds, and the like can be edited according to necessity in a decoding procedure.
Object-oriented multimedia contents, that are multimedia data contents encoded to a plurality of object units, combine object components such as images or sounds by a link while treating the respective object components as an independent component, thereby enabling users to freely construct the images or sounds within a specific control range and reproduce the images or sounds.
Scene description information is information that enables various kinds of Audio Visual (AV) objects such as images, sounds, text, and the like to be uniformly treated. Temporal and spatial correlation between the respective objects, or attributes of the respective objects constructing a scene by the scene description information are described in the scene description information. A multimedia data format has a scene description area in which a scene description is described, and a payload area in which objects are described.
FIG. 1 illustrates examples of object-oriented multimedia 110 and a scene tree 120.
Referring to FIG. 1, the examples of the object-oriented multimedia 110 include an image or sound 112, a subtitle 114, and a related article 116, which are determined as differential objects.
The scene tree 120 indicates a link relationship such as correlation between independent objects. A node 122 corresponding to an object only having an image or sound, a node 124 corresponding to an image or sound object and a subtitle object related to the image or sound object, and a node 126 corresponding to an image or sound object, a subtitle object related to the image or sound object, and a related article object, are linked as an upper node or lower node, according to the correlation.
FIG. 2 is a diagram illustrating a scene tree 220 generated by decoding the scene tree 120 of FIG. 1, according to a conventional technology. When a scene tree analyzer decodes the scene tree 120, the scene tree 120 is decoded to a scene tree as the scene tree 220.
Object-oriented multimedia includes basic data such as the image or sound 112, as a basic level object, and additional data, such as the subtitle 114 or the related article 116, which is related to the basic data, as an enhanced level object. However, it is not possible to distinguish the basic level object from the enhanced level object in the scene tree 220 decoded using a conventional method, and thus, a terminal has to manually decode, analyze, and reproduce all available data, while equally treating each node.
However, due to scene description complexity, it is often difficult to smoothly output a decoded scene or to process a user event according to a data processing capacity or reproduction capacity of a terminal by using a conventional method of encoding/decoding a scene descriptor.
In order to separately transmit a scene descriptor according to a terminal, a description formula of the scene descriptor has to be defined in a transmission end of the scene descriptor. Thus, a protocol related to the scene descriptor is required according to a transmission medium.
Also, since distinguishing a basic profile (AV data) from an enhanced profile (additional data) in Digital Multimedia Broadcasting (DMB) is not defined in Binary Image Format for Scenes (BIFS), the basic profile and the enhanced profile cannot be pre-distinguished in a Transport Stream (TS) transmission end, thereby causing problems.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Method and apparatus for generating multimedia data having decoding level, and method and apparatus for reconstructing multimedia data by using the decoding level


A computer system has a processing unit with suspend/resume capability, a memory, and a hard disk drive. In response to a first command from the processor, the hard disk drive sends its status to the processor and the processor stores it in the memory. In response to a second command from the processor, the hard disk accepts from the processor the status retrieved by the processor from the memory, and restores itself to this status. In an alternative embodiment, the hard disk drive response to the first command by storing its status on its own hard disk, and responds to the second command by restoring this status from the hard disk. In each case, an output line from the hard disk used to control a light emitting diode is also selectively used to create an interrupt to the processor which facilitates the systems entry into the suspend mode.

When the power is turned off in most pre-existing computer systems, the current status of the system is entirely lost. Consequently, when the power is turned back on, the particular application program to be run must usually be manually selected and loaded. Some pre-existing computers, however, have a feature known as suspend/resume capability, which permits the entire operational status of the processing unit to be saved when the power is turned off and to be restored when the power is turned back on, so that the user automatically finds himself in precisely the same application program and at precisely the same point on the same screen as when the power was turned off.
Commercially available hard disk drives can often be selectively programmed in different ways. For example, there are hard disk drives which can be programmed to a multiple mode setting which allows data transfer to occur in multiple sector blocks with only one interrupt at the end of the block. Also, there are drives which can be given a predetermined time value and, whenever this time period elapses without an access to the drive, the drive automatically stops its motor, and does not start the motor again until a further access occurs. Moreover, there are hard disk drives which can be configured for a specific number of tracks per disk, sectors per track and number of heads. In a commercially available drive, these features are initialized by sending commands/data to the drive, but the drive usually does not provide any way for the system to subsequently obtain from the drive an indication of how these features have been set. It is assumed that the operating system already knows how it has set these features.
In order to use a hard disk of this type with a system having suspend/resume capability, and since the electronic circuitry in the drive will forget its current status during the suspend operation because of the fact that power to the drive circuitry is turned off, it is important that the exact status of the hard disk drive prior to the suspend operation be stored before the suspend, and that this status be restored in the hard disk drive when operation subsequently resumes. Otherwise, the hard disk drive will operate differently after the suspend operation than it did before the suspend operation, which in turn may cause the application program to operate differently and/or improperly, which would obviously defeat the entire purpose of the suspend/resume capability.
Consequently, it is important for the hardware of a computer system (including the firmware in read only memory) to be designed so that it maintains externally of the hard disk drive a record of the specific settings to which the drive has been programmed. Thus, in a traditional system of the IBM compatible type, the firmware program commonly referred to as the basic input/output system (BIOS) would maintain this external record of the disk settings. So long as the operating system communicated with the disk drive only through the routines of the BIOS, the BIOS could maintain this record with no difficulty whatsoever. However, there are commercially available operating systems such as OS/2 and UNIX, which bypass the BIOS routines and directly set perimeters in the hard disk drive. When the BIOS is bypassed, it obviously cannot maintain an accurate record of the specific settings programmed in the hard disk drive. Therefore, if such a system is to be placed in suspend mode at a point in time where a program such as OS/2 or UNIX has been running, the firmware routines which guide the system into suspend mode will not have an accurate record from the BIOS of the settings which have been programmed into the hard disk drive and, as mentioned above, these routines cannot obtain the same information directly from the drive itself. Consequently, a system which implements suspend/resume capability and uses a conventional hard disk drive cannot guarantee proper operation with certain pre-existing programs such as OS/2 and UNIX. On the other hand, it is desirably to avoid the design of a new hard disk drive which would permit proper operation of OS/2 and UNIX in a system with suspend/resume capability, but which is incompatible with existing interface and cabling standards.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a method and apparatus facilitating use of a hard disk drive in a computer system with suspend/resume capability so as to maintain compatibility with pre-existing programs, while simultaneously maintaining compatibility with existing interface and cabling standards.
It is a further object of the present invention to provide such a system in which the disk drive facilitates saving and restoring of its current status.
It is a further object of the invention to provide such an apparatus which involves little or no redesign of the circuitry of a hard disk drive and associated cabling, so that the disk drive has a cost comparable to that of pre-existing drives.

Method and apparatus facilitating use of a hard disk drive in a computer system having suspend/resume capability


Particular embodiments provide a virtual responder that can be contacted by any number of senders. When a sender wants to perform a measurement test with a real responder, the sender sends a control message to a virtual responder. The virtual responder is configured to determine a real responder based on real responder selection metrics. The virtual responder may poll the real responders at certain times to receive the real responder selection metrics. The virtual responder then selects a real responder from a plurality of real responders based on the real responder's selection metrics. The virtual responder then sends contact information for the selected real responder to the sender device. This allows the sender device to contact the selected real responder to perform the measurement test with a real responder.

Some network applications, such as a virtual private network (VPN) application, voice over Internet protocol (VoIP) applications, streaming video, etc., may experience packet delay and/or jitter. An Internet service provider (ISP) may provide service-level agreements (SLAs) to a client. The service level agreements specify a certain guaranteed level of service. Packet delay and/or jitter may affect the network performance and thus the SLAs. The ISP needs a way to measure the network performance to ensure that the client is receiving the level of service that was agreed upon in the service-level agreement.

Virtual responder for the auto-discovery of a real responder in a network performance test


According to one embodiment, a display device includes a controller. The controller is configured to control voltages between the common electrode and pixel electrodes in first periods included in one frame period and control an operation of a light source in second periods included in the one frame period. The controller controls, in a first first period of the first periods included in the one frame period, the voltages between the common electrode and the pixel electrodes to write, following an immediately preceding one frame period, a video component of a same color as a color of a video component written by applying voltages between the common electrode and the pixel electrodes in a last first period of the first periods included in the immediately preceding one frame period.

In recent years, there has been known a display device that includes a light source, a pair of substrates including pixel electrodes and a common electrode, and a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal layer disposed between the substrates. For example, the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal layer contains a streaky polymer and liquid crystal molecules.
In the polymer-dispersed liquid crystal layer, it is possible to control a tilt of an optical axis of the liquid crystal molecules with respect to an optical axis of the polymer by rotating the liquid crystal molecules by an electric field between each pixel electrode and the common electrode. This makes it possible to control, for each pixel, a degree of scattering of light from the light source and to display an arbitrary video (image) on the display device.
In a display device including a polymer-dispersed liquid crystal layer, display quality is required to be further improved.


A device to remove a metal servo horn in an efficient way by utilizing the lifting force to separate servo horn from a servo output shaft when screw is rotated counter-clockwise and hits against the concave of lower surface of upper front plate of the device. Clamping force provided by two fastening members combines the device and servo horn into one integrated unit to avoid the distortion of open end of the device when lifting force is greater than rigidity of the device. When a lifting force for removing the integrated unit is applied in direction opposite to installing direction of servo horn, it overcomes the friction between the inner splines of servo horn and the outer splines of servo output shaft then separates both splines. The removal of the servo horn from the servo output shaft is achieved.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the removal of servo horns used in radio control models, and more particularly to a device for the removal of machining parts coupled by spline shafts such as servos with servo horns.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 shows the joining structure of a conventional servo 10 and its servo horn 11. The servo horn 11 has an extended arm with an inner spline 111 inside of the connecting boss and an opening 112 in the center of the inner spline 111. An outer spline shaft 12 is an extended integration of a shaft portion 121 with the outer spline 122 to match the inner spline 111. A screw 13 is tightened into a threaded hole 123 to secure the servo horn 11 to the outer spline shaft 12. Then servo horn 11 is engaged to the outer spline shaft 12 securely.
The output torque of the servo 10 is carried out by the engagement of the outer spline shaft 12 and the servo horn 11. The outer spline shaft 12 and the servo horn 11 are normally made of metal to obtain the maximum strength of the engagement and also improve the output torque. However, the requirement of tight-fit of spline coupling also makes it hard to separate the servo horn 11 and the outer spline shaft 12.

Removal tool for servo horn with spline-shaft coupling


A metallic, reusable mold with one or more wells. The mold is kept within a cryostat at low temperature. The mold is removed from the cryostat and a tissue specimen is placed into a well within the mold. An embedding medium is added to the well around the tissue specimen. A pre-chilled chuck is then placed against the well opening. The mold with tissue specimen, embedding medium and chuck are returned to the cryostat and the specimen is frozen into a block. The mold and contents are removed and hot water poured against the mold releasing the block with attached chuck from the well. The chuck with attached block is then available for sectioning or other processing.

This invention relates generally to the preparation of tissue specimens, and in particular to forming and freezing tissue specimens while preserving a desired orientation of the specimen.
Various disease processes, particularly tumors, require a histologic diagnosis. Preparation of tissue specimens for rapid histological examination requires the preservation of the integrity and spatial positioning of the tissue specimen. Tissue integrity and spatial positioning relative to the eventual cutting plane of a microtome are important for histological evaluation of the appropriate areas and their relationship to margins and other structures. If the relevant areas of the tissue do not lie on the same plane, then several sections of the tissue must be taken and made into separate slides for evaluation. Each of these different slides will have a different part of the original tissue sample and will need to be separately evaluated by the pathologist. Pathologic examination can be significantly improved and the cost reduced if a single slide of the tissue can include all of the relevant areas that need evaluation in the biopsy including the abnormal tissue and the margins.
Biopsy, or surgical removal of a tissue specimen for histologic examination, is frequently employed in order to establish a precise diagnosis. When a lesion is known or suspected to be malignant, the entire mass is typically excised, if possible, and a rapid examination technique is often employed to determine tumor relationship to margins. In some circumstances to be effective, the technique of tumor margin surface area examination must include microscopic examination of the entire surface margin of the excised specimen. Moreover, the anatomical orientation of the tissue must be maintained throughout the procedure so that the surgeon may be directed back to a specific area of the biopsy site to excise additional tissue until histologic examination indicates that only healthy cells remain. Frozen section examination requires that the tissue first be prosected and oriented, hard frozen, and then sliced into extremely thin sections for microscopic examination.
In order to speed the examination process, the specimen must be quickly frozen to a predetermined temperature, mounted on a microtome chuck which will permit the frozen tissue to be thin sliced in a cryostat/microtome. The invention allows more precise orientation of larger, non-planar specimens, faster than current methods.
Prior art methods for freezing tissue with a desired orientation, include direct placement of the tissue sample on a cryostat chuck, placement of a freezing gel on the tissue sample, and using the cryostat anvil to apply a freezing temperature to the tissue sample. Another method is the use of a disposable plastic mold. The tissue and an aqueous solution are placed in a plastic mold. The mold and contents are then frozen within a cryostat. In both prior art methods, it is difficult to keep the tissue sample in a desired orientation. Furthermore, the plastic mold provides some heat insulation and will delay the specimen freezing process.
The apparatus and method of the present invention are specifically designed to quickly form and freeze a tissue specimen into a desired frozen block, while preserving a desired orientation of the specimen.


Systems and methods associated with costs of a selected objective are disclosed. One embodiment of a system may comprise a constraint evaluator that evaluates a value set associated with a plurality of objectives to determine if a non-selected objective has violated at least one constraint. The system may further comprise a cost function configurable to evaluate a cost associated with the value set at a first cost range if the value set violates the at least one constraint associated with the non-selected objective, and to evaluate a cost associated with the value set at a second cost range associated with the selected objective if the value set does not violate the at least one constraint associated with the non-selected objective, such that the second cost range is different from the first cost range.

Genetic algorithms are application technologies inspired by mechanisms of inheritance and evolution of living things. In the evolution of living things, genomic changes like crossovers of chromosomes and mutations of genes can occur when new individuals (children) are born from old individuals (parents). In a genetic algorithm, a candidate of a solution to a problem is represented as a data structure, referred to as a chromosome. The data structure represents a plurality of variables or bits referred to as genes. A plurality of n-bit parent chromosomes can be generated and assigned a fitness based on an evaluation of a fitness function. In certain applications, fitness corresponds to a cost associated with a chromosome with a lower cost being more fit than chromosomes with higher costs. Chromosomes with lower costs can be selected for generating new children chromosomes. Children chromosomes are generated through a process of crossover and mutation of parent chromosomes to produce new child chromosomes. Child chromosomes with lower costs or better fitness replace members of the population with higher costs or less fit chromosomes to assure evolutionary advance to an optimal solution.
In the context of circuit optimization, multiple objectives may need to be optimized. Therefore, a multi-objective cost function is employed to combine objectives to produce an associated cost for a given circuit solution. However, if certain constraints associated with a given objective override other constraints associated with other objectives, the multi-objective cost function is not suitable, since weighting coefficients associated with one constraint can override weighting coefficients of other constraints effectively eliminating objectives from the cost function.

Systems and methods for determining costs associated with a selected objective

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A contiguous emergency exit path lighting system that includes the peripheral lighting of a hollow doorframe at an egress point using a set of electroluminescent illuminators integrally formed within or upon the doorframe, an electrical bypass doorframe to reroute wiring around doorways that are not points of egress, electroluminescent illuminator strips mountable on walls, floors, and other pathway surfaces, and flush mount exit signage on the egress door to enhance visibility in high smoke and high heat applications. An integrally formed U-shaped channel within the egress doorframe secures a transparent or translucent raceway tube that encloses the electroluminescent strips.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to emergency lighting, typically for the interior of buildings and large vehicles, and specifically for lighting around and directed to points of egress. More specifically, the invention relates to a contiguous emergency exit path lighting system that includes the lighting of a hollow doorframe at an egress point, an electrical bypass doorframe for doorways that are not points of egress, and flush mount exit signage to enhance visibility in high smoke and high heat applications.
2. Description of Related Art
There continually exists a need to provide illuminated egress routes for people who do not know the way, or for those in a panic situation who fail to recognize the closest and most efficient exit pathway. Many systems exist to provide guidance for persons in buildings, vehicles, or other closed spaces to escape routes during emergencies or non-emergency situations. To safely evacuate the occupants, the corridors are usually provided with illuminated EXIT signs that are placed in separate locations above the exit doors. Illuminated EXIT signs are required by law in most public buildings and in vehicles used for public transport. Conventional signs are usually placed above doors and other points of egress to ensure visibility and protect from damage. However, in many structures, the exit indicators may be obscured by smoke or heated air from fire. Since smoke and heated air rise, an EXIT sign above an egress point is more likely to be obscured than one closer to the floor. In fact, it is common in modern jet aircraft to have an emergency low-level lighting system on the floorboards usually consisting of a plastic tube with miniature incandescent lamps retained within the tube at intervals for directing traffic to exit routes.
Generally, incandescent or fluorescent lighting in buildings routinely performs the illumination of areas of passage for safety routes. However, these conventional illumination technologies require fragile bulbs, and provide for non-uniform illumination and excess heat. Extremely thin electroluminescent or photo-luminescent strips or panels have recently been introduced as lighting elements for exits, capable of following the curvature of the walls or floorboards to indicate the point of egress. The electroluminescent strips provide for less power consumption and are more robust than the incandescent or fluorescent lighting fixtures.
The more visible the point of egress becomes during an emergency, the more likely it is that people will utilize the exit pathway during this time of need. Illuminating with directional lighting strips on walls and floorboards is becoming accepted in the art, and expected by the public. In U.S. Pat. No. 6,472,994 issued to Tator on Oct. 29, 2002, entitled "EMERGENCY GUIDANCE SYSTEM," a line of illuminated, electrically powered exit indicators is mounted on a tape-like adhesive surface, which can be attachable to walls to direct traffic flow toward the point of egress. However, the light strips do not interconnect with the EXIT signs located on or about the doorway, nor do they allow for bypassing doorways that are not points of egress.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,058,635 issued to Morris on May 9, 2000, entitled "DOOR FRAME WITH INTEGRATED EXIT SIGNAGE," a metal door frame is constructed with three apertures, one on the overhead lintel and one on each of the two side panels for EXIT signs. The doorframe construction includes a hollow, inverted U-shaped frame member to accommodate electrical wiring. The EXIT signs are integrated through the electrical wiring and made to accommodate incandescent bulbs. They are not made to interconnect with electroluminescence lighting strips. Nor do the EXIT signs illuminate the complete doorframe periphery.
To date, doorframe manufacturers have not provided any means to accommodate the interconnection of strip lighting on walls and floorboards with the illumination of the egress point, where the illuminators are integral within a doorframe. A doorframe illuminated about its periphery with associated EXIT signs would provide a more visible exit pathway during times of emergency, panic, or any other time when vision can be obscured. Moreover, the doorframe with integral illuminators would be easier to install, and provide a more aesthetically pleasing appearance.
Bearing in mind the problems and deficiencies of the prior art, it is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an emergency path lighting system for illuminating a pathway to a point of egress that includes illuminating the periphery of a doorframe at the point of egress.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a doorframe with integrally formed electroluminescent illuminators to outline available points of egress.
A further object of the invention is to provide a lighting system that continues to illuminate a pathway to points of egress when the pathway crosses doorways that are not points of egress.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide an illuminated exit sign built into an exit door for low level visibility during times of smoke or high heat conditions.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.

Hollow doorframe including electroluminescent illumination system


An oil free compressor uses special structure to interface the engine and compressor. Special quieting structure is also disclosed, including an upward exhaust mechanism, to maintain quiet operation.

Air compressors, and specifically high powered air compressors, have well-deserved reputations as oily, dirty and noisy devices. Such compressors often produce large quantities of waste oil in many locations, including in the stream of air that is output from the unit. They have been very loud when operating.
An oil-free output tip for such a compressor has been developed. This device produces an oil-free output; however, this oil-free tip has special requirements. The oil-free tip often requires a relatively high rpm from the driving prime mover. Engines which drive conventional compressor tips often run at 1800 to 2100 rpm. One example of such an engine is made by Kobelko. However, the oil-free tips have often required 3000 or 4000 rpm.
Previous attempts to change the rotational speed of these engines using gears have met with problems. Unexpectedly, many of these attempts at gearing simply did not work, and the inventors found many problems that existed in this gearing. Those problems, and their solutions, are among the objects of the present invention.
Many such compressors, moreover use very loud, noisy prime movers. The inventors also found that the users of these compressors do not want a very noisy or dirty compressor.
Commercial scale compressors of this type operate at extremely high energy levels. The inventors found that any variation in the output of the motor causes extremely difficult problems with balancing and tuning.
It is an object of the present invention to avoid the above-described problems, by providing an oil-free compressor which includes special noise and vibration reducing characteristics.

Oil-free compressor using special gearing assembly between engine and compressor


In an electrode for a plasma arc torch, an electrode member (1) composed of either one of homologous elements of hafnium, zirconium or titanium, or a mixed material of these elements is embedded into a front end portion of an electrode body (1a) and brazed and joined thereto by a brazing material, the electrode is characterized in that the electrode member and the electrode body are brazed by a brazing material (14a) including no copper component.

A plasma arc torch is generally utilized for metal workings including cutting, welding, surface treating, dissolving and annealing Workings. As such plasma arc torch, one for the metal cutting working generally has a structure, for example, shown in FIG. 1.
In FIG. 1, reference numeral 13 denotes a torch body, reference numeral 1a is an electrode holder supported by the torch body 13, and reference numeral 1 is an electrode member embedded in and and joined to the electrode holder 1a. Reference numeral 2 is a nozzle supported by the torch body 13 through a nozzle supporting member 3 so as to surround the electrode member 1 and be positioned on a front end side of the electrode member 1, reference numeral 4 is a nozzle cap supported by the torch body 13, surrounding the nozzle 2 except the front end portion thereof and having a front end secured to the front end portion of the nozzle 2, and reference numeral 5 is a nozzle protecting cap supported by the torch body 13 and surrounding the outer side of the nozzle cap 4.
A plasma gas passage 6 is formed to a peripheral portion of the electrode member 1 so as to communicate with the nozzle 2 from this peripheral portion, and a cooling water passage 7 is further formed between the nozzle 2 and the nozzle cap 4. Still furthermore, a secondary gas passage 8 is formed between the nozzle cap 4 and the nozzle protecting cap 5 so as to open to the front end side of the nozzle 2.
The nozzle protecting cap 5 is in an electrically insulated from the nozzle cap 4.
The electrode body 1a is formed with a cooling water chamber 9 for cooling the electrode member 1, and the cooling water chamber 9 communicates with the cooling water passage 7. The cooling water chamber 9 is connected to a cooling water flow-in passage 10 and the cooling water passage 7 is connected to a cooling water flow-out passage 10a. On the other hand, a plasma gas flow-in passage 11 is connected to the plasma gas passage 6 and a secondary gas flow-in passage 12 is also connected to the secondary gas passage 8.
The torch body 13 serves to support the respective members and portions mentioned above and is electrically insulated from the electrode member 1 and the nozzle 2, and the nozzle protecting cap 5 is screw engaged with the torch body 13.
The electrode member 1 used for such plasma arc torch is formed of, in consideration of durability under a high temperature condition, a heat resistant material of homologous element such as hafnium (Hf), zirconium (Zr), titanium (Ti), etc., and the electrode member 1 is joined to the electrode body 1a formed of copper (Cu) by means of brazing.
The joining of the electrode member 1 to the electrode body 1a will be performed, by a method other than the brazing, as disclosed in the Japanese Patent Publication No. HEI 5-70250 teaching a technique that a sleeve made of such as silver is inserted into the electrode body 1a and the electrode member 1 is then inserted into the sleeve and fixed thereto. In this structure, however, surfaces to be joined of both the electrode member 1 and electrode body 1a have irregularity, which will constitute heat conduction resistance, thus being inconvenient.
In order to obviate this defect, when the electrode member 1 and the electrode body 1a are joined by means of brazing, the irregular surfaces are embedded with a brazing material, providing an excellent heat conduction performance therebetween and providing an improved cooling effect even if the electrode member 1 is formed of hafnium having a bad heat conduction property.
According to such fact, as mentioned above, the electrode member 1 is joined to the electrode body 1a by means of brazing and a silver (Ag) material is used as a brazing material including copper (Cu) of from several % to several tens % to lower a melting point thereof.
FIG. 2 shows a condition of a joined portion in a case where the hafnium electrode body 1 is the copper electrode body 1a by using a brazing material 14 formed of a silver material including copper of 30% (Ag+30%Cu), and a mixed crystal layer 15 formed of Hf as a material of the electrode member and Cu contained in the brazing material 14 (Hf-Cu mixed crystal layer) is formed to a boundary surface between the electrode member 1 and the brazing material 14.
The Hf-Cu mixed crystal layer 15 is formed of an extremely hard material having a large brittleness. For example, in the measurement of the inventors, such Hf-Cu mixed crystal layer 15 has a Vickers hardness of about 500-600, and on the other hand, the Hf electrode member 1 and the Ag brazing member 14 have Vickers hardness of about 200 and 100, respectively.
In a case where an arc generation/extinction is repeated by using the electrode member 1 in such joined condition, a crack 16 is caused at the front end portion of the contact boundary between the Hf of the electrode member 1 and the Hf-Cu mixed crystal layer.
As a main reason of such generation of crack, thermal stress due to rapid temperature increasing at the arc generation time will be considered. When such crack 16 is caused at the joined surface of the electrode member 1, this portion exhibits a lower cooling effect, and consumption of the electrode material at this portion will rapidly progress, which results in an extremely lowered durability as the electrode member for the plasma arc torch.
Further, although the above example is one using hafnium for the electrode member 1, it has been confirmed that, in a case where the electrode member 1 is formed of zirconium or titanium and joined by means of brazing member containing copper, a mixed crystal layer composed of the respective materials of the electrode member and the brazing member has been also formed to a boundary surface therebetween. Such mixed crystal layer has a large hardness and large brittleness as like in the Hf-Cu mixed crystal layer 15 as mentioned above.
The present invention was conceived in view of the above fact, and in consideration of the above problems, the basic reason therefor resides in that the copper mixed crystal layer having a large brittleness is formed to the portion contacting the electrode member, and accordingly, the present invention aims to provide an electrode for a plasma arc torch capable of extremely improving durability with no generation of crack to a peripheral portion of an electrode member even by repeatedly performing an arc generation/extinction process under a condition that no copper mixed crystal layer constituting a brittleness layer is formed between the electrode member and a brazing material.


A device for measuring near forward scatter caused by particulate matter in a fluid is disclosed. The device comprises, according to various embodiments, a transceiver and a reflector. The transceiver includes a light source and a detector. The reflector is positioned opposite the transceiver so that at least a portion of the fluid is present between the transceiver and the reflector. The reflector includes a front portion facing the transceiver. Optical energy from the light source incident upon the reflector is reflected towards the transceiver as a return beam of optical energy, wherein the detector senses primarily optical energy of the return beam that is scattered over a range of near forward angles by particulate matter in the fluid.

The present invention is directed generally to the measurement of certain optical properties of the interaction of light with particulate matter in a fluid.
Power generation plants and other industrial facilities may release particulate matter into the atmosphere, especially if the facilities burn coal or other fossil fuels. Particulate matter in the flue gases generated from the burning of coal tends to be mostly spherical, solidified droplets of a variety of sizes from the metallic components of the ash in the coal. Because the particulate matter degrades air quality and reduces visibility (haze) governmental regulations require some facilities to continuously control and monitor their particulate matter emissions. Particulate mass emission rates are reported in units of weight per time (tons/yr), and are determined from particulate mass loading measurements in wt/volume (grains/standard cubic foot) and a corresponding measure of stack gas flow rate in volume/time (standard cubic feet/hour). For example, Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) or state regulations require some sources to continuously monitor the mass loading of their particulate matter emissions to prove compliance with particulate emission limitations.
Although a number of techniques are available to measure the mass loading of particulate matter emissions directly, many are costly and incapable of reliable continuous operation under field conditions. Therefore, continuous indirect measurements of optical or other properties related to the mass loading are often used in association with a correlation coefficient or a transfer function that allows calculation and output of an equivalent particulate mass loading value. Recently, the EPA implemented Performance Specification 11 (40 C.F.R. § 60, Appendix B, PS-11) to define how a particulate monitor is to be tested, and the resulting performance that is required to "certify" a particulate monitor. Certification is a term designating that a specific monitor meets the relevant EPA performance requirements for that type of analyzer and can be used to report emissions for determination of the compliance status of a given emission source. PS-11 requires that properties of particulate matter measured by continuous techniques be correlated with, or converted to, particulate mass loading and compared to a reference method (40 C.F.R. § 60, Appendix A, RM 5 or 17, for example) measurement, or series of measurements. Reference method measurements for particulate mass loading use a manual stack sampling technique and are non-continuous measurements. Several different characteristics of the interaction of light with particulate matter can be measured and correlated with particulate density, including those discussed below.
Extinction is a measure of the quantity of optical energy absorbed or scattered by particulate matter. Extinction may be measured over many wavelengths of light, however, some extinction measurements, called opacity measurements, require light spanning the visible range (400 to 700 nm). Extinction measurements are dependent on variables other than mass loading, thus reducing the accuracy of an extinction measurement as a predictor of particulate mass loading. For example, extinction is dependent on particulate shape and size, with the strongest response (for a given mass loading) occurring when particulate diameter is comparable to the wavelength of the light source. Given constant particle size distribution, shape and specific gravity, the extinction response is closely correlated with mass loading. Extinction measurements may be unusable at very low particulate mass loadings as the extinction measurement becomes difficult to make with good accuracy. The specific gravity of the particulate matter itself also affects the correlation of the extinction measurement with particulate mass loading because the optical properties of the particulate is caused by the surface area of the particulates and not the material inside the particles.
FIG. 1 depicts a prior art device 100 for measuring extinction caused by particulate matter 128 in a fluid 116, which may be an exhaust stream in an exhaust stack 120. In the device 100, a light source 102 directs a forward light beam 112 through a beam splitter 106 and lens 108 toward a reflector 110. The reflector 110 receives the forward beam 112 and reflects a return beam 114 toward a detector 104 after reflecting the return beam 114 off of a beam splitter 106. The beams 112, 114 propagate across the fluid 116 through holes 130, 132 in the stack 120. A large portion of the optical energy present in the beams 112, 114 reaches the detector 104; however, some optical energy is absorbed or scattered by the particulate matter 128 present in the fluid 116. The difference between the optical energy emitted by the light source 102 and detected by the detector 104 with a clear path (no particulate in this case) and the optical energy received by the detector 104 with particulate present in the optical path indicates the extinction caused by the particulate, thereby providing an indication of the amount of the particulate 128 present in the fluid 116. Since the beam goes across the stack and back, these optical systems are also known as double-pass.
Scatter is a measure of the quantity of optical energy that is scattered by particulate matter, or reflected off the axis of the interrogating light beam. Devices for measuring scatter may direct a light beam across an exhaust stream and measure the quantity of light that is scattered at different angles away from the beam's expected propagation direction. Backscatter refers to scatter near 180 degrees away from the projected beam, and forward scatter refers to scatter near the same angle as the projected beam. Different types of scatter measurements detected at a variety of angles, light source wavelengths and beam widths display different degrees of dependence on particulate properties other than mass loading.
Backscatter, for example, measures optical energy reflected by particulate matter in a backward direction compared to the direction of the projected beam. Backscatter is somewhat less dependent on particulate size than extinction, but still responds most strongly to very small particles. Also, unlike extinction, backscatter provides a strong response when particulate mass loading is low. Like extinction, however, backscatter techniques are very sensitive to the size, and shape of the particulate. Backscatter is also sensitive to particulate color.
FIG. 2 depicts a prior art device 200 for measuring backscatter in the fluid 216. In the device 200, the light source 202 directs a forward beam 212 through a beam splitter 206 and lens 208 across the exhaust stack 220 through holes 230, 232. An absorbing device 218, i.e. an optically black material, positioned opposite the light source 202 prevents the forward beam 212 from being reflected back to the detector. Even though the forward beam 212 is not reflected by the absorbing device 218, optical energy from the forward beam 212 is still scattered back to the detector 204 by particulate 228 present in the fluid 216 after reflecting off of beam splitter 206. The amount of optical energy received by the detector 204 is indicative of the backscatter caused by the particulate, thereby providing an indicator of the quantity of the particulate 228 in the fluid 216.
Near angle forward scatter is a measurement of the optical energy that is scattered by particulate matter in small, near forward angles. Like backscatter, near forward scatter provides a strong response when particulate mass loading is low. Unlike extinction and backscatter, however, near forward scatter provides a strong response for relatively large particulates with diameters greater than 2 microns with a visible light source. In addition, near forward scatter techniques minimize the undesirable color, size, and shape dependencies of extinction and backscatter measurements.
Existing devices for measuring near forward scatter are often complicated, expensive, and difficult to calibrate and maintain. Some require beam steering as well as active optical equipment on both sides of the exhaust stream. Many are point sampling or close coupled extractive devices and hence introduce measurement errors in applications with significant particulate stratification. Existing devices are also unable to take advantage of the strengths of other known techniques, for example extinction and backscatter. Consequently, there exists a need for a simple, efficient way to measure near angle forward scatter. In addition, there exists a need for a technique to implement multiple measurement methods with a single device so that the correlation of a group of optical measurements with particulate density can be made more independent of the size, shape, and color of the particulate matter itself than can be obtained with a single measurement.