A compatibility score generator implementing a neural network is trained for assessing compatibility of items. Elements of a feature vector representing each item and of a compatibility data structure indicating items considered compatible are retrieved. The neural network is trained using training data corresponding to the items and indicating compatibility between pairs of items. The compatibility data structure is modified by removing indications that items of a pair of items are compatible. An encoding function generating encoded representations for the items based on the compatibility data structure is evaluated. Encoded representations are provided to a decoder that learns a likelihood that the indication had been removed when modified. The neural network and the decoder are optimized based on a loss function that reflects the decoder's ability to correctly determine whether the indication had been removed. The encoded representations generate a compatibility score for at least two items of interest.

Compatibility is a property that measures how well two items go together. The concept of compatibility is often confounded with that of similarity, although the two concepts are distinguishable. For example, two items might be considered similar because they have the same shape and color, but the items may not necessarily be compatible. Compatibility may be regarded as more subjective in nature, because whether or not two items are considered compatible can depend heavily on the observer and the context.
As an example, assessing fashion compatibility typically refers to the task of determining whether a set of fashion items go well together. In its ideal form, it involves understanding the visual styles of garments, being cognizant of social and cultural attitudes, and ensuring that when fashion items are worn together that the resulting "outfit" is aesthetically pleasing. This task is fundamental to a variety of industry applications such as personalized fashion design, outfit compilation, wardrobe creation, and fashion trend forecasting. That said, the task is also complex since it depends on subjective notions of style, context, and trend—properties that often vary from one individual to another, and that can evolve over time.

Systems and methods for assessing item compatibility


A system for multidirectional electromagnetic wave irradiation of an object to be processed has at least one of a side face irradiation prism system capable of irradiating a top face and one, two or more side faces of the object, and a bottom face irradiation prism system capable of irradiating a bottom face of the object. The side face irradiation prism system has an optical path direction changing prism placed so that each of the optical paths through which electromagnetic waves entering the optical path from above travel extends via the optical path direction changing prism to reach the side face of the object, without being obstructed. In this way, a laser machining apparatus or the like can be implemented which can simultaneously irradiate the faces of the object to be processed with electromagnetic waves with accuracy without moving the object to be processed.

The need sometimes arises for irradiating an object to be processed with electromagnetic waves in many directions for the purpose of surface working or the like in various industrial fields.
To know the state of filing of applications for patent or the like aimed at simultaneous electromagnetic wave irradiation in many directions, a survey by search in Japan Patent Office Industrial Property Digital Library has been tried as follows.
Menu: Publication text search
Search formula: (six faces+multiple face)*irradiation*simultaneous*working*(electromagnetic wave+light)
Data: Published patent application
Search date: Jan. 4, 2005
Number of hits: 3
In the results of these surveys, those shown as patent documents 1 and 3 below relate to a technique of simultaneously working in a plurality of working regions on one plane, and the one shown as patent document 2 is a technique of attaching shielding members over a multiplicity of surfaces of an object to be processed and simultaneously or successively irradiating the multiplicity of surfaces with a beam.
[Patent document 1]: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 10-323785, Laser machining apparatus
[Patent document 2]: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 08-318387, Method of processing by energy beam and processing apparatus
[Patent document 3]: Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 05-008072, Laser machining method

Multidirectional electromagnetic wave irradiation system of workpiece and laser material processing system employing it


The present invention relates to a polishing composition more suitable for use in polishing synthetic resin products or metal products. The polishing composition includes a reaction product produced by a reaction between a polyalkylene oxide and a compound having a functional group having reactivity with a hydroxyl group, aluminum oxide, a polishing accelerator including at least one salt selected from the group consisting of a metal salt of an inorganic acid or organic acid and an ammonium salt of an inorganic acid or organic acid, and water.

The present invention relates to a polishing composition to be used for polishing synthetic resin products, metal products, and the like.
A polishing composition disclosed in Japanese Laid-Open Patent Publication No. 7-11239 contains water, aluminum oxide, and a polishing accelerator including at least two selected from aluminum nitrate, glycol, and an alumina sol. The polishing composition is used for polishing, for example, synthetic resin products such as a plastic lens or metal products such as a disk substrate.
Increase of the rate at which an object is polished by a polishing composition, that is, the polishing rate of a polishing composition for an object, is always demanded for a polishing composition. The polishing rate of a polishing composition can generally be increased by increasing the amount of an abrasive or a polishing accelerator contained in the polishing composition. However, an increase in the amount of an abrasive causes an increase in cost and an excessive increase in viscosity of the polishing composition. If the viscosity of the polishing composition is excessively high, the handling properties and antifoaming properties of the polishing composition are reduced. Moreover, a polishing composition with excessively high viscosity causes the adherence of solids in the polishing composition on the inner wall of a polishing machine or the surface during polishing, and makes it difficult to stabilize the supply of the polishing composition to the polishing machine. On the other hand, an increase in the amount of a polishing accelerator makes the operator's hands rough, and causes corrosion of the polishing machine.
In the polishing composition disclosed in the above publication, for example, an increase in the amount of aluminum oxide or glycol such as propylene glycol and ethylene glycol allows a certain increase in the polishing rate of the polishing composition. However, the increase in the polishing rate by the increase in the amount of glycol or aluminum oxide cannot fully compensate negative effects caused by the increase in the amount of glycol or aluminum oxide.


A plastic lens has a flange provided with a reflecting plane, so that its inclination upon assembling can be detected and adjusted efficiently and accurately. This plastic lens has the flange at an outer periphery of an optically functioning portion. A surface of the flange surrounding the optically functioning portion is a reflecting plane perpendicular to an optical axis of the optically functioning portion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a plastic lens suitably used for an optical pickup and the like.
2. Related Background Art
Lenses which are made of plastics have conventionally been used, because they are easy to made and have some other useful reasons. In general, as shown in FIG. 8, such a plastic lens 101 has a brim-shaped flange 103 formed around an optically functioning portion 102. The flange 103 is mainly utilized as an attachment for fixing the lens 101. Also, the lens 101 has an annular wall 104 disposed around the optically functioning portion 102 in order to protect the latter.
For assembling the lens 101 to an optical pickup of a CD-ROM drive or the like, the inclination of the lens 101 is detected and adjusted. An example of process for detecting the inclination of the lens 101 will be explained with reference to FIG. 9. First, the lens 101 is temporarily assembled to a holder 106, and a reflecting glass sheet 105 is placed on the annular wall 104. The upper face of the reflecting glass sheet 105 becomes a reflecting surface which is perpendicular to the optical axis X of the lens 101. Above the reflecting glass sheet 105, near the outer periphery of the lens 101, a photosensor which has a light-sending portion S and light-detecting portion R is disposed. While the lens 101 is rotated together with the holder 106, light is emitted and incidenton the upper face of the reflecting glass sheet 105 from the light-sending portion S. And the light is reflected by the upper face of the reflecting glass sheet 105.
When the lens 101 is not tilted, the emitted light is totally reflected toward the light detecting portion R. In this case, since the light received by the light detecting portion R has a stable predetermined strength, it can be judged that the lens 101 is not tilted.
When the lens 101 is tilted, by contrast, the emitted light is hardly reflected toward the light detecting portion R. In this case, since the light received by the light detecting portion R becomes unstable and weak, it can be judged that the lens 101 is tilted. After the inclination of the lens 101 is adjusted to normal, the lens 101 is bonded and fixed to the holder 106 by an adhesive 107. In the case of a lens without the annular wall 104, a reflecting glass sheet may be formed to be mountable on the lens 101.
Since the conventional plastic lens 101 is assembled to an optical pickup or the like according to the above-mentioned process, it necessitates the step of mounting the reflecting glass sheet 105 on the lens 101 and the step of removing it therefrom. These steps inhibit the inclination of the lens 101 from being adjusted efficiently. Also, since the inclination of the lens 101 is detected and adjusted by way of the reflecting glass sheet 105, errors are prone to occur. Further, when the reflecting glass sheet 105 is deformed or its reflecting surface is damaged, normal detection cannot be effected, thus increasing the time and labor for handling the reflecting glass sheet 105.


The present invention includes the following steps: setting the thickness of an interposer to an initial value; determining the axial force of the interposer and the radius of curvature of the warpage caused by the difference in the thermal expansion coefficients of the supporting substrate, the joined layer and the interposer at the set thickness; determining the absolute value of the stress on the chip-connecting surface of the interposer from the stress due to the axial force of the interposer and the stress due to the warpage using the determined axial force and the radius of curvature; determining whether or not the absolute value of the stress is within a tolerance; changing the thickness of the interposer by a predetermined value; and confirming the set thickness as the thickness of the interposer when the determined absolute value of the stress is within the tolerance.

The present invention relates to a mounting technique for integrated circuit (IC) chips (referred to below simply as "chips") and, more specifically, to determining the thickness of an interposer on which a chip is mounted.
In high heat density chip mounting, where a chip is laminated three-dimensionally and mounted using face-down bonding, a low-cost organic substrate is typically used (instead of an inorganic substrate such as a ceramic) as the supporting substrate on which the flip chip is mounted.
However, because of the significant difference in thermal expansion coefficients between a silicon flip chip and an organic substrate, the thermal stress due to the significant difference in thermal expansion coefficients may cause the solder-joined portion to be destroyed when an organic substrate is used.
A mounting structure 100 is shown in FIG. 1. In this mounting structure 100, a silicon interposer 110 may be provided on an organic supporting substrate 105, and a silicon laminated chip 115 and top chip 120 may be mounted on the interposer 110. The top chip 120 is connected electrically on the obverse surface of the interposer 110 via a through-hole 125 provided inside the laminated chip 115. The reverse surface of the interposer 110 is connected to the supporting substrate 105 via electrodes 135, and an underfill 140 is provided between the supporting substrate 105 and the interposer 110. The joined portion 130 of the interposer 110 and the laminated chip 115 is more susceptible to destruction than other joined portions because it is closest to the supporting substrate 105, and the frequency of thermal stress occurring is highest when a number of chips are laminated individually.
Therefore, when an organic substrate with a high thermal expansion coefficient is used as a supporting substrate, a means of reducing the stress on the joined portion of the interposer and the chip is desired in order to perform chip mounting more reliably. The uppermost chip has been adjusted in order to reduce the stress on the joined portion, but this technique relies on the experience of the chip's designer. Because it relies on the experience of the designer, it is difficult to automate so that it can be performed by somebody other than the designer.
The laminated structure is optimized by directly determining the stress on the joined portion of the interposer and the chip in a laminated structure including a supporting substrate, an interposer, and a chip. The stress on the joined portion can be determined, for example, by performing a parameter analysis using the finite element method (FEM). This technique requires a high degree of expertise, and the modelling and calculations take time. Also, one-off calculations are essentially performed on each model, and this technique is difficult to automate so that it can be applied to different models.

Method, apparatus, and structure for determining interposer thickness

International Business Machines Corporation


A welding system includes a welding wire feeder, a welding power supply, and a sensor. The power supply is coupled to the welding wire feeder and configured to produce a welding arc. The sensor is configured to sense a parameter indicative of a size of a welding wire fed through the welding wire feeder. The sensor is configured to send a signal to the power supply, the signal representing the parameter indicative of the size of the welding wire. The power supply is configured to automatically implement at least one of an arc starting parameter or a welding parameter based on the signal.

The invention relates generally to welding systems, and more particularly to systems and methods for determining a size of welding wire fed through a welding wire feeder.
Welding is a process that has increasingly become ubiquitous in various industries and applications. While such processes may be automated in certain contexts, a large number of applications continue to exist for manual welding operations. Such welding operations rely on a variety of types of equipment to ensure the supply of welding consumables (e.g., wire feed, shielding gas, etc.) is provided to the weld in an appropriate amount at a desired time. For example, metal inert gas (MIG) welding typically relies on a wire feeder to ensure a proper wire feed reaches a welding torch. Such wire feeders facilitate the feeding of welding wire from a wire spool, through a pair of drive rolls, to the welding torch at a desired wire feed rate.
Many welding applications may be complex projects that often require different types of welds to be made, including welds made from different sizes and/or types of welding material (e.g., welding wire). In order to complete such a project, welding wire of one size may need to be swapped out for a welding wire of a different size. This may occur one of more times during a single welding operation or session. Generally, an operator must stop welding and manually change the welding wire. In addition, the operator may change the drive rolls of the wire feeder so that they are appropriate for the new welding wire.
For best performance, welding wire of a certain size generally requires a specific set of welding parameters such as arc starting parameters (e.g., amperage level). As such, when welding wire is changed, the operator often must return to the power source to manually change and/or set these parameters. Unfortunately, this can lead to a higher probability of operator error. For example, an operator may not be aware that arc starting parameters should be changed when changing the welding wire, and even a user who is aware may forget to do so. It may also be the case that the user does change the arc starting parameters, but changes them to an incorrect setting. This may result in a decrease in productivity and, in some instances, relatively poor weld quality.

System and method for determining welding wire diameter


A wearable utility instrument assembly including a headgear and at least one utility instrument. The utility instrument is shaped and sized to be securely retained and concealed within the brim portion of the headgear. The utility instrument is removable from the brim portion and deployed via a hand-grip of the utility instrument that is accessible to the wearer of the headgear while the utility instrument is retained in the brim portion.

Many individuals, particularly military and security personnel but also ordinary citizens, may find themselves in situations in which they are forced to rapidly deal with an armed assailant or a general potential for violence. In such circumstances, it is desirable to have access to a suitable weapon which can be swiftly utilized to dispel the assailant and to safely avert or handle the violent situation while minimizing potential injury or harm to oneself and to associates and innocent bystanders. However, if the assailant is aware of the presence of the weapon, he may choose to retaliate in a more violent manner than he otherwise would, or attempt to obtain or immobilize the weapon before initiating his attack, thereby leaving the individual in a more precarious and possibly defenseless position. Furthermore, the individual may find himself situated in a particular location, such as a privately secured property, in which the carrying of weapons is disallowed or discouraged, and so it is desirable to conceal the presence of a carried weapon in such scenarios.
Various techniques are applied for concealing weapons in a manner which leaves them accessible for swift deployment, and various products and accessories have been developed for such purposes. For example, a weapon may be inserted or otherwise secured to a garment in such a manner that it is not clearly visible to others, such as carrying a gun in a holster located behind a lower pant leg. A jacket or coat may include an inner lining which is adapted to hide a knife or other small-sized weapon. Other garments and articles of clothing, such as belts, vests, pants, shoes, and the like are known in the art to be adapted in such a manner as to be able to incorporate various types of weapons and self-defense tools for the person who wears them. However, these techniques may not provide absolute concealment, and also run the risk of detection by metal detectors or similar devices adapted to detect the presence of weaponry. Furthermore, access to the weapon may be relatively cumbersome and time-consuming, diminishing valuable response time while the individual is attempting to retrieve the weapon.
U.K. Patent Application No. 2,430,480 to Raffles-Taylor, entitled "A personal defence aid", is directed to an assembly for personal defensive use by police or other security personnel. The assembly includes a concaved circular stainless steel disc that is inserted into the crown of a cap, enabling the cap to be held as a shield in the event of a knife attack. The disc may be covered on the inside concave with vinyl-backed fabric. A strip of nylon webbing may be stretched across the concaved side to form a hand-grip. There may be notches in the side of the disc to prevent sideways movement of the nylon webbing. The disc may be inserted into a cap via an insertion tool, used similar to a shoe horn.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,313,230 to Chovaniec, entitled "Belt for a concealed quick-draw knife", discloses a belt having a holster that serves to conceal and engage a knife. The holster is formed with a first curvature while the knife is formed with a second and different curvature (e.g., slightly more acute or accentuate), such that the knife is securely held within the holster by frictional contact, allowing quick and simple withdrawal of the knife from the holster. The belt may include a buckle for buckling the belt together (e.g., a hook), where the buckle is coupled to only to the holster and does not attach or interfere with the knife, allowing the weapon to be withdrawn without having to unbuckle or otherwise manipulate the belt.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,807,362 to Prentice, entitled "Hidden belt weapon", is directed to a weapon that is hidden in a supporting belt and can be detached from the belt by a twisting motion and deploys into a throwing-star/"ninja-star" configuration. The weapon includes front and back covers, and a central rotating member mounted within the back cover. A plurality of knife blades (preferably four) are rotatably attached to the central rotating member via respective blade deployment pins. The rotating member and knife blades are concealed by the cover when in a collapsed state, allowing the weapon to be carried over a belt buckle. By grasping and twisting the cover, the blades deploy to an extended position with the blade tips exterior to the cover, while releasing the cover from a securing attachment shaft.
Additional articles of clothing adapted for concealing weapons can be found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,692,237 to Bennett, entitled "Weapon concealment system"; U.S. Pat. No. 7,631,368 to Samson, entitled "Combined concealed carry holster undergarment and outergarment with quick release and quick access mechanisms"; and U.S. Patent Application Publication No. 2007/0107113 to Mansfield Jr., entitled "Karate cap".


In a service providing system, a plurality of information acquiring computers for acquiring informations are connected via a network to a plurality of information providing computers for providing information. A service providing computer for executing an information providing service with respect to apparatuses for acquiring information is interposed between a plurality of in information acquiring apparatuses and a plurality of information providing apparatuses. The service providing computer receives a content of a request of the information acquiring computer, and determines a sort of information to be provided with a user based upon a quality of this request content, individual information and past historical information of the user, and also various sorts of conditions when the request is received. The service providing computer requests at least one of these information providing computers to provide the information. The information obtained from the request result is integrated by the service providing computer to be transmitted to the information acquiring computer.

Recently, wide-area information services which can be utilized by end users have rapidly increased, since networks are extended and business opportunities through networks have increased, typically through the Internet and personal communications. However, for instance, in interfaces such as WWW (World Wide Web) presently provided in the Internet, end users must know connection destinations of information providing computers, and also cannot be connected to a plurality of information providing computers at the same time. As a consequence, it is rather difficult for end users to find a truly required service from among a huge amount of information and effectively utilize this truly necessary service without having advance knowledge of the service and also without cumbersome operations.
Also, when a personal computer communication system is connected to an information providing computer, this personal computer communication system merely provides a communication path to the information providing computer, or simply lends a database to an information provider. Accordingly, end users should be individually connected with the system of the information provider, should sequentially retrieve contents of services, and should propose the system utilization.
The contents of the present information services are fixedly defined, so that the same services are provided in response to the same requests irrelevant to such a fact, e.g., who is an end user, and conditions of the system when the service is received.
The above-described conventional techniques suffer the following described problems, since there are preconditions, namely, the end users are connected to the information providing computers, and thereafter the end uses can newly retrieve the contents of the provided services and can newly propose to utilize the service; the end user cannot be connected to a plurality of information providing computers at the same time; and also only the information of the service request is sent from the end user, and the information providing computer neither receives, nor holds the personal information of the end user.
(1) It is difficult to find out a service desired by an end user. In other words, even when a certain information providing computer provides a service desired by the end user, if the end user does not know of the existence of this information providing computer and/or connection destinations, then the end user cannot utilize this service. It is practically difficult for the end user to personally grasp a huge number of service contents of information providing computers and a large number of connection destinations. Thus the end user can hardly utilize his truly desirable services.
(2) It is difficult to utilize a suitable service, depending upon a change in conditions. In other words, not only a large number of information providers enter into information service businesses every day, but also the presently available services of the existing information providing computers are frequently changed and/or added with other services every day. End users can hardly, personally grasp all of these changes. As a result, even though is highly likely that better services are newly added, the end users may emd up fixedly utilizing specific services. Also system environments and qualities of information/services may change contents of services which can give higher satisfaction to the requests of the end users. It is practically difficult that the end users systematically evaluate these conditions and thus select the proper services in accordance with this change.
(3) It is difficult to discriminate services from each other based on desires and service utilization histories of end users. The desires and service utilization histories of end users are grasped only by these end users themselves. As a consequence, the information providing computers cannot select the proper services which can provide the higher rate of satisfaction to the requests of the respective end users, but therefore the end users themselves must retrieve their desirable services and also must hold/manage the service utilization histories.
(4) When services of a plurality of information providing computers are integrated to be received, procedures by end users become cumbersome. That is, when a complex service provided by a plurality of information providing computers is received, an end user must be sequentially connected with the respective information providing computers, must retrieve the contents of the individual services, must propose the individual service utilizations, and must adjust these services individually. Also, the end user is required to pay his fee to the received services from the respective information providers. In particular, an abundance of time and workloads on the part of the end user are required so as to adjust combinations of the plural services.

Service providing system for providing services suitable to an end user request based on characteristics of a request, attributes of a service and operating conditions of a processor


A process for the preparation of anhydrous sodium from a thenardite ore containing sodium sulfate comprising the steps of: crushing the thenardite ore; lixiviating the crushed ore in a first lixiviation step with water or with an exhausted solution from a succeeding step, at a temperature between about 28.degree. C. and 40.degree. C., obtaining a suspension comprising a sodium sulfate saturated solution, sludges and insoluble material, settling the sludges and insoluble material from the saturated solution to separate a clarified solution; crystallizing the clarified saturated solution in a first crystallization step at a temperature between 32.degree. C. and 20.degree. C., maintaining the height of the solution not exceeding about 15 centimeters, to obtain a Glauber salt with large crystals of sodium sulfate and ten molecules of water. When the clarified saturated solution is crystallized, an exhausted solution is produced which is drained and recycled back to the first lixiviation step. Melting the crystals, free from solution, at a temperature about 60.degree. C. to dissolve the sodium sulfate crystals in their own crystallization water, to obtain a suspension comprising a sodium sulfate saturated solution with a density of 1.335 g/cc and crystals of anhydrous sodium sulfate in a proportion of about 17% by weight of the Glauber salt; and settling the crystals of anhydrous sodium sulfate. The clarified saturated solution of the previous step is recycled in a second crystallization step to separate the anhydrous sodium sulfate and finally a drying step is carried out to obtain anhydrous sodium sulfate crystals.

This invention relates to a process for the preparation of anhydrous sodium sulfate and, more specifically, to a process for the benefitiation of thenardite ores to produce anhydrous sodium sulfate.
The known conventional process for the production of sodium sulfate, begins with from a brine which is extracted from the underground and stored in a reservoir and from there it is conducted to a crystallizer wherein, by cooling, crystals are produced in the form of a fine powder of sodium sulfate hydrated with ten molecules of water, known as Glauber salt, which is settled, then filtered and conducted to a reservoir wherein it is melted to dissolve the crystals of sodium sulfate in its own hydrating water, to produce a saturated solution of sodium sulfate with 17% of solids, which is then partially evaporated to obtain a suspension of anhydrous sodium sulfate with 20% of solids in a saturated solution, said suspension is then settled and centrifuged to concentrate the solids of anhydrous sodium sulfate which are separated and dried recycling the remaining saturated solution back to the evaporation step.
In said conventional process the crystallization of the Glauber salt is carried out by cooling it at about 20.degree. C. to about 0.degree. C. in a special crystallizer, including additional equipment such as boilers, cooling towers, boosters, etc.
The evaporation step has been considered as strictly necessary to concentrate the solids of anhydrous sodium sulfate up to 20%.
It is well known that there are thenardite ores in several deposits around the world in different concentrations, some of which have a higher content of sodium sulfate than that of the brine deposits.
However, one of the problems associated with the production of anhydrous sodium sulfate from an ore such as the thenardite is the quality (fineness). It is well known that the anhydrous sodium sulfate obtained by the known processes, contain small quantities (less than 1%) of fine clay, that product a dark aspect in the solution.
Another disadvantage of the known processes to produce anhydrous sodium sulfate is the investment in equipment that is very expensive and sophisticated.
With this backgrounds, the inventor began his research with respect to a deposit of thenardite ore, located in Bacadehuachi in the Mexican state of Sonora to extract anhydrous sodium sulfate from the ore to be used mainly in the production of detergents, paper and glass.
Based on the curve of solubility for sodium sulfate, the inventor found in his research that it was possible to obtain a 32% saturated solution from the ore and that it was necessary to lixiviate the ore with water at a temperature of 32.degree. C., because at a higher temperature, a decay in the solubility was achieved.
At a temperature below 32.degree. C., the Glauber salt crystallizes and, in the process of the present invention, such crystallization is carried out in an open reservoir with considerable savings in energy because of the ambient conditions of the place of the deposit wherein the ambient temperature changes from 30.degree. C. or 40.degree. C., to 10.degree. C. or 20.degree. C. at night, which cooling helps in the natural crystallization of the Glauber salt.
Moreover, the inventor found that it is important to crystallize the solution in a reservoir, wherein it is cooled overnight at a temperature between about 10.degree. C. to about 20.degree. C., taking care that the height of the solution within the reservoir does not exceed approximately 15 cm., to produce the Glauber salt in the form of large crystals which allows its separation by simply draining.
This Glauber salt is then melted at a temperature between about 40.degree. C. and 60.degree. C. and is dissolved in its own crystallization water to crystallize the anhydrous sodium sulfate which is separated and dried.
It is also important that the saturated solution resulting from the melting of the Glauber salt, by recycled to the crystallization step instead of evaporating it, as in the conventional brine process, to avoid the need for evaporation equipment and the energy consumption involved.

Process for the preparation of anhydrous sodium sulfate


A disk drive fastening mechanism includes a computer chassis, a first disk drive rack and a second disk drive rack. The computer chassis has a top cover and a base that are connectable to each other. The first disk drive rack including a first retaining set and second retaining set is located on the base for housing a first disk drive. The second disk drive rack is movably mounted onto the top surface of the first disk drive rack for housing a second disk drive, confined in the first dimension and second dimension by the first retaining set and the second retaining set, and confined in the third dimension by the top cover and the first disk drive rack. Hence the second disk drive can be installed on the computer chassis without using tools so as to save installation time and simplify operation.

The hardware of a computer system generally includes a host motherboard, various interface cards and magnetic disk drives (such as floppy disk drives, hard disk drives, optical disk drives and the like). This equipment is housed in a chassis, or a computer chassis. The computer chassis includes a case that has a housing space and a cover to seal the housing space. As the magnetic disk drives can be configured selectively, to facilitate installation and expansion, the computer chassis usually includes pre-configured disk drive frames to allow the disk drives to be installed or removed as desired.
At present fastening of the disk drives is mostly accomplished with fastening screws. That is, first load the disk drive in the frame already installed on the computer chassis; then fasten the disk drive to the frame through screws. Such a fastening method has disadvantages. For instance, during installation of the disk drive, workers on the production line have to use screw drivers to fasten the screws repeatedly. Production process is thus complicated and tedious. To improve production efficiency is difficult.
To remedy this problem, many disk drive fastening mechanisms have been developed to simplify the operation. One approach is to attach screws on the disk frame of the disk drive so that the disk drive can be fastened to the computer chassis by latching. But this still requires screw drivers for assembly and disassembly. Other references can be found in R.O.C. patent publication Nos. 430238, 486134 and 535044.
R.O.C. patent No. 430238 places two plates on two sides of the disk drive to serve as sliding tracks so that the disk drive can be loaded into the frame of the computer chassis by sliding without using screw drivers.
R.O.C. patent No. 486134 includes latching elements to latch an upper case and a lower case for housing a disk drive manually. The latching elements are connected to the upper case and inserted into apertures the lower case on corresponding positions. Hence the disk drive can be mounted onto the computer chassis without using screw drivers.
R.O.C. patent No. 535044 proposes a main frame with turnable fastening bolt and a fastening hook to be anchored by anchoring struts of the computer chassis so that the disk drive can be mounted on the computer chassis without using screw drivers.


There is provided a liquid crystal device including a first substrate, a second substrate, a liquid crystal being held between the first substrate and the second substrate, a base layer having alternating linear grooves and linear protrusions on at least one of the first substrate and the second substrate, and an alignment layer of an oxide film covering the base layer and having wedge-shaped tops over the linear protrusions of the base layer.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a liquid crystal device in which a liquid crystal is held between a first substrate and a second substrate and a method for manufacturing the same. More specifically, the present invention relates to a technique for forming an alignment layer with an inorganic material.
2. Related Art
In a liquid crystal device, a liquid crystal is held between a first substrate and a second substrate, and an alignment layer is disposed on the surfaces of the first and the second substrates in order to impart an alignment to the liquid crystal. The alignment layer is made of an organic film such as a polyimide film and is provided with a plurality of fine lines on the surface thereof by rubbing treatment. However, an alignment layer made of an organic material is low in reliability, and accordingly an alignment layer made of an inorganic material formed by oblique deposition or ion-beam synthesis is recently being investigated.
Furthermore, an alignment layer formed by roughening the surface of a polymer base film and forming Diamond-Like-Carbon thereon is also proposed (refer to, for example, JP-A-2006-195111).
However, the alignment layer formed by the oblique deposition or the ion-beam synthesis is porous and thereby absorbs moisture to readily cause problems. Consequently, it is required to enlarge the seal cross-section for preventing the problems. This requirement causes an increase in size and a decrease in productivity of a liquid crystal device.
In a case of an alignment layer formed by roughening the surface of a polymer base film and forming Diamond-Like-Carbon thereon, there are problems such that the roughness of the base film cannot sufficiently function because of the Diamond-Like-Carbon and the pretilt angle of the liquid crystal varies. These problems disadvantageously cause a decrease in contrast. in particular, in a case that an IPS (in-Plane Switching) or an FFS (Fringe-Field Switching) in which the alignment of liquid crystal molecules is controlled by an electric field in the lateral direction is employed, black luminance in the horizontal and vertical directions and in the oblique direction is increased with the pretilt angle to deteriorate the contrast of a display.

Liquid crystal device and method for manufacturing the same


A method of advertising using an electronic processor authorization challenge. An advertisement is combined with an authorization key to form an image. An electronic processor disassembles the image and presents the disassembled image to a user by a graphical user interface as an authorization challenge. The authorization challenge can be successfully overcome by a human user reassembling the divided image, then recognizing the authorization key, and then responding to the authorization key. The authorization key is data configured to be inputted into an electronic processor by a human user or data corresponding to a command configured to be performed by a human user. The authorization key can be an advertisement, a feature of an advertisement, a coupon, a CAPTCHA, a Reverse Turing Test, a command, an image, a string of text, a number, a letter, a symbol, a combination of a number, a letter, or a symbol.

It is often desirable or necessary to determine if a particular applicant seeking to use an electronic service remotely is in fact a human being and not an automated system. For example, web sites on the Internet offer access for free to humans and want to restrict automated programs (sometimes referred to as "bots") from abusing their system. These web sites need a way to distinguish between a bot and a human. This is often the case in situations where normal human usage would put an acceptable load on a server that automated processes could easily exceed. Additionally, in many cases bots are designed to use computer system services for purposes that they are not intended for, such as mass registering for free email accounts that are then used to send unsolicited advertising.
Currently, a commonly used automated method for making the determination of whether an applicant for access to a secured service or computer system is a human or is a bot is what is known as a Reverse Turing Test (RTT). This can involve presenting the applicant with an image (or a data set convertible into an image), which can, for example, contain either a string of characters or a picture of a readily recognizable object, and having the user identify what is presented in the image. Typically the images presented to the users are distorted in an attempt to make it more difficult for Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software, and other visual recognition programs, to determine what the image is (thereby allowing automated systems to fool the process of identifying whether a user is in fact human). One of the problems being encountered is that as the methods for identifying text and images by computer programs advance, the images must be obfuscated or distorted more and more, increasing the difficulty for a human user to identify the images as well. Therefore a method of increasing the difficulty for a machine or bot to pass an RTT, without increasing the difficulty for a human user, is highly desirable.
Some prior art electronic service providers incorporate advertisements in the margins of the browser or as pop-ups within their database. These advertisements are often unnoticed or are purposely avoided by the user. This results in a loss of revenue to the advertiser that could have been generated from a potential customer. Because advertisement listing fees can be costly for an advertiser, it is more desirable for an advertiser if the advertiser has confirmation that a user has seen and reviewed the targeted advertisement. Thus, there is a need for a more interactive advertisement recognition process to increase a user's awareness of a predetermined advertisement.

Method of advertising using an electronic processor authorization challenge


A method for storage input/output (I/O) path configuration in a system that includes at least one storage device in network communication with at least one computer processor; the method comprising providing in the I/O path into at least: (a) a block-based kernel-level filesystem, (b) an I/O cache module controlling an I/O cache implemented on a first computer readable medium, (c) a journaling module, and (d) a storage cache module controlling a storage cache implemented on a second computer readable medium, the second computer readable medium having a lower read/write speed than the first computer readable medium. Furthermore, the steps of translating by the filesystem, based on computer executable instructions executed by the at least one processor, a file I/O request made by an application executed by the at least one computer processor into a block I/O request and fulfilling by the at least one processor the block I/O request from one of the I/O cache and the storage cache complete the I/O operation.

Modern applications are shifting from compute-centric to data-centric arrangements as they require continuous access to persistent data rather than computing from memory-resident datasets. In addition, the trend towards application consolidation in data centers leads to running demanding workloads on modern servers with diverse I/O requirements. Furthermore, cost and energy efficiency constraints dictate building larger servers with many cores and I/O resources that host multiple applications. Until recently, the I/O subsystem in modern servers has been limited by the devices themselves. Today, with the availability of NAND-Flash based solid-state disks (SSDs), high TOPS are becoming economically viable for typical data center servers and flash is becoming a necessary layer in the storage hierarchy.
These trends have created a landscape with significant new challenges for the storage I/O path in modern servers. Independent workloads interfere with each other when competing for shared resources and they experience both performance degradation and a large variance. Competition for space in the DRAM I/O cache results in more accesses to the underlying tiers of the storage hierarchy. Mixed devices access patterns result in device performance well below nominal device capabilities. Shared buffers and structures in the I/O path results in increased contention, even for independent workloads accessing shared resources.
On today's servers, data-centric applications can experience severe performance degradation when ran concurrently with other applications. FIG. 1 illustrates this point for a server running multiple virtual machines (VMs), where each VM hosts a workload that performs some level of storage I/O. Production VM refers to the workload instance for which we are interested in improving its performance or maintaining acceptable performance. Noise VM refers to the workload instance that accesses a separate data-set and may interfere with the production VM. Three distinct I/O load profiles are considered, marked with low, mid, high. As shown, the performance degradation for the production VM when ran concurrently with another VM can be as high as 40× for a transaction processing workload, TPC-E, when looking at the transaction rate. For another transaction processing workload, TPC-W, the performance degradation can be as high as three orders of magnitude over the nominal case, when looking at the average transaction latency. It is important to note that the system where these workloads are running has adequate resources to support both the production and interfering VMs. However, the capacity available to the production VM is variable over time, on a unregulated system, resulting in severe performance degradation.
Improving I/O performance has been a problem tackled in many prior art works, and in particular in the storage I/O path across different workloads. This problem is exacerbated when the OS or hypervisor manages large amounts of I/O resources as a single pool, concurrently accessed by all workloads via a shared I/O path. For example, in Linux systems, Control groups (cgroups) is currently the only mechanism in the Linux kernel to limit resource usage per process group. cgroups allow users to specify resource limits per process group, for numerous resources in the Linux kernel, including cache sizes and bandwidth in the I/O path. cgroups still treat the I/O path as a single-shared entity and lead applications to compete, e.g. for buffers, locks, structures, and global allocation policies.
Other prior art has thus far focused on proportional fair-share allocation of resources, on relatively long timescales. Although these prior art arrangements limit the use, allocation, or scheduling of resources, applications still access each resource in a single, system-wide, shared pool via shared structures and metadata. For instance, there is still a single DRAM I/O cache in all cases, and usually shared devices.
These prior art problems are becoming more and more pertinent as the performance of storage improves with current technology trends. However, most prior art solutions have focused on improving upon the mechanisms used for synchronizing storage resource access. This results in the bottleneck being shifted from particular storage devices, or other physical resources, to the single I/O path from the storage resources to the kernel or user space in a computer system.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for improving storage I/O path throughput or performance, especially in the presence of multiple workloads.

Storage I/O path partitioning to eliminate I/O interference in consolidated servers

Institute of Computer Science (ICS) of the Foundation for Research and Technology—Hellas (FORTH)


A torque limiter includes a first rotatable body rotatable around a rotation shaft as a center of rotation; and a second rotatable body rotatable around the rotation shaft as a center of rotation. The first rotatable body includes one of a magnet and a hysteresis plate. The second rotatable body includes the other of the magnet and the hysteresis plate. The magnet and the hysteresis plate face each other. The first rotatable body and the second rotatable body are in contact with each other. No wall is provided between the rotation shaft and a contact area at which the first rotatable body and the second rotatable body are in contact with each other.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a torque limiter, and in particular to a reel stand used in recording and reproduction apparatuses such as, for example, video tape recorders and audio tape recorders, and acting as a torque limiter.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional reel stand acting as a torque limiter will be described.
FIG. 5 is a cross-sectional view of a conventional reel stand 500 acting as a torque limiter, which is described in, for example, Japanese Laid-Open Publication No. 11-273188.
The reel stand 500 includes an upper reel stand section 52 and a lower reel stand section 53. A magnetic tape 51 is wound around a reel 50 built in a cassette (not shown).
The upper reel stand section 52 on which the reel 50 is to be placed is rotatably outserted into a rotation shaft 1. A disc-shaped yoke plate 54 is formed of a ferromagnetic material such as, for example, rolled steel and is integrally formed with the upper reel stand section 52. The upper reel stand section 52 and the yoke plate 54 may be outsert-molded. A magnet 55 is adsorbed to the yoke plate 54 by a magnetic force generated by the magnet 55, and is rotated with the yoke plate 54. A magnetic flux (not shown) generated by the magnet 55 forms a magnetic loop which passes through the yoke plate 54.
The lower reel stand section 53 is rotatably outserted into the rotatable shaft 1, like the upper reel stand section 52. The lower reel stand section 53 is integrally formed with a disc-shaped hysteresis plate 56. The hysteresis plate 56 is formed of a material having a magnetic hysteresis loss. The lower reel stand section 53 and the hysteresis plate 56 may be outsert-molded. A gear section 12 engageable with an external gear (not shown) is provided around an outer circumference of the lower reel stand section 53. The lower reel stand section 53 is attracted toward the upper reel stand section 52 by the magnetic force generated by the magnet 55, and a washer 10 included in the lower reel stand section 53 is in contact with a contact portion 57 of the upper reel stand section 52 in a thrust direction. The washer 10 is often coated with oil (not shown) for the purpose of stabilizing a clutch torque generated in the reel stand 500. The rotation shaft 1 is also often coated with oil for the purpose of stabilizing the rotation of the entirety of the reel stand 500.
Hereinafter, an operation of the reel stand 500 will be described.
By the magnetic force generated by the magnet 55, a friction torque is generated between the washer 10 included in the lower reel stand section 53 and the contact portion 57. When the external gear (not shown) drives and rotates the lower reel stand section 53, the hysteresis plate 56 crosses the magnetic loop generated by the magnet 55, thus generating a magnetic hysteresis torque. The friction torque and the hysteresis torque act together as the clutch torque generated between the upper reel stand section 52 and the lower reel stand section 53. The reel stand 500, which is rotated by the external gear, rotates the reel 50 while supplying an appropriate tension to the magnetic tape 51 by the clutch torque.
With the conventional reel stand 500, it is difficult to stabilize the clutch torque. The clutch torque generated by the reel stand 500 needs to be constantly stable without being influenced by various external disturbances. More specifically, the clutch torque needs to have a stable value regardless of the rotation rate of the reel stand 500, environmental temperature and humidity of use, the length of time that the reel stand 500 has been used, and the like. The value of the friction torque, which is one component of the clutch torque, varies in accordance with the friction coefficient between the washer 10 and the contact portion 57 and the inner and outer diameters of the contact portion 57. The value of the friction coefficient is significantly influenced by the amount oil coating the washer 10 and how the washer 10 is coated with oil (e.g., whether the washer 10 is coated with oil uniformly or non-uniformly). The value of the friction coefficient varies in accordance with the rotation rate of the reel stand 500, environmental temperature and humidity of use, the length of time that the reel stand 500 has been used, and the like. One measure for stabilizing the clutch torque is to reduce the friction torque, which is difficult with the conventional reel stand 500. Since a wall 11 exists between the rotation shaft 1 and the contact portion 57, it is impossible to reduce the inner and outer diameters of the contact portion 57. Therefore, the friction torque cannot be reduced. There are the following additional problems. (1) In the case where the washer 10 is not sufficiently coated with oil, the washer 10 occasionally becomes out of oil while the reel stand 500 is being used. (2) The abrasion particles of the washer 10 generated by the long-time use enter between the washer 10 and the contact portion 57, generating abnormal abrasion of the washer 10.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A flexible, plastic thin film food package is provided having an elongate opening check valve with an air removal port that allows repeated opening and resealing of the package followed by removal of air and moisture by vacuuming. The top open edge of the food package is bonded to a flexible but rigid frame that fits a lid with the air removal port flat valve. The flat valve is a compressed foam sponge and a thin film housed in a rigid case that is bonded to the lid. Air is removed with a spatula attachment of the vacuum pump that is inserted into the space between the lid and the flat check valve. Once vacuum is induced in the interior of the food package, the film covering the frame is sucked against the lid thereby shutting off influx of air into the package.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a new and improved collapsible film food package suitable for vacuum storage of frozen fresh or cooked foods at low temperature and for an extended period of time. The food package of this invention allows repeated opening and closing to facilitate the addition and/or removal of food without significant loss of flavor or edibility.
2. Description of Related Art Including Information Disclosed Under 37 CFR 1.97 and 1.98
The food packaging industry includes vacuum or non-vacuum sealed food products, many of which packages are intended for use in storage at extremely low temperatures over long periods of time. Products include raw meat, poultry, fish, and other sea foods such as crustaceans, fresh vegetables, fully cooked foods such as pizza, and frozen confections such as ice cream.
Current re-sealable vacuum packages utilizing zipper strips and a flat disk check valve for removal of air from the interior of the containers. These packages are limited to a flat configuration, namely bags. Testing has indicated that these seals provided by the zipper strips fail to maintain vacuum over-night in about 20-30% of the time. A flat disk check valve is used in the current re-sealable vacuum food packages on the market. Testing has further found that sometimes it is difficult to aspirate air by a vacuum pump even when the food package is placed on a hard flat table surface.
The problem with presently designed factory sealed food packages is two-fold, the first being that ice is formed on the food content if the package is sealed without vacuum and the second being that no measures are provided to reseal the package for restoring the vacuum following opening of the sealed package for addition of food or for removing a portion of its content. In both cases, when the seal is broken to allow removal and/or addition of food, the entry of air and moisture into the package frequently causes ice formation. The result is a deterioration of the food and a reduction in flavor and edibility. Also the long term storage viability of the food contained therein is reduced upon resealing.
Various patents have been disclosed pertaining to closures and sealing systems for food packages, and they include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,941,310; 5,009,828; 5,070,584; US 2003/0152296 A1; U.S. Pat. No. 6,692,147; B2; 2004/0114837 A1; 2004/0161178 A1; 2005/0196077 A1; 2005/0244083 A1; and, 2007/0110340 A1. However, as noted, supra, none of the above patents provide a solution to the problem of ice formation and air and moisture contamination following opening of a food package to access the contents therein. Also, these patents do not provide long term vacuum sealing at very low temperatures for square or cylindrical food containers.

Plastic, re-sealable elongated check valve application to a square, cylindrical or flat type of a vacuum food package


A variable valve timing and lift system comprises a camshaft having a rotary cam and a valve operating (VO) cam, and a control rod having an integral portion. The integral portion in the form of an eccentric cam supports a rocker arm. The rotary cam is fixed to the camshaft. The VO cam is in contact with a valve lifter for a cylinder valve of an engine. A torsion spring winds about the camshaft to apply a bias to the VO cam. The rocker arm has a first arm cooperating with the rotary cam and a second arm cooperating with a projecting radial lever of the VO cam. Under the action of the torsion spring, the lever of the VO cam is held in engagement with the second arm of the rocker arm and the second arm of the rocker arm is held in engagement with the rotary cam.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a system for operating a cylinder valve of an internal combustion engine, and more particularly to a variable valve timing and lift system which can change both valve timing and valve lift.
2. Description of the Prior Art
JP-A 55-137305 discloses a variable valve timing and lift system. It includes a camshaft, a control rod with axially spaced eccentric cams, and a pivot structure. The pivot structure supports valve operating (VO) cams for pivotal motion above valve lifters of cylinder valves. Springs are mounted to the VO cams, respectively. Each of the springs biases one of the corresponding rocker cams toward its rest position where the associated cylinder valve closes. Rocker arms operate the VO cams, respectively. The eccentric cams, which are in rotary unison with the control rod, bear the rocker arms, respectively. An axis of each of the eccentric cams serves as the center of drive of the corresponding one of the rocker arms. Cams on the camshaft operate the rocker arms, respectively. An electronic control module (ECM) is provided. Sensors on the engine send information on engine speed, engine load, vehicle speed, and coolant temperature to the ECM. At a predetermined switchover point, the ECM sends a signal to an actuator for the control rod. As the actuator turns the control rod, the eccentricity of each of the eccentric cams with respect to an axis of the control shaft changes. This alters the position of pivot center of the rocker arms relative to the position of pivot center of the VO cams. This causes variation in valve timing and lift of each of the cylinder valves.
According to this known system, the camshaft is not mounted above the cylinder valves. This arrangement has a potential problem in that considerable modification of the conventional overhead camshaft engine is required to install the camshaft. Besides, the pivot structure and camshaft require a considerable space to install.


A system that releases a Session Initiation Protocol (“SIP”) user from a serving function on an Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem (“IMS”) network receives a REGISTER refresh from a registered user equipment (“UE”). In response to the REGISTER refresh, the system sends a server assignment request to a home subscriber server (“HSS”) that clears the name of the Serving Call Session Control Function (“S-CSCF”) assigned for the registered user. The system then sends a gateway timeout or server timeout that would trigger the UE to send an initial REGISTER request.

Session Initiation Protocol ("SIP") is an application-layer control protocol for creating, modifying, and terminating sessions with one or more users. These sessions include Internet telephone calls, multimedia distribution and multimedia conferences. SIP invitations create sessions that allow the users to agree on a set of compatible media types based on session descriptions configurable within the protocol. A SIP session with one or more users can occur over a SIP based network, such as the Internet Protocol Multimedia Subsystem ("IMS") network.
IMS is a standardized next generation networking architecture for providing multimedia services in mobile/wireless and fixed/wire-line communication networks. IMS uses the Internet protocol ("IP") for packet-data communications generally, and voice over IP ("VoIP") for voice communications, based on a 3GPP/3GPP2 standardized implementation of SIP. IMS includes session control, connection control, and an application services framework along with subscriber and services data. It enables the use of new converged voice and data services, while facilitating the interoperability of these converged services between subscribers.


A preferred process arrangement utilizes the enthalpy of the flue gas, which can be supplemented if need be, to convert urea (30) into ammonia for SCR. Urea (30), which decomposes at temperatures above 140 ° C., is injected (32) into a flue gas stream split off (28) after a heat exchanger (22), such as a primary superheater or an economizer. Ideally, the side stream would gasify the urea without need for further heating; but, when heat is required it is far less than would be needed to heat either the entire effluent (23) or the urea (30). This side stream, typically less than 3% of the flue gas, provides the required temperature and residence time for complete decomposition of urea (30). A cyclonic separator can be used to remove particulates and completely mix the reagent and flue gas. This stream can then be directed to an injection grid (37) ahead of SCR using a blower (36). The mixing with the flue gas is facilitated due to an order of magnitude higher mass of side stream compared to that injected through the AIG in a traditional ammonia-SCR process.

The invention concerns a new selective catalytic reduction of NOx, which is enabled by a side gas stream that can be separated from the main stream, or a side stream of hot air to provide for decomposition of the urea into its active components including ammonia.
Efforts are being made in many jurisdictions to reduce the emissions of nitrogen oxides (NOx). The technologies have included those that modify the combustion conditions and fuels, known as primary measures, and those that treat the exhaust after combustion, known as secondary measures. When effective primary measures are employed, the secondary measures can still be employed to achieve further reductions. To provide the best NOx reduction, it is apparent that both primary and secondary measures will be necessary.
Among the known secondary measures are selective catalytic reduction (SCR) and selective noncatalytic reduction (SNCR). Both have been conducted with both ammonia and urea. See, for example U.S. Pat. No. 3,900,554, wherein Lyon discloses SNCR of nitrogen monoxide (NO) in a combustion effluent by injecting ammonia, specified ammonia precursors or their aqueous solutions into the effluent for mixing with the nitrogen monoxide at a temperature within the range of 1600° F. to 2000° F. Lyon also suggests the use of reducing agents, such as hydrogen or various hydrocarbons, to permit the effective use of ammonia at effluent temperatures as low as 1300° F. However, these temperatures are often too high for effective treatment, ammonia is difficult to deal with safely, and SNCR is not as effective as SCR. Similar processes are taught for urea by Arand, Muzio, and Sotter, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,208,386, and Arand, Muzio, and Teixeira, in U.S. Pat. No. 4,325,924. Again the temperatures are high, and the use of lower temperatures is not enabled.
SCR can operate with ammonia at lower temperatures, generally within the range of from 100° to 900° F. In this regard, see U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,032,387 and 3,599,427. SCR (selective catalytic reduction) has been available for years in some contexts for reducing NOx. To date, however, SCR has depended on the use of ammonia, which has safety problems associated with its storage, handling, and transport. Urea is safer, but has not been practical for many SCR applications due to the difficulty in converting it from a solid or an aqueous form to its active gaseous species that are reactive on catalyst bed for NOx reduction. Also, the reagent economics typically favor anhydrous ammonia over urea. In "A Selective Catalytic Reduction Of NOx from Diesel Engines Using Injection Of Urea" (Ph.D. thesis, September 1995), Hultennans describes a number of technical challenges in the context of Diesel engines while giving a broad background on the technology.
The use of catalysts for NOx reduction utilizing urea is effective but is sensitive to particulates and undecomposed urea, which can foul a catalyst. In this regard, it must be remembered that temperatures at the low end of the SCR treatment temperature range will not be high enough to fully gasify the urea. In addition, SCR requires very uniform mixing of active gaseous species prior to contact with the catalyst, and it is difficult to uniformly mix urea or its decomposition products with the large amounts of effluent in need of treatment. The limited attempts to use urea SCR for stationary and mobile sources, such as diesel engines, have been described in several recent patents including U.S. Pat. No. 5,431,893, to Hug, et al. To protect the catalyst from fouling, Hug, et al., proposes bulky equipment capable of treating all effluent with urea. Regardless of physical form, urea takes time to break down in hot exhaust gases and may cause nozzle plugging at the temperatures most conducive to gasification. This disclosure highlights the problems making it a necessity that the urea solution is maintained at a temperature below 100 C to prevent hydrolysis in the injection equipment. They propose the use of moderate urea pressures when feeding the urea and find it necessary to have alternative means to introduce high-pressure air into the feed line when it becomes plugged. The nozzles employed by Hug, et al., use auxiliary air to aid dispersion. Also, they employ dilute solutions that require significant heating to simply evaporate the water. See also, WO 97/01387 and European Patent Specification 487,886 A1.
In European Patent Specification 615,777 A1, there is described an apparatus that feeds solid urea into a channel containing exhaust gases, which are said to be hydrolyzed in the presence of a catalyst. For successful operation the disclosure indicates that it is necessary to employ a hydrolysis catalyst, compressed air for dispersion of fine solids, means for grinding the urea into fine solids and a coating to prevent urea prills from sticking together. The disclosure notes that if the inside of the catalyzer and the nozzle tip only were coated with the catalyst, corrosion and deposition would occur. Despite achieving the goal of removing water from the process, the specification introduces solid urea into the gas stream—possibly depositing urea on the SCR catalyst.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,146,605 to Spokoyny, there is described a combined SCR/SNCR process in a staged process involving a separate step of hydrolyzing the urea prior to an SCR stage. A similar process is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,985,224 and 6,093,380 to Lagana, et al., which describe a method and apparatus involving the hydrolysis of urea followed by a separation of a gas phase from a liquid hydrolysate phase. Also, Copper, et al., disclosed a urea hydrolysis process to generate ammonia in U.S. Pat. No. 6,077,491. In all these processes there is a requirement to handle a significant amount of high temperature and high pressure gas and liquid phases containing ammonia during and after hydrolysis. This extra processing requires the purchase and maintenance of additional equipment, an emergency plan and equipment to handle ammonia release in case of process failures, and it would be desirable to have a system which operated more safely, simply and efficiently.
The art is awaiting the development of a process and apparatus that would permit the use of urea in an SCR process simply, reliably, economically, and safely.

Selective catalytic reduction of nox enabled by sidestream urea decomposition


An apparatus and a method sort items, such as pickles, having defective shapes, such as holes. A video camera scans moving items and acquires lines of image data including item-colored data and background-colored data. The lines of image data are sent to an image processor and compiled into a 64 line "frame" of image data that are further processed to identify the coordinates of individual items and to compute the size of each item. Because holes in an item are the same color as the background color, the invention provides a device differentiating holes from the background. A "hole-bounding box" is scaled to fit within the item position coordinates. The number of background-colored pixels inside the hole-bounding box is computed and compared to a user-defined threshold number. An item is classified as defective if the threshold number is exceeded. Whenever the image processor classifies an item as defective, centroid position coordinates of the item are reported to a master processor for subsequent rejection of the item.

There have been previously known apparatus and methods for sorting defective items from acceptable items by using machine vision techniques. In the agricultural product inspection industry, the definition of a defective item varies from product to product. For example, a black spot on a potato chip or brown rot on a green bean are considered defects. The above defects are characterized by imperfections in the color or texture of the item. In the pickle processing industry, one common defect is characterized as a pickle with a hole or a slit in the middle. This kind of defect results in imperfections in the shape, rather than the color of the item.
Existing methods for removing defects in food products rely on color or texture to classify defects. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 5,085,325 of Jones et al. for COLOR SORTING SYSTEM AND METHOD, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, describes a sorting system having a color camera for inspecting items as they are moved or propelled through an inspection zone by a conveyor belt. Color video data from the camera are digitized and used to address a lookup table containing criteria representing acceptable and rejectable colors. When an item including a defective color is detected by the camera, the location of the defect is stored in a memory for subsequent rejection downstream of the camera. Conveyor belts typically move with sufficient speed to propel items off the end of the belt where a bank of air ejectors, triggered in response to stored defect data, are positioned to deflect defective items toward a rejection conveyor, while allowing acceptable items to fly undeflected toward an acceptance conveyor. Such a system is quite effective at sorting items based on the color and size of defects, but cannot detect unacceptably shaped articles having an otherwise acceptable color.
In another example, U.S. Pat. No. Re. 33,357 of Randall for OPTICAL INSPECTION APPARATUS FOR MOVING ARTICLES, describes a system for inspecting and cutting defects from french fried potatoes and other elongated articles. In the system of Randall, video data representing grey-scale levels corresponding to light levels reflected from items being inspected are digitized and presented to shade detectors, one for light shade defects and one for dark shade defects. Counters accumulate the number of consecutive light and/or dark shade defects detected to determine the size of such defects. When preset size thresholds are exceeded, the defect is excised from the item by a rotary cutter knife. Such a system is capable of differentiating between certain large, light shade defects and certain small, dark shade defects, but cannot detect background-colored shade defects such as holes.
What is needed, therefore, are an apparatus and a method for classifying shape related defects, such as holes of predetermined sizes.


The invention relates to a glycosylated polypeptide comprising an amino acid sequence being identical or homologous to at least a fragment of a mammalian, preferably a human protein, wherein said glycosylated polypeptide contains one or more sialylated O-glycans and wherein the glycosylated polypeptide shows an increased binding affinity to one or more SIGLECs, selected from SIG-5, SIG-7, SIG-8, and SIG-9 compared to the mammalian protein or fragment thereof. The invention further relates to composition comprising a first and a second polypeptide, wherein the first polypeptide is a glycosylated polypeptide containing one or more sialylated O-glycans and the second polypeptide contains an amino acid sequence homologous or identical to a second mammalian, in particular human protein, wherein compared to the second polypeptide the composition has an increased binding affinity to a SIGLEC selected from to one or more SIGLECs, selected from SIG-5, SIG-7, SIG-8, and SIG-9.

Hemophilia is a group of hereditary genetic disorders that impair the body's ability to control blood clotting or coagulation. In its most common form, Hemophilia A, clotting factor VIII (FVIII) is deficient, Hemophilia A occurs in about 1 in 5,000-10,000 male births. The FVIII protein is an essential cofactor in blood coagulation with multifunctional properties. The deficiency of FVIII can be treated with plasma-derived concentrates of FVIII or with recombinantly produced FVIII. The treatment with FVIII concentrates has led to a normalized life of the hemophilia patients. Historically, Hemophilia A has been treated with FVIII originating from human blood plasma. In blood plasma, under normal conditions, the FVIII molecule is always associated with its cofactor; von Willebrand factor (vWF), which stabilizes the FVIII molecule from different forms of degeneration.
Many processes have been described for purification of Factor VIII from plasma or cultures which recombinantly produce Factor VIII (rFVIII) with or without the presence of von Willebrand Factor. In the 90's, the first recombinant FVIII (rFVIII) products were marketed, divided in full length rFVIII molecules, mimicking the main form of FVIII in blood plasma, and B-domain deleted rFVIII molecules (Eriksson et al., 2001), in which one inactive portion (the B-domain) has been removed, both with a high degree of purity (all without vWF).
Hemophilia A patients are treated with FVIII on demand or as a prophylactic therapy administered several times a week. For prophylactic treatment 15-25 IU/kg bodyweight of FVIII is administered three times a week which is necessary due to the constant need of FVIII and its short half-life in the blood system, which is in humans only about 11 hours. (Ewenstein et al., 2004).
In frequent cases the constant treatment with exogenously administered FVIII causes a response of the patient's immune system (Saenko et al., Haemophilia 8:1-11 (2002), which presents a serious limitation to the therapy.
Presently, the most common option to achieve immune tolerance in patients with haemophilia A (congenital FVIII-deficiency) and inhibitors is immune tolerance induction (ITI), where high doses of FVIII are administered for prolonged periods of time. However, the treatment can take up to two years, remains unsuccessful in approximately 30% of patients, is extraordinarily costly, and cannot be used in a prophylactic manner to suppress the initial development of inhibitory antibodies.
Thus, approaches to attenuate the immune response are needed. One promising approach is the optimization of the glycosylation of either FVIII or its binding partner vWF.
For example, WO 2014/176125 A1 relates to immune conjugates for inducing antigen specific immune tolerance to FVIII. The immune conjugates are FVIII proteins conjugated to specific glycan ligands that target SIGLECs expressed on B-cells, namely SIG-1 or SIG-10 (or the ortholog SIG-G). The glycans ligands are in particular coupled to liposomes into which FVIII is introduced.
Sialic Acid Binding Immunoglobulin Lectins (SIGLECs) comprise a family of 15 human and 9 murine cell surface receptors that are expressed on various white blood cells of the immune system with the exception of most T-cells in mouse and man. The SIGLECs are located on different cell types and bind to different glycans structures (reviewed in Paulson et al. 2012). For example a binding of vWF and FVIII to SIG-5 has been demonstrated (Pegon 2012). However, the mechanism of binding remains unknown.
A different approach is described in WO 2014/179184 A1. The authors suggest reducing undesired antibody immune responses and inducing immune tolerance of blood coagulation factors, such as FVIII by addition of SIGLEC ligands. The SIGLEC ligands are selected from 9-N-biphenylcarboxyl-NeuAca2-6Gal˜I-4GlcNAc (6′-BPCNeuAc), NeuAca2-6Galwl-4GlcNAc and NeuAca2-6Galwl-4(6-sulfo)GlcNAc. The SIGLEC ligand is linked to the coagulation factor via a water soluble polymer.

Polypeptides modulating SIGLEC dependent immune responses