A photosensitive composition for providing a solder mask on a printed circuit board is described, comprised of (a) an esterified styrene-maleic anhydride copolymer having less than 15%, most preferably less than 5%, free anhydride, with at least about 50% of the available anhydride groups being esterified with a hydroxyalkyl (meth)acrylate and at least about 0.1% of the available anhydride groups being esterified with a monohydric alcohol; (b) a multifunctional (meth)acrylate monomer; and (c) a multifunctional epoxide. The composition is coated on a printed circuit board, imagewise exposed to radiation to effect sufficient curing of the composition at exposed areas to enable removal of unexposed areas with developer, and post-baked after development to produce a desired patterned distribution of the cured composition to serve as a solder mask.

The present invention relates to radiation-curable compositions which can be used to provide solder masks in connection with printed circuit fabrication techniques, and also relates to methods for producing a cured solder mask.
As is well known in the art of printed circuit fabrication, solder masks are employed so as to prevent all but selected areas of the printed circuit (e.g., all areas other than through-holes and their surrounding pads, surface mount areas, etc.) from coming into contact with molten solder during provision of solder to these selected areas and during solder connection of various electronic components to the printed circuit at these selected areas.
Based upon considerations of ease of application and ability to obtain the fine definition usually required in most printed circuits, the most desirable solder masks are those formed from photosensitive resin compositions, i.e., compositions of organic resin materials which undergo polymerization (curing, crosslinking) under influence of radiation exposure. Typically, a layer of the photosensitive composition is deposited over the printed circuit board, heated (prebaked) to drive off a substantial portion of the solvent carrier for the composition, and then exposed to radiation of appropriate energy in a selective manner such that exposure occurs only at those areas where the solder mask is desired. The exposure brings about at least partial curing of the resin composition at such areas, rendering it there differentially less soluble (relative to a suitable developer) than at areas where the composition was not exposed. As such, unexposed composition can be selectively removed from the printed circuit board using the developer, leaving behind a distribution of the at least partially cured resin composition in the desired solder mask pattern. Suitable post-development steps, such as further radiation exposure and/or heating (postbaking) of the patterned composition, typically are then employed to effect further curing of the composition as may be needed in order for it to serve as an effective solder mask.
To best serve their intended purpose, solder masks should exhibit a high degree of chemical resistance to solder and the fluxes used in soldering operations, and a high degree of thermal resistance relative to the elevated temperatures used in soldering operations. Many solder masks produced from photosensitive resin compositions are deficient in these regards, having tendencies to degrade, blister or separate from the circuit board under conditions of soldering applications. Yet other photosensitive resin compositions produce solder masks which are excessively brittle, with increased tendency to chipping and flaking under conditions normally encountered in handling and processing of the circuit boards on which they are arranged. Attempts at solving these problems often tend to be counter-productive, i.e., generating problems associated with the resin composition itself, such as premature curing, instability, short shelf life, and the like.
The formulation of a suitable photosensitive resin composition for production of a solder mask thus involves a careful balancing of factors, often seemingly inconsistent, so as to attain desirable properties in the composition itself and in a solder mask produced from it.

Radiation-curable composition useful for preparation of solder masks


A plug-in connector comprising a base body (6), an annular sealing element (12), a clamping ring (50) and an annular body (20) which can be connected to the base body (6). A pipe end (4, 5) against which the sealing element (12) is arranged in a sealing manner, can be secured in the plug-in connector by the clamping ring (50). The plug-in connector of the invention can be connected to an end (4, 5) of at least one pipe in a simple manner and with a high degree of functional reliability, excluding the risk of assembly errors. For this purpose, the sealing ring (12) is arranged in an annular groove (14) of the base body (6) and comprises two sealing beads (60, 62) which are situated against the inner surface of the inserted pipe end (4, 5) in the manner of two o-ring seals.

This invention relates to a plug-in coupling comprising a base body, an annular sealing element, a clamping ring and an annular body which is connectable to the base body, in which a pipe end can be fixedly secured in sealing contact with the sealing element in the plug-in coupling by the clamping ring.
Published international patent application no. WO 00/75 554 A1 discloses a plug-in coupling of this type which is constructed as a double socket and comprises a base body and a holding or clamping device for ends of each of two pipes which are to be joined together, in which the ends are insertable into the plug-in coupling. The holding device has a clamping ring which has a clamping cone on the outside radially and at least one clamping rib on the inside that can be brought into engagement with the respective pipe end. Each clamping ring is surrounded on the outside by a socket which has a mating cone on the inside radially for bracing the clamping ring. The base body has an annular groove close to the front end area with a ring-shaped sealing element which is in sealing contact with the inside surface of the pipe end inserted into the socket. The front end area of the base body and the front end of the sockets are arranged at a slight distance from the annular groove. If the pipe end is not inserted coaxially with the longitudinal axis of the plug-in coupling into the annular gap between the base body but instead is inserted at a greater or lesser angle to the longitudinal axis of the plug-in coupling, there is a risk that the sealing element will be forced at least partially out of the annular groove or damaged so that the required tight connection cannot be established and/or assured with the required functional reliability.


Techniques are provided for presenting a route using a route presentation that provides both a context map and one or more detail route maps. Narrative instructions for the route also may be presented. The presentation of the context map and the one or more detail route maps may be interactive. The route presentation also may be user controllable such that a user may control the portions of a route that are printed. The route presentation also may include a re-routing feature that allows a user to request that a new route be identified that avoids a particular maneuver or maneuvers in a route.

A travel route between an origin location and a destination location may be presented as a paper map with manually-highlighted routes for assistance in traveling from a departure point to a destination point. A computer system may draw a map for a travel route on a display screen. The map may be generated based on geographic information. The geographic information may include shape information, such as latitude and longitude coordinates, to properly draw the location of roads, highways, hydrology, cities, and other objects on the map. A computer system may generate narrative text, such as driving directions or walking directions, that describes a travel route.


A system and method for the identification of users and objects using biometric techniques is disclosed. This invention describes a biometric based identification and authorization systems which do not require the incorporation of an on-line database of stored complete biometrics for the security infrastructure. In order to remove the connectivity requirements, an off-line biometric system is achieved by incorporating an identity verification template (IVT) on a storage device/token (e.g., magnetic strip or smart-card) during the user's registration which provides for a reliable storage medium; however, there are no security requirements required of the token even to protect the privacy of the stored biometric. The IVT does not contain complete information of the user's biometric but allows for the verification of the user when that user later provides a biometric reading. To deal with errors that may be introduced into later scans of the biometric (for example at the time of verification) error correcting techniques, well known in the art of communication and error control systems, are incorporated into the system. The system is also usable in the online model. Moreover, it may also be used to enable cryptographic operations by being used to partially compose or encrypt private keys for cryptographic operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is related to the field of identification (authorization), and more specifically to the identification (authorization) of users/objects, and sets of users/objects through pattern recognition and identification. These patterns may be derived from measurements of features of the human body. These patterns may also be derived from measurements of physical features of an object or from patterns applied to an object such as on a label. Patterns derived from physical features (such as fingerprints or iris patterns) or emissions (such as voices) of the human body are referred to herein as "biometrics". The present invention finds particular utility in identification of objects and biometric identification of humans.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
In some conventionally available biometric identification systems, a scan of the iris is used as the biometric identifier. In these conventional systems, a database of the iris scans of individuals is maintained, either on-line or in a portable token such as a card with a magnetic strip on it. When the user desires access to a secure area, a current iris scan is taken and this current scan is compared to the scan stored on the token or in the database. If the two scans match within some predetermined acceptable limit, the individual is considered authorized and allowed to proceed into the secure area. One problem with such a system is that the individual's actual iris scan is stored in the on-line database or on the token. If the token is stolen or if the security of the on-line database is compromised, an individual's iris scan is no longer protected. From a privacy point of view, an iris scan of an individual can reveal certain aspects of the individual's health. Therefore, if someone unauthorized obtains an individual's iris scan, private medical information may become available to unauthorized people.

System and method for authenticated and privacy preserving biometric identification systems


A bearing lubrication device in a right angle gear reducer includes a gear housing having an interior portion and a lubricating fluid reservoir therein. An oil slinger, rotating pinion shaft, pinion shaft housing, and bearings for supporting the pinion shaft within the pinion shaft housing work together to provide a continuous supply of oil to the bearings. The pinion shaft includes two radially and longitudinally extending passageways therethrough which supply oil from a recess in one end of the pinion shaft to the bearings. Oil is slung from the reservoir into the recess of the rotating pinion shaft where it is forced outwardly and through the passageways to a chamber formed by the rotating pinion shaft, shaft housing and bearings. The roller bearings pump the oil from the chamber back to the fluid reservoir. Oil passageways in the shaft housing enable the return of oil from one bearing set.

Traditionally, Skid-Steer® Loader Machines as made famous by manufacturers such as Bobcat® and the like have been powered almost exclusively by hydraulics. Skid-Steer® is a registered trademark of Arts-way Manufacturing Co., Inc., a Delaware Corporation. Bobcat® is a registered trademark of Clark Equipment Company of New Jersey.
These machines traditionally have gasoline or diesel internal combustion engines that drive a hydraulic pump. The pump usually provides power to two independently controlled hydraulic motors one for each side of the machine. The output of each motor drives a drive sprocket with two sets of sprocket teeth. One set of sprocket teeth drives a chain that goes to a front wheel sprocket and the other set of sprocket teeth drives a chain that goes to the rear wheel sprocket. The hydraulic pump also provides power for lifting functions and power takeoffs for implements that can be connected to the machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,705,449 to Christianson et al. discloses the use of two electric traction motors. FIG. 1 is a plan view of an electric drive system of U.S. Pat. No. 4,705,449 to Christianson et al. wherein battery 28 supplies electric power to two traction motors 60, 64 which in turn are coupled 84 to a gear reducer 82. Specifically, the '449 patent states at col. 4 line 10 et seq.: "a first traction motor 60 provides the motive force for the left-hand side of the vehicle and a second traction motor 64 provides the motive force for a right-hand side of the vehicle 66. Both the first traction motor 60 and the second traction motor 64 are powered by a battery pack 28 . . . . Similarly, the traction motor 64 is connected to a spur gear reduction assembly 82 through a coupling 84. The spur gear reduction assembly engages a chain 86 which in turn engages a right rearward gear 74 and left forward gear 90, which are respectively connected to wheels 14a and 14b through axles 92 and 94. As will be appreciated, the traction motor 60 is operated independently of the traction motor 64 thereby permitting the wheels 14c, 14d to operate at different speed than wheels 14a and 14b to create skid steering.".
U.S. Pat. No. 4,705,449 to Christianson et al. discloses the use of two electric traction motors. The motors are not identified by type in Christianson et al as either DC or AC. However, the motors are DC electric motors as they are controlled by a device identified in the '449 patent to Christianson, namely, a General Electric EV 1 SCR Controller, which is designed to control DC motors. The General Electric EV 1 SCR Controller describes the use of rectifiers to pulse power to DC motors and has no provision for the control of AC motors.
A copy of the EV 1 SCR Controller technical literature is submitted herewith in an Information Disclosure Statement and describes the use of the controller as being for the control of DC motors. Additionally, the EV 1 SCR Controller is identified in U.S. Pat. No. 4,265,337 to Dammeyer entitled Fork Lift Truck Speed Control Upon Fork Elevation and is used to control a DC motor 92.
Additionally, the EV 1 SCR Controller has been used in numerous automobiles (electric vehicles) in conjunction with DC series wound motors which provide high current and high torque at low rpm.
DC traction motors have been used in applications involving forklifts and similar vehicles in the past. Internal combustion engines are not favored in such applications because an internal combustion engine produces zero torque at zero engine speed (RPM) and reaches its torque peak later in its operating range. Internal combustion engines generally require a variable-ratio transmission between the engine and the wheels to match engine speed to the road speeds and loads encountered. A clutch must be provided so that the engine can be mechanically decoupled from the wheels when the vehicle stops. Additionally, some slippage of the engine with respect to the drive train occurs while starting from a stop. Direct current electric traction motors produce considerable torque at zero RPM and thus may be connected directly to the wheels. Alternating current motors, hydraulic motors and pneumatic motors also produce torque at zero RPM.
Although the term traction motor is usually referred to in the context of a direct current motor, the term is also applicable to alternating current motor applications as well. Additionally, the term traction motor is used to describe any motor of whatever type used to supply torque and power to a vehicle's wheel, tracks, etc.
In small utility vehicles and the like, space is an important consideration in the design of the vehicle. It is therefore desirable to use a small motor, electric, hydraulic, or pneumatic which is capable of supplying required torque and horsepower under all operating conditions. If an electric motor is used it may be an alternating current motor or it may be a direct current motor.
Generally, for a given power, high speed electric motors are smaller in size, lighter in weight, and less expensive than low speed motors. Generally, for a given power, alternating current motors are smaller than direct current motors.
It is highly desirable to save space, weight and cost in the powertrain of a utility vehicle through the use of a high speed motor so that the space may be used for batteries, controls or other components. It is further highly desirable to save space, weight and cost in the powertrain of a utility vehicle or similar vehicle through the use of a high speed motor. Space may be conserved for other components of the vehicle and, in doing so, it is necessary to dissipate large amounts of heat from pinion shaft support bearings. The pinion shaft may rotate at 6000-7000 rpm or higher depending upon the application. At these rotational speeds considerable heat is generated in the bearings. A high speed input from a small electric motor in combination with a right-angle gear reducer saves space while maintaining performance torque and horsepower requirements.
Previously, external or internal oil pumps have been used in gear reducers to lubricate bearings which support high rotational speed shafts and gears. These devices are powered by one of the shafts within the gear housing or casing. While satisfactory performance has been achieved with the shaft-driven oil pumps, more parts are necessary to accomplish lubrication of the bearings of the high speed shaft. Higher speed shafts generate more heat which must be dissipated. External pumps necessitate passageways through the pump casing to bring oil to bearings and gears.
U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/399,123 filed Apr. 6, 2006 entitled Cascading Oil flow Bearing Lubrication system employs an oil slinger and is commonly owned with the instant patent application. A bearing lubrication device which includes an output shaft carrier housed within a gear housing is disclosed and claimed. The output shaft resides partially within the output shaft carrier and upper and lower bearings support the output shaft. The output shaft carrier includes a first trough for catching lubricating fluid which is slung by an oil slinger. The first trough is in lubricating fluid communication with the upper bearing which pumps the lubricating fluid through the bearing and into an upper passageway which terminates in an opening from which the lubricating fluid emanates.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,887,678 to Lavender discloses a lubrication apparatus for shaft bearings which includes a trough extending radially outwardly and inclined downwardly in a direction toward the shaft bearing. U.S. Pat. No. 6,439,208 to Jones discloses a centrifugal supercharger having a lubricating slinger. U.S. Pat. No. 6,698,762 to Newberg et al. discloses a rotary device shaft with oil slinger groove. United States Patent Application Publication No. US 2003/0159888 A1 to Burkholder discloses a disk oil slinger assembly. United States Patent Application Publication No. US 2006/0104838 A1 to Wood discloses an integrated eccentric flywheel slinger.
None of the foregoing references provide pinion shaft bearing lubrication in a right angle gear reducer using an oil slinger, pinion shaft and pinion housing configured for use in a utility vehicle.
None of the foregoing references disclose a right angle gear reducer which includes the an oil slinger lubrication system in conjunction with a utility vehicle.

Lubrication system for right-angle drives used with utility vehicles


Various configurations of a directed energy assisted micro embossing machine/station in a vacuum chamber utilized in a continuous manufacturing process and the web structure products made by that process (optical disks, cards, tapes, holographic reflectors, diffusers, binary optical elements, etc.) are disclosed. The configurations can include a single machine roll to roll system for embossing optical features on the surface of a single substrate and applying appropriate metallic, dielectric, semiconductor, polymer and other coatings all in a vacuum chamber.

The widespread adoption of optical storage products such as the "Compact Disc" (CD) has made it desirable to manufacture these products by processes which have the potential to greatly increase throughput and decrease cost. Optical storage products made by such a process could greatly increase the dissemination of information while reducing the need for paper production with its negative environmental impact and improving the accessibility and archivability of the information.
Continuous processes most notably roll to roll are known to be more effective in making large volumes of products at low cost. The well known "floppy" magnetic disks are one good example of this. In fact rolls of the disk material structures are commonly sold as product in the "floppy industry." However optical disks and other elements are almost exclusively made by discrete batch injection molding based processes. As a consequence of this history several attempts have been made to manufacture optical media in continuous processes. The article "Continuous manufacturing of thin cover sheet optical media" by Slafer et. al. (including the present inventor) in the Proceedings of the SPIE (Vol. 1663 pg. 324) describes one approach. U.S. Pat. No. 4,831,244 ('244) discloses optical card structures with disk patterns made using the approach of this publication. The book, "Optical Recording--a Technical Overview, by Alan B. Marchant, published by Addison-Wesley Publishing Co. 1990 presents a good view of prior art techniques, especially the section on Mastering, page 327. The article in the Proceedings of the SPIE and the book are both hereby incorporated by reference herein as if laid out in full text. In the SPIE article a continuous roll embossing process is used to create optical features on the surface of a substrate which is then coated with appropriate absorptive, active, reflective and or refractive layers to produce functional optical media or elements. Land in U.S. Pat. No. 4,366,235 ('235) describes the general outline of the process of embossing a roll of substrate with appropriate optical features using an embossing drum and fluid. These process steps are characterized as "known in the art". A similar approach is described by Beaujean in U.S. Pat. No. 4,543,225 (225). Another similar approach by Foster U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,874 ('874) uses roll embossing with a fluid that has a dye included for improving the feature forming by absorbing laser light. All of these approaches are characterized by one or more of the following elements: lamination of a thin web to a cover sheet, embossing by a fluid, manufacture of a special embossing drum, and separate processing steps.
The past attempts to manufacture optical media and components in a continuous process have shared the characteristic that they have not been truly continuous but rather have been segmented and in many cases multiple substrate processes. In the case of the above cited U.S. Pat. Nos. '244, '225, and '874, two substrate webs are used and a chemical fluid based embossing process is employed. This requires that the vacuum coating of recording and or reflective layers be done in a separate segmented step.
Another problem associated with a chemical embossing process is the drum used to effect the embossing. If the drum does not have a seamless surface, fluids can accumulate in and flow out of the seams onto the substrate thus destroying the fine structure tolerance features which are necessary for optical grade devices and media. Seamless drums are difficult to fabricate, time consuming, and consequently expensive especially in wide web systems. One would like to use discrete embossing tools individually mounted on a drum as they are easy to manufacture using existing optical mastering and electroforming technology, they allow mounting across web as a means to work with wide webs, and as is disclosed later they can be compensated for distortions resulting from wrapping them on a drums' surface. Also discrete embossing tools can be easily changed for short run, quick turn around situations. An additional problem with earlier processes is the need for an high cleanliness environment laminating step in order to provide a low defect bond line between the thin web which is vacuum coated and the thick web optical cover sheet that provides isolation from surface defects and makes the structure sufficiently rigid and flat.
In an attempt to avoid the consequences of the earlier fluid based embossing U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,423,671, 5,368,789, 5,281,371, 5147,592, and 5,075,060 combine embossing into the process of extruding or molding of a thick substrate. Unfortunately this approach has similar problems to the earlier efforts when it comes to the need for a seamless embossing tool, as now the tool is part of the extrusion process. To achieve proper gauge thickness and tolerance along with avoiding "flashing" into the seams of a drum with discrete tools mounted on its surface is very difficult. As the gauge thickness appropriate to higher numerical aperture optics systems decreases, these problems will magnify. This will compromise the speed of the extrusion process, the bulk material birefringence, and its cost. Most important this approach makes it very difficult to integrate the embossing step into a single continuous vacuum machine as extrusion is combined with embossing. A consequence of this unintegrated process architecture is that the most critical surface in the structure the embossing is vulnerable to damage via handling before the vacuum coatings and protective layers can be added to complete the manufactured structure.
Generally speaking it is essential to avoid the use of fluids or liquids in embossing and to separate the extrusion of the substrate from the embossing step. This eliminates as much as possible the potential for outgassing and other vacuum compromising effects and allows extrusions to be made off line at maximal widths and web speeds. Also it is mandatory that only micron dimensional volumes of material be activated and or enabled to participate in the embossing step thus eliminating the potential for structural compromise like dimensional changes, stress, birefringence, and other distortion producing effects and material movement into interstitial boundaries between discrete embossing tools. These principles are the basis for developing a machine architecture which combines all process steps into one machine, uses a single substrate, and employs individual embossing tools so quick turnaround with high volume is realizable. It is important to emphasize that the novel object of this invention is to create a process architecture compatible with the environment in a vacuum coating chamber not that a vacuum be used to make the embossing. Bussey et. al. in U.S. Pat. No. 3,957,414 disclose the use of a vacuum between a substrate and an embossing "screen", but it is evident that this approach would not work in a vacuum chamber where there would be no gas to apply pressure to the substrate.
Another problem inherent with drum embossing is the distortion due to the curved contour of a drum. While is easy to master rectilinear features directly on a drum tool as would be the case for tape or card stripes, the use of a standard disk mastering recorder is essential to making precision circular tracks as found on disks. This however requires the tools (stampers) to be wrapped around a drum circumference and results in the distortion of the circular track patterns. When a planar tool of finite thickness is wrapped on a drum, patterns on the outside surface are elongated and patterns on the inside are shortened in the circumferential direction. Thus circles become prolate ellipse like patterns on the outside of tools wrapped on a drum. In the case where a substrate is wrapped around the tool and then returned to a flat geometry, the same effect occurs but patterns on the inside are elongated and so the problem is compounded. One solution to this problem is to precompensate for this effect using the mastering machine to record oblate rather than circular track patterns, but this approach has problems and limitations if the substrate is thick (0.1 mm or greater) as will be the case for single substrate disk or card manufacturing processes as contemplated in the preferred continuous single machine.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a method and a single integrated apparatus, which in a single pass continuously embosses and coats a continuous substrate.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a system without using any liquids, or molten/fluid state materials.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a conditioning of a substrate immediately prior to embossing, wherein the conditioning prepares the substrate and stamper for impressing the embossing pattern.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an embossing process that is compatible with the coating environment, such that the embossing and coating can be accomplished in the same environment.
Another object of the present invention is to provide uninterrupted process starting with a roll of substrate and ending with a roll of finished embossed and coated structures ready for cutting from the web.
Still another object of the present invention is provide a process and apparatus that is compatible with discrete embossing tools as this gives greater flexibility, quicker turnaround with higher volumes and lower cost to the process.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a single environment wherein the entire embossing and coating is accomplished.
It is still another object of the present invention to compensate for embossing distortion found when embossing using stamper tools with a finite thickness are mounted on drums. A related object is to provide such compensation for distortion effects on a single thick substrate.

Directed energy assisted in vacuo micro embossing


A method for transferring subscriber location information in a network communication system, including: converting the accessed subscriber location information into a code in the encoding format of the corresponding field in a subscriber packet to be sent outwards by the subscriber, carrying the code in the subscriber packet, and transferring the packet in the network communication system. It is also provided a method for converting MAC address, including: a network access device generating an MAC address from an MAC address resource pool; and replacing the source MAC address in a packet from a subscriber with said generated MAC address. The methods are no longer restricted by the number of permitted VLAN IDs in the network, and thereby improve feasibility of subscriber location information acquisition, providing a convenience for network operators to implement relevant extended services in network communication systems.

To facilitate network operation management, different kinds of authentication modes for access subscribers are widely used in networks. Presently, in networks that provide access service through ADSL (Asymmetric Digital Subscriber Line), VDSL (Very High Bit Rate Digital Subscriber Line), FE (Fast Ethernet), or G.shdsl (Single-Pair High-Speed Digital Subscriber Line), usually PPPoE (Point to Point Protocol over Ethernet), 802.1x, Web (World Wide Web) authentication, and DHCP+ (DHCP: Dynamic Host Configuration Protocol) authentication modes, etc., are used. In those authentication modes, authentication request messages sent from subscriber ends are processed by an access server, which obtains subscriber identity and location information, i.e., the access server also obtains subscriber location information besides obtaining subscriber account and password information for identity authentication from the request messages through authentication messages based on the above authentication protocols, so as to implement extended service features when performing local and Radius (remote) authentication and accounting according to the subscriber location information; said location information comprises port number and slot number of the network access device where the subscriber accesses; said extended service features comprise: restricting the subscriber related to a specific account to access the network via only one single subscriber access port through binding subscriber account and location information, providing the subscriber with a private line access network; providing a function of tracking down to a physical port according to the subscriber location information.
Therefore, in order to implement extended service features in the network communication system, not only subscriber identity information but also subscriber location information needs to be transferred in the network communication system. Hereunder the currently used method for transferring subscriber location information in a network communication system is introduced.
In a broadband network communication system, subscriber location information is transferred mainly through VLAN (Virtual Local Area Network) protocol specified in IEEE 802.1Q (IEEE: Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). This may comprise establishing the correspondence between location information (subscriber access port information or PVC (Permanent Virtual Connection) ID information, etc) and subscriber VLAN ID (Virtual LAN Identifier). The network structure of a typical broadband network is shown in FIG. 1. When a subscriber connected with a network access device accesses the network, it sends an authentication request message carrying its own VLAN ID and identity information to the access server. The access server receives the authentication request message and communicates with the Authentication, Authorization and Accounting Center to authenticate an identity of the accessed subscriber. At the same time, the access server determines the subscriber location information according to the VLAN ID information in the message and the establishes correspondence between the VLAN ID and the subscriber location information, by determining a device ID of the network access device where the subscriber accesses as well as the slot number and port number of the subscriber's access card accessing the network access device according to the access subscriber's VLAN ID, so as to obtain the location information of the accessed subscriber in the access network.
With the above technical solution, the access server in the network communication system can obtain the subscriber location information in the access network successfully, so as to implement corresponding extended service features. However, as the network communication technology develops and the network structure becomes increasingly complex, the disadvantages of foresaid method of obtaining accessed subscriber location information becomes more and more obvious. A premise for implementing the existing technical solution is: enough VLAN ID resource should be provided in the network; however, as specified in IEEE802.1Q protocol, there are at most 4096 VLAN IDs in the entire L2 network; therefore, the access server has to be connected directly with the network access devices, so that each port in the access server is a L3 port and has 4096 VLAN IDs, in order to meet the demands of applications.
However, usually there are convergence devices between the access server and the network access devices in networking applications, for example, when there are network convergence devices such as L2 and L3 switches between the access server and subscribers, the subscribers converged to the intermediate L2 and L3 switches usually exceed 4K, as the consequence, the permitted VLAN IDs in the network can't meet the requirement. Therefore, the above technical solution of obtaining subscriber location information on the basis of VLAN IDs are unable to implement. Furthermore, the higher the access server's position in the network is, the more the convergence devices between the access server and the network access devices will be, and thereby the more severe the problem of insufficient VLAN IDs will be.
In addition, even though the network access devices are connected directly to the access server in the network, often, a plurality of network access devices have to be cascaded and then connected with the access server in actual network, resulting in the number of subscribers connected with the access server exceeds 4096; in this case, there is still the problem of insufficient VLAN IDs.
Therefore, the technical solution of obtaining subscriber location information by the access server in the prior art is increasingly unable to meet the demand of obtaining location information, due to its constraint in permitted VLAN IDs in the network.

Transferring method of subscriber location information in a network communication system


An automotive vehicle body includes a tailgate and a repositionable D-pillar structure which is slidingly engaged with the body and movable from a first position adjacent the tailgate to a second position forward of the tailgate. A sliding backlite may either be retracted within the tailgate or carried upon and moved with the D-pillar structure. In one embodiment, quarter window panels, which may be either glass or other types of solid panels, are positionable within either the window openings of the D-pillar roof structure or within housings contained within the vehicle's quarter panels.

Reconfigurable vehicles have been the subject of frequent design efforts by automotive engineers. U.S. Pat. No. 4,712,827 discloses a convertible car in which the top of the vehicle is lowered into the bed of the vehicle, allowing a hinged tailgate borne upon a sliding frame member to be moved to a position behind the front seat of the vehicle.
US Patent Publication 2002/0008396 discloses a motor vehicle with a convertible passenger compartment in which a sliding section having either a fixed backlite, or a backlite which is retractable solely into the tailgate of the vehicle is slidably moved under a fixed roof section of the vehicle. In both cases, the quarter window glazing panels must be removed manually. A problem with the system described in the '396 publication resides in the fact that the backlite is not available when the vehicle is reconfigured from a station wagon type of configuration to a pickup type of configuration. This means that the vehicle cannot be made weather tight and theft-resistant as a pickup truck; these are decided drawbacks for most vehicle buyers. A system according to the present invention solves the problems associated with these prior art configurations.

Automotive vehicle with repositionable D-pillar roof structure


A telephone of the present invention is a push button type telephone whereby a DTMF signal of a first one-touch dial table is sent out in accordance with operation keys input in the general line mode and a DTMF signal of a second one-touch dial table is sent out in the private branch exchange mode. A signal sent out from a telephone in the private branch exchange mode represents a character string composed of one or more of character, starting with a character selected from a particular character group like such a less frequently used character as “A”, “B”, “C” or “D”, for example. A function table on the part of a private branch exchange establishes ties between a character string starting with a character included in the aforementioned character group and a service function.

A push button dialing type general telephone has a DTMF signal generating means. A DTMF signal is formed by combining two frequencies, each of which is selected from a high frequency group of 1209 Hz, 1336 Hz, 1477 Hz and 1633 Hz and a low frequency group of 679 Hz, 770 Hz, 852 Hz and 941 Hz, respectively. Accordingly, a combination of 4 by 4 equaling to 16 different DTMF signals is possible for the signal generation. In general, these 16 different DTMF signals are allotted to respective numerals of "0" through "9" and codes of "*", "#", "A", "B", "C" and "D". The user is allowed to receive such services as telephone exchange connections and the like by sending dial signals via a general telephone to a telephone exchange of the public telephone network or an analog type private branch exchange by means of the DTMF signals.
Further, a general telephone is provided with function keys such as a operation keys, a redial key and the like in addition to dial keys for outputting the DTMF signals, thereby allowing such telephone functions as one-touch dialing, abbreviated dialing, redialing and the like to be performed.
Recently, many private branch exchanges have been employing a digital system and the ones with more advanced functions have been prevailing. However, since the aforementioned general telephone is designed for connecting with general lines (such as an analog station line, a digital station line and the like), the general telephone as such some times does not work properly or can not utilize well the service functions of a private branch exchange.
In addition, a private branch exchange is designed on the understanding that numerous service functions are realized by having a dedicated telephone of the private branch exchange connected, thereby allowing many of the private branch exchanges to be satisfied with performing a minimum of functions when a general telephone is connected therewith even if the connection is possible.
Therefore, when a general telephone is connected to a private branch exchange as one of the extension stations together with dedicated telephones, the user of the general telephone is restricted in utilizing the numerous service functions that are made available to the user of a dedicated telephone, thereby preventing the user from enjoying the valuable and diversified service functions of the private branch exchange or forcing the user to go through complex steps of maneuver even if the general telephone can be connected. Even when operational instructions are exchanged between a general telephone and a private branch exchange by using the foregoing DTMF signal system, despite the framework of 16 different signals that are possible theoretically, it is usual that the numerals of "0" through "9", and codes of "*" and "#" only are used and the codes of "A", "B", "C" and "D" remain unused.
Furthermore, many of the push-button type general telephones have no buttons for sending out the codes of "A", "B", "C" and "D". One of the reasons for this is considered to be lack of a sufficiently improved infrastructure (including private branch exchanges), whereby services are provided through the use of DTMF signals of "A", "B", "C" and "D".
Accordingly, the combined use of prior art push-button type general telephones and a private branch exchange has not allowed the functions of the private branch exchange to be exploited to the fullest extent. As a result, when an enterprise employing no private branch exchange as yet decides on an introduction of a private branch exchange, for instance, it is absolutely needed that dedicated telephones are procured at the same time to exploit the functions of the private branch exchange sufficiently. And, the same can be said when an enterprise having already installed a private branch exchange decides on replacing the private branch exchange. In such cases, the old type telephones that have been long used are often discarded.
On the other hand, with respect to a general telephone itself, the DTMF signals therefrom are generated generally by an LSI provided with a DTMF signal generating function and many of the general telephones are missing the buttons to send out the codes of "A", "B", "C" and "D" in spite of the fact that the LSI is capable of sending out the numerals of "0" through "9" plus codes of "*", "#", "A", "B", "C" and "D", thus having the inherent functional capabilities left unused.

Matsushita Electric Industrial Co., Ltd.


A seal arrangement for sealing a bearing comprising a first component and a second component which are rotatably movable with respect to each other is provided. The seal arrangement includes brush seal having an annular brush body carried by the first component and a bundle of resiliently bendable bristles. The brush seal is adapted to maintain a sealing condition when the first and second component are moved relative to each other in a non-rotational manner. Further, a brush seal and a wind turbine having a brush seal are provided.

The present disclosure generally relates to the sealing of bearings, and, more particularly, to the sealing of wind turbine bearings.
Wind turbines are of increasing importance as an environmentally safe and relatively inexpensive energy source. For protection of the environment, it is also desirable to avoid grease leakage from the bearings. A grease leakage may occur if the bearings (e.g. the pitch bearings of a wind turbine) are exposed to high dynamic loads causing a bearing deformation. In view of this, a wind turbine having a sealed bearing is disclosed herein. Further, a brush seal with a plurality of flexible bristles for sealing a bearing, and a seal arrangement including a brush seal having a bundle of resiliently bendable bristles are disclosed herein.

Seal arrangement and a brush seal for a wind turbine


A refrigerator with a through-the-door beverage can dispenser that includes a chute disposed within a refrigerated interior space that is adapted to receive and hold a plurality of beverage cans in a side-by-side relationship for sequential discharge from a bottom end of the chute. The beverage dispenser includes a rotatable drum that in a loading position has a trough portion adapted to receive a beverage can discharged from the bottom end of the chute and a barrel portion adapted to sealingly fill a passage through a door of the refrigerator. The drum is rotatable by hand from the loading position to a dispensing position where the trough portion of the drum is adjacent to the passage through the door to permit removal of a beverage can from the trough without opening the door.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a refrigerator having a through-the-door beverage can dispenser.
2. Description of Related Art
Many devices are known for individually dispensing refrigerated beverage cans. Vending machines, for example, accept coins or other forms of payment and then electro-mechanically discharge a refrigerated beverage can into a basket for retrieval by a consumer. Other known beverage can dispensers simply consist of refrigerated cabinets having doors that swing open or slide open to allow a consumer to retrieve a beverage can from a shelf or a gravity-fed dispensing rack situated within the cabinet.
Electro-mechanically operated devices are expensive, and can be somewhat complicated to load with beverage cans. Refrigerated cabinets with swinging or sliding doors are generally less expensive than electro-mechanically operated beverage can dispensing devices and are easier to load, but they tend to be substantially less energy efficient because they allow refrigerated air to escape each time the door is opened by a consumer to retrieve a beverage can from the cabinet. A non-electromechanical beverage can dispenser that provides the simplicity of a refrigerated cabinet, but does not allow large amounts of refrigerated air to escape each time a beverage can is dispensed, is needed.

Refrigerator with through-the-door beverage can dispenser


The optical trigger 22 outputs a trigger signal in. synchronization with a pulse beam falling incident on the photocathode 91 of the streak tube 90. The deflection voltage generator 50 applies a pair of deflection voltages to the deflection electrodes 93 and 93' in the streak tube 90. The differential amplifier 60 detects the deflection voltages, and outputs a deflection voltage detection signal. The delay comparator 71 detects a time difference between the deflection voltage detection signal and the trigger signal, and outputs a difference signal indicative of the detected time difference. Based on the difference signal, the voltage control delay circuit 41 controls a delay amount of the deflection voltages to be outputted from the generator 50.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical waveform detecting device for detecting a high speed optical phenomenon such as nanosecond through femtosecond pulses of fluorescent light.
2. Description of Related Art
A streak tube is preferably used for detecting such a high speed optical phenomenon.


Methods and apparatus for bipolar junction transistors (BJTs) are disclosed. A BJT comprises a collector made of p-type semiconductor material, a base made of n-type well on the collector; and an emitter comprising a p+ region on the base and a SiGe layer on the p+ region. The BJT can be formed by providing a semiconductor substrate comprising a collector, a base on the collector, forming a sacrificial layer on the base, patterning a first photoresist on the sacrificial layer to expose an opening surrounded by a STI within the base; implanting a p-type material through the sacrificial layer into an area of the base, forming a p+ region from the p-type implant; forming a SiGe layer on the etched p+ region to form an emitter. The process can be shared with manufacturing a polysilicon transistor up through the step of patterning a first photoresist on the sacrificial layer.

Semiconductor devices used for many applications may comprise millions of transistors or other devices such as resistors. There are many different types of transistors. A complementary metal oxide semiconductor ("CMOS") device comprises metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistors ("MOSFET"). Bipolar junction transistors ("BJTs"), either NPN BJTs or PNP BJTs, may be used to make other types of transistors. A MOSFET utilizes a NPN and a PNP BJT may be used in various applications.
BJTs generally exhibit higher gain, higher frequency performance and lower noise compared to MOSFETs. BJTs may also be classified as lateral or vertical BJTs. A BJT typically includes an emitter, a collector, and a base. The collector is formed on a semiconductor substrate between a pair of shallow trench isolation (STI) regions, which electrically isolates the collector of the BJT from other devices located in the substrate. The base is located above the collector but underneath the emitter. The BJTs may be formed using CMOS technology, and may be formed simultaneously with other CMOS devices such as resistors.
Resistors may be formed by any type of resistive material and used as load devices within a variety of semiconductor devices. Polysilicon resistors are made of a thin layer of either intrinsic or low-doped polycrystalline silicon, which can result in a significant reduction in the device size and a high integration density.
In recent years, submicron technology for CMOS devices has made it possible to attain higher speed and performance. Similar progress is desired for BJTs formed using a silicon substrate. In particular, the silicon germanium (SiGe) BJTs have been considered highly promising, where SiGe has a narrower bandgap than silicon so as to form a hetero-junction. In the hetero-junction structure, the emitter can inject charge carriers with greater efficiency into the base. However, PNP BJT with a SiGe hetero-junction emitter has a very poor performance. Therefore, there is a need for improving the performance for SiGe BJTs.
Corresponding numerals and symbols in the different figures generally refer to corresponding parts unless otherwise indicated. The figures are drawn to clearly illustrate the relevant aspects of the embodiments and are not necessarily drawn to scale.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Methods and apparatus for bipolar junction transistors and resistors

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company, Ltd.


Systems and methods for pre-positioning data in a network memory are described. A pre-positioning command may be executed to position specific data at one or more network memory appliances before the data is requested at a branch office. For example, the first download of a software update over the communication network at a branch office may require several minutes. To make the first download of the software update faster, the software update may be downloaded previously to the branch appliance. According to various embodiments, the pre-positioning command may comprise a time of transfer and/or a schedule. The data may be received by a pre-positioning receiver such as a file system server, a hypertext transfer protocol server, a file transfer protocol server, or a virtual client.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates generally to network memory and more particularly to a network memory architecture.
2. Description of Related Art
To allow remote employees access to an enterprise's information systems, organizations typically choose between two networking approaches: centralized servers or distributed servers. Centralized server implementations have the advantage of simplicity since an information technology (IT) professional centrally manages, maintains, and enforces policies for the organization's data.
FIG. 1 illustrates a centralized server system 100 in the prior art. The centralized server system 100 includes a branch office 110 and a central office 120 coupled by a communication network 130. The communication network 130 forms a WAN between the branch office 110 and the central office 120.
Typically, the central servers 160 in the central office 120 store the organization's data. Computers 140 make requests for the data from the central servers 160 over the communication network 130. The central servers 160 then return the data to the computers 140 over the communication network 130.
The communication network 130 typically comprises a private network (e.g., a leased line network) or a public network (e.g., the Internet). The connections to the communication network 130 from the branch office 110 and the central office 120 typically cause a bandwidth bottleneck for exchanging the data over the communication network 130. The exchange of the data between the branch office 110 and the central office 120, in the aggregate, will usually be limited to the bandwidth of the slowest link in the communication network 130.
For example, the router 150 connects to the communication network 130 by a T1 line, which provides a bandwidth of approximately 1.544 Megabits/second (Mbps). The router 170 connects to the communication network 130 by a T3 line, which provides a bandwidth of approximately 45 Megabits/second (Mbps). Even though the communication network 130 may provide an internal bandwidth greater than 1.544 Mbps or 45 Mbps, the available bandwidth between the branch office 110 and the central office 120 is limited to the bandwidth of 1.544 Mbps (i.e., the T1 connection). Connections with higher bandwidth to relieve the bandwidth bottleneck across the communication network 130 are available, but are generally expensive and have limited availability.
Moreover, many applications do not perform well over the communication network 130 due to the limited available bandwidth. Developers generally optimize the applications for performance over a local area network (LAN) which typically provides a bandwidth between 10 Mbps to Gigabit/second (Gbps) speeds. The developers of the applications assume small latency and high bandwidth across the LAN between the applications and the data. However, the latency across the communication network 130 typically will be 100 times that across the LAN, and the bandwidth of the communication network 130 will be 1/100th of the LAN.
Alternatively, many organizations select the distributed server implementation to mitigate some of the problems with the centralized server implementation. FIG. 2 illustrates a distributed server system 200 in the prior art. The distributed server system 200 includes a branch office 210, a central office 220, and a communication network 230. The communication network 230 forms a WAN between the branch office 210 and the central office 220.
In the distributed server system 200, the branch servers 240 (e.g., email servers, file servers and databases) are placed locally in the branch office 210, rather than solely in the central office 220. The branch servers 240 typically store all or part of the organization's data. The branch servers 240 generally provide improved application performance and data access. The branch servers 240 respond to a request for the organization's data from the local data. For each request for the data, the central servers 270 potentially do not need to transfer the data over the communication network 130 (i.e., the WAN). Synchronization and backup procedures are implemented to maintain the coherency between the local data in the branch office 210 and the data in the central office 220.
Unfortunately, managing the distributed server system 200 is complex and costly. From a physical point of view, the distributed server system 200 with one hundred branch offices requires an order of one hundred times more equipment than the centralized server approach. Each piece of the equipment not only needs to be purchased, but also installed, managed, and repaired driving significant life cycle costs. The branch office 210 may need additional local IT personnel to perform operations because of this "Server Sprawl". Furthermore, the multiplication of managed devices means additional license costs, security vulnerabilities, and patching activities.
In distributed server implementations (e.g., the distributed server system 200), the data, including the "golden copy" or most up-to-date version of mission critical data, is often stored (at least temporarily) only on the branch servers 240 in the branch office 210. Organizations implement complex protocols and procedures for replication and synchronization to ensure that the mission critical data is backed up and kept in-sync across the WAN with the central servers 270.
Furthermore, although FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 illustrate a single branch office and a single central office, multiple branch offices and multiple central offices exacerbate the previously discussed problems. For example, in a centralized server implementation having multiple branches, computers in each of the multiple branch offices make requests over the WAN to central servers for the organization's data. The data transmitted by the central servers in response to the requests quickly saturate the available bandwidth of the central office's connection to the communication network, further decreasing application performance and data access at the multiple branch offices. In a distributed server implementation having multiple branches, the cost to provide branch servers in each of the multiple branch offices increases, as well as the problems of licensing, security vulnerabilities, patching activities, and data replication and synchronization. Moreover, different branches may simultaneously attempt to modify the same piece of information. Maintaining coherency in a distributed implementation requires complex and error prone protocols.
As well as implementing centralized servers or distributed servers, organizations also implement mechanisms for caching to improve application performance and data access. A cache is generally used to reduce the latency of the communication network (e.g., communication network 230) forming the WAN (i.e., because the request is satisfied from the local cache) and to reduce network traffic over the WAN (i.e., because responses are local, the amount of bandwidth used is reduced).
Web caching, for example, is the caching of web documents (i.e., HTML pages, images, etc.) in order to reduce web site access times and bandwidth usage. Web caching typically stores local copies of the requested web documents. The web cache satisfies subsequent requests for the web documents if the requests meet certain predetermined conditions.
One problem with web caching is that the web cache is typically only effective for rarely modified static web documents. For dynamic documents, there is a difficult trade off between minimizing network traffic and the risk of the web cache serving up stale data. The web cache may serve stale data because the web cache responds to requests without consulting the server.
Another problem is that the web cache does not recognize that two otherwise identical documents are the same if they have different Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The web cache does not consider the content or context of the documents. Thus, the web cache caches the documents by URL or filename without a determination of the content or context of the document. Moreover, the web cache stores entire objects (such as documents) and cache-hits are binary: either a perfect match or a miss. Even where only small changes are made to the documents, the web cache does not use the cached copy of the documents to reduce network traffic.

Pre-positioning data in a network memory appliance


An ice detection sensor for placement on a surface of a body subject to ig includes a Pyrex glass or silicon block for disposal on the body surface, the block having a cavity therein, a diaphragm bonded to the silicon block and covering the cavity, a drive electrode disposed in the cavity and operable to deflect the diaphragm upon application of voltage between the drive electrode and the diaphragm, and a second electrode operable to detect motion of the diaphragm. The diaphragm is movable by the drive electrode when there is water covering the diaphragm and when the diaphragm is not covered and the diaphragm is not movable by the drive electrode when there is ice covering the diaphragm. The second electrode is adapted to detect movement and non-movement of the diaphragm, whereby to detect whether ice covers the diaphragm.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to sensors for detecting the presence of ice on structures, as for example, aircraft, roads, bridges, and equipment.
2. Description of the Prior Art
It is known to provide sensors to detect the presence of ice on various structures. Prior types of such sensors include hot-wire, vibrating probe, pulse-echo, microwave and pressure array types. Such devices typically are large, expensive, consume significant power, and disrupt the flow field around structures such as aircraft. Further, such devices typically are deployed for single-point measurements, such as one per aircraft, for example, providing a single reading for the entire aircraft. The sensors activate the de-icing of the whole aircraft, or other structure, without regard to local conditions wherein ice may not be present.
It is deemed desirable to have available an ice detector sensor which is small and relatively inexpensive, so that large numbers of sensors can be made and used at very low cost. It is further desired to have sensors which are of negligible weight and of a configuration so as not to disrupt flow over the surface on which the sensor is mounted. There is a need for such sensors as are adapted to be spread upon a surface to provide knowledge of ice conditions in a number of local areas of the surface. Only those local areas covered with ice would then be de-iced, saving power and de-ice chemicals in utilization of the de-icing system.

The United States of America as represented by the Secretary of the Army


An endoscope comprising, in a part of an insertion portion having flexibility, a bending portion formed by covering an outermost circumference with a covering rubber. Respective end portions of the covering rubber being tightly bound to a rigid portion near the bending portion with a thread and fixed by applying an adhesive. In at least one end portion of both fixed end portions of the covering rubber, hardness of at least a portion in a range from an end portion in a center portion side of a portion tightly bound with the thread to an end portion in a center portion side of a portion to which the adhesive is applied is set higher than hardness in a center portion of the covering rubber.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an endoscope including a bending portion in an insertion portion and, more particularly, to an endoscope in which an end portion of covering rubber forming an outermost circumference of the bending portion is fixed to a rigid portion near the end portion by bonding.
2. Description of the Related Art
As an endoscope for medical use inserted into a body, there are a rigid endoscope in which an insertion portion does not have flexibility and a flexible endoscope in which an insertion portion has flexibility. In recent year, not only the flexible endoscope but also some rigid endoscopes include a bending portion in an insertion portion.
As shown in FIG. 1, an insertion portion 1 of a flexible endoscope is configured by consecutively connecting a flexible tube portion 2, a bending portion 3, and a distal end portion 4 including a distal end rigid portion 4a in order. The flexible tube portion 2 is elongated and has flexibility. The bending portion 3 is configured to bend, for example, in upward, downward, left, and right directions.
The bending portion 3 includes plural bending pieces 5, a net tube 6 that covers an outer circumference of the plural bending pieces 5, and covering rubber 7 that further covers an outer circumference of the net tube 6. The plural bending pieces 5 are pivotably consecutively connected. The covering rubber 7 is an outer skin tube that covers the net tube 6.
A not-shown image pickup apparatus included in an observation optical system 8 is provided at the distal end portion 4 of the insertion portion 1. In the insertion portion 1, a signal cable extending from an image pickup device provided in the image pickup apparatus, a not-shown light guide fiber bundle for transmitting illumination light, a channel tube for suction 9, a bending wire 3a used to perform bending operation of the bending portion 3, and the like are inserted.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Publication No. 2002-34900 discloses that, for example, a distal end bending portion and a flexible tube portion of an insertion portion of an endoscope is usually covered with an outer skin tube having flexibility, an end portion of the outer skin tube needs to be fixed to a tubular member on an inner side to prevent liquid from intruding from the outside, it is difficult to obtain a sure fixed state simply by bonding the end portion of the outer skin tube to the tubular member on the inner side using an adhesive, or, in the past, a method of tightly binding the end portion of the outer skin tube with a silk thread or a nylon thread to firmly fix the end portion of the outer skin to the tubular member on the inner side and further applying the adhesive from an outer side to prevent loosening of the thread is adopted.
In the insertion portion 1 of the endoscope shown in FIG. 1, a thread reeling and bonding portion 11 for firmly fixing a distal end portion of the covering rubber 7 to the distal end rigid portion 4a and a thread reeling and bonding portion 11 for firmly fixing a proximal end portion of the covering rubber 7 to a coupling member 10 are provided. These thread reeling and bonding portions 11 include thread members 12 and adhesives 13. The thread members 12 tightly bind the covering rubber 7 to the distal end rigid portion 4a and tightly bind the covering rubber 7 to the coupling member 10. The adhesives 13 are applied around the tightly-bound thread members 12.
However, in the insertion portion 1 of the endoscope, bending action of the bending portion 3 pulls the covering rubber 7 as indicated by an arrow Y2 in FIG. 2 and thickness of the insertion portion 1 decreases. When the bending action of the bending portion 3 is released, the pulled covering rubber 7 returns to an original state as indicated by a broken line.
In an endoscope for medical use, in recent years, high-temperature high-pressure steam sterilization has been adopted for disinfecting of the endoscope. When the endoscope is subjected to the high-temperature high-pressure steam sterilization, a waterproofing cap with a pressure regulating valve for adjusting pressure in a space on an inside of the endoscope is attached to an electric connector section of the endoscope. An endoscope including the same pressure regulating valve in a vent hole of a connector section of the endoscope is subjected to the high-temperature high-pressure steam sterilization without the waterproofing cap being attached to the endoscope.
Sterilization treatment by high-temperature high-pressure steam for the endoscope is performed in the order of a pre-process, a sterilization process, and a drying process. In the pre-process, pressure in a sterilization room is reduced and pressure on an outside of the endoscope is lower than an inside of the endoscope. Then, the pressure regulating valve of the waterproofing cap opens to allow the inside and the outside of the endoscope to communicate with each other. As a result, for example, a deficiency due to expansion caused by a large pressure difference between inner pressure of the endoscope and pressure in the sterilization room is prevented. In the pre-process, decompression is repeatedly performed at a predetermined time interval. Therefore, during the decompression, the covering rubber 7 expands, although a little. When the decompression is released, the covering rubber 7 is pulled to an inner side of the endoscope.
In the sterilization process, an inside of the sterilization room is pressurized, whereby pressure on the outside of the endoscope is higher than pressure on the inside of the endoscope. At this point, the pressure regulating valve is closed. The covering rubber 7 is pressurized as indicated by an arrow Y3 in FIG. 3 to thereby be crushed as indicated by a solid line from the state indicated by the broken line.
Thereafter, in the drying process, decompression is repeated as in the pre-process. As a result, the covering rubber 7 repeats deformation.
In this way, the covering rubber 7 is deformed in the bending action or in the high-temperature high-pressure steam sterilization. When the covering rubber 7 is deformed, a load is applied to an interface between the covering rubber 7 and the adhesive 13. It is likely that an end portion 13A of the adhesive 13, which fixes the covering rubber 7, peels as shown in FIG. 4.
As representative high-temperature high-pressure steam sterilization treatment, there is, for example, United States Standard ANSI/AAMI ST-79 issued by the Medical Equipment Development Association approved by the United States Standard Association. As specific conditions, it is specified that the treatment is performed for four minutes at 132° C. in the sterilization process including the pre-process.


Disclosed herein are strategies for verifying placement of a direct measurement tag useful for measuring Internet traffic of a plurality of users at a website. For example, a method may include receiving web page identification data that is derived from user clickstream data, determining a URL associated with a domain based on the webpage identification information, and providing a measurement code verification web crawler with the URL and the depth to which to explore the domain for verifying measurement code placement with the web crawler.

The methods and systems described herein generally relate to website page view measurement functionality and particularly relate to verification strategies for tag placement and operation and verification of direct measurement page view tags. Direct page view measurement requires accurate and proper tag (e.g. JavaScript) placement in a large number of web pages to ensure valid page view measurement. Ensuring that pages are properly tagged requires a robust tag verification strategy that is adaptable to use a variety of data sources, verification techniques, manual and/or automated analysis, and the like. A need exists for improved tag verification strategies and verification techniques.

Direct page view measurement tag placement verification