An insufflation needle having a viewing system at its distal end and a trocar, both of which can be inserted through rotation of the puncturing element of the instrument, and a method of using these instruments. Both the insufflation needle and the trocar include a rotatable puncturing mechanism and a safety shield which allow the instruments to be safely inserted into body tissue through the use of a drill thereby requiring less force and reducing the possibility of trauma to the patient. The insufflation needle also includes a viewing system which allows the surgeon to view the distal end of the needle while it is being inserted into body tissue as well as to view the distal end of the trocar once it reaches a destination within the abdominal cavity proximate the distal end of the needle. The system reduces the risk of improper placement of both the needle and the trocar to thereby result in a safe laparoscopic surgical procedure.

Laparoscopic surgery is gaining prominence as the preferred surgical method since the time required for recovery and the risk to the patient are less than with conventional surgical procedures. In laparoscopic surgery, all surgical instruments are inserted through tubes, or trocars, which are placed in small incisions in the abdomen. These small incisions are less susceptible to wound infections and take much less time to heal than the single large incision usually made with conventional techniques. Also, since a large surgical area is not exposed during laparoscopic surgery, the incidence of internal infection is also reduced.
Laparoscopic surgical procedures require that a gas, such as carbon dioxide, be introduced into the abdominal cavity. This establishes pneumoperitoneum wherein the peritoneal cavity is sufficiently inflated for the insertion of trocars into the abdomen. The distal end of the trocars move within the gas-filled cavity and thus provide access to an area larger than the small incision through which the trocar is inserted. During laparoscopic surgery, the flow of gas into the peritoneal cavity continues to replace any gas that is absorbed by the patient or which leaks out through the trocars.
Pneumoperitoneum is established through the use of a special insufflation needle, called a Veress needle, which has a spring-loaded obturator that advances over the sharp tip of the needle as soon as the needle enters the abdominal cavity. This needle is inserted through the fascia and through the peritoneum. Generally, the surgeon relies on tactile senses to determine the proper placement of the needle by recognizing when the needle is inserted through the fascia and then through the peritoneum. However, this technique is often unreliable for a thin patient whose fascia and peritoneum feel like a single layer.
The proper placement of the Veress needle is critical. First, the needle must go through both the fascia and the peritoneum. If the needle is inserted between the fascia and the peritoneum, massive distention of the preperitoneal space therebetween will result. If the needle goes beyond the peritoneum, the needle may perforate the stomach, small bowel, colon, bladder, or major vascular structures, the consequences of which can be fatal. The purpose of the spring-loaded safety tip of the Veress needle is to minimize the risk of visceral injury by covering the sharp tip once it has penetrated the peritoneum. However, in order for the safety tip to be extended, the tip of the needle must reach a void with the tissue. Such a void may not exist for a patient having excessive fat in the abdominal cavity. Thus, it is desirable to utilize a device and a method whereby the insertion of the device can be seen by the surgeon to avoid misplacement of the sharp point of the device.
Present methods for establishing pneumoperitoneum through the use of a Veress needle work very well in normal sized people who have not had previous surgery. They do not work well for those patients who are obese, that have previously had surgery, peritonitis, or severe inflammation. There are also problems in using these methods for patients who have cancer which has spread along the peritoneum. For example, if the patient previously had surgery or has cancer, the intestines may be stuck to the peritoneum with dense fibrous adhesions. In these patients, the needle may go through the peritoneum into the lumen of the bowel.
After establishing pneumoperitoneum, the next step in laparoscopic surgery involves the insertion of a trocar into the abdominal cavity. It is through this first trocar that an endoscope is inserted into the abdominal cavity to provide the surgeon with a view of the rest of the operation. Trocars are similar to the Veress needle in that they are also equipped with a spring-loaded safety shield to avoid visceral injury. Trocars, like Veress needles, are inserted using a sudden thrust of the pointed tip into the abdomen. Therefore, as is true with the Veress needle, placement of the trocar is also vital, and the reliance of the surgeon on mere tactile senses for proper placement can be fatal. In using the current methods, once the endoscope is in place, all other trocars used to perform the remainder of the surgical procedure are visible through the endoscope once they reach the abdominal cavity, and, therefore, their insertion is usually safe. It would be desirable, however, to also provide a visualization system in which the potential hazards associated with the insertion of the first trocar are avoided.
Endoscopes are used in a variety of surgical procedures to provide the surgeon with visual information not otherwise available. For example, the endoscope disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,607,622 is used in treating, diagnosing and investigating problems with the eye. In light of its intended purposes, this endoscope provides an appropriately shaped probe which is able to receive other instruments for the purpose of treating the eye while the instrument is in the view of the endoscope. Similarly, the laser endoscope disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,211,229 allows a laser instrument or other surgical device to be interchanged within the sheath of the endoscope. Disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,121 is an endoscope through which an electrode may be inserted.
In the development of endoscopes, the provision of viewing both forward and to the side is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,856,000 and 3,880,148. Binocular vision, and thus improved depth perception, is provided for in the invention disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,061,135 which also provides a cauterizing loop at the forward end of the endoscope. The endoscope disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,121 may be focused to provide both microscopic and telescopic vision to the surgeon. Furthermore, the size of the endoscope in U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,121 is such that it may be inserted into a very small sheath since the device is only 18-gauge or smaller.
Many endoscopes are inserted through a sheath or tube inserted into an incision in body tissue. Thus, blindly creating an incision for the placement of a sheath can result in potential problems for many types of surgery in which an endoscope is used, not just laparoscopic surgery. It is desireable to provide an endoscope which does not require that a preliminary incision be made for placement thereof (except for an optional skin incision).
The needle endoscope disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,941,121 is small enough that it may be used without a sheath and therefore avoids the need to create a preliminary incision before its insertion. However, as stated above, the insertion of this needle endoscope as well as insufflation needles and trocars ordinarily used in laparoscopic surgery require that the surgeon push the instrument into the abdomen. The force required to do so may result in the inadvertent placement of the instrument beyond the desired location and perhaps even into an organ or a major vascular structure. Thus, it is desireable to provide a method for laparoscopic surgery in which less force is required and greater control of the forward end of the instrument is achieved to thereby further reduce the risk of the procedure to the patient.

Rotatable laparoscopic puncturing instrument


Disks 21 through 2N have two loops 41A and 42B and, if any abnormality in a loop A41 is detected by an FC-AL state monitoring unit A13, a disk control unit A71 requests a disk control unit B72 to perform uncompleted disk processing. The disk control unit B72, complying with this request, executes that uncompleted disk processing, using a loop B42. Also, disk processing at a new instruction from a host is also executed by the disk control unit B72. After that, the disk control unit A71 diagnoses the loop A41.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a loop diagnosis system and method for disk array apparatuses, and more particularly to a loop diagnosis system and method for disk array apparatuses using an FC-AL (Fibre Channel-Arbitrated loop) interface disk.
2. Description of the Related Art
Along with the development of the information technology (IT) environment in recent years, the role of storage units in computer systems is taking on ever increasing importance, and the requirements for their performance, reliability and capacity also keep on increasing in stringency. In disk array apparatuses, these requirements are met by conforming the interface with the host to the FC-AL [Fibre Channel-Arbitrated Loop: a loop prescribed by ANSI (American National Standards Institute) X3.272-199x Rev 5.7 Aug. 22, 1997] or mounting the apparatus with an FC-AL interface disk.
If a loop abnormality, such as a link-down, occurs in an FC-AL (hereinafter to be referred to simply as a "loop") to disturb the loop state, processing on any other normal disk connected to the loop may be affected and become no longer able to function normally. In order to bring back the loop into a normal state, any faulty part should be removed from the loop, but if the loop abnormality is intermittent, complex loop diagnosing will be needed to pinpoint the faulty part, and in a modern disk array apparatus in which many disks are connected in a loop, it takes a long time to identify and remove the faulty disk.
One of such disk array apparatuses is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1999-353126 (Reference 1). According to the technique disclosed in Reference 1, the troubled loop is once cut off, and disks in the disk array apparatus are connected to the initiator host one by one to locate the fault. The faulty disk, as it is identified, is removed from the loop. This facilitates the faulty disk and serves to reduce the time taken to identify it.
Another such disk array apparatus is disclosed in the Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1999-305944 (Reference 2) and the Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 1999-306644 (Reference 3). Reference 2 discloses an arrangement in which the link state is indicated by turning a lamp on when a link-down occurs and turning it off at the time of a link-up. Reference 3 discloses a technique by which the faulty disk is diagnosed after it is separated from the loop.
However, the technique disclosed in Reference 1 involves a problem that processing on normal disks is interrupted during the attempt to identify the faulty disk. There is a further disadvantage that, if the number of disks connected to the loop increases reflecting an expanded capacity of the disk array apparatus, the time taken to diagnose the loop will be further extended, and so will be the duration of the interruption of normal disk processing. Nothing to solve these problems is proposed in either Reference 2 or 3.

Loop diagnosis system and method for disk array apparatuses


Mo of 0.05 to 1.0% by mass is adhered to the surfaces of an iron-based powder containing Mn of 0.5% by mass or less and Mo of 0.2 to 1.5% by mass as prealloyed elements by diffusion bonding, whereby an alloy steel powder is formed. Furthermore, a Ni powder of 0.2 to 5% by mass and/or a Cu powder of 0.2 to 3% by mass are added to the alloy steel powder, whereby a mixed powder for powder metallurgy is formed. The mixed powder for powder metallurgy according to the present invention enables production of sintered bodies having high density as well as superior tensile strength and rotating bending fatigue strength.

Powder metallurgy technology allows production of components which require high dimensional accuracy and have a complex structure in a shape markedly close to that of the finished product (in near net shape), thereby significantly decreasing the finishing cost. Therefore, many products produced by powder metallurgy are used as various components for machines and apparatuses in many fields.
In general, iron-based green compacts for powder metallurgy (green compacts) are produced as follows. First, an iron-based powder is mixed with alloying powder such as graphite powder and so forth, and lubricant powder such as stearic acid and lithium stearate to prepare an iron-based mixed powder. Then, the iron-based mixed powder is filled in a die, and is subjected to compacting, whereby the iron-based green compact is produced.
The iron-based powders are classified into iron powders (such as pure iron powder), alloy steel powder, and so forth, for example, based upon the components thereof. Also, the iron-based powders are classified into atomized iron powders, reduced iron powders, and so forth, for example, based upon the production method thereof.
In general, the iron-based green compacts are formed with a density of 6.6 to 7.1 Mg/M3. Furthermore, these iron-based green compacts are sintered to form sintered bodies. The sintered bodies are subjected to a sizing or a cutting process according to needs, whereby powder metallurgy products are produced. Furthermore, in some cases, the products are subjected to carburizing-quenching or bright-quenching after sintering for improving tensile strength or fatigue strength thereof.
Recently, iron-based powder metallurgy products with high strength or high fatigue strength are strongly desired due to the development of components with reduced size and weight.
In general, alloying elements (Ni, Cu, Mo, W, V, Co, Nb, Ti, and so forth) are added to the iron-based powders for improving the strength of the powder metallurgy products.
Note that examples of the methods for adding alloying elements include: a method for alloying the iron-based powder with a desired element (prealloying); a method for mixing an alloying powder (powder containing a desired alloying element) and the iron-based powder with or without binder; and a method for holding the mixture of the powder containing an alloying element and the iron-based powder at a high temperature so as to metallurgically combine these powders (diffusion bonding). Various properties of the alloy steel powder (or mixed powder), and various levels of uniformity and diffusion states of the alloying element after sintering are obtained depending on the method. Therefore, it is important to select the alloying element and the addition method for achieving the desired quality of the alloy steel powder (or mixed powder) or the desired quality of the sintered body.
For example, Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 6-89365 discloses an alloy steel powder containing 1.5 to 20% by mass of Mo, which is a ferrite-stabilizing element, as a prealloy. According to the document in the sintering process of the aforementioned alloy steel powder, a single a phase is formed, leading to a high self-diffusion rate with respect to Fe. This accelerates sintering, resulting in a reduced size of the pores contained in the sintered body. Thus, pressure sintering of such an alloy steel powder provides a sintered body with improved densification. Furthermore, such an alloy steel powder contains no alloying element added by diffusion bonding, thereby providing a uniform and stable microstructure. However, the Mo content in the disclosure is relatively high, i.e., 1.8% by mass or more, leading to poor compressibility. This leads to the disadvantage that a green compact cannot be formed with high density (the density of the green compact). Accordingly, the sintered body obtained by performing a general sintering process (i.e., sintering in one step without pressurizing) has a low density, leading to insufficient strength and insufficient fatigue strength.
On the other hand, the pressure sintering method and the two-step sintering method including a repressing step have the disadvantage of high costs. Accordingly, a sintered body is preferably produced with high strength and high fatigue strength without involving such special sintering methods.
On the other hand, Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 7-51721 discloses a steel powder which contains 0.2 to 1.5% by mass of Mo and 0.05 to 0.25% by mass of Mn as prealloyed elements, and which has a relatively high compressibility in compacting. However, it has been revealed by the present inventors that a single a phase is not formed using the aforementioned steel powder due to the Mo content of 1.5% by mass or less. Accordingly, the enhanced sintering between particles is not accelerated in a sintering step at a temperature (1120 to 1140° C.) of a mesh belt furnace generally used for powder metallurgy, leading to a problem of low strength of the sintering neck.
While the Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 7-51721 discloses an iron powder as a comparative example, which contains Ni (3.8% by mass), Mo (0.5% by mass), and Cu (1.4% by mass) by diffusion bonding, the Patent document describes that the iron powder has poorer strength than that of the aforementioned alloy steel powder disclosed as an invention in the Patent document.
On the other hand, Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 63-66362 discloses a technique in which Mo is added to an iron powder as a prealloyed element so long as compressibility is not impaired (Mo: 0.1 to 1.0% by mass), and Cu and Ni are bonded on the surfaces of the iron particles in the form of a powder by diffusion bonding. This technique provides both preferable compressibility during the compacting and high strength after sintering. However, the aforementioned technique has a limited ability to improve tensile strength and fatigue strength by adding Cu and Ni since the iron powder containing Mo as a prealloyed element cannot be sintered sufficiently, as with the technique disclosed in the Japanese Examined Patent Application Publication No. 7-51721.
On the other hand, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 8-49047 discloses an alloy steel powder limiting Mn content to 0.3% or less by mass as a prealloyed element as well as containing Mo of 0.1 to 6.0% by mass and V of 0.05 to 2.0% by mass (as prealloyed elements). The aforementioned alloy steel powder provides a sintered body with high strength after heat treatment while maintaining the compressibility thereof. Also, the patent document discloses that the alloy steel powder may contain one or more kinds of elements of Mo (4% by mass or less); Cu (4% by mass or less); Ni (10% by mass or less); Co (4% by mass or less); and W (4% by mass or less) in the form of powders by mixture or diffusion bonding.
On the other hand, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 7-233401 discloses an atomized iron powder (alloy steel powder) which contains Mn of 0.03 to 0.5% by mass and Cr of 0.03 to less than 0.1% by mass as prealloyed elements. The aforementioned atomized iron powder having excellent machinability of the sintered body, as well as providing superior dimensional-accuracy thereof. Also, the aforementioned Patent document discloses examples of strengthening elements that can be used as prealloyed elements, which include: Ni (4.0% by mass or less); Mo (4.0% by mass or less); Nb (0.05% by mass or less); and V (0.5% by mass or less). Furthermore, the Patent document discloses examples of strengthening elements (alloy powders) that can be added by diffusion bonding, which include: a Ni powder (5.0% by mass or less); a Mo powder (3.0% by mass or less); and a Cu powder (5.0% by mass or less).
However, according to the aforementioned techniques, such alloys are not designed from the perspective of the fatigue strength of components produced by sintering. This leads to difficulty in producing sintered metal components which satisfy the high fatigue strength desired in recent years, using a general sintering step.
For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-81001 and Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-147405 disclose alloy steel powders designed for improving the fatigue strength.
The Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2003-147405 discloses an alloy steel powder in which 0.5 to 1.5% by mass of Mo is bonded on the surfaces of a steel powder containing Ni of 0.5 to 2.5% by mass and Mo of 0.3 to 2.5% by mass as prealloyed elements by diffusion bonding. The aforementioned Patent document also discloses that a sintered body formed of the aforementioned alloy steel powder exhibits superior rolling contact fatigue strength after carburizing-quenching.
On the other hand, the Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-81001 discloses an alloy steel powder in which Ni (0.5 to 5% by mass) and/or Cu (0.5 to 2.5% by mass) are bonded to an iron-based powder containing Mo of 0.05 to 2.5% by mass and at least one element of V, Ti, and Nb as prealloyed elements by diffusion bonding. The aforementioned Patent document discloses that the alloy steel powder provides a sintered body having superior rolling contact fatigue strength after carburizing-quenching, as well.


A battery pack charging system comprises a charger configured to be removably coupled to at least two different battery packs each having a different regulation charge voltage associated therewith, and a charger controller configured to cause the charger to charge the at least two different battery packs to the respective regulation charge voltages based on a signal received from each of the respective battery packs.

There are a variety of different types of battery packs configured to power various types of electronic devices. However, the charging characteristics for the various battery packs differ (e.g., a battery pack that includes three lithium ion cells needs to be charged to a different level than a lithium ion battery that contains four cells). Thus, if a four-cell battery pack is charged to the level required for a three-cell battery pack, the four-cell battery pack will be under-charged, which will generally cause an undesirable shortening of the useful life of the battery pack. Additionally, the physical configuration of a battery charging system (and any device the charging system may be disposed in, such as a notebook computer or other type of electronic device) and the physical configuration of the battery pack itself introduce errors into the battery charging process. For example, contact resistance between the charging system and the battery pack, discrete components that lay between the charging system and terminals of the battery pack, and distributed impedances present in voltage sensing and charging circuits cause the charging system to charge the battery pack to a voltage lower than the maximum allowed for the battery pack.

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


The present invention includes a system and a method for automatically authoring video compositions from longer units of digitized video (or a source video) by using short segments of video (or video “cliplets”). The video composition authoring process provides an aesthetically-pleasing layout of data elements to create a video composition. The data elements include multimedia elements, parameter information and description information. Any data elements that are missing but required are automatically selected by the system. The user may then review preliminary video composition results and refine the results if desired. The video composition authoring system includes an element selection and layout module for selecting the data elements in the video composition, and an iterative refinement module that allows the user to change and refine the preliminary results.

Video cameras (or camcorders) are devices that are popular with amateur videographers for home use. Video cameras may be a digital camera, which stores digital video on a memory device, or an analog video camera, which stores video footage on magnetic videotape. Video footage captured by an analog video camera may be converted into digitized format using well-known techniques. This digital video may be processed using a software running on a computing devices (such as personal computers) to edit and manipulate the data captured by video cameras.
The traditional home digital video paradigm expects a user to shoot good video, perform tedious video editing, and then output a single large video containing the edited movie. One problem, however, with this paradigm is that raw video footage, even when professionally photographed, is difficult and tedious to edit. Professional editors with professional training and using high-end editing tools can take hour to edit raw video into a final version that is just minutes in duration. Moreover, most raw video footage is boring and poring over hours of raw video is quite a tedious task, especially for an amateur.
Yet another problem is that current video editing software for amateur use is modeled after professional editing systems. This tends to make the software difficult for the average consumer to use. User interfaces of current video editing software typically provide a user with one view of the raw video footage. A timeline is placed along side the footage to give the user temporal orientation. The timeline may include several different "tracks", such as a video 1 track, a video 2 track, an audio 1 track, and so forth. The user interface includes controls similar to a VCR, such as play, fast-forward and rewind buttons. Using these buttons, a user browses the video footage by moving back and forth across the footage using the controls. This process of browsing the video footage is called "scrubbing".
Still another problem is that current video editing software assumes that the output is yet another video, in which simple playback is the intended mode of viewing. Users may, however, wish to create other compositions with their video. These compositions include a two-dimensional layout of video that is analogous to a photo album, and a hyperlinked document in which the user chooses how to navigate the composition interactively.
Nevertheless, an amateur videographer often desires to produce nice, shorter video compositions of their longer, unedited raw video footage. The video composition may be, for example, a "highlights" video that contains the most interesting segments of the raw video footage, or a 2D video album, or an interactive hypertext document. However, the editing process of scrubbing the video to determine the location of cuts in the video footage is a tedious, repetitive and time-consuming task and must be performed manually. Thus, for the average consumer the process of editing video to produce a video composition is a difficult and burdensome task.
Accordingly, there exists a need for a video composition authoring system and method that provides an easy or an automatic production of arbitrary types of video compositions from digitized video without requiring a user to endure the editing process typically involved in producing such a composition.

System and method for automatically authoring video compositions using video cliplets


Practically ideal electrical resonance is employed to soley provide armature power, and stator power if desired, to run DC motors. A practically ideal parallel resonant tank circuit (PIPRC) is used wherein the quotient of the “tank current” divided by the “line current” (called the “quality” or “Q” of the tank) is (1) greater than one, (2) large enough to allow the percent efficiency of the electric motor to be equal to or greater than 95%, and (3) removes enough back emf or enough of the influence thereof so that criteria (1) and (2) can be realized throughout the entire operating range of the motor. Only one PIPRC is needed for a DC motor. Recontrolling and/or redesigning is done for two reasons. First, since DC motors change effective impedance, because of back emf variations, when their speed changes, controls are implemented to ensure that the tank circuit always meets criterion (3), and therefore criteria (1) and (2), thereby maintaining a PIPRC, regardless of how frequent or to what degree speed is changed. Secondly, this first control has the effect of negating the normal ability of a D.C. motor to draw different currents for driving different loads. Therefore, the way current is supplied to the motor is also recontrolled.

Electrical motors are rated by their efficiency. Efficiency is simply the quotient of the mechanical power output, divided by the electrical power input.
  Efficiency  =            Mechanical                                      power                                      output              Electrical                                      power                                      input      To get a percent efficiency, the quotient is simply multiplied by 100.
      Percent                          Efficiency    =            (      100      )        ×                  Mechanical                                                  power                                                  output                    Electrical                                                  power                                                  input
High efficiency motors that are on the market today, usually operate with efficiency maximums of about 97%. However, there are motors that have higher efficiencies. U.S. patents have been issued for devices that claim to approach efficiencies of 100%.
Since electric motors are used by the hundreds of millions in a myriad of applications even slight improvements in the efficiencies of electric motors save an enormous amount of electrical energy. Since much of this energy is generated from fossil fuels, increases in the efficiencies of electric motors have considerable positive environmental impacts.
Using electrical resonant circuits to drive or otherwise control electric motors is known, however these arrangements have drawbacks such as using a mandatory permanent magnet in the rotor and stator, which have fluxes that are alternatively shorted out and added to by a separate electromagnets in the rotor and stator; powering the motor with a DC battery, and having to adjust the motor's load or the capacitors to keep the machine at proper resonance.
Other prior art arrangements use brushless DC motors that have permanent magnets as rotors and use a LC resonant oscillator to constantly change the magnetic polarities of the stator poles in order to keep the rotor moving with the LC resonant oscillator alternatively switched on and off.
The prior art also includes single phase AC motors powered by parallel resonant circuits, and resonant series circuits as well as polyphase AC motors powered by quasi-parallel and series resonant circuits and by quasi-parallel and series resonant circuits.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Electrical resonance circuits for high efficiency direct current motors


An error detection circuit and method for detecting errors in data using a cyclic redundancy code which includes a plurality of first EXCLUSIVE OR gates each of which receives one bit of input data and one bit of a first portion of remainder data. Each first EXCLUSIVE OR gate outputs the EXCLUSIVE OR of the input data bits and the first remainder data bits to a corresponding one of a plurality of first registers to provide input data to the registers such that the registers store the result of the EXCLUSIVE OR operation. Each of a plurality of second EXCLUSIVE OR gates receives the output of a corresponding one of the plurality of first registers and receives one bit of a second portion of remainder data. Each second EXCLUSIVE OR outputs the EXCLUSIVE OR of these two inputs to a corresponding one of a plurality of second registers which store this second result. Each of the second registers has an output for outputing their stored value.

The encoding and decoding of cyclic codes having a parity bit based on a parity polynomial is described in "Error Control Coding" by Lin et al. published by Prentice-Hall Publishing, 1983. As discussed in Lin et al., encoding cyclic codes generally begins by multiplying a signal polynomial by a specified coefficient. The result of this multiplication is then divided by a check polynomial and the remainder obtained. Finally, the remainder obtained from the check polynomial division is added to the result of the multiplication of the signal polynomial and the coefficient. This procedure of encoding a cyclic code is based on processing bit-serial input data. Accordingly, multiple clock cycles are required for the operation.
In a similar manner, error detection of cyclically coded data may be carried out as described in Lin et al. by determination of a syndrome which is "0" only if there are no errors in the received code vector. This operation also can be carried out as a bit-wise serial operation as seen in FIG. 4.5 on page 99 of Lin et al. but would, likewise, generally require multiple clock cycles for the operation.
In summary, as a result of the bit-wise serial operation of error detection, the detection of errors generally requires multiple clock cycles which may cause an increase in the power consumption of the device. Furthermore, the detection of errors may be delayed by the number of clock cycles it takes to serially process the data. Accordingly, there is a need for improvement in the error detection of cyclically coded information.

Parallel cyclic redundancy code error detection


Inkjet ink contains a pigment, a hydrosoluble solvent, and water, wherein the pigment is represented by the following chemical formula 1 and has a CuKα X-ray diffraction spectrum having a wavelength of 1.541 Å such that no main peak is observed at a Bragg (2θ±0.2°) angle in a range of 2θ of from 28.0° to 29.0°,

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to inkjet ink and an ink cartridge, an ink jet recording device, and inkjet printed matter that use the inkjet ink.
2. Background Art
Inkjet printers are widely used due to their advantages such as low noise and low running costs, and many printers capable of printing color images on plain paper are now widely available on market.
However, it is extremely difficult to satisfy all the properties required of images produced using such printers, such as good color reproducibility, abrasion resistance, durability, light resistance, drying property, feathering, color bleed, duplex printing, and ink discharging stability. As a result, the ink used is selected based on the particular application.
In general, the ink used in inkjet recording is mainly composed of water, with a colorant and a hydrosoluble solvent such as glycerin added to prevent clogging.
As the colorant, dyes are widely used for their coloring and stability. However, the light resistance and water resistance of images produced using such dye-based ink are inferior. Water resistance can be improved in some degree by using specialized recording media having an ink absorbing layer, but is not satisfactory at all when it comes to plain paper.
To compensate for such defects, ink using a pigment as a colorant (pigment ink) has begun to be widely used.
Although pigment ink is successful and superior to dye ink with regard to light resistance, water resistance, etc., the coloring of the pigment ink is degraded by coherence of beams of light having different wavelengths and phases produced by multiple reflections of the beams of light within the pigment. For this reason, pigment ink is considered to be inferior to dye ink in general with regard to the coloring.
In an attempt to compensate for such degradation of the coloring of the pigment ink, pigment particulates that are coated with a resin are used.
By this coating, the fixability and the gas resistance of the pigment ink are further improved and the dispersion stability thereof also ameliorates.
However, currently, even such pigment ink is not still on a par with dye ink with regard to gloss.
In addition, JP-2003-003110-A describes quality recording with a high color density exhibiting fineness and high saturation by using a pseudo-unidimensional crystalline organic color pigment as a colorant, which has an X-ray diffraction spectrum having a diffraction line showing the maximum intensity and its n-th order ("n" is an integer of 2 or greater) diffraction lines as main peaks.

Inkjet ink, ink cartridge, inkjet recording device, and inkjet printed matter

Abstract: wherein R represents a hydrogen atom, a methyl group, or a chlorine atom.


A technique for controlling node equipment in a SONET ring transmission system. Control signals from a control center are transmitted in a selected byte of the SONET frame to each node coupled to the SONET ring. Each SONET node includes a decoder for decoding the control signals as to a destination address, and if a match is found, the node decodes a command field to carry out the representative functions. The command may be to activate or deactivate node circuits, or to receive or transmit video signals in specified VT channels of the SONET frame. In this manner, equipment can be switched on or off at the respective node to thereby optimize the bandwidth efficiency of the SONET network.

High speed digital transmission systems have been highly developed and refined to communicate voice, data and other information. The transmission of video signals is also a highly developed technology, both as to analog and digital signals. The transmission of a video image, whether it be still or moving, requires the communication of a substantial amount of information. Present technology is available for transmitting relatively few channels of video information without being unduly complicated or expensive. The digitization of analog signals, including video signals, is a well developed technology. Indeed, digital compression techniques have been developed to compress the digital signals into much lower bandwidths to optimize the usage of the transmission systems. The compression of digital video signals allows for the low cost and efficient transmission of video information on standard digital transmission systems. Such transmission systems can carry voice and data signals, as well as video signals on the same transmission system, without requiring larger or different types of systems.
The transmission of digital signals by way of optical signals is an emerging technology, primarily due to the high speed transmission medium. Moreover, the fiber optic transmission of digital signals has certain inherent advantages as compared to the standard copper twisted pair or coaxial cable counterparts, such as longer life, longer transmission distances without the use of repeaters or regenerators, and much less susceptibility to electromagnetic interference. While the digitalization and compression of data introduces a known amount of signal degradation, the transmission of the compressed digital signals on a fiber optic system adds no further degradation. Indeed, the distance and number of drops in a fiber optic system no longer affect signal quality. This allows video signals to be monitored anywhere in a transmission network without affecting the quality of the video signal. Video signals can thus be more effectively monitored in management or administrative offices as well as at dedicated monitoring stations.
The new video compression standards such as JPEG and MPEG, and others, allow for full motion video to be transmitted in bandwidths as low as 384 kbits/s. Bandwidth requirements affect video quality, with higher bandwidths providing better quality. Relatively high quality video can now be transmitted in bandwidths as low as 2 Mbits/s. These signals are easily carried on standard transmission protocols such as DS-1, E1, frame relay and ATM. Video signals carried by the public communication network allow a camera to be monitored from a remote location anywhere in the world where there is access to a reliable public communication network.
The Synchronous Optical NETwork (SONET) transmission system is being incorporated into all of the major public telecommunication transmission networks on a world-wide basis. In Europe, the corresponding SONET system is known as the Synchronous Digital Hierarchy (SDH) system. The SONET transmission of optical signals is carried out according to a well-known protocol. With the availability of efficient video compression techniques and the world digital transmission standards of SONET/SDH, video information can be distributed in a manner never before considered by the video industry. These new methods are brought about because of low cost digitalization and compression of the previously high bandwidth analog signals. The low cost compression coupled with new switching capabilities of SONET/SDH now allow a switch base distribution system for video signals.
Current video distribution or transmission can be classified into two primary groups, namely entertainment distribution and video monitoring. The entertainment distribution of video information includes normal broadcast and cable television systems where there are a relative small number of video channels and a large number of monitors or subscribers. The video monitoring field includes the security industry, where a large number of camera or video channels are monitored by a relatively few number of monitors or subscribers. The term security is used in a broad sense to include any remote monitoring for obtaining security or operational information. The video monitoring field includes the remote monitoring of power distribution systems and pipelines, the remote monitoring of air, rail and highway transportation system, and the remote monitoring of large facilities such as airports, prisons, manufacturing facilities, campus environments, government facilities, etc.
FIG. 1 illustrates apparatus that is well known in the video distribution field for switching the video signals of a large number of cameras to a smaller number of video monitors. A plurality of video cameras 10 and associated analog-to-digital converters (not shown) couple digitized signals by way of respective T1 carrier lines 20 to a respective node on a counter-rotating optical network 24. The digitized NTSC signals from each video camera 10 are compressed and coupled by the respective node 22 onto both optical fibers 24a and 24b according to the SONET protocol. The optical fiber 24a is duplicated, in that the same information is carried according to the same protocol on the optical fiber 24b, but in an opposite direction. The counter-rotating nature of the optical network shown in FIG. 1 enhances reliability of the system. Each node 22, 26 and 28 may include many video cameras and associated interfaces, as well as data and digitized voice communication capabilities. A base node 30 couples the video signals via a large video switch matrix 36 to a number of monitors. Moreover, while the system of FIG. 1 illustrates four nodes, there may be fewer or many more nodes, each separated geographically up to 100 miles, or so.
The SONET protocol can operate in different modes. The OC-1 mode includes a frame having a total of 810 bytes (e.g., channels) of data, 27 of which are overhead, and the remaining 783 bytes can be used as payload or data. The cyclic period of each OC-1 SONET frame is 125 microseconds. The OC-1 mode is the most typical operating mode, and operates at 51.84 Mbit/s. An OC-3 mode operates at 155.52 Mbit/s; an OC-12 mode operates at 622.08 Mbit/s; and an OC-48 mode operates at 2488.32 Mbit/s. As can be appreciated, with higher optical carrier operating speeds, much more data can be transmitted per unit of time, but the cost and complexity of the equipment increases accordingly. The SONET protocol is defined in explicit detail in Bellcore Specifications Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) Transport Systems; Common Generic Criteria", Document No. GR-253-CORE, Issue 2, December 1995; and TR-NWT-000496 SONET Add/Drop Multiplex Equipment (SONET ADM), Generic Criteria, Issue 3, May 1992, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
The video distribution system of FIG. 1 includes a base node 30 having circuits 32 for retrieving the video data from the various SONET VT channels. The video signals are decompressed by the circuit 32 and transferred as basic NTSC video signals on respective coaxial lines 34 to a switching matrix 36. With this arrangement, if the video distribution system had 100 video cameras 10, there would be 100 video cables 34 continuously coupling 100 channels of video signals to the matrix 36. The matrix 36 functions to switch a fewer number of monitors 38 to selectively present the video information on any of the matrix inputs 34. The lines 40 coupling the video monitors 38 to the switching matrix 36 are standard coaxial-type cables. A switch panel 42 is coupled to a computer 44 which, in turn, is coupled by an RS-232 line 46 to the switching matrix 38. The switching matrix 36 includes circuits for decoding the signals on the RS-232 line 46 and for connecting any one monitor 38 to a specific video input 34 of the switch matrix 36. The switch panel 42 may be buttons, switches or a desktop computer and associated mouse, or other equipment.
The conventional video distribution system shown in FIG. 1 is wasteful of bandwidth, in that the video signals of each camera 10 are coupled as continuous live signals to the input of the switch matrix 36, even if the video signal of a camera is not selected by the switch panel 42 for viewing on a monitor 38. As noted above, if 100 cameras are employed in the video distribution system, then the optical network 24 must be capable of simultaneously handling the bandwidth for all 100 channels of video signals, even if only 10 monitors 38 are usable at one time. This type of system is commonly termed a point-to-point system, or a "home run" system, where all the video signals are carried from all cameras to the base node 30. As can be appreciated, the transmission of video signals, even though compressed, requires substantial bandwidth, as compared to other data and digitized voice information. In view that in most transmission systems the bandwidth is limited, the transmission medium becomes quickly and fully utilized, thereby either blocks the communication of other information, or requires long waiting periods for idle times of the transmission medium. It can be seen from the foregoing that a need exists for a technique that reduces the bandwidth requirements of a video distribution system, without limiting the number or flexibility of video cameras utilized therein. Another need exists for a video distribution system in which the bandwidth requirements are dependent upon the number of video monitors utilized, rather than on the number of cameras employed. Yet another need exists for a technique for activating transmission of video signals of each video camera at its node, only when it is selected at the remote monitor control center.

Switchable multi-drop video distribution system


A method for interoperability of a network interface protocol with an Internet interface protocol begins by receiving a scan channel request of a plurality of channels that are in accordance with the network interface protocol. The method then continues by determining whether an Internet packet is being received via one of the plurality of channels when the channel scan request is received (i.e., is a higher layer protocol supporting a current transmission). If so, the method continues by scanning at least one channel of the plurality of channels, but does not scan all of the plurality of channels at one time. The method continues after the scanning by tuning to the channel supporting the higher layer protocol communication to transmit at least one outbound Internet packet. The method then continues by scanning at least another channel of the plurality of channels.

1. Technical Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to communication systems and more particularly to wireless communication systems.
2. Description of Related Art
Communication systems are known to support wireless and wire lined communications between wireless and/or wire lined communication devices. Such communication systems range from national and/or international cellular telephone systems to the Internet to point-to-point in-home wireless networks. Each type of communication system is constructed, and hence operates, in accordance with one or more communication standards. For instance, wireless communication systems may operate in accordance with one or more standards including, but not limited to, IEEE 802.11, Bluetooth, advanced mobile phone services (AMPS), digital AMPS, global system for mobile communications (GSM), code division multiple access (CDMA), local multi-point distribution systems (LMDS), multi-channel-multi-point distribution systems (MMDS), and/or variations thereof.
Depending on the type of wireless communication system, a wireless communication device, such as a cellular telephone, two-way radio, personal digital assistant (PDA), personal computer (PC), laptop computer, home entertainment equipment, et cetera communicates directly or indirectly with other wireless communication devices. For direct communications (also known as point-to-point communications), the participating wireless communication devices tune their receivers and transmitters to the same channel or channels (e.g., one of the plurality of radio frequency (RF) carriers of the wireless communication system) and communicate over that channel(s). For indirect wireless communications, each wireless communication device communicates directly with an associated base station (e.g., for cellular services) and/or an associated access point (e.g., for an in-home or in-building wireless network) via an assigned channel. To complete a communication connection between the wireless communication devices, the associated base stations and/or associated access points communicate with each other directly, via a system controller, via the public switch telephone network, via the Internet, and/or via some other wide area network.
For each wireless communication device to participate in wireless communications, it includes a built-in radio transceiver (i.e., receiver and transmitter) or is coupled to an associated radio transceiver (e.g., a station for in-home and/or in-building wireless communication networks, RF modem, etc.). As is known, the transmitter includes a data modulation stage, one or more intermediate frequency stages, and a power amplifier. The data modulation stage converts raw data into baseband signals in accordance with a particular wireless communication standard. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mix the baseband signals with one or more local oscillations to produce RF signals. The power amplifier amplifies the RF signals prior to transmission via an antenna.
As is also known, the receiver is coupled to the antenna and includes a low noise amplifier, one or more intermediate frequency stages, a filtering stage, and a data recovery stage. The low noise amplifier receives inbound RF signals via the antenna and amplifies then. The one or more intermediate frequency stages mix the amplified RF signals with one or more local oscillations to convert the amplified RF signal into baseband signals or intermediate frequency (IF) signals. The filtering stage filters the baseband signals or the IF signals to attenuate unwanted out of band signals to produce filtered signals. The data recovery stage recovers raw data from the filtered signals in accordance with the particular wireless communication standard.
In wireless networks, such 802.11 networks, the wireless transceiver (e.g., the client station) is required to occasionally scan the available channels to see whether there are other nodes with which to communicate (i.e., other channels are supporting data of interest to the wireless communication device). Because of the nature of wireless networks, the scanning process requires that the station to temporarily leave the channel that is supporting a current communication by tuning and listening to one or more different channels to determine if there is any interest in association with one of these other channels. A significant period of time is required to make such a determination for each channel. In many wireless local area networks (WLAN), multiple frequencies and/or network interface protocols may be used (e.g., IEEE 802.11b, IEEE 802.11a, and/or IEEE 802.11g protocols), which increases the number of channels that must be scanned and correspondingly increases the time it takes to scan all of the channels.
While the time it takes to scan multiple channels over multiple network interface protocols, the data throughput performance impact on the station is modest. However, the data throughput for higher layer protocols, such as Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) may be significantly impacted. Such a significant impact results because TCP/IP measures the time that expires from when a source sends a packet to a destination until the source receives an acknowledgement (ACK) from the destination that it received the packet. If the time is greater than expected (e.g., a few hundred milliseconds plus some tolerance that accounts for reasonable transmission time variations), TCP/IP may interpret this as congestion (i.e., the network infrastructure is overworked and is slow in transferring packets). When congestion is suspected, TCP/IP uses a multiplicative decrease congestion avoidance algorithm that dramatically reduces the transmission rate of packets from the source to the destination. When the congestion is reduced, TCP/IP uses a slow start algorithm that slowly increases the packet rate between the source and the destination.
Unfortunately, TCP/IP cannot determine between actual congestion of the network and when the station is scanning other channels and not supporting the TCP/IP packet transmissions. If the station is scanning other channels for a significant period of time (e.g., a few hundred milliseconds), TCP/IP may view this absence of support as congestion and evoke the multiplicative decrease congestion avoidance algorithm. As such, the TCP/IP throughput is unnecessarily reduced.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus for interoperability of a network interface protocol with an Internet interface protocol to ensure data high throughput of the higher layer Internet interface protocol.

Interoperability of a network interface protocol with an internet interface protocol


A portable modular diagnostic medical device. The medical device is based on a portable multipurpose computerized platform, such as those designed primarily for playing video games. A medical component such as a cartridge is removably connected to the platform, and has specialized circuitry specific to a predetermined diagnostic medical function, such as the monitoring of electrocardiograms (ECGs). Different medical functionality is provided for by removably connecting different components into the portable multipurpose computerized platform.

Quality and cost-effectiveness are significant issues in health care. The diagnosis and treatment of a patient by a clinician is the underlying core of the health care process. The clinician, such as a doctor, a nurse, or other medical professional, typically relies upon medical instrumentation to provide objective measurements of the patient that are used to prescribe treatment. The quality and cost of health care, therefore, are directly linked to the quality, availability, and cost of the medical instrumentation utilized.
The criteria typically used to evaluate diagnostic medical instruments include safety, efficacy, and cost-effectiveness. The safety standards are explicitly defined by the Association for the Advancement of Medical Instrumentation (AAMI). For example, the AAMI's safety standards for electrocardiographic (ECG) devices are described in "American National Standard Diagnostic Electrocardiographic Devices," ANSI/AAMI EC11-1991, which is hereby incorporated by reference.
Efficacy and cost-effectiveness, however, are not as clearly defined and depend greatly upon the clinician's needs. For a medical instrument such as an electrocardiogram (ECG) or electroencephalogram (EEG) device, the effectiveness of the device involves not only how well it measures the biopotential in question, but also its ability to provide useful information in a timely, usable, and appropriate manner. Equipment with a poor user interface or inadequate controls, as typically found within the prior art, is unlikely to be used, and not at times when the information needs are time critical. Bulky or heavy equipment, as is also usually the norm within the prior art, cannot be easily moved to remote locations or carried into emergency situation environments.
Conversely, portable equipment found within the prior art such as holter ECG monitors available as the Digitrak Holter Monitor from Zymed, Inc., of Camarillo, Calif., require additional hardware to permit viewing of the stored signal. On-line, real-time diagnosis cannot be made at a remote location with such prior art portable medical diagnostic equipment without telemetry to a base unit or transmission over a telephone line. The patient data needed to make diagnoses quickly and effectively cannot be accessed readily; therefore, the instrumentation fails to meet user needs in a real-time manner.
Cost-effectiveness is also critical to meeting user needs. Inexpensive diagnostic equipment must be accessible to the medical practitioner for application to the end customer--the patient. If requisite diagnostic medical equipment is not available because of budgetary constraints, the quality of health care suffers. The average price of major manufacturer ECG equipment is typically in the $5,000-$10,000 range. Many underfunded clinics within and outside the United States cannot afford basic equipment such as simple ECG machines.
The cost of medical diagnostic equipment is high because, in part, product development costs continue to increase. Each new product typically has its own specific hardware and software. Little common instrumentation architecture is available. Existing solutions within the prior art do not fully overcome these shortcomings.
One prior art approach is the medical data acquisition hardware card, for insertion into and use with a PC-compatible computer. However, computers are still expensive, typically costing upwards of $1,000-$2,000. In the case where a desktop computer is used, the resulting diagnostic medical device is still not portable.
Furthermore, a PC-compatible computer-based approach tends to have high support and installation costs. A given medical hardware card may not run on a given PC-compatible computer without significant user involvement during the installation process, because of differences across such computers. The hardware card usually does not include necessary software built in; the software must itself be separately loaded onto the computer, and thus raises another compatibility concern for a given computer. Computer-wary clinicians may not be likely to trust the computer to provide it with medical diagnoses, and non-computer-savvy clinicians may find using such software as difficult as learning a complex word-processing or spreadsheet program.
Most significantly, the PC-compatible platform may not have the stability that is required of medical diagnostic devices. While the "crashing" of a computer is inconvenient in the situation where a word-processing program is being run on the computer, for example, the crashing of such a computer may literally cause a life-threatening situation where the computer has been transformed into a medical diagnostic device via a hardware card and corresponding software. Ominously, because of the great variability in different PC-compatible platforms, there is no way to guarantee that such crashing will not occur on a particular PC-compatible computer.
Other standard architectures exist to provide the backbone of diagnostic medical devices, such as the EasiView EKG System available from Zymed, Inc., of Camarillo, Calif., and the CardioVoice Phone/System available from Paceart Associates of Wayne, N.J. However, these architectures are themselves typically specific to only diagnostic medical devices. Because the market for such medical devices is much smaller than that for PC-compatible computers, for example, the economies of scale with these standard architectures are still not great enough to permit a markedly great reduction in medical device cost.
Furthermore, the architectures represent only an initial starting point in the development of a diagnostic medical device, around which the architectures are designed. The resulting medical device is not modular. Its designed-for medical functionality cannot be switched out for different medical functionality for use with the same physical instance of the backbone architecture. The medical functionality and the architecture are permanently interconnected and prevent modularity.
Finally, these backbone architectures are typically still PC-compatible based, integrating a PC-compatible motherboard into the architecture. Therefore, many if not all of the shortcomings of utilizing PC-compatible computers as platforms for medical devices carry over to the utilization of these backbone architectures as medical device platforms as well.

Portable modular diagnostic medical device


A compressible support used to support mine roofs. The compressible support generally includes a male member which adjustably engages a collar and may further include a cap and a wooden base. A post may also be provided. The male member defines ridges and grooves and the collar defines corrugations, each preferably in the form of modified buttress threads, which yield, fracture, or strip when the compressible support is subjected to additional force, decreasing the overall length of the compressible support.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to compressible supports for mine roofs and the like. More specifically, the present invention relates to vertical support columns having compressible supports.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
Support columns are used to counteract the force that gravity exerts on the mass of an object. For example, vertical support columns are positioned between two horizontal objects to keep the objects spaced away from one another.
In underground mining, vertical support columns are used as primary or secondary supports for mine roofs. Due to the tremendous forces exerted on the vertical support columns by the earth and rock above the mine roof, including forces resulting from shifting and settling of the overhead earth and rock, rigid vertical support columns can bend or break. Complete failure of a vertical support column can cause an isolated collapse of the mine roof. Therefore, compressible support columns, which yield during settling or shifting of the mine roof, are often used.
In mining operations, compressible vertical support columns are generally positioned perpendicularly between a mine roof and a mine floor. One type of compressible support column is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,052,029 to Townsend. The Townsend patent uses telescoping members and compressible materials to reduce the overall length of the support column as the earth and rock above the mine roof settles or shifts. Specifically, the Townsend patent discloses a support column having a hollow lower steel member and a hollow upper steel member, where the upper steel member fits over and slideably telescopes toward the lower steel member. The hollow cavity within the lower steel member is completely filled with wood positioned with the grain of the wood oriented parallel to a vertical axis of the assembled column. The hollow cavity in the upper steel member is only partially filled with wood, with the grain of the wood also aligned with the vertical axis of the assembled column. The space left between the wood in the upper and lower steel members is filled with discs, as needed, to adjust the length of the assembled compressible support column between a mine roof and a mine floor.
When earth and rock above the compressible support column disclosed in the Townsend patent shift, settle, or are otherwise subjected to additional force, the wood inside of the upper and lower steel members compresses. The compression reduces the overall length of the assembled compressible support column, easing the force being exerted on the column. Additional settling or shifting of the mine roof further compresses the load resisting material, until the lower steel member is telescoped to its full extent inside of the upper steel member. At this point, the upper and lower steel columns begin to compress, causing the upper and lower steel members to bulge outwardly, away from the vertical axis of the assembled upper and lower steel columns.
One disadvantage of the prior art compressible support columns is that they are expensive to make. Another disadvantage is that adjusting the length of the columns during installation is time consuming. Therefore, one object of the present invention is to provide a column having a compressible support that is inexpensive to manufacture. Another object of the present invention is to make a column having a compressible support that can be installed quickly.
The present invention generally includes a compressible support which includes a male member defining a plurality of ridges and grooves and a collar which has an internal surface defining a plurality of corrugations. The corrugations adjustably engaging grooves defined by the male member, the ridges defined by the male member, and the corrugations defined by the collar yield when the male member and collar are compressed together
One embodiment of the present invention generally includes a post and a collar. A cap and a base may also be provided. The post has a first end, a second end, and a longitudinal axis. The post also includes ridges and grooves, generally in the form of threads, positioned adjacent the first end of the post.
The collar has a first end, a second end, an internal surface, and an external surface. The second end of the collar is positioned adjacent the first end of the post during installation. Corrugations made from a material harder than the ridges and grooves of the post are positioned adjacent the internal surface of the collar. The corrugations adjustably engaging the ridges and grooves of the post, which are generally in the form of threads, are adjacent the first end of the post. The corrugations and threads allow the collar to be adjustable along a longitudinal axis of the post, essentially by threading the collar onto or off of the first end of the post. An optional cap and an optional base may be positioned adjacent the ends of the post and collar to distribute the force applied to the post and collar over a greater surface area.
When an initial or preloading force is exerted on the male member or post and the collar, referred to hereafter as the compressible support, the compressible support provides an equal and opposite force. As the force on the compressible support increases, the ridges positioned adjacent to the first end of the male member crush, yield, fracture, or strip, allowing the collar to move toward the second end of the male member, decreasing the overall length of the compressible support. Additional force causes additional crushing of the grooves adjacent the first end of the male member, until the movement of the collar toward the second end of the male member is arrested. At this point, further force causes the first end of the male member and the collar to compress, further decreasing the overall length of the compressible support.
Another embodiment of a compressible support according to the present invention generally includes a male member, a collar, and a post. In this embodiment, the male member is separate from the post.
These and other advantages of the present invention will be clarified in the description of the preferred embodiments taken together with the attached drawings in which like reference numerals represent like elements throughout.


The invention provides a T-connected autotransformer for converting three-phase ac input voltages to nine phase shifted ac voltages feeding three sets of three-phase diode rectifier bridges. The nine phase shifted voltages are at an angle of +20 degree or −20 degree with respect to the supply voltages and their magnitudes are essentially identical. The present design requires substantially fewer coils than other autotransformers for 18-pulse AC-DC converters, resulting in saving in space, volume, weight, size and cost of the converter. The magnetics requirement is only about 30% of the drive rating. The output voltage ratio can also be selected to give an average dc output from the proposed converter same as that of a conventional three-phase diode bridge rectifier. However, it is also possible to step up or step down the output voltage as required.

With the revolution in semiconductor self-commutating devices and reduction in their cost, most of the electric utilities in industrial, commercial, residential, aerospace environments make use of some kind of power processors. These power processors are being used in applications such as Heating, Ventilation and Air Conditioning (HVAC) systems, pumps, blowers, fans, paper and textile mills, rolling mills and the like. These power processors generally use non-linear devices such as diode, thyristor, IGBT etc., which results in injection of current harmonics, resulting in equipment overheating, low rectifier efficiency, malfunction of sensitive electronic equipments and the like. These harmonic currents result in voltage distortion (as they travel through finite source impedance) at Point of Common Coupling (PCC), thereby affecting the nearby consumers. To limit these harmonics, an IEEE Standard entitled "IEEE Guide for harmonic control and reactive compensation of Static Power Converters, IEEE Standard 519-1992" was reissued in 1992.
Different techniques based on multipulse converters have been proposed to shape ac input current waveforms in phase with input voltage. The conventional wye-delta transformer based 12-pulse rectification scheme is one such example. But it is very difficult to build wye and delta connected windings with comparable electrical characteristics (voltage and impedance). Moreover, the kVA rating of the transformer is higher than the active power drawn by the converter. To reduce the transformer rating, autotransformer based multipulse converters are used. In the autotransformer, the windings are interconnected such that the kVA rating of the magnetic coupling is only a fraction of the total kVA of the drive, resulting in reduction in size and weight of the transformer.
For applications where the demand for harmonic current reduction is more stringent, the 18-pulse AC-DC converter is generally preferred. These converters are more economical than the 24-pulse AC-DC converter, while being more effective than the 12-pulse AC-DC converter. Autotransformer based 18-pulse AC-DC converter has been described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,634 entitled "Multipulse converter system" to reduce the Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) of ac mains current. This results in higher dc-link voltage by about 14%, making the scheme non applicable for retrofit applications. To overcome the problem of higher dc link voltage, different configurations of 18-pulse ac-dc converters have been reported in U.S. patents such as U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,619,407, 601,113 etc. These configurations use autotransformers having three coils having a plurality of serial windings and a plurality of stub windings. The stub windings are magnetically coupled with the serial windings from the same coil. The serial windings may form either a delta or a wye connection. Further, in these configurations, the voltages from stub windings are staggered at 40 degrees with respect to the supply voltages. These solutions result in a higher size winding and core material.
Thus, it would be advantageous to have an autotransformer for converting three-phase AC voltages to nine phase-shifted voltages with less number of windings resulting in reduced magnetics rating, simple design of the transformer and which is also suitable for retrofit applications and further which may perform satisfactorily even under load variation on the dc side.

Reduced rating T-connected autotransformer for converting three phase AC voltages to nine/six phase shifted AC voltages

Indian Institute of Technology, Delhi-Department of Electrical Engineering


A method for controlling brake resistors and a brake chopper, the number of brake resistors being two or more and the brake resistors being connected in series with switches to be controlled, the series connection being connected between a positive and a negative rail of a DC voltage intermediate circuit, the method comprising the step of determining a magnitude for a voltage of the DC intermediate circuit; and determining a first voltage limit and a second voltage limit. The method further comprises the steps of switching brake resistors to the intermediate circuit in a periodically alternating manner, each switch being switched during a switching period and the on-period of each switch in a switching period being responsive to the magnitude of the voltage in the DC voltage intermediate circuit when the voltage is above the first predetermined limit and below the second predetermined limit.

The invention relates to controlling a brake chopper and in particular to controlling a brake chopper of a DC voltage intermediate circuit of a frequency converter, and to a brake chopper and a frequency converter provided with one.
Brake choppers are used in the DC voltage intermediate circuits of frequency converters in a prior art manner for preventing an increase in the intermediate circuit voltage and for reducing the voltage when a device that normally fed from the frequency converter exceptionally feeds energy back to the intermediate circuit. This kind of situation arises for example when a magnetized motor rotates uncontrolled and thereby functions as a generator feeding power to the DC voltage intermediate circuit.
The situation is the same when a frequency converter is used for active braking of a rotating motor, whereby the power from the braking is transferred to the intermediate circuit. Drives in which braking is used often are usually equipped with a network braking supply unit that enables power to be transferred from the intermediate circuit through the supply unit into the feeding network. Then again drives in which braking is rather used on an occasional basis are typically provided with brake choppers, because a brake chopper is significantly more affordable to invest in than a network braking supply unit.
There are also cases in which an intermediate circuit of a frequency converter provided with a network braking supply unit nevertheless must be equipped with brake choppers. One example of this is isolated operation, such as the electric system of a vessel, where the braking energy generated in the motor may exceed other consumption in the electric system. In this situation the electric power network cannot be fed with more energy but it has to be removed by using a brake chopper in the intermediate circuit of the frequency converter.
A conventional method used for controlling brake choppers is tolerance band control, in which the intermediate circuit is provided with a predetermined voltage level and when this level is exceeded, a brake resistor is switched into the intermediate circuit through a chopper. The voltage in the intermediate circuit thus starts to decrease at a rate that depends on the braking power, the intermediate circuit capacitance and the resistance of the brake resistor. The resistor is kept switched on until the intermediate circuit voltage drops below the predetermined level, and the voltage starts to rise again.
Braking power can be increased by connecting a plural number of resistors in parallel. These parallel-connected resistors share the same control and therefore they also function simultaneously.
Publication U.S. Pat. No. 7,012,392 discloses a method and an apparatus for controlling a brake chopper. In this solution a plural number of voltage limits are determined for the intermediate circuit voltage. When the intermediate circuit voltage exceeds these limits or drops below them, the number of brake resistors switched on is increased or decreased in a predetermined order. This control method allows a fixed number of braking powers of different magnitudes to be obtained. In addition, it enables to reduce high intermediate circuit currents created in the conventional tolerance band control.
A problem with the above brake chopper is that the number of different braking powers to be obtained is fixed, which occasionally leads to an unnecessarily high braking power.

Method for controlling brake chopper, brake chopper and frequency converter


The invention is related to drive units for conveyor belts. A flexible rider connected to the belt includes a gear for meshing with a gear of the rotable driver. The meshing of the gears allows the conveyor belt to be pulled about the conveyor.

1. Field of the Invention
Among other things, the present invention is related to drive units for conveyor belts. A flexible rider or interlocker is attached to the outward edge of the conveyor belt. The flexible rider includes a gear for meshing with a gear of the tapered rotable driver. Due to the meshing of the flexible rider and the rotable driver, the conveyor belt can be pulled about the conveyor frame.
2. Description of the Previous Art
1) U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,466—Almes, et. al., owned Applicant. Almes discloses reinforcing member 3 having a convex beading 4 positioned between rolling elements 9 and 10. Beading 4 includes symmetrical lips 5a and 5b. The '466 Patent does not teach or suggest a gear integrally formed on either lip 5a or lip 5b.
2) U.S. Pat. No. 5,360,102—Schoning is also owned by Applicant. FIGS. 1 and 2 disclose two bead marginal portions 9 with structures identical to the reinforcing members structures enabled in U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,466—Almes, et. al. Schoning does not teach or suggest a gear integrally formed with marginal portions 9.
3) U.S. Pat. No. 2,619,222—Przybylski enables a centering and take-up means for belt conveyors. The '222 Patent does not teach or suggest a belt interlocker having a lip or leg with a gear formed integrally thereon.
4) U.S. Pat. No. 3,217,861—Daniluk, et al. enables a curved conveyor belt. The '861 Patent does not teach or suggest a belt interlocker having a lip or leg with a gear formed integrally thereon.
5) U.S. Pat. No. 3,901,379—Bruhm enables an angular guidance for a conveyor belt system. Bruhm's elastic shoulder 10 is attached to belt 1 with rivet 16. Shoulder 10 rides against rollers 12 and 14. The '379 does not teach or suggest a lip or a leg attached to belt 1 that extends from shoulder 10 to pass though the opening between rollers 12 and 14 while shoulder 10 rides simultaneously against rollers 12 and 14.
6) U.S. Pat. No. 4,202,443—Buhrer describes a conveyor belt curve. The '443 Patent enables tension springs 8 to secure belt 1 to the conveyor. Buhrer does not teach or suggest a belt interlocker having a lip or a leg with a gear formed integrally thereon.
7) U.S. Pat. No. 5,394,977—Cline enables an apparatus and method for use in replacing conveyor belts. A U-shaped member 84 is secured to the outer edge portion 6 using suitable means, such as the adhesive or rivets, and provides shoulder portions 86 and 88 which are contacted by the cylindrical surfaces 48 and 64. The operation of the endless conveyor belt 4 produces a radially inwardly directed force but the cylindrical surfaces 48 and 64 bear against the shoulders 86 and 88 to keep the endless conveyor belt 4 moving in the desired path. Cline does not teach or suggest a belt interlocker having a lip or a leg with a gear formed integrally thereon where the lip passes through the opening between cylindrical surfaces 48 and 64.
8) U.S. Pat. No. 5,332,083—Axmann describes a curved belt conveyor. Rollers 40 and 41 press against the elevation 32 of belt 11. Axmann does not teach or suggest a belt interlocker having a lip or a leg with a gear formed integrally thereon.
9) U.S. Pat. No. 5,203,800—Meredith teaches a treadmill with a peripheral belt support. The Meredith profile is ideally built up from the edges of the endless belt 50, by attaching a multi-stranded cable core 40 made from stainless steel or other suitable material, with a fabric reinforcing strip 42. A tubular plastic sleeve 44 made from a strong and flexible plastic, such as nylon is then bonded over the prepared edge of the endless belt 50 using a vulcanizing process to form a continuous, seamless load-bearing profile to engage the support rollers 14. The '800 Patent does not teach or suggest a belt interlocker having a lip or a leg with a gear formed integrally thereon.
10) U.S. Pat. No. 5,860,512—Gianvito, et al. enables a sliding belt turn conveyor. Endless belt 12 is retained in the curved path by restraining devices 40, 41, and 42. Fasteners 55a secure wheel assemblies 46 to the edge of belt 12. Wheel 54 is mounted to a wheel support plate 47 and to the belt by fastener 55a. The wheel 54 has a plastic tire 54b mounted on a bushing 54a. Fastener 55a extends through belt 12, wheel support plate 47, and bushing 54a and is secured thereto by a nut 55b. Wheel assembly 46 extends generally perpendicular from a lower surface 12b of the endless belt so that tires 54b engage upper and lower vertical bearing surfaces 40a and 40b of bearing member 40 which restrains lateral movement of belt 12. The '512 Patent does not teach or suggest a belt interlocker having a lip or a leg with a gear formed integrally thereon.
11) U.S. Pat. No. 6,216,851—Mitas, et al. discloses a rivet belt fastener. The Mitas Patent does not teach or suggest a belt interlocker having a lip or a leg with a gear formed integrally thereon.
12) U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,931 B1—Edelmann enables a belt conveyor. Among other things, Edelmann requires a toothed ring 6 for each carrying roller 2. Carrying roller 2 has journal 8 that is connected to the drive device. The '931 toothed belt 7 is fixed on conveying belt 1, and importantly, is a constituent part of a toothed belt component 9. Counterpressure 10 presses toothed belt component 9 onto the conveying belt 1. The free ends of the essentially U-shaped toothed belt component 9 are configured as a bead 11, which produces a bead ridge along the conveying belt border. Bead 11 rides against guide rollers 12. Guide rollers 12 are fastened on angled retaining arms 13 such that they act on the toothed-belt component 9 and/or on the bead 11 by way of inclined running surfaces. Edelmann does not teach or suggest a belt interlocker having a lip or a leg with a gear formed integrally thereon where the lip passes through the opening between guide rollers 12.
13) US Patent Application 2004/0035685—Fujiwara, et al. discloses a curved belt support apparatus. A thick part 220 is formed across the entire outer edge area of the Fujiwara curved belt 200. The thick part 220 is thicker than the rest of the curved belt 200 on both the top and bottom surfaces. Upper inner side surface 221 of the thick part 220 is oriented diagonally upward facing the radial inner edge of the curved belt 200, while the lower inner side surface 222 is oriented diagonally downward facing the radial inner edge of the curved belt 200. The curved conveyor 100 has support apparatuses 300 that support the thick part 220 and prevent it from moving in the direction of the radial inner edge of the curved belt 200.

Interlocker for a conveyor belt and method of utilizing an interlocker for a conveyor belt


An apparatus and method for determining temperature is disclosed. An ultrasonic signal is generated that propagates through a buffer and a portion of the signal is reflected at an interface. A time of flight is measured between generating the ultrasonic signal and detecting the reflected portion. The temperature is determined based on the time of flight of the reflected signal.

Ultrasonic flow meters are used to determine the flow rate of a variety of fluids (e.g., liquids, gases, etc.) flowing in pipes or other test objects. In one type of ultrasonic flow meter employing transit time methods, a pair of ultrasonic transducers are positioned upstream and downstream relative to each other, forming an ultrasonic path between the transducers. Each ultrasonic transducer generates an ultrasonic signal (e.g., a sound wave) along the ultrasonic path through the fluid flowing in the pipe that is received by and detected by the other ultrasonic transducer. The velocity of the fluid along the ultrasonic path can be determined as a function of the difference between (i) the transit time of an ultrasonic signal propagateing upstream, i.e., along the ultrasonic path from the downstream ultrasonic transducer to the upstream ultrasonic transducer, substantially against the flow direction, and (ii) the transit time of an ultrasonic signal propagateing downstream, i.e., along the ultrasonic path from the upstream ultrasonic transducer to the downstream ultrasonic transducer, substantially with the flow direction.
It is often necessary for an ultrasonic flow meter to know the temperature of the fluid, pipe walls, buffers, wedges, void spaces, etc. in order to determine an accurate flow rate. Temperature is typically measured by an additional sensor which measures a local temperature, for example inserted into the fluid, attached to the pipe wall, a wedge, or a buffer. This additional sensor increases the cost and complexity of the ultrasonic flow meter.
The discussion above is provided for general background information and is not intended to be used as an aid in determining the scope of the claimed subject matter.

Apparatus and method for determining temperature


A process for producing sulfolane compounds is provided which comprises: (1) contacting a conjugated diene with sulfur dioxide under conditions sufficient to synthesize a sulfolene compound whereby a mixture of the sulfolene compound and impurities comprising unreacted sulfur dioxide is produced; (2) transferring the mixture, at a temperature in the range of about 55.degree. C. to about 85.degree. C., to an impurities removal reactor containing a solvent; (3) removing the impurities under an elevated pressure to produce an impurities-reduced sulfolene compound; (4) transferring the impurities-reduced sulfolene compound to a hydrogenation reactor; (5) contacting said impurities-reduced sulfolene compound with hydrogen, in the presence of a hydrogenation catalyst, under conditions sufficient to produce a sulfolane compound; and (6) optionally recovering said sulfolane compound.

Sulfolane compounds are useful in a variety of industrial applications such as, for example, in pesticidal compositions, intermediates in the production of other organic chemicals, selective solvents to separate aromatic compounds from petroleum fractions, and selective solvents in alkylation of olefins.
Sulfolane compounds are generally prepared by catalytic hydrogenation of the corresponding sulfolene compounds. The sulfolene compounds are prepared by the reaction of a conjugated diene such as, for example, 1,3-butadiene, and sulfur dioxide at elevated temperatures.
However, the sulfolene compounds thus-produced are generally unstable and tend to decompose at mildly elevated temperatures into an unsaturated organic compound and sulfur dioxide. Furthermore, when the sulfolene compounds are used to prepare the corresponding sulfolane compounds by catalytic hydrogenation, the initiation of hydrogenation reaction may also increase the temperature enough to result in some decomposition of the sulfolene. Some of these decomposed products polymerize and the resulting polymer coats the hydrogenation catalyst significantly reducing its activity. Moreover, unreacted sulfur dioxide and the sulfur dioxide obtained from decomposition of sulfolene compounds also interfere with the subsequent catalytic hydrogenation. These sulfur dioxides must be removed or substantially reduced.
Processes have been developed for inhibiting the formation of polymers and reduction of sulfur dioxide in the production of sulfolane compounds. For example, amines have been used as inhibitors in reducing the amount of polysulfone polymer formation. Oxidizing agents have been used to reduce sulfur dioxide and other impurities. However, there is an ever present need to develop still more effective methods of reducing the polymer formation, the removal of sulfur dioxide and impurities, and the hydrogenation process so that the amount of hydrogenation catalyst used can be reduced and the production of sulfolane compounds can be greatly improved.

Process for producing sulfolane compounds


A computer-implemented system for enhanced automated visual inspection of a physical asset includes a visual inspection device capable of generating images of the physical asset and a computing device including a processor and a memory device coupled to the processor. The computing device includes a storage device coupled to the memory device and coupled to the processor. The storage device includes at least one historic image of the physical asset and at least one engineering model substantially representing the physical asset. The computing device is configured to receive, from a present image source, at least one present image of the physical asset captured by the visual inspection device. The computing device is configured to identify at least one matching historic image corresponding to the at least one present image. The computing device is configured to identify at least one matching engineering model corresponding to the at least one present image.

The field of the invention relates generally to computer-implemented programs and, more particularly, to a computer-implemented system for enhanced automated visual inspection of a physical asset.
Known methods of visual inspection of physical assets include the use of optical devices inserted within such physical assets without human entrance. Such known methods provide benefits by allowing for rapid visual analysis of complex physical assets that may be inaccessible to human technicians without disassembly or other servicing. In some such known cases, disassembly or servicing of complex physical assets may take hours to perform. During such disassembly or servicing, many such complex physical assets must be rendered temporarily inoperable. Therefore, known methods of visual inspection rapidly expedite analysis of internal conditions of complex physical assets and reduce downtime that may be caused by disassembly or servicing.
Known methods and systems of visual inspection of physical assets involve sending visual data to human technicians capable of diagnosing conditions of the complex physical assets. Human technicians may review such visual data using monitors, computers, or other displays. In many known methods and systems of visual inspection, human technicians will overlay collected visual data onto a three-dimensional engineering model and manually match features between the collected visual data and the three-dimensional model. Such overlaying, comparison, and matching may be very time consuming. Known methods and systems of visual inspection may also face the complexity that when visual data is received by the human technician, it is often too late to obtain new physical measurements that have not been previously collected by field engineers. In such cases, new physical measurements may only be collected on the next inspection of the physical asset.
Such known methods and systems of visual inspection of physical assets using optical devices do not facilitate efficient and effective identification of the component corresponding to visual data sent from the optical device to the human technician. In many known complex physical assets there are numerous components and sub-components. Review of the architectural details of each component and sub-component is often a necessary and time-consuming aspect of using known methods of visual inspection. Such review is necessary, however, in order to ensure that the human technician understands the exact component or sub-component associated with visual data. Misidentification may be logistically and financially expensive.

Methods and systems for enhanced automated visual inspection of a physical asset


A metallic stent is coated with a synthetic or biological active or inactive agent that only adheres to the metallic surface of the stent and does not cover slots formed in the stent. In the method, a metallic stent is manufactured in a known manner and is then cleaned to remove surface contaminants and carbon deposits formed from cutting operations and electro-polishing procedures. The stent is then dried in a chamber in which nitrogen gas is purged and then placed in a bath containing a suitable surfactant, such as a long chain alkyl quaternary salt, that removes any residual carbon on the surface of the stent. The stent is then placed in a container filled with the coating agent and the container is placed in an ultrasonic bath. When the bath is activated, the stent swirls in the agent, which agent coats the stent but does not cover the slots of the stent. The stent is removed from the container and dried in a controlled atmosphere.

The present invention relates to a process for coating a surface of a metallic stent. In the prior art, it is known to coat a stent to protect the outer surface thereof and to make the stent inert to various biological processes that can occur when the stent is placed in the vascular system of a person. U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,500 to Song discloses a self-expanding endovascular stent with silicone coating. The Song stent is made of stainless steel wire formed into a closed zig-zag configuration. The frame is then wrapped in a mesh having a silicone coating thereon. The Song stent is typical of coated stents in that care has not been taken to preclude the coating agent from covering openings that are formed in the stent structures. The present invention overcomes the deficiencies of Song by providing a coated stent wherein the coating agent does not intrude into openings in the stent body that have been created for specific reasons.

Process for coating a surface of a metallic stent


A planar hook-shaped cutting tool for cutting sheet material is disclosed. The tool has a recessed cutting blade and a ball point end to protect underlying materials. The tool is most useful for quickly cutting articles of clothing from a person""s body.

This invention relates to a device for cutting fabric or similar sheet material. More particularly, it relates to a tool for quickly and safely cutting clothing from a person""s body.
There always exists a need to safely and quickly cut and remove clothing or fabric from a person""s body, particularly in emergency room situations where removing articles of clothing needs to be done quickly and safely. Patients with burns, gun shot wounds or those involved in some other trauma injury often require clothing removal in order for doctors and nurses to treat the injured individual.
Currently, the most widely practiced method for removal of clothing is by cutting the article with rounded tip surgical scissors to avoid further injury to the patient. Often an initial cut must be made in the clothing to allow entry of the scissors blade to begin the cutting operation. Both processes are time consuming, and the whole process becomes even more difficult if the patient is moving or having convulsions.
Thus there exists an unmet need for a device which can quickly and safely cut clothing from the body of a person.
The invention is a cutting tool for sheet materials comprising a planar hook-shaped cylindrical member having a longer linear handle section with a longitudinal axis, a semicircular curved transverse section connected coaxially at a first end to one end of the handle section and connected coaxially at a second end to one end of a shorter leg section. The leg section is oriented essentially parallel to the handle section, and extends to a ball point leg section at an end opposite the curved transverse section. A planar blade member is secured to the semicircular curved transverse section and the shorter leg section and positioned coplanar with the hook-shaped cylindrical member. The blade member has a cutting edge positioned in opposition to the cylindrical handle section.