A scissors including a first handle assembly and a second handle assembly pivotally interconnected for movement between open and closed positions. A latch mounted on one of the handle assemblies for movement into engagement with the other of the handle assemblies on closing the scissors, the latch being movable on one handle assembly into engagement with the other handle assembly to lock the handles in a closed position and a reversible sheath operatively engaging the handle assemblies to enclose the scissor blades on the handle assemblies.

Scissors of the type set forth in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 07/815,287 are designed for general household use, more particularly for general sewing and cutting applications. These scissors included an internally mounted thumb actuated button which is movable between open and closed positions on one of the blade assemblies. The scissors are locked in the closed position by moving the button into engagement with a hook mounted on the other handle assembly. In U.S. patent application No. 07/978,211, another household scissors is described on which the lock button was mounted on the top of the first handle assembly for sliding movement into engagement with a catch provided on the other handle assembly.


An alarm system (10) for use with a vehicle. The system (10) monitors when the driver's seat becomes newly occupied (17) and begins a countdown, during which interval an authorized user can utilize an operator actuated switch (18) to terminate the automatic arming process. If this switch (18) is not used during the predetermined period of time, then the system (10) automatically arms itself. Once armed, the system (10) monitors reception of law enforcement radar signals through use of an appropriate detector (16). When such a signal has been detected, thereby indicating proximity of law enforcement personnel, the system (10) activates one or more alarm devices, each intended to call attention of the law enforcement persons to the vehicle in question, and/or to urge the thief into now leaving the vehicle.

Alarm systems of various kinds are well known in the prior art. Recently, more and more vehicle owners have begun to install alarm systems of various kinds in their automobiles. These alarm systems have various purposes, and hence, operate in a variety of ways.
For example, some alarm systems are primarily intended to prevent unauthorized persons from gaining access to an unattended vehicle. Other systems are primarily intended to deter an unauthorized person from stealing a vehicle by making it difficult for the vehicle in question to be easily moved to an unauthorized destination. As regards the latter situation, the unauthorized person may gain initial access to the vehicle in a variety of different contexts. For example, the thief may seek to drive the vehicle away after having gained access to an unattended vehicle. In this context, the vehicle will typically have been parked and its ignition switch will have been off. In another example, the thief may seek to gain access to control of the vehicle while the legitimate owner is currently using the vehicle. Such occurrences are known as carjackings, and are increasing in frequency.
Carjackings provide a particular challenge when seeking to provide a safe and effective alarm system. Some available alarm systems seeking to address this problem require the legitimate operator to arm the vehicle through specific actions. For example, upon being made the subject of attention by a carjacker, the legitimate operator may be required to actuate a hidden switch prior to surrendering the vehicle to the carjacker. In many circumstances, however, the legitimate operator may be precluded from taking such action, particularly since the carjacker may be cautious, and may be observing the operator carefully in this regard.
Regardless of how armed, prior art alarm systems also provide another problem when relied upon in the context of a carjacking. Prior art devices either sound their alarms instantly, or following a preset time delay. Either situation may fail to resolve the situation properly, and may even increase the danger faced by the legitimate operator. One primary concern here is that the alarm will sound, and there will be no one nearby who can (or will) take any action to disturb the activities of the carjacker.
Vehicle location devices currently exist, and these devices, when properly installed and activated, can lead law enforcement persons to the stolen vehicle. Such devices are quite effective. Such devices are also, however, quite expensive, and beyond the financial wherewithal of many persons. A need therefore exists for a stolen vehicle alarm system that at least substantially avoids these and other problems found in the prior art, while simultaneously providing assurances that the perpetrator will likely be brought to the attention of appropriate law enforcement personnel. Such a system should preferably be relatively inexpensive to purchase, install, and operate.


A treatment system includes a regulator implanted within a patient, a computing device storing at least one patient database associated with the patient in whom the regulator is implanted, and a data transfer device. The data transfer device provides bidirectional communication (e.g., voice communication) and a data exchange (e.g., a treatment history, a patient database, and operational instructions) between the regulator and the computing device. A programmer can obtain patient reports and/or default treatment values from the computing device based on the data exchange.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention pertains to monitoring and controlling therapeutic treatment. More particularly, this invention pertains to remotely monitoring and controlling therapeutic devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 illustrates a conventional therapeutic system 100 including an implantable device (i.e., a regulator) 110 and an external unit (i.e., a programmer) 130. The device 110 is typically implanted within a body of a patient to provide treatment for a disorder. For example, in conventional cardiac rhythm management systems, the implanted device 110 is an autonomous device connected to the heart of a patient to provide electrical signals to regulate the heartbeat of the patient. Alternatively, the implanted device 110 can be connected to nerves of the patient to apply electrical signals to up-regulate or down-regulate neural activity on the nerves (e.g., the vagal nerves).
The implanted device 110 can record a treatment history of the patient. In such embodiments, the implanted device includes a memory 112 in which the treatment history (i.e., a record of events) can be stored. Examples of typical events stored in a treatment history include delivery of treatment to the patient, an attempt to transmit information to the external unit 130, and receipt of information from the external unit 130.
In general, the external unit 130 is operated by a clinician (e.g., a doctor or other practitioner). The clinician can load treatment programs (i.e., instructions specifying the treatment regimen for the patient) onto the implanted device 110 using the external unit 130. The external unit 130 also can download the stored treatment history from the implanted device 110 and can transfer this history over a network 140 to a computing device 150, such as a server, for storage on memory 152.
Typically, the external unit 130 can communicate with the implanted device 110 when in proximity to the device 110. For example, the external unit 130 can connect to the implanted device 110 through a radio-frequency (RF) link. To change a patient's treatment schedule, update software on the implanted device 110, or obtain the stored treatment history, therefore, a patient must visit the clinician's office or the clinician must travel to see the patient.
The conventional therapeutic system 100 shown in FIG. 1 also can include an optional controller unit 120. A patient can utilize the controller unit 120 to manage the operation of the implanted device 110. For example, if the therapeutic system 100 is a pain management system, then a patient can use the controller unit 120 to increase or decrease the dosage or frequency of treatment. The controller unit 120 also can provide power to the implanted device 110. For example, in an embodiment, the implanted device 110 provides treatment only when power is received from the controller unit 120.
The controller unit 120 also can monitor the performance of the implanted device 110 and can collect information from the implanted device 110. In such embodiments, the controller 120 can include a memory 122 for storing the treatment history. The controller unit 120 is generally configured to communicate with the regulator 110 (e.g., via an RF signal). In such embodiments, the implanted device 110 may not include a memory. Rather, event indications can be transmitted to the controller unit 120 from the implanted device 110 as the events occur.
In some systems, the external unit 130 communicates with the controller 120 instead of the implanted device 110. Typically, in such systems, the external unit 130 is placed in physical proximity to the controller 120 to communicate with the controller 120. For example, the external unit 130 can communicate with the controller unit 120 through a cable connection (e.g., via a USB port) or an RF communication link. Here as well, a patient visits the clinician's office or the clinician travels to see the patient to transfer data between the clinician and the controller 120.
One conventional therapeutic system is described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,564,102 to Boveja. The '102 patent discloses an implanted device for use in neuromodulation therapy for coma and brain injury. The '102 patent also discloses an external device that may have a telecommunications module to control predetermined programs remotely. Treatment parameter data can be viewed remotely by medical personnel via a server on a personal computer or a Palm Pilot. U.S. Publication No. 2005/0131467 to Boveja extends this concept to remote programming and data exchange over a wide area network, and U.S. Publication No. 2005/0131484 describes remotely interrogating and programming an implanted device over a wide area network.

Remote monitoring and control of implantable devices


An apparatus for removing contaminants from a gas stream includes a reaction chamber for receiving the gas stream; a gas-liquid contact assembly disposed in the reaction chamber; a sump disposed in the reaction chamber beneath the gas-liquid contact assembly, the sump containing a liquid scrubbing agent; a first inlet in communication with the sump for providing a reactive species to the liquid scrubbing agent in the sump for producing an oxidizing solution; a second inlet in communication with the reaction chamber for providing the gas stream to the reaction chamber; and a feed line having a first end in communication with the sump and a second end in communication with the reaction chamber above the gas-liquid contact assembly for dispensing the oxidizing solution to contact the gas-liquid contact assembly.

The present apparatus and method embodiments relate to purification of gas, such as carbon dioxide, for use in chemical, pharmaceutical and beverage use.
Known methods for carbon dioxide (CO2) recovery utilize a series of absorption and adsorption steps to remove impurities from a feed gas. Feed gas streams are normally waste streams from processes where CO2 is a significant by-product. The feed gas stream also contains impurities that are undesirable for the final product and must be removed through purification processes. Feed gas streams originate from manufacturing activities that include for example ammonia production, fertilizer production, fermentation and combustion processes.
Feed gas streams include impurities that are unacceptable for use with a subset of industries that use CO2, including pharmaceutical production, carbonation of beverages and processing of food. Such impurities include sulfur compounds, volatile organic compounds such as aromatic and aliphatic hydrocarbons, odorous compounds (including but not limited to hydrogen sulfide (H2S), carbonyl sulfide (COS), (dimethyl sulfide (DMS), mercaptans), heavy metals, particulate matters and nitrogen oxides, among others. The species and concentration of the impurities are a function of the process that produces the feed gas. For example, fermentation processes produce alcohol, a volatile hydrocarbon. Combustion processes are likely to produce sulfur in the feed gas originating from the fuel used for combustion. These impurities must be reduced to concentrations that are acceptable for the end use; especially for beverage, food and pharmaceutical applications where regulatory and voluntary guidelines specify maximum allowable concentrations for impurities. Certain of these impurities even when present in amounts below regulatory, mandatory or voluntary guidelines are sometimes not desirable at all, such as impurities that impart taste in beverages or where CO2 is used in direct contact with pharmaceutical drug products. There also are self-imposed preferences by customers in sourcing CO2 for processing and accepting for use. Therefore, producers are forced to continue to drive improved quality of CO2.
Conventional CO2 production facilities use a series of steps to concentrate and purify CO2 product. All of the common impurities require a specific treatment in order to be removed from the feed gas stream. Some impurities are very soluble in water and can be removed using absorption with either water or a caustic solution in a wet scrubber. Other impurities can be removed using adsorption, wherein the impurity is bound to a surface or a chemical component on the surface and or held in pores of adsorbent material. Some of these processes are reversible by using either heat or pressure swings during a regeneration step. Other process materials cannot be easily regenerated and therefore the adsorbent must be sacrificed when it has reached its saturation limit. This creates a burden on a CO2 production facility because of the expense of replacing material and the opportunity cost due to downtime required to service the material beds. Sacrificial beds are also very sensitive to the incoming concentration of impurities, since they have a finite capacity for retaining the impurities.
A known CO2 purification and production process is shown in FIG. 1. The stages of said process include providing the CO2 feed gas from a production process; a pre-compression cleanup stage, wherein the primary cleaning of CO2 feed gas is accomplished by water washing, aqueous alkaline scrubbing and oxidative scrubbing using potassium permanganate (KMnO4) at low pressure. Depending upon the source for the feed gas and impurities in the gas, all three types of scrubbing may not be required.
A post-compression cleanup stage for the impurities is mainly by adsorption processes, the impurities handled being at a much lower concentration than in the pre-compression stage.
FIG. 2 shows an arrangement of a known feed gas scrubbing occurring in the pre-compression cleanup stage of FIG. 1.
Absorption processes, such as that of FIG. 1, provide a less expensive way of removing a bulk of soluble impurities such as alcohol, aldehydes, sulfur compounds, etc. Using chemical reagents such as potassium permanganate (KMnO4), sparingly soluble impurities such as nitrogen oxides (NOx) are oxidized and removed. However, the effectiveness of absorption processes is sometimes limited due to low solubility of impurities and low allowable purge of spent scrubbing medium. In order to handle increased impurity level, robust and reliable performance of the pre-compression stage is vital in maintaining quality of the product and effectiveness of the downstream purification stage.
As shown in FIG. 1, in the pre-compression stage, primary cleaning of CO2 feed gas is done by wet scrubbing (absorption processes). Primary cleaning by wet scrubbing is achieved by use of one or more scrubbing towers with use of one or more reagents.
Generally, CO2 containing feed gas stream is first contacted with water in a co-current or countercurrent fashion for direct contact. The water acts as a scrubbing agent, dissolves soluble impurities and carries away the particulates in the waste stream. This step requires huge amounts of wash water in a once through mode and generates a large quantity liquid effluent stream that must be processed. If the water wash stream is recirculated in a closed loop, concentration of impurities gradually builds up and removal efficiency deteriorates. When the scrubber water has absorbed all the impurities it is said to be saturated. Saturated water must be drained from the scrubber and replaced with clean water in order for more impurities to be removed. In a recirculating system the water is always partially saturated so a good balance must be made between fresh water make-up and the concentration of impurities in the CO2 exiting the scrubber. Typical impurities that are removed in water washing are acetaldehyde, alcohols, ketones, ammonia and hydrogen chloride (HCl), for example.
For removal of acidic (impurities), caustic/soda based water scrubbers are used downstream of water wash scrubber. Sodium carbonate (Na2CO3) or sodium hydroxide (NaOH) is dosed in an aqueous recirculation medium to maintain slight alkalinity. Acidic impurities such as sulfur dioxide (SO2) and HCl are removed, along with some hydrogen sulfide (H2S) and CO2, by wet alkaline scrubbing to form water soluble compounds.
Potassium permanganate (KMnO4) is a powerful oxidizer and can oxidize a number of impurities to compounds that are soluble or insoluble in the potassium permanganate solution. Amongst many impurities oxidized by scrubbing in KMnO4 scrubbers, removal of nitrogen oxides in particular is unique. Other impurities that are removed include sulfur compounds and some odorous and taste imparting compounds. In order to maintain high efficiency, permanganate scrubbers must operate under alkaline conditions. CO2 in the feed gas stream has the effect of neutralizing the scrubber solution by forming carbonate and bicarbonate. Under neutral conditions, Manganese Dioxide (MnO2) precipitates creating serious operational issues due to fouling of scrubber packing and clogging of the scrubber components.
The effectiveness of permanganate scrubbers is impacted by the incoming NOx concentration. Often, the capacity of CO2 plants must be reduced when the feed gas concentration exceeds the design range. It is also common to require frequent service for permanganate scrubbers when NOx levels exceed the normal range. Some production facilities that experience spikes in nitrogen oxide concentrations in the feed gas must shut down the system ever few hours to remove the old potassium permanganate solution and replace it with new or fresh solution. It is not uncommon to require up to more than one or two shutdowns per day to service permanganate scrubbers. In some cases CO2 producers reduce the plant capacity to increase the length of time the permanganate scrubber can stay in service before it needs to be re-charged.
Post compression cleanup is somewhat of a polishing stage and mainly consists of adsorption processes to further reduce impurities. The most commonly used beds include Zinc Oxide (ZnO), Silica, Alumina and Carbon for removing many different impurities.
In addition, high pressure water washing may also be used to lower soluble impurities. Some configurations include catalytic reactors to convert some hard to treat impurities.
Adsorption beds remove one or a plurality of impurities or component impurities in the feed gas. ZnO, ferrous and ferric oxide beds for removal of H2S, activated carbon is effective in adsorbing impurities like acetaldehyde, aromatic hydrocarbon and other volatile hydrocarbons. Silica beds are effective in removing water, oxygenates such as alcohols. The capacity of an activated carbon bed is a function of the impurity's species and concentration. The capacity of a given bed is also limited by the amount of absorbent it holds, therefore it is used as a polishing bed. It is advantageous to remove as much of these impurities as possible in a pre-compression cleanup stage before the feed gas reaches the polishing bed.
Even beds that can be regenerated are affected by the concentration of impurities, because the operating cycle is affected by the amount of time it takes for the bed to reach capacity. Regeneration cycles tend to add cost to the process due to their need for heating energy or pressurization. For example, carbon adsorption beds require a large amount of steam to raise the temperature of the bed to the temperature needed to remove the adsorbed impurities. Often CO2 producers are adversely affected by "spikes in impurities" that are in excess of the design capacity of polishing beds designed to remove them.
Therefore, CO2 producers will want to remove as much of the impurities as possible in precompression cleanup stage upstream of the adsorption and polishing steps. A KMnO4 based oxidative scrubber is generally placed downstream of water wash scrubbers or alkaline scrubber. Improving reliability in oxidative scrubbing will reduce not only impurities due to oxidative chemistry, but also provide an additional stage for removal of soluble impurities.
As mentioned above, for oxidative scrubbing, KMnO4 solution is used in an aqueous scrubber. KMnO4 is a strong oxidant. However, the oxidation occurs in the liquid phase and has the following issues. Impurities from the gas phase are required to first dissolve in order to react with KMnO4. Some of these impurities have very poor solubility and require large gas liquid contact to effectively transport across the gas-liquid interface. Most scrubbers do not provide adequate scrubbing when impurities spike during production. CO2 in the feed gas neutralizes alkalinity of KMnO4 solution which significantly retards oxidation rates and removal efficiencies. Contaminants such as H2S, DMS COS, mercaptans impart objectionable taste and odor, even at very low concentrations. Therefore, inefficiencies in oxidative scrubbing are not acceptable.
Precipitation of manganese oxides fouls packing in absorption columns which reduces gas-liquid contacting surface area, thereby rendering the columns to be less efficient and not as cost-effective.


A germicidal system for use in disinfecting one or more contact surfaces includes one or more germicidal devices each comprising a germicidal light source. The one or more germicidal devices may be connected to a network, which allows for controlling the operational parameters of the one or more germicidal devices and/or collecting information from the one or more germicidal devices.

Healthcare workers wash their hands often in an attempt to prevent transmission of hospital acquired infections. However, a large number of hospital patients still become infected by nosocomial (healthcare acquired) infections. Computers with bacteria ridden surfaces already present in hospital rooms or brought into a room by a healthcare worker to perform an exam or procedure may be to blame. The hands of healthcare workers may become infected when they touch the computer surface. The infection can then be passed on to patients and other surfaces in the room.
In efforts to solve this health hazard, current practices include using disinfectant wipes to wipe down the surfaces. However, to have any antimicrobial affect, most wipes require a surface to remain wet with disinfecting solution for at least 30 seconds. This manual disinfection method is time and labor intensive, and as such is unlikely to be done as frequently as required to limit transmission. Antibacterial treatment of surfaces may not be ideal either as it takes several hours to kill bacteria deposited on them, which may prohibit any real impact on the pathogen transfer mechanism. Further, as chemical disinfectants, like antibiotics, have been overused, super resistant strains of bugs are being created that require new solutions. Additional methods of disinfection are thus desirable.

UV germicidal devices, systems, and methods


Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for few-shot learning-based generator training are disclosed. An exemplary method may start with obtaining a teacher model and a plurality of training samples, as well as a generator for generating more training samples. After generating a plurality of additional training samples using the method may continue with feeding the plurality of generated additional training samples into the teacher model to obtain a plurality of first statistics; and feeding the plurality of training samples into the teacher model to obtain a plurality second statistics. Then the method further includes training the generator to minimize a distance between the plurality of first statistics and the plurality of second statistics.

In machine learning, knowledge distillation refers to transferring knowledge from a large model to a smaller one. The large model is usually called a teacher model, while the smaller model is usually called a student model. Knowledge distillation transfers knowledge learned by the teacher model from a large volume of training samples into the student model without loss of validity. Meanwhile, the student model has a much smaller footprint and is less expensive to evaluate and deploy.
Knowledge distillation involves training the student model to generate similar output as the teacher model does. This training process requires training samples. Theoretically, the training samples can be obtained by accessing the original or augmented training samples that trained the teacher model. However, this is usually problematic in practice due to privacy, proprietary, and availability concerns. To tackle this practical problem, this disclosure describes a few-shot learning based method for training a generator to generate training samples for knowledge distillation.

System and method for training sample generator with few-shot learning


Elevator door dwell time is varied as a function of arrival time so that a show-and-go time is met. The show-and-go time is the time from when the passengers are shown which elevator to board to the time when the elevator door is ready to close after the pasengers have entered the elevator. The arrival time is a function of the distance of the elevator from the floor of the hall call signal and is the time remaining after an elevator reaches a stop control point where a hall call assignment is fixed to a car until the door of said elevator begins to open. Door opening time, door dwell time, and arrival time are subtracted from a show-and-go time. If the difference is greater than or equal to zero, the door dwell time is increased by the difference, but if the difference is less than zero the door dwell time is decreased by the difference, and the doors are then held open at a landing for the door dwell time.

Shortly before an elevator arrives at a floor, a hall fixture (a gong, or hall lantern, or both, or any device for notifying a passenger that an elevator is on its way to serve him) can be energized to show prospective passengers which elevator in a group will respond. When an elevator arrives at the floor the doors open and remain open while passengers enter, and then they close. These three steps take time: the door opening time, the time the doors remain open (door dwell time), and the door closing time. The door opening time is the time for an opening elevator door to move from a position in which the doors are fully closed and a door fully closed switch is contacted, to a position at which the doors are fully open and a door fully open switch is contacted. The door closing time is the time for a closing elevator door to move from a position in which the door is fully open and a door fully open switch is contacted, to a position in which the door is fully closed and the door fully closed switch is contacted. Whereas the majority of passengers go to the elevator quickly, some, such as the aged or physically challenged, do so more slowly. It takes these physically challenged people longer to get to the elevator once they learn which elevator in the group will respond to the hall call. The problem is how to give these exceptional passengers an exceptionally long time to get to the elevator and enter it.
Since the issue is time, the solution to the above-stated problem would seem to lie in lengthening one of the three time periods. One way to do this is to determine an average amount of time required for one of these physically challenged passengers to get to the elevator and enter it, and then lengthen the door dwell time accordingly. Unfortunately, holding the doors open for a long time holds up the elevator service not only for passengers at the floor where the physically challenged person registered the hall call but also for passengers at floors with later hall calls. For example, a five-second longer door dwell time for an elevator traveling up with hall calls at floors 5, 6, 7, 8, and 10 will take an extra 5 seconds to get to floor 6, an extra 10 seconds to get to floor 7, an extra 15 seconds to get to floor 8, and so on.
A second way would be to announce earlier which elevator will take the hall call. An elevator commits to a given hall call when it begins to decelerate to stop at the floor registering the hall call. The point at which the elevator commits to answer a hall call is the stop control point (SCP). The distance of the SCP from a registered hall call varies and is dependent upon factors including the speed of the elevator, its deceleration rate, and its position with respect to the floor. At the SCP, the elevator starts to decelerate.
In elevator dispatching systems, such as relative system response (RSR) dispatching disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,363,381, the system preliminarily assigns an elevator to respond to a hall call at the time the hall call is registered. However, thereafter the RSR system can reassign a different elevator to respond to the hall call if the subsequent assignment will provide faster response or improved system performance. The reassignment process takes place in a computer in the elevator controller and is transparent to the user. In order to improve RSR dispatching efficiency, the decision regarding possible reassignment occurs often, e.g., every second. This continual reassignment process occurs until the SCP, at which point the hall call assignment is fixed with respect to a certain elevator. The SCP is the last possible moment at which the assignment may be fixed. If an elevator receives a fixed assignment beyond the SCP, the car will not have time to slow down to the floor of the hall call. As soon as the elevator assignment is fixed, the hall fixture is energized.
What this second solution gives with one hand it takes away with the other because energizing the hall fixture before the SCP requires fixing the assignment before, the SCP, confounding the purpose of fixing the assignment simultaneously with the SCP, which purpose is to reassign until the last possible moment when the assignment must be fixed.

Variable elevator door dwell time based upon time of notification of assigned car


Apparatuses and methods related to redundant memory and mapping memory addresses to redundant memory are disclosed. An example apparatus includes a plurality of memory sections and a plurality of redundant memory sections. A programmable element block includes a plurality of programmable element sets. A programmable element set is configured to be programmed with location information for a redundant memory section of the plurality of redundant memory sections and further programmed with a respective memory address to be mapped to a redundant memory element of the redundant memory section located by the location information. A programmable element block logic is configured to associate a memory address programmed in a programmable element set with a redundant memory element of the redundant memory section located by the respective location information programmed in the programmable element set.

Programmable elements are included in integrated circuits to store information to be retained even when power is not provided to the circuits. The programmable elements are non-volatile and may be programmed to store the desired information. Examples of non-volatile elements include fuses, antifuses, and non-volatile memory elements. Examples of the types of information programmed in the programmable elements of an integrated circuit include device information, device configuration information, device operation information, as well as other information.
In a particular example for memory circuits, programmable elements may be used to store memory address mapping information related to mapping memory addresses to redundant memory elements. Mapping memory address to redundant memory allows for "repairing" defective memory of a main memory array by accessing the redundant memory to which the memory address of the defective memory is mapped instead of the memory of the main memory array that is defective. A redundant memory element typically has a respective associated set of programmable elements that are used to store memory address information when the redundant memory element is used, and a respective set of latches into which a programmed memory address is latched for operation. Thus, when the respective associated set of programmable elements is enabled and programmed with a memory address, the redundant memory element is accessed when a memory access operation is requested for that memory address. However, if a redundant memory element is not used, the respective associated set of programmable elements remains unprogrammed.
As the capacity of memory circuits has increased, the number of redundant memory elements has increased as well. Along with the additional redundant memory elements, a corresponding number of sets of programmable elements and sets of latches have been added. The additional redundant memory elements and respective sets of associated programmable elements and sets of latches result in larger integrated circuit area and increased manufacturing complexity. Often much of the redundant memory elements are not used because there are fewer defective memory locations than available redundant memory elements. The unprogrammed sets of programmable elements and unused redundant memory in effect represent wasted space. The amount of redundant memory elements and respective associated sets of programmable elements could be reduced to address the issue, however, it is desirable to maintain the number of redundant memory elements because the number of defective memory that will be in need of repair is unpredictable.

Apparatuses and methods for mapping memory addresses to redundant memory


A queue management system interfaces with a resource management system and a queuing system in an environment that further includes an interim system. The queue management system comprises an interface to the resource management system for obtaining resource availability data and a management system. The resource availability data represents a resource termination time—and may include the resource termination time or data useful for calculating the resource termination time. The control system: i) obtains a value representing the expected interim system handling time, and ii) makes the interim system available for handling a subject client only if the expected interim system handling time period terminates prior to the resource termination time. The control system transfers the subject client to the queuing system to hold while waiting for connection to a resource for handling upon determining that the resource termination time is scheduled to occur prior to termination of the expected interim system handling time period.

Automatic call director (ACD) technology is a well known technology that: i) accepts incoming calls from calling clients; ii) queues calling clients on-hold for connection to a service representative; and iii) when a service representative is available, connects the client from the queue to the available service representative.
One problem associated with ACD technology is that the amount of time a client waits in queue can be quite lengthy, particularly during times at which many clients are calling the call center. A client waiting on-hold without any knowledge of when he or she will be connected to a service representative can be exasperating.
Expected wait time systems have been developed which, as a courtesy, provide a calling client with a prediction of the time the client will need to wait in queue until a service representative is available. While this solution provides the calling client with information about the predicted wait time, it does not alleviate the problem associated with the client having to wait on-hold for an extended period of time.
In an effort to reduce customer exacerbation caused by having to maintain a connection while on-hold in queue, interim systems have been developed. Exemplary interim systems include systems which handle the client during the expected wait time. One example would be a system which interactively provides information to the customer on an automated basis.
Another example would be a call back system which obtains a telephone number at which the calling client can be reached at the end of the expected wait time. The client disconnects, and then, at the end of the expected wait time, the call back system establishes a connection to the client and couples the client to an available representative without waiting on-hold in queue. One exemplary system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,563,921 to Williams et al. which is commonly assigned with the present application.
An advantage of a call back system as an interim system is that the system not only eliminates the requirement that the client remain connected on-hold in queue, but the system also reduces toll charges in a system wherein the call center is paying toll charges for clients on-hold in queue (e.g. clients who called-in on a toll free number).
One characteristic of using an interim system is that the client is not connected to a service representative until after the interim system has completed its handling of the client. In the example where the interim system is a call back system, the client is not connected to the service representative until: i) the expected wait time expires; and ii) the system calls the client and establishes a connection. This is not a problem during a typical business day because each service representative is continually handling clients from the queue until such time as the call back system establishes a connection with the client. In other words, no service representatives are idle waiting for the call back system to establish the connection.
However, waiting for an interim system to complete its handling of a client can be a problem as the end of a work day approaches. Typically, service representatives will stay past the time the call center "officially closes" to work through clients in queue. If clients have been directed to an interim system near the end of the business day, it is possible that the service representatives will complete handling of all clients in queue before the interim system completes its handling of those clients directed to the interim system. This would cause idle time while one or more service representatives wait for the interim system to complete its handling of clients.
Therefore, what is needed is a system and method for managing the queuing of clients waiting to be connected to a resource for servicing in a system wherein both a traditional queue and an interim system are available for handling of clients waiting to be connected to a resource. More particularly, what is needed is such a system that permits handling of clients by an interim system only if resources are expected to be available for handling at a time that the interim system would be expected to complete its handling of the client.

Resource based queue management system and method


A device is provided that interfaces with existing point of sale credit card reading devices, and furnishes the option of transmitting data over either the existing modem installation or a radio frequency data communication network. The device scans the information encoded on the credit card to determine which data transmission path is appropriate for a particular transaction. The device software generates the necessary signals to simulate the normal interaction between the POS cardreader device and a modem. The software also converts between serial and packetized data in order to request and receive credit card purchase authorizations over the radio frequency data communication network.

This application relates to the art of employing radio frequency data communication networks to effect point of sale ("POS") transactions. The invention is particularly applicable to credit card transactions common to retail sales operations, although it will be appreciated that the invention has broader applicability to any transaction that requires the transmission and verification of coded data.
Various types of communication networks have evolved in response to increasing needs for information exchange. Among the more familiar types of communication networks are cellular telephone technology and modem technology. The former is primarily oriented to voice communication, and the latter to more general data transmission such as between computers or fax machines. Both technologies employ the existing infrastructure of fixed telephone lines, and the fees associated with the use of these networks are accrued according to the amount of time that a user is connected to a telephone line.
Recently another type of data communication network has emerged, which enables information exchange by the sending and receiving of data through high frequency radio signals. The radio frequency data communication networks require a new infrastructure of receiving and transmitting stations connected to regional and national control centers. This control hierarchy provides the wide geographical coverage that enables the reception and re-transmission of signals beyond the range of the individual user/transmitters.
Such network infrastructures are provided, in the United States, by the Mobitex network, owned and operated by RAM Mobile Data and by Ardis, a joint venture of Motorola and IBM. Both networks employ packet switched data transmission, which aggregates digital data into packets that are then transmitted in radio frequency bursts. The fees for usage of the data communication network are then charged according to the number of data packets transmitted by the users.
The technology for POS credit transactions is also well known. A prospective credit purchaser moves a credit card through a card reader slot or manually enters a number, thereby supplying information concerning the account number of the card holder. This account number, along with the amount of the contemplated purchase, is transmitted to a central authorization center. The approval or disapproval of the transaction by a "host device" at the authorization center is then transmitted back from the authorization center to the POS.
Existing POS equipment receives and transmits data over telephone lines, using modem technology. Modems use a streaming or bit by bit serial data transmission. Moreover, in stores with many checkout counters or registers, the POS devices are "daisy-chained" or series connected to a limited number of telephone lines. During high volume periods a queuing problem develops that creates undesirable delays in obtaining individual authorizations.
POS devices equipped to utilize a radio frequency data communication network would increase the speed of data transmission and eliminate or substantially reduce high volume queuing problems. The radio frequency data communication network, transmitting at approximately 8,000 bits/sec., can quite quickly accommodate a data packet and clear the channel for other traffic. Also, at this stage of its development, the network has excess transmission capacity that further contributes to faster transmission.
Existing POS devices, however, are designed to communicate with modems, using serial data transmission algorithms such as the Mastercard Automated Point-Of-Sale Program ("MAPP"). Devices equipped to transmit data packets over a radio frequency data communication network are designed to communicate using other algorithms, such as the Mobitex Asychronous Communication ("MASC") algorithm.
Moreover, a wholesale conversion to new POS devices dedicated to operating with the radio frequency data communication networks is not practical at this time. Some credit card companies, which have not yet affiliated with radio frequency data communication networks, may not be connected to the networks at the authorization centers. Many retailers may also wish to retain the option of employing existing modem lines rather than switching entirely to radio frequency data transmission.
Thus, there is a need to transmit and receive POS transaction data over radio frequency data communication networks in conjunction with existing POS card readers. There is also a concomitant need to maintain an option to utilize an existing modem link, either upon recognition of a particular type of credit card, or at the external command of a POS user.

Transition and connection device for radio frequency point of sale transaction systems


A gate driving module includes a gate driver and a gate signal generator. The gate driver generates a vertical start signal, a plurality of gate clock signals and a plurality of inverse gate clock signals based on a vertical start control signal, a plurality of gate clock control signals, a gate on voltage, a first gate off voltage and a second gate off voltage. The number of the gate clock signals is P. The number of the inverse gate clock signals is P. The number of the gate clock control signals is P. P is a positive integer equal to or greater than two. The gate signal generator generates a gate signal based on the vertical start signal, the gate clock signals and the inverse gate clock signals.

1. Technical Field
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention relate to a gate driving module, a display apparatus having the gate driving module and a method of driving a display panel using the gate driving module.
2. Discussion of Related Art
A liquid crystal display ("LCD") apparatus may include a first substrate including a pixel electrode, a second substrate including a common electrode and a liquid crystal layer disposed between the first and second substrate. An electric field is generated by voltages applied to the pixel electrode and the common electrode. By adjusting an intensity of the electric field, a transmittance of a light passing through the liquid crystal layer is adjusted so that a desired image is displayed.
A display apparatus may include a display panel and a panel driver. The display panel includes a plurality of gate lines and a plurality of data lines. The panel driver includes a gate driver providing gate signals to the gate lines and a data driver providing data voltages to the data lines.
When the gate signals having different timings are generated, levels of the gate signals may vary so that gate signals having a uniform level are not transmitted to the display panel. Thus, a display quality of the display panel may deteriorate.

Gate driving module, display apparatus having the same and method of driving display panel using the same


A light emitting device comprising a first frame, a light bar and a light guide plate is provided. The first frame has a groove which has a bottom plane, two inner walls, and an opening. The light bar disposed in the groove comprises a substrate having a lower surface attached to the bottom plane and an upper surface having several light sources. The light guide plate has a light emitting surface and a light incident surface. The light incident surface perpendicular and adjoining to the light emitting surface has several abutting portions. The light guide plate is inserted to the groove via the opening. The emitting light of the light source entering the light guide plate is guided by the light guide plate to be emitted off the light emitting surface. The abutting portions abut to the upper surface, so that the light bar is fixed in the groove.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates in general to a light emitting device, and more particularly to an edge-lit light emitting device.
2. Description of the Related Art
The edge-lit light emitting module converts a weaker light source from lateral side into a plane light source through the use of a light guide plate, and requires a fixing device for fixing the light source on side of the light guide plate by way of screw locking or adhesive bonding. When screw locking is used, firstly, components must be aligned, and the light source may be damaged if the alignment is biased or the screws are not driven properly. When adhesive bonding is used, pollution is generated and bonding time is required.

Light emitting device, flat light and flat panel display


An ink jet printing apparatus and an image processing apparatus capable of stably outputting an image with no joint streak even in the case where printing conditions, such as the kind of ink and the kind of printing medium, change in a variety of ways are provided. For this purpose, correction processing is performed on image data corresponding to an eject port group located at one end part of an eject port column in a first printing scan and on image data corresponding to an eject port group located at the other end part in a second printing scan. At this time, the number of eject ports included in a first eject port group and the number of eject ports included in a second eject port group are adjusted in accordance with printing conditions.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ink jet printing apparatus and an image processing apparatus.
2. Description of the Related Art
In a serial type ink jet printing apparatus, a printing scan in which a printing head is moved while causing the printing head to eject ink in accordance with image data and a conveyance operation to convey a printing medium in a direction intersecting the direction of the printing scan are repeated alternately. At this time, there is a case where a joint streak occurs at the boundary part between the regions in which printing is performed by printing scans performed twice successively in the printing medium.
For example, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H08-25693 (1996) has disclosed the method for causing printing regions in which printing scans are performed twice successively to overlap each other to a certain extent in the conveyance direction and adjusting the number of dots that are printed in the overlapped region by using a mask pattern. At this time, by using a gradation mask pattern by which the printing ratio at end parts of the printing head is reduced gradually, it is possible to suppress unevenness in density in each overlapped region.
Further, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-36524 has disclosed the method for counting the number of dots that are printed in the vicinity of the boundary part and adjusting the thinning ratio at the boundary part in accordance with the number of counted dots without providing an overlapped region. Conspicuity of the joint streak depends on the gradations, i.e., the number of dots that are printed, but by adopting Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-36524, it is possible to appropriately adjust the number of dots at the boundary part in accordance with the gradations, and therefore, it is made possible to make less conspicuous the joint streak regardless of the density. On the other hand, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2008-922 has disclosed a method for adding dots at the joint part region by focusing on, in particular, a white streak.
However, in the case where Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. H08-25693 (1996) is adopted, the number of times of printing scan required to print an image is different between the overlapped region and the other region. Specifically, in the case of the one-pass printing, in the overlapped region, ink is given during the printing scans performed twice, but in the other region, ink is given during the printing scan performed once. As a result of that, for example, in the case where printing is performed on glossy paper by using, for example, a pigment ink, there is produced a difference in the degree of irregularities of the image surface, i.e., smoothness between the overlapped region and the other region, and the difference may be erroneously recognized as glossiness unevenness. Further, in the case where mixed-color printing is performed by using inks in two or more colors, there is produced a difference in the color tone and saturation between the overlapped region and the other region and the difference may be erroneously recognized as color unevenness.
According to the intensive examination by the inventors etc., of the present invention, even in the case where Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2002-36524 was adopted and the thinning ratio at the boundary region was adjusted in accordance with the gradation without providing the overlapped region, it was recognized that the joint streak was not reduced sufficiently or the joint streak was made more conspicuous on the contrary. The reason the joint streak was not reduced sufficiently is that conventionally, the number of dots was adjusted only in specific regions adjacent to the boundary part despite the fact that the range in which the joint streak appears (thickness of the joint streak) varies depending on a variety of conditions, such as the kind of ink, printing medium, etc.

Ink jet printing apparatus and image processing apparatus


A panel connection, particularly for flooring panels, having a groove (35) that is formed at a side edge (5); a tongue (32) that is formed at a side edge (6); a depression (39) that is formed in the groove (35) and has an interlocking surface (16); an interlocking groove (34) that is formed at the tongue (32) and has an interlocking surface (26); and fitting surfaces (14, 24), which are formed the groove (35) and at the tongue (32) and serve as abutments for the interlocking surfaces (16, 26). The properties of interlocking and orientation stability are improved in that a recess (40), which is formed by a facing surface (11) that extends perpendicular to the top side (3) and a fitting surface (12) that extends parallel to the top side (3), is provided in the region of the side edge (5). An upper lip (30), which is formed by a facing surface (21) that extends perpendicular to the top side (4) and a fitting surface (22) that extends parallel to the top side (4), is provided in the region of the side edge (6). The fitting surfaces (12, 22) resting against one another and the facing surfaces (11,21) resting against one another in the interlocked state of the connection.

The invention relates to a mechanical connection of sheet-type panels, as are typically used for a floor covering, such as parquet or laminate flooring, or for ceiling and wall tiling.
In all cases, the individual panels can be joined through a mechanical connection, i.e., interlocking, to form a flat surface, so the panels can be laid without adhesives or additional mechanical fastening elements, such as screws or nails. A particular advantage of this is that the panels can be laid without adhesive bonding, and can therefore be removed.
JP 3-169967 A, on which the present invention is based, describes a mechanical connection of flooring panels. Along a first side edge, the panels are provided with a groove, which is formed by an upper lip and a lower lip and extends parallel to the side edge. Embodied on an opposite side edge of the further, second panel is a tongue, which extends parallel to this side edge. A depression having an interlocking surface that extends at an incline with respect to the top side of the panel is embodied in the groove. A corresponding interlocking element, which has an interlocking surface that extends at an incline with respect to the top side, is embodied at the tongue. Furthermore, fitting surfaces that extend parallel to the top side and serve as abutments for the interlocking surfaces of the groove depression and the interlocking element of the tongue are embodied in the groove and at the tongue, at the end facing the respective side edge. In the direction parallel to the top side, the upper lip covers the interlocking surface embodied opposite it in the groove. In the interlocked state of the connection, the fitting surfaces and the interlocking surfaces fit closely together in pairs in order to keep the side edges in contact. Through the cooperation of the fitting surfaces and the interlocking surfaces, the impacting side edges of two panels rest tightly against one another, forming a virtually gap-free connection.
Further mechanical panel connections are known from the prior art disclosed in WO 94/26999, WO 96/27721, WO 97/47834 and WO 98/58142.
A common feature of the mechanical panel connections known from the prior art is that they permit a reliable mechanical interlocking in the direction parallel to the top side of the panels, yet they possess a low rigidity with respect to a rotation of the panel at the adjacent side edges. Hence, the panels can be pivoted relative to one another fairly easily, leading to a loosening of the mechanical connection. In the prior art, this is even desirable to a certain extent for simple panel laying. On the other hand, these known panels possess a sufficient rigidity in terms of the aforementioned tilting and pivoting of the panels relative to one another, but the panel interlocking of the connection is inadequately rigid. In addition, the fitting in the direction perpendicular to the top side is limited to only one fitting-surface pair, so the adjacent side edges do not match exactly in height, thus forming a noticeable step.
The technical problem facing the invention, therefore, is to provide a mechanical connection of panels that is distinguished by improved interlocking and stability properties.
In accordance with the invention, the outlined technical problem is solved by a connection possessing the features of the preamble to claim 1, namely that a recess formed by a surface extending essentially perpendicular to the top side and a fitting surface extending parallel to the top side is provided in the region of the side edge, and an upper lip formed by the top side, a surface extending essentially perpendicular to the top side and a fitting surface extending parallel to the top side is provided in the region of the side edge, with the fitting surfaces and the other surfaces resting against one another in the interlocked state of the connection.
In accordance with the invention, the two panels are stabilized against tilting or pivoting along the side edges in the interlocked state by the additional fitting surfaces in the region of the recess. The interlocking, in contrast, is effected by the pair of interlocking surfaces and the pair of fitting surfaces disposed at the end facing the side edges, and acting as abutments. Therefore, the force generated by the interlocking surfaces effectively prevents the two panels from moving apart in a plane parallel to the top sides and perpendicular to the side edges. Thus, different fitting-surface pairs assure the interlocking, on the one hand, and the stabilization of the orientation of the two panels, on the other hand.
A further advantage of the mechanical panel connection according to the invention is that the fitting surface in the region of the recess of the first panel and at the upper lip of the second panel permits a very precise adaptation of the top sides of the two panels relative to one another, which effectively prevents the occurrence of uneven areas at the adjacent side edges.
In a preferred manner, the fitting surface that is disposed opposite the interlocking surface inside the groove of the first side edge extends at an incline with respect to the top sides. Consequently, the tongue to be inserted is guided during the joining process of the two panels.
If, in contrast, these fitting surfaces extend parallel to the top sides, an additional fitting is advantageously effected in the vertical direction, in addition to the fitting-surface pair of the invention.
It is further preferable for the end surface of the upper lip and the end surface of the interlocking lip of the first side edge to be arranged in essentially one plane. In this case, joining the panels by means of force prevents the impact force from being absorbed by only one of the two lips, resulting in a more uniform joining of the two panels.


An applicator for applying a substance to a body has a first portion and a second portion. A perforation line extends circumferentially around the applicator and separates the first portion and the second portion. A web is contained within the applicator. The web is attached to the first portion and the second portion, such that when the applicator is ruptured, the web may be used to apply the substance to the body by grasping the first portion and the second portion and manipulating the web on the body.

The application of a lotion, such as a sun screen lotion or a medicament lotion, may be difficult when applying the lotion to the body. Unless assistance by someone else is obtained, parts of the body may not be adequately covered with the lotion due to the inability of the person to reach areas of his or her own body with the lotion. For example, it is well known that it is extremely difficult to apply a lotion to the back. This problem is further compounded if the person has a physical disability.
Failure to apply a lotion uniformly can result in discomfort, lack of uniformity in color of the skin, and, if the lotion is a medicine, perhaps serious injury. Additionally, a person attempting to apply the lotion to his or her back may waste significant lotion. Some lotions, especially medicament lotions, are expensive.
Prior inventions have attempted to address the problem.
For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 7,597,494 (Migyanka), utilizes a cable placed inside the lotion container. Part of the cable is accessible outside of the container, allowing a user to pull the cable from the container. The cable carries the lotion outside of the container. The user then applies the lotion by stretching the cable across his or her back and moving the cable up and down.
In U.S. Pat. No. 6,250,829 (Bower et al.), a storage and applicator uses a thin, fabric like cavity applicator that is pre-impregnated with fluid. Upon opening the enclosure, a user inserts his or her hand in the applicator and spreads the fluid over his or her body.
The problem with these inventions is that they are inconvenient to use and expensive to manufacture.


A method and apparatus for implementation in a database management system transforms high-dimensional data points to a single-dimensional space so that single-dimensional values can be used as representative index keys for high-dimensional data points and a single-dimensional index structure can be employed to index the transformed values. Upon achieving transformed values, known single-dimensional indexing structures can be employed. To achieve transformation from high-dimensions to a single-dimension, attribute values of a data item, each representing a different dimension, are mapped into a range and an integer value is assigned to each dimension. Either the minimum or maximum dimension value for the multi-dimensional data item is selected, and the minimum or maximum dimensional value is added to the integer value. As a result of this transformation, data points are mapped over a range in a single dimension and associated single-dimension values are used as a representative index key for subsequent search queries.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of database management, and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for achieving efficient database indexing structures which permit high-speed access to high-dimensional data points from a large repository of points stored in memory.
2. Description of Related Art
Database management systems are widely accepted as a standard tool for manipulating large volumes of data in secondary storage media. To enable fast access to stored data according to its content, databases typically use structures known as indexes. Although indexes are optional because data can always be located by an exhaustive search, indexes are the primary means of reducing the volume of data that must be retrieved and processed in response to a query. Therefore, in practice, large database files must be indexed to satisfy performance requirements.
Recent years have seen an explosive growth in use of new database applications such as CAD/CAM systems, spatial information systems, and multimedia information systems. The needs of these applications are far more complex than traditional business applications. In particular, data objects are typically represented as high-dimensional points. Traditional indexing techniques such as the B-tree and its variants, which are single-dimensional indexing structures, do not efficiently support such new database applications, thereby requiring the design of new and more complex indexing mechanisms.
Consequently, many indexing methods for multi-dimensional data have been developed, including hierarchical tree structures (such as R-trees), linear quad-trees, and grid-files. Although hierarchical tree structures perform well when the tree nodes exhibit a large degree of fan-out, with an increasing number of dimensions, a low degree of fan-out contributes to increased overlap between node entries and increased tree height, resulting in rapid deterioration in performance. Linear quad-trees and grid-files also work well for low dimensionalities, but the response time explodes exponentially for high dimensionalities. In fact, for high dimensionality, sequential scanning becomes more efficient.
Recent efforts have sought to address these problems by reducing the dimensionality of the indexing attribute so that one direction corresponds to projecting high-dimensional points on a hyperplane containing the axis. One such method (e.g., that disclosed by Friedman, et al. An Algorithm For Finding Nearest Neighbors, IEEE Transaction on Computers, Vol C-24, pp.1000–1006) truncates high dimensional data. Searching on projections, however, produces false drops, which can reduce the effectiveness of the technique. Another recent method groups high-dimensional data into smaller buckets so that a search can be performed by sequentially scanning the smaller number of buckets. This approach is not expected to scale for large amounts of high-dimensional data, as the number of buckets will be too large to allow efficient searching.
Therefore, there is a need for indexing technique which reduces the dimensionality of a high-dimensional database, while at the same time ensuring that objects are not missed and false drops do not frequently occur when answering a query.

Apparatus and method for performing transformation-based indexing of high-dimensional data


An ultrasonic liquid treatment chamber has an elongate housing through which liquid flows longitudinally from an inlet port to an outlet port thereof. An elongate ultrasonic waveguide assembly extends within the housing and is operable at a predetermined ultrasonic frequency to ultrasonically energize liquid within the housing. An elongate ultrasonic horn of the waveguide assembly is disposed at least in part intermediate the inlet and outlet ports, and has a plurality of discrete agitating members in contact with and extending transversely outward from the horn intermediate the inlet and outlet ports in longitudinally spaced relationship with each other. The horn and agitating members are constructed and arranged for dynamic motion of the agitating members relative to the horn at the predetermined frequency and to operate in an ultrasonic cavitation mode of the agitating members corresponding to the predetermined frequency and the liquid being treated in the chamber.

The agitation of liquid solutions finds numerous applications for enhancing the treatment of a liquid such as single component liquid, liquid-liquid mixing, liquid-gas mixing and liquid-particulate material mixing. For example, in formulating inks, paints and other viscous materials two or more components (at least one being a liquid) are mixed together to form the applicable solution. Other examples include the simultaneous introduction of various liquids and gases into the chamber to promote certain reactions. This would include the flow of water into the chamber with the introduction of gases such as air and/or oxygen and/or ozone only to mention a few. Also this chamber can be used to induce a variety of chemical reactions such as the decomposition of hydrogen peroxide, emulsion polymerization reactions and the creation of emulsions for emulsion polymerization mechanisms.
In other applications, this system can be used for the deagglomeration of particles in a liquid stream. This would include the deagglomeration of nano-particles such as pigments used in the formulation of inks. Plus the simultaneous formulation of an ink using these nano-pigment particles. This system can also have the simultaneous exposure to UltraViolet (UV) light to promote certain reactions of fluids or fluid/gas or fluid/gas/solids systems in the ultrasonic chamber. Another application could be in the medical field where this mixing system is used in the preparation of pharmaceutical formulations that are composed of powders/liquids and liquids for dispensing for use.
In particular, such agitation treatments lend themselves to continuous type flow treatment systems in which the liquid is treated while continuously moving through the system, usually through a column or elongate chamber. By agitating the liquid, the desired reaction (e.g., mixing or other result) may be expedited and thus capable of being achieved in a continuous flow operation.
Agitation of a liquid may be referred to as static agitation, in which agitation is caused by the particular flow parameters (e.g., flow rate, pressure, etc.) of the one or more liquid components through a column. Static agitation may also occur by directing a flow of liquid past stationary agitating members, such as a helical vane-type construction or other structures disposed in the flow column or chamber that disrupt and thus turbulate the flow of the liquid to be treated. Dynamic agitation is brought about by moving, e.g., rotating, oscillating, vibrating, etc. one or more agitating members (e.g., vanes, fan blades, etc.) within the treatment chamber through which the liquid flows.
One particularly useful type of dynamic agitation of the liquid results from ultrasonic cavitation, a more rigorous agitation, in the liquid. Ultrasonic cavitation refers to the formation, growth and implosive collapse of bubbles in liquid due ultrasonic energization thereof. Such cavitation results from pre-existing weak points in the liquid, such as gas-filled crevices in suspended particulate matter or transient microbubbles from prior cavitation events. As ultrasound passes through a liquid, the expansion cycles exert negative pressure on the liquid, pulling the molecules away from one another. Where the ultrasonic energy is sufficiently intense, the expansion cycle creates cavities in the liquid when the negative pressure exceeds the local tensile strength of the liquid, which varies according to the type and purity of liquid.
Small gas bubbles formed by the initial cavities grow upon further absorption of the ultrasonic energy. Under the proper conditions, these bubbles undergo a violent collapse, generating very high pressures and temperatures. In some fields, such as what is known as sonochemistry, chemical reactions take advantage of these high pressures and temperatures brought on by cavitation. However, the growth and violent collapse of the bubbles themselves provides a desirably rigorous agitation of the liquid. Cavitation that occurs at the interface between the ultrasonically energized liquid and a solid surface is rather asymmetric and generates high speed jets of liquid, further agitating the liquid. This type of cavitation is particularly useful, for example, in facilitating a more complete mixing together of two or more components of a liquid solution.
There is need, therefore, for a continuous flow ultrasonic liquid treatment chamber and mixing system that takes advantage of the benefits of ultrasonic cavitation to treat a flowing liquid.

Ultrasonic liquid treatment chamber and continuous flow mixing system


Disclosed is a biaxially stretched polyester film which comprises a polyester film and a coating layer composed of a resin composition comprising (A) an acrylic polymer and/or (B) a polyester copolymer and at least (C) a polymer containing a monomer having a sulfonic acid group neutralized with an organic amine in its recurring unit or (D) a polymer containing a monomer having a sulfonic acid group neutralized with ammonium on at least one surface of the polyester film.

5 1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a polyester film excellent in antistatic property, adhesion property and also transparency, and a light-sensitive silver halide photographic material using said polyester film.
2. Prior Art
A polyester film, particularly a polyethylene terephthalate biaxially oriented film has been used as a base for a photographic film, a base for drawing and a base for a magnetic recording tape. In these uses, a subbing layer is generally provided between a polyester support and a surface layer material to improve adhesion property therebetween. As such a subbing layer, in Japanese Patent Publication No. 40873/1972, there is disclosed a copolymer containing 8 mole % or more of a compound having a metal salt group of an ester-forming sulfonic acid based on the whole acid component and 20 mole % or more of polyethylene glycol based on the whole glycol component for the purpose of water dispersion. However, it can be easily estimated that water resistance of adhesion is lowered. In Japanese Patent Publication No. 5476/1981, a saturated linear aliphatic dicarboxylic acid having 4 to 8 methylene groups is used. However, also in this case, water resistance of the subbing layer is not sufficient. In Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 88454/1981, a substantially water-insoluble aqueous dispersion is used for improving water resistance. However, since the dispersion contains a water-soluble organic solvent, problems of working environment remain unsolved. In Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 248231/1985, there is disclosed a polyester aqueous dispersion in which a polyester having an intrinsic viscosity of 0.2 to 0.8 and substantially insoluble in water is uniformly dispersed in water containing no organic solvent. The above polyester comprises at least 40 mole % of terephthalic acid and 0.5 to 5 mole % of an aromatic dicarboxylic acid containing a metal salt of a sulfonic acid as acid components, and 5 to 60 mole % of ethylene glycol and neopentyl glycol as glycol components. In working examples thereof, the polymer insoluble in water is dissolved in tetrahydrofuran and then dispersed in water to obtain an aqueous dispersion, and then the solvent is removed by evaporation under reduced pressure, and there is also described clearly that the polymer is dissolved in a hydrophilic organic solvent such as acetone, tetrahydrofuran, ethyl acetate and methyl ethyl ketone to obtain an aqueous dispersion. Since an organic solvent is used in the process of preparing a water dispersion, problems of working environment are caused and also the steps of preparing the aqueous dispersion become complicated, whereby the above technique is not preferred in practical use.
Further, in such prior techniques, it is difficult to impart excellent transparency and antistatic property at the same time to a subbing layer. In Japanese Provisional Patent Publication No. 164831/1986, there is disclosed a technique of providing a subbing layer which is transparent, has antistatic property and also satisfies adhesion property. However, adhesion property to a hydrophilic colloid layer is poor, and a water-soluble organic solvent is contained so that there involve various problems such as problems of working environment and problems of preventing explosion of a stretching instrument and taking measures to prevent environmental pollution.
Under such a situation, in Japanese Provisional Patent Publications No. 20424/1986, No. 9242/1989 and No. 272535/1990, there have been proposed techniques of laminating a composition obtained by mixing an acrylic polymer or a polyester copolymer and a polymer having conductivity on a plastic film support. However, since compatibility of the acrylic polymer or the polyester copolymer with the conductive polymer is insufficient, there is a problem that whitening phenomenon occurs in the film obtained.

Biaxially stretched polyester film comprising a coating layer containing a salt of a sulfonic acid type polymer


Embodiments of hot streak alignment for gas turbine durability include structures and methods to align hot streaks with the leading edges of aligned first stage nozzle vanes in order to improve mixing of the hot streaks with cooling air at a stator nozzle of a first stage turbine and reduce usage of cooling air at first stage non-aligned stator nozzle vanes disposed adjacent to the aligned stator vanes.

Present embodiments relate to a gas turbine engine having a fuel nozzle within a combustor that discharges hot gasses into a high pressure turbine. More particularly, the present embodiments include those that relate to combustion gas hot streaks which are aligned in a circumferential direction with every other first stage nozzle vane and which allow for less cooling air usage at non-aligned vanes.
In a gas turbine engine, air is pressurized in a compressor and mixed with fuel in a combustor having a fuel nozzle thereby generating hot combustion gases which flow downstream through turbine stages. These turbine stages extract energy from the combustion gases. Flowise, the hot gasses enter a high pressure turbine which includes a first stage stator nozzle and a rotor assembly including a disk and a plurality of turbine blades. In further detail, the high pressure turbine first receives the hot combustion gasses from the combustor at the first stage stator nozzle that directs the combustion gases downstream through a row of high pressure turbine rotor blades extending radially outwardly from a first rotor disk. In a two stage turbine, a second stage stator nozzle is positioned downstream of the first stage blades followed in turn by a row of second stage turbine blades extending radially outwardly from a second rotor disk. The stator nozzles turn the hot combustion gas in a manner to maximize extraction at the adjacent downstream turbine blades.
The first and second rotor disks are joined to the compressor by a corresponding rotor shaft for powering the compressor during operation. The turbine engine may include a number of stages stators and rotors wherein static airfoils, commonly referred to as vanes, are interspaced an axial direction in the engine between rotating airfoils commonly referred to as blades. A multi-stage low pressure turbine follows the two stage high pressure turbine and is typically joined by a second shaft to a fan disposed upstream from the compressor in a typical turbofan aircraft engine configuration for powering an aircraft in flight.
As the combustion gasses flow downstream through the turbine stages, energy is extracted therefrom and the pressure of the combustion gas is reduced. The combustion gas is used to power a turbine output shaft for power and marine use or provide thrust in aviation usage.
More specifically, a combustor includes any number of combustor fuel nozzles which deliver fuel and facilitate mixing a method of compressed air to achieve a stable flame in the combustor chamber. At the combustor exit where combustion gas exits, a temperature profile will indicate that there are hotter and colder zones. The hotter zones are commonly referred to as hot streaks. Hot streaks are typically randomly arranged about a combustor relative to the first stage high pressure turbine nozzles. However aiming of hot streaks may occur for integer ratios of fuel nozzles and stator vanes. In such an arrangement, hot streaks may be aimed at open areas of nozzle segments between the vanes so as to limit damage on the material forming the nozzle structures. Such damage may include oxidation, thermo-mechanical fatigue and a commensurate reduction in durability. This reduction in durability leads to increased replacement intervals which come at a high cost to turbine engine operators.
Some engines include the stator nozzle assembly being, for example, an annular ring formed as a single piece. Other engines include the turbine stator nozzle assembly being formed as an annulus by a plurality of stator nozzle segments arranged in an annular array. The nozzle segments each include an inner band, an outer band and a vane extending therebetween. The vanes are hollow and receive a portion of pressurized air from the compressor which is used for cooling the vanes during operation.
There are two problems with the current state of the art. First, in allowing the hot streak to pass between vanes unimpeded, the hot streak will reach components downstream of the first stage stator nozzle with only limited mixing with air provided for turbine cooling. This can lead to damage of the downstream components. Second, present designs do not address issues with cooling air, specifically the continual desire to reduce the cooling air usage or control losses due to cooling air use in a turbine engine.
As may be seen in the foregoing section, there is a need for design improved mixing of hot streak gases while limiting damage to downstream components of the first stage nozzle. Additionally, a need exists to increase durability of the turbine components including the first stage stator nozzle and turbine blades as well as for embodiments including multiple-stage assemblies.
In the past, an unmet need has also been to decrease the usage of cooling gas at vanes which are not directly impinged by any hot streak so that some portion of such cooling air may be utilized to improve minor emissions or other beneficial functionality of the gas turbine engine. The present embodiments address all these needs and more.

Hot streak alignment for gas turbine durability


Carriers of a type, each with two elastically bendable holding pieces extending inwardly from its frame-like housing to hold a thin integrated circuit (IC) therebetween, are delivered to a specified pick-up location. A robotically operated pick-up module has a frame-like structure with windows, admits these carriers individually into these windows, and clamps them within these windows by means of an actuator-controlled clamping member. After they are brought to a transfer station having seats with openings connected to a negative pressure source, their holding pieces are pushed apart by activating another actuator within the module so as to move claw-like unlatching members. The ICs, which are then placed on the seats of the transfer station and released from their carriers, are picked up by vacuum suction pipes connected to vacuum pumps. While these ICs are suspended at bottom openings of these suction pipes, the module is robotically taken to a specified discharge location where the carriers, which are now empty, are released from their clamped conditions as the actuator-controlled clamping member is retracted. The ICs are thereafter brought to their desired positions and dropped off from the bottom openings of the suction pipes. By a reverse process and with the help of a device for precisely positioning the ICs, the same apparatus may be used for robotically loading ICs into carriers.

This invention relates to an apparatus for picking up small thin integrated circuits and loading them into individual frame-like protective carriers adapted to support them by means of elastically bendable elongated holding pieces, and also for unloading these integrated circuits from such carriers.
Many thin integrated circuits (ICs) are not only small and thin but also delicate and easily damaged. For transporting them, use is commonly made of protective carriers, and the small ICs must be extricated from such carriers before they can be put on an electronic product. FIG. 8 shows an example of such a carrier 50 characterized as being a single-piece molded structure having a frame-like housing 52 with indentations 58 (or semi-circular cut-outs) on outer edges for positioning purposes (to be explained below) and two unistructurally formed tongue-like elongated holding pieces 55 protruding inwardly therefrom in mutually opposite directions. These holding pieces 55 are elastically bendable and the distance between them is such that an IC piece (shown by broken lines at 60) can be inserted only if they are pushed slightly outward away from each other to enlarge the gap therebetween. After the IC piece 60 is thus inserted and the holding pieces 55 are released, the IC piece 60 is "captured" by knobs 56 protruding from the holding pieces 55.
In order to remove the IC piece 60 from its carrier 50, the holding pieces 55 must be pushed away from each other. As the gap between the two holding pieces 55 is increased, the IC piece 60 can be released from the carrier 50. Since these ICs are extremely delicate, they must be loaded into or picked out of their protective frames only with an extreme care. It is a general object of the present invention to provide an apparatus capable of efficiently and carefully loading thin ICs into such carriers as described above, as well as disengaging them from the carriers such that they can be transported to a specified device-assembly position.

Apparatus for loading and unloading thin integrated circuits into and from carriers


There is provided a cap assembly for a rectangular battery comprising a cap cover in which a vent hole is formed, a positive electrode terminal which has a through hole leading to the discharge hole and combines with the upper portion of the cap cover having an insulating plate interposed therebetween, a positive electrode tab connected to a positive electrode of an electrode assembly, a conductive safety vent support having a hollow rivet protrusion passing through the vent hole of the cap cover and the through hole of the positive electrode terminal to be coupled to the positive electrode terminal, and a conical conductive safety vent whose upper circumferential portion combines with the bottom surface of the safety vent support to seal the hollow of the rivet protrusion, and whose vertex contacts the upper surface of the positive electrode tab, wherein the vertex of the safety vent separates from the positive electrode tab when the internal pressure of the battery increases to a predetermined level.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cap assembly for a rectangular battery, and more particularly, to a cap assembly for a rectangular battery wherein power can be cut off simultaneously when a safety vent is broken due to an increase in internal pressure of a battery.
2. Description of Related Art
A rectangular battery has been widely used as a secondary battery, and contains an electrode assembly in a rectangular case. FIG. 1 shows an example of the rectangular battery. As shown in FIG. 1, a cylindrical or rectangular electrode assembly (not shown), called a jelly-roll, is installed inside a rectangular case 1 having an open upper surface. The jelly-roll is formed by winding anode and cathode plates (not shown) with a separator (not shown) being interposed therebetween as an insulator. A cap assembly 10 is installed at the upper portion of the case 1.
The cap assembly 10 includes a positive electrode portion 11, a negative electrode portion 12 and an insulating plate 13 for electrically insulating the positive and negative electrode portions 11 and 12 from each other.
When the rectangular battery reacts abnormally, the internal pressure in the case 1 increases due to generation of a gas, so the case 1 may be exploded.
Thus, in order to prevent that kind of explosion and reduce the internal pressure in the case 1, a fracture portion 14 for discharging a gas generated during the reaction is formed at the negative electrode portion 12. That is, when the internal pressure of the battery increases, the edges, which is weak in rigidity, of the fracture portion 14 is destroyed to form a safety vent through which the generated gas is discharged.
In the conventional cap assembly, the internal pressure of the battery can be reduced by destroying the fracture portion 14, but the flow of current is not blocked off. Therefore, a short circuit or an electric leakage can be generated after breakdown of the fracture portion.

Pressure responsive cap assembly for rectangular battery


An apparatus, system and method for monitoring and reporting the tethered/untethered status of a mobile asset are described. An asset tracking device comprises a sensor and circuit that detects whether a physical connection exists between a tractor portion and a trailer portion of a tractor/trailer vehicle. The physical connection is detected through the connection of an air hose coupling (or glad hand) at the trailer front wall. The sensor is continuously monitored by the sensor circuit and when a change is detected, the circuit sends a signal that turns on the power to the rest of the system. This enables the system to run in a very low power mode for extended periods of time. The sensor, which is located on the air hose (glad hand) coupling, senses the presence (or non-presence) of a tractor attached to the trailer and sends a trigger signal to turn on the power to the rest of the system, enabling the system to operate for extended periods of time on battery power. The asset tracking device and system also includes a processor, a location determining device for determining the geographic location of the mobile asset, and a transceiver for transmitting and receiving the tethered/untethered status of the mobile asset.

Each day, thousands of tractor-trailer trucks travel the highways transporting cargo from one location to another. Trucking companies, who are responsible for making sure the cargo reaches its destination on time, need the ability to track the location of the tractor-trailer throughout its journey. The trucking companies need to be able to monitor when and where a trailer is hooked up (tethered) and dropped off (untethered).
Prior asset tracking systems, which have depended primarily on the electrical cable coupling (e.g., 7-pin) to determine the tethered/untethered status have been expensive, complex, and in many situations ineffective.
Other prior art tracking systems used connectors and glad hand devices that incorporated conductors along the air brake hose line as outlined in U.S. Pat. No. 5,442,810.
Prior art solutions also often rely on a 7-pin power connector (J560) to be connected in order to sense a tethered or untethered event. This results in not all tethered/untethered events being registered. For example, many times a trailer is "shunted" from one location to another within the company yard without connecting the 7-pin power connector.
What is needed, therefore, is a new and innovative approach to monitoring and reporting the status of mobile assets, such as trailers and their valuable cargo.


An active damper system for damping high-frequency vibration excitation of the vehicle body, includes a damper bearing to support a vehicle chassis component on the vehicle body, wherein the damper bearing includes a first bearing element for fastening to the vehicle body and a second bearing element for fastening to the vehicle chassis component; an active actuating element connecting the first and second bearing elements; a first acceleration sensor for measuring an acceleration of the vehicle body; a control unit connected to the acceleration sensor and receiving a vertical acceleration of the vehicle body as input variable from the acceleration sensor, wherein the control unit influences the active actuation element. The active damper system includes a second acceleration sensor arranged on the second bearing element.

The invention relates to an active damper system for damping high-frequency vibrating excitation of the vehicle structure.
According to the state of the art, as disclosed in DE 10 2008 046 876 A1, it is known to optimize vibration between wheel and vehicle body by passive damper systems, which for example in a suspension strut are used below a piston cylinder arrangement, and are influenced so that a damping of the vehicle body is achieved.
According to DE 10 2008 046 876 A1, the damping of vibrations can be determined by adjustment of the damping force. The damping force is achieved by controlling an actuating device by which the vertical acceleration of the vehicle structure and the vertical acceleration of a wheel are measured by a sensor. By means of a signal processing device, a control signal for the actuating device of the dual modular damping force is generated by a signal processing device.