The present invention relates to space-time coding techniques capable of providing incremental redundancy in wireless communication environments incorporating spatial and temporal diversity. In general, a transmitter sends packets, via blocks of symbols, to a receiver with high bandwidth efficiency and only in the event that the receiver does not correctly receive a data packet does the transmitter send additional symbols to assist with the decoding of the incorrectly received packet. A hybrid ARQ feedback mechanism is used such that the receiver can inform the transmitter whether the packets were correctly or incorrectly received. From the feedback, the transmitter can determine whether to send new symbols or initiate incremental redundancy. By combining the received words corresponding to the redundant symbols and those of the original packet transmission, additional diversity, coding gain, signal energy, or a combination thereof are provided to the receiver and are used to correctly decode the transmitted data.

In recent years, there has been an explosive growth in demand for wireless data services, and the evolution from wireless voice to wireless data is causing exponentially increasing demand for wireless capacity. With already more than one billion subscribers worldwide, subscription to wireless services is expected to exceed those of wire-line services by the year 2005. This has forced wireless service providers and equipment vendors to look into ways of increasing the data rates of wireless systems and has motivated an enormous body of research.
The wireless channel suffers from many artifacts such as path loss, shadowing, fading, noise, limited bandwidth, power limitation at the mobile terminal, and interference from other users. These limitations cause the wireless channel to resemble a narrow pipe that does not allow rapid flow of data and make the design of bandwidth efficient high data rate wireless communications a challenging task. Further challenges in wireless system design include the design of resource allocation, mobility issues related to rapidly changing physical channels, portability, and providing privacy and security.
When the transmission channel is experiencing deep fades, it is impossible for the receiver to determine the transmitted signal unless another replica or version of the signal is also sent to the receiver. This resource is called diversity, and is one of the most important single contributors to reliable transmission over wireless channels. Examples of diversity include:                1. Temporal Diversity: Replicas of the transmitted signal are provided to the receiver in the form of redundancy in the temporal domain.        2. Frequency Diversity: The fact that waves transmitted on different frequencies induce different multipath structure in the propagation media is exploited. Replicas of the transmitted signal are provided to the receiver in the form of redundancy in the frequency domain.        3. Spatial Diversity: Spatially separated or differently polarized antennas are used. Replicas of the transmitted signal are provided to the receiver in the form of redundancy in the spatial domain. This can be provided with no penalty in bandwidth efficiency.
Spatial diversity is typically a function of the number and placement of transmit and receive antennas relative to a transmitter and receiver. Systems employing spatial diversity with multiple transmit and receive antennas are generally referred to as multiple-input multiple-output (MIMO) systems. Accordingly, a transmitting device will have N transmit antennas, and the receiving device will have M receive antennas. Space-time coding controls what data is transmitted from each of the N transmit antennas. A space-time encoding function at the transmitter processes data to be transmitted and creates unique information to transmit from the N transmit antennas. Each of the M receive antennas will receive signals transmitted from each of the N transmit antennas. A space-time decoding function at the receiving device will combine the information sent from the N transmit antennas to recover the data.
Space-time coding (STC) is typically implemented using one of many techniques. One exemplary technique encodes the same data in different formats for transmission from the different transmit antennas. Thus, the same data is transmitted in different formats from each of the N transmit antennas. Another exemplary technique transmits different data from different ones of the N transmit antennas wherein the redundancy of the first technique is avoided. The first technique, space-time transmit diversity (STTD), is effective in maximizing diversity but inefficient due to the requisite redundancy. The second technique, which is often referred to as V-BLAST (Vertical-Bell Laboratories Layered Space Time), increases system throughput for systems having sufficient diversity available. Once a threshold amount of diversity is achieved, data rates increase linearly with the number of transmit and receive antennas for BLAST systems, whereas additional spatial diversity has little impact on data rates in STTD systems. Those skilled in the art will recognize other STC techniques such as space-time trellis codes and space-time block codes. Further information related to STTD and BLAST can be found in Siavash M. Alamouti, "A Simple Transmit Diversity Technique for Wireless Communications," IEEE J. Select. Areas Commun., vol. 16, pp. 1451-1458, October 1998; G. J. Foschini, "Layered Space-time Architecture for Wireless Communications in a Fading Environment when Using Multi-element antennas," Bell Labs Tech. J., pp. 41-59, Autumn 1996; G. D. Golden, G. J. Foschini, R. A. Valenzuela, and P. W. Wolniansky, "Detection Algorithm and Initial Laboratory Results Using V-BLAST Space-time Communication Architecture," Electronics Letters, vol. 35, pp. 14-16, Jan. 1999; P. W. Wolniansky, G. J., Foschini, G. D. Golden, and R. A. Valenzuela, "V-BLAST: An Architecture for Realizing Very High Data Rates Over the Rich-scattering Wireless Channel," Proc. IEEE ISSSE-98, Pisa, Italy, September 1998, pp. 295-300; V. Tarokh, et al., "Space-Time Codes for High Data Rate Wireless Communication: Performance Analysis and Code Construction," IEEE Trans. Inform. Theory, pp. 744-765, March 1998; and Eko N. Onggosanusi, et al., "High Rate Space-time Block Coded Scheme: Performance and Improvement in Correlated Fading Channels," IEEE Wireless Communications and Networking Conference, pp. 194-256, Orlando, Fla, USA, Mar. 17-21, 2002, which are incorporated herein by reference.
When there are N transmit and M receive antennas, for each transmission slot, N signals are transmitted at the same time from different transmit antennas. These signals have the same transmission period. Signals transmitted from different antennas undergo independent fades. The received signal at each receive antenna is a linear superposition of the transmitted signals perturbed by noise.
Mathematically speaking, if st,n is transmitted from antenna n, the signal rt,m received at antenna m is given by:
                              r                      t            ,            m                          =                                            ∑                              n                =                1                            N                                                                                α                                  n                  ,                  m                                                                          s                                  t                  ,                  n                                                              +                                    η              m                        .                                              Eq        .                                          1
The path gain αn,m is the path gain from transmit antenna n to receive antenna m, and ηm represents a noise variable. For flat fading, assume that the path gains are constant over a frame and vary from one frame to another.
Under this assumption, criteria for the design of space-time codes can be derived. To describe this criteria, any code word S is written as the space-time matrix:
                    S        =                              (                                                                                s                                          1                      ,                      1                                                                                s                                          1                      ,                      2                                                                                s                                          1                      ,                      3                                                                                …                                                  …                                                                      s                                          1                      ,                      N                                                                                s                                          2                      ,                      1                                                                                s                                          2                      ,                      2                                                                                s                                          2                      ,                      3                                                                                …                                                  …                                                                      s                                          2                      ,                      N                                                                                ⋮                                                  ⋮                                                  ⋰                                                  ⋰                                                  ⋰                                                  ⋮                                                                                s                                          L                      ,                      1                                                                                s                                          L                      ,                      2                                                                                s                                          2                      ,                      3                                                                                …                                                  …                                                                      s                                          L                      ,                      N                                                                                )                    .                                    Eq        .                                          2            To send code word S, at time t=1,2, . . . , L, the symbols st,1, st,2, . . . , st,N are sent simultaneously from transmit antennas 1,2, . . . , N, respectively. The design criteria for space-time codes require that for any two code words C1≠C2, the error matrix C1-C2 has to be full rank in order to obtain diversity NM, and the determinant of (C1-C2)*(C1-C2) is large. Two exemplary space-time codes, space-time block and trellis codes, are provided.
For simplicity, assume that there are two transmit antennas (N=2) and M receive antennas. Consider a signal constellation with 2b elements, such as BPSK, QPSK, 8-PSK, 16-QAM. At time one, 2b bits arrive at the encoder and pick up constellation symbols s1 and s2. The transmission matrix is then:
                    S        =                              (                                                                                s                    1                                                                                s                    2                                                                                -                                          s                      2                      *                                                                                s                    1                    *                                                                        )                    .                                    Eq        .                                          3            This is the so-called Alamouti scheme, and is an example of a space-time block code. Maximum likelihood decoding (MLD) of the above code amounts to minimizing the decision metric:
                              ∑                      m            =            1                    M                                                                    (                                                                                                          r                                          1                      ,                      m                                                        -                                                            α                                              1                        ,                        m                                                                                s                      1                                                        -                                                            α                                              2                        ,                        m                                                                                s                      2                                                                                                  2                        +                                                                                                r                                          2                      ,                      m                                                        +                                                            α                                              1                        ,                        m                                                                                s                      2                      *                                                        -                                                            α                                              2                        ,                        m                                                                                s                      1                      *                                                                                                  2                                )                                    Eq        .                                          4            over all possible values of s1 and s2. It can be shown that the above metric decomposes into two parts, one of which:
                                          -                                          ∑                                  m                  =                  1                                M                                                                                [                                                                            r                                              1                        ,                        m                                                                                α                                              1                        ,                        m                                            *                                                                                s                      1                      *                                                        +                                                            r                                              1                        ,                        m                                            *                                                                                α                                              1                        ,                        m                                                                                s                      1                                                        +                                                            r                                              2                        ,                        m                                                                                α                                              2                        ,                        m                                            *                                                                                s                      1                                                        +                                                            r                                              2                        ,                        m                                            *                                                                                α                                              2                        ,                        m                                                                                s                      1                      *                                                                      ]                                              +                                                                                      s                  1                                                            2                                                                  ∑                                  m                  =                  1                                M                                                                                ∑                                      n                    =                    1                                    2                                                                                                                          α                                              n                        ,                        m                                                                                                  2                                                                    ,                            Eq        .                                          5            is only a function of s1, and the other one:
                                          -                                          ∑                                  m                  =                  1                                M                                                                                [                                                                            r                                              1                        ,                        m                                                                                α                                              2                        ,                        m                                            *                                                                                s                      2                      *                                                        +                                                            r                                              1                        ,                        m                                            *                                                                                α                                              2                        ,                        m                                                                                s                      2                                                        -                                                            r                                              2                        ,                        m                                                                                α                                              1                        ,                        m                                            *                                                                                s                      2                                                        -                                                            r                                              2                        ,                        m                                            *                                                                                α                                              1                        ,                        m                                                                                s                      2                      *                                                                      ]                                              +                                                    [                                  s                  2                                ]                            2                                                                  ∑                                  m                  =                  1                                M                                                                                ∑                                      n                    =                    1                                    2                                                                                                                          α                                              n                        ,                        m                                                                                                  2                                                                    ,                            Eq        .                                          6            is only a function of s2. Thus, to decode s1 and s2, respectively, the decoder minimizes the first and the second part of the above metric over all constellation symbols separately. These metrics are equivalent to:
                                                                                    [                                                      ∑                                          m                      =                      1                                        M                                                                                (                                                                                r                                                      1                            ,                            m                                                                                α                                                      1                            ,                            m                                                    *                                                                    +                                                                        r                                                      2                            ,                            m                                                    *                                                                                α                                                      2                            ,                            m                                                                                )                                                  ]                            -                              s                1                                                          2                +                              (                                          -                1                            +                                                ∑                                      m                    =                    1                                    M                                                                                ∑                                          n                      =                      1                                        2                                                                                                                              α                                                  n                          ,                          m                                                                                                            2                                                                        )                                                                                      s                1                                                    2                                              Eq        .                                          7            for decoding s1 and
                                                                    [                                                                    ∑                                          m                      =                      1                                        M                                                                                (                                                                                r                                                      1                            ,                            m                                                                                α                                                      2                            ,                            m                                                    *                                                                    -                                                                        r                                                      2                            ,                            m                                                    *                                                                                α                                                      1                            ,                            m                                                                                )                                                  -                                  s                  2                                            ]                                            2                +                              (                                          -                1                            +                                                ∑                                      m                    =                    1                                    M                                                                                ∑                                          n                      =                      1                                        2                                                                                                                              α                                                  n                          ,                          m                                                                                                            2                                                                        )                                                                                      s                2                                                    2                                              Eq        .                                          8            for decoding s2. Thus, space-time block coding can be implemented using a very simple encoding/decoding algorithm, and achieves full spatial diversity. Trellis codes can also be designed using the space-time design criteria for BPSK, QPSK and 8-PSK, 16-QAM constellations.
The encoding typically starts at the zero state. Inductively, suppose that at time t, the encoder is at state St. At this time, two bits arrive at the encoder, and choose one of four branches originating from St. Two labels of that branch are sent from transmit antennas 1 and 2 simultaneously. Subsequently, the encoder moves to the state St+1 at the end of the chosen branch. The decoding of space-time trellis codes can be done using the Viterbi algorithm and it can be shown that this approach provides a 2M level diversity using the above code and M receive antennas.
An approach to increasing the aggregate throughput in wireless data packet networks is to use incremental redundancy. In this approach, the transmitter starts transmitting packets to the receiver with high bandwidth efficiency. If the received data is decoded correctly and this is acknowledged by the transmitter, then no additional action is needed by the transmitter. In the event that a data packet is not correctly received by the receiver, the transmitter sends additional symbols, all or some of which may be redundancy symbols. While these symbols decrease the overall bandwidth efficiency for the transmission of the packet data, they improve the reception. By combining the received words corresponding to these symbols and those of the original packet transmission, additional diversity, coding gain when redundant parity symbols are transmitted, signal energy, or a combination thereof are provided to the receiver, which can be used to correctly decode the transmitted data.
Various types of protocols exist that allow the receiver to inform the transmitter that certain packets were either not received or were corrupted. In response to an indication that a packet was corrupted, the transmitter will retransmit the corrupted packet. Certain communication systems implement an automatic repeat request (ARQ) protocol to provide error control. In general, ARQ-based systems will transmit an acknowledgement (ACK) from the receiver to the transmitter for each packet that is properly received, and send a negative-acknowledgement (NAK) when the receiver is unable to properly recover a packet. Incremental redundancy and ARQ techniques have been studied by those skilled in the art, and there is a vast body of existing literature on these topics. However, for transmission using multiple antennas, incremental redundancy schemes are not known. This is partially due to the fact that in a space-time channel, signals transmitted from different antennas superpose, and this makes it difficult to improve the transmitted signals with increasing redundancy. In this light, there is a need for a way to construct space-time codes to facilitate incremental redundancy in a spatially diverse communication environment.

Incremental redundancy with space-time codes


A method and apparatus for estimating the presence of RF interference in a wireless data channel is described. The method and apparatus comprises a set of identical tracking/register (T/R) filter blocks, each T/R filter block associated and corresponding to an RF channel of interest. Each T/R filter block includes a pair of tracking/register (T/R) filters. Power/magnitude estimates from an RSSI calculation are input to the T/R filter blocks. One T/R filter is used to estimate the noise floor (in the absence of interference). The T/R filter latches and filters the lowest input values received from a power/magnitude circuit. The other T/R filter estimates the level of an interferer, if present, by latching and filtering the largest valued outputs of the power/magnitude circuit.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to the field of wireless communication systems, and more particularly to the field of detecting interference in wireless communication channels.
2. Description of Related Art
As is well known in the wireless data communications arts, a common trade-off in the design of communication systems is performance versus bandwidth. That is, various aspects of communication performance can be improved at the expense of increased radio frequency (RF) bandwidth. One very important factor contributing to the performance of a communication system is the "quality" of the data channels used by the system. As is well known, data reception errors can be caused by the introduction of noise and interference during data transmissions across a channel. Signal interference distorts signals and their associated data during transmissions over the channel. Sources of such noise and interference comprise radio-frequency interference (RFI) including multi-path fading, multiple-access interference and hostile jamming. Channel quality depends largely on the amount of noise and interference that exists on a channel relative to the strength of the signal levels of the channel. A channel that has a small amount of noise relative to the strength of the signals is a high channel quality. Conversely, a channel that has a large amount of noise relative to the signal levels is a low channel quality. Channel quality is typically measured in terms of the signal-to-noise (SNR) or Es/No (i.e., ratio of signal energy to noise energy) of a channel.
A wireless communication system can be properly designed to reliably operate in the presence of various types of noise and radio-frequency interference. For example, signals with very large RF bandwidths can be generated using a well-known method known as adaptive frequency hopping (AFH) in which the carrier frequency of a digital communication signal is adaptively changed, or "hopped", over a wide range of frequencies. One such AFH digital communication system is the Bluetooth™ protocol system that facilitates the transport of data between Bluetooth™ devices. As described in more detail in the above-incorporated related applications, Bluetooth™ communication systems use a frequency-hopping spread spectrum (FHSS) scheme when communicating between master and slave devices. In accordance with this frequency hopping spread spectrum scheme, frequencies are switched during data transmissions. Frequency hopping is performed in accordance with specified frequency-hopping algorithms so that devices can independently determine the correct frequency-hopping sequences (i.e., ordered lists of frequencies, also sometimes referred to as "hop-sets"). In one example, pseudo-random FH sequences are independently determined by slave devices using their associated master device address and clock information.
Although the FH sequences associated with each Bluetooth™ master device is unique, piconets operating within close proximity can interfere with one another due to the relatively small number of independent channels used by the Bluetooth™ devices. In addition, channel noise and interference can be caused by a number of non-Bluetooth™ devices operating within close proximity to the Bluetooth™ devices. For example, as described in the above-incorporated related applications, an 802.11 protocol device operating within close proximity to a Bluetooth™ device can cause undesirable RF interference rendering one or more of the channels in the Bluetooth device's hop-set unusable.
The FHSS scheme reduces collisions between nearby Bluetooth™ piconets due to the pseudo-random nature of the FH sequence used by the devices. As described in Part B, "Baseband Specification," Section 11, of the Bluetooth™ Specification, Bluetooth™ communication protocols use a Bluetooth™ FH kernel to select FH sequences and map FH sequences to hop frequencies. Disadvantageously, the Bluetooth™ FH kernel selects hopping frequencies without regard to channel conditions, and thus, a hopping frequency having bad channel conditions (e.g., exhibiting small signal-to-noise ratios) caused by non-Bluetooth™ (FH) interferers can be selected. As is well known, transmitting data on frequencies with bad channel conditions increases the probability of the occurrence of reception errors. In any data communication system, it is desirable to reduce the occurrence of reception errors.
Therefore, a need exists for a method and apparatus that estimates and detects the presence of RF interference on a data channel. The data channel may have been previously determined by an AFH scheme to be "disallowed" (i.e., exhibited bad channel conditions), or it may be a channel within a frequency hop-set. The interference detection apparatus and method should be amenable for use in any communication system where the presence of intermittent interference needs to be detected. The present invention provides such a method and apparatus.

Method and apparatus determining the presence of interference in a wireless communication channel


A filling system includes a center wheel that conveys vessels, a first filler provided with a plurality of filling heads, a second filler provided with a plurality of filling heads and arranged downstream from the first filler, a first inlet wheel that receives the vessels from the center wheel and supplies the vessels to the first filler, and a second inlet wheel that receives the vessel from the center wheel and supplies the vessels to the second filler. Operation modes are switchable between a first operation mode that conveys the vessels to the first filler and a second operation mode that conveys the vessels to the second filler instead of conveying to the first filler by controlling the reception of the vessels at the first and second inlet wheels.

For example, there is known a filling system including first and second filling machines; in the first operation mode, the first and second filling machines fill different liquids into a vessel in turn; and in the second operation mode, only the second filling machine is used to fill only one type of liquid into the vessel while the unused first filling machine is washed (refer to Patent Document 1).
This filling system includes a bypass wheel for directly transporting a vessel to the second filling machine by skipping the first filling machine in the second operation mode. A rinser outlet wheel, which ejects vessels from a rinser provided upstream of the first filling machine and the bypass wheel, transfers vessels to a first conveyance wheel in the first operation mode and to the bypass wheel in the second operation mode.
Furthermore, in order to enable cleaning of the first filling machine in the second operation mode, a section provided with the first filling machine needs to be isolated from a section provided with the bypass wheel. Therefore, as for the structure disclosed in Patent Document 1, vessels are supplied to the first filling machine via the first conveyance wheel and a first inlet wheel, but are ejected from the first filling machine via a first outlet wheel and a second conveyance wheel. Further, a partition wall is provided between the first conveyance wheel and the first inlet wheel and between the first outlet wheel and the second conveyance wheel, whereby vessels are transferred through each of the opening provided with a shutter.


Technologies are described herein for ensuring remediation of hung multiplexer bus channels between a baseboard management controller (BMC), multiplexer, and I2C device such as a sensor. In particular, a BMC, which is in operative communication with one or more sensors via a multiplexer, comprises an I2C interface and general purpose input/output (GPIO) interface. Upon transmitting an I2C command to the I2C device via the multiplexer and subsequently transmitting a stop sequence to the I2C device via the multiplexer, the BMC then immediately transmits a reset signal to the multiplexer's reset input. When the multiplexer receives the reset signal, it resets all registers and deselects all channels, thereby remediating any hung channels and ensuring the next communication from the BMC is successful.

Generally, the term "computer system" refers to either a stand-alone system or a plurality of interconnected systems, such as, for instance, a client-server network. Regardless of the implementation, the various components making up a computer system typically operate within a range of parameters defined by performance protocols or standards. For instance, the temperature within a computer chassis is often monitored in order to detect periods in time when the system may rise above a certain predetermined temperature reading. Other forms of information that may be monitored within a computer system include, without limitation, voltages associated with semiconductor components located on the baseboard of the system, velocity (e.g., rpm) of cooling fans located on the baseboard or within the system chassis, and the velocity of spindle motors within hard disk drives or optical drives.
Various types of sensors are being used to detect operating and performance-related parameters associated with a computer system and its constituent components. Referring to the examples provided above, these sensors include thermostats, voltage meters and tachometers. A computer system typically employs one or more management modules to assist in the collection and analysis of information sensed by the various sensors measuring operating and performance-related parameters within the system. These management modules may be either software or hardware components, but typically encompass both hardware and software components. One such management module is referred to as a "Baseboard Management Controller" (BMC). The BMC is a microcontroller integrated into the baseboard (also known in the industry as the "motherboard") of a computer system and having a specified number of contact pins through which information sensed by various sensors is received for analysis by the BMC. In order to perform this analysis, the BMC is programmed with firmware fir implementing procedures relating to system monitoring and recovery. With this firmware, the BMC is programmed to monitor various operating and performance-related parameters sensed within a computer system and to analyze this information to determine whether any of the sensed parameters are currently outside of an expected or recommended operating range, the occurrence of which is commonly referred to as an "event."
In many cases, to increase the number of sensors and devices a single BMC can monitor, the BMC interfaces with one or more multiplexers, which are devices that forward selected analog or digital input signals to intended recipients. In general, multiplexers are used to increase the amount of data that can be sent over a particular network in a particular amount of time or based on a prescribed bandwidth.
Certain problems can arise, however, when a communications channel between a BMC, a mux, and a device or sensor become hung. When such a channel becomes hung, the BMC loses the ability to send and receive information from any sensor or device connected to that mux. Traditional methods for unhanging a hung channel, such as sending a command from the BMC to reset each of the multiplexer's channels, are ineffective when the communication line between the BMC and mux is hung, leaving the BMC unable to communicate with any sensor or device connected to that particular mux.
Therefore, there is a long-felt but unresolved need for a method that ensuring closure of hung bus channels between a BMC and a multiplexer.

Method for ensuring remediation of hung multiplexer bus channels


A multilayer chip varistor comprises a multilayer body in which a plurality of varistor portions are arranged along a predetermined direction, and a plurality of terminal electrodes. Each varistor portion has a varistor layer to exhibit nonlinear voltage-current characteristics, and a plurality of internal electrodes disposed so as to interpose the varistor layer between them. Each terminal electrode is disposed on a first outer surface parallel to the predetermined direction out of outer surfaces of the multilayer body and is electrically connected to a corresponding internal electrode out of the plurality of internal electrodes. Each of the plurality of internal electrodes includes a first electrode portion overlapping with another first electrode portion between adjacent internal electrodes out of the plurality of internal electrodes, and a second electrode portion led from the first electrode portion so as to be exposed in the first outer surface. The plurality of terminal electrodes are electrically connected via the respective second electrode portions to the corresponding internal electrodes.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a multilayer chip varistor.
2. Related Background Art
One of the known multilayer chip varistors of this type is a varistor comprising: a varistor element body having a varistor layer to exhibit nonlinear voltage-current characteristics, and a pair of internal electrodes disposed so as to interpose the varistor layer between them; and a pair of terminal electrodes which are located at two end portions of the varistor element body and each of which is connected to a corresponding internal electrode out of the internal electrodes.


Flexible semiconductor devices based on flexible freestanding epitaxial elements are disclosed. The flexible freestanding epitaxial elements provide a virgin as grown epitaxy ready surface for additional growth layers. These flexible semiconductor devices have reduced stress due to the ability to flex with a radius of curvature less than 100 meters. Low radius of curvature flexing enables higher quality epitaxial growth and enables 3D device structures. Uniformity of layer formation is maintained by direct absorption of actinic radiation by the flexible freestanding epitaxial element within a reactor. In addition, standard post processing steps like lithography are enabled by the ability of the devices and elements to be flattened using a secondary support element or vacuum. Finished flexible semiconductor devices can be flexed to a radius of curvature of less than 100 meters. Nitrides, Zinc Oxides, and their alloys are preferred materials for the flexible freestanding epitaxial elements.

Flexible semiconductor devices offer several advantages over more conventional wafer based semiconductor devices for mobile devices, wearable devices, and lower cost devices. Flexibility is usually defined by the radius of curvature in kilometers that the flexible semiconductor device can be flexed to. In general, flexible semiconductor devices in the prior art are formed in a wafer state and then either removed from a growth substrate, thinned, or otherwise separated from a rigid element. While this allows for processing using standard semiconductor wafer based lithography or patterning equipment tool sets, a critical benefit of flexibility is lost using this approach. This invention discloses flexible semiconductor devices grown on flexible epitaxial elements whereby improved device performance is realized from the flexible stress free nature of the growth substrate or epitaxial element and the presence of a virgin as grown epitaxy ready surface.
Nitrides and zinc oxides and their alloys in particular offer a unique range of properties compared to other semiconducting materials like silicon and silicon carbide. Wide band gap materials like gallium nitride (GaN), aluminum gallium nitride (AlGaN), and aluminum nitride (AlN) are finding applications in high frequency devices, high power devices, LEDs, optoelectronics, bio-technology, and high efficiency electronics. The opportunity exists for integration of these devices into single layered and multi-layered devices. Nitrides and zinc oxides and their alloys offer a unique mix of optical transparency through the visible and UV spectrum, high thermal conductivity, chemical resistance, piezoelectric properties, laseability, bio-compatibility and high frequency capability. Like nitrides and zinc oxides, diamond and other high bandgap materials are difficult to make into wafer form. By harvesting epitaxial elements of these high bandgap materials the benefits of bulk wafers can be realized at a fraction of the cost and without the need for expensive and defect prone steps like slicing and polishing.
The use of nitrides and zinc oxides and their alloys in most applications has been limited by the lack of low cost high crystal quality native substrate material. Nitrides and zinc oxides and their alloys have proven difficult to grow economically in high quality single crystal form due to the high temperatures and narrow growth conditions. While this work may eventually yield low defect density material, the cost of those materials will be inherently high.
Forrest in U.S. Patent Publications No. 2011016910, "Methods of preparing flexible photovoltaic devices using epitaxial liftoff, and preserving the integrity of growth substrates used in epitaxial growth" discloses methods to remove epitaxial devices to form flexible solar cells via liftoff. Like most flexible approaches this disclosure removes the epitaxial layer after device growth. The epitaxial stresses are higher than when the devices are formed, grown, or otherwise deposited directly on a flexible growth substrate. In addition, the device performance is typically compromised when the growth substrate is removed or at least different. As an example, the emission wavelength of an MQW LED is typically different on the growth substrate than when it is transferred via wafer bonding to another device substrate. This can lead to increased binning requirements and yield issues.
Lee in U.S. Patent Publications No. 2008 0248259 "Gallium Nitride/Sapphire thin epitaxial element having reduced bending deformation" discloses a method for creating a GaN on sapphire growth substrate with a reduced radius of curvature. The goal of Lees filing was to increase the radius of curvature to 1 kilometer or higher. In general flat wafers are preferred for uniformity and subsequent lithographic and processing steps. However, the radius of curvature changes for any non-homogenous material as a function of temperature due to the mismatch in the thermal expansion coefficients. A flat growth substrate at room temperature may have a radius of curvature less than 1 kilometer at 1000° C. growth temperatures or vice versa. So, while a low stress layer may be grown at the growth temperature, once cooled to room temperature very high stresses may be imparted to the layer. Even a native growth substrate will only exactly match those layers which match the growth substrates exact composition. All wide band gap materials require high temperature growth processes so there may be over 1000° C. difference between growth temperature and operational temperature for a device. The authors of this filing have shown that flexible freestanding single crystal epitaxial elements can reduce epitaxial stresses because they are flexible and can deform to alleviate stresses. They also can be forced flat for post processing steps like lithography etc. As shown in Lee slight changes in the radius of curvature can translate into very large changes in stress levels. The need exist for methods to eliminate stress due to thermal expansion mismatch.
Romano in U.S. Patent Application 20130143917 discloses the growth of InGaN layers for JFET's. It is claimed that 104 to 105 dislocations per cm2 are required to grow InGaN with greater than 20% Indium content. Bulk GaN with such low dislocation density requires the use of thick GaN growth (greater than 1 mm) which is both expensive and difficult to produce. The need exists for a low cost method of obtaining high quality InGaN with greater than 20% indium content without having to resort to thick bulk GaN wafers.
Zimmerman in U.S. Pat. No. 8,017,415 discloses methods for forming devices on the freestanding nitride foils disclosed in this filing on both sides of the foils. These foils are typically 30 to 50 microns thick harvested from sapphire templates using the technique disclosed in Zimmerman U.S. Pat. No. 7,727,790. Unlike conventional laser liftoff this approach allows for removal of large area foils without the need to touch or otherwise modify the as grown virgin epitaxial ready surface of the foil. This overcomes the surface, polish, and miscut angle defects associated with bulk GaN wafers. The intent of this invention is to disclose flexible semiconductor devices formed based on flexible freestanding nitride and zinc oxide and their alloys.
It is critical that any growth substrate exhibit an epitaxy ready surface for there to be quality additional epitaxial layer growth. Silicon has dominated the semiconductor market due to the ease of forming high quality wafers with epitaxial quality surfaces with a uniform crystal plane across the entire wafer. Unlike silicon, nitrides do not easily polish and are very difficult to grow such that a single crystal plane is presented across the entire growth surface within any one plane. The warpage and stresses experienced during bulk crystal growth means that when the bulk material is sliced into wafers the crystal orientation varies across any planar surface. Growth rates of subsequent epitaxial layers are directly related to crystal plane orientation. The need therefore exists for a low cost nitride and zinc oxide, and their alloys, growth substrate in the form of foils, tapes, or ribbons which has an as grown epitaxy ready surface for subsequent device growth.
SiC, Silicon, Glass, Sapphire, and a variety of other growth substrates have been used to grow nitride devices. Each has some drawback compared to native substrates. Of the list above SiC is probably one of the better thermal matches but is limited to less than 6 inches in diameter and is expensive to manufacture. In addition, doped SiC is optically absorptive in the blue region making doped SiC unsuitable for vertical blue LED devices. As such undoped SiC is used which then requires lateral devices which suffer from current spreading and higher Vf (forward voltage) performance. Silicon is reactive with nitrides and Si is the major n type dopant. Care must be taken to prevent poisoning of p type material. Glass requires lower growth temperatures and suffers from many other issues. Sapphire is the dominate growth substrate in the LED industry. It is however a dielectric and therefore most devices are lateral devices or the nitride must be removed to create a vertical device. Significant stresses are introduced into the nitride layer when sapphire is the growth substrate. The need exists for methods and substrates which mitigate the stresses from subsequent epitaxial growths.
Semiconductor devices are used in a wide variety of applications. Silicon has been used as the substrate material of choice due to cost and availability of single crystal silicon wafers. Driven by the microelectronic industry, silicon wafer production has enabled the economical use of larger wafers with greater than 12 inch diameters. The low cost of silicon allows thick (1-2 mm) single crystal silicon wafers to be used without a secondary substrate for handling and processing. This enables the formation of large area die, which can be processed without the need for transfer substrates or wafer bonding. Additionally, the properties of silicon permit wafers to be doped so that 3 dimensional devices (via planar processing) can be created taking advantage of the wafer conductivity. For some devices it is desirable to utilize thinning techniques to reduce the overall thickness of the silicon to tens of microns to improve thermal performance. Although silicon has been the dominant material for most microelectronic applications there are other materials, which have desirable properties and advantages over silicon in the areas of optoelectronics, solar cells and power devices. However, heretofore there has not been an economical solution to using these materials without growing them or attaching them to secondary substrates.
Silicon also has limitations with regard to operating temperature as well as other critical material parameters; this limits silicon's usefulness in optical, power and high-frequency applications. Nitride alloys and oxide alloys have several properties, which are superior to silicon ranging from higher thermal conductivity to biocompatibility. Unfortunately, nitrides are not available in wafer form at a reasonable price or reasonable quality. Even if such wafers were to become available, costly growth, dicing, and thinning techniques would be required to create useful devices. In most cases, devices with an overall thickness between 20 and 150 microns are desired from a thermal impedance, packaging, and optical efficiency standpoint. As such, epitaxial element based processing offers several advantages over bulk wafer approaches. As the solar industry has discovered epitaxial element and foil based processing is much more cost effective than wafer based approaches if high resolution lithography is not required. The need exists for cost effective thin nitride epitaxial elements, but also for the ability to process both sides of these epitaxial elements for the formation of waveguides, edge emitters, and symmetric device structures.
While wafers offer significant advantages to high-resolution circuitry as used in microprocessors and memory devices, which require up to 50 masking steps, many applications do not require high-resolution lithography steps. In some cases, processing round wafers is actually a disadvantage or limitation to be overcome. As an example, solar cells are made in ribbon and large area formats. Alternately, liquid crystal displays contain semiconducting active-matrix backplanes and are grown on large glass plates that measure four to 6 feet in dimension. Unlike the semiconductor industry, the thick epitaxial element industry tends to use square substrates, which are more compatible with the printing techniques typically used to form patterned conductors and dielectrics. Square, ribbon and tape based substrates have less edge loss than yields on round wafers. The need exists for non-wafer forms of nitrides to reduce not only costs but to increase material utilization.
In the case of wafer bonded epitaxial elements, stresses created during the original growth process are transferred via the wafer bonding process. Also the resulting structure suffers from poor thermal performance, thermal expansion mismatch which limits operating range. Typically these flexible freestanding epitaxial elements are thin (1 to 3 microns) which can impact packaging processes such as wire bonding to electrical contacts on the device. This is due to the fragile nature of the thin nitride film, requiring reduced bonding forces to prevent cracking of the nitride layer. This lowers yield in final device fabrication. The lower permissible operating temperature range due to the use of secondary substrates used in wafer bonding not only limits device operation but also prevents the use of robust materials such as glass frits and fired contacts that can enhance packaging reliability but require high temperature processing. The need exists for methods and materials which eliminate the need for wafer bonding while still providing handleability and high temperature packaging techniques.
With these prior art methods, nitride epitaxial elements left on their growth substrate must be thin to prevent bowing either at room temperature or at high temperature growth conditions. The low thermal conductivity of sapphire in particular limits device performance and also typically requires wafer thinning processes, which increase costs. Also, the inability to create a vertical structure for non-conductive growth substrates like sapphire limit the ability to form vertical structures or stack nitride epitaxial elements, which can result in new and novel devices. The need exists for an epitaxial element which can be a freestanding nitride growth substrate that is compatible with vertical device designs.
Another prior art technique to form an epitaxial element that is a freestanding nitride substrate is to grow thick nitride layers on non-native growth substrates, followed by dicing and polishing to eliminate the growth substrate. The surface of the thick nitride layer must be touched to remove the growth substrate. This has proven to be a very costly process and by necessity has size limitations. Further, defects introduced via dicing and polishing and the inclusion of stresses due to the dicing processes limit the yield and viability of this approach. In these prior art techniques dual sided processing is impossible or very difficult. However, dual sided processing could offer unique advantages and lead to new types of devices.
In general, the need exists for high quality epitaxial elements which are epi-ready virgin as grown substrates that can be processed, handled, grown upon, and compatible with high temperature packaging and interconnect methods.


A welding gun includes a motor, a wire feed mechanism, a power block, a welding tip, a and a cup. A substantially rigid shell surrounds the motor to form a handle. A gas passage for receiving inert gas from an inert gas source and delivering the inert gas to the gas path in the torch barrel extends at least partially within the handle.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a welding gun and, in particular, to a miniature welding gun.
2. Description of the Related Art
A goose neck metal inert gas (MIG) welding gun generally comprises a handle, a wire feed mechanism, and a torch gun or barrel. The welding gun typically also includes a gas tube for supplying inert gas to the end of the torch barrel. Some welding guns also include a water tube for supplying cooling water to the end of the torch gun or barrel. "Push-pull" MIG welding guns typically also include motor for driving the wire feed mechanism.
There are three general types of welding guns: pistol grip, goose neck and in-line welding guns. In a pistol grip gun, the motor is located below the wire feed mechanism within a handle and lies along an axis that lies generally perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the gun. In contrast, in an in-line gun, the motor lies along the longitudinal axis of the gun and is positioned generally behind the wire feed mechanism. A goose-necked gun includes a curved torch gun or barrel. In some arrangements, the welding gun is configured such that the operator can change the angular position of a curved barrel relative to the wire feed mechanism.
A MIG welding gun typically also has a contact tip that preferably performs two functions. First, it accurately guides a weld wire to the point of contact with the workpiece. Second, it conducts adequate current, which may be as high as 400 amps or more, to the weld wire. To achieve those results, a relatively long contact tip made of copper can be provided. The contact tip can have an axially extending hole provided therethrough. The hole preferably is sized slightly larger than the diameter of the weld wire. Typically, the outer diameter of the weld wire is about 0.004 inches to about 0.020 inches less than the diameter of the hole. In one common embodiment, the weld wire outer diameter is between 0.008 inches and 0.012 inches less than the inner diameter The contact tip can be coupled to and extend from a gas diffuser, which is in communication with the gas tube. In this manner, an inert gas can be directed around the welding arc through the gas diffuser. Current can be supplied from a power block and then through the torch barrel and to the contact tip.
In general, welding guns are used by professional welders in many industrial applications. To meet the demands of these industrial applications, welding guns are typically relatively heavy and bulky instruments. Nevertheless, there is a general need for a smaller, lighter welding gun that can be used in non-industrial applications. For example, such a smaller, lighter welding gun may find utility in emergency, hobby, home or recreational environments. It would also be advantageous for such a smaller, lighter welding gun to also be a "push-pull" welding gun because of its generally superior performance, especially when welding with aluminum wire. Despite this need, efforts to date to develop a smaller, lighter welding gun for emergency, hobby, home and/or recreational uses have not been satisfactory.


A dispenser has its closure cap non-removably affixed to a cylindrical attaching portion of its dispenser body by a snap-fit engagement between a folded lower end section of the attaching portion and the closure or a plug located within the closure and in engagement with the attaching portion. The folded lower end section presents an end edge facing outwardly of the closure which engages an inwardly facing end wall of the closure or of the plug.

This invention relates generally to a dispenser to which a closure cap is non-removably fixed. A folded lower end section of a cylindrical attaching portion of the dispenser defines an end edge facing outwardly of the closure to facilitate the fixing of the closure cap by a snap-fit engagement either with the closure cap or with a plug located within and in engagement with the closure.
Manually operated pump dispensers are mounted on containers of liquid to be dispensed by a container closure either having internal threads engaging the threads on the bottle neck, or a ferrule engaging a bead on the container neck. The closure cap is mounted on the dispenser body such that the dispenser may be mounted to the liquid filled container by simply threading down the closure cap on the bottle neck or by swaging the cap in place.
The closure cap is mounted to a generally cylindrical attaching portion of the dispenser body as, for example, with the use of a hollow sleeve having an external flange engaging an internal retention lip at one end of the closure. The sleeve extends into the cylindrical attaching portion and is frictionally held in place. However, such a mounting assembly may prove unreliable as the frictional engagement can fail during extended periods of use.
Otherwise, the cylindrical attaching portion may have an external molded flange such that the internal retention lip on the closure cap makes a snap fit engagement with the flange for retaining the closure cap in place. However, this approach can be capital intensive in that the cylindrical attaching portion of the dispenser body must be specially molded.

Assembly for non-removably fixing a closure cap to a dispenser body


Processes and systems for synthesizing organic peroxides are provided. One or more of the reactions described herein may be performed in a continuous reactor, optionally including at least one microscale reaction channel. Additionally, at least one phase transfer catalyst may be used to facilitate reaction of components present in a multiphase reaction mixture.

1. Field
One or more embodiments of the present invention relates to the synthesis of organic compounds. In some aspects, the present invention may related to a phase transfer synthesis of organic peroxides.
2. Description of Related Art
Organic peroxides are a useful class of specialty chemicals employed in a variety of different applications, including, for example, as initiators or promoters in polymerization reactions or in other synthesis reactions for producing organic compounds. However, the reactive nature that makes these materials useful for such applications also presents a unique challenge during their production. In particular, in addition to being highly reactive, organic peroxides have fast, highly exothermic reaction rates and, consequently, must be produced under carefully controlled reaction conditions. Typically, organic peroxides are produced using batch synthesis methods, which are often carried out with large volumes of solvent in order to moderate reaction temperature to reduce the risk of thermal runaway. Continuous processes for synthesizing organic peroxides have also been proposed, but these often require intensive mixing and complex temperature control schemes. Thus, improvement is needed to provide a safe, continuous, and economical process for synthesizing organic peroxides, especially on a commercial scale.

Method for phase transfer synthesis of organic peroxides

Honeywell Federal Manufacturing & Technologies, LLC


A shaft plug for a mine shaft, the shaft plug comprising an inflatable bladder adapted to be inflated by pressurised gas, the bladder being adapted to be positioned within a shaft prior to inflation and to be inflated to contact the walls of the shaft to thereby seal the shaft and provide support to the shaft wall. A plurality of shaft plugs are adapted to by linked together in a manner to provide gas communication between the shaft plugs to provide a shaft plug to enable the shaft to be substantially filled by the shaft plug when inflated. Also defined is a method of sealing a mine shaft and supporting the shaft wall by use of a shaft plug.

Shafts are provided in underground mines for a variety of reasons including access between levels and ventilation. When they are no longer required for the purpose for which they were provided, their presence becomes problematic. The shaft becomes a safety hazard for people who must work or move under or in the vicinity of the shaft at the lower level because debris is commonly dislodged from the shaft wall and it is possible for objects to fall from the upper level. In many instances it is deemed necessary to seal such shafts by filling them completely with concrete. But it will be readily appreciated that this is a very expensive solution to overcome the safety risk. In other circumstances, closure of the shaft is only required temporarily, and if it has been sealed for safety reasons, the subsequent removal of the sealing material is also an expensive task.
Throughout the specification and claims the term "shaft" shall be taken as a passageway which is provided in a mine or a like environment and which has an inclination generally in excess of 45° and which interconnect two passageways in the forms of tunnels where the tunnels serve to provide access for the passage of personnel along the tunnels.
Shafts are used in mines for the purposes of ventilation and the delivery of materials from the upper tunnel into the lower tunnel. When the shafts are no longer required either permanently or for a period of time, it is desirable that the shaft be closed in order that the danger that the open shaft can present for personnel in the tunnels connected by the shaft is reduced. In this regard it is desirable that the blocking of the shaft be readily reversible and that the shaft be blocked close to the junctions of the shaft with each tunnel that it connects to. Where the shaft connects with a tunnel at or proximate the floor of a tunnel, the blockage of the shaft close to the tunnel ensures that anyone or anything that falls into the shaft will not fall very far and can be readily retrieved from the shaft. In addition, where the shaft connects with a tunnel at or close to the roof of a tunnel, the blockage of the shaft close to the roof minimises the amount of rock material from the walls of the shaft that can fall into the shaft.


The application discloses a nickel binding protein and its encoding DNA isolated from Helicobacter pylori. This organism is the primary cause of chronic gastritis and ensuing peptic ulcers, and has been implicated in stomach cancer. The nickel binding protein is useful to inhibit assembly of active ureases, the enzymes responsible for the pathogenic features of the bacterium. Potential uses include as a vaccine, a diagnostic, a drug target, and a therapy in itself.

The field of the invention is diagnosis, prophylaxis, and treatment of gastric disease and nickel-related disorders; and non-clinical nickel detoxification The invention also relates to the bacterium Helicobacter pylori.
The bacterium Helicobacter pylori was first isolated from human gastric mucosa in 1983, and was originally identified as a member of the genus Campylobacter (either C. pylori or C. pyloridis; Warren and Marshall, Lancet i:1273, 1983; Marshall and Goodwin, Int. J. Syst. Bacteriol. 37:68, 1987). H. pylori is recognized as a pathogen, and is a major cause of chronic gastritis, inflammation of the gastric mucosa, and peptic ulcers. It can also contribute to the development of gastric cancer (for review, see Sipponen et al., "Histology and Ultrastructure of Helicobacter pylori Infections: Gastritis, Duodenitis, and Peptic Ulceration, and Their Relevant Precancerous Conditions", in Helicobacter pylori: Biology and Clinical Practice 37, Goodwin and Worsley, eds., 1993).
H. pylori is able to survive in the highly acidic environment of stomach at least in part due to its high urease activity, which may raise the pH of the local environment by hydrolyzing endogenous urea into ammonia and carbon dioxide. The ammonia component affects the pH, and its local accumulation is thought to have a directly toxic effect on nearby mucosa.
Urease activity is one of the principal properties of the bacterium. The urease of H. pylori has been well characterized, and consists of a high molecular weight (550 kDa) multimeric enzyme. There are two primary subunits, UreA (66 kDa) and UreB (29.5 kDa), and these combine to make a larger subunit, six of which ultimately combine to form the intact protein. H. pylori urease enzyme is homologous to ureases of other bacterial species, and to plant ureases (e.g., jackbean).
All ureases studied to date contain nickel, and H. pylori urease has been shown to contain 5.21 nickel atoms per molecule. H. pylori urease activity depends on the availability of nickel ion in the enzyme active site; the cloned enzyme in E. coli that yields high levels of protein only has urease activity if a source of nickel ion (typically in the form of NiCl.sub.2) is provided in the E. coli growth medium. This nickel must be present during enzyme synthesis, and cannot be added after the protein is fully synthesized. Also, histidine or cysteine, amino acids that actively chelate nickel ions, prevent nickel uptake or entry into the cloned urease protein expressed in E. coli. Thus, recombinant urease activity is low if the cells are cultured in a rich medium which contains much histidine and cysteine.
No uptake mechanism for nickel by H. pylori or by the structural urease subunits has been defined. Accessory genes near the urease structural genes in several microorganisms have been postulated to involve nickel uptake, such as a UreD accessory gene product in Aspergillus nidulans, or the histidine-rich UreE gene products in Klebsiella aerogenes and P. mirabilis, but none of this has been proven. Separate mechanisms for uptake of nickel by the organism and incorporation of nickel by the urease may exist.

Helicobacter pylori nickel binding protein

New England Medical Center Hospitals Inc.


A pneumatic tire includes a tread portion with an asymmetric pattern including an outboard shoulder main groove, an inboard shoulder main groove, an outboard shoulder portion between the outboard shoulder main groove and an outboard tread edge, a middle portion between the outboard shoulder main groove and the inboard shoulder main groove, and an inboard shoulder portion between the inboard shoulder main groove and an inboard tread edge, wherein the outboard shoulder portion is provided with a three dimensional sipe that has a pair of sipe surfaces extending to a depth direction of the sipe while changing its direction or opening configuration, and the inboard shoulder portion or the middle portion is provided with a two dimensional sipe that has a pair of sipe surfaces extending to a depth direction of the sipe while maintaining its direction and opening configuration.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a pneumatic tire that offers an improved traveling performance on an icy road while maintaining steering stability on a dry road and wear resistance.
Description of the Related Art
In order to improve traveling performance on a icy road, Japanese patent application laid-open No. 2011-162022 discloses a pneumatic tire having a tread block provided with two dimensional sipes that divide the tread block into a plurality of block-pieces with edges for scratching the icy road surface. Typically, the two dimensional sipe comprises a pair of sipe surfaces each of which uniformly extends to a bottom of the sipe while keeping its direction and opening configuration. The adjacent block-pieces divided by the two dimensional sipe are usually easy to deform each other through the sipe surfaces when the tire is subjected to friction force on the road, such that each edge of the block-pieces provides high friction force by scratching the icy road surface.
However, the large deformation of block-pieces causes loss of ground contact area of the tread block, whereby steering stability of the tire on dry roads and wear resistance of the tread block tends to deteriorate.


A bearing adjuster is comprised of a grip, an adjusting member, a fixing member and three movable members. The adjusting member is disposed on a protrusion of the grip. The fixing member is disposed on the adjusting member. The movable members are disposed on the fixing member correspondingly. A threaded rod of the grip is screwed in a threaded hole of a positioning protrusion of the fixing member. A sliding block of each movable member and positioning guide blocks of the sliding block are disposed in one of sliding grooves of the fixing member and positioning guide grooves of the sliding groove respectively. A guide protrusion of the movable member is disposed in one of corresponding grooves of the adjusting member. Thus, the bearing adjuster is able to adjust its' diameter to coordinate with different sizes of the bearings.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to a bearing adjuster in particular able to adjust its' diameter as so to coordinate with bearings in different sizes so that the pounding force can be consistently distributed to the bearings when the bearings are impacted to install and which is very stable and convenient in use.
2. Description of Related Art
Generally, a bearing is mainly installed into a portion of an implement or an object and then the bearing is pounded by a hammer as so to push the bearing into the implement or object. However, the conventional way of installing the bearing has the shortcoming which the pounding force is applied inconsistently. That is all because the hammer pounds the bearing at different portions for multiple numbers of times and subjected to different pounding forces which will cause the imbalance installation of the bearing. In addition, a bearing adjuster set 7 capable of consistently distributing pounding forces is provided. As shown on FIG. 8 and FIG. 9, the bearing adjuster set 7 is provided with a grip 70 and at least one positioning press block 72 having a fixed diameter. A joint rod 71 is protruded at an end of the grip 70. The positioning press block 72 is joined with the grip 70, and is provided with a first abutting portion 720, a first hold-down edge 721, a second abutting portion 722 and a second hold-down edge 723. A joint piece 73 is joined with the grip 70. By abutting the abutting portion 720 or 722 and the hold-down edge 721 or 723 of the positioning press block 72 against an internal end edge and a top edge of an axle hole of the bearing, the force can be applied consistently while impacting on the bearing adjuster. Hence, the bearing can be assembled in position in a perforation of the implement or the object stably and rapidly. However, the positioning press block 72 of the prior art bearing adjuster set 7 is a fixed size. As a result, when a bearing is installed, a positioning press block 72 with an identical diameter to the bearing must be used so as to stably install the bearing. Therefore, when installing plural bearings in different sizes, the aforesaid bearing adjuster set must have positioning press blocks 72 with the identical diameters to the bearings in different sizes. This is much inconvenient in use. Moreover, if the aforesaid bearing adjuster set is used to install many bearings in different sizes, it is particularly inconvenient to prepare the necessary tools and replace the positioning press blocks 72 with different diameters.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


A magnetic hinge system includes a first hinge member associated with a first object, such as the frame of a primary eyewear, and having outwardly-facing facets. A second hinge member is attached to second object, such as a secondary eyewear, and defines a slot having inwardly-facing facets configured to overlie less than all of the outwardly facing facets of the first hinge member. At least some of the facets are magnetized or include magnets to couple the second hinge member to the first hinge member, and permit selective segmented rotation relative to one another. The second hinge member may also define a second slot configured for insertion of a portion of the secondary eyewear therein. A track may be used for supporting at least one hinge member, and provide attachment to a bill of a visor or hat.

The present invention generally relates to hinge systems. More particularly, the present invention resides in a magnetic hinge system for detachably coupling safety eyewear to a primary eyewear, visor or the like.
People often wear eyeglasses to correct their vision, be it near-sighted or far-sighted. The eyeglasses have a main frame with lenses fitted thereto. Protective-lens eyeglasses are also available of generally the same construction.
There are instances, such as when in the sun, when an auxiliary eyewear, such as sunglasses, is desirable. There exist clip-on sun shades which are clipped to the rim or frame of the primary eyeglasses. However, most such sun shades are typically not able to be pivoted upwardly and out of view, such as when entering a building or the like from outdoors. Instead, the sun shades must be completely removed and stored in a pocket or the like of the eyeglass wearer.
Advancements in the field have led to the use of magnetic members which are used to removably attach the sun shade or auxiliary lenses to the eyeglasses. However, the magnetic connections are typically not pivotally arranged so as to enable the user to "flip-up" the sun shades away from the eyeglass lenses.
Yet other prior art auxiliary eyewear require specially manufactured eyeglasses for a stable connection. Alternatively, the auxiliary eye shades must be semi-permanently attached to the eyeglasses, such as using screws or the like. Of course, this does not enable the eyeglass wearer to conveniently remove the sun shades or auxiliary lenses.
In addition to the shortcomings described above, prior art auxiliary eyewear in general has the shortcoming that they are not adapted to be connected to any piece of eyewear. That is, the prior art auxiliary eyewear does not have universal connection means. Instead, they rely upon clips or attachments to the eyeglass to the primary eyeglasses which are usually very specific in nature. If not completely specific, the auxiliary eyewear still suffers a drawback of connecting to the primary eyewear in such a manner so as to limit it to only several styles of eyewear. This is due to the differences between the "nose bridge" portion of the frames and the size of the frames of the primary eyewear which varies dramatically between different styles.
There are many instances when safety eyewear is necessary. For example, in certain industries such as machining, tooling, woodworking, etc. safety eyewear is necessary to prevent the occasional projectile from entering into the worker's eyes.
In these instances, safety eyeglasses, goggles, or face masks are often used. Face masks are often used when foreign material is kept away from the entire face of the user or operator, such as a surgeon or the like, as well as the eyes. Oftentimes, however, these safety eyewear or masks are not comfortable to the user or are limited in their adjustability. This is particularly the case when the operator of the machine, surgeon, etc. wears prescription eyewear or must wear of utilize magnifying lenses to perform their duties. In this case, safety eyeglasses are typically not equipped to be placed over the prescription eyeglasses. Although goggles can be placed over the prescription eyewear, this is often uncomfortable.
There is a desire to have the safety shield or glasses selectively pivotally moved in front of the face, when protection if necessary, and away from the face or eyes for better vision when the danger of body fluids, projectiles, etc. is must present. Of course, the safety eyewear should be connected to the primary eyewear wearer, or otherwise positioned in front of the eyes and face of the user, so as not to become dislodged when hit by a projectile or the like.
Accordingly, there is a continuing need for a system for detachably connecting a safety shield or eyewear over a user's face, particularly over a primary eyewear, such as prescription eyeglasses. Such safety eyewear should preferably be able to be pivoted out of the field of view of the user when desired. However, the attachment system should also be capable of withstanding a sufficient force by flying projectiles without becoming dislodged from the primary eyewear, cap, or head of the operator. The present invention fulfills these needs and provides other related advantages.

Multi-faceted magnetic hinge system for coupling objects, including eyewear


The remote printing system allows one user to ultimately send a hard copy to another via a portable digital device such as a cellular phone. Upon receiving an e-mail print notice, the portable digital device wirelessly searches an appropriate print station in the vicinity by broadcasting a signal. In response to the broadcasted search signal, the print stations each send information on their printer characteristics such as availability status and print resolution to the portable digital device, a print server or a client that originated the print request. The recipient of the printer characteristic information selects an appropriate print station based upon a predetermined selection rule.

In the recent past, portable digital devices such as personal digital assistants (PDA) have been widely used. To send some information to a user of the portable digital device, unlike a fax machine, the information is directly transmitted to the portable digital device for locally storing before printing it with a local printer. The user having the received information must first find a local printer. Furthermore, for some certain formatted information, the user must run an application program on the portable digital device in order to print the received information.
Japanese Patent Publication Hei 10-191453 discloses a personal handy phone system (PHS)-based method of locally printing information that has been originally inputted through a portable digital assistant (PDA). The disclosure is limited to the information that was inputted only by the PDA. To print the information, the location of the PDA is transmitted to a PHS service center via a PHS base station, and the nearest print station is determined based upon the PDA location. The information to be printed is transmitted to a selected nearest print station either through the service center or directly from the PDA. Hei 10-191453 also discloses the use of a password to identify a bona fide user as well as a fee to be charged to a user for the local printing at predetermined locations such as a convenient store. Furthermore, the prior art reference discloses certain location-dependent parameters for the print stations, and the parameters include the printing fee amount and hours of operation.
Japanese Patent Publication Hei 8-137776 discloses an infra-red (IR) based transmission method of locally printing information as specified by a token stored in a portable digital device. IR is limited to a substantially single direction as well as a transmission distance and capacity. A predetermined number of computers, printers and other peripheral devices is placed at predetermined locations of rooms in a building and is networked by a conventional cable. At least one IR receiver/transmitter is placed in each of the rooms and is shared among the computers, the printers and other peripheral devices in the same room via the network. Thus, when a user moves from one room to another, the portable digital device communicates to a corresponding one of the printers in the room via the IR receiver/transmitter for local printing. The disclosure is unclear as to where computation or processing takes place for the tasks that have been initiated during the communication.
Japanese Patent Publication Hei 11-191081 discloses a transmission method of printing information stored in a network by specifying a task and a file identifier from a portable digital device. The portable digital device transmits the above file and task specification to a host system that is connected to a host of devices such as a printer, a fax machine and a workstation. Upon receiving the file and task specification, the host system in turn processes the tasks on the file. One of the tasks is to print a specified file at a specified printer. The host system and the portable digital device are designed to handle data in multimedia including audio, video, graphics and hand-written information. The prior art disclosure limits the above described communication to only between the portable digital device and the host system.
The above described prior art systems do not allow direct communication between the portable digital device and the peripheral devices such as a printer prior to printing information. Although it makes sense to store the information to be printed at any location, it is desired that the communication between a print station and a portable digital device should be direct.

Wireless remote printing system and method


The present invention generally relates to supramolecular assemblies and their modes of synthesis. The supramolecular assemblies include a 1:8 ratio of a supermolecular polyhedral building block and a triangular molecular building block, the supermolecular polyhedral building block having points of extension corresponding to the vertices of a rhombicuboctahedron for linking the supermolecular polyhedral building block to the triangular building block.

The present invention generally relates to supramolecular assemblies, and their modes of synthesis.
Design principles that are based upon the concepts of crystal engineering and self-assembly have recently afforded new classes of crystalline solids that possess important physical properties such as bulk magnetism or porosity. Large-scale molecular networks have been developed to encapsulate other materials and these are playing an ever-increasing role in the pharmaceutical industry and as materials for sensors, and liquid crystals. In addition, with the inclusion of metals within the structures, the large polymers formed by these crystals can possess, among other properties, catalytic, fluorescent, and magnetic attributes.
The molecular/supermolecular building block (MBB/SBB) approach has recently emerged as a powerful strategy for the design and construction of solid-state materials. This is evidenced by the burgeoning academic and industrial interest in the class of materials known as metal-organic frameworks (MOFs), for which desired functionality can be introduced at the molecular level prior to the assembly process. See, e.g., Stein et al., Science 1993, 259, 1558-1564; Férey, G., J. Solid State Chem. 2000, 152, 37-48; Eddaoudi et al., Science 2002, 295, 469-472; Kitagawa et al., Angew. Chem. Int. Ed. 2004, 43, 2334-2375; Moulton et al., Chem. Rev. 2001, 101, 1629-1658; Eddaoudi et al., Acc. Chem. Res. 2001, 34, 319-330; and U.S. Pat. No. 6,624,318 (hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety).
Assembly of finite supramolecular polyhedra and periodic extended networks from MBBs and SBBs offers great potential for the rational design and synthesis of functional materials and nanostructures. Cheetham et al., Angew. Chem., Int. Ed. 1999, 38, 3268-3292; Yaghi et al., Nature 2003, 423, 705-714; Seo et al., Nature 2000, 404, 982-986; and Desiraju et al., Nature 2001, 412, 397-400. This approach has been explored and, to some extent, has proven to be successful in metal-ligand directed assembly. See, e.g., Moulton et al., supra; Hoskins et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 1990, 112, 1546-1554; Seidel et al., Acc. Chem. Res. 2002, 35, 972-983; Takeda et al., Nature 1999, 398, 794-796; Kitagawa et al., supra; Eddaoudi et al., supra; Caulder et al., Acc. Chem. Res. 1999, 32, 975-982; Yaghi et al., supra. Metal-carboxylate based clusters, where metals are locked into their positions, have been synthesized in situ and successfully used as rigid directional secondary building units (SBUs) to design and construct stable open metal organic assemblies that maintain their structural integrity even upon complete removal of their guest molecules. See Li et al., Nature 1999, 402, 276-279; Chui et al., Science 1999, 283, 1148-1150, Yaghi et al., supra; and Yaghi et al., J. Solid State Chem. 2000, 152, 1-2.
Conventional MBBs and SBBs (coordination clusters or organic ligands) with varied connectivity and specific geometry and directionality are readily accessible, and can be employed to access structures where the MBBs and SBBs augment the vertices of a given net. See Ockwig et al., Acc. Chem. Res. 2005, 38, 176-182; Liu et al., J. Am. Chem. Soc. 2005, 127, 7266-7267; Brant et al., J. Mol. Struct. 2006, 796, 160-164; and Liu et al., Chem. Commun. 2006, 14, 1488-1490. Nevertheless, it is an ongoing challenge to absolutely predict the network topology of the constructed MOF. Accordingly, the ability to target nets that are exclusive for a combination of building blocks presents greater potential towards prediction, design, and synthesis of the resultant framework in crystal chemistry, and with a high degree of control over structure and functionality.

Supramolecular assemblies and building blocks


This invention relates to a new and distinct variety of strawberry plant named ‘DrisStrawSixteen’. The new variety is primarily characterized by a globose plant habit, strong vigor, and large-sized berries, is disclosed.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct strawberry variety designated 'DrisStrawSixteen' and botanically known as Fragaria×ananassa. This new strawberry variety was discovered in Ventura County, Calif. in January 2004 and originated from a cross between the proprietary female parent 'El Dorado' (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 16,238) and the proprietary male parent '12J277' (unpatented). The original seedling of the new variety was first asexually propagated at a nursery in Shasta County, Calif. in January 2004.
'DrisStrawSixteen' was subsequently asexually propagated at a nursery in Shasta County, Calif. and underwent further testing in Spain for two years. The present invention has been found to retain its distinctive characteristics through successive asexual propagations via stolons and tissue culture.

Strawberry plant named ‘DrisStrawSixteen’


An electric kick scooter including a scooter body, a drive device and a strain gauge is provided. The scooter body has a foot plate, a steering tube and a rear wheel respectively provided at front and rear ends of the foot plate, and a handle bar and a front wheel respectively provided at top and bottom ends of the steering tube. The drive device has a motor installed in the front wheel or rear wheel, and a battery installed with the scooter body and electrically connected to the motor. The strain gauge is attached to the steering tube or handle bar of the scooter body to sense the strain generated on the steering tube or handle bar when it receives a force. The strain signal of the strain gauge is transmitted to a controller for enabling the controller to control an action of the motor accordingly.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electric kick scooter, and particularly to an electric kick scooter with the convenience of manipulation.
2. Description of the Related Art
A traditional kick scooter is propelled by a user stepping continuously on the ground with a single foot to achieve an effect of gliding forward. Nevertheless, when riding on an uphill path, in addition to the decrease of gliding speed of the kick scooter, the user would spend considerable physical strength to drive the kick scooter forward. So this will greatly reduce the user's interest to the kick scooter. Accordingly, to reduce the influence of uphill sections on the interest of user of kick scooters, there are currently so-called electric kick scooters on the market, providing appropriate electric power assistance in various road sections, so that users can more conveniently and easily manipulate the kick scooter.
At present, electric kick scooters are to achieve the effect of speed control by means of nothing more than turning a grip or stepping on a foot plate. However, whichever way of driving is used, certain coordination is needed in manipulation, and thus not every user can handle skillfully. Furthermore, once an emergency situation that deceleration braking is needed is encountered, the user often cannot appropriately react to the grip or food plate immediately, thereby imperceptibly increasing the risk in use.