This loudspeaker system overcomes the disadvantages of prior art bipolar loudspeaker systems in which the front and rear-mounted driver(s) are connected with the same electrical phase. It compensates for the undesirable cancellation and reinforcement effects of prior art in bipolar loudspeaker design caused by the interaction of the front and rear acoustical output of the two drivers over certain frequency ranges. The introduction of a third side-mounted driver(s) to an enclosure whose depth exceeds its width when viewed from the front compensates for the usual cancellations and reinforcements of acoustic level that would normally occur in previous bipolar loudspeaker designs. This loudspeaker uses electronic, electrical and acoustical frequency-dividing networks to allow compensation of the acoustic level and the interaction of the front, rear and side-mounted driver(s) in such a way as to provide a nearly constant acoustic level over the entire operating range of the loudspeaker. The arrangement of the three drivers and their associated electronic, electrical and acoustical frequency-dividing networks allows the attainment of a loudspeaker with a bipolar radiating characteristic that does not possess the previously unavoidable peaks and dips in acoustical output caused by reinforcement and cancellation of the acoustic outputs from the front and rear-mounted driver(s). In this loudspeaker, the low-frequency range is covered by the side-mounted driver(s) and the upper frequency range is covered by the front and rear-mounted driver(s).

The invention pertains to loudspeakers that are well suited for use in high-fidelity audio systems and more particularly for use in high quality home theater systems. Specifically, the invention pertains to loudspeakers that have the characteristics of both in-phase bipolar acoustical radiation and an essentially constant acoustical output over the entire operating range of the loudspeaker.

Multi-driver in-phase bipolar array loudspeaker


A warp knit self-curling fabric and methods of construction thereof provides an elongate sleeve having overlapping edges for protecting elongate members. The fabric includes warp stitches and a plurality of weft stitches. The fabric comprises at least three yarns warp knit together, wherein one of the weft stitches is knit using a tricot stitch of a monofilament under tension to bias the fabric into a self-curled configuration about a central space. The monofilament forms an inner surface of the sleeve.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to fabrics for forming sleeves for receiving and protecting elongated items such as wiring harnesses and optical fiber cables, and more particularly to warp knitted self-curling fabrics therefor.
2. Background of the Invention
Protective sleeving is used throughout the automotive, marine and aerospace industries to organize and protect elongated items, such as wiring harnesses and optical fiber cables, for example. The sleeving surrounds the elongated items and protects them against cuts, abrasion, radiant heat, vibration induced wear and other harsh environmental threats. When positioned within protective sleeving, the wiring or cables are also held together in a neat bundle, allowing a multiplicity of different items to be handled as a sub-assembly, thus saving time and effort during integration of the items into its end environment.
Protective sleeving may be made by weaving or knitting filaments into a substrate and then resiliently biasing the substrate into a tubular form to define a central space for receiving the elongated items. Biasing may be effected by heating the filaments when the substrate is wrapped about a cylindrical mandrel, wherein the filaments take on a permanent set conforming to the shape of the mandrel. In addition, filaments can also be resiliently biased into a curved shape by applying chemicals thereto, as well as by cold working.
When substrates are biased into a tubular shape via the mechanisms described above, monofilaments are typically oriented in the "hoop" or circumferential direction of the tube. Monofilaments provide excellent stiffness and provide strong resilient biasing that maintains the substrate in the tubular shape. The biased monofilaments also tend to restore the substrate to its tubular shape in the absence of a distorting force, which is generally applied when the sleeve is manipulated to an open state to insert or remove an elongated item.
A significant disadvantage associated with sleeves that are biased into a tubular shape is that the biasing is effected by a separate step in the process of making the sleeve. The filaments comprising the substrate may be biased by cold working before manufacture of the sleeve or may be biased afterward by heating the substrate when wrapped about a mandrel, but these actions constitute an additional process that adds to the cost and the time required to produce the sleeve. Accordingly, it would be advantageous to be able to manufacture a tubular sleeve from a substrate that negates the need for secondary processes to impart the tubular shape on the substrate.

Self-curling knitted sleeve and method of fabrication


Architecture that protects side effect messages by associating the side effect messages with a primary (redundant) message that was received by a transport mechanism (e.g., a message transport agent). Side effect messages are considered “side effects” of a primary message that caused generation of the side effect messages. The primary message is only considered fully delivered after the primary message and all associated side effect messages are delivered, after which the source of the primary message is ACK'd (sent an “ACKnowledgement” message). Hence, in case of hardware failures after the primary message was delivered, but before delivery of side effect messages, the redundancy approach used triggers re-delivery of the primary message and re-generation and delivery of the side effect messages.

Messaging transport servers typically receive, store, and forward messages to the next server(s). In such cases, multiple high availability approaches can be deployed to ensure that such messages always exist on at least two transport servers in order to be resilient against hardware and/or software failures. However, there is a class of messages, referred to as side-effect messages, which can be generated by the messaging server, and which no other messaging servers are aware. Accordingly, such messages at each messaging server are vulnerable to loss in case of server failure. Examples of side effect messages include non-delivery reports (NDRs), delivery status notifications (DSNs), transfer agent generated messages (where a transfer agent is a mechanism that extends the basic functionality of a transport server, which may include arbitrary behavior such as generating side effect messages), journaling reports, etc. Transport components such as journaling and DSN generation can account for some of the side-effect messages based on the handling and processing of other normal or primary messages.
At the point of time when a side-effect message is generated, the side-effect message is present only on the transport server that created the message. This violates a principle in datacenters that all messages have redundant copies. If the transport server is wiped out journal-reports or DSNs may be lost. Traditional mechanisms employed to mitigate or reduce the chance of losing messages include hardware redundancies using redundantly arrayed drives, which cause an increase in the cost of goods. Meanwhile, in the cases of failures, the administrator has to worry about the state of the transport server, and hence, higher costs of administration are incurred.

High availability message transfer system for side effect messages


An apparatus for controlling a vehicle includes a valve that introduces or blocks a coolant discharged from a coolant pump into latent heat storage, a first temperature sensor that measures a first coolant temperature discharged from the coolant pump, a second temperature sensor that measures a second coolant temperature in the latent heat storage, and a controller that controls opening and closing of the valve based on the first coolant temperature measured by the first temperature sensor and the second coolant temperature measured by the second temperature sensor.

In general, various methods of early raising the coolant temperature of a cold engine during cold start (engine initiation) of a vehicle have been proposed. These methods include a hardware method using an electronic coolant heater, a positive temperature coefficient (PTC) heater, a thermal management module (TMM) or an integrated thermal management (ITM), and a software method of increasing the idle revolution per minute (RPM) of an engine.
The disclosure of this section is to provide background of the invention. Applicant notes that this section may contain information available before this application. However, by providing this section, Applicant does not admit that any information contained in this section constitutes prior art.

Apparatus for controlling valve of coolant circulation system and method thereof


A management apparatus (20) includes: a storage unit (21) which stores user attribute information that associates a user who manages information related to crises and an attribute of the user with each other, correspondence information that associates the attribute and an external system of which the attribute is login-enabled with each other, and login information with respect to each external system; an external login information processing unit (223) which, when receiving a login request to an external system from a user, refers to the user attribute information, the correspondence information, and the login information stored in the storage unit, acquires an attribute of the user, and acquires information on an external system to which the acquired attribute is login-enabled; and an external login processing unit (224) which executes a login to an external system to which a login has been requested among the login-enabled external systems.

Based on a geographical position, a geographic information system (GIS) comprehensively manages, processes, and visually displays data (spatial data) having information related to the position and enables sophisticated analysis to be carried out and quick decisions to be made. A method is proposed which, during a crisis response, uses the GIS to superimpose and display a plurality of pieces of spatial data on a map (refer to PTL 1). The use of this method enables crisis response sectors responsible for responding to crises such as natural disasters to analyze damage information and make crisis response decisions in an accurate and prompt manner.

Management device, management method, and management program

NIPPON TELEGRAPH AND TELEPHONE CORPORATION


The present invention is directed to compositions and methods of treating or preventing diseases or disorders with inhibitors of SHP2, alone, and in combination with other therapeutic agents such as RAS pathway inhibitors (e.g., MEK inhibitors); methods of establishing appropriate treatment plans for subjects based upon the expression of one or more biomarker indicative of SHP2 inhibitor sensitivity; and methods of determining sensitivity to a SHP2 inhibitor based on a phosphorylation status of SHP2.

Cancer remains one of the most deadly threats to human health. In the U.S., cancer affects nearly 1.3 million new patients each year, and is the second leading cause of death after heart disease, accounting for approximately 1 in 4 deaths (US20170204187). Many cancers are caused by constitutive or aberrant activation of receptor tyrosine kinases (RTKs) and/or RAS pathway modulators.
RTKs are transmembrane proteins having an extracellular ligand binding domain, a transmembrane domain, and a tyrosine kinase domain. Receptor tyrosine kinases are an important class of receptor that are involved in many fundamental cellular processes including cell proliferation, survival, metabolism, and migration, e.g. Schlessinger, Cell, 103: 211-225 (2000). Prominent families of this class include, for example, epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR), platelet derived growth factor receptor (PDGFR), erbB2, erbB4, vascular endothelial growth factor receptor (VEGFR), tyrosine kinase with immunoglobulin-like and epidermal growth factor homology domains (TIE-2), insulin growth factor-I (IGFI) receptor, macrophage colony stimulating factor (MCSF), BTK, ckit, cmet, fibroblast growth factor (FGF) receptors, Trk receptors (TrkA, TrkB, and TrkC), ephrin (eph) receptors, hepatocyte growth factor receptors (HGFR) and the RET protooncogene.
The class of receptor tyrosine kinases is so named because when activated by dimerization, the intracellular domain of RTKs acquire tyrosine kinase activity that can, in turn, activate a variety signal transduction pathways.
FIG. 1. shows a cartoon schematic of a RTK pathway. The RTK is dimerized upon ligand binding, which triggers auto-phosphorylation of the receptor and initiation of downstream signal transduction. Specifically, RTK phosphorylation recruits binding of the GRB2 adapter via its SH2 domain, and GRB2 then recruits (via its SH3 domain) downstream signaling molecules such as the adapter protein GAB1 and the GEF protein SOS1 (McDonald et al., FEBS J. 2012 June 279(2): 2156-2173).
RAS oscillates between GDP-bound "off" and GTP-bound "on" state, facilitated by interplay between a GEF protein (e.g., SOS1), which loads RAS with GTP, and a GAP protein (e.g., NF1), which hydrolyzes GTP, thereby inactivating RAS. Additionally, the SH2 domain-containing protein tyrosine phosphatase-2 (SHP2) associates with the receptor signaling apparatus and becomes active upon RTK activation, and then promotes RAS activation (id).
Activation of RAS results in induction of the serine/threonine kinase RAF. RAF phosphorylates MEK/2 which in turn phosphorylates and activates ERK1/2 leading to downstream signaling, e.g., via transcription, as well as feedback inhibition of the RTK, thereby turning off transduction of the signal. RAF also activates MAP3 kinases that activate MKK4/7, MKKK3/6 and MEK5, which activates JNK1/2, p38 and ERK5, consecutively. MAP3Ks are also activated by inflammatory cytokines, oxidative stress and UV radiation. PI3K is activated by RTK autophosphorylation and results in the activation of Akt, which also induces mTOR within the mTORC1 complex. Akt is also regulated by mTORC2 complex. PLCγ activation leads to Ca+2 mobilization and to the activation of PKC. These events play an essential role in proliferation, differentiation, survival and cell migration.
Over-expression or mutation of RTKs and/or RAS pathway signaling molecules have been shown to result in uncontrolled cell growth. The aberrant activity of such kinases has been linked to malignant tissue proliferation, survival, invasion and metastasis. For instance, mutations affecting RTKs and/or RAS pathway components Ras (KRAS, NRAS, HRAS), B-Raf, NF1, PI3K and AKT are common in promoting the malignancy of several types of cancers and from different tissue origins.
Accordingly, RTKs and downstream RAS pathway signal transducers represent attractive therapeutic targets.
However, therapeutic inhibition of the RAS pathway, although often initially efficacious, can ultimately prove ineffective as it may lead to over-activation of RAS pathway signaling via a number of mechanisms including, e.g., reactivation of the pathway via relief of the negative feedback machineries that naturally operate in these pathways. For example, in various cancers, MEK inhibition results in increased ErbB signaling due to its relief of MEK/ERK-mediated feedback inhibition of RTK activation. As a result, cells that were initially sensitive to such inhibitors may become resistant. Thus, a need exists for methods of effectively inhibiting RAS pathway signaling without inducing activation of resistance mechanisms.
SHP2 is a non-receptor protein tyrosine phosphatase encoded by the PTPN11 gene that contributes to multiple cellular functions including proliferation, differentiation, cell cycle maintenance and migration. SHP2 is involved in signaling through the RAS-mitogen-activated protein kinase (MAPK), the JAK-STAT and/or the phosphoinositol 3-kinase-AKT pathways.
SHP2 has two N-terminal Src homology 2 domains (N-SH2 and C-SH2), a catalytic domain (PTP), and a C-terminal tail. The two SH2 domains control the subcellular localization and functional regulation of SHP2. The molecule exists in an inactive, self-inhibited conformation stabilized by a binding network involving residues from both the N-SH2 and PTP domains. Stimulation by, for example, cytokines or growth factors acting through RTKs leads to exposure of the catalytic site resulting in enzymatic activation of SHP2.
Mutations in the PTPN11 gene and subsequently in SHP2 have been identified in several human developmental diseases, such as Noonan Syndrome and Leopard Syndrome, as well as human cancers, such as juvenile myelomonocytic leukemias, neuroblastoma, melanoma, acute myeloid leukemia and cancers of the breast, lung and colon. Some of these mutations destabilize the auto-inhibited conformation of SHP2 and promote autoactivation or enhanced growth factor-driven activation of SHP2.
SHP2, therefore, represents a highly attractive target for the development of novel therapies for the treatment of various diseases including cancer. It has been disclosed previously that either the knockdown of SHP2 expression using RNAi technology or inhibition of SHP2 by an allosteric small molecule inhibitor interferes with signaling from various RTKs involved in driving cancer cell growth. However, this work also concluded that such approaches would be ineffective at blocking growth signaling in cells in which growth is driven by mutations in proteins that act downstream of RTKs, such as those containing activating mutations in Ras or Raf proteins (Chen, Ying-Nan P. 148 Nature Vol 535 7 Jul. 2016 at pg. 151).

SHP2 inhibitor compositions and methods for treating cancer


An optical disc comprises an antistatic film of light transmission properties which is formed of a synthetic resin, includes a tin oxide with a phosphorous as electro-conductive filler and is provided on another side of a plastics substrate of the optical disc where an optical beam is applied.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical disc for recording, erasing or reproducing information using a laser beam and more particularly, to a protective coat for a substrate of optical disc which is made of plastics.
2. Description of the Related Art
As a substrate of an optical disc, a thermoplastic resin such as PC (polycarbonate) or PMMA (poly methyl- methacrylate) is widely used. Since such plastics substrate is a dielectric, static electricity is likely to be electrically charged, so that dust or the like is easily attached onto the substrate surface, causing a laser beam to scatter. Therefore, recording and reproducing are not normally performed. In order to solve such problem, there is provided a transparent antistatic resin film on the side of the substrate where the optical beam is applied, which is disclosed in Japanese Patent Publication No. 158643/1989.
As the transparent antistatic resin film, there have been known an antistatic resin film mixed with a surface active agent, a siloxane, an inorganic transparent electro-conductive compound, an electro-conductive filler or the like.
As for the antistatic resin film mixed with a surface active agent, as a ratio of the surface-active agent to the resin is increased, an antistatic effect is heighten but surface hardness is lowered. Contrarily, as that ratio is decreased, the surface hardness is improved but the anti-static effect is lowered, which means that the antistatic effect and the surface hardness can not be satisfied at the same time. In addition, when it is exposed to condition of the high temperature and humidity, for example at 80.degree. C. and 90%RH, the surface-active agent comes out on the surface of the film and then water is attached to that surface-active agent so that a waterdrop is generated, which is a problem in respect of long-term stability.
As for the antistatic resin film mixed with a siloxane, although the antistatic effect is high and the film is hard itself, since its film thickness can not be thick, that is, below 0.2 .mu.m, the sufficient surface hardness can not be obtained on a soft plastics substrate. When the optical disc comprising the antistatic resin film mixed with the siloxane is put to a low temperature and high temperature cycle test, a surface crack could be generated because adhesive property between the film and the substrate is not good. When it is exposed to the condition of high temperature, for example 80.degree. C., the antistatic effect is considerably lowered and the long-term stability is not enough.
In addition, as for the antistatic resin film mixed with an inorganic transparent electro-conductive compound such as ITO (In.sub.2 O.sub.3 : Sn) or tin oxide (SnO.sub.2), the adhesive property with the plastics substrate is poor and the film thickness is thin, so that the sufficient surface hardness can not be obtained.
As for the antistatic resin film mixed with an electro-conductive filler, it is known that the antistatic effect is high. However, in the antistatic resin film mixed with the electro-conductive filler, stability and light transmission properties can not be satisfied at the same time. More specifically, when the electro-conductive filler comprises only tin oxide, stability, shelf life and reproducibility need to be improved. When tin oxide doped with antimony has preferable stability but low light transmission properties. In addition, since the surface of the antistatic resin film mixed with the electro-conductive filler is not flat surface, when it is used in the optical disc substrate, incident beam is scattered, causing the light transmission properties to be lowered and recording and reproducing signals to deteriorate.

Optical disc with antistatic coating containing tin oxide and phosphorous


A device that assists with the collection of leaves or debris by holding a garbage bag completely open so a user does not need to awkwardly bend down and hold open a bag while raking leaves into it. Thus, the user has both hands free to hold and use a rake or broom to sweep leaves or debris into the open bag. The bag is affixed to a frame with spring biased clips mounted in top and bottom structure of a bag receptive frame, the clips being received in cavities in the top and bottom structure so that the clips in a closed position thereof are flush with top and bottom structure surfaces adjacent thereto providing uniform surface for each of the top and bottom structure.

The invention relates to a device for receiving a leaf collection bag and holding it with a bag entry end or mouth maintained open so that user readily can pass leaves into the bag. Representative of such type of device are described, inter alia, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,697,030; 3,754,785; 3,744,081; 3,998,415; 4,615,743; 5,050,920; 5,106,041; 5,308,027 and 6,003,820.
The device is a hands free device that will hold a bag wide open so a user can rake leaves or other debris into the bag without holding the bag. The current means and methods employed to rake leaves into a bag are difficult and straining because it requires a person to bend over and at the same time use one hand to open a bag and the other hand to hold a rake and then rake leaves into the bag. This invention eliminates bending while filling a bag and also helps lift the bag when it is full.


A micromechanical component includes a substrate having a cavern structured into the same, an at least partially conductive diaphragm, which at least partially spans the cavern, and a counter electrode, which is situated on an outer side of the diaphragm oriented away from the substrate so that a clearance is present between the counter electrode and the at least partially conductive diaphragm, the at least partially conductive diaphragm being spanned onto or over at least one electrically insulating material which at least partially covers the functional top side of the substrate, and at least one pressure access being formed on the cavern so that the at least partially conductive diaphragm is bendable into the clearance when a gaseous medium flows from an outer surroundings of the micromechanical component into the cavern. Also described is a manufacturing method for a micromechanical component.

German patent document DE 10 2007 019 639 A1 discusses a micromechanical component including a diaphragm for covering a cavity, the diaphragm being directly attached to a functional top side of a substrate and made of monocrystalline silicon. An electrode is suspended on an outer side of the diaphragm which is directed away from the cavity. The diaphragm and the electrode are to be usable as sensor elements of a capacitive pressure sensor.

Micromechanical component and manufacturing method for a micromechanical component


An apparatus for cleaning culverts and the like, and the apparatus has a longitudinal beam having a first end and a second end, adjustable support legs secured to said first and second ends of the beam, a carriage movably mounted on the beam between the support legs, apparatus for moving the carriage along the beam, a motor having a rotatable shaft secured to the carriage beneath the beam, and the rotatable shaft is configured to receive a removable coupling, at least one drive link having a first end and a second end and the first and second ends are configured to receive removable couplings and the drive link is joined to the rotatable shaft by a removable coupling and a culvert cleaning tool having a shaft configured to receive a removable coupling and the shaft is secured to the drive link by a removable coupling. The apparatus is provided with couplings for attaching and detaching the apparatus to and from a carrier vehicle. The carrier vehicle serves to transport and position the apparatus. The support vehicle also provides power to the apparatus.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an apparatus for opening clogs and removing accumulations of debris from culverts.
More particularly this invention relates to an apparatus which guides a cleaning tool into and/or through culverts and/or culvert-like pipes.
Still more particularly, this invention relates to the apparatus described above wherein the apparatus is supplied power and transport from a conventional materials handling vehicle.
Culverts come in many sizes and shapes and constructions. They are typically used to provide a passage for surface water from one side of an obstruction in a water course to the other. They are frequently a part of a surface ditching system and therefore are found in association with unlevel terrain which is often overgrown with vegetation and filled with debris of all kinds. When debris accumulates in a culvert it provides a damming effect that allows water to pool and stagnate. These pools become a breeding ground for mosquitoes and an agent for the odoriferous decomposition of organic materials carried into the culvert during a period of water flow. In regions where the temperatures fall below freezing, culverts can accumulate ice and snow and become plugged so as to block the flow of water.
Because of the varieties of sizes and shapes of culverts and the assortments of accumulations that can occur in culverts and the difficulties presented in access to culverts, those responsible for the cleaning and clearing of culverts have heretofore found situational solutions to their situational problems.
It is an object of this invention to provide a general application apparatus for clearing and cleaning culverts.
2. Description of the Related Art
The patent art abounds with cleaners for underground pipes and tubes.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,376,995 to Balsley teaches a hinged hoe blade on a handle and handle extensions for manually scraping dirt and debris from culverts.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,089 to Nolan et al teaches a rotating brush driven by a flexible cable powered by a remote motor and a means for introducing flushing fluids into the vicinity of the brush.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,675.570 to Sacks teaches a a rotating cutting tool having shaft extensions for removing deposits in the interior of pipes and conduits.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,940,920 to Hare et al teaches a brush mounted on a rotating rigid rod which is translated into and out of a pipe by movement of a head mounted on a frame.
The invention is for an apparatus for cleaning culverts and the like, comprising; a longitudinal beam having a first end and a second end, support legs secured to said first and second ends of the beam, a carriage movably mounted on the beam between the support legs, a means for moving the carriage along the beam, a motor having a rotatable shaft secured to the carriage beneath the beam, and the rotatable shaft configured to receive a removable coupling, at least one drive link having a first end and a second end and the first and second ends are configured to receive removable couplings and the drive link is joined to the rotatable shaft by means of a removable coupling and a culvert cleaning tool having a shaft configured to receive a removable coupling and the shaft is secured to the drive link by means of a removable coupling.
The apparatus is provided with a means for attaching and detaching the apparatus to and from a carrier vehicle. The carrier vehicle serves to transport and position the apparatus. The support vehicle also provides power to the apparatus.


The present invention relates to porous bone filling materials prepared by sintering bioactive glass fibers in order to achieve a three dimensional block with interconnecting porosity. Due to the osteoconductive properties the bioactive glass fibers, in block form are an ideal scaffold for new tissue (e.g. bone or cartilage) formation to occur. The manufacturing parameters can be adjusted to achieve porosities as high as 90 vol-%, or the manufacturing parameters can be adjusted to prepare strong porous blocks useful in load bearing application.

In surgical and orthopedic treatments, prosthesis operations are often required for filling in defects or hollow portions of bone which may result from fracture of bone or surgical removal of bone tumor. Also in the field of dental surgery, similar denture operations are often required for filling in spoiled void portions in maxilla or mandible resulting from pyorroea alveolaris. It has been a common practice to harvest bone from donor site, for example from the iliac crest of the patient to fill up the defect or hollow portion of bone and thereby to promote the regeneration of the bone tissue. However, to perform such an operation normal, undamaged bone tissue must be picked up from an unspoiled portion. This operation causes additional pain to the patient and is, in addition, a very troublesome procedure. Moreover, when the volume of the defect or void in the patient's bone is large, the amount of bone obtainable from the patient's own body is not always adequate to fully fill in the defect or void. In such cases it is inevitable to use a substitute for the patient's own bone tissue. Even though the same sort of bone tissue has been used as the substitute, the implanted substitute may be rejected by the living tissue due to the foreign body rejection reaction (by the immune system). For these reasons the post-operation recovery of the defect is not always satisfactory. Accordingly, such an operation has not yet been recognized as fully satisfactory in practice.
There is therefore a demand for an artificial material which has excellent compatibility with living tissues when filled in a defect or hollow portion of bone to facilitate formation of bone within and at the vicinity of the defect and to promote repair and recovery of the structure and function of the once damaged bone tissue.
A variety of metal alloys and organic materials have been used as the substitute for the hard tissues in the living body. However, it has been recognized that these materials tend to dissolve or otherwise deteriorate in the environment of living tissue and that these materials are toxic to the living body and cause so called foreign body rejection reaction. Ceramic materials have been used because of their excellent compatibility with the living body and because they are typically free of the aforementioned difficulties. Artificial bones and teeth have been developed from ceramic materials, particularly alumina, carbon or tricalcium phosphate or from sintered masses or single crystal of hydroxyapatite which have superior compatibility with living body. These embodiments have attracted a good deal of the public attention.
However, the conventional ceramic implant materials have a common disadvantage in that they are inherently too hard and brittle. Therefore these known ceramic materials are not fully satisfactory in practical use. There have been attempts to fill defects in bone with a sintered ceramic block or a ceramic block of single crystal form. However, since uneven gaps or interstices are formed between the block and the bone tissue, the object of fully filling in the void in the bone cannot be attained. On the other hand, when alumina is used as the filler, it acts as a stimulant to cause absorption of bone at the vicinity of the implanted filler due to the fact that alumina is much harder than the bone tissue. Furthermore, it has not been clarified what properties a ceramic material should possess to suppress the foreign body rejection reaction and to improve the compatibility with living body as well as promote formation of new bone.
Heimo Ylänen (Doctoral Thesis, Turku, Finland 2000) has studied bone ingrowth into porous bodies made by sintering bioactive glass microspheres. He has found out that rigid porous bioactive glass implants provide an environment that promotes, throughout the whole implant, an extended incorporation of new bone into space between the sintered bioactive microspheres. As a result the implant is quickly and firmly bonded to the host bone. In the studies it is also noted that the in vitro rate of the reactions inside the porous glass implant is higher than the non-porous glass rods made from the same bioactive glass. The block sintered from bioactive glass spheres is brittle and breaks easily if load is applied to it. Another drawback with blocks sintered from glass spheres is that the porosity is considerably low and this affects bone forming properties in this device.
Publication WO 00/35509 discloses a porous textile product made from bioactive glass and a weakly bioactive glass. Several ways to produce the textile product are suggested in the publication but there is no suggestion of sintering the bioactive glasses together.
Finnish patent 103,715 ('715 patent) discloses a composite made of bioactive material A and of non-bioactive material B or weakly bioactive material B and the materials have been sintered together to a porous composition. According to the '715 patent particles A and B are rounded, preferably spherical. In the '715 patent there is no suggestion to use glass fibers for preparing the composition.
Finnish patent application 923,561 discloses bioactive glass compositions and preparation of implants from the filaments of the said bioactive glass compositions. However, there is no teaching in the publication to sinter the filaments together.
Publication WO 97/31661 describes an osteogenic device which comprises a shapeable porous carrier body selected from hydroxyapatite, tricalcium phosphate, bioactive glass and biocoral. There is no teaching in the publication of using bioactive glass fiber.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,054,400 ('400 patent) discloses an invention which relates to novel bioactive glasses with a large working range and controlled durability. The '400 patent further discloses the use of the bioactive glasses for tissue bonding purposes in the medical or dental field, for use in biotechnology, for controlled release of agents and for tissue guiding. The filling material comprises bioactive glass in crushed form or as spherical granules. There is no suggestion in the US patent to use glass fibers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,429,996 concerns a bone grafting material for use in medicine which is glass wool having the following composition 40–62% (w/w) SiO2, 10–32% (w/w) Na2O, 10–32% (w/w) CaO, 0–12% (w/w) P2O5, 0–12% (w/w) CaF2, 0–21% (w/w) B2O3. The glass wool has a mean diameter of 100 μm or less. There is no suggestion of using sintered glass fibers in this publication, however.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,468,544 discloses composite materials using bone bioactive glass and ceramic fibers. In more detail in the patent is described composite structures that incorporate a bioactive material in a polymer matrix along with a structural fiber. The polymeric matrix used is a non-bioabsorbable polymeric matrix, for example polysulphone, PEEK or PEKK and the structural fiber is a carbon fiber.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,735,857 describes a fiber glass for filling in a defect or hollow portion of bone. The fiber glass comprises calcium phosphate as a main ingredient and has a negative zeta potential. The fiber glass is of long filament form or staple fiber form and the long filament form may be woven to form a woven filler, for example a cloth or gauze. In the US patent there is no suggestion of sintering the fibers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,914,356 describes a woven filler for filling in a defect or hollow portion of bone. The woven filler is prepared by weaving fiber glass filaments which fiber glass consists essentially of calcium phosphate and has a negative zeta point as well, and of an inorganic oxide. The inorganic oxide can be alumina, silica, sodium oxide, iron oxide, magnesium oxide, kaolin or a mixture thereof. There is no teaching of sintering the glass fibers in this patent.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,711,960 describes an implant material which comprises as a base material a biocompatible bulk structure of a tri-axial or more three-dimensionally woven fabric of organic fibers, a tri-axial or more three-dimensionally knitted fabric of organic fibers or combination thereof.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,904,257 discloses a method of filling a void in a bond which comprises filling the void with a fibrous bone comprising fibers containing intact hydroxylapatite, water-soluble binder and water.
M. A. De Diego et al. (Tensile Properties of Bioactive Fibers for Tissue Engineering Applications, Journal of Biomedical Materials Research, 2000, Vol. 3,199–203) have studied tensile properties of bioactive fibers for tissue engineering applications. The tested material was 45S5 Bioglasse which is a 4-component, melt-derived bioactive glass. In the study tensile strength, elongation to fracture and Weibull's moduli of 45S5 Bioglasse is reported.
It is also known in the art that the fabrication of 3D scaffolds for skeletal reconstruction from bioceramics and biopolymers has been studied.


The invention provides a transport apparatus, or combiner, for transporting light-weight containers at high speed rates. The combiner includes one or more conveyor belt-type surfaces that have openings thereupon, a guide rail assembly, and a vacuum source that adds a "drag" or "weighting" force on the light-weight containers. The conveyor belt-type surfaces may or may not be moving at the same velocity. The guide rail assembly is comprised of rods and rollers, wherein the rollers are aligned in a unique anti-jamming staggered or diamond pattern. The guide rail assembly can be positioned such that it is substantially upright, or the guide rail assembly can be positioned such that it is sloped over the conveyor surfaces. The rods within the guide rail assembly may be substantially vertical, or they may be pitched forward. One vacuum source may be used for the plurality of conveyor surfaces, or one vacuum source may be used for each individual conveyor. The vacuum force should be such that it is greatest on the discharge conveyor surface and lowest on the infeed conveyor surface. In an alternative embodiment, the guide rail assembly includes an air-jet means that also helps propel the light-weight containers downstream.

Industries that package their items in can or bottle-type containers usually are searching for ways to maximize production output. With the ever-increasing demand for higher production rates, surface conveyor systems have been designed that are capable of greater accumulation of the containers so that the surface conveyor can accommodate a varying backlog of the containers. For example, the infeed of the conveyor system might be several times wider than the containers so as to be able to receive the containers in random multiple width arrangement of containers. Usually, the wider the infeed conveyor is, the greater its accumulation capability will be. Hence, several container-dependent industries are now using very wide conveyor systems.
Although wider conveyor systems have helped to increase production rates, production has still heretofore been limited because the typical production line requires that containers be fed into a subsequent work station in a single file. For example, standard equipment such as inspection lights and/or electronic bottle inspectors, product fillers, container cappers or sealers, container de-cappers, and labelers all require that the container must enter in a single file. In order to narrow the container stream width from an initial multiple width of containers to single file, combiners have been developed. The smooth transfer from a wide width to single file makes the combiner one of today's most important items in the production line.
In the past, multiple flat top chains and converging rails have been used in order to combine containers from a mass of containers into a single file or row of containers. When combining light-weight containers there is a problem that the side-to-side compaction of the containers against one another causes some of the containers to levitate and lose speed because they no longer touch the conveyor chain. This side-to-side compaction also creates a problem of bridging of the containers between the side guides of the combiner so that the movement of the containers stalls, and the following containers push the containers next ahead, which tends to cause more bridging between the side rails instead of pulling the containers in spaced relationship into single file.
Also in the past, it was generally believed in the industry that glass bottle combiners must be designed to satisfy the following conditions: (1) the combiner must be at least two meters long; (2) the downstream end of the combiner must be located at least two meters upstream from the equipment it feeds; (3) the combiner must use tapered guide rails; (4) the combiner should use two chains--a 71/2 inch width feed chain and a 31/4 inch width single conveyor discharge chain; (5) the relation of the infeed chain speed to the discharge chain speed must be 66%; and (6) the combiner must always be full of bottles to maintain the bottle position that produces smooth flow. A combiner made within these six specifications typically would yield an output of 600 to 1000 bottles; 1500 cans per minute; and no more than 600 bpm for standard 12 oz. plastic bottles. Twelve ounce plastic bottles are limited to 600 bpm because of their light bottle weight, low bottle stability, high bottle compressibility and high friction that exists between the plastic bottle and the guide rails.
If the above six combiner specifications are used with an air-jet guide rail to combine light-weight containers such as 12 oz. plastic bottles, 650 bpm has been achieved. However, heretofore no one has been able to successfully combine light-weight containers at greater than 700 bpm.
For metal type containers, such as cans, Lenhart, U.S. Pat. No. 4,669,604, teaches that if objects are first arranged in an equilateral triangle on a dead plate, the objects, such as metal cans, may be formed in a single file using a vacuum source drawn through openings in the conveyor belt to hold the outside row of containers in place on the moving belt and out of engagement with the side rails while the other containers are urged in between the containers in the outside row. However, Lenhart's invention will not work properly if the containers are in a "random, helter-skelter fashion" and also requires that the cans must be pushed off the dead plate by the oncoming moving mass of cans upstream of the dead plate.


A service network for handling abnormal interrupts, including tracking area updates, lower layer failures, and guard timer expiries, during an attach procedure with a user equipment is provided. The service network includes a radio access network and a control node. When the radio access network detecting an abnormal interrupt, the control node aborts the attach procedure by sending a detach request message, via the radio access network, to the user equipment.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to handling abnormal interrupts during an attach procedure, and more particularly, to a system, apparatuses, and methods for handling abnormal interrupts, including tracking area updates, lower layer failures, and guard timer expiries, during an attach procedure in a mobile communication system.
2. Description of the Related Art
The approaches described in this section could be pursued, but are not necessarily approaches that have been previously conceived or pursued. Therefore, unless otherwise indicated herein, the approaches described in this section are not prior art to the claims in this application and are not admitted to be prior art by inclusion in this section.
In a typical mobile communication system, a mobile user equipment (UE) communicates with one or more service networks via radio access networks of the service networks. A UE comprises various types of equipment such as a mobile telephone (also known as cellular or cell phone), a laptop computer with wireless communications capability, a personal digital assistant (PDA) etc. UE may be portable, handheld, pocket-sized, or installed in a vehicle etc. . . . and communicate voice and/or data signals with a radio access network.
A universal mobile telecommunications system (UMTS) is a third generation mobile communication system that has evolved from the Global System for Mobile communications (GSM) system. The UMTS is a European standard which aims to provide better mobile communication services based on the GSM core network and wideband code division multiple access (W-CDMA) technology. Although UMTS delivers high data transfer rates, wireless data usage is expected to increase significantly over the next few years. For this reason, concepts for UMTS Long Term Evolution (LTE) have been proposed, with the objective to further improve UMTS to achieve high-data-rates, low-latency and packet-optimized radio access technology. The improved UMTS technology is called Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA) and the system employing the E-UTRA technology is called an Evolved Packet System (EPS).
Consider a wireless mobile device, generally referred to as a UE, which complies with the 3GPP specifications for the E-UTRA protocol. The 3GPP TS 24.301 specification, v.1.0.0, referred to herein as the 24.301 specification, addresses the subject of the Non-Access-Stratum (NAS) protocol requirements for the EPS and the UE. The 3GPP TS 36.304 specification, v.8.3.0, is referred to herein as the 36.304 specification.
After the UE is powered on and connects to the EPS, it will need to perform an attach procedure to register itself to the EPS so that it can start a packet data session over the EPS. As illustrated in FIG. 1, the attach procedure starts by the UE sending an ATTACH REQUEST message to the EPS (step S101). The ATTACH REQUEST message may be sent combined with a PDN CONNECTIVITY REQUEST message indicating that the UE wishes to start a packet data session with the EPS. When the EPS receives the ATTACH REQUEST message, it authenticates the UE, checks if the UE is authorized to have access to packet data services, and performs a security mode control procedure to activate the encryption on the subsequent messages in the connection (step S102). If none of the checks fails, the EPS accepts the attach request by sending an ATTACH ACCEPT message to the UE. The ATTACH ACCEPT message may be sent combined with an ACTIVATE DEFAULT EPS BEARER CONTEXT REQUEST message if the PDN CONNECTIVITY REQUEST message is found in the ATTACH REQUEST message (step S103). The ACTIVATE DEFAULT EPS BEARER CONTEXT REQUEST message is used to activate the default bearer for the packet data session. When the UE receives the ATTACH ACCEPT message from the EPS, it corresponds to the EPS with an ATTACH COMPLETE message to acknowledge that it has received the ATTACH ACCEPT message (step S105). The ATTACH COMPLETE message may be sent combined with an ACTIVATE DEFAULT EPS BEARER CONTEXT ACCEPT message indicating that the UE has accepted the configuration of the default bearer from the ACTIVATE DEFAULT EPS BEARER CONTEXT REQUEST message. Lastly, the EPS waits for the ATTACH COMPLETE message combined with the ACTIVATE DEFAULT EPS BEARER CONTEXT ACCEPT message. If the ATTACH COMPLETE message is received, the attach procedure ends successfully. Otherwise, the EPS will resend the ATTACH ACCEPT message to the UE.
However, in accordance with clause 220.127.116.11.7 of the 24.301 specification, when some abnormal interrupts occur (step 104), for instance, lower layer failure, the guard timer T3450 of the attach procedure expiring for 5 times, the tracking area of the UE is changed, etc., before the ATTACH COMPLETE message is received, the EPS does not resend the ATTACH ACCEPT message. That is to say, the ESM sub-layer in the UE is in the BEARER CONTEXT ACTIVE state while the ESM sub-layer in the EPS remains in the BEARER CONTEXT ACTIVE PENDING state. Thus, as the attach procedure is initiated for a packet data session, failing to receive the ATTACH COMPLETE message, combined with the ACTIVATE DEFAULT EPS BEARER CONTEXT ACCEPT message, results in inconsistency between the EPS Session Management (ESM) sub-layer state in the UE and in the EPS. The inconsistency between the ESM sub-layer state in the UE and in the EPS may cause malfunction of the packet data session.

Apparatus and method for performing attach procedure in mobile communication system


The present invention provides a tire with a sacrificial rib to protect the main ribs of the tire""s tread by delaying the onset of irregular wear and the growth thereof. The improved tire tread comprises a plurality of main ribs formed by grooves extending generally circumferentially around an outer surface of the tire to form a main tread width for contacting the supporting surface. A sacrificial rib is provided for contacting the supporting surface at each lateral side of the main ribs. The sacrificial rib is separated from the main ribs by a narrow shoulder groove having a groove width not greater than about 1.5 millimeter. The sacrificial rib has a surface width in the range of about 2.5 percent to about 12 percent of said tread width. The sacrificial rib has a recess defined by a radial offset from a transverse or lateral profile of the main ribs. The offset has a value in the range of about 0.50 millimeter to about 2.0 millimeters when the tire is new. A shape factor is used for defining the shape of the sacrificial rib where the shape factor has a value between about 0.10 and 0.50.

This invention relates to vehicle tires, and more particularly to heavy duty truck tires. The invention is particularly useful with long haul trucking operations in reducing the irregular wear of front axle tires.
The problem of irregular wear in long haul truck tires is well known in the art. Truck tires that experience straight ahead driving for a large portion of their life develop wear patterns which are different. Tire stresses from turning and maneuvering the vehicle only exist for a limited time compared with tire stresses from straight ahead highway driving. The axle alignment of the truck as well as compliance of truck suspension and steering linkages become much more important in producing tire wear. Normal stresses can also become as important as the longitudinal and lateral stresses in producing tire wear.
Those patents which disclose various solutions for the problem of irregular wear and endurance in steer axle truck tires include U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,214,618; 4,480,671; 4,890,658; 5,010,936; 5,099,899 and 5,131,444, French Patent No. 2,303,675 (FR675), British Patent No. 2,027,649 (GB649), Japanese Patent No. 3-253408 (JP408) and PCT Patent Application No. 9202380-A (PCT380). These references disclose means to control the shape of a shoulder area of a tire""s tread in an effort to limit the onset of irregular changes in the tread shape as the tire wears (i.e. railway wear). The use of shoulder grooves of various sizes and at various locations where the contact area of the tread transitions into the shoulder area is disclosed. However, none of these references disclose a shoulder rib that will reduce the stresses on the first interior rib to delay the onset and reduce the growth of irregular wear over a substantial portion of the life of the tire""s tread.
The use of narrow shoulder ribs on the front steer axle truck tire to control wear on the main circumferential ribs is known in the art. The general problem with the teachings of the art is characterized by the fact that relatively narrow shoulder ribs and narrow grooves separating the narrow shoulder rib from the first interior rib is only effective when the tire is relatively new. The narrow shoulder ribs quickly wear producing and a relatively large recess so that the narrow shoulder rib does not carry a large enough portion of the tire load after initial wear is experienced. This problem is not solved with either no initial recess or a large initial recess as the shoulder rib of the tire develops its own stable recess magnitude during the initial wearing process. To improve rib wear and endurance of the tire the use of wider shoulder ribs and somewhat narrower grooves have been disclosed in Australian Patent No. 622983 (AU983), PCT Application No. 9202380-A (PCT380) and Japanese Patent No. 2-253408 (JP408). These references are discussed in more detail in the following paragraphs.
The Australian Patent AU983 discloses a tire for vehicles traveling long distances at sustained speed with medium to high loads on the tire. The wear life of the tread is improved by including narrow shoulder grooves having a width of 3.5 millimeters, wide shoulder ribs each having a width at least 13 percent of the total contact width and a shoulder rib recess having a value between 0.5 and 5.0 millimeters. The disclosed shoulder rib width is relatively large; being at least 35 millimeters for a tire with a main tread width of 200 millimeters.
In the PCT application PCT380 a truck tire is disclosed for long runs at sustained speeds which has increased resistance to separation between the layers of subtread reinforcement. Resistance to separation is improved by a narrow shoulder grooves having a width between 0.6 and 8 millimeters, wide shoulder ribs having a width between 17 and 34 millimeters and a shoulder rib recess having a value of less than 40 percent of the depth of the main tread grooves. Once again the shoulder rib width is relatively large and the preferred recess is also relatively large.
The Japanese Patent JP408 discloses a tire with reduced shoulder abrasion and gravel biting. Resistance to abrasion is realized by including thin narrow shoulder grooves with a groove width from 0.2 to 3 percent of the main tread width, the shoulder ribs have a width greater than 90 percent of the main groove depth of the main tread portion with a sloping contact surface area between 20 and 60 degrees, but the patent is silent about the magnitude of the shoulder rib recess. The sloping contact surface area of the shoulder rib is at least 20 degrees to help prevent gravel biting as well as groove cracking and tearing.
Another design feature known in the art to assist the tire tread in increasing tread life by reducing irregular wear is the addition of spaced apart sipes which extend laterally into the main ribs from the main grooves, as well as from the narrow shoulder grooves into the first interior ribs. This siping can be further enhanced by inclined sipes which are inclined in the depth direction from a normal line to the tread surface of the tire. Inclined siping is disclosed in Japanese Patent No. 5-338418 (JP418) and in AU983. In JP418 the inclined sipes are placed so that the sipes have an inner end which trails the surface end during forward rotation of the tire. This inclined sipe is used to lower rib rigidity. No siping is indicated adjacent the narrow shoulder end part 2 (FIG. 1). The inclined siping disclosed in AU983 is inclined at an angle to the normal line at the tread surface between 5 and 25 degrees. The siping of this reference is used in combination with a very wide shoulder rib as previously discussed.
In yet another design feature, known in the art to assists the tire tread to increase tread life by reducing irregular wear, the tread design controls the amount of normal load on the main ribs by the addition of a stepped rib which is placed adjacent to the rib or ribs to be protected. In the disclosure of US444, the stepped rib zones contact the ground within the main tread width land portion to help support the load of the tire. The total width of the stepped zones is in a range from 5 to 25 percent of the tread ground contact area and the stepped zones have a recess which is proportional to the load on the tire and the tread gage and inversely proportional to the tread contact area and the modulus of elasticity of the tread rubber. Recessed values of 2 millimeters or greater are used. Contact of the stepped zone with the ground is based on contact with at least 50 percent but less than 200 percent of the maximum load on the tire tread. Each stepped zone is inside the land portion of the tread and is limited by two narrow grooves or narrow cuts and the load supporting land portions encompass the full lateral width of the tire. The US444 disclosure is silent about the width of narrow grooves and cuts, and about the use of stepped zones at the lateral edges of the tire tread.
Another patent that discloses a tread design that controls the amount of normal load taken by a stepped rib which is placed adjacent to the rib or ribs to be protected is British Patent No. 532,534 (GB534). Grooves between the load bearing ribs have thinner ribs which are separated from the load bearing ribs by narrow grooves about 0.8 millimeters in width. The thinner ribs may be recessed but no values are given for the magnitude of the recesses. The GB534 patent is silent about recessed ribs on the lateral edges of the tread.
A need remains to have a shoulder rib which becomes a sacrificial rib that maintains contact with the ground surface to reduce the loads taken by the main tread width, especially the first interior rib. A means for maintaining a load on the shoulder ribs can effectively reduces the stresses on the main ribs of the steer axle truck tire during straight ahead driving. The need is to cause tread wear to be more uniform across the tire""s tread. The first interior rib of the tread width on each lateral side of the tire is subjected to high loads which produce relatively high stresses which need to be reduced to improve the wear on this first interior rib to give regular or uniform wear.
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide shoulder ribs outside both lateral edges of the main tread width which become sacrificial ribs by assuming a larger portion of the load on the tire for a longer period of the tire""s tread life due to wear.
In particular, an object of the present invention is to teach the proper shape and dimensions of the sacrificial ribs and narrow shoulder grooves of a new truck tire so that the sacrificial ribs remain effective in protecting the main tread portion of the tire after tread wear is initiated.
A further object of the present invention is to provide lateral sacrificial shoulder ribs for truck tires for reducing the irregular wear on the first interior ribs. The sacrificial ribs are to help delay the onset of irregular wear of the main ribs and the growth thereof.
Another object of the present invention is to reduce the onset of irregular wear of steer axle truck tires during long haul operations. The onset or railway wear adjacent circumferential grooves is of particular concern.
Yet another object of the present invention is to construct a truck tire having a belt package, a carcass, bead areas and sidewalls that includes sacrificial ribs and narrow shoulder grooves to enhance the reduction in irregular wear of the main tread area of a tire which results in a uniform wear pattern across the main tire tread width.
The above objectives are accomplished according to the present invention by providing a tire with a sacrificial rib to protect the main ribs of the tire""s tread by delaying the onset of irregular wear and the growth thereof.
In one embodiment of the present invention an improved tread for a heavy duty tire is provided. The tire has a carcass extending between spaced apart bead cores, a central crown area outside the carcass with a belt package for helping support the tread in contact with a supporting surface. The improvement comprises a plurality of main ribs formed by grooves extending generally circumferentially around an outer surface of the tire to form a main tread width for contacting the supporting surface. A sacrificial rib is provided for contacting the supporting surface at each lateral side of the main ribs. The sacrificial rib is a shoulder rib separated from the main ribs by a shoulder groove having a groove width not greater than about 1.5 millimeter. The sacrificial rib has a surface width in the range of about 2.5 percent to about 12 percent of said tread width. The sacrificial rib has a recess defined by a radial offset from a transverse profile of the main ribs. The offset has a value in the range of about 0.5 millimeter to about 2.0 millimeters when the tire is new. These improvements decrease irregular wear on the tire.
In another embodiment of the present invention a tire tread for a heavy duty truck tire is used on a steer axle of a vehicle driven in a long haul operation for improving tread wear. The tire tread comprises a main tread portion having at least four circumferential ribs over a main tread width separated by main grooves having a main groove depth extending around an outer surface of the tire between lateral edges of the main tread width. A surface of the main tread portion defines a lateral profile of said main tread. A pair of sacrificial ribs one at each lateral edge of said tread are separated from the tread width by a narrow shoulder groove adjacent each one of the lateral edges. Each sacrificial rib has a lateral surface width in a range of values between about 10 millimeters and about 17 millimeters. The narrow shoulder groove has a lateral width in a range of values between about 0.2 millimeter and about 1.5 millimeter and a narrow groove depth between about 90 percent to about 110 percent of the main groove depth. The narrow groove has an enlarged portion at a radially inward end of the narrow groove for reducing cracking at this radially inward end. The sacrificial rib has a surface area recessed radially inward of the tire defined by a radial offset from a uniform extension of the lateral profile. The offset has a value in the range of about 0.5 millimeter to about 1.5 millimeter, wherein tread wear of the truck tire is improved.


The invention relates to a method and an arrangement for mounting a wheel cap on a vehicle, the vehicle having rims with exposed fasteners for fastening to a wheel hub. The method includes mounting of a holder by fasteners of the rim, the holder having a first contact surface for resting against the rim and a second contact surface lying substantially parallel to and at a distance from the first contact surface, and where the mounting of the holder is done by at least two fasteners of the rims interacting with openings in the first contact surface of the holder. The method includes mounting of the wheel cap on the holder by a plurality of fasteners on the inner side of the wheel cap interacting with openings for the fasteners of the rim in the second contact surface of the holder.

The present application is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/SE2004/001455, filed Oct. 12, 2004, which claims priority to SE 0302757-0, filed Oct. 17, 2003, both of which are incorporated by reference.
The invention relates to a method and an arrangement for quickly and easily mounting a wheel cap on a vehicle, the vehicle having rims with exposed fasteners for fastening the rim to a wheel hub.
There are nowadays many different ways of fastening wheel caps to rims for vehicles, such as trucks and buses, having exposed fasteners for fastening rims.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,542,750, for example, shows a fastening in which a wheel cap is fastened directly or indirectly to a rim at least together with an annular disc having openings for the wheel nuts. The wheel cap is here screwed securely into the disc. A disadvantage with this design is that the wheel cap cannot be removed without tools, and that it only provides a limited protection against external influences.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,167,440 shows a fastening in which a clamping ring is fitted to existing holes in the rim, it in turn being possible to screw the wheel cap securely to the clamping ring. This solution also requires tools for removing the wheel cap. Furthermore, it does not afford any protection against external influences.
The problems with these known fastenings are therefore that they cannot be removed quickly, since they require tools for detachment, and that they afford scant protection, if any, either for the surroundings or for wheel bolts or wheel nuts. The problems described above are resolved by a wheel cap fastening according to the invention.
It is desirable to provide an arrangement for quick and easy mounting of a wheel cap on a vehicle.
According to an aspect of the invention, a method is provided for mounting a wheel cap on a vehicle, the vehicle having rims with exposed fasteners for fastening to a wheel hub. The method comprises mounting of a holder by means of the rim fasteners, the holder having a first surface for resting against the rim, and mounting of the wheel cap on the holder, the holder having a second surface lying substantially parallel to and at a distance from the first surface.
The holder can be mounted in that fasteners of the rims interact with openings in the first surface of the holder. It is possible to have all rim fasteners interact with a corresponding number of openings in the first surface of the holder, but the holder may also be mounted by means of a smaller number of fasteners, such as at least three fasteners.
The wheel cap is mounted in that a number of fasteners arranged on the inner side of the wheel cap interact with openings on the second surface of the holder. Here the wheel cap fasteners can interact with at least two openings in the second surface of the holder, the number of openings corresponding to the number of rim fasteners. By making the number of openings in the second surface correspond to the number of rim fasteners it is possible to get to tighten and release these fasteners though the openings in the second surface.
According to a further aspect of the present invention, an arrangement for mounting a wheel cap on a vehicle is provided. The arrangement comprises a rim mounted on a wheel hub with a number of fasteners, a holder and a wheel cap. The holder may comprise a first surface, which may rest directly or indirectly against the rim and is fastened thereto, and a second surface lying in a plane substantially parallel to and at a distance from the first surface, the wheel cap being fastened to the second surface.
The holder may be formed with a first, inner surface and a second, outer surface, the surfaces having either the same shape or different shapes. The first surface may comprise, for example, a number of separate attachments, the contact surfaces of which against the rim constitute the first surface. Here the second surface may be circular or annular, with suitable inside and outside diameters. Alternatively, the first and second surface may have the same inside and outside diameter respectively and be joined to one another along the periphery of an inner or an outer edge of the respective surface. The holder is located against the outer side of the rim and at least the first, inner surface is therefore parallel to the rim. The second, outer surface is preferably parallel to the first surface but may be somewhat convexly or concavely conical. However, both the first and the second surface are arranged concentrically with the axis of rotation of the wheel. The distance between the first and the second surface is somewhat greater than the extent to which the wheel bolts or the wheel nuts protrude axially from the outer surface of the rim. The holder can thereby both protect persons and objects in the surroundings from the otherwise protruding wheel bolts, and protect the wheel bolts or nuts against damage caused by external influences. The outer part of the holder must also be designed to withstand forces acting parallel to the second surface, for example if the driver should use the holder as a step when the vehicle is parked in tight spaces.
The holder may be provided with openings in the first surface of the holder, the openings interacting with at least three fasteners of the rims. All rim fasteners can therefore be fitted in a corresponding number of openings in the first surface of the holder.
The wheel cap may be provided with a number of fasteners, which are preferably detachably secured in openings in the second surface of the holder. The fasteners interact with at least two openings in the second surface of the holder, the openings corresponding to the number of rim fasteners as specified above. Alternatively, the wheel cap may be fastened to a radially inner or outer edge of the second surface of the holder. The wheel cap fasteners suitably comprise snap couplings, such as clips or similar arrangements that permit rapid detachment of the wheel cap. An advantage with clips is that the fastening is less susceptible to damage and out-of- roundness of the outer surface. The fasteners may naturally also be fastened to the second surface of the holder for detachable fastening in openings in the inner surface of the wheel cap. The diameter of the wheel cap may be selected between a minimum diameter largely corresponding to the diameter of the second surface of the holder and a maximum diameter largely corresponding to the axially outer diameter of the rim.

Arrangement and method for mounting a wheel cap on a vehicle


A method of fabricating a tetraode field-emission display. A mesh is disposed between an anode plate and a cathode plate. The mesh has a gate layer and a converging electrode layer separated by an insulation layer to form a sandwich structure. The mesh has a plurality of apertures in correspondence with each set of anode and cathode. The converging electrode layer is facing the anode plate, such that the divergent range of an electron beam emitted by an electron emission source can be restricted. Thereby, the electron beam can impinge the corresponding anode more precisely.

The present invention relates in general to a field-emission display and a method of fabricating the same, and more particular, to a method and a structure that introduce a fourth electrode (converging electrode) to a conventional triode field-emission display.
Flat panel displays such as field-emission display (FED), liquid crystal display (LCD), plasma display panel (PDP) and organic light emitting diode display (OLED) have become more and more popular in the market. Lighter and thin are the common features of flat panel displays. According to specific characteristics such as dimension and brightness, some of the above are suitable for small dimension display panel such as cellular phone and personal data assistant (PDA), some are suitable for medium or large size display such as the computer and television screens, or some are even suitable for ultra-large size display such as the outdoor display panel. The development trend of various displays is to obtain high image quality, large display area, low cost and long life time.
The field-emission display is a very newly developed technology. Being self-illuminant, such type of display does not require a back light source like the liquid crystal display. In addition to the better brightness, the viewing angle is broader, power consumption is lower, response speed is faster (no residual image), and the operation temperature range is larger. The image quality of the field-emission display is similar to that of the conventional cathode ray tube (CRT) display, while the dimension of the field-emission display is much thinner and lighter compared to the cathode ray tube display. Therefore, it is foreseeable that the field-emission display may replace the liquid crystal display in the market. Further, the fast growing nanotechnology enables nano-material to be applied in the field-emission display, such that the technology of field-emission display will be commercially available.
FIG. 1 shows a conventional triode field-emission display, which includes an anode plate 10 and a cathode plate 20. A spacer 14 is placed in the vacuum region between the anode plate 10 and the cathode plate 20 to provide isolation and support thereof. The anode plate 10 includes an anode substrate 11, an anode conductive layer 12 and a phosphor layer 13. The cathode plate 20 includes a cathode substrate 21, a cathode conductive layer 22, an electron emission layer 23, a dielectric layer 24 and a gate layer 25. A potential difference is provided to the gate layer 25 to induce electron beam emission from the electron emission layer 23. The high voltage provided by the anode conductive layer 12 accelerates the electron beam with sufficient momentum to impinge the phosphors layer 13 of the anode plate 10, which is then excited to emit a light. To allow electron moving in the field-emission display, the vacuum is maintained at least under 10−5 torr, such that a proper mean free path of the electron is obtained. In addition, contamination and poison of the electron emission source and the phosphors layer have to be avoided. Further, the electron emission layer 23 and the phosphors layer 13 have to be spaced from each other by a predetermined distance for accelerating the electron with the energy required to generate light from the phosphors layer 13.
The conventional electron emission layer is typically in the form of a spike structure (as shown in FIG. 1) or a Spindt type structure. The latter structure includes a spike structure formed by thin-film process or photolithography process. By further development of thin-film process, various Spindt type field-emission display has been proposed and improved. The electron beam induced by electric field at the spike normally propagates in a curve with a small radius. Control electrodes in various configurations are introduced in the conventional field-emission display to correct the cross section of the electron beam or to guide the electron beam along the correct path to impinge the phosphors at the correct position. Therefore, the conventional field-emission display requires the spike structure of the electron emission source, the electron configurations, and the process of thin-film, photolithography or micro-electro-machining. These requirements hinder the development of field-emission display since sixties.
Recently, a carbon nanotube has been proposed by Iijima. Having high aspect ratio, high machine strength, high chemical resistance, abrasion resistance, low threshold electric field, the carbon nanotube has been popularly studied and applied as an electron emission source. As known in the art, the field electron emission is facilitated by applying a high electric field to a surface of a material to reduce the thickness of energy barrier of the material, such that electron can be ejected from the surface of the material to become a free electron according to quantum-mechanical tunneling effect. The current of the field electron emission can be increased by reducing the work function of the material surface. As the free electron is generated by the electric field, a heat source is not required, and the field electron emission apparatus is sometimes referred as a cold cathode.
The carbon nanotube has been continuously improved and applied to continuously enhance electron emission of a field-emission display. Currently, the carbon nanotube can be fabricated by a thick-film process (such as screen printing or spray printing). Referring to Chinese (Taiwanese) Patent Publication No. 502495, the carbon nanotube can be directly patterned on the cathode conductive layer 22 to form the electron emission layer 23 thereon. Thereby, the conventional triode field-emission display is not limited to the high-cost thin-film process. The carbon nanotube electron emission source provides a high electron emission efficiency (with a current density of 10 μA/cm2 and a threshold voltage of 1.5 V/μm, and a current density of 10 mA/cm2 under an electric field of 2.5 V/μm) which achieves perfect dynamic display effect with a lost cost driving circuit. Even so, each electron emission source unit is constructed of a plurality of carbon nanotubes, such that the electron beam generated thereby within the distance between the anode and the cathode is similar to that generated by the spike field-emission source. Therefore, the cross section of the collected electron beam 26 diverges while approaching the anode as shown in FIG. 2. The longer the distance is, the larger the cross section of the electron beam 26 is. It is possible that the cross section is larger than the luminescent area of the phosphors layer 13, or the diffused electron beam 26 might impinge the neighboring phosphors layer 13 to affect the color purity or image resolution.
To resolve the color purity or image resolution issue, the area of the electron emission source is reduced or partitioned into a plurality of smaller units, such that the electron beam 26 generated thereby is similar to the area of the corresponding phosphors layer 13 excited thereby. However, the reduction in cross section results in a lower efficiency of electron emission or reduced unit area of the corresponding phosphors layer 13, such that the space between neighboring phosphors layer 13 is increased, and the image resolution is degraded.
Another method to resolve the issue is to provide an adjustable voltage between the gate electrode 25 and the cathode conductive layer 22. In addition to electron drainage, the gate layer 25 can also control the cross section of the electron beam by adjusting the voltage. This type of design results in a lower efficiency of electron generation and a more complex circuit design. Further, the response time of the picture is increased, and the image quality is lowered.
The third method to resolve the above issue includes forming one or more than one set of control electrode between the cathode and the anode. The control gate provides a converging voltage or bias voltage to confine the cross section of the electron beam or deflect the electron beam, such that the electron beam can impinge the phosphors layer 13 at the predetermined position. However, such type of design requires complex fabrication process such as thin-film and lithography process and cannot meet with the requirement of large area display and mass production.

Tetraode field-emission display and method of fabricating the same


A mobile terminal may either receive a script, or request to receive a script, which specifies a third party procedure to generate content on the mobile terminal. The script defines the procedure, manual or automatic, to be used for the content generation. If manual content generation is required, then the user of the mobile terminal is queried for the content to be generated through an input procedure as directed by the script. If automatic content generation is required, then the script executes without user interaction to generate the content. In either case, the generated content is then readily accessible from the mobile terminal via a location within the WEB site name space as directed by the script.

The role of the mobile terminal in today's communications networks is rapidly becoming more and more integrated with the Internet model, as the mobile terminal adapts to user's demands for added functionality. The mobile terminal, for example, has evolved from a simple device offering voice only capability to a device fully capable of browsing the Internet and providing rich content communication to include voice, data, imaging, video, etc.
Many communication methods with mobile terminals currently require active user intervention. Specifically, today's mobile terminals essentially allow contact with the user of the mobile terminals through the use of voice or data calls, or through the use of various messaging technologies such as the Short Messaging Service (SMS) and Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS), each of which substantially requiring attention that is directly controlled and monitored by the user of the mobile terminal.
Generally speaking, user intervention is also required in order to obtain content from a personal communication terminal that may be of interest to other users operating within the network. In many cases, the problem is not that the user of the mobile terminal is unwilling to share content contained within the mobile terminal. The problem is, rather, that the user simply may not possess the knowledge that is necessary to make the content available. Such content may, nevertheless, be extremely useful to other users, if only they had access to it.
There exists, for example, a plethora of content contained within personal terminals that, to an increasing extent, could be made available to other users. For example, prior art mobile terminals having imaging capability, may have the ability to capture images that may be shared with others in the network. Additionally, prior art mobile terminals having proximity connection capability, such as through a Bluetooth or Wireless Local Area Network (WLAN) connection, may access content that is contained within devices that are in proximity to the mobile terminal and may likewise share that content with others in the network. Conventional personal terminals, however, require the content to be manually provided to each and every user in the network that may be interested.
Accordingly, there is a need in the communications industry for a system and method that allows automated access to content, contained locally within a personal terminal, that is facilitated through a third party specification.

System and method for third party specified generation of web server content


It is an object to provide a blade member for an airplane which is simple in structure, and moreover is excellent with respects to weight, aerodynamic performance, cost, strength and durability. A vane of a double-slotted flap includes: an outer skin area surrounded by a first outer skin, a second outer skin, a leading edge and a trailing edge each having a predetermined wall thickness. Front and rear reinforcing areas are provided that extend in a span direction within the outer skin area and are connected to the first outer skin and the second outer skin. The outer skin area and the reinforcing areas are integrally formed by wire electrical discharge-machining. The first outer skin and the second outer skin respectively have thickened portions thicker than the other portions, and the trailing edge is formed to have a thickness which is approximately zero. This blade member can be simplified in structure, leading to reductions in the number of parts, number of assembling steps and weight. Moreover, no step nor seam is generated on a surface of the blade member, and hence it is possible to prevent an increase in drag and the generation of corrosion.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a blade member for an airplane, which constitutes at least a portion of a rotor blade of the airplane.
2. Description of Background Art
A double-slotted flap mounted at a trailing edge of a main wing of an airplane includes a vane disposed between the main wing and a flap body at a lowered position so that two slots are formed to allow air currents to flow along upper and lower surfaces of the vane.
Such a conventional small-sized blade member for the airplane employs a sandwich structure in which a honeycomb core is covered with a skin, for example, see U.S. Pat. No. 5,356,688 and Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 63-166698, or a split structure in which a rib and a skin are coupled to each other by rivets.
However, either the conventional sandwich structure or the conventional split structure has various problems such as an increase in the number of parts, an increase in assembling steps, an increase in weight, an increase in drag due to a step formed between the parts and the generation of corrosion due to water entering the blade member through a gap between the parts, because a plurality of parts are assembled to constitute the blade member for the airplane.


A biomass conditioning system and method, the system comprising a chamber and an airflow loop, the chamber comprising a lower part adapted to receive biomass and comprising grinding elements, cutting elements and an air input, an airflow from the air input and rotation of the elements creating an uplifting; and an upper part comprising an inner chamber generally centered within an outer chamber, the outer chamber comprising a first outlet and the inner chamber comprising a second outlet; and a flange selectively connecting the lower part with the inner chamber and the lower part with the outer chamber; and the airflow loop comprising a source of input air in the lower part, a first exhaust connected to the first outlet and evacuating air and biomass particles from the inner chamber, and a second exhaust connected to the second outlet and evacuating mist and air from the outer chamber; in which the flange diverts, from the uplifting vortex and under action of a vacuum created between the air input and the second outlet, a water particle flow to the first outlet of the outer chamber and a biomass particles flow towards the inner chamber; light biomass particles being propelled up the inner chamber the second outlet.

Biomass material is increasingly used as a source of thermal energy and to produce bio-plastics and other renewable bio-products. For instance, some residential, institutional and industrial buildings have already been designed or converted to use biomass pellets, instead of fossil fuels, for heating and/or process use. Overall, a number of equipment, including dryers, boilers, and furnaces, continue to be converted to biomass use, instead of fossil fuels. Moreover, recent developments in the forestry field show that wood derivatives, such as nanocrystalline cellulose, may substitute fossil originating chemicals in the production of plastics, textile and other products.
The biomass material used in these applications is typically sourced from waste streams in a number of industries, including the extraction and transformation of wood and agricultural products. In their raw form, biomass by-products usually have a high moisture content and a large particle size, making them ill-suited for direct use in modern biomass applications.
In some cases, raw biomass by-products are used directly in thermal processes, using out-dated and conventional methods, such as moving grate or fluidized bed technologies, which implicates large-sized equipment. This approach results in important energy losses in the process, as well as high levels of flue gas emissions requiring more elaborate emission control systems.
In order to tackle these limitations, conditioning processes of the raw biomass have been developed. The raw biomass is dried to a moisture content of 10% or less, and is grinded to a particulate size ranging from a few microns to a few millimeters, depending on the application.
Typically, the biomass industry relies on a combination of grinders and rotary dryers to perform the above-described conditioning process. This solution is problematic, because the drying system itself relies on a burner which burns some of the dried biomass, in order to provide heating energy for the raw biomass; therefore, an emission control system is a necessary addition to this configuration. Moreover, there are overwhelming capital requirements implicated in the installation of rotary dryers and necessary auxiliary systems, as well as the construction of large-sized building to house the entire system.
In general, all types of dryers (including rotary dryers, flash tube dryers, etc.) rely on a thermal process which i) cannibalizes a portion of the dry biomass production to feed a burner that provides heating energy to raw biomass, ii) requires an emission control system to treat flue gases, and iii) implicates a capital requirement that is uneconomical for small and medium plant capacities.
Furthermore, the existing biomass drying and grinding technologies that are currently used to perform the conditioning process are unsteady, energy inefficient and/or have a limited dewatering capacity. In particular, these technologies commonly exhaust vapour and heated air from the drying chamber; in this manner, thermal energy is actually evacuated and therefore wasted from the process.
Some technologies recycle saturated air in the drying chamber, which effectively limits their ability to dewater raw biomass. As the 'recycled' air becomes saturated with moisture, it is unable to absorb further moisture. These technologies operate at low temperature, resulting in water condensation and, therefore, in a sticky biomass build-up in the drying chamber and in the single cyclone.
There is therefore a need in the art for a method and a system for conditioning raw biomass.

Method and system for the conditioning of raw biomass


A device of one embodiment includes a sensor, an indicator electrically connected to the sensor, a first base portion including a plurality of first channels, a second base portion including a plurality of second channels and located between the first base portion and the sensor, and a plurality of pins. Each pin includes first and second ends, and each pin passes through a respective first channel and a respective second channel such that the first end extends beyond the first base portion away from the sensor and the second end extends beyond the second base portion toward the sensor. Each pin is adjustably disposed within the respective first and second channels such that each pin is operable to move along a longitudinal axis of the pin. Furthermore, the sensor is operable to determine whether all pins of the plurality of pins are positioned proximate to the sensor.

Various electronic components may be connected to a circuit board. Such components may couple to a circuit board via different types of coupling mechanisms. For example, certain components may be mounted on a circuit board via a "surface-mount" construction, while other components may be connected to the circuit board via a "through-hole" construction. Through-hole attachment may involve inserting one or more component pins of the component into corresponding holes in the circuit board. These holes may pass completely through the circuit board and connect the electronic component to the circuit board physically and/or electrically.
Once an electronic component is coupled to a circuit board, the connection may be tested. For example, electrical tests may apply certain voltages or currents to a portion of an electrical component to determine whether one or more components are electrically connected to the circuit board. However, such electrical tests may use current and/or voltage levels that are different from current and/or voltage levels that may applied during normal operation of the circuit board. In certain instances, an electronic component that has one or more component pins insufficiently inserted into the circuit board may pass a conventional electrical test but later fail under operational conditions that involve higher current and/or voltage levels. For example, an electronic component may have incidental or casual contact between the component lead and the circuit board despite improper insertion of the electronic component into the circuit board.


Method and apparatus for location-based triggering in a mobile receiver is described. In one example, a triggering region is designated. Expected pseudorange data is generated within the mobile receiver and pseudoranges to a plurality of satellites are measured. A delta position is computed with respect to a virtual center of the triggering region using satellite trajectory data, the measured pseudoranges, and the expected pseudoranges. The delta position is compared with the radius restriction value, the results of which may be used to trigger an event. In another example, expected pseudorange data is obtained at the mobile receiver. Pseudoranges from the mobile receiver to a plurality of satellites are measured. The measured pseudoranges and expected pseudoranges are compared using a metric to produce delta values. The delta values are compared with a radius restriction value, the results of which may be used to trigger an event.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to satellite position location systems and, more particularly, to a method and apparatus for location-based triggering in an assisted satellite positioning system (SPS).
2. Description of the Background Art
Location-based triggering refers to instances where the geographical position of a mobile device triggers a predetermined event. For example, an event may be triggered when a mobile device enters or leaves a predefined area. The event may be local to the mobile device (e.g., an alarm), or may be linked to a network with which the mobile device communicates (e.g., a change in billing rates in a cellular telephone network). One practical application of location-based triggering technology is "home zone billing". More specifically, home zone billing is a feature that may enable a cellular phone service to compete with landline telephone service providers by charging customers reduced rates when they use their cellular phone, in lieu of their traditional telephone, while they are at home (i.e., the predefined area or zone).
One implementation of location-based triggering requires a network to continuously monitor a predefined area in order to determine if the mobile device remains at home throughout the duration of a call. The geographical position may be determined using a position location system, such as a satellite position location system (e.g., the Global Positioning System (GPS)). Although this method can be readily implemented, it requires the network to frequently update the position of the user. Such continuous updating, however, results in frequent and excessive use of valuable network resources.
Another implementation of location-based triggering that is aimed toward restricting the number of communications between the network and the mobile device utilizes a cell-site identifier ("cell ID") as the basis for a positioning method. The mobile device monitors the ID of the serving cell-site (e.g., base station) and triggers an event when a change in the serving cell is detected. Such a technique, however, lacks the desired accuracy and precision required for some applications (e.g., home zone billing). Furthermore, such a technique may also encounter problems pertaining to boundary conditions in situations where the predefined area includes the boundaries of several cell-sites.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a method and apparatus that can perform location-based triggering with greater accuracy and reliability.

Method and apparatus for location-based triggering in an assisted satellite positioning system