An air compression apparatus has a frame, a tank, and a motor. A drive mechanism is operably connected to the motor and at least one piston assembly is operably connected to the drive mechanism and configured to move within a respective cylinder mounted to the frame. The piston assembly includes: (1) a piston body; (2) a piston rod having a hollow bore connected at one end to the drive mechanism and at an opposite end to the piston body; and (3) a piston valve installed on the piston body. In use, upward travel of the piston body as caused by the drive mechanism acting through the piston rod opens the piston valve and allows ambient air to be drawn through the hollow bore into the cylinder, and downward travel of the piston body closes the piston valve so as to compress the air within the cylinder.

The following art defines the present state of this field:
Great Britain Patent No. GB 1043195 to Grant describes a reciprocating piston compressor or air motor having a plurality e.g. four cylinders extending radially from an axial valve chamber housing four angularly spaced ports and in which is rotatably mounted an axially adjustable tubular cylindrical distributing valve provided in a central portion with a suction port and a delivery port and adapted to be brought into sequential communication with each valve chamber port, the outer surface of the valve body is provided with a groove which at or immediately prior to opening of delivery port serves to connect the valve chamber port to an annular chamber bounded in part by the drive end of the valve body and the pressure therein acts against the discharge pressure in an annular chamber at the other end of said valve body and the resulting axial displacement of the valve controls the time of opening of the valve ports according to whether the pressure in one chamber is below or above that in another chamber. The valve portion comprises concentric tubes connected by webs and through which the suction port extends whilst the delivery port extends through the outer tube only. An axial extension tube provides air inlet means to said suction port. Each of the four valve chamber ports are roughly triangular and have a side parallel to the valve axis, a side normal to the axis and the third side has two portions of differing slopes which register with portions of the leading edge of the inlet port and with the leading edge of the delivery port. Lubricant is admitted to a bore leading to grooves and cooling water admitted through a pipe traverses a jacket surrounding the valve and a space round each cylinder. The pistons are each secured to a cross-head connected together in diametrically opposed pairs by the outside member whilst adjacent pistons are connected by connecting members and the cross-heads are reciprocated by two eccentric rings each rotatable within a slide block and having secured thereto a dished disc. The latter are secured together at their peripheries by bars and have balancing weights.
Great Britain Patent No. GB 1259755 to Sulzer Brothers Ltd. describes a compressor wherein a piston reciprocates in a cylinder without normally making physical contact with the cylinder, the piston being provided with a split ring having longitudinal grooves in its periphery. The ring may be of P.T.F.E. and acts to guide the piston in the event of abnormal operation causing the piston to approach the cylinder. During normal operation gas escaping past labyrinth seals or labyrinths formed in the periphery of the piston, acts on a conical ring to centre the piston. Radial holes pass through the ring and open into the grooves thereby to provide pressure equalization between the inside and outside of the ring. The piston may be double or, as shown, single acting and driven by a piston rod which extends through a cylinder seal for connection to a cross-head.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,373,876 to Nemoto describes a compressor having a pair of parallel, double-headed pistons reciprocally mounted in respective cylinder chambers in a compressor housing. The pistons are mounted on a crankshaft via Scotch-yoke-type sliders slidably engaged in the respective pistons for reciprocating movement in a direction normal to the piston axis. The sliders convert the rotation of the crankshaft into linear reciprocation of the pistons. The dimensions of these sliders are determined in relation to the other parts of the compressor so that, during the assemblage of the compressor, the sliders may be mounted in position by being passed over the opposite end portions of the crankshaft following the mounting of the pistons and crankshaft within the housing.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,050,892 to Kawai, et al. describes a piston for a compressor comprising a ring groove on the outer circumferential surface of the piston, and a discontinuous ring seal member with opposite split ends made of a plastic material and fitted in the ring groove. The ring member having an outer surface comprising a main sealing portion having an axially uniform shape and an outwardly circumferentially projecting flexible lip portion. Also, the inner surface of the ring member comprises an inner bearing portion able to come into contact with a first portion of a bottom surface of the ring groove such that the flexible lip portion of the outer surface is brought into contact with a cylinder wall of the cylinder bore and preflexed inwardly. An inner pressure receiving portion is formed adjacent to the inner bearing portion to receive pressure from the compression chamber, to further flex the flexible lip portion upon a compression stroke of the compressor and thereby allow the ring member to expand and the main sealing portion to come into contact with the cylinder wall of the cylinder bore.
Japanese Patent Application Publication No. JP 1985/0079585 to Michio, et al. describes a displacer rod bearing body, provided at its upper and lower parts with rod pin mounting parts, and reciprocatively slides a displacer rod bearing surface around a cross rod pin of a cross head. A displacer rod, secured to a displacer, is rotatably supported to an upper rod pin of the bearing body, and a compressor for the displacer is rotatably supported to a lower rod pin.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,687 to Habegger describes a piston compressor having at least one cylinder and a piston guided therein in a contact-free manner, which is connected via a piston rod to a crosshead. The piston rod consists of a pipe extending between the crosshead and the piston. In this pipe extends a tension rod, which can be extended by means of a hydraulic stretching device and under prestressing pulls the crosshead and the piston towards the pipe.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,132,181 to McCabe describes a windmill having a plurality of radially extending blades, each being an aerodynamic-shaped airfoil having a cross-section which is essentially an inverted pan-shape with an intermediate section, a leading edge into the wind, and a trailing edge which has a flange doubled back toward the leading edge and an end cap. The blade is of substantial uniform thickness. An air compressor and generator are driven by the windmill. The compressor is connected to a storage tank which is connected to the intake of a second compressor.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US 2002/0061251 to McCabe describes a windmill compressor apparatus having multiple double acting piston/cylinders actuated by the windmill. The windmill additionally has multiple pairs of blades to enhance power output and lift.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,655,935 to Bennitt, et al. describes a gas compressor and method according to which a plurality of inlet valve assemblies are angularly spaced around a bore. A piston reciprocates in the bore to draw the fluid from the valve assemblies during movement of the piston unit in one direction and compress the fluid during movement of the piston unit in the other direction and the valve assemblies prevent fluid flow from the bore to the valve assemblies during the movement of the piston in the other direction. A discharge valve is associated with the piston to permit the discharge of the compressed fluid from the bore.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,776,589 to Tomell et al. describes a reciprocating piston compressor having a suction muffler and a pair of discharge mufflers to attenuate noise created by the primary pumping frequency in the primary pumping pulse. The suction muffler is disposed along a suction tube extending between the motor cap and the cylinder head of the compressor. The discharge mufflers are positioned in series within the compressor to receive discharge gases from the compression mechanism and are spaced one quarter of a wavelength from each other so as to sequentially diminish the problematic or noisy frequencies created during compressor operation. The motor/compressor assembly including the motor and compression mechanism is mounted to the interior surface of the compressor housing by spring mounts. These mounted are secured to the housing to define the position of the nodes and anti-nodes of the frequency created in the housing to reduce noise produced by natural frequencies during compressor operation.
The prior art described above teaches single and double-acting air cylinders, but does not teach introducing air into an air cylinder through a hollow piston rod and applying varied speed and pressure to the piston body attached to the piston rod corresponding to the compressive work being done by the piston during its stroke. Aspects of the present invention fulfill this need and provide further related advantages as described in the following disclosure.

Air compression apparatus and method of use


A new cultivar of Ilex aquifolium, ‘Spek 02’, that is characterized by its variegated foliage with deep green centers and golden yellow margins, its deep purple-red young shoots, its good winter hardiness, and its ability to be readily propagated by softwood stem cuttings.

The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Ilex aquifolium and will be referred to hereafter by its cultivar name, 'Spek 02'. 'Spek 02' is a new cultivar of holly grown for use as a landscape plant.
The Inventor discovered the new cultivar in November of 2001 as a naturally occurring branch mutation of an unnamed plant of Ilex aquifolium from his breeding program that was growing in a field plot in Boskoop, The Netherlands.
Asexual propagation of the new cultivar was first accomplished by the Inventor using softwood stem cuttings in June of 2002 in Boskoop, The Netherlands. Asexual propagation by softwood stem cuttings has determined that the characteristics of the new cultivar are stable and are reproduced true to type in successive generations.


A seal structure is provided for an energy storage device. The seal structure includes a sealing glass joining an ion-conducting first ceramic to an electrically insulating second ceramic. The sealing glass has a composition that includes about 48 weight percent silica, about 20 weight percent to about 25 weight percent boria, about 20 weight percent to about 24 weight percent alumina, and about 8 weight percent to about 12 weight percent sodium oxide based on the total weight of the sealing glass composition. A method for making the seal structure is provided. An article comprising the seal structure is also provided.

1. Technical Field
The invention includes embodiments that relate to a seal structure for an energy storage device. The invention includes embodiments that relate to a sealing material to be used in the seal structure of an energy storage device. The invention includes embodiments that relate to a method of sealing an energy storage device.
2. Discussion of Related Art
Development work has been undertaken on high temperature rechargeable batteries using sodium for the negative electrode. The liquid sodium negative electrode is separated from a positive electrode by a sodium-ion conducting solid electrolyte. Suitable material includes beta-alumina and beta″-alumina, known together as beta alumina solid electrolyte (BASE), which is used as the separator of electrodes. Some electrochemical cells have a metallic casing. The ceramic parts of the cell can be joined or bonded via a sealing material. The sealing material may include a glassy material having undesirable characteristics associated with its use. Bonded ceramic parts formed from dissimilar materials in a high temperature cell may crack due to thermal stress caused by mismatch in the coefficient of thermal expansion. The coefficient of thermal expansion for two ceramic parts can be substantially dissimilar. The sealing material may have a limited life, and bond failure or degradation may cause cell failure due to a direct conduction path between the cathode and anode electrodes.
It may be desirable to have a sealing material for an energy storage device that differs from those sealing materials that are currently available. It may be desirable to have a seal structure that differs from those seal structures that are currently available. It may be desirable to have a method of sealing an energy storage device that differs from those methods that are currently available.


A sparse matrix used in the least-squares method is divided into small matrices in accordance with the number of elements of observation. An observation ID is assigned to each element of observation, a parameter ID is assigned to each parameter, and the IDs are associated with parameters of elements as ID mapping. A system determines positions of nonzero elements in accordance with whether or not ID mapping exists, the correspondence between observation IDs and parameter IDs, and the positions of the small matrices, and selects a storage scheme for each small matrix based thereon. The system selects a storage scheme in accordance with conditions, such as whether or not a target element is a diagonal element, whether or not a term decided without ID mapping exists, and whether or not the same ID mapping is referred to.

Hitherto, in system identification based on a parametric model, an objective function for parameter estimation including a prediction error is constituted, and a process of deciding parameters to minimize the objective function is performed. The objective function that is most normally used is a quadratic function. In this case, the process of deciding parameters to minimize the objective function is called "least-squares method estimation."
Parameters to be identified are defined as x=(x1, . . . , xm) and plant models are defined as {circumflex over (ƒ)}(x).
A problem of deciding parameters using the least-squares method is defined by the following expression as a problem of deciding parameters which allow square error ε2 with respect to observation values ƒi (i=1, . . . , n) to be minimized. Here, m and n are natural numbers and m<n is satisfied:
      ɛ    2    =            ∑              i        =        1            n                          (                              f            i                    -                                    f              ^                                                  (              x              )                                      )            2
Then, it is a problem of identifying m parameters on the basis of the following m simultaneous equations obtained by performing partial differentiation on the square error ε2 by using the individual parameters. The simultaneous equations are defined as normal equations where
            ∂              ɛ        2                    ∂      x        =  0.
Thus, the problem to be solved by using the least-squares method is defined as follows:
                    [                              ∑            n                                                                                (                              -                                                      ∂                    ɛ                                                        ∂                    x                                                              )                                                  (                              -                                                      ∂                    ɛ                                                        ∂                                          x                      T                                                                                )                                      ]            ·      Δ                              x    =            ∑      n                                              (                  -                                    ∂              ɛ                                      ∂              x                                      )                          ɛ        .
Here, the following expression is obtained when terms of partial differentiation are expressed by matrix A:ATA·Δx=ATε.
When this expression is transformed by replacing Δx by {circumflex over (θ)}, the following expression is obtained:{circumflex over (θ)}=(ATA)−1ATεwhere ε is the difference between observation value ƒi and plant model {circumflex over (ƒ)}(x) and {circumflex over (θ)} is the estimated value of the parameter to be identified.
Particularly, in the least-squares method, it is known that the term ATA of the following matrix is a sparse matrix. Here, it is assumed that matrix A is an m×m matrix, aij represents an ij element of matrix A, and n represents the number of measurements.
            A      T            A    =      [                                                      ∑                              b                =                1                            n                                                                  a                                  b                                                                                1                                                                          a                                  b                                                                                1                                                                              …                                                    ∑                              b                =                1                            n                                                                  a                                  b                                                                                1                                                                          a                bm                                                                          ⋮                          ⋱                          ⋮                                                                ∑                              b                =                1                            n                                                                  a                bm                                                          a                                  b                                                                                1                                                                              …                                                    ∑                              b                =                1                            n                                                                  a                bm                                                          a                bm                                                          ]
Generally, a person who performs modeling is different from a person who writes analysis code. Thus, studies of how to efficiently perform calculation when sparse matrix ATA is given have been made. However, the form of a sparse matrix significantly varies or properties thereof locally vary in individual object problems, and thus it is necessary to perform a process of determining a storage scheme by testing some storage schemes at the time of calculation or to perform an experiment for determining a storage scheme in advance. Also, since the same storage scheme is selected for the entire sparse matrix ATA, it is difficult to efficiently store the sparse matrix.

Matrix storage for system identification

International Business Machines Corporation


Embodiments of the invention relate to a device to promote hand sanitization, such as a device that includes an assembly used to move a door coupled to a sanitizing agent dispenser such that the dispenser releases sanitizing agent upon manipulation of the assembly to move the door onto the hand of a user and may include a latch that is coupled to the door for latching the door.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention generally relate to the prevention of disease transmission through proper hand sanitization and, more specifically, to a device to promote hand sanitization.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nosocomial, or hospital-acquired infections are a leading cause of death worldwide: in the US alone, they are responsible for 90,000 deaths annually. It has been shown that many nosocomial infections are contracted through contact with medical staff who have not properly sanitized their hands. Hospitals suggest that staff members sanitize their hands before every patient they contact. Thoroughly washing and scrubbing with water and antiseptic soap is the traditional method of hand sanitization in the hospital, but the time required for proper hand washing is unfeasible in a clinical setting because of the large numbers of patients that require care.
Repeated hand washing also causes dermatitis, which makes hands a better vector for bacterial transmission. Antiseptic gels and foams provide an alternative method of hand sanitization that is as effective as washing with soap and requires significantly less time. The widespread use of these antiseptics in hospitals has not resulted in decreased rates of nosocomial infections because healthcare staff still fail to comply with hand sanitization protocols. Although intentional non-compliance is one factor that lowers rates of compliance, it is likely that simply forgetting to sanitize between patients is the main culprit. It is well accepted that if health care workers improve compliance with hand-washing protocols, the incidence of nosocomial infections decreases substantially.
Therefore, there is a need in the art for a device that promotes hand sanitization.


A housing for a catalytic converter for an automotive vehicle engine exhaust system is formed of two deep drawn shells having open inner ends welded together in generally abutting relation. Modified conical outer ends taper to reduced size openings for connection to associated exhaust system pipes. To permit deep drawing, the outer ends as seen in longitudinal cross section are formed with curved surfaces including an intermediate curvature replacing a conventional conical shape and defined by radii of a value between 0.5 and 0.8 times the inner diameter of the tubular body portions of the respective shells which enclose a catalytic element. Connecting radii are preferably not greater than 0.1 times the tubular portion inner diameter. Various alternative forms of welded inner end joints are disclosed.

It is known in the art relating to catalytic converters to provide a housing of the clamshell type formed by two half shells joined along longitudinally extending flanges to form an enclosure for a catalytic element or substrate. In converters having frangible catalyst coated monolith elements, the housing may have a cylindrical interior of, for example, circular or oval cross section, depending on the shape of the enclosed element. A supporting mat may be provided to allow for expansion while holding the catalyst element firmly in place. The clamshell housings are easy to assemble but have a longitudinal seam along both sides which must be welded or otherwise sealed. Alternatively, a tubular or cylindrical body may be provided with separately formed end pieces that are welded on the ends of the tubular body. The end pieces include generally conical walls which connect the tubular portion enclosing the catalytic element with a smaller end opening for connection with an exhaust system pipe.

Catalytic converter housing with deep drawn shells


A copy management switch is placed in a network that connects a storage device with a computer. This copy management switch is connected to the computer, a first storage device, and a second storage device over the network. The copy management switch copies beforehand data stored in the first storage device to the second storage device. On receiving a read request, which is issued from the computer to the first storage device, the copy management switch converts the read request to the first storage device into a read request to the second storage device, and then transmits the converted read request to the second storage device. The second storage device transfers, to the copy management switch, data corresponding to the read request. The copy management switch transfers the data to the computer as data transferred from the first storage device.

The present invention relates to switches placed in a network that connects a storage device with a computer.
With the increasing storage capacity of storage devices used in companies and the like, a system in which a connection between storage devices, or between storage devices and computers, is made via a network such as a fiber channel is becoming popular. The network providing a connection between the storage devices or between others, or the total system in which a connection is made via the network, is called a storage area network (hereinafter referred to as SAN).
On the other hand, examples of technologies that reduce the frequency of data transfer in a network so as to shorten time required for causing a computer to access data stored in a storage device include a network cache technology. To be more specific, a storage area (hereinafter referred to as a "cache device") for temporarily storing data on a network is first prepared, and subsequently, if through the cache device the computer reads out data stored in the storage device, the read data is stored in the cache device, which then returns a response when the data is accessed thereafter. As a result, the access time for the data is shortened.
An example in which the network cache technology is employed in SAN is disclosed in Japanese Patent Laid-open No. 2002-132455 (patent document 1). To be more specific, after a computer called a metadata server is provided in SAN, a computer first accesses the metadata server when accessing a storage device. The metadata server notifies the computer of a location of data to be accessed. If a cache is used, the computer is notified of a location of a device having the cache.
In addition, examples of technologies for placing a device having a cache on a network such as the Internet or WWW include a technology called transparent cache. In this technology, when a switch receives an access request for data, which has been issued from a computer to a storage device, the switch transmits the access request to a computer having a cache (hereinafter referred to as a "cache server") as a first step. If a target file of the access request exists in the cache possessed by the cache server (hereinafter referred to as a "cache hit"), the cache server transmits the target file to the computer that has issued the access request. On the other hand, if the target data does not exist in the cache (hereinafter referred to as a "cache miss"), the cache server transmits an access request to the storage device to obtain the data, and then transmits the obtained data to the computer that has issued the access request.
As described above, if the network cache technology is employed in SAN, when a cache hit is encountered, the time taken for obtaining the requested data is shortened.
However, as far as the technology disclosed in patent document 1 is concerned, although it is possible to install a cache device in SAN, a metadata server is required to access data, and the settings and operation of the computer need to be changed. More specifically, a protocol used for accessing data (for instance, the SCSI protocol), which is conventionally used in SAN, needs to be changed to a dedicated protocol that uses the metadata server.
In the meantime, as is the case with the transparent cache, if a network cache technology for handling data on a file basis is used, it is difficult to speed up a response because processing for judging a cache hit is complicated.
To be more specific, if cache processing is performed on a file basis, a read request is equivalent to an access request specifying a file name, etc. On receiving the access request, the cache server first reads out a file held in its own storage device, together with data called metadata which stores the association of the file with a corresponding block in the storage device, and then searches the read data for the file specified by the read request to judge whether or not a cache hit is encountered. Because this search processing judges the coincidence of a name or the like, processing of the block access protocol such as SCSI becomes more complicated than the comparison between numerical values of logical block addresses used to specify locations to be accessed.


Improved plastic heat exchanger production systems are described. The production systems are arranged to extrude plastic tubing, cut the tubing into segments of desired length and convey the tubing to a plurality of aligned tube inserters. Clip strips are feed through the tube inserters which sequentially automatically insert tube segments into the clip strips. The clip strips are then cut at desired lengths to provide tubing panels of a desired size or sizes. In a preferred system, header pipes are attached to the respective ends of the cut tubing panels to provide completed heat exchanger panels. When desired, heat exchangers having laterally offset tubes may be created by cutting one or more middle clip strips into spacer segments and rotating the spacer segments to laterally offset at least some of the tubes. In another aspect of the invention, improved tube inserters suitable for inserting plastic tubing into a plastic clip strip are described.

The present inventions relate generally to the manufacture of heat exchangers formed from plastic tubing. More particularly, heat exchanger fabrication production lines and methods for producing plastic tubing based heat exchangers are described.
Heat exchangers come in a wide variety of configurations and are used in a wide variety of applications. One type of simple heat exchanger contemplate simply running a plurality of riser tubes 21 between a pair of header pipes 23 (often called manifolds) as illustrated in FIG. 1. The header pipes 23 and risers 21 can be formed from a wide variety of materials, but one class of heat exchangers utilizes simple extruded plastic tubing. A variety of plastics may be used to form the panels, although generally a dark, thermoplastic material is used. The illustrated type of heat exchangers have a number of desirable attributes including that they are simple, lightweight, and relatively rugged when exposed to adverse environmental conditions including repeated freezing and thawing, exposure to water and/or corrosive chemicals and prolonged exposure to the sun. They are also relatively simple to produce. Thus, they can be used in a wide variety of systems. By way of example, for a number of years, the assignee of the present application has produced and sold this type of heat exchanger for use in solar heating applications and thermal energy storage systems.
A number of existing patents describe techniques for producing plastic heat exchangers. By way of example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,934,323 and 4,243,454 describe suitable techniques. Although the existing production techniques work well, there are continuing efforts to improve the efficiency of the production process.
To achieve the foregoing and other objects and in accordance with the purpose of the present invention, improved plastic heat exchanger production systems are described. In one method aspect, plastic tubing is extruded, cut to tube segments of desired length and conveyed onto a platform. A plurality of clip strips are fed across the platform and the tube segments are sequentially automatically inserted into the clip strips. The clip strips are then cut at desired lengths to provide heat exchanger tubing panels of a desired size or sizes. In a preferred system, header pipes are then attached to the respective ends of the cut heat exchanger tubing panels.
In some implementations either flat tubing panels or panels having laterally offset tubes may be produced using the same production line. In one embodiment, heat exchanger panels having laterally offset tubes may be created by cutting one or more middle clip strips into spacer segments and rotating the spacer segments to laterally offset at least some of the tubes.
In another aspect of the invention, a heat exchanger production line is described. The production line includes an extruder for extruding plastic tubing and a tubing cutter for cutting extruded plastic tubing into tube segments and a plurality of aligned tube inserters. The tube inserters are each arranged to receive the extruded plastic tubing and an associated clip strip and to automatically inserting the tubing into their associated clip strip. Clip strip cutters are provided for cutting the clip strips at desired locations to provide heat exchanger tubing panels. In a preferred embodiment, a pipe attacher is provided to attach header pipes to the ends of the heat exchanger tubing panels.
In some embodiments a plurality of clip strip feeder reels are provided, with each feeder reel being arranged to feed an associated tube inserter. In various embodiments, a support beam is provided to carry the tube inserters. In this arrangement, the tube inserters may be slidably mounted on the support beam to facilitate adjusting the spacing of the clip strips in the heat exchanger tubing panels. A rotator may also be provided to rotate spacer segments cut from a selected clip strip relative to other (typically end) clip strips to provide lateral spacing for some of the tubes in the heat exchanger tubing panel.
In one preferred arrangement, the extruder, a cooling trough, the tubing cutter and the tube inserters are arranged along one line and the clip strip feed reels, the clip strip cutters and the pipe attacher are aligned along a second line that transversely intersects the first line at the tube inserters.
In another aspect of the invention, improved tube inserters suitable for inserting plastic tubing into a plastic clip strip are described. In one preferred arrangement, the tube inserter includes a clip strip feed channel for receiving a clip strip and a tubing feed channel for receiving tubing. A clip strip advancer, an actuator and a clip strip cutter. The clip strip advancer is arranged to advance the clip strip through the clip strip feed channel. The actuator presses received tubing into the clip strip and the clip strip cutter is arranged to cut the clip strips when desired. In a preferred arrangement, a plurality of these tube inserters are slidably mounted on a support beam to facilitate the production of heat exchanger tubing panels.


An object of the present invention is to provide a polyorganosiloxane-containing graft copolymer powder capable of providing a resin composition and a molded article which are excellent in balance between colorability and mechanical properties such as impact resistance. The polyorganosiloxane-containing graft copolymer powder according to the present invention is a graft copolymer powder obtained by graft-polymerizing a mixture (B) of a vinyl monomer (b1) having an epoxy group and another vinyl monomer (b2) to a rubber (A) containing a polyorganosiloxane, wherein the content of the polyorganosiloxane (A1) contained in the rubber (A) is 12 to 50% by mass, the mass average particle diameter of the polyorganosiloxane-containing graft copolymer powder is 300 to 2000 nm, and the epoxy equivalent of the polyorganosiloxane-containing graft copolymer powder is 2500 to 7800 g/eq.

Resins such as aromatic polyester resins are excellent in transparency, impact resistance, heat resistance, dimensional stability, and the like as general-purpose engineering plastics, and are widely used industrially as materials in the automotive field, the OA equipment field, the electric and electronic fields, and the like due to their excellent characteristics. In order to improve the impact resistance of these resins, a method of adding an impact modifier has been used.
In addition, in recent years, molded articles obtained from the resins have been used in some cases without coating for the purpose of reducing the cost of a product, mainly for applications such as an electric and electronic apparatus housing and a home electric appliance, and are required to color the resins themselves to a desired color tone.
For example, Patent Literatures 1 and 2 disclose the use of a specific polyorganosiloxane-based graft copolymer as an impact strength modifier for such as a polybutylene terephthalate resin.

Polyorganosiloxane-containing graft copolymer powder, and resin composition using the same, and molded article formed of the same


This invention provides methods to locate and plan the retrieval of data from networked information sources in response to a user query. The methods utilize descriptions of the information sources, the information domain of the sources, and of the query. The methods of this invention integrate both legacy systems and full relational databases with an efficient, domain-independent, query-planning algorithm, reason about the capabilities of different information sources, handle partial goal satisfaction i.e., gather as much data as possible when all that the user requested cannot be gathered, are both sound and complete, and are efficient.

The exponential growth of private intranets and the public Internet has produced a daunting labyrinth of increasingly numerous documents, databases and utilities. Almost any type of information is now available somewhere, but most users cannot find what they seek, and even expert users waste copious time and effort searching for appropriate information sources. A first problem is simply the increasingly large number of available information sources that are beyond the comprehension of a single user. A second problem, along with this growth in available information and information sources, is a commensurate growth in software interfaces and methods to manage, access, and present this information. Sources are managed by different organizations, hence agents, whether human or automated, must adhere to the remotely defined formats. The information sources are potentially slow and expensive, so users must balance the cost of each access against its estimated benefit. The information sources are dynamic, hence an agent must recognize when an existing sources's contents, protocol or performance changes, as well as when new sources come online and existing sources leave. Many sources represent legacy systems in the sense that they do not support a comprehensive query interface such as SQL; in these cases an agent needs to expend additional effort to determine the best way to answer an information gathering request.
Artificial intelligence and database researchers have addressed this problem by constructing integrated information gathering systems that automatically query multiple, relevant information sources to satisfy a user's information request. See, e.g., [9, 5, 12, 15, 18, 16, 25, 29, 10]. These systems raise the level of the user interface, since they allow the user to specify the information of interest without specifying where it is stored or how to access the relevant sources [9]. Several researchers in the database community are concerned with the integration of heterogenous database. Prominent projects include the Information Manifold ([14]) and the Tsimmis project ([5, 25]). Generally, however, Tsimmis project assumes information integration is done manually and not automatically. Other work that mentions automatic integration provides no suggestion of the necessary methods ([18]).
Most prior work on AI planning systems ([1]) assumes that execution of an operator instance has a causal effect on the world, which leads to more complex methods and slower planning than are useful for automatic information access. Several planning systems have been designed for information gathering, for example, the XII planner ([9, 12]) and the Sage planner ([2, 15]). However, neither of these examples can represent information sources that generate information which translates into partially specified sentences in an information domain model, because they are unable to handle unbound variables with sufficient generality. Neither are they able to represent an incomplete source that returns variable numbers of tuples. These systems typically use cumbersome and inflexible representations of information domains and sources. Further, most of the planners described above have significant combinatorial explosions and require domain-specific, search control for anything but small problems.

Method and system for network information access

The Board of Regents of the University of Washington


A satellite amplifier system 100 adapted to amplify and distribute flexibly P input transmission channels to N outputs each corresponding to one beam includes a switch 102 having at least P inputs for routing the plurality P of transmission channels to a plurality of outputs, at least one Butler matrix 103 each input of which is connected to an output of the switch, and at least one inverse Butler matrix 104, each output of the Butler matrix being connected to a corresponding input of the inverse Butler matrix by an amplifier 105. The system 100 further includes a plurality of output demultiplexers 109 for separating a plurality of transmission channels by frequency, the input of each of the output demultiplexers being connected to an output of the inverse Butler matrix.

The present invention relates to a satellite amplifier system adapted to distribute a plurality of received transmission channels flexibly to a plurality of output beams.
In the general case of space missions, evolution of satellite transmissions to users equipped with small send/receive terminals of low capacity implies increasing the receive quality of the onboard segment and increasing the power of the signals retransmitted to the ground. These performance improvements are obtained by increasing the gain of the onboard antennas, which can be achieved only by reducing the dimensions of their coverages on the ground. To cover a particular geographical coverage region on the ground, these coverage reductions necessitate the generation of a plurality of beams or spots in order to sample the geographical region. This kind of multibeam or multispot coverage enables connections with small ground terminals but give rise to the problem of managing onboard capacities and more particularly of allocating received channels to the transmitted beams as a function of:                different traffic densities, and        changing traffic densities.
Accordingly, in a manner that is known in the art and represented diagrammatically in the architecture 1 shown in FIG. 1, a satellite receives 64 signals each corresponding to one transmission channel and supplies 32 beams. The 64 channels are processed by an input section 2 which:                handles low-noise reception, appropriate frequency conversion and appropriate filtering for each of the 64 transmission channels, and        outputs each of the 64 channels to an amplifier 3.
A transmission channel corresponds to a transmission frequency band and may correspond to a single carrier or to a set of carriers or sub-channels.
Each transmission channel is amplified by the associated amplifier 3. The amplifiers 3 are high-power amplifiers and generally take the form of traveling wave tube or solid state amplifiers. To provide a plurality of channels for each beam, it is necessary to combine the channels by means of output multiplexers (OMUX) 4. The output multiplexer 4 provided at the output of each amplifier is described in "Satellite Communications Systems" (G. Maral and M. Bousquet, WILEY, second edition, page 411 et seq.). The multiplexer 4 comprises filters and a common guide that is adapted to combine the transmission channels after amplification. In FIG. 1, each output multiplexer 4 receives two transmission channels and supplies one beam signal. Each beam signal is then sent to a source, not shown, such as a horn that radiates toward a reflector, not shown, to form the beam. Thus an architecture of this kind provides two transmission channels per downlink beam.
However, operators do not always have a very clear view of the future distribution of traffic (and therefore of power) over the coverages addressed and therefore need some flexibility for adapting during the service life of the satellite to traffic requirements resulting from the demand for and the success of services in different geographical regions. It is therefore important to be able to route transmission channels to beams flexibly, i.e. so that the total number of channels processed by the payload can be distributed to the various beams in accordance with traffic demand throughout the service life of the satellite. In this sense, the architecture as shown in FIG. 1 provides no flexibility in terms of the number of channels allocated to each beam and requires a number of amplifiers that is imposed by the number of channels to be amplified.
One prior art solution to this problem consists, as shown in FIG. 2, in using a multiport amplifier (MPA) 10 to provide flexible amplification and allocation of 64 transmission channels to 32 beams. The system 10 comprises:                an input section 11 with 64 inputs and 64 outputs, which, like the section 2, handles low-noise reception, appropriate frequency conversion and appropriate filtering for each of the 64 transmission channels,        a switch 12 with 64 inputs and 32 outputs,        a Butler matrix 13 with 32 inputs and 32 outputs,        an inverse Butler matrix 14 with 32 inputs and 32 outputs, and        32 high-power amplifiers 15, each output of the matrix 13 being connected to the corresponding input of the matrix 14 via a high-power amplifier 15.
The transfer function of the inverse Butler matrix 14 is the inverse of that of the Butler matrix 13.
Thus the input section 11 receives 64 uplink transmission channels and:                handles low-noise reception, appropriate frequency conversion and appropriate filtering of each of the 64 transmission channels, and        outputs the 64 transmission channels to the 64 inputs of the switch 12.
The switch 12 is a low level (i.e. low power) switch, generally an electromechanical or electronic switch, and merely routes the channels present at its 64 inputs to its 32 outputs and multiplexes them (summation of a plurality of channels at the same output). The complexity of the switch 12 depends on the required flexibility, as reflected in the number of outputs to which each channel may be routed and the number of channels that may be routed to the some output.
The output signals of the switch 12, which may correspond to a plurality of channels, are then sent to the 32 inputs of the Butler matrix 13.
In the Butler matrix 13, which is made up of 3 dB couplers, the signal at each output is a combination of the signals at all the inputs, but the signals coming from the diverse inputs have a predetermined phase, different from one input to another, which means that the input signals may be reconstituted in their entirety after amplification by the amplifiers 15 and passing through the inverse Butler matrix 14. In other words, the 32 output signals of the switch are obtained identically, after amplification, at the output ports of the inverse Butler matrix 14 (identity product of the Butler matrix 13 by the inverse Butler matrix 14). Each amplifier 15 contributes to the amplification of all the signals present at the inputs of the Butler matrix 13. Rated to pass a maximum number of transmission channels, a system 10 of the above kind authorizes any distribution thereof.
Each beam signal obtained at the outputs of the inverse Butler matrix 14 is then sent to a source, not shown, such as a horn that radiates toward a reflector, not shown, to form the beam.
Thus the system 10 provides total flexibility in that it is functionally possible to allocate each of the 64 transmission channels to each of the 32 beams. It is thus functionally possible to place all the amplified transmission channels on a single beam or to distribute them equally between the beams, which are allocated on the upstream side of the Butler matrices by the switch 12.
However, using this kind of solution gives rise to certain problems, in particular the problem of the feasibility of a high order MPA system, which is linked to the feasibility of the Butler matrices and the parallel connection of a large number of power amplifiers, together with a loss of efficiency in terms of the energy efficiency of the system 10 from FIG. 2 compared to the system 1 from FIG. 1.
Thus it is common to encounter up to 64 or more beams to provide the coverage of a continent (multimedia application in the Ka band). In this case, MPA systems with 64 inputs and 64 outputs, or even 64 inputs and 32 outputs, as shown in FIG. 2, are extremely difficult to implement, in particular because of the complexity of the Butler matrices used.
One option is to divide the Butler matrices 13 and 14 by using a plurality of subgroups of smaller Butler matrices. For example, FIG. 3 shows a system of this kind identical to the system 10 from FIG. 2 except that the FIG. 2 matrices 13 and 14 have been divided into two identical sub-matrices with 16 inputs and 16 outputs. This kind of solution is less flexible, however, in that, to avoid overspecifying the power amplifiers, it is not possible to amplify the 64 transmission channels in the same submatrix. To use the same amplifiers as the system 10 from FIG. 2, the number of channels processed by each submatrix must not exceed 32 and the system 12 must therefore divide the 64 channels between two blocks each of 32 channels. This constraint limits the flexibility of the FIG. 3 system compared to that of the FIG. 2 system 10.
Furthermore, it should be noted that, in an MPA type solution, the number of inputs and outputs of the Butler and inverse Butler matrices must be at least equal to the number of beams, to enable connection of all the beam ports to the output of the MPA system. Thus the number of amplifiers required is imposed by the number of beams, which is reflected in high cost and a complex arrangement.
Finally, if all the channels are transmitted via an MPA system, each power amplifier contributes to the amplification of a large number of channels (64 channels per amplifier for the FIG. 2 system 10 compared to the one channel per amplifier for the FIG. 1 system 1). This multichannel operation is reflected in the obligatory operation of the power amplifier far from its saturation point, which is in turn reflected in a loss in its energy efficiency (power delivered/power consumed) and therefore in a significant increase in the power consumed by the system 10 for exactly the same power delivered per transmission channel as for the systems 1 and 10. The increased flexibility of the system 10 compared to the system 1 is therefore reflected in a degraded energy balance.


A door (100) for a microwave oven (200) is provided that includes: a door frame (102); a substantially transparent, glass or polymeric substrate (10) arranged within the frame (102) to define a viewing window (50); and an electrically conductive mesh (90) spanning the viewing window (50). Further, the mesh (90) comprises a plurality of carbon nanotubes and is embedded in the substrate (10) to shield the microwave radiation generated in the oven (200) from reaching an exterior of the door frame (102).

Microwave ovens, and other appliances that rely on microwave radiation, operate to cook and heat foots by exploiting the interaction between microwaves and various molecules within the food. These high energy waves penetrate into the food, causing its water molecules to vibrate and generate heat within the food to cook it quickly, at least as compared to other cooking devices (e.g., ovens that rely on resistance heating). Typically, microwave ovens employ microwave energy at a frequency of about 2.45 GHz, with a wavelength of about 12 cm and a corresponding quantum energy of about 1×10−5 eV.
Given the energy levels associated with microwave radiation and their damaging effect on humans, pets and other animals, oven designers have developed various approaches to shielding the radiation within the confines of the oven. It is known that employing conductive materials, e.g., metal or metallized layers, in the cabinet of these ovens can prevent leakage of microwave radiation outside of the oven. Nevertheless, consumers also desire to view the food during and after the cooking process; consequently, employing a solid, continuous metal layer in the door of these ovens is not an acceptable solution.
Some moderately successful results have been obtained in developing a microwave oven door that can shield microwave radiation while remaining sufficiently transparent to allow for viewing of food within the oven. These conventional microwave oven doors typically employ metal screens within a translucent glass or plastic door. More particularly, these screens (and similar structures) are visible to the consumer, but are characterized by holes on the order of a few millimeters or less (e.g., about 0.2 mm to about 2 mm) that allow for viewing of food within the cabinet of the microwave oven. While conventional microwave oven doors with shielding screens are widely in use today, they suffer from the fact that the consumers can observe the shielding screens within the door and that the screens partially obscure the food during and after the cooking process. With continuous or repeated use, these conventional over doors can be prone to further light blockage from food and debris adherence, leading to further cooling difficulties.
Accordingly, there is a need for optically transparent doors for appliances and other devices utilizing microwave radiation, including microwave ovens, and methods for making them. Given the relatively low cost of microwave ovens, and the expectations of consumers of these low costs, there is also a need for configurations of these doors, and methods of making them, that do not significantly increase overall cost of the ovens.

Transparent conductive door for a microwave oven and methods of making the same


A hopper assembly for storing and controllably dispensing ground material such as coffee meal. The hopper assembly includes a hollow body portion positioned above and in communication with a dispensing assembly. A storage chamber is formed between the hollow body portion and the dispensing assembly. A wall extends between a top end and a base end of the body portion. The body portion is frustoconical shaped such that the top end is smaller in diameter than the base end and the wall tapers inwardly from the base end toward the top end. The frustoconical shape of the body portion prevents bridging of the material retained in the storage chamber. An agitating device is also included in the dispensing assembly for creating a stirring action and moving material in the storage chamber to further prevent clogging and bridging of the material. At least a portion of the hopper assembly is formed of a transparent material to allow light to pass therethrough. An ambient light sensor is provided and positioned proximate to the transparent portion of the hopper assembly for detecting ambient light inside the storage chamber. The ambient light sensor detects the level of material in the storage chamber by sensing the amount of ambient light entering the transparent portion of the hopper assembly.

The present application pertains to devices for agitating a hopper portion of a material delivery apparatus and for sensing the volume condition of the material retained in the hopper portion.
A variety of beverage brewing apparatus have been developed in order to brew beverages with a minimum of human intervention. Such apparatus include automatic brewing chambers as well as the means for delivery of a beverage brewing substance to such a chamber and the removal therefrom. One example of such a beverage brewing apparatus is shown in Bunn et al. U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,925, issued Aug. 4, 1992. In the Bunn et al. device, beverage brewing substance is retained and precisely delivered to the brewing chamber for infusion with heated water to produce a brewed beverage. Spent coffee meal is automatically removed from the brewing chamber at the end of each brewing cycle.
A material delivery apparatus is shown in Bunn et al. which includes storage hoppers and delivery augers. Beverage brewing substance, such as ground coffee meal, is stored in the storage hoppers for delivery to the brew chamber upon demand by controlled rotation of the auger. While the material delivery apparatus as shown in Bunn et al. is effective in delivering a precise quantity of beverage brewing substance, it would be advantageous to provide a material delivery apparatus which would agitate the material stored therein. Agitation and vibration is advantageous because it promotes the downward movement of the beverage brewing substance, including fines and powders which may be a part of the substance, towards the output port of the material delivery apparatus.
A device as shown in King U.S. Pat. No. 3,354,810, issued Nov. 28, 1967, shows a material delivery apparatus similar to the device as shown in Bunn et al. with the addition of an agitating device retained in the storage hopper. The device as shown in King employs a gear wheel having multiple teeth in operative association with the auger. Arm members are attached to the gear. Rotation of the auger to dispense material from the hopper causes the gear, and attached arms to rotate. Rotation of the arms through the beverage brewing substance breaks up any lumps which might tend to form therein.
The device in King, however, has a problem in that the device does not prevent "bridging" or "doming" of the brewing substance between the hopper walls. Bridging and/or doming results when material is removed from the center of a volume of material. When the material above the rotating arms, as shown in King, and in contact with the side walls, is removed by the rotating arms a free-standing arch or dome is formed above the rotating arms. Such bridging results when there is sufficient contact and force between the side walls to support the weight of the arch or dome. Therefore, even when rotating arms are employed problems may develop with the flow of material through the storage hoppers. Bridging and doming prevents the even flow of material and requires manual manipulation to knock the material suspended in a bridge into the lower portion of the hopper. The agitator in King does not solve this problem and may, in fact cause the problem. The arms tend to under cut the volume of substance thereby, actually causing the formation of a sufficiently pack volume of substance.
Additionally, it would be advantageous to provide a way to determine when the level of the beverage brewing substance in the hoppers is depleted to a predetermined "low level". In other words, as beverage brewing substance is dispensed from the hoppers it would be advantageous to have some form of signal such as an indicator light, to identify when the predetermined "low-level" exists. Indication of such a low level permits refilling of the hopper before they are emptied. If a hopper is not refilled before it is emptied, the brew cycle in which the last remaining portion of the beverage brewing substance is used may not receive a full portion of substance, or no substance at all, resulting in the beverage brewed during such a cycle being of inferior quality.
The device as shown in Pulvermuller U.S. Pat. No. 4,665,808, issued May 19, 1987, shows a photocell and some form of light-emitting device used to sense the level of substance in a hopper. The device in Pulvermuller positions a photocell at one corner of a storage hopper and a light-emitting device at a diagonally opposite corner. Light is emitted from the light emitting device and received by the photocell. When a volume of brewing substance is in the hopper, the beam path between the light-emitting device and the photocell is obstructed thereby indicating that there is a brewing substance in the hopper. When the level of the substance in the hopper reaches a predetermined low-level, the beam path is not obstructed thereby indicating that the predetermined low level condition exists.
A problem arises with the device in Pulvermuller such that operation of the level sensor depends upon the light-emitting device. This is a problem because if the light-emitting device fails or is somehow obstructed, the sensor will sense a full condition. Further, this arrangement requires the use of multiple components thereby increasing the cost, material handling, repair as well assembly time, materials and effort. It would be highly advantageous to provide a sensing device which only utilizes a sensing device and eliminates the need for a light-emitting device.


The present document describes a LED lighting module forming part of a LED lighting system comprising a troffer, the LED lighting module comprising: a mounting surface comprising a first end and a second end; light emitting diodes (LEDs) located on the mounting surface; a LED module electrical connector assembly located proximate the first end, the LED module electrical connector assembly for releasably connecting to an electrical retrofit connector assembly located proximate a first end of the troffer, the LED module electrical connector assembly for electrically connecting to the LEDs; and a LED module mechanical connector assembly located proximate the second end for releasably connecting to a mechanical connector assembly located proximate a second end of the troffer, the LED module mechanical connector assembly for releasably and mechanically connecting the LED lighting module to the troffer.

(a) Field
The subject matter disclosed generally relates to electrical lighting devices and systems. More particularly, the subject matter disclosed relates to LED lighting devices, LED lighting systems and LED lighting kits.
(b) Related Prior Art
Light emitting diodes (LEDs) have many advantages over fluorescent lights. LEDs are more efficient, last longer, and are less sensitive to vibrations and low temperatures. To take advantage of the benefits of LEDs, lights in the shape of conventional fluorescent tubes have been constructed in the past to include LEDs. However, the troffer in which tubes are suspended are usually not designed for receiving such LED lighting modules in the shape of conventional fluorescent tubes.
There is therefore a need for LED lighting modules, LED lighting systems and LED lighting retrofit kits to overcome the prior art disadvantages.

LED lighting module, LED lighting system and LED lighting retrofit kit


The invention provides a container for microscope slides incorporating an ejection device. In each of three disclosed embodiments the slides are ejected through an exit slot by manual actuation of an ejector so as to engage a rear of an end slide in a stack and push it forward through the exit slot. In each of the embodiments, the dispenser may be removably mounted on a base or holder. The holder may include a base plate with support arms. The slide dispenser may be factory sealed for clean or sterile slides and then be discarded or recycled when empty. Finally, the dispensing containers may be shrink wrapped at the factory to ensure sterility of the slides until needed.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to packaging and containers for microscope slides and to means for dispensing the slides from such containers.
2. Description of Prior Art
Microscope slides are well known as thin rectangular plates of glass on which fluid, tissue smears or other biological specimens may be mounted for examination under a microscope. These slides are manufactured by the millions and are generally sold in shallow cardboard boxes, in which the slides are placed on edge to form a horizontal stack filling the box bottom front to back, the longitudinal side edge of each slide lying on the bottom of the box (i.e., with the side of the stack laid onto the bottom surface of the box). A close-fitting top is then snugly fitted over the filled bottom, and the box is sealed in a wrapper to prevent contamination in transit to the end user.
While due care is usually taken by the manufacturer in preparing and packaging the slides, so that dust, fungal and bacterial spores, and other contaminants are prevented from readily adhering to them, once the box is open at, e.g. a laboratory site, removal of the slides by the end user is most often accomplished merely by grasping a slide and pulling it from the box. The slides are normally used one at a time and the open box with the stack of slides exposed to the laboratory environment is typically left on a table top until it is empty.
This practice leaves the unused slides in the open box exposed to contamination, for example by deposition thereon of aerosol droplets from sprays used in the laboratory, from medical specimen fluids themselves, and from various chemicals and liquids normally used in such laboratories, such as fixative compounds sprayed on specimens being prepared on other slides nearby, disinfectants, water sprays, etc., as well as dust and other airborne materials. Furthermore, even though slides are normally handled by the edges, it is difficult to avoid leaving finger marks in the form of deposited body oils and other substances carried on the fingers of laboratory personnel.
Not only does such handling of the slides promote their contamination--especially if the user's hand is not covered by a sterile glove--but it also subjects the laboratory personnel to the risk of cuts, as the user's fingers can easily slide along the sharp edges of the slides, when force is exerted to pull them from the box. This can happen because the smooth glass surfaces in a stack of slides adhere together rather easily when wetted by moisture or fluid droplets in an open box in the laboratory. As the technical personnel attempts to separate the slides skin cuts can occur rather easily. It should be noted that since economy is a key factor in the manufacture of microscope slides, the slide edges are normally not rounded or beveled, so that very little force is required to cause a finger cut to occur. Needless to say, skin cuts are undesirable in the septic environment of medical laboratories as infection may readily occur.
But because economy of production has been so important, and since packaging of microscope slides in such cardboard boxes has become so universal, little attention has been given to alternative packaging and dispensing. Also, since slides are normally grasped by the edges i.e., with a thumb and index finger placed at opposite sides of the longitudinal dimension of the slide (to remove it from the box) or the transverse direction (to mount the specimen and place the complete slide under the microscope)--it is assumed that little contamination occurs.
While such problems might be reasonably dealt with by careful training and supervision of professional laboratory technologists, these risks impose an additional burden on such personnel who already are under considerable strain because of the need to make careful evaluations of large numbers of medical specimens.
Thus, there is a definite need for some means by which microscope slides may be dispensed as needed from a protected container in a manner which minimizes the possibility of cuts and contamination.
Efforts have been made to solve--or, at least, to minimize--such difficulties by providing microscope slide dispensers which eject slides one at a time from within a protected enclosure. One such dispenser is illustrated in the 1992 Baxter Scientific Catalog as Catalog Number M6180, Manufacturer Nr. 1415, and is priced at US$157.60. This device which is made of sturdy sheet steel has a rectangular container into which a vertical stack of microscope slides can be introduced through a removable side panel such that the lowermost slide in the stack rests upon the bottom of the container. Built into a bottom compartment of the container is an ejection mechanism actuated by an external lever arm mounted on one side of the slide container. Manually depressing the lever arm through an angle of approximately ninety degrees advances an ejector element under the lowermost slide in the stack. The ejector element has an upstanding lip which engages a rear edge of the lowermost slide and pushes the opposite end of the slide through a slot in the side of the container. The protruding end of the slide can then be manually grasped and the rest of the slide pulled from the dispenser. The next lowermost slide then drops to the bottom into position for ejection when the lever is again actuated. While this existing device works well, the actuating lever is spring loaded and its design calls for rugged construction in order to withstand the repeated compression of its internal spring element, and therefore the device is fabricated of steel. While durable and reliable, this device is expensive, and consequently its widespread use--when measured against the typical process of removing slides by hand, one-by-one, from an open cardboard box--has been limited. And, in any event, the entire stack of slides must be still initially be removed from its original cardboard box by hand and then hand-loaded into the dispenser, so that opportunity for contamination still exists.
In another existing microscope slide dispenser the lowermost slide in a stack rests upon a cylinder which can be turned by means of an external knob, ejecting the lowermost slide sideways and edgewise from the stack through a slot in the housing containing the stack as a result of frictional force between the bottom slide and the rotating cylinder surface. This dispensing device has been found to be somewhat unreliable as the cylinder surface wears and diminishes in friction through usage, until it tends to merely slips against the bottom slide in the stack. Again, this dispenser too must be hand loaded with slides taken from a factory package.
What is needed is a simple, less expensive device in which microscope slides may be packaged--or into which they may be easily inserted--and from which they may be removed individually, with minimized susceptibility to contamination of the slide surfaces and a relatively smaller likelihood of finger cuts. In particular a need exists for a slide dispenser which is of sufficiently low cost as to be suitable for use as the original factory packaging for the slides, thereby eliminating the need to transfer the slides to a separate dispenser at a laboratory or other end user location. Optimally, the slide dispenser should be of sufficient simplicity and low cost as to be discardable or recyclable after a single use, so that factory packaged slides may be dispensed one at a time for immediate use in the laboratory, with no intermediate handling or exposure of the slides.


The disclosed computer-implemented method may include detecting an application running in a background state on a client device. The method may also include collecting state data about a current state of the client device. Additionally, the method may include determining, by applying a machine learning model to the collected state data, that a likelihood of forcible termination of the application within a predetermined timeframe exceeds a threshold. Furthermore, the method may include reducing a computing resource footprint of the application on the client device to reduce the likelihood of forcible termination of the application. Various other methods, systems, and computer-readable media are also disclosed.

Software applications can enhance the use of computing devices by providing additional functionality to users. Applications that run on a device often use the resources of the device, such as the device's processing power or digital memory. Some applications may use minimal resources even after a user has closed the application. For instance, an application may maintain a small processing footprint on the device in order to start faster when the user launches the application again. By running in a background state on the device, the application may be able to retain important data, such as user login information, so that the user does not have to log in when relaunching the application.
However, due to a limited amount of resources, computing devices may sometimes attempt to identify background applications that are using these resources and force the applications to stop running in the background. For example, when available memory is low, an operating system may terminate the background applications using the most memory. Traditionally, in order to avoid forced termination by the operating system, some applications may clear a memory cache or reduce other resource use during the initial transition to a background state. Unfortunately, for an application that is sensitive to startup time or that requires more resources in the background state, reducing resource use when a user closes the application may not be feasible or preferred. For instance, some applications may clear a memory cache or reduce other resource usage prematurely and, as a result, may require a longer time to return to previous states when reopening.

Systems and methods for reducing forced application termination


A method and apparatus for deploying configuration instructions to security devices in order to implement a security policy on a network are disclosed. An address translation alteration performed on packets communicated between a management source and a plurality of security devices, resulting from implementation of a proposed new network security policy, is detected. One or more sets of security devices are identified that would each have one or more configuration dependencies as a result of the address translation alteration. Configuration instructions are sent from the management source to each of the one or more sets of security devices using an order determined by the identified configuration dependencies. The configuration instructions are used to implement the security policy on the network. As a result, firewalls and similar devices are properly configured for a new policy without inadvertently causing traffic blockages arising from configuration dependencies.

Network management systems implement policies by configuring managed devices in the network, such as routers, switches, gateways, and firewalls, with instructions appropriate to carry out a desired policy. One general application for a network management system is implementation of a security policy on firewalls and other security devices. A policy server may be used in conjunction with other components to configure security devices on the network with security policies. CISCO SECURE POLICY MANAGER (CSPM), manufactured by CISCO SYSTEMS, INC., San Jose, Calif., is a commercially available product for implementing security policies using a policy server.
Network management systems are increasingly required to manage larger networks that have numerous firewalls, virtual private networks, and other security devices. To implement security policies properly, an administrator must configure all such devices properly. Consequently, security management can become a difficult task on large networks. A centralized management scheme is often employed for large networks because such systems are efficient, and retain all security information and configurations in one location. In addition, centralized management schemes reduce the possibility of inconsistent or incompatible configurations for different security devices.
With centralized management schemes, security policy configurations are typically deployed from a management site to many security devices using telnet or file transfer protocol, in clear packet traffic or via encrypted tunnel (e.g. IPSec). The use of centralized management stations in this manner requires firewalls and other security devices to always be open. This use of a centralized management station is typically referred to as a permit management property.
Often, networks use a string of security devices in series. The management host maintains all channels between the security devices open for any new set of configurations that it generates.
When address translation mechanisms are used in centralized management schemes, the order in which security devices become configured determines whether deployment of a set of configurations to multiple security devices will be successfully implemented. Even if the new configurations for the security policy satisfy the permit management property, some management channels may be blocked in the middle of deployment because some security devices have been configured while others have not. When a mixture of new and old configurations result, the management channels that are blocked during the transition can prevent some firewalls from receiving their new configurations. Consequently, the entire network goes into a partially configured state with unpredictable security behavior.
Furthermore, because some management channels are blocked, it becomes more difficult to roll-back security devices to their original state. This can lead to security leaks or service disruptions for an extended period of time.
Based on the foregoing, there is a need for determining the order in which a new set of configurations for security devices on a network can be deployed so that newly deployed configurations do not block other configurations that are being deployed when implementing a new security policy.
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.

Method and apparatus for deploying configuration instructions to security devices in order to implement a security policy on a network


A treatment tool for an endoscope, having a flexible sheath being made of electrically insulating material to be inserted through an instrument channel of the endoscope, an operation wire, which is adapted to be advanced and retracted in an axial direction of the sheath inside the sheath, a treatment instrument, which is arranged at a distal portion of the treatment tool and is adapted to be protruded and retracted from a distal end of the sheath, and a fluid channel with an opening, through which fluid is ejected toward the treatment instrument, is provided. The operation wire and the fluid channel are arranged inside the sheath in parallel with an axis of the sheath. The treatment instrument is connected to the operation wire in a laterally displaced position with respect to the operation wire, and is arranged in front of the opening of the fluid channel.

The present invention relates to a treatment tool for an endoscope.
Conventionally, various types of treatment tools for endoscopes have been provided, including a tip portion as a treatment instrument that is adapted to be protruded and retracted from a tip end of a sheath being inserted through an instrument channel of the endoscope. The tip portion is protruded and retracted by advancing and retracting an operation wire arranged in the sheath in an axial direction thereof.
Such a treatment tool is generally provided with a fluid channel to convey water forwardly therethrough to a distal end of the treatment tool so that the tip portion with in vivo tissues such as mucous membranes is cleaned, and an example of such a treatment tool is disclosed in Japanese Patent Provisional Publication No. HEI10-165359.
The above referenced treatment instrument is provided with a fluid channel independently from an operation wire, however, such a treatment tool may use an inner tube, in which the operation wire is arranged, as the fluid channel to convey water therethrough.
When the treatment tool is provided with the independent fluid channel, a distal opening of the fluid channel is arranged in an offset position with respect to a diameter of an outer tube. Due to the offset position of the opening, a front portion of the treatment instrument with mucous membranes stained, which is most often required to be cleaned, may not be washed substantially with the ejected water.
When the treatment tool uses the inner tube as the fluid channel, the opening is arranged in the center of the diameter, therefore the front portion of the treatment instrument may be washed. However, the fluid channel, which is partially occupied by the operation wire, may not be capable of delivering enough water.
It should be noted that the above referenced treatment tool is not provided with a bending mechanism to control an orientation of the treatment instrument in an arbitrary direction by a remote operation from a user, however, such a mechanism is desirable to have the treatment instrument lead in a targeted area for the treatment.
Japanese Patent Provisional Publications No. HEI9-262239 and No. HEI11-42232 disclose treatment tools with such bending mechanisms. However, tip portions of these treatment tools are not configured to be protruded and retracted from distal ends of sheaths. Further, such treatment tools are required to have additional operation wires to bend distal portions inside the sheaths, which make the structures the operations of the treatment tools complicated.


A support element for the mutual support of a fuel injector in a valve seat, in particular of the valve seat of a cylinder head of an internal combustion engine, and of the fuel injector at a fuel distribution line has a clasp and thereon developed radially and axially deformable clips.

A mounting device for mounting a fuel injector on an intake manifold is already known from German Published Patent Application No. 29 26 490, according to which a mounting element axially fixes the fuel injector to the fuel distribution line or to a plug nipple, the mounting element being designed as a U-shaped securing clasp having two legs which are elastic in the radial direction. In the assembled state, the securing clasp engages in matching recesses of the plug nipple and is snapped into place in a recess in a connection piece of the fuel injector, the recess being designed as an annular groove. The axial clearance between the recesses and the securing clasp as well as between the annular groove and the securing clasp should be kept small, in order to achieve accurate fixation of the fuel injector without stresses on the gasket.
Particularly disadvantageous in the mounting device known from German Published Patent Application No. 29 26 490 is the warping effect of the various mounting elements on the fuel injector. The flux of force generated in the fuel injector results in deformations and thus to lift changes of the valve needle and even to jamming as well as a compressive and bending load on the housing components, which usually have thin walls and are welded to one another at several points. Furthermore, any mounting measure, for example by a contact flange, leads to an increase in the radial expansion of the fuel injector and thus to higher space requirements in the installation.


A holder block is mounted on a carrier and has formed therein a first hole and a water passage. A sleeve is mounted in the first hole and receives a cutter bit. The sleeve includes a shank and an enlarged flange disposed at a front end thereof. The shank is disposed in the first hole. The flange includes a rearwardly facing shoulder bearing against an outer surface of the block. A second hole extends through the shank and the flange and is adapted to receive the cutter bit. A spray nozzle is disposed in the flange and is connected to the water passage by way of an annular groove, for receiving water which it sprays forwardly against the cutter bit.

The present invention relates to a cutting tool for use especially in mining and road-working environments, which include a nozzle for spraying water onto a cutter bit.
Drum-type cutters are conventional in the mining and road-working industries for example, wherein cutter bits are mounted on a drum which rotates about a horizontal axis. Such cutters can be used to cut through minerals in a mine, or to rip up asphalt or concrete from a roadway, among other uses. The cutter bits, which are carried by holder blocks welded to the outer surface of the drum, are rotatable about their own longitudinal axes so as to be self-sharpening. During a cutting operation, not only do the bits tend to wear, but the holder blocks wear as well. That is, the area of the holder block that surrounds the bit-receiving bore wears due to abrasion thereof by the materials being cut. It will be appreciated that the need to replace the welded-on holder blocks results in a serious expenditure of time and money.
To minimize that problem, it has been proposed to mount each cutter bit in a replaceable hollow sleeve which is inserted into a respective holder block. The sleeve includes a wide flange that overlies the area of the holder block that surrounds the mouth of the bit-receiving bore, and thereby shields the holder block from appreciable wear. Instead, the sleeves become worn and are replaced when necessary.
It is also conventional to provide the drum or the blocks with nozzles that spray water in the direction of the cutter bits for cooling and flushing purposes. The cooling feature is especially beneficial in mining environments where explosive gases, such as methane, may be present. The presence of such gases presents the risk of explosions in response to so-called "friction ignition" wherein friction imposed against steel parts of the cutter bits produces beads of molten steel, the heat of which ignites the gases. By spraying cooling water against the cutter bit, the potential for such friction ignition is greatly reduced. The cooling water also extinguishes ignitions (normally occurring at the bit tip), and controls dust.
Examples of providing spray nozzles in the block can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,333,687; 6,099,081; 6,485,104; and British Patent 2092205.
It will be appreciated from U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,687 that the provision of a nozzle immediately next to the cutter bit requires that the diameter of the flange portion of the replaceable sleeve be greatly reduced, thereby diminishing the amount of wear protection afforded thereby.
The provision of spray nozzles in an extension of the block, as in U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,099,081; and 6,485,104 serves to increase the amount of wearable surface area of the block and also displaces the nozzles farther from the cutter bit.
The provision of a nozzle in a separate bushing that surrounds the sleeve, as disclosed in British Patent 2092205, adds further cost and complexity to the system and places the nozzle somewhat laterally remote from the cutter bit.
It would be desirable to provide a nozzle for such a cutter bit which is positioned close to the cutter bit without adversely affecting the wear protection afforded by the replaceable flange.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,678,238 there is disclosed a rotary mining bit rotatably mounted in a sleeve that is secured in a holder block. The sleeve is in the form of a two-step sleeve that is received in a two-step bore of the holder block, wherein the sleeve is fully recessed in the holder block. A coolant passage is formed in the holder block and communicates with an annular passage formed between the bore and the sleeve. The annular passage communicates with a water spray passage extending through a large-diameter portion of the sleeve. A roll pin extends through the aligned holes of the holder block and the sleeve to prevent rotation of the sleeve. The water spray passage is oriented to spray water toward a tip of the bit. However, because of the need to position the roll pin in aligned holes of the holder block and the sleeve, the sleeve (and thus the water spray passage) can be placed in only one orientation relative to the holder block, which might not be optimal for the particular location of the holder block on the mobile carrier (e.g., rotary drum). Also, because the sleeve is fully recessed within the bore, it offers no protection for the holder block against adhesive wear by cuttings.
It would be desirable to provide such a nozzle in a sleeve which protects the mounting block from abrasive wear by cuttings.
It would be further desirable to ensure that the nozzle can always be oriented in an optimal spray location, regardless of the particular location of the mounting block on the carrier.

Cutting tool with nozzle for spraying water on cutter bit


Melt-fabricable thermoplastic fluoropolymer having pendant functional groups is thermally cross-linked in the presence of polyfunctional nucleophile.

Thermoplastic fluoropolymers are well known for outstanding combinations of properties including chemical resistance, unique surface characteristics, high service temperatures, and good dielectric characteristics. As a result, fluoropolymer resins are used in a wide variety of applications including wire insulation, cable tubing, film, linings for chemical process equipment, articles for fluid handling in laboratory and manufacturing situations, and the like. The service temperature in some of these applications can be high. As is common for thermoplastics, some properties of fluoropolymers change as temperature increases. Modulus and tensile strength, for example, typically decrease with increasing temperature.
Efforts have been made to improve the physical characteristics of fluoropolymers at elevated temperatures, largely by cross-linking. Approaches to cross-linking usually involve the incorporation of a cross-linking promoter, also called a coagent, such as triallyl cyanurate or triallyl isocyanurate (U.S. Pat. No. 5,353,961) or metallic diacrylate (U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,997) into a fluoropolymer such as ETFE copolymer, followed by treatment with ionizing radiation to effect the cross-linking.
Improved ways to cross-link fluoropolymers and thereby achieve improved properties are desired.


The present invention concerns a process and an apparatus for continuous polymerisation of olefin monomers in a cascade of polymerisation reactors. According to the process, an olefin monomer is polymerised first in slurry phase in an inert hydrocarbon diluent in at least one loop reactor and then, subsequently, in gas phase in at least one gas phase reactor. According to the invention, a polymer slurry is continuously withdrawn from the loop reactor and optionally concentrated. The concentrated slurry is conducted to a high pressure flash unit in order to remove the remaining fluid phase, and fed to the gas phase reactor. With the process described in this invention, it is possible to produce bimodal polyethylene with good properties. The operation of the process is stable because of the truly continuous operation.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to olefin polymerisation. In particular, the present invention concerns a process and an apparatus for continuous polymerisation olefin monomers like ethylene and other monomers in a cascade of polymerisation reactors, wherein an olefin monomer is polymerised first in slurry phase in an inert hydrocarbon diluent in at least one loop reactor and then, subsequently, in gas phase in at least one gas phase reactor.
2. Description of Related Art
The loop reactor was developed in the 1950's. It is now widely used for the production of polyethylene and other olefin polymers. In a loop reactor, ethylene is polymerised in the presence of a hydrocarbon diluent in slurry phase at elevated pressure and temperature. The slurry is withdrawn from the reactor and concentrated so that the solids content at the reactor outlet is higher than the solids content in the reactor. Traditionally, this has been done by using settling legs. However, present methods for concentrating the polymer slurry of a loop reactor have been unsatisfactory. This is true, in particular, for the production of bimodal polyethylene in cascaded reactors.
Bimodal polyethylene comprises at least one low molecular weight component and at least one high molecular weight component. It can be produced in a cascade of reactors, which means that polymerisation is carried out in a plurality of reactors placed in serial arrangement so that the polymerisation product withdrawn from the product outlet of one reactor is fed into the inlet of the following reactor. When using cascaded polymerisation reactors, it is important to prevent the flow of certain reactants from one polymerisation stage to the next. If the low molecular weight polymer component is produced in the first polymerisation stage, any carryover of hydrogen from the first stage to the second stage will reduce the molecular weight produced in the second stage, thereby leading to reduced mechanical properties and inferior melt strength of the final polymer. On the other hand, if the high molecular weight component is produced in the first reactor, then carryover of comonomers into the second polymerisation stage will have a negative impact on the mechanical properties of the final polymer.
The use of hydrocyclones for concentrating the outlet slurry of a loop reactor is known since the 1960's. Loop reactors equipped with a hydrocyclone are disclosed in, e.g., U.S. Pat. No. 3,816,383, where a part of the underflow from the hydrocyclone is taken to product recovery, while the residual part is combined with the overflow and returned to the loop reactor.
Another document relating to the above-mentioned topic is U.S. Pat. No. 4,395,523, which discloses a method of making and recovering polymer particles. The known method comprises polymerising in a loop reactor, directing a portion of the recirculating polymer slurry into a hydrocyclone, returning the overflow from the hydrocyclone into the reactor and withdrawing the underflow from the hydrocyclone and conducting it to product recovery.
Further, EP 1 118 624, EP 1 118 625 and EP 1 118 626 disclose a process for polymerising olefins, where the polymer slurry is directed from a loop reactor into a hydrocyclone. The underflow from the hydrocyclone is directed either to a subsequent polymerisation stage or to product recovery.
EP 891 990 discloses an ethylene polymerisation process comprising a continuous take-off of polymer slurry. The polymer slurry is continuously withdrawn from the loop reactor and fed to a high-pressure flash. From the high-pressure flash, the polymer is transferred into a low-pressure flash and from there to product recovery.
EP 517 868 discloses a process for producing ethylene polymers in a reactor cascade comprising a loop reactor and a gas phase reactor. The document does not disclose how the polymer slurry is withdrawn from the loop reactor. Hydrocarbons are separated from the polymer, but no details are given on how this is done. Finally, the polymer is fed into the gas phase reactor.
Even if the above documents describe different methods of withdrawing the slurry from the loop reactor, none of them discloses or suggests a suitable, cost efficient process for polymerising ethylene in two successive stages, the first stage being conducted in a loop reactor and the second stage in a gas phase reactor. The polymer is separated from the reaction mixture after the loop polymerisation stage and at least a part of the hydrocarbon mixture is removed. Then essentially no hydrogen is carried over to the gas-phase polymerisation reactor.
The process of EP 517 868 comprises a low-pressure flash after the loop reactor for separating the polymer from the reaction mixture. While this provides effective separation, it is a relatively expensive process, because the overhead flow from the flash needs to be compressed before it can be returned into the loop reactor and the polymer must be fed into the gas phase reactor with e.g. a pressurising/depressurising sequence.
One way of overcoming the above-mentioned problem involving the necessity of compressing the overhead flow from the flash, would be to replace the low-pressure flash of EP 517 868 with a high-pressure flash, as suggested in EP 891 990. However, if the slurry were withdrawn from the reactor continuously, as proposed in EP 891 990, the separation of the reactants would not be sufficiently efficient and, in particular, some hydrogen would be carried over from the loop reactor to the gas phase reactor, thus limiting the molecular weight that could be produced in the gas phase reactor. The use of a combination of a high-pressure flash and a low-pressure flash would result in an expensive process. Finally, if the polymer slurry were withdrawn from the loop reactor intermittently by using settling legs and the thus withdrawn concentrated slurry would be conducted to a high-pressure flash, there would still remain the problem with high hydrogen concentration in the gas. However, the flash would now have to be designed for a high flow, because the flow rates are high at the times when the settling legs open to discharge the slurry. This overdesign and use of settling legs leads to a high investment cost.

Process and apparatus for producing olefin polymers