Oil sump seal pressurization apparatus for a turbine engine are disclosed. An example oil sump seal pressurization apparatus may include an oil sump comprising at least one bearing mounted therein; an oil seal operatively disposed between a non-rotating structural member of the sump and the shaft; a generally radially inwardly oriented passage arranged to supply pressurization air to the outward side of the oil seal; a generally radially outwardly oriented pathway arranged to receive at least some of the pressurization air from the passage, the pathway being at least partially defined by a generally radially outwardly extending arm disposed on the shaft, the arm rotating with the shaft; and/or a windage shield at least partially separating the passage and the pathway, the windage shield being operatively mounted to the non-rotating structural member of the sump.

The subject matter disclosed herein relates generally to apparatuses and methods for mitigating vortex pumping of pressurization air in a turbine engine. More specifically, not by way of limitation, present embodiments relate to apparatuses and methods for mitigating vortex pumping effect on air pressure around an oil sump of a turbine engine.
In the turbine engine, air is pressurized in a compressor and mixed with fuel in a combustor for generating hot combustion gases which flow downstream through turbine stages. These turbine stages extract energy from the combustion gases. A high pressure turbine includes a first stage nozzle and a rotor assembly including a disk and a plurality of turbine blades. The high pressure turbine first receives the hot combustion gases from the combustor and includes a first stage stator nozzle that directs the combustion gases downstream through a row of high pressure turbine rotor blades extending radially outwardly from a first rotor disk. In a two stage turbine, a second stage stator nozzle is positioned downstream of the first stage blades followed in turn by a row of second stage turbine blades extending radially outwardly from a second rotor disk. The stator nozzles turn the hot combustion gas in a manner to maximize extraction at the adjacent downstream turbine blades.
The first and second rotor disks are joined to the compressor by a corresponding rotor shaft for powering the compressor during operation. The turbine engine may include a number of stages of static air foils, commonly referred to as vanes, interspaced in the engine axial direction between rotating air foils commonly referred to as blades. A multi-stage low pressure turbine follows the two stage high pressure turbine and is typically joined by a second shaft to a fan disposed upstream from the compressor in a typical turbo fan aircraft engine configuration for powering an aircraft in flight.
As the combustion gasses flow downstream through the turbine stages, energy is extracted therefrom and the pressure of the combustion gas is reduced. The combustion gas is used to power the compressor as well as a turbine output shaft for power and marine use or provide thrust in aviation usage. In this manner, fuel energy is converted to mechanical energy of the rotating shaft to power the compressor and supply compressed air needed to continue the process.
One source of vortices in a turbine engine may be labyrinth seals which can create significant tangential velocity. This may be caused by viscous drag effects from the rotating components of the turbine engine, for example the seal or arm extending to support a seal. In an otherwise non-swirling fluid flow, the creation of these vortices can create significant pressure drop when associated with a change in radius of the swirling fluid. In many cases, such a pressure drop may be highly undesirable.
In certain oil sumps, minimum pressure differential may be used to prevent oil leakage and such pressure differential may be related to scavenge capability. When the pressure differential around a sump is too high, oil leakage prevention characteristics may be compromised. As utilized in the present disclosure, "pressure differential around a sump" may refer to the maximum difference in air pressure on the dry side of all oil seals for an individual sump.
The problem: In some oil sump configurations, excessive pressure differential around an oil sump may cause undesirable oil leakage.

Mitigating vortex pumping effect upstream of oil seal


One or more charger regulation tasks (e.g., one or more of those tasks typically performed by charger regulator circuitry of a separate battery charging apparatus) are integrated within a battery system (e.g., a battery pack of a portable information handling system) by utilizing component/s common to the battery system (e.g., microcontroller and FET components).

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to battery systems, and more particularly to integration of charger regulation within a battery system.
2. Description of the Related Art
As the value and use of information continues to increase, individuals and businesses seek additional ways to process and store information. One option available to users is information handling systems. An information handling system generally processes, compiles, stores, and/or communicates information or data for business, personal, or other purposes thereby allowing users to take advantage of the value of the information. Because technology and information handling needs and requirements vary between different users or applications, information handling systems may also vary regarding what information is handled, how the information is handled, how much information is processed, stored, or communicated, and how quickly and efficiently the information may be processed, stored, or communicated. The variations in information handling systems allow for information handling systems to be general or configured for a specific user or specific use such as financial transaction processing, airline reservations, enterprise data storage, or global communications. In addition, information handling systems may include a variety of hardware and software components that may be configured to process, store, and communicate information and may include one or more computer systems, data storage systems, and networking systems.
Examples of portable information handling systems include notebook computers. These portable electronic devices are typically powered by battery systems such as lithium ion ("Li-ion") or nickel metal hydride ("NiMH") battery packs including one or more rechargeable batteries. FIG. 1 shows a battery system 120 of a portable information handling system 100 having battery charge terminals 122, 124 that are temporarily coupled to corresponding charge output terminals 115, 116 of a battery charging apparatus 110. As so configured, battery charging apparatus 110 is coupled to receive current from current supply terminals 112, 114 (e.g., alternating current, or direct current from an AC adapter) and to provide DC charging current to battery charge terminals 122, 124 of battery system 120 via charge output terminals 115, 116. As shown, battery system 120 also includes battery system data bus (SMBus) terminals 126, 128 for providing battery state information, such as battery voltage, to corresponding battery charging apparatus data bus terminals 117, 118.
FIG. 2 shows a conventional battery system 120 coupled to a battery charging apparatus 110. As shown, battery system 120 has a battery management unit ("BMU") 202 responsible for monitoring battery system operation and for controlling battery system charge and discharge circuitry 270 that is present to charge and discharge one or more battery cells of the battery system. BMU 202 includes microcontroller and analog front end ("AFE"). Charge and discharge circuitry 270 of battery system 120 includes two field effect transistors ("FETs") 214 and 216 coupled in series between battery charge terminal 122 and battery cell/s 224. FET 214 is a charge FET switching element that is controlled by the microcontroller and/or AFE of BMU 202 to allow or disallow charging current to the battery cell/s 224, and FET 216 is a discharge FET switching element that is controlled by microcontroller and/or AFE of BMU 202 to allow or disallow discharge current from the battery cell/s 224. As shown, body diodes are present across the source and drain of each FET switching element, i.e., to conduct charging current to the battery cell/s when the discharge FET switching element 216 is open, and to conduct discharging current from the battery cell/s when the charge FET switching element 214 is open.
During normal battery pack operations both charge and discharge FET switching elements 214 and 216 are placed in the closed state, and BMU 202 monitors voltage of battery cell/s 224. Upon detection of a battery over-voltage condition, BMU 202 opens the charge FET switching element 214 to prevent further charging of the battery cell/s until the over-voltage condition is no longer present. Similarly, upon detection of a battery under-voltage (or over-discharge) condition, BMU 202 opens the discharge FET switching element 216 to prevent further discharging of the battery cell/s until the under-voltage condition is no longer present. BMU 202 may also open the charge FET switching element 214 when the battery pack is in sleep mode. A current sense resistor 212 is present in the battery pack circuitry to allow an AFE of BMU 202 to monitor charging current to the battery cell/s. If the charge FET switching element 214 is supposed to be open (e.g., during sleep mode or battery over-voltage condition) but charging current is detected, BMU 202 permanently disables the battery pack by blowing an inline fuse 222 present in the battery circuitry to open the battery pack circuitry and prevent further over-charging.
When Li-ion and NiMH battery cells have been discharged to a certain low voltage level, they are not ready to receive their full charging current and must be "pre-charged" at a much lower current level. For example, a typical minimum charging current from a smart charger is 128 milliamperes, which may be sufficiently low for pre-charging some NiMH battery cells. However, the required pre-charge current for other types of battery cells may be much lower than 128 milliamperes. For a typical Li-ion battery cell, the required pre-charge current is about 20 milliamperes or less per cell. To provide the required pre-charge current, separate pre-charge circuitry has been incorporated into a battery pack to achieve the desired pre-charge current level by reducing the charging current supplied by a battery charging apparatus.
FIG. 2 illustrates pre-charge circuitry that is present in charge and discharge circuitry 270 to pre-charge battery cell/s 224 when battery cell/s 224 have been discharged to a predetermined low voltage level and are not ready to receive their full charging current. As shown, the pre-charge circuitry includes FET 252, used as a switch, and a resistor 254 to limit the level of the pre-charge current to a much lower current value than the charging current provided by battery charging apparatus 110. During pre-charging mode, the microcontroller of BMU 202 turns on FET 252 when BMU 202 detects that voltage of battery cell/s 224 is below the predetermined low voltage level and the pre-charge current level is needed. During pre-charge mode, BMU 202 also maintains charge FET switching element 214 in open state to limit the charging current provided to battery cell/s 224 to the lower pre-charge current level. When voltage of battery cell/s 224 reaches the predetermined low voltage level, BMU 202 turns off FET 252 and closes charge FET switching element 214 to allow the full charging current to be provided to battery cell/s 224.
As shown in FIG. 2, battery charging apparatus 110 is coupled to receive current from AC adapter 202 through current supply terminals 112, 114, and to provide DC charging current to battery charge terminals 122, 124 of battery system 120 via charge output terminals 115, 116. Battery charging apparatus 110 includes charger regulation circuitry 204 that itself includes charger controller (U1) 206. Charger controller 206 is an analog controller with some digital functionality, and is configured to communicate with BMU 202 through system BIOS of portable information handling system. As previously described, battery system 120 includes SMBus terminals 126, 128 for providing battery state information, such as battery voltage and current, to system embedded controller 131.
As shown, charger controller 206 is coupled to control charger control FET (Q1) 210 by opening and closing FET 210 in order to implement switching-mode maintenance charge by regulating the duty-ratio of pulse so as to provide proper charging current from battery charging apparatus 110 to battery system 120 through inductor (L1) 220 and current sense resistor (Rs2) 223. Charger controller 206 is coupled across current sense resistor 223 as shown to monitor flow of charging current through inductor 220. Charger controller 206 is also coupled to control power selector FET (Q2) 213 so that FET 213 is open when voltage of battery charging apparatus 110 is high relative to battery system 120 (e.g., when adapter 202 is supplying current during charging of battery system 120), but so that power selector FET 213 is closed when voltage of battery charging apparatus 110 is low relative to battery system 120 (e.g., when adapter 202 is supplying no current and portable information handling system 100 is being supported via current path 230 from battery cell/s 224). In this regard, when portable information handling system 100 is operating on battery power, power selector FET 213 is closed in order to reduce power loss and voltage drop on body diode of Q2 and provide a more direct current path from battery cell/s 224 to electronic circuitry of system 100 through closed discharge FET 216 and closed FET 213. When adapter 202 is supplying current to system load 230 and charge battery cell/s 224, power selector FET 213 is open so that charging current and voltage are regulated and supplied to battery cell/s 224 through regulator circuitry 204 and closed charge FET 214.
As further illustrated in FIG. 2, ground connection 245 is provided within charger regulation circuitry 204. Also present within charger regulation circuitry 204 is diode (D1) 226 for the purpose of current free-wheeling (providing current path for inductor 220) when controlled FET Q1 is turned off, and capacitor (C1) 225 is present within charger regulation circuitry 204 for the purpose of filtering. Charger controller 206 receives power for operation from power circuits 250 and 252. Charger controller 206 is also coupled across current sense resistor (Rs1) 228 for monitoring flow of current to charging apparatus 110 from adapter 202. Also shown present within charging apparatus 110 is soft start FET 290 provided for purposes of to limit the startup inrush current from adapter 202, and isolation FET 292 provided for purposes of isolating power supply of battery when no current is supplied by adapter 202, e.g., when portable information handling system 100 is supported from battery cell/s 224.
In the conventional configuration of FIG. 2, a total of five power FETs (i.e., FETs 210, 213, 214, 216 and 252), two current sense resistors (i.e., resistors 212 and 223) two controllers (i.e., charger controller 206 and microcontroller of BMU 202) are present in the combination of charger regulation circuitry 204 and battery system 120. At the same time, microcontroller utilization within BMU 202 of battery system 120 is typically low (e.g., 10% utilization). It has also been known to provide these two controllers within a single battery system. In such a two-controller configuration, the charger controller has been provided as part of charger regulation circuitry included in the single battery system, and the separate and second BMU microcontroller has been provided that is part of the battery system BMU.

Systems and methods for integration of charger regulation within a battery system


A pod disposal system has a pod holder for holding a coffee pod; a moveable chamber including an engaging member for engaging with the coffee pod, and an ejector operably connected to the engager for disengaging the coffee pod from the engager, An actuator moves the moveable chamber between an engaging position, in which the engager engages with the coffee pod, an intermediate position, in which the moveable chamber moves the coffee pod out of the pod holder, and a disengaging position, in which the ejector disengages the coffee pod from the engager, thereby disposing the coffee pod.

Coffee machines for use with coffee pods have been available for a long time. A conventional coffee machine includes a holder with numerous outlets which are capable of piercing through one side of the coffee pod. Above the coffee pod holder is a brewing chamber which can be moved upwards and downwards by using by using a handle. The brewing chamber includes one or more steam nozzles, which, when the brewing chamber is put in contact with the pod holder, penetrates the top side of the coffee pod and eject steam through the coffee pod into the outlets. The outlets are connected to a major outlet in the form of a tube, such that steam passing through the coffee pod maybe collected as coffee at the major outlet. At the end of round of brewing, the user removes the coffee pod from the steam nozzle, such that the coffee machine is ready for another round of brewing. A major drawback of the conventional coffee machine is that a user has to manually remove the coffee pod from the steam nozzle, which is non-hygienic and inconvenient.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a pod disposal system for a coffee machine where the aforementioned shortcoming is mitigated, or to at least provide a useful alternative to the trade and public.


A crimping tool is provided for crimping the tubular portion of a turned electrical contact concentrically about the bare end of an electrical conductor, including a tool body having a main first portion, and an integral coplanar second portion extending from the main body portion to define a first lever. A crimping die arrangement includes an annular stamp holder mounted opposite an opening contained in the tool body main first portion, and an annular thrust collar is mounted concentrically about the stamp holder for angular displacement between released and crimping positions, thereby to displace a plurality of stamp members radially of the stamp holder between released an crimping positions The thrust collar is angularly displaced between the released and crimping positions by a toggle link arrangement that connects a second lever both with the tool body main portion and with the thrust collar.

Field of the Invention
A crimping tool is provided for crimping the tubular portion of a turned electrical contact concentrically about the bare end of an electrical conductor, including a tool body having a main first portion, and an integral coplanar second portion extending from the main body portion to define a first lever. A crimping die arrangement includes an annular stamp holder mounted opposite an opening contained in the tool body main first portion, and an annular thrust collar is mounted concentrically about the stamp holder for angular displacement between released and crimping positions, thereby to displace a plurality of stamp members radially of the stamp holder between released an crimping positions The thrust collar is angularly displaced between the released and crimping positions by a toggle link arrangement that connects a second lever both with the tool body main portion and with the thrust collar. A cascade spring force-distance arrangement adjusts the angular position of the thrust collar relative to the die arrangement when the second lever is pivoted beyond the closed position toward a maximum exertion position, which cascade spring arrangement includes a deformable resilient spring defined in the tool body main portion, and a leaf spring carried by the first lever.
Description of Related Art
Crimping tools are known in the prior art for fastening turned electrical contacts upon the bare ends of insulated wires, as shown, for example, by the German patent No. DE 10 2009 026 470 A1. In this apparatus, the lack of a force-distance adjustment device must be compensated for by the manual unlocking of a locking latch in the handle part of the tool, whereupon the crimping die, during the crimping of a turned contact upon a conductor, was blocked. Moreover, the tool must be set for the cross-sectional size of a conductor prior to the crimping operation.
The operation of the crimping tool is rather laborious because of the absence of the force-distance adjustment device. Moreover, the diameter range of the turned contacts that can be pressed with the crimping tool is limited.
However, it is desirable to have a crimping tool for turned contacts that is provided with an automatically operating force-distance adjustment so that there will be no need for the manual unlocking or adjustment of the crimping tool and, moreover, it will permit the crimping of turned contacts upon conductors with the largest possible diameter range so that the largest possible spectrum of conductor cross-sections can be provided with turned contacts with the help of a single crimping tool.
The present invention was developed therefore to provide a crimping tool for turned contacts that will avoid the abovementioned disadvantages.


The present invention discloses a power management circuit, and a control circuit and a control method thereof. The power management circuit converts an input voltage at an input terminal to an output voltage at an output terminal, and charges a battery from the output terminal. The present invention detects a power supplying capability of the input terminal to generate an adjustment signal, and adjusts the output voltage according to the adjustment signal.

Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a power management circuit, and a control circuit and a control method thereof; particularly, it relates to such power management circuit, and control circuit and control method thereof, which are capable of adjusting the output voltage according to a power supplying capability of the input terminal to improve the power supply efficiency.
Description of Related Art
Please refer to FIG. 1A in conjugation with FIG. 1B. FIG. 1A shows a schematic diagram of a conventional power management circuit. FIG. 1B shows an embodiment of the first operation circuit of the prior art. The power management circuit 10 is capable of converting an input voltage VIN at an input terminal IN to an output voltage VSYS at an output terminal SYS and charging a battery BAT from the output terminal SYS. The input terminal IN can be coupled to an external power source 18 to receive power supply from the external power source 18, so that an input current Iin is supplied from the input terminal IN. The output terminal SYS can be coupled to a load 19 to provide the output voltage VSYS to the load 19 from the output terminal SYS. As shown in FIG. 1A, the power management circuit 10 comprises a first linear regulator 11 and a second linear regulator 12. The first linear regulator 11 and the second linear regulator 12 for example are low-dropout regulators (LDO), respectively. The first linear regulator 11 includes a first switch 111 and a first operation circuit 112. The first operation circuit 112 generates a first operation signal S1′ which controls an operation of the first switch 111. As shown in FIG. 1B, the first operation circuit 112 includes an error amplifier EA1′. The error amplifier EA1′ compares a feedback signal (representing information related to the output voltage VSYS) with a reference voltage REF to generate the first operation signal S1′, thus controlling the operation of the first switch 111 so that the first switch 111 is conductive and operates in its linear region. The power management circuit 10 can optionally comprise a first voltage detection device 16. The first voltage detection device 16 can be, for example, a voltage divider circuit which generates the feedback signal FB1′ representing information related to the output voltage VSYS. The second linear regulator 12 having one end electrically connected to the output terminal SYS and another end electrically connected to the battery BAT. The second linear regulator 12 includes a second switch 121 and a second operation circuit 122, wherein the second switch 121 is electrically connected between the output terminal SYS and the battery BAT. When the input terminal IN receives power supplied from the external power source 18, the power supplied from the external power source 18 can support a charging current ICHG from the output terminal SYS to the battery BAT, to charge the battery BAT. Under such circumstance, the second operation circuit 122 generates a second operation signal S2′ according to a feedback signal FB2′ (representing information related to a battery voltage VBAT of the battery BAT) and a feedback signal FB3′ (representing information related to the charging current ICHG flowing through the second switch 121), to control an operation of the second switch 121 so that the second switch 121 is conductive and operates in its linear region, thereby controlling the charging operation from the output terminal SYS to the battery BAT. The power management circuit 10 can optionally comprise a second voltage detection device 17. The second voltage detection device 17 can be, for example, a voltage divider circuit which generates the feedback signal FB2′ representing information related to the battery voltage VBAT of the battery BAT.
In this prior art, the reference voltage REF shown in FIG. 1B is a constant and cannot be adjusted. Therefore, the level or regulated target of the output voltage VSYS is correspondingly a constant and cannot be adjusted. Because both the first linear regulator 11 and the second linear regulator 12 are linear regulators and the first switch 111 and the second switch 121 both operate in the linear region, there is a dilemma in determining the level of the output voltage VSYS. That is, when the level or regulated target of the output voltage VSYS is set closer to the level of the battery voltage VBAT, the power loss from the output terminal SYS to the battery BAT is lower but the power loss from the input terminal IN to the output terminal SYS is higher. On the contrary, when the level or regulated target of the output voltage VSYS is set closer to the level of the input voltage VIN, power loss from the input terminal IN to the output terminal SYS is lower but the power loss from the output terminal SYS to the battery BAT is higher. As a consequence, in the prior art, regardless whether the level of the output voltage VSYS is set closer to the level of the battery voltage VBAT or closer to the level of the input voltage VIN, there will be undesirable power loss.
In view of the above, to overcome the drawback in the prior art, the present invention proposes a power management circuit, and a control circuit and a control method thereof, which are capable of adjusting the output voltage according to a power supplying capability of the input terminal to improve the power supply efficiency.

Power management circuit, and control circuit and control method thereof


The present invention relates to a composition comprising factor VII or a factor VII-related polypeptide, and factor V or a factor V-related polypeptide, and the use thereof for treating bleeding episodes.

Haemostasis is initiated by the formation of a complex between tissue factor (TF) being exposed to the circulating blood following an injury to the vessel wall, and FVIIa which is present in the circulation in an amount corresponding to about 1% of the total FVII protein mass. This complex is anchored to the TF-bearing cell and activates FX into FXa and FIX into FIXa on the cell surface. FXa activates prothrombin to thrombin, which activates FVIII, FV, FXI and FXIII. Furthermore, the limited amount of thrombin formed in this initial step of haemostasis also activates the platelets. Following the action of thrombin on the platelets these change shape and expose charged phospholipids on their surface. This activated platelet surface forms the template for the further FX activation and the full thrombin generation. The further FX activation on the activated platelet surface occurs via a FIXa-FVIIIa complex formed on the surface of the activated platelet, and FXa then converts prothrombin into thrombin while still on the surface. Thrombin then converts fibrinogen into fibrin which is insoluble and which stabilizes the initial platelet plug. This process is compartmentalized, i.e., localised to the site of TF expression or exposure, thereby minimizing the risk of a systemic activation of the coagulation system. The insoluble fibrin forming the plug is furthermore stabilised by FXIII-catalysed cross-linking of the fibrin fibres.
FVIIa exists in plasma mainly as a single-chain zymogen, which is cleaved by FXa into its two-chain, activated form, FVIIa. Recombinant activated factor VIIa (rFVIIa) has been developed as a pro-haemostatic agent. The administration of rFVIIa offers a rapid and highly effective pro-haemostatic response in haemophilic subjects with bleedings who cannot be treated with coagulation factor products due to antibody formation. Also bleeding subjects with a factor VII deficiency or subjects having a normal coagulation system but experiencing excessive bleeding can be treated successfully with FVIIa. In these studies, no unfavourable side effects of rFVIIa (in particular the occurrence of thromboembolism) has been encountered.
Extra exogenously administered FVIIa increases the formation of thrombin on the activated platelet surface. This occurs in haemophiliac subjects lacking FIX or FVIII and therefore missing the most potent pathway for full thrombin formation. Also in the presence of a lowered number of platelets or platelets with a defect function, extra FVIIa increases the thrombin formation.
Commercial preparations of recombinant human FVIIa are sold as NovoSeven® (Novo Nordisk A/S, Denmark). Novoseven® is indicated for treatment of bleeding episodes in haemophilia A and B patients. Novoseven® is the only recombinant FVIIa available on the market for effective and reliable treatment of bleeding episodes.
Factor V is a large glycoprotein synthesized as a single chain molecule and circulates in blood as an inactive cofactor at a concentration of 30 nM. Approximately 25% of Factor V in blood is present in the a granules of platelets, whereas the rest is present in plasma. In the coagulation cascade Factor V acts as a cofactor for the serine protease activated factor X. Before it can act effectively as a cofactor, Factor V must be activated by limited proteolysis. Both factor IIa and Xa are able to do so. The first Factor V cDNA sequence was published by Kane et al. (PNAS 83:6800, 1986) but the complete genomic sequence is still not known. Factor V-deficiency is a rare recessive inherited disorder associated with a bleeding tendency due to loss-of-function mutations in the Factor V gene (Guasch et al., Thromb. Haemost. 77:252, 1997). Some discussion remains whether complete Factor V-deficiency is compatible with life. Published studies claim relatively mild bleeding tendencies in affected individuals. At the same time, the Factor V knockout mouse display a severe phenotype and approximately one-half do not make it past mid-gestation, whereas the remaining embryos come to term normally but die within hours after birth from excessive hemorrhage. In some cases, Factor V-deficiency co-inherits with factor VIII-deficiency (Seligsohn et al., NEJM 307:1191, 1982). The most common genetic defect in Factor V is the so-called factor Vleiden mutation, which is associated with an increased thrombotic risk due to activated protein c resistance. This genetic abnormality is prevalent in approximately 3% of Caucasians, and numerous studies have shown factor Vleiden to be the most common genetic risk factor for thrombosis.
It is well known that subjects who bleed excessively in association with surgery or major trauma and need blood transfusions develop more complications than those who do not experience any bleeding. However, also moderate bleedings requiring the administration of human blood or blood products (platelets, leukocytes, plasma-derived concentrates for the treatment of coagulation defects, etc.) may lead to complications associated with the risk of transferring human viruses (hepatitis, HIV, parvovirus, and other, by now unknown viruses). Extensive bleedings requiring massive blood transfusions may lead to the development of multiple organ failure including impaired lung and kidney function. Once a subject has developed these serious complications a cascade of events involving a number of cytokines and inflammatory reactions is started making any treatment extremely difficult and unfortunately often unsuccessful. Therefore a major goal in surgery as well as in the treatment of major tissue damage is to avoid or minimise the bleeding. To avoid or minimise such bleeding it is of importance to ensure the formation of stable and solid haemostatic plugs that are not easily dissolved by fibrinolytic enzymes. Furthermore, it is of importance to ensure quick and effective formation of such plugs or clots.
Today, subjects experiencing bleeding episodes, including trauma victims and subjects bleeding in association with surgery, are often treated with several injections or infusions of FVIIa since the short half-life of FVIIa (2.5 hours) may require more than one administration to maintain a certain level of haemostatic ability. A faster arrest of bleedings would be an important benefit to such subjects. So would a reduction in the number of administrations needed to stop bleeding and maintain haemostasis.
European Patent No. 225.160 (Novo Nordisk) concerns compositions of FVIIa and methods for the treatment of bleeding disorders not caused by clotting factor defects or clotting factor inhibitors.
European Patent No. 82.182 (Baxter Travenol Lab.) concerns a composition of factor VIIa for use in counteracting deficiencies of blood clotting factors or the effects of inhibitors to blood clotting factors in a subject.
International Patent Publication No. WO 93/06855 (Novo Nordisk) concerns the topical application of FVIIa.
Cripe et al. (Biochemistry 31:3777, 1992), Jenny et al. (PNAS 84: 4846, 1987), Kane et al. (Biochemistry 26: 6508, 1987), and Kane & Davie (PNAS 83: 6800, 1986) concern the structure, amino acid sequence, and DNA encoding Factor V.
There is still a need in the art for improved treatment of subjects experiencing bleeding episodes, including subjects where the bleeding episodes are due to surgery, trauma, or other forms of tissue damage; induced coagulophathy, including coagulopathy in multi-transfused subjects; congenital or acquired coagulation or bleeding disorders, including diminished liver function ("liver disease"); defective platelet function or decreased platelet number; lacking or abnormal essential clotting "compounds" (e.g., platelets or von Willebrand factor protein); increased fibrinolysis; anticoagulant therapy or thrombolytic therapy; or stem cell transplantation.
There remains a need in the art for an improved, reliable and widely applicable method of enhancing coagulation, enhancing or ensuring formation of stable haemostatic plugs, or enhancing convenience for the treated subject, or achieving full haemostasis in subjects, in particular in subjects having an impaired thrombin generation. There is also a need for methods wherein the time to bleeding arrest is shortened.

Pharmaceutical composition comprising factor VII polypeptides and factor V polypeptides


Systems and methods for operating a portable computing device having a broad set of functionality, such as image or audio/video capture capabilities, are provided. One or more specialized modes are provided in a portable computing device, such as a smart phone, for intelligently disabling any distracting functionality of the portable computing device with respect to a target subset of functionality possessed by the device and invoked during operation of a specialized mode. In various embodiments, the special mode for operation of a portable computing device in accordance with the invention is such that functionality that is likely to interfere with a time capture event of the device is disabled or mitigated during operation.

Personal computers and portable/mobile computing devices, such as laptop computers, Tablet computers, notebook computers, sub-notebook computers and handheld computing devices, such as MP3 players, DVD movie players, smart phones, etc., as well as other present and future variants of portable/mobile computing devices, are currently used to receive, capture and transmit messages of all kinds, e.g., voice data, music data, video or other image data, etc. Such portable or mobile computing devices will be referred to herein simply as "mobile computing devices" or "mobile devices" without limitation. For instance, mobile devices can be used in situations, such as meetings, to display a presentation on a display, such as a large format display surface, e.g., projector or monitor, in a meeting environment, or to capture images or video via a camera via a portable computing device, such as a personal digital assistant (PDA), camera enabled smart phone, MP3 player, etc.
However, as illustrated in FIG. 1, currently when a user is taking a video or a timed capture of an object O with his/her smart phone SP or other mobile device PCD, there is no protection against interruption. Thus, if a phone call, short message service (SMS), email reminder or other notification, etc. is received, the recording/capture will be unavoidably be interfered with or stopped, and this is often undesirable. For instance, imagine the horror if the object O was a wedding, and a user of a smart phone was taking a video capture of a wedding sequence of events when the smart phone rang according to a loud ringing sequence or song—substantially interrupting the wedding and interfering with or stopping altogether the time capture of video. Thus, it is critical that the task of video or image capture is prioritized over noisy or otherwise interfering functionality of the computing device during operation. Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a special mode for operation of a portable computing device so that functionality that is likely to interfere with a capture event of interest is disabled or mitigated during operation.

Systems and methods for operating a computing device having image capture capabilities


A driving mechanism for driving an electrophotographic photosensitive body operates through a torque limiter. The torque limiter is arranged on a support shaft for supporting the photosensitive body. A driving gear for driving a developing member is arranged coaxially with the torque limiter independently of the latter. This arrangement reduces the load applied to the torque limiter. In addition, the mechanism remains compact.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus such as a copying machine, printer and the like, in which an image is formed through a predetermined process by forming a latent image on an image bearing member such as a photosensitive drum, visualizing the latent image using a developer in a developing device, transferring the visualized image from the image bearing member onto a transfer member and then fixing the transferred image. More particularly, the present invention relates to an image forming apparatus which can prematurely detect an abnormality in driving apparatuses for driving an image bearing member such as a photosensitive drum and a developing device to effectively prevent damage or destruction of the image forming apparatus and which includes a compact driving apparatus adapted to drive such image bearing member and the like.

Apparatus for driving image bearing member via torque limiter


A system and method for detecting and selectively preventing the forwarding of an electronic message, wherein the message is sent by a sender to a recipient, and wherein the message has a message body and a message header. The system comprises a wireless gateway in communication with an electronic mail client; a message database in communication with the gateway for storing a first message identifier associated with the electronic message; and a search module in communication with the message database for determining whether a second message identifier associated with a forwarded electronic message is contained in the message database and, if the message database contains the second message identifier, preventing forwarding of the forwarded message.

Email continues to be the fastest growing communication medium for businesses. Using email to transmit sensitive information, however, poses many security issues. Consequently, many business have resorted to perimeter defenses such as firewalls, virtual private networks (VPNs), and intrusion detection systems (IDSs). While these defenses help keep out individuals with malicious intentions, they do not address an obvious security vulnerability: the loss of information through unauthorized forwarding of email.
Accordingly, a system and method is needed to selectively prevent forwarding of email communications. The architecture should provide sufficient flexibility to accommodate a variety of email clients and should not require any plugins or other client software installations. Additionally, the solution should be easily deployed in large-scale environments.

Systems methods to selectively control forwarding of electronic mail


A transistor device (10) includes an epitaxial layer (14) formed on a semiconductor substrate layer (12). A base layer (16) is formed on the epitaxial layer (14) and a source layer (18) is formed on the base layer (16). A trench region (22) is formed extending through the source layer (18), the base layer (16), and the epitaxial layer (14) and into the semiconductor substrate layer (12). An oxide layer (24) is formed on the source layer (18) and on the internal walls of the trench region (22) such that the oxide layer (24) is wider at the bottom of the trench region (22) than at the top in order to handle high voltage applications. A gate layer (26) is formed within the trench region (22) on the oxide layer (24). The gate layer (26) causes a drift region formed within the epitaxial layer (14) to fully deplete under full rated blocking conditions, decreasing the drift region component of the on-resistance which is the dominant parameter in very high voltage devices.

Many advancements have been made in the field of power integrated circuits in the development of power transistors. Lateral double diffused metal oxide semiconductor transistors (LDMOS) have been the power devices of choice for integration into very large scale integrated circuit logic processes. The on-resistance per unit area (r.sub.ds (on)) is a figure of merit for a high voltage power device. LDMOS power transistors exhibit low on-resistance and high breakdown capability concurrently through a reduced surface field (RESURF technique) introduced by J. A. Apples and H. M. J. Vaesn "High Voltage Thin Layer Devices" (RESURF devices), IEDM Tech. Digest, pp. 238-241, 1979.
In integrated circuit design, semiconductor die area is a crucial factor. Generally, an increase in transistor area results in a decrease in on-resistance of the transistor. Therefore, a crucial design constraint is the trade off between transistor performance and device cost. This trade off problem has driven research into new transistor structures that provide low on-resistance while simultaneously minimizing transistor area. One proposed improvement has been the development of a trench DMOS transistor by Ueda, et al. in "An Ultra-Low On-Resistance Power MOSFET Fabricated by Using a Fully Self Aligned Process", IEEE Transactions on Electron Devices, Vol. ED-34, No. 4, April 1987. However, further improvements can be made to the trench DMOS transistor in order to obtain a low on-resistance and a high blocking voltage.
From the foregoing, it may be appreciated that a need has arisen for a DMOS transistor having a low on-resistance and a high blocking voltage using a trench structure.

High performance high voltage vertical transistor and method of fabrication


Disclosed herein are methods and systems for motion planning in an autonomous vehicle (AV) that separate path planning and velocity planning and may use reference lines in combination with motion planners to determine paths. The method may include reference lines to project planning data into a S-L coordinate system. A motion planner algorithm uses the reference lines and previous path planning history to generate a path in the S-L coordinate system. A velocity is determined for the path. An AV controller is updated with the path and the velocity. Motion planning computations use a dynamic vehicle look-up table to determine possible vehicle motions based on an initial state and control input.

Autonomous vehicles use sampling-based motion planners such as Rapidly-exploring Random Trees (RRT) and its variants for path planning. By iteratively creating an exploration tree, these methods have the property of covering the whole search space and search for the solution. However, implementing sampling-based motion planners for autonomous on road vehicle poses several challenges. The motion planners must account for vehicle dynamics. This increases the dimensionality of the search problem and results in increasing the search time. In addition, the exploration rate of RRT and its variants often get stuck or slow down in a complex environment (for example, a curvy road). As a result, the motion planner often fails or generates a poor solution. Another drawback of RRT and its variants is the use of random sampling. Although this assists in covering the search space rapidly, the solutions do not always guarantee optimality, and change in each planning cycle.

Motion planning methods and systems for autonomous vehicle


An ear piercing assembly includes a disposable cartridge assembly including a first and second ear piercing earring and an ear piercing earring retaining sub-assembly for releaseably supporting the ear piercing earring therein. A clutch retaining sub-assembly is integrally formed with the ear piercing earring retaining sub-assembly and releaseably supports a first and second clutch therein. An ear piercing instrument is adapted to receive the cartridge assembly and includes a plunger assembly for ejecting an ear piercing earring from the ear piercing earring retaining sub-assembly and is displaceable for selectively moving between a first position for ejecting the first ear piercing earring from the ear piercing earring retaining sub-assembly and a second position for ejecting the second ear piercing earring from the ear piercing earring retaining sub-assembly.

This invention is directed to a disposable earlobe piercing earring and clutch cartridge and instrument for use therewith and in particular, to an earlobe piercing assembly for facilitating earlobe piercing and maintaining the piercing earring sterile during handling, storage and piercing.
The most recent prior art ear piercing systems are of two types, namely cartridge housed earrings and open earrings. Both types operate by inserting a pointed earring or stud through the earlobe. This earring remains in place four to six weeks until the hole produced is healed.
The cartridge housed earring systems utilize either a cartridge housing a single piercing earring and clasp, requiring two cartridges per pair of earrings; a separate cartridge for each earring and clasp requiring four cartridges per pair of earrings; or no cartridge, but instead earrings and clasps which are unprotected and inserted into the piercing instrument from a carrier block. In all cases excessive handling with a high potential for earrings coming in contact with the fingers of the ear piercing instrument operator result, increasing the chance of cross contamination between successive ear piercing patients and the ear piercing instrument operator. Furthermore, these systems do not protect the instrument itself from contamination due to human contact or back splashing of blood or fluids during piercing.
Two prior art references, namely U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,004,470 and 5,007,918 issued to Samuel J. Mann introduced disposable, cartridge housed earrings of several different and random shaped styles featuring enclosure or encapsulation of the earring so that the earring may not be touched before or during the piercing process. The earring clasps or clutches are housed in a separate cartridge and are not totally encapsulated, but make direct contact with the operator difficult. When utilizing these prior art systems, both earring cartridges and clasp cartridges are inserted into a piercing instrument. This piercing instrument is of simple design and retains the cartridge within slide tracks. The earlobe is placed in the gap between the ear piercing earring cartridge and the clasp clutch cartridge. The plunger is displaced into the earring cartridge, ejecting the earring out of the cartridge, through the earlobe, and into the clasp, automatically releasing the clasp from the cartridge, completing the piercing process. In order to form a second piercing hole, both the earring cartridge and clutch cartridge are removed from the instrument, inverted, and the process is repeated. In the system of U.S. Pat. No. 5,004,470 the stud cartridge and clutch cartridge are not removed, but are slid within the ear piercing instrument to place the non-ejected earring in piercing position.
These prior art devices have been satisfactory. However, they suffer from the disadvantage that the disposable cartridges which prevent contact between each person and the instrument do not fully cover the piercing area of the instrument itself which is proximate to the earlobe allowing potential for contamination from blood back splash or the like. Additionally, because the cartridge must be inverted or slid by hand by the ear piercing instrument operator, the cartridges are still excessively handled exposing the cartridges to contamination from the operator as well as the susceptibility of being dropped. This is particularly significant when handling the clutch cartridge in which the clutches are exposed to some extent and may even be touched during handling.
A further deficiency, particularly in the ear piercing cartridge assembly of U.S. Pat. No. 5,007,918 is the use of a pair of bullet shaped capsules which are split longitudinally with the halves being connected by means of a thin hinge molded into the halves at the front of the bullet in the ejection direction. During the piercing procedure, as the earring is ejected, the earring must break the hinge in order to exit the front of the bullet and pass into the earlobe. Additional force is required to break the hinge thus making the procedure balky, preventing smooth insertion of the ear piercing earring. Such force requirements make operation difficult for some operators.
A further deficiency in the prior art ear piercing cartridge assemblies is that during the ear piercing process, it is necessary for the operator to hold the earlobe firmly in place against the clutch cartridge. The operator utilizes their fingertips to hold the earlobe in place. If the operator does not follow rigid cleansing procedures, the potential for contamination of the earlobe being pierced exists. Additionally, because the earlobe is not firmly retained in place, even when held by the operator""s fingers, it is possible that nervous ear piercing patients will move their head causing the earring being inserted to be deflected from its intended path causing it to pierce portions of the ear other than the intended location, or it could be deflected sideways and only partially into the earlobe causing pain, bleeding and the need to reinsert the earring.
Accordingly, an ear piercing instrument and cartridge which eliminates earring handling through a simple, unitary construction and overcomes the shortcomings of the prior art is desired.
Generally speaking, in accordance with the instant invention, an integrated disposable ear piercing earring and clutch cartridge and ear piercing instrument for use therewith are provided. An ear piercing earring and clutch cartridge assembly (xe2x80x9ccartridge assemblyxe2x80x9d) formed of a single, unitary piece includes a clutch retaining sub-assembly containing two clutches in side by side relationship. The cartridge also includes an ear piercing earring retaining sub-assembly which contains two ear piercing earrings to cooperate with an associated clutch. The cartridge is provided with a saddle region for receiving an earlobe between the clutch retaining sub-assembly and the ear piercing earring retaining sub-assembly.
The ear piercing instrument is adapted to receive the cartridge. A plunger assembly is mounted within the housing and is selectively capable of driving either the first or second ear piercing earring from the ear piercing earring retaining sub-assembly to engage the associated clutch.
In one embodiment of the invention, the cartridge includes a clamp disposed within the saddle region for clamping the earlobe in place within the cartridge during piercing. The ear piercing earring retaining sub-assembly includes a bullet cartridge housing the ear piercing earring. The bullet cartridge is slidably mounted within the cartridge so that the bullet cartridge is moved within the cartridge towards the clutch retaining sub-assembly prior to ejection of the earring from the ear piercing earring retaining sub-assembly. The push rod assembly includes a push rod formed with a retraction hook for returning the bullet to the starting position. The plunger assembly also includes a plunger for moving the clamp into a position for clamping the earlobe in place prior to ejection of the ear piercing earring from the earring retaining sub-assembly.
Accordingly, it is an object of the present invention to provide an improved ear piercing earring cartridge and an ear piercing instrument for use therewith.
Another object of the invention is to provide a disposable earring cartridge for use with an ear piercing instrument being configured to shield from contamination all relevant areas of the ear piercing instrument which are proximate to the earlobe being pierced.
A further object of the invention is to provide an ear piercing earring cartridge which increases ear piercing aiming accuracy.
Yet another object of the invention is to provide an improved ear piercing earring cartridge utilizing a sliding bullet, the bullet being formed in a clam shell construction hinged at the rear of the bullet sliding direction to allow for smooth ejection of the ear piercing earring.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide an improved ear piercing instrument which reduces the amount of handling of the ear piercing earring and clutch.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.
The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combination of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.

Integrated disposable ear piercing earring and clutch cartridge and ear piercing instrument for use therewith


A method for measuring the physical characteristics of a component includes associating a component with the system such that the component is positioned within the retention mount and operating the system to cause the light source to emit a collimated light beam along a source optical path, where the collimated light beam is reflected to cause a reflected collimated light beam to propagate along a sensor optical path to be incident upon the component to produce a component silhouette where the sensing device generates data responsive to the silhouette. The image data is processed to generate resultant data responsive to the component, wherein the resultant data is further responsive to at least one of a smoothing algorithm, a functional size algorithm and a centering algorithm.

As society becomes increasingly reliant upon technology, mechanical and electromechanical systems, such as aircraft, automobiles, weapons systems and power systems, are called upon to perform an ever increasing number of functions. One downside to this is that, in some situations, a failure of a single threaded component in the system may cause a catastrophic failure of the entire system possibly resulting in the loss of millions of dollars and hundreds of lives. In an attempt to reduce the probability of a catastrophic systems failure, critical and some non-critical systems are required to satisfy predetermine operating tolerances before they may be used. As such, key threaded components within these systems, i.e. threaded components whose failure may cause a catastrophic system failure such as screws and/or gages, must also satisfy operating tolerances. If a threaded component fails to satisfy these required design tolerances and/or performance specifications, a degradation of system performance and/or a total system failure may occur resulting in damage to the system and/or injury/loss of life to an operator.
One of the current systems used for inspecting the physical characteristics of a threaded component employ an attribute inspection approach that measures the characteristics of the threaded component via a contact measurement technique which does not protect product design limits. This technique uses GO and/or No Go ring gages that are adjusted, or calibrated, to a desired thread measurement via Go and/or No Go setting plugs. Unfortunately, this technique does not ensure the integrity of design limits and because this approach is dependent upon human interaction, this technique has the disadvantage of being time consuming, subjectively inaccurate and unreliably repeatable for tight operating tolerances, thus permitting threaded components having dimensionally non-conforming characteristics to pass inspections. Moreover, there is a considerable wear factor on the measuring instruments, requiring the Go, No Go setting plugs to be inspected and replaced often.
Another approach used for measuring external thread gages utilizes three wires communicated to the gage being measured. The three wires are of a known diameter and are typically disposed between the threads of a component such that the wires protrude from the threads, wherein two wires are disposed on one side of the threaded component and one wire is disposed on the opposing side of the threaded component. The diameter over the wires is then measured via a human inspector. Because the wires are of a known diameter, this allows certain characteristics of the threads to be determined by measuring the width of the wires disposed between the threads. Unfortunately, this approach is also dependent upon human interaction. If the inspector measuring the distance over the wires compresses the wires too much, the wires may become deformed resulting in an inaccurate measurement. Additionally, the surface finish of a threaded component may adversely affect the accuracies of these measurements. Moreover, because the wires are loose and are not held between the threads, the wires may be dropped which may result in the wires becoming contaminated with dirt, the wires being lost or, if someone steps on them, the wires being deformed.
Furthermore, different operators will generate different gage pressures on the wires which may cause erroneous readings. Thus, this approach has the similar disadvantage of being time consuming, subjectively inaccurate and unreliably repeatable for tight operating tolerances, thus also permitting threaded components having dimensionally non-conforming characteristics to pass inspections. Additionally, the reliability and repeatability of this measurement is very poor because an operator must measure angles using an optical projection which is also time consuming, inaccurate and often fails to satisfy current product and gage calibration specifications. As such, the Measurement Uncertainty Factor (MUF) in many situations exceeds the required tolerances and as a result, the required accuracies for complete certification of these methods have thus far been unobtainable.
Another disadvantage to current measuring systems involves the human element required to obtain the actual physical measurement of the component and the data obtained from that measurement. As such, the accuracy of the equipment used to obtain the measurements is very questionable. For example, using current technology and methods, if two different people measure the same characteristics of a single component, it is highly probable that they will obtain different results. Another example involves when the component being measured is not be correctly aligned within the inspection system. This is undesirable because data obtained from the measurement of an incorrectly aligned component will most likely contain errors related to the misaligned component and thus the resultant measurement will be incorrect. Still yet another example involves errors in the functional size of the component due to deviations or waviness in the helical path of the thread. This creates an assembly problem in that parts may not assemble correctly. This is undesirable because data obtained responsive to an incorrect function size is unreliable and may result in a failure of the component or assembly. Another example involves deviations (in lead, flank angle error, pd error, major & minor diameter error, root radius roundness, etc.) from the true line measurements of the component.

Methods for measuring at least one physical characteristic of a component


A method for providing localized stiffening of a vehicle trim panel using a plurality of discrete stiffening elements. The method includes selectively placing one or more of the discrete stiffening elements on the panel and then bonding the stiffening elements to the panel.

Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to a process for securing discrete stiffeners to a panel and, more particularly, to a process for securing thermoplastic injection molded discrete stiffeners to a back surface of a show surface panel of an automotive trim panel.
Discussion of the Related Art
Trim panels on a vehicle, such as fascias, rockers, door moldings, etc., typically have an outward facing show surface, sometimes referred to as a class-A surface, that gives the panel an aesthetically pleasing appearance. Providing such show surfaces often requires relatively expensive materials and manufacturing processes. Thus, trim panels are typically made very thin to conserve cost. However, such trim panels often times have a two-dimensional or three-dimensional curvature and are required to be stiff enough to resist various loads without excessive deformation. In response to this, it is known in the art to make a trim panel as a two-piece structure including an outer show surface panel and an internal support structure often including a series of stiffening ribs forming a frame that provides structural integrity. The support structure may include a series of welding pads integrated into the support structure at locations where the ribs intersect. The welding pads have the general shape of the show surface panel and are used to ultrasonically weld the support structure to an inside surface of the show surface panel. The stiffness of the trim panel is set mainly by the height, thickness and spacing of the ribs.
In order to reduce cost and weight, it is desirable to limit the number of ribs in the support structure, which also reduces its stiffening capability. Thus, the ribs are generally selectively positioned and provided with different heights depending on where the structural integrity of the particular trim panel is desired. However, the height of the ribs is limited by the packaging volume of the trim panel. Further, although the show surface panel does possess some inherent stiffness, most of the stiffness is provided by the rib structure. Therefore, in order to further reduce the cost of the trim panel, it is desirable to make the show surface panel as thin as possible consistent with the ability of the support structure to provide the desired rigidity. However, because the support structure is welded to the show surface panel, there are limits as to how thin the show surface panel can be because the welding operation could cause imperfections on the show surface of the show surface panel if it is too thin. Further, for some types of trim panels, the panel is required to have a high degree of curvature to be formed at a desirable location. For these types of panels, traditional stiffeners, such as rib stiffeners, have not been adequate to provide local stiffening at high curvature areas.

Process for securing discrete stiffeners to a panel


Mass transfer elements with an essentially four-lobed cylindrical configuration are particularly effective random dumped packing elements for mass transfer towers, providing a combination of high surface area and low pressure drop.

This invention relates to packing elements for use in chemical process equipment. It relates specifically to random packing elements of a novel and advantageous design useful in mass transfer applications.
"Mass transfer" has been defined as the transfer of one or more components from one immiscible phase to another. This "component" may be a chemical or it may be heat. In the case in which the component is heat this may be combustion heat or reaction heat that needs to be removed from a reaction stream before further processing, or from a hot stream of fluid before it can be collected or used. The component can also be a chemical such as a gas component to be removed from a gas stream by absorption, or a component of a liquid mixture to be treated by a distillation or separation process. For such applications and a plurality of other applications involving mass transfer, it is conventional to pass the fluid to be treated through a column containing randomly disposed packing elements. These elements are hereinafter referred to as mass transfer elements for simplicity, regardless of the actual process in connection with which they are actually designed to be used.
Clearly the most efficient mass transfer elements are those that present the largest surface area to the fluid for contact. There have therefore been many attempts to design random packing elements with this surface area feature maximized. It is found however in practice that other characteristics are also extremely desirable. For example, it is also valuable if the elements do not nest together when in the column because this reduces the effective surface area exposure. It is also important that the elements do not pack so tightly as to restrict the fluid flow and generate a large pressure drop between the entrance and exit of the column.
The balancing of these often competing requirements to produce an effective mass transfer element is a matter of considerable skill and involves compromises to achieve the optimum combination of properties.


Apparatus and an accompanying method for an iterative convolution filter for determining an image signature and which is particularly useful in a system for automatically classifying individual images, on a numerical basis, in, e.g., an image database, and, through a query-by-example paradigm, retrieving a desired image(s) therefrom. Specifically, a signature is computed for an image using multi-level (e.g. L levels) iterative convolution filtering, with pixel values for each color axis supplied as input to each filtering level being separately convolved with each one of a set of, e.g., K predefined kernels, each being, e.g., a derivative of a Guassian kernel, to yield an output image. Each of the output images, of which K.sup.L occur for each color axis, is either applied as input to the next filtering level or applied to a summer to yield a resultant sum over all pixel values in that particular output image. This sum becomes the value of a corresponding one of K.sup.L elements, for each color axis, in the signature.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to apparatus and an accompanying method for an iterative convolution filter for determining an image signature and which is particularly useful in a system for automatically classifying individual images, on a numerical basis, in, e.g., an image database, and, through a query-by-example paradigm, retrieving a desired image(s) therefrom.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Textual representations constitute a relatively small portion of all the currently available information in the world. Nevertheless, dating back many centuries, textual representations, whether handwritten or machine printed, have been and are still used to abstract and convey information from one person to another through a printed (including numeric) alphabet, with language and numbers representing semantic concepts. However, a language by its very nature of representing abstract concepts through an organized contextual hierarchy built on a finite vocabulary, be it words or pictographs (e.g., words, having given meanings--though contextually variable, are grouped by an individual into sentences, sentences into paragraphs, and so forth), often results in communication that is indefinite and ambiguous. An image, unburdened by the limitations inherent in any language, is a far more efficient vehicle to convey information among individuals than text is now and is ever likely to be. Accordingly, humans constantly use their sense of vision in perceiving information and communicating it amongst themselves. As such, the world is awash in and dominated by visual information of one sort or another, whether it is, e.g., a single image such as on a photographic print, printed on a piece of paper or stored in an electronic memory, or a sequence of images such as in a motion picture or in a video signal. Images are so prevalent, as a means of communication, that humans create a huge and escalating number of new images every single day. Recent advances in computing and telecommunications are only increasing the use and dominance of visual information in modern day life.
Many different ways exists to classify and search textual information, particularly with a computer. Any textual item, by its very nature, residing in that database is written in a language, such as English, that, for the most part, has a well-defined and bounded vocabulary. Such a vocabulary readily lends itself to searching for any word (or other similar granular linguistic construct) to locate a stored textual entry of interest. While a textual database itself can be inordinately large, i.e. contain an extraordinarily massive amount of different textual entries, various algorithms exist, which by exploiting a well-defined vocabulary and its usage inherent in a language, such as English, permits a computer to efficiently index and retrieve any of the items stored in the database. In that regard, certain of these algorithms index an item by examining it for the presence of any so-called "keywords". Once any such word is found, a pointer to a stored record of that textual item is added to an appropriate classification (list) defined by (and data structure associated with) that keyword. Each such classification, generally consists of a list of pointers, with each pointer defining a location in a massive textual database at which the corresponding textual record for that item (or a portion thereof, such as an bibliographic abstract) is stored. All the keyword lists collectively define a keyword database. Keyword based retrieval systems generally operate by querying the keyword database with a user supplied keyword(s) to retrieve pointers to all the corresponding records that contain the keyword(s) and then present these pointers (in the form of a numbered list of records) to the user for subsequent selection thereamong. Once the user has selected which records (s)he wants, (s)he can then instruct the system to retrieve, display and/or print the complete item stored within each of the selected records.
Unlike text, an image, from a semantic perspective, is not defined by a linguistic or mathematical vocabulary. In that regard, any such vocabulary is often inadequate to fully describe all but very simple images. As such, human beings, whose communication is biased heavily towards using linguistic based verbal and printed expressions, are ill-equipped to fully describe anything more complex than a very simple image.
Given this linguistic deficiency, then, not surprisingly, computerized information search systems, have yet to, and probably will not for some time, be developed that can semantically categorize an image. Hence, users of existing computerized search systems had little choice but to find a desired image indirectly--by performing a keyword search to locate, e.g., an article that contained not only a textual description of a desired image, such as in a figure caption, but also hopefully (though without any guarantees) the desired image itself. However, this approach often failed and hence frustrated the user because it still relied on a linguistic description--one that was inadequate to fully describe just the particular image which the user wanted and, not surprisingly, often returned an article(s) having a wrong image(s) from that desired.
In view of an increasing predominance of imagery in present day (and, certainly, expected future) communications, a general problem, thusfar unmet in the art, has existed, for some time--though recently becoming more acute, as to just how images, by themselves and devoid of accompanying descriptive text, can be efficiently and accurately manipulated, i.e. how such large numbers of images can first be indexed into an image database and a desired image(s) then accurately retrieved therefrom.
Given the absence of a suitable vocabulary to describe image semantics, conventional image classification and retrieval schemes simply relied on a human being to subjectively assess semantic content of images, on an image-by-image basis, for both indexing and retrieval.
In particular, a conventional image repository, commonly referred to as a "photo shop", usually employs an individual to view, become familiar with and appropriately index each and every image in an image collection. Subsequently, a customer, seeking a certain image, will verbally describe various salient aspects of that image in an effort to convey a "gut feeling" of the image to that employee. As an example, suppose a customer desires an image of John Kennedy evoking an appearance of "determination". The employee, using his (her) knowledge of the image collection, will then retrieve an image from the collection thought to be most similar to that which the customer has described. For example, the employee may first examine a group of images may have been classified as depicting Presidents in office. The employee will present the retrieved image, perhaps an image of a concerned Kennedy sitting at desk in the Oval Office during a meeting involving the Cuban Missile Crisis, to the customer and request whether that image is the one desired or not, and, if not, why, in terms of differences between the desired and retrieved images, the retrieved image is not desired. In this situation, the customer may respond by stating that he (she) wants an image of Kennedy standing in front of an American flag rather than in the Oval Office. Armed with this information, the employee will then return to the collection to narrow the search and retrieve a closer image, if it is available, such as, e.g., Kennedy giving a charged public speech in West Berlin, to that desired. This manual process will iteratively repeat until either all the similar images in the collection, have been retrieved by the employee and rejected or the desired image (or one sufficiently similar) has been found. Alternatively, depending on the granularity of the index, a relatively large group of images may be found, such as all those containing past Presidents, through which a user or customer will be forced to manually examine, in seriatim, each image in the group to locate the desired image. Though human experiences are generally similar across different people, each person who views and indexes images does so based on his (her) own subjective criteria. While these criteria are generally quite broad (such as here perhaps including past Presidents as one, and American flags as another) and to a certain extent overlap among individuals (another individual might use Presidents in public), the decision as to whether an image possesses a given semantic content, hence falling within one of a number of given criteria and then should be retrieved or not based on a verbal description of what is desired, is highly subjective and, for a common image, often varies widely across different viewers. While a single human can index and effectively deal with perhaps as much as 100,000 different images or so, a photo shop often has a collection of considerably more images, such as several 100K images to several million, if not more. With such large collections, indexing is performed by several different individuals; the same occurs for retrieval. Hence, owing to the highly subjective nature of human-based indexing and retrieval, inconsistent results often occur from one individual to the next.
Moreover, no finer granularity than relatively broad criteria (e.g., images of "chairs") is generally used to classify images. Also, in large image collections, images, possessing one criteria (e.g. "chairs"), are generally not cross-indexed, to images possessing another criteria (e.g. depicting "gardens") such that images having both criteria, i.e. a sub-set (e.g. "a chair in a garden") can be readily located by itself and to the exclusion of images having just one of the criteria (e.g. just chairs or just gardens). Furthermore, images are classified with a limited and bounded set of linguistic criteria (e.g. an image of a "chair"). Unfortunately, doing so often results in a customer describing an image using terms (e.g. an image of a "light switch") that have not been used as a class descriptor. Thus, such manual image indexing and retrieval methodologies tend to be highly frustrating and inefficient to use, and quite problematic in their results.
While such manual approaches are still used with relatively small image collections, these approaches become totally useless if one desires to index massive numbers of images provided by, e.g., many currently available image sources. For example, a single video stream, such as programming carried over a broadcast channel, contains a substantial number of images, though successive images possess significant commonality. Currently, hundreds of different cable channels are available each providing a different video stream. To form a comprehensive image database, each and every different image in each video stream might need to be indexed. A similar problem would be posed by indexing images that appear in all recorded footage. Another source of a potentially infinite number of images is the world wide web wherein the number of new visual data sites continues to exponentially grow, with the images provided therefrom exponentially increasing at a significantly greater rate. In any event, a huge number of different images exist both now and increasingly so in the future which are likely to constitute an image database, with far more images than any manual methodology can handle.
Clearly, indexing all such images from all such sources, or even just a small fraction of these images, into a common image database is an enormous task which is only feasible, if at all, if it can be automated in some fashion.
In an effort to overcome the deficiencies inherent in conventional manual indexing and retrieval methodologies, the art has indeed turned to automated, i.e. computerized, techniques. However, in practice, none of these techniques has yet proven entirely satisfactory.
One such technique involves a so-called "query by image content (QBIC)" paradigm. This technique is typified by work currently undertaken in "The QBIC Project" by IBM Corporation (see the web site at http://wwwqbic.almaden.ibm. com), in the so-called "Visual Information Retrieval" technology being developed at Virage Corporation (see the web site at http://www.virage.com); and in the "Photobook" project currently underway at the Media Lab at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (see the web site at http://www-white.media.mit.edu/vismod/demos/photobook). In general, the QBIC technique relies on classifying an image according to a relatively small number of pre-defined fixed image features (also referred to as characteristics or attributes), such as distribution of color across an image, shapes in an image including their position and size, texture in an image, locations of dominant edges of image objects and regions, and so forth. For each image, a computerized system scans the image and measures each such characteristic. The premise behind using such characteristics is to mimic those visual attributes with which humans are familiar and use in recognizing an image. Once these attributes are measured for each image, a sequence of numeric values, i.e. a vector, results for that image. A user desiring to find a given image in a QBIC image database queries the database by providing an example of an image similar to that which he (she) desires and then setting a weight for each such characteristic in a fashion he (she) believes accurately reflects the presence of each attribute in the desired image as compared to that in the test image. For example, if a desired image is to have less variation in color across the image than does the test image, then the user will ostensibly choose a relatively low weight for color distribution, and so forth for other weights. The attributes in the example image are then measured. To retrieve an image, the system compares the vector for the test image, modified by the weights provided by the user, to the vector for each image in the database. A difference measure, based on a mathematical difference, between these two vectors is computed for each database image. The retrieved image with the lowest difference measure is then presented to the user. The user, upon viewing that retrieved image, can adjust the weights to refine the selection process in an attempt to retrieve another image closer to that which he (she) desires, and so forth, until presumably the closest image in the database to that desired is eventually retrieved.
While the QBIC technique represents an advance in machine based image indexing and retrieval, this technique suffers two basic infirmities.
First, the number of attributes is generally limited to between 5-10. This very small number simply fails to provide sufficient resolution to adequately describe the visual characteristics of most images. While, at first blush, it would seem trivial to extend a set of attributes to encompass additional ones, considerable difficulty exists in specifying just what each additional attribute should be. Specifically, as additional characteristics are added, they tend to become increasingly abstract and difficult for a user to comprehend and visualize.
Second, the user is burdened with selecting the proper numeric value for each weight. Not only is the user rather ill-equipped for the task of deciding just what value should be used for each weight for a visually apparent attribute, but as additional increasingly abstract image attributes are used particularly those which the user can not readily visualize and comprehend, the difficulty inherent in this task greatly compounds.
As a result of these practical limitations, the number of image attributes in a QBIC system remains small at approximately 5-10 rather broad characteristics.
Consequently, a fairly large group of images are usually produced in response to any query to a QBIC system, necessitating that the user manually review each and every resulting image. Doing so is often quite labor and time intensive and, as such, generally infeasible for practical use.
Apart from a significant effort potentially required of a user during a search, the user generally needs to expend a considerable amount of time and effort just to properly learn how to use a QBIC system, including how to correctly set the weights. Inasmuch as any user will still set the weights subjectively, then, if different users--even those who are highly trained--were to search for a common image in a common image database, the subjectivity exhibited by these users will likely yield different and often inconsistent images. These factors further reduce the attractiveness of using a QBIC system.
Another conventional technique for automating image classification and retrieval uses, e.g., so-called "eigenimages" which are mathematical techniques for clustering vectors in space. An additional technique known in the art measures a distribution of colors, in terms of a histogrammed frequency of occurrence across a query image and for an entire color gamut. This histogrammed distribution is also measured for each image in an image database, with a distance measure then used to compare the histogrammed results between each database image and the query image. The database image possessing the smallest distance measure is presented to the user as a retrieved image. Each of these two alternate techniques suffers the same infirmity inherent in a QBIC system; namely, for a user, it is both labor and time intensive. Specifically, both of these systems exhibit insufficient resolution, which, in turn, often yields a large group of retrieved images that a user must individually review in seriatim.
Thus, an acute need still remains in the art for an effective automated image classification and retrieval system. Such a system should not be either time or labor intensive for an individual to learn, much less use. In that regard, the system should classify images with sufficient resolution so as to reduce the number of retrieved images presented to a user at any one time. The system should also not require a user to specify any desired image features or set any numeric weights thereof. Additionally, the system should substantially eliminate user induced subjectivity and produce highly consistent results, in terms of the images retrieved, across different users.

Iterative convolution filter particularly suited for use in an image classification and retrieval system


The disclosure relates to a method of processing a sequence of image frames to reduce its length. One implementation may involve extracting coefficients (e.g., Discrete Cosine Transform coefficients) from components of individual frames, and comparing the resulting coefficients for sequential frames to identify frames having the least change from a prior frame. Also, scene change values for each frame may be calculated and placed in a sorted list to facilitate identification of frames for removal. Frame removal may be conducted in rounds, where a group of pictures (GOP) may only have one frame removed for any given round.

Advances in data transmission technologies have allowed content providers to transmit multiple streams of content to users, and hundreds of channels of television programming can be delivered. In some cases, a user's viewing experience may automatically hop from one channel to another. For example, when a television program enters a commercial break, the ensuing commercials might actually be carried on a different channel or datastream, and the viewer's device (unbeknownst to the viewer) may quickly switch tuning to the different channel for the duration of the commercial, and back to the television program (or to another channel carrying another commercial) when the commercial ends. To help tuners quickly lock on to the audiovisual signals during such rapid tuning, video transmission standards call for advertisements to begin with a few moments of blank/black video and silent audio. Unfortunately, many advertisers provide commercials that lack these moments of blank/black video and silent audio. Adding such moments to the beginning and end of the commercial may result in extending the commercial's duration, which may make it difficult for the commercial to fit within its allotted time in a commercial break. There remains a need to gracefully make these commercials comply with the video transmission standards while also allowing them to fit within their allotted time in a commercial break.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Provided is a method of transmitting ACK/NACK in a TDD-based wireless communication system. The method includes: receiving M downlink subframes associated with an uplink subframe n in each of two serving cells; determining four candidate resources based on the M downlink subframes received in each of the two serving cells; and transmitting an ACK/NACK response for the M downlink subframes by using one resource selected from the four candidate resources in the uplink subframe n, wherein the two serving cells includes a first serving cell and a second serving cell, and wherein among the four candidate resources, a first resource and a second resource are associated with a PDSCH or a SPS release PDCCH for releasing semi-persistent scheduling received in the first serving cell, and a third resource and a fourth resources are associated with a PDSCH received in the second serving cell.

Long term evolution (LTE) based on 3rd generation partnership project (3GPP) technical specification (TS) release 8 is a promising next-generation mobile communication standard.
As disclosed in 3GPP TS 36.211 V8.7.0 (2009-05) "Evolved Universal Terrestrial Radio Access (E-UTRA); Physical Channels and Modulation (Release 8)", a physical channel of the LTE can be classified into a downlink channel, i.e., a physical downlink shared channel (PDSCH) and a physical downlink control channel (PDCCH), and an uplink channel, i.e., a physical uplink shared channel (PUSCH) and a physical uplink control channel (PUCCH).
The PUCCH is an uplink control channel used for transmission of an uplink control signal such as a hybrid automatic repeat request (HARQ) positive-acknowledgement (ACK)/negative-acknowledgement (NACK) signal, a channel quality indicator (CQI), and a scheduling request (SR).
Meanwhile, 3GPP LTE-advanced (LTE-A) which is an evolution of 3GPP LTE is under development. Examples of techniques employed in the 3GPP LTE-A include carrier aggregation and multiple input multiple output (MIMO) supporting four or more antenna ports.
The carrier aggregation uses a plurality of component carriers. The component carrier is defined with a center frequency and a bandwidth. One downlink component carrier or a pair of an uplink component carrier and a downlink component carrier is mapped to one cell. When a user equipment receives a service by using a plurality of downlink component carriers, it can be said that the user equipment receives the service from a plurality of serving cells.
A time division duplex (TDD) system uses the same frequency in downlink and uplink cases. Therefore, one or more downlink subframes are associated with an uplink subframe. The 'association' implies that transmission/reception in the downlink subframe is associated with transmission/reception in the uplink subframe. For example, when a transport block is received in a plurality of downlink subframes, the user equipment transmits HARQ ACK/NACK for the transport block in the uplink subframe associated with the plurality of downlink subframes.
As a plurality of serving cells are introduced in the TDD system, an information amount of HARQ ACK/NACK is increased. Channel selection is one of methods for transmitting the increased HARQ ACK/NACK with a limited transmission bit. The channel selection is a method of allocating a plurality of radio resources and transmitting a modulated symbol by using any one of the plurality of radio resources. A variety of HARQ ACK/NACK information can be represented according to a signal constellation of a modulated symbol and a radio resource.
Accordingly, there is a need for a method of allocating a resource to apply such a channel selection to a multiple carrier system supporting a plurality of serving cells.

Method and apparatus for transmitting ACK/NACK in a wireless communication system based on TDD


In a toy garbage transportation truck comprising a cargo space (3) for the garbage that is to be disposed of, having an opening (4) on its rear to which an emptying casing (5) for garbage cans that are to be emptied is adjoined that has a rear discharge opening (7), provision is made that                the floor (9) below the discharge opening is curved approximately in the shape of a segment of a circle,        the floor (9) transitions into a slanted feeding surface (10) that extends to below a feeding opening (6),        the conveyor shovel (12) is disposed above the floor (9),        the conveyor shovel (12) can be swiveled along the floor (9) above the same, lifted parallel to the slanted feeding surface (16) to at least the lower edge of the feeding opening (6) and subsequently swiveled back and lowered to reach the end of the floor (9) on the opening side and repeat the conveyor movement again.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention is directed to a toy garbage transportation truck comprising a cargo space for the garbage that is to be disposed of, having an opening on its rear to which an emptying casing for garbage cans that are to be emptied is adjoined that has a rear discharge opening.
2. Background Art
Toy vehicles of this type are intended to copy the large original in their outer appearance while leaving out details and are further intended to permit an imitation of the functions of such vehicles.