The invention relates to compounds of formula I (or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof) as defined herein, pharmaceutical compositions thereof, and their use in manufactures and methods for modulating biological processes including inhibition of kinase activity such as PI-3 kinase.

This invention relates to thienopyranone compounds that demonstrate activity as kinase inhibitors including PI-3 kinase. In particular, the invention relates to new thienopyranone compounds, conjugates thereof, pharmaceutical compositions containing the thienopyranones or conjugates thereof as active ingredients, and use of the thienopyranone compounds as therapeutic agents including antitumor agents for the treatment of neoplasmic disorders including cancer.
Protein kinases play an important role in regulating most cellular functions including proliferation, cell cycle, cell metabolism, survival/apoptosis, DNA damage repair, cell motility, and response to the microenvironment. Not surprisingly kinases have been identified as oncogenes. For example, kinases such as c-Src, c-Abl, mitogen activated protein (MAP) kinase, phosphotidylinositol-3-kinase (PI3-K), AKT (also known as PKB), and the epidermal growth factor (EGF) receptor are commonly activated in cancer cells and are known to contribute to tumorigenesis. Many of these mutations occur in the same signaling pathway; for example, HER-kinase family members (HER1 [EGFR], HER3, and HER4) transmit signals through MAP kinase and PI-3 kinase to promote cell proliferation.
PI-3 kinases are a large family of lipid kinases comprising roughly 16 members divided into 3 classes based on sequence homology and the particular product formed by enzyme catalysis. The class I PI-3 kinases are composed of 2 subunits: a 110 kd catalytic subunit and an 85 kd regulatory subunit. Class I PI-3 kinases are involved in important signal transduction events downstream of cytokines, integrins, growth factors and immunoreceptors, and control of this pathway may lead to important therapeutic effects. Indeed, inhibition of class I PI-3 kinase induces apoptosis, blocks tumor induced angiogenesis in vivo, and increases radiosensitivity in certain tumors.
Molecular and genetic studies have demonstrated a strong correlation between the PI-3 kinase pathway (also known as PI3K-AKT pathway) and a variety of diseases in humans such as inflammation, autoimmune conditions, and cancers (P. Workman et al. Nat. Biotechnol. 2006, 24, 794-796). The PI-3 kinase pathway controls a number of cellular functions including cell growth, metabolism, differentiation, and apoptosis. Many types of cancer are thought to arise in response to abnormalities in signal transduction pathways of which the PI-3 kinase pathway is a major example. The PI-3 kinase pathway comprises a number of enzymes including PI-3 kinase, PTEN (Phosphatase and Tensin homolog deleted on chromosome Ten), and AKT (a serine/threonine kinase) all of which are involved in producing and maintaining intracellular levels of second messenger molecule PtdIns(3,4,5)P3 (PIP3). Homeostasis in the levels of this important second messenger is maintained by the interaction between PI-3 kinase and PTEN. When either PI-3 kinase or PTEN are mutated and/or reduced in activity PIP3 levels are perturbed and it is believed that this perturbation may act as a trigger in the development of cancer. Indeed, both PI-3 kinase and PTEN have been found to be mutated in multiple cancers including glioblastoma, ovarian, breast, endometrial, hepatic, melanoma, gut, lung, renal cell, thyroid and lymphoid cancer. Multiple studies have now shown that p110α, which is a Class IA isoform of the regulatory subunit of PI-3 kinase, is frequently over-expressed and mutated in many cancers including gliomas, colon, brain, breast, lung, prostate, gynecological and other tumor types (Y. Samuels et al. Science 2004, 304, 554). Thus, a rational approach to treating cancer relates to developing drugs that act on kinases including those of the PI-3 kinase pathway.
Another putative mechanism for cancer involving kinase dependency is through loss of a negative regulator. Perhaps the best conceptual example of this comes from tumors with mutations in the PTEN tumor suppressor gene. This gene, which is mutated or deleted in a number of different cancers, encodes a lipid phosphatase that regulates signaling through the phosphatidylinositol 3-kinase (PI-3 kinase) pathway. Specifically, PTEN dephosphorylates PIP3, the product of PI-3 kinase (for review see L. C. Cantley et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 1999, 96, 4240-4245). As a consequence of PTEN loss and the resultant increase in PIP3 levels, signal propagation through downstream kinases such as AKT is constitutively elevated. Preclinical studies suggest that this indirect mode of constitutive kinase activation in tumor cells, through loss of the PTEN suppressor gene, creates a kinase dependency analogous to that seen in tumors with direct, activating mutations in the kinase itself.
Genetic and biochemical evidence from several model systems has established that constitutive levels of AKT can regulate TOR (mTOR in mammalian systems) through phosphorylation of the tuberous sclerosis complex (K. Inoki et al. Nat. Cell Biol. 2002, 4, 648-657). Hence, tumors with loss-of-function mutations in PTEN exhibit constitutive activation of AKT, as well as other downstream kinases such as mTOR. Many such tumors in murine models have been shown to be sensitive to mTOR inhibitors (M. S. Neshat et al. Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci. 2001, 98, 10314-10319).
At the cytocellular level, the induction and/or progression of cancer appears to involve a sub-population of cells within a tumor known as cancer stem cells. Within a population of cancer cells there exist a small number of cells that are capable of fully re-establishing a tumor. These cells are called cancer stem cells and are thought to be responsible for the inability to cure cancer with current drugs. These cells are characterized as having enhanced drug efflux properties, lacking in cell cycle progression (quiescent), and possessing resistance to anoikis (apoptosis upon experiencing loss of anchorage). Cancer stem cells have been described in the literature in solid tumor types for example see the review and references incorporated therein by J. E. Visvader et al. Nat. Rev. Cancer 2008, 8, 755-768: "Cancer Stem Cells in Solid Tumors: accumulating evidence and unresolved questions". Non-solid tumor cancer stem cells have also been reviewed recently, for example, see the review and references incorporated therein by J. E. Dick et al. Blood 2008, 4793-4807: "Stem cell concepts renew cancer research". To date the only documented clinical example of an approved cancer therapeutic drug decreasing cancer stem cells has been the use of Lapatinib shown to decrease the number of breast cancer stem cells in biopsies of women with breast tumors possessing high levels of HER2 protein (decreased from 11% down to 5% of cells) [C. Schmidt et al. J. Natl. Cancer I. 2008, 100, 694-695: "Lapatinib Study Supports Cancer Stem Cell Hypothesis, Encourages Industry Research"].
While therapeutic agents that act as modulators of signaling pathways are of clear therapeutic interest as agonists or antagonist of particular enzymes within a signaling pathway, e.g. inhibitors of PI-3 kinase, recent evidence indicates that independent mechanisms exist for providing therapeutic efficacy including, for example, oxidative stress. The generation of oxidative stress in cancer cells is a recent but well described cancer treatment approach. Examples of agents that induce such stress include clinically evaluated compounds such as buthionine sulfoximine/melphalan, imexon, arsenic trioxide, and motexafin gadolinium and the like [see for example the review and references incorporated therein by R. H. Engel et al. Front. Biosci 2006, 11, 300-312: "Oxidative Stress and Apoptosis: a new treatment paradigm in cancer"]. Cromenones such as LY294002 and the related analog LY3035111 have been reported to induce apoptosis in tumor cells due to intracellular hydrogen peroxide production independent of their PI3 kinase inhibition activity [T. W. Poh et al. Cancer Res. 2005, 6264-6274: "LY294002 and LY303511 Sensitize Tumor Cells to Drug-Induced Apoptosis via Intracellular Hydrogen Peroxide Production Independent of the Phosphoinositide 3-Kinase-Akt Pathway"]. This ability to induce oxidative stress in cancer cells is a positive attribute for an anticancer agent. Oxidative stress induction has also been demonstrated to enhance sensitivity of prostate cancer cells to nonapopototic concentrations of the chemotherapeutic agent vincristine.
LY294002 (2-(4-morpholinyl)-8-phenyl-4H-1-benzopyran-4-one) is a potent, non-selective inhibitor of PI-3 kinases with an IC50 of 1.4 μM (C. J. Vlahos et al. J. Biol. Chem. 1994, 269, 5241-5248). While LY294002 is an effective inhibitor of PI-3 kinase it has several undesirable attributes for clinical use including lack of aqueous solubility, poor pharmacokinetics, unacceptable toxicity, no tissue specificity, rapid metabolism in animals, and a synthetic route that involves the use of carbon disulfide, a highly toxic compound. As such, LY294002 has never been developed for clinical use.
Thus, there continues to be a need for safe and effective kinase inhibitors, including PI-3 kinase inhibitors, that are suitable for clinical use as tumor growth inhibitors and cancer stem cell inhibitors. The present invention relates to thienopyranone compounds that surprisingly provide significantly improved properties and advantages over LY294002 including unexpectedly superior potency as PI-3 kinase, cancer cell and cancer stem cell inhibitors, oxidative stress inducers, and synthetic procedures that avoid the need to use highly toxic compounds such as carbon disulfide.


A method for writing and reading data memory cells, comprising: defining in a first memory zone erasable data pages and programmable data blocks; and, in response to write commands of data, writing data in erased blocks of the first memory zone, and writing, in a second memory zone, metadata structures associated with data pages and comprising, for each data page, a wear counter containing a value representative of the number of times that the page has been erased.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to nonvolatile memories and particularly electrically programmable and erasable memories of the FLASH type.
2. Description of the Related Art
The market for electrically programmable and erasable memories on semiconductor wafers is traditionally divided between EEPROM memories and FLASH memories (or FLASH-EEPROM).
EEPROM memories comprise memory cells consisting of one floating gate transistor and one access transistor. FLASH-type memories comprise only one floating gate transistor per memory cell, and have the advantage being highly compact as far as the semiconductor surface occupied is concerned (the number of memory cells per surface unit). On the other hand, the absence of an access transistor involves the provision of positive threshold voltages for both the erased memory cells and the programmed memory cells so as to not create short circuits upon the bit lines. The gate oxides are therefore thick in order to durably maintain the electrical charges trapped in the floating gates, which entails a longer erase time. The erasure of FLASH memory cells is often done by tunnel effect whereas their programming is done by hot electron injection. The time for writing the memory cells is short, for example 5 microseconds, whereas the erase time is long, for example 100 milliseconds. Moreover, hot electron injection programming involves a high programming current, such that the number of memory cells able to be simultaneously programmed is generally limited to one byte.
FLASH memories were thus originally dedicated to mass storage. Various improvements have since been proposed so that they may offer features closer to those of EEPROM memories. Among the improvements that may be cited is a page-erasable FLASH memory, such as that described by U.S. Pat. No. 6,807,103, which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
These improvements have allowed for the commercialization of page-erasable FLASH memories offering the same apparent functionalities as those of EEPROM memories, but in which certain limitations remain:                a long erase time, which may be cumbersome in certain applications. Indeed, the apparent write time of a byte is determined by the erase time of the page that will receive the byte, the page to be completely erased each time a new byte is to be written within, the other bytes initially present in the page also to be written within; and        a lack of protection against untimely power interruptions during the erasure of a page or the writing of blocks.
As a result, FLASH memories were initially unable to be used as embedded memories in integrated circuits destined for applications where there is a high risk of a power supply interruption, mainly applications for chip cards or electronic tags, in which the power supplied to the integrated circuit may disappear in the case of a "tearing" (removal of the card from the card reader).
Other improvements to FLASH memories thus aimed to improve the data write time and to protect the data from tearing. To this end, data write methods called "delayed erase" were proposed. According to these methods, the writing of data is only done in erased pages and comprises memory cell write cycles without associated erase cycles. The successive writing of data in erased pages reveals invalid data, filling up more memory space than that which is necessary to store the valid data. As the memory space diminishes, the invalid data are erased to free up memory space (delayed erase). It has generally been proposed to use the write methods with delayed erase in relation with the protection of data against tearing ("tearing proof programming" or "anti-tearing methods"), because the applications requiring a fast data write are generally applications that are sensitive to power supply problems (chip cards).
As an example, the patent application publication No. US2005/0251643 describes a method of writing data protected against tearing ("tearing proof programming", Cf. paragraph 0008) adapted to FLASH memories. The memory pages are used to store, in addition to the useful data, a logical page address and a counter value. A look-up table allows a logical address to be associated with a physical address (electric address). When a data is to be written in a page, the page contents are copied into a page buffer. The new data is incorporated therein, and the counter value is incremented. The updated page contents are then written into another page, with the same logical address. The initial page is then erased.
U.S. Patent Application Publication No. US2008/0301357, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety describes a method of writing data with delayed erase, in which the page erasure is done in "N" steps of partial erasure of short duration, which are applied to pages other than those used to write the data. A step of partial erasure is launched after each step of writing of data, such that after N steps of writing, erased pages are obtained. Then a rotation is performed between the erased pages and the pages containing invalid data, the erased pages being used to write new data while the invalid pages are then submitted to the progressive erasure process. To this end, an auxiliary memory zone comprises a "current" sector comprising erased auxiliary pages usable to write the data, a "save" sector comprising auxiliary pages containing data linked to pages to erase or being erased, a "transfer" sector comprising pages containing data to transfer into the erased pages, and an "unavailable" sector comprising pages being erased.
Additionally, the documents U.S. Patent Application Publication Nos. 2008/082736 and 2005/0144357 disclose a memory comprising sectors of data and zones of management data, including an erase counter, that are placed in a sector overhead zone.
In summary, the above methods of delayed erase may handle entire pages. The pages of data are written in pre-erased material pages, the addresses of which are arbitrary, and a page logical address or "tag" that allows the page to be found is attributed to each page of data. This "tag" is saved with the page data and is "attached" to them, that is to say concatenated and placed in the same physical page. Another feature of the above methods is that each writing of a data in response to a write command involves the reading of all the page data, the insertion of the new data into the page data, then the rewriting of all the updated page data. As a result, a large "consumption" of erased pages occurs, in other words a high "cycling" and therefore an accelerated memory cell wear (the "cycling" representing the number of times that a page has been erased).

Method for wear leveling in a nonvolatile memory


A musical instrument having exchangeable components. The musical instrument may include a core portion providing a foundation for the musical instrument and a body portion removably attached to the core portion. Exchanging a body portion for another portion may alter the tonal, structural or aesthetic characteristics of the instrument. The musical instrument may be a stringed musical instrument, such as a guitar, for example, or may be a woodwind, horn or percussion instrument.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the field of musical instruments and, in particular, to musical instruments having components that can be exchanged for other components.
2. Description of Related Art
Innovation in the musical instrument arts is relatively infrequent. The basic design of many musical instruments has not changed in several hundred years. For example, the modern violin has essentially the same basic design today as it did in the 16th century. The basic design of a piano as we know it today is relatively unchanged today from its beginnings in the early 18th century. The same can be said for many woodwind and brass instruments also.
One of the last true innovations in the musical instrument arts occurred in the 1940s and 1950s, when the pioneering work of Les Paul and Leo Fender transformed the guitar from an acoustic instrument to an electric instrument. In a modern electric guitar, magnetic "pickups," formed by winding a coil around magnetic pole pieces, sense vibrations from metal strings on the guitar, portions of which are located within the magnetic field of the pole pieces. The vibration of the metal strings modulates the magnetic field of the pole pieces, which, in turn, induces a current signal in the windings of the coil. This signal is sent to an electronic amplifier, which amplifies the signal into an audible sound.
Guitar players can change the sound produced by an electric guitar by changing the guitar's pickups, which are available in a wide variety of styles and with a wide variety of tonal characteristics. However, the sounds generated by a guitar begin with a vibrating string. Although a guitar's pickup may affect how the vibrations of the guitar strings are processed, the structural characteristics of the guitar itself are what determine the nature of the string's vibration and, consequently, the tonal qualities or timbre of the guitar. Thus, legendary electric guitars such as the Gibson LES PAUL and the Fender STRATOCASTER and TELECASTER have unique tonal characteristics not only because of the particular type of pickups used on those guitars, but also because of the unique structural design and shape of the guitars themselves.
One drawback of modern musical instruments is the static nature of the structure of the instrument. Traditionally, if a musician purchased, for example, a violin having a particular timbre or tonal quality, the sound, looks and ergonomics of that violin could not be changed. The sound of the violin would be dictated primarily by the structural characteristics of the violin, which would remain static and unchanged. If the musician ultimately became bored or disenchanted with the sound of that particular violin, the musician had no alternative but to purchase another violin. The same can be said for other instruments. This is one reason why so many musicians traditionally have painstakingly taken a vast amount of time when purchasing a new instrument. A musician has had to make sure that he or she is completely happy with the sound of that instrument, be it a violin, piano, guitar, woodwind, horn or other instrument, because once a purchase has been made, the musician has been "stuck" with the sound, looks and ergonomics of that instrument.

Musical instrument having exchangeable components


An energy absorbing system. The energy absorbing system spanning a roadway and including a net spanning the roadway, the net having a first member coupled to a second member, and a mat arranged on the roadway, the mat having recesses to accommodate the net when the net is in a lowered position.

This application is a continuation of co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 11/095,240, filed Mar. 31 , 2005 now U.S. Pat. No. 7,195,419, and claims priority to U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/557,868, filed Mar. 31, 2004, both of which are hereby incorporated by reference.
This invention relates to a net and a mat, and more specifically to a modular mat that can accommodate the net and provide protection from a passing vehicle.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.


Provided is a method of producing a nucleator masterbatch, by which a nucleator masterbatch capable of improving the transparency and the physical properties of an olefin resin can be produced. This method is a method of producing a masterbatch in which a nucleator is blended in an olefin polymer, the method being characterized by comprising the step of polymerizing an olefin monomer with incorporation of a nucleator component, which is dissolved in an organoaluminum compound or in an organoaluminum compound and an organic solvent, before or during polymerization of the olefin monomer such that the nucleator component is blended in an amount of 0.05 to 20 parts by mass with respect to 100 parts by mass of the olefin polymer obtained by the polymerization of the olefin monomer.

First of all, olefin resins such as polyethylene, polypropylene and polybutene-1 have advantages in their excellent moldability, heat resistance, mechanical properties, low specific gravity and the like and are, therefore, widely utilized in films, sheets and various molded articles (such as structural components). However, since olefin resins have a slow crystallization rate after being heat-molded, not only there are such problems that the molding cycle in processing is long, but also there are cases where the resulting molded article is deformed due to crystallization that progresses even after molding. Moreover, since olefin resins generate large crystals when heat-molded, there are such drawbacks that the resulting molded article has insufficient strength and poor transparency.
It is known, however, that these drawbacks are attributed to the crystallinity of the olefin resins and can be solved by allowing fine crystals to be rapidly generated. In order to allow fine crystals to be rapidly generated, for example, a method of adding a nucleator, a crystallization promoter or the like is employed.
Examples of the nucleator that are conventionally used include metal carboxylates such as sodium benzoate, aluminum 4-tert-butylbenzoate, sodium adipate and 2-sodium-bicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-2,3-dicarboxylate; metal phosphates such as sodium-bis(4-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate, sodium-2,2′-methylene-bis(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate and lithium-2,2′-methylene-bis(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate; and compounds having an acetal skeleton, such as dibenzylidene sorbitol, bis(methylbenzylidene)sorbitol and bis(dimethylbenzylidene)sorbitol. These nucleators are disclosed in, for example, Patent Documents 1 to 8.
In cases where the above-described nucleators are directly added to an olefin resin, there are problems in terms of the working environment associated with an addition of powder as well as the ease of handling such as blocking caused by secondary aggregation of the nucleators. Therefore, attempts have been made to prepare a masterbatch of such nucleator and, for example, in Patent Documents 9 and 10, masterbatches for olefin resins are reported. In addition, in Patent Document 11, a masterbatch obtained by melt-kneading a petroleum resin and a nucleator is reported.
Further, Patent Document 12 proposes a method in which propylene is pre-polymerized and then two-step polymerization is performed with an addition of aluminum hydroxy-bis(p-t-butylbenzoate) or sodium benzoate as a nucleator.
As described above, a variety of studies have been conducted on the nucleator to be used in an olefin resin; however, there is still a room for improvement. For example, those nucleators disclosed in Patent Documents 1 to 8 have neither sufficient compatibility with an olefin resin nor sufficient dispersibility in an olefin resin and there is thus a problem that, even when a masterbatch is produced with an addition of the respective nucleators at a high concentration, the expected effects of addition are not exhibited.
Further, in the masterbatches for olefin resins that are disclosed in Patent Documents 9 and 10, the effect of improving the transparency, mechanical strength and the like of an olefin resin is not satisfactory.
The petroleum resin disclosed in Patent Document 11 shows good compatibility with an olefin resin; however, it may impair the intrinsic physical properties of the olefin resin.
Moreover, in a method in which an olefin monomer is polymerized with incorporation of a nucleator thereto at the time of the polymerization, there have been indicated problems that the nucleator reduces the catalytic activity of a polymerization catalyst and causes coloration of the olefin due to interaction with the metal of the polymerization catalyst, and there is also a problem that the selection and management of polymerization conditions are complicated.
The above-described method according to Patent Document 12 aims at uniformly dispersing the nucleator and thereby improving the rigidity of the resulting polymer, and it is a two-step polymerization method in which the nucleator is added after single-step polymerization of propylene. In Patent Document 12, it is disclosed neither that the nucleator may affect the polymerization activity, nor that the nucleator is masked and an adverse effect on the catalytic activity is thereby prevented. In addition, the method according to Patent Document 12 does not show any effect in single-step polymerization where a nucleator is directly brought into contact with a polymerization catalyst. Furthermore, the nucleator described in Patent Document 12 does not dissolve in an organoaluminum compound or an organic solvent and impairs the polymerization activity.
Secondly, olefin-based resins have advantages in their excellent moldability, heat resistance, mechanical properties, low specific gravity and the like and are, therefore, widely utilized in films, sheets and various molded articles (such as structural components). However, since olefin-based resins have a slow crystallization rate when molded, there are drawbacks that the molding cycle properties are poor and that large crystals are generated depending on the progress of crystallization after heat-molding, which leads to insufficient transparency and strength.
It is known, however, that these drawbacks are all attributed to the crystallinity of the olefin-based resins and can be solved by increasing their crystallization temperatures to allow fine crystals to be rapidly generated.
For this purpose, it is known to add a nucleator or a crystallization promoter, and examples thereof that are conventionally used include metal carboxylates such as sodium benzoate, aluminum 4-tert-butylbenzoate, sodium adipate and 2-sodium-bicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-2,3-dicarboxylate; metal phosphates such as sodium-bis(4-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate, sodium-2,2′-methylene-bis(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate and lithium-2,2′-methylene-bis(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate; and compounds having an acetal skeleton, such as dibenzylidene sorbitol, bis(methylbenzylidene)sorbitol and bis(dimethylbenzylidene)sorbitol.
A method for adding these nucleators are widely known and, using a Henschel mixer, a mill roll, a V-blender, a ribbon blender, a kneader blender, a Banbury mixer, a super mixer or the like, an olefin resin and an additive(s) containing a nucleator are mixed, and the resulting mixture is loaded to an extruder and granulated.
Further, Patent Document 12 proposes a method in which aluminum hydroxy-bis(p-t-butylbenzoate) or sodium benzoate is added as a nucleator at the time of polymerizing propylene.
However, in a method in which a nucleator is blended at the time of granulating a polymer, variations may occur in the product physical properties due to defective dispersion of the nucleator. In addition, since the nucleator is powder, there is a problem that the working environment is adversely affected and contaminated due to scattering of the powder and the like during operation. Meanwhile, blending of a nucleator at the time of polymerizing an olefin has a problem that the nucleator inhibits the polymerization activity.
The above-described method according to Patent Document 12 aims at uniformly dispersing the nucleator and thereby improving the rigidity of the resulting polymer, and it is a two-step polymerization method in which the nucleator is added after single-step polymerization of propylene. In Patent Document 12, none of the followings is disclosed: that the nucleator may affect the polymerization activity; that the nucleator is masked and an adverse effect on the catalytic activity is thereby prevented; and that the effect of the nucleator is improved by using an aliphatic metal carboxylate or an alkali metal-containing hydrotalcite in combination. In addition, the method according to Patent Document 12 does not show any effect in a single-step polymerization method in which a nucleator is directly brought into contact with a polymerization catalyst. Furthermore, the nucleator described in Patent Document 12 does not dissolve in an organoaluminum compound or an organic solvent and impairs the polymerization activity.
Thirdly, olefin resins are inexpensive and favorable in various properties such as transparency, heat resistance, surface gloss, oil resistance and mechanical properties; therefore, they are used in a wide range of fields such as industrial materials, automobile materials, home electric appliance materials and packaging materials. Since olefin resins are inexpensive products, they are being studied as an alternative to other resin materials.
Since olefin resins have a slow crystallization rate after being molded, there are drawbacks that the molding cycle is slow and that large crystals are generated depending on the progress of crystallization after heat-molding, which leads to insufficient transparency and strength of the resulting molded article. It is known, however, that these drawbacks are all attributed to the crystallinity of the olefin resins and can be solved by increasing their crystallization temperatures to allow fine crystals to be rapidly generated.
As a method of adding a nucleator before or during polymerization of an olefin monomer, for example, Patent Document 12 proposes a method in which propylene is pre-polymerized and then two-step polymerization is performed with an addition of aluminum hydroxy-bis(p-t-butylbenzoate) or sodium benzoate as a nucleator. Such a method in which a nucleator is added before or during polymerization is advantageous in that a step of blending the nucleator by a melt-kneading process such as extrusion after the polymerization can be omitted; however, there have been indicated problems that the nucleator reduces the catalytic activity of a polymerization catalyst and causes coloration of the resulting polymer due to interaction with the metal of the polymerization catalyst, and there is also a problem that the selection and management of polymerization conditions are complicated.
The above-described method according to Patent Document 12 aims at uniformly dispersing the nucleator and thereby improving the rigidity of the resulting polymer, and it is a two-step polymerization method in which the nucleator is added after single-step polymerization of propylene. In Patent Document 12, it is disclosed neither that the nucleator may affect the polymerization activity, nor that the nucleator is masked and an adverse effect on the catalytic activity is thereby prevented. In addition, the method according to Patent Document 12 does not show any effect in single-step polymerization where a nucleator is directly brought into contact with a polymerization catalyst. Furthermore, the nucleator described in Patent Document 12 does not dissolve in an organoaluminum compound or an organic solvent and impairs the polymerization activity.
Generally, a nucleator itself has poor fluidity and is thus required to be made into a slurry with a solvent; however, since such a nucleator has poor diffusibility in a solution and precipitates over time to cause uneven concentration, there is a problem that olefin polymers polymerized by a batch-type polymerization method have variable nucleating actions and effects.
Fourthly, olefin resins have advantages in their excellent moldability, heat resistance, mechanical properties, low specific gravity and the like and are, therefore, widely utilized in films, sheets and various molded articles (such as structural components). However, since olefin resins have a slow crystallization rate after being molded, there are drawbacks that the molding cycle properties are poor and that large crystals are generated depending on the progress of crystallization after heat-molding, which leads to insufficient transparency and strength.
These drawbacks are all attributed to the crystallinity of the olefin resins and can be solved by increasing their crystallization temperatures to allow fine crystals to be rapidly generated.
For this purpose, it is known to add a nucleator, and examples thereof that are conventionally used include metal carboxylates such as sodium benzoate, aluminum 4-tert-butylbenzoate, sodium adipate and 2-sodium-bicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-2,3-dicarboxylate; metal phosphates such as sodium-bis(4-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate, sodium-2,2′-methylene-bis(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate and lithium-2,2′-methylene-bis(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate; and compounds having an acetal skeleton, such as dibenzylidene sorbitol, bis(methylbenzylidene)sorbitol and bis(dimethylbenzylidene)sorbitol. These nucleators are disclosed in, for example, Patent Documents 1 to 8.
A method for adding these nucleators are widely known and, using a Henschel mixer, a mill roll, a V-blender, a ribbon blender, a kneader blender, a Banbury mixer, a super mixer or the like, an olefin resin and an additive(s) containing a nucleator are mixed, and the resulting mixture is loaded to an extruder and granulated.
Further, Patent Document 12 proposes a method in which propylene is pre-polymerized and then two-step polymerization is performed with an addition of aluminum hydroxy-bis(p-t-butylbenzoate) or sodium benzoate as a nucleator.
However, in a method where a nucleator is blended with an olefin resin, not only variations may occur in the product physical properties due to defective dispersion of the nucleator, but also contamination with a particle product having a large size may occur. In a film material, this causes a defect in the outer appearance of the resulting molded article such as rough surface and, in a fiber material, it causes breakage during molding; therefore, nucleators that can be used in the film and fiber material applications are limited. Further, in cases where a powder nucleator is used, there is a problem that the working environment is adversely affected and contaminated due to scattering of the powder and the like during operation.
Moreover, in a method in which an olefin monomer is polymerized with incorporation of a nucleator thereto at the time of the polymerization, there have been indicated problems that the nucleator reduces the catalytic activity of a polymerization catalyst and causes coloration of the olefin due to interaction with the metal of the polymerization catalyst, and there is also a problem that the selection and management of polymerization conditions are complicated.
The above-described method according to Patent Document 12 aims at uniformly dispersing the nucleator and thereby improving the rigidity of the resulting polymer, and it is a two-step polymerization method in which the nucleator is added after single-step polymerization of propylene. In Patent Document 12, it is disclosed neither that the nucleator may affect the polymerization activity, nor that the nucleator is masked and an adverse effect on the catalytic activity is thereby prevented. In addition, the method according to Patent Document 12 does not show any effect in single-step polymerization where a nucleator is directly brought into contact with a polymerization catalyst. Furthermore, the nucleator described in Patent Document 12 does not dissolve in an organoaluminum compound or an organic solvent and impairs the polymerization activity.
Fifthly, olefin resins are inexpensive and favorable in various properties such as transparency, heat resistance, surface gloss, oil resistance and mechanical properties; therefore, they are used in a wide range of fields such as industrial materials, automobile materials, home electric appliance materials and packaging materials. Since olefin resins are inexpensive products, they are being studied as an alternative to other resin materials and as materials for hygienic applications.
There are various properties required for the use of an olefin resin in a hygienic application. Particularly, the olefin resin, as a container or a packaging material, may come into direct contact with the content; therefore, it is important that the additives to be blended with the olefin resin be non-migratory and that the hygienic property of the molded article be ensured.
Meanwhile, since olefin resins have a slow crystallization rate after being molded, there are drawbacks that the molding cycle is slow and that large crystals are generated depending on the progress of crystallization after heat-molding, which leads to insufficient transparency and strength of the resulting molded article. It is known, however, that these drawbacks are all attributed to the crystallinity of the olefin resins and can be solved by increasing their crystallization temperatures to allow fine crystals to be rapidly generated.
For this purpose, it is known to add a nucleator, and examples thereof that are conventionally used include metal carboxylates such as sodium benzoate, aluminum 4-tert-butylbenzoate, sodium adipate and 2-sodium-bicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-2,3-dicarboxylate; metal phosphates such as sodium-bis(4-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate, sodium-2,2′-methylene-bis(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate and lithium-2,2′-methylene-bis(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate; and compounds having an acetal skeleton, such as dibenzylidene sorbitol, bis(methylbenzylidene)sorbitol and bis(dimethylbenzylidene)sorbitol. These nucleators are disclosed in, for example, Patent Documents 1 to 8.
Among the above-described nucleators, sorbitol derivatives show excellent nucleation effect; however, depending on the application, the use of a sorbitol derivative is limited because it may bleed out of a resin to contaminate a roll during film formation and generates a strong odor during processing. Further, metal salts of aromatic carboxylic acids that are commonly used function as nucleators; however, there are such problems that these metal salts markedly reduce the transparency of an olefin resin and cause generation of a large number of voids when the olefin resin is molded into a film.
As a method of adding a nucleator to an olefin resin, an olefin resin and an additive(s) containing a nucleator or transparentizing agent are mixed using a Henschel mixer, a mill roll, a V-blender, a ribbon blender, a kneader blender, a Banbury mixer, a super mixer or the like and the resulting mixture is loaded to an extruder and granulated.
Further, Patent Document 12 proposes a method in which propylene is pre-polymerized and then two-step polymerization is performed with an addition of aluminum hydroxy-bis(p-t-butylbenzoate) or sodium benzoate as a nucleator.
However, in a method where an olefin polymer and a nucleator are mixed and melt-kneaded, there are problems that the nucleator must be added in an amount more than necessary in order to compensate its poor dispersion in the olefin resin and that the nucleator migrates to the surface of the resulting molded article. Further, in cases where a powder nucleator is used, there is a problem that the working environment is adversely affected and contaminated due to scattering of the powder and the like during operation.
Moreover, although such a method in which a nucleator is blended at the time of polymerizing an olefin monomer is advantageous in that a step of blending the nucleator by a melt-kneading process such as extrusion after the polymerization can be omitted, there have been indicated problems that the nucleator reduces the catalytic activity of a polymerization catalyst and causes coloration of the resulting olefin resin due to interaction with the metal of the polymerization catalyst, and there is also a problem that the selection and management of polymerization conditions are complicated.
The above-described method according to Patent Document 12 aims at uniformly dispersing the nucleator and thereby improving the rigidity of the resulting polymer, and it is a two-step polymerization method in which the nucleator is added after single-step polymerization of propylene. In Patent Document 12, it is disclosed neither that the nucleator may affect the polymerization activity, nor that the nucleator is masked and an adverse effect on the catalytic activity is thereby prevented. In addition, the method according to Patent Document 12 does not show any effect in single-step polymerization where a nucleator is directly brought into contact with a polymerization catalyst. Furthermore, the nucleator described in Patent Document 12 does not dissolve in an organoaluminum compound or an organic solvent and impairs the polymerization activity.
Sixthly, olefin resins are conventionally known as resins that are light-weighted and have excellent mechanical and physical properties, chemical stability and processability and are, therefore, utilized in a wide range of applications in the field of industrial materials, including transportation materials such as containers and pallets; automobile interior and exterior components; large-size containers such as tanks and drums for industrial chemicals and fuels; various bottles for liquid detergents, shampoos, rinses and cooking oils; and home electric appliance materials.
In recent years, production rationalization and cost reduction have been advanced and, in the field of industrial materials, there is an increasing demand for reduction in thickness and weight of the materials and an extremely high-level performance improvement is demanded for olefin resins. In order to respond to these demands, high-performance catalysts having high stereoregularity have been adopted and resin designs have been optimized; however, simple application of these measures has yet to attain sufficient performance and there is a demand for an industrial material having even higher rigidity. Still, for olefin manufacturers, a large-scale facility modification and catalyst changeover cannot be considered advantageous from the standpoints of the cost and profitability.
Conventionally, in the composite material development, attempts have been made to increase the rigidity by adding a filler, for example, an inorganic filler such as talc, to an olefin resin. For instance, this has been done in the large-size blow-molding applications such as structural members including automobile parts where heat resistance and rigidity are required. However, when the amount of an inorganic filler to be added is increased for an improvement of the rigidity, the specific gravity is also increased, so that weight reduction, which is the original purpose, cannot be achieved. Therefore, a material having an improved rigidity whose specific gravity is hardly increased has been strongly desired.
Since olefin resins have a slow crystallization rate after being molded, there are drawbacks that the molding cycle is slow and that large crystals are generated depending on the progress of crystallization after heat-molding, which leads to insufficient transparency and strength of the resulting molded article. It is known, however, that these drawbacks are all attributed to the crystallinity of the olefin resins and can be solved by allowing fine crystals to be rapidly generated at the time of molding the olefin resins.
For this purpose, it is known to add a nucleator, and examples thereof that are conventionally used include metal carboxylates such as sodium benzoate, aluminum 4-tert-butylbenzoate, sodium adipate and 2-sodium-bicyclo[2.2.1]heptane-2,3-dicarboxylate; metal phosphates such as sodium-bis(4-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate, sodium-2,2′-methylene-bis(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate and lithium-2,2′-methylene-bis(4,6-di-tert-butylphenyl)phosphate; and compounds having an acetal skeleton, such as dibenzylidene sorbitol, bis(methylbenzylidene)sorbitol and bis(dimethylbenzylidene)sorbitol. These nucleators are disclosed in, for example, Patent Documents 1 to 8.
As a method of adding the above-described nucleators to an olefin resin, an olefin resin and an additive(s) containing a nucleator are mixed using a Henschel mixer, a mill roll, a V-blender, a ribbon blender, a kneader blender, a Banbury mixer, a super mixer or the like and the resulting mixture is loaded to an extruder and granulated.
Further, Patent Document 12 proposes a method in which propylene is pre-polymerized and then two-step polymerization is performed with an addition of aluminum hydroxy-bis(p-t-butylbenzoate) or sodium benzoate as a nucleator.
However, in a method where an olefin resin and a nucleator are blended by melt-kneading, not only the nucleator must be added in an amount more than necessary in order to compensate its poor dispersion, which is economically disadvantageous, but also there are such problems that the coloration of the nucleator itself causes the resulting molded article to be colored. On the other hand, in cases where a nucleator is added before or during polymerization of an olefin monomer, there is a problem that the nucleator inhibits the polymerization of the olefin monomer.
Moreover, although such a method in which a nucleator is blended at the time of polymerizing an olefin monomer is advantageous in that a step of blending the nucleator by a melt-kneading process such as extrusion after the polymerization can be omitted, there have been indicated problems that the nucleator reduces the catalytic activity of a polymerization catalyst and causes coloration of the resulting olefin resin due to interaction with the metal of the polymerization catalyst, and there is also a problem that the selection and management of polymerization conditions are complicated.
The above-described method according to Patent Document 12 aims at uniformly dispersing the nucleator and thereby improving the rigidity of the resulting polymer, and it is a two-step polymerization method in which the nucleator is added after single-step polymerization of propylene. In Patent Document 12, it is disclosed neither that the nucleator may affect the polymerization activity, nor that the nucleator is masked and an adverse effect on the catalytic activity is thereby prevented. In addition, the method according to Patent Document 12 does not show any effect in single-step polymerization where a nucleator is directly brought into contact with a polymerization catalyst. Furthermore, the nucleator described in Patent Document 12 does not dissolve in an organoaluminum compound or an organic solvent and impairs the polymerization activity.

Method for producing nucleator masterbatch


A method of using a printing device having a toner fuser to laminate a media sheet with at least one laminate material sheet, the method including receiving a laminate request, adjusting a characteristic of the toner fuser of the printing device, and passing the media sheet and the at least one laminate material sheet through the toner fuser to effect lamination within the printing device.

Printing devices are widely used in business, education, and personal settings for creating hardcopy documents of various types. Such devices generally are capable of printing on different types of media, including cellulose-based media, such as paper, polymer-based material, such as transparency overheads, and other media. The ability to print on a wide variety of media types further enhances the printing device's functionality.
Hardcopy documents are sometimes used in applications where excessive wear and tear is an issue. For example, signs, name badges, checklists, etc., may be subjected to rough handling or extended use, and thus may be subject to accelerated deterioration. Cellulose-based media can be especially susceptible to this type of deterioration, because of its structure and porosity.
A laminating technique may be used to protect cellulose-based media that is used in one of the aforementioned situations. For example, laminating cellulose-based media protects it from absorbing dirt and oils during handling that can accelerate its deterioration. Laminating techniques may involve application of heat and/or pressure to secure a laminating material to a media sheet.
Although some printers employ heat and pressure to fuse toner to media, such printers heretofore have not been well-suited to effect laminating due at least in part to differences between the heat and pressure characteristics of toner fusers employed in printing, and the heat and pressure characteristics desired in known laminating techniques. Such printers also have not previously considered the differential feed paths which may be desired to deliver laminating material into operative relation with a media sheet in order to effect laminating of such media sheet.

Printing device with laminating functionality

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


A method and apparatus for grinding a cylindrical surface of a workpiece by a traverse movement of a grinding wheel having a relatively narrow grinding surface. To improve the cylindricity of cylindrical surface, the traverse grinding is divided into a rough traverse grinding and a finish traverse grinding. In the rough traverse grinding, a traverse girding is carried out with a large depth of cut which would causes a deterioration of the cylindricity at one end of the cylindrical surface. In the finish traverse grinding, a traverse girding is carried out with a small depth of cut to improve the cylindricity. In another embodiment, one of grinding conditions such as the traverse speed of the grinding wheel, the rotational speed of the workpiece and the peripheral speed of the grinding wheel is changed when the grinding wheel approaches an end of the cylindrical surface at which the traverse grinding ends so as to make the grinding force constant, thereby improving the cylindricity of the cylindrical surface. In other embodiments, the position of the wheel head is compensated based upon the measured diameter of the cylindrical surface so that the entire area of the cylindrical surface has a desired diameter. This compensation also improves the cylindricity of the cylindrical surface.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method and an apparatus for grinding a cylindrical workpiece and, more particularly, to a method and an apparatus for grinding a cylindrical surface of a workpiece by traverse grinding.
2. Discussion of the Prior Art
Conventionally, when the axial length of a cylindrical surface of a workpiece is longer than the width of a grinding wheel, the cylindrical surface is ground by traverse grinding. In such traverse grinding, the grinding wheel is firstly advanced toward the rotational axis of a workpiece to carry out infeed movement into the cylindrical surface thereof, and a table supporting the workpiece is then moved in a direction parallel to the rotational axis of the workpiece so that the whole area of the cylindrical surface of the workpiece is ground by the grinding wheel.
Further, when it is required to ground a cylindrical surface of a workpiece at a high speed, so-called one-path traverse grinding is used for grinding the cylindrical surface, wherein the cylindrical surface is ground into a desired final dimension by a single traverse movement of the grinding wheel under the state that a large depth of cut has been given.
Such high speed traverse grinding, however has a problem that one end la of the workpiece 1 at which traverse grinding ends is excessively ground as compared to the rest of the cylindrical surface of the workpiece 1, as shown in FIG. 1. This causes a deterioration of the cylindricity of the outer surface.
The excessive removal at the end la is caused by a change in the grinding force during such traverse grinding. Namely, the grinding force is decreased when the grinding wheel approaches the end la of the workpiece 1, because the width b of an effective part of the grinding surface which actually carries out the grinding function decreases, as shown in FIGS. 2(i a) and 2(b). For example, when the width of the effective part of the grinding surface becomes the half of the width of the grinding surface B, the grinding force also becomes half. This decrease of the grinding force causes an increase of the grinding efficiency, and an decrease of the deformation amount in the radial direction of the workpiece 1, resulting in an excessive grinding at the end of the cylindrical surface.

Method and apparatus for grinding a cylindrical surface of a workpiece by traverse grinding


A meter reader for reading a meter by reading a shadow made by a meter pointer on the face of the meter. The meter reader includes a light source for shining a light toward the meter, a pulse control circuit for pulsing the light source, two light sensors for receiving reflections of the pulsed light from two sections of the face, a detection circuit for detecting the intensity of the reflections received by each of the sensors, a microprocessor system for calculating an intensity relationship between the intensities received by each of the sensors, a counter for incrementing a meter readout count when the intensity relationship varies indicating that the shadow has passed over both sections of the meter face, and a transmitter for transmitting the meter readout count in a meter readout signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to systems for reading meters and more particularly to a method and an apparatus for automatically reading a utility meter by optically reading a shadow of a meter pointer that falls on a meter face.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Meters are commonly used by utility companies for measuring and providing a readout for the quantity of water, gas, or electricity that has been used in a commercial or residential establishment. Historically, the meter readout is read by a person who walks or drives from establishment to establishment and then reports the readings to an office. Such process is labor intensive, subject to human error, and in certain circumstances may not be safe for the person. In order to eliminate these problems, automatic reporting meters have been developed that integrate the capability of measuring the amount of water, gas, or electricity with the capability of communicating the measurement to the office using either wired or wireless signal transmission. However, reporting meters are generally limited by economics to new meter installations. In order to improve the economics for existing utility meters installations, several meter reader interfaces have been developed or proposed that retrofit to an existing meter. These meter reader interfaces automatically read the position of the meter pointer with respect to the meter face using optics and communicate the meter reading in a signal transmission. Typically, the optical frequency that is used is in the infrared range because optical components are least expensive in that range. Unfortunately, the reflection coefficient of the pointer and the reflection coefficient of the face in the infrared range are not greatly different in certain meters thereby decreasing the reliability with which the meter can be read.


A fire alarm pull station includes a cover which must be opened to reach a fire alarm actuating handle, and an audio pull station alarm triggered by opening the cover. Once triggered, the pull station alarm remains on until reset, which reset requires using a tool in a first embodiment or a key in a second (or key lock) embodiment. The tool or key preferably allows the pull station to be opened to reset the pull station alarm. The cover may further be blocked from closing after being opened, and may only be closed after opening the pull station to reset a blocking mechanism. The pull station alarm is preferably an audio alarm residing in the pull station and the pull station may be hard wired to the fire alarm or wireless. The presence of the pull station alarm serves to deter false alarm setting.

The present invention relates to pull stations for activating fire alarms and in particular to a pull station with an audio deterrent to reduce false alarm setting.
Fire alarm pull stations are commonly used in public places to provide a means for sounding an alarm when a fire occurs. Unfortunately, pranksters often set off false fire alarms as jokes. The results of such false alarms may be both a disruption of normal activities in the area of the alarm and an unnecessary response by a fire company. Setting a false alarm generally results in a number of local alarm bells sounding, but there is often no immediate effect drawing attention to the activated pull station.

Fire alarm pull station with audio deterrent


An electrical connector connects to a mating connector by a rotatable union nut that is axially displaceable on a contact carrier with a sealing element therebetween. Damage to the sealing element is prevented by a stop that limits the maximum path by which the union nut can be screwed onto the mating connector, such that when the union nut is screwed on, the elastic sealing element is intentionally compressed, but is not damaged or destroyed. A vibration guard can also be provided in the connection.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an electrical plug and socket connection with a connector and a mating connector.
2. Description of Related Art
Electrical plug and socket connections typically consist essentially of two parts, the electrical connector and the mating connector. Both the connector and the mating connector have a contact carrier with corresponding contacts, which are either contact pins or corresponding sockets. Depending on whether the contact pins or the sockets are located in the respective contact carrier, the pertinent connecting part is called a plug or a socket. For purposes of simplicity of description, and without the invention being limited thereto, it is assumed herein that the contact carrier of the connector has sockets, while the contact pins are located in the contact carrier of the pertinent mating connector. Of course, one of ordinary skill in the art would understand that the components may be reversed.
These electrical plug and socket connections and connectors are used in automation as a component of electronic equipment, sensors, actuators, and controls. In such connections, especially in connector models known as M12 and M8 connectors (i.e., standard connectors having a metric thread with a bore of 12 mm or 8 mm) in which three, four, five, eight or twelve contacts are widely used, electrical connectors or mating connectors are provided in a straight version and also in 90° bent version. In the latter version, the handle body of the electrical connector is bent by 90° so that between the lengthwise direction of the accommodated cable set and the lengthwise direction of the contacts an angle of 90° is formed. These electrical connectors and electrical plug and socket connections can either be freely fabricated or wired when finished, then the contact carrier and the cable set of the handle body are injected in place.
In the plug and socket connections, the method of connecting the connectors and the mating connectors to one another is known. For example, the connector may have a union nut that is screwed onto a thread, which has been formed on the outside sleeve of the mating connector. In this case, the union nut has an inside thread that corresponds to the thread of the mating connector. Alternatively, it is also possible for the union nut to have an outside thread so that the connector with the union nut can be screwed into the outside bushing of the mating connector, which has a corresponding inside thread.
Since these electrical connectors are often used in relatively rough industrial environments and they can be exposed both to vibrations and shaking as well as moisture or direct water spray, it is known to provide the connectors with a corresponding vibration guard, which is intended to prevent unintentional loosening of the union nut. Moreover, on the connector or the corresponding mating connector, a sealing element, generally a gasket, is provided that ensures reliable sealing of the contacts. Examples of electrical connectors with a vibration guard are disclosed in DE 42 05 440 C2, DE 197 21 506 A1, DE 198 30 659 C1 and DE 203 13 187 U1. The individual connectors differ in that the vibration guard is made with axial teeth or radial teeth. The teeth are generally formed between the union nut and the contact carrier.
One disadvantage in known connectors is that an increased expenditure of force is necessary due to the vibration guard when the union nut is screwed into or onto the outside sleeve of the mating connector. In practice, this often leads to the union nut being screwed tightly with a tool. As a result, the tightening moment can be so great that damage to the electrical connector, especially overly strong compression, i.e. "overpressing" of the elastic sealing element, occurs. "Overpressing" of the sealing element can lead to the sealing element being damaged so that the sealing element no longer maintains its sealing action or, in any case, no longer reliably and permanently maintains its sealing action.

Electrical connector and electrical plug and socket connection


Disclosed is a one-piece expansion nut for a T-joint of pipes, including an internal thread hole at the center thereof and a plurality of long expanding pieces and short expanding pieces alternatively disposed around the outer periphery thereof, wherein the outer diameters formed by the long and short expanding pieces the same, but slightly larger than the inner diameter of one pipe to be jointed, upon putting the expansion nut into the pipe and passing a bolt through another pipe to screw onto the internal thread hole for a T-joint, the long and short expanding pieces being respectively expanded to exert force against the inner wall of the one pipe in two stages, so as to firmly hold the expansion nut in place and effectively complete the T-joint as required. Further, each long expanding piece can, during the manufacturing processes, be further punched to form a catch tab at the inner side of the upper part thereof, making the outer diameter formed by the catch tabs slightly smaller than that formed by the long or short expanding pieces; the catch tabs being expanded as well to exert another force against the inner wall of the one pipe, so as to help complete the T-joint as required more effective.

The present invention relates to an expansion nut, and more particularly to a one-piece expansion nut for the T-joint of pipes.
Referring to FIGS. 1A, 1B and 2, an expansion nut 2 according to the prior art is generally comprised of an internal thread 21 art the central hole thereof at either end thereof. The expanding pieces 3 are cut to form a plurality of tabs 31 extended radially and properly curved in the same direction, making their outer diameter slightly larger than the inner diameter 41 of one pipe 4. Both ends 22 of the nut 2 are made to allow the inner circle 32 of each expanding piece 3 to sit thereon, then these two ends 22 are hammered to make a tight fit between the inner circle 32 of each expanding piece 3 and the nut 2. When the nut 2 is put into the pipe 4 and a bolt 5 passes through another pipe 6 to screw onto the internal thread 21 of the nut 2, tabs 31 of the expanding pieces 3 can be expanded to complete a T-joint of the pipes.
For the expansion nut according to the prior art, however, the nut 2 and expanding pieces 3 must first be made separately, then have them assembled by many processing procedures. It is therefore complicated and inconvenient in its manufacture and assembly.


A microphone includes a volume reduction filling member therein. The volume reduction filling member includes an elastic body having an insertion hole for inserting an electrode extraction member which extracts a generated current to a back end side by contacting a front end side thereof to a fixed electrode of a microphone unit, and reducing a volume inside a unit case. The elastic body is divided into a tip-side main body portion and a base-end-side flexible flange portion through a circular groove around the insertion hole from an outer peripheral face side of a base end portion thereof. When an outer peripheral edge portion of the base-end-side flexible flange portion receives an equal pressure toward a tip direction so as to bend, the elastic body concentrates a stress into a front portion side of the insertion hole through the tip-side main body portion.

The present invention relates to a volume reduction filling member for a microphone for preventing a generation of a cavity resonance of a unidirectional condenser microphone, and a unidirectional condenser microphone incorporating the same.
Generally, a condenser microphone unit is formed by a unit case whose one face includes a front acoustic terminal as a sound introduction hole and is closed, whereas a female screw is incised on an inner periphery face of an open end portion dividing the other open face. In an order starting from a front acoustic terminal side inside the unit case toward the open end portion, a diaphragm ring including a diaphragm; a spacer ring; and a fixed electrode and an insulating seat relative to the diaphragm are housed. A lock ring is screwed through a male screw screwed into the female screw on a back face of the insulating seat, so that the fixed electrode can be pressed and fixed to a diaphragm ring side through the insulating seat with a predetermined pressure.
FIG. 3(a) and FIG. 3(b) are explanatory drawings showing one example of a unidirectional cylindrical condenser microphone formed by housing the conventional condenser microphone unit as mentioned above inside a cylindrical body, wherein FIG. 3(a) shows a right side view, and FIG. 3(b) shows a front view, respectively.
According to the aforementioned figures, a unidirectional condenser microphone 51 is formed by a microphone cylindrical body 52 including rear acoustic terminals 54 on a peripheral face of a front end portion 53 thereof; and a condenser microphone unit 57 including front acoustic terminals 58 on a tip face 57a and screwed and disposed on a front end side of the microphone cylindrical body 52.
Also, inside the microphone cylindrical body 52, there is disposed a circuit substrate (not shown in the figures) electrically connected to an output connector portion housed and disposed on a back end portion 56 side thereof in a state wherein a tip portion side thereof is held by a holding member.
Namely, inside the cylindrical body 52, a space for housing and disposing an electronic circuit member including the circuit substrate is required. As a result, after the electronic circuit member and the circuit substrate are disposed at predetermined positions, at portions where the rear acoustic terminals 54 are positioned, there remain a cavity communicating with outside air through the rear acoustic terminals 54.
Then, the cavity operates as an acoustic capacity, so that in the rear acoustic terminal 54, there is an acoustic mass. Therefore, a resonance is generated so as to have a problem of deteriorating a directional frequency response.
FIG. 4 depicts FIG. 1(a) in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-9807 proposed in order to solve the problem mentioned above. Inside a cavity 55 of the microphone cylindrical body 52 in the unidirectional condenser microphone 51, there is disposed a volume reduction filling member 60 for a microphone. Also, the volume reduction filling member 60 for a microphone is supported in a holding member 63. In a center axis direction of the volume reduction filling member 60 for a microphone, there is fixed and disposed an electrode extraction member 61. The electrode extraction member 61 presses a fixed electrode 59 side forming the condenser microphone unit 57. The volume reduction filling member 60 for a microphone is housed and disposed inside the cavity 55 in order to reduce a volume of the microphone cylindrical body 52 so as to raise a resonance frequency to a high frequency. Incidentally, in front (a left side of FIG. 4) of the fixed electrode 59, there is attached a diaphragm ring including a spacer ring and a diaphragm, which faces the fixed electrode 59 (not shown in the figure). The fixed electrode 59 and the diaphragm are disposed at a predetermined interval.
However, the volume reduction filling member 60 for a microphone shown in Japanese Patent Application Publication No. 2011-9807 is formed by a hard plastic sintered porous body. Therefore, in the conventional unidirectional condenser microphone, there is an inconvenience that it is difficult to concentrate a stress in such a way as to uniformly press a unit component member side against an opposite center portion 62.
In view of the aforementioned problem of a conventional technology, the present invention has an object of providing a volume reduction filling member for a microphone which can uniformly press by concentrating the stress on a fixed electrode side while preventing the generation of the cavity resonance of the unidirectional condenser microphone. Moreover, the present invention has an object of providing a unidirectional condenser microphone unit incorporating the volume reduction filling member for a microphone.
Further objects and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the invention.

Volume reduction filling member for microphone and unidirectional condenser microphone incorporating the same


Methods and apparatuses for managing dual connectivity. A method for operating a UE includes receiving a configuration for dynamic power sharing (DPS) between transmissions on a master cell group (MCG) and transmissions on a secondary cell group (SCG) and determining a time offset as a function of sub-carrier spacing (SCS) configurations and of configurations for a PUSCH processing capability on the MCG and on the SCG. The method further includes determining a maximum power for a PUSCH transmission on the SCG, at a beginning of the PUSCH transmission on the SCG, when each of the transmissions on the MCG is scheduled by a downlink control information (DCI) format in a PDCCH reception that ends at least the time offset before the beginning of the PUSCH transmission on the SCG. The method further includes transmitting the transmissions on the MCG and the PUSCH transmission on the SCG.

There is a demand for an improved 5G communication system. The 5G communication system can be implemented in higher frequency (mmWave) bands, for example 30 GHz bands, to enable higher data rates and/or in lower frequency bands, such as below 6 GHz, to support large coverage and enhanced mobility. A user equipment (UE) can communicate with multiple network nodes and operate with carrier aggregation when a backhaul latency among the multiple network nodes is negligible or with dual connectivity otherwise. When a UE operates in dual connectivity with a master node and a secondary node, one of the main design objectives is partitioning of UE capabilities between the two nodes because scheduling from the two nodes of transmissions from the UE or receptions by the UE can be uncoordinated. One such capability is a maximum UE transmission power where a conservative partitioning can lead to loss of coverage and of spectral efficiency while an aggressive partitioning can lead to dropped transmissions, degrade quality of service on the secondary node and may also reduce spectral efficiency.

Uplink power control in dual connectivity


A system and method for eliminating luminance false contours within rendered documents by sacrificing chrominance accuracy within printer halftones and for using the reduction of chrominance to improve the luminance correctness for any requested color. Ordinary halftone processes are modified such that small hue shifts are traded off for the ability to eliminate luminance false contours. Luminances of colored inks are created in a manner that turns on only one color spot at a time, instead of all three, within a slowly changing gray area because numerically equivalent steps in chrominance are much less visible in printed form than changes in luminance. Removal of false contours is therefore achieved by chrominance variations rather than by spatial variations in a document.

In today's high-tech office, documents are often created in electronic form and then printed. Tools for document creation have become increasingly powerful such as advances in high-resolution laser printers and the emerging support for full color printing. One of the problems that arises with the current technology is that the user may be surprised to find that the printed output does not look the same as the electronic image displayed on the workstation. Many programs try to make the two images match, supporting a what-you-see-is-what-you-get approach. Hardware differences, however, may make true matching impossible. One such difference is resolution. A laser printer may be able to print at 300 dpi while the workstation may support only about a quarter of this density. A compensating difference is that a sophisticated display may support continuous gray levels and/or colors, while a print may have to use halftones. A color display will often be driven through a 256 element color lookup table, limiting the number of colors which may be displayed at any one time, while a printer, using halftones, can produce many more. Finally, the color primaries and white point of the workstation may be different from the inks and paper available at the printer.
In image displays, such as CRTs, the problem of low resolution in the display can be reduced by use of the display's intensity level. In computer graphics, this technique has long been used to reduce the aliasing effects of the low resolution display. Effects such as "jaggies" in lines as they cross pixel boundaries, and "drop out" of small objects which fall between the pixels, are countered by setting the pixel intensities to intermediate levels to reflect that part of the pixel which is covered by the object and the part which is not. Perhaps the simplest anti-aliasing technique is to compute the image at a higher resolution, and then average the pixel values to obtain the lower resolution intensity. For example, if the image was created at four times the resolution, then four by four blocks of pixels would be averaged to obtain the display pixel value. This is, in effect, saying that the display pixels are non-overlapping squares with abrupt edges. Real pixels tend to be round and overlapping, with tapering edges. More sophisticated techniques apply a digital filter to the high-resolution image which, in effect, convolves the image with the pixel profile. However, in the area of desktop publishing, the effects of resolution are strongly apparent in text. Fonts available for the coarse screen resolution are large and simplistic. They cannot show the subtle effect of different font selections. Their size may make them out of proportion to the rest of the page. One may be unable to place the characters in the same positions as on the printed page due to crowding, giving either false page layout and line breaks, or some unreadable representation of the page. The anti-allasing techniques of computer graphics have been applied to the display of text. The fine elements and nonintegral pixel widths of character strokes become partially illuminated pixels. This gives the illusion of increased resolution, and permits much smaller font sizes to be displayed. It also permits the placing of characters at non-integral pixel positions.
The human visual system is able to distinguish a large number of colors. To cover this range of colors, display devices often provide 256 choices (8 bits) for each of the three primary colors, red, green and blue. This is a total of 24 bits or 2.sub.24 possible colors. To simultaneously render any or all of these colors requires a backing frame buffer with 24 bits per pixe. To reduce cost, displays usually provide a smaller pallet of colors which may be selected from this larger set. This is implemented by means of a color lookup table. A 256 entry table can be accessed by an 8-bit index. Each table entry can contain a 24-bit color specification. Thus, a frame buffer with only 8-bits per pixel can be used by looking up each pixel value in the color table to obtain 24-bit color. The display can produce 2.sup.24 colors, but can render only 256 of them at any one time.
Color lookup tables have proven useful By changing a value in a color lookup table, one can alter the appearance of all the pixels which reference this table entry. This is much faster than altering the pixels individually. Color tables can support fast color manipulation, structuring of the image, color correction, and even animation effects. The limited set of simultaneous colors, however, presents a problem concerning which colors should be chosen for the color table entries. Scanned images and some computer generated effects contain far more colors than the allowed 256. One must somehow pick colors that do not deviate too far from the true colors of the image. One would also like to reduce the false contours which arise when a smooth variation in color is displayed as a jump between one producible color and the next--this is just allasing in color space. One approach to this problem is to first analyze the image to determine which colors are most representative--this can be a costly process. Another alternative approach is to set the table to a fixed set of distributed colors, and then superimpose halftoning techniques to give the appearance of intermediate colors. In this approach, resolution is being traded for intensity levels of the color primaries. The halftone screen is used to choose between the available bounding colors for each pixel A rectangular, dispersed dot screen applied to each of the primary color components is straightforward and adequate. It also allows one to display the image as it is drawn. An error diffusion approach has also been tried which gives slightly better results, but must be applied to the entire image and is not used with individual image components.
Since color is a three-dimensional space, halftoning is applied three times for each pixel to achieve the appearance of intermediate values for each of the three color coordinates. The elements of the color lookup table are partitioned along the color coordinate axis to support the independent halftoning of each coordinate. If the coordinate axis is red, green and blue, the 8-bit color table index may be split into three bits of red, three bits of green, and two bits of blue. This gives eight shades of red, eight shades of green, and four shades of blue, plus all their combinations. Blue is chosen to receive only two bits because the eye is less sensitive to blue. An alternative is to allocate six shades of red, six shades of green, and six shades of blue. The color table is thought of as a three-dimensional array with six elements in each dimension which gives the mapping from color coordinates to color table index.
There are many possible coordinate systems used in describing color space besides red, green and blue. One alternative is to rotate and scale the axis so that one corresponds to the luminance Y. Luminance is a measure of how bright the color appears (yellow appears brighter than blue). The other two coordinates give the chrominance information --an approach used in the television industry, which implements the YIQ color mode. The Y component gives the luminance, which is shown on black-and-white sets. All three coordinates are used for color television.
One color encoding standard describes the YES color model Again, Y is the luminance, and the E and S coordinates give the chrominance. The E coordinate is the green to red axis, and the S coordinate is the blue to yellow axis using the red, green, and blue primaries and white point. The YES coordinates are given by: EQU Y=0.253R+0.684G+0.063B EQU E=0.5R-0.5G EQU S=0.25R+0.25G-0.5B
where R, G, B are the red, green and blue coordinates of the color. One advantage of this color model is that the E and S coordinates are very easy to calculate. The YES color coordinates are not visually uniform. Equivalent displacements in these coordinates generally do not appear to the eye as equivalent changes in color. There are visually uniform color spaces, notably the L*a*b* and L*u*v* color models. Using these coordinates for color table assignments and halftoning gives slightly better results, since the colors appear uniformly distributed, and the halftoning is linear with respect to appearance. However, these coordinates are much costlier to calculate.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,278,678 to Harrington discloses a scheme for the color display of images on a device with a moderate sized color table which first builds halftoned binary images for each of the three color components at a multiple of the display resolution. By summing bit values it then determines average values for display resolution pixels. The average values are then mapped to a color table. The YES color coordinate system is used by the Harrington scheme where colors are separated into luminance and chrominance components, allowing more weight to be given to the luminance from which the eye extracts most information. The scheme provides both anti-aliasing of solid areas, such as line and text, and color halftoning to give the appearance of colors between those available from the color table.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,543,820 to Edgar discloses a method for processing color signals representing an image including the steps of obtaining multiple linear color signals representing the image, translating the multiple linear color signals to a linear luminance signal and at least one linear chrominance signal converting the linear luminance signal to a nonlinear luminance signal and converting the linear chrominance signal to an non-linear chrominance signal by dividing the linear chrominance signal by a non-linear luminance signal. The linear processing is directed at producing improved image detail and color.
U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,543,311 and 5,517,334 to Morag et al. provides a plurality of color volume elements which together contain at least a portion of the color space and which in effect quantize the color space. An index value is also provided for each pixel in the image where each index value represents a particular representative color value in the subset of the first plurality of representative color values. The image may then be modified by modifying the representative color values in the subset of the first plurality of representative color values. The image, as modified, may be displayed by using the index value for each pixel.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,812,903 to Wagensonner et al. discloses a system for electronically enhancing an image of a colored original in order to produce a copy of that original RGB color signals are first passed through a gray balancing unit and then to an luminance and chrominance generating unit. In the generating unit, a luminance signal and a pair of chrominance signals corresponding to color image signals of an image to be copied are formed. The luminance signal is processed to enhance sharpness of an image, and one or both of the chrominance signals are also processed in a color saturation adjusting unit. Lookup tables are provided for converting the adjusted chrominance signals back to corresponding RGB color signals.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,758,885 to Sasaki et al. discloses a method of processing color images wherein a high resolution image is converted so that it can be displayed on a lower resolution color printer or the like. An input image of full color is converted over to a L*u*v* system which is based on brightness and saturation. The L*u*v* components are then compressed, converted into CMY signals and sent to a printer. A method of calculating the L*u*v* components from an RGB signal is shown.
While the related art recognizes the problems involved in processing color images on a continuous tone monitor, the art does not provide an efficient and effective rendering of high quality color in a manner which results in minimal false contours on binary marking devices that employ halftoning to create intermediate tones.
A classic problem in printing documents is the representation of intermediate tones (e.g. grays) with fixed level links (e.g. black). This is typically solved by halftoning, which is the printing of a spatially dispersed pattern of solid colored spots (e.g. black and white) which the eye integrates into the desired intermediate level However, for a fixed spot size, producing more gray levels means using patterns with larger spatial areas. Using too large an area results in visible halftone patterns, while too small an area gives too few gray levels and results in false contours in the image. Refer to FIG. 1a for an example of a printed document exhibiting noticeable false contours. One is forced to compromise between these two limitations, and may find it impossible to satisfactorily produce quality print requirements.
A color printer offers new dimensions which can aid with this problem. The eye is much more sensitive to luminance than to chrominance. False contours will be most visible if they arise from steps in luminance. A concept of contour reduction was Gray Levels from an 8 Bit Color Monitor" presented at the 1992 SPIE/IS&T Symposium on Electronic Imaging Science and Technology, Volume 1666--Human Vision, Visual Processing, and Digital Display III, but in a form which was only applied to color monitors and only to ramps of luminance for a single color. The teachings in Tyler et al, however, are not effective for image rendering in printed form.
Therefore, there is a need for a system which can ameliorate the quality tradeoff between halftones and levels that exists in digital systems with low sampling spatial frequencies. Furthermore, there is a need to improve print quality of documents generated by such digital systems.
Therefore, the object of this invention is to provide a method of sacrificing chrominance accuracy within printer halftones and for using it to improve the luminance correctness for any requested color in a printed document, thus reducing false contours typically found in printed documents when luminance adjustments are made.
All of the references cited herein are incorporated by reference for their teachings.

Reduction of false contours by chrominance modulation


A control apparatus controls a motor of an electric power steering system including: an input shaft connected to a steering member; a column shaft connected to the input shaft; a turning device that includes a rack and pinion mechanism, and turns a wheel; and the motor. The control apparatus includes a reliability computation portion that computes a reliability according to an abnormality detection state regarding at least one of a current sensor, a torque sensor, and a rotational angle sensor; a steering-shaft load estimation portion that estimates a steering shaft load using a current corresponding value, a torque corresponding value, and a rotational angle corresponding value; and a weight changing portion that changes a weighting of the current corresponding value, the torque corresponding value, or the rotational angle corresponding value according to the reliability.

Patent literature 1: JP 2013-126822 A
Conventionally, an electric power steering device that uses a motor as a drive source is disclosed. For example, patent literature 1 discloses an electric power steering device (also, referred to as a motor-driven power steering device). In the electric power steering device, an axial force applied to a steering shaft is estimated based on values from a torque sensor, a current sensor, and motor rotational angular speed detecting means, and the estimated axial force is used in a program for improving steering feeling.
The inventor of the present disclosure has found the following.
When sensor abnormality which includes the abnormality of the torque sensor, the current sensor, or a rotational angle sensor is detected, a predetermined time for confirming the abnormality as a malfunction after an initial detection of the abnormality is required to avoid an erroneous determination. In the electric power steering device in patent literature 1, a sensor abnormality is not taken into consideration. Thus, an axial force is estimated using a low-reliability sensor value during a period of time from the detection of abnormality until the confirmation of malfunction.


Embodiments of a services application on web services platform that employs embodiments of a database architecture for use in multitenant environments that replicates the same schema in the context of a database are disclosed. These schemas can be accessed using a database access object corresponding to the database and a particular schema for a particular tenant. In particular, the object identifier used to access the objects of the schema may be algorithmically generated based on the tenant.

An emerging information technology (IT) delivery model is web services model, by which shared resources, software or information are provided over a network such as the Internet to computers and other devices on-demand. Many times such web services are provided in the context of cloud computing. A cloud computing service generally refers to a service that allows end recipient computer systems (thin clients, portable computers, smartphones, desktop computers and so forth) to access a pool of hosted computing or storage resources (i.e., the cloud resources) over a network (the Internet, for example). In this manner, the host, a cloud service, may, as examples, provide Software as a Service (SaaS) by hosting applications; Infrastructure as a Service (IaaS) by hosting equipment (servers, storage components, network components, etc.); or a Platform as a Service (PaaS) by hosting a computing platform (operating system, hardware, storage, etc.).
Cloud computing resources are typically housed in large server farms that run networked applications, typically using a virtualized architecture wherein applications run inside virtual servers, or so-called "virtual machines" (VMs), that are mapped onto physical servers in a data center facility.
One key characteristic of web services and cloud computing that is different from existing environments is the desire for so-called "multitenant" support, sometimes referred to as multitenant single deployment. To satisfy this requirement, service providers have to be able to isolate different usage of the services. Indeed, typically one of the most significant barriers keeping enterprises or organizations from utilizing such services resources are security related. In particular, shared environments have the potential to expose unprotected data to malicious attacks, hacking, and introspection by third parties, both intentional and otherwise. The service provider thus needs to maintain isolation between and among their specific users that are sharing resources.
This has proved problematic as many of the existing pieces of infrastructure used to create these web services and cloud computing platforms were not designed to work with or accommodate the demands of such multitenant support.
What is needed therefore are implementations of multitenant web services that allow isolation of data between tenants while remaining efficient, powerful, portable and simple.

System and method for an efficient and scalable multitenant database implementation for services platforms, including cloud services platforms