A feed wheel includes a hub and a discontinuous tread removably fitted about the hub. At leading and trailing ends of the discontinuous tread are mateable non-planar female and male surfaces which interfit with one another and tend to interlock the tread ends together. The tread has locking lugs formed under leading and trailing ends and an intermediate segment of the tread which fit into holes configured and located in the hub complimentarily to the locking lugs. The holes and locking lugs are oriented relative to one another so as to enable the tread to be retained about the hub with the tread ends interlocked together during operation of the feed wheel.

A typical conventional converting machine used in the processing of sheets of corrugated paperboard and the like has a feed table on a support structure of the machine. The feed table includes a plurality of parallel drive shafts extending between and rotatably mounted to opposite sides of the support structure, multiple rotatable feed wheels spaced along and clamped about the drive shafts for rotation with the shafts, and a plurality of spaced apart grates or plates overlying some of the feed wheels and disposed between others. The sheets of paperboard are loaded in a stack form on the support structure of the machine so as to overlie the feed table. Upper portions of the feed wheels protruding above the plates engage the bottom surface of the lowermost one of the stacked sheets. Rotation of the drive shafts, in turn, rotates the feed wheels through a cycle of controlled acceleration followed by deceleration to cause feeding by the wheels of the lowermost sheet from under the stack to the nip of a pair of feed rolls of the machine located adjacent to the feed table, which feed rolls then transfer the sheet to other downstream processing stations of the machine. Some representative examples of such converting machines are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,045,015, U.S. Pat. No. 4,614,335, U.S. Pat. No. 5,184,811 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,609,997.
In most of these feed tables, the feed wheels have cylindrical-shaped hubs with annular or ring-shaped treads supported thereabout and commonly made of stretchable polyurethane material which provides a high coefficient of friction gripping peripheral contact with the surface of the sheet. The sheets may need to be accelerated from 0 to 200 fpm in a fraction of a second (eg, at feed rates of up to 400 sheets/min). As it is typically important that the sheet is fed at the correct instant in time (relative to the cycle of the machine) and at the correct speed (to match the machine speed), uniform gripping and wear become the main requirements of the feed wheel treads. As high coefficient of friction gripping materials undergo normal wear, their dimensions change which, in turn, changes the speed at which they feed the sheet. Furthermore, the degree of wear of treads of different wheels may vary and thus the wear may be uneven across the feed table. This is a significant problem since if wear (or lack of wear) occurs more on the treads of some wheels than others the tendency is for the less worn, thus larger diameter, wheels to push that side of the sheet forward faster than more worn, thus smaller diameter, wheels which will increase the likelihood of skewed sheet feeding and pulling on that side of the sheet introduced first to the feed rolls which will further pull the sheet at an angle.
Thus, as they become worn, the feed wheel treads need replacing which requires a certain amount of disassembly and reassembly of the feed table depending upon the type of tread in use. For example, in the case of a more common continuous, or full ring style, tread, the amount of disassembly will typically involve: (a) removal of the plates covering the wheel treads; (b) decoupling the driven shafts from a gearbox and removal of their bearing supports; (c) removal of the driven shafts from the machine; (d) cutting off or socking (forcing) all the treads from the hubs and shafts; (e) then socking on replacement treads from the ends of the shafts and over one or more hubs; and (f) reassembly of the driven shafts and plates to the feed table. These disassembly and reassembly steps typically take 1–2 hours for two mechanics/fitters and require the same amount of production downtime (unscheduled if feed problems are being experienced.)
An alternative to the continuous, or full ring style, tread that has been used to reduce the requirement for performance of some of the aforementioned disassembly and reassembly steps is a discontinuous, or split ring style, tread produced by a planar or straight radial slit or cut through the tread at one location. This discontinuous, or split style, tread permits a wrap around removal and fitting of the tread to a modified hub without the need to sock each tread on the hub. The hub is modified by providing a plurality of peripheral recesses spaced circumferentially thereabout into which fit a plurality of cylindrical shaped locking lugs extending inwardly of the tread body at ninety degree intervals and projecting along axes extending generally parallel to a central axis of the feed wheel.
With respect to this alternative, the grates or plates of the machine that cover most of the space around these treads still require removal to enable maintenance personnel to grip and pull up the worn tread, typically from a side of the tread, to remove them. Thus, this alternative has not been widely adopted by the industry as it still requires some disassembly and reassembly and also lends itself to feed problems as the gap at the planar radial split or join of the tread has a tendency to open up due to the considerable loads that the treads are subjected to as they grip and move the sheet. Thus, to date, the continuous, or full ring style, tread remains the more popular one.
However, further complicating matters, because of the aforementioned uneven wear of the feed wheel treads and the requirement that the replacement of even one tread will necessitate the aforementioned steps involved in machine disassembly and reassembly, the replacement of all treads is typically periodically scheduled and carried out even though some treads will be worn less than others and thus are prematurely discarded. The most common technique of deciding when treads need to be replaced is when it is observed that skewing or loss of register of the sheets has become unacceptably high. Another less common technique is to attempt to measure the height that the treads protrude above the feed grates or plates, which is a laborious and thus inherently inaccurate process.
Further, it should be pointed out that the continuous, or full ring style, tread relies solely on friction (from the undersizing of the inside diameter of the shoulder of the tread relative to the outside diameter of the shoulder of the hub) to keep the tread from indexing (slipping) on the hub. Indexing of the tread on the hub will adversely affect the accuracy of the registration of the sheet.
Consequently, a need still exists for an innovation which will provide a solution to the aforementioned problems of the prior art feed wheels without introducing any new problems in place thereof.

Rotatable feed wheel for sheet converting machine


Cleaning compositions and methods of making and using the same are provided. The cleaning compositions of the present invention may include at least one alkyl 3-hydroxybutyrate and water, optionally including at least one surfactant and one or more additional additives. The cleaning compositions of the present invention, which are non-toxic and environmentally benign, can be useful to remove many types of soils from a range of different substrates in a variety of domestic, industrial, and/or institutional applications.

Aqueous cleaning compositions are useful for removing dirt and other soils from a variety of surfaces including hard surfaces such as floors, walls, countertops, and furniture. Many commercially-available aqueous cleaners include an organic solvent combined with water and optional ingredients such as surfactants, colorants, fragrances, and the like. Makers of these cleaning compositions, whether for household, industrial, or institutional use, are faced with the task of optimizing the cleaning formulations by selecting a solvent that exhibits excellent cleaning performance, but that causes minimum adverse effects on the user and the environment. To date, this problem has not been successfully resolved, as most high performance cleaning compositions do not have benign toxicity profiles and/or include high VOC solvents, while many "green" cleaners, recently developed in light of stricter environmental regulations, exhibit unsatisfactory cleaning performance.
Thus, a need exists for a safe, environmentally friendly cleaning composition capable of removing soil from a substrate with high efficiency. Preferably, the cleaning composition would be effective to remove a variety of types of undesirable substances from a wide range of substrates. Further, the cleaning composition should be able to be manufactured in a cost-effective manner and on a commercial scale.

Aqueous cleaning compositions including an alkyl 3-hydroxybutyrate


In one aspect, this disclosure relates to a seat seal assembly for a valve. In another aspect, this disclosure relates to a gate valve or a ball valve including the seat seal assembly. In another aspect, this disclosure relates to a method of manufacturing a valve including the disclosed seat seal assembly.

Valves are necessary equipment in industrial applications where pressure and fluid must be controlled. There are many different types of valves available for these applications, each with different characteristics and ideal operating conditions. Two types of valves that are commonly used in high pressure applications are gate valves and ball valves. In hydraulic fracturing and other surface or subsea hydrocarbon production-related operations, for instance, gate valves are commonly selected because they allow the full diameter of the flow bore to be opened, thereby efficiently maximizing flow for a flow bore of a particular diameter. Gate valves are also capable of securely closing against fluid flow, even in high pressure applications. Ball valves have similar advantages.
In certain applications, particularly those in hydrocarbon production-related operations, the valves may be exposed to high pressures, high temperatures or low temperatures, oil, corrosive fluids, and erosive elements such as frac sand or other particulates suspended in fluid, which can damage the valves or cause them to wear down over time. Repairing or replacing a valve can difficult, expensive, and time-consuming, depending on the location of the valve and the need to cease ongoing operations for the repair or replacement. Further, failure of valves in these applications can have catastrophic results.
Typical gate and ball valves include seats disposed on either side of the gate or ball and positioned within seat pockets in a valve body structure to form a seal with the gate or ball on one side and with the valve body on the other side. By forming these seals, the seats are intended to prevent fluid communication between an upstream flow bore and a downstream flow bore of the valve when the valve is closed. Fluid communication between the upstream and downstream flow bores when the valve is closed can result in abnormal pressure drops, damage to components of the valve, and eventually failure of the valve. Maintaining the integrity of the seats is a particular concern in valves that may be exposed to high pressures, high temperatures or low temperatures, oil, corrosive fluids, and erosive elements such as frac sand or other particulates suspended in fluid. The seats are susceptible to damage under these conditions and that damage may make the seats less effective. In particular, the sealing faces of the seats may be eroded or corroded, reducing their ability to form seals with the valve body and the gate or ball.
The seat pockets may also be damaged by extreme operating conditions. The seat pockets may become pitted through corrosion or erosion, causing fluid to leak between the seat pocket and the sealing face of the seat. To repair these leaks, the seat pocket must be machined to remove the pitted surface, forming an "oversized" seat pocket. The oversized seat pocket requires an oversized seat to mate with it. Accordingly, in order to deal with changing sizes of pockets, current seats must be made available in different sizes for valves of a single size. This repair process requires halting valve use and removing the valve, making this process undesirable. Further, the selective fit of the seat introduces complexity and potential for error into the assembly process for a gate valve.
Additionally, in hydraulic fracturing applications, solid elements in the fluid passing through the gate, especially fine mesh sand, build up and become trapped between the seat and the valve body. When this occurs, the sand can cause the seats to lock up with the gate or ball and not float as they are typically designed to. The locked seats can cause gate drag that requires high operating torque to overcome. High operating torque may in turn cause damage to the gate or ball and the seat and place stress on other components of the valve.

Dual face-type seat seal arrangement for valve applications


An electrode for use in an electrolytic cell, and, an electrolytic process, wherein the electrode includes an electrode active material having at least one partially inorganically fluoridated surface to, in turn, increase at least one of stability, capacity, and rate capacity of the electrode. The fluoridation can be carried out by atmospherically controlled plasma treatment.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to electrode materials, and more particularly, to electrode materials having fluoridated surfaces which increase the electrochemical performance of the electrode and associated electrolytic cell. The invention is also directed to a process for fabricating fluoridated electrode materials for use in an electrolytic cell.
2. Background Art
Lithium ion batteries have been known in the art for several years. Moreover, lithium ion batteries having electrodes which utilize conventional untreated lithium transition metal oxides, such as LiCoO.sub.2, LiNiO.sub.2, and LiMn.sub.2 O.sub.4 are likewise well known. While such batteries have been readily utilized in the industry, they remain marginally adequate for commercial use by today's standards. In particular, electrodes utilizing conventional lithium transitions metal oxides exhibit reasonable stability and capacity at relatively low charge/discharge rates. However, at higher charge/discharge rates batteries utilizing such conventional electrode materials suffer from capacity loss and/or material degradation. As such, the prior art is replete with references which are directed towards maximizing the capacity and stability of lithium ion batteries at elevated charge/discharge rates.
Nevertheless, the prior art is void of any disclosure relative to using an organic precursor to inorganically fluoridate electrode active materials, to in turn, increase the electrochemical performance of an associated electrolytic cell.

Fluoridated electrode materials and associated process for fabrication


A non-oxide, transition metal based ceramic material has the general formula A.sub.y M.sub.2 Z.sub.x, wherein A is a group IA element, M is a transition metal and Z is selected from the group consisting of N, C, B, Si, and combinations thereof, and wherein x.ltoreq.2 and y.ltoreq.6-x. In these materials, the group IA element occupies interstitial sites in the metallic lattice, and may be readily inserted into or released therefrom. The materials may be used as catalysts and as electrodes. Also disclosed herein are methods for the fabrication of the materials.

The present invention relates to a novel class of non-oxide, transition metal based ceramics which are capable of intercalating group IA elements therein. These materials have utility as electrodes for batteries, fuel cells, capacitors, electrochromic displays and the like. They may also be used as elements in semiconductor devices, as catalysts, and as structural elements in a variety of specialized devices.
The materials of the present invention are described as being non-oxide ceramics, and within the context of this disclosure the term is meant to refer to compounds of transition metals having one or more of boron, carbon, nitrogen and silicon occupying a number of interstitial sites in their crystalline lattice. As such, they are distinguished from prior art oxide based ceramics. It is to be understood that in some instances, the materials of the present invention may include some minor proportions of oxygen therein, either as a native oxide formed on the surface thereof, or as a minor proportion of oxygen occupying internal sites of the bulk material. Nonetheless, the properties of the materials of the present invention are attributable to the non-oxygen components thereof, and as such, it will be understood that non-oxide ceramics, as defmed herein, may include some small portions of oxygen therein.
It is notable that the materials of the present invention can incorporate group IA elements therein. The group IA elements occupy interstitial sites in the lattice, and may be readily inserted and removed therefrom and such insertion and removal is referred to herein as intercalation. It is further to be noted that as used herein, the term group IA elements is meant to refer to hydrogen group elements of the periodic table.
The materials of the present invention are capable of intercalating large amounts of hydrogen or lithium in relatively small volumes, therefore, they have significant utility as electrodes for batteries, sensors and the like, and as catalysts. The materials of the present invention are low in cost and environmentally benign. Furthermore, they have high electrical conductivities, compared to other ceramics, and manifest good thermal stability. It has been found that the electrochemical potential of these materials can be controlled by varying their stoichiometry, and this feature is significant, insofar as it permits manufacture of electrochemical cells having a controlled discharge profile.
Previously, oxide based ceramic materials have been employed as battery electrodes, and one particular lithium ion battery electrode utilizing oxide based ceramics is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,110,696. Another such oxide based battery electrode is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,358,801.
As will be explained hereinbelow, the mechanical, chemical and electrical properties of the materials of the present invention distinguish them from prior art ceramics, and greatly enhance their utility as catalysts, electrodes, and the like.
Also disclosed herein are some novel methods for the fabrication of the materials of the present invention. These and other advantages of the present invention will be readily apparent from the drawings, discussion and description which follow.

Transition metal-based ceramic material and articles fabrication therefrom


System and method for implementing a predictive disconnect in an Offline Charging System of a telecommunications network are provided. In one aspect, an apparatus for implementing a charging function in the OFCS is configured to determine that a resource allocated to the OFCS for processing messages received from one or more Charging Trigger Functions (CTFs) connected to the OFCS is experiencing or about to experience a bottleneck condition. The apparatus is configured to heuristically determine an expected duration of time for the resource to return to a normal condition, and is further configured to initiate a disconnection between the OFCS and one or more of the CTFs connected to the OFCS for at least the determined expected period of time.

Telecommunication service providers typically provide numerous voice and data services to end users (also referred to as subscribers of a telecommunication network). Some examples of voice services include voice calls, call forwarding, call waiting, etc. Some examples of data services include messaging, streaming audio/video, Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP), online gaming, and IP-TV. The data services are managed by a Packet Core network of a telecommunications provider, which interfaces the end user with external Packet Data Networks (PDN), such as the Internet. Some examples of Packet Core networks include General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) core network, an Evolved Packet Core (EPC) of a Long Term Evolution (LTE) network, etc. Mobile devices, such as cell phones, personal data assistants, smart phones, notebook computers, etc., may access the voice or data services of a telecommunication network via an over the air interface with one or more base stations.
Telecommunication service providers use offline and online charging systems to keep track of the resource/services usage incurred by each subscriber user device of the telecommunication network. The 3GPP/3GPP2 standards groups have defined a set of specifications that may be used to implement online charging systems and offline charging systems in the various network domains (e.g., a circuit-switched domain, a packet-switched domain, and/or a wireless domain), IP multimedia subsystems, and emerging 3G/OMA application services.
As provided in 3GPP TS 32.240, offline charging is defined as a group of functions where charging information for network resource usage is collected concurrently with the resource usage. An Offline Charging System (OFCS) of the telecommunication network processes charging information through a chain of charging functions that are part of the OFCS, which results in the generation of Charging Data Record (CDR) files that are transferred from the OFCS to the network operator's Billing Domain for subscriber billing and/or inter-operator accounting. Charging information is provided by a Charging Trigger Function (CTF) that is implemented in a network element (NE) configured to provide services to a subscriber via the telecommunications network. The CTF collects charging information pertaining to chargeable events associated with various services provided by the telecommunications network to the subscriber's user device, assembles this information into matching charging messages, and sends the charging messages to the OFCS, which processes the information and generates CDRs that are sent to the billing domain.
However, a number of constraints may limit or reduce the performance of the OFCS in processing charging information received from CTFs connected to the OFCS. A constraint or strain in the resources used to implement one or more functions implemented in the OFCS can often have an adverse effect on being able to generate complete CDRs for services enabled by one or more Network Elements, which, in turn, typically results in significant potential revenue leakage for the telecommunication network provider. Thus, systems and methods that aid and/or improve the recovery process of an OFCS that is experiencing or about to experience a resource constraint are desirable.

Predictive disconnect in an offline charging system


In a method for controlling channel-switching, a current channel is displayed through a display unit. A channel-switching correlation table is looked up to obtain at least one candidate channel, which is predicted to be watched after the current channel. The current channel is switched to the at least one candidate channel when a channel-switching signal is received, such that the display unit displays the at least one candidate channel. The present invention also discloses a device for controlling channel-switching and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing the method for controlling channel-switching.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a method and a device for controlling and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing the method. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method and a device for controlling channel-switching and a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing the method.
2. Description of Related Art
As technology develops, TVs nowadays are developed with more and more functions, and, as a result, remote controllers are equipped with a lot of buttons for these functions. More and more TV stations are launched, which leads that 3 digits are needed for numbering TV channels. Even if there are several buttons on remote controllers, most users get used to operating up/down or +/− buttons to switch channels in sequence. If numbers of their favorite channels are distributed discretely, users have to operate up/down or +/− buttons for many times to switch to another favorite channel, or they have to remember the number of their favorite channel to input through remote controllers and further press "Enter" or "OK" to confirm to switch.
Generally speaking, most users may watch only some of available channels (for example, less than 10 channels). However, it is not easy for users to remember all of the channel numbers which they are used to watching. "Recall" key can only switch between two channels, such as between a current channel and a previously-watched channel. Yet, switching between two channels cannot satisfy most users' needs.
Above all, there is a need for users to switch to the frequently watched channels without memorizing numbers and with few operation clicks.

Method and device for controlling channel-switching and non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for storing the method


This application describes apparatus and methods for using edge-computing to control resource distribution among access channels, such as a retail banking center. Edge-nodes may be configured to move a product display in response to detected or expected customer traffic flow in or near a retail location. Edge-nodes may be configured to redirect resources provided by a cloud computing environment to or away from the retail location. Based on customer traffic flow, edge-nodes may direct customers/resources to a retail location and ensure the retail location provides a predetermined quality of service.

A merchant may operate multiple access channels to provide customers with goods and services (hereinafter, "products") offered by the merchant. A merchant may provide access to products via an online store. The merchant may provide access to products via a mobile application. The merchant may provide access to products via brick and mortar locations.
Each access channel utilized by the merchant may have its own set of resource requirements. For example, an online store may need to be hosted by a computer system that can provide uninterrupted access to customers that attempt to access the online store. A mobile application may need to be installed on a device that has sufficient computing resources to secure and process customer interactions with the application. A brick and mortar location may require human resources to adequately service customers.
Typically, the merchant may attempt to allocate resources to each access channel based on characteristics of the channel and customer demand associated with the channel. However, such an approach may cause inefficient use, and potential waste, of important resources. For example, a merchant may determine that during the day, a brick and mortar location should be staffed with five employees to meet peak customer demand. However, peak customer demand may only occur for an hour or two during the day. Thus, for most of the day, the merchant has over supplied resources to this access channel.
As a further example, a merchant may provide self-serve kiosks, such as automated teller machines ("ATMs"). The ATMs may be distributed within a geographic area. The ATMs may need to be stocked with cash to meet expected customer demand. However, the merchant may not know which ATM will be visited by a particular customer at any particular time. Each customer that resides within the geographic area may have equal access to each ATM. Thus, in an effort to provide maximum customer satisfaction, the merchant may attempt to maintain a threshold level of cash in all ATMs within the geographic area.
However, it may be costly to maintain the threshold level of cash in all the ATMs. Furthermore, despite the merchant's best efforts, on any particular day, a particular ATM may be frequented by an unexpected number of customers that exceeds expected demand. When expected demand is exceeded, some customers that visit the ATM may be informed that the ATM does not have sufficient cash on hand.
It would be desirable to reduce waste associated with underutilized resources. It would be desirable to improve the efficiency of resources deployed by the merchant. It would be desirable to improve utilization of resources deployed by the merchant and improve customer satisfaction and quality of service provided by the merchant across multiple access channels.
Accordingly it is desirable to provide apparatus and methods for edge-node controlled computing resource distribution.

Edge-node controlled resource distribution


A flexible fuel dielectric-effect sensor is disclosed wherein three capacitors, immersed in the fuel flow, are connected to define a pi filter.

The present invention relates generally to a flexible fuel system for determining a fuel mixture and more particularly to a dielectric-effect sensor for such a system.
Dielectric-effect sensors have been under investigation for several years. Two such sensors are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,915,034 and 4,939,467, and the teachings thereof are incorporated herein by reference. A similar sensor is described in a doctoral dissertation entitled "Automatic Control of Internal Combustion Engines Operating on Gasoline/Alcohol Mixture by Means of Electronic Systems," submitted by G. Wiszler in July 1983 to Heidelberg University, Heidelberg, Germany. The teachings thereof are also incorporated by reference.


The invention discloses a waterless fiber dyeing machine suitable for mixed fluid medium, including a dyeing tank, a carbon dioxide pressurizing system and a polar medium pressurizing system, a fiber loading system, a circulating dyeing system, a carbon dioxide recycling system, a polar medium separating and recycling system and an automatic unloading system. Since there are pressurizing systems and separating and recycling systems for carbon dioxide medium and polar medium, dyeing with the mixed fluid medium is realized in the waterless dyeing tank and the circulating dyeing system thereof; the hydrophobic carbon dioxide fluid medium is effectively modified, so that the dyeing performance and effect of the dye molecules on the hydrophilic natural fiber are improved. The fiber loading system and the unloading system can significantly improve the fiber loading efficiency, the discharging efficiency of the products.

In recent years, under high requirement of environment protection and the environmental policy being carried out strictly by the government, the traditional textile and dyeing industry with high water consumption and large amount of pollutant discharge has encountered unprecedented challenges and development difficulties. Therefore, the development of green and clean manufacturing technologies, especially the waterless dyeing technology without using water as medium, are attracting more and more attention from textile and dyeing enterprises. And supercritical carbon dioxide fluid, as an important part of non-aqueous medium dyeing technology, has attracted much attention because of its unique technical advantages and industrialization feasibility. For example, the carbon dioxide medium has a relatively low critical temperature and critical pressure (31.1° C. and 7.38 MPa), which is non-toxic, non-combustible, non-explosive, colorless, odorless, and has excellent biocompatibility; and the supercritical carbon dioxide fluid has low viscosity, high diffusivity and high penetration, which thus can effectively shorten the processing time; after the dyeing process is finished, it is easy to separate and recycle the medium, and no harmful substance is remained on the processed products, so that the processed products do not need to be dried. These unique advantages and processing characteristics have made the supercritical fluid waterless dyeing technology develop unprecedentedly in recent years. At present, most synthetic fibers, such as polyester, dyed and processed by disperse dyes in supercritical carbon dioxide fluid, can meet commercial standards and requirements, and realize volume production within a certain range.
However, for various types of hydrophilic natural fibers containing a large number of hydroxyl groups, amino groups and the like, in the hydrophobic supercritical carbon dioxide fluid medium, the hydrogen bonds between the macromolecular segments of the fibers cannot be disconnected effectively, thus the fibers cannot be puffed adequately, and the necessary conditions for the diffusion of dye molecules in the fiber cannot be provided. Meanwhile, the hydrophobic supercritical carbon dioxide fluid medium cannot dissolve the polar dyes adequately, causing the various natural fibers cannot be dyed adequately. Therefore, it has always been a fundamental problem hindering the development and application of the dyeing of natural fibers in single supercritical carbon dioxide fluid medium.
At the same time, from the disclosed literature and reports and practical applications, the existing supercritical carbon dioxide fluid equipment systems for textile dyeing processing are only for single carbon dioxide medium. The function of the existing equipment systems is relatively simple, which are only applicable for limited types of fibers. The degree of automation, operation convenience and processing efficiency are far from satisfying the requirement on commercialized production and high efficiency processing of natural fibers and their blends with multi-component varieties. Therefore, this also significantly affects and limits the industrial application of supercritical fluid waterless dyeing technology.

Waterless dyeing machine suitable for mixed fluid medium


A computer-implemented method for recognizing behavioral attributes of software in real-time is described. An executable file is executed. One or more runtime events associated with a behavior of the executable file are traced. The one or more traced runtime events are translated to a high level language. A recognizable pattern of the translated traced runtime events is produced. The pattern is a unique behavioral set of the translated traced runtime events.

Currently, a massive number of unknown executable software and machine code files are created and released around the world every day. Each individual executable file, application, program, piece or package of software, or the like, whether malicious or non-malicious, may be recognized by behavioral based security software if that security software is to be efficient and effective.
Each minor change in compiled software may modify the software's static fingerprint, whether the software is malicious or non-malicious. As the general use of computer systems increases exponentially, new and modified software is being released and installed on computer systems around the world at an accelerating rate.
Methods of obfuscating the static and dynamic makeup of software are continually being created and implemented for various reasons. Methods to evade security solutions based on scanners and emulators are also being implemented. These changes, as well as the accelerating rate of software installation, impose additional burdens for security software solutions to be able to recognize unknown software.
These burdens are causing unacceptable delays in accurate identification of unknown software by security software. This status quo can also cause inaccurate identification of software, resulting in both false positives and false negatives by current security software, such as for example scanners, anomaly detection, and behavioral based security software. As a result, there is a need for a method, system, computer program product, software application, article and/or computer readable medium of instructions recognizing behavioral attributes of software in real-time.

Systems and methods for recognizing behavorial attributes of software in real-time


An optical system for a laser beam scanner, is capable of reducing the manufacturing cost by substituting a holographic optical element for a toric lens, comprising a light source for generating a laser beam, a rotary polyhedron for collimating the laser beam from the light source and focusing and reflecting the laser beam; and a compensating lens array, including a concave lens for receiving the laser beam from the rotary polyhedron and a convex lens attached with a holographic optical element, for compensating the laser beam reflected from the rotary polyhedron and scanning the compensated laser beam to a drum.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an optical system for a laser beam scanner of a laser printer, and more particularly to an optical system for a laser beam scanner which is capable of reducing the manufacturing cost by use of a holographic optical element in a compensating lens array.
2. Description of the Prior Art
A conventional optical system for use in a laser beam scanner of a laser printer is illustrated in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG. 1, the conventional optical system comprises a light source 1 for generating a laser beam, a collimator 2 for allowing the laser beam from the light source 1 to advance in parallel, a cylindrical lens 3 for focusing the laser beam which has passed through the collimator 2, a rotary polyhedron 4, rotatably mounted by means of a motor (not shown), for reflecting the laser beam which has been focused by the cylindrical lens 3 toward a scanning plane of a predetermined anyle, and a compensating lens array for preventing the laser beam reflected at the polyhedron 4 from moving perpendicularly with respect to the scanning plane and scanning the laser beam on a drum 7 at a uniform speed.
The compensating lens array includes a concave lens 5 and a toric lens 6.
The toric lens 6 has a toric surface, as shown in FIGS. 2A and 2B, in which the radiuses of curvature R1 and R2 at a scanning plane and the radiuses of curvature R1' and R2' at a plane perpendicular to the scanning plane have the relationships of R1.noteq.R1' and R2=R2', respectively.
In such a conventional optical system, a laser beam 8 generated from the light source 1 is collimated by the collimator 2 and focused on the cylindrical lens 3. The focused laser beam is reflected to the scanning plane depending upon the rotation of the rotary polyhedron 4 and scanned on the drum 7 through the compensating lens array 5 and 6.
At that moment, the compensating lens array 5 and 6 prevents the laser beam 8 from slightly moving in the direction perpendicular to the scanning plane, depending upon the gradient of the mirror surface of the rotary polyhedron 4 and executes a F-.theta. compensation so that the scanning speed of the laser beam can be maintained uniform when the laser beam is scanned on the drum 7. In the F-.theta. compensation, "F" is indicative of an effective focus length of the toric lens 6 and .theta. is indicative of a rotational angle of the rotary polyhedron 4.
Such a conventional optical system, however, has a disadvantage in that since a toric lens having a toric surface is required in the compensating lens array in order to prevent the laser beam from slightly moving in the direction perpendicular to the scanning plane and to maintain the scanning speed on the drum uniform, the manufacturing cost of the optical system is high.


An object of the present invention is to provide a micro powder capable of producing a thin film with precision thickness. This object is achieved by a micro powder having an average particle size of from 0.5 to 50 μm, obtained by grinding a liquid crystalline polyester having a flow beginning temperature of from 200° C. to 270° C.

Liquid crystalline polyesters showing optical anisotropy are paid to attention as materials for electronic parts because of an excellent electric insulation property, low hygroscopicity, heat resistance and the like. Recently, because of increasing a demand for downsizing of electric parts, that is, the demand for decreases in weight, thickness, length and size of electronic parts, use of this liquid crystalline polyester as a thin film has been investigated.
As the method of decreasing the thickness of a liquid crystalline polyester film, there are known a powder painting method using a micro powder, and a method of forming a painted film using a solution containing a micro powder dispersed. However, while a liquid crystalline polyester having a high flow beginning temperature shows high elasticity, it is difficult to obtain a thin film of the liquid crystalline polyester by a powder painting method, a method of forming a painted film using a solution containing a micro powder dispersed, or other methods, even if pellets of the liquid crystalline polyester are ground.

Micro powder and method for producing the same


An inflatable borehole plug comprising an inflatable fluid tight bag with a storage container containing an inflation fluid in a compressed state located within the fluid tight bag. The storage container has a first actuator and a second actuator located at opposite ends thereof to initiate release of inflation fluid and hence effect expansion of the fluid tight bag. Choice of the vertical orientation of the first and second actuators and of which or both are activated provides differing rates of release of the inflation fluid and corresponding different rates of inflation of the fluid tight bag.

Expandable borehole plugs are generally employed to form a support or "deck" within an explosives borehole to support a column of explosive composition thereabove. Selective placement of one or more borehole plugs in a borehole enables selective concentration of explosive energy in one or more regions along the length of the borehole.
Inflatable borehole plugs usually comprise a sealed gas tight flexible bag containing a source of pressurized fluid which source, when actuated has a time delay property to enable the flexible bag to be lowered into a borehole to a predetermined depth before expanding against the borehole wall to form a deck.
Typically the source of pressurized fluid comprises an aerosol canister with a conventional valve stem and a mechanical actuator which, when actuated, holds the valve in an open position to discharge the entire contents of the canister in a manner similar to insecticide "bombs" or other aerosol fumigants.
The aerosol canister may contain a quantity of a non-expansive liquid, such as water, and a quantity of an expansive propellant, such as a hydrocarbon or halohydrocarbon, which remain in separate phases with the water at the bottom of the can and the propellant in a gas/liquid space thereabove. Alternatively, the canister may contain only a standard expandable fluid.
A dip tube or stem extends from the interior inlet port of the valve to open adjacent the base of the aerosol canister and, when actuated, water, if present, is discharged first and when substantially all of the water volume is discharged, the propellant gas is then discharged. In this manner, the water acts as a time delay fluid enabling the inflatable borehole plug to be lowered to a predetermined depth in a borehole before the propellant gas enters the flexible bag body of the plug to expand the body against the borehole wall.
The period of time delay can be as much as 5 minutes and is influenced by the volume of water in the aerosol can and/or the diameter of the discharge orifice in the valve and/or actuating cap.
Expandable borehole plugs or modified forms thereof are described in Australian Patent 763474 and Australian Patent 779463, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference.
There are limitations to the control over inflation delay which can be exerted purely by means of the inflation fluid composition. Further, in many cases the time delay effected by the inflation fluid is greatly in excess of the time required to place the borehole plug at the desired depth in the borehole. This excess time is inefficient and a waste of skilled labour hours. It would be valuable to provide for a further control mechanism over the inflation process and, particularly, allow the process to be sped up, when required, without requiring a range of inflation fluid compositions be provided, tailor made for different depth applications.


The claimed subject matter pertains to the use of mobile relay nodes to serve users on high speed trains. In particular, this invention defines a framework that enables a base station of a cellular network to make accurate predictions of future traffic load, and take appropriate steps to serve this traffic, such as reserving sufficient air interface, backhaul, and processing resources.

Wireless data communications are a critical component of mobile computing and have become increasingly popular due to the continued development of mobile computing technologies and the deployment of massive infrastructures. The various available technologies that comprise the spectrum of wireless data communications often differ in local availability, coverage range and performance. Cellular networks are one type of wireless data network, where wireless service is provided over a geographical area, and this service area is divided into a number of smaller (sometimes overlapping) regions known as cells. Each cell is served by at least one fixed-location transceiver known as a cell site or base station. When joined together, the network provided by these cells can cover a significantly wide area. This enables a large number of user-operated portable transceivers (e.g., mobile phones, tablets, laptops, etc.) to communicate to other nodes in the network via the base stations, even if some of the transceivers are moving through more than one cell during transmission.
However, cellular data traffic through a single cell is limited by the base station's capacity; there is a finite number of calls or data traffic that a base station can handle at once, depending in part on the physical implementation of the base station and the capacity and resources available to the base station. A mobile device may not be able to connect to a cell at times, or may have severely compromised service, because the radio signals from a base station are too attenuated due to distance (e.g., the mobile device is too far from a base station), or because the phone is in a location where radio signals from a base station are compromised by intervening materials, such as building walls, hills or other structures. Service may be degraded under these conditions. For example, voice quality may suffer, data throughput may be reduced, or calls may be dropped by the network.
As a mobile device travels through coverage areas of multiple base stations, the cellular network keeps track of the mobile device, and the base station that is currently serving the mobile device. The intelligence of the network, and of the mobile device itself, allow the mobile device's data communication to be directed from one base station to the next during conversation to avoid outages. Traditionally, as a mobile device travels, the mobile device constantly detects available signals, selects the base station with the strongest signal available to communicate with, and is released by the base station from which the signal has become weaker. This process of transferring an ongoing call or data session between cells is referred to as a "hand off," or, from the perspective of the receiving cell, as a "hand in."
In conventional mobile device communication, the target of a hand off request (e.g., a base station) has no prior knowledge of expected traffic load, nor of expected time of hand in, the Quality of Service (QoS) and load requirement due to an incoming hand offs are normally provided as part of the hand off request. As the traffic load from a single mobile computing device is typically a small fraction of the overall traffic carried by the cell, this approach works well for traditional mobile computing devices.
Due to the nature of mobility, it is difficult to predict when and where a hand off may occur prior to the actual event. Furthermore, there would be limited value to attempting such a prediction. However, when a relatively dense and large amount of mobile devices synchronously and simultaneously travel through cells (such as during transit on mass transit systems, for example), the base station serving the area through which a vehicle of the mass transit system travels may experience a sudden, unanticipated surge of traffic load as the vehicle moves into its coverage area. This unusually high traffic load will persist as the vehicle traverses the coverage of the receiving base station, and then just as abruptly transfers to the next receiving base station.
If a base station is already serving a relatively high load (e.g., several Mobile computing devices), the incoming load for the base station (following the hand-in of the mobile relay node) can be very high, and may exceed the total capacity of the base station. The hand-in of the mobile relay node, with its high traffic load, would put the base station into an overload condition. Historically, base stations have limited options to address this overload condition. For example, a base station might reject the hand off of the mobile relay node altogether, which would result in the loss of connection to hundreds of passengers on the train, or the base station may block the hand off of traffic from some portion of these users, or for certain traffic flows, etc. Virtually all of these alternatives would result in severe performance degradation to the train passengers, and potentially to other users being served by that cell.

Forward traffic announcements for enhanced resource reservation in high speed mobile relays


A method of processing an optical element comprises providing an interferometer optics; arranging a calibrating substrate in a beam of measuring light emitted by the interferometer optics; superimposing measuring light having traversed the first and second surfaces of the calibrating substrate with reference light, and taking a first interferometric measurement of the superimposed measuring light and reference light; arranging the aspherical surface of the optical element in the beam of measuring light emitted by the interferometer optics, while the calibrating substrate is not arranged in the beam of measuring light; superimposing measuring light having interacted with the aspherical surface and the reference light, and taking a second interferometric measurement of the superimposed measuring light and reference light; determining deviations of the aspherical surface from a target shape thereof in dependence of the first and second measurements; and machining the aspherical surface of the optical element.

The optical element having the aspherical surface is, for example, an optical component such as an optical lens or an optical mirror used in optical systems, such as telescopes used in astronomy, or optical systems, used for imaging structures of a mask such as a reticle, onto a radiation sensitive substrate, such as a resist, in a lithographic process. The success of such an optical system is substantially determined by the precision with which the optical component can be machined or manufactured to have a target shape. In such manufacture, it is necessary to compare the shape of a surface of the machined optical component with its target shape, and to determine differences between the machined and target surfaces. The surface is then further machined at those areas where the differences between the machined and target surfaces exceed e.g. a predefined threshold.
In order to precisely measure the shape of an optical surface, an interferometer apparatus is commonly used. Examples of conventional interferometer apparatuses are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,732,483, U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,306, U.S. Pat. No. 5,473,434, U.S. Pat. No. 5,777,741, U.S. Pat. No. 5,488,477, which documents are incorporated herein by reference.
The conventional interferometer apparatus for measuring an aspherical optical surface typically includes a light source for generating a beam of measuring light having flat or spherical wavefronts and arranging a flat reference surface or spherical reference surface, respectively, in the beam of measuring light for generating a reference beam reflected from the references surface. Since flat or spherical reference surfaces may be manufactured and independently tested with a high accuracy, the reference beam will have substantially flat or spherical wavefronts. The beam of measuring light will further traverse a null lens arrangement or compensator which transforms the flat or spherical wavefronts of the beam of measuring light to an aspherical wavefront corresponding to the optical surface to be tested. Background information relating to null lens arrangements or compensators is available e.g. from Daniel Malacara, "Optical Shop Testing", 2nd Edition, John Wiley & Sons Inc., 1992, chapter 12. The aspherical wavefronts will be reflected from the optical surface to be tested, and traverse the null lens arrangement such that the reflected aspherical wavefronts will be transformed to closely spherical or flat wavefronts which are superimposed with the wavefronts of the reference beam to generate an interference pattern on a detector. From the interference pattern it is possible to determine the shape of the aspherical optical surface relative to the reference surface. One source of errors in such determination results from a limited accuracy with which the optical effect of the null lens arrangement is known.

Method of calibrating an interferometer optics and method of processing an optical element having an aspherical surface


An application specific integrated circuit includes a multiplicity of operative circuit blocks. Disposed in at least one of the blocks is a multiplicity of selectively operative heater modules for providing localised heating within the block. The heater modules may comprise cyclic redundancy code generators each coupled to respond to a system clock, and each heater module may include a system clock divider providing a multiplicity of differently divided clock signals and means for selecting a clock signal for use by the module. The invention is useful in design variable testing to produce variation with temperature of the frequency of an intermittent timing error.

This invention relates to the design and testing of integrated circuits particularly large scale, application specific integrated circuits such as may be employed, for example, in high speed switching devices adapted to receive and transmit addressed data packets.
The design and layout of such integrated circuits (xe2x80x98chipsxe2x80x99) for use in the processing of digital signals is lengthy and complex. An important stage in the process from design to manufacture is a xe2x80x98de-buggingxe2x80x99 stage for the identification and correction of faults which need not necessarily arise from the high level design but which may arise owing to the infringements of limits on set up and hold times or other physical-level problems. Examples include paths with strict timing tolerance or xe2x80x98criticalxe2x80x99 paths within ASICs. In such examples small process variations or inaccuracies in simulation may produce intermittent faults.
When intermittent faults are identified in an ASIC during design verification testing it can be very difficult to isolate the faults to a specific block in the circuit. It is known to provide monitoring connections, usually called visibility buses, from internal nodes at key places in the data path but it is not always possible to select the correct paths to bring out the visibility buses to externally accessible pins.
One approach to the analysis of intermittent faults is to investigate temperature/voltage sensitivity, which can identify timing-related problems which may occur too sporadically or intermittently for certain identification of the location and cause of the fault. Generally such faults will increase in frequency as the local temperature increases. Heat guns, freezer spray or environmental changes have been proposed to vary the temperature but it is difficult to produce sufficiently specific local heating to obtain useful assistance in the isolation of faults.
The present invention envisages additional features within the ASIC to assist in the discovery of faults. The invention is based on the provision of power hungry modules, for example CRC (cyclic redundancy code) generators at various places on the chip and the individual enabling of such modules under selective control, for example by means of a CPU. Such modules may be inserted during the final placement of blocks in an ASIC technology using any one of the many computerised floor planning tools which are commercially available.
During design verification testing various heater modules could be enabled while running stress tests in order to identify potential design weaknesses as early as possible in the development stage. If intermittent faults do occur, these modules may be selectively enabled in different stages of the data path to help indicate regions on which attention may be focused.
Further features of the invention will be apparent from the accompanying drawings.

Method and apparatus for inducing locally elevated temperatures in an application specific integrated circuit


A drill bit (100) having a longitudinal axis (101) and to be rotated about the axis (101) in a drilling direction (102) to perform a drilling operation. The drill bit (100) comprises a body (120) having a longitudinal length with a proximal end (121) and a distal end (122). The body (120) has a diameter. A tapered tip (110) extends from the proximal end (121) and terminates in an apex (111) at an end of the drill bit (100). The drill bit (100) also comprises a plurality of flutes (140) with each flute (140) extending helically along the body (120) into the tip (110). The drill bit (100) also comprises a land (150) between each of the flutes (140) and extends to the tip (110). The drill bit (100) also comprises a plurality of tip faces (190) on the tip (110) and extends from a corresponding land (150) to the apex (111), where each of the tip faces (190) has a tip face leading edge (173) and a tip face trailing edge (174). Each of tip face leading edges (173) forms an intersection with an adjacent one of the flutes (140) to provide a plurality of primary cutting edges (175). In a tip cross-sectional plane extending perpendicular to the axis (101) through each of the primary cutting edges (175), each of the primary cutting edges (175) lies on a circle extending about the axis (101) and each of the tip face trailing edges (174) lies entirely within the circle. Each of the flutes (140) helically extends in an opposite direction to the drilling direction (102).

Drill bits are traditionally formed from a rod/shaft of high strength metallic material by grinding two or more helical gulleys, known as flutes, into the side wall of the rod extending from the operative front end of the rod towards the rear end, leaving a cylindrical shank at the rear end of the rod. The flutes typically extend helically in a clockwise (or right-handed) direction when viewed from the rear of the shank. The flutes are separated by lands that define the full diameter of the rod.
The cutting end part of the drill bit, generally known as the tip or point, is formed by grinding the end region of the rod to provide a generally conical end part with end or tip faces extending from each land towards either a chiselled edge, for designs with two flutes, or a sharp apex for designs with three or more flutes. A primary cutting edge is defined by the junction between the leading edge of each of the tip faces and the adjacent trailing side wall of the adjacent flute. It is these primary cutting edges that cut material being drilled at the end of the drill hole. The shavings of swarf cut from the material pass along the flutes towards the rear of the drill bit, thereby creating room for more material to be cut or shaved and passed into and along the flutes for ejection from the rear end of the flutes.
In orthopaedic applications, typical orthopaedic drill bits produce shavings of bone swarf mixed with bone marrow, blood, plus other fluids and cells, which are ejected from the rear end of the flutes and which could form part of an autograft rather than be discarded. However; a lot of bone drilling is performed with minimal access through deep wounds, tubular drill guides or cannulae. Collecting and replacing the drilled bone, to form an autograft base for device fixation is therefore not practical or even possible in many cases. Device fixation, after drilling is often augmented with synthetic bone fillers, bone cements, donor graft material or allograft.
It is a well-known truth that the patients' own body material, in the form of an autograft, is far more acceptable from the body's perspective. Therefore, it can be seen as beneficial if the ejected bone swarf shavings are collected and reintroduced back into the drill hole with the intention to promote bone re-growth in and around the perimeter of the drill hole, and any fracture site, in order to provide improved purchase and stability for bone screws or other fixation devices. This is particularly the case with osteoporotic bone as it is often soft and frangible thereby requiring as much reinforcement as possible.


Deformations are applied to a model using a subdivision surface. Given a wrap and model, a subdivision surface is calculated from the wrap. The model is then bound to the subdivision surface. When the wrap is deformed, the subdivision surface is recalculated. The model is then deformed based on changes in the subdivision surface. Binding parameters may be assigned to control vertices in the wrap to control the application of the deformation to the surface.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to computer graphics and, more specifically, to wrap deforming a model using subdivision surfaces.
2. Background Art
Computers are widely used to model figures, from insects and monsters to human beings. The basic view of a figure is known as a model. Creating a model requires a lot of time and effort on the part of a user. In general, a user creates a model by scanning in a three-dimensional sculpture or by creating a model by hand based on a traditional two-dimensional drawing. Frequently, a computer-generated (CG) model is represented mathematically by one or more parametric surfaces. A CG model usually comprises a large number of parametric surfaces connected together. A parametric surface is a description of a two-dimensional object in three-dimensional space where every point on the parametric surface can be mapped to a pair of parameters (u, v). Many types of parametric surfaces are used in CG modeling, such as NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines) surfaces and subdivision surfaces (the latter having a non-trivial parameterization).
A parametric surface has a set of control points (also known as control vertices or "CVs") that define the shape of the surface. When a CV is moved, the surface that is defined by the CV deforms into a new shape. Thus, a user can change the shape of a model by moving the CVs that define the model's surfaces. In order to deform a model to a particular shape, a user often must move a large number of CVs, due to the natural constraints of parametric surfaces. Moving large numbers of CVs directly, one by one, is time-consuming and not very intuitive. Instead, users manipulate CVs programmatically through the use of a deformation algorithm ("deformer"). A deformer enables an animator to move CVs indirectly by using a simpler interface.
Many types of deformers exist such as, for example, blendshapes, clusters, and free-form deformers. Free-form deformers partition space into discrete cells. One type of free-form deformer, a lattice, comprises surrounding a model with a polygonal cubic mesh that is partitioned into a relatively large number of divisions in x, y, and z (hence the name "lattice"). The lattice surrounds the model in such a way that each of the model's CVs falls inside one cell of the lattice. As the user moves the vertices of the lattice, the cells of the lattice are deformed, and the CVs located inside the cells get transformed according to a local affine transformation, eventually placing the CVs in new locations. In this way, a relatively low-resolution lattice can be used to create broad deformation on a high-resolution model.
Another type of free-form deformer, a wrap deformer, is similar to a lattice but uses an arbitrary polygonal mesh of free topology rather than a lattice mesh. The polygonal mesh, also known as a polywrap, wrap, or cage, acts as a binding domain for the model, such that the model is bound to the wrap. This binding transmits deformations of the wrap's vertices to the CVs of the model, thereby deforming the model itself. Deformations of the wrap's vertices can affect the model's CVs in a variety of ways. One family of wrap deformers creates small cells in the space surrounded by the wrap and associates the cells with the CVs of a model. The problem with this type of wrap deformer is that it doesn't scale well with the size of the model. Large models at high resolution may require a huge number of cells, and the evaluation and update process of the deformer is very slow and consumes a lot of memory. Conversely, using a smaller number of cells will introduce discretization artifacts in the model during deformation. This type of wrap deformer is further described in "Free-form Deformations with Lattices of Arbitrary Topology" by R. MacCracken and K. Joy, Proceedings of the 23rd International Conference on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques, 1996, pp. 181-190.
Another family of wrap deformers associates the CVs of a model with certain CVs on the wrap. The motion of the model's CVs is then defined as a weighted linear combination of the motions of the wrap's CVs. This approach is faster than the space cell division approach mentioned above; however, it suffers from many problems and artifacts due to the simplistic nature of the linear interpolation scheme.
A wrap can be located either inside or outside of a model. When a wrap is located inside a model, it acts like a skeleton. As the underlying skeleton changes, the outer layer (the model) changes also. When a wrap is located outside of a model, it acts like a puppeteer with strings connecting the wrap to the model. As the wrap is deformed, the strings pull on the model and thereby deform the model.
In order to animate a model, it is necessary to create additional images that show the model in various poses corresponding to stages of a movement. Each of these images is identical to the model except for slight differences. For example, the model may have its mouth closed, while additional images show the model's mouth opening over time. Many images must be created in order to animate a detailed model. Creating each image by manually editing each CV of the model is nearly impossible. Not only does it require a great deal of work, it also does not result in a convincing performance for the animated model because of the awkwardness of the interface.
Instead, animators use software "rigs" to pose models as if they were puppets. A rig is a set of joints, skeletons, and deformers that attach to a model. Rigs provide the "machinery" that enables users to animate models. A rig comprises computer modules and interfaces that enable an animator to move the CVs of the model indirectly, via a much simpler interface. For example, a rig enables an animator to select a part of a model, such as an eyebrow or a lip, and use simple user interface widgets, such as buttons and sliders, to move that part of the model.
Existing wrap deformation software, such as Maya® from Alias Systems and SOFTIMAGE®|3D from Avid Technology, Inc., has several disadvantages. One disadvantage is that deformations of the wrap result in excessive linear interpolation artifacts in the model. The changes made to the wrap are often discontinuous due to the wrap's lack of resolution, and these discontinuities end up getting transferred to the model. These artifacts are most noticeable when there is a significant difference between the resolution of the wrap and the resolution of the model. This situation is common because wraps are usually low-resolution (not continuous), whereas models are usually high-resolution (continuous). FIG. 1 shows an example of discontinuities created by wrap deforming a model using prior art software. Here, the wrap 100 is a low-resolution polygonal mesh and the model 110 is a higher-resolution NURBS (Non-Uniform Rational B-Splines) plane. FIG. 1 shows the effect on the model 110 of raising the second row of control vertices in the wrap 100. The artifacts indicate problems with the cell splitting of the polygonal mesh wrap and problems with the weighted contributions of the wrap on the control vertices of the model.
Another disadvantage of prior art software is that it is slow. The slowness is severe enough to make wrap deformation inadequate for character setup purposes. For example, it cannot be used for sculpting new blendshapes from existing models, unless the models are very small and not detailed. When existing software is used to wrap deform a detailed, realistic model, it runs so slowly that it is virtually unusable for modeling and animation. Since free-form deformers partition space into discrete cells, the calculations they perform require O(n3) time, where n is the number of cells.
What is needed is a way to wrap deform a model that results in fewer discontinuities and artifacts and is fast enough to be used for modeling realistic characters and animating characters using rigs.

Wrap deformation using subdivision surfaces


A system for providing a reference voltage includes a tester adapted to provide a predetermined current, a first ground pad connected to a ground voltage of the tester, a second ground pad connected between the tester and the first ground pad, the second ground pad being connected to the tester through first and second resistors, a reference voltage pad connected to a node between the first and second resistors, the reference voltage pad adapted to provide a test reference voltage, and a multiplexer connected to the reference voltage pad, the multiplexer configured to output the test reference voltage as a reference voltage during substantial voltage variation.

1. Field of the Invention
Embodiments of the present invention relate to a semiconductor integrated circuit. More particularly, embodiments of the present invention relate to a system capable of providing a reference voltage to a semiconductor integrated circuit during reliability evaluation.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, semiconductor integrated circuits may be employed to drive a variety of electronic devices. As a size of a semiconductor integrated circuit is decreased and its degree of integration is increased, power consumption thereof may increase. In part, the power consumption of the conventional semiconductor integrated circuit may increase during a reliability evaluation, e.g., burn-in test or a high-voltage margin evaluation, that may require a greater voltage as compared to a voltage required during normal circuit operation because of increased parasitic resistance generated during such evaluation. The parasitic resistances during conventional reliability evaluation of semiconductor integrated circuits may be generated by various parasitic components, e.g., resistance due to connection to a probe card, a contact, a printed circuit board (PCB), a test board, and so forth.
For example, a conventional semiconductor integrated circuit connected to a tester and having internal and ground voltage sources may include a first parasitic resistance between its internal voltage source and a voltage source of the tester, and a second parasitic resistance between its ground voltage and a ground voltage of the tester. Accordingly, a voltage difference between the internal source voltage and the internal ground voltage of the semiconductor integrated circuit may be lower than the voltage difference between the source voltage and the ground voltage of the tester. However, when a plurality of semiconductor integrated circuits are connected to a single tester, each such parasitic resistance may trigger different voltage drops in each one of the semiconductor integrated circuits due to variations in test conditions, current, and so forth. As such, each semiconductor integrated circuit may have a different voltage difference between the internal source voltage and the internal ground voltage, thereby minimizing uniformity of reliability evaluation of a plurality of semiconductor integrated circuits connected to the single tester.
Attempts have been made to employ an external reference voltage source, instead of the internal voltage source, during the reliability evaluation. However, such attempts have not provided for a constant internal ground voltage, thereby causing non-uniform voltage difference between the internal ground and source voltages. As such, uniform reliability evaluation of a plurality of semiconductor integrated circuits connected to a single tester has not been achieved.

System for providing a reference voltage to a semiconductor integrated circuit


The present invention provides relates to a crosslinkable, proton-conducting membrane having a crosslinked structure, excellent in heat resistance, durability, dimensional stability and fuel barrier characteristics, and showing excellent proton conductivity at high temperature, characterized by comprising (a) an organic/inorganic hybrid structure (A) covalently bonded to 2 or more silicon-oxygen crosslinks and, at the same time, having a carbon atom, and (b) an acid containing structure (B) having an acid group, covalently bonded to a silicon-oxygen crosslink and having an acidic group; and provides a fuel cell using the same membrane. The present invention also provides a method for producing the proton-conducting membrane, comprising steps of preparing a mixture containing an organic/inorganic hybrid, crosslinkable compound (C) and compound (D), the former having 2 or more crosslinkable silyl groups and carbon atoms each being bonded to the silyl group via the covalent bond and the latter having a crosslinkable silyl group and acid group, as the first step; forming the above mixture into a film as the second step; and hydrolyzing/condensing or only condensing the hydrolyzable silyl group contained in the mixture formed into the film to form a crosslinked structure as the third step.

Recently, the fuel cell has been attracting attention as a power generating device of the next generation, which can contribute to solution of the problems related to environments and energy, now having been increasingly becoming serious social problems, because of its high power generation efficiency and compatibility with the environments.
Fuel cells generally fall into several categories by electrolyte type. Of these, a polymer electrolyte fuel cell (sometimes referred to as PEFC), being more compact and generating higher output than any other type, is considered to be a leading fuel cell type in the future for various purposes, e.g., small-size on-site facilities, and as power sources for movable applications (e.g., vehicles) and portable applications.
Thus, PEFCs have inherent advantages in principle, and are being extensively developed for commercialization. PEFCs normally use hydrogen as the fuel. Hydrogen is dissociated into proton (hydrogen ion) and electron in the presence of catalyst provided on the anode side. Of these, the electron is passed to the outside, where it is used as electricity, and circulated back to the system on PEFC's cathode side. On the other hand, the proton is passed to the proton conducting membrane (electrolyte membrane), through which it moves towards the cathode side. On the cathode side, the proton, electron recycled back from the outside and oxygen supplied from the outside are bonded to each other in the presence of catalyst, to produce water. Thus, a PEFC by itself is a very clean energy source which generates power while it is producing water from hydrogen and oxygen.
Hydrogen to be supplied to a fuel cell is normally produced by an adequate method, e.g., methanol reforming to extract hydrogen. However, the direct fuel type fuel cell has been also extensively developed. It is directly supplied with methanol or the like, from which the proton and electron are produced in the presence of catalyst, where water is normally used together with methanol.
In the fuel cell, the proton conducting membrane is responsible for transferring the proton produced on the anode to the cathode side. As described above, flow of the proton takes place in concert with that of the electron. It is therefore necessary to conduct a sufficient quantity of the proton at high speed, for the PEFC to produce high output (or high current density). Therefore, it is not too much to say that performance of the proton conducting membrane is a key to performance of the PEFC. The proton conducting membrane also works as the insulation film which electrically insulates the anode and cathode from each other and as the fuel barrier membrane which prevents the fuel to be supplied to the anode side from leaking to the cathode side, in addition to transferring the proton.
The proton conducting membranes for the current PEFCs are mainly of fluorine resin-based ones, with a perfluoroalkylene as the main skeleton, and partly with sulfonic acid group at the terminal of the perfluorovinyl ether side chains. Several types of these sulfonated fluorine resin-based membranes have been proposed, e.g., Nafion® membrane (Du Pont, U.S. Pat. No. 4,330,654), Dow membrane (Dow Chemical, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.4-366137), Aciplex® membrane (Asahi Chemical Industries, Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.6-342665), and Flemion® membrane (Asahi Glass).
These fluorine resin-based membranes are considered to have a glass transition temperature (Tg) of around 130° C. under a humidified condition, under which they work. The so-called creep phenomenon occurs as temperature increases from the above level to cause problems, e.g., changed proton conducting structure in the membrane to prevent the membrane from stably exhibiting the proton conducting performance, and modification of the membrane to a swollen morphology, or jelly-like morphology to make it very fragile and possibly cause failure of the fuel cell.
For these reasons, the maximum allowable temperature for stable operation for extended periods is normally considered to be 80° C.
A fuel cell, depending on the chemical reaction for its working principle, has a higher energy efficiency when it operates at higher temperature. In other words, a fuel cell operating at higher temperature becomes more compact and lighter for the same output. Moreover, a fuel cell operating at high temperature allows utilization of its waste heat for cogeneration to produce power and heat, thus drastically enhancing its total energy efficiency. It is therefore considered that operating temperature of a fuel cell is desirably increased to a certain level, normally to 100° C. or higher, in particular 120° C. or higher.
The catalyst in service on the anode side may be deactivated by impurities in the hydrogen fuel (e.g., carbon monoxide), a phenomenon known as catalyst poisoning, when it is not sufficiently purified. This is a serious problem which can determine lifetime of the PEFC itself. It is known that the catalyst poisoning can be avoided when the fuel cell operates at sufficiently high temperature, and the cell is preferably operated at high temperature also from this point of view. Moreover, the active metals for the catalyst itself will not be limited to pure noble metals, e.g., platinum, but can be extended to alloys of various metals, when the fuel cell can operate at sufficiently high temperature. Therefore, operability at high temperature is advantageous also viewed from reducing cost and widening applicable resources.
For the direct fuel type fuel cell, various approaches to extract the proton and electron from the fuel directly and efficiently have been studied. It is a consensus that production of sufficient power is difficult at low temperature, and possible when temperature is increased to, e.g., 150° C. or higher.
Thus, operability of PEFCs at high temperature is demanded from various aspects. Nevertheless, however, its operating temperature is limited to 80° C. by the heat resistance consideration of the proton conducting membrane, as discussed above at present.
The reaction taking place in a fuel cell is exothermic in nature, by which is meant that temperature within the cell spontaneously increases as the cell starts to work. However, the PEFC must be cooled so as not to be exposed to high temperature of 80° C. or higher, as limited by the resistance of the proton conducting membrane to heat. It is normally cooled by a water-cooling system, and the PEFC's bipolar plate is devised to include such a system. This tends to increase size and weight of the PEFC as a whole, preventing it to fully exhibit its inherent characteristics of compactness and lightness. In particular, it is difficult for a water-cooling system as the simplest cooling means to effectively cool the cell, when its maximum allowable operating temperature is set at 80° C. If it is operable at 100° C. or higher, it should be effectively cooled by use of heat of vaporization of water, and water could be recycled for cooling to drastically reduce its quantity, leading to reduced size and weight of the cell. When a PEFC is used as the energy source for a vehicle, the radiator size and cooling water volume could be greatly reduced when the cell is controlled at 100° C. or higher, compared to when it is controlled at 80° C. Therefore, the PEFC operable at 100° C. or higher, i.e., the proton conducting membrane having a heat resistance of 100° C. or higher, is strongly in demand.
As described above, the PEFC operable at higher temperature, i.e., increased heat resistance of the proton conducting membrane, is strongly in demand viewed from various aspects, e.g., power generation efficiency, cogeneration efficiency, cost, resources and cooling efficiency. Nevertheless, however, the proton conducting membrane having a sufficient proton conductivity and resistance to heat has not been developed so far.
With these circumstances as the background, a variety of heat-resistant proton conducting membrane materials have been studied and proposed to increase operating temperature of PEFCs.
Some of more representative ones are heat-resistant aromatic-based polymers to replace the conventional fluorine-based membranes. These include polybenzimidazole (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.9-110982), polyether sulfone (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open Nos.10-21943 and 10-45913), and polyetheretherketone (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.9-87510).
These aromatic-based polymers have an advantage of limited structural changes at high temperature. However, many of them have the aromatic structure directly incorporated with sulfonic acid or carboxylic acid group. They tend to suffer notable desulfonation or decarboxylation at high temperature, and are unsuitable for the membranes working at high temperature.
Moreover, many of these aromatic-based polymers have no ion-channel structure, as is the case with fluorine resin-based membranes. As a result, it is necessary to incorporate a large number of acid groups in these polymers, for them to sufficiently exhibit proton conductivity, causing problems, e.g., deterioration of membrane stability and stability to hot water, and, in some cases, dissolution of these polymers in hot water. Moreover, the membranes of these polymers tend to be notably swollen as a whole in the presence of water, causing various problems, e.g., high possibility of separation of the membrane from the electrode joint and broken membrane due to the stress produced at the joint in the membrane-electrode assembly, resulting from the dry and wet conditional cycles which change the membrane size, and possibility of deteriorated strength of the water-swollen membrane, leading to its failure. In addition, each of the aromatic polymers is very rigid in a dry condition, possibly causing damages and other problems while the membrane-electrode assembly is formed.
On the other hand, the following inorganic materials have been also proposed as the proton conducting materials. For example, Minami et al. incorporate a variety of acids in hydrolyzable silyl compounds to prepare inorganic proton conducting materials (Solid State Ionics, 74 (1994), pp.105). They stably show proton conductivity even at high temperature, but involve several problems; e.g., they tend to be cracked when made into a thin film, and difficult to handle and make them into a membrane-electrode assembly.
Several methods have been proposed to overcome these problems. For example, the proton conducting inorganic material is crushed to be mixed with an elastomer (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No.8-249923) or with a polymer containing sulfonic acid group (Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 10-69817). However, these methods have their own problems. For example, the polymer as the binder for each of these methods is merely mixed with an inorganic crosslinked compound, and has basic thermal properties not much different from those of the polymer itself, with the result that it undergoes structural changes in a high temperature range, failing to stably exhibit proton conductivity, and its proton conductivity is generally not high.
A number of R & D efforts have been made for various electrolyte membranes to solve these problems involved in the conventional PEFCs. None of them, however, have succeeded in developing proton conducting membranes showing sufficient durability at high temperature (e.g., 100° C. or higher) and satisfying the mechanical and other properties.
In the direct methanol type fuel cell (sometimes referred to as DMFC) which works on methanol as the fuel in place of hydrogen, on the other hand, methanol directly comes into contact with the membrane. The sulfonated fluorine resin-based membrane, e.g., Nafion® membrane, now being used has a strong affinity for methanol, possibly causing problems which can lead to failure of the fuel cell when it absorbs methanol, e.g., swelling to a great extent and dissolution in methanol in some cases. Crossover of methanol to the oxygen electrode side can greatly reduce cell output. These problems are common also with the electrolyte membranes containing an aromatic ring. Therefore, the membranes developed so far are neither efficient nor durable also for DMFCs.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a proton conducting membrane, excellent in heat resistance, durability, dimensional stability and fuel barrier characteristics, and showing excellent proton conductivity at high temperature. It is another object of the present invention to provide a method for producing the same. It is still another object of the present invention to provide a fuel cell using the same.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Proton conducting membrane, process for its production, and fuel cells made by using the same


A distributed memory addressing system has a plurality of separate processing elements. Each processing element has at least one CPU. A shared memory is utilized to store data to be used by the separate processing elements, as required. A high bandwidth interface interconnects processing elements and the shared memory. The high bandwidth interface is configured so as to provide non-blocking access to the shared memory for each of the processing elements.

The use of shared memories for multiple CPUs is well known in high-speed, parallel processor computing systems. The use of such shared memory facilitates parallel processing with each CPU having access to a common memory so as to expedite various CPU intensive computer functions such as Fourier analysis, digital filtering algorithms, machine vision and three-dimensional graphics. The use of such a contemporary shared memory allows each CPU to access those memory elements required for the CPU to carry out its program instructions and data manipulations.
Such shared memories may also be configured as distributed memories, wherein the data stored therein is divided among a plurality of memory banks, so as to enable parallel access thereto and also so as to provide a fail-safe structure for the memory device. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, by distributing the data across multiple memory banks, the data may be accessed more rapidly. That is, more of the data may be simultaneously accessed by a particular CPU.
A fail-safe structure for the memory device is provided since only a portion of the data is stored upon any particular parallel memory. Failure of a particular parallel memory thus results in the loss of only a portion of the data, which may typically be recovered utilizing contemporary error detection and correction methodology.
Although such contemporary shared memories have proven generally suitable for their intended purposes, they possess inherent deficiencies which detract from their overall performance. Most important among these inherent deficiencies is the inability of such contemporary shared memories to provide simultaneous access of a plurality of CPUs to the data stored therein. According to contemporary methodology, when one particular CPU is accessing data from the shared memories, then access to the shared memories by all other CPUs is temporarily blocked. The other CPUs must wait until the memory read cycle is complete before they can access the shared data. As those skilled in the art will appreciate, the blocking of access to the shared memory has a substantial adverse impact upon the computer's performance. Indeed, it has been estimated that computational efficiency is reduced to approximately 10-20 percent of its theoretical maximum value due to such memory access blocking.
Various attempts have been made in the prior art to improve memory access. One such attempt is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,134,695 issued on Jul. 28, 1992 to Ikeda and entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR CONSTANT STRIDE ACCESSING TO MEMORIES IN VECTOR PROCESSOR. The Ikeda patent discloses a method for improving access to a plurality of reference memory banks, thereby enhancing memory access efficiency. However, Ikeda does not address simultaneously accessing shared memories by multiple CPUs and its implementation.
In view of the foregoing, it is beneficial to provide an implementation of a distributed memory addressing system wherein non-blocking access to shared memory is facilitated for multiple CPUs.