A through-air-drying (TAD) fabric for producing tissue paper and related products on a papermaking machine comprising a plurality of warp yarns interwoven with a plurality of weft yarns to produce warp and weft knuckles on a paper-side surface of the fabric, preferably to form an L-shaped knuckle pattern.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the papermaking arts. More specifically, the present invention relates to through-air-drying (TAD) fabrics used in the manufacture of bulk tissue and towel, and of nonwoven articles and fabrics.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Soft, absorbent disposable paper products, such as facial tissue, bath tissue and paper toweling, are a pervasive feature of contemporary life in modern industrialized societies. While there are numerous methods for manufacturing such products, in general terms, their manufacture begins with the formation of a cellulosic fibrous web in the forming section of a paper machine. The cellulosic fibrous web is formed by depositing a fibrous slurry, that is, an aqueous dispersion of cellulose fibers, onto a moving forming fabric in the forming section. A large amount of water is drained from the slurry through the forming fabric, leaving the cellulosic fibrous web on the surface of the forming fabric.
The cellulosic fibrous web is then transferred to a through-air-drying (TAD) fabric or belt by means of an air flow, brought about by vacuum or suction, which deflects the web and forces it to conform, at least in part, to the topography of the TAD fabric or belt. Downstream from the transfer point, the web, carried on the TAD fabric or belt, passes through a through-air dryer, where a flow of heated air, directed against the web and through the TAD fabric or belt, dries the web to a desired degree. Finally, downstream from the through-air dryer, the web may be adhered to the surface of a Yankee dryer and imprinted thereon by the surface of the TAD fabric or belt, for further and complete drying. The fully dried web is then removed from the surface of the Yankee dryer with a doctor blade, which foreshortens or crepes the web and increases its bulk. The foreshortened web is then wound onto rolls for subsequent processing, including packaging into a form suitable for shipment to and purchase by consumers.
As noted above, there are many methods for manufacturing bulk tissue products, and the foregoing description should be understood to be an outline of the general steps shared by some of the methods. For example, the use of a Yankee dryer is not always required, as, in a given situation, foreshortening may not be desired, or other means, such as "wet creping", may have already been taken to foreshorten the web.
It should be appreciated that TAD fabrics may take the form of endless loops on the paper machine and function in the manner of conveyors. It should further be appreciated that paper manufacture is a continuous process which proceeds at considerable speeds. That is to say, the fibrous slurry is continuously deposited onto the forming fabric in the forming section, while a newly manufactured paper sheet is continuously wound onto rolls after it is dried.
Those skilled in the art will appreciate that fabrics are created by weaving, and have a weave pattern which repeats in both the warp or machine direction (MD) and the weft or cross-machine direction (CD). Woven fabrics take many different forms. For example, they may be woven endless, or flat woven and subsequently rendered into endless form with a seam. It will also be appreciated that the resulting fabric must be uniform in appearance; that is, there are no abrupt changes in the weave pattern to result in undesirable characteristics in the formed paper sheet. In addition, any pattern marking imparted to the formed tissue will impact the characteristics of the paper.
Contemporary papermaking fabrics are produced in a wide variety of styles designed to meet the requirements of the paper machines on which they are installed for the paper grades being manufactured. Generally, they comprise a base fabric woven from monofilament and may be single-layered or multi-layered. The yarns are typically extruded from any one of several synthetic polymeric resins, such as polyamide and polyester resins, used for this purpose by those of ordinary skill in the paper machine clothing arts.
The present application is concerned, at least in part, with the TAD fabrics or belts used on the through-air dryer of a bulk tissue machine although it may have other applications beyond this. However, the present application is primarily concerned with a TAD fabric.
Such fabric may also have application in the forming section of a bulk tissue or towel machine to form cellulosic fibrous webs having discrete regions of relatively low basis weight in a continuous background of relatively high basis weight. Fabrics of this kind may also be used to manufacture nonwoven articles and fabrics, which have discrete regions in which the density of fibers is less than that in adjacent regions whereby the topography of the nonwoven article is changed, by processes such as hydroentanglement.
The properties of absorbency, strength, softness, and aesthetic appearance are important for many products when used for their intended purpose, particularly when the fibrous cellulosic products are facial or toilet tissue, paper towels, sanitary napkins or diapers.
Bulk, tensile, absorbency, and softness are particularly important characteristics when producing sheets of tissue, napkin, and towel paper. To produce a paper product having these characteristics, a fabric will often be constructed so that the top surface exhibits topographical variations. These topographical variations are often measured as plane differences between strands in the surface of the fabric. For example, a plane difference is typically measured as the difference in height between a raised weft or warp yarn strand or as the difference in height between MD knuckles and CD knuckles in the plane of the fabric's surface. Often, the fabric surface will exhibit pockets in which case plane differences may be measured as a pocket depth.
A close study of the designs discussed above showed that both warp and weft yarns are primarily responsible for the creation of the depth of the pocket, thus limiting caliper generation. An ideal TAD fabric should provide for both MD and CD contact, thus facilitating sheet transfer to the Yankee dryer, enhancing the TAD fabric operation in the manufacturing process and enhancing creping at the end of the process.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,649,026 relates to a PMC fabric with a web pattern which recurs regularly over the surface and has indentations that are formed by the thread overlays, the latter having been surface ground. The thread overlays cover three consecutive warp or weft threads crosswise thereto. The fabric according to the '026 patent, however, provides for boxed shaped patterns, which fail to provide enhanced MD and CD support.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,592,714 relates to a woven TAD fabric. The relative pocket depths of the fabric which are open towards the contact surface of the paper are 20% or more. The pattern disclosed herein is also boxed shaped and therefore fails to provide enhanced MD and CD support.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,708,732 relates to a web forming fabric which includes first and second substantially linear arrays of systematically distributed areas of high drainage on one side thereof. These linear arrays are oriented at an acute angle to the machine direction and at an acute angle to each other. The boundaries of each of the systematically distributed areas are defined by two pairs of adjacent sides; the adjacent sides of one pair being angled segments of one transversely extending yarn and the adjacent sides of the other pair being angled segments of a second transversely extending yarn contiguous to the one transversely extending yarn. The opposite side of the fabric has long machine direction floats over adjacent transverse yarns and the machine direction floats of adjacent machine direction yarns partially overlap each other in the machine direction. However, in this case only MD yarns produce high drainage areas, and thus, is limited to support in MD only.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,832,962 relates to a papermaking fabric containing a number of relatively long warp knuckles at locations where one of the warp threads crosses over at least four of the shute threads. The long warp knuckles are positioned in a shed pattern to form a first axis of bulky ridges that are defined by long warp knuckles positioned next to each other on adjacent warp threads, the first axis being disposed at a first angle with respect to the cross-direction of the drying fabric that is substantially between 68 and 90 degrees; and a second axis formed by each of the long warp knuckles with other, overlapping long warp knuckles on nearby, but not immediately adjacent, warp threads, the second axis forming a second angle with respect to the cross-direction of the drying fabric of less than about 28 degrees. The '962 patent, however, teaches a top surface plane with long knuckles only in warp direction and a diagonal trough pattern. The fabric is also limited to MD support.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,974,025 relates to an absorbent paper sheet exhibiting a diamond-shaped pattern in its surface after creping. The paper sheets are produced by impressing a dot-dash knuckle pattern, wherein the long axis of the dash impressions is aligned parallel to the machine direction of papermaking, using the back side of a monofilament, polymeric fiber, semi-twill fabric of selected coarseness, the knuckle imprint area of which constitutes between about 20 and about 50 percent of the total fabric surface area, as measured in the plane of the knuckles on an uncompacted paper web at selected fiber consistencies induced by thermal predrying prior to final drying and creping. This patent uses a dot-dash pattern which is a non continuous and broken MD & CD pattern and mainly focuses on pockets. An ideal TAD fabric should provide for both MD and CD contact, facilitating sheet transfer to the Yankee dryer, enhancing the TAD operation in the manufacturing process and enhancing creping at the end of the process.
The present invention provides an improved TAD fabric which exhibits favorable characteristics for the formation of tissue paper and related products.


A method for recovering methane gas from a landfill involves the use of a main absorber, a flash system, an optional ancillary absorber and an optional polishing absorber. The recovered gas is maintained at a temperature that enhances a solvent's ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the recovered gas. While the main absorber uses the solvent for absorbing most of the carbon dioxide from the recovered gas, the flash system removes much of the carbon dioxide from the solvent exiting the main absorber. In some examples, at least portion of the flash system operates at subatmospheric pressure to create a vacuum that draws in a generally inert stripper gas (e.g., air, nitrogen, etc.) at atmospheric pressure. The stripper gas helps remove carbon dioxide from the solvent in the flash system.

Decomposing garbage buried in a landfill can generate landfill gas that can be extracted and processed to provide methane gas of varying degrees of purity and energy content. Processing plants have been developed for recovering and purifying methane gas, but there continues to be a need for better systems and methods.

Landfill gas treatment method with polishing


A current-perpendicular-to-plane (CPP) giant magnetoresistive (GMR) sensor of the synthetic spin valve type and its method of formation are disclosed, the sensor including a novel laminated free layer having ultra-thin (less than 3 angstroms thickness) laminas of Fe50 Co50 (or any iron rich alloy of the form CoxFe1−x with x between 0.25 and 0.75) interspersed with thicker layers of Co90Fe10 and Cu spacer layers to produce a free layer with good coercivity, a coefficient of magnetostriction that can be varied between positive and negative values and a high GMR ratio, due to enhancement of the bulk scattering coefficient by the laminas. The configuration of the lamina and layers in periodic groupings allow the coefficient of magnetostriction to be finely adjusted and the coercivity and GMR ratio to be optimized. The sensor performance can be further improved by including layers of Cu and Fe50Co50 in the synthetic antiferromagnetic pinned layer.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to giant magnetoresistive (GMR) magnetic field sensors having a spin valve structure and a "current-perpendicular-to-the-plane" (CPP) configuration. More particularly, it relates to such a sensor that has both an enhanced GMR ratio and low coefficient of magnetostriction.
2. Description of the Related Art
Magnetic read sensors that utilize the giant magnetoresistive (GMR) effect for their operation are generally of the "current-in-the-plane" (CIP) configuration, wherein current is fed into the structure by leads that are laterally disposed to either side of an active sensor region and the current moves through the structure essentially within the planes of its magnetic and other conducting layers. Since the operation of GMR sensors depends on the detection of resistance variations in their active magnetic layers caused by changes in the relative directions of their magnetic moments, it is important that a substantial portion of the current passes through those layers so that their resistance variations can have a maximally detectable effect. Unfortunately, CIP GMR sensor configurations typically involve layer stacks comprising layers that are electrically conductive but not magnetically active and that play no role in providing resistance variations. As a result, portions of the current are shunted through regions that produce no detectable responses and, thereby, the overall sensitivity of the sensor is adversely affected. The CPP sensor configuration avoids this current shunting problem by disposing its conducting leads vertically above and below the active sensor stack, so that all of the current passes perpendicularly through all of the layers as it goes from the lower to the upper lead. The CPP configuration thereby holds the promise of being effective in reading magnetically recorded media having recording densities exceeding 100 Gbit/in2.
The pertinent prior art cited below has offered no similar method for improving the sensitivity of the CPP design having a synthetic spin valve stack configuration. Lederman et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,627,704) discloses a CPP GMR stack structure formed within a gap located in one of two pole layers of a magnetic yoke structure which also has a transducing gap formed in an ABS plane. The two pole pieces of the yoke serve to guide magnetic flux to the GMR stack which has current leads above and below it and permanent magnet biasing layers horizontally disposed on either side of it.
Dykes et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 5,668,688) discloses a spin valve CPP configuration in which the active layers form a stack of uniform width disposed between upper and lower shield and conductor layers.
Smith et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,473,279) teaches a CPP-GMR sensor whose ferromagnetic free layer is maintained in a single domain state by a layer configuration in which the free layer is separated from a pinning layer (below the free layer) by a non-magnetic spacer layer and an additional ferromagnetic layer is formed above the free layer and separated from it by an additional non-magnetic spacer layer formed of Ru. The Ru layer induces an anti-ferromagnetic exchange coupling between the additional ferromagnetic layer and the free layer and there is also a direct magnetostatic coupling between the additional ferromagnetic layer and the free layer. This combined interaction stabilizes the domain state of the free layer.
Redon et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 6,344,954) teaches a magneto-resistive tunnel junction whose ferromagnetic free layer and pinned layers are made of various layers of spin polarizing materials.
Nishimura (U.S. Pat. No. 6,226,197) teaches a magnetic thin film memory using a variety of ferromagnetic layered materials While the prior art cited above does make use of ferromagnetic materials like those to be used in the novel formation of the present invention, they do not address the issue of improving the sensitivity of a CPP device by a the formation of a free layer having improved magnetic characteristics. In particular, a good free layer for read head operation should be magnetically soft (have low coercivity) so that it can easily respond to external magnetic field fluctuations, yet it must also exhibit a small positive magnetostriction between 10−6 and 10−7 to reduce stress-induced magnetic anisotropy common in a free layer that is typically under compressive stress. The method of the present invention will produce such an improved free layer. In addition, the method of the present invention can also be advantageously applied to the formation of a synthetic antiferromagnetic pinned layer with improved characteristics. The cited prior art does not make reference to the improvement of CPP device performance by either such free layer or pinned layer improvement.

CPP GMR and magnetostriction improvement by laminating Co


An adjustable orthodontic apparatus formed by at least one base plate having opposing sides, the first side being a tooth engaging side and the second side having a plurality of columns of protrusions and channels created by the columns of protrusions and at least one connecting plate having opposing sides, the first side having a plurality of columns of protrusions and channels created by the columns of protrusions and a front side having a cavity for receiving a wire. The protrusions are designed to travel within the channels during an adjustment stage. A securing device locks the connecting plate to a desired position on the base plate.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an adjustable orthodontic apparatus and more particularly, an orthodontic apparatus which comprises: a base plate comprising opposing sides, a first side is a tooth engaging side and a second side comprises a first device for engaging and adjusting the vertical and horizontal position of a connecting plate; the connecting plate has opposing sides, a first side comprises a second device for engaging the second side of the base plate and allowing for the vertical and horizontal movement of the connecting plate as it relates to the base plate, a second side having a cavity for receiving an archwire; and a securing device for locking the connecting plate to a desired position onto the base plate.
2. Description of the Related Art
The Science of Orthodontics has been advancing at a rapid pace in the past several years. High-tech alloy wires, used in applying orthodontic forces to teeth, were previously only available in stainless steel. The more flexible "memory" wires of today employ the use of titanium, niobium, copper and other more efficient materials. These heat activated wires allow for lower longer acting forces with more allowable deflection of the wire to engage malpositioned teeth. Wires themselves have been tied into the brackets first by steel ligatures, then elastometric ties, and most recently by self closing "doors".
Bracket placement has always been important in Orthodontics, and the introduction of the self-ligating brackets has only stood to increase its importance. Since bracket position directly effects the force application of the archwire and ultimately the final position of the tooth, much has been said about correctly placing brackets during treatment. Positioning instruments have been devised, indirect bonding has been useful in certain cases and most recently, computer aided indirect bonding has been devised which attempts to predict the final tooth position based on a recommended bracket position.
Even using the newest and most advanced types of orthodontic brackets still requires a visit to be scheduled about 6 months after the initial application of the brackets. The purpose of these visits is to refine the position of the brackets. This appointment is focused on repositioning the brackets using a panorex to help parallel roots and improve bracket position. This "pano-repo" visit is done on all patients and may be necessary more than once during their treatment thereby requiring multiple visits to the orthodontist.
Specifically, a patient is reappointed in 6-8 weeks for a 45 minute appointment. During this visit, an average of 4-6 brackets are removed and discarded. Cement is cleaned off the tooth; the teeth are then etched, sealed, re-bracketed with new brackets and retied. The significance of this visit is that sliding reduced friction mechanics do not work if the archwire has bends in it and the high tech memory wires cannot be bent. Tooth positioning is extremely dependent upon ideal bracket positioning.
To overcome these problems, the present invention provides for a design for a bracket and pad connector that allows the bracket to be repositioned on the base without having to remove the cemented base from the tooth.
The connector of the present invention can be used on any bracket design and creates an interface between the bracket pad or base which is glued to the tooth and the bracket archwire slot itself. The archwire slot of the present invention may be either the standard style design or self ligating design.
Unlike the prior art, the connector of the present invention is strong, simple to use and allows for multiple options in bracket positioning both vertically and horizontally. Application of this connector would reduce the need to reposition brackets by recementation, and should help to reduce or eliminate the need to place compensating bends in the orthodontic archwires during treatment. The present invention would also reduce chair time requirements as well as increase treatment efficiency enabling patients to complete treatment in less time.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Orthodontic apparatus with adjustable base plate and connecting plate


A method and apparatus that includes determining differences between a process model and an actual process are used as a diagnostic system for the actual process. The process model includes elements from a design process to provide a “known good” condition for evaluating the differences. Initial input states to the process model are the initial input states to the actual process. Output information correlated to states in the actual process is provided by controls, such as programmable logic controllers, that manage the actual process.

Diagnostic procedures and systems in a manufacturing environment contribute to the uptime of a manufacturing process by reducing the mean time to repair (MTTR). In general, the basic mechanism of diagnostic systems involves comparing an actual state of a process with a desired state for the process at a particular point in time. The desired state may be a particular equipment configuration, a product configuration, a process or product behavior, a product time relation, or other possible states. Unfortunately, the amount of time needed to configure the desired behavior can greatly exceed the effort to develop the controls or control systems used on the plant floor during the implementation of the manufacturing process. This enormous effort to develop diagnostic methods and systems may stem from an attempt to capture all potential failure modes.

Reuse of manufacturing process design models as part of a diagnostic system


Methods disclosed improve the cluster efficiency during stimulation treatment, such as fracturing treatments. The methods incorporate any combination of the following: slurry rate ramp, proppant ramp and hold, and constant apparent viscosity during the stimulation treatment.

In the oil and gas industry, a well that is not producing as expected may need stimulation to increase the production of subsurface hydrocarbon deposits, such as oil and natural gas. Hydraulic fracturing is a type of stimulation treatment that is used for well stimulation in unconventional reservoirs. In hydraulic fracturing, a fracturing fluid is pumped at an elevated pressure from a wellbore into adjacent hydrocarbon-bearing subterranean formations. The pumped fracturing fluid splits or "fractures" the rock formation along veins or planes extending laterally from the wellbore. In some applications, the fracturing fluid contains propping agents (alternately referred to as "proppant") that are also injected into the opened fractures. Once a desired fracture network is formed, the fluid flow is reversed and the liquid portion of the fracturing fluid is removed. The proppant is intentionally left behind to prevent the fractures from closing onto themselves due to the weight and stresses within the formation. Accordingly, the proppant quite literally "props" or supports the fractures to remain open, yet remain permeable to hydrocarbon fluid flow since they form a packed bed of particles with interstitial void space connectivity.
A multistage stimulation treatment operation may involve drilling a horizontal wellbore and injecting treatment fluid into a surrounding formation in multiple stages via a series of perforations or formation entry points along a path of a wellbore through the formation. During each of the stimulation treatments, different types of fracturing fluids, proppant materials (e.g., sand), additives and/or other materials may be pumped into the formation via the entry points or perforations at high pressures and/or rates to initiate and propagate fractures within the formation to a desired extent.
Properly stimulating perforation clusters during multistage stimulation has been an issue in the stimulation process. Typically, there is unequal fluid and proppant distribution into the perforation cluster(s). This uneven cluster stimulation could potentially lead to frac driven interactions (sometimes called well bashing), under-stimulation of the reservoir and inefficient use of fracturing material and horsepower.


A system and method for supplying, to a provider of the device, requirements for information to be stored on a device, obtaining device data for provisioning the device on a network, storing device configuration information on storage associated with the network, receiving a service request from a user of the device, detecting attachment of the device to the network, authenticating the device utilizing a device identifier and shared credentials to enable the device to be configured without storing a network address for configuration in the device, providing network information to the device, and providing configuration information to the device.

Devices which connect to a managed network are manufactured containing network specific information in order to obtain configuration and service upon connection to the network. Network information contained in a device may be utilized to gain unauthorized access to one or more network resources or services. Network information provided on a device by a manufacturer, such as a Universal Resource Locator (URL) of a configuration server, may be used to obtain improper access to a managed network. Additionally, providing a fixed Universal Resource Locator or other fixed network information to configure a device is inflexible and does not enable a managed network to easily change the address of a network resource, such as a configuration server, if security or reliability require such a change. This limits the ability of a device to connect to a range of networks and provide a range of services.

System and method for secure configuration of network attached devices


An optical communication system includes a transmitter that receives an input optical signal from an optical source and performs filtering so that an output signal from the transmitter includes a specific set of fiber modes that are allowed to pass for further processing. A receiver receives the output signal and performs the necessary operations to retrieve a signal indicative of the input signal.

The invention relates to the field of optical communication, and in particular to high bit-rate optical communication over multimode fibers.
Multimode fibers are commonly used in the optical communication industry. Most multimode fibers used in the communication systems have core diameters of 50 μm or 62.5 μm. Some plastic fibers may have larger core diameters. These fibers may have step-index or radially varying graded-index profiles. Typical bandwidth-distance product (BDP) for these fibers in which all modes are excited is in the range of 200-2000 MHz.km with the newer graded index fibers occupying the higher end of the BDP range. These fibers were originally deployed for ≦1.25 Gbps communication channels.
Many approaches are being pursued to achieve higher BDP with an old or a new MM fiber. The most promising approach involves launching laser light such that only a subset of the modes of the fiber are excited. Carefully chosen subsets of modes have smaller modal dispersion than the conventional BDP of the fiber which is often calculated assuming that the laser had excited all the modes. This effectively increases BDP and is shown in the laboratory to increase the effective bandwidth (EB) of the MM fiber so that one can meet the data transport needs.
One of the most popular of these Restricted Mode Launch (RML) schemes is to launch from a SM fiber with a 6-10 μm mode diameter into the MM fiber with an offset of 10-15 μm from the center. This has been seen as the most robust means of exciting the subset of modes for a wide variety of fiber types. The received signal is collected in its entirety on a detector. Even with the RML, there is sufficient modal dispersion of the excited modes so as to limit the data communication rates to below the needs of the user. Thus, as the data rate is increased, one can see "eye closure" or that the impulse response of the fiber channel is spread over multiple unit intervals of data rate. For example, a 62.5 micron core fiber with index perturbed from an ideal square law index profile may not support 10 Gbps over a distance of 500 m. This makes the direct recovery of the signal difficult or impossible with low BER. Thus, the received signal is then electronically processed to recover the original signal with low BER. The methods for "cleaning up" may use combination of error correcting codes (ECC) and signal processing to provide electronic modal dispersion compensation.
Most of the reported effort to increase the EB has been spent on exciting a subset of modes. Much work in this area has resulted in identification of a group of modes that have acceptable BDP for high speed transport. Ideally, one needs to pick a robust group with characteristics such as (i) the modes from this group propagate along the fiber with little excitation of the modes from the other groups, (ii) completely mixed within the group so that the details of the excitation is averaged out producing reliable output on the receiver, and (iii) works with most installed fiber types. It has proven difficult to satisfy all of the above so that a simple and universal electronic dispersion compensator can be designed. At present, offset mode launch together with an EDC is considered a possible solution.
There is a need for using these legacy fibers to transport higher bandwidth signals in the range of 4-10 Gbps for a distance of at least 300 m. Thus, one needs a BDP of 900-2100 MHz.km. These fibers can be preferred over single mode fibers because of ease of coupling, familiarity, and new installations.

High bit rate optical communication over multimode fibers


A cable handling accessory for use on an earth moving vehicle, such as a back hoe. The accessory replaces the front bucket of a backhoe and has cable rolled thereon.

In a mining operation, many pieces of heavy equipment must use large electrical cables which run along the ground. These cables often measure three (3) inches or more in diameter and one (1) or more miles in length, making them very difficult to be moved by manual laborers. Therefore, there is a need for a means for efficiently moving cables on and from a mining site.
Heavy earth moving equipment typically includes multi-purpose loader buckets or backhoes which are well adept for moving and hauling sand, gravel, landfill or the like. Due to their versatility, speed and loading capacity, these vehicles are especially suitable for construction, excavation and agricultural applications.
While these vehicles are quite versatile to perform multiple earth moving functions, there are many more tasks that could be performed if such equipment were suitably modified. These vehicles are often found on a mining site. Therefore, it would be advantageous if they could be modified to handle cables and wires found on a mining site. However, the inventor is not aware of any such vehicle.

Cable handler adapted to use with a vehicle


A system and method for managing distribution of content to groups of users is described. One embodiment includes establishing subscription information for each of a plurality of user groups within an enterprise, storing the subscription information for each of the user groups in a first data store and retrieving, from a directory of users within the enterprise, information identifying users within each of the plurality of user groups. In addition, content items are retrieved from a plurality of feeds and at least a portion of the content items are replicated in a messaging data store that is utilized by an enterprise messaging system. Selected content items are sent, via the enterprise messaging system, to each of the users in a particular user group based upon the subscription information for the particular user group.

Millions of web pages are available as a source of news content for users of the Internet. These web pages take many forms, including, for example, articles, blurbs, and web logs ("blogs"), among others. In one approach, news content is published by inserting it into a web page (e.g., coding it into a HyperText Markup Language (HTML) file), which can then be viewed using a web browser.
There are drawbacks, however, to this approach. Users who wish to see content from a variety of sources must typically visit many different web sites. In addition, if the user later wants to obtain the most current content from all the sources, they must visit all the different web sites again. This is very time consuming, especially if the user is interested in many different types of content and/or sources.
One possible solution is a software application that automatically visits a number of web sites, extracts and presents content directly to the user. In particular, "feeds" have been developed as a way to publish news content in a structured format that facilitates identification and analysis. A feed (also known as a "news feed" or "blog feed") can contain items (e.g., news items), metadata about the articles (e.g., title, date, and author), and/or metadata about the feed itself (e.g., title, URL, and last-updated timestamp). Some feeds are described by Resource Description Framework (RDF) statements and/or encoded using eXtended Markup Language (XML) (such as, e.g., the XML syntax RDF/XML, RSS, Atom). These features of feeds make it easier for applications to automatically collect and evaluate news content for presentation to the user.
The term "syndication XML" refers to XML that has been developed for feeds, such as Atom and RSS ("Really Simple Syndication," "Rich Site Summary," or "RDF Site Summary"). Since the general structure of a feed is known, it is possible to identify the news content within it. Software applications have been developed that work with content published using syndication XML.
Applications and/or application handlers, commonly known as "feed viewers," "feed readers," or "feed aggregators," are capable of reading the syndication XML and presenting it to the user. These applications, may be implemented as on-line services and many support "aggregation," which enables a user to specify multiple feeds and integrate their content into a single feed.
In the context of an enterprise environment (e.g., a commercial, educational or governmental), it is desirable to provide personnel with particular content so that, for example, personnel are kept up to date on industry news, company news and/or current events generally. Some enterprises allow personnel within the enterprise to access feeds by allowing them to utilize web browsing resources (e.g., browser-enabled computers) owned by the enterprise, but problematically, the enterprises are often unable to manage the particular feeds accessed by personnel. In other enterprises, personnel do not have access to the Internet, and as a consequence, they are unable to access any content feeds at all.
Although present systems may be marginally functional, they are not sufficiently efficient or otherwise satisfactory. Accordingly, a system and method are needed to address the shortfalls of present technology and to provide other new and innovative features.

Syndication of content based upon email user groupings


The present invention relates to novel Aerothricins represented by the Formula (I),

The present invention relates to novel cyclic compounds having antifungal activity (hereinafter referred to as Aerothricins), the use of Aerothricins in the medical therapy, pharmaceutical compositions containing Aerothricins as well as to processes and intermediates for the preparation of Aerothricins.
Azole antifungal agents are currently widely used for the treatment of systemic mycoses. However, long term prophylactic use of azole antifungals resulted in generation of azole resistant Candida spp. due to their fungistatic action. Therefore, fungicidal agents are particularly important for treatment of severe systemic mycoses. Furthermore, the currently available antifungal agents are not effective against Fusarium spp. which is one of the emerging pathogens among immunocompromised patients. Amphotericin B is a highly effective fungicidal agent currently used clinically, but its therapeutic index (effective dose vs. toxic dose) is rather narrow. Certain cyclic compounds such as LY303366 (EP 736 541), WF11243 (EP 584 360) are known to show fungicidal activity through inhibition of xcex2-1,3-glucan synthase. However, they have still some disadvantages in terms of antifungal spectrum and/or safety profile. Thus, development of new fungicidal agents with better safety profile and efficacy against major systemic pathogens including newly emerging pathogens like Fusarium spp. is urgently required.
The present invention relates to novel Aerothricins represented by the Formula (I), wherein
R1 is guanidino, tri-lower alkylammonio, xe2x80x94N(R10)xe2x80x94R11, xe2x80x94N(R15)xe2x80x94COxe2x80x94R14, xe2x80x94N(R15)xe2x80x94COxe2x80x94CH[N(R10)R11]xe2x80x94R13, xe2x80x94NHCOCH(R13)xe2x80x94NHCOCH(NH2)xe2x80x94R13,
R10 and R11 are each independently selected from hydrogen; heteroaryl substituted with one or two amino; lower alkyl optionally substituted with one or more, preferably one or two, amino, amino-lower alkyl, cyano, guanidino, nitrogen containing heterocycle(s) or phenyl group(s) containing an amino, amidino or guanidino group;
R13 is a residue derived from natural or unnatural amino acids;
R14 is lower alkyl substituted with one or more, preferably one or two, amino, guanidino, nitrogen containing heterocycle(s) or phenyl group(s) containing an amino, amidino or guanidino group;
R15 is hydrogen, lower alkyl optionally substituted with one or more, preferably one or two, amino, guanidino, nitrogen containing heterocycle(s) or phenyl group(s) containing an amino, amidino or guanidino group;
R2 is hydrogen, hydroxysulfonyl, lower alkyl or lower alkenyl, wherein lower alkyl and lower alkenyl may be optionally substituted with acyl, carbamoyl, amino, mono-lower alkylamino or di-lower alkylamino;
R3 is hydrogen, hydroxy, nitro, amino, acylamino, (lower alkylcarbamoyl)amino, carboxyl, lower alkoxy, lower alkoxycarbonyl, lower alkyl, lower alkenyl or lower alkynyl, wherein lower alkyl, lower alkenyl and lower alkynyl may be optionally substituted with hydroxy, amino, mono-lower alkylamino, di-lower alkylamino, lower alkoxycarbonyl or carbamoyl;
R4 is alkyl, alkenyl, alkoxy or alkenyloxy which may be optionally substituted with lower alkyl, aryl, cycloalkyl or fluorine atom(s);
R5 is xe2x80x94CONH2, xe2x80x94CN or xe2x80x94CH2NH2;
X is a single bond, or an aryl, biphenyl or terphenyl group optionally containing one or more hetero atom(s) and/or being substituted with halogen atom(s) or lower alkyl;
Y is a single bond, xe2x80x94CH2xe2x80x94, xe2x80x94CH(lower alkyl)-, xe2x80x94CONHxe2x80x94 or xe2x80x94CON(lower alkyl)-;
Z is xe2x80x94Oxe2x80x94, xe2x80x94NHxe2x80x94or xe2x80x94N(lower alkyl)-;
m is an integer of 0 to 4; and
n is an integer of 2 to 5;
with the proviso that when xe2x80x94Yxe2x80x94(CH2)mxe2x80x94Xxe2x80x94R4 is unsubstituted alkyl or aralkyl, then R1 is not amino, R2 and R3 are not hydrogen, R5is not xe2x80x94CONH2, and Z is not xe2x80x94Oxe2x80x94 or xe2x80x94NHxe2x80x94 at the same time;
and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof.
The present invention also relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising an Aerothricin of Formula (I) and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. Furthermore, the present invention relates to the use of such Aerothricins for the preparation of medicaments, as well as to processes and intermediates for the preparation of the Aerothricins of Formula (I). Additionally, the present invention relates to a method for the prophylactic and/or therapeutic treatment of infectious diseases caused by pathogenic microorganisms.

Abstract: wherein R1, R2, R3, R4, R5, X, Y, Z, and m are as defined in Claim 1; and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof.

Abstract: The present invention also relates to a pharmaceutical composition comprising an Aerothricin of the Formula (I) and a pharmaceutically acceptable carrier. Furthermore, the present invention relates to the use of such Aerothricins for the preparation of medicaments, as well as to processes and intermediates for the preparation of the Aerothricins of the Formula (I).


A water hydrant having a housing with inlet and outlet ends, and a valve assembly having a valve seat and a valve closure element. A valve operating rod is secured to the valve closure element to open and close the inlet end. A backflow preventor check valve mounted within the housing provides for fluid flow only in the downstream direction toward the outlet end. In one embodiment, the backflow preventor and valve closure element are formed of a unitary body; likewise, the valve seat and housing are formed of a unitary body. In another embodiment, an extension body is associated with the valve operating rod and the backflow preventor is attached to the extension body upstream from the valve seat. In a further embodiment, the backflow preventor is secured to the housing upstream from the valve seat, and is adapted to remain in a fixed position when the inlet valve is adjusted.

This invention relates to the protection of water hydrants from undesirable backpressure backflow, and back siphonage backflow.
Hoses and equipment are frequently connected to water hydrants to accomplish various tasks. Backpressure or back siphonage can be encountered during some tasks, particularly if a break occurs in the primary water line.
Wall faucets or hydrants known in the art generally include a hollow housing having an interior inlet end connected to a source of pressurized water and an exterior outlet. A valve is included within the housing and is connected by means of a rod to a manually operable handle outside the housing. Rotation of the handle causes the valve to open and close. These wall hydrants are normally wall-mounted on the exterior of a building.
A freezeless wall mounted water hydrant with a backflow preventor is shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,303 to Almasy et al. Specifically, this freezeless water hydrant has an inlet valve in an inlet end of a housing, including a valve seat and a valve body. A valve operating rod extends through to an outlet end of the housing with an inner end of the rod secured to a valve body. A backflow preventor is secured to valve operating rod via the valve body, downstream from the valve seat.
The freezeless wall mounted water hydrant of U.S. Pat. No. 5,632,303 is not economically designed for use as a mild climate wall hydrant. Specifically, this freezeless water hydrant requires multiple separate pieces to form both the valve body and the backflow preventor. Further, the backflow preventor is secured to valve operating rod, which requires additional time for assembly. Lastly, the backflow preventor is required to be positioned downstream from the valve seat. All of these limitations limit the cost effectiveness and performance of this freezeless wall mounted water hydrant when applied to a mild climate environment.
It is therefore a principal object of this invention to provide a mild climate water hydrant having a valve body and a backflow preventor mounted within a hollow housing.
Another object of this invention is to provide a mild climate water hydrant having a valve body and a backflow preventor formed of a unitary body.
A further object of the present invention is to provide an improved mild climate water hydrant having a backflow preventor adapted to remain in a fixed non-rotated position when the inlet valve is adjusted
A still further object of the present invention is to provide an improved mild climate water hydrant having a backflow preventor positioned upstream from the valve seat.
These and other objects will be apparent to those skilled in the art.


A gain unit scales a code vector Ci output from a configuration variable code book by a gain g after the positions of non-zero samples are controlled according to an index and transmission parameter p. A linear prediction synthesis filter input the multiplication result, and outputs a regenerated signal gACi. A subtracter outputs an error signal E by subtracting the regenerated signal gACi from an input signal X. A error power evaluation unit computes an error power according to an error signal E. The above described processes are performed on all code vectors Ci and gains g. The index i of the code vector Ci and the gain g with which the error power is the smallest are computed and transmitted to the decoder.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a voice coding/decoding technology based on A-b-s (Analysis-by-Synthesis) vector quantization.
2. Description of the Related Art
The voice coding system represented by the CELP (Code Excited Linear Prediction) coding system based on the A-b-s vector quantization is applied when the transmission rate of a PCM voice signal is compressed from, for example, 64 Kbits/sec (kilobits/seconds) to approximately 4 through 16 kbits/sec. The voice coding system is demanded as a system for compressing information while maintaining voice quality in an in-house communications system, a digital mobile radio system, etc.
FIG. 1 shows the conventional A-b-S vector quantization system. 51 is a code book, 52 is a gain unit, 53 is a linear prediction synthesis filter, 54 is a subtracter, and 55 is an error power evaluation unit.
In an A-b-S vector quantization coder, the gain unit 52 first multiplies the code vector C read from the code book 51 by a gain g. Then, the linear prediction synthesis filter 53 inputs the above described the scaled code vector, and outputs a reproduced signal gAC. Then, the subtracter 54 subtracts the reproduced signal gAC from an input signal X, thereby outputting an error signal E which indicates the difference between them. Furthermore, the error power evaluation unit 55 computes an error power according to an error signal E. The above described process is performed on all code vectors C in the code book 51 with optimal gains g, the index of the code vector C and the gain g which generate the smallest error power are computed, and they are transmitted to a decoder.
In an A-b-S vector quantization decoder, the code vector C corresponding to the index transmitted from the coder is read from the code book 51. Then, the gain unit 52 scales the code vector C by the gain g transmitted from the coder. Then, the linear prediction synthesis filter 53 inputs the scaled code vector, and outputs the decoded regenerated signal gAC. The decoder does not require the subtracter 54 and the error power evaluation unit 55.
As described above, in the A-b-S vector quantization coder, an analyzing process is performed while a synthesizing (decoding) process is performed on a code vector C
FIG. 2 shows a typical conventional CELP system based on the above described A-b-S vector quantization system.
In this CELP system, two types of code books, that is, an adaptive code book corresponding to a periodic (pitch) sound source and a fixed code book corresponding to a noisy (random) sound source. According to this system, an A-b-S vector quantizing process mainly for the periodic voice (voiced sound, etc.) and a succeeding A-b-S vector quantizing process mainly for a noisy voice (unvoiced sound, background sound, etc.) are sequentially performed based on respective code books.
In FIG. 2, 61 is a fixed code book, 62 is an adaptive code book, 63 and 64 are gain units, 65 and 66 are linear prediction synthesis filters, 67 and 68 are error power evaluation units, and 69 and 70 are subtracters. Each of the fixed code book 61 corresponding to a random sound source and the adaptive code book 62 corresponding to a pitch sound source are contained in the memory. The gain units 63 and 64, the linear prediction synthesis filters 65 and 66, the error power evaluation units 67 and 68, and the subtracters 69 and 70 can be realized by operation elements such as a DSP (digital signal processor), etc.
In the CELP coder with the above described configuration, the portion comprising the adaptive code book 62, the gain unit 64, the linear prediction synthesis filter 66, the subtracter 70, and the error power evaluation unit 68 outputs a transmission parameter effective for periodic voice. P indicates an adaptive code vector output from the adaptive code book, b indicates a gain in the gain unit 64, and A indicates the transmission characteristic of the linear prediction synthesis filter 66.
The coding process performed by this portion is based on the same principle as the coding process performed by the code book 51, the gain unit 52, the linear prediction synthesis filter 53, the subtracter 54, and the error power evaluation unit 55. However, a sample in the adaptive code book 62 adaptively changes by the feedback of a previous excitation signal. The decoder performs a process similar to the process performed by the decoding process by the code book 51, the gain unit 52, and the linear prediction synthesis filter 53 described above by referring to FIG. 1. However, in this case, a sample in the adaptive code book 62 also changes adaptively by the feedback of a previous excitation signal.
On the other hand, the portion comprising the fixed code book 61, the gain unit 63, the linear prediction synthesis filter 65, the subtracter 69, and the error power evaluation unit 67 outputs a transmission parameter effective for the noisy signal X′ output by the subtracter 70 subtracting the optimum reproduced signal bAP output by the linear prediction synthesis filter 66 from the input signal X. The coding process by this portion is based on the same principle as the coding process by the code book 51, the gain unit 52, the linear prediction synthesis filter 53, the subtracter 54, and the error power evaluation unit 55. In this case, the fixed code book 61 preliminarily stores a fixed sample. The decoder performs a process similar to the process performed by the decoding process by the code book 51, the gain unit 52, and the linear prediction synthesis filter 53 described above by referring to FIG. 1.
The fixed code book 61 preliminarily stores a random code vector C corresponding to a fixed sample value. Therefore, for example, assuming that a vector dimension length is 40 (corresponding to the number of samples in the period of 5 msec (milliseconds) when the sampling frequency is 8 kHz), and that the number of vector:code book size is 1024, the fixed code book 61 requires the memory capacity of 40 k (kilo) words.
That is, a large memory capacity is required by the fixed code book 61 to independently store all sample values. This is a big problem to be solved when the CELP voice codec is realized.
To solve this problem, an ACELP (Algebraic Code Excited Linear Prediction) system has been suggested to successfully perform the code book searching process in an algebraic method by arranging a small number of non-zero sample values at fixed positions (refer to J. P. Adoul et al. 'Fast CELP coding based on algebraic codes' Proc. IEEE International conference on acoustics speech and signal processing, pp. 1957-1960 (April, 1987)).
FIG. 3 shows the configuration of the conventional ACELP system using an algebraic code book. An algebraic code book 71 corresponds to the fixed code book 61 shown in FIG. 2, a gain unit 72 corresponds to the gain unit 63 shown in FIG. 2, a linear prediction synthesis filter 73 corresponds to the linear prediction synthesis filter 65 shown in FIG. 2, a subtracter 74 corresponds to the subtracter 69 shown in FIG. 2, and an error power evaluation unit 75 corresponds to the error power evaluation unit 67 shown in FIG. 2. In the A-b-S process shown in FIG. 3, as in the processes described by referring to FIGS. 1 or 2, an A-b-S process is performed using the code vector Ci generated from the algebraic code book 71 corresponding to an index i, and a gain g.
In this ACELP system, the required amount of operations and memory can be considerably reduced by limiting the amplitude value and position of a non-zero sample. At this time, for example, as shown in FIG. 4, the N-dimensional M-size algebraic code book 71 storing code vectors C0, C1, . . . , Cm-1 is provided. However, since the number of non-zero samples in a frame is fixed and the non-zero samples are arranged at equal intervals, each of the code vectors C0, C1, . . . , Cm-1 can be generated in an algebraic method. In the example shown in FIG. 4, the sample position of each of the four non-zero samples i0, i1, i2, and i3 is standardized, and the amplitude value is ±1.0. The amplitude of the sample position other than the four sample positions is assumed to be zero.
As shown on the right of the algebraic code book 71 shown in FIG. 4, the sample value pattern of the code vector corresponding to i0, i1, i2, and i3 depends on the sample positions i0, i1, i2, and i3 within the amplitude of ±1 excluding the sample position having the amplitude of zero, for example, the pattern corresponding to the code vector C0 (0, . . . 0, +1, 0, . . . , 0, −1, 0, . . . , 0, +1, 0, . . . , 0, −1, 0, . . . ). That is, for the code vector having, as elements, a total of N samples of four non-zero samples and N−4 zero samples, each of the four non-zero samples in (n=0, 1, 2, 3) can be expressed by a total of K+1 bits, that is, 1 bit for amplitude information (the absolute value of the amplitude is fixed to 1, and indicates only the polarity), and K bits for the position information mn specifying one of 2k candidates.
The position of a non-zero sample is standardized by the G.729 or G.723.1 of the ITU-T (International Telecommunication Union-Telecommunication Standardization Secter).
For example, in the table 77 shown in FIG. 4 corresponding to the standard G.729, each position information m0 through m2 about non-zero samples i0 through i2 in 40 samples corresponding to 1 frame has candidates at 8 positions. One position can be specified by 3 bits. The position information m3 about a non-zero sample i3 has candidates at 16 positions, and can be expressed by 4 bits to specify one of the positions. Each piece of the amplitude information s0 through s3 about the non-zero samples i0 through i3 can be expressed by 1 bit because the absolute value of each amplitude is fixed to 1.0, and the polarity is represented. Therefore, in G.729, the non-zero samples i0 through i3 can be formed by 17-bit data comprising the amplitude information s0 through s3 each being formed by 1 bit and the position information m0 through m3 each being formed by 3 or 4 bits as shown by 76 in FIG. 4.
In the table 78 shown in FIG. 4 corresponding to the standard 723.1, each position candidate of the non-zero samples i0 through i3 is determined such that the position is assigned to every second sample in the non-zero samples. Thus, each piece of the position information m0 through m3 about the non-zero samples i0 through i3 can be expressed by 3 bits. As in the standard G.729, each piece of the amplitude information s0 through s3 about the non-zero samples i0 through i3 can be expressed by 1 bit. As described above, in G.723.1, the non-zero samples i0 through i3 can be formed by 16-bit data comprising the amplitude information s0 through s3 each being formed by 1 bit and the position information m0 through m3 each being formed by 3 bits as shown by 76 in FIG. 4.
For example, when the i-th coded word has the value sin,min (where n=0, 1, 2, 3), the coded word sample ci (n) can be defined by the following equation.                                                                                c                  i                                                                  (                  n                  )                                            =                                                                                s                    0                    i                                                                          δ                                                              (                                              n                        -                                                  m                          1                          i                                                                    )                                                                      +                                                      s                    1                    i                                                                          δ                                                              (                                              n                        -                                                  m                          1                          i                                                                    )                                                                      +                                                                                s                    2                    i                                                                          δ                                                              (                                              n                        -                                                  m                          2                          i                                                                    )                                                                      +                                                      s                    3                    i                                                                          δ                                                              (                                              n                        -                                                  m                          3                          i                                                                    )                                                                                (        1        )
where sin indicates the amplitude information about a non-zero sample, and min indicates the position information about a non-zero sample. In addition, δ ( ) indicates a delta function, and the following equations exist.δ(n)=1 for n=0δ(n)=0 for n≠0
In addition, the error power E2 can be expressed by the following equation using the input signal shown in FIG. 3, the gain g, the code vector Ci, and the matrix H of the impulse response of the linear prediction synthesis filter 73.E2=(X−gHCi)2  2
The evaluation function argmax (Fi) for obtaining the minimum error power E2 can be expressed by the following equation.
 argmax (Fi)=[(XTHCi)2/{(HCi)T(HCi)}]  3
where assuming that:XTH=D=d(i)  4, andHTH=Φ=φ(i,j)  5
the evaluation function argmax (fi) expressed by the equation 3 can be expressed by the following equation.argmax (Fi)=[(DTCi)2/{(Ci)TΦCi}]  6
where the characters in the upper case indicate vectors.
Since the above described equations 4 and 5 contain no elements of the code vector Ci, an arithmetic operation can be preliminarily performed even when the number M of patterns (size) of a coded word is large. Therefore, a higher-speed operation can be performed by the equation 6 than by the equation 3.
The process relating to the code vector Ci is performed on four samples having the amplitude of ±1.0 as described above. Accordingly, the denominator and the numerator of the equation 6 can be respectively obtained by the following equations 7 and 8.
 (DTCi)2={Σ3i=0sid(mi)}2  (7)
                                                                                (                                          C                      i                                        )                                    T                                                Φ                                                                                C                  i                                            =                                                                                ∑                                          i                      =                      0                                        3                                                                          ϕ                                                              (                                                                        m                          i                                                ,                                                  m                          i                                                                    )                                                                      +                                                                                2                                                                      ∑                                          i                      =                      0                                        2                                                                                ∑                                              j                        =                                                  i                          +                          1                                                                    3                                                                                s                        i                                                                                s                        j                                                                                ϕ                                                                          (                                                                                m                              i                                                        ,                                                          m                              j                                                                                )                                                                                (        8        )
where Σ3i=0 indicates the accumulation from i=0 through i=3.
The amount of operations by the equations 7 and 8 does not depend on the parameter (number of dimensions) N, and is small. Therefore, even if operations are performed the number of times corresponding to the number M of coded word patterns, the amount of the operations is not large. Therefore, with the configuration using the algebraic code book 71 shown in FIG. 3, the amount of operations can be reduced much more than with the configuration using the fixed code book 61 shown in FIG. 2. In addition, each code vector output from the algebraic code book 71 can be generated in an algebraic method according to the amplitude information (polarity information) and the position information. As a result, it is not necessary to store each code vector in the memory, thereby considerably reducing the requirements of the memory.
In the above described ACELP system, the requirements of the memory and the amount of operations can be successfully reduced. However, since the number of non-zero samples in a frame is fixed to four, and the restrictions are placed such that the positions of samples can be set at equal intervals, there is the problem that a bit rate representing the code vector index is determined according to two parameters, that is, the frame length parameter and the non-zero sample number parameter, thereby requiring a comparatively large number of bits to express a code vector index.
For example, when one frame contains 40 samples according to the standard G.729 of the ITU-T, a total of 17 bits are used as a code vector index as shown in the table 77 shown in FIG. 4. The number of the bits corresponds to 42% of the total transmission capacity (8 kbits/sec, 80 bits/10 msec) prescribed by G.729.
If one frame contains 80 samples, the number of bits required to express the position information about a non-zero sample is larger by one than in the above described case. Therefore, a total of 21 bits are used as a code vector index. The number of bits corresponds to 62.5% of the total transmission capacity prescribed by G.729, and is much larger than in one frame containing 40 samples.
Normally, to realize a very low bit rate voice CODEC at about 4 kbits/sec, a frame length should be extended. However, when the above described conventional ACELP system is applied to this requirement, there arises the problem of a considerable increase of the transmission bit rate of a code vector index. That is, the conventional ACELP system has the problem that it interrupts a demand to lower a bit rate by decreasing the number of parameter transmission bits per unit time through higher transmission efficiency.
In addition to this problem, the conventional ACELP system also has the problem that the ability to identify a pitch period shorter than a frame length is lowered when the frame length is extended.

Voice coding method, voice coding apparatus, and voice decoding apparatus


A dilation balloon catheter is disclosed comprising a non-compliant balloon attached to a catheter, the balloon portion includes a plurality of sections having different outer diameters, as measured at the central portion or midpoint of the section, when the balloon is inflated. In one embodiment that is deployable from an endoscope to treat esophageal, pyloric, or colonic strictures, a series of progressively larger balloon sections are used to safely dilate the stricture in stages. Each section includes a central portion having a waist for centering the balloon over the stricture, with the distal section having the smallest diameter and the intermediate and proximal sections being about 2 and 4 mm larger, respectively. A wire guide extends throughout the length of the catheter and balloon and forms a distal portion of the dilation balloon catheter for assisting in cannulation of the stricture. Optionally, the dilation balloon catheter can include a series of bands or other markings to indicate the location of the different balloon sections. These indicia can be located on the wire guide or the balloon material and may be radiopaque.

This invention relates generally to surgical devices, and more particularly to catheters, dilators and other devices for establishing, restoring or enlarging lumens in the body, especially in the intestines and esophagus.
A variety of body lumens are subject to undesired strictures or narrow regions. For example, blood vessels can be blocked or narrowed by atherosclerosis, while esophageal strictures can arise from individual anatomical differences, or from diseases such as connective tissue disorder. Procedures for dilating or enlarging such strictures or narrowed regions often entail the use of a balloon dilation catheter. Such catheters include a deflated balloon which can be positioned across a particular stricture or narrowed region, and which is then inflated with a fluid in order to widen the lumen without trauma to the wall of the lumen.
A variety of balloon catheters and dilators are known which include a balloon attached to the distal end of a catheter tube or shaft, and which also include a stainless steel or nitinol wire stiffener extending through the catheter shaft and balloon. Balloons for dilating esophageal, pyloric, or colonic strictures can be made of a semi- or non-compliant material that permits sufficient expansile force to dilate the stricture. Non-compliant materials, such as polyethylene terephthalate (PET), are preferred over semi-compliant or compliant materials because they are much less prone to xe2x80x9cdog boningxe2x80x9d, a situation in which the resistance of the stricture forces the fluid in the balloon to either side, therefore providing comparatively less radial or expansile force than would a standard non-compliant balloon.
While dilation of stenoses in blood vessels is usually performed as a one step procedure, there is often a clinical advantage in being able to dilate esophageal and other gastrointestinal strictures using a series of progressively larger balloons so as to avoid tearing or perforation of the luminal wall. The disadvantage of sequentially introducing larger balloons is that multiple introductions increase risk to the patient and prolongs the procedure. One factor determining the length of the procedure is the difficulty in being able to precisely position and reposition the balloon at the stricture. Additionally, patient discomfort is naturally a concern when multiple catheter introductions are required. What is needed is a dilation balloon that can efficiently and effectively perform staged dilation of a stricture while minimizing risk and discomfort to the patient.
The foregoing problems are solved and a technical advance is achieved in an illustrative dilation balloon catheter comprising a single non-compliant balloon, made of polyethylene terephthalate (PET) or another suitable material, that is formed, such as over a mold, to include a plurality of longitudinal sections, each having a different diameter at the center of the section. The balloon can be attached to the distal end of a catheter made of a polymer, such as polyurethane, using a bonding means such as a UV adhesive. In one embodiment used in conjunction with an endoscope to dilate esophageal, colonic, and pyloric strictures, the dilation balloon comprises three sections with the distal section having the smallest diameter. A wire guide, e.g., of a nitinol (NiTi) alloy, can extend through the lumen of the catheter, the balloon, and extend distally, encased in a protective polymer jacket, to aid in cannulation of the stricture.
To cannulate a stricture of a body lumen such as the esophagus, the balloon portion is advanced from the endoscope and the stricture is dilated using the distal (smallest) section. The balloon is usually deflated, then the second, intermediate section, which is about 2 mm larger that the first, is advanced over the stricture and inflated. Finally, the proximal section, which is yet another 2 mm larger, can be used to make a third dilation of the stricture, if desired, before the balloon catheter is removed from the patient. This staged series of inflation helps avoid tearing or perforating of the particular body lumen being dilated, while the single balloon allows a single introduction into the patient for the procedure, rather than requiring three separate introductions of different-sized balloons. In addition, the single balloon can be attached to a smaller diameter catheter, since it is does not have to be multi-lumen, an important advantage when being used in endoscopy.
In one aspect of the invention, the central portion of each balloon section is depressed to form a waist that helps the balloon to center itself over the stricture. This waist, normally 2-6 mm narrower than the adjacent portions of the section, can be configured to include an abrupt change in diameter, creating somewhat of a dumbbell-shaped balloon section, or it may be more gradual in transition. In an illustrative embodiment of a three section balloon, the adjacent portions of the intermediate section are basically shared with the distal adjacent portion of proximal section and the proximal adjacent portion of the distal section, respectively. The number of sections is determined by the number of different central portions or waists of the balloon, rather than the number of adjacent portions, which are often going to be one greater in number than the central portions.
In another aspect of the invention, the longitudinal positions of the different balloon sections can be marked with indicia that can be observed under fluoroscopic imaging and/or via the endoscope. The indicia can be imprinted on, or incorporated into the wire guide that extends through the balloon, using ink, bands, or other means. Additionally, the indicia can be directly printed on, or applied to the balloon surface (e.g., using thin radiopaque foil). The indicia, which preferably marks the center of the balloon section, can be different for each balloon section, or it can be the same.

Dilation balloon having multiple diameters


The invention relates to a method for adjusting the degree of engagement of a tool (6, 7) disposed on the outer radius of at least one associated rotating roll (4, 5) with a web of material (1) running past it. The aim of the invention is to improve the method so that the degree of engagement of the tool can be adjusted without loss of time and without producing any scraps. To this end, for adjusting the degree of engagement of the tool (6, 7) with the web of material (1), first several different degrees of engagement are electronically defined by means of different peripheral speeds of the tool (6, 7) so as to be retrievable. Once an adjuster (13) is activated, the change to another defined degree of engagement takes place during operation precisely when the tool (6, 7) engages with the web so that the new degree of engagement is carried out when the tool (6, 7) engages with the web of material (1) for the next time.

The invention relates to a method and a device for changing the spacing at which at least one tool, which is disposed on the radial outside of an associated rotating roller, engages with a web of material running past.
Tool-equipped rollers are used to process material webs running past them, for example as cross cutters for paper. A paper cross cutter is used to cut a paper web—which is wound on a roll—by means of a tool in the form of a knife, into individual segments that usually correspond to standardized formats. The current invention can be used in all machines in which a chronologically periodic movement of a tool occurs, for example crosscut saws or bag forming, filling, and sealing machines, and the like.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,662,018 has disclosed a paper cross cutter that is comprised of two opposing rollers, which are each equipped with a number of knives disposed on the radial outside, in order to cut a material web—which is being conveyed between the two rollers—into predetermined segments. During the engagement of the tools with the material web, the circumferential speed of the tool is synchronized with the speed of the material web in order to permit the cut to be executed along a correct line. This device also makes it possible to cut the material web in different formats. A changeover of the consequently required engagement spacing of the knife-like tool is achieved by virtue of the fact that different tools are associated with different engagement spacings, where of the tools that are kept on hand, the tools that produce the desired engagement spacing are the ones that are brought into engagement. The tool engagement is controlled mechanically by means of hydraulic adjusting mechanisms. A disadvantage of this changing of the engagement spacing lies in the rather complex design of the device, which is expensive to assemble and is subject to wear due to the large number of individual mechanical parts.
By contrast, DE 36 08 111 C1 has disclosed changing the engagement spacing of a tool through the use of electronic means. Two opposing rollers, each of which is provided with a respective tool in the form of a knife, are driven directly by means of respectively associated electric motors. The upper roller is driven with the lower roller by means of a gear transmission in order to synchronize the rotating rollers.
Special d.c. motors are used as the electric motors, which are driven discontinuously by a shared electronic control unit, as a function of various input data, i.e. in a manner similar to disk-cam control. The input data for the control unit include the circumferential speed of the tool detected by an incremental transducer as well as data regarding the speed of the material web traveling through the rollers. It is also possible to preset a desired engagement spacing of the tool, i.e. a desired format length. Depending on these data, the two special d.c. motors are controlled so that starting from a standstill, they can be brought extremely quickly to their full speed, which corresponds to the respective speed of the material web. This speed is kept constant for the entire duration of the cutting procedure. Depending on the desired format length, the motor can be adjusted down to a lower speed and then for the cutting procedure, can be accelerated back to the full speed. For smaller formats, after passing the cutting speed, the motor can be accelerated to higher speeds in order to rotate the roller at an increased speed and to execute the cut before the material web has traveled the distance of the so-called synchronous format, which corresponds to the revolution circumference of the knife.
In the above-described known method for determining the spacing at which knives, which are disposed on the radial outside of rotating rollers, engage with a passing material web, the problem arises that although it is possible to change the engagement spacing during operation, i.e. to change the format length, waste is produced during the time it takes to change the format length. In order to avoid generating such waste while changing the engagement spacing, it was previously customary to first turn off the machine, set the machine to the new engagement spacing, and then turn the machine back on. On the other hand, however, this procedure requires a lot of time, which is disadvantageous in mass production, and generates waste during the run-up and braking.

Method and device for adjusting the degree of engagement of a tool with a web of a materail running past it


A water amount controlling switch structure of water injection gun, including a gun housing, a controlling pin, a water sealing gasket, a filter screen, a water sealing washer, an adjustment pin, a trigger, a push button and a large and a small springs. The controlling pin is two-stepped. A small diameter section thereof is formed with a conic head at end portion. The step section of the controlling pin is disposed with an annular engaging slope face. The large diameter section of the controlling pin is disposed with four vanes at equal intervals. The adjustment pin is T-shaped, having a water sealing ring inserted with tail end thereof. The tail end is formed with a conic head. The trigger is U-shaped and an upper section of a middle board thereof is disposed with a push button notch. A lower edge of the notch is formed with a supporting slope face. The inner side of the push button is disposed with a projecting hollow fitting post. The bottom of the push button is disposed with a micro-adjustment slope face. Two sides of the slope face are respectively formed with two slits defining therebetween a resilient pushing section. The end of the resilient pushing section is disposed with a short horizontal section and a triangular engaging guide edge connecting therewith.

The present invention relates to a water amount controlling switch structure of water injection gun, which can easily and quickly micro-adjust the water amount or shut off the water as necessary. In addition, the trigger of the switch structure can be smoothly pressed so as to more accurately micro-adjustably discharge the water.
In the conventional water injection gun, the water flow is controlled by a front trigger type controlling switch. Such controlling switch can only keep a maximum water amount or shut off the water . while failing to micro-adjust water amount as necessary. This often leads to inconvenience in use of the water injection gun.

Water amount controlling switch structure of water injection gun


Methods and computer program product relate to user input auto-completion. The methods and product are executable on a processing device in a computing system environment so as to provide an auto-completion scheme with enhanced capabilities that improve user efficiency when performing a task.

There are currently a number of collaborative, productivity and creative tools available to computer operators that are designed to improve user efficiency and enhance the overall user experience. For example, today's software developer has many integrated development environment (IDE) tools from which to choose. Some are commercially available for money and are closed source (MSFT VisualStudio) and some are free and are open source (Eclipse, NetBeans, etc). Some are graphical (color coded syntax, collapse/expand, visual break points and stack pointers). Some allow for integrated build and test. They are available for many programming languages such as C#, C, C++, JAVA (computer programming language), Python, etc. Some allow for simple jumps to declarations or references of objects or symbols (mouse over, tabbed windows, etc). Some have access to help or documentation that describe various system modules and libraries and their APIs, parameters, return code, and exceptions. Some have the ability to automatically generate some code under certain conditions (constructors, accessor methods, gets/sets, exception handlers, return values, error codes, etc). Some allow for work queues or to do lists so that the programmer can come back to certain files to finish skeletons, stubs, or other placeholder members or methods.
Almost all these tools have some form of auto-complete where the tool is constantly checking for valid syntax and for objects that are in scope and can be resolved and what members are available from those objects, or even local scope if the language is not an object oriented language. In addition, many IDEs have access to local or online sample code that can be used as a reference or which can be used to jumpstart a certain procedure or method. The Internet is full of code samples that can be used as patterns for new code that need to be written to perform certain functions (read a buffered file, issue a REST request, handle exceptions, spawn new threads from a thread pool, etc). However, under current auto-complete schemes access to these sample code snippets or files is manual and must be explicitly initiated by the programmer.
There are no tools currently available that can automatically sense and detect the kind of code that is being written and automatically suggest possible sample code that can be used in place of the code that is about to be written. A need exists for a computer program and method that effectively automates the auto-complete process thereby creating a way to program that has never before existed. Such an approach could effectively improve the code overall while also resulting in more and better code reuse while programming.


A scanning display device includes: a light source section including at least one light source configured to emitting coherent light; a light scanning section including: a scan mirror configured to reflect the light originated from the light source section and scan over a screen; and a turning section configured to turn the scan mirror; a depolarizer having outgoing polarized light distribution in which a state of polarization of outgoing light consecutively changes within an element plane, wherein: the depolarizer is placed in an optical path along which the light emitted by the light source section reaches the screen; and the state of polarization of the light is changed, thereby scanning the screen with light that has a polarized light distribution, in which the state of polarization consecutively changes, in a beam diameter.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a scanning display device using a coherent light source and a speckle reduction method for such a scanning display device.
2. Description of the Related Art
Projectors employing laser light sources have recently been developed. Since the laser light source is superior in terms of monochromaticity and longer operating life, expectations are placed on the projectors of this type as next-generation projectors.
However, granular speckle noise attributable to coherence of the laser beam occurs in a projector which uses a laser beam having an aligned direction of polarization, which raises a problem of degradation of image quality.
An image display unit described as a technique for reducing such speckle noise in connection with; for instance, JP-A-2010-217291, has a liquid crystal device between a light source and a display area, wherein it is equipped with a birefringent liquid crystal layer to be activated in a state of dynamic scattering.
Moreover, JP-A-2010-244021, for instance, describes an image display unit that has, in an optical path of a laser beam, polarized light formation means for converting an incident laser beam into axially symmetric polarized light, and a projection plane is scanned with the polarized light to thereby render an image.
However, the speckle reduction technique utilizing scattered light, such as that descried in connection with JP-A-2010-217291, encounters a problem of degradation of image quality, like a contrast, which would otherwise be caused by scattering of a beam when the technique is applied to a scanning display device.
The speckle reduction technique described in connection with JP-A-2010-244021 requires generation of polarized light with an axially symmetric polarized light distribution or an inhomogeneous vector beam. This means that discontinuity inevitably exists in polarization within a beam diameter. Presence of such an area where polarization is discontinuous results in a problem of degradation of beam quality. Specifically, an outgoing beam undergoes diffraction to no small extent in the area where polarization is discontinuous, whereby a beam that is to form a pixel spreads, to thus degrade an image. Even when a vector beam formation element is formed from liquid crystal, an orientation distribution becomes discontinuous at a center of a center axis of a bundle of rays, which induces anomalous orientation. The anomalous orientation accounts for scattering, so that beam quality is degraded likewise.
Moreover, the speckle reduction technique described in connection with JP-A-2010-244021 encounters a problem of impairment of a depolarization function that would arise when an optical axis of the beam is not aligned to an axis of polarization rotation. For instance, suppose the vector beam formation element described in connection with JP-A-2010-244021 is interposed between a scan mirror and a screen. In this case, a beam enters the element while being deflected along a scan direction, and hence the optical axis of the beam cannot be aligned to the axis of polarization rotation at all times. Thus, there is a problem of limitations being imposed on a position where the vector beam formation element is to be placed.
Moreover, when the vector beam formation element cannot be placed in an optical path subsequent to a location where three colors of beams are to be merged because of a short distance of the optical path from the location where the beams are merged to a scan mirror, the vector beam formation element must be placed in each of optical paths of the respective colors of beams before being merged. This raises a problem of an increase in the number of components. Moreover, even when no problems are found in the position where the vector beam formation element is to be placed, there is another problem of requirement of high accuracy in aligning the optical axis of the beam to the axis of polarization rotation in order to yield a high speckle reduction effect.

Scanning display device and speckle reduction method


An EIT system includes a plurality of voltage sources for supplying a corresponding plurality of voltages to a corresponding number of other structures, voltage source calibration means for calibrating each voltage source, and switching means for individually connecting the calibration means to each voltage source in succession during a period when each other structure is in an inactive condition. Calibrating respective voltages and currents for each voltage source compensates for shunt impedance of each voltage source. A method for calibrating the system includes individually connecting the calibration means to each voltage source in succession during a period when each other structure is in an inactive condition for calibrating all of said voltage sources in the same way.

The present invention relates generally to the field of EIT, and in particular to a new and useful electrical impedance imaging apparatus and a method for calibrating the electrical impedance imaging apparatus.
Electrical impedance tomography is an imaging modality which displays the spatial distribution of the complex conductivity distribution inside a body. An excitation is applied to electrodes on the body surface, resulting in an electromagnetic (EM) field appearing within the volume. If the excitation consists of one or more currents, the voltages that appear at some or all of the electrodes are measured. If the excitation consists of voltages, then the currents at the electrodes are measured. The inverse problem describing the current to voltage relationship is then solved to determine the complex conductivity distribution that must have been present to produce the measured data set. The ill-posedness of this inverse problem manifests itself through the small changes in surface current or voltage that sometimes result from large changes in the interior impedance distribution. High precision electronics are needed to apply the excitations and measure the data that correspond to these changes.
For an electrical impedance tomograph with finite measurement precision, distinguishability is defined as the ability to detect an inhomogeneity in a homogeneous background, and is maximized for all conductivities and geometries when currents are applied to the surface electrodes and the resulting voltages are measured. Furthermore, distinguishability is maximized when multiple, independent current sources are used to apply spatial patterns of currents to the electrodes. Applying current patterns whose eigenvalues match the natural response (modes) of the body being interrogated maximizes the signal to noise ratio (SNR) of the resulting data set and therefore minimizes the amount of regularization necessary for the subsequent reconstruction.
Taken together, these two observations suggest that multiple, high-precision current sources are required to maximize the distinguishability and SNR of an impedance tomography data set. While such current sources have been developed for this application, they tend to have limited bandwidth, apply only sinusoidal excitations, and require a large number of high precision components. (See [1] R. D. Cook, G. J. Saulnier, D. G. Gisser, J. C. Goble, J. C. Newell, and D. Isaacson. ACT3: A high-speed, high-precision electrical impedance tomograph. IEEE Transactions on Biomedical Engineering, vol. 41 (8): 713-722, August 1994; Also see [2] A. S. Ross, G. J. Saulnier, J. C. Newell, and D. Isaacson. Current source design for electrical impedance tomography. Physiological Measurement, vol. 24(2):509-516, May 2003.) The result is an electronics package with a large system footprint, and high component, power, and cooling costs.
In contrast, precision voltage sources are generally easier and less costly to implement. However, as mentioned above, applying voltages and measuring currents produces a less optimal EIT system. In an attempt to gain the hardware simplicity of a voltage source along with the optimality of applied currents, algorithms have been developed for utilizing multiple voltage sources to apply a desired current pattern (See [3] M. H. Choi, D. Isaacson, G. J. Saulnier, and J. C. Newell. An iterative approach for applying multiple currents to a body using voltage sources in electrical impedance tomography. In Proceedings of the 25th Annual International Conference of the IEEE Engineering in Medicine and Biology Society, volume 4, pages 3114-3117, September 2003.) This algorithm takes into account the interaction between the sources which results in the current at any given electrode being a function of the voltages on all the electrodes.
When using a voltage source in EIT, it is necessary to know both the applied voltage and the resulting current with high precision. If it is desired to have the applied voltage remain unchanged for a wide range of load impedances, then it is necessary to have a voltage source with low output impedance. In the case where voltages are being applied to produce specific currents, the applied voltage will be adjusted, generally in an iterative way, to compensate for changes in the load impedance. Consequently, low output impedance less important than having the ability to precisely measure the actual applied voltage and current.

High precision voltage source for electrical impedance tomography


An acceleration sensor includes an outer frame body, a heating element, a first temperature sensing element for temperature measurement and a second temperature sensing element for temperature measurement, and an operational amplifier. In the outer frame body, a fluid chamber capable of sealing a fluid inside thereof is formed. The heating element is formed on a circuit mounting surface which is a specific inner wall surface of a plurality of inner wall surfaces defining the fluid chamber. The first temperature sensing element and the second temperature sensing element are formed on the circuit mounting surface. The distance from the first temperature sensing element to the heating element is shorter than the distance from the second temperature sensing element to the heating element. The operational amplifier calculates a difference between a measurement result by the first temperature sensing element and a measurement result by the second temperature sensing element.

The present invention relates to an acceleration sensor that detects an acceleration of an object.
As this type of technique, Japanese Patent Laid-Open No. 2000-193677 (Patent Document 1) discloses a sensor element in which there are provided a heater resistor for producing heat and a pair of temperature-detecting resistors sandwiching the heater resistor for producing heat, over one plane inside a vessel filled with a fluid. If the sensor element receives acceleration in a state where the heater resistor for producing heat is caused to produce heat, the convection direction of the fluid changes and a difference is caused between the resistance values of the pair of temperature-detecting resistors. By detecting the difference between the resistance values, it is possible to detect the acceleration acting on the sensor element.