A one piece shot cup (also commonly known as a shot pouch) designed especially for use in protecting the bore of a shotgun barrel when shooting hard shot made of a material such as tungsten or non-annealed steel. The cup is characterized by the use of shield members located opposite and outwardly of equally spaced tear lines which are defined by narrow areas of substantially weakened wall structure extending longitudinally of the cup. The shield members are connected to the wall structure of the tubular member only adjacent its closed rear end portion and are otherwise separate and free thereof. Portions of the tubular member extend between the circumferentially spaced shield members. The shield members prevent the shot, which ruptures the tear lines, from damaging the bore of the shotgun barrel. They also aid in holding the shot in an improved aligned relation to thereby improve the shot pattern. They also aid in causing the shot cup to separate from the shot immediately after leaving the end of the barrel of the gun. The tapered wall thickness of the pouch is within the range of 0.0601" at its front end and 0.080" at the rear end of the pouch.

This application is an application for a patent which is also disclosed in Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/028,338, filed on Oct. 11, 1996, by the same inventors, namely Yousef Alkhatib, Jack H. Riedel, and Jerome J. Rubatt, and entitled "SHOT POUCH," the benefit of the filing date of which is hereby claimed.
In recent years, for environmental reasons, there has been a serious effort in the small arms ammunition industry, to provide shotshells which will utilize shot comprised of other than lead. Lead has been the usual metal from which shot has heretofore been produced, because of its weight and malleability. Lead, however, is toxic and the death of large numbers of waterfowl has been attributed to the ingestion of lead pellets by the authorities concerned about such problems.
Because of the above toxicity problems, much pressure has been brought to bear for providing shot which are nontoxic. Weight of the material from which the shot is made is important, because of the need for a heavy impact in order to minimize the number of wounded, but not harvested, waterfowl. As a consequence, attention has in recent years been directed to the use of tungsten or steel from which to produce such shot, since each of them is quite heavy and non-toxic.
Steel has some drawbacks, in that it is extremely hard and, consequently, tends to pierce the shot pouch (cup) and provide consequent inadequate ballistic qualities. Tungsten is even harder as compared to lead. A shot cup is generally used to confine such shot, but experience shows that they tend to pierce the sidewalls of the cup and damage the gun barrel bore. In view thereof, much of the steel shot is being annealed to reduce the damage to the bore of the barrel from such pouch-piercing shot. This annealing operation, of course, adds a step to the manufacturing process, which increases its cost and should, if possible, be eliminated. Since the annealed steel shot are softer, they more readily change shape under the high pressures to which they are subjected under firing, which in turn adversely affects pattern density, because the flattened surfaces, resulting from such changes in shape, cause the shot to reduce speed and tumble, or otherwise suffer undesirable ballistics.
Tungsten shot are 94% as heavy as lead shot having a 3% antimony content and considerably heavier than steel and, therefore, induce greater impact than steel striking the target. Since tungsten is heavier than steel, it requires a lesser volume to contain a tungsten charge than a steel charge having an equal weight.
From the above, it can be seen that there still is a definite need for a shot charge which is nontoxic, has adequate weight, and will not damage the bore of the shotgun barrel. Our invention is directed toward providing such a charge, to enable the shooter to utilize the harder shot, such as those made of tungsten and steel, without annealing same and without piercing the shot cup, with consequent borescoring disadvantages. We accomplish this goal through the use of a uniquely designed shot pouch, which protects the bore of the gun barrel and thereby enables the shooter to utilize non-annealed steel and/or tungsten shot, without serious damage to the bore surface of the barrel of the shotgun.
Shot cups (pouches) have been used for many years and have many variations in design to accomplish a variety of purposes. One of the most commonly used designs is shown in FIG. 3 of U.S. Pat. No. 4,481,885, in which a tubular cup, having a continuous tubular wall structure, is shown. Such cups frequently have spaced longitudinal slits in the sidewalls, which are provided for use with the relatively soft lead shot. Such slitted sidewalls are intended to facilitate separation of the shot cup from the shot pellets, upon firing of the shotshell. Such slits are circumferentially spaced and extend radially through the tubular sidewall. It is believed, however, that the shot cup having the continuous tubular wall structure, such as is shown in the above patent, is the closest prior art.


A storage rack for retaining items to be dried, which can be used in conjunction with a drain basin, such as a sink, or as a stand alone system is disclosed. The rack includes a support body having a bottom surface, a plurality of side surfaces, and a plurality of foot members extending from the body in a direction opposite the side surfaces. The rack also includes three detachable basins: two side basins and a lower drain basin. The lower basin includes a flexible spout extending beyond an edge, the spout being capable of movement between a downward position extending below the surface of the basin and an upward position extending the spout above the surface of the basin.

As long as there has been kitchens, there has been dirty dishes. As long as there has been dirty dishes, there has been a need to wash and dry such dishes. There are basically two widely accepted methods for accomplishing this least favorite task of most every person—i.e., washing and drying by hand or by use of an automatic dishwasher. For those still employing the former method, hand drying has typically been considered inferior to air drying. However, air drying requires the wet dishes to be exposed to the air for some time to allow water to be drained or evaporated.
Countless attempts have been made to provide a device which meets the many structural requirements as well as aesthetic desires for a drying rack, commonly referred to as a dish rack. Such requirements include the ability to accommodate various plate, bowl and glassware sizes, the ability to store a significant amount of dishes, including flatware, for drying, the ability to prevent messy water drainage onto counters, and the ability to provide easy compact storage when not in use while still being readily constructed when needed.
However, until the present device, none have addressed each of these problems with a single drying rack. The shortcomings of prior devices may be due to a perception that a larger dish rack would be too bulky or flimsy if it were made to be foldable. Or, perhaps it is a failure to recognize the failings of any particular device. Nonetheless, the present invention is unique in that it addresses each of these, as well as other problems found in the prior art. By providing a drying storage rack which is sturdy, capable of accommodating a variety of items, suitable for use as a stand alone rack as well as for use with a drain sink, and foldable for storage purposes, the present invention solves these problems.


The writing method includes: grouping logical erasing units into a first region and an second region; determining if a first logical erasing unit which a host system intends to write belongs to the first region or the second region; if the first logical erasing unit belongs to the first region, writing data to a spare physical programming unit, wherein the physical erasing unit to which the spare physical programming belongs further stores data belonging to another logical erasing unit; if the first logical erasing unit belongs to the second region, writing data to a physical erasing unit in which all the valid data belong to the first logical erasing unit. Accordingly, a speed of sequential writing is guaranteed to be greater than a target value.

1. Technology Field
The invention relates to a data writing mechanism, and particularly relates to a data writing method, a memory storage device, and a memory controlling circuit unit for a rewritable non-volatile memory module.
2. Description of Related Art
The market of digital cameras, mobile phones, and MP3 players has expanded rapidly in recent years, resulting in consumers' escalated demand for storage media. The characteristics of data non-volatility, low power consumption, compact size, and no mechanical structure make the rewritable non-volatile memory module (e.g. flash memory) ideal for being built in the portable multi-media devices as cited above.
Generally speaking, the rewritable non-volatile memory module is used in combination with a host system. A volatile memory may be further disposed in the host system for storing some data of the host system during operation. If the host system is powered down suddenly or enters a sleep mode, the data in the volatile memory needs to be written to the rewritable non-volatile memory module. In some situations, the data in the volatile memory is sequentially dumped to the rewritable non-volatile memory module and the host system has to complete all writing within a preset time. Therefore, the rewritable non-volatile memory module also needs to complete a large number of sequential writing operations within the preset time. In other words, the speed of sequential writing needs to be higher than a target value.
With different managements of the rewritable non-volatile memory module, there is a trade-off between sequential writing and non-sequential writing. In general, management of the rewritable non-volatile memory module based on logical programming units achieves higher speed in non-sequential writing. On the other hand, if the management is based on logical erasing units, higher sequential writing speed is achieved. In normal operations, the host system executes non-sequential writing more frequently than sequential writing. However, a large number of sequential writing operations may be required in the case of a sudden power down or sleep mode. In the case of managing the rewritable non-volatile memory module based on the logical programming units, if sequential writing is performed after performing non-sequential writing for a period of time, the speed of sequential writing may drop significantly due to garbage collection, thus causing that a large number of sequential writing operations cannot be completed within the preset time. Therefore, how to ensure that the sequential writing speed is higher than the target value in the above cases is a concern of persons skilled in the art.
Nothing herein should be construed as an admission of knowledge in the prior art of any portion of the present invention. Furthermore, citation or identification of any document in this application is not an admission that such document is available as prior art to the present invention, or that any reference forms a part of the common general knowledge in the art.

Data writing method, memory storage device and memory controlling circuit unit


Systems and methods which control communications in a carrier sense multiple access environment to provide a balance between communication sensitivity and transmission availability are shown. Adaptive interference control techniques of embodiments operate to determine a media error time metric representing the time associated with receiving interfering signals. The media error time metric of embodiments is used to adjust operation of various network systems in order to adjust communication sensitivity and/or transmission availability. Desensitizing thresholds and sensitizing thresholds may be used to define operating boundaries, such that desensitizing thresholds are used to control network desensitize actions which result in decreased error times and sensitizing thresholds are used to control network sensitizing actions which result in increased error times. Error time metrics and corresponding desensitizing and sensitizing thresholds may be utilized with respect to a plurality of radios. Embodiments provide for adjustment of control parameters based upon historical operation.

Communication systems, whether wireless or wireline, are susceptible to interference, whether in the form of external noise or interfering signals from various stations of the communication systems themselves. Many schemes and protocols have been implemented to facilitate communications despite interference.
One protocol which has been widely implemented with respect to networks, such as local area networks (LANs) and metropolitan area networks (MANs), carrier sense multiple access (CSMA). In CSMA, stations (user stations, access points, routers, servers, etcetera) monitor the communication media to detect when the media is busy. If the media is determined to be busy, a station will not transmit. Once the media is determined to be free, a station may then utilize the media to transmit. Accordingly, CSMA provides an environment in which stations attempt to avoid interference, whether from sources external to the network or internal to the network, by monitoring the communication media and transmitting only when the communication media appears to be free.
Wireless communication networks are becoming ubiquitous. For example cellular telephone and data networks are becoming widely utilized. Wireless data networks, in particular, have seen dramatic growth in the availability and use. Accordingly, various infrastructure has been and is being developed to provide wireless data network coverage not only in the more traditional areas, such as within a home or office, but in large areas, such as throughout a metropolitan area. Wireless technologies, such as IEEE 802.11 (often referred to as "WiFi"), which were initially developed for use in servicing relatively small areas (e.g., homes and office buildings) have been deployed to provide wireless communications in much larger areas (e.g., large portions (e.g., 5 km radius) of an urban area.
Wireless networks are often desirable in that relatively little infrastructure (e.g., a basestation and backhaul trunk) may be deployed in order to serve a large service area. However, it is typically advantageous to accommodate a large number of stations through such infrastructure in order to provide a cost effective business model. For example, it is often desirable to serve as large of an area as is practicable using a single basestation in order to optimize the ratio of infrastructure costs to user revenue.
Unfortunately, not all infrastructure and their attendant protocols are particularly well suited to meet the demands of such large service area and/or high capacity deployments. For example, WiFi communication infrastructure utilizes CSMA which can result in undesired operation where a large area is served and/or a large number of stations are served. Such large service areas and/or large numbers of stations can result in the communication media utilized by a large number of stations being busy a substantial portion of the time, leaving little free time for stations to transmit. In particular, not only will a large number of stations being served in a large service area result in all stations in that service area being prevented from transmitting when any one station is transmitting, but in increasing the sensitivity of the radios in order to provide communications over the large area the radios become more susceptible to external interference. Accordingly, appreciable amounts of time may be experienced in which all stations in the service area are prevented from transmitting using CSMA due to external interference being detected on the communication media.


A receiver includes a receiver circuit to receive a first transition in a first direction, a second transition in a second, different direction after the first transition and a third transition in the first transition after the second transition of a signal. A first time period between the first and third transitions is indicative of a datum to be received. The receiver circuit is also configured to determine a second time period between the first transition and a second transition and to determine an additional datum to be received based at least on the determined second time period between the first and second transitions. Using the determined second time period allows for more information to be received in a reliable manner.

In many fields of technology, data are transmitted from one entity to another entity using a digital encoding scheme. While in some of these applications highly sophisticated transmission schemes are employed, in many fields a tendency exists to enable a digital transmission using a more simple and yet robust protocol allowing both, a high throughput and a simple implementation. Therefore, a general demand exists to improve a trade-off between robustness of transmission with respect to distortions, simplicity of implementation and a high throughput.
For instance, in the field of high volume architectures using low cost implementations, finding a solution for this trade-off may be more relevant than in other fields of technology. For instance, in the field of communication systems for motorized or non-motorized vehicles, different components including sensors, control units and other devices often require a communication architecture allowing a transmission of data robust against distortions even under tough operating conditions. Nevertheless, such an architecture should provide enough bandwidth to allow different entities to transmit data. Due to the higher volume of these components used in even a single vehicle, a simple and hence cost-efficient implementation may also be important. An example comes from the automotive sector, where sensors, control units and other devices need to communicate with one another or at least provide data in one direction.
However, also in other fields of technology a comparable demand exists including also non-high volume architectures and systems.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Receiver, sender, method for retrieving an additional datum from a signal and method for transmitting a datum and an additional datum in a signal


The invention relates to a built-in antenna for a wireless communication terminal. The built-in antenna includes at least one first radiator for base station and at least one second radiator for Bluetooth. The built-in antenna also includes a base having the first and second radiators mounted on an outer surface thereof. The base is mounted on a board such that each end of the first and second radiators is electrically connected to the board of a terminal body. The built-in antenna further includes a Bluetooth chip set fixed to the base and electrically connected to the second radiator. The invention efficiently utilizes limited space in a terminal body to miniaturize the product, attaining RF capabilities with high reception sensitivity.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an antenna module installed in a wireless communication terminal. More particularly, the invention relates to a built-in antenna module for a wireless communication terminal in which a Bluetooth module is integrated into a structure with an antenna for base station which communicates in a different frequency band from the Bluetooth module, thereby efficiently utilizing a limited space in a miniaturized terminal.
2. Description of the Related Art
In general, a wireless communication terminal refers to a portable communication device capable of transmitting and receiving voices, texts and image data through wireless communication. The examples include a personal communication service (PCS) terminal, a Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), a smart phone, a next-generation mobile communication (IMT-2000) terminal, a wireless Local Area Network (LAN) terminal and the like.
The wireless communication terminal adopts a helical antenna or a dipole antenna to enhance its transmission and reception sensitivity. These are external antennas, which thus are extended out of the wireless terminal.
The external antennas have an advantage of non-directional radiation characteristics. But as they are extended to the outside, they are much likely to be damaged by external force, inconvenient for carrying around, and may be a hindrance to attractive exterior design of the terminal.
To overcome such a problem, planar built-in antennas such as a micro-strip patch antenna or Planar Inverted-F Antenna are adopted in the wireless communication terminal recently since they can be installed in the terminal without being extended outward.
In addition, Bluetooth communication technology is adopted for the terminal to enable sending and receiving wireless data at a transmission rate of 1 M/bit in a short range of about 10 M in a 2.4 Ghz band. In order to conduct the short-range communication using the Bluetooth communication technology, a Bluetooth module needs to be included in a main board of the terminal.
The Bluetooth module is composed of a frequency converter for converting a wire signal to a wireless signal, an amplifier and a Bluetooth antenna.
FIG. 1 is an exploded view illustrating the built-in antenna and the Bluetooth module provided on a board of a terminal according to the prior art. As shown, an antenna module 2 is hooked detachably onto a board 1 of a terminal body (not shown), and a Bluetooth module 10 is mounted on the board 1.
The antenna module 2 includes a pad 3 having a plurality of fastening legs 3a corresponding to fastening grooves 1a formed on the board 1, a conductor 4 shaped like a metal plate formed on an upper surface of the pad 3, and a feeder 5 extended from the conductor 4 to be inserted into a contact hole 1b.
In addition, the Bluetooth module 10 is provided on the board 1 to communicate with electronic devices in a different frequency band from that of the antenna module 2 communicating with the base station. The Bluetooth module 10 includes components such as a wireless circuit, a baseband signal processor, a central processor, an SRAM and a flash device mounted on a module board 11. These components are protected by a shield cover 18, and a Bluetooth antenna 12 is provided at a side of the module board 11 via an input/output electrode 13.
Such a Bluetooth module 10 can be made smaller in accordance with the miniaturization of the terminal by decreasing the number and size of the components contained therein. However, as an additional space is needed for mounting the Bluetooth module 10, there is a limitation in reducing the volume of the terminal when the antenna module 2 and the Bluetooth module 10 are provided on the same plane.
In addition, the Bluetooth module 10 is typically mounted near a lower part of the board 1. This mounting position of the Bluetooth module 10 corresponds to the portion of the terminal held by the hand of the user, which interferes with the RF characteristics of the Bluetooth antenna, thereby degrading the reliability of the terminal.
Therefore, although providing the antenna module 2 and the Bluetooth module 10 together in the terminal body allows an attractive exterior of the terminal and increases portability, there is a limitation in miniaturizing the terminal and in attaining highly sensitive RF capabilities of the antenna.

Built-in antenna module of wireless communication terminal


In a radiation detecting device having a sensor panel in which a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements are formed on one surface of a support substrate, a moisture-proof protective layer is laminated on a surface of the sensor panel on which the photoelectric conversion elements are formed, and a warp correction layer is laminated on the other surface of the sensor panel, and the moisture-proof protective layer and the warp correction layer are formed of a resin film having a drawing or extrusion direction, respectively, and bonded together so as to make the drawing or extrusion directions of both the resin films similar to each other. With the formation of the radiation detecting device, the warp of the radiation detection panel induced by a thermal displacement is prevented.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a radiation detecting device that detects as an electric signal a radiation, which is employed in a medical diagnosis device, a nondestructive test device or the like, and a method of manufacturing the radiation detecting device. In the present invention, electromagnetic waves such as x-rays, α-rays, β-rays and γ-rays are also included in the radiation.
2. Related Background Art
Up to now, an x-ray film system having a phosphor screen having x-ray phosphors therein and a both-side coated sensitizing agent has been generally employed for electrography. However, in recent years, from the viewpoints of such advantages that an image characteristic of a digital radiation detecting device having an x-ray phosphor layer and a two-dimensional sensor panel is excellent, and data is shared by downloading the data into a networked computer system because the data is digital data, the digital radiation detecting device has been actively researched and developed, and various patent applications for the digital radiation detecting device have been filed.
Among those digital radiation detecting devices, there has been known, as a device high in the sensitivity and sharpness, a radiation detecting device in which a radiation detection scintillator having a phosphor layer on a substrate that transmits the radiation is bonded onto and integrated with a sensor panel having a plurality of photoelectric conversion elements arranged on a transmittable support substrate and electric elements such as TFTs arranged, in the gaps of the respective photoelectric conversion elements, as disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,793,047 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,469,305.
In the above-mentioned conventional example, the phosphors are laminated on a front surface of the transmittable support substrate on which the photoelectric conversion elements are arranged, whereas a light absorption layer is laminated on a back surface of the transmittable support substrate. In addition, the surface on which the light absorption layer is disposed is bonded to a base through an adhesive.
The light absorption layer on the back surface of the transmittable support substrate of the sensor panel as disclosed in the above conventional example is provided for the purposes of antireflection and light shielding, and solves such a problem that a light to be received such as a light emitted from the phosphor layer is reflected by portions other than the photoelectric conversion portion, such as the back surface of the transmittable support substrate or an edge portion of the substrate, to be received. The light absorption layer is provided by forming a resin directly on the transmittable support substrate through coating and printing processes.
The radiation detection scintillator of the conventional example suffers from the following problems during the process or in an acceleration test of a long-term durability test.
(1) The respective structural layers are displaced due to a heat in a heat history during the process or during the durability, with the result that there arises such a problem that the respective layers are warped due to the displacement, an internal stress is applied to the phosphors and the respective structural layers, and a layer weak in the stress is destroyed or peeled off due to the internal stress.
(2) The respective structural layers are displaced due to a heat in the heat history during the process. Up to now, the sensor panel has been warped by the displacement because a large number of layers are formed on the front surface of the sensor panel in which the photoelectric conversion elements are arranged. There may arise such problems as an improper installation position or a connection failure due to the warp of the sensor panel in the case where a crimp type terminal is installed on an electrode lead pad potion on the panel for electric wiring connection. Also, in some cases, the connection portion is damaged, and the connection fails due to the warp stress of the sensor panel during the acceleration durability.
(3) The sensor panel is flowed while the panel is mounted on a carrying holder, and in the case where the support substrate back surface comes in contact with a surface of the carrying holder, the light absorption is grazed and damaged or peeled off due to a mechanical friction in the case of the conventional material, with the result that the light shielding on the defective portion becomes insufficient, to thereby increase the image defects.
The conventional examples disclosed up to now teach nothing of the structural material of the panel back surface side and the laminating manner taking the stress after laminating into consideration.

Radiation detecting device and method of manufacturing the same


A device implements multiple protocols that share overlapping resources. In some cases, a first operation, such as a scan, may have a resource conflict with a second operation associated with a different protocol. In some cases, determining grant normal priority level requests associated with the first operation over those at the normal priority level associated with the second operation may lead to operator-noticeable degradation in device performance. A protocol controller may request a selected portion of the first operation at a low priority level. Requesting the selected portion at the low priority level may allow the second operation to selectively override the portion of the first operation. The selective overriding of the first operation may allow for execution of the first and second operations without operator-noticeable performance degradation.

Rapid advances in electronics and communication technologies, driven by immense customer demand, have resulted in the widespread adoption of mobile communication devices. The extent of the proliferation of such devices is readily apparent in view of some estimates that put the number of wireless subscriber connections in use around the world at nearly 80% of the world's population. Furthermore, other estimates indicate that (as just three examples) the United States, Italy, and the UK have more mobile phones in use in each country than there are people living in those countries.


A method, apparatus and network for transporting layer-2 frames, such as Ethernet MAC, ATM AAL5, and Frame Relay, over MPLS, SONET/SDH, or OTN optical transport networks as well as electrical transport networks is disclosed. The method establishes “pseudo-wires” between, for example, routers, Layer-2 packet switches, or SONET/SDH switches. Inter-related ingress and egress resource tables may be used by provider edge nodes to negotiate consistently managed data tunnels across a provider network on behalf of data flowing from/to a diverse base of customer edge nodes. Detailed network resource information particular to each of the data flows is exchanged between provider edge nodes during the creation of pseudo-wires. Admission control algorithms are applied at the ingress and egress points in order to manage the data flows into a provider network and exiting from a provider network to customer equipment. By applying pseudo-wire shuffling and preemption techniques, the providers can make better use of their network resources by admitting more pseudo-wires.

1. Field of Invention
The invention generally relates to methods and apparatuses for transporting diverse traffic types such as different types of layer-2 traffic over an optical transport network such as a SONET/SDH network. The invention more particularly relates to utilizing pseudo-wires carried directly on top of the SONET, SDH, or OTN layer to transport diverse data packet traffic types such as various types of layer-2 traffic. The second embodiment of the invention expands the field of invention to also cover electrical transport networks and expands the functionality to include admission control at the ingress and egress points of a provider network.
2. Description of Related Art
Service provider communication networks today consist of multiple types of equipment designed to transmit and route many kinds of traffic. Traditionally, these networks evolved from voice/telephone service so they were designed to carry fixed-sized circuit connections between end users. As data applications have evolved and capacity requirements have grown, several generations of packet switched networking equipment was installed into networks to route the packet data. Examples include ATM, Gigabit Ethernet, and MPLS, as shown in FIG. 21.
While new packet switching technologies continue to emerge, service providers must continue to service older technologies as it takes many years for end users to phase out a particular technology. This has led to the service providers maintaining several independent packet switched networks to carry the different types of service. Provisioning and maintaining these multiple networks is costly it would be advantageous to converge these packet switched networks onto a common network. As shown in FIG. 21, Layer-2 and MPLS switches are deployed to aggregate data flows into SONET backbone.
Conventionally circuit switched connections are used to provide transport functions between the various packet switching network equipment. But these circuit switched connections are limited in flexibility: they are available in limited bandwidth sizes: 10 Gbps, 2.5 Gbps, 622 Mbps, 155 Mbps, 53 Mbps, 1.5 Mbps, 64 Kbps, and are provisioned and maintained independently of the packet switched traffic. The static nature of these circuit connections imposes inefficiency in utilization of the capacity of the circuit switched network when carrying packet data traffic.
As a result, the interface between the packet data layer (layer 2) of the carrier network and the circuit switch layer (layer 1) leads to network utilization inefficiencies and difficult and expensive provisioning and maintenance tasks for the service providers.
The invention described herein presents a method to couple the Layer-2/MPLS packet data convergence function directly onto circuit switch equipment and integrate the control and management of connections in layer 1 and 2. Integration of these functions will greatly reduce provisioning and maintenance expenses of carrier networks and improve the utilization of the network capacity. The benefit of the invention is evident in FIG. 22.
Luca Martini and others have introduced the concept of pseudo-wires in a number of Internet Engineering Task Force (IETF) drafts, which has been widely referred to as "draft-martini". In Martini's design, some pseudo-wires can be initiated from the edge of multi-protocol label switching (MPLS) and/or IP backbone networks. Once established, a customer's layer-2 traffic can be aggregated into the pseudo-wires. To control the pseudo-wires, LDP (label distribution protocol) messages are routed through the backbone network to communicate between network edges. A serious drawback with the draft-martini design is that communication carriers must rely on MPLS/IP backbones with expensive high-performance routers to support the control messaging and label distribution protocol thereby greatly increasing the cost of transporting Layer-2 traffic which is otherwise inexpensive and relatively simple. In reality, these routers are essentially used to perform relatively trivial switching functionality.
In a parallel development, the Optical Internetworking Forum (OIF) has defined a user-network interface (UNI) specification that allows users to request the creation of Synchronous Optical Network (SONET) connections for data traffic. However, there are a number of issues in the UNI approach:                Both user and network elements must implement the UNI specification thereby dramatically increasing the cost of implementation and creating compatibility problems with non-UNI networks that interface with the UNI-enabled network.        The existing OIF UNI is only designed to interface user and network elements over optical interfaces.
George Swallow and others have proposed an overlay model where MPLS routers can use an RSVP (resource reservation protocol extension for traffic engineering) protocol to communicate with a GMPLS-enabled (generalized multi-protocol label switching-enabled) optical backbone. This approach can potentially introduce user traffic aggregation from optical network edges. However, this model requires MPLS and IP to be used across the transport networks. Also, this approach may require the carriers to reveal internal routing and resource information to the external customers, which is not practical in most of the operational networks today.
There have been a number of advancements of SONET/SDH technology in recent years. For example, Virtual Concatenation provides the flexibility that allows edge switches to create SONET/SDH connections with finer granularity bandwidth. Link Capacity Adjustment Scheme (LCAS) uses several control bits in the SONET/SDH frame to increase or decrease a connection's bandwidth. Finally, Generic Framing Procedure (GFP) specifies the framing format for a number of link protocols, such as Ethernet and PPP.
It is admitted that MPLS, LDP, draft-martini, and OIF UNI, Virtual Concatenation, LCAS and GFP are conventional elements with respect to the invention. Although the invention utilizes some of these conventional elements, details of which may be found in available literature, the methods and apparatuses disclosed and claimed herein differ substantially therefrom. In other words, the invention leverages such conventional technologies in unique ways to achieve a method and apparatus for transporting packet data from customer data nodes over an optical network.

Method and apparatus for performing data flow ingress/egress admission control in a provider network


Applicator and method for applying melted rubber to pavement comprises a melting vat having a substantially planar bottom with a surface area, and a wide-area a heating element beneath the melting vat having a surface area more than half the surface area of the planar bottom of the melting vat and positioned beneath the melting vat. The heating element may be comprised of an aluminum oxide ceramic blanket. A double-walled construction of the vat with exhaust holes in the outer wall allows exhaust to evenly melt rubber in the vat to reduce burning of the rubber, flame blowouts, and improve fuel efficiency.

Rubber applicators are mobile devices that are rolled along cracks in pavement to apply melted rubber to fill the cracks. They typically have a vat for holding rubber blocks, and a heating element to melt the rubber and keep it at a desired temperature during the application process. It is desirable for rubber applicators to avoid overheating or burning the rubber in the vat, to be easy to clean and maintain, and to avoid concentrating a flame to single spot beneath the vat. It is also desirable to provide a rubber applicator in which the heating element is unlikely to blowout.

Mobile rubber applicator with wide-area ceramic blanket heater


A method and device of sending and receiving encoded media over a CDMA channel. A plurality of speech frames are output by a media codec, and the plurality of encoded media frames are encapsulated into a packet of a first type. The packet of the first type is encapsulated into a datagram of a second type. The datagram of the second type is encapsulated into a datagram of a third type. The datagram of the third type is divided into a plurality of equal-sized pieces, such that each of the equal-sized pieces fits to a specific CDMA channel frame. Each of the CDMA channel frames is sent over a CDMA air interface, and received at a receive end over the CDMA air interface.

There are different types of CDMA systems, each one in accordance with a particular standard. For example, one standard is entitled "TIA/EIA/IS95-B Mobile Station-Base Station Compatibility Standard for Dual-Mode Wideband Spread Spectrum Cellular System", which is referred to as the IS-95 standard. Another standard offered by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project is based on the following standards: 3G TS 25.211, 3G TS 25.212, 3G TS 25.213, and 3G TS 25.214, and is referred to as the W-CDMA standard. Yet another standard offered by the 3rd Generation Partnership Project 2 and TR-45.5 is known as the CDMA 2000 standard (formerly known as IS-2000 MC).
Each of the above CDMA standards defines the processing of data for transmission on forward and reverse links. In this regards, media information may be coded at a particular data rate, formatted into a particular frame format, and processed in accordance with a particular processing method. The frame formats and processing utilized by the different standards described above are typically different from each other.
The W-CDMA standard defines an AMR speech coding scheme whereby speech information may be encoded based on one of a number of possible data rates and the coded speech data is provided in a particular format that depends on the selected data rate.
For example, patent Publication WO 01/52467 describes techniques to support AMR coded data in a CDMA 2000 communication system, whereby a number of AMR modes are defined for speech information (of various rates), silence descriptor (of various types), and blank frame.
CDMA systems such as the ones described above use native CDMA speech codecs (coders/decoders) for speech applications. In conventional CDMA systems that support EVRC coded data, the channel structure of the CDMA system does not allow utilization of other types of speech codecs within CDMA. In more detail, AMR is not currently used in CDMA systems for conversational or streaming type of applications.
Also, in conventional CDMA systems using Enhanced Variable Rate Coder (EVRC) speech codecs, speech output from the EVRC speech codecs is sent over a CDMA air interface and received at a receive end, whereby the EVRC speech data is retrieved and played for a user. However, this system is specific to EVRC speech codecs, and is not expandable for other speech data.
Thus, there is a need to be able to utilize AMR speech codecs in CDMA systems, such as for push to talk (PoC) applications.


A process for the extraction of an unwanted material from a fluid containing the unwanted material comprising the steps of introducing an immiscible extraction fluid into the fluid having an unwanted material therein to form a plurality of extraction fluid droplets in the fluid, allowing the plurality of extraction fluid droplets to hydrophilicly interact with the unwanted material in the fluid to cause the extraction fluid droplets to form into a plurality of coalesceable droplets, coalescing the coalesceable droplets into larger droplets containing the unwanted material, and separating the larger droplets containing the unwanted material from the fluid.

Acids are used to catalyze reactions in a number of different syntheses in the refining, chemical, petrochemical and pharmaceutical industries among others. Acids may also be formed as a result of syntheses, as reaction byproducts. Following the synthesis, it is often desired to eliminate the acid from the fluid. Elimination of the acid from the fluid is traditionally accomplished by means of base neutralization which typically involves a two-step process, one of neutralization and another of excess neutralizer and neutralization byproduct removal. That is, a base in the form of a liquid or a solid is added to the fluid to neutralize the acids. Typically an excess of the base neutralizer must be added to assure complete removal of acid. As a result of the neutralization of the acid by the base neutralizer, salt byproducts are formed. Following the acid neutralization process, the excess base neutralizer and salt byproducts must be removed.
If the base is a solid, the excess base and salts are typically removed by filtration. If the base is a liquid and a separate phase from the fluid, the neutralization is generally accomplished in columns where the base is dispersed into the product stream to facilitate the neutralization. The excess base and reaction byproducts are subsequently removed by means of a two-phase separator. Since an excess of the neutralizing compound must be added, the specific gravity between the two phases becomes very close and difficult to separate via conventional two-phase separators. Therefore, these devices are not very efficient at accomplishing a complete separation of the two phases. As a result, there is typically some base carryover from the two-phase separator, which results in the need for a water-wash tower designed to further separate the two phases.
A disadvantage of the above conventional two-stage acid neutralization process is that each of the steps has associated capital costs for the hardware such as towers and reaction tanks, and operating costs. A further disadvantage is the cycle time associated with the steps of neutralization and removal of excess neutralizer and neutralization byproducts. A further disadvantage is the necessity of adding a considerable excess of neutralizing or extracting agent, resulting in a two phase system that is very close in specific gravity between the two phases and therefore very difficult to separate using conventional two-phase separators such as coalescers, mesh-pads or vane packs, residence time devices, centrifuges etc. As a result of the shortcomings of the above conventional acid catalyst removal techniques, there is a need for a process for selective removal of the unwanted materials such as acids that overcomes these disadvantages.
The present invention provides a process for the removal of an unwanted liquid from a fluid and particularly an acid from the fluid by introducing a relatively small volume of polar liquid to extract the acid from the primary phase fluid through a hydrophilic interaction between the polar liquid and the acid. The extractive fluid may have a specific gravity very close to that of the primary phase fluid. Specifically, this invention relates to the process of creating a dispersion of an extractive liquid that is substantially immiscible in the fluid to hydrophilicly interact with the acid in the fluid, to form an acid-rich liquid phase that is stably dispersed in the primary phase fluid. This stable dispersion, may be defined as a stable suspension of a discontinuous liquid phase within another continuous liquid phase, wherein the discontinuous liquid phase comprises droplets which remains dispersed or suspended in the continuous liquid phase for an extended period, the droplets not separable by conventional liquid/liquid separation technologies—such as filter-coalescers, residence time coalescers with mesh-pads or vane-packs, centrifuges etc. This stable dispersion functions to facilitate the intimate mass-transfer between the primary and secondary phases.
As an example, the above-mentioned process can be used with a dispersion comprising droplets of a discontinuous liquid phase having diameters in the 0.1-3 micron range, or smaller although larger droplets having a diameter extending up to 10 micron range are also possible, as long as the droplets remain dispersed or suspended. Following the dispersion, the present invention uses a coalescer such as a porous medium to capture, coalesce, and separate the acid-rich liquid in the form of droplets from the fluid.
Although other embodiments of a porous medium may be used to capture the droplets, in the present invention the porous medium is preferably constituted with fibers of sufficient dimensions to capture these droplets. The aforementioned fibers are typically on the order of magnitude of the droplets, that is, the porous medium usually contains of fibers that have diameter in the 0.5-2 microns range although it is conceivable that fibers of other dimensions can also be used.
One of the advantages of the present invention is that once the water-acid droplets have been removed into a continuous secondary phase, this secondary phase can be dehydrated to remove some of the water so that the acid can be reused for future applications thus eliminating waste.


An ultrasonic operating apparatus of the present invention includes an apparatus main body having a vibration driving circuit for generating a driving signal to apply ultrasonic vibrations to a vibration generating portion of a hand piece and having a control portion for generating the driving signal and for systematically controlling the apparatus. An operating and display panel and a water supply pump are arranged to an outer surface of the apparatus main body, and the driving signal is supplied to the hand piece via a connector. Until a user carries out a correct processing routine, the control portion does not perform the above control operation even though the user may execute another control operation. Further, the control portion controls an operation so that an incorrect processing routine is notified to the user on the operating and display panel.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an ultrasonic operating apparatus, and more particularly, to an ultrasonic operating apparatus which timely notifies a user's mistake and thus enables smooth operation.
2. Related Art Statement
In general, an ultrasonic operating apparatus for transmission of ultrasonic vibrations to the organ in the coelom and for resection is well-known.
Various types of the above-mentioned ultrasonic operating apparatuses are conventionally proposed. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-23347 discloses an ultrasonic operating apparatus comprising an ultrasonic output portion, a water supply portion, and an absorbing portion, wherein the apparatus is systematically controlled so that the water supply portion and the absorbing portion are operated synchronously with the ultrasonic output.
Generally, the ultrasonic operating apparatus supplies water to clean the organ and to suppress the heating of a probe.
In the above-mentioned ultrasonic operating apparatus, the calorific value of the probe is proportional to an amplitude generated by ultrasonic vibrations and therefore a necessary amount of supplied water changes depending on the amplitude. Consequently, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 6-38973 discloses, an ultrasonic operating apparatus as one related-art comprises the basic structure disclosed in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 5-23347, wherein the amount of supplied water is controlled in accordance with a setting value of the ultrasonic vibration.
Further, Japanese Patent Publication No. 3081674 proposed by the present applicant discloses an ultrasonic operating apparatus for preventing to start a vibrating operation upon an incomplete preparing state due to the user's mistake and for the safe usage.


An illumination stabilization apparatus for a vehicle headlamp is disclosed. The illumination stabilization apparatus supplies stable power to a headlamp using a SEPIC, thus increasing the lifespan of a headlamp, and reducing the dimming of light generated by the headlamp.

1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to an illumination stabilization apparatus for a vehicle headlamp, which uses a Single Ended Primary Inductance Converter (SEPIC) to stably supply power to a headlamp.
2. Background Art
A vehicle headlamp is a lamp for illuminating the area ahead of a vehicle to ensure safe traveling during periods of low visibility, such as at night. Such a vehicle headlamp must emit light having uniform illuminance in order for the driver to recognize obstacles located ahead of the vehicle and secure a certain range of vision, and for the drivers of oncoming vehicles to travel comfortably. Therefore, stably supplying constant power from a battery to a headlamp has been recognized to be important.
Conventionally, a push-pull converter, a buck-boost converter, etc. are used to stably supply power.
The push-pull converter, as shown in FIG. 1A, includes a transformer T having a center tap on the primary side thereof, two power switches TR1 and TR2 connected to the primary side, full-wave rectifier diodes D1 and D2 connected to the secondary side of the transformer, and an LC filter connected to an output terminal.
The operation of the push-pull converter is briefly described. The push-pull converter is operated such that the two power switches TR1 and TR2 are periodically turned on or off, and thus voltages having a phase difference of 180 degrees are applied.
However, the push-pull converter, which is generally used to control power of 500 Watts or more, is problematic in that it is not suitable for vehicles because it has a large size and generates a large amount of heat.
The buck-boost converter, as show in FIG. 1B, is a DC-DC converter for outputting a voltage higher or lower than a certain input voltage value, and includes a switch TR1, an inductor L1, a rectifier diode D1, and a capacitor C1.
The operation of the buck-boost converter is briefly described. When the switch is in on, an input stage and an output stage are separately operated by the rectifier diode, whereas, when the switch is in off, the influence of input power is eliminated, the inductor L1 is connected to an output load, and the energy stored in the inductor is transferred to the capacitor C1 and the load.
However, the buck-boost converter has problems in that an excessive voltage ripple is generated in the switch at the time of control in a Discontinuous Conduction Mode (DCM), and in that additional passive elements (for example, an inductor) are required at the time of control in a Continuous Conduction Mode (CCM), and thus heat is generated.
The information disclosed in this Background section is only for enhancement of understanding of the background of the invention and should not be taken as an acknowledgement or any form of suggestion that this information forms the prior art that is already known to a person skilled in the art.

Illuminance stabilization apparatus for vehicle headlamp


A power converter includes an output filter circuit including first and second inductive elements; a voltage source coupled to the output filter circuit, the voltage source for generating a voltage across the output filter circuit, the voltage including an alternating voltage component, the alternating voltage component causing the application of an alternating current to the first inductive element of the output filter circuit; and an attenuation filtering circuit. The attenuation filtering circuit includes a first magnetically coupled inductive arrangement for generating a first opposing alternating current in response to the alternating voltage applied to the first inductive element of the output filter circuit; a first combining element for combining the first opposing alternating current with the alternating current to partially cancel the alternating current, thereby producing an attenuated alternating current applied to the second inductive element of the output filter circuit; a second magnetically coupled inductive arrangement for generating a second opposing alternating current in response to the attenuated alternating current applied to the second inductive element of the output filter circuit; and a second combining element for combining the second opposing alternating current with the attenuated alternating current to substantially cancel the attenuated alternating current.

Much of the advance in standard of living over the past twenty or so years results from the use of advanced communications, data processing, and environmental sensing techniques. The devices used in such communications, processing, and sensing generally become more useful as their sizes are decreased, such that more of them can be used. For example, computers and cellular phones require ever-smaller elements, and become more capable as the number of devices, which can be accommodated, increases. Similarly, lightweight and reliable sensors can be used in large numbers in vehicles to aid in control and, in the case of spacecraft and military vehicles, to aid in carrying out their missions.
Most modern semiconductor devices, and other devices important for the above purposes, are generally energized or biased by direct voltages. As devices have become smaller, their powering requirements also advantageously decrease. Unfortunately, a concomitant of low power requirements is often sensitivity to unintended noise or fluctuations in the applied power. It is easy to understand that extremely small transistors, which ordinarily operate at two or three volts, could be destroyed by application of tens of volts. It is less apparent but true that small-percentage variations or noise on the applied powering voltage may result in degradation of the operating characteristics of semiconductor and other devices and the circuits in which they operate, which may adversely affect the performance. It is a commonplace that conventional radio and television receivers will respond to noise on or sudden changes in their supply voltages with aural or visual distortions, or both.
In general, electronic equipments require direct voltages for their power sources. There are two general sources of electrical energy which can be used to provide the power, and these two sources are batteries, which provide direct voltage, and power mains of an alternating voltage. When power mains are the source of electrical energy, it is common to rectify the alternating voltage to achieve a direct voltage. The power mains are used to drive machine motors in addition to electronic equipment, so the mains voltages tend to be higher than the voltages required for electronic equipment, and rectified voltages also tend to be higher than desired or usable. In the past, transformers have been used to convert the mains power to voltages more compatible with electronic equipment. However, transformers operating at 60 Hz tend to be much larger than is desirable in modern miniaturized equipment. It might be thought that there are no problems with the powering of electronic equipment from batteries, which directly provide direct voltage. However, batteries have the same general problem as that of mains powering, namely that available direct voltage does not necessarily correspond with the desired operating voltage. One modern technique for producing voltages for powering electronic equipment is that of use of a switching power supply or switching converter, which changes a direct source voltage to a different direct voltage.
A switching power converter can operate from a direct voltage derived from the power mains or from a battery, and can either increase or decrease the output voltage relative to the input voltage. These switching power converters take many different forms, some examples of which include those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,163,926 issued Aug. 7, 1979 in the name of Willis; U.S. Pat. No. 4,190,791, issued Feb. 26, 1980 in the name of Hicks; U.S. Pat. No. 4,298,892 issued Nov. 3, 1981 in the name of Scott; U.S. Pat. No. 4,761,722 issued Aug. 2, 1988 in the name of Pruitt; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,602,464 issued Feb. 11, 1997 in the name of Linkowski et al.
Radar, sensor, imaging, and other systems require power converters that produce very clean power. Ripple attenuation and cancelling circuits have been developed to achieve such ultra-low noise power converters. These prior art filter circuits, however, use many matched inductors and capacitors that must be cascaded together to achieve high attenuation filtering. Hence, undesirable parasitic components are difficult-to-impossible to cancel out in these circuits. Moreover, prior art filter circuits require many electrical components, and matching of components. All inductors in such prior art filter circuits must carry the full load current, and these filter circuits are extremely difficult to damp out to assure stable operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,693,805 discloses a ripple cancellation circuit that addresses many of the problems described above and achieves relatively high attenuation filtering. Unfortunately, the ripple cancellation circuit described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,693,805 is sensitive to magnetic component value matching and the attenuation thereof could be improved.
Accordingly, a power converter ripple attenuation or cancellation filtering circuit with very high ripple attenuation or cancellation filtering is needed, which avoids the problems associated with prior art ripple filtering circuits.

High attenuation filtering circuit for power converters


And the esophageal airway management device guide insertable in a patient's trachea with minimum throat, esophageal or tracheal injury having a distal section softer than an intermediate section which also may have a proximal section softer than the intermediate section.

Esophageal airway guides used in the field of airway management in both humans and other mammals have been developed in the past twenty or more years for positioning extraglottic airway devices (EAD) as well as subglottic airway devices (SAD) which provide enough rigidity to guide the EAD or the SAD around the back of the mouth to help reduce the risk of tissue injury. In some instances such as in Scarberry U.S. Pat. No. 4,231,365; Parker U.S. Pat. No. 5,339,805 and Christopher U.S. Pat. No. 6,568,388, the guide has a generally preformed curvature which when positioned, assists in manipulating the airway management devices into position. Saladach U.S. publication 2003/0062039 of Apr. 3, 2003; Gomez U.S. Pat. No. 6,053,166; Frankel U.S. Pat. No. 5,793,327 and Fletcher U.S. Pat. No. 4,329,983 provide a mechanical mechanism for manipulating the end of the guide from outside of the patient in order to position the airway management devices. Flexible guide members have also been used such as in Matthews U.S. Pat. No. 4,632,112; Frankel U.S. Pat. No. 4,825,858 and Field U.S. Pat. No. 5,919,183. Although the above devices disclosed in the patents assist in positioning and/or reduction of injury, the medical profession states that substantial improvement over present devices in positioning as well as in reducing injury is required.

Esophageal airway management device guides


A thermally conductive structure for transferring heat energy transversely, relative to a heat source interconnected to the structure, is disclosed. The structure generally includes a plurality of non-metallic thermal plugs insertable into a corresponding plurality of cells of a honeycomb core. Each of the thermal plugs are primarily axially thermally conductive. The honeycomb core is sandwiched between first and second panels, the heat source being mounted on the first panel. As such, the structure with high through the thickness thermal conductivity (e.g., greater than 200 W/m .degree.K) and conductance primarily transversely transfers heat energy from the heat source to the second panel via the plurality of thermal plugs.

Honeycomb cores of sandwich structures are generally made up of numerous interconnected cells providing a support structure having high strength-to-weight and stiffness-to-weight ratios. Typically, honeycomb structures are made by an expansion or a corrugated process. The expansion method of fabricating honeycomb structures from a web material generally involves stacking sheets of the web material having adhesive mode lines printed thereon to form a block. After curing, the block may be expanded to the desired cell shape and then cut to appropriate dimensions. In the corrugated process for making honeycomb structures, the web material is corrugated into a number of corrugated sheets and adhesive is used to interconnect the corrugated sheets to form a block which may then be cut to appropriate dimensions. The expansion and corrugation processes are particular useful in fabricating honeycomb cores out of metallic and non-metallic materials. Other processes for making honeycomb structures, such as from composites, involve fusing the nodes together.
Honeycomb cores fabricated in accord with the processes outlined hereinabove may be used in the aerospace, transportation, recreation and marine industries to fabricate honeycomb core sandwich structures. Such honeycomb structures are particularly useful in the aerospace field, where lightweight and high strength structures are required. For example, in aircraft structures, honeycomb panels have been used in wings and to support various devices within an aircraft. For spacecraft applications, honeycomb structures should be lightweight in view of payload weight limitations for launching spacecraft, and the honeycomb structures should also be structurally stable, as such honeycomb structures may function as a load bearing members. For example, honeycomb structures may support a variety of devices within the interior of the spacecraft, such as batteries or other electronic components.

High thermal conductivity plugs for structural panels


A container (20) includes a base surface (25) having walls (21, 22, 23 and 24) extending therefrom which together form an opening for the container (20). A door (26) is attached to one wall (24) by a hinge (27) to close the opening. A thermoelectric power module (43) is removably mounted in a recess (66) formed in one wall (21) and selectively heats and cools the interior of the container (20). The container (20) may thus be selectively positioned on either the base surface (25) or on one of two walls (22, 23). A power cord (57) is attached to the module (43) and carries a plug (58) so that the module (43) may be connected to a source of electric power. A switch (61) on the plug (58) directs the module (43) to selectively cool or heat the interior of the container (20). The cord (57) may be routed in channels (70, 72, 73, 74) formed in the base surface (25) from module (43) to any of the walls (22, 23, 24) and may be stored in a recess (77) formed in the base surface (25) and wall (24). A handle assembly (42) is positioned near the top of the walls (22, 23) to be recessed therein and includes a gripping portion (82) with arms (83) extending from the ends thereof. The arms (83) are received through apertures (91) formed in pockets (90) formed near the top of the walls (22, 23) and engage ledges (92) at the bottom of the pockets (90) to maintain the handle assemblies (42) in the pockets (90) when they are lifted and rotated to carry the container (20).

Thermoelectric containers which can selectively maintain food products cool or warm are known in the art. When manufactured of a size to be readily transported by the user, such as an outdoorsman, such a device not only eliminates the need for an ice chest but also provides the additional benefit of actually being able to heat food contained therein.
Most known thermoelectric containers have a thermoelectric unit permanently positioned in the top or on one side thereof with its heat exchanging fins disadvantageously protruding into the container. Such positioning also does not permit the container to be selectively placed by the user in both a horizontal or vertical position because in one of those positions, the container may be resting with the thermoelectric unit on the bottom thereby detrimentally cutting off its air supply. Thus, for example, a container, which when in a horizontal position much like an ice chest has its hinged cover on the top and the thermoelectric unit on the side, can only be placed in one upright, refrigerator-like, position, with the cover at the front, because in the other possible upright position, the thermoelectric unit would be smothered. Thus, such containers do not provide the advantageous, and often desirable, right hand/left hand opening option when in the upright position. In addition, the permanent positioning of the thermoelectric unit, wherever positioned, makes maintenance and repair of the unit difficult, if not impossible, for the user.
The power cord which extends from the thermoelectric unit also presents problems for the user. For example, if the cord is permanently attached to the unit and thus the container, the cord often presents a nuisance when the container is being transported, and the plug carried by the cord can be damaged, as by being stepped on. Many thermoelectric containers utilize removable cords thereby eliminating these problems. But over time, the insertion and removal of the plug can cause a poor electrical connection increasing electrical resistance often resulting in a burning or melting of the plug housing.
When utilizing removable plugs, the electronics of the device have been arranged such that when plugging the cord into the unit in one direction, the unit will cool the container. By simply turning the plug over, the unit can be directed to heat the container. This can be a problem to the user in that if he forgets whether he was heating or cooling during the previous use, he might in a subsequent use inadvertently heat the container when he wanted to cool it, or vice versa.
To transport most prior art thermoelectric containers which are intended to be portable, most often some type of handles are provided. In many such containers, when not in use the handles interfere with the compact placement of the container. In addition, since the container must be insulated for thermal efficiency, usually the insulation is interrupted at the area of the prior art handles thereby diminishing the overall thermal efficiency of the containers.
Thus, the need exists for a portable thermoelectric container which can be positioned vertically in one of two positions and horizontally as well; which is provided with a thermoelectric power module which is readily removable for ease of maintenance; which utilizes a cord permanently attached to the thermoelectric module and yet provides for proper routing of the cord when in use and storing of the cord when not in use; which provides the user with an easy manner in which to change the mode of the unit from heating to cooling with a visual indication thereof; and which can be carried by handles which can be recessed out of the way when not in use, and which do not detract from the thermal efficiency of the container.


Rubber compositions are disclosed for integral attachment of polymeric and metallic materials. Improved bondability is attributed to the use of a selected base rubber blended with a selected class of inorganic or organic fillers, silane compounds and vulcanizing agents such that the finished composition is provided with a specified range of Mooney viscosities. Also disclosed is a method of hose-metal fitting connection by the application of the composition. Gas- and oil-impermeability characteristics are greatly enhanced.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention is directed to rubber compositions cabable of adhesion to both polymeric and metallic materials. Such composition is useful generally for adhesive bonding of a thermoplastic resin to a metallic material and particularly for firm attachment of a metal fitting to a hose construction. The invention further relates to a method of jointing a coupler on to a hose.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Polymeric materials have of late found application to a wide variety of industrial sectors and household commodities. This trend has lent an impetus to the production of composite polymer materials in which a polymer and a metal are bonded together into an integral structure and further to the development of adhesive compositions for polymer-to-metal bonding.
Prior adhesive compositions are applicable for instance to automotive hoses for air-conditioning and fuel-transporting use. As refrigerants a family of gases known as chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) have been employed among which dichlorodifluoromethane (CFC 12) is typified. CFC 12, however, is reported to rise into the stratophere and erode the ozone layer that screens out dangerous solar rays and thus induce cutaneous cancer in some cases. The world's industrial nations are required to phase out the use of such ozone-depleting chemical. 1,1,1,2-Tetrafluoroethane (HFC 134a) is considered to be one safe substitute.
An urgent need has arose, in addition to safety examination of HFC 134a by experts, for means ensuring leak-proof, maintenance-free transport of that gas as a refrigerant.
Various hoses have been Proposed for use in transporting or otherwise handling refrigerants and fuels. One such hose is constructed with a core tube formed from a acrylonitrile-butadiene rubber (NBR) or chlorosulfonated polyethylene (CSM) for its good oil-resistance and refrigerant- and fuel-impermeable properties. To further improve impermeability, another hose has assembled a combination core including an inner peripheral wall of a thermoplastic resin such as a nylon and an outer peripheral wall of a rubbery material such as NBR, CSM or butyl rubber (IIR). Either type of hose is usually provided at each of its opposite ends with an aluminum joint fixed by the use of an adhesive composition for connection to the companion part.
The last-mentioned, laminated-cored hose has a drawback in that on prolonged exposure to a temperature exceeding a working temperature, say from 140 to 160.degree. C., it gets flattened at the inner resinous wall under stresses originating from the joint. In such instance the hose is susceptible to leakage at a lower pressure than a working pressure usually of from 15 to 30 kgf/cm.sup.2 and even at the working temperature. This is evidenced by the following performance tests in which the hose has been examined for air tightness after aging at varying temperatures for different lengths of time.
______________________________________ temperature (.degree.C.) time (hr) pressure (kgf/cm.sup.2) ______________________________________ 120 168 not leaked at 40 140 168 leaked at less than 5 150 168 leaked at less than 5 160 24 leaked at less than 5 ______________________________________
The foregoing hose of a combination core type is wholly unsatisfactory as it is prone to leak only under appreciable stress particularly where it is by sheer accident subject to a higher temperature for a longer period of time. This is literally responsible for laborious maintenance and often for hazardous operation.
The above problems have been coped with by the use of metal joints constituted of a nipple and a socket, the nipple being structured in a trapezoidally channeled, serrated or voluted shape and the socket formed to suit wavy or flat clamping. None of these attempts works to satisfaction from the leakproofness point of view. Alternatively, it is known that a hose body and a metal fitting can be clamped with an O-ring or sleeve interposed therebetween. In this mode of clamping, the packing is objectionably displaceable and difficult to position in place while in interengagement of the hose with the fitting.
To attain integral bonding between a composite hose and a metal joint, it has been proposed that a chlorinated rubber cement be used as an adhesive. This cement tends to adversely affect the resinous material constituting an inner wall of the hose core, rendering the resultant hose assembly sensitive to stress crack and hence fluid leak.


A temporal compression and decompression system is disclosed for color video. A video stream with red, green and blue pixel element values is input to a first computer. In the first computer, a new frame of video data is compared to the frame being displayed on a second computer and the similarity between corresponding blocks and sub-blocks is represented with one tolerance result per sub-block. Based on the number of sub-blocks for which tolerance results exceed a preset threshold and a user-specified quality level, an update quality level is selected that determines the quality at which the frame update is transmitted from the first computer to the second computer. Before the frame update is transmitted the updating information is compressed in a two-stage process. In the first stage 5-bit red, blue and green element values in sub-blocks being updated are is converted to 3-bit categories. In the second stage groups of categories are converted to variable-length Huffman words. The Huffman words are then transmitted over a communications channel to the second computer, which decompresses and displays the updated sub-blocks.

It takes an enormous amount of bandwidth to process, store or transmit high-resolution, full-color digital video data at acceptable frame rates. For example, assuming a video source with a resolution of 320 by 240 pixels (corresponding to VGA resolution) and 16-bit pixel data, one frame of color video data takes up 1,228.8 Kbits (320.times.240.times.16). Assuming the video source provides 12 frames per second at this resolution, systems that display or store the video data must have a bandwidth of at least 14.746 Mbits per second. Common transmission systems (telephone lines and 28.8 Kbit per second modems) and storage media (hard disk drives with typical real-world storage rates of no more than 10 Mbits per second) do not have this capability. Consequently, there is a need for systems that compress high-resolution video data so that it can be stored and transmitted more easily.
There are two classes of video compression systems. Systems that perform temporal compression shrink the amount of video data by detecting similarities between corresponding pixels in subsequent video frames and encoding the redundant information so it takes up less space on transmission or storage. In contrast, systems that solely perform spatial compression reduce the amount of data needed to represent a single frame of video by detecting regions within a frame with similar pixel data and compressing the video data corresponding to those regions. Because the present application is directed to temporal compression, the remainder of this section focuses predominantly on some problems with prior art temporal compression systems.
Many prior temporal video compression systems are built on an assumption that all frame updates are to be encoded at the same compression/quality level. Typically, this quality level is specified by a user. For example, a user might specify that the data stream from a video camera always be compressed to a high quality level so fine details of each video frame can be preserved. Upon receiving a new frame of video data, the temporal compression system determines which parts of the new frame are sufficiently different from corresponding parts of the previous frame. The temporal compressor then compresses to the required level the video data from each part of the frame that is to be updated.
This approach to temporal compression can cause two problems. First, if there is a large degree of change from one frame to the next (e.g., where the entire frame needs updating), at the predetermined compression level there might not be enough bandwidth to transmit the compressed data for the parts of the frame that need updating. Second, if there are only small differences between subsequent frames, or if the transmission channel has a large bandwidth, the available transmission bandwidth might not be fully utilized for the update, meaning that the update could have been transmitted at a higher quality level than the predetermined quality level or a lower compression ratio. Therefore, there is a need for a temporal compression system that can adaptively adjust its quality settings so that each frame update fits within the available transmission bandwidth and is also transmitted at the best possible quality.
In addition to determining which parts of a frame are to be updated based on temporal comparisons between subsequent frames, it is well known to spatially compress the updating information so that a frame update takes up less bandwidth (thereby allowing more of a frame to be updated or allowing a higher quality update) than the purely temporally compressed update. Prior art spatial compression techniques can be used for this purpose, but they are not satisfactory for a number of reasons which are described in the co-pending application and are briefly summarized below.
One problem with the prior compression systems (especially systems that make use of RLE, or run-length encoding) is that for random images (i.e., images with little or no correlation between neighboring pixel elements), they are likely to produce a "compressed" video stream that is actually longer than the original video stream. This is the case because the lack of similarity between random neighboring elements causes the RLE systems to generate uniformly long codes for all of the elements. This can even occur in RLE systems for real-world data. Even if the prior art spatial compression systems did not possess this problem, they would still be too slow to compress and then decode highly detailed video data at acceptable frame rates. This is because the encoded data provided by the prior art compression systems is structured so that it can only be decoded bit-by-bit or in time-consuming pattern matching (in the RLE case).
In contrast, the co-pending application describes a color video spatial compression system that is guaranteed to produce compressed data streams that are no bigger than the initial video stream for all possible images. Also, the spatial compression technique described in the co-pending application decodes the compressed video in multi-bit chunks and, as a result, is fast enough to provide the necessary decompression bandwidth for high quality images.
Therefore, there is a need for a temporal compression system that can make use of the spatial compression techniques described in the co-pending application to compress the updating information for each video frame.

Temporal compression and decompression for video


A silver halide color light-sensitive material containing a cyan coupler which provides an excellent hue and an improved fastness at a low color-developing area and which has small change in a color developing density, which is caused by change of a composition of a blix solution and provides a small fog in a cyan color at a non-exposed area in a continuous processing. The silver halide color light-sensitive material contains at least one cyan coupler represented by the following Formula (I) in at least one layer on a support: wherein Y represents --N.dbd. or --C(R.sub.3).dbd.; X represents a hydrogen atom or a group which splits off upon a coupling reaction with an oxidized product of a color developing agent; Z represents a non-metallic atomic group necessary for forming an alicyclic group or a heterocyclic ring; R.sub.1, R.sub.2 and R.sub.3 each represents a hydrogen atom or a substituent; and R.sub.1 contributes to form an unsaturated bond in a ring formed by Z or combined with the atoms on the ring formed by Z to form a ring.

It is well known that in a silver halide color light-sensitive material, an aromatic primary amine color developing agent oxidized with exposed silver halide used as an oxidizing agent is reacted with a coupler to form an indophenol, indoaniline, indamine, azomethine, phenoxazine, and phenazine dyes, and the dyes related thereto, whereby a dye image is formed. In such a photographic system, a subtractive color process is used, and generally the dye image is formed with yellow, magenta and cyan dyes.
A phenol or naphthol coupler is generally used for forming a cyan dye image. However, these couplers have a large problem that since they have an unfavorable absorption in a green light region, they markedly deteriorate a color reproducibility, and therefore the solution therefor is desired.
The heterocyclic compounds described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,728,598 and 4,873,183, and European Patent 0249453A2 are proposed as the means for solving this problem. However, these couplers have a fatal problem that they have the low coupling activities. There are proposed as the couplers which overcome these problems, pyrazoloazoles described in European Patent Publications 0488248A1 and 0484909A1, and JP-A-5-232649 (the term "JP-A" as used herein means an unexamined published Japanese patent application). These couplers are excellent in terms a coupling activity and a hue. However, the dyes formed from pyrazoloazoles shown in these patents have the problem that a color developing density changes due to change of a composition of a bleach-fixing solution (hereinafter referred to as a blix solution). It is the phenomenon which notably appeared particularly when the concentrations of a thiosulfuric acid ion or a sulfurous acid ion contained in the blix solution is changed by a continuous processing. Further, also in terms of a fastness of a dye image after processing, the fastness at a relatively low color-developing density area is inferior to that at a high color developing density area, and the improvement thereof has been desired. Furthermore, there has been involved the problem that cyan color fog at a non-developed area is large, and the improvement thereof has been desired.

Silver halide color light-sensitive material


A binocular includes two parallel telescope systems, two slide frames on which the telescope systems are respectively supported, and two shells, one fixed to each of the slide frames covering the telescope systems. The slide frames are supported by an I-shaped frame consisting of top and bottom members and a center block is provided between the top and bottom members. The slide frames between the top and bottom members so that the slide frames are slidable.

The present invention relates to a binocular with an interpupillary adjustment mechanism.
There is a known binocular having an interpupillary adjustment mechanism. A recently developed binocular has two (left and right) casings respectively accommodating left and right telescope systems, and the left casing is slidably supported by the right casing so that the interpupillary distance can be adjusted by sliding the left casing with respect to the right casing.
In such a binocular, as the interpupillary distance increases, the amount of the left casing pulled out of the right casing increases. That is, a hollow portion (that has been occupied by the left casing) is increased in the right casing. Accordingly, the strength (i.e., rigidity) of the right casing is decreased, which also decreases the strength of the binocular as a whole.


A method for processing an array antenna signal is disclosed, comprising steps of: a. determining the number of antenna units participating the processing of the array antenna signals and selecting antenna units to participate the array antenna signal processing from all the antenna units in the array antenna; b. performing signal estimation processing on received signals by all the antenna units selected in step a and obtaining a user feature parameter estimation; c. performing estimation of weight coefficients for all the antenna units of the array antenna based on the user feature parameter estimation obtained in step b; and d. receiving and/or transmitting the array antenna signals based on the weight coefficients estimated in step c. The method of the present invention can effectively reduce a computation amount of the array antenna signal processing and improve a reliability of a received signal.

An array antenna is composed of multiple antenna units according to a certain distribution mode, mainly used for improving an antenna system performance including gain. Each antenna unit in the array antenna is an independent unit and can be an omnidirectional antenna or a directional antenna. The distribution of antenna units can be linear, ring, plane or solid. According to the array antenna technology, all the antenna units cooperate to perform receiving and transmission of user signals in different environment. Generally, according to the array antenna technology, a weighting parameter of a transmission signal on each antenna unit is computed and determined by estimating a received signal and a combining receiving and/or transmission of the antenna array signal according to the computed weighting parameter. Specifically, according to the traditional antenna transmission technology, all the received signals on all the antenna units are processed to determine the weight coefficient of each antenna unit. Here, the processing of the received signals adopts technologies such as Receiving and Transmission Beam-forming, Receiving Diversity and Close Loop Transmit Diversity.
In the traditional technology, the processing of the array antenna signal based on the parameter estimation is as follows:
a) determining a number M of the antenna units in the currently used array antenna wherein the number of the antenna units is also called the dimension of the array antenna and each antenna unit corresponds to one-channel signal;
b) processing the received M-channel signals and obtaining a feature parameter estimation of the user wherein processing the received signals with different methods can obtain different feature parameters of the user, for example, if a user direction-of-arrival (DOA) is estimated on the received M-channel signals, then after the channel estimation, correlated matrix computation, spectrum estimation on the M-channel signals, the DOA of the user can be obtained and the obtained DOA is referred as the feature parameter of the user.
c) estimating the weight coefficients of all the antenna units based on the obtained feature parameters of the user wherein a function with the beam-forming weight coefficient as the feature parameter can be used to perform the estimation.
The above processing of the array antenna signals shows that the computation amount of the array antenna signals will increase with the increase of the antenna units and the main computation amount is to compute the weight coefficient of each antenna.
In addition, for a complex wireless environment, the array antenna receives the signals in a complex way. Generally, signal fading in different antenna unit is different. If an antenna unit is in a status of deep fading, the reliability of the received signal is reduced and in this case, it is necessary to solve the problem of how to improve the reliability of the received signal by effectively using all the antenna units.

Method for processing array antenna signal

Shanghai Ultimate Power Communications Technology Co.


A nail polish dispenser including a hollow tube applicator and a receptacle with a recessed central bottom region. The applicator is formed to include bristles at one end and a pressure bulb attached to the opposing end. An aperture is formed in the tube in proximity to the end containing the bristles. The hollow tube is filled with polish so that as the bulb is squeezed, the polish will exit the aperture and flow onto the bristles. The utilization of such an applicator design allows for a large number of nails to be polished without refilling the applicator. The recessed bottom region of the receptacle allows for the collection of polish as the liquid is depleted, as well as providing a holding area for the application means when not is use.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a nail polish dispenser and, more particularly, to a nail polish dispenser with an improved applicator design.
2. Background of the Invention
Conventional nail polish dispensers are well-known and consist of a simple brush applicator including a screw top for engaging with a nail polish receptacle (i.e. bottle). Many variations exist, including disposable arrangements that store a one-time application of polish in an inner recess of the applicator, the applicator then being thrown away after use. U.S. Pat. No. 4,625,741 is exemplary of this disposable type of polisher.


A printhead carriage including a body that is guided and driven for reciprocating movement in a printer, a mounting plate for a printhead assembly, and a suspension structure adjustably connecting the mounting plate to the body, the suspension structure having a framework of hinge plates having elastic hinges and at least one adjusting mechanism adapted to adjust the position of the mounting plate by elastically deflecting at least one of the hinges. An adjusting unit which provides for at least one degree of freedom of the mounting plate and includes two hinge plates that are connected to a common support point of the mounting plate and are oriented at right angles relative to one another, and the adjusting mechanism is adapted to push and/or pull one hinge plate in the longitudinal direction thereof, with the elastic deflection of at least one hinge of the other hinge plate.

The present invention relates to a printhead carriage including a body that is guided and driven for reciprocating movement in a printer, a mounting plate for a printhead assembly, and a suspension structure adjustably connecting the mounting plate to the body, the suspension structure comprising a framework of hinge plates having elastic hinges that are formed by reduced-width portions of the hinge plates and at least one adjusting mechanism adapted to adjust the position of the mounting plate by elastically deflecting at least one of the hinges.
In a scanning-type printer, e.g. an ink jet printer, a printhead carriage is moved back and forth in a main scanning direction Y, so as to scan a recording medium that is advanced step-wise in a sub-scanning direction X over a print surface. For obtaining a good print quality, it is important that the mounting plate which carries the printheads is exactly adjusted relative to the print surface. For example, in an ink jet printer, the printheads comprise one or more arrays of nozzles from which ink droplets are ejected onto the recording medium at appropriate moments during the scan movement of the carriage, so that an image is formed on the recording medium. Accordingly, the mounting plate must be adjusted so that the flight distance of the ink droplets is identical for all nozzles. This means that the mounting plate should be held in a stable position so that it is exactly parallel to the print surface. Moreover, the angle of the nozzle array or arrays relative to the main scanning direction must be adjusted with a high degree of accuracy, e.g., to 90°.
If the carriage carries a plurality of printheads, as is the case for example in a multi-color printer, another problem may arise from the fact that the operation of the printheads is frequently accompanied by the generation of a considerable amount of heat, so that the mounting plate is subject to thermal expansion which may change the positions of the printheads relative to one another. This is particularly the case for a hot melt ink jet printer which operates with ink that is solid at room temperature, so that the printheads must be heated to a relatively high temperature, for example, 100° C. or more, in order to melt the ink. If the temperature of the mounting plate is uniform, the thermal expansion may be compensated for by appropriately controlling the timing at which the individual nozzles are energized. However, if the temperature distribution of the mounting plate is not uniform, it becomes difficult to compensate for the thermal expansion.
In order to achieve a high productivity of the printer, the carriage must be accelerated and decelerated at the beginning and at the end of each scan pass with a considerably high rate. As a result, considerable forces of inertia are generated which may cause the mounting plate to shift or to vibrate. It is therefore required that the suspension structure has a sufficient stiffness for stably holding the mounting plate in the desired position.