A displaying region of a displaying backplane is delimited into a first displaying region and a second displaying region, the light transmittance of the first displaying region is less than that of the second displaying region, the displaying backplane has a metal signal line in a trace region, a plurality of sub-pixels located within the first displaying region are connected to a common cathode, and the common cathode is connected to the metal signal line. At least some of the sub-pixels located within the second displaying region are connected to independent cathodes, the independent cathodes are separate from each other, the displaying backplane further includes a first electrically conductive layer, and the independent cathodes are connected to the metal signal line via the first electrically conductive layer. The first electrically conductive layer is a planar electrode, and the orthographic projection of the planar electrode covers the second displaying region.

In the related art, in OLED displaying devices having a full screen, in order to increase the light transmittance within the image acquisition region (for example, the camera region and so on) of the OLED displaying devices to the largest extent, to realize a good effect of image acquisition, usually the cathodes of the light emitting elements within the image acquisition region in the OLED displaying devices are patterned.

Displaying backplane and fabricating method thereof, and displaying device

Chengdu BOE OptoelectronicsTechnology Co., Ltd.


A differential steering control system and method for a machine includes a motor for steering the machine in a leftwards or a rightwards direction, a continuously variable transmission for moving the machine in a forwards or a backwards direction, and a control unit connected to the motor and the continuously variable transmission. The control unit determines the speed of the continuously variable transmission and based upon the determined speed, modifies a speed of the motor in order to achieve/maintain a desired turn radius for the machine.

Hydro-mechanical steering differential systems are employed in large track-type tractors or machines to provide smooth, equal, and uninterrupted power and torque flow to both the left and the right tracks at all times when the tractor is moving. It is also important to provide power to the tracks whenever the tractor is turning in either the left or right directions. A hydro-mechanical steering differential system is typically powered by a mechanical input and a hydraulic input. The mechanical input is provided from the transmission and the hydraulic input is received from an engine driven variable displacement pump.
In conventional machines, such as a track-laying type of machine, turning control is performed by an operator steering lever or mechanism. However, one problem with the use of such operator steering levers or mechanisms is that it is difficult to have a desired constant turning radius of the machine. For example, it is sometimes difficult to control the machine when attempting to turn with a constant turning radius in a region of low machine speeds or high loads.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,611,405, entitled "Turning Speed Control System for Use in a Track-Laying Vehicle" teaches a turning speed control system. The '405 patent provides a system that reduces vehicle speed in order to achieve a commanded turn radius when the steering motor is rotating at maximum speed.
The '405 patent however, reduces vehicle speed based on turning such that when a turning motor reaches a maximum displacement, and additional turning is demanded but not available, the transmission ratio is reduced. This effect may cause the engine to lug, or increase emissions.
The present disclosure is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems as set forth above.

Differential steering control for a continuously variable transmission machine


A system for enabling end user devices to access third party cloud-based resources. For example, the system may include a first party cloud-based resource for converting sound into a format accessible to the third party cloud-based resource, storing and/or maintaining state information related to the an open communication session between the end user device and the third party cloud-based resources, and converting text-based audio announcements into audio that may be output by the end user device. In some cases, the first party cloud-based resource may transmit user responses together with stored state information to the third party cloud-based resources in a manner that the third part cloud-based resources may treat each interaction with the end user as a separate communication session.

The use of whole home surround sound and ubiquitous computing devices is becoming more and more common. Many new homes and offices are built fully wired, while many old homes and offices utilize various wireless systems. Many different ways have been introduced to allow users to interact with computing devices, such as through mechanical devices (e.g., keyboards, mice, etc.), touch screens, motion, gesture, and even through natural language input such as speech. Furthermore, many of these devices are further connected to remote computing resources, such as cloud-based resources, that extend functionality afforded by the local devices.
As computing devices in homes and offices continue to evolve, users expect a more seamless and timely experience when interacting with cloud-based resources through local devices. Additionally, users expect a more robust set of services when interacting with cloud-based resources through local devices. In particular, users expect access to a variety of third party cloud-based resources without significant lag time.


A method for operating a capacitive MEMS sensor. The method includes: supplying a defined electrical potential on a deflectably mounted, seismic mass of the MEMS sensor; capacitively inducing a vibrational motion of the seismic mass with the aid of a clocked electrical control voltage; compensating for fluctuations in the supplied electrical potential on the seismic mass caused by the clocked electrical control voltage, by selectively charging and/or discharging an electrical storage element connected to the seismic mass in accordance with the frequency of the clocked electrical control voltage.

In the case of gyroscopes, a flexibly mounted mass, a seismic mass, is induced to vibrate by a suitable control circuit of an application-specific integrated circuit, abbreviated as ASIC, and to be more precise, it is induced to vibrate preferably at the resonant frequency of the respective sensor element. With the aid of electrodes, one on the seismic mass, one stationary, which form, together, a capacitor, electrostatic energy is transmitted onto the seismic mass. In this context, the electrodes are acted upon by a variable voltage. To this end, for example, a clocked voltage may be used, which corresponds to the resonant frequency of the vibrating seismic mass.
The voltage signal is supplied, for example, by a high-voltage control loop, in order to increase the charge sensitivity and to allow reduced noise at a low current. In this context, the magnitude of the voltage is normally higher than that supplied by a grid operator, which means that suitable charge pumps are used here.
Such a high-voltage control loop is described in U.S. Pat. No. 9,006,832 B2. U.S. Pat. No. 9,006,832 B2 shows a high-voltage MEMS system, which is compatible with low-voltage semiconductor process technology and includes a MEMS device that is coupled to a high-voltage bias generator; the high-voltage bias generator utilizing expanded voltage insulation, which is situated in a semiconductor substrate. The system dispenses with the use of high-voltage transistors, which means that special high-voltage processing steps may be omitted, and consequently, processing costs and the degree of complexity are reduced. The option of testing the MEMS is permitted by a self-testing circuit, which enables modulation of the biasing voltage and the current, so that external high-voltage connections and associated electrostatic discharge protection circuits may be omitted.

Method for operating a capacitive MEMS sensor, and capacitive MEMS sensor


Process is provided for preparing an oral solid rapidly disintegrating freeze-dried dosage form of a pharmaceutically active substance having an unacceptable taste, wherein prior to freeze drying, a suspension of uncoated or coated coarse particles of a pharmaceutically active substance in a carrier material is cooled to reduce the viscosity and minimize release of the active substance during processing, as well as beyond the point of disintegration of the form in the mouth, to minimize bad taste from the drug.

It is well known to provide pharmaceutically active substances for oral administration in the form of tablets, pills or capsules. The tablet, pill or capsule is generally swallowed with water so that the pharmaceutically active substance can be absorbed by the gastro-intestinal tract. For some patients, swallowing the tablet, pill or capsule is difficult or impossible; this is particularly the case for pediatric patients and geriatric patients. Similar difficulties are often encountered when trying to administer tablets to non-human animals which may be uncooperative about taking tablets, pills or capsules.
Oral solid pharmaceutical dosage forms which rapidly disintegrate in the mouth and methods for their preparation have been proposed in GB A-1548022 and GB-A-2111423. The solid dosage forms as disclosed comprise an open matrix network carrying the pharmaceutically active substance, with the open matrix comprising a water-soluble or water-dispersible carrier material which is inert towards the pharmaceutically active substance. The solid dosage forms are prepared by the sublimation or removal of solvent from a solution or suspension comprising the pharmaceutically active substance and the carrier material. Sublimation or removal of solvent is preferably carried out by freeze drying. A typical approach is to dose a drug suspension into free form blisters followed by rapidly freezing the suspension and then freeze drying. Freeze drying removes the ice to leave a porous tablet which, when placed on the tongue, disperses in a few seconds. The drug particles are then swallowed with the saliva.
Other methods for preparing oral solid pharmaceutical forms which rapidly disintegrate in the mouth are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,039,540; 5,120,549; and 5,330,763, as well as PCT/JP93/01631 and PCT/US93/12566. Other patents are U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,760,093; 4,760,094; and 4,767,789, and European patent application 94305535.0.
While the solid dosage forms referred to above overcome the problem of swallowing tablets, pills or capsules, the patient will taste the pharmaceutically active substrate as the dosage form disintegrates in the mouth. Many pharmaceutically active substances have a bitter or unpleasant taste making them unsuitable for incorporation into a delivery system that rapidly disperses in the mouth. Sweeteners and flavoring agents can be used to mask the unpleasant taste, but in many instances this is still not sufficient to adequately mask the unpleasant taste.
An alternative approach to masking drugs having a bitter or unpleasant taste is to coat the drug particles with a polymer, for example a water insoluble polymer. The presence of the polymer coating around the drug particle prevents the drug from dissolving in the mouth and thereby avoids the bad taste. However, during production of freeze dried dosage forms, wherein a drug suspension is dosed into free form blisters followed by rapidly freezing of the suspension and freeze drying, drug release tends to occur, which leads to the drug being immediately available when the dosage form disperses in the mouth.
One method of limiting the rate of drug release is to increase the particle size of the coated drug particles. These can be coated more effectively, and also due to a decrease in the surface area compared with smaller particles, will decrease the release rate of the drug. A consequence of the use of large particles however the rapid sedimentation during processing as a suspension, and the resultant variation in the amount of drug per unit.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,384,124 describes a system in which a thick paste is formulated prior to freeze drying to prevent sedimentation of microsphere coated drug particles. The paste also contains amounts of a suspension agent in excess of its solubility limit to help prevent sedimentation of the microspheres during lyophilization. The presence of these additional components leads to a product with a high solids content which generally does not disperse until thirty seconds or longer (sometimes up to 1 to 3 minutes) after administration.
A need exists for improved rapidly disintegrating dosage forms which overcome the disadvantages noted above. In particular, a need exists for a dosage form which does not give rise to a bad taste when taken orally but which provides controlled release of the drug upon swallowing. The present invention provides such improved rapidly disintegrating dosage forms and processes for their preparation by allowing processing of coarse coated particles without affecting the physical properties of the dried units. The invention can also be used to enable processing of coarse uncoated drug material, preventing the need to obtain size reduced material and an additional manufacturing stage.

Process for preparing fast dispersing solid oral dosage form


A power supply unit according to a preferred embodiment of the invention is self testing. The power supply unit is enabled to function with no external loads applied, and includes a visual indicator of whether or not one or more voltage outputs of the power supply unit is within tolerance. To benefit from the self-test feature, a user in the field may simply unplug the power supply unit from all loads, plug the unit into an A/C source, and observe the visual indicator. If the visual indicator is lit, then the user may reasonably assume that the power supply unit is functioning correctly. But if the visual indicator is not lit, then the user may reasonably assume that the power supply unit is faulty.

One common method for troubleshooting computers in the field is simply to remove suspected faulty components and to replace them with known good ones. Removed components are often then returned to the manufacturer for testing and repair. As it happens, the majority of power supply units returned in this manner are found by the manufacturers to be operating correctly upon receipt. In such cases, the power supply unit should not have been removed and replaced. It would be desirable, therefore, to provide a means by which a computer power supply can be tested for proper operation conveniently in the field.

Self-testing power supply which indicates when an output voltage is within tolerance while not coupled to an external load

Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P.


Techniques are provided for producing two output voltages that are substantially symmetric about a middle voltage (VCOM), based on a digital data value stored in a register. A first output voltage is produced based on the digital data value stored in the register. Additionally, the digital data value stored in the register is converted (e.g., by determining its 2's compliment) to a second digital data value, which is used to produce a second output voltage that is substantially symmetric about VCOM with the first output voltage. Alternatively, the digital data value stored in the register is provided to two different DACs that have their pair of reference voltages swapped (where the reference voltages are symmetric about VCOM), which will result in the outputs of the DACs being substantially symmetric about VCOM.

In conventional flat panel display systems, such as liquid crystal display (LCD) systems, the brightness of each pixel or element is controlled by a transistor. An active matrix display includes a grid of transistors (e.g., thin film transistors) arranged in rows and columns. A column line is coupled to a drain or a source associated with each transistor in each column. A row line is coupled to each gate associated with the transistors in each row. A row of transistors is activated by providing a gate control signal to the row line which turns on each transistor in the row. Each activated transistor in the row then receives an analog voltage value from its column line to cause it to emit a particular amount of light. Generally speaking, a column driver circuit provides the analog voltage to the column lines so that the appropriate amount of light is emitted by each pixel or element. The resolution of a display is related to the number of distinct brightness levels. For a high quality display, a multi-reference voltage generator (e.g., eight or more voltages) is needed to supply voltages to the column driver.
FIG. 1 shows an LCD display 102 along with portions of its driver circuitry, including column driver(s) 104, and a multi-reference voltage generator 106, which provides analog voltages to the column driver(s) 104. Although FIG. 1 shows the driver circuitry logically separate from the display 102, commercial displays may combine the display and the driver circuitry into a single thin package. Therefore, a major consideration in developing circuitry for such displays is the microchip die size required to implement the driver circuitry. Cost is also a factor to be taken into account.
To achieve multi-reference voltage outputs, digital-to-analog converters (DACs) can be used to generate different voltages. Capacitors can be coupled to the DACs to temporarily buffer the voltages. Such a multi-reference voltage circuit has been conventionally implemented in several ways. One way uses a multi-DAC structure as shown in FIG. 2, discussed below, wherein a separate DAC is used to drive a buffer for each of the N output channels. DAC circuits are very large, however. Accordingly, with such a multi-DAC structure, as the number of output channels increase, the chip die size will become undesirably large. What is needed is a multi-reference voltage buffer small enough to be used in flat panel display packages.
In TFT-LCD applications, column drivers drive storage capacitors in TFT-LCD cells. In large panel applications, such as in television and other monitor applications, the color accuracy of the LCD display becomes more important, as it is easily perceived by the human eye. Any mismatch between the capacitor cell voltages in the LCD cell could cause these color mismatches. The multi-reference voltage generator 106 is used to improve the accuracy and reduce the mismatch of the DACs in the column driver(s) 104. Such a multi-reference voltage generator (also known as a "reference voltage generator", a "reference voltage buffer" or a "gamma buffer") provides low impedance taps in a resistor string of the column drivers 104, and thus make them match better across the display. In addition to matching the LCD column drivers, the reference voltage generator 106 is used to implement gamma correction to improve the contrast of the LCD display, as will now be described.
The data from a video card is usually linear. However, a monitor's output luminance versus input data is nonlinear. Rather, the input data versus output luminance is roughly a 2.2 power function (where L=V^2.2, where L=luminance and V=input data voltage). Accordingly, to display a "correct" luminance, the output should be gamma corrected. This can be accomplished, e.g., by applying the following function to the input data: L′=L^(1/2.5). In addition to correcting the gamma of the LCD display, gamma correction can also stretch the gamma curve to improve the contrast of the display.
Conventionally, LCD monitors have a fixed gamma response. However, LCD manufacturers are beginning to implement dynamic gamma control, where the gamma curve is being updated on a frame-by-frame basis in an attempt to optimize the contrast on a frame-by-frame basis. This is typically accomplished by evaluating the data to be displayed, on a frame-by-frame basis, and automatically adjusting the gamma curve to provide vivid and rich colors.
FIG. 2 shows details of a conventional reference voltage generator 206, which includes an interface control 208, a pair of register banks 210 and 212, multiple (i.e., N) m-bit DACs 220 and multiple (i.e., N) buffers 230.
The interface control 208 may implement an Inter-Integrated Circuit (I2C) bus interface, which is a 2-wire serial interface standard that physically consists of two active wires and a ground connection. The active wires, Serial DAta (SDA) and Serial CLock (SCL), are both bi-directional. The key advantage of this interface is that only two lines (clock and data) are required for full duplexed communication between multiple devices. The interface typically runs at a fairly low speed (100 kHz to 400 kHz), with each integrated circuit on the bus having a unique address.
The interface control 208 receives serial data addressed to the reference voltage generator 206, converts each serial m-bits of display-data into parallel data, and transfers the parallel data bits to the first bank of registers 210. The first bank of registers 210 and the second bank of registers 212 are connected in series, such that once the first bank 210 is full, the data in the first bank 210 can be simultaneously transferred to the second bank 212. Each bank of registers 210 includes, e.g., N separate m-bit registers, where N is the number of multi-level voltage outputs (OUT1-OUTN) produced by the multi-reference voltage generator 206, and m is the number of inputs in each DAC 220.
The two register banks 210 and 212 perform double-buffering to compensate for the slow I2C interface. More specifically, while the data in the N m-bit registers in bank 212 are being converted to analog voltages by the N m-bit DACs, the N m-bit registers in bank 210 are being updated. A problem with this architecture is that for every output, an m-bit DAC 220 is required, thereby impacting the size of the die. If used for dynamic gamma control, each DAC 220 needs time to settle when it is switching between two gamma curves. In most recent applications, dynamic gamma control needs to be switched at line rates and at fast settling times of 500 ns (where the period is approximately 14-20 μs). To handle such switching rates using the architecture in FIG. 2 would require relatively large transistors (which have a relative high cost) and high currents, thereby making it unrealistic for LCD applications where cost and size are of high importance. Additionally, for a same digital code, the output voltages may have large offsets due to mismatches among the multiple DACs 220 and output buffers 230.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a reference voltage generator that includes less DACs, to thereby reduce the overall die size and cost. It would also be beneficial if such a reference voltage generator can be switched at such a rate that it can be used for dynamic gamma control at line rates. Additionally, it would be beneficial to minimize mismatches that occur within a reference voltage generator.

Reference voltage generator for use in display applications


A class of organic redox shuttle additives is described, preferably comprising nitrogen-containing aromatics compounds, which can be used in a high temperature (85.degree. C. or higher) electrochemical storage cell comprising a positive electrode, a negative electrode, and a solid polymer electrolyte to provide overcharge protection to the cell. The organic redox additives or shuttles are characterized by a high diffusion coefficient of at least 2.1.times.10.sup.-8 cm.sup.2 /second and a high onset potential of 2.5 volts or higher. Examples of such organic redox shuttle additives include an alkali metal salt of 1,2,4-triazole, an alkali metal salt of imidazole, 2,3,5,6-tetramethylpyrazine, 1,3,5-tricyanobenzene, and a dialkali metal salt of 3-4-dihydroxy-3-cyclobutene-1,2-dione.

This invention relates to solid polymer electrolyte rechargeable electrochemical storage cells. More particularly, this invention relates to organic redox shuttle additives for solid polymer electrolyte rechargeable electrochemical storage cells to provide overcharge protection to the cell.
Electrochemical storage batteries of all types are susceptible to damage due to overcharging or overdischarging. Overcharging of an electrochemical storage cell in a battery may be defined as charging beyond a cell's capacity, or at a rate greater than the cell's ability to accept such charge. The damage to the cell which may occur from such overcharging may include degradation of the electrodes, the current collectors, the electrolyte, and the separators between the electrodes. In addition, internal shorting and gas evolution which may result from such overcharging can result in unstable and even dangerous conditions.
Protection against overcharging of a single cell, or a battery comprising a small stack of series-connected cells, may be achieved through direct monitoring (potentiometric, galvanometric, thermal, etc.), control of charging rates, and state of charge. However, for a large (typically bipolar) stack of cells of the magnitude required, for example, in batteries for use in electric vehicles, these methods are impractical due to their complexity, weight requirements, and expense. Underutilization of capacity or addition of immobile electroactive chemicals to one or more of the electrodes may provide some protection (at a considerable cost), but such techniques are ineffective against significant deterioration of capacity within a single cell, which is generally cumulative, and which may lead to a short or an open circuit.
For cells utilizing liquid electrolytes, a "redox shuttle" has been proposed as an approach to solving the problem of overcharging. This approach employs an electrolyte additive which is inactive under normal conditions, but which oxidizes at the positive electrode when the cell potential exceeds the desired voltage, i.e., when the cell is in an overcharge state. The oxidized form of the shuttle additive diffuses through the cell to the negative electrode where it is reduced to its original (unoxidized) state and then the reduced form of the redox shuttle species diffuses through the cell back to the positive electrode to continue the redox cycle. The net effect is an internal shunt which prevents damage to the cell by imposing a limit on cell potential.
However, the requirements for such a "redox shuttle" additive are stringent. The shuttle material, in both its oxidized and reduced forms, must be nonreactive with all cell components. The onset potential for oxidation of the shuttle material must be slightly above that of the desired maximum cell potential to prevent self-discharge during storage, and to allow for some overpotential during charging. Furthermore, the shuttle additive must be present at a sufficient concentration and have a high enough diffusion coefficient (in both its oxidized and reduced forms) to be capable of providing a shuttle current at least as great as the current rate at which the cell is being charged. Additional desirable properties for the additive include a low equivalent weight, low volatility, low toxicity, and low cost.
With respect to the concentration and diffusion coefficient of the additive, such requirements are summarized for a parallel electrode configuration by the following expression: EQU I.sub.s =(nFADC/d)exp{(E-E.sup.0)nF/RT}/[1+exp{(E-E.sup.0)nF/RT}](1)
where:
I.sub.s is the current carried by the redox shuttle additive;
n is the number of electrons transferred to or from the shuttle at the electrodes;
F is the Faraday constant;
A is the electrode area;
D is an effective diffusion coefficient taking into account the diffusion properties of both the oxidized and reduced forms of the shuttle;
C is the total concentration of the diffusion species;
d is the distance between the electrodes;
E is the cell potential; and
E.sup.0 is the potential of the redox shuttle couple.
For E>>E.sup.0, the limiting shuttle current becomes: EQU I.sub.s =nFADC/d. (2)
Various shuttle materials have been suggested for use in rechargeable lithium cells utilizing liquid electrolytes. For example, Narayanan et al., in "Analysis of Redox Additive-Based Overcharge Protection for Rechargeable Lithium Batteries", published in the Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Vol. 138, No. 8 (1991) pp. 2224-2229, suggests the use of 1,1'-dimethylferrocene as a shuttle material in a liquid electrolyte comprising LiAsF.sub.6 and 2-methyltetrahydrofuran, while Abraham et al. in "Overcharge Protection of Secondary Lithium Batteries", published in the Proceedings of the 33rd International Power Sources Symposium in 1988, suggested the addition of lithium halides (LiBr and LiI) to the same liquid electrolyte.
The use of organic shuttle additives in liquid electrolytes of rechargeable lithium cells has also been proposed. Halpert et al., in "Status of the Development of Rechargeable Lithium Cells'", published in the Journal of Power Sources, 47 (1994) at pp. 287-294, disclosed results from the use of tetramethylphenylene diamine as an additive in a liquid electrolyte for a lithium-titanium disulfide rechargeable cell. The use of metallocenes, such as ferrocene, as additives to a liquid electrolyte for overcharge protection has also been suggested by Golovin et al., in "Applications of Metallocenes in Rechargeable Lithium Batteries for Overcharge Protection", Journal of the Electrochemical Society, Vol. 139, No. 1 (1992), at pp. 5-10.
However, the application of such technology to solid polymer electrolytes such as, for example, solid polyethylene oxide filled with a compound such as lithium trifluoromethanesulfonimide, which acts both as an ionically conducting electrolyte and as an electronically insulating separator, has not been reported, probably because of the many problems which would be associated with the use of an overcharge-limiting shuttle material in solid polymer electrolytes. For example, such solid polymer electrolyte/separators must be used at elevated temperatures (temperatures of at least about 60.degree. C.) where additive volatility is greater, and their higher viscosity will result in slower diffusion rates, especially for large molecules

Solid polymer electrolyte electrochemical storage cell containing a redox shuttle additive for overcharge protection

The United States of America as represented by the United States Department of Energy


Techniques are described for use in database and data management systems to enable a database transaction to read uncommitted data from another database transaction on a selective (e.g., transaction-specific) basis, without requiring a change in the isolation level of either transaction (or related transactions). Accordingly, transaction speeds may be increased, and operations to audit or debug ongoing database transactions are also facilitated.

Databases are generally used to store large quantities of information, in an organized manner that enables fast and convenient searching and other database operations. Often, such large databases are accessed by multiple entities (e.g., users, or clients) during overlapping time frames. In order to maintain data consistency, lock management techniques are used to ensure that a given data entry may only be changed by one such entity at a time. Thus, such lock management techniques ensure correct, expected results from database changes (e.g., writes, deletions, modifications).
Meanwhile, the same database system may also be accessed for query or read operations. That is, for example, even while some users or operations are making database changes, other users may simply need to access the same database, in order to obtain desired information. Such read operations do not generally present a danger of causing data inconsistency within the database tables being read, since the read operations are not changing those database tables. However, other difficulties may be encountered, such as the danger that the read operations will receive incorrect or incomplete results. Such difficulties may be mitigated or controlled to a desired extent through the use of isolation levels, which generally define an extent to which a database transaction is isolated from reading changes made by other transactions.
Lock management techniques and isolation levels help to provide consistent, complete, accurate database operations, but consume computing resources, while also contributing to processing delays (including causing bottlenecks in the context of otherwise high-speed database transactions). Consequently, it is desirable to retain and/or optimize the associated benefits, while also conserving computing resources and increasing a speed with which correct database operations are conducted.

Transaction-specific selective uncommitted read for database transactions


A removable protective ball cover for a medicine ball is provided to protect an outer surface of the ball from wear and tear, increase the grip of the surface of the ball and maintain the balls' shape and structure. The ball cover may be formed from a durable material with high surface tension formed into a spherical shape with an opening that is used to encapsulate the medicine ball within the ball cover. The opening may be cinched closed by lacing the opening together to substantially, if not completely, cover the medicine ball and create a tight fit around the ball that will not move in relation to the ball. The ball cover may be formed from a series of specially-shaped panels which are triple stitched together with a backing material to prevent breaking of the cover.

A medicine ball is a weighted ball used in fitness and rehabilitation settings. The medicine ball is generally filled with a weighted filler material and covered with a soft but durable surface material. The medicine ball may be filled with sand, steel balls or some type of substance which will help the medicine ball absorb shock when impacted against a surface with a significant amount of force. As a result, the medicine ball does not typically provide a significant amount of bounce. The medicine ball may be covered with a material such as leather, vinyl or nylon, which is stitched together into panels in order to create the spherical shape of the medicine ball. FIG. 1A illustrates one embodiment of the medicine ball 100, illustrating multiple panels 102 of material stitched together at seams 104 in order to form a spherical-shaped surface. A large opening 106 may be present on one section of the outer surface of the medicine ball 100 where the filler material is added prior to closing, which may be closed using laces 108 that pull either side of the opening together in a lacing pattern.
The medicine ball is used in a variety of fitness and rehabilitation activities which require that the ball be lifted by a user and either dropped or thrown. Due to the significant weight of the ball, the force which the ball absorbs on impact is significant. The impact force often results in the seams 104 between the panels 102 coming apart, as illustrated by the tear 110 in FIG. 1B. If the tears are substantial, the filler material may spill out, effectively deflating the medicine ball and collapsing into a non-spherical shape to the point that it cannot be used. Additionally, if the medicine ball loses its shape or the surface material no longer tightly conforms to the filler material shape within, the medicine ball may become unusable. Repairing the medicine ball to add additional filler material and sew up any tears is time-consuming, expensive and not readily available in the marketplace.
In addition, the surface material of the medicine ball is usually a material which has a natural friction to help a user easily grip and move the heavy ball around without dropping it. Over time, the surface material may wear down and lose its frictional properties, resulting in a smooth surface that is difficult for a user to grip and hold during an activity. Furthermore, the surface material may also be worn down to the point that it also begins to tear or wear thin, making repairs impossible. Since it is prohibitively expensive to to replace the surface material of the medicine ball, the loss of grip from the surface material usually means the medicine ball must be discarded.
Therefore, what is needed is a way to preserve the life of a medicine ball and protect it from excessive wear and tear.

Protective cover for medicine ball and methods of making thereof


A muffler for an exhaust system of an internal combustion engine has a muffler body, an inlet pipe, a primary exhaust pipe and an auxiliary exhaust pipe. The inlet pipe has an inlet outside the muffler body and an outlet inside the muffler body. The primary exhaust pipe has an inlet inside the muffler body, a main outlet outside the muffler body, and at least one auxiliary outlet defined in a side of the primary exhaust pipe between the inlet and the main outlet of the primary exhaust pipe. The auxiliary exhaust pipe fluidly communicates the at least one auxiliary outlet with an exterior of the muffler. A vehicle having a primary exhaust pipe and an auxiliary exhaust pipe is also disclosed.

Vehicles having an internal combustion engine are provided with exhaust systems to deliver the exhaust gases generated by the engine from the engine to the atmosphere.
Depending on the intended use of the vehicle, there is a risk that an outlet of the exhaust system could become blocked. As a result exhaust gases cannot escape the exhaust system, which can affect the operation of the engine and, as the pressure of exhaust gases inside the exhaust system increases, could damage the exhaust system.
In vehicles operating off-road, such as all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) and snowmobiles, it is possible for mud or snow to become lodged in the outlet of the exhaust system, thereby completely or partially blocking the outlet. This can lead to the aforementioned problems.
Therefore, there is a need for a vehicle having an exhaust system that can deliver exhaust gases from the engine even when the outlet of the exhaust system becomes completely or partially blocked.

Vehicle having an auxiliary exhaust pipe


In a variable density scanning apparatus, a variable focal distance device is provided in a scanning optical system. This variable focal distance device is formed of a light waveguide having a plurality of electrodes provided of which the lengths along the direction of incident laser beam are decreased or increased with the increase of the distance from the central electrode. The voltage to be applied between the electrodes is controlled in accordance with a desired dot pattern so as to change the refractive index of the light waveguide through which the laser beam is passed, thereby effectively changing the focal distance so that the diameter of the scanning laser beam spot can be changed in one dimension.

This invention relates to laser beam scanning apparatus having a variable focal distance device of which the focal distance can be changed by electrical means, and the variable focal distance device for use in the apparatus and particularly to a laser beam scanning apparatus having a variable focal distance device which can substantially change the diameter of the scanning spot in one-dimentional direction.
The conventional laser beam scanning apparatus, such as a laser printer, changes the focal distance of the laser beam scanning lens (for example, an f.theta. lens) by mechanically changing the distance(s) between the combined lenses which constitute the scanning lens, or by inserting another optical device therebetween.
This mechanical means has, in effect, a difficulty in changing the focal distance in less than one ms (millisecond).
However, the technique for changing the focal distance at high speed has been demanded in the optical disc apparatus for recording multilevel information and in the laser printer for halftone printing.
An example of this technique for changing the focal distance at high speed is described in an article of Tech Digest of Conference on Laser and Electro-Optical Systems, entitled "Optical System of an Ultra-high speed Laser Beam Printer", Arimoto et al., CLEOS'80, p.76, WII2 (1980).

Laser beam scanning apparatus having a variable focal distance device and the variable focal distance device for use in the apparatus


Disclosed are anhydrous antiperspirant gel-solid sticks which comprise from about 0.5% to about 60% by weight of antiperspirant active; from about 1% to about 15% by weight of a gellant; from about 1% to about 50% by weight of nonpolar volatile hydrocarbon solvent having a solubility parameter of less than 8 (cal/cm.sup.3).sup.0.5, a vapor pressure of from about 0.0 1 mmHg to about 6 mmHg, and an average boiling point of less than about 250.degree. C.; and from about 0.01% to about 10% by weight of a polar, water-miscible solvent having a solubility parameter of from 12.5 (cal/cm.sup.3).sup.0.5 to about 25 (cal/cm.sup.3).sup.0.5 ; wherein the composition has a visible residue index of from about 11 to about 30 L-value, a product hardness of from about 500 gram.cndot.force to about 5,000 gram.cndot.force, and a ratio of an elastic to viscous moduli of from about 0.1 to about 100. These compositions provide improved low residue performance, rheology, efficacy, stability and/or aesthetics from a composition having reduced raw material costs.

There are many types of topical antiperspirant products that are commercially available or otherwise known in the antiperspirant art. Most of these products are formulated as aerosol or pump sprays, roll-on liquids, creams, emulsions, gels, gel-solids, or other solid stick formulations, and comprise an astringent material, e.g. zirconium or aluminum salts or combinations thereof, incorporated into a suitable carrier. These products are designed to provide effective perspiration and odor control while also being cosmetically acceptable during and after application onto the axillary area or other areas of the skin.
Within this product group, solid anhydrous antiperspirant sticks have become especially popular among consumers. Most of these anhydrous sticks contain up to 80% by weight of a volatile silicone fluid such a cyclomethicone. The volatile silicone provides the composition with improved, drier skin feel during application, and because of its volatility, it quickly evaporates after application leaving the applied surface feeling smooth and dry. Volatile silicones are expensive, however, and add substantially to the cost of the finished product.
One attempt at reducing the cost of anhydrous antiperspirant sticks involves the use of volatile isoparaffins in place of some or all of the volatile silicones. Volatile isoparaffins are typically less expensive than the volatile silicone fluids, and like the volatile silicones, help provide the composition with dry feel during and after application to the skin. Examples of isoparaffin-containing compositions are described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,724,139, issued Feb. 9, 1988 to Palinczar, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,169,626, issued Dec. 8, 1992 to Tanner et al. The compositions described by Palinczar, however, after application to the skin tend to leave a relatively high visible residue, and tend to fracture upon application due to their inherently and relatively high elastic content.
It has now been found that a solid antiperspirant stick composition can be formulated which provides the dry skin feel and low-raw material cost of an isoparaffin-containing antiperspirant, with the low-residue performance and rheology of a gel-solid antiperspirant stick composition. This is accomplished by formulating an anhydrous system with from about 0.5% to about 60% by weight of an antiperspirant active; from about 1% to about 15% by weight of a gellant; from about 1% to about 50% by weight of a volatile nonpolar hydrocarbon solvent having a solubility parameter of less than 8 (cal/cm.sup.3).sup.0.5, a vapor pressure of from about 0.01 mmHg to about 6 mmHg at 25.degree. C. under one atomsphere, and an average boiling point of less than about 250.degree. C.; and from about 0.1% to about 10% by weight of polar, water-miscible, solvent having a solubility parameter of from 12.5 (cal/cm.sup.3).sup.0.5 to about 25 (cal/cm.sup.3).sup.0.5 ; wherein the composition has a visible residue index of from about 11 to about 30 L-value, a product hardness of from about 500 gram.cndot.force to about 5,000 gram force, a ratio of an elastic modulus (G') to a viscous modulus (G") of from about 0.1 to about 100.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an anhydrous antiperspirant gel-solid stick composition which contains volatile, nonpolar hydrocarbon solvents such as volatile isoparaffins, and further to provide such a composition with improved low residue performance, rheology, efficacy, stability and/or aesthetics, and further to provide such a composition having reduced raw material costs.

Low residue antiperspirant gel-solid stick compositions containing volatile nonpolar hydrocarbon solvents


A magnetic sensor has a three-terminal magnetic device consisting of an emitter, a base, and a collector. A semiconductor layer serving as the collector and a magnetic multilayered film serving as the base form a Schottky junction. The magnetic multilayered film has two magnetic films opposing each other with a nonmagnetic film between them. The emitter constructed of a metal film and the base are connected via a tunnel insulating film. The relationship between the magnetization directions in the magnetic films changes in accordance with an external magnetic field, and this changes the value of a current flowing through the magnetic device. The external magnetic field is sensed on the basis of this change in the current value.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a magnetic device used as, e.g., a magnetic field sensing device for sensing a very weak magnetic field in a very small region, and a magnetic sensor using the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
Increases in the density and speed of magnetic recording largely depend upon the improvement of magnetic recording media and the progress of magnetic recording apparatuses, particularly the progress of magnetic heads for performing write and read operations in magnetic recording. For example, with the decreasing sizes and the increasing capacities of the recent magnetic recording media, a relative speed between a magnetic recording medium and a read magnetic head is decreased. Accordingly, as a new type of a read magnetic head capable of extracting a high output even at a low relative speed, a magnetic head called a magnetoresistance effect head (to be referred to as an MR head hereinafter), particularly a giant magnetoresistance effect head (to be referred to as a GMR head hereinafter) has drawn attention. The GMR head uses a large magnetoresistance effect of a multilayered film consisting of a magnetic material and a nonmagnetic material. Various kinds of the GMR heads have been proposed, and a GMR head of type called a spin valve head is considered to be promising among them all.
This spin valve GMR head has a basic structure in which a ferromagnetic layer, a nonmagnetic layer, and a ferromagnetic layer are stacked on an antiferromagnetic layer. The direction of magnetization in the lower ferromagnetic layer is spatially fixed by an exchange interaction acting between this ferromagnetic layer and the antiferromagnetic layer. The magnetization in the upper ferromagnetic layer weakly interacts with the magnetization in the lower ferromagnetic layer through the nonmagnetic layer. However, the upper ferromagnetic layer can be antiferromagnetically coupled with the lower ferromagnetic layer by properly selecting the thickness of the nonmagnetic layer. That is, when an external magnetic field is zero, the magnetization in the upper ferromagnetic layer couples with the magnetization in the lower ferromagnetic layer in opposite directions. Since this antiferromagnetic magnetic coupling is weak, the direction of the magnetization in the upper ferromagnetic layer is readily reversed if an external magnetic field is applied to the direction of the magnetization in the lower ferromagnetic layer. That is, under an external magnetic field, the directions of magnetization in the upper and the lower ferromagnetic layers are the same.
It is known that the electric resistance of a multilayered film consisting of a ferromagnetic layer/nonmagnetic layer/ferromagnetic layer structure depends upon the relative magnetization direction in the upper and the lower ferromagnetic layers. This is so because in a magnetic material the scattering of conduction electrons depends upon the spin magnetic moments of the electrons. Since the relative magnetization direction in the multilayered film described above depends upon an external magnetic field, the electric resistance of the film strongly depends upon the external magnetic field. This phenomenon is called a giant magnetoresistance effect. The spin valve GMR head uses this giant magnetoresistance effect and reads out magnetically recorded data.
Although the magnetic head using the giant magnetoresistance effect has excellent characteristics, it also has several drawbacks. The main cause of these drawbacks is that the multilayered film having the giant magnetoresistance effect is a metal multilayered film with a low electric resistance, and so it is necessary to increase the density of a current made to flow through the multilayered film in order to obtain a sufficient output voltage. When the density of a current made to flow through the device is thus increased, the device generates heat, electromigration occurs, or a magnetic field is generated by the current, thereby making the device operation unstable.
A larger magnetoresistance effect is expected when a current is made to flow vertically in the multilayered film. However, since the absolute value of the resistance is very small in this direction, no practical device can be obtained from the present GMR head structure.
As described above, in the conventional magnetic heads using the magnetoresistance effect, the density of a current made to flow through the multilayered film must be increased to obtain a sufficient output voltage. When the current density is thus increased, the device generates heat, electromigration occurs, or a magnetic field is generated. It is therefore necessary to eliminate these problems. Also, a magnetic head structure is demanded in which a sufficient output voltage can be obtained with a low current density even when a current is made to flow vertically in the multilayered film, in which case a larger magnetoresistance effect can be expected.

Magnetic device and magnetic sensor using the same


An internal tensioning structure for use in an inflatable product fulfills the basic function of maintaining two adjacent inflatable surfaces in a desired geometric arrangement when the inflatable product is pressurized. The tensioning structure is formed by connecting a pair of plastic strips sheets via spaced-apart strands, such as strings or wires. When pulled taut, the strands provide a high tensile strength between the two opposed plastic strips. At the same time, the plastic strips facilitate a strong, long-lasting weld between the tensioning structure and the inflatable product.

1. Technical Field
The present disclosure relates to an inflatable product structure, and in particular to an inflatable product structure which is light in weight and low in cost.
2. Description of the Related Art
Inflatable products, are light in weight, easy to house, and easy to carry. Such products technologies have been used for outdoor items and toys, as well as various household goods including inflatable beds, inflatable sofas and the like.
Many inflatable products utilize internal structures in order to form the product into its intended, predetermined shape upon inflation. For example, one type of inflatable bed, referred to as a wave-shaped, straight-strip or I-shaped inflatable bed, may include a tension-band type internal structure arranged along wave-shaped, straight-line or I-shaped pathways within the internal cavity. Another type of inflatable bed, referred to as a column-type inflatable bed, has tension bands arranged into honeycomb-shaped or cylindrical structures within the inflatable cavity.
These internal tension-band structures disposed in the cavity of the inflatable bed give shape to the bed as internal pressure increases, thereby preventing the inflatable bed from expanding evenly on all sides in the manner of a balloon. More particularly, in order to maintain an inflatable bed as a rectangular shape, the tension bands join the upper and lower surfaces of the inflatable bed to one another. To allow passage of pressurized air to both sides of these joining structures, the tension bands may be formed as belts stretching between the upper and lower surfaces, or as vertical expanses of material with air columns formed therein. The number and spacing of the tension bands is proportional to the sharpness of the rectangularity of the inflated product. That is to say, a greater number and/or linear extent of tension bands within the pressurized cavity results in a more "flat" bed surface.
In conventional inflatable products such as the inflatable beds described above, the tension bands are made of PVC sheets with a sufficient thickness to ensure spreading of force and concomitant reductions in stress in the product material. For example, the tension bands of known inflatable beds or sofas may have a thickness of about 0.36 mm. For some known water carrier devices, such as inflatable swimming pools, the internal tension bands may have a thickness of about 0.38 mm, while "sandwich" type inflatable swimming pools may have a thickness of 0.7-0.8 mm.
Thus, conventional inflatable structures utilizing belt- or sheet-like PVC tension bands meet the force requirements of the product by varying the thickness of the tension bands. However, where continuous plastic strips or belts are utilized, such tension bands contribute to increased weight of the inflatable product. Similarly, an increase in thickness and/or spatial density of solid-strip tension bands also increases the compressed/folded volume of the deflated inflatable structure.


A multithreaded processor, fetch control for a multithreaded processor and a method of fetching in the multithreaded processor. Processor event and use (EU) signs are monitored for downstream pipeline conditions indicating pipeline execution thread states. Instruction cache fetches are skipped for any thread that is incapable of receiving fetched cache contents, e.g., because the thread is full or stalled. Also, consecutive fetches may be selected for the same thread, e.g., on a branch mis-predict. Thus, the processor avoids wasting power on unnecessary or place keeper fetches.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention generally relates to the multi-threaded processors and more particularly to reducing power consumption in a Simultaneous MultiThreaded (SMT) processor or microprocessor.
2. Background Description
Semiconductor technology and chip manufacturing advances have resulted in a steady increase of on-chip clock frequencies, the number of transistors on a single chip and the die size itself. Thus, not withstanding the decrease of chip supply voltage, chip power consumption has increased as well. Both at the chip and system levels cooling and packaging costs have escalated as a natural result of this increase in chip power. At the low end for small systems (e.g., handhelds, portable and mobile systems), where battery life is crucial, it is important to reduce net power consumption, without having performance degrade to unacceptable levels. Thus, the increase in microprocessor power consumption has become a major stumbling block for future performance gains. Pipelining is one approach to maximizing processor performance.
A scalar processor fetches and issues/executes one instruction at a time. Each such instruction operates on scalar data operands. Each such operand is a single or atomic data value or number. Pipelining within a scalar processor introduces what is known as concurrency, i.e., processing multiple instructions at difference pipeline stages in a given clock cycle, while preserving the single-issue paradigm.
A superscalar processor can fetch, issue and execute multiple instructions in a given machine cycle, each in a different execution path or thread. Each instruction fetch, issue and execute path is usually pipelined for further, parallel concurrency. Examples of superscalar processors include the Power/PowerPC processors from IBM Corporation, the Pentium processor family from Intel Corporation, the Ultrasparc processors from Sun Microsystems and the Alpha processor and PA-RISC processors from Hewlett Packard Company (HP). Front-end instruction delivery (fetch and dispatch/issue) accounts for a significant fraction of the energy consumed in a typical state of the art dynamic superscalar processor. For high-performance processors, such as IBM's POWER4™, the processor consumes a significant portion of chip power in the instruction cache (ICACHE) during normal access and fetch processes. Of course, when the fetch process stalls, temporarily (e.g., due to instruction buffer fill-up, or cache misses), that portion of chip power falls off dramatically, provided the fetch process is stalled also.
Unfortunately, other factors (e.g., chip testability, real estate, yield) tend to force a trade of power for control simplification. So, in prior generation power-unaware designs, one may commonly find processors architected to routinely access the ICACHE on each cycle, even when the fetched results may be discarded, e.g., due to stall conditions. Buffers and queues in such processor designs have fixed sizes, and depending on the implementation, consume power at a fixed rate, irrespective of actual cache utilization or workload demand. For example, for a typical state of the art instruction fetch unit (IFU) in a typical state of the art eight-issue superscalar processor, executing a class of commercial benchmark applications, only about 27% of the cycles result in useful fetch activity. Similarly, idle and stalled resources of a front-end instruction decode unit (IDU) pipe wastes significant power. Further, this front-end starvation keeps back-end execute pipes even more underutilized, which impacts processor throughput.
By contrast, in what is known as an energy-aware design, the fetch and/or issue stages are architected to be adaptive, to accommodate workload demand variations. These energy-aware designs adjusts the fetch and/or issue resources to save power without appreciable performance loss. For example, Buyuktosunoglu et al. (Buyuktosunoglu I), "Energy efficient co-adaptive instruction fetch and issue," Proc. Int'l.Symp. on Computer Architecture (ISCA), June 2003 and Buyuktosunoglu et al. (Buyuktosunoglu II), "Tradeoffs in power-efficient issue queue design," Proc. ISLPED, August 2002, both discuss such energy aware designs. In particular, Buyuktosunoglu I and II focus on reconfiguring the size of issue queues, in conjunction (optionally) with an adjustable instruction fetch rate. In another example, Manne et al., "Pipeline Gating: Speculation Control for Energy Reduction," Proc. 25th Int'l. Symp. on Computer Architecture (ISCA), 1998, teaches using the processor branch mis-prediction rate in the instruction fetch to effectively control the fetch rate for power and efficiency. Unfortunately, monitoring the branch prediction accuracy requires additional, significant and complex on-chip hardware that consumes both valuable chip area and power.
This problem is exacerbated in multithreaded machines, where multiple instruction threads may, or may not be in the pipeline at any one time. For example, Karkhanis et. al, "Saving energy with just-in-time instruction delivery," Proc. Int'l. Symp. on Low Power Electronics and Design (ISLPED), August 2002, teach controlling instruction fetch rate by keeping a count of valid, downstream instructions. Both U.S. Pat. No. 6,212,544 to Borkenhagen et al. (Borkenhagen I), entitled "Altering thread priorities in a multithreaded processors," and U.S. Pat. No. 6,567,839 to Borkenhagen et al. (Borkenhagen II), "Thread switch control in a multithreaded processor system," both assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein by reference, teach designing efficient thread scheduling control for boosting performance and/or reducing power in multithreaded processors. In yet another example, Seng et al. "Power-Sensitive Multithreaded Architecture," Proc. Int'l. Conf. on Computer Design (ICCD) 2000, teaches an energy-aware multithreading design.
State of the art commercial microprocessors (e.g. Intel's Netburs™ Pentiu™ IV or IBM's POWER5™) use a mode of multithreading that is commonly referred to as Simultaneous MultiThreading (SMT). In each processor cycle, a SMT processors simultaneously fetches instructions and/or dispatches for different threads that populate the back-end execution resources. Fetch gating in an SMT processor refers to conditionally blocking the instruction fetch process. Thread prioritization involves assigning priorities in the order of fetching instructions from a mix of different workloads in a multi-threaded processor. Some of the above energy-aware design approaches have been applied to SMT. For example, Luo et al. "Boosting SMT Performance by Speculation Control," Proc. Int'l. Parallel and Distributed Processing Simulation, (IPDPS), 2001, teaches improving performance in energy-aware SMT processor design. Moursy et al. "Front-End Policies for Improved Issue Efficiency in SMT Processors," Proc. HPCA 2003, focuses on reducing the average power consumption in SMT processors by sacrificing some performance. By contrast, Knijnenburg et al. "Branch Classification for SMT Fetch Gating," Proc. MTEAC 2002 focuses on increasing performance without regard to complexity. These energy aware approaches require complex variable instruction fetch rate mechanisms and control signals necessitating significant additional logic hardware. The additional logic hardware dynamically calculates complex utilization, prediction rates and/or flow rate metrics within the processor or system. However, the verification logic of such control algorithms adds overhead in complexity, area and power, that is not amenable to a low cost, easy implementation for high performance chip designs. This overhead just adds to both escalating development costs and spiraling power dissipation costs.
Unfortunately, many of these approaches have achieved improved performance only at the cost of increased processor power consumption. Others have reduced power consumption (or at least net energy usage) by accepting significantly degraded performance. Still others have accepted complex variable instruction fetch rate mechanisms that necessitate significant additional logic hardware.
Thus, there is a need for a processor architecture that minimizes power consumption without impairing processor performance and without requiring significant control logic overhead or power.

Adaptive fetch gating in multithreaded processors, fetch control and method of controlling fetches


A process for operating a virtual sensor for determining the condition of a tool holder on a tool machine, such as a spindle, and the condition of a tool machine which has at least one tool holder and at least one tool, attached or attachable to the tool holder, which allows a workpiece to be processed by running a machine program, and which has at least one control unit comprising at least one sensor.

When working with tool machines, workpieces, also known as semi-finished products, are machined by tools on tool machines. Here, the tools are clamped in a tool holder, e.g. a spindle, on the tool machine.
The radial forces acting on the tool holder (forces perpendicular to the axis of rotation of the tool holder), e.g. on the spindle, during processing of workpieces are dependent on a number of parameters. Restricting these forces to a level which the tool machine can easily withstand is a key criterion when writing machine programs for processing workpieces. Where the limits set for these radial forces are permanently or repeatedly exceeded, this can lead to the tool holder becoming damaged or destroyed.
On known tool machines, measuring the forces acting on the tool holder directly is laborious, hence on known tool machines the radial forces acting on the tool holder cannot be referred to for controlling the tool machine. Moreover, there exist some known tool machines where the use of additional sensors allows the forces acting on the tool holder to be measured directly.
This proves to be laborious and cost-intensive.

Process for operating a virtual sensor for determining the condition of a tool holder on a tool machine; virtual sensor for determining the condition of a tool holder and tool machine


A hinge assembly for use with a door, in particular, an aircraft door, that enables the door to remain substantially parallel to the fuselage of the aircraft when the door is open and closed. The hinge assembly includes a door support assembly that couples to the door, and a hinge arm assembly. The hinge arm assembly includes a first gear assembly that couples to the fuselage, a second gear assembly that couples the hinge arm assembly to the door support assembly, and a linkage assembly coupled to the first and second gear assemblies. The first and second gear assemblies and linkage assembly cooperate to move the door support assembly and hinge arm assembly with respect to each other.

Many different types of aircraft door assemblies exist. For example, in recreational or propeller aircraft, the door assemblies can be configured to open by swinging out in a manner similar to a car door or door of a dwelling. However, in commercial aircraft having pressurized cabins, door assemblies are more complicated to allow for pressurization, and are configured to open and close in a manner that does not obstruct or interfere with the jetway so that passengers can easily enter and exit the aircraft.


In a hydraulic brake system for automotive vehicles with an electronically controlled brake force distribution and with anti-lock control, the rear-wheel brakes are connected via inlet valves (5, 7) closed in their inactive position. Placed in parallel to these valves is an arrangement (13, 14; 13', 14') which is substantially composed of the series connection of a brake force regulator (17, 18, 17', 18') with a throttle (15, 16) or a multiple-way valve (21, 22) which is open in its inactive position.

A brake system of this type is known from German published patent application 33 23 402. The braking pressure is varied in dependence on the wheel rotational behavior by means of electromagnetically operable valves, namely so-called inlet valves and outlet valves, in order to prevent locking of the wheels in the event of excessive brake actuation, on the one hand, and in order to conform the brake force distribution onto the front wheels and rear wheels to the respective braking situation, on the other hand. As is known, the effects of different load conditions of the vehicle, of the static and the dynamic axle load shifts can be compensated for more or less precisely by means of control of the brake force distribution. To preserve the driving stability, it must always be ensured that the rear wheels will by no means lock prior to locking of the front wheels.
To control the brake force distribution, multiple-way valves closed in their inactive position are inserted as inlet valves into the brake lines leading to the rear wheels according to the German published patent application mentioned hereinabove. In contrast thereto, the inlet valves leading to the front wheels are open for the passage of pressure fluid in their inactive position. It is accomplished by clockwise actuation of the valves that an amount of brake slip is obtained at the rear wheels which is always less than that at the front wheels and which, preferably, amounts to roughly 85 to 97% of the front-wheel brake slip. This way, a major contribution of the rear wheels to braking is achieved, while simultaneously overbraking of the rear wheels is prevented.
According to this publication, the inlet valves and the outlet valves, the wheel sensors, the analyzing electronics and the auxiliary-pressure supply system are used for the control of the brake force distribution as well as for anti-lock control.
Further, a brake system is known already from German published patent application 34 40 541 which is equipped exclusively with wheel valves for the electronic control of brake force distribution. Hence wheel valves, namely solenoid valves closed in their inactive position, are inserted only into the brake lines leading to the rear-wheel brakes. Connected in parallel to these wheel valves is a brake force regulator through which braking pressure is supplied to the rear-wheel brakes on brake actuation, which pressure is conformed to the minimum pressure in dependence on the respective braking operation in the event of ideal brake force distribution. This braking pressure is raised to the higher value which optimally conforms to the instantaneous situation by actuation of the wheel valves. This arrangement is based on the consideration that even in the event of current failure or a valve defect, a minimum amount of braking pressure is supplied via the brake force regulator to the rear-wheel brakes so that even on such malfunction the rear axle is able to contribute to braking of the vehicle. Naturally this contribution is in many cases far less than the optimal, theoretically possible value. In other situations, the pressure transmitted via this parallel branch will result in wheel lock.

Brake system for automotive vehicles with electronically controlled brake force distribution and with anti-lock control


A reduced-volume landing gear casing for the landing gear of an aircraft including a box structure to which the landing gear is fixed and which takes up the loads acting thereon. The box structure can include, in particular, means for receiving the fixing bearings of the landing gear.

1. Field
The disclosed embodiments relate to a landing gear casing or bay with a structure made up of box sections for the retracting landing gear of an aircraft.
2. Brief Description of Related Developments
Aircraft landing gear bays are designed to house the landing gear and to partition the often pressurized internal volume of the aircraft from the outside.
Because of the loadings to which they are subjected, these being ground loadings transmitted through the landing gear during landing and compressive loadings due to internal pressurization, and because they have to house the landing gear when the gear is up, landing gear bays of the prior art comprise reinforcing frames in the form of arches, extending the fuselage frame elements distributed longitudinally along the bay and surrounding the landing gear bay. The reinforcing frames stiffen the landing gear bay panels in such a way as to form stiffened flat panels.
These panels of the prior art house the landing gear bearings and seal the landing gear bay region. This construction makes the landing gear bay bulky and heavy.

Landing gear casing provided with a box structure


A semiconductor memory device that satisfies needs of both a large number of memory banks and a higher operation speed is provided. A semiconductor memory device includes a plurality of data terminal pads, and a plurality of memory banks independently subject to memory access. Each of the memory banks is divided into a plurality of submemory banks. The data terminal pads are also divided into a plurality of groups so as to be associated with submemory banks obtained by the division. Blocks each including submemory banks obtained by the division and data terminal pads associated with the submemory banks are arranged so as not to overlap each other on a semiconductor chip.

The present invention relates to a semiconductor memory device and a semiconductor device. For example, the present invention relates to a technique that is effective for use in a dynamic RAM (random access memory) having a multi bank structure and a semiconductor device having the dynamic RAM mounted thereon.
In a semiconductor memory device proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,943,285 as a semiconductor memory device suitable for a large-scale memory capacity, its memory area is divided into 3×3=9 areas having equal areas. A main control block is disposed in a central area. Memory blocks including a memory cell array, a data input output circuit, and a memory control circuit are disposed in eight peripheral areas.

Semiconductor memory device and semiconductor device


A magnetic resonance method and apparatus for the microscopic examination of an internal region of a body (3) wherein a probe (25) is located in the body adjacent the region during the examination, and spatial encoding of r.f. signals resulting for excitation of magnetic resonance in the region is effected by a magnetic field gradient produced in the region by a coil arrangement carried by the probe.

In magnetic resonance methods for examining the body of a live human patient for medical purposes, e.g. to obtain image and/or spectroscopic data, the body under investigation is placed in a static magnetic field to define an equilibrium axis of magnetic alignment in the region of the body being examined. A radio frequency (r.f.) magnetic field is then applied to the region being examined in a direction orthogonal to the static magnetic field direction to excite magnetic resonance in material, typically in hydrogen protons, in the region, and the resulting r.f. signals are detected and analysed. During this sequence of operations one or more gradients are normally imposed on the static magnetic field to cause excitation of magnetic resonance preferentially in the region of the body to be examined, to encode spatially the detected r.f. signals, and also for other purposes such as flow encoding.
When microscopic examination of a very small internal region of a body is required, to improve signal-to-noise ratio detection of the r.f. signal is carried out by means of one or more electric coils carried on a probe inserted into the body so as to lie adjacent the region of interest. To obtain high, e.g. 1 micron, resolution in the region of interest, relatively steep magnetic gradients must be applied across the region of interest for spatial encoding purposes etc. In addition, since water molecules in most human tissues have a relatively high diffusion coefficient such that water molecules in the tissue will typically move a distance of about 8 microns in 10 milliseconds, collection of data must be effected rapidly making even steeper magnetic field gradients desirable. The application of sufficiently steep magnetic fields by the kinds of coil arrangements conventionally used in magnetic resonance apparatus and methods has proved very difficult.

Magnetic resonance methods and apparatus


A power operated retractable stop assembly includes a body, a drive arm, and a stop arm. The drive arm is pivotable between a pre-locked position and an unlocked position. There is a locked position between the pre-locked position and the unlocked position. The stop arm is pivotally mounted to the body, has a front side for engaging a workpiece, and a back side for engaging the drive arm. When the drive arm is driven to the unlocked position, the drive arm and the stop arm interact to cause the stop arm to follow the drive arm and move to a stop arm released position. This precludes the stop arm from balancing at the stop arm locked position.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to power operated retractable stop assemblies.
2. Background Art
The use of industrial retractable stop products has become wide spread, due at least in part to high demands in the automotive and heavy equipment industries. Conventionally, a retractable stop is powered by a linear actuator such as an air or hydraulic cylinder, a solenoid actuator, or a rotary actuator with a linear worm gear.
A power operated retractable stop assembly typically includes a reciprocatable rod member driven by the linear actuator, and an assembly body secured to the driving cylinder. Some of these existing assemblies, such as those described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,579, utilize a stop lever for stopping and releasing loads traveling on a conveyor. In such an assembly, a blocker leg is used to prevent pivoting of the stop arm causing an uncushioned hard stop of loads traveling on the conveyor when the blocker leg is in the blocking position.
Other existing assemblies attempt to provide a cushioned stop by using cylinder pressure to hold the stop arm in the blocking position. However, assemblies such as these may be disadvantageous in that there is no guarantee of a stop, and a heavy load may deflect the stop lever against the biasing cylinder pressure and continue right past the retractable stop without stopping. Sometimes, assemblies utilize a first mechanism for actuating and deactuating the stop and utilize a separate shock absorber mechanism, such as the assembly described in U.S. Pat. No. 5,168,976.
Other existing assemblies use a linear actuator rod interfering at a right angle with the direction of travel of the conveyor load. This has the disadvantage of side loading the actuator which is designed for the loads to be in line with the center line of the actuator. This creates excessive wear of the actuator. Also, excessive side load on a linear actuator can cause the actuator to bind and be unable to release without first releasing the load.
Although the existing retractable stop assemblies that provide a hard stop and those assemblies that attempt to provide a cushioned stop by using cylinder pressure have been used in many applications that have been commercially successful, these assemblies have disadvantages. In some applications, it may be desirable to provide a cushioned stop, and assemblies providing a hard stop without any cushion may not be desired. Further, although a cushion may be desirable in some applications, because assemblies providing a cushioned stop cannot guarantee a stopping of the load after the cushion, these assemblies may also not be desired. Further, assemblies utilizing a separate shock absorber mechanism are complex and costly, so these assemblies may also not be desired.
Power operated retractable stop assemblies with integral cushion and stopping mechanisms are described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,119,843. These power operated retractable stop assemblies provide a cushion when stopping a load and provide a hard stop at the end of the cushion zone. These existing retractable stop assemblies that provide integral cushion and stopping mechanisms have also been used in applications that have been commercially successful.
There is an opportunity for improvement in integral cushion and stopping mechanisms in the situation where the stop arm remains near the locked position after the drive arm, which drives the stop arm, is driven to the unlocked position. That is, the stop arm balances near the locked position even though it has been released by the drive arm. If this situation occurs in a conveyor arrangement where there is cross-traffic, and the stop assembly is located at a cross-traffic point, the balanced stop arm may interfere with the cross-traffic.
The balanced stop arm condition also makes it difficult for a worker to determine the position of the drive arm and the driving cylinder by visual inspection. When the worker sees the stop arm at the locked position, the worker may assume that the cylinder has been actuated to cause the drive arm to engage and drive the stop arm. However, this assumption is not correct in the case where the stop arm balances near the locked position after it has been released by the drive arm.
Another opportunity for improvement in integral cushion and stopping mechanisms occurs when the retractable stop assembly is mounted in an inverted orientation. Because the assembly is in an inverted orientation, the stop arm may again balance near the locked position after the drive arm is driven to the unlocked position. Even if the stop arm has been pushed to the open position by a passing load, gravity will cause it to return to the locked position. That is, the stop arm hangs near the locked position even though it has been released.
Although the existing power operated retractable stop assemblies with integral cushion and stopping mechanisms have advantages, there are still situations where these assemblies may have shortcomings. In particular, the potential for a balanced stop arm condition may make it undesirable to use these assemblies in certain conveyor applications and in certain applications requiring the assemblies to be mounted in inverted orientations.
For the foregoing reasons, there is a need for an improved power operated retractable stop assembly.


A cable including at least one core having at least one transmissive element and at least one coating layer made from a coating material, wherein the coating material has at least a first polyethylene having a density not higher than 0.940 g/cm3, preferably not lower than 0.910 g/cm3, more preferably 0.915 g/cm3 to 0.938 g/cm3, and a Melt Flow Index (MFI), measured at 190° C. with a load of 2.16 Kg according to ASTM D1238-00 standard, of 0.05 g/10′ to 2 g/10′, preferably 0.1 g/10′ to 1 g/10′; the first polyethylene being obtained from a waste material; at least a second polyethylene having a density higher than 0.940 g/cm3, preferably not higher than 0.970 g/cm3, more preferably 0.942 g/cm3 to 0.965 g/cm3. Preferably, the coating layer is a cable external layer having a protective function.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a cable with a coating layer made from a waste material.
More particularly, the present invention relates to a cable including at least one core comprising at least one transmissive element and at least one coating layer, said coating layer being made from a coating material comprising at least one polyethylene obtained from a waste material.
Moreover, the present invention relates to a process for producing said cable.
For the purposes of the present description and of the subsequent claims, the term "core" of a cable is used to indicate a semi-finished structure comprising a transmissive element, such as an electrical energy transmissive element, an optical signal transmissive element or an element which both transmits both electrical energy and optical signals, and at least one electrical isolation or, respectively, at least one containment element (such as, for example, a tube, a sheath, a microsheath or a grooved core), or at least two elements, one of which is an electrical isolation element and one is a containment element, arranged at a radially outer position with respect to the corresponding transmissive element.
For the purposes of the present description and of the subsequent claims, the term "electrical energy transmissive element" is used to indicate any element capable of transmitting electrical energy such as, for example, a metallic conductor element. As an illustrative example, if we consider a cable for transporting or distributing medium/high voltage electrical energy (where medium voltage indicates a voltage comprised between about 1 kV and about 30 kV, whereas high voltage indicates a voltage greater than about 30 kV), the "core" of the cable further comprises an inner semiconductive coating layer arranged at a radially outer position with respect to the conductor element, an outer semiconductive coating layer arranged at a radially outer position with respect to the electrical isolation element, a metallic screen arranged at a radially outer position with respect to said outer semiconductive coating layer, and an external layer arranged at a radially outer position with respect to said metallic screen.
For the purposes of the present description and of the subsequent claims, the term "optical signal transmissive element" is used to indicate any transmission element comprising at least one optical fibre. Therefore, such a term identifies both a single optical fibre and a plurality of optical fibres, optionally grouped together to form a bundle of optical fibres or arranged parallel to each other and coated with a common coating to form a ribbon of optical fibres. As an illustrative example, if we consider an optical cable the "core" of the cable further comprises a coating layer arranged at a radially outer position with respect of the grooved core, a tensile reinforcing layer at a radially outer position with respect to said outer coating layer, and an external layer arranged at a radially outer position with respect to said tensile reinforcing layer.
For the purposes of the present description and of the subsequent claims, the term "mixed electro-optical transmissive element" is used to indicate any element capable of transmitting both electrical energy and optical signals in accordance with the abovementioned definitions.
For the purposes of the present description and of the subsequent claims, the term "coating layer" means any coating deposited on the transmissive element of a cable for protective purposes, e.g. to preventing the damages of the transmission element due to mechanical stresses during manufacturing, installation and use.
The present inventions also refers to cables provided with a plurality of cores as defined above, known in the field with the terms "bipolar cable", "tripolar cable" and "multipolar cable", depending on the number of cores incorporated therein (in the mentioned cases in number of two, three, or greater, respectively).
In accordance with the abovementioned definitions, the present invention refers to cables provided with one or more cores of any type. In other words, the present invention refers to unipolar or multipolar cables, of electrical type for transporting or distributing electrical energy, or of the optical type comprising at least one optical fibre, or of the mixed energy/telecommunications type.
2. Description of the Related Art
Nowaday, the possibility of using polymer obtained from waste materials for the manufacturing of new products, is a problem of increasing importance for ecological reason and for reducing costs.
In the field of cables, some efforts have been already done in order to use recycled polymer materials, in particular polyvinyl chloride or ethylene polymers obtained from waste cable sheaths. Said recycled polymer materials are generally used for making cable coating layers.
For example, JP 2002/080671 discloses a polyvinyl chloride-based recycled plastic composition obtained by mixing and melting covering plastics and sheaths of waste cables containing: (A) polyvinyl chloride and (B) polyethylene or silane-crosslinked polyethylene, with chlorinated polyethylene. The abovementioned polyvinyl chloride-based resin is said to be useful for making cable sheaths.
JP 2001/098124 relates to a thermoplastic resin composition and to an electrical cable covered with said composition. The thermoplastic resin composition comprises: (A) 1-99 parts by weight of a resin composition containing a polyvinyl chloride resin and a polyethylene resin, said polyvinyl chloride resin and polyethylene resin obtained from waste electrical cables; and (B) 1-99 parts by weight of a multiphase graft copolymer containing (i) 5%-99% by weight of thermoplastic elastomeric units and (ii) 1%-95% by weight of vinyl polymer units where one of the units form a dispersed phase with a particle size of between 0.001 μm-10 μm in the other units. The abovementioned resin composition is said to have a good flexibility and processability when used as an insulating layer or sheath for a cable.
JP 2002/363364 relates to a recycled polyvinyl chloride resin composition comprising a plasticizer having a molecular weight of at least 500 such as, for example, a trimellitate-based, a polyester-based or an epoxy-based plasticizer. The abovementioned composition is said to be useful as covering materials for electrical cables.
JP 2002/363363 relates to a recycled polyvinyl chloride-containing resin composition and to an electrical wire or cable made therefrom. Said composition comprises 100 parts by weight of a 99:1 to 70:30 mixture of a polyvinyl chloride resin which typically is a recycled material and a polyolefin resin, and 1-20 parts by weight with respect to 100 parts by weight of said mixture, of a block copolymer of an acrylic polymer and a hydrogenated polybutadiene in a ratio of 50:50 to 10:90. The abovementioned composition is said to be useful as a covering material for wires and cables.
JP 2002/103329 relates to a method for recycling used vinyl films (e.g. polyvinyl chloride films) for agriculture. The method comprises cutting the used vinyl films roughly; removing impurities such as metals and sand from cut pieces; feeding dried fluff obtained by grinding, washing, dehydrating, and drying said pieces, a plasticizer, a heat stabilizer, and other additives to a heater mixer; keading them; feeding the mixture in a semi-molten state to a cooler mixer; stirring it feeding it to an extruder; extruding it under heated conditions; passing trough a water bath; and pelletizing it. The obtained pellets are dried to form a compound for molding the electrical cable sheath material. Said electrical cable is said to have good properties comparable to a cable having a virgin polyvinyl chloride sheath.
However, the use of recycled polymers may show some drawbacks. In particular, the Applicant has noticed that the use of recycled polyethylene may provide coating layers having poor mechanical properties, in particular stress at break and elongation at break, and poor environmental stress cracking resistance, with respect to those obtained from virgin polymer materials. Moreover, said coating layers may show poor appearance, mainly due to the formation of defects on their surface such as, for example, little agglomerates, which impair not only their appearance and smoothness but also their mechanical properties.
The Applicant believes that the above drawbacks may be due to partial degradation of polyethylene upon prolonged exposure to sunlight and to atmospherical agents, and/or to reprocessing to which said polyethylene is subjected, such degradation causing worsening of mechanical properties and processability.

Cable with a coating layer made from a waste material


A rotary head for string trimmers having a rotary body with a rotation axis and manufactured as one single piece; wherein the rotary body has one or more return areas, each of which is configured to lock a respective line portion by means of consecutive curves on different planes.

As is known, there are different categories of rotary heads for string trimmers.
According to a first category of rotary heads, the use is comprised of one of more reels of cutting line made of a plastic material. In this case, once a portion of cutting line is worn, it is possible to extract a new portion of line from the reel and continue the cutting by means of somewhat complicated maneuvers.
Whereas, a second category of rotary head comprises the use of single portions of line fastened to the central body according to various types:
a) The lines are locked by twisty paths created inside the rotary body. Such paths are created so that it is easy to insert the lines, but less easy to remove them afterwards. According to this type of solution, on working, the line is deformed and no longer slides as on insertion. The size of the passages is calibrated as a function of the diameter of the line. This results in the disadvantage of having to comprise a rotary head for each category of line. For example, to cover the range of lines normally present on the market having a diameter ranging from 2 to 4.5 mm, it is currently necessary to use three different types of heads. This is because lines having a small diameter unthread, if they are inserted in twisty paths with large holes; on the contrary, lines having a large diameter are unable to slide and therefore be inserted inside twisty paths with a small diameter.
b) The lines are inserted into one or more straight holes (crosswise to the rotation axis) with large diameters (i.e. larger than the diameters of the lines normally used), which cross the rotary head.
In this case, the lines are locked inside the respective holes by means of screws. Disadvantageously, in this type of solution, a clearance is always comprised between the line and the hole, however, this causes greater wear of the line, which, at the outlet of the rotary head, knocks against the outlet edge. Furthermore, for this type of solutions, it is always necessary to have a key afterwards for (loosening-tightening) the locking screw and allowing the worn line to be replaced with a new one.
c) The lines are locked between two threaded pieces of the rotary head, which are tightened manually.
Disadvantageously, in this type of solution, the two threaded pieces can become locked with the vibrations. Therefore, in order to loosen the two pieces, it is necessary to have a key and a rod (for inserting inside the special seats with which the rotary head is provided).
All of the types a), b), c) described above are further slowed down during the changing of the line, when the portions of line break, close to the outer diameter of the rotary head. In fact, in this case, there is no witness, i.e. an edge, to remove them.
Furthermore, according to type b) the lines deform in the point where they are pressed to lock them, inside the holes.
A third category comprises a series of air knives made of a plastic material and hinged to a central hub.
In particular, the present invention relates to the second category, in particular, to type a) described above, to improve the numerous drawbacks thereof.
In particular, the technical problem aimed to be solved due to the present invention consists of creating a rotary head for string trimmer, of the type having portions of cutting line, for which it is easy to replace (insert-remove) a portion of line, once it is worn, with a new one without the aid of any tools.


A system that enables recipients of letters, flats and/or packages (hereinafter “mail”) that are addressed to a recipient to determine the identity of the person or group that placed a indicia and other information on mail, i.e., the person or group who was issued unique stamps and/or labels by the post. This invention accomplishes the foregoing by storing unique information that is affixed to mail and the identify of the mailer; having a scanner at a receptacle read the unique information before mail is permitted to enter the interior of the receptacle, and communicating to the recipient information regarding the delivered mail.

People have used the United States Postal Service (USPS) and other courier services, e.g., Federal Express®, Airborne®, United Parcel Service,® DHL®, etc., hereinafter called "carriers", to deliver materials to recipients to whom the sender does not want to deliver personally. Unfortunately, sometimes the delivered materials may be illegal and/or hazardous to the health of the recipient and to the party who is delivering the goods, e.g., life-harming. Examples of life-harming materials are explosives; gun powder; blasting material; bomb; detonators; smokeless powder; radioactive materials; ammunition; atomic weapons; chemical compounds or any mechanical mixture containing any oxidizing and combustible units, or other ingredients in such proportions, quantities, or packing that ignite by fire, friction, concussion, percussion or detonation of any part thereof which may and is intended to cause an explosion; poisons; carcinogenic materials; caustic chemicals; hallucinogenic substances; illegal materials; drugs that are illegal to sell and/or dispense; and substances which, because of their toxicity, magnification or concentration within biological chains, present a threat to biological life when exposed to the environment, etc.
Soon after the Sep. 11, 2001, terrorist attack on the United States, someone and/or a group of people, has been adding harmful biological agents to the mail. The addition of harmful biological agents to the mail submitted to the USPS has caused the death of some people and necessitated the closure of some post offices and other government office buildings. Thus, there is an urgent need to exclude life harming materials that are included in the mail.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

System for a recipient to determine whether or not they received non-life-harming materials