Embodiments of the virtual machine power metering system and method measure the power consumption of individual virtual machines. Power meter measurements for a physical host server are converted into individual virtual machine power meters that measure the power consumption of each individual virtual machine residing on the host server. The virtual machine power consumption is computed by generating a power model using the total power consumption of the host server and resource utilization for a virtual machine. Optimal power model coefficients are computed using the power model. The energy used by the virtual machine is computed using one of two embodiments. Embodiments of the system and method also can be used to obtain the power consumption for a specific activity (such as a service, request, or search query). In addition, the virtual machine power metering can be used for virtual machine power capping to allow power oversubscription in virtualized environments.

Data centers, cloud computing infrastructures, compute clusters, enterprise computational facilities, and high performance computing facilities are increasingly using virtual machines to isolate workloads while running the workloads on shared physical servers. A virtual machine is an emulation of a computing device that is strictly software yet acts like a physical computing device. This means that one or more virtual machines can reside on a single physical host server. It appears to clients and all software running on the virtual machines, however, that each virtual machine is an independent server.
Virtualization (or the use of virtual machines) allows multiple applications to be safely placed on a single physical host server because each application operates inside its "virtual" computer and does not affect other applications. This allows server resources to be better utilized and reduces the number of servers required as well as the operational costs of hosting them such as electricity and cooling. Hence, virtualization is an efficient technique for managing computational resources and is gaining widespread acceptance in data centers and large scale computing facilities.
Data centers and other computing facilities often monitor power usage of servers to correctly manage the power capacity and distribution. The power measurement data is also used to make several manual and automated power management decisions. In fact power metering is so widespread in data centers that power distribution units (PDUs), power strips, server power supplies and in newer servers even server motherboards already contain the power metering instruments required to measure power. Another way to measure power consumption in a physical server is to connect a power metering instrument to the server.
Power consumption for a physical server can be measured by metering the electricity supplied to the server. Virtual machines, however, are created in software and there is no easy way to connect a power meter to a virtual machine. This makes it quite difficult to measure power consumption of virtual machines. Techniques used for physical servers can only report the total power draw of the server. But they cannot be used to measure the individual power consumption of each of the multiple virtual machines that reside on the single physical host server. In fact, the power consumption of a virtual machine cannot be measured using purely hardware solutions.
The ability to measure the power consumption of a virtual machine is important. Users or server managers are unable to measure the power used by each virtual machine. Measuring this power is useful for several reasons. For example, if a virtual machine is using excessive power it may have to be shut down or migrated to a different power circuit with excess capacity. In addition, software developers can measure how much energy their software consumes when executed on a physical server but cannot measure it when running on a virtual machine. Not being able to measure the power usage cripples the developer's ability to optimize the software for lower power consumption. Another use of measuring a virtual machine's power consumption is to charge back users based on power use. Shared physical servers, such as used in cloud computing, allow multiple users to run virtual machines on the shared physical infrastructure. The owner of the physical servers may wish to charge the virtual machine users based on power use.
Yet another use of virtual machine power metering, and one that is discussed in more detail below, arises in virtual machine power capping. Power capping allows over-subscription of the power infrastructure and results in more efficient utilization of the power capacity. However, current power capping techniques are designed for physical servers and do not work well when applied to virtual machines. For example, capping the power of a physical server results in the capping of all virtual machines that are hosted on the server. This violates the isolation of workloads provided by virtual machines and can defeat the advantages of using virtualization.
Thus, one of the major components of power management in large scale computational facilities is the visibility into power. This capability, however, is lacking in virtualized machines that are increasingly being used in data centers. The use of virtual machines allows safe isolation of multiple co-located workloads, enabling multiple workloads to be consolidated on fewer servers, and results in improved resource utilization. However, the lack of visibility into virtual machine power usage takes away the many advantages of server power metering that were available without virtualization.

Virtual machine power consumption measurement and management


An air diffusion device is provided. The device includes a base coupled to an air supply pipe for supply of air. The base has an air discharge hole for discharge of air supplied from the air supply pipe. The device further includes a perforated cover in the form of a multi-layered stepped plate the height of which is reduced stepwise from the center to the edge. The perforated cover has a plurality of through-holes for discharge of air, and it is coupled to an upper surface of the base to cover the air discharge hole, thus defining an air guide chamber between the perforated cover and the base. The device further includes a securing mechanism configured to secure the perforated cover to the base.

Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an air diffusion device for efficiently supplying air and other gases in a process that requires dissolved oxygen, and more particularly, to an improved air diffusion device capable of ensuring easy assembly and enhanced aeration efficiency.
Description of the Related Art
Due to continuous industrialization and urbanization, environmental contamination is worsening and kinds of wastewater, dirty water, and sewage are also diversified. Facilities for treatment thereof are being advanced and treatment cost is increasing.
Currently, biological treatment methods, which are selectively combined with physical and chemical methods, are mainly used for wastewater treatment. These biological treatment methods may basically be classified into two kinds, i.e. an aerotropic treatment method and an anaerobic treatment method.
Anaerobic treatment advantageously does not require the supply of oxygen and achieves the acquisition of combustible methane gas as an energy source, but has disadvantages, such as long reaction duration, generation of bad odor, and the like. Most wastewater treatment facilities employ aerotropic treatment owing to advantages, such as short reaction duration, perfect removal of organic materials, and the like, although aerotropic treatment disadvantageously requires energy consumption for the supply of oxygen, for example.
In aerotropic treatment, the supply of oxygen is essential to the growth and activity of aerotropic microorganisms. To this end, an air diffusion device is used. The air diffusion device is installed in an aeration tank (reactor), and serves to maintain an appropriate amount of Dissolved Oxygen (DO) in the aeration tank. Gas is dispersed in wastewater in the aeration tank, and therefore a bubble size, bubble hold-up, contact between gas and liquid, and flow characteristics of gas and liquid have a great effect on operational conditions, performance, efficiency, and the like of the aeration tank.
An efficient method for increasing a contact area between gas and liquid in an aeration tank and increasing a mass transfer coefficient between gas and liquid is to increase bubble hold-up. To this end, uniform generation of bubbles having a reduced size is essential. During rising, bubbles are increased in size while coalesced in the aeration tank. This is because a bubble rising velocity increases in proportion to a bubble size, and therefore increase in the size of bubbles reduces a bubble hold-up period. In a case in which bubbles have a large size and generation of bubbles is not uniform, the bubbles will have a short hold-up period in the aeration tank, which causes deterioration of Standard Oxygen Transfer Efficiency (SOTE).
Various shapes of air diffusion devices, such as a pipe-shaped air diffusion device, a ball-shaped air diffusion device, a disc-shaped air diffusion device, and the like, have been developed and used. In addition, a multistage disc-shaped air diffusion device, in which a plurality of discs is arranged in multiple stages to increase the supply amount of air, has been supposed.


An information appliance receives streaming information and includes a buffer, a writer module, a reader module and a synchronizer. The buffer has a plurality of storage locations, a logical head, a logical tail and a valid data area between the logical head and the logical tail. The logical head and the logical tail move sequentially through the plurality of storage locations in a first logical direction. The writer module has a write position at the logical head of the buffer. The writer module receives the streaming information and writes the streaming information to the buffer at the write position. The reader module is coupled to the buffer and has a first read position which is temporally movable with respect to the write position. The synchronizer is coupled to the writer module and the reader module and maintains the first read position within the valid data area.

The present invention relates to streaming information. More particularly, the present invention relates to recording streaming information and retrieving the stored information for selective playback.
With advances in technology including faster processors, improved graphics, and so forth, a desktop computer can easily receive and present streaming information to the user. Common examples of streaming information include streaming video and audio delivered over a wide area network, such as the Internet. For instance, television broadcast signals that would otherwise be transmitted wirelessly using satellites, television transmitters, etc., are encoded and made available for transmission to remote computer users via the Internet. Upon request by the desktop computer user, the encoded data packets containing audio and video data are sent to the desktop computer user sequentially. Upon receipt, the data packets are decoded and processed by the desktop computer in order to render the streaming information to the user in as close to real time as possible. After rendering or presentation, the data packets are discarded.
Although processing streaming information in the manner described above is useful, there exist a number of shortcomings. Currently, streaming information is provided at the request of each desktop computer. Thus, each user must form a separate connection with the source of streaming information in order to receive the desired streaming information. Once initiated, the user is unable to control the manner in which streaming information is rendered. For instance, the user cannot temporarily "pause" the incoming streaming information in order to perform another task and then resume viewing when desired. Likewise, the user is unable to repeat a previously rendered portion since the data packets are discarded, or skip ahead since the data packets have not been received.
There thus is an ongoing need to improve the manner in which streaming information is rendered. Although described above with respect to a desktop computer and streaming information received from the Internet, the improved process should be applicable to other information appliances or computing devices and other forms of streaming information.

This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.

Streaming information appliance with buffer read and write synchronization


A base station apparatus is disclosed in which control section (150) generates an index indicating a response signal resource to be used for transmission of a response signal in response to downlink data of a plurality of CCs for at least each second CC, and transmitting section (160) transmits control information including the index. When a terminal receives the control information using only one second CC or two or more CCs among the plurality of CCs, the terminal apparatus determines the response signal resource based on the index of the second CC. Control section (150) specifies, as the response signal resource, using the index of the second CC, a first resource for transmission of a response signal in response to downlink data transmitted using only one CC or a second resource for transmission of a plurality of response signals in response to downlink data transmitted using a plurality of CCs.

LTE (Long Term Evolution) Release 8 (Rel.8, or may also be referred to as "LTE") defined in 3GPP (3rd Generation Partnership Project) and LTE Release 10 (Rel.10, or may also be referred to as "LTE-Advanced") which is an enhanced version thereof introduce HARQ (hybrid automatic repeat request) which combines error correcting coding and automatic retransmission request (e.g., see NPLs 1, 2 and 3).
When HARQ is applied to transmission/reception of downlink data, a terminal performs error correcting decoding on downlink data transmitted from a base station, and then determines whether or not the data has been correctly decoded based on a CRC (cyclic redundancy checksum) added to the data. The terminal feeds back a response signal indicating an ACK (decoding success) or NACK (decoding failure) (hereinafter, referred to as "A/N signal") to the base station based on the determination result. Upon receiving a NACK, the base station retransmits data in which an error has been detected.
An uplink channel such as PUCCH (physical uplink control channel) or PUSCH (physical uplink shared channel) is used to feed back such an A/N signal. Which channel is used to transmit an A/N signal or when an A/N signal is transmitted using PUCCH, which of a plurality of formats (PUCCH formats) is used to transmit the A/N signal is determined based on, for example, the presence or absence of uplink data when the A/N signal is transmitted, the presence or absence of CSI (channel state information), the presence or absence of a configuration of CA (carrier aggregation) or the like (e.g., see NPL 3). For example, when only an A/N signal is transmitted or when only a scheduling request for uplink data and an A/N signal are transmitted, PUCCH formats 1a/1b are used.
PUCCH formats 1a/1b are an uplink control signal format (most robust format) that can code-division-multiplex (CDM: code division multiplexing) 12, 18 or 36 A/N signals per frequency resource block (RB) and transmit/receive the A/N signals with the lowest required quality (required SINR (signal to interference and noise ratio)) (e.g., see NPL 1). PUCCH formats 1a/1b can simultaneously feed back A/N signals of 1 or 2 bits. For spreading for code-division-multiplexing in PUCCH formats 1a/1b, a ZAC (Zero auto-correlation) sequence having a sequence length of 12 is used for primary spreading, and a Walsh sequence having a sequence length of 4 and a DFT (discrete Fourier transform) sequence having a sequence length of 3 are used for secondary spreading. A/N signals transmitted by different terminals can be multiplexed by giving different cyclic shifts to a ZAC sequence in primary spreading or by multiplying the A/N signals by respective components of different orthogonal code sequences in secondary spreading. Note that an orthogonal code sequence is a combination of a Walsh sequence and a DFT sequence. The orthogonal code sequence may also be referred to as "block-wise spreading code." In the following description, one PUCCH formats 1a/1b resource determined by an RB, a primary spread cyclic shift and a secondary spread orthogonal code sequence is referred to as "A/N resource" or "PUCCH resource."
In order to code-division-multiplex A/N signals transmitted by a plurality of different terminals, different A/N resources need to be allocated to the respective terminals. In LTE and LTE-Advanced, control information of each terminal is always mapped to different PDCCH resources in PDCCH (physical downlink control channel) which is a downlink control channel. Focusing attention on this, LTE and LTE-Advanced prescribe that A/N resource numbers should be uniquely determined according to PDCCH resource numbers to which downlink control information is mapped. More specifically, A/N resource number nPUCCH is determined based on following equation 1 (e.g., see NPL 1).[1]nPUCCH=NPUCCH(1)+nCCE  (Equation 1)
In equation 1, A/N resource number nPUCCH is a value determined by an RB number and a spreading code number. Furthermore, NPUCCH(1) represents a constant commonly indicated to all terminals in a cell and nCCE represents a first (beginning) PDCCH resource (CCE) number among PDCCH resources to which control information of the terminals is mapped. More specifically, nCCE is given as a number (CCE index) of CCE (control channel element) defined as a resource unit of PDCCH.
The method of uniquely defining an A/N resource number using a PDCCH resource number is called an "implicit A/N resource allocation method" in the sense that it does not explicitly specify an A/N resource."
FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate a downlink subframe (FIG. 1A) made up of PDCCH and PDSCH (physical downlink shared channel), and uplink PUCCH resources (FIG. 1B). FIG. 1A illustrates allocation of data (PDSCH) to a plurality of terminals a to d and allocation of PDCCH including control information (e.g., allocation information) corresponding to each piece of data. On the other hand, FIG. 1B illustrates A/N resources (A/N resources in PUCCH formats 1a/1b) uniquely determined by the PDCCH resources shown in FIG. 1A. In FIG. 1B, the horizontal axis shows an RB number (UL RB index) in the uplink and the vertical axis shows a code number (PUCCH code index) in a PUCCH RB.
For example, as shown in FIG. 1B, mutually different A/N resources are associated, in a one-to-one correspondence, with respective PDCCH resources to which control information intended for terminals a to d shown in FIG. 1A is assigned. When PDSCH is allocated to the plurality of terminals a to d as shown in FIG. 1A, PDCCH resources indicating allocation information of the respective PDSCHs do not overlap with each other. That is, nCCE shown in equation 1 differs from one terminal to another. Thus, as shown in FIG. 1B, A/N resources (nPUCCH) defined in equation 1 do not overlap among the terminals either. For example, in FIG. 1B, terminal a and terminal b or terminal c and terminal d are code-division-multiplexed with the same RB respectively, and terminals a and b, and terminals c and d are frequency-division-multiplexed. Simultaneous transmission of A/N signals by different terminals is thereby made possible through code-division-multiplexing or frequency-division-multiplexing.
Aforementioned CA is a technique introduced in LTE-Advanced which enables high-speed data transmission by assigning a plurality of frequency bands (CC: component carrier) which are basic units of a communication band to one terminal. In CA, a plurality of CCs set for one terminal is made up of one PCell (primary cell) and one or a plurality of SCells (secondary cells). PCell is a CC that transmits an A/N signal, for example, when A/N signals in response to downlink data of a plurality of CCs are transmitted using only one A/N signal. Alternatively, PCell is a CC that transmits broadcast information relating to a CC that transmits A/N signals. Moreover, among a plurality of CCs set for a terminal, CCs other than PCell are SCells.
When CA is configured, since a plurality of pieces of downlink data are simultaneously transmitted, a single terminal needs to simultaneously feed back a plurality of A/N signals corresponding to a plurality of respective pieces of downlink data. To realize this feedback of A/N signals, LTE-Advanced adopts PUCCH format 1b with channel selection that can simultaneously feed back A/N signals of up to 4 bits and PUCCH format 3 that can simultaneously feed back A/N signals of 10 bits or more (e.g., see NPLs 1 and 3). When CA is configured, one of PUCCH format 1b with channel selection and PUCCH format 3 is configured in the terminal.
PUCCH format 1b with channel selection is a format that supports a method of expressing an A/N signal of a maximum of 4 bits in one symbol using a plurality of A/N resources of PUCCH formats 1a/1b and a QPSK constellation. More specifically, 4-bit A/N signals can be simultaneously transmitted using a maximum of four A/N resources and QPSK constellation (4 constellation points) of each A/N resource. For example, PUCCH format 1b with channel selection is used when two CCs are configured for a terminal.
PUCCH format 3 is a new PUCCH format whose spreading method is different from other formats. More specifically, PUCCH format 3 is a format that supports a method of increasing the number of transmittable bits per terminal by performing only spreading by an orthogonal code sequence corresponding to secondary spreading without using a ZAC sequence such as PUCCH formats 1a/1b. In the following description, a resource of one PUCCH format 3 defined by an RB and an orthogonal code sequence is called "A/N resource."
When CA is configured, LTE-Advanced introduces ARI (ACK/NACK resource indicator) which is control information for indicating assignment of SCell to realize more flexible A/N resource allocation. The ARI is indicated by PDCCH and is information of, for example, 2 bits. FIG. 2 illustrates an example of use of ARIs when CA using three CCs (PCell, SCell1, SCell2) is configured. In FIG. 2, control information (PDCCH) relating to downlink data (PDSCH) of each CC is transmitted individually. Furthermore, ARIs are only included in control information of SCells. When downlink data is assigned to three CCs respectively, the base station specifies A/N resources of PUCCH format 3 using ARIs included in control information of two SCells out of respective pieces of control information of the three CCs.
In FIG. 2, A/N resource numbers (F3(1) to (4)) of four PUCCH format 3 A/N resources are previously indicated from a base station to a terminal through RRC control information or the like. The base station specifies, using ARIs, which A/N resource is used for the terminal among previously indicated A/N resources. However, ARIs included in control information of two different CCs (SCells) specify an identical A/N resource number. In FIG. 2, upon receiving control information corresponding to three CCs, the terminal feeds back A/N signals for downlink data (PDSCH) corresponding to the respective CCs using A/N resources of PUCCH format 3 specified by the ARIs.
Note that the terminal may not be able to detect part or whole control information transmitted from the base station. When the terminal has not been able to detect the control information of PCell, the terminal feeds back A/N signals using A/N resources of PUCCH format 3 specified by the ARI of SCell. On the other hand, when the terminal has not been able to detect control information of SCell, the terminal feeds back A/N signals using A/N resources when CA is not configured, that is, using an A/N resource (F1a/1b(1) shown in FIG. 2) of PUCCH formats 1a/1b determined by the CCE index used for transmission of control information of PCell according to equation 1.
A case has been described so far where A/N signals of a plurality of CCs are fed back in PUCCH format 3 as an example. However, even when the number of CCs configured for the terminal is 2 and PUCCH format 1b with channel selection is applied, A/N resources are selected using an ARI in the same way as shown above.
Furthermore, LTE Release 11 (Rel.11, which may also be referred to as LTE-Advanced as in the case of Rel.10) is studying to adopt ePDCCH (enhanced PDCCH) arranged in PDSCH as a new control channel different from PDCCH (e.g., see NPL 4). Unlike PDCCH transmitted by resources common to all terminals in a cell, ePDCCH is allocated to an RB indicated for each terminal FIG. 3 illustrates an example of operation of allocating downlink data (PDSCH) using PDCCH or ePDCCH. In FIG. 3, control information intended for terminals a to d is transmitted using PDCCH and control information intended for terminals e to g is transmitted using ePDCCH.

Base station device, terminal device, resource allocation method and response signal transmission method

Panasonic Intellectual Property Corporation of America


Recycling of mixed wastepaper, including plastic coated paper and printed paper, is accomplished by repulping the wastepaper mixture to disperse paper fibers, ink and plastic components into a pulp medium. Contact with a deinking chemical causes attraction between the ink components to form larger ink particles. The ink is adsorped onto the plastic components to form ink/plastic clusters which are removed to produce a substantially ink and plastic free pulp medium. Recycled paper products with improved strength comprising paper fibers from pulp medium produced in accordance with the method of the invention are also provided.

Separately, both printed office wastepaper and plastic coated paperboard have been difficult to deink. Office waste including non-impact (laser and xerox) toners is not easily purified by conventional deinking methods such as washing, flotation and dispersion. Alternatively, agglomeration deinking methods are used but are expensive procedures due to the high chemical cost of the agglomeration chemicals used.
Recovery of paper fiber from milk cartons and other types of liquid packaging or plastic coated or laminated paper or paperboard is hampered by plastic contamination in the recovered pulp. Slotted screens can be used to remove plastic particles but are not entirely effective. The liquid packaging often contains a wet strength additive, which prevents effective repulping, and the resulting flakes of unpulped paperboard tend to seal over and plug the screen plates. Also, liquid packaging tends to contain a significant percentage of long softwood fibers, which also make screening with fine slots more difficult. The thin flexible plastic also tends to plug fine slots, forcing the use of larger slots which compromise the screening efficiency. Therefore, removal of plastic contaminants resulting from laminated plastic or plastic coatings remains a problem.
Conventional recycling processes utilize well characterized and presorted grades of wastepaper. Mixed wastepaper streams are not readily recycled because of their non uniform properties and changing chemical compositions of the constituents.
Separate processes for deinking various types of printed paper and plastic coated paperboard are known in the art. Representative of such processes include: U.S. Pat. No. 1,628,931 to Todd which discloses a process for extracting wax from waste waxed paper by dissolving in a solution of tri-sodium phosphate and soda ash; U.S. Pat. No. 2,776,209 to O'Flynn which discloses a method for deinking and dewaxing wastepaper by repulping in a non-acidic aqueous solution of urea; U.S. Pat. No. 3,933,577 to Penque which discloses a method for recycling municipal solid waste (garbage) by shredding waste material and passing through an air elutriator to separate into a heavy stream containing metals and a light stream containing paper, plastics, etc.; and U.S. Pat. No. 4,332,638 to Mauer which provides a process and apparatus for sorting long and short fibers from a mixture of different types of wastepaper, including plastic coated paper.
The prior art describes separate methods for deinking printed wastepaper and plastic coated paperboard. However, the art has not shown a deinking process for recycling a combined mixture of printed wastepaper and plastic coated paperboard to produce clean pulp. The invention is directed to the provision of such a process in which simultaneous repulping of a mixture of plastic coated and printed paper and contact with a deinking chemical presents a synergy in which separated plastic components attract and effectively adsorb ink agglomerates to form ink/plastic clusters. These clusters are readily removed from the pulp medium to produce a high level of pulp cleanliness for creating recycled paper products. Further advantages of the invention over prior practices include repulping both long fibered paperboard pulp with short fibered office waste paper together which makes the removal steps easier, particularly the screening stages, and prevents the screens from becoming overloaded with plastic and flakes of unpulped paperboard. It further allows the use of fine slotted screens for complete removal of plastic from the pulp.
There is a need in the art for processes which are less complex to produce recycled paper. This invention is directed to the provision of such processes which have wide range applications in creating recycled paper with a high level of cleanliness, and using a low dosage of agglomeration chemical.
Accordingly, it is a broad object of the invention to provide a deinking process for the recycling of plastic coated and printed paper.
Another object of the invention is to provide a low cost deinking process that effectively and efficiently removes ink and plastic particles without using high concentrations of expensive agglomeration chemicals.
A still further object of the invention is to provide a recycled paper product having improved strength and a high level of cleanliness made from recycled plastic containing paper and printed wastepaper.

Method for recycling mixed wastepaper including plastic-containing paper and ink printed paper


The invention involves a fluid treatment device and fluid treatment method to solution or melt coat or impregnate a resin or polymer to a predetermined, metered thickness into a substrate. The invention is effective in impregnating or coating various substrates in both a continuous or batch process on one side, two sides, or in the case of a porous substrate, penetration and complete saturation is possible. The invention offers significant advantages and benefits over existing methods and equipment and allows the coating or impregnation process to be performed at lower cost and higher efficiency with increased environmental safety.

The application of a fluid, resin or polymer solvent solution or resin or polymer hot melt to a substrate is commonly accomplished by techniques such as spin coating, curtain coating, spray coating, solution impregnation, melt impregnation, etc. These techniques are effective in coating or impregnating the substrate; however, there are typically significant amounts of chemical contaminants (e.g., pollutants) released into the environment during processing. Moreover, many of these processes are inefficient and result in a substantial amount of chemical waste which must be recovered and disposed of properly. For example, the technique of spin coating a thin film dielectric (i.e., polymer) onto a substrate (i.e., silicon wafer) results in 90-95% of the polymer solution spun off and wasted during processing. Significant cost savings could be realized by a controlled means of applying polymer solutions.
Various devices designed for treatment of substrates and similar articles are known in the art, with examples being shown and described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,142,010 (D. J. Pipkin et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,299,186 (D J. Pipkin et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,387,124 (D. J. Pipkin et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 4,836,133 (A. Wohrle et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,289,639 (Bard et al.), U.S. Pat. No. 5,192,394 (Bard et al.), and U.S. Pat. No. 5,063,951 (Bard et al.). The devices referenced in the aforementioned patents, however, do not possess the unique features of the fluid jet impregnating and coating device described herein. It is believed that a fluid treatment device possessing the advantageous features cited herein and otherwise discernible from the teachings provided below constitutes a significant advancement in the art.

Fluid jet impregnating and coating device with thickness control capability

International Business Machines Corporation


A radiation-curing resin composition comprising (A) a resin having a carboxylic acid group and an unsaturated double bond and (B) a compound containing a cyclocarbonate group. The composition is excellent in stability and curing properties and provides a cured film excellent in water resistance, solvent resistance, chemical resistance, and heat resistance.

Known radiation-curing resins, particularly resins which cures on radical polymerization, include unsaturated polyester resins, vinyl ester resins (epoxy-acrylate resins), various acrylate oligomers, and diallyl phthalate prepolymers. These resins are widely employed with their respective characteristics being taken advantage of in the respective field of application.
With the recent broadening of uses of radiation-curing resin compositions, demands for higher performance properties have ever been increasing. However, there has not yet been obtained a highly practical radiation-curing resin composition which satisfies all the requirements.
Further, with the recent broadening of uses of radiation-curing resin compositions, demands as pattern making materials have been increasing. As alkali development-type pattern making materials, those containing a carboxylic acid group have been generally used. However, when the alkali development-type pattern making materials containing a carboxylic acid group are used especially as electric materials, the carboxylic acid group affects the water resistance and the chemical resistance. In order to remove such a defect, there has been proposed to use a resin composition containing an epoxy compound together with the alkali development-type pattern making material containing a carboxylic acid group wherein a carboxylic acid is consumed by postcure. However, the conventional resin composition which contains epoxy compound has had serious defects for reducing pattern developing property due to poor stability.


A high data rate communication system that employs an adaptive sectored antenna is disclosed. The high data rate communication system includes an antenna subsystem for receiving and transmitting data. The antenna subsystem is adapted to be spatially steered. A radio frequency transceiver that is coupled to the antenna subsystem and that selectively generates a bit error rate (BER) signal and a receive signal strength indication (RSSI) signal based upon a received antenna training sequence is also provided. The system also includes a beam steering state machine that is coupled to the radio frequency transceiver and that selectively generates a BER.sub.-- PASS signal and an RSSI.sub.-- PASS signal based upon whether the BER signal is in a first logical relationship with a predetermined BER signal and the RSSI signal is in a second logical relationship with a predetermined RSSI signal. An antenna controller is coupled to the antenna subsystem and the beam steering state machine and selectively generates antenna control signals to spatially steer the antenna subsystem based upon the BER.sub.-- PASS signal and the RSSI.sub.-- PASS signal.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates generally to high data rate communication systems and more specifically to a high data rate communication network employing an adaptive sectored antenna.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventionally, sectored antennas are employed in military applications. For example, a base unit transmits a message for a mobile unit or units that are deployed on a battlefield. An enemy employs a jamming device to prevent a mobile unit from receiving the intended signal sent by the base unit. A mobile unit that employs an adaptive sectored antenna can discriminate between the jamming signal and hone in on the intended message sent by the base unit. In other words, the mobile unit can steer the adaptive sectored antenna so that the antenna spatially ignores the jamming signal and focuses or hones in on the intended signal.
With the proliferation of electronic devices that communicate with other devices at a high data rate, there is an increasing demand for wireless communications in the home or workplace. For example, a user of a portable laptop computer does not want to be tethered to a particular desk or work area and, instead, demands the flexibility of portable devices (e.g., a laptop, PDA, etc.). Moreover, there is a consumer demand for the reduction in the number of physical wires and connections that are needed between the electronic devices found in one's home. For example, it would be desirable for a consumer to have a single access point for multimedia data (e.g., a cable television connection) and a wireless connection between that connection of multimedia data and consumer appliances that play or record such data. It is cumbersome for each television or VCR to have a separate connection, and it would be desirable instead to have a wireless link between the multimedia data port and the appliances.
A significant hurdle in implementing a high data rate communications system in a home environment is the interference from adjacent cells and what is known as "delay spread". The delay spread is simply the time smearing of a signal. In a home environment, a cell can be a single home. However, since each home essentially employs the same frequency channels, there is a high degree of probability that the communications systems in adjacent homes (e.g., those in neighboring homes) interfere with each other. The interference is compounded when a cell is physically adjacent to another cell as in the case of an apartment complex where interference can stem from any one of the four walls and also from the ceiling or floor.
A possible approach to minimizing the delay spread that was conceived and considered by the inventors of the present invention, but deemed to be an inferior solution as compared with the teachings of the present invention, is the development of sophisticated equalizers to minimize the delay spread. A problem with this approach is that an equalizer must operate at a frequency which is greater than the data communication transmission rate.
The complexity of the hardware and manufacturing constraints of the standard silicon processing techniques are barriers to developing a cost-effective and efficient equalizer. Furthermore, although high speed equalizers are theoretically possible, there is a physical limit to the operation speed of an equalizer imposed by manufacturing considerations that render the development of an equalizer above a certain prespecified operating speed an impossibility.
Accordingly, there remains a need for a high data rate communication system that reduces the interference generated by that communication system and, further, can discriminate between interference generated by another high data rate communication system and the intended data and minimizes the effective delay spread.

High data rate communications network employing an adaptive sectored antenna


The purpose of the present invention is to collect a plurality of microscopic objects dispersed in a liquid by light irradiation, and also trap them. A collecting device for bacteria collects a plurality of bacteria dispersed in a sample liquid. The collecting device is provided with a laser beam source that emits laser beam and a honeycomb polymer film constituted so as to be able to hold the liquid. Walls prescribing pores for trapping the plurality of bacteria dispersed in the liquid are formed on the honeycomb polymer film, and also a thin film that includes a material for converting light from the laser beam source to heat is formed on the honeycomb polymer film. The thin film heats the liquid of the sample through the conversion of the laser beam from the laser beam source to heat, thereby causing a convection in the liquid.

In recent years, technology for collecting microscopic objects at an aimed position has been proposed. For example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Publication No. JP 2009-214044 (PTD 1) discloses a method of separation of the first particles with a strong dielectrophoretic force by dielectrophoresis from a suspension containing the first particles and the second particles with weak dielectrophoretic force. In this separation method, by applying an AC voltage between electrodes provided on the substrate to form a non-uniform electric field, and the first and second particles are attracted in the vicinity of the electrodes by dielectrophoresis. By eliminating the second particle with weak dielectrophoretic force by generating localized flow near the electrodes from the vicinity of the electrodes, the first particles with strong dielectrophoretic force are collected in the vicinity of the area between the electrodes.
In the disclosed separation method in PTD 1, microscopic objects (particles in PTD 1) are collected by the voltage application between the electrodes. From the viewpoint of enlarging the scope of collecting techniques for microscopic objects, as a method other than an electrical method (applied voltage), optical methods (light irradiation) is desired.
Further, in the disclosed separation methods in PTD 1, once the microscopic objects are collected, in order to maintain (or trap) their positions in the vicinity of the region between electrodes, it is considered that a voltage must be continuously applied between the electrodes. It is desirable that the once collected microscopic objects be trapped more easily.

Collecting device, collecting kit for microscopic objects and collecting method for microscopic objects


An asymmetric luminaire for illuminating large outdoor areas, such as an athletic field, wherein glare and light spillage is minimized and controlled. The luminaire includes a reflecting surface of a generally parabolic configuration, and an arc light source is located within the luminaire, the length of the light source being disposed at approximately 45.degree. with respect to the parabolic axis. A visor is used at the peripheral rim of the luminaire to control vertical and lateral light spillage, and the visor includes light source shields to prevent vertical spillage from the upper region of the luminaire. The luminaire reflecting surface includes a plurality of elliptical light reflecting ridges for restricting the near light beam height, and the upper portion of the reflecting surface can include substantially conical concentric light reflecting flute surfaces for accurately directing the light to target locations remote from the luminaire.

1. Field of the Invention
The invention pertains to sport lighting luminaires of the asymmetrical type wherein high efficiency of light placement is achieved with a minimum of glare and spillage by the use of an asymmetrical relationship between an arc light source and a parabolic luminaire reflecting surface, light restricting and directing surfaces being defined upon the luminaire reflecting surface, and a visor is used to control light spillage occurring directly from the lamp and from the lower portion of the luminaire without reducing beam utilization.
2. Description of the Related Art
The illumination of sports areas such as football fields, baseball diamonds, soccer fields, and the like, including parking lots, wherein a plurality of powerful luminaires are used to illuminate a particular area is becoming a complex science.
When illuminating athletic fields the area may require a uniform illumination intensity or density throughout the area, or when illuminating a baseball diamond it is desirable that different intensities of illumination be present at predetermined areas, for instance the infield is lighted brighter than the outfield. Powerful luminaires utilizing arc type light sources in conjunction with parabolic reflectors are commonly used for such outdoor lighting, and while such luminaires are capable of producing the desired degree of illumination, considerable problems, and controversy, have resulted due to the inadvertent illumination of adjacent areas. For instance, athletic fields are often located in or near residential areas, and the homeowners object to the high intensities of light being spilled upon their property or home.
The control of light spillage is largely accomplished by the us of glare shields built into the light source lamp, or the luminaire, which are intended to limit the light being cast to those areas intended. It is also known to use visors to control light spillage beyond the remote areas being illuminated, and lens configurations may also be employed. These devices generally also reduce the amount of light delivered to the desired area and thus reduce beam utilization.
As any area directly exposed to the luminaire light source will be illuminated, it is known to locate the light source within the luminaire in such a manner as to reduce lateral light spillage, such as shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,947,303 and 5,016,150. In the art of controlling and eliminating light spillage it is desirable that all areas surrounding the area to be illuminated are not directly exposed to the light source.
The assignee has used special shapes and configurations within the luminaire reflecting surface to direct and confine the light beam as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,864,476, and the adapting the concepts shown in this patent permit the light being cast upon areas at different distances from the luminaire to be controlled and regulated, and the present invention employs concepts of this patent, but goes beyond its teaching to provide an even improved ability to control light spillage without reducing beam utilization.


The invention relates to the production of a graft copolymer of polycaprolactone and of polyethylene containing functional groups. The copolymer shows good strength properties compared to linear low density polyethylene.

Disposable containers and bags in the market today are predominantly made of plastics. In these applications, it can be desirable to provide the plastic as a composition which is biodegradable.
The current emphasis on ecology, and in particular, the disposal of bulk rubbish, is in part directed to coping with the tremendous increase in the use of plastic containers and plastic films for packaging foodstuffs, and garbage wraps and the like which not only present a serious disposal problem but increase unsightly litter in picnic areas, on roadside and the like.
Polyethylene per se is not readily biodegradable.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an ethlene resin which is biodegradable. It is an object of the invention to provide a biodegradable ethylene resin which exhibits yield strengths and break strengths which are at least substantially equivalent to the non-biodegradable LLDPE counterpart.

Graft copolymers of polyethylene and polycaprolactone


Embodiments provide techniques for providing copy protection from capturing a displayed image using one or more camera devices. Embodiments generate a plurality of frames, based on the received image, such that when the plurality of frames are displayed using at least a threshold refresh rate, the displayed plurality of frames appears as the received image when viewed by a user, and the displayed plurality of frames appears as one of a plurality of other images when captured by an image capture device. The plurality of frames are then output for display on one or more display devices configured to use at least the threshold refresh rate.

As the use of computing technology and computer networks (e.g., the Internet) continues to accelerate, the ease with which digital media and files can be copied has created a need for copy protection schemes. Typically, cryptographic systems permit only valid keyholders with access to encrypted data. However, once decrypted, it is difficult to track the reproduction or retransmission of such data. Thus, such schemes provide insufficient protection against unauthorized reproduction of information. A digital watermark can be inserted into a document to address this problem. Such a watermark may be visible and include an identification code permanently embedded in the data. That is, the identification code remains present within the data after any decryption process, and can be used to detect and protect against the unauthorized reproduction of the data. One example of a digital watermark includes a visible seal inserted into an image to identify the copyright owner. However, a watermark could also contain additional information, including the identity of the purchaser of a specific copy of the image, in order to better track the reproduction of the specific copy.
A number of schemes have been proposed for watermarking digital data. For instance, one watermarking procedure includes varying each copy of a document by a marginal amount, so that each copy of the document appears to be the same when viewed by the human eye, and such that each copy of the document is a unique variation. In such a system, although the slight variations are invisible to the human eye, the unique variations can be detected by analyzing the document and thus can be used to identify the origin a particular copy of the document. Whichever watermarking technique is used, it is generally preferable for the watermark to be difficult to remove without destroying the document. Doing so helps to ensure that copies of watermarked documents can be traced back to the specific version from which it was created.
Additionally, a need exists for copy prevention techniques that prevent photographs from being taken of displayed content, and this need has become particular pronounced due to the proliferation of digital cameras (e.g., mobile device configured with a digital camera). For example, many amusement parks offer a service in which visitors' photographs are taken during a particular ride or attraction (e.g., a roller coaster), and these photographs can then be sold to the visitors for a nominal fee. Oftentimes, previews of these photographs are shown to visitors to encourage them to purchase a copy of such photographs. However, due to the increased popularity of digital cameras (including mobile devices equipped with digital cameras), some users may simply take a digital picture of the preview copy using their digital camera, rather than paying for the copy of their personal photograph. As a result, some amusement parks have resorted to showing only low resolution previews of the photographs, while other vendors have stopped showing previews altogether. These solutions are not ideal, however, since high quality preview images can help encourage visitors to purchase a copy of their personal photograph.

Copy protection from capture devices for photos and videos


A cart for barbecue grills. The cart has a shelf, a table, two first legs and two second legs. The shelf has two parallel beams for carrying a barbecue grill. The beams each have a first end, a second end and a curved slot formed therein near the second end thereof. A pivot joins together the first ends of the supports. A bar joins together the second ends of the supports. The table has two supports pivotally attached to the beams and a number of slats transversely attached on the supports. The first legs each have a first end, a second end and a linking point sited between the first and second ends thereof. The first ends of the first legs are pivotally attached to the first ends of the supports by the pivot. The second ends of the first legs are joined together by a handle. The second legs each have a first end, a second end and a linking point sited between the first and second ends thereof. The first legs are pivotally linked to the second legs at the linking points thereof. The first ends of the second legs are joined together by a rod receivable in the curved slots so that the cart is in an extended position. The second ends of the second legs carry two wheels for rolling when the cart in a folded position. A hook is attached on the rod for hooking a grip formed on a gas tank. A slat is attached on the first legs and has two cutouts for receiving a cylindrical stand formed below the gas tank.

1. Field of Invention
The present invention relates to a foldable cart for barbecue grills.
2. Related Prior Art
There have been various trolleys or carts for barbecue grills. The trolleys have wheels for rolling inside patios, but cannot be easily carried outdoors. The carts cannot be folded and, hence, cannot be easily stored. The trolleys or carts are assembled by means of threaded nut-and-bolt sets. Generally, the trolleys or carts are folded before the storage or transportation thereof. To fold the trolleys or carts, some of the threaded nut-and-bolt sets are disengaged by means of tools. The trolleys or carts are extended before the use thereof. In this case, tools are necessary again. It is troublesome to fold and extend the trolleys or carts. It is also inconvenient to carry the necessary tools. Therefore, the present invention is intended to solve the above-mentioned problems.


The present invention relates to intermediates of rosuvastatin and processes for the production thereof.

Rosuvastatin (7-[4-(4-fluorophenyl)-6-isopropyl-2-(N-methyl-N-methylsulfonylamino) pyrimidin-5-yl]-(3R,5S)-dihydroxy-(E)-6-heptenoic acid) calcium is an HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor, developed by Shionogi for the once daily oral treatment of hyperlipidaemia (Ann Rep, Shionogi, 1996; Direct communications, Shionogi, 8 Feb. 1999 & 25 Feb. 2000). Rosuvastatin calcium has the following chemical formula:

Rosuvastatin calcium is marketed under the name CRESTOR for treatment of a mammal such as a human. According to the maker of CRESTOR, it is administered in a daily dose of from about 5 mg to about 40 mg for LDL cholesterol reduction.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,260,440 (EP0521471A1) (US '440), discloses the synthesis of rosuvastatin from the intermediate 3(R)-3(tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy)-5-oxo-6-triphenyl-phoporanylidene hexanoate. PCT publication No. WO 03/097614 discloses the synthesis of rosuvastatin from the intermediate (3R)-3-(tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy)-5-oxo-6-triphenyl-phosphoralydene hexanoate, disclosed in US '440 patent.
PCT publication No. WO 03/087112 discloses the synthesis of rosuvastatin from a different intermediate, (3R)-3-(t-butyldimethylsilyloxy)-6-dimethoxyphosphinyl-5-oxohexanate (TSPH), which was synthesized from 3-hydroxy diethyl glutarate via partial hydrolysis by a microorganism to obtain enantiomerically pure glutaric acid derivative according to Scheme 1:
The process of PCT publication No. WO 03/087112 may not be desirable on an industrial scale. For example, it requires the use of an expensive microorganism such as CLS-BC-14011 during the partial hydrolysis of 3-hydroxy diethyl glutarate. Additionally, the process uses a hazardous reaction, such as isobutylene gas during esterification of ethyl-(3S)-3-hydroxyglutaric acid in the presence of sulphuric acid, and the purification of TSPH by column chromatography is commercially difficult.
US publication No. 2005/0070605A1 discloses the enantioselective opening of 3-hydroxyprotected glutaric anhydride by phenyl ethylamine to form an amide bond, and further converting it to HMG-CoA reductase inhibitor. The process may have problems such as breaking of the phenyl ethyl amide bond in the final step of producing cerivastatin and the problematic removal of phenylethylamine after breaking of the amide linkage in the synthesis of pitavastatin.
PCT publication No. WO 2006/021326 discloses the opening of 3-hydroxy protected glutaric anhydride by methanol to yield racemic methyl 3(±)-3-(t-butyl dimethylsilyloxy)-6-dimethoxy-phosphinyl-5-oxohexante, and the preparation of racemic methyl (3R)-3-(t-butyl dimethylsilyloxy)-6-dimethoxy-phosphinyl-5-oxohexante.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,354,879 discloses the preparation of both methyl (3R)-3-(t-butyl dimethylsilyloxy)-6-dimethoxy-phosphinyl-5-oxohexante and 3(R)-3(tert-butyldimethylsilyloxy)-5-oxo-6-triphenyl-phoporanylidene hexanoate from (3R) 3-[(tert-butyldimethylsilyl)oxy]-glutaric acid 1-(R)-(−)-mandelate and (3S) 3-[(tert-butyldimethylsilyl)oxy]-glutaric acid 1-(S)-(+)-mandelate, respectively. The disclosed process employs explosive and toxic materials, such as diazomethane, during the preparation of methyl-(3R)-3-(t-butyl dimethylsilyloxy)-6-dimethoxy-phosphinyl-5-oxohexante(esterification). Moreover, the yield of the above steps is low, and thus the process may not suitable for industrial and commercial use.
J. Org. Chem. (1991) 56:3744-47 discloses the preparation of (3R)-3-(t-butyl dimethylsilyloxy)-6-dimethoxy-phosphinyl-5-oxohexante from 3-hydroxy protected glutaric anhydride. The disclosed process which involves using hazardous reactions, such as use of N2O4 oxidation, followed by a hydrogenation reaction to cleave the amino group of the resolving agent, and use of diazomethane. The process also uses an expensive palladium catalyst which could remain as an impurity in the final product.

Process for preparing intermediates of HMG-CoA reductase inhibitors


A method is provided of altering the chemical and/or physical functionality of a fibrous substrate (e.g. fibers, fabrics and fiber-resin composites) by the action of a polymeric composition containing at least one phosphono- or phosphino-component. The polymeric composition may include VPA, VDPA or hypophosphorous acid. The fibres may be cellulosic and/or non-cellulosic, or metal or ceramic. The method can be used, for example, to enhance the receptivity of a fibrous substrate to dyes.

This invention relates to a method of treating a fibrous substrate so as to alter its chemical and/or physical functionality.
The substrate may, for example, comprise fibres or a fabric.
The present invention further relates to the use of the method aforesaid to enhance the receptivity of a fibrous substrate to dyes.
The present invention yet further relates to the use of the aforesaid method to enhance the adhesion, to a fibrous substrate, of other materials.
In a first aspect, the present invention provides a method of treating a fibrous substrate so as to alter its chemical and/or physical functionality, in which the substrate is reacted with an aqueous solution of a polymer comprising at least one phosphono-component or at least one phosphono-component selected from the group consisting of:
(a) monomeric or homopolymeric vinylidene-1,1 diphosphonic acid (VDPA);
(b) homopolymeric vinylphosphonic acid (VPA);
(c) a copolymer of VPA or VDPA with an unsaturated sulphonic acid, an unsaturated carboxylic acid, an unsaturated amide, a primary or secondary amine or a polyalkylene imine;
(d) a terpolymer of VPA or VDPA with two components selected from unsaturated sulphonic acids, unsaturated carboxylic acids, unsaturated amides, primary or secondary amines and polyalkylene imines;
(e) the reaction product of VDPA and a primary or secondary amine, a polyalkylene imine or hypophosphorous acid or the salts of said acid; and
(f) a phosphono-substituted monocarboxylic or dicarboxylic acid.
For example, the phosphono-componentmay comprise phosphono-succinic acid.
For example, the polymeric composition may consist essentially of a copolymer of vinylphosphonic acid (VPA) with vinylsulphonic acid (VSA), or with acrylic acid (AA), methacrylic acid (MAA) or acrylamide.
Alternatively, the polymeric composition may consist essentially of a copolymer of VDPA with VSA, or with AA, MAA or acrylamide.
As another example, the polymeric composition may consist essentially of a terpolymer of VDPA, VSA and either AA, MAA or acrylamide.
In a second aspect, the present invention provides the use of a method as hereinabove described to enhance the receptivity of a fibrous substrate to dyes.
Finally, the present invention provides the use of a method as hereinabove described to enhance the adhesion, to a fibrous substrate, of other materials.
Compositions according to the present invention may be applied to fibrous substrates which include cellulosic fibres. The cellulosic fibres are preferably natural cotton, but may be ramie, flax, linen, paper or cardboard or regenerated fibres (e.g. viscose or cuprammonium fibres) or partly etherified or esterified cellulose (e.g. cellulose acetate or propionate).
The substrate may contain both cellulosic and non cellulosic organic fibres, or consist entirely of non cellulosic organic fibres (e.g. 100% polyester fibres) or in some circumstances may consist entirely of cellulosic organic fibres (e.g. 100% cotton fibres).
The non cellulosic fibres are preferably polyester or polyamide, glass or carbon fibres, but may also be acrylic. The fibres may be metal or ceramic fibres. Other suitable non-cellulosic fibres include those of poly (p-phenylene benzo-bisthiazole) and poly (p-penylene benzo-bisoxazole). The polyamide may be an aliphatic one, such as copolymers of a polyaminc (such as a diamine) preferably an alkylene diamine, e.g of 4-12 carbon atoms and a polycarboxylic acid, e.g. a dicarboxylic acid, of 4-14 carbon atoms, such as an alkylene dicarboxylic acid (e.g NYLON* 66), or polylactams (such as NYLON* 6). Alternatively, the polyamide may be an aromatic one, such as an aramid based on aromatic dicarboxylic acids and phenylene diamines. The substrate can contain at least 20% of cellulosic fibres and up to 80% of coblendable fibres e.g. 10-80% especially 25-80% of coblendable fibres (such as polyamides). However, the substrate preferably comprises cellulosic fibres and polyester fibres. The substrate usually contains up to 80% (e.g. up to 70%) polyester fibres and the remainder cellulosic fibres.
Substrates comprising at least 45% non cellulosic fibres such as polyester fibres, e.g. 45-100% polyester, are preferred, as are substrates comprising 30-78% cellulosic fibres and 22-70% polyester fibres, or 30-62% cellulosic fibres and 38-70% polyester fibres. The polyester is usually a condensation product containing structural units from an aliphatic alcohol, e.g. a dihydric alcohol, especially ethylene glycol or butane diol (or mixtures thereof) and an aromatic dicarboxylic acid, e.g. terephthalic acid, or a mixture thereof with other dicarboxylic acids, such as isophthalic acid, or sebacic acid.
The substrate fibres may be in the form of thread or non woven fabrics, but are preferably used in the form of woven fabrics. Mixtures of fibres (e.g. of cellulosic and other fibres) may be an intimate or non intimate mixture, but the fibres are preferably in the form of blends of cellulosic fibres and other fibres, (e.g. polyester fibres), as in cospun blends such as cotton/polyester or polyester/cotton staple fibre, but may be in the form of core spun yarn with a core of the other fibre, e.g. polyester-sheathed cotton fibres. In a fabric, the warp and weft fibres are preferably the same, but may be different, e.g. one may be made from cotton fibres and the other from, say, polyester/cotton fibres or NOMEX*/cotton. Thus in this specification the term xe2x80x9cblendxe2x80x9d also includes unions and union/blends as well as core/sheath fibres.
The method according to the present invention may be applied to the dyeing of fibres or fabrics.
The reactive dyeing of a fibre or fabric consisting essentially of cellulose (e.g. cotton, ramie, flax, linen, paper, cardboard) or of regenerated fibres (e.g. viscose or cuprammonium fibres) or of fibres and fabrics of cellulose acetate or cellulose propionate has hitherto required the addition of inorganic salts to the dye bath to enhance the receptivity of the fabric to the dye. Such salts require removal from the spent dye bath at the conclusion of the dyeing process.
The Applicants have found that the treatment of such fibres or fabrics with polymeric compositions according to the method of the present invention avoids the need to use inorganic salts, enhances the take-up of the dye by the fibre or fabric and enables the fibre or fabric to retain more of the dye after washing.
Non-cellulosic fibres or fabrics (e.g. polyester fibres or fabrics) have hitherto had to be dyed by means of disperse dyes. Disperse dyes do not react chemically with the fabric they have to be physically xe2x80x9centrappedxe2x80x9d in the fabric by the application of elevated temperature and pressure. Thus, a reactive dye would not be expected to xe2x80x9ctakexe2x80x9d on a polyester fabric.
The Applicants have found that the use of a polymeric composition according to the method of the present invention to treat polyester fibres or fabrics results in the fibre or fabric becoming capable of being dyed by means of a reactive dye.
With regard to the dyeing of fabric blends (e.g. cotton/polyester blended fabrics), this has previously necessitated the use of two dyes : a reactive dye for the cotton and a disperse dye for the polyester.
The Applicants have found that the use of a polymeric composition according to the present invention to treat cotton/polyester blended fabrics results in the fabrics becoming capable of being dyed by means of a single reactive dye.
The use of the polymeric compositions of the present invention is equally applicable to fibres used in composites, wherein the adhesion at the interface between the fibres and the matrix is enhanced by the use of the polymeric compositions.
Such adhesion-enhancement has been evidenced by an increase in the force necessary to debond the fibres from the matrix and confirms interaction of the treated fibres, through the polymeric composition, with the matrix material (e.g. a resin). Suitable variation of the polymeric composition can be used to produce a xe2x80x9ctightxe2x80x9d or a xe2x80x9cloosexe2x80x9d composite, depending upon the desired properties of the composite.


A fabric label for a product, wherein at least the top side of the fabric label is conventionally printed with a printing press with general information that is applicable to a plurality of products and a toner jet receptive coating is located on at least a portion of the top side of the conventionally printed top side of the fabric label, wherein at least a portion of the toner receptive coating is printed with laser jet printing with specific product information, without any ink jet printing, to reduce smearing and improved print resolution. Also, a computer-readable medium for creating a product label is also disclosed with a first plurality of electronic files with each file having general product information and a second plurality of electronic files with each file directed to specific product information along with a process for electronically displaying the general and specific product information.

Currently, when licensees or subsuppliers need product labels made of fabric, they make a request to the supplier who produces the labels in large batches. These large batches must be scheduled for printing and then finally shipped to the licensee or subsupplier. Finally, the labels are then attached to the products. A nonlimiting example includes the manufacturing of finished mattress labels in large quantities, which are then, upon request, sent to the licensee. The licensee then sews the labels onto the mattresses. The production of large quantities of product labels is very time consuming, costly and provides very little flexibility. It is not cost-effective for the supplier to print the product labels in anything but large quantities since there are set-up costs involved for each printing production run. Therefore, most of the product labels may stay on a shelf for a long period of time. In some instances, the labels eventually become damaged or outdated and have to be thrown away. Moreover, the licensee or subsupplier must pay for storage of the product labels before they can be put into production. These labels must be protected from theft and damage with associated insurance expenses. Also, special order products and experimental products will create significant problems. They require coordination with the supplier's label production facility with time delays due to the scheduling conflicts with pre-existing orders for product labels. The supplier will require a minimum quantity so that if the marketing test for the experimental product is unsuccessful, a significant amount of product labels will have to be discarded. A small special order will intrinsically result in the destruction of numerous product labels.
Also, most product labels have general information that appears on a wide variety of products and specific product information that only specific customers, e.g., subsuppliers, franchisees, need to utilize since they are only selling those particular models under the general product line. For example, with mattress labels, there are label imprint backgrounds that typically includes manufacturer's trademarks and other general information that can be applied to a number of specific mattress models. In addition, there is specific information that can only be used on one particular model of mattress.
In the description of flowcharts, the functional explanation marked with numerals in angle brackets, <nnn>, will refer to the flowchart blocks bearing that number. Referring now to FIG. 3, the prior art method of obtaining product labels using fabric is generally indicated by numeral 2. The first step in the process is for the user, e.g., customer, to recognize a need for fabric product labels <10>. The second step is a query as to whether there is a need for a significant quantity of labels, e.g., one hundred (100) <12>. If the response to this query is negative, the process is over <14>. If the quantity is over the predetermined minimum, the next step is for the customer to place the order <16>. The labels are then printed on fabric stock <18>. The labels are then sent to the customer and sewn into the respective products <20>. This is the end of the process <22>. A major drawback to this process is that a predetermined quantity, e.g., one hundred (100) has to be printed to be cost-effective. These labels had to be stored at a significant cost and could become damaged or obsolete before ever being used. This printing is typically performed on large-scale printing presses, e.g., Heidelberg presses, with all of the associated set-up, operational and maintenance costs associated therewith. This conventional printing operation is generally indicated by numeral 500 in FIG. 19.
One prior attempt to overcome some of these problems was the use of an ink jet printer to print the specific information on the product label by the customers, e.g., subsuppliers, franchisees, after the general information has been printed elsewhere by the supplier. There are numerous deficiencies associated with the use of ink jet printers. The first is that the ink used with ink jet printing is water-soluble and will bleed upon contact with fabric from a label. Upon drying, the printed ink will easily smear upon physical interaction, e.g., rubbing. An example of this is shown by the mattress label provided in FIG. 1. Moreover, the resolution for ink jet printing is relatively poor. An example of this is shown by the mattress label provided in FIG. 2 with written material under the EASY CARE™ trademark, as indicated by numeral 3. Moreover, the ink utilized in ink jet printing can fade as well as run under bright lights.
Ink jet printing on fabric product labels is disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 2003/0118795 that was published on Jul. 26, 2003. This published U.S. patent application recites: "Also, while ink jet printing is the preferred embodiment because the label stock adsorbs much of the ink, thereby providing greater crock resistance, laser printing of the label could be used for articles where very high crock resistance is not needed." (Paragraph 0031, Lines 6-8). Therefore, this published patent application specifically teaches away from the use of laser jet printing for mattress labels since this published patent application was specifically directed to the printing of mattress labels and only claimed and described ink jet printing due to this crocking issue. Moreover, this published patent application only discloses the use of an ink jet receptive coating, which is markedly different than laser jet receptive coating or copier receptive coating, which is collectively known as "toner receptive coating."
The present invention is directed to overcoming one or more of the problems set forth above.

In-line fabric labeling printing system and associated method of use


According to the present invention, the mechanical seal unit for pumps including a fixed seal ring facing a lower pressure space and a rotatable seal ring facing a higher pressure space, comprises: at least one outlet groove disposed on a slidable seal face of the fixed seal ring and open exclusively to the lower pressure space; and at least one inlet groove disposed on a slidable seal face of the rotatable seal ring and open exclusively to the higher pressure space such that the inlet groove and the outlet groove partially meet to communicate with each other to form a fluid release passage at a certain point of rotation of the rotatable ring relative to the fixed ring. Otherwise the outlet and inlet grooves may be disposed on the rotatable ring and the fixed ring, respectively, to obtain the same effect.

1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a mechanical seal unit for pumps. More specifically, the present invention relates to a mechanical seal unit which can be suitably used for a pump which is strictly required to prevent inclusion of abrasion particles or dust into a fluid moving through the pump, such particles being inevitably produced from abrasion of sealing contact faces as they rotate slidably in a relatively opposite direction in a fluid tight condition.
The present invention further relates to a mechanical seal unit which otherwise may easily cause high friction heat, an abrasive mark and burn-in.
2. Description of the Related Art
A conventional mechanical seal for pumps may often cause pollution of liquids which are pumped through from abrasion particles or dust from wear of two sealing surfaces contacting slidably and sealably with each other. However, some types of pumps, for instance, those for extraordinary purified liquid pure water or extra-pure water for manufacturing and cleaning semi-conductors and LCDs must be strictly controlled to be free from inclusion of wear dust.
Biotechnology, medical laboratories and food-processing also require the same strict control of the liquid quality to be pumped. However, a suitable mechanical seal unit has not been proposed to solve this drawback.
For gas tight sealing, there is one known mechanical seal unit which is provided with a gas passage groove disposed on one of the two slidable seal faces for releasing wear particles out of the pump. This prior mechanical seal unit has a drawback in that the gas leaks through the passage groove which is communicative with the exterior or an atmosphere of a relatively low pressure even when the pump operation is stopped.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide mechanical seal unit which is constructed such that it enables an effective discharging of abrasion particles which are inevitably produced from the seal faces as they slidably move or rotate on each other.
The invented mechanical seal unit for pumps includes a fixed seal ring and a rotatable seal ring each providing a seal contact face such that the two seal faces slidably engage with each other in a fluid tight fashion. One of the fixed seal ring and the rotatable seal ring has on the contact face at least one inlet groove open exclusively to a higher pressure space, while the other of said two seal rings has on the contact seal face at least one outlet groove open exclusively to a lower pressure space or the exterior of the pump. The inlet groove and the outlet groove partially communicate with each other and jointly form an fluid passage only temporarily during relatively opposite rotation of the two contact faces.
In preferred embodiment of the present invention, the inlet groove may be disposed on the rotatable seal ring and said outlet groove may be disposed on the fixed seal ring, and said inlet and outlet groove have the same configuration.
For the configuration, the inlet groove may have a linear shape. Alternatively, the inlet groove may have a U-shape or V-shape.

Mechanical seal unit with temporarily connecting inlet and outlet grooves


A just-in-time sampling-based system can, after consuming a small number of disk accesses or queries, produce extremely accurate answers for a broad class of aggregate and top-k queries over a file system or database without the requirement of prior knowledge. The system is efficient, accurate, and scalable. The system performs aggregate estimations of a hidden database through its web interface by employing techniques that use a small number of queries to produce unbiased estimates with small variance. It conducts domain discovery over a hidden database through its web interface by employing techniques which provide effective guarantees on the effectiveness of domain discovery. Systems and methods enhance forms used by mobile devices to access hidden databases. It employs data analytics to improve the usage of form fields, including providing context-sensitive auto-completion suggestions, highlighting selections in drop-down boxes and eliminating suggestions in drop-down boxes.

1. Field of the Invention
Exemplary embodiments of the present invention are directed to enhancing interfaces for accessing hidden databases, such as mobile-access interfaces to forms.
2. Description of the Related Art
Today a file system with billions of files, millions of directories and petabytes of storage is no longer an exception [32]. As file systems grow, users and administrators are increasingly keen to perform complex queries [40], [50], such as "How many files have been updated since ten days ago?", and "Which are the top five largest files that belong to John?". The first is an example of aggregate queries which provide a high-level summary of all or part of the file system, while the second is top-k queries which locate the k files and/or directories that have the highest score according to a scoring function. Fast processing of aggregate and top-k queries are often needed by applications that require just-in-time analytics over large file systems, such as data management, archiving, etc. The just-in-time requirement is defined by two properties: (1) file-system analytics must be completed with a small access cost—i.e., after accessing only a small percentage of directories/files in the system (in order to ensure efficiency), and (2) the analyzer holds no prior knowledge (e.g., pre-processing results) of the file system being analyzed. For example, in order for a librarian to determine how to build an image archive from an external storage media (e.g., a Blue-ray disc), he/she may have to first estimate the total size of picture files stored on the external media—the librarian needs to complete data analytics quickly, over an alien file system that has never been seen before.
Unfortunately, hierarchical file systems (e.g., ext3 and NTFS) are not well equipped for the task of just-in-time analytics [46]. The deficiency is in general due to the lack of a global view (i.e., high-level statistics) of metadata information (e.g., size, creation, access and modification time). For efficiency concerns, a hierarchical file system is usually designed to limit the update of metadata information to individual files and/or the immediately preceding directories, leading to localized views. For example, while the last modification time of an individual file is easily retrievable, the last modification time of files that belong to user John is difficult to obtain because such metadata information is not available at the global level.
Currently, there are two approaches for generating high-level statistics from a hierarchical file system, and thereby answering aggregate and top-k queries: (1) The first approach is to scan the file system upon the arrival of each query, e.g., the find command in Linux, which is inefficient for large file systems. While storage capacity increases at approximately 60% per year, storage throughput and latency have much slower improvements. Thus the amount of time required to scan an off-the-shelf hard drive or external storage media has increased significantly over time to become infeasible for just-in-time analytics. The above-mentioned image-archiving application is a typical example, as it is usually impossible to completely scan an alien Blue-ray disc efficiently. (2) The second approach is to utilize prebuilt indexes which are regularly updated [3], [7], [27], [35], [39], [43]. Many desktop search products belong to this category, e.g., Google Desktop [24] and Beagle [5].
While this approach is capable of fast query processing once the (slow) index building process is complete, it may not be suitable or applicable to many just-in-time applications. For instance, index building can be unrealistic for many applications that require just-in-time analytics over an alien file system. Even if index can be built up-front, its significant cost may not be justifiable if the index is not frequently used afterwards. Unfortunately, this is common for some large file systems, e.g., storage archives or scratch data for scientific applications scarcely require the global search function offered by the index, and may only need analytical queries to be answered infrequently (e.g., once every few days). In this case, building and updating an index is often an overkill given the high amortized cost.
There are also other limitations of maintaining an index. For example, prior work [49] has shown that even after a file has been completely removed (from both the file system and the index), the (former) existence of this file can still be inferred from the index structure. Thus, a file system owner may choose to avoid building an index for privacy concerns.
Similar to a large file system, a hidden database with billions of tuples, each defined by thousands of attributes is now common. As hidden databases grow, users and administrators are increasingly keen to perform complex queries such as aggregate and top-k queries which provide a high-level summary of all or part of the database. Fast processing of aggregate and top-k queries are often needed by applications that require just-in-time analytics over large hidden databases. Just-in-time analytics, therefore, are desirable for hidden databases as well as large file structures.
Crawling and Sampling from Hidden Databases:
There has been prior work on crawling as well as sampling hidden databases using their public search interfaces. Several papers have dealt with the problem of crawling and downloading information present in hidden text based databases [1, 8, 23]. [2, 20, 25] deal with extracting data from structured hidden databases. [11] and [24] use query based sampling methods to generate content summaries with relative and absolute word frequencies while [17, 18] uses two phase sampling method on text based interfaces. [10, 12] discuss top-k processing which considers sampling or distribution estimation over hidden sources. In [13, 14] techniques have been developed for random sampling from structured hidden databases leading to the HIDDEN-DB-SAMPLER algorithm. Techniques to thwart such sampling attempts have been developed in [15].
Sampling and Size Estimation for Search Engine's Corpse:
The increase in popularity of search engines has motivated the research community to develop techniques to discover its contents. [21, 28] studied the estimation by capture-recapture method to identify the index size of a search engine. [7] employed Monte Carlo methods to generate a near-uniform sampling from the search engine's corpus, while taking into consideration the degrees of documents and cardinalities of queries. With approximate document degrees, techniques for measuring search engine metrics were proposed in [5]. Sampling online suggestion text databases were discussed in [6] to significantly improve the service quality of search engines and to study users' search patterns.
Information Integration and Extraction for Hidden Databases:
A significant body of research has been done on information integration and extraction over deep web data sources such as hidden databases—see tutorials in [29, 32]. Nonetheless, to the best of our knowledge, the only prior work which directly tackles the attribute domain discovery problem is [25]. In particular, it proposes a crawling-based technique, the disadvantage of which has been extensively discussed in subsection 3.2.3. Much other work though is related but orthogonal to attribute domain discovery. Since there is no space to enumerate all related papers, we only list a few examples closely related to this section. Parsing and understanding web query interfaces has been extensively studied (e.g., [33, 40]). The mapping of attributes across different web interfaces has also been addressed (e.g., [36]). Also related is the work on integrating query interfaces for multiple web databases in the same topic-area (e.g., [34, 35]). This section provides results orthogonal to these existing techniques as it represents the first formal study on attribute domain discovery over hidden databases.
Data Analytics Over Hidden Databases:
There has been prior work on crawling, sampling, and aggregate estimation over the hidden web, specifically over text [6, 8] and structured [25] hidden databases and search engines [5, 21, 28]. In particular, sampling-based methods were used for generating content summaries [11, 18, 37], processing top-k queries [10], etc. Prior work (see [30] and references therein) considered sampling and aggregate estimation over structured hidden databases. A key difference between these techniques and this section is that the prior techniques assume full knowledge of all attribute domains, while this section aims to integrate domain discovery with aggregate estimation. As we demonstrated in subsection 3.6, our integrated approach significantly outperforms the direct application of previous techniques [30] after domain discovery.
Enhancement of Web Interfaces:
It is quite common for web databases to provide proprietary form-based interfaces, which may include control elements (e.g., textboxes, drop-down boxes, etc.) that allow users to enter data. For example, the NSF Fastlane Award database provides a search form (available at http://www.nsf.gov/awardsearch/tab.do?dispatch=4) having twenty-two control elements, including six drop-down boxes and nine textboxes. Although such forms are typically easy to complete using a conventional computer, such as a desktop or laptop, such forms are much more difficult to complete using smaller mobile devices, (e.g., personal data assistants (PDAs), smart phones, etc.), due to limitations such as smaller screen, limited keyboard size, touch-screen keyboard, and the like.
Although attempts have been made to address those limitations of mobile devices, those attempts have not adequately addressed all of the problems associated with accessing hidden databases via mobile devices. For example, FIGS. 1A and 1B illustrate two conventional techniques for form field input on a mobile device, which in the example is an Apple iPod Touch®. FIG. 1A illustrates the use of an enlarged spinning-wheel rendered to ease finger scrolling for the drop-down box element "PI State." Although the spinning-wheel provides for easier viewing and selection of the options from the drop-down box compared to the original web page, it also limits the number of options displayable at any given time. For example, in the the NSF FastLane form, there are seventy-four selectable values for the "PI State" drop-down box, which could require a mobile device user to perform a large number of screen swipes to select a value that is lower in the alphabet, such as "Tennessee" or "Texas." Furthermore, a close investigation of the database reveals that the popularities of selectable values may differ significantly. For instance, a search on a value such as "US Minor Islands" and "Palau" returns no tuples, whereas a search on a value such as "Pennsylvania" or "Texas" returns over 2000 tuples.
FIG. 1B is a screen shot of an auto-complete suggestion technique for a textbox. As illustrated in FIG. 1B, the dictionary-based auto-complete suggestion for the letters "warc" is "Warcraft", which is not an appropriate suggestion for the form field "Program Manager". Instead, the form field is requesting the entry of a person's name.

Just-in-time analytics on large file systems and hidden databases

The George Washington University and Board of Regents


There is disclosed a portable printer operable in either a strip mode or a peel mode. In the peel mode, a pressure roll cooperates with a carrier web and the platen roll to strip labels from the web. A battery-powered electric motor advances a printable web through the printer. In order to reduce drag on the motor in the strip mode, the pressure roll is held in out of pressure contact with the platen roll.

1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to printers that print on printable webs including label webs and to printing methods.
2. Brief Description of the Prior Art
The following U.S. Patents are made of record: U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,049,228; 5,486,259; 5,525,184; 5,892,531; 6,241,407; and 6,261,013. Also made of record is Seiko Instruments, Inc., LTP V Series Thermal Printer Mechanism Technical Reference U00060114300 dated July 2001.


When a load current is larger than a predetermined value, a control device of an uninterruptible power supply device controls an inverter by gate signals having a relatively high frequency and having controlled pulse widths, and when the load current is smaller than the predetermined value, the control device controls the inverter by the gate signals having a relatively low frequency and having fixed pulse widths. Therefore, when a load is a light load, switching losses occurring in IGBTs of the inverter can be decreased.

For example, Japanese Patent Laying-Open No. 2008-92734 (PTL 1) discloses a power conversion device including an inversion unit including a plurality of switching elements and configured to convert DC power into AC power having a commercial frequency, and a control device configured to generate a PWM (Pulse Width Modulation) signal which has a frequency fully higher than the commercial frequency and has a pulse width controlled based on an AC output voltage of the inversion unit. The plurality of switching elements are controlled based on the PWM signal.

TOSHIBA MITSUBISHI-ELECTRIC INDUSTRIAL SYSTEMS CORPORATION